Lusso had never ventured inside the facility before. A rat with glowing fur scurried out of sight as Lusso and Micky entered the lobby. A dusty reception desk took up a corner, with a half-opened door behind it. A wide hall covered with carpet led out of the lobby. Glowing mushrooms bloomed from the carpet and the walls, imbued with various human characteristics. The bioluminescence only provided minimal lighting - Lusso had to squint to see three meters ahead of him. Micky tapped Lusso on the shoulder and pointed to the carpet. Fresh drops of blood dotted the mushrooms, and footstep-sized areas of smashed mushrooms covered the carpet. Lusso’s heart beat faster. Lusso wished he had taken more time in the cab to figure out where Ria and Maru were, and what their situation was.

Lusso pulled out his phone and gestured at it. Micky shook her head. She tapped her wrist. No time. Micky crept forward on the balls of her feet, keeping her eyes on the ground for hints of where they had gone. Lusso hurried after her. He didn’t want to lose her in the dark. Lusso followed Micky a couple steps further and took a deep breath. His lungs filled with a deluge of spores and dust. He convulsed, throwing his hands up to cover his mouth. Lusso barely held in a sneeze, and he could feel mucus dripping down his nostrils. Lusso held his nose shut, breathing through his mouth.

Micky came to an abrupt stop, and Lusso nearly bumped into her, placing both hands on her back to stop himself. Micky crouched in front of Lusso, examining the ground for fresh marks. She stood up, pointing one finger at her, then up at the staircase leading to the second floor, and pointing one finger at Lusso and at the staircase leading to the basement. Lusso blinked at Micky, thinking about his allergies, his poor eyesight in the dark, and other reasons they should stick together. Micky turned around, climbing the stairs to the second floor.

Lusso muttered, “Oh, what the hell.”

Lusso descended into the basement, tiptoeing one step at a time. He pressed up against the wall, feeling his way down. The air grew dank, and now Lusso could feel the spores and dust in the air. They brushed up against his face, like a million microscopic feathers, threatening to make him sneeze. Lusso arrived at an opened steel door, an arm’s length thick. He skirted past it and stopped in front of the doorway.

He thought he heard something. A sound of a footstep in the black abyss before him, lit up at random intervals by glowing mushrooms. Lusso kept his ears pricked for sounds, dropping to a crouch to make himself a smaller target. He could hear the blood rushing through his ears, and maybe even his own heartbeat, but nothing else. Lusso crawled down the stairs step by step, finally touching flat floor, when he heard another footstep. Lusso froze. He didn’t imagine that. Judging by the echo, somebody was just five meters away from him.

“You can’t hide forever, you know. What if I just wait at the entrance of the basement? You’ll never get out. Be rational.”

Lusso cupped one hand over his mouth, and squeezed his nose harder. One sneeze, and it would be lights out. Lusso heard someone dragging their feet. The sound grew further away with each step. Lusso stood up as slowly as possible, placing the hand he’d had over his mouth on the wall for support. He felt a cold, steel lever on the wall. Lusso leaned in, peering at the switch. Two words were painted in red under it, covered in dust. He skimmed his hand over the letters. He intended to only brush off enough to read them, but dust billowed from the wall as Lusso breathed in. His eyes stung, and his throat caked with dust.

Lusso sneezed. He stared in shock at his own hands, now thick with a paste of mucus, dust, and spores. He looked in the direction he heard Ulrich walk off into.

“Ah, trying to leave?”

Lusso swore internally, took two steps forward into the basement and dove right, hoping there was nothing in the way. Right as he hit the ground, a shot hit close to where he had just been, ricocheting twice. Lusso pulled his phone out of his pocket and threw it in the opposite direction. Lusso heard it hit metal twice on its way to the floor, leaving something twanging. Lusso bit his lip, holding back a scream. He’d bought it last month. Ulrich giggled, his voice high-pitched like a schoolgirl’s.

Lusso pressed one ear against the ground. He picked up minute vibrations on the ground, sneakers grinding tiny, jagged dust particles on the concrete floor. They grew smaller with each step. Lusso wondered if Micky was done searching the second floor. Lusso pictured Micky coming down the stairs to the basement and getting riddled with bullet holes, gasping as she fell to the ground. He shook his head, the way a wet dog shakes off water. Lusso swallowed.

Lusso rubbed his boots against the ground. The gravel and dust scraped against the floor. Lusso rolled over twice, then waited, with one ear to the ground. Lusso wondered if Ulrich hadn’t heard him, when he heard Ulrich’s footsteps pit-pat softly as his shoes touched down on floor. Lusso rubbed his boots against the ground again. Then rolled half a meter away, waiting. Ulrich was close now. Lusso could hear his breathing. Hushed - he probably had a hand over his mouth and the other holding his gun. But tense - there was adrenaline running through his blood too. Lusso pictured it in his head. A leg sweep, then a kick to the head to knock him unconscious. He didn’t know how he’d do it in the dark. But he had no time.

The sound of rusty steel grinding on rusty steel. The whine of a generator starting up, and a flash of light. Lusso squinted, seeing a figure standing just next to him blocking out the light from one of the LEDs. Lusso’s body moved before he could think. Leg sweep. The figure fell to the ground with a thud and a groan. Lusso jumped off the ground, kicking the toe of his boot into where he imagined Ulrich’s head was, like he was kicking a ball. He felt his boot sink into something, felt something crack - bone, and that probably meant it wasn’t his head. Lusso dropped onto the figure elbow first, feeling soft belly give way to his elbow. He drove it in as deep as he could, like it was a knife. He opened his eyes wide, trying to get a good look at Ulrich’s face.

He didn’t remember Ulrich’s hair being purple. Lusso’s eyes opened wide, whipping around to where he remembered the steel lever was. It was partly blocked by an empty glass cylinder that could fit a person, hooked up to a control station. Lusso swore, feeling blood rush to his face, turning his ears a bright red.

“Fuck!”

“Hands up. Walk. Slowly. To me.”

Lusso took a look at Maru’s face. His eyes were rolling up into his skull, and he let out a mumble.

Lusso whispered, “My bad, my bad. It wasn’t my fault.”

Lusso stood, hands held up, and approached Ulrich. Ulrich stood next to the lever, at the bottom of the staircase. He’d left the helmet behind somewhere, and cocked his gun at Lusso.

“Only you?”

“I mean, there’s Ria’s boyfriend, but I knocked him out. Thought he was you.”

“Don’t lie.”

“No. Go look. I think I might have killed him.”

An anguished scream broke out from behind Lusso. It could only be Ria. Lusso half-wished Ulrich would put a bullet clean through his skull right now, so he didn’t have to explain the situation to her. Ulrich’s face split into a lopsided smile.

“Looks like you weren’t lying.”

“Shut the fuck up. Please.”

“I’ll show you something cool now. Finally all those DNA samples are coming in handy. Come over here, Ria!”

Ria walked over to Lusso and Ulrich. Her eyes were wide, staring at her arms and legs moving in tandem to bring her over to where Ulrich was standing.

“It’s your fault, Ria. If you decided to work with me from the beginning, I wouldn’t have had to do this. I was nice enough to give you a lot of chances. Now you can watch yourself destroy your entire career.”

“I’ll kill you.”

Lusso closed his eyes, feeling cold beads of sweat trickle down his face. He’d imagined before that if he was moments away from death, he’d remember Yena, regrets, and some pleasant memories locked up in his head somewhere. But none of that came up. An empty gray room, angry, desperate screaming longing for something he’d never found, and loneliness.

Ulrich grunted. Something snapped. Lusso opened his eyes. Lusso had seen people break a bone, but he’d never heard it audibly, to the extent he heard it. Micky was sitting awkwardly on top of Ulrich like he was some large plush animal, wresting a blue-black gun away from a limp hand. Lusso turned to look at the doorway he’d guessed Micky had pounced from onto Ulrich. He made a mental note. She jumped from four five meters above Ulrich. He hoped Ulrich wasn’t dead.

Ulrich let out a soft groan. Lusso breathed a sigh of relief.

“Perverted bastard. Scum like you are better off dead.”

Micky got off Ulrich. Ria shook out her hands and feet, like she was trying to get a spider off of her. She shivered.

“Don’t want to feel that again.”

Lusso ran back to where Maru was still lying on the ground. Lusso slapped him repeatedly until he woke up, despite Ria’s protests. When Maru came to again, a red welt was forming on his cheek, and Lusso’s palm was red.

“Get up, it’s over. Ulrich got you bad. Fuck that guy, right?”

Lusso stood up and surveyed the basement. Rows of empty glass cylinders and control stations hooked up to them, lab benches and fume hoods with nothing left in them. Lusso guessed JGE had extracted all evidence of their experiments the moment they’d been able to enter the area again.

Lusso said, “Let’s get the fuck out of here. JGE’s going to be looking for us. What are we going to do with him?”

Lusso pointed to Ulrich, who was still unconscious on the floor. Ria took the pistol from Micky’s hand, aimed it at Ulrich’s head, and shot, all in one smooth motion. Click. A hole filled with red appeared on Ulrich’s forehead. Another click. Another red hole ten centimeters away. Lusso’s mouth gaped wide open. Micky just stared at her hand, as if she was wondering where the gun in her hand had gone. Maru gasped. Ria had her lips set in a thin, red line. She handed the gun back to Micky.

“A little bit of revenge for Maru, mostly mercy. JGE isn’t kind to traitors.”

Ria looked at Maru.

“What do you want to do now?”

“I guessed something like this would happen. We can run away, if you want.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Just like that? Leaving everything behind?”

“That’s Ria’s fame, Ria’s wealth. JGE’ll take care of it. I’m Mari Linn.”

“Wait. I need to tell you something before we leave, and…”

Maru looked at the ground, his lips paling.

“Spit it out.”

“I’m a stalker. I stalked you. I hacked your phone, I made it so you met me on that messaging app, I —”

“I don’t want to hear it. It’s okay. We’ll talk about it again.”

“What?”

“You knew everything about me, but still loved me, right?”

“Yes, but…”

Micky said, “If you two are finished, let’s go.”

Ria and Maru looked at each other, then at Micky, at each other again, and laughed. Micky rolled her eyes and started climbing the stairs. At the entrance, a familiar face was waiting for them.

“Still alive?”

Lusso said, “Yes.”

“Sorry for the mess. Bit of an internal conflict, argument about who gets to decide how we use stolen technology, that kind of thing. Not a problem anymore, since everyone who disagreed with me is dead.”

He held out a hand. Lusso took it, and they shook once.

He said, “Let’s never see each other again.”

“Yeah. You too.”

He turned around, hopped into the white van he’d come in, and vanished. All of the traces of the motorcycle helmeted men were gone, except for the white van, full of holes now. Lusso turned to Ria.

“So, about the pay raise.”

“If I remember correctly, we never agreed to one.”

“You —”

“Whatever, I’ll send you some money. Credit number?”

Maru waved a hand.

“No, no. Awful idea. JGE’s going to be tracking Mari’s account. They see a random payment to someone on the net, then they’ll be all over you in minutes.”

Lusso sighed.

“I’ll cut you two a deal. I’ll make it so you don’t have to pay for the cab you wrecked, clean your records so JGE doesn’t know we cooperated, and as a bonus, maybe I’ll add a couple points to your rep on the JGE system so you get considered for the pay raise you wanted. Sound good?”

Lusso squeezed his eyes shut and let out an anguished groan.

“Yes.”

Lusso looked away, lit a cigarette, and lighted it. Lusso took a drag.

“See ya. Don’t die.”

Micky said, “Goodbye Ria.”

Ria nodded, and said, “Thank you. Sorry for everything. I can’t describe how much this means to me, to be with Maru and —”

Lusso cut her short by waving his hand in the air. It was pitch black out now, and red ash fell from the cigarette like a sparkler. Maru and Ria got in the car Ria had taken here, and rushed off.

As the car passed by, Maru stuck his head out the window and said, “Thanks, you two!”

Lusso didn’t respond. Micky headed towards the car. Lusso walked after her, throwing away what was left of his cigarette into the dark. It hissed as it hit the ground, smothered by moist foliage. Lusso stopped for a moment, looking out into the impenetrable darkness of Sector 10.

Lusso whispered, “If you’re out there, listening, I’m sorry. I guess I fucked your plan over. But I had to do it. They had me by the balls, I swear. Don’t kill us, or something. Please.”

Micky was waiting by the car. She opened the driver’s seat and motioned to Lusso. Lusso held up his hands.

“I’m a terrible driver. Really fuckin’ bad.”

“I’ll teach you, don’t worry.”

“I can’t be saved. I’m a lost cause.”

“Get the fuck in. I’m not driving back.”

Lusso climbed into the driver’s seat, took hold of the wheel. Micky slammed the door shut behind him and got into the passenger’s seat. Micky crossed her arms, leaned back, and closed her eyes.

“I thought you were going to teach me.”

“You believed me?”

“Are you guys okay?”

Lusso glared at Ding through the back mirror.

“What the FUCK do you think? SHUT UP!”

Lusso grit his teeth, turned on the engine and slammed his foot on the accelerator. Halfway back to the concert hall, Lusso stopped at a red light. Lusso hammered the center of the driver’s wheel. The horn was choked up in the din of traffic, but Micky woke up.

“What.”

“I left my fucking phone in that basement. We gotta go back.”

Micky closed her eyes again. Lusso screeched, hitting the horn with his fists, like an enraged miniature gorilla.