North Side

Gallus and Donald walked down the street, side by side, keeping up a pleasant and casual conversation. They had already discussed their plans in the Dying Sun, and there was no need to repeat them outside, lest prying ears catch wind of their intentions. Donald groaned. "How much further do we have to walk?" Gallus shook his head, annoyed. "You hiked hundreds of miles breathing through a tube, but you're upset we have to walk down the street?"

Donald shrugged. "I was a different man back then." "You just got back a few years ago." Gallus snapped back." Donald just shrugged again. "Like I said, different man." "Ok." Gallus said. "We're almost in the district, take a look out for anything strange looking." The administrative district in question was only a few blocks long, oddly small to have its own personal administrator.

The area itself was fairly affluent, with small office buildings and luxury apartments lining spacious and well kept streets. Buildings had blowers on their door frames to keep out the Martian dust, and small robots climbed up and down the sides of the buildings, keeping them as clean as possible. They didn't have the dusty and gross look of old Martian architecture; some of them would have looked at home in a city back on Earth.

"Looks like Earth over here." Donald remarked. "You ever been?" Gallus laughed. "I was born there, I spent the first twenty years of my life there." Donald snorted in surprise. "No shit, how the hell did you end up here then?" Gallus shrugged. "I have my reasons. My mom was a Martian by birth, so I could get a residency pass without any trouble."

"You look like a Martian, if it makes you feel any better." Donald stated. "You look pale and sickly, just like most the planet." Gallus ran a hand through his hair. "Thanks, I think?" He replied. "Anyway, keep your eyes open. All of these buildings should be operating at about 15% or 16% oxygen. If we run into something higher, we have a lead." "Alright." Donald agreed. "You got it. Eyes peeled."

As Gallus scanned the street, he noticed a figure on the other side that made him jump with alarm. It was Grotto. Grotto was walking fast and looking down, but Gallus instinctively turned away to make himself less noticeable. "My boss." He hissed to Donald. They watched Grotto enter a tall, well adorned building, looking over his shoulder as he entered. Donald already had the building pulled up on his wrist hub, and was reading intently.

Gallus, nervous about being exposed in the middle of the street, grabbed his arm and pulled him into an alleyway nearby. It was clean, and spacious, really just an enclave for the nearby building's trash receptacles, but it was better than no cover at all. "Ok." Donald muttered. "Looks like its some kind of fancy hotel." Gallus nodded and responded. "We need to check it out. I can't go inside though, Grotto might recognize me."

"Yeah." Donald agreed. "Good call. I can take your oxygen detector into the lobby to see if their getting more than their fair share. You hang around the corner and wait." Gallus nodded. "Sounds good." He said, slipping the electronic air sampler into his hand. "Keep this in your pocket. It's set to record data for the next ten minutes. Go in, hang out in the lobby for a minute or so, and then get back to me."

Gallus waited with bated breath as he watched his compatriot cross the street and enter into the front door. After a moment, Donald returned, handing the device back to him. "Anyone see you?" Gallus asked. "Of course. It's a fancy hotel" Donald replied. "I just told them I went into the wrong building and left." Gallus sighed. "Ok, well, that's not too bad. Let me see the readout." Gallus frowned as he scanned the device.

"This looks... normal." Gallus said. "Just normal, post-cut air. Why the hell is Grotto in there though? Something doesn't add up." Donald shrugged. "Maybe he's seeing a mistress or something." "Maybe." Gallus whispered. "Or maybe, the air isn't going into the building itself." He pointed to a large truck parked to the side of the hotel. "They could be siphoning the air out of the system and into containers for resale."

Donald looked at Gallus like he was losing his mind. "Is that something that actually happens?" Gallus bit his lip. "Sometimes. It's an uncommon form of fraud. Some oxygen gets piped into a building that's not being used, or an old warehouse, and it gets shipped into high pressure canisters for luxury homes and weird projects." "Alright." Donald said. "You're the expert. What are we going to do though, break into the goddamn truck?"

"I don't know." Gallus said. "We could stake the place out, but I have somewhere to be tonight, and there's nowhere good to hide around here." "Maybe we could just pretend to be hotel guests." Donald replied, uncertainty in his voice. "No." Gallus said sternly. "That won't work. If Grotto sees me he'll known something's up, and besides you already told them you had the wrong hotel. It'll look suspicious if you suddenly change your mind."

Gallus grunted and shook his arms anxiously. There had to be a way into either the hotel or the truck; there just had to be. "Alright, I know what to do." He said. "I can call in sick to work tomorrow Monday. Grotto should be in the office that day, and that'll give me a chance to enter the hotel like a normal guest. I don't know how deep the front runs, but I doubt anyone in there knows who I am." Donald laughed. "Yeah, that makes a lot more sense than some weird heist."

"Agreed." Gallus said. "But I'm not calling you on a fucking cell phone again that was really annoying." Donald made a noise of protest. "It's more secure than Q-Net, through." "Nope." Gallus said, not going to another phone. "If I get a scoop we meet at the Dying Sun on Tuesday night. If you need to talk to me before then, man up and add my Q-Net ID. You can just search me up on the mainframe."

Donald hissed angrily. "And what makes you think I'll be at a bar on a Tuesday night?" Gallus raised an eyebrow. "Where are you most weekday nights?" Donald sighed. "The bar. Fine. Damn you. We can meet there." Gallus grinned and nodded with self-satisfaction. "Sounds like a plan." Gallus turned towards the hotel, anxiety crawling up into his stomach. "Time to enter the belly of the beast."