The really good plan was to wait until dawn. Then Wave wanted to talk to Ember and Hammer again. Of course, it was risky, she knew that but would she make it all by herself? Maybe it was just an excuse to find out how Hammer was doing, or just to hear Ember’s voice again. That was okay with her and it would give her new strength.

The door of the hover car closed behind her and Wave stretched. There were definitely more comfortable places to wait for dawn than these leather seats.

They strolled along the sidewalk, Wave’s gaze fixed on their destination, and she ignored the bustle and colorful advertisements around her. Fearless would make sure their conversations weren’t overheard by the Security Corps, claiming she could, at least. Now that she knew the Security Corps would be listening for it, Fearless was even more careful.

Wave had decided that Fearless was indeed a girl to her. If she wasn’t going to tell her who she really was, she was going to have to live with it, even if it weren’t true. Otherwise, looking at the robot girl would only drive Wave crazy.

The lens established a connection. The familiar toot that would sound when it rang at Ember now sounded strange. It was drawn out long and sounded far away. Was that a result of Fearless' tap protection? The waiting also dragged on agonizingly until the indication sounded that the desired conversation partner was not available at the moment. Was Ember not waking up, or was she staring into space while waiting for Wave’s call to end? The thought that Ember might not want to talk to her made her gulp. She took a breath and rang up Hammer. After four tut-tutters, he answered.

"Hey Wave," he whispered.

"Did I wake you up?"

"Yeah, never mind. But Marielle and the little one are still asleep."

"Did they let you go home?"

"Yeah, I got lucky. I thought I’d have to spend the whole night at the station. But the Secs who were in the middle of questioning me got a call and they let me go right away."

"That must have been Lambert. Some kind of favor to me. But he said there will be consequences for you nonetheless."

"Yeah, I’ve already gotten some of the consequences."

"What happened?"

"They informed Marielle. You can imagine how upset she was. She was wondering if I’d think of her and the little girl, too, if I did shit like that."

"I’m sorry."

"Hey, it was my decision to help you out and it was my idea to contact the hacker in the first place. I’m a big guy, don’t worry, I’ll get it done, somehow. But ..." Hammer screwed up his face.

"But what?"

"It may be that I’ll scale back my participation in the Arena for a bit, spending more time with my family instead. I’ll have to if I don’t want to break anything here."

Yes, that’s how Hammer worked, he was a man with foresight. Or at least one who knew when to turn around when he did get lost. Someone who set priorities. The family came first, Wave understood that. Her head knew that but her heart was sad, knowing he wouldn’t help her, at least not with what they were about to do today.

"How are you doing, Wave? How did you get out of there?"

"I went to Aki’s death scene with Lambert."

"Wow. So?"

"So much has happened in so few hours. Aki’s data is all gone and CCR is gone too."

"Seriously?" Hammer raised an eyebrow, then shook his head. "That’s bad."

"But I know now that Aki is alive and where he is. Not from Lambert, who I had to run away from because he would have put me away if I hadn’t. I know from Fearless, the hacker we met with."

"You met with him again? You’re insane, Wave! You know that, right?" He paused for a moment but continued speaking before Wave could retort anything. "But really, I didn’t expect anything else. Not after you were already willing to meet with him for the first time. Especially if Aki is actually still alive. You have a goal in mind and you just have to achieve it. Our team is as good as it is for a reason. But ... oh I digress. What are you going to do now?"

"Aki is in a lab run by the Kanter Corporation."

"Kanter, huh?" Wave could hear the triumph in Hammer’s voice. "Not Akimoto?"

"Honestly, I can’t even tell you who might be involved and who’s not. In any case, we want to get in there."

"We? You and ..."

"Fearless. And actually, I thought you and Ember might ..."

"Wave!" he interrupted her, "this is crazy. I’m already flagged by the Security Corps and Ember ..."

She interrupted him as well. "Let me finish, Hammer, please."

Hammer fell silent.

"We’re not going to go there in person. We’re going to do it as the hacker did at our meeting."

"With robots?"

"Exactly."

"Which robots?"

"I had the Arena robots in mind."

"You want to break out of the Arena with robots?" Hammer’s eyes widened. "Then we will not only be bagged by the Secs but we’ll also be banned from the Arena for life. And that’s just ... no, I’m sorry. I can’t do that to my family, and I can’t do that to the team. It would fall apart."

"We have a way to cover up. The hackers have disposable IDs that you can-"

"Wave! Stop! I’m sorry. I can’t do this. And you shouldn’t either. The longer you run from the Secs and the more felonies you bring on yourself, the worse it gets."

"Yeah, I know that." Wave’s head understood. Her heart knew better.

Hammer ran his hand down the side of his beard, back to the back of his neck. Then he shook his head. "I was reckless when I set up that meeting with the hacker. It was exciting to wander the streets with you in Rosewater, but in the end, it was still a mistake."

"Hammer," Wave said calmly, even though she was shaking inside. "You don’t have to explain yourself any further. I’ll get back to you if it turned out okay, okay?" Wave paused, her heart beating faster. "I can still get back to you, right?"

"Wave, sure you can. I’m always here for you. That doesn’t change."

Except for this time. But Wave didn’t want to say that. It would sound so bitter and tilt poison into their friendship.

"I’m going to call it a night," Wave said.

"Take care, Wave."

"I will."

Then she ended the call.

Fearless looked at her without emotion. Did she feel sorry for her? Did she understand why some people didn’t want to risk everything? Could she understand the love for one's own family? Could she understand her if Wave revealed her innermost feelings right now? Just how hurt she was that the two people she thought would always stand by her side would not accompany her on this journey? Wave took a deep breath and held it for two or three seconds. Tried to dispel the sadness, and exhaled. But it remained.

"So just the two of us?" the robot girl asked in her normal, less creepy voice.

"Yes, just the two of us."

"You know, Wave, I never would have dared go in there alone."

"Very funny. It’s not like we’re actually going in."

"No, I mean, to this gaming cafe." That got a small smile out of Wave, and the feeling of sadness faded a little. Almost, but only almost, she forgot that Fearless wasn’t a real girl.

In front of them loomed the brightly colored facade of a gaming cafe. A meeting place for all those who couldn’t afford to put a swanky gamer Synth in their apartment. The only way the two could use their disposable IDs. From home, everyone would have been able to track that Wave was the one logging into the Arena. And she didn’t have a second Synth for Fearless, either.

"You’re scared, for sure? Don’t worry. You wouldn’t have even gotten in on your own, because of your age."

Fearless chuckled. "I’m older than I look."

She was certainly right about that. Despite her childish appearance, she had to be one of Akimoto’s earlier models, back when they started making their robots resemble humans more. That wasn’t good enough, of course, because those models had a similarly alienating effect on everyone as Fearless had on Wave. She no longer looked like a machine, but she didn’t look like a perfect human either. Despite this shortcoming, the first models had made the company so much money that it was able to launch new lines at lightning speed. Each more detailed than the previous.

Wave opened the door for Fearless and pushed her into the cafe’s entryway. The stale smell of a room that had never been aired out hit her. Old sweat, nibbles, a general mustiness. If you stayed here long enough or had a broken nose, you probably wouldn’t smell it anymore. Wave wrinkled her nose, sniffled, then sneezed.

"You okay, Wave?" volunteered Aki sympathetically.

"Yeah, I’m alive. Just be glad you don’t have to smell it."

"I can’t smell it either," the robot girl warbled happily.

"Uh, you’re killing me."

Which only made Fearless giggle more.

"What can I do for you?" a bearded guy behind the counter asked with a bored tone. He fit in perfectly here. No, in fact, he had been made to fit in here perfectly. His teeth gleamed like chrome.

"Two Synths please."

"Isn’t the young lady a little too young to be gaming here?" He eyed Fearless suspiciously.

"No, the young lady is older than she looks," Wave repeated the statement Fearless had just given her.

The reception robot eyed her again, then his expression brightened. "Ah, yes, you’re right. Just take those two back there in the corner."

While Wave and Fearless walked to the Synths, their imaginary accounts paid for the cost of this adventure. Here in the city that was just how it worked, build anything from nothing, cook anything, and pay for anything with nothing too, as it seemed.

Wave watched as Fearless climbed into the tank next to her. If she was being controlled by someone, after all, that was a funny thought. He was controlling the robot girl, who would herself be controlling another robot. And maybe they were all being controlled by something else, something bigger. Something with a bad sense of humor, but a penchant for doing the right thing.

In some way, it had to be providence that they managed to find both Aki in this lab and this ominous robot that was to blame for making uncaring machines crawl into ventilation shafts in fear or hurl hover cars through the air in rage.

"Aki, I’ll get you out of there!" she promised him and climbed into the Synth, as well.