Consolidation: 13:06:36:03

  We walked out of the freight elevator into a cavernous warehouse. Boxes and crates of every shape and size were neatly organized and stacked. Forklifts hummed past, with yellow caution lights flashing from their roofs, and everyone here seemed busy. None of them paid the slightest attention to us. Aria pointed and I saw a bay entrance with a large roll-up door for trucks, and a smaller people-sized door beside it. We hurried toward the exit.

  As we approached the door, a pair of figures stepped from behind a stack of crates. Jamra regarded us calmly, though I could still see heat waves rising from her head. She must have crouched behind the crates, hiding, because she was so tall there was no way I’d have missed her otherwise. I noticed she’d armed herself with a pistol in a holster on her left hip. The man standing beside her was a regular security goon, some human I hadn’t seen before. He also had a pistol.

  “The warehouse isn’t open to the public unless you’re on a tour,” Jamra said. “Are you on a tour? Have you misplaced your guide?”

  Her goon snickered. I looked at Aria to make sure she wasn’t about to do something stupid and saw a broad smile on her face. She grinned at Jamra and the goon. It wasn’t a friendly grin.

  “Whoops,” Aria said. “Must’ve gotten lost.” One of her hands twitched spasmodically.

  “Sorry about that,” I said. “I do see an exit, though. We’ll just get out of here.”

  Jamra rested a hand on the butt of her gun. Aria’s hand twitched again in response.

  Marko (Party): Aria, don’t do it. We don’t have to fight.

  “I can’t let you leave without a search,” Jamra said. “My job is to protect FlexTech’s employees and property. Here you are, wandering around without an escort. Who knows what might have fallen into your pockets? You understand.”

  Marko stepped forward and spread his arms wide above his head.

  “No problem,” he said. “I’ll go first.”

  Jamra eyed him suspiciously, then motioned for her goon to search him. The goon was thorough and not as rough as I’d expected. He found a pack of playing cards, a metal lighter, and the piece of folded paper Marko had put in his breast pocket.

  “Give me that paper,” Jamra said.

  The goon handed her the piece of paper. She unfolded it, eyes watching Marko as she did so, before finally glancing down at it. Her eyes widened, then narrowed. She crumpled up the paper and dropped it on the floor.

  “Let them go,” Jamra said, and her goon stepped back. “Get out. If you trespass again, I’ll have you strip searched.”

  Marko nodded and took Aria gently by one arm, leading the grinning woman away. She watched Jamra over her shoulder the whole way to the door. Her stare wasn’t even aimed at me, and I still found it unsettling. As soon as we stepped outside, Aria dropped the grin.

  “What did you write on that paper?” she asked.

  “I wrote, ‘Better luck next time’,” he said with a grin of his own.

  Aria burst into laughter.

  We stopped at a coffee shop to compare the list of current employees Octar had given us to the photocopies of the logbook provided by Clara. Marko had stashed both documents in his inventory to hide them. It took almost an hour to narrow down the list of names from the logbook to twenty-eight people and addresses, which was plenty of time to finish our coffee and pastries. Aria plugged the first address into the Bentley’s navigation system, and we were off.

  The next two hours were the most tedious I’d experienced since waking up in Anera. We’d drive to an address, knock on the door, and find the place either empty or inhabited by someone not on our list. Aria was becoming restless, fiddling with the radio and occasionally swearing at other drivers. It was late afternoon when we pulled up to the eighth address, and she didn’t even bother to get out of the car. Marko and I walked up to the door and knocked. No answer. No sign the place was even occupied. I sighed and even Marko looked slightly discouraged.

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  We started back toward the car and saw Aria had rolled down her window and was deep in conversation with an old shiftling woman. I hadn’t seen any elderly shiftlings before, and I suspected most of them intentionally continued to look the same regardless of their age. This lady though, she’d allowed wrinkles to spread across her gray skin, and her hair had gone white. Curious, we walked over to join them.

  “Marko, Victor, this is Mrs. Briuck,” Aria said.

  “Oh, please call me Ava!” the shiftling said.

  “Hello Ava,” I said. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Ava was just telling me about poor Mr. Banks,” Aria said. “Aaron Banks. Isn’t that right?”

  “That poor, dear man,” Ava said. “Wife, Jannie, passed from cancer. He soldiered on right until the end. Never a bad word to say about anyone, always waved and had a smile for me.”

  “How did he die, Ava?” Marko said.

  “It was terrible! Just awful. He fell down the stairs and never got back up. It took days before someone noticed his mail piling up and went to check.” Ava looked around, as though she might be overheard. “I heard the smell was dreadful,” she whispered. “Had to pitch all the furniture.”

  “What happened after that?” Aria said.

  “Those horrible people from Compliance came and ransacked his house! Even cut open his safe! I’d heard they were serious about recovering FlexTech property, but they showed up before the family arrived. That’s just unseemly! And they didn’t clean up after themselves! Just left the mess for his poor son, that’s Bruce, to tidy up.”

  “Do you know what they took?” I said. “Or what they were looking for?”

  “It had to be the share certificate, didn’t it?” Ava said. “Nothing else was missing, even from the safe. I had a cousin that worked for FlexTech and I know all about the business. If they’d just waited to ask Bruce, I’m sure he would have given it to them. Such a nice boy.”

  We chatted with Ava for another few minutes, then made our excuses. She waved to us cheerfully as we drove away.

  “Am I wrong, or does the math not add up?” I said.

  “You aren’t wrong,” Marko said. “If Compliance recovered Aaron Banks’ certificate, there should be twenty-four shareholder employees, not twenty-three.”

  “Maybe they lost it?” I said.

  Aria snorted.

  “I bet,” she said. “Lost it where it wouldn’t be found or awarded to someone new.”

  “That’s possible,” Marko said. “Maybe even likely. We need more information before we start a witch hunt, even if Harper already rides a broom.”

  “You want to keep checking on shareholders?” I said.

  “I think we have to. One missing certificate could be chance. If we find more, though, that’s a pattern.”

  “Ugh,” Aria said. “We won’t get home until after dark at this rate.” She looked up at the cloudy sky. “Not that it was ever bright today.”

  “We should get a hotel room, so we don’t have to drive back tomorrow,” I said.

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Marko said. “Aria? Any objections?”

  “Nope, so long as we find something good for dinner. Mexican? Italian? Anything but more diner food.”

  “I’ll let Kaius know we won’t be back this evening,” Marko said.

  [Marko Kontos] has added you to a chat group!

  [Marko Kontos] has added [Aria Brate] to a chat group!

  [Marko Kontos] has added [Kaius Nova] to a chat group!

  “Oh man,” I said. “I totally forgot to add him to my contacts.”

  “Same,” Aria said.

  Marko (Group1): Hey Kaius, just letting you know we won’t make it back tonight.

  [Aria Brate] has renamed Group1 chat to SausageFest.

  Marko (SausageFest): Really Aria?

  Aria (SausageFest): (?? ? ??)

  Victor (SausageFest): I’m not even sure how you did that.

  Kaius (SausageFest): Understood. Will you be staying at the Lux?

  Victor (SausageFest): That’s even further than the safehouse.

  Kaius (SausageFest): An instance of the Lux appears in every sector. The apartments aren’t as secure as the safehouse, but the building does have defenses.

  Aria (SausageFest): Wait, really? Can we use it to fast travel?

  Kaius (SausageFest): I’m uncertain what that means.

  Marko (SausageFest): It’s fine. We’ll see you tomorrow, Kaius.

  Kaius (SausageFest): ( ^_^) ／

  Victor (SausageFest): You have to be shitting me.

  “That’s good news,” Marko said. “I hate motels. I always expect to find a dead body under the bed.” He held up a finger as Aria opened her mouth. “Don’t say it.”

  “Jasper?” I said, and the little AI appeared.

  “Hello [Victor]. Hello [Marko]. Hello [Aria].”

  “Can we use the Lux to fast travel?” I said.

  “Yes and no,” Jasper said. “You can only use it to fast travel between sectors you control.”

  “That’s badass,” Aria said. “Will we still have the car if we switch hexes?”

  “If it’s on the grounds, it will remain available!”

  “How do we do it?” Marko said. “Fast travel, I mean.”

  “Call maintenance and tell them your destination,” Jasper said, actual light shining from its beaming smile.

  “I didn’t know the apartments had phones,” Aria said.

  “They do now!”

  “Thanks, Jasper,” I said.

  “I’m here to help!” it said, before fading from view.