Once Everest left, Alicia exhaled with relief. She glanced at Noah and Beata to make sure neither of them was panicking, then moved toward the monitors.

  Noah tried to relax, but the day’s impressions were still far too vivid—especially the moment when Audrie Deveraux had been torn clean in half like a rag doll. At the time, he’d been clinging to her leg, determined to stop her at any cost. And only seconds later, he learned that his own body housed eight energy nodes, ready to absorb any “lost” information. Even now, Noah could feel all eight of them—one far stronger than the others.

  I wonder if it’s possible to determine the category on your own… without outside help?

  Unfortunately, none of the nodes announced their strength or purpose. Focusing inward, Noah could only vaguely sense each node’s function, and that some were more powerful than others—especially the one that had swallowed Audrie’s entire “portion.”

  And part of Adrian’s.

  And who knew how many others Audrie had “eaten.” Noah strained to listen inwardly, wondering whether he might accidentally hear those victims’ voices or thoughts. But his mind acted the same as always, as long as he ignored the already familiar chaos of his thoughts.

  He tried glancing over to check whether Beata was panicking inside her capsule, but the partitions blocked her from view.

  He decided to assume she wasn’t.

  “Your evaluations really are impressive,” Alicia remarked suddenly, leaning over one of the monitors. “Unless Gaudemunda has grown senile and started handing out good grades to everyone… Ninety-three and ninety-seven points. Damn, now I’m tempted to recruit you both into the FIC.”

  Noah blinked in surprise. He knew his own score, which meant Beata had passed Gaudemunda’s test even better than he had.

  Not bad at all.

  “Is that even possible?” Beata asked from inside her capsule. “Do you really recruit people the moment they arrive?”

  “No, of course not,” Alicia sighed. “Gaudemunda’s test isn’t nearly as reliable as it looks. Its only purpose is to filter out the human trash from everyone else. And among the rest… anyone can be hiding. Even future trash, if they decide one day to become such. So no, we can’t just accept whoever we want. There are strict selection rules.”

  “There’s a separate program for volunteers,” added the operator who’d introduced himself as Thomas.

  “Oh, right,” Alicia nodded. “If you two really wanted to, you could work at the Venice Detective Bureau. Plenty of people join out of pure curiosity. They probably read too many books and decide to fulfill a dream.”

  “You talk as if we have the freedom to choose anything,” Beata muttered.

  “Well, you don’t look like street thugs,” the woman shrugged. “If my intuition isn’t lying, I don’t see any reason to restrict your freedom.”

  “Two minutes,” the operator cut in, rocking in his chair. “Noise in fifteen seconds. Relax and smile.”

  The silver tube behind Noah gave a faint shudder, along with the whole building. A distant, extremely low hum reached his bones, growing louder and rising into audible range. Soon it became a mechanical howl so overwhelming that hearing anything else became impossible. Noah could only hope that the local technology was reliable enough not to explode in his face, like something out of a cheap movie.

  The inside of the capsule slowly filled with the familiar blue glow. Noah felt a faint tingling across his skin—unpleasant, almost like the reaction he’d had to the glowing water.

  Alicia and Thomas leaned closer to the monitor. Even Everest returned—apparently lured back by the noise—and joined them. Noah noticed them exchanging meaningful glances. He just hoped fate wasn’t playing some cruel joke by stuffing an oversized chunk of Audrie’s energy into him. If they labeled him a fourth-category case, nobody would want to talk to him again.

  Slowly, the noise and vibrations began to fade. The glow dissolved, and Noah exhaled in relief. Perhaps this procedure was designed for criminals because it felt like torture…

  Alicia opened both capsules while the equipment was still humming and beckoned them out. She led them—with Everest in tow—into the next room. Even there, the cyclotron’s humming was clearly audible.

  “So, the results…” Alicia scratched her head, giving Noah and Beata—especially Beata—a strange look. “Congratulations. You both belong to the third category. You were good kids and split Deveraux almost evenly without tearing each other apart. Noah, your current IP is sixteen. Beata, yours is a bit higher—eighteen. And… we also checked your chakras.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Her attention now fixed entirely on Beata, as if the girl had done something unexpected.

  “Why did you direct all the information into the fifth chakra?” she asked. “Was that intentional, or did it happen by accident?”

  “Ha! By accident!” Everest snorted. “Into one chakra—by accident?”

  “Shut up,” Alicia waved him off.

  Instead of asking questions, Noah decided to check his own fifth chakra. Like all the others, its purpose was vague, hard to define in words.

  “What’s wrong with my choice?” Beata asked, folding her arms.

  “It’s… very unusual, that’s all,” Alicia replied. “Normally, when given the chance, people choose one of the first three—they’re all tied to information processing and memory. The fourth and beyond rarely become useful in Regia. So we assumed Audrie Deveraux’s attack pushed you into such a decision.”

  “My memory is fine,” Beata shrugged.

  “Yes, but intelligence never hurt anyone…”

  “I’m probably smarter than both of you already,” the girl declared.

  Alicia’s eyebrow twitched. Everest doubled over, his thunderous laughter shaking the room.

  Meanwhile, Noah finally understood what Beata had done. The fifth chakra governed outward influence—something like ghost-muscles. He decided he’d better look up more details in the nearest library.

  Assuming they ever let them leave.

  “What a couple,” Everest cackled. “One stuffed everything into his brain, the other made herself strong like a gorilla. And that’s after all your advice!”

  “Stronger than you?” Beata challenged, still bristling.

  Alicia smiled and shook her head:

  “Let’s not start a debate about who’s stronger than whom. One child is enough.” She jerked her thumb at Everest. “We still have a few more procedures left, after which you’ll need to attend the introductory course—the same course you’d have taken at the Tourism and Information Center if you behaved like normal people!”

  * * *

  It turned out that by following Audrie Deveraux, they would have lost far more than they’d realized. True, the dead needed surprisingly little to survive. They would have been allowed into any public library, and sooner or later, they’d join some guild and gain guild privileges.

  But until then, they would have wandered the city without the most important human invention.

  “A smartphone? For free?” Noah asked, turning the black device in his hand. “Seriously?”

  “Everyone who comes here gets one,” Alicia explained. “Since Regia has no currency, there’s no other way to obtain it.”

  “What if I lose it?” Beata asked, inspecting hers nervously.

  “We’ll take care of that right now,” the woman promised. “You’ve probably noticed your current clothes aren’t really clothes—they’re part of your image. Part of your body, so to speak...”

  “Like in The Matrix,” Everest said, looking up from his computer. “By the way, I’m Agent Smith. Want me to sew your mouths shut?”

  “Yes, something like in that movie,” Alicia admitted reluctantly. “The point is—you couldn’t lose your clothes even if you tried. And we’re about to do the same with your phones. They’ll become part of your image, your very essence. And then you’ll be able to do this.”

  She lifted her phone, flipped her palm over, and let the device drop toward the table. At the last moment, it vanished in midair, never reaching the surface.

  “What just happened?” Noah asked.

  “I decided my phone was safely in my jacket pocket,” she explained, reaching for the jacket draped over a chair. She pulled the device from an inner pocket. “As I said, you can’t lose a part of your body.”

  “Well, technically, everything is possible with a sharp axe or a saw…” Everest muttered while hammering his keyboard.

  Alicia ignored him.

  “The procedure is simple. Turn your phones on and they’ll automatically register into your image.”

  “Is it safe?” Beata asked suspiciously. “Or will it be like in the living world, where phones spy on their owners?”

  “Ha!” Everest snorted.

  “Sweetheart, we’ll be spying on you either way,” Alicia said with a grim smile. “Don’t forget—you both absorbed more than a dozen IP units each. You’re stronger than most of Regia’s residents—and you’re complete newcomers. So we have to monitor you. At least until we’re sure you aren’t a danger to anyone.”

  “Right…” Beata muttered.

  “But don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds,” the woman continued. “If you behave like exemplary citizens, you won’t even notice us. You’ll probably forget we exist.”

  “And if you screw up,” Everest smiled sweetly, “you’ll get tenfold penalties — so you don’t forget too fast.”