There was a flutter of unease in Ari's stomach as the skytrain pulled past the mountainous power plants of Area Eleven and into Area Nine, the poorest residencies. She'd never been here before and had no reason to be, until this point. Curfew was in two hours, but Ari could at least scout out the place Rale wanted her to snoop in.

She'd been flicking through old news articles on the scientists Rale showed her. There wasn't much information accessible to the general public. About a year ago, there was an official announcement from Central Administration about a rogue group of scientists who, instead of researching methods to improve the skills and abilities of voluntary low-rankers, actually used it directly on weaker Users without their consent, bypassing the laboratory testing phase altogether and against March City laws. The result was multiple surges throughout the city due to unstable abilities. The more Ari read, the more nauseous she felt. Rale was right. This was identical to what was happening now.

The floor was scuffed and uneven as she stepped onto the platform. Contrast to the gleam of Area Seven, the station at Area Nine was grey, dirty, and falling apart. Holes in the ceiling were patched with cement and left unpainted. Buildings outside were chunky and uniform like Area Eight, but even more decrepit; tiny apartments were lit by dim yellow lights. Students hurrying past her gave her second looks. She knew she looked out of place, but not recognisable. She'd taken care to wear a heavy newsboy hat with her hair tucked in and baggy dark clothing. Empty pod cars lined the streets beneath flickering street lights. There were no teleporters to be seen. It seemed students preferred to walk or cycle here.

What if they experiment on Mina?

Rale's snide comment echoed in the back of Ari's mind. What a sly move. He knew exactly where to hit her. Shon wouldn't risk his Peacekeeper career to help her. The Investigators would definitely arrest her if she were caught again. Rale was her only hope.

Ari swept past parked power cycles and flickering street lights; some lights didn't even turn on at all. Her eyes darted up at the flats on either side of her, taking note of the street names and building numbers. Inside the box-like flats, students marched back and forth, their noses buried in their notes. At this hour, students in Ari's area would be meditating or preparing for bed.

Uneven stone blocks on the ground made Ari stumble. Muttering a curse, she hobbled forward, pain throbbing in her big toe. The old student accommodation finally came into view. She stopped by the power box at the street corner. Short-circuiting the electrical lock, she swung the cover open, revealing the power circuit inside with wires named according to building number, just as Rale had told her. She placed a hand on the wire supplying the old accommodation and her other hand on her battery necklace. A brief discharge of electricity coursed from one end of her body to the other; her palm heated and the alloy coating melted just enough for her to touch the raw wires. Electricity coursing through her hand. Her eyes shot to the tiny, flickering red dots attached to the two inner corners overlooking the front entrance of the building.

With ease, she absorbed the current, causing the weak amber street lights to flicker. The skyline darked against the backdrop of the distant Area Two, the research facilities, where sky-high buildings of a glittering kaleidoscope shimmered with yottabytes of information from all across March City. In stark contrast, Area Nine would be in pitch darkness if not for the weak illumination from student flats and the faltering street lights.

The hairs on her arm stood up. She held on and the energy continued to build up — and then it released. The electricity surged. With a pop and the smell of burnt plastic, the lights of the building died. She did the same to the building directly opposite.

She slipped to the tiny alleyway that ran between the backs of the buildings. Hopping onto a stone wall, she scrambled onto the rusted ladders and climbed to the top before making her way across the rooftops. Tiny lenses of tiny cameras glinted at her from the opposite building. As Rale had predicted, cameras watched the abandoned building from across the street and from directly above.

"Nothing here," came a voice from below.

And, also as Rale had predicted, Peacekeepers would come quickly if she'd found the right area.

She crouched, nestled in the darkness above.

"Probably just another short circuit. Won't be the first time in this rotten area," came a second voice. Footsteps clicked over the stone blocks as the Peacekeepers surveyed the building from the outside.

"Well, the seals are intact. You're right. Probably just old stuff disintegrating."

"I don't see why checking this malfunction is so urgent anyway. This area is the absolute pits. I hate this route." The disgust was evident in the other person's voice. "I'll write this up tomorrow."

Their chatter faded into the night. Ari let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding. Her heart thrummed against her breast bone. Rale was right. There was something hidden here that students weren't meant to find, something that even Peacekeepers didn't know.

Giving the Peacekeepers another few minutes to leave the surrounding, Ari pitched herself forward and slid, her shoes scraping against the wall, and hopped off onto the first balcony.

Little plastic devices, no bigger than the tip of her finger up to the first joint, were planted along the window frame and only visible when she almost brushed against them. Motion detectors. All the devices died along with the fuse she'd blown. Ari's brow furrowed. Faded posters and tape stretched from window to window, door to door, screaming 'DANGER, KEEP OUT'. For an abandoned former student block building, there was intense security and surveillance.

She flicked at the window. The topmost windows should have the least security, Rale had said. Nobody expected trespassers to come from the roof, after all. The window squealed open. The stale air was thick with dust, making Ari's nose tickle as she climbed in. Cracked glass windows to her left and right grudgingly let in traces of light from outside.

She slid on Rale's earpiece. It buzzed.

"You in?" he said. His voice was distant and crackly.

"Yes."

"All according to my plan, I see," he said smugly. Ari didn't reply.

The light from her phone illuminated an empty room. Thick dust settled over the ground and walls. Peeling paint wilted from corners. Clouds of grey leapt around her feet as she made her way to the door. The next room was the same: empty, caked in dust, and decrepit. And the next. And the next. Her eyes watered and she fought the urge to sneeze. Wiping her nose with one hand, she swung the light around before descending one floor. All the rooms were empty, devoid of furniture and any sign of inhabitance.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" she murmured.

"Would the Peacekeepers rush here so quickly if some random student accidentally set off some motion sensors in any old dump?"

A rustling from far away caught her attention. She froze, swinging the light around. The sound was barely above a whisper — or perhaps there had been no sound at all. It was an old, forgotten place, after all.

"...Definite something to hide, darling. Please look with your eyes and not your mouth."

"But this place looks genuinely abandoned." Even kitchens stood empty, the cupboard doors fallen open and the stoves rusted almost beyond recognition.

"And all those fancy motion sensors and CCTV were there to just decorate this cesspit," he quipped. "It took months for Central Enforcement to track those scientists to this place. These students knew what they were doing. And this completely cleaned-out building? Definitely a deliberate thing by Central Administration."

Ari rolled her eyes. She'd made her way to the ground floor. Every room was empty. The rustling had gone. Maybe it had been her imagination. She gazed at the main door where the two Peacekeepers had lurked earlier. Above her, the lens from dead CCTV cameras winked at her. They lined the entire corridor leading to the far wall of a dead end.

It took months for Central Enforcement to track down the students. If those students had something to hide, they wouldn't put it in plain sight. The rustling reached her ears again. She stilled. It wasn't her imagination. The sound was barely audible, like the whisper of leaves in a gentle wind.

She took a step towards the end of the corridor. There were no doors leading out. Why were there a series of cameras pointed at it along the way?

Sticking her phone in her mouth, she freed her hands and placed the palms along the flat of the wall at the farthest end — and pushed. Nothing. She tapped on it. Hollow.

"There's something behind this wall."

"Oh?"

"I just need to..."

She ran her fingers over the entire surface until she found a ridge. She dug her nails in and pulled. The wallpaper ripped as the wall shifted, revealing the tiniest gap. She shone her light through. Wires stretched across the gap at the top. Standing on tiptoes, she managed to melt thorough the wire coating and then short-circuit the lock. The wall groaned and slid away, revealing a gap barely wide enough to squeeze into. Ari's light shone down stone steps and hit a turn.

"It's going underground."

The temperature dropped when Ari went down, raising goosebumps on her skin. Mina's face flashed across her mind's eye. She imagined Mina strapped to a hospital bed, screaming in silence, toxic chemicals pumping into her tiny arms. Blank faces recorded her reaction using tablets. Mina's body swelled and exploded.

Ari swallowed and shook the pictures away. She was reminded of the siblings of the students who disappeared, begging passersby for information, passing flyers on the streets, spending all their credits to spread the word. Eventually, they would irritate some Peacekeeper or be caught breaking the law out of desperation and be arrested. Others grew silent, exhausted from fruitless searches. They seemed foolish, impractical, and almost pathetic then — but Ari was in their shoes now.

Her feet landed on the basement floor. Another wide corridor with doorways running on either side. But there were no doors.

"Found anything?"

"This part is lived-in... once."

Within, her light fell on a collapsed single bed, the mattress and sheets ripped and brown with age, ribbons of sheets scattered on the ground. She tiptoed around, scanning for anything left behind by the former students. Beneath the bed was a pile of something crumpled in a pile. She hesitated and moved on.

She scoured the next few rooms. They were all sleeping areas, but some were caved in and others so flooded she wasn't sure she could step in very far without the nearby structures giving way. Her feet sunk into things that were dried and crumbled to powder at the lightest touch. Her stomach did somersaults.

"All just sleeping areas." The place was much bigger underground. The students must have linked several basements together to make such a network of living spaces. The corridor stretched before her and disappeared into the shadows.

"No use looking at these. Look for archives or a library or something. There must be a central area for storing all their information."

Pressing her lips together, Ari passed the remaining doorways and stopped at the next doorway. The faint sound of rustling reached her ears again.

A plastic packet on a nearby fallen shelf caught her eye.

She tugged it out. Water had seemed through a rip in the cover and damaged portions of the typed report. She made out a few words like 'energy potential' and 'exponential growth'.

"I found a research paper."

"Good. Don't waste time reading that now. Bring it back and I can see it later. Find anything else?"

She stuffed the papers into her back pocket and then shone her light around. This room was much larger than the rest and had a crater in the centre. The ceiling was splintered open, disappearing into the darkness above. Dripping sounds echoed from the corners. Water sucked at her feet. Collapsed shelves piled against each other on all four walls.

"This room... I think someone might have surged in it."