***Feb 14, 3027***“Did you know?”“What?”“Today used to be some sort of day for haters or something? In the past.”“Haters?” Slurping noises interrupted. “That’d be fun. Why the hell did it stop?”“I don’t know. Too many brawls maybe?”“Hmm… that’s possible.” The conversation was on hold as Ivan and Antonio focused on their bowls of noodles at a quaint diner, an unmanned shop with a few benches and tables. A hovertrain drove past under the transparent road, muting the excitement bubbling out of the intersection. “We should’ve chosen the shop with humans.”“Think we’d find out about Kaiden’s men? No fucking way.” “No.” Ivan plunged the chopsticks into the noodle soup. “I think it’d be easy to blend in. What’s the point in eating our dinner in this worst fucking vending machine? The taste is like silica worse off than the one in our den. One horrible ramen: the machine must be made in—”Their debate was short-lived for screams and crashes erupted from a close distance, from one est

Noah had never been taken a step beyond this floor since he was brought here. Only once, he had had a direct conversation with the boss, in this same room, about the topic. That was last week. Jayson had not told him he could not go out. He might not prevent him if he tried, but he didn’t want to escape alone. At the time, he had been the initiator. “Boss.” He wouldn’t dare to address him by name as much as he found the man to be a disgusting human being. He had found out Macio was behind the famous underage cases around Paradox.“Boss.” Macio swiveled in his chair, looking away from a crime news hologram dwelling amidst the gathering. He occasionally did that, watching the presenters wrongly reporting criminal cases, especially if he was somehow involved, just to make fun of them. “Speak. Get to the point.”“Can I go out of this place? Am I still–”“I see,” he interrupted. “You can, on one condition. Come here. Closer. Kill somebody.”“Are you–” he almost asked if he was serious.

A new noise he hadn’t heard during the first visit prevented him from immediately going out of the vehicle: a usual beeping sound that didn’t belong to his wristband. Noah should have nothing on his body that gave off that sound, except…Crap! He rushed to the door; though the noise stopped, it had already alerted the surrounding. Upon his exit, he pressed his back against the vehicle and looked over to where Noah stood, who started to explain. “I didn’t—”“Get here!” he whisper-yelled. “I’ll go check,” said a cop from a distance. Noah moved, but it was too late.“Who’s there? Kevin?”The voice and the footfalls came from the other side of the vehicle line, already in proximity. He must have seen a suspicious figure. “Freeze! Hands in the air! Announce yourself?”Blaise straightened up, to intervene if necessary. “I’m a reporter.”He might not be necessary. A ray of light fell; he silently moved his leg away. “Show me your ID! You’re trespassing!”“WHO IS THAT, LIEUTENANT?!”“SAI

The news was so insignificant that he might as well be stalking people around on his own and met an accidental death. There was no mention of an undergoing investigation. Was he on duty or not? Not included. “You were right! They don’t even care!” Noah said, as they crossed paths in the den. ‘They didn’t care?’ That was doubtful. Blaise resorted to getting into casual conversations with his former colleagues at a crime scene, a high-end restaurant at the top of the troposphere. Certain types of questions demanded casualness.Half of the staff, especially the servers, were AIs; with a borrowed suit, he made himself as immaculate as possible to pretend to be one of them. And be polite.Nobody seemed suspicious of him, not to mention they didn’t recognize him. A wealthy couple was murdered, possibly poisoned, and he answered their questions by modifying the AI’s answers.“Last week, we had fewer reservations compared to this week, officer. The majority were regulars except for Detective

They were not following her yet, he muttered to the headset, ending one communication. Although Natalie had the potential to be a crucial lead, hell might be breaking loose as Ivan informed him. That involved a few people dying, including Antonio and probably the caller since he made the call.“O-kay. We’re driving back to the den.”“Do you want to take the task?” “What do you… following her? Sure. I should get off then. I can try searching her around.” In the wristband he was holding, he selected the tracking map. [Sent] and [arrived] Noah’s hovercar was right behind his. “Her location? How convenient. I didn’t notice you put a tracker on her, Jayson.” Because he used his ability to obtain that information about her. He didn’t say it out loud. And, one of these days, he needed to stop everyone calling him by that name. The vehicle in the rear views successfully switched to a further air-lane. Later, a group of children in nursery-logo shirts crossed the air. Blaise waited to av