The sleek van rolled along the crumbling streets of Old City, carefully dodging the numerous potholes and scattered rubble in its path. It stopped in front of the decayed facade of an old apartment, wrapped around a square courtyard. There was a large pool in the center, drained of water, which became suddenly full of aircraft when the Raptor swooped in and landed gently inside.

Arte, Angel, and Mae scrambled out the rear door of the van, then through the apartment and into the waiting aircraft. As soon as the door slid shut, it soared into the sky. Inside, the trio threw down a pair of benches and slumped into them.

“Never thought it could feel so roomie in here,” Angel said.

Mae laughed. “It is quite the step up from a sardine can.”

Angel sniffed, then frowned and said, “I’d kill for a shower though.”

Mae leaned out of her seat to a nearby panel and grabbed a towel and a bottle of water, then offered them to Angel. “This is the best I can do.” Angel eyed her skeptically. Mae motioned to the forward door, and said. “You can get some privacy in there, and don’t forget to grab your other clothes.”

Angel sighed, accepted the offered supplies, then made her way to the front cabin.

“Oh yeah, I should probably change too,” Arte said. He looked around, then over to Mae. He blushed. “S-should I, uh…”

“You can wait until Angel is done, you know.”

“Ah, right.” His blush deepened as he looked off. They waited quietly until Angel returned, then each spent some time washing up and changing. When everyone was as refreshed as could be, they ate a quick meal, and finally settled into the seats around the table.

“So,” Mae said. “I believe we were interrupted earlier.” Angel and Arte turned to her with curious eyes. “When we were discussing what to do next.”

“Oh, right, the data,” Angel said. “Arte won’t be safe as long as Martel thinks it might be used against him.”

“You won’t be either,” Mae said. “And even though you’re not an associate, it wouldn’t be right to abandon you.”

Angel laughed. “It sounds like you’re planning to leave and take me with you.”

“That about sums it up,” Mae said.

“What!” Angel and Arte yelled in unison.

Mae sighed. “Unfortunately, I don’t see that we have any other choice. Martel is too powerful, and we’re out of options. The only safe place is a Blue Zone.”

“What about High Water?” Arte said.

Mae shrugged. “Just because Psa Psa will go to great lengths to get your life back, doesn’t mean there won’t be any delays. You can wait it out in another city, maybe find another job to pass the time.”

“S-so, that’s it,” Angel said. “We’re letting Martel do what he wants?” She wiped her eyes. “Isn’t there something we can do. I mean, we have all those records, right?”

“Sure, and I even thought about blackmail, but either Martel was careful not to let any dirt on him onto that drive, or he was squeaky clean to begin with,” Mae said. “And we don’t have a way to distribute it regardless.”

Arte hummed, “There must be a way someone could do it, right?”

“I suppose. Don’t see how that helps us though.”

They spent a long moment in silence, until Angel suddenly perked up. “Actually… I, well, don’t have so much as an idea, but”—she looked at Arte—“do you remember when you asked about sending the data to everyone?” He nodded. “Well, I only thought of it later, but there are Federal Safety Alerts. They’re distributed to every member of the Safe Citizen Program.”

“That sounds helpful,” Arte said. He looked at Mae, “Couldn’t your friend do some computer stuff to get into that?”

“I know Cybel managed something similar,“ Mae said, “But in general, getting information in to federal networks is a lot harder than getting it out. If we wanted to hack the system we’d almost definitely need physical access, which means breaking into some highly secure facility, and not one of those carbon copy data centers sprinkled around the country.”

“Can we investigate it?” Angel said. “Maybe Abel could find something we can use.”

Mae slowly frowned, then sighed. “I’ll send him a message, but he’s probably asleep right now.” She grabbed her phone and tapped a few things into it. “There, it’s done, but don’t get your hopes up.”

“Is that all we can do for now?”

“Unless one of you kids have an idea,” Mae said.

“I wouldn’t call it an idea,” Arte said. “But I do have a question.” He looked at Angel. “How does that alert thing work?”

“They show up on your phone,” she said. “You get a little notification, and have to click on it right away or you start losing Safety Score. Normally it’ll play a video, but I’ve seen them send a few different kinds of files.”

“Ah, I see why you suggested it, but, actually, I meant who can send them. It sounds like the kind of thing you have to be pretty important to use.”

Angel hummed. “I’ve never thought about it, but I suppose at least the President could do it.”

“What about that Martel guy?”

“The Senator?” Angel said. “You know… he is the chair of the Social Cohesion Committee. That’s a very powerful position, so there’s a good chance he can too. Are you suggesting we go after him?”

“I don’t see why not,” Arte said. “We’ve already gotten into his house once, right?”

“Yeah, but now he’s going to be on high alert,” Angel said. “There’s no way it will be that easy the second time.”

Mae slammed the table without warning and stood, leaning over it. “Oh my God!”

“What! Is something wrong?”

“That’s it!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Martel!” Mae said. “He’s a fucking crook!” She glanced between the other two with wild eyes. “And we threw him off his game!”

“Slow down, Mae,” Angel said. “What are you talking about?”

Mae took a deep breath, then looked at Angel. “It’s like you said, we already broke into his house, and what’s more, one of his pet Admins betrayed him, and who knows what he thinks about Seig’s failure at the resort. Right now he must be feeling very insecure.”

“Ah, I guess?” Angel said. “Does that help us?”

“It wouldn’t,” Mae said. “Except for the part where he’s a crook.” She smiled devilishly. “That bastard is in league with Thirteen, and right now he’s bound to have doubts about his security amongst the federals. If we put him under pressure he’s liable to flee his home and scurry to his criminal friends.”

“But we don’t have a way to get at him in his house,” Angel said.

“Yeah, sure, we know that,” Mae said. “But he doesn’t. Without passengers, the Raptor can easily infiltrate federal territory, land near Martel’s estate, then make it out again. And even better, we already slipped past the military once, so if he sends them to find us and they come up empty handed, it’ll crank up his paranoia even further.”

“Well, alright, we spook him into running to Thirteen, doesn’t that just leave him in another place we can’t reach?”

“That’s what’s so brilliant. Federal territories are all Yellow Zones, but not every Yellow Zone is a federal territory. If goes somewhere outside his country, we’ll have a lot more options.”

“You mean… he’ll be running away from safety?”

“Exactly,” Mae said.

“But how will we know where he ends up? Thirteen is an international organization, isn’t it?”

“Sort of,” Mae said. “They have operations running all over the globe, but there’s really only one city that could be said to belong to them, which happens to be in North America. If we assume Martel is connected to Thirteen at the highest levels, and that he’s not the sort of person to give up his luxury, then there’s only one place he’d end up.”

“Thirteen has a city in North America?” Angel said. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“Yeah, New Tepan. The federals don’t like talking about cities outside their influence, even if this particular one is kind of a shit hole. Might put crazy ideas in your head, I suppose.”

“Will it be easier to get at Martel if he’s out there?”

“It should be,” Mae said. “I didn’t call the place a shit hole for nothing. New Tepan is practically feudal, even if the guys at the top have plenty of fancy tech. They never bothered to install a surveillance grid outside of their estates, so we won’t have trouble getting next to them.”

Angel hummed. “Estates? Like multiple?” Mae nodded. “How do we know which one Martel would go to.”

“Actually, there’s a particular crime lord, Martinez, who’s ascension through the ranks has been unusually rapid. The Solvers are sure he has a federal ally, but couldn’t figure out who. Based on what we know, it’s got to be Martel.”

“You sure know a lot about Thirteen.”

“Of course,” Mae said. “That fucking scum is arguably the Solvers’ greatest enemy, so we devote a lot of energy to understanding them.”

“Even more than federals?” Arte said.

“Oh, tons. Federals are more powerful, and more numerous, but they tend to be insular and associates prefer to stay out of their way. In places outside their influence, or where federals are collapsing, there’s plenty of opportunity to turn a profit, for associates and Thirteen alike.”

“Are you guys at war?” Angel said.

“You could put it that way,” Mae said.

“It’s crazy. This sounds like a really big deal, but I’ve never heard anything about it.”

Mae laughed. “That’s not the half of it. The truly wild part is the two organizations most involved are headquartered less than five hundred miles from each other. We literally share a border—not that the term means much—but neither party has ever, you know, gone over and attacked the other.”

“Why not?” Arte said.

Mae hummed. “Well, for associates, mounting an invasion would be prohibitively expensive, and Thirteen knows we’d kick their ass from here to the stratosphere if they started shit.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I think we’ve digressed a bit.”

Angel laughed. “Oh, right, Martel. I don’t think you’ve actually laid out your plan yet.”

“Yes, there might still be a few holes, but I think I’ve got the makings of a good one,” Mae said. “Our first step is to scare Martel with the Raptor. In theory, he’ll flee to New Tepan to hunker down until we’re taken care of. We’ll follow him there, infiltrate the Martinez estate, and, uh, get his FSA access keys… somehow.”

“Sounds like we found a hole,” Angel said.

Mae smiled. “Maybe we can spy on him until he needs to send a message, but I can’t imagine he’ll do it that often.”

“Is there some way we can force it?” Arte said.

“Oh!” Angel lit up. “What if we make him think we’re hiding in a city somewhere?”

“How does that help?”

“The FSA is often used for bulletins about wanted criminals, especially when they think someone is hiding them.”

Mae hummed. “So if we drop a hint we’ve taken shelter in Central, you think Martel will handle the announcement himself.”

Angel shook her head. “We’d want to make it look like a national matter. I don’t know a lot about FSAs, but the wider the distribution the higher you have to be up the chain to send one. If Martel wants to message the entire country he’ll have to do it himself, unless he decides to involve the President, which is doubtful.”

“It’s all coming together.” Mae nodded. “Unfortunately, this is shaping up to be a very computer-y sort of plan.” She looked longingly at a nearby terminal.

Angel laughed. “I don’t think she’ll let you get out of talking to Abel.”

Mae sighed. “A girl can dream.” She shook her head and stood up. “Alright kids, you sit tight. I… have research to do.” She walked to the front cabin, muttering, “Gonna have me fetching his groceries for weeks.”