Lusso caught a glimpse of a man turning the corner to the left. Lusso sprinted after him. With every steps, he felt a white hot fire in his lungs. He cursed his smoking habit. Lusso felt like he was in a weird fever dream as he ran through seemingly endless identical white hallways lit with a harsh, cold light. The slapping of three pairs of shoes on concrete echoed, filled, the empty halls. The only sense of progress Lusso got was hearing the slapping ahead of him get louder. The footsteps in front of him abruptly ended, marked by a resounding bang. Lusso stopped in his tracks, his chest heaving. Lusso leaned against the wall and kept his ears open. He could only hear Ding catching up. Lusso tip toed forward to the end of the hallway, and peeked around the corner. There was nobody, but the lights were lit right up until the cleaning closet that the janitors had left earlier.

Lusso stood in front of the closet and knit his eyebrows together. Was this a trap? The cleaning closet was a dead end, as far as he was concerned. Lusso scanned his surroundings. The unlit hallways, as far as he could see, were empty. Unless he’d managed to fool the motion sensors somehow, he was inside the closet. He waited for Ding to catch up.

Lusso whispered, “Ding, the guy’s in there.”

Ding said, “Why?”

“That’s what I don’t know. Waiting for us, maybe. Anyways, you go in first. I’ll back you up.”

“But…”

“Just trust me. I haven’t let you down yet, right?”

Ding’s eyes were wide open, with his lips stretched back, but he grit his teeth and nodded. Lusso handed Ding back his gloves and put his hands in his shoulders. Lusso eased Ding along towards the door. Ding put his gloves on, and turned the doorknob, trying to peek into the room before opening the door fully. Lusso shoved Ding inwards, and the door flew open. Ding stumbled into the center of the room.

The cleaning closet was as empty as they had left it. Lusso did a one-eighty, half expecting to see a brick hitting his face, but there was still nothing.

Ding said, “Lusso, what was that for?”

Lusso said, “If he was waiting for us, opening it slowly would have been a mistake.”

“You could have told me that!”

“Calm down. I didn’t know you would do that. Nothing bad happened, see?”

Ding took deep breaths, hands on his knees. Lusso looked around the closet, but there was nowhere to hide. Every corner was visible, and empty.

“Lusso, where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“Lusso, we can’t just let him get away. What happens to us if this guy rats on us?”

“We lose our jobs, maybe die.”

“Maybe he’s not in here. I’ll check outside.”

“No. Stay. If he’s not in here, we’re already screwed.”

“God, Lusso, I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. You and Micky are getting this bad karma because of me.”

“Alright.”

“Lusso, I mean it, I’m —”

“Shut the FUCK up! I’m trying to think!”

Lusso said, “He’s at least been inside here. Look.”

Lusso pointed to the assortment of footprints on the ground, set in the dust of the cleaning closet. Besides Ding’s new footprints, there were another set of footprints that lead to the middle of the room. From there on, most of the dust was disturbed earlier by the janitors, so that the footprints were indistinguishable. As cluttered as the closet was, there was a rectangular clearing of space in the middle of it. On all sides save the floor, the walls were a dull grey. The floor was a metallic grey.

Lusso said, “Where the hell did he go? If he tried to get past us, we would have seen him.”

Lusso said, “At the very least, I think Jin Isman’s drug stash is still hidden somewhere in this closet. It’s been hours and I still smell it.”

Lusso wrinkled his nose.

“Ding, you've done a lot of janitor work. Do you have any ideas?”

“This is an old Model-278 cleaning closet. Usually, there's extra storage space connected to the small room. Most of the time, to open it, you have to press a switch somewhere.”

“Where are they usually?”

“It depends. For this closet, there isn’t much space for it on this floor since it’s surrounded by rooms. And so, the storage space is either above, or below.”

“The concert hall has a second floor.”

“Oh.”

“Alright, it’s below. Let’s look for the switch.”

Ding rummaged around the closet, lifting up boxes and wiping dust off of the walls as Lusso stood in the center of the room and ran his eyes over the closet. He didn’t want to get his jumpsuit dusty. Ding lifted an empty bottle of bleach off a shelf, revealing two switches next to each other on the wall.

“Found it!”

“Nice. Good one, Ding. Open it.”

“Ummmm… There’s a problem. There’s an open and close button, but if you press the close button while the door’s closed, it can break.”

“It’s not written there? Which one’s which?”

“No.”

“Fuck. He better be in there. And when I see him, I’m going to kill him for putting us through so much trouble to find him.”

Lusso peered at the buttons through the poor lighting. One was green and worn out, and the red had much less scratches on it.

Lusso asked, “If you worked here, would you open the space more, or close it more?”

Ding said, “Open. The door closes on its own after 5 minutes. So the green one?”

Lusso waved his hand dismissively, and said, “But consider this. Let’s say something got stuck in the door. For example, I’m stuck in the door, and I’m about to get cut in half. How would you press the open button?”

Ding said, “I’d press it quickly?”

Lusso said, “I’d smash it. I’d hit it so hard it’d break into a million pieces.”

Lusso pushed the red button, and the floor began to open up. Lusso’s shoulders tensed up in anticipation, and he began to breathe quickly.

“Found you. Jin Isman?”

Jin Isman’s eyes were half open, and he stared blankly at Lusso and Ding. He held a couple white beads in his hands, and one dropped from his mouth. A flash of recognition ran through his eyes, and Jin leapt off the ground, trying to get past Lusso. But Lusso was ready. Lusso grabbed his torso with both arms, and threw him onto the ground. Jin’s body hit the floor first, then his head slammed into the bottom of a shelf. Jin didn’t try to get up again.

“Jin Isman. Let me make one thing clear. If you try to screw me over, I’m not going down alone. I’m sure you know Luster Beads are illegal. So. First question. Who are you really?”

Jin didn’t respond, but stared at Lusso in a daze.

Lusso pulled his leg back to kick Jin.

Jin said, “I’m just a freelancer! I was hired by someone and they told me to—”

“So you’re not a JGE employee? That makes this easier.”

“Yes! It was just a one-time gig.”

“So who? Who hired you?”

“I don’t know. I swear on it.”

“What the FUCK do you mean I don’t know?”

“I really don’t! He just texted me and told me he needed me to — “

Jin opened his mouth, and closed it repeatedly, as if he were a goldfish. Crimson blood trickled from his nostrils and dropped onto the floor and shelf. Then Jin’s face froze and his head lolled over to one side.

“What the fuck? Jin?”

Ding gasped. He said, “Lusso, you killed him!”

“No way. No way.” Lusso crouched over Jin’s limp body, shaking his shoulders.

“Jin! Talk to me!” Lusso pulled back from Jin. He looked at his own trembling, bloody hands, then back at Jin. Lusso thrusted two fingers onto Jin’s neck to feel for a pulse. There was nothing.