The four Innocent Girls huddled together in Gonsalez tower's dark storage closet. Meeki and Braya stood by a large box, choosing not to sit on the dusty floor. The little room connected to a lift outside while a door on the other side led into one of the many halls within. Tension filled the room whenever they heard footsteps from occasional people walking by. If they were discovered, it could mean a lot of trouble.
Due to Kiluana's idea of leaving early, business hours hadn't yet passed, but they hid within the tower in case urgent action became necessary. They were far too famous to be strolling around a government facility. Such was the trouble of being famous criminals. None of them seemed to mind and passed the time in their own little ways. Kiluana and the red headed Maika sat near the lamp, looking over several maps on a small computer. Kiluana discussed the plans for the night with such calmness that it seemed like a casual conversation, not a matter of life and death. Maika sounded passive and nervous, she was probably the levelheaded one of the pack.
Kinjeur sat a little further away from the lamp, outfitted with her punkish ripped black clothes and fishnet stockings. She kept her eyes closed and took only the softest of breaths, appearing very peaceful. Haurtanna played with her little knife and nuzzled her messy blond head against Kinjeur. That was a strange show of affection that she always loved to do. Her love with Kinjeur, if it could be called that, was very much unrequited no matter how often she expressed it.
Meeki found no comfort in watching this odd bunch. She was far too nervous to simply wait around. Any attempt to calm herself failed. Self-control was never her strong point.
After a time, Braya turned her veiled head to Meeki and gestured for a whisper. Meeki leaned her head down to listen.
“Let's see Lucifer. I feel like I need to go to him.”
Meeki hummed and wondered if leaving was a good idea. Twenty minutes remained until business hours officially ended, which was enough time for a quick talk. But that could be enough to help her awful state of mind.
“Kiluana,” Meeki said.
The girl stopped her talk with Maika and looked up.
“Do you mind if Braya and I take a walk? We want to visit Lucifer. Uh, to tell him about what's going on.”
Kiluana eyed them for several seconds, but she smiled in due time. “I completely forgot about him. Go ahead, but be careful and come back soon.”
Braya opened the door, but Kiluana wanted one final word before they left.
“Don't run away, you know the consequences.”
Meeki closed the door and looked around. The hall was very quiet. Dreary metal walls decorated Gonsalez tower's corridors, all of them a pale brown color and scarred with age. Clean red carpets covered the floor. Remembering the Newhope warehouse from yesterday, the walls only served to give Meeki a feeling of claustrophobia, and she realized that she didn't know where to go.
“Damn, I don't even remember which floor his office was on,” Meeki said.
“I know where it is. I'll show you.”
They boarded the nearby elevator. Braya pressed the button for the fourth floor and they ascended a few stories.
The door opened to show them a familiar hall, the same one they took to see Lucifer the first time. Nobody seemed to be on this level either. Everyone must have gone home early for the day.
But then Meeki heard talking. A pair of white uniformed office men stood near the entrance of the other elevator. They paid no mind as Meeki and Braya passed by. A short bit of their talk caught Meeki's interest.
“You know, there was some kind of crazy guy earlier today. He ran through these halls yelling and didn't care about running into people or anything.”
“I heard. That kind of talk gets around.”
“This guy looked all messed up, like he was in a fight or maybe he was just a bum. His clothes were all ripped and I saw him bleeding. He ran into this elevator, I think I heard that he went straight for the front door and escaped.”
“What did he do here? Just running and screaming?”
“Nobody knows, it's like he hid around and just decided to run out after a while.”
“Ha. These civilians, they're gettin' crazier by the day.”
Meeki looked to Braya. “What do you think that's about?”
“The crazy guy? I don't know, do you have a lot of crazy people on this planet?” Braya said.
“That depends on your definition of crazy.”
Meeki rubbed at her chin and wondered if it had anything to do with their business tonight. Could it be that the so-called lunatic was one of the Cultists?
While she considered it, someone called out from another hall to the right. It was Elian. He was wearing the same black coat from the other day, but he seemed a bit bulkier now as if wearing a second set of clothing.
“Well well,” Elian greeted, smiling earnestly. “First I meet you wandering around unauthorized in a Newhope warehouse, and now you're walking the top government center of Aster. For citizens, you sure keep yourselves politically occupied.”
He looked around the corner as if expecting to see someone else. Braya moved very slightly to Meeki and held her arm tight. Meeki remembered that Braya disliked Elian, though she never specified why.
“Where's your other friend, that impulsive one?”
“She's occupied, I guess. We're going to visit Mister Lucifer,” Meeki said.
“Ah, I suppose I'll go with you.”
Meeki eyed him and thought it might be a bad idea, but walked ahead. There probably wasn't much use in convincing him to stop, so they followed behind him.
“Hey, do you know about some crazy guy? I guess he broke in and ran through the halls or something,” she asked.
“I know nothing of that, but I wasn't here much of the day.”
They soon arrived to Lucifer's door. Meeki reached for the buzzer, but Elian caught her hand and volunteered his own effort. To Meeki's surprise he avoided the buzzer and tapped a code into the locking system's number pad. The door opened within seconds.
“You're pretty resourceful if you can just open a taskmaster's door like that,” Meeki said, somewhat amazed with the man.
Elian grinned. “After a lifetime of working here, you get to know things. Most people think I'm too old to figure out these electronics.”
“Look at this!” Braya called out to them. “It's a mess!”
“Well, yeah, I remember how it was last time. So he isn't there?” Meeki answered.
“No, but this is something else. Hurry!”
Meeki stepped in to see that the place was trashed in a different way from before. Broken glass from the shattered window covered the floor. A pair of cabinets to the side had tumbled over. Warm air from outside passed through the room into the hall, blowing the mess of colorful papers around.
Meeki's furrowed her brow and frowned. “What the hell happened?”
Elian stepped aside to look around the mess. Meeki tiptoed around the glass and papers to investigate Lucifer's desk. Someone etched several deep cuts on the surface, forming little valleys long the wood. One of them was so deep that torn sticks of wood were laying about the floor underneath. Not far from there were blood stains. Meeki's spirits sank. Lucifer could have been severely hurt. He might be dead for all she knew.
“We were right to come here, but who could have done this?” Meeki said.
“That man who ran away, they said he was bleeding. Lucifer must have put up too much of a fight,” Braya said.
“It could've been Lucifer himself running. The killer could've jumped through the window to escape,” Meeki said.
Meeki stepped around the desk and looked down the broken window to the crowded street. The people below browsed the multicolored marketplace, and traffic seemed especially heavy. Ignoring the issue of surviving such a fall, many people would notice a body plummeting. Scaling down the wall would be even worse for the matter of stealth.
“We need to get back. This could be serious,” Braya suggested.
“Yeah, this is too much of a coincidence,” Meeki said.
As she and Braya walked to leave, Meeki noticed Elian standing in the corner. He had been very quiet ever since they entered the room.
“What are you going to do? Lucifer's your boss, right?” Meeki said.
Her question shook him out of his meditative silence.
“I think I'll ask around and look at the records regarding this 'crazy guy' of yours,” Elian told them.
“See you later, then.”
“Oh, I'm sure you will.”
Meeki wondered about his remark, but shook off her suspicion and left with Braya. They quickly made their way back toward the storage closet with the bad news.