It was yet another bright, shining day in Voracity. It was terrible. The only good thing about days like this was that Kit could wear his badass sunglasses. Of course, he wore the glasses at night too, and indoors. The variable light sensitivity settings in his BSI meant he was able to wear them whenever he wanted. And he did. The bold, flat-top frames lent well to the stoic, disinterested image he wanted to express. He was also a terrible poker player, and when interviewing people about their loved ones that had gone missing, it certainly helped to hide just how alarming he found the situation.

Over the past few days, Kit had split his time between interviewing the people who made the reports and trying to track down the people who they reported. The story was always the same. The person who made the report would recant when they received messages from the person reported missing. But when Kit tried to find the missing person, it only led to an interminable list of reasons why they are unable to meet in person. Security protocols, travel delays, relocation, health concerns. And though he hadn't yet done a very thorough interrogation of the other people that the missing were supposed to be in contact with, he did drop the name to a few random nearby workers, and none of them were recognized.

He was starting to plan out a much more thorough investigation into one of the recently missing cases when he was looking through his messages when a title caught his attention.

"Jump for Joy: Jumbo Gym Joining Jamboree!"

"Yippee." Kit said sarcastically, then ordered a cab to take him to the gym. When he entered the front doors, he was greeted by an employee behind the desk.

"Welcome back, sir," the young man said.

"Hey. How's the jamboree going?"

"The... jamboree? Are you looking for a party or something?"

"I thought so," Kit turned around and went to the drink fountain, and began fixing himself a protein shake.

"You were in here just a couple of weeks ago... you wanna join up?" The gym kid asked. "Half-liter shakes are free if you burn 500 calories!"

"Nah, kid. Just here for the shake and the scenery."

"Alright, just let me know if you need anything."

If there was a second thing that Kit liked about a bright day, it was the outfits that everyone brought out, especially those at the gym, and it also brought them out in numbers. It wasn't quite a "jamboree," but there were certainly a lot of people. A couple of men passed him, coming from the showers in swimming wear, headed toward the pool area. They both gave Kit a smile, and Kit gave a smile back.

"A pool, huh? Maybe I will join up," Kit said to himself. He started to follow, but noticed a flicker on a screen across the room. It had an arrow that began moving through the other screens, and as he followed it, the arrow disappeared at the exit sign, which blinked at him. He shook his head, upset that he couldn't go visit the pool. He turned to walk outside to see where the signs were pointing him. Of course, it was the digital road sign that flickered with scrolling words.

"Follow the path of truth and enlightenment will be yours"

"Ugh, alright, just don't be that far, please?" Kit said out loud to no one. As usual, following the obvious digital signage led him to some dark, usually subterranean passageway with a quite scenic view, and always with no wireless network connection. This time it was an observation room overlooking the expansive Voracity main drainage cistern. An array of grey plasteel pillars as large as skyscrapers plunged into the pitch black void below. Kit found a place to take a seat, and began waiting. And waiting.

The problem with this cloak-and-daggers routine was that J was much smarter than he was, so Kit was never sure whether he had actually found the spot, or whether he took a wrong turn somewhere. Though, with an endless void in every direction except the one he came from, he felt it was hard to get lost. Still, he was starting to get worried.

"Hey!" J shouted, leaped out from behind a console just as Kit was about to get up and wander around the room.

"Shit!" He shouted, jumping, then falling against the chairs behind him and onto the ground. J started laughing hysterically, pointing at him and everything. As Kit pulled himself up off the ground, he muttered just loud enough for J to hear, "unprofessional bullshit."

"Aww, c'mon, can't a girl have a little fun?"

"The kind of fun that scares the shit out of me isn't really my kind of fun."

"Well, I keep offering to have a different kind of fun but you keep refusing."

"What do you have for me, J?" Kit asked, picking up one of the knocked-over chairs to sit in. "Is it about the missing people?"

"No... but I wanted to check in with you about that too. What have you learned so far?"

"Mostly, just that your list isn't bullshit. Every name I've checked has had the same basic story about moving to a different part of the city, and I haven't found a trace of them that isn't online."

"But... there are traces of them online?"

"Yeah... they often still have a full life online, at least where their close friends and relatives are concerned. When they are concerned, at least."

"Fabrications?"

"Probably, I haven't done a proper investigation yet, but I did meet one man who feels confident that's what was happening. I even went to the Acolytes to see if they had anything to do with it."

"And...?"

"Bupkis."

"Hmm..." J held her chin. Kit could see the disappointment running through her mind.

"You guys really thought the Benefactors were behind this... huh?" Kit laughed.

"Can you rule it out?"

"I think it's still a bit of a reach."

"So, you think it's Oracle, then?"

"It seems more likely to me, yes."

"Oracle only does what what someone tells it to, right?"

"I'm not a data engineer, but isn't it like an open secret that nobody knows exactly how AI systems work?"

"That's an oversimplification." J took a seat to get comfortable, then leaned toward Kit with her hands ready to emphasize her explanation. "You see, with a traditional computer, all inputs are given to it by a person providing instructions. With an Artificial Intelligence, the input can be whatever the computer observes, but it needs to be able to recognize..." J could see Kit's eyes gloss over, even through the unnecessarily dark sunglasses. "You know what? Nevermind. I'll send you a link and you can ignore it whenever. On to the other thing... It seems we have some guests."

"O... kay?" Kit raised an eyebrow, then looked around, confused. "What's that supposed to mean?" He then received a notification. It was a request for local networking with a user who's name was corrupted. Kit crossed his arms and looked away in a refusal gesture.

"Man, I'm not gonna do anything."

"That little worm you gave me last time threatened to do a lot of damage to my reputation."

"Sorry... I just wanted to see what you had on some of the city councilors."

"Yeah, well one of your friends doxxed the governor and almost got one of her children killed."

"She's a capitalist pig."

"Not her children, J!" Kit shouted. J caught his point and remained silent. Kit continued, "anyway, can't you just tell me with like, regular human words?"

"Fine. Oracle spotted some people coming from Oasis and going into the central spire."

"Okay... so? Aren't there frequently people coming and going from Oasis?"

"Going, yes. Coming, rarely, except for a handful of couriers, but never like this. These people are completely unregistered."

"Okay, so they were born in Oasis. That's pretty cool... not really that surprising, though."

"According to the pictures I was about to send you, these people had BSI's..." J said. Kit was now interested.

"Is it... Atlantis 2?" He asked. "Do you think it could actually be?"

"I don't know... maybe? The thing that interests me most is that Oracle is interested. She doesn't seem to like that they are unregistered."

"You said they went to the central spire?"

"Yep, with one of the couriers."

"Hmm..." Kit knew exactly who to talk to about this. "Do you think you could find a place in the dome to meet up later?"

"I've never been inside the dome before," J said, "But I think I can find something." Kit gestured with thanks, then started walking toward the exit, but turned around to say one last thing.

"Also... Jumbo Gym again?"

"There's not a lot of places that start with J, alright?"

"Do you even have to do that part? Can't you just find me and guide me from wherever?"

"Well, sure, but I find the theatricality to be pretty fun!"

"Oh... Alright, well, you do you!" Kit said as he left with a friendly wave.

The ride to the central spire didn't take long, even considering that the had to exit his vehicle and walk through the decontamination tunnel to make entry into the dome. It had been a while since Kit had been inside the central dome. After passing through the decon tunnel, the air had a fresh purity to it that was quite pleasant. He hopped into another vehicle on the other side and arrived at the spire in minutes, where he tried to navigate to the Humanity Purist's atrium. He tried, and failed, several times, in the labyrinth that was the pre-expansion underground. Eventually, he had to ask the guards to guide him there. They led him down to the security checkpoint where he was scanned for weapons, then down to the Humanity Purist guards where he was denied entry until he had someone inside vouch for him.

A wireless message wouldn't work where he was in between networks, so he told the guards to send a message to Dinara. They did so with a wired terminal. Kit knew it could take a while, as she didn't have a BSI to receive messages instantaneously with, but she was never too far from a mobile device. Kit took a position leaning against a wall as he waited. Lucky for him, it was only a few minutes before he received the go-ahead from the guards, letting him into the atrium.

The thing Kit remembered most, and what he wrote about primarily in his exposé, was the incredible foods the Humanity Purist's had in the atrium. It was all grown using hydroponic or cellular agriculture, completely free from interaction with Voracian ecology. The debate was still being waged over whether lab-grown meat is closer to the Old Earth stuff than the Voracia-adapted variety, but it was delicious nonetheless. His path to Din's office contained a slight detour through the food vendors to pick up a taste of whatever he could eat while walking. By the time he made it to Din's office, he had accrued six bamboo skewers that he dropped off in a bio-waste recycle bin. When he reached Din's door, he was surprised to find it closed. He knocked politely on the door.

Faint voices could be heard through the door. As soon as Kit heard them, he navigated to the audio enhancement suite and began applying and tweaking filters in an attempt to clarify the conversation. The conversation ended before he could make sense of it, and a moment later, Din exited the door, closing it behind her.

"Oh... Hey, Kit... How are ya?" She said with a warm smile, if somewhat surprised. She leaned in and gave Kit a hug.

"What's up, Din..." Kit hugged her back, "you weren't expecting me? You just buzzed me in."

"I thought you were here just for some more synthamari."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm here for that too, but no, I'm actually here to see you. I thought your door was always open?"

"It is open. Just, metaphorically speaking. What did you need?"

"What's going on? You seem kind of busy?"

"I'm always busy, Kit." Din was already starting to get annoyed with his persistence.

"You know I love meeting new people, why not introduce us?"

"They're none of your concern at this point in time."

"C'mon, haven't I proved that I can keep a secret? Hmm?" Kit lowered his glasses and wiggled his eyebrows.

"The secret you were keeping was based on a lie."

"True, but I still kept it, didn't I?"

"Kit... Can I buy you off with a couple kilos of freshly frozen synthamari? Just for a few days or so?"

"Hmm..." Kit pulled at the white hairs on his chin. It was a pretty good bribe. He could probably have gotten her to double it, and throw in some Hatch red chile sauce to boot, but his interest in these new people was winning out. "So, they from out of town?"

"What?" Dinara looked at Kit with a serious expression.

"Atlantis 2, or what?" Kit chuckled. Dinara didn't find it too terribly funny.

"Where did you hear that?" Din asked sharply.

"Are you kidding? You! You talk about Atlantis 2 all the time!"

"No, not that, asshole. How did you know they were from out of town? How did you hear about them at all?"

"My tech people... you know, the ones that actually have BSI's and connect to the actual internet, found that Oracle noticed your guests' lack of identities. She tracked them all the way into the spire, caught some images of their BSI's too."

"Damn..." Din said under her breath, she was silent as she thought about what to do.

"If you're saying they aren't from Atlantis 2, which is an amorphous concept that applies to any lost or hidden settlement out there, and they're clearly not from Oasis, then there's only one place they can be from."

"I haven't said anything."

"You didn't have to say anything," Kit said. "The facts and images I already have are enough to make a pretty interesting story." Unfortunately, Kit had to lie about the images after refusing to take them from J earlier.

"Weren't you just bragging about keeping a secret? Now you're threatening to release one?"

"Maybe if I knew why it's a secret, I'd have a reason to keep it a secret!"

Kit and Dinara stared at each other for a few moments before Din blew an exhausted sigh.

"Fine... you win," Din said, "I'll introduce you, but you'd better keep your mouth shut until we all decide it's okay."

"Yeah, sure thing!" Kit's demeanor was already lightening up in anticipation, but Din held out a hand to catch his attention.

"Seriously, Kit. I need you to promise me that you will not make a story out of this at the first chance you get." Dinara's face was deadly serious.

"Yeah, Dinara," Kit said, "I promise, this information isn't getting out to anyone through me until you give the go-ahead." Kit's face matched Din's tone, and she accepted, but Kit kept her from turning around. He continued, "but you also need to understand, I'm not the only one that has those photos and the information from Oracle. It could get out anyway. It might already be out."

"Alright..." Din nodded. "I understand... let's go."

Inside the room, the only activity was a young boy, pacing nervously around the room. There were two other women, one clad in military style gear sitting with an angry scowl, and the other with finely braided hair, calmly browsing a bookshelf. The sitting woman respectably stood up as an unintroduced person entered the room. Dinara began to speak after closing the door behind Kit.

"I'd like to introduce someone. I wasn't exactly expecting him, but this is Kitiona Castillo."

Kit shook Luci and Val's hands as he was introduced to them. Miguel, however, simply nodded and continued pacing. Kit didn't mind. It was a better greeting than many he'd had before.

"So, where y'all from?" Kit asked, bluntly. Before any of them could speak, Dinara cut in.

"Whoa... before we get to that, I think you should know that Kit here is a journalist."

"What?" Luci said. "I thought you said we were gonna take it slow?"

"Yeah, like I said, I wasn't really expecting him, but he's actually here because he already knows about you. It seems the word is out."

"Well, hold on," Kit said, "I'm not so sure it's exactly 'out' yet. Oracle knows about you, and a source that has access to Oracle's security reporting system also knows, but that's it. For now, at least. But I don't think Oracle, my source, nor I have any actual information on where, exactly, you are from."

"Alright," Luci said, blowing out an exhausted sigh. "This is getting a little tiring, if I'm being honest." She turned toward Val. "You want to handle this?"

"We're from the Milky Way Galaxy," Val said as she continued browsing the bookshelf. "We landed here a few days ago and the rest of the ships crew and passengers were killed by drones, and the ship destroyed. We came here to see if we could find another way home. We're not sure if it's Oracle, the Benefactors, or someone else that is behind it, and we're not sure if we should reveal our identities."

"God damn." Kit was otherwise speechless.

"Also," Val said, then pointed toward Miguel, "his mother has been missing for a few hours."

"Missing?" Kit said. The expression on Miguel's face was all he needed as an answer. Kit grabbed the greying hairs on his chin. "Interesting..."

"Interesting?" Luci was caught off-guard by Kit's response.

"I'm sorry, that was rude... What I mean to say is, that's terrible and I'm going to do everything I can to help you find her. What's interesting about it is that I recently started looking into a string of missing people, none of whom had a BSI. Now, your mother... what is her name?"

"Rosalinda," Miguel said, "Uh, Rosa."

"I don't imagine Rosa had a BSI, did she?" Kit asked. Miguel shook his head.

"Val and I have BSI's," Luci said, "but they seem to be incompatible with Voracity's network."

"I took a look at Val's BSI," Dinara said, "I'm having my people fabricate a conversion cable, but I think software may still be an issue."

"I've got some contacts that may be able to help on that front, though... I'm not really sure that's such a great idea," Kit said. Luci and Din nodded.

"There was some concern about getting them connected to Voracity, but we should at least be able to connect them here within the Atrium, and in light of Rosa's disappearance, I think it's a good idea to get them connected if not just to track them."

"I think that worry about connecting to Voracity's network is valid, but not having a connection also seems to be a serious problem."

"I was telling them earlier that they shouldn't be concerned about Oracle," Din said, "as she knew they were in Voracity hours before they arrived here, and I think if Oracle wanted them gone, it would have happened much sooner than it did."

"I don't really claim to know exactly what Oracle wants with them," Kit said, crossing his arms, "but, the missing people I mentioned, they are anything but missing if you look them up online. They have complete digital likenesses that interact with anyone that might be looking for them, deflecting those people away from looking too closely."

"You think Oracle is behind it?" Luci asked.

"Oracle is the only one with the power to be able to do that, as far as I can tell. It's not impossible for a person to impersonate another person online, especially if the people looking don't have BSI's themselves, but to do it for so many different people? I don't think it's possible for any one person, and if it was a group, I think I would have heard about it by now."

"You said this only seems to happen to people that don't have BSI's?" Miguel asked. "Does that mean it would be safer to get one?"

"Maybe... It would be much easier for us to track you, like Din said earlier, but Oracle is going to know where you are at every moment of every day. And while the people I've been looking for have all been without BSI's, that's not to say that there aren't any people with BSI's that have gone missing, I just haven't found any evidence of such a case."

"Do you think there are any out there?" Luci asked.

"I don't really know... It might help if I could find out why these people are being taken. It could be that taking someone without a BSI is easier, or it could be that replacing someone that does have a BSI with a digital imposter is even easier, and could be happening even more often."

"That's a chilling prospect," Din said. "I suppose you guys will just have to stick around here underground for the rest of your lives."

Nobody was sure whether Din was joking or not, but they got the distinct impression that she wasn't exactly happy with her own situation. Though, she wasn't stuck underground, she was able to roam around within the dome, and even short visits outside of it, regardless of her purely human physiology. The prospect of being stuck underground did not sit well with anyone, but even further than that, Miguel was getting more frustrated every moment that the adults continued speaking on topics that didn't exactly concern him currently.

"What are we going to do about my mom?" Miguel said with an aggravated tone. The group shied away. While everything they were speaking about was important, they did feel that the conversation was moving away from the most urgent subject.

"Yes," Kit said, "I apologize, I do think the contact I mentioned earlier will be willing to help find her. It will have to be in person, however, and we will have to go above ground to meet them."

"Are these the same contacts that gave you your 'dirt' on me?" Din asked. Kit rolled his eyes. "Are you sure you can trust them with this?"

"I understand your point, but I don't imagine we can do a whole lot of searching from down here," Kit said. Dinara couldn't argue with him. "However, I do think it is probably safer down here. It's up to you. Would any of you like to come with me?"

"Yes. I'll come," Val said without a moment's hesitation.

"Me too," Miguel followed.

"Are you sure?" Kit asked, worried about the boy's welfare. The concern in his voice was grating to Miguel.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" He said. His anger was starting to boil over. "I've lived in a literal war zone for as long as I can remember, then spent the past ten days or so hiking, half of it with a broken arm, lost everybody I've ever known, including my own father, and now my mother has disappeared on an alien planet on the other side of the universe. I don't think now's the time to treat me like a helpless fucking child."

Kit was astonished. Not because of Miguel's language. That kind of vocabulary was common on Voracia. Instead, it was the story of the child being from an actual war zone. There had never been a large-scale conflict on Voracia in it's history. Even in the early days of the influx, the fighting over resources was resolved with little combat or bloodshed. Kit also realized why he was so interested in Luci. Her stance, the equipment she was wearing, her scowl, and her unblinking, constantly scanning eyes exuded the aura of a hardened combat veteran. It was something Kit had never seen before in his life.

"Of course," Kit said. "Again, I have to apologize. I don't mean to demean you because of your age. Rather... I think I'm much more interested in hearing your stories. You are three of the most unique people on the planet, and it would kill me to be the one to cause something bad to happen to you. But, the way I see it, all of the disappearances I've looked into seem to be happening when the person is alone and invisible to Oracle, so I think as long as we stay together, we shouldn't have any issues. Now, I suggest we get going unless Din has anything else for us?"

"Nothing that can't wait," Din said. "I don't think I have anything that can help find Rosa, but I'll send out some feelers to help expand the search while you are away."

"You aren't going to come with us?" Kit asked. "How long has it been since you've seen the sky?"

"You seriously think I'm going to go meet your contact? So I can be demeaned and laughed at, or worse, by a bunch of technophiles?"

"You call them technophiles?" Kit laughed. "While you're wearing that iron on your hip?"

Luci was confused for a moment. She was pretty adept at spotting weapons, and except for a handful of security personnel, she hadn't seen anybody carrying a firearm. She saw Din roll her eyes, then looked at her hip to see a soldering iron neatly tucked away in a custom-made heat-resistant holster, secured with a snap. Din said nothing as she began to silently fiddle with some of the tech around her office.

The group wasted no time in moving to action on Kit's suggestion. After another quick trip past the food stalls in the atrium, the group made their way to the surface. Luci had the urge to hold Miguel's hand to make sure he doesn't stray too far, but instead decided to keep an eye on him from the rear with her rifle close at hand. Val was also diligent in her attention to him, but Luci got the sense that it wasn't in the interest of keeping him safe. Val was talking him up most of their trip to meet Kit's contact. Luci felt awkward talking to him with his mother missing, but Val didn't seem to have any issues, and Miguel didn't seem to mind. She actually seemed to be keeping his spirits up and his mind off of the dour situation.

Kit wasn't quite sure how to get a hold of J. Their relationship had always been one-sided contact wise. All he could think of was to walk to a nearby park and encouraged the group to take a seat in an unpopulated pavilion where they were within view of a few cameras. Kit then walked toward one of the cameras and started talking to it.

"Alright, J, I'm ready... send me a sign or whatever," He said.

Luci was visibly confused. She had done some cloak-and-dagger style communiques in her time, but this was quite different than anything she had done before, especially when they simply sat there doing nothing for fifteen minutes. As Luci watched their surroundings with keen eyes, a flickering ad in the distance caught her attention, the only ad visible from their location. Text began scrolling, to which Luci brought Kit's attention as it started with his name and plainly provided an address and a floor number.

"There we go! Let's get moving," Kit said as he entered the address into the GPS in his interface.

The walk to the building was only a few minutes away. The building was largely empty, as many of the buildings within the dome were after a majority of the population no longer needed to stay within it. The doors and elevators in these buildings were usually automated and locked for anyone other than approved maintenance or security personnel, but they all unlocked as they approached and took the elevator to the floor that was mentioned previously. They stepped out of the elevator onto an unfurnished spaced with large windows that overlooked the city, or at least the portion of it that wasn't obscured by the other neighboring towers. Miguel was absolutely fascinated by the view, having never seen anything like it before in his life. Luci was also delighted with a nice metropolitan cityscape, and this was certainly the cleanest, most beautiful one she had seen. Val enjoyed it as well, but Kit was on his toes the moment he stepped off the elevator, looking around suspiciously.

A few minutes went by in which Kit wasn't startled by J jumping out to surprise him. In fact, when J did finally arrive, she came out of the elevator, apparently flustered and out of breath.

"Sorry... sorry, I usually send you this stuff when I'm already here, but..." J said, trailing off.

"Why are you out of breath?" Kit asked. "Running laps in the elevator?" He didn't get an answer. The rest of the group wasn't expecting her appearance. They stood by silently as Kit turned and introduced them. "J, this is Miguel, Luci, and Val." He motioned toward them as he spoke. J bowed her head politely at each of them. Kit finished off his introduction bluntly. "They're from the Milky Way."

Luci was taken aback. She had thought that Kit said he was going to be discreet about their situation, and not tell the literal first person he spoke to. Luci was dreading the girl's reaction.

"Wicked," J said in an interested, if reserved tone. "So... what can I do for you?"

"Well, first of all, what's with the uncharacteristically straightforward message?"

"Are you kidding me, Kit?" J nearly detached the digital display ring from her optic nerve in rolling her eyes so hard. "You literally told me a few hours ago that you didn't care for the theatrics!"

"I believe what I said was 'you do you,'" Kit said. "Anyway... I was wondering if you might be able to help us with a missing person, Miguel's mother."

"Oh." J shifted instantly to a more somber demeanor. "I'm sorry about that... I'll definitely do what I can. What is her name?"

"Rosa," Kit said.

"Rosa, yes. We've got tons of images and video of her. Of all of you, really." J spoke with confidence, and only a moment later realized just how it sounded. "Not in a creepy way, though! Everyone in my group's been watching you, and Oracle too!" J could feel the looks she was being given. "Okay... maybe it is a little creepy, but... well, I guess you're just some pretty interesting people."

"Why don't you tell J about the last time you saw her," Kit said, turning toward Miguel.

"It was at the art festival thing just outside the dome." As Miguel started speaking, J started moving toward a hallway, and motioned for the rest to follow her.

The group was led to a room that had once been an office conference room with an overhead projector that was too expensive to dismantle and move. It was still connected to power and a wireless network router with security that had been cracked decades ago. J had a little bit of trouble as she had never used an external display with her BSI, but was eventually able to connect and began displaying photos and videos of the group at the art festival.

Some of the video was from security cameras and drones, but most of the footage was from the perspective of the other attendees. This didn't sit well with Miguel.

"You can just... look through other people's eyes?" He asked. Nobody in the room except for Miguel was surprised by this information.

"Well... yeah..." J was trying not to sound demeaning as she explained. "If you've got a BSI and a network connection, that means Oracle could be watching at any time."

This was a given to Kit and anyone else that had grown up on Voracia, but even back in the Milky Way, it was much the same expectation. Luci and Val knew that no matter the level of security software you had, in the age of machine-learning decryption programs, no security was ever really good enough to protect you if someone really wanted in. In all of his years being underprivileged and only able to read about the technology online, Miguel had never considered this side of it, but felt a small measure of comfort knowing that there were so many people watching.

"All that being said, we don't have footage from every single person with a BSI in the vicinity," J said. "We really only have footage in which Oracle was tracking at least one of the four of you." J continued to scroll forward, and from video to video where Rosa was within view. At the moment that Miguel noticed himself slip away from Rosa and out of the footage, his gut sank. Suddenly, the tinge of guilt that had lingered since she disappeared was growing to overwhelm him. Miguel had left his mother alone, and only because he went off to view the more risqué section of the festival.

The feeling grew as he watched the expression on his mothers face change into worry as she started looking around. There was no audio, but he could see that she was saying his name, calling out to him, and was starting to grow more frantic, until she wasn't in the footage at all. Videos continued to play, but Rosa didn't seem to be in them, nor anyone else from the group.

"What the hell happened?" Miguel asked after a few seconds.

"That's... uh... hmm." J said with confusion in her voice. "This footage is tagged by Oracle as having her in it, but..." J paused the footage.

There were dozens of people in the still image, and the entire group leaned in to inspect the faces of each person, but were able to nonverbally agree that she wasn't present. J continued playing the footage, switching to the next perspective that was supposed to have Rosa in it, and finding nothing again. Eventually, the videos stopped, with the last image being from an attendee that was looking generally toward the entrance into a darkened alleyway.

"This is... the last time that Rosa was tagged."

"How is that possible? There's dozens of people there!" Miguel motioned angrily toward the projected image. "Where the fuck is she?"

J looked over at Kit with the same uncomfortably knowing look. Kit took his sunglasses off and placed his hands on his hips.

"I think I have an idea of what's happening here," He said. "The missing people I've been searching for, well, they all seem to have some online presence that makes their continued existence believable, especially if they are surrounded by people with BSI's. If Oracle is able to add believable people into a person's life, I suppose it's not a big leap to believe that she has the power to remove people as well."

"You mean, like editing them out of footage?" Luci asked. Kit nodded, and Luci turned to J. "Are you able to see if this footage has any signs of being doctored?"

"I have a guy that can look into that, but that might take a little time," J said. "I did notice that Oracle was scanning for more than just Rosa in these videos. She was tracking everybody in the vicinity that had a BSI, or, more specifically, she was looking for anyone else that didn't have one." As she spoke, the projected image changed to the viewpoint of a drone looking down from high above the street. "There's nearly six hundred people in this view. A green dot represents people who have an active BSI, and the red dots are those who don't." The image was awash with green, only a handful of red dots were visible. J stepped up to the wall and pointed toward one of the red dots. "This one is apparently Rosa."

Everybody leaned in closer to see that Rosa's red dot was hovering over nothing. Even on this drone, it seemed that she had been removed from the image. Her dot was nowhere near any of the other red ones. All of the dots began bustling as J started playing the video from this overhead view. Everyone watched Rosa's dot closely as it moved through the sea of green and into the alleyway they had seen in the previous footage where the dot disappeared.

"So, she went into the alley?" Miguel said. "How many ways out of that alley are there?"

"There are a few, but..." J said before switching to a digital rendering of the city. Every building adjacent to the alley also had mech shafts that descended into a massive network of subterranean tunnels that spanned the entire city. "If she was taken into any of these buildings, they could have gone into the mech tunnels and then to anywhere in the city."

There was a silence as everyone considered what it meant, but Miguel had to say it out loud.

"So... there's no way we can find her?"

Again, the silence lingered as nobody wanted to answer.