New Alexandria was a beautiful city. It was impossible to deny it, regardless of what their government did. Each building appeared to have been carefully sculpted, their walls curving and dancing into the sky as works of art, practical and aesthetic, as if they were meant for that specific spot and no other. They were shining monuments as a testament to the tenacity of the human mind and spirit, though some drew inspiration from other civilizations and alien races, particularly those that resembled something closer to hives rather than actual buildings, but they were few and far between. Xaleyp’s favorite part, perhaps, was what the Arcadians called the Skyterrariums. These were the bridges that connected many of the buildings together, with glass all around and grass and trees and plants inside. Like a mini park, but hundreds of meters in the air. High in the sky, he could see the rings of Arcadia slowly spiraling around, making for a magnificent sight as they sparkled in the daylight, though it did make him realize how diminutive and inconsequential he really was on the grand scale of the galaxy.

General Hades arrived in New Alexandria just a few days after them. They were somehow able to get past the Arcadian blockade with a few transports, some that were repurposed cargo freighters, some dilapidated starfighters, all left abandoned in the spaceport. None of that made a difference in the grand scheme of things for their resistance. All that mattered was that they had another two dozens soldiers to back them up. Not a large army by any means, but enough to help keep them safe. With the General’s arrival also came his message that ArcDefense had been in charge of the attack, and, with that information, Xaleyp ascertained that they were the ones responsible for Lina’s death. Upon hearing this, he started forming a plan to get in. It was rather crude and dangerous, with almost every possibility of going horribly wrong, but it was worth the risk. Mian had tried talking him out of it, but he ignored her. She just didn’t understand. She didn’t know Lina like he did.

Xaleyp walked down the street wearing standard cheap cloth pants and a gray shirt. The resistance spent two weeks in the sewers so far, and they couldn’t afford to splurge on luxuries like designer clothes. Just in case of an emergency, he made sure to wear one of the Modular Fabric suits Seth brought with them, but it simply shimmered with its translucent sheen at the moment. Not many people paid attention to him anyway, so he didn’t worry too much about what he was wearing. They were much too focused on themselves, going about their days without a care in the world. As he made his way through the carefully designed metropolis, he had only one thought on his mind: Break into the ArcDefense Corporation headquarters and find out who led the attack on Stariek, killing Lina.

As he turned onto the main avenue of New Alexandria, he looked around, taking in the surroundings. From the skyscrapers hung giant, flexible screens that seemed to shimmer as the wind buffeted them. Advertisements shone brightly on them, changing every dozen or so seconds. At every street corner, and even at random intervals down the buildings, were cameras. Hundreds on this street alone, hundreds of thousand in the entire city, it was unreasonable to attempt to stay out of sight of them all.

“Xaleyp, wait up!”

He turned around and saw Mian running to catch up. She was wearing the same type of clothes as him, but her shirt was a dark blue. Her brown hair was down past her shoulders, bouncing and blowing slightly behind her as she ran. A black band ran across her head, pushing the hair back and off her forehead. A metal bracelet was hanging around her wrist, clasped tightly. Her breath came in short pants when she stopped next to him, looking around to make sure no one was watching.

“Mian, what are you doing?”

“Didn’t Seth tell you not to go wandering off?” She smiled at him, letting him know she was kidding.

“You should go back. Just keep him from finding out I left, okay?”

“No way.” She shook her head. “I’m coming with you. There’s no way I’m letting you do this alone. You’ll need all the help you can get.”

“I appreciate it, but I have to do this alone.” He placed his hands on her shoulders, gently squeezing. “I wouldn’t be able to handle it if something happened to you. Get back to the base.”

“If only you could tell me what to do.” She brushed his hands away. Her jaw was set in a determined way. “When we left Vertyn, I told you that you’d get your revenge. I didn’t say you were going to do it alone. Besides, what are you going to do? Just barge in and demand their files?”

“I… I was going to think of something.” Xaleyp felt his cheeks go red, and he looked at the ground. In truth, he hadn’t thought about what he was going to do when he got there. “I have to do this, Mian. You won’t be able to talk me out of it.”

“I’m not saying you can’t. I’m saying you have to be smart about this. The Arcadians may already want you dead. You think just handing yourself over to them is a good idea?”

“I need to do something, Mian. I can’t just sit in the sewers all day, knowing her killer is out there, probably laughing.”

“And if you end up dead?” Mian’s face turned serious, and she lowered her voice to avoid being heard by passersby. “What then? How do you get your revenge then?”

“Fine.” Xaleyp sighed. After all, she was right. Going in gung ho, guns blazing, was sure to get him killed. “What’s your plan then?”

“Let’s walk so we don’t draw attention.” She began moving the same direction Xaleyp had been going. “We need a way in. If we can find someone who can get us in, then we might be able to get access to the files on that mission.”

As they moved down the street, dozens of cars were passing both overhead and on the ground. Most of the sidewalk was left in shadow by the abundance of buildings and the star hanging rather low in the sky. Xaleyp watched as they moved through the city, making sure they weren’t being followed. Noone slowed down or did anything else to draw attention. An itch at the back of his head, though, said they were being watched, and not just by the surveillance cameras.

“I’m guessing you already have an idea for that.”

“Just one possibility. We’ll need to make it worth his while though. If the higher ups find out, he’d be fired in a heartbeat.”

“What is it?”

“A technician.” Her eyes narrowed in thought. “Low on the totem pole, hardly anyone pays attention to him. But he’s the one that is in charge of security passes. If we could convince him to make us a couple of them and let us in, it’d be that much easier to avoid suspicion.”

“And if he doesn’t want to do it?” He had to raise his voice as a car passed especially close to them, the engines rumbling. “What then?”

“Then he doesn’t do it.” She shrugged. “We find another way to break in.”

“But he could tip off ArcDefense, tell them someone is trying to get security clearance.” Xaleyp balled one of his fists and hit it into the other. To him, there were so many things that could go wrong with her plan. So many moving pieces. He couldn’t afford to mess this up. “I say we go in hard, get the information, and get out before they even know we’re there.”

“A corporation like ArcDefense? That might work for robbing some store or something, but not them. Their security will be too strong. You’d be dead before you set foot in the front door.” She grabbed his wrist and pulled him down a side street. “Now, let’s go meet the technician. I’ve already set it up. He’s waiting for us in a diner a few blocks ahead.”

“You set it up before you even talked to me?”

“I knew I would get you to say yes.” Her lips curved in a smile, and she released his wrist. “Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long on the passes.”

“How are you so sure he’ll do it?” Xaleyp asked as they passed a group of what looked to be tourists. “We haven’t even met him.”

“He wouldn’t have agreed to meet us if he wasn’t going to do it. It may have something to do with the fact I offered him five hundred thousand credits, more than he makes in five years. Quite the incentive.”

“Where are we going to get that much money?” Xaleyp’s mouth fell open at the statement.

“I have my ways.” Mian winked at him, the smile broadening.

“You better not be doing anything illegal.” His voice carried the hint of a warning. If she was doing something dangerous for him, and she got hurt, he’d never forgive himself.

“You mean like overthrowing a government or bribing someone to help us break into a corporate headquarters?” She dropped her voice to not be overheard. “I think where I got the money from is the least of your worries. The important part is that I have it, and we can use it to our advantage. Here it is.”

She pointed at a somewhat rundown looking, single story building. It curved from each end to the center, forming an arch. A checkered red and white awning covered the doorway, while the rest of the diner was a dull gray. At one point, it may have been a nice looking building, but from what they were seeing now, it was long past its prime. The corner closest to them was starting to rust away, and a small hole in the center of the orange and brown let them one of the lights shine through from the inside. Several windows ran the length of the front with a dozen years or so worth of grime covering them and obscuring their view of the inside. Everyone else on the streets seemed to be ignoring the tattered diner, walking by as if it weren’t even there.

“Are you sure about that?” Xaleyp asked, his curiosity piqued. It seemed like nothing more than a shabby dive, somewhere to get a good, hot meal for cheap. “He wanted us to meet him here?”

“I actually chose the spot. It seemed out of the way. I didn’t think it would draw much attention.”

“How did you even—”

“Shush,” Mian interrupted. She held her hand up to stop and pull him down an alley before they got too close. “Change your Fabric into something nice but inconspicuous. Don’t want to stand out too much.”

As she said the words, her Fabric morphed to a gray jumpsuit with small, silver filigrees at the shoulders. With a thought, he turned his own into a black jumpsuit with faint hexagons dancing over the outfit. Even as he did so, he was still wondering how and why Mian had chosen the diner for this meeting. Once changed, they walked across the street to the dilapidated building. Xaleyp cast his eyes up and down the road to make sure no one was watching but found it surprisingly devoid of people. There didn’t seem to be anybody on the street anymore, almost as if they had been swept aside and hidden.

“Come on, let’s go,” Mian whispered, pulling him by the wrist again. She looked both ways before leading him across the street. “He said he’ll be in a corner booth. We’ll want to stay quiet.”