Lucia sat down at the desk in her singular room and allowed herself to be confused. Here it was. It was peaceful, just away from all the constant noise of the world around her. She kind of enjoyed having a room to herself, even though Eniola and she caused the most fun havoc living together. But Seoul went above and beyond in hospitality, and Lucia would reap its riches.

But there was one problem. More like two when Lucia thought about it. Lucia really didn't want to get tangled up with Keone or Paradox or whoever his current phase was, but they had to do something. He was out there again, and this time he was like a thousand steps ahead of all of them, and they'd barely begun.

They couldn't do this alone, though. Not when so much was on the line, and Lucia and Rogue had risked their lives and sanity to battle him. It almost annoyed her as much as it scared her. It seemed like Paradox constantly popped up in their lives to make sure none of them had fun. Even if they had no cohesive plan and Azira Park was still at large, they had to do something. Lucia would start.

Howie had to know.

But she might as well have fallen off the face of the earth or blended into the shadows or something and likely wouldn't be back until she needed to be. Howie was such an odd figure. She was always a step ahead of everyone but pretended not to be so that she could mess with you.

But it was weird. More than just Howie-weird, which was still weird, to begin with.

Lucia refocused on the computer and sighed once again. She extended the screen on her phone and looked at it through the warm blue glow. Howie's posts were lined up in chronological form, and the more recent they were, the less frequent and less they became in words. Lucia didn't want to seem like some obsessed fan, but it was so strange how she was being so cryptic.

The last post from last week read:

See me or don't see me.

What kind of cryptic, edgy poetry was this supposed to be? Lucia would've tried to read between the lines if it wasn't only 6 words. It was so vague that she could interpret it as anything. What was her point, anyway? It was probably random and had no meaning because Howie liked to mess with people. Lucia huffed and ran her hands through her short hair.

Eniola was better at things like this and being all smart and stuff. One look and she'd tell Lucia all about the subtext and "interpretations of life" or some brainy stuff. Lucia was more of a fighting girl. Ever since she was twelve, it was fight or flight for her.

Her mama would tell Lucia to keep trying and offer a warm smile her way. Her papa would probably squint his eyes at it and pretend to know what he's doing and speak with big words in his gruff voice. Lucia smiled just thinking about it.

The winning prize this year was $1,000,000, meaning $200,000 for her if Rogue managed to win and kick every other country's ass, which she was pretty confident of despite the daunting task. That was more than enough to bring them back and pay for their sponsorship since they could come back this year. Macy and Lucia had kept their head above water for the most part, but there was almost nothing left for their parents. Winning both SCOPE championships had been a miracle.

The conversations they had over the phone and messages had never touched down to the true reason they were deported. Every time she or Macy had asked, they'd both brush them off saying Mija's, it's complicated and you're too young or we just wanted a better life for you.

Nothing had been sufficient. Lucia was eighteen now and was no longer a little girl who could subside with empty words. She wanted the truth.

Lucia still didn't know their real names and why they did what they did. Despite it all, they had the audacity to call themselves Hector and Sergia. She didn't even know how they hacked the system.

Lucia didn't realize she clenched her fists until she released them and observed the faint crescent moons on her palms. At that moment, a thought replayed in her head.

Hack the system.

Lucia stepped out of her trance and refocused back on the screen, where a new status update from Howie was there. She almost jumped in excitement.

See me or don't see me.

Lucia raised an eyebrow. The same thing? It had a couple of views so far, but nothing of note. Lucia prepared to enlarge it to see if anything might've been hidden on the surface for her average intellect to see.

Then it disappeared.

Lucia peered further before she refreshed the screen. It was gone. Howie had deleted it.

She wanted to go all conspiracy-theorist and say it was weird, but maybe she just accidentally posted the same thing twice.

But Lucia knew a way.

After they had forced her parents out of the country, they gave Lucia and Macy careful instructions in the little time they could see them.

Go through the computer underneath the floorboards and wipe everything you see. Then destroy it. Lucia and Macy did exactly that, but not before they looked through it all intently. All dark web stuff, where you could track people and find their identities.

Lucia typed one code she remembered into the browser:

o.culus#.gate

Immediately, a black screen filled the space before bright red letters of text slowly began running over it. It was some ominous message about this website being dangerous and whatnot. Lucia scrolled to the bottom with her fingers before clicking next.

The IP address tracker came to Lucia easily before she went back to Howie's page and pasted the web address. The page refreshed again before a page of locations ran down the screen.

From November of last year, it was mostly in Los Angeles. Lucia followed the locations on the screen. Lucia raised an eyebrow. Didn't Howie travel around the world? Until last May, it was Portland, Oregon. Nothing stood out to her.

Until it did.

Paradox was there and did his whole Matrix Man thing. But that was this month. How come Howie had been there?

Lucia looked at it again. The current location was Seoul.

Where they were.

Howie and Azira were both in Seoul? Two people they desperately needed to see?

The whoosh of the doors sliding came behind her but Lucia barely registered it. It might've been Wendy here to inspect the floors religiously for a speck of dirt.

But then soft lips pressed against her cheek, then to her neck. Lucia sighed before she jumped and yelped, switching off the computer.

"Woah!" Theo's voice said. "Did I interrupt something?"

"Nothing of the sort," Lucia quickly denied. A wash of panic went over his face before it stopped, then he lightly chuckled. "I was just doing stuff."

"Oh," he said.

"What are you doing here?" Lucia asked, flustered.

"Well, it's the afternoon, and we don't get to the arena until late at night," he said slowly before he sauntered even closer to her. "So, I was thinking we'd do something?"

"Like what?" Lucia asked and stood up right in front of him with her head tilted down. She could feel his breathing right on her hair. His heavy breathing.

"You know," he whispered, tightening his hands around her hips.

Lucia gulped. The thought of an afternoon with Theo made her heart race. But then the thought of Howie came up, unfortunately. She pulled away slightly.

"Let's do it in your room," Lucia said. "I have to do something first."

"Fine by me," Theo said before he wrapped her into another long kiss.

Lucia could've melted into him. She slowly pulled away and winked at him as he walked to the door.

"I wonder what happened to Howie?" Lucia mumbled to herself. "The way she's been gone has been weird. I wonder who talked to her last."

Theo turned back to her before leaving. "Beats me."