Outside of the Papers Galore, Chase took a deep breath and tried recollecting himself.

“You alright mate?” Cavin said.

“I’m fine.”

“Can’t imagine anyone would be fine after finding out people hated them.”

“When you become a public figure, you learn to expect hatred. It’s all of this that’s bothering me,” Chase gestured to the broken area around them. “A reminder of my failures. All these people are my responsibility and I’ve failed them. They have every right to hate me.”

Calvin listened to Chase talk, and looked around at the place. Before finally saying, “Okay, so you did fail. But now that you know what you’re doing wrong, you can fix it.”

“I’m not sure if these people even want my help.”

“Does it matter? You said it yourself, as a Guardian they’re all your responsibility. No matter if they want you or not. And if you stay the way you're going now, then they’ll keep hating you.”

“I have a whole city to take care of with just myself, my abilities, and sections of people who hate me. Telling me to just fix it is a bit easy for you to say.”

“Yeah, that is rough. But you’re not completely alone, and Alice is some significant reinforcement for you.”

“I’m not confident that she can handle being a Guardian.”

“Well, sure, but that’s why you're training her.”

“I’m not confident I can train her either.”

Calvin sighed, “You know, for someone who’s so good at taking down criminals and graduated at the top of his class in Highrise, you sure have some low self-esteem.”

“I was only in the top 5%, not the top.”

“The top 5% is still the top. But whatever, what do you plan on doing now? We still haven’t made much progress on the Technician.”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Chase sighed again. “What would Rowan do?”

Calvin raised an eyebrow, “Why do you keep asking what Rowan would do?”

“He’s the most qualified person I know.”

“In being a Guardian? Yeah, I’m pretty sure being Chief of Police and being a Guardian are still pretty different things. And does it really matter what Rowan would do? What matters is what you’d do.”

“I don’t know what I’d do.”

“Still, figuring that out is better than constantly relying on Rowan, even when he isn’t around.”

Chase felt a stab of anger rush through him at Calvin, but he pushed it down as quickly as it came. Inside, Chase agreed with Calvin, he knew it for a while but could never trust himself.

Calvin peered back into the shop through the window and saw Alice talking to Xu with an adamant expression. “Hmm, I wonder what they’re talking about?”

Chase tried to search through his records and make the connections himself, a distraction from everything else. Possibly predicting where the Technician would strike next, but there were too many possibilities and not enough time. He had to narrow it down to one location, but he had so little to work with. He growled in frustration and it didn’t help when he saw glaring faces hiding in the background.

“I’m guessing you still haven’t got anything?” Calvin said.

“No.”

“Well, maybe we can try again with Xu?”

“How? You know he doesn’t want to work with us.”

“We could make a deal with him, and Alice could be our sweetener.”

“Could you talk normally?”

Just then, Alice walked out of the shop and grinned at Chase and Calvin. “Guess what?” Chase and Calvin listened to her silently. “C’mon guess!”

They both looked at each other before Calvin answered, “Something good?”

Alice pouted. “You’re no fun. I convinced Xu to help us, but…on one condition.”

“What condition?” Chase said.

“You need to spend the next week in Lion’s Grove to help everyone here with…all this. Right after we take care of the Technician, of course!”

“What?! But, I–” Chase cut himself off as he needed to think about what he would say. Did he even have time for this? Of course not, Rowan needed him to do things, and there were so many places in the city that he needed to care for. He couldn’t spend a whole week working on just one part… But maybe he needed to. Looking around, Lion’s Grove was clearly one of the least well maintained areas of Horizon City, and no matter how much the people here hated him, they needed him. And he would be resenting himself even more if he used an excuse to not take this chance to fix a mistake he knew about. “Fine.”

“Wait, really?” Alice said.

“What do you mean ‘really’?”

“I–I just thought you’d need a little more convincing, but I’m not complaining!” Alice cheered and went back into the store, beckoning for them to follow.

Chase saw Xu frowning behind the counter, but also a look of tired resolve. "Alright, Guardian, Alice here told me that if I help you, then you'll actually start doing your job here for the next week. Are those terms fine with you?"

"They are."

"Great, now let's hope you can keep your end of the bargain."

"As long as you keep yours."

"I always do," Xu rasped and walked into the backroom, followed by the three.

The back of the shop was almost the same, but even more cramped. It seemed like an extra storage area with stacks of papers on the floor and shelves, along with an old printer sitting on a table. Xu picked up the printer and shoved it onto a shelf, disturbing a few papers. "Try not to touch anything."

"Feels kind of hard to do that," Alice said, bumping into a stack of papers and causing them to flutter out.

Xu sighed. "Let's get this over with. Do you have the records of the recent attacks for me?"

"Yes." Chase pressed a few buttons to bring up the records and used his arm to project a holographic image of a map of the city and the locations of the two known attacks marked with red X's.

"Uh, is that it?”

“That’s all we have on the Technician.”

“When you said you have record(s) of their attacks, I expected more than just TWO.”

“I’m sorry but this is all we have. Will you still be able to help us?”

Xu sighed. “Yes, but the less I have to work with then the less accurate I’ll be, so you better be prepared for disappointment.”

“I understand. I just need something fairly accurate to work with.”

“Well the first thing that comes to mind is that they're all Zone facilities."

"I noticed that too, but there are too many other Zone facilities in the city to predict an attack."

"What time were these attacks?"

"The first report came in only recently, two days ago at night. But when I went in to investigate, it looked like the attack was much older. Bodies were mostly decomposed and it looked like most of the equipment there was stolen, which would’ve taken time.” Chase said, but after what he saw from the Technician he wasn’t sure anymore. “And the most recent one was just yesterday.”

“Hmm, so, one attack each day…perhaps.” Xu scratched his chin and adjusted his glasses. “Did you see what the Technician was doing during these attacks?”

“I only saw them once, but they looked like they were absorbing machinery.”

“Absorbing machinery?”

“Yes, we’re doing investigations on what exactly that means.”

“Right…well, do you know what kind of machinery they were ‘absorbing’?”

“Nothing too specific it seems, almost everything in the factory.”

“What are these two facilities for?”

Chase thought for a minute and wondered how important that question could be before he started noticing the possible links. “The one outside of the city is a robotics lab and the other is a manufacturing factory.”

“Two different ones? And assuming the Technician came from the robotics lab, then, of course, the closest Zone facility from the East Side entrance of the city is in the factory. Hmm, which facility is the closest to that one?”

“That would be another factory, after that would be a Zone Training Center in the Housing District.”

“I think we can assume the Technician would be after machinery,” Xu said. “What if he just goes to another factory? I’d say he originated from the robotics lab, made his way into the city, and attacked the closest factory.”

“What makes you think he originated from the robotics lab?”

“There’s always weird stuff going on in that lab, just because it’s outside doesn’t mean people don’t notice.”

Chase wasn’t sure what to make of that but he didn’t disagree with it either. “But there are plenty of factories in the Industrial District, some closer to the entrance than the Zone factory.”

“Maybe he has a vendetta against Zone Technologies?” Alice said. “I can imagine a big company like them would have a lot of enemies.”

“Perhaps but maybe it's because Zone Technologies has better machinery, which would imply that this Technician has enough intelligence and awareness of his surroundings to understand which places to target,” Xu said.

“This seems like a bit of a stretch,” Chase said.

“Well, with how little you’ve given me everything I’m saying is a stretch.”

“Then, which place do you think he’ll attack?” Calvin said.

“Honestly, I’m not sure. But I think the best option you have is going to a facility that’s close to other facilities, in case you’re wrong and can get to him quicker.” Xu pointed to a green mark highlighting another Zone factory on the edge of the Industrial Sector, with several other facilities scattered around it. “Your best bet might be to just go to another factory and see if the Technician will try to get more machines.”

Chase marked the facility as his next destination. “Seems like it's the best we’ll get then, thank you.” And not wanting to waste anymore time he started to leave.

“You better not forget! You owe us a week!” Xu called out.

“Don’t worry, Xu! I’ll make sure to remind him!” Alice cheerfully and skipped off after Chase, followed by Calvin who gave a wave. Xu grumbled but a slight smile crept on his face.