Lira's eyes flickered. Mina's words echoed in her mind as she made her way to Kena.

Vexi. She was a missing person in March City with a warrant over her head, although she had not been seen for four years. The system did not state what the crime was – not that Lira needed to know in her capacity – but judging by the punishment awaited on that warrant, it was significant.

Ziko, the brother. He was not on the list of missing students, nor was he under the terrorist list. He didn't exist. Just like with her Investigators reporting Kena's death last year, Mina wasn't lying. But Ziko did not exist on any databases Lira had access to. The anomaly made her uneasy.

Lira pressed her hand against the scanner. It beeped, recognising her prints, before a green light flashed across her face. Her profile picture came up on the screen, with 'Lira the Dancer, Rank Two, Class 6A' below it. Passing through two further reinforced steel doors requiring identification, she at last entered a large dome-shaped room overlooking the floor below. The walls and ceiling were covered in metal plates. Blinding white lights in the centre of the ceiling shone directly upon the middle, where a metal chair sat bolted onto the smooth floor. Kena slumped above it, her white coat confiscated and clad in loose grey clothing, her head hanging forward and shoulders heaving up and down. Four Investigators stood in a circle around her, their electric weapons drawn. Electric crackles punctuated the otherwise silent air.

Lira leaned on the railing, its surface chilly against her skin. It took longer than expected to encourage Kena to talk. In a way, knowing what she was like prior to her disappearance, Lira was not surprised. The four Investigators appeared equally breathless, tucking their weapons away on spotting her arrival. In single file, they moved up the steps and vacated the area. Their footsteps disappeared when the doors slid shut once more.

She moved down the stairs with precise steps, not taking her eyes off the exhausted Kena. Her black cloak billowed behind her. The spotless metal plates reflected stray light rays directly onto the centre.

Her eyes narrowed. Kena's back was slumped and her shoulders rounded, but it wasn't full defeat Lira was reading from her. There was tautness to her arms and Kena tensed on hearing her approach.

Sure enough, Kena chuckled when she caught sight of Lira.

"Ah, the pawns never give up."

"They tell me you're ready to talk," Lira said in a voice barely above a whisper, observing Kena through hooded eyes.

"Your little investigators aren't the only pawns." Kena grinned, lifting her head. Electric burns ran from her chin down her neck, stretching onto a blackened line and disappearing into the round neckline of her grey top. The faint scent of singed flesh hovered in the air.

"You can't play mind games with me, Kena."

"Oh, I know. I know better than anyone. I taught you how to read body language back then, didn't I?"

Lira's lips pressed together so tight they almost disappeared.

"Are you going to release these?" Kena jingled the chains at her wrist. "I'm hardly going to be able to escape from here."

She was right; and there was no way she could harm Lira, either. Their powers were mountains apart. Lira snapped her fingers and the cuffs fell to the floor with a clang. Kena stood up, stretching, her sharp eyes not leaving Lira's.

"I'll tell you everything, Lira."

Lira watched her with laser-like eyes. Kena lounged back on the chair, crossing her legs casually.

"They're watching us."

Frowning, Lira tucked her arms by her side and waited for Kena to elaborate.

"You know central Administration isn't run by students, right? No student in this city has any say in what central Administration decrees."

"It's written in the—"

"The coding, yes, the coding. But who wrote it first? The first students? What first students? You of all people should know what the database looks like. Any of those 'first'?"

Kena's bruised face was earnest, leaning forward, facing her. "And you know about maintenance day."

Lira's heart skipped a beat. Nobody else was supposed to know about maintenance day.

"What about it?"

"You know what happens to the perpetual under-achievers."

Kena was no fool, but Lira wasn't sure how she knew about maintenance day. Central Administration decreed withdrawal of students who didn't respond to motivation, tutoring, and punishment. They were detrimental to the progress of March City, and on maintenance day when everyone became anaesthetised, they were removed from the system for rehabilitation. To the rest of the city, they never existed due to the amnesics administered. Instructions were the citizens were never to know as the trauma of losing loved ones might jeopardise their studies. Lira only knew this as head of law enforcement; nobody else should have this knowledge.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lira said, her tone icy. These hints were too subtle to pin Kena's crimes and central Administration would need more than simple insinuations to calculate just punishment.

"Turn off the microphones and cameras and I'll tell you," said Kena with a sly smile. Lira narrowed her eyes, assessing her. Kena didn't break the eye contact for a good few minutes, long enough for Lira to see there was genuineness in her words – and, to her surprise, fear in those intelligent dark brown eyes. Lira stalked over to the wall. She inserted instructions with rapid taps on the touch-screen, which then beeped and confirmed her status and commands. A red screen flashed, allowing last minute security measures in case her life at risk was the reason for shut down of all monitoring systems. Lira hesitated. She had no concerns in Kena attacking her; she could read the lack of intention for harm in her face. But this was against central Administration protocol. All areas must be monitored at all times; there must always be evidence feeding into the system. Lira knew that better than anyone. She bit her lip.

There was a whirr before the lights overhead dimmed, and silence settled over the domed room.

Pausing, Lira took in a breath and swirled round to face Kena, who stood with her hands at her waist, her shoulders slumped.

"You can talk now," said Lira in a quiet voice. "There is only me."

"If they forcibly restart the cameras, you'll know they have something to hide."

"They?"

Kena sighed. "This is bigger than just terrorism. Bigger than credits or obtaining greater power, Lira."

Lira listened to everything in silence. Her face kept perfectly neutral, but her mind spun with Kena's every word, from the motivation behind the experiments to what she discovered about March City. An external force commanding central Administration and being the puppet master behind the running of the city? But Kena had been correct about maintenance day removing under-achieving students, even though she had no way of knowing.

"And why should I believe any of this?" Lira's throat was dry. "You can understand how ridiculous it sounds."

"You don't need to put up that façade in front of me," said Kena with a snort. "I have nothing to gain at all from lying to you or manipulating you. My sentence is set, whatever I say. You are the last person I would – or could – lie to."

Lira's hands curled into fists. With a deep breath, she forced her hands to relax again.

"You broke the rules, Kena. Someone has to reinforce them."

"What do you gain from reinforcing inequality?"

"People who think they know better are the very ones that inequality must control!" Lira burst out, colouring. She gritted her teeth, quenching the ire in her voice. Her next words were calm. "When the ignorant pretend they know better and act out of line, they put everyone at risk. The rule-breakers and the ignorant present dangers and everyone pays the price."

"The world isn't black and white, you know," Kena said. "Who's the ignorant one: the ones who think outside of the box or the ones that doggedly follow the rules regardless? I know your obligation is to insert everything I've said just now into the system to make up for the empty slot in the recording. So that's up to you what you do with that information – you have that freedom everyone is deprived of – but just remember what I said; you know how central Administration treats the divergent. You turn eighteen very soon... you'll be next."

"And what does the Transformer have to do in all this?"

Kena grinned. "Nothing. She's just an airhead that got tangled in all this mess. She'll probably tell you as much if you didn't make such an enemy of everyone."

Lira's jaw tightened. "The law is to be enforced. She's a lawbreaker."

"Laws... made by whom?"

Lira's stomach clenched. She watched Kena's every twitch of muscle and breath. There were no other vibes coming from her, no deceit.

"Everyone will tell you the same thing, Lira. Who will you listen to?"

Behind them, machines whirred to life.

"Ah, see? They don't even trust you to have the system switched off for too long." Kena's eyebrows rose. "I'll tell you this, Lira: the Transformer has a test tube. If you're able take one drop by mouth, it will prove to you all I've said is true. It protects you against the neuroleptic agent used on maintenance day. Just be careful about who you tell about all this."

The lights turned on overhead, drowning the two of them in blinding whiteness again.

"Those creatures... the Users from whom you'd stripped of abilities..."

Kena's face darkened. "What about them?"

"How do I know they're not weapons for you to use?"

She let out a barking laugh. "Please. You've seen them yourself. No humanity, no control. As if anyone could use them as weapons."

"Then why release them?"

"I thought it was time to test our limits, don't you?"

There was a bang behind Lira. She whipped around, her weapon drawn. To her astonishment, her Investigators poured through the broken metal doors at the top of the stairs and filed down. She tucked it back at her hip again and glared at the intruders.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded. Some of them trembled at her words. "Evia, Dion – report."

The two nearest Investigators straightened up.

"I'm sorry, Lira. Central Administration orders. Kena is to be detained and moved to the cells below Area Ten. No further interaction with any citizens of March City. Not even you."

"You're under my orders," she said, fury in every word.

"We can't disobey central Administration."

Lira's brows knitted together. Central Administration had never issued any commands in the past, only sentences, which were always obeyed without question. All instructions came either from her or the students sitting in the justice courts, which she would also know about.

The faces of her Investigators told her that they were willing to override her commands for central Administration if needed be.

"Remarkable loyalty," said Kena from behind her. She stretched her arms with a sigh. "It's all down to you now, Lira."

She'd hidden her intentions so well. Kena's rapid change in emotion hit Lira like a bullet train. She spun around, a shout on the tip of her tongue, but it was too late. There was a crunch. Kena grimaced. Whatever she'd crushed in her mouth frothed, spilling out of her lips. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Guttural noises came from her throat. Her muscles straightened into spasms and she crashed onto the floor.

Investigators swarmed Kena at once, peeling open the jerking limbs and forcing her head back, but Lira knew it was already too late. Kena was dead.

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