After setting her feet on what seemed to be the ground floor of the tower, Nina followed Jade through the door marked ‘JE-22/7-01’ into a dark concrete hallway. Examining the few bootprints in the dust that covered the floor and the seepage in the walls, she guessed that this entrance was rarely used. Making their way through the damp air that filled the corridor, their shoes echoed in what was otherwise silence as Aline took the lead through a series of twists and turns.

“Where are we?” Nina asked as she watched Jade run her fingers along a series of copper pipes that had emerged from the wall. Jade turned her neck as they walked, but the dim lighting made it difficult to make out her expression.

“We’re heading to the station,” she replied as they rounded another corner. “You should try and memorize the route.”

“Isn’t the reason that I’m leading because you always forget?” Aline asked with a sigh.

“It’s hard to remember,” Jade complained as they turned another corner to find themselves in front of a heavy steel door. Ignoring the large red cross that had been roughly painted across the centre, she sighed as she took a keycard from her pocket before pressing it against a rusted control panel. After waiting for a moment, the panel flashed green as the mechanism in the door unlocked with a loud click that echoed down the corridor.

What is this place? Nina thought as she followed the pair through the door to emerge in yet another dim hallway. Unlike the halls that they had previously been wandering through, the concrete floor here showed obvious signs of wear due to heavy use. Thin steel doors with small windows lined each side of the hall which stretched away from them. The protective glass that surrounded the dull lamps were either caked with dirt or smashed. The smell of filth made Nina want to pinch her nose as she set off after the pair, the thick air making it difficult to breathe.

“Is this a prison?” she asked as she noted that the doors featured stenciled numbers. Resisting the urge to peek through one of the small windows she ducked her head and moved in closer to the girls.

“They’re residences,” Jade replied as she ignored the pairs of eyes that had begun to appear in the slots in the doors to investigate the noise. Clean, healthy, and well-dressed, it was obvious to the occupants that the three were outsiders. “This here is the lowest of the low, the bottom of the red floors.”

“I see,” Nina said as she also ignored the gazes that she could feel on her. While Jade and Aline ignored the gazes because they didn’t care, Nina was scared to meet the eyes of their silent observers. Thankful that they were nearing the end of the corridor, Nina jumped as a door ahead of them suddenly swung open.

“Why don’t you stay for a while?” a tall man dressed in rags asked as he stopped in the centre of the hallway. With patchy brown skin that was peeling and more fingers than teeth, Nina winced at the sight while the pair before her simply sighed.

“How about you get back inside?” Aline asked as she reached under her skirt before withdrawing a pistol. Entirely black, Aline’s pistol was only around two centimeters wide. The short but tall barrel swung up until it locked onto the man’s face as his expression froze. Seeing the gentle blue glow that slowly drifted through the thin tubes that were wrapped around the barrel, the man’s gaze flicked between the elongated black interior of the barrel and Aline’s cold expression.

“Sorry,” he said as he raised his hands in surrender before shuffling in the direction of his door. Upon reaching it, he quickly ducked through it before slamming it closed behind him. With a sigh, Aline led them past the door where it sounded as though he was piling what few belongings he owned in a makeshift barricade on the other side.

“Handy, isn’t it?” Aline asked as she waved her pistol in Nina’s general direction before placing it back where it came from. Nina guessed that she was wearing a thigh holster, but didn’t ask. What she found even more confusing, however, was where Jade was supposed to be hiding something. If it was as thin as Aline’s, maybe she just stuffed it in her pants.

The group eventually wormed their way through enough corridors to end up on what seemed to be a main thoroughfare. Examining their surroundings, Nina found that the differences between the red levels and the orange levels above were rather apparent. While the orange levels had been a lively melting pot of peoples, styles, and décor, the street that she now walked on was depressing. As her gaze drifted across the rotting wooden façades of the businesses that lined the street, she tried to ignore the thick scent of body odor and filth that hung in the air. Dim and flickering lights illuminated the slow flow of people that was like a stagnating pond as eerie laughter and questionable soliciting reached her ears.

Trying to ignore the people that watched them from the front of run down pubs and restaurants with faded signs, she tried to stay as close to Jade and Aline as possible.

“Don’t worry, nobody will try anything,” Jade comforted her as they moved through the crowd. Like Jade said, the people stared but didn’t approach them, instead parting in a similar manner as Reina had parted the crowds above them before. Walking past what Nina thought was a group of prostitutes, she shuddered as they turned a final corner before their destination appeared before them.

“There it is, the JE-22 lower station,” Jade whistled as they approached.

“Lower?”

“Yep, the lower,” Jade smiled as she stopped before the large concrete wall that stood before them. “There’s a lower, middle, and a higher station.”

“Why are we using the lower one?” Nina asked as she looked at the wall. Unlike the rest of the floor, there were no buildings that backed onto the station. Instead, a pathway that was a few meters wide sat between it and the collection of run down businesses like a moat. How were they supposed to enter?

“The middle station is on the green level, while the higher station is on the purple level,” Jade responded as she looked over to their right to see a sign that pointed towards the entrance to the station. Ignoring it, however, she followed Aline who had set off in the other direction.

“Why aren’t we going in?” Nina asked as they began to walk along the wall.

“SuTSU manages the stations,” Aline explained as she turned away from the wall. “Like the main elevators which can take you straight inside the station, the entry points here also record passenger details.”

“I thought SuTSU didn’t care about down here?” Nina asked as Aline turned into what looked to be a clothes store on the opposite side of the path. As they entered, her gaze swept over the shades of browns and grey filled the racks under a cloud of smoke. Two old men played chess at the counter with an overflowing ashtray to the side.

“The stations are different, they’re walled off and easy to manage,” Aline replied as she nodded to the men before walking through a curtain in the back wall of the store. “The data is too good to pass up, and it makes criminals reluctant to use the system.”

Nina followed her through the curtain and then past what seemed to be a few poor excuses for fitting rooms. At the end, she stepped into the final fitting room which was rather cramped once Jade closed the door behind them. As Aline swung the mirror from the wall to reveal a hatch in the floor behind it, she realised that they would be entering the station in a not particularly legitimate fashion. Wondering why she expected anything else, she followed Aline down a small ladder to find herself in a narrow passage that required her to hunch over.

“Hope you’re not claustrophobic,” Jade laughed as she brought up the rear after returning the mirror to its original position. Barely wide enough for her shoulders to fit, Nina wondered how someone like Svanda would fare in such a tunnel. Following the dim light that came from the dull yellow bulbs above them, they passed under the path and then the wall before climbing up a small ladder.

“Be quiet and wait,” Aline whispered as she pressed a button on the wall before waiting in silence. Nina could hear muffled voices from the other side of the wall, but stopped trying to make out the words as she felt Jade press up against her. The landing at the top of the ladder was small, and when Jade had joined them there wasn’t really space enough space. Squished together, Nina felt Jade’s hands slowly wrap around her waist as she was pinned between her and Aline.

“Sorry to make you wait,” a voice came as the wall in front of them turned to bright light. Ducking out from Jade’s grasp, Nina stepped through the opening behind Aline to find that they were standing in what seemed to be a small convenience store. A magazine shelf had been moved forward to allow them to step out while a young man with a mop of straw coloured hair smiled at them.

“It’s fine, thanks Hamiar,” Aline said as she helped the man push the magazine rack back into place, hiding the opening that they had appeared from. “We’ll be coming back tomorrow sometime.”

“No problem, see you then,” the man named Hamiar replied as he went back to the small counter that sat by the door before turning his attention to a small TV that was placed upon it.

Nina glared at Jade before following Aline up the thin staircase and stepping out onto what seemed to be one of many platforms. Unlike the grim surroundings that they had walked through before, the massive station was a sleek combination of modern design and concrete. Nina guessed that the space was at least five floors high and some fifty meters across, and she wondered why the poor residents she had seen earlier didn’t simply spend time here instead. It would make sense if they were denied entry. Concrete platforms ran alongside transparent tube-shaped tunnels that stretched away from them, shops like from where they had emerged lining the other side. It seemed that the platform they were on was far from the central lifts, so there were few people on this side of the station.

Nina saw that white cylinders seemed to be gliding through the tubes before either stopping or leaving the station, with some stacked up at platforms while others lay empty.

“Suits,” Aline said as she nodded in the direction of the platform over before casually strolling in the direction of some of the white cylinders that were lined up at their platform. “Take a good look, although I doubt you’ll forget what they look like.”