I hit the bottom of the service stairs, my knees nearly buckling.
If the Solar Aether was a fire that made me feel like I could outrun a bullet, this Jade residue was the opposite. It felt like my blood had been replaced with thick, expensive syrup. Every step was an effort. Every breath felt like I was pulling air through a wet towel.
"Eos," I wheezed, leaning against the cold cinderblock wall of the basement corridor. "Do I... do I have to do this every time?"
"Do what, Auditor? Survive?"
"No! The heist! The buffet-crashing! The brain-liquefying audits!" I wiped a fresh layer of cold sweat from my forehead, smearing the soot into a dark, muddy streak. "Is this my life now? Am I just a high-stakes battery charger for corporate criminals?"
"If you would prefer to spontaneously combust in the employee breakroom, we can certainly arrange that," Eos replied. Her voice was back to its crisp, mocking clarity, though I could still hear a faint undercurrent of static—the lingering echo of the Jade tank.
"But for now, the 'Jade Flavor' is your shield. You smell like the 3rd floor. To a scanner, you're just a Zero who spent too long cleaning up a Director's mess."
I pushed off the wall, my stomach giving a satisfied, if slightly heavy, thrum from the stolen ham.
"And those men?" I whispered, glancing toward the heavy double doors that led back into the sub-lobby. "The ones in the sleek gray coats. The ones who looked like they were carved out of obsidian. They weren't just Peacekeepers."
"They are the Aether Police, Arata. The 'Blue-Coats.' Though the name is a bit of a misnomer—they only wear blue when they want to be seen. In a high-tier facility like this, they wear gray. It's the color of silence. It's the color of people who don't exist in the official records."
"They didn't have ratings," I muttered, remembering the cold, white [ CLASSIFIED ] tags hovering where their numbers should be.
"Because their numbers are too high for your hardware to render," she said. "Or because they've been 'Audited' by the state to be invisible. Either way, stay out of their eye-line. They don't look for crimes; they look for 'anomalies.' And you, my hungry friend, are the biggest anomaly in Minato City."
I pushed through the doors and into the sub-lobby.
The atmosphere had shifted from "stressed" to "frozen."
The staff lounge was cordoned off with shimmering blue energy tape. A line of employees stood along the wall—maids, tech-support Zeros, and even a few Level 5 'Junior Leads.' Everyone was silent. Everyone was staring at the floor.
In the center of the room, the two Gray-Coats were setting up a device that looked like a large, silver tuning fork. It hummed with a low, predatory frequency that made my teeth ache.
I saw Maya.
She was standing near the console, her 11.8 rating still pulsing with that vibrant, neon green I'd given her. She looked... incredible. Her skin was glowing, her eyes were sharp, and she looked like she'd just come back from a three-week vacation on a private moon.
Then she saw me.
Her eyes went wide. She looked at my soot-covered face, my disheveled vest, and the way I was leaning heavily against a luggage cart.
I gave her a tiny, tired nod.
"Arata!"
It was Vance. He was standing by the Gray-Coats, looking like he was about to have a heart attack. His rating was flickering between 14 and 15, a frantic, purple mess of stress.
"Where have you been?" he hissed, marching over to me. "I've been looking for you for twenty minutes! The Police are starting the Tier-One scans!"
"Incinerator room, sir," I rasped, leaning into the 'sickly Zero' act. "The 3rd-floor chute had a blockage. I think some High-Tier decided to throw away a whole floral arrangement. It was... heavy."
Vance stopped. He sniffed the air.
His eyes narrowed.
"Is that... sandalwood?"
I froze.
"Think fast," Eos whispered.
"The guest in 304," I said, my voice shaking with a perfect blend of exhaustion and fear. "Director Sterling. He was screaming about his tank. I had to help the droids clear the spill before the security sweep hit. I think the Aether-wash got on my coat."
Vance's face went from suspicious to terrified in a heartbeat.
"Sterling? You touched a Director's Aether-wash? You idiot! That stuff is concentrated! You're lucky your skin didn't peel off!"
"I don't feel so good, sir," I whispered, and for once, I wasn't lying. The Jade residue was making my head spin.
"Get in line," Vance snapped, shoving me toward the end of the staff queue. "If you've been contaminated, the scan will pick it up. Just don't bleed on the carpet. It's silk."
I took my place at the end of the line.
One by one, the employees stepped up to the silver tuning fork.
[ SCANNING... ]
[ RATING: 4.2 ]
[ STATUS: STABLE ]
[ SCANNING... ]
[ RATING: 0.04 ]
[ STATUS: STABLE ]
The Gray-Coats didn't speak. They didn't even look at the people they were scanning. They just watched the holographic readouts on their own wrists, their faces as expressionless as a blank screen.
Then it was Maya's turn.
She stepped up to the device. I held my breath. If they saw the 'Solar' flavor I'd accidentally leaked into her, we were both dead.
The silver fork hummed.
[ SCANNING... ]
[ RATING: 11.8 ]
[ STATUS: HIGH RECOVERY ]
One of the Gray-Coats paused. He looked up, his eyes—cold, robotic blue—locking onto Maya.
"Level 11.8," his voice was a flat, synthesized monotone. "Your baseline was 11.2 yesterday. Explain the jump."
Maya didn't blink. "I took a double-dose of Aether-stim this morning, officer. To handle the stress of the Sato incident."
The Gray-Coat stared at her for a long, agonizing five seconds.
"Excessive stimulation is a violation of hotel health-codes," he said finally. "But the signature is clean. Move on."
Maya stepped past him, her face a mask of stone. But as she passed me, her hand brushed against mine for a fraction of a second.
Be careful, she was saying.
"Next," the Gray-Coat said.
I stepped forward.
My heart was thumping so hard I was sure it would trigger the sensors. I could feel the Jade residue—the 'mud'—swirling in my system, heavy and dark.
"Name and Rating," the officer said, not even looking at me.
"Arata. 0.01."
I stepped between the prongs of the tuning fork.
The hum intensified. It felt like a thousand tiny needles were vibrating against my skin, searching for a gap, searching for the fire.
[ SCANNING... ]
The readout flickered. It stayed red for a second.
The second Gray-Coat leaned in, his brow furrowing.
[ ALERT: HIGH-LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION DETECTED ]
"What is this?" the officer hissed, his hand moving toward a sleek, black holster at his hip. "Why are you radiating Jade-Tier resonance, Zero?"
"Here we go," Eos whispered. "Keep your head down. Act like a bug."
"I... I was in Suite 304, sir," I stammered, my voice cracking. "Director Sterling. His tank cracked. I was clearing the waste-chute when the discharge hit the vents. I'm just a Zero, sir. I... I can't hold it. I think I'm dying."
I let my knees buckle, dropping to one floor. I let my breath come in ragged, pathetic gasps.
The Gray-Coat leaned over me, his scanner-wand passing inches from my face.
[ ANALYZING FLAVOR... ]
[ SIGNATURE: STERLING-LITHIUM JADE ]
[ PURITY: 92% ]
[ VESSEL CAPACITY: 0.04% ]
The officer pulled back, a look of pure, unadulterated disgust crossing his face.
"He's soaked in it," he muttered to his partner. "Typical Zero. Too stupid to wear a hazmat suit. He's just a sponge for the Director's runoff."
"Is he a suspect?" the other asked.
"For what? Being a janitor? He's at 0.04%. He couldn't steal a lightbulb, let alone a Solar-Tier's harvest. The Jade resonance is all external. He's just contaminated meat."
The officer kicked my boot.
"Get out of here, Zero. Go to the decon-showers before you contaminate the rest of the floor. And if I see you near a High-Tier suite again, I'll have you deleted for trespassing."
"Yes, sir," I wheezed, scrambling to my feet. "Thank you, sir. Sorry, sir."
I practically ran for the exit.
I didn't stop until I was back in the service hallway, the doors clicking shut behind me.
I slumped against the wall, my heart racing a mile a minute.
"We did it," I whispered. "We actually did it."
"Of course we did," Eos said, her tone smug. "But don't get comfortable, Arata. The 'Jade Flavor' won't last forever. And now that you've tasted the 3rd floor... I think you're going to find the basement a little too small."
GURGLE.
My stomach let out one last, small groan.
"I need another grape," I muttered.
"No," Eos purred. "You need a plan. Because Director Sterling is going to wake up eventually. And he's going to wonder who 'Audited' his tank."