There was a flutter of unease as Ari crossed the border from Area Two, the research facilities, into Area Nine, the poor residencies. She'd never been in this area before – and had no reason to, either. The buildings were tall here, too, but the windows were dark and unclean. The dirt gave the illusion that people were peering out at her as she landed almost without a sound on the roof. Even the ground beneath her trainers felt different, coarser. The extra friction made her lose energy quicker than in Area Seven and she stopped several metres earlier than she'd planned. Something soft then caught her foot, making her stumble and nearly falling headlong into a pile of boxes. It seemed the impoverished of March City liked to keep their waste on the roof, rather than utilising it as a display of beauty.

Muttering under her breath and picking her way out of the pile of rubbish, Ari orientated herself. Almost all the buildings looked identical, chunky with none of the delicate beauty of Area Seven. With a keen eye, she swept a look down the streets. Unrented pod cars stood still on the road side. After curfew, nobody walked the streets except for patrolling Peacekeepers.

What if they were experimenting on Mina? Rale's voice echoed in the back of Ari's mind. That was a sly move. It was as though he knew exactly where to hit her. But he was right. Shon wasn't going to sacrifice his Peacekeeper career to help her and the Investigators would probably arrest her if she tried to eavesdrop or intrude. Rale was her only chance.

A shiver ran up her spine. Mina was so weak. There was no way she could fight her way out of her captors' hands, either. Experimenting on Users... Ari couldn't even imagine what those scientists were thinking.

A lot of windows in the opposite building still showed activity despite the late hour. Ari rubbed her eyes. She would have been long in bed, but the thought of Mina coming to harm gnawed on her, leaving a heaviness in her chest. She was unused to worrying. The sensation scared her – another wholly alien feeling. She could see students in their rooms, some of them marching back and forth studying papers and others getting up occasionally for a break. Ari frowned; she hadn't realised how hard-working some people were, although they obviously didn't score very high regardless, or they'd have moved out of Area Nine. Fris didn't have much to start with, either, and she earned her way into Area Eight from working three jobs.

The multi-storeyed research facilities stood like an impenetrable glittering wall in the background, towering over the decrepit sooty residential. Streams of colourful light darted across its surface with billions of bytes of messages from all across March City. Area Nine had none of the livelihood or brightness. If not for the still-active residents' lights, the area would be plunged into darkness.

The scientists were all low-ranked impoverished Users, Rale had said. Their old apartments still lay abandoned after the buildings were deemed too unsafe to stay. After evacuation, the administration made repeated plans to rebuild but priority was never given to the poor.

And so the place had stood to rot ever since. Ari spotted the block to which Rale directed her. The entire building was black. Cracked glass windows reflected the little street lights. She stepped off the edge, keeping her feet flat on the rough surface and careful to control the energy loss given the increased friction.

Footsteps reached her ears. She stopped, reaching out both hands to hold her body across the alleyway. The opposite wall was coarse beneath her palms. Ari slowed her breathing, keeping utterly still, her eyes cast downwards.

Two Peacekeepers passed by, barely visible. The black shapes rounded the corner. Their steps disappeared.

Ari gave it another two minutes, her limbs trembling as they strained, before proceeding downwards again.

She hit the road, which was a stretch of darkness interspersed with weak streetlights. Her soft-soled shoes made no sounds, flying across the cracked pavement. There were no teleporters here, to her surprise. But then again, considering how little money the residents have. Most would be walking or cycling.

She didn't dare to light anything, in case she attracted the attention of the Peacekeepers. Clutching the battery necklace with one hand, she neared the abandoned accommodation. Yellow tape stretched across the doorway, criss-crossing with black text displaying "PEACEKEEPERS ONLY. KEEP OUT."

It felt like eyes were on her with every step. She couldn't look behind her. Holding her breath, she ducked under the tape and eased in. Rubble shifted and glass crunched under her feet. The darkness swamped around her, stifling the atmosphere.

She fumbled for the torch in her small bag. Just as she was about to flick it on, a small red light caught her eye.

Security cameras.

Still holding onto the battery necklace, Ari took a running leap. The necklace discharged a little. Electricity coursed through her veins, sending tingles up her left arm and down her right. She reached up, her stomach in her throat.

With a sizzle, the red light switched off. The camera flickered and died. Ari grinned. Watching Fris manipulating electricity two times had given her the basics of electrokinetics and it was just a matter of discharging enough to short-circuit the machine without overloading it into exploding.

Swiping her hand on the torch on landing, white light illuminated the inside of the entrance hall. Ari's jaw dropped. It was like stepping into a cave. Despite March City being a sterile setting with its recycled air, it seemed somehow animals had gotten in. Spider webs – which Ari had until that point only read about in text books – hung from the ceiling like sticky webbings. They made her shiver when they stroked her face. Dark piles of dirt – or were they droppings? – were in the corner. She picked her way through, keeping an eye out for more security cameras.

By the time she reached the end of the hall, she had killed four cameras. She frowned. This area was meant to be abandoned. The tapes would more than ensure no citizens wander into the forbidden area. Crossing a Peacekeeper was a punishable deed. Whatever was the need for this level of security?

It seemed Area Nine could only afford the lifts that were prone to mechanical failure and accidents. The manual doors and buttons, coated in rust and dirt, were very different to the shiny streamlined teleporters Ari was used to. Beside the lifts, a sign indicated the stairs. Most of the researchers lived underground, only able to afford the cheapest flats. Ari's footsteps were light as she descended. The air chilled. Apparently, temperature control was lax in the lower flats too – or perhaps all electricity had been cut off after the residents left.

She didn't dare to touch the hand rails. Rust covered most of the metalwork. Paint peeled from the walls. Thick inches of dust and rubble covered the ground, making her progress slow. There were more security cameras down here. The corridor stretched into the darkness, with doorways punctuating its cracked walls at regular intervals. Ari wondered if the damage already existed when the residents still lived here. So much sand and stones were embedded in the fissures it was hard to imagine this was after only two years of abandonment.

Ari shivered, flicking her torch from side to side. Shadows lurked in the corner, watchful.

She realised now what a fruitless quest Rale had sent her. With nothing but some anonymous tips on where the researchers used to live – with no flat numbers to go with it – she had a lot of ground to cover, and little chance it would yield anything fruitful. Making a face, Ari contemplated leaving. There would be nothing to find in some underground flats of an abandoned block.

Mina's face flashed across her eyes. Anxious eyes gazed imploringly at her. She screamed in silence, tortured, given toxic chemicals. Blank faces recorded the results on clipboards, watching her like an interesting television show. Mina's eyes rolled in her head. Her body inflated before erupting in an explosion of light.

Ari shook her head, wincing. Her imagination was being overactive. It reminded her of the siblings of Users that had disappeared from the explosions. They were all begging people for information, passing out flyers and using credits to spread awareness of their vanished loved ones. Eventually, they would do something illegal in desperation and be arrested or grow silent, tired from the fruitlessness. Ari had found them foolish and impractical at first, when the Investigators were heading the case, but she was beginning to understand their torment. She was in their shoes, now.

She'd have to give it a go. Perhaps there might be a grain of truth in whoever Rale's 'source' was.

Edging a door open, she took a tentative step into one of the rooms. The door swung back with a long squeal. She flashed her torch in. The light bounced off a collapsed single bed and dust-covered cupboards. The room had no windows. Aside from the old-fashioned furniture, there was nothing else in the room.

She went to the next one. Exactly the same, but its roof had caved in. Large chunks of wall filled up most of the space, making any sort of investigating difficult.

The third room seemed to have been cleared in a hurry. The door was knocked down, the closet open. Clothes, half-buried in rubble, scattered the floor. Ari swung her torch, catching something white behind the fallen planks of wood.

Intrigued, Ari moved forward, lowering her torchlight. She knelt and plucked out the pages. The silence made her breathing and heartbeat loud. She brushed off the debris, squinting at the writing. Most of the black ink had faded. Water, likely from broken water pipes overhead, had splashed onto and then dried on the paper, staining it with brown and making the rest of it illegible. Ari made out a few words like 'energy potential' and 'exponential growth'. She swallowed, rising. This was a scientific research paper. A hypothesis, perhaps, or the outline of an experiment. This room belonged to one of the scientists.

Folding it with trembling fingers, she slipped it into her bag. Perhaps Rale could decipher it.

A shuffle outside made her pause. The sound of panting reached her ears.

Was there someone here?

But this place was sealed off. The only people that would come here were Peacekeepers, and it didn't make sense for them to be patrolling this part at this late hour.

Ari swiped her torch, turning the light off and plunging herself into completely blackness. 

Remember to vote!