Roman led us deeper into the sewers, past huge sluice gates and shallow pools of fetid water. The rest of his people followed in our wake, without missing a beat. The smell became stronger and stronger. Insects and rodents scuttled away at our footfall.

Passing through yet another sluice gate, we arrived at a hole in the side of the tunnel. Roman stopped. The concrete around the hole was a different texture and showed signs of water damage. Parts of it had cracked and been swept away, revealing the rebar beneath. It had obviously been a rush job, put in later.

I put my ear to the pipe, ignoring the smell, and listened for any signs of people coming down. Nothing other than the faint dripping of water. I leaned in and yelled. I heard my voice echo repeatedly, but no other voices returned my call.

I waited for a minute, then tried again, aware of the hundreds of eyes following my every move. This time, there was a faint reply. My heart almost skipped a beat.

The first figure to crawl out, several minutes later, was Kaden. The rest of the Salmon Creek people came after him. Then it was Thurgood's pack. Then Thurber, clutching a briefcase, accompanied by Wethermore. Then it was my pack's turn. Lister. Old man Anderson. Laura. Keith, carrying Tim on his back. Gerta. The others.

People continued to stream out of the tunnel entrance. They were covered in filth and they looked haggard. But they were alive.

Laura wrapped me in an embrace. "Jim. Thank Monagh you're safe. How's Brian?""He's just behind you. He's fine."

"That's good." Then she noticed the people behind us. "Jim. What the hell?"

"The Alphas," Roman hissed behind us, contempt in his voice. "Stand up and come here. And Wethermore, too." 

***

Once Roman had us assembled, he stared us down. We hung our heads, like a bunch of rogues kneeling before an Alpha.

Then he let fly.

"You corrupt sons of bastards," he spat. "You thieves and liars."

He paused for a moment. "Maybe we shouldn't be the ones judging you. Many of us stole and lied to our packs too. We broke their trust. But we were chased out, exiled, excommunicated. Meanwhile, you lie and steal from your packs every waking day, and you get away with it. Why is that so? How is that fair?"

Nobody answered. We just hung our heads in shame.

"If we killed you and left your stinking bodies for those Thunder Falls goons to find," Roman continued, "it would be no great loss to society. Name one reason we shouldn't do that. One."

Nobody uttered a word. I could hear the faint echo of dripping water. Behind me, someone burst into tears.

"Look at things rationally," Wethermore broke the silence, his voice even, trying to mediate. "That is not going to solve anything. If anything you should be thank-"

"You should be thankful to us," Roman retorted. "Do you know why they stormed the OPLU headquarters?" One of the wolves behind him passed him a thick sheaf of papers, which he held up. "They were looking for the blueprints to the sewers. If we hadn't broken in ourselves and taken these, you would've been torn into pieces the moment you stepped out of that tunnel."

"So I take it that you intend lure the Thunder Falls forces into the tunnels and ambush them?" A voice yelled from the other group. Lister. He had been listening in on our conversation.

Roman was silent. He nodded, very slightly.

"That's a very risky plan," Lister said. "You do have the element of surprise, but they are better equipped, better trained, and numerically superior. Even if you did defeat them, it would be a pyrrhic victory."

"I like your thinking." Roman turned his attention away from us. "What do you propose?"

"Say that we lure the Thunder Falls forces into this tunnel, as per the first part of your plan. We hide behind a sluice gate. Then we use the power of water to do the work for us."

Roman cocked an eyebrow. "Water? Where's the water going to come from?"

"The water mains," Lister replied. "There's places where the water mains run close to the sewers. All we have to do is set off an explosive charge at the right place and the water will come flooding in."

"And how will you open the sluice gates?"

"We can get into the control room."

"And the explosives?" Someone asked. "Where are you going to get them?"

Lister pointed to the open sluice gate behind us. "Right there."  

***

The Industrial Zone's sewer system was a shining example of the First Law of Corruption: the bigger and more grandiose the project, the easier it is to steal large sums of money without anyone noticing. It was tremendously overbuilt and overengineered. Huge sluice gates were installed every few hundred metres. Large sections could be isolated with the touch of a button in the central control room, a secure bunker only a few people knew of.

The sluice gates were also designed to self-destruct, ostensibly for an emergency situation where some administrative error meant they could not be opened in time, but in reality the money skimmed off the exorbitant pricetag had paid for an upgrade of Alpha Cameron's personal fleet.

"We remove the self-destruct charges from the gates," Lister explained. "They're self contained and detonated by radio signal, so it'll be easy. Then we move them to where the water main is. Then we detonate."

"And then?" Roman beckoned Lister to continue.

"We open the sluice gates and attack. I say we go straight for their pack territory. That's the thing with hierachies like this. You take out the head and the rest fall like dominoes."

Roman thought about it. He consulted the wolves behind him. Then he turned to us, the Alphas. "What do you think of this plan, bigwigs?"

Thurgood looked me in the eye. "Did you set this up, Jim? What are you playing at, having these guys in charge? We don't know these people." The expressions on the faces of the others told me they were thinking the same thing.

"It's our only hope," I said. "They have the manpower we need, and we have the knowledge they need. It's the only way we can defeat Thunder Falls."

"I don't know, Jim. They're rogues." He whispered the last part. "Even if we do decide to work with them, I think we should get a handle on what's really going on before we pull any moves."

"Adlai was trying to convince me to join his side," I replied. "I caught him off-guard by escaping with Brian. He's probably trying to rethink his whole strategy now. He'll be at his most vulnerable. We need to strike as soon as possible. It can't wait."

Thurgood understood the need to come to a decision as quickly as possible. He nodded, and drew the other Alphas and Wethermore together. I heard them discuss in hushed tones.

Finally, Wethermore stepped forward from the throng, towards Roman. "OK. We accept on one condition. We want you to grant Medical Examiner Thurber safe passage. He has important information we need to keep safe. Get him out of here. Get him somewhere safe, where he won't be found."

Roman nodded. "A wise decision. Your request is granted, but you must listen to our demands and cooperate fully with us. If any of you desert, we won't hesitate to kill you." 

***

Everything happened very fast after that. The situation was out of my control now. It was out of the control of all of the Alphas, for that matter. Surely a humbling experience for them.

The East Side wolves were putting Lister's plan into action with clinical efficiency. One group was removing the self-destruct charges from all the sluice gates. Lister and a bunch of the other boffins had reached the sewer control room, and now the sluice gate was sliding closed in front of us. Another party had gone to escort Thurber and the wolves who did not wish to fight to a safe place. A small group of the East Side wolves headed towards the tunnel entrance, to get the attention of the Thunder Falls forces.

Meanwhile, the wolves who were staying behind were being broken up into groups, the idea being that in case one sluice gate failed or stopped working, the rest of the groups would still be able to carry on. Laura was already gone, with the rest of my pack, assigned to another group stationed further up the tunnel. I hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye to her.

I was surrounded by hundreds of unfamiliar faces. Hostile ones, too, huddled behind the sluice gate. The only person I knew was Kaden, standing next to me. He was telling me about his pack members who had perished in the attack.

"Hey, Kaden." A voice behind us. A girl's voice, and strangely familiar too.

"Hey," Kaden replied. Then he realised who she was. "You're-"

The second of hesitation was all it took for Anna to knee him square in the groin. Kaden opened his mouth to scream, then realised that might give away our position and shouldered his pain silently.

She shot me a wink and melted into the crowd. Kaden had curled up on the floor. His face was a rictus of pain. I crouched down to comfort him.

Suddenly, a hush fell among the crowd around us. There were noises outside, intensifying. 

Armoured cars, hundreds of them, convoy after convoy after convoy, and the footfalls of soldiers as they stepped out and assumed their positions. The tang of diesel exhaust wafted through the sluice gate.

Then there was quiet, as the Thunder Falls forces waited for us to appear, and we held our breaths. Quiet you could have cut with a knife. Beside me, Kaden got up, still clutching his crotch.

The blast rocked us off our feet. Dust and shards of concrete fell from the ceiling of the tunnel. The sluice gate rattled against its grooves. Then the rumble of the water came soon afterwards, far away at first, then coming towards us, like a jetliner taking off. Then it was upon us, an insurmountable wall of sound separated from us by only a thin layer of concrete and steel. The sluice gate in front of us rattled and shook and creaked. Jets of water squirted from the sides, and a dark stain spread from the bottom, but it held firm against the rush of water outside in the main tunnel.

Outside, the roar of the water began to subside. It was our cue. Muffled grunts sounded as people willed themselves to shift. Bone cracked and fur sprouted in the cramped confines of the tunnel. The smell was unbearable.

By the time the sluice gate began to slowly lift up, we were ready.