It wasn't quite so bright down in the Atrium, but Kit wore his sunglasses nonetheless. It had taken him less than a half-hour to travel through the city, into the dome, and down into the Atrium, but now that he was here, Kit felt like taking a break and gorging himself on the delicious food they had on offer. He sequestered a room for the night and began looking for a companion to spend it with. He first approached Luci, but even through the dark tint in his glasses, she could see his intentions a kilometer away. They had the entire conversation somatically in which Kit was rejected outright, but not without a hint of flattery on Luci's part. At least, that's how Kit saw it. He left her standing guard outside of Dinara's office to protect Miguel, then went to the Atrium floor to seek out some wandering gazes.

Humanity Purists weren't prudes by any means, but one of the primary reasons they exercised detachment from the rest of the general populace was because of the sometimes overwhelming promiscuity that was common and encouraged throughout the city. Kit didn't necessarily mind it, but it was a relief to be away from it, and when there was a challenge, he found the prize was much more enjoyable.

After rejection from a few men and women, Kit had to adjust the salaciousness of his flirting style to suit the more reserved audience. When he caught the glance of a beautiful woman sitting alone at a noodle stand, he asked to sit with only a smile, and she agreed with a smile back.

"New around here?" She asked.

"Not new, exactly," Kit said, motioning to the cook for a bowl, "just visiting. Vacationing, you might say."

"A holiday? That sounds nice! Holiday from what?"

"Writing, I'm a journalist."

"Very cool. Not a lot of them out there, are you competing with Oracle?"

"No, not really. She's got all the facts and data about everything, but the human experience, I think, is what makes writing interesting. So that's what I do."

"I see!" The woman said. "Is it gouache to ask about stories you're working on while you're on holiday?"

"I'll let it slide for someone so beautiful." Kit put on his sexiest grin and side-eye, and the woman gave a blush and a smile in return. "Recently, I've been looking into missing people."

"Missing people? Like... people who moved away and you miss seeing them?"

"No, not exactly. 'Missing,' as in, a person who has disappeared and is unable to be found."

"Oh... like old-world detective stories?" The woman asked, and Kit nodded. "That still happens?"

"Well, I'm still looking into it, so I haven't made any concrete conclusions yet, but from what I can tell... yeah, it still happens, and it seems like it happens a lot."

"I thought that BSI's prevented that from happening, and even without one, isn't Oracle supposed to be really good at tracking people?"

"Yes, those were my thoughts exactly when I started looking into it, but... I don't know... I think that BSI's and Oracle might be behind it, or involved in some way."

"How so?"

"The people that go missing... They don't actually appear to be missing to their loved ones or friends. They still seem to be present on social media and will talk to people who ask about them, but in a few of the cases that I've looked into, I couldn't find any trace of their actual, physical body anywhere," Kit said. The woman shivered.

"That's... chilling... but, that only happens to people with BSI's, right?"

"Well... uhh... no..." Kit was suddenly feeling like this method of flirting wasn't doing much for him, but he was unable to find a way out. "Actually, the ones I've been investigating have all been people without interfaces."

There was a brief silence as the woman's face began to seem much less interested, and more horrified at what Kit was telling her.

"-But don't worry!" He said, putting on as comforting a smile as he could muster. "Not one of the missing that I've been looking into has been from down here in the Atrium."

"That's... comforting... I guess," the woman said.

"Sorry. I suppose it's not really a great topic of conversation," Kit said with a nervous laugh.

"No, no. It is actually pretty interesting, if a little scary. It just makes me think about some friends I knew before I moved down here a few years ago."

"Is that so?" Kit's ears perked up.

"Yeah. There was a girl I went to school with that left suddenly, but when I asked her about it online, she said she just went to a private school on the north end. And there was a boy that I was squeezing on. I thought he was really into me, we even considered getting married at one point, but he just vanished. When I blew up his messages, he said he was offered some government job and we got in a huge argument. I never saw either of them again in person, but I have seen them pop up in my socials every once in a while."

"I see," Kit said. "Well, that certainly does seem to fit the bill. It might be a little too personal, but do you think I could get their names?"

"You're asking for their names before you've even asked mine?" The woman said with a giggle.

Despite the rocky start, Kit was able to make his way into the woman's favor. He shared information on his case with her and intertwined increasingly more of his suggestive flirting style. As tempted as he was, he did not speak about his new friends from beyond the stars, maintaining some of his integrity as a journalist, at least. After a couple of bowls of pad-Thai, Kit invited her to his room and she happily agreed.

After stopping by a liquor kiosk, they returned to his room. He put on some music for a gentle, relaxing ambiance and fixed a couple of drinks, but just as he was walking over to meet his guest, he received a message from Dinara.

Got a message from J's people. We need to talk, now. It's urgent.

Kit sighed as he sat on the bed next to the woman. The feeling of disappointment was overshadowed by an intense feeling of dread of what Din had to say. He apologized to the woman as he handed her the drink. They downed both of their drinks and returned to the atrium where they parted. The woman was clearly annoyed by the waste of time, but she was polite, and still interested enough to give Kit her socials for a raincheck.

When he returned to Din's office, he could see that Miguel was shaken, but seeing Luci's generally stoic expression having been broken into despair, Kit knew that what he was going to regret what he was about to hear. Dinara motioned for him to sit down.

"Kit..." She paused, unsure of where to begin. "A couple of hours ago, Val's tracker went offline."

"Really? Did she get taken already?" Kit rolled his eyes. "Hey, she understood the risks. We told her it wasn't a great idea to go up."

"I'm... not sure that's what happened, exactly," she said, and looked deeply into Kit's eyes. "J's group, The Cryptic Dissent, they contacted to let me know that J... well, her dead-man's trigger was activated about ten minutes ago."

"What?" Kit asked. Din chose not to explain, but to let Kit take a moment to understand what it meant. "You mean... she's...?"

"They aren't sure yet... 'We' aren't sure. Along with the info dump that was part of her trigger, a location was released. An apartment building near where Val's tracking was turned off. The Dissent is pretty sure it's J's place."

"You don't think she could have been taken, like Rosa and the others?"

"If she were taken, her trigger probably still would have been flipped, but I don't think it would have provided her apartment as a location. Frankly, we don't know. Nobody's gone to investigate yet. If she is... well, the Dissent says that she has an expanded memory card that she records her vision to, but none of the Dissent is willing to retrieve it themselves, I think it's best if it's you."

Kit took a deep breath. He couldn't disagree, but he was certainly starting to feel the weight of the danger that seemed to follow these voidcrossers. Whatever was happening to make them disappear, and all of the disappearances he had been investigating, was still unknown. An as yet invisible enemy. He looked over to Luci, who was sitting on a chair, leaning against the butt of her rifle that may as well have been physically attached to her body. It was by far the largest gun that Kit had ever seen, at least in meatspace.

"I don't imagine you'd let me borrow that gun for this trip, would you?" Kit asked. Luci looked at him like she couldn't understand what he had just said.

"Are you fucking kidding me? No!" She said.

"Alright, that's fair. Then how do you feel about coming with me?"

Luci looked at Miguel who was sitting in a corner, staring at nothing with empty eyes. She was torn between her obligations to Miguel versus Val. Already, the pressure of losing an entire ship of refugees and then half of the survivors over the course of a week was having a toll on her psyche. Dinara could see the anguish inside her and did what she could to help.

"I think you should go with him," Din said. "I'll stay here with Miguel. He'll be safe with me."

"But... What if... if something comes for us, for me... what if my rifle isn't enough to stop it?"

"What if it is?" Kit said. "What if your gun is the only thing that stands in between whatever and me?" His words made sense, but she still wasn't sure. Kit continued, "What if you kill the drone or whatever it is and I get footage of it?"

"You're going to be recording?" Din asked.

"Well... as I see it, if I start a live stream, then you don't just have one set of eyes on you, you would have tens, maybe hundreds of thousands. If something does go fucky and you disappear from my vision, there'll be a ton of people asking a lot of questions."

"But, what about the whole... voidcrossers thing?" Luci asked.

"This ain't my first rodeo, secrets wise. You'll just be my security for the day. People might ask about the design of your gun or your BSI, but they won't get an answer, and just assume that they are new experimental designs or something."

Luci stood up and began pacing the room, still considering what she should do. After a few moments, she turned toward Miguel.

"What do you think?" She asked. Miguel didn't move or look up.

"I don't care," he said, "do whatever you want."

"This choice is not about what I want, Miguel," Luci said. "What I want is to be getting shit-faced after a big paycheck back home. This is about what needs to be done, and it directly involves you, whether you like it or not. Do you need my protection?"

"Your protection hasn't done much, so far," Miguel said.

His words stung, as it was a truth that had been on Luci's mind since the moment they had arrived. She didn't respond except to clip her rifle to her back and head toward the door. She looked over to Kit with an angered stare.

"Let's go." She said.

As soon as they made it to ground level, Kit set up a quick stream and blasted all of his socials with notifications. He didn't provide details about what they were doing, nor was he going to narrate as he usually did. He leaned into the mystery, simply titling it "Investigation Livestream," and within seconds of going live, he already had over a thousand viewers.

Every step of the journey, from stepping foot on the surface to entering an automated cab, Luci was on edge, watching for dangers that could come from anywhere. Kit was on edge too, though he tried to provide a calm and relaxed energy. The anticipation of what they would find was making it much more difficult than it usually was for him. As a result, the ride was completed without a word spoken between them. When the vehicle came to a stop, Luci was hesitant to step out, but did so after a deep breath and a firm grip on her rifle.

"This is around where Val's BSI stopped transmitting her location," Kit said, "We'll go on foot from here. Keep an eye out for..." He thought for a moment, "... I don't know. Look out for robots that want to kill us or something, I guess."

Kit's crude remark made Luci laugh, but she agreed with the sentiment and kept her head on a swivel nonetheless. The walk to J's transmission location wasn't long. They entered an apartment building and took the elevator to one of the middling floors. The complex was largely empty. It was one of the more recent housing complexes that have been built to accommodate a constantly growing city, though it was in a district with lower quality, smaller living spaces. They could see why J chose to live in such a place. It was very quiet, and residents were few and far between. They reached the front door of J's apartment. All of the neighboring apartments were vacant, and they expected it was the same directly above and below. The place also had a poor wireless network connection as evidenced by the endless flow of complaints about the low bitrate of Kit's stream.

As they stood outside the door, they did the first thing that came to their minds, pressing the call button next to the door. They didn't expect an answer, nor did they get one. After ringing the bell again, Kit and Luci simply looked at each other.

"Well... What do we do now?" Kit asked.

Without another word spoken, Luci stood in front of the door and made one single kick next to the doorknob with her heavy, reinforced boots. The frame shattered and the door flew open. As Kit watched, he could see his viewers lose their minds over having never seen anything like that outside of movies and videogames, and more than a few viewers were already being horny for Luci. As the door swung open, a metallic stench hit them, hard.

"Jesus, what the hell is that?" Kit asked. Luci knew exactly what it was, but didn't want to answer. She motioned for kit to stay in the hallway, then stepped into the room with her rifle drawn, checking the nearby corners first, but after looking at the bed in the far corner, the expression on her face instantly turned to that of abject horror. She immediately looked away, then back at Kit.

"Uh, Kit... you might want to turn off the stream..."

"What? Why?" Kit said as he stepped into the room. What he saw in the far corner didn't register immediately to him.

The walls were smeared and sprayed with blood and the bed itself was soaked in it. On top of the bed was a mess of gore. Open flesh revealed organs and bone that would have been unidentifiable were it not for the untouched face of J, twisted in terror and pain. When Kit did finally realize what it was, he turned away and fell to his knees, immediately vomiting on the floor. Luci had much the same sentiment, but she was able to keep her composure, mostly.

"What the fuck!" Kit shouted. He kept staring at the floor and the mess he made as he took Luci's advice, shutting down the stream. Just before he did, he could see an explosion of comments questioning whether what they had just seen was real.

Luci wasn't able to look at the mutilated corpse either. She had seen death before, even perpetrated it herself, but she had never seen anything close to the level of violence in this room, nor did she ever want to. She kept her eyes away from the bed and scanned the rest of the room. A trail of blood and entrails led from the bed into the bathroom, so Luci went to clear it with her weapon raised.

Whipping open the bathroom door, Luci found nobody else, only the trail of blood leading to the sink and the tub, both of which had bloody hand-prints all over them. Towels in the corner were soaked with red. After clearing the bathroom, she returned to the main room and moved back to Kit, again avoiding looking at J's corpse. 

"The place is clear," she said.

There was no response from Kit. He was lost in his mind trying to comprehend what he had just seen. He wasn't sure it was real, wondering if it might have been a visual hack, like the report he did on a viral AR horror game from decades ago. He tried to look back, but upon the first drop of blood entering his vision, he couldn't resist turning away again.

"Is it... is it real?" Kit asked.

"I'm afraid so..." Luci said, though she had to give the body a second glance to make sure.

"What, uh... Do you see?" Kit asked. "Describe it to me."

"It's... J. It looks like she was tied to the bed, and then flayed and eviscerated. And... uhh... It doesn't look like it was quick."

Kit's heart sank into his stomach, which was threatening regurgitation again. He hadn't heard those words outside of the context of fiction or Old Earth history. There hadn't been a murder reported on Voracia since before he was born, and mutilation has never happened to such a degree. Or had it? Kit considered all of the people that had gone missing, and their digital ghosts still roaming in cyberspace, disappearing and appearing by the will of the Oracle, or someone else. He wondered if murders like this were common, and simply not reported or seen by the public. He wondered if there was a way to search through the available Oracle data to find where an image might have been altered, as it was when Rosa had gone missing.

It seemed feasible, though he would need to discuss it with the Cryptic Dissent, and he knew just who he could speak to. He was about to call out, expecting that J was watching, and would be in contact with him if he just asked aloud, having already forgotten that the girl was dead mere meters away from him. Kit put his face in his hands.

"Fuck," he said. Luci could see his struggle as clear as day, even in the dimly lit apartment. She walked over to him and gently touched his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Kit," Luci said, "Let's get out of here. If your viewers saw it, then Oracle saw it too." She lifted Kit to his feet and guided him outside the apartment.

"Wait, wait..." Kit said. "She has a memory chip slotted into her BSI, I need to get it..."

"Hold on," Luci said, putting a hand on Kit's chest. She could clearly see the effect that only a glimpse of the girl's state had on him. "I'll grab it. Wait right here."

Luci reentered the room and approached the bed, but hesitated as she looked at the girl's corpse. She held down the lump in her throat and crawled onto the corner of the bed. As cut up and destroyed as the body was, J's face was left unmarked, making her perfectly anguished expression that much more disturbing. Luci placed her palms over the girl's eyes and tried to shut them as she moved her head to the side for easier access to her BSI input hub. The girl's eyes wouldn't close, but Luci was able to retrieve the chip.

"I'm... sorry..." Luci said to the girl as she left to return to Kit. She handed him the chip, and kit immediately slotted it in. "Let's go."

Setting the pace, Luci moved quickly back to the elevator with Kit following close behind. By the time the elevator doors had closed, Kit pulled up the video file from the chip, exactly 364 hours in length. Under different circumstances, Kit would have been very interested to see what J got up to in her downtime, but out of respect and a need to know, he skipped to the last few hours of the recording's end and began seeking through the remaining time. The only face that he saw was that of Val. He reached the timecode at which Val's BSI tracking was turned off and seeing Val still at J's side, the possibility that she had been disappeared like the rest was gone. Kit crossed his arms. He didn't like where things were heading.

As he continued watching the footage, part of him was hoping that someone or something would come out of the shadows, but that never happened. He didn't think it was possible, but his heart sank even further as he watched a nude Val brandishing a large kitchen knife with a disturbing smile on her face. From that point on, Kit watched in real-time. Even though only visual and audio data was recorded, Kit could feel the fear that J was experiencing. He also felt the moment that Val pushed the blade in between her ribs and heard the pained shriek of the young girl. He stopped the video immediately, unable to handle it for even a single second. In a flash of furious anger, Kit punched the mirrored wall of the elevator, fracturing the glass.

"Fuck!" He yelled. The sudden, intense motion made Luci jump. "It's her. It was Val," Kit continued. Luci stared at him as the elevator opened onto the ground floor.

"Are you... are you sure?" Luci asked. Kit looked at her with an anger that she hadn't seen on anyone in many years. Kit shoved her.

"Yes, I'm fucking sure!" He said, stepping out of the elevator toward Luci and shoving her again. "I just fucking watched it with my own God damned eyes."

Luci didn't resist his shoving. She knew she could have easily thrown him off balance or overpowered him, but he wasn't doing any damage, and she was willing to give him an opportunity to work out his grief.

"Did you know you brought a fucking murderer to my planet? To my fucking home?" Kit shoved her again. Tears were welling in his eyes.

"No... no I didn't," Luci said. "I didn't know who she was, I didn't even know her name when we landed, I didn't-" She was starting to have trouble speaking. She felt like they were all excuses, and she felt like she should have known. "I'm sorry, Kit."

"Stop saying you're fucking sorry!" Kit shouted. "Aren't you supposed to be some badass soldier or something?"

Kit kept pressing toward her, forcing her back toward the front entrance of the building until the door sensors picked up Luci's presence. The doors slid open to reveal a woman flanked by two utility drones about to enter. The woman had a gentle smile and her fingers steepled in front of her. She was wearing a stark white dress, and subtle lines in her skin and eyes with cascading colors made it apparent that she was not entirely human. Luci nearly backed into her, and was startled to see her standing there. Instinctively, Luci started to raise her rifle, but Kit saw it, and put out a hand to keep the barrel down.

"Whoa, hold on," Kit said, "it's alright." Luci took a step back and relaxed her stance, but not completely. Kit turned toward the woman in white. "Oracle."

"Greetings, Mr. Castillo," Oracle said in a tender tone. "I understand there was an incident inside."

"That's right. There is a young woman that looks to have been murdered on the 14th floor."

"I apologize that you had to witness such a thing," Oracle said, motioning to both Kit and Luci. "If you feel that you require it, I am able to provide therapeutic treatment, or connect you with human professionals that can do the same."

"Thank you, Oracle. We do not require assistance at this time, but I appreciate the offer."

"Certainly," Oracle said as it started moving past and into the building. "The Beneficiary Selection Gala will be starting in a few hours. Please consider joining or watching the event live in the event that you need something to occupy your thoughts during this tragic time. Otherwise, you two have a pleasant morning."

After the utility drones followed it inside and the door closed, Kit and Luci took a deep breath. Once it was gone, Kit ordered a cab and began walking away from the building. He also started up the stream again, out of an abundance of caution for Luci, however angry he was. He made sure to mute his audio and dynamically censor Luci's words as well, so their conversations could be kept quiet.

"So, that was Oracle?" Luci asked.

"What gave it away?" Kit said, still working off his bitter demeanor toward Luci.

"She, uh... seems... nice?" Luci said.

"She does seem nice, doesn't she." Kit stopped at the curb as the cab pulled up in front of him. "Let's not forget that we suspect her for making people disappear. I suppose it's a good sign that she looked at you, even acknowledged you, and you're still here."

After stepping into the vehicle and setting their destination back to the dome's central spire, Kit went to check in on the reactions from his stream.

"Could this be real?" Read one comment.

"How safe are we, really?" Read another.

"Whaaat the fuck, bro! How old could she have been?" For a moment, Kit was relieved that some people were understanding the gravity of what they had just seen, but then he continued reading.

"There's kids that watch your stuff, Kit. Shameful."

"I've seen worse in Wanderlust. Boring."

"That's some Old Earth horror movie shit."

"Would have been a better jump scare with music."

It seemed that many more people were convinced that it wasn't real at all, with some making truly disgusting remarks about J. Kit then read one of the comments with the most reactions.

"Trying so hard for a popular story that you're willing to obviously fake some gonzo bullshit? You're a journalist, K. At least you used to be."

She was trying not to stare, but Luci watched Kit's expression grow more angry and bitter.

"What the hell is going on?" Kit said. Luci looked at him in a confused manner. "It seems like most people think it wasn't real."

"What? Really?" Luci's surprise was mostly reactionary.

"I mean... you saw her, right? You smelled it?"

"Yeah, Kit. I described it to you. I even touched her!" Luci had to look out of the window to find something to distract her mind from reliving the image. She was glad that her BSI wasn't on and recording at the time. "If I'm being honest, though... I wasn't sure it was real either, until I touched her. Even back in the Milky Way, I've seen death and violence, but nothing even close to that. It was something I'd only ever heard about happening in systems that I had never heard of, hundreds of light years away."

"Violence like that has never happened here on Voracia. There hasn't even been a single murder that made the news since I was born."

"With what I know about how detailed AR and VR can be here in Voracity, I'm not surprised that people don't believe it."

"Well, then, I suppose we have a problem," Kit said.

"What do we need to do to convince them?" Luci asked. "I also wonder, do you really need to convince them so soon?"

"That's a good point. Showing that wasn't the intention of the stream. I would like to have done some investigating first, and produced a video with interviews and evidence and whatnot. I suppose I can still do that."

"So... what do we do now?"

"I don't know about you, but right now, I'm pretty interested in finding Val."

At the mere mention of her name, Luci could feel her own anger rising.

"J was the one that helped us try to find Rosa, right?" Luci asked.

"Yes. J and the Cryptic Dissent..." Kit started pulling at his beard. "Hmm... they would have been watching the stream... why haven't I gotten any messages from them?" He pondered aloud.

"How would you know you've received a message? As I understand it, J was a fan of using some cloak-and-daggers espionage shit."

"I... I'm not sure. I guess I'll find out."

The ride back to the central dome was light on discussion and filled with tension over the death of J. Kit had already forgiven Luci, or rather, realized that it wasn't her fault, and could see how she was tearing herself up. He wanted to assuage her guilt, but wasn't sure how to do that.

Once they had returned to the Atrium, Kit ended his safety-stream again and went to work trying to find Val. Her tracking still hadn't been turned back on. The only thing he could think of was gathering as many images of Val as he could in order to blast her online. He had to be careful, however, as he was reminded by Din.

"Oracle, as we already know, saw your stream as it happened, and I'd wager a guess that she's not oblivious to Val's goings-on, even if her tracker is turned off. Oracle probably already knows that she's the murderer."

"Do you think Oracle may have already taken care of her?" Luci asked. Nobody had an answer, so Luci continued, "What would Oracle even do in this situation? Is there even a criminal justice system in Voracity?"

"I... uhh, I'm not really sure..." Din said, then looked over to Kit. "I think you know more about it than I would."

"Well, there are human legislators and policy makers, but I'm not sure how much they actually do without the support and automation that Oracle provides. Most of the new laws that get passed are very technical and incredibly... boring."

"There is crime here, though... right? Like, it can't be that perfect."

"Hmm..." Kit had to think for a moment. "Theft doesn't really happen too much, since everything's free, more or less. The more violent acts, like assault, rape, and murder also don't happen, at least, not outside of an AR/VR environment."

"What about among the Humanity Purists, or others that don't have BSI's?" Luci asked.

"It is true that there are some conflicts and violence among my people," Din said. "If it's down here, out of the reach of Oracle, it's easy enough to simply banish the instigator, and let them be dealt with by Oracle on the surface, but those that live out there in Voracity, well, even if you don't have a BSI, Oracle is really good at resolving conflicts, even if it does include a bit more physicality."

"There aren't any prisons or correctional facilities?"

"Not correctional facilities, no..." Kit said, "and no prisons in the sense that you mean. There are some tower blocks that are dedicated to people who have altogether abandoned reality in favor of cyberspace. We often call them prison blocks, even though they are willing to be there."

"So, what do you think Oracle will do to Val?" Luci asked. Kit and Din looked at each other with shrugged shoulders.

"I can only really speak from experience, but any time I really wanted to beat the shit out of someone, Oracle would suggest doing it in VR. Sometimes she would distract me with something else. Even in the heat of arguments and high-tension, Oracle was able to diffuse and keep me calm. Pretty much, because of her intervention, I've never actually done anything illegal."

"Even if you had, I haven't heard of Oracle doling out punishments. I don't imagine that she would execute Val like they were so fond of back on Old Earth," Dinara said. "but with what's been going on lately..."

"We have no idea what's happening to the people who are disappearing," Kit said, "none of whom have done anything even close to illegal or improper, as far as I can tell."

"Maybe we should first try to see whether she's even looking for Val," Luci said.

"I didn't hear anything from the Cryptic Dissent on the way here..." Kit said, then turned to Din, "what about you?"

"I'm afraid not, but it's not like we have a very close relationship anyway," Din said, "J was the only one of them I've ever met and interacted with."

"I guess we go back to my original plan of doxxing Val, seeing if any of my followers might inform on where she is, though I wouldn't be surprised if Oracle interferes with that, too."

After compiling a number of images of Val taken from security cameras within the Atrium as well as direct footage from J. Were he on better terms with Oracle, he would have had her create a 3D model that could help even further. Of course, he would just ask Oracle to find her in that case. He was starting to realize just how reliant he was on Oracle and the internet in general.

After he had finished, he was graciously allowed to connect with Voracity's network using Din's hardwired connection. Using an alias account he'd had J set up for him, he sent the images out on all of the most popular sites, and also sent them to all of his contacts that were skilled in dissemination. All that was left to do was wait, and while he did, he looked for the continued discourse on his stream, but he was met with difficulty.

The on-demand version of the video was nowhere to be found. That in itself wasn't surprising, but he was unable to find any re-uploads, nor mention of it having existed in the first place. He couldn't even find the previous comments that he had seen. Oracle was in overdrive in removing his content. In all his years in journalism, he never realized just how much control Oracle had, and now it was starting to hit him hard. He couldn't believe he didn't see it before. Kit wondered if the images of Val would be up long enough for someone to guide him in the right direction. He also wondered whether Oracle would remove the images at all, and what it means if she does.

It wasn't a pleasant thought, that Oracle would remove content in the effort to try hiding the actions of a murderer. If she's doing it for Val, what was the possibility that it could have been done to, or for the thousands of missing people? Perhaps, the extreme violence of the old worlds weren't gone, just hidden. He received a notification regarding the posts he had put up, dragging his attention away from the depressing thoughts.

"Yo, I think I saw that chick at the gala," read one message.

"Pretty sure she's all dolled up at the beneficiary event," read another.

After a few more messages mentioning the same information, Kit had Dinara put on a live feed from the Beneficiary's Gala on one of the large displays in her office. The event was in it's initial phases with hopefuls flooding a large, open-air venue. There was a countdown on the screen with only 

"So... I read a bit about it," Luci said, "but I'm still not quite sure what all the fuss is about the Beneficiary program. I mean, if you can do anything you want in your BSI, and you literally can't tell the difference, then what use is a place where you can do anything?"

"To be honest... I'm not really sure," Kit said. Din agreed with a simple shrug.

"It always seemed strange to me too," Din said, "if you can do pretty much anything you want, and Oracle will find a way to accommodate you, then what can you even do at the resort that you can't do here in Voracity? As long as it doesn't harm another person against their consent, go nuts!"

"Wouldn't that imply that that's the kind of thing that you can legally do at the resort?" Luci asked.

"Well, there haven't been any reports of..." Kit trailed off as he connected his thoughts. The silence lingered as everyone else started reaching the same idea that made their stomachs churn. Miguel, young as he was, still very much understood the implication. Kit could see it on his face. His mother was likely dead or dying, and he felt sure that he would never see her again. Without speaking another word, Kit began flipping through the different channels covering the Gala and scanning the faces. Luci had Din give her access through a tablet, and Din followed their lead on her own device.

There were tens of thousands of people at the event. Kit was seething as he considered how easy it would have been to find her with the help of the Cryptic Dissent. He felt abandoned by them, or at least felt like J was abandoned by them, which made him hate them even more. After a few minutes of staring through his display, Kit looked at his fingers to find spots of blood on them. He had been picking at his lips, a nervous habit that he had developed shortly following his parents' death more than 50 years ago, a habit he thought he had broken 40 years ago. He brushed his tongue across his raw lips and felt the once familiar sting and metallic taste.

"There she is!" Din shouted, then paused her video to show the others.

It was Val, sure enough. They went to the same channel, but by that time she was already off-camera. Luci continued flipping through the event's live channels, looking for any streams from a similar location.

"Well we can confirm that she's at the event right now..." Kit said.

"So... what do we do?" Luci asked. "I don't imagine we can just show up and grab her."

"What would we do with her, even if we did?" Din asked. There was a silence. She could tell what was on the minds of her quiet companions. "It's not really any use asking her whether she did it, right?"

"I would want to know why she did it, I think," Kit said.

"Why?!" Luci shouted. "I'm sorry to have to say, but no reason that she gives is going to be satisfying or reasonable. It wasn't a mistake. She didn't just slip and accidentally flay a young girl alive."

"F-flay?" Miguel asked. The room fell silent again. Nobody wanted to explain what it meant, but they didn't exactly want him to just look it up later either. They hoped that if they didn't answer him, he would forget about it and be all-the-better for it, in doing so, they simply ignored him, which did nothing to alleviate their guilt.

"I return to my original question," Din said. "What are you going to do with her if you catch her?"

"What are 'we' going to do," Kit said, then stood up and moved toward the door. "I don't know, but we won't be able to do anything if we don't catch her, so that should be our priority." As he approached the door, Luci stood up and followed him.

"Would you be able to create a direct channel to Kit and provide us with guidance if you happen to see her again on stream?" Luci asked, with a firm grip on her rifle.

"I'll see what I can do," Din said. Just before Luci followed Kit out of the room, Din spoke up, "please, Luci. Don't kill her."

"No promises."

The drive to the Gala was short, but for safety purposes, the vehicle dropped them off a city block away from the venue where the increasingly crowded streets were still navigable. Din had made the connection with Kit, but hadn't spotted Val on any of the streams as of yet. Their search began. It was helped along by the trickle of online followers sending him locations where they thought they had seen her, but soon, the information stopped entirely as the images he had sent out gradually disappeared.

Were they not on the hunt for a monster, both Kit and Luci would have felt very underdressed, in a manner of speaking. Kit, with his street clothes and leather jacket, wasn't looking to impress anybody, though he had been to the gala on many occasions, and did often enjoy dressing up for the event. Luci's combat gear, however, was almost as intimidating as the scowl on her face and the large gun strapped to her chest. 

The event was unlike anything that Luci had ever seen. She was well trained in keeping focused in combat and high-risk situations, which helped to keep her from getting distracted, but it wasn't fool proof in the face of the extravagance of the Gala. Even though there were towering buildings in all directions blocking the suns from lighting the area naturally, thousands of lights made the event appear brighter than the rest of the city. The Pavilion was itself made up of many levels that rose into the sky like an open-air tower. There were many sub-events throughout the pavilion. Art shows, concerts, and food venues were all present, and timed to end as soon as the beneficiary selection was to begin, the countdown visible on displays everywhere.

As the minutes counted down, the crowd continued to grow into a chaotic fervor until eventually the crowd hushed when the countdown came to an end. On every display and live stream, an image of the lavish event stage appeared with a man who's presence commanded the formidable amount of attention he was receiving.

"Good evening, esteemed guests, visionaries, and hopeful hearts of Voracity, and welcome to the monthly Beneficiary Selection Gala!" The host paused to allow the crowd to erupt in cheer, then came back down again as the host continued speaking. "We are here on the precipice of dreams to present the lucky few who get to taste a life as free as our Benefactors, and a chance to become Benefactors themselves! This lottery is not just a selection, but a symbol of prosperity and anticipation for what our Benefactors hold for us in the future!

"Once selected, our Beneficiaries will be taken to the Beneficiary's Resort for one month, during which they will not be constrained by any laws or limitations enforced upon them. But who are the lucky few that will be chosen? Who among us will get a taste of life like the kings and Gods of old? It could be you!" The man pointed at the camera drone in front of him and the crowd, again, burst into a deafening cheer. The host continued, "without further ado, here begins the list for this month's luckiest twenty-one!"

Kit and Luci were still wandering around looking for Val, but Luci had taken a short break to observe the hosts intro. As the host finished, the displays flashed a title card with eye-catching effects and imagery.

"The first winner this month is..." The host paused to build anticipation, "Elias Patel!"

After reading the name, the crowd started clapping and cheering, and the displays showed a view from one of the many drones floating around the stage. The drone then flew over the crowd on the third level of the pavilion until it focused on a single person. As the drone approached, the crowd dispersed in a circle around him. The expression on the man's face was that of pure confusion, but quickly gave way to excited shock as the camera drone fired confetti at him. Another larger drone approached the man from behind, turning into a hovering seat for him to take. The man did so with little hesitation, and the drone whisked him into the air and toward the stage.

"Congratulations! And for our next Beneficiary, Takumi O'Sullivan!"

The camera drone flew away again, but this time, it left the pavilion and traveled over a few city blocks toward a specific balcony of an apartment building. The door into the apartment opened and the drone entered to find the winner in the throes of intercourse with a pair of young men, all of whom were understandably surprised and shouted as the drone shot confetti and placed his mostly naked body in the spotlight. The crowd fell into uproarious laughter. The man was led back to the balcony where another throne-drone was waiting with a soft Beneficiary-embroidered robe ready for him.

"Whoops!" The host said with a laugh. "Remember folks, anybody can be a winner! If you don't want to be caught with your pants off, make sure you're paying attention to the monthly drawing! Of course, maybe you like to be caught? I don't judge!" The host made the crowd laugh again before moving onto the next name.

After watching a few of the first selections, Luci returned to her exhaustive search for Val. It was easier to navigate the crowd now that most people found a spot and stood still. Kit continued his communications with Din, but was unable to get any more information on the whereabouts of Val. Still, the duo continued, unguided, but determined to find their friend's murderer.

"And now, for the 19th winner, we congratulate Amelia Walsh-Perez!" The host shouted.

Kit had the same reaction as he did for the rest, but Luci shivered, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She knew the name Walsh-Perez almost as well as her own, and she should, as it was the name of her long time enemy, Anton Walsh-Perez, the CEO of Stellar Dynamics, the monolithic mega-corporation that had stolen her homeworld of Virelia, had her parents murdered, and had forced her into sexual servitude as a young child. Luci twisted around to look at the nearest display and watched the view of the drone approaching the crowd and focusing on the face she had been looking for, a face that, in that moment, became much more familiar to her than she had realized since setting foot on this planet. Luci lunged out and grabbed Kit then pointed at the nearest display.

They were stunned and frozen in place until they heard the pop of the confetti from the drone. Val was on their same level, and only a handful of meters away. When she realized it, Luci moved quickly toward her, pushing her way through the crowd. By the time she had gotten to the clearing that was created, Val was already twisting around to take a seat on her hover chair and caught a glimpse of Luci looking at her with disbelief and fury. Val smiled at her as she sat down, and the chair hovered away toward the stage.

Luci rushed to the edge of the platform. She wasn't thinking about the security drones that were all around them, nor was she thinking about whatever consequences there would be for killing someone in front of thousands, if not millions of people. Kit, however, was thinking about these, and just as Luci retrieved and began drawing up her rifle, Kit caught up to her and held the barrel down.

"Whoa... hold on, Luci," Kit said.

"What the fuck?" Luci said, staring death at him. "It's her!"

"I know it's her..."

"No, you don't understand," Luci said, shoving Kit to the floor. "It's her."

And she was right. Kit didn't understand. He stayed on the ground as he watched Luci walk back up to the railing. She was white-knuckling her rifle's grip and hand guard, watching Val arrive at the stage, less than a hundred meters away. The chair hovered away as she stepped onto the stage, and in the moments that she was standing still, she was a perfect target. Luci had killed moving targets at a much greater distance, but she had never hesitated like this. It may have been the massive crowd around her, or the subconscious knowledge of security drones that would stop her in an instant, but for whatever reason, Luci couldn't raise her gun, and after a few moments, Val was ushered into a large cylindrical structure tucked away behind the stage. Just before Val disappeared into the darkness, she looked back at the crowd, at Luci, with a devious smile, and she was gone.

"FUCK!" Luci yelled as she threw herself at the ground and began bashing the butt of her weapon against the floor. The action was garnering looks from the crowd around her, and Kit could feel security closing in, even if he couldn't see them. He moved over to Luci and lifted her to her feet.

"C'mon, Luci, we need to go."

It was hard for Luci to keep from losing her temper and sit still on their ride back to the Atrium. Even harder, considering she still had no use of her BSI, and thus couldn't drop into an ultraviolent wave shooter where she could work out her stress in a safe and healthy way. Eventually, the anger turned into frustration and eventually settled into depression and a feeling of helplessness. By the time they arrived back at the Atrium, Luci's jaw and teeth were sore with how forcefully she had been clenching them.

"When you said 'it's her,'" Kit said as they met back up with Din and Miguel, "what did you mean? I thought you didn't know her before you arrived here?"

"That's true... I mean, I didn't know her personally, but..." Luci takes a seat, sighing heavily as she does.

"She's a Walsh-Perez?" Miguel asked. Luci turned to him and gave him a stern nod. Even Miguel, young as he was, had an awareness of that family. And he should, as he had been in a living hell for most of his life at the hands of the Stellar Dynamics corporation. With her confirmation of Val's true identity, Miguel's expression turned every bit as angry as Luci's had. Luci turned back to Kit to explain.

"Before we arrived here, we were on the planet Harmonix, which was under siege by mercenaries paid for by Stellar Dynamics, the CEO of which is Anton Walsh-Perez, father to Amelia, aka Val. With a father like that, it's no wonder she's a fucked up psychopath." Luci shook her head. "I can't believe I didn't see it. 'Valeria Morales.' What a crock of shit."

"The way you talk about her, it seems even more personal than that," Din said.

"Well, Miguel, I think, understands how I feel about that family, having his home destroyed and friends and family murdered by them. Harmonix was hardly the first planet that they invaded. My own homeworld of Varelia met the same fate years ago. They killed my parents, sold me off to slavers, and..." Luci trailed off for a moment, then continued, "anyway, any chance to put a round through any of that family's heads is a chance I'm willing to take." Luci shook her head again. "Well, I guess maybe not..."

"So... that's the kind of person that wins the Beneficiary selection?" Din asked. Kit furrowed his brow and grabbed the hairs on his chin.

"The selection is supposed to be by lottery," he said, "at least, that's what they've always said..."

While he knew it would still be technically possible under an absolute lottery, the implication that a psychopathic murderer may have been intentionally selected as a Beneficiary was too much for Kit to ignore, especially considering all of the missing people and mass data modification regarding them. There was a lot on his plate, but he now had a new avenue for research; a list of Beneficiaries.