Ulrich smiled lopsidedly, the left half of his face contorting to accommodate his smile. Ria didn’t respond. She was looking at Ulrich, but not at him. She was looking past him, in a stupor.

Ria got down.

Ria said, “Thanks. I’m going to use the bathroom. I’ll head back to Vera after. On my own. Sam, so don’t worry about me.”

Ria exhaled softly. Lusso felt the edges of her eyes water again. Samantha put an arm on Ria’s shoulder.

“Ria, are you sure you’re fine?”

“Yeah. Just give me some space.”

Ria brushed past Samantha and David, then Ulrich who held up a hand as she passed by. Lusso couldn’t tell if it was a high five or a wave of goodbye. Ria headed to the bathroom just down the hall from the room she’d woken up in. On her way to the stall, Ria flicked her gaze to the mirror at the sink, then turned back as quickly as she’d looked. Lusso barely made out a bloodshot, haunted look and an ashy pallor that was beginning to set in over Ria’s slight tan, like frost on fruit on a wintery day.

Ria sat down in a stall, pulled out a miniscule, neatly folded square out of her back pocket. It looked like a foil covered gum wrapper She unfolded it with shaky fingers, assembling her secret phone.

Ria unlocked her phone and called a contact simply named “Maru.” The phone vibrated silently in Ria’s hands. Her body tensed, listening for the slightest sound, a muted voice. At the last ring, a message came. Ria’s eyes flew across the message: “Currently in cyberspace. Trying to track an AI. I’ll be back as fast as I can. Love you always.” As Ria began to sob again, Lusso wished she would stop crying.

Lusso felt a tug on his arm while Ria sobbed in the stall, her hands clasped over her mouth. It was from outside. He disconnected. Micky and Ding were looking at him when he came to. Micky looked concerned, while Ding was nearly in full panic. Before Micky could speak, Ding shoved his phone into Lusso’s face.

“Look!”

Lusso snatched the phone from Ding’s hand. A text message contained a single link. Nothing else. Lusso opened it. It was an article from a year and a half ago from a local news joint in Felicity, named the Felicity Gazette.

The headline read, “Brutal Robbery: Family of Three Left Dead at Southern Outskirts”

Lusso scrolled further.

“Authorities suspect that a team of two made their way into the home and took off with valuables. In the process, Anita Linsa(36), Jackie Asknow(8), Louis Asknow(9) sustained severe gunshot wounds, leading to death just hours after the crime. The crime was discovered a day later by David Asknow(39), the late family’s divorced father. He came to visit the house after repeatedly calling the late family members by phone and receiving no answer.”

The rest of the article talked about the rise of crime rates, and how this was linked to severe wealth inequality in the area. Lusso closed the link.

Lusso said, “Who sent us this?”

Micky said, “You think we know?”

Lusso called the phone number back. An automated message told him the phone number didn’t exist. Lusso’s head swam. He slammed his fist into the wall beside him three times to get himself back to his senses. Lusso swore, shaking out his hand.

Lusso said, “Micky, ask our hacker to try tracking this too. I’m connecting back in.”

Lusso found Ulrich Simmons on the other side. He was sitting down in front of an audio mixer, Ria standing behind him. The audio mixer was a massive board of knobs and sliders calibrating and adjusting synchronously, like each had a mind of their own. Ulrich would occasionally make small adjustments, manually turning a dial or pushing a slider up.

Ulrich said, “How’s your new audio engineer?”

Ria said, “Haley?”

“Yeah. Haley. She’s second-rate, for sure, but she has her good points, right? She’s passive, usually lets the artist have more rein over the project.”

“She’s pretty good.”

“Not as good as me?”

“I don’t know if I remember. It’s been a long time since I’ve worked with you.”

Ulrich Simmons turned around, flashed a knowing grin at Ria, then said, “You don’t have to lie. I won’t tell Haley. Just tell me what you think.”

“I don’t have a good memory.”

Ulrich Simmons pouted like a child who had their favorite toy taken away, then whirled back to his audio mixer. After a minute of silent fiddling, Ulrich shot up from his seat and headed to some audio equipment neatly lined up behind Ria.

“Let me get this on you.”

Ulrich took a JGE patented SKIN-MIC in hand. It was a long, gray colored roll of tape a thumb’s length wide. Ulrich cut a long piece off, then carefully laid it over Ria’s throat, right up next to her lips. It felt like worn, soft leather on her skin.

Ulrich said, “You know how I don’t even have to measure the SKIN-MIC out to put it on you? I remember.”

Ulrich stared blankly at Ria’s cheek.

“A hair got caught. Let me get this off you.”

Ulrich laid the side of his palm on Ria’s cheek, extending his thin fingers, like dextrous spider legs, to remove the tape from Ria’s face. The tape had already turned to the color or Ria’s skin when Ulrich finished taking it off of her. Lusso saw a long strand of hair stuck to the SKIN-MIC’s sticky side.

“Ahehe. Uhm. Sorry. A piece of hair got stuck.”

“It’s fine.”

Ulrich folded the SKIN-MIC into a neat square, strand of hair and all, and threw it into the small trash can in the corner of the room. Lusso eyed the trash can. He would remember to check it later. Ulrich tried again. This time, he got it right. Ulrich put on a set of headphones he’d connected to the audio mixer.

“Can you sing for a bit? Any song.”

Ria sang, “I’ve got you right where I want you, right where I want you — is that enough?”

“Amazing. Just amazing. Why did you ask to stop working with me?”

“Huh?”

“You thought I wouldn’t know? Word spread fast after you chose Haley. That Ria Jun chose to stop working with Ulrich Simmons because he made her uncomfortable. What was so uncomfortable? I’ve been checking your album sales. Ever since you stopped working with me, they haven’t been doing as well. You have to know that, right?”

Ria’s mouth hung open.

“What made you so uncomfortable?”

“I don’t know.”

“Again. Again with your I don’t knows. I remember it was like this before we stopped working together. Last chance. Do you want to work with me? Fuck Haley. She’s a dumb bitch who spends more time on her makeup then mixing your music. I didn’t sleep for more than two hours during the last week before your debut album. I had to have listened to each song thousands of times. I overslept and missed the in-house album launch party that we had because of it. And you never asked where I was. Without me, that album would have been garbage. Straight out of a gutter in Felicity’s south sector. Ria —”

“Sorry. I think I’ll have to pass. I’ll let you know if my mind changes.”

Ria left the room with tears in her eyes. Ria heaved a deep breath to steady herself, and headed back to the room where she’d met Samantha. She sat down in front of the makeup desk, staring at herself in the mirror. She looked dead. Lusso guessed that her preparation for the concert was over. She’d told him that the last thing to do was the audio check. Lusso disconnected.

Lusso said, “Micky, did you get a reply back from ph-2?

“He’s busy, apparently. In cyberspace, or something like that.”

Lusso’s eyes narrowed.

“Show me the message you got?”

“You don’t believe me?”

“Just show it to me.”

Micky handed her phone to Lusso. The message read: “Currently in cyberspace. Trying to track your AI. Be back as fast as possible.”

Lusso mulled it over. It wasn’t the exact same message Ria had received, but it was too much of a coincidence to just pass on.

“What do you think are the chances that Ria’s boyfriend is our hacker?”

“Huh?”

“Ria called him in a bathroom stall. Got nearly the same message back. It’s a hunch, but I have a feeling he might have wormed his way into this mess. I don’t know why.”

“You think ph-2 is behind this?”

“No. He has Ria wrapped around his fuckin’ thumb. Ria’s addicted to him. He doesn’t need to pull any of this shit to do something to her, or get something out of her. Maybe he’s an ally.”

“We don’t have time. We head straight to Felicity tomorrow for the last gig. Let’s confront him.”

“Yeah. You do that.”

“So who do you think it is?”

Ding stopped examining some cleaning canisters on the shelves and padded over to listen.

“Well, to start off, I have no fucking clue. Ria burns more bridges than she builds, and every fucking person she meets has a way of getting DNA samples off of her. The only guy I don’t think matters is Vera Instance. He doesn’t seem to give a rat’s ass about what happens to Ria. With Samantha, Ria did some shit to her kids. WIth David, Ria caused his divorce with a sexual harassment claim, and we know what happened after that. With Ulrich, the guy’s a creep, who wants to be Ria’s audio engineer again. One small thing to mention is that Samantha had a limp, that could be from her jumping out of our motel windows.”

Micky said, “She has a lot of haters.”

Micky said, “I’d cut Samantha off the list. You don’t hear a lot of corpo people looking to exact revenge inside their own corp, if they have family. David, Ulrich? They look like they have fuck all to lose.”

Ding said, “If I was David, I would have killed Ria.”

Lusso glared at Ding.

Lusso said, “Shut the fuck up, Ding. We don’t even know if the article is real or not.”

Ding frowned.

Micky’s phone rang.

Micky said, “It’s our hacker.”

Lusso said, “Wait a sec.”

Micky picked up. Lusso raised his arm to slam his fist into the wall again, but stopped himself when he saw Micky looking at him. He raised his other arm up too, and stretched.