The bus circled two bronze towers above the clouds of Newhope's enormous capital city. The towers were unlike the rest of the architecture below, with a strange design of uneven cubes making it resemble a blunt jagged weapon. The single robot in the cockpit struggled to land to the heavy craft on his own, but eventually it managed a rough landing against the taller of the structures.
A cubical black police car waited near the landing pad. The pale faced officers looked disinterested, but they very promptly handled the cultists into the car and slammed the doors shut. Within the minute they boarded and flew out, swinging through the various gray docking buildings toward the adjacent tower.
“Where is Kiluana's dad?” Braya asked.
“He's at the police's warehouse, closed to where those cops just went. Kiluana said he got trapped in the evidence locker or some stupid thing like that,” Kinjeur explained. “The way Kiluana talks about him, Newhope's police really shouldn't be such a problem.”
Kinjeur squinted and turned her head slightly toward Meeki. “But she does think too highly of some people, I wouldn't be surprised if she was wrong about her own father.”
“What are you talking about?” Meeki asked, surprised by the girl's sudden aggression.
“Nevermind. Maika said the police's warehouse was on the other tower. Let's go and deal with this.”
They walked northward across the port and entered the tunnel bridging the towers, where a slow escalator provided transport. Braya spent the time leaning on the rail to look around the cloudy planet.
It was late afternoon for the seven interconnected cities below. The strong afternoon sun covered the endless silver cityscape with a keen shine. Thousands of cars zipped through in orderly lines, charging up through the clouds onto the many invisible highways. Braya sniffed around the air for a moment and seemed confused.
“How do they have clean air with such a huge city?” she asked.
“The pollution used to be very bad. Now they've got tons of air purifiers everywhere,” Meeki explained as she looked over the city. “It's sort of fake, but hardly anything's natural down there. I can't stand it.”
“So it got that bad here, too?” Braya mumbled to herself. “I guess it could've been worse.”
The escalator dropped them off three minutes later. Numerous brown buildings stood on the tower, all of them labeled for police supplies. Two doors leading into the tower itself stood just before the mess of stores. One was marked for the police station while the other was what they wanted, a small and dirty metal door marked as the warehouse.
Kinjeur fished out a few key cards from her pocket and distributed them to Meeki and Braya. They were fake identification cards that Maika made for this mission. Meeki looked to hers and saw that she was playing the part of a deputy from a city nearby. Braya giggled to the sight of the goofy officer she now represented.
Kinjeur gave them both a disapproving glare and slid her card through the scanner. After the computer took its time in analysis, the door slid open. It shut immediately after she walked in, forcing Meeki and Braya to take their individual turns scanning.
They descended a flight of stairs and boarded an elevator which screeched its way down the tower. It stopped with a heavy thump, and the door opened to show them a bright gray hall. Without going far, Meeki already heard the distant sounds of robots and other security devices scanning the halls. This is part that Meeki wasn't looking forward to. Tricking a computer with fake cards was simple, getting through this place wouldn't be so easy. Newhope's ideas for security were often unpredictable.
Kinjeur looked to them and shrugged. “We'll get in big trouble if we screw up here. We've got to find him without getting caught by whatever they have out there.”
Meeki took a deep breath and silently convinced herself that there was no reason to panic. At least not yet.
Kinjeur took the lead and walked a cautious pace toward the first room. There was a young brown haired receptionist leaning back in his chair and twiddling his thumbs. Despite the loudness of the elevator, it seemed that he hadn't noticed them. But he was forced to turn his chair and greet them as they approached his table.
“Hello ladies!” He looked to the three, but held a particular interest in Meeki. “You guys don't look like police, but I guess the card scanner doesn't lie. What's the business?”
Meeki came up with a story. “We're here to look up some evidence for a case.”
The guard patted the chest of his thin little blue shirt. “Oh! The lawyer types, then. That explains the weird cloak getup. Let me get my scan gun.”
Meeki looked to Braya and shrugged. It must have been some kind of a Newhope joke, as she wasn't sure what cloaks had to do with lawyers.
The guard turned around and dove into a cabinet, but his things were in a jumbled mess and he struggled with the search. Much sooner than expected, he suddenly spun around with a little gray handheld scanner.
“Gotta check your credentials,” he reminded them.
This wasn't going to turn out well. He would see their false cards and probably call security. Even though he seemed a little strange, Meeki regretted that Kinjeur would probably rough him up. But then a door across the room opened. A tall man in a black overcoat emerged.
“Excuse me, those three are with me,” the man said to the guard.
“Oh, uh, forget the scan in that case.” The guard shivered and quickly threw the scanner back into the cabinet. He showed the man a wide, foolish smile and made sure to wave at the cabinet, indicating what he had done. “You're free, girls, um, no scans.”
Meeki began to wonder if this man in black was the guard's boss or something even less pleasant.
“Come along now,” the man said to the girls. They were somewhat hesitant about it but followed him the next hallway. He closed the door behind and chuckled.
“Who are you?” Kinjeur demanded.
Meeki looked at the man's face. He was somewhat wrinkled with age but still seemed to have a considerable sense of vitality. His skin was much darker than most people, and his clothes were devoid of Newhope's whimsical colors and styling.
“Asterian?” Meeki guessed.
“Yes, just like you three. What are you doing on another planet's police warehouse, hm?”
“We're looking for something.”
The man peered down the hall before offering his hand for a shake. “It would be irresponsible for me to leave my fellows in a place like this.”
“What do you mean?”
“I work for the Gonsalez government. I just finished inspecting this place, but I'll help you out,,” he said.
That didn't sit well with Meeki. History proved that Newhope would never let Asterians in here. He could be a spy or perhaps another burglar. She hoped it was the former and not the latter becase she absolutely adored spies. It was her dream job before she became a mother.
“I'm a bit of a regular here. That guard there knows me well, I've had a few rough times with him, so he knows his place with me. But your real problem is with the security robots that patrol this place. If they don't like you, they'll gun you down before you know it.”
“We can't just shoot them up?” Kinjeur asked.
“Ah, the brutish approach. I'm afraid just charging through like a barbaric fool won't do it. The robots are monitored through a wireless signal, and the police are very quick to respond if that signal is broken. One time I destroyed one of them and was pretty surprised how quickly the cops came.”
“So then what?” Braya asked them.
“You're in luck.” He pulled out a little red key card from his pocket. “Now this is a nice little card decades in the making. If you show any robot or android this card, they leave you alone for at least a few days.”
“Can we have it?” Braya asked.
“I'm afraid not,” he said with a coy little smile. “But I might have enough time to escort you through and show it to the robots on your behalf.”
Meeki noticed that Kinjeur halfway sneered, holding the man in contempt already.
“Give us a minute,” Meeki told him.
The three girls headed away and huddled up to talk.
“I don't like him, he's a smug asshole,” Kinjeur grumbled.
“Something does seem weird about him, but I don't know. That card sounds like an important thing,” Braya said.
“I think he's a spy from our planet. He's probably just used to acting that way out in these parts,” Meeki said.
The missing half of Kinjeur's sneer formed, filling her face with contempt. “You can't just trust someone because they're Asterian. Newhope people may be natural jerks, but our own people are just as bad.”
“I know that. I say we take him along with us, we need his card if he's right about those robots.” Meeki stared back at Kinjeur and tried to be stern with her choice. “If he does something, we'll deal with him however you want.”
Kinjeur scoffed. “Whatever. Don't blame me if one of us gets shot or anything.”
Meeki waved to the man. “Let's go. By the way, what should we call you?”
“I am Elian,” he said with a brief smile and bowed. Meeki returned the gesture. She especially respected him for being a spy, a difficult job she once aspired for.
Elian led them along the various corridors, taking an odd twisting path through the warehouse. It was a maze of countless small storage rooms, possibly confusing by design. The lack of identifying marks made it seem worse, but Meeki kept close track of every turn they made.
They encountered one security robot along the way. It stumbled in a most comical fashion, but the gun swinging around in its hand wasn't so funny. The coned head of the robot turned to scan each one of them as they passed.
“UNKNOWN, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED—”
“Oh shut up.” Elian waved the card in the robot's face. “They're all with me.”
The robot was speechless. It turned away and continued on its patrol.
“There you have it. The real secrets of Newhope lay ahead of us, so what are you looking for? If it's an item the police has confiscated from you, it would be best to try the evidence room.”
Meeki agreed to give that a try, so Elian led them further through the cramped facility.
“The evidence is stored behind room A4 just around this corner, but only two of you will be allowed inside at one time. It's a weird rule they created after a certain data theft incident. I apologize for that one, it happened during my earlier, more foolish years.”
“Are you leaving?” Meeki asked.
“Yes. I have an appointment with a few people regarding my business here. Don't worry, I won't tell them about you.”
He bowed and tipped his little black hat to them, then walked off at an urgent pace.
“I still say there was something odd about him, but he seemed like a nice enough man,” Braya mused.
“Save your judgment for when we make it out,” Kinjeur said.
“If Payne's in there, only one of us can go in,” Meeki said. She turned to the others. “Will you two wait around here? I'll check it out.”
“Don't take too long,” Kinjeur said.
Meeki walked toward the next hall to look for A4. The door stood just around the corner, guarded by a card scanner. She slowly slipped her card through and the door opened with a quiet hiss. Meeki peeked in to see a dark room surrounded by countless computer monitors along the wall. She stepped in carefully and waited a moment for her eyes to adjust. Before long, the silhouette of a larger man's head rose in front of a monitor. Meeki almost started as the door behind her shut with a clang, trapping her in the room with the shadow.