Ten minutes.

In ten minutes, Tito Castillo, whoever that was, would kill someone. And for the first time since he’d actually worried about anything like that, the target wasn’t Joules. Mr. Roboto, little more than a faceless line of text on his computer seemed sure that should Tito reach him, he would die.

“Where are you?” Joules typed.

I AM IN HALEY HALL.

Haley Hall was less than a stone’s throw away from Joules. He’d passed by it every day on the way to class. Like most dorms during the summer, it was relatively empty, but relatively empty was not the same as empty. There was at least one person inside, and that wasn’t counting any other students or staff. China Grove College also scheduled most of its renovations and repairs on the various buildings on campus during the summer. Half a dozen different crews worked around the clock to finish their contracts in time for the first students to move in.

But it wasn’t Joules’ problem.

Joules was neither particularly selfish nor selfless. Most of the time, he chose to go with the flow, avoiding unnecessary encounters. You would never find him in the quad pushing papers in front of other students begging for signatures, but he didn’t actively avoid those people either. The most selfless thing he’d done recently was to beg Davis to take him for his experiments instead of Lorelei, and Joules was beginning to suspect that he’d been under [Gold Digger]’s spell from the moment he met her.

Now, he had a choice. The choice he’d been given before had been dashed away by whomever had ransacked his room. He wasn’t safe here, and he might never be safe again if he didn’t do something about the Five to One, whatever that was. All he had were bad options, and whenever he’d been offered a bad hand in the past, he’d always opted to leave the table rather than bet or fold.

“What do you know about this guy, Castillo?”

HE IS A STAND USER WHO OFFERS HIS SERVICES TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER. HE BELIEVES IN NOTHING, AND HIS METHODS ARE CRUDE YET EFFECTIVE.

“Can you get out? I’ve got a car waiting.”

Lorelei and her partner were still parked out front, waiting on him to return. If he could get a message to them, he could bring them in to help stop Castillo, or at least prime them to leave.

VERY WELL. BUT YOU MUST SECURE ME. I AM UNABLE TO MEET YOU ON MY OWN.

That complicated things. Joules wasn’t keen on spending any more time on campus than he had to, especially if some anarchist Stand user was nearby.

“What’s your room number?”

I AM IN ROOM 112. PLEASE HURRY, JOULES. WE DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME.

Joules closed the program. He threw on whatever clothes he could find from the detritus strewed around his room. It was better than the damp clothes. He bolted out the door, ran towards the stairwell, and descended the four floors two stairs at a time. He burst into the lobby at a full sprint, nearly colliding with his RA before throwing open the doors to the courtyard outside.

Haley hall stood nearby. His feet pounded on the concrete walkways and he sprinted towards the entrance. The star on his shoulder was calm, but that could change in an instant. If he could reach Mr. Roboto and bring him back to the car before Castillo arrived, then they might have a chance to regroup and devise a better plan than ‘wing it.’

His hand touched the door handle before he came to a stop. He tugged against the door, only to find it locked. A note on the door said to press a button for assistance. He couldn’t see an RA at the front desk.

What a pain.

[Do Dope Fuck Hope] appeared behind him. It curled its fingers into a fist and smashed the glass of the door, shattering it to pieces. An alarm rang out in the dorm. Ignoring it, Joules jumped over the shards of glass into the lobby. Rent-a-cops still patrolled the campus during the summer, so he’d have to deal with that eventually.

He rushed towards room 112. If it was anything like his own dorm, it should be about a third of the way down the right hall on his left. He reached the room and swung open the unlocked door.

The room could not have been more different than Joules. Nearly every inch of available wallspace was covered to the ceiling with mountains of computer equipment. Joules counted at least five computer screens just in front of the desk. The only thing not tech related was a meticulously made bed and a young man sitting in a wheelchair. The man swiveled to face Joules.

“It’s good to meet you, Joules Jordan.”

Joules took a moment to catch his breath. “You’re Mr. Roboto?”

The young man allowed himself a small smile. “It’s a screen name I had back in high school. I guess it just stuck. You can call me Benji.”

Benji had wild jet black hair that stretched down past his shoulders. He wore thick glasses on his face, giving his eyes the impression of being twice as big. His clothes were wrinkled and stained, as if he hadn’t changed them in days.

“Okay, Benji, real jazzed to meet you too,” Joules said. “But we gotta get you out of here. Why didn’t you say you were…”

“Disabled?” Benji interjected. “I’d have figured that would hardly matter.”

“Yeah, well, it does.”

“I assure you, I can handle myself. I’m almost halfway done with wiping everything. I can’t leave any trace for the Five to One to find.”

“And how long is that gonna take?”

Benji turned away from Joules to focus on his computers. “We’ll be done before he gets here.”

Paranoia descended over Joules. Standing still, waiting to be found when he could move chilled his blood. Benji didn’t look half as worried as Joules expected him to. Were all Stand users so infuriatingly calm in the face of danger?

“Make it quick,” Joules said. “I’m not trying to stick around here. Do you know how much actual bullshit i’ve put up with over the past twenty-four hours? I don’t need this shit. I need a nap.”

“Your concern for my well being is duly noted,” Benji said.

“Do you at least know what he can do?”

“Rumours, hearsay,” Benji answered. “Nothing concrete. Doesn’t leave survivors. Very thorough. Highly rated. Expensive. Fifty-five percent.”

“And he wants to kill you?”

“Want doesn’t factor for him. He’s a businessman. Someone must have paid him very handsomely.”

“How does he know you’re here?” Joules asked. “You seem like the kind of tin foil hat guy who’d never post anything incriminating online.”

“I leaked my location,” Benji said, as calmly as if he’d told Joules the weather. “Had to draw him out. I knew the Five to One had dealings with Castillo. I burned the Five to One. They want me gone.”

Joules put his hand on the back of Benji’s wheelchair. [Do Dope Fuck Hope] rippled with anger and anticipation. What was this guy’s problem? Did he have a death wish?

“I don’t expect you to understand,” Benji said, still not bothering to look at Joules. “I just expect you to help me. If we survive this, I’ll tell you everything.”

“Yeah, you better,” Joules said. “I’m not a big fan of being kept in the dark.”

One of Benji’s screens went dark, and he turned his focus to another one. “You said you had a ride waiting for you. Can they help? Can you reach them?”

“Yeah, if you’re asking if they’re Stand users, then yeah, they are.” Joules said. “They’re from the Speedwagon Foundation. Lorelei Bishop and her partner. I don’t have their numbers, and my phone’s gone. Like I said, it’s been a rough day.”

“Bishop?” Benji said. He finally turned away from his computer to look at Joules. Something contemplative crossed the student’s face. “Interesting. No matter. I found them.”

He pointed to a security feed pointed at the black coupe parked outside the gates. A grainy image of Lorelei leaning on the car looked around aimlessly, waiting for Joules to return.

“Can you get in contact with them?”

Benji shook his head. “Not likely. SWF devices are linked to a closed network. No way to get [Paranoid Android] inside. Pity, I’d love to see the inside of their architecture.”

“Where are we?” Joules asked, feeling the seconds tick by. He needed to get this guy out and get back to the car before they left. His stomach plunged. What if they left? The old man had said that if Joules didn’t come back, they would assume he’d chosen to remain a student. They’d leave, and Joules had no way of getting in contact with Lorelei to explain everything.

“Nearly there,” Benji said. “I’m going to leave a [Paranoid Android] inside to finish up. I can follow along with these.”

He tapped his glasses. “As long as I have a ‘screen’ in front of me, I can access the internet with my Stand. We’ll be able to keep an eye on the security systems while we move.”

“So can we please get going?” Joules said.

Benji closed a laptop and placed it in a satchel hanging from his wheelchair. “It seems your choice of entrance has been noticed. I’m sending a ‘do not respond,’ but that won’t help if they make it here to see for themselves. We should get moving.”

“Finally, something I can understand.”

The motorized wheelchair had the apparent top speed of a crawling toddler, so Joules decided to push. It was only mildly faster, but being in control gave JOules that little extra piece of mind. They reached the lobby to find an RA standing in front of the shattered door on the phone. Abruptly, the call must have dropped, because the RA pulled the phone from his ear in confusion. Benji gave him a small thumbs up.

The RA, though distracted, noticed Joules and Benji before they could leave. “Hey! You’re the guy on video! What are you doing?”

Why didn’t the little nerd delete the security footage?

“What do you mean?” Joules asked, playing dumb. “I’m just taking my friend out to lunch.”

“No, no, no, you busted the door! What the hell? Campus police are on their way.”

“We need to keep moving,” Benji said.

The RA moved to stand between them and the door. “You’re not going anywhere until the police get here.”

For a moment, Joules considered summoning his Stand. He could easily push aside the RA. He couldn’t possibly explain to the man why he’d needed to break the door or why he was in such a hurry. There just wasn’t any time.

“He’s here,” Benji said.

“What do you mean?” Joules asked.

“I see him coming up through the courtyard. He must know where the cameras are to slip past until now. We need to leave. Now.”

“Hey, stop talking!” the RA said.

Joules promised to make it up to the stranger one day. The guy was just doing his job, but he was in the way.

“Sorry,” Joules said as he approached the RA.

The RA took a step back. Glass crunched underneath his shoes. Joules took a step, and then the RA’s chest exploded into a crimson flower.