~~~~

Amanda had no idea where Tim was.

Her first inkling something was wrong had been immediately upon entering the building. Tim had the annoying ability of almost always getting there before her. The sight of him chatting with the big, scary security guys in the lobby had become commonplace. It made the times she arrived before Tim incredibly awkward because Amanda couldn't bring herself to offer anything more than a shy wave and muttered hello to the guards as she passed by.

Like today.

Tim hadn't been waiting for her in the lobby. Amanda also hadn't found him on the HR floor. She kept expecting him to appear throughout the day, and the longer it took for that to happen, the more unease she felt.

Maybe he was late. Maybe he had gotten here before her, but they had loaned him to another floor. It wouldn't be the first time that happened. Just the other day, he had been helping with maintenance. For someone so thin, Tim was surprisingly good at moving things.

In the end, it took an embarrassingly long time to do what she should have done from the start.

"Did Tim not come here today?"

"Afraid not," Valerie told her. The college graduate who was her direct supervisor took a moment to take a sip from the coffee Amanda had just brought her. "The poor dear called in sick today. I hope it is nothing too bad."

"Oh."

That was all Amanda could bring herself to say before going back to her duties.

Sick.

That was it. That was all. A perfectly normal reason for not being there. Everyone got sick. Everyone had to stay in bed sometimes. That was something Amanda knew better than anyone. For one reason or another, the perfect attendance trophy was one that always escaped her, something that Wendy Cho, the bitch, loved to lord over her whenever she got the chance.

Tim not being there was no cause for concern. It didn't bother her. Not at all.

...

It bothered her.

It bothered her.

It bothered her.

It wasn't until Amanda was in the food court and saw the empty seat opposite to hers at their usual table that she realized why.

This was her routine.

Meet Tim at the front desk. Share the elevator. Eat lunch together. Listen to his ramblings. Go down together at the end of the day and say goodbye to each other awkwardly. It wasn't special. It wasn't meaningful. It was as routine as the hamburger Amanda had in her hands. It wasn't the tastiest thing on the menu—that would be the rogan josh Tim had ordered the other day—but it was safe and reliable.

Amanda liked safe and reliable.

Amanda did not like suddenly being deprived of it.

Somewhere along the way, Tim had become a fixture in her nine-to-five schedule. If Amanda had to pick between a day with Tim and a day without Tim, she'd pick the day with him.

She'd gotten used to him.

She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Amanda sighed and took another bite out of her burger. That seemed to be the theme with her today. Not being sure about how she felt about things. That was another reason why she appreciated consistency in all things. If things were constant, she didn't need to waste time thinking about how she felt about change.

At the very least, Amanda didn't have to worry about how things would go after five. She'd take the subway home. Change clothes. Do some running. Find her mother was still busy with one thing or the other. Talk to Sophie on the phone and try to avoid that whole marathon talk. Watch a movie. Go to sleep. That was good. Nice and simple. Just how she liked it.

Should she call Tim?

Amanda frowned as the question popped in her head. It was true that she and Tim weren't exactly friends, but they did see each other just about every day. Even if their conversations were largely Tim's inane nonsense, Amanda had talked more with Tim over the summer than she had with most of her classmates over the entire school year. Kate and Sophie being the only exceptions.

Besides, calling someone who was sick was natural. It was what you were supposed to do. There was nothing wrong with her calling Tim.

She didn't have his phone number.

Amanda chewed on that piece of knowledge as she chewed on one of her fries. She didn't even know if Tim had a personal phone. It had never come up, and she'd never felt confident in bringing it up. It'd have been awkward to ask him only for him to give her his home number instead.

Valerie probably had his number. It was bound to be in the files. Even if Valerie somehow couldn't give away that information (something Amanda doubted), Amanda would lose nothing by asking for it. They worked together, so her not knowing his number was really something she was very late to. An error on her part. One she should get around to fixing.

Yep.

She was going to fix that right away. As soon as she finished her burger.

By the time the clock hit five, Amanda had left Regum without once asking for Tim's number.

~~~

"It is an interesting case. Fascinating even."

The doctor addressed those assembled in Arthur Cadogan's office. It wasn't just the CEO of Regum in the room. Gerald and Alice were both in attendance as well.

"When I was first informed of our new prisoners, I assumed they would be nothing more than guinea pigs for the SP project."

Everyone had assumed that until the building's sensors had alerted them to the presence of M Particles.

An Exceed's calling card.

"In the benefit of expediency, allow me to dispel everyone's doubts. They are not Exceeds. Not a single one of them."

"What about the M Particles then?" Alice asked, her arms crossed as she leaned against the wall. "Was it a false positive?"

The doctor shook his head.

“On the contrary. Our sensors worked flawlessly. What they detected were 100% genuine M Particles. However, not a single one of our guests is capable of generating a Marvel Field. Their bodies are fully human with all the benefits and limitations that implies. They just happen to be irradiated with M Particles. Rather curious. As you all know, even working in close proximity to an Exceed is not enough to be exposed to M Particles. Otherwise, many people in the Human Resources and Legal departments would be positively saturated by now. There is another element at play here.”

“The drugs,” Arthur said.

“Aye.” Gerald nodded. Unlike Alice, he is sitting on a chair with his chest facing the backrest. “My boys have been making progress in the interrogation rooms. Apparently, the drug these guys have been selling, well, they call it soma.”

“A supposedly fabled elixir that grants immortality to whoever drinks it in some myths,” the doctor says.

“That’s not how you pronounce coffee, but sure. The way they tell it, it’s a completely new product. Nothing quite like anything else on the market. A wonder drug that gives you the best high with no long-last physical defects.”

“I can tell you right now that’s bogus.” The doctor shook his head. “Be it their stomachs, lungs, or hearts, nothing about them looks like people in their twenties. Mr. Pines, for example, has the body of someone who has been suffering from various addictions for decades.”

“Yeah, that sounds more accurate.”

Alice frowned. “An Exceed is using his power to make drugs?”

“Not quite. Not as far as we know, at least.” Gerald made a so-so gesture with his hand. “Whoever their boss is, he offers them a bonus for turning in Exceeds. They were planning to kill Tim, drain his blood, bag his organs, and send him by pieces to their boss. Whether their boss is an Exceed or not, we don’t know.”

Alice's face went cold. Her pupils narrowed to pinpricks.

"I see," she said. "I will need to watch the interrogations later."

"Naturally."

"What do we know about their operation?" Arthur asked.

"Oddly professional for a group that call themselves the Rough Diamonds," Gerald replied. "The people Tim caught are all low-ranking distributors. The product is made elsewhere and smuggled in through the docks. The gang's job was to spread it through the city. Considering how addictive they claim their stuff is, it was fairly easy for them to get a captive market."

"It is good they are in the doctor's care then."

"It does provide me the opportunity to see how the SP cells react when exposed to organisms with M particles. It has been illuminating, though they will not last that long."

"Good," Alice said.

"Putting that aside," Gerald said. "I think I should point out this explains why the police database was mum on the subject."

"We interfered with their investigation," Arthur summed up, his hands steepled over his desk.

"If Exceed powers are involved, then CHEM is likely to be as well," Alice added.

And being discovered by CHEM was not something they needed or wanted.

"We lay low for now. We cannot risk discovery," Arthur said at last. "They will notice something happened, but they should not be able to link it to us."

"So… does that mean...?"

"Yes, we will not investigate this matter further."

~~~

Sadie Williams, CHEM’s regional director, was in the middle of a teleconference call with Commissioner Donovan.

“What do you mean they’re all gone!”

It was not going well.

“Fourteen of them,” she said, her finger fiercely pointed at the screen. “How exactly do fourteen people—Fourteen Criminals!—just vanish?”

“We are looking into-”

“Damn right you’re looking into it. I’m not asking you to tell me you’re meeting the bare minimum of competency! I am ordering you to explain to me how this happened!”

Commissioner Donovan’s nostrils flared as he took a deep breath. She could tell he was fighting very hard not to insult her.

To her annoyance, he succeeded.

“It’s just as I told you,” the hard-faced man with an impressive mustache said. “Our man on the inside went to the usual meeting place and found nothing. It had been emptied out. No one is answering their phones. He’s looking into it right now, but as far as we can tell, they all just vanished overnight.”

“Unbelievable.” She shook her head. “One year! We let you handle this operation for one year!”

“We were making progress!”

“Your progress went up in smoke in one night! All the key figures are no more! The governor should have listened to me! If we had handled this-”

“I will not have your Exceeds in my city! It’s bad enough it was literally raining frogs just a few weeks ago! I’m not letting any of your men rampage through a delicate investigation!”

“What investigation? You have no investigation!”

“We still have someone on the inside,” Commissioner Donovan said. “He’s still in a good position. Arguably an even better one, since most of the leadership went up in smoke. Someone will have to make contact eventually. When that happens, we’ll be ready.”

“Provided they haven’t decided to leave this city for good.”

That they had set up their operation so close to the Disk was already a miracle. Chances of lightning striking twice were not high.

“But sure, keep hoping. Meanwhile, I will be reporting this to the governor.”

Sadie cut the call before he could offer any comeback. She wished she had a phone to slam right now.

Months!

Months of work!

Months of patience!

Wasted! Wasted because Donovan had the governor’s ears, and the officer was too scared to let her Exceed do more than fly by and look pretty. He was too caught up in the old mentality of Exceeds as weapons of war.

However, as long as she didn’t have either his or the governor’s say-so, she couldn’t actually interfere.

Not overtly, at least.

Her eyes went to the report on her desk. Commissioner Donovan was not the only one with moles. One of her agents in the police had sent her information the good commissioner had been trying to hide from her.

As it so happened, the same night in which several members of a dangerous gang had disappeared was the night in which there had been multiple reports of an extremely agile vigilante

Commissioner Donovan may be able to stop her from interfering with the Soma investigation.

However, on matters of Exceeds contact, she had supremacy.

Her finger touched the intercom.

“Get me Slate.”

~~~