Rai had already established himself as a regular at the Atrium because the greeter recognized him. She was hunched over her phone as usual, until she heard him come in. She pushed her slab of oily bangs aside so he could see her bared teeth. “Your prissy sidekick isn’t with you. Who’s going to be paying the bill, then?”

But she didn’t throw him out. Maybe because Rai promised the prissy sidekick was on his way.

He was the first customer of the day, and nobody stopped him from claiming a table by the windows. The dining room was quiet and airy, and a little ghostly. The stillness seemed to be waiting for something, or someone. Customers, Rai guessed.

The curtains were pulled back and a few dusty snowflakes were falling on the streets outside. He could even hear the shifting of the snow until the street-salting cart gargled by.

Takeaway orders began early. A few table diners had also wandered in by the time Sao arrived. His silver coat hung open to show off a new sweater ensemble.

“I didn’t buy ot.” Sao slid into his seat, looking bashful and expensive. “A certain lady friend wouldn’t let me step out of the house in two-day-old clothes.”

“Damn. What a raw deal. Having a gorgeous girl forcing presents on you.”

“I don’t look too pretentious, do I?” Sao inspected the neckline of his sweater and pulled it up a little.

Rai dumped a pack of sugar into his second cup of coffee and mulled over a question he’d asked himself often. Was Sao feigning humility or just dense? The sucker in Rai wanted to believe in true humility, but that would mean Sao really was dense as a rock.

“You fit right in,” Rai said. “Don’t sweat it.”

Sao smiled and pulled a clip of papers from his coat, and followed that with a sloshing tumbler. “Presents for you. Not from a boutique but maybe they’ll help. That booklet will offer some less vulgar photos of Ace and Zed, at least.”

Rai picked up the tumbler and found it was made of cardboard like a takeout cup, and chilly enough that he felt it through his gloves. “What’s this?” Graffiti-styled letters on a pink cartoon splash spelled out ‘jumbleberry’, which wasn’t especially helpful.

“A slushie I think, from a vending machine in the office building. One in each staff lounge, Marsh said. He bought me this one to try, but it’s a little cold for iced drinks.”

A secondhand gift, but why let it go to waste? Rai snapped the packaged straw out of its wrapper and tried to understand what ‘jumbleberry’ was. Something radioactive pink and very sweet, but not like any berry Rai had ever tasted.

Sao was nibbling the bagel Rai had originally ordered for himself when a massive orange cone wandered into the dining room and raised one of its littler attached cones to get their attention. Rai waved him over.

Ayer pulled out a chair for himself, pushing aside the extra tableware to make space for his broad sleeves. “Morning, guys.” His eyes were bright and his face was scrubbed to a shine. “What’s that? A slushie? Are you allowed to have that in here?”

“Nobody’s noticed so far.”

“I guess so. I was just thinking of the first time I ever came here. Saki almost killed a guy who snuck in a hot dog.” Ayer laughed, drawing eyes their way.

Rai took a long slow sip and hid the tumbler under the table. “Thanks for meeting us so early.”

“I have a morning class. Most of my classes are early, actually, I like to have my afternoons free.”

“Well, I hope this doesn’t ruin the rest of your day, because you’re going to have to look at that bunch of pictures again.”

“I thought you might ask me to.” Ayer took off his jacket. Like the previous day, he was sleeveless underneath and the width of his tanned shoulders practically inverted the cone shape he cut with the bizarre jacket on. “I didn’t mean to get all pushy yesterday. I just got a little excited because someone was finally paying attention to this shit. For the last few months I’ve felt like I was going crazy, like I’m the only person who cares. Well, Jin’s kind of on board, but he gets scared, you know?”

“No problem. I should apologize for ditching you too quickly. We wanted to ask you about identifying a few more of the, er, victims. I’d ask around, but I realize people might not be comfortable.”

“I get it.” Ayer waited for Rai to pull up the photos on his phone and took it, cupping his hand around the screen and holding it low, almost under the table. “Well, I guess I told you the first guy’s Ace. And the second guy, Zed. They’re both in the investment club.”

“Yeah.”

Ayer pressed the phone lower in his lap and panned through two photos. “This girl is a senior. Tellena C____. And the one after goes by Kitty. I forget what it stands for, but she lives in the dorm right by the front gate. Hers was the first picture I saw after I got back from my hospital thing at Highland…”

Rai wished Ayer wasn’t holding the phone where it would require them to be looking at his crotch area. By the end of his ramble, Ayer gave twelve names, a few of them guesses, which left three girls unnamed. “Can you go back to the most recent?”

Ayer slid through the gallery quickly, back to Ace on the bathroom floor.

“Now two over. This girl, you don’t know this is at all?”

Ayer was giving it some thought; that much was obvious. Having to look closely at the girl also embarrassed him. That was even more obvious. His eyes shifted between the tablecloth, the window and the skinny freckled body with the four inked words,

WHORE

CAM GIRL

WAITRESS

HOOKER.

Finally he shook his head, slightly. “I think I’ve seen this girl at career-type events. But I’ve never actually met her.”

Rai took the phone back. “Hm.”

“But what about you guys?” Ayer set his hands on the table. He came down too hard and the plates and knives jumped, landing with a clack. “Did you find anything out? I know it’s kind of soon, but…”

Rai watched his scrubbed, hopeful face trying to stay bright. His cheeks and neck were red - a natural effect of staring down bloody breasts in public, Rai guessed. He didn’t like what he was about to do. “Can you think of any connections between the victims?”

“Isn’t that your job?”

“Well, most of them are girls. Did you notice that?”

“Yeah, but… I don’t know, it felt kind of gross to say it. And what if they’re actually random, but the first bunch just happened to be girls?”

Sao lifted an eyebrow at that, though he didn’t say anything. Rai was going to have to be the one to go stomping in, as usual.

“Maybe you’re right. But that’s the only pattern we’ve got so far. That, and the different handwritings indicate more than one person is involved in this. We have to look further into the names you’ve given us today but as far as I can tell these are all totally innocent kids—”

Ayer’s eyes shifted onto the girl on the phone, and he snorted.

“—since no students here have a known criminal record, except for one or two noise complaints. And the purchase of illegally resold air conditioners, I guess. I couldn’t even find a sex pest complaint in the local tabloids. In Mainline, that’s half the news content. Although, I get that people around here are pretty tight lipped when it comes to the ugly side of campus activity.”

Ayer gave a nod.

Rai felt brave enough to draw out his jumbleberry slushie and take a long sugary sip. “Anything interesting happen to you since we last spoke?”

“Like last night? Just the usual pre-Valentine’s parties. Oh, if you check Neocam you’ll probably get a lot of this bombshell who showed up in a sequinned leotard at the Investment Club’s thing. Apparently she's the wife of one of the deans.”

“Just a girlfriend, I heard,” Sao chimed in.

“Yeah, well, she made herself at home. I was hanging out in a different dorm with the Equestrian Club at the time but she had the Neocam group going a little crazy. Luckily it was just Happy propping up the Investment Club that night. I don’t know if you’ve met him? Kinda leggy, sunglasses and weird long hair hair slicked back —”

“I have,” Rai assured him. “Why’s that lucky?”

“Happy without Ace is like gas with no motor. He won’t pull anything with his own two hands, he just likes hearing himself yap and telling other people what to do. It’s not a dignity thing, I think he’s just lazy. I’ll give him credit, he can really drink. He actually has a pretty insane tolerance. To booze among other things.” Ayer shrugged, though it wasn’t as casual as he probably wanted it to look. “In any case, his other pals weren’t drinking with him. It must have been killing Happy that there wasn’t anyone around to cheer him on as he slobbered over a dean’s girl.”

“Did anyone happen to get the girl’s name?” Sao asked, with a saccharine tone that registered to Rai as dangerous.

“Something old fashioned. Like Chastity or Prudence. You gotta wonder what parents would do that to their kid in this day and age. More power to her for sticking with it.” Ayer just shrugged again. “It’s almost time for my class. Sorry to run, but I’ll be free after four. If you need me, I mean. Will you really keep me in the loop?”

“One more thing,” Rai said, as he got up. “Is there anything special going on besides parties and job fairs? I’m thinking medical. Anything like flu vaccinations, or a blood drive on campus in the last week or so?”

“Not that I know of.” Ayer hopped to his feet and swept his coat off the back of his chair. It flapped over the table and sent bagel crumbs flying. “Oh, was that a suggestion? Not a bad idea, I bet I could get a bunch of clubs onboard. Vampire mascot, blood drive, I see the vision. We never have public health events. I should ask the professor…”

Ayer was still brainstorming as he crossed the dining room and disappeared in the direction of the lobby.

“So, Skogul found time to attend a student party last night,” Rai said.

He got a perfectly formed smile and knew he wasn’t going to get a full answer. “I showed her the pictures,” Sao admitted, or didn't. “She was concerned, about the girls especially, and thought she might be able to find something out in person. I’m not sure what she’d have done if she caught someone in the act, but it seems there weren’t any incidents last night.”

“Yeah.”

The monosyllabic response touched a nerve. “Right, I never asked. How did the Mainline case go last night?”

“It got done. I could be in for a bonus if the hearing goes well, or maybe the office phone is ringing as we speak with someone looking to suspend me. Doesn’t really matter. Nobody else was going to sit around reading the reports all night. I finished it, I’m here. Sorry to deny you a day off.”

“I’d have had to drink the slushie myself.”

Rai slurped the final ice chips out of the pink concoction. “Jumbleberry’s really not bad.”

“And it seemed to put Ayer’s mind at ease a little to have someone to talk to. I’m not sure I’d have been up for meeting him on my own.”

“Yeah. The lone hero of campus justice is a little much, especially first thing in the morning.”

Sao smiled, cooler this time around. “That’s a bit of an exaggeration.”

“I know." Rai set the cup down and pulled his phone over. The picture of the redhead was still open. The last one he’d shown Ayer. “The hero part is up for debate. Did you see him kind of snort when I said the victims were innocent? He’s not the first to suggest these people deserved what happened to them.”

—

The sky above was murky, overrun with thick wooly clouds. It was past nine, well into the morning but there was hardly a patch of daylight to be found. The campus field seemed even emptier than the morning before. Throughout their walk, Sao saw only two students total scuttling across the field. The trees of the Row, colored lights shut off, were once again their dark and somber selves.

He and Rai walked along the length of the Row northward, but outside the tunnel of trees rather than within it. Rai led the way.

“I messaged the organizer for the job fair last week. That was the only major event the day the last girl got bit. The organiser’s name is Tinsel. He or she said they’ll be at the Alumni House all day. Let’s catch them early.”

But they were to be caught out, because the door of the Alumni house was locked and pinned to the door was a typed note: ‘Out for a grocery run!!’

Rai ripped the note down to glare at it, cursed, and struggled to tape it back up.

While he did, Sao stood back, outside the snow-topped front fence, to admire the house. It was a quaint structure of two floors with a sizable yard and a tall wooden shed that might have once been a stable. Sao supposed it easily contained everything needed to host an event as big as the Valentines brunch. The house with its square front and pointed roof was simple in shape and striking in color; deep red brick with black trimmings. Yet, something about the place looked sunny. Above the porch was a huge arched window that must have lit the entire upstairs, when the outside had any light to offer.

Reflected in the window he saw a sea of gold. That was what gave the place its light. He then saw that flecks of the same color were nestled into the snow all around them. Petals.

“The bulletin board by the door said that there’s supposed to be an M Island culture festival here tonight. So I’ll assume Tinsel pointing me here wasn’t a prank. For now.” Rai followed Sao’s gaze to the upper window. “See anyone inside?”

“No. I was just looking at…” Sao thought. “The flowers.”

Rai blinked, shaded his eyes and squinted. “Oh, yeah. In the winter, too? Someone’s taking care of the place.”

The long planter under the semicircular window was brimming with lemon yellow poppies. The place might have looked dark and almost bewitched, but with the snow and the poppies, it was gilded.

Sao was sorry to leave, but consoled by the reassurance (Rai had a ruder word for it) that they’d be back.

—

The Alumni House was at the far northern end of the Row, a place they hadn’t been able to explore yet. Behind the house was a gentle slope, leading down to a shallow artificial valley with a flat rectangular base. A sports field. Walking along the upper edge, there were several trails scratched into the snowy hill leading down to the field like marks from a giant claw.

“Sled tracks,” Rai said. “Ever go sledding at your old school?”

“You mean Wishfort? The nearest hills were a little further than we were allowed to go in the winter.” Sao couldn’t help but feel he’d missed out. “It sounds like you got to enjoy it.”

“Oh, yeah. Races and everything. At my college, we stole trays from the dining hall. They were flimsy plastic and once, one snapped halfway down the hill and ripped a guy’s leg wide open. Works great if you’re a kid, though.”

Sao wasn’t sure that made him feel any better.

They approached one of the more modern buildings on campus. It sported sign that would have made Marsh balk; a lighted metal and plexiglass plate naming the place Fisher Hall, the science and technology building. A large class had just been let out and those on their way elsewhere were streaming through the automatic doors, pulling on their scarves and coats.

Rai looked like he was going to leave them be until one caught his eye. “Hey. Hey, you’re Ayer’s roommate, right?”

Hunched over in his behemoth sweatshirt, it could hardly have been anybody else. Jin froze, less because of Rai’s stare than those of his classmates. “Did you find something?” he said in a voice that may have been shaking from the cold. “You should tell Ayer. This isn’t a good time for me.” He made a show of checking the clock on his phone.

Sao spoke up before Rai could lure more onlookers. “How about later?”

“Maybe. You know, I don’t really know anything. Ayer just asked me to help hold some files for him. That’s all.”

“Any idea what got him interested in the first place?”

“I don’t know anything.” Jin looked up and his eyes shifted towards the hedged path that led to the building’s parking lot. “But if you want someone who does, Zed just went around the back.”

“He’s in your class?”

“Dunno,” Jin mumbled, which didn’t make much sense. But since he’d managed to push all eyes off him, he pulled up his hood and took the chance to retreat. With his ballooning sweatshirt and equally oversized pants, he struggled against the wind coming up the hillside and dragged a wide, noisy trail in the snow as he stumbled off.

They could have caught up with him easily, but Rai had been successfully redirected to Zed, so there was something to be said for Jin’s strategic mind after all.

Sao had not met Zed the previous day, and Rai’s interactions apparently extended to identifying him leaping out of a car, and being ignored by him. They approached the young man with an excess of caution that seemed to annoy him.

“I’m not talking to the cops,” Zed said flatly. He had his laptop open and a thin binder on the bench beside him.

The prospect of an argument with a stranger always gave Rai inexplicable confidence. He relaxed and slouched against the nearby lamppost. “About the picture right? That’s fine. I didn't want to ask you, have there been any medical events on campus recently? Blood drawing? Have you had your blood drawn lately? You know, that might leave a mark…”

Rai gestured vaguely at his own arm, around the inner elbow, in a manner Sao found rather aggressive.

Zed pulled his laptop close as a shield. “Is this some trick to ask me if I went to the hospital? No, there haven’t been any ‘medical events’. And I didn't have to go to the hospital.”

Rai rubbed his chin with his gloved finger. “Did Ace go to the hospital? I heard he was a no-show last night.”

“I don’t know. Probably not. Too bad for him, Happy took a ton of pictures with that big-titted girl who turned up at the Investment Club meet.”

“You weren’t there either. You’re okay just hearing about it secondhand?”

Zed’s face went red. “I don’t need that kind of thing. Bitches aren’t…” He trailed off, pulling his belongings towards him. It wasn’t Rai he was retreating from, but Sao, who had come up beside the bench. “What? Happy probably wouldn’t have let me near her anyway. He and Ace get first dibs.”

“Hm.” Sao cocked his head and smiled. “I think it’s good for you to take precaution, skipping these events after what happened.”

“I just passed out for like 30 minutes, alright? And I got back to my room by the time it happened. Why does everyone act like this is such a big deal? Besides, a bunch of pictures just like mine were posted going way, way back.”

“You walked back to your room?” Sao waited. Zed’s face went crimson but he didn’t speak. “You were the first man to be targeted.”

“It was just a prank, okay! Probably one of the guys. Fuck, for all I know Ace did it because some girl he had his eyes on breathed in my direction once. Or Happy just thought it would be hilarious, I never know what that guy’s thinking.” Zed slammed the laptop closed but his fingers slipped on the plastic binder. It fell to the floor, splaying over Sao’s foot, papers fanning out.

“But Ace himself was targeted,” Rai pointed out.

Sao picked up the folder. The notes were handwritten; an oddly charming touch. “‘Biometric Recognition in Surveillance Camera Data.’ Sounds intriguing.” He read the words again, focusing on the sound and then the appearance of them. He frowned. He was still frowning when the folder was snatched from his hands and shoved into a messenger bag so roughly the cover snapped. The crack of plastic unlocked a chilling thought.

“Surveillance? Sounds almost like the next Chimera Corp project,” Rai commented.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s the dream.”

“What do you mean?”

Zed gingerly checked on the contents of his bag. “Chimera. For guys in the tech track, that’s the best place to be right now. I’ll be pitching the software to them once it’s graded.”

Rai jerked his head toward Sao. “You know, this guy is longtime pals with a Chimera higher-up. He even got one of those staff discount cards from him. A black one.”

“He wouldn’t take kindly to being called my pal,” Sao said. His voice sounded dull and distant and monotonous, a sound on autopilot. Something was taking shape in his mind, a shape made of loops and lines.

Everything was shattered temporarily as a completely silent car entered the parking lot, slipped up beside them like a shadow and slammed its horn. The air shook. Snow was dislodged from the lamppost and hit Rai on the head with a thump. He staggered aside, swearing. Sao felt tears in his eyes and wondered if his eardrums were still intact. Zed, who proved the most robust of them, only closed his eyes.

“Dammit, Happy,” Zed groaned.

The only person in the car was a driver, clad in aviators, a jacket of buttery leather and a smile equal parts brilliant and nasty. Sao recognized him as captain of the Investment Club, though the booklet had presented him without sunglasses, and under his legal name. His colouration and Zed’s were very similar but everything about Happy was more vibrant; his hair gold rather than yellow and skin tinted a healthy peach where Zed ran gray; like he’d siphoned color from his slighter and sulkier friend.

Skogul would have singled him out immediately.

“Talking to the cops, Zed?” Happy laughed. “Way to go.”

“I wasn’t. I… They were wondering what happened to Ace.”

Zed wasn’t nearly so good at misdirection as Jin was, although to be fair, Happy did not appear to be an easy mark. “And did you tell them?” He leered at Rai, and ignored Sao. Or maybe his eyes were upturned behind those dark mirrored glasses. Sao smiled, just in case. “It’s no secret. Ace puked while we were pregaming and passed out. Just as well. Then Rip turned chicken and Zed here–”

“I had to work on my project for a presentation today. You know that.” Zed’s protest was not compelling. Happy drove forward a little to get into his face and barked with laughter.

“Too bad! You missed meeting a real babe.”

“You’re talking about the dean’s girlfriend? Long black hair? She’s a friend of his,” Rai said, nodding toward Sao.

Wincing with betrayal, Zed pawed at the handle of the passenger seat. “They’re messing with us. Let’s just go.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re the one loitering.” Happy unlocked the car door. “Ace is feeling better, by the way. And I have no problem talking to you fine gentlemen if you know who did these terrible things to my friends. My comrades. My brothers. I’ve been telling them to get started on pressing charges.”

“Really?” Rai said.

“It’s all I can do to encourage them.” Happy pouted. “Since I’m never going to be so lucky as to get shitfaced and stripped down myself. I can send any of them under the table. If the shutterbug thinks they can get me with pills or powders, hey, bring it on. Whether it’s a she or a he.”

Zed looked like he wanted to crawl under the tyres.

“Are you on anything now?” Rai asked.

“Playing traffic cop? Test me, by all means.” A tongue came out.

Rai did not move. It was Zed who finally spoke. “Happy, let’s just go.”

With a snicker, Happy pushed the car into gear and slung an arm out the window to check behind him, in preparation for backing out. But when he turned, he saw Sao, with a hand resting on the low roof of his car, light as a moth. Sao leaned down.

“Whore, hooker,” Sao murmured. “Which was it?”

For the first time, Happy’s smile faltered. But only for a second. He slowly continued to reverse. On silent wheels he slid close enough for Sao to see the blazing eyes behind the glasses and smell smoke on his breath and whispered, “Hooker. Someone fucked up.”

“What was that?” Rai had come up next to them.

“Nothing.” Happy chirped. “So, no further questions for today?”

“I do have one,” Rai said, as Sao stepped aside. Rai clubbed his hand down on top of the car hard enough to make the suspension bounce and Happy’s grin flickered for a second time. Sao wanted to laugh, wanted Rai to do it again. But Rai had a different bit of repetition in mind.

“Have you guys attended any medical events lately? A blood drive?”