8 - (...)

After the interrogation, Cass and Jeremy walked back to her place. The trip took a while—public transit was nonexistent this far out.

Jeremy studied the neon-washed streets, brows furrowed. "Thought V2 was supposed to be a dump. This looks almost… modern."

Cass snorted. "This is the outskirts. The heart of V2?" She gestured vaguely east. "Thousands of LED signs, buildings stacked like rotten teeth. The higher the floor, the richer the bastard."

×××

Cass' Apartment

A quick knock, and Captain Lee and Jah let themselves in. They found Jeremy slouched on a kitchen barstool, idly spinning an empty glass. Jah propped his chin on his palm. "Where's Cass?"

Jeremy jerked a thumb toward the hallway. Behind him, water hissed through old pipes.

Captain Lee rummaged through the fridge, scowled at its emptiness, and groaned. "Where'd you two go?"

"Met an old contact. Got leads," Captain Lee said, slamming the fridge shut.

Jah's jaw tightened. "Scouted the area. Spotless—like nobody'd been there in years." Which made no sense. They'd walked there.

Jeremy's fingers drummed the counter. "Where's Joanna?"

"Dead." The word hung, flat and final.

Jah's eyebrow arched. "You don't seem broken up."

Jeremy's smile flickered, sharp as a switchblade. "Does it matter?"

Jah looked away. Immortals. Even their grief was a performance.

"Cass sure is taking—"

"Done. Let's go." Cass emerged, damp-haired, in the same clothes.

Jah gaped. "Really?"

She shrugged. "I like being clean."

Lee groaned louder. "No food either?"

×××

Downtown V2

The car wound through one-way lanes, passing towers where takeout shops squatted beneath fraying banner ads. Convenience stores bled garish LED halos, half the letters dead. Jeremy pressed his forehead to the window, tracking the transition—gritty lower levels giving way to sleek, moneyed heights.

Cass waited for his disappointment. Instead, his hand darted for the window button.

Whoosh. The car flooded with the stink of frying oil, sewage, and a dozen overlapping perfumes. Steam curled over the dash.

Jah whipped around. "Close the damn window."

Jeremy complied, but not before noting the absence of alleys—just sidewalks buried under trash, bins vomiting flies.

At the intersection, a glitching hologram flickered: a young figure, torso pixelated, gold plaque beneath.

HONOURED MENTION

ESM

×××

Police Station

The station was a steel monolith, windowless, its three floors underlined with throbbing blue lights. The parking lot held only their car.

Inside, steel tiles clanked underfoot, their original color scoured to gray. Two long desks faced off, manned by officers ignoring them. Three cracked TVs loomed ahead, flanked by a console studded with analog controls.

"Lovely in here," Jeremy breathed, grinning like a kid in a candy store.

Lee chuckled. Jah blew hair from his eyes.

Five minutes passed. No one acknowledged them.

"Ahem." A tall, dark-skinned officer finally approached. "Can I Help you?"

"Took you long enough," Jah muttered.

"Busy day," she said, waving them toward the TVs.

Cass and Jeremy exchanged glances. "Busy is a stretch," he whispered.

Captain Lee snorted.

Jah stepped forward. "We're hunting someone. Joseph Jr.—no last name. Tan, bald, about his height." He pointed at Jeremy.

The officer typed. Screens flashed white, then blue, spitting out profiles. She scrolled, paused. "Sure this is your guy?"

Captain Lee rubbed his neck. "Guess not."

She exhaled hard. "We don't have time for jokes."

×××

MainDock V2

Marek woke to the ship's groan, chains screeching against hull metal. Salt air couldn't mask *it*—that nauseating, familiar stench. Only a handful of beings reeked like that. And one was *here*, oozing power carelessly, knowing a human was aboard.

He burst onto the deck, ignoring the captain's slurred greeting. The control room stood empty. No trace.

"Where is he?" Marek growled.

Captain Smit hiccuped. "Oh he disappeared when we docked Sir, who was exactly?"

Marek's smirk returned. Fine. If the bastard had slipped into V2, let him. Marek had his own game to play.

One goal burned: Speed this up.

×××

The Car, Upstate

Captain Lee rolled the blank white card between his fingers. He'd seen these before—keys to the city's spine—but Cass having one? Interesting.

They idled at the tunnel's mouth, a danger-sign screaming DEAD END over a void.

"This is upstate?" Jeremy asked.

Lee held the card aloft. A yellow outline glowed. The car's window slid down; blue light licked the card's surface.

Bzzt Barcodes and numbers bloomed on one side. The other read:

CASS [REDACTED]

RESIDENCY: UPSTATE

"Writing!" Jeremy crowed. Jah pretended not to stare.

With a hydraulic whine, the road descended, revealing a sterile boulevard. The buildings here were taller, their glass unbroken.

Lee floored it. "Now to find our guy."

×××

Warehouse

A hairless, tanned man chewed a taco, scowling at the corpse. "Clean this. Humans leave evidence ."

A lackey shifted. "What about the others?"

"We'll handle them. Delivery's coming." He took another bite. "Should've never brought a human."

×××

(...) reappeared in a flash, materializing amid LED glare and food-stall shouts. He wove past trash heaps and slumped figures, stopping at a cloistered storefront.

The door jingled. Inside, a single red bulb dyed the air bloody.

"Um—"

"Nia." A woman's voice, behind the kitchen curtain.

"You remember me." He slumped onto a stool.

Her cloaked silhouette emerged. "What do you want?"

"Information."

She slid a menu across the counter—odd names, prices in trades, not cash.

He sighed. "What's your price?"

She vanished, returned with steaming noodles. "Fetch something for me first."

×××

Upstate Road

"Are we there yet?" Jeremy whined, as he thought why they were taking long to reach their destination, if this was faster than down there. Yet it seemed to take longer which bored him.

Jah rolled his eyes. "We're meeting people, genius."

Captain Lee chuckled—then stiffened. A scent threaded the air, metallic and wrong.

The car slowed.

"Where here, but I don't think we were the only ones up here." Captain Lee said.

×××