Tomlee awoke in a chair, his body sore. He groaned and reached up to rub his eyes. His hand was halted abruptly.

“What the…” he looked down to see his hands firmly chained to a metal table. His hologram bracelet was missing, and his chair was bolted to the ground.

Wide awake now, he was greeted with a dark room save for one overhead light. A classic interrogation room.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a red camera light blink on. He heard a door open and two sets of footsteps enter. From the dark came a man and a woman. Not until they had pulled up chairs and sat down in the light did Tomlee get a good look at their faces.

Both were older than he, maybe in their mid-twenties. They wore matching dark blue Lucasta Police uniforms. From their similar facial features, Tomlee guessed they were related. Light skin, pale blue eyes, and blonde hair. Both carried clipboards, a serious expression, and a uniform name tag that read ‘Dawes’.

“Tomlee J. Wallace,” the woman started, flipping through her clipboard pages. “Nineteen years old. Born in Lucasta Hospital. Your mother, Helen Wallace. Father unknown. No known siblings. No criminal record.” She looked up. “Yet you had the audacity to rob the Lucasta First Bank.”

Tomlee was silent.

She went on. “Says here you had an accomplice who fled the scene after fighting police. He was identified as Julian Wire.” Her eyes narrowed. “I doubt you were the only two involved. Who else was with you?”

Tomlee shrugged and lied, “Just us.”

“Oh?” the man spoke. “That’s interesting. There were no signs of the stolen steel, and there was a hole blown in the Vault floor. Care to explain?”

The man’s face carried the look of impatience and mild disgust. Tomlee disliked him immediately.

Tomlee spoke carefully, an idea forming. “Both of us made our way out of the bank with the steel. The bank exploded --we didn’t do that by the way-- and a girl came by and knocked us out.”

The man scoffed, “You expect us to believe a girl came by, blew a hole in the bank, and stole the steel?”

Tomlee ignored him and instead spoke to the woman, “She knocked us out with some kind of gas. She said she was on the Wanted List.”

Although it wasn’t the whole truth, both interrogators glanced at one another at the mention of the List. The woman nodded and left the room, leaving Tomlee with the man.

“What was the reason for robbing the bank?” the man asked with crossed arms.

“Needed the money.” That much was true. Not everyone was as well off as the nobles in Lucastan society. If everyone was, Rhust wouldn't exist.

The man flipped through his clipboard with an unbelieving expression, “I ask because something important was stolen.” He slid a photograph across the table. “Recognize it?”

Tomlee leaned over to get a better look. The photo was of a black metallic card the same size as a playing card. On it was the inscription of a small silver rectangle.

He shook his head. “No.” Did Aleksandr know? “What is it?”

“So you don’t know what it is?”

“I’ve never seen it in my life. Maybe the girl took it.”

The man frowned and took the photograph back. “If you’re lying…”

The sound of an opening door interrupted him, and the woman entered the light again. This time she carried a thick notebook with her. Upon sitting down she opened it, “Describe the girl.”

The notebook was the Wanted List of Lucasta, and Tomlee felt a bit of anticipation as it was set before him.

He started with the description, “I couldn’t see her face, but she had light brown hair and...light brown eyes I think.”

“What was she wearing?” the man asked.

“A suit,” Tomlee responded. “And a gas mask.”

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The man wrote something on his clipboard and the woman turned pages in the Wanted List before pushing it towards Tomlee.

“This her?” she asked, pointing to a page.

Tomlee leaned forward, focusing on a picture of two people standing in front of a suspect wall. Both held a sign reading “Crowe.” Tomlee identified the girl instantly. In the picture, she was grinning, dressed in casual clothing. Although her face had been covered by a gas mask, Tomlee had no trouble recognizing her from her brown hair and bright eyes. She was surprisingly attractive. “That’s her.” He glanced briefly at the other suspect in the picture and nearly choked.

It was Aleksandr.

“Something wrong?” the man asked.

Tomlee tore his eyes from the page and held the man’s gaze as steadily as he could. “No...who are they?”Aleksandr never told me he was Wanted, but I guess it makes sense.

“These are the Crowe twins.” the woman said. “Wanted for various crimes, but our Intelligence has reason to believe that they are after objects of greater importance.” She tapped the photograph of the black card. “This is one of them.”

The clueless expression on Tomlee’s face prompted the woman to continue. “There are four of these, known as the Black Cards, or the Cards of the Lake.”

“Why are they important?”

The woman slipped the photograph into her clipboard. “That’s classified.”

The man snorted. “Not that it really matters.” He stared Tomlee down. “Where you’re going, no one’s going to hear from you anytime soon.”

Tomlee swallowed, trying to calm the anxious knot forming in his chest. Now that he had admitted to at least trying to rob the bank, he knew full well where he would be headed: The Lucasta Prison.

Since the time when Lucasta was first formed as a city, there needed to be a place to harbor people who had broken the law. With security and walls higher and more advanced than the Lucasta Bank, the prison was huge. It lay between Lucasta and the Wasteland, and Tomlee was unsure if there was even a way to break in or out. Worser still, he wouldn’t know anyone inside.

“We will further our investigation into Qwin Crowe, the girl you spoke of,” the woman said. “If she is involved, it would be…quite troublesome.”

The interrogators seemed satisfied with the information they had gleaned from Tomlee, and rose to leave. No doubt they would continue searching for answers concerning the matter.

Guards came in and unshackled Tomlee before roughly dragging him to his feet. Not soon after, they slapped a pair of cuffs on his wrists. They were tight, bound together by a crackling line of energy. His ankles received the same treatment.

He was led out of the room into the Lucasta Police Department. There, for the next twenty minutes, his fingerprints were scanned over with a laser and several pictures of him were taken. No doubt if he managed to escape Lucasta Prison those pictures would be placed in the Wanted List.

He let his thoughts drift to Aleksandr. Had he been after the Black Card the whole time? Why hadn't he told Tomlee about it?

Tomlee thought he had known Aleksandr. They had gone to the same school when they were young. Although Tomlee had grown up in the heart of Lucasta, he had taken a liking to the blond-haired boy from Rhust. They had formed a friendship, but Tomlee was starting to think that Aleksandr’s life of crime extended a lot deeper than he had originally thought.

He was jarred from his thoughts as the guards grabbed him and escorted him to an armored hover-van outside. There, they opened the back door and threw him inside.

He landed with a grunt, and the heavy metal door was shut behind him and locked. With some trouble, he managed to regain his footing.

Light barely made it through the van’s bullet and laser-proof windows, but when his eyes adjusted, he saw he wasn’t alone.

Sitting on the metal benches lining the interior’s walls, were three men bound in hand and ankle cuffs similar to his. Two looked older than him by about five years, with dark skin and braided hair. The third man was short, clean-shaven, and muscular. His lighter face was set in a scowl.

One of the darker-skinned men laughed. “An’ I thought we were done makin’ introductions!”

Tomlee found a seat as the van started moving forward.

The short man spoke. “Ya look a little young tuh be in here.”

It wasn’t meant as an insult, but Tomlee stayed silent. He was never one to easily make conversation with strangers. Especially ones that were possible criminals.

“We’re not gonna ask ya what ya did,” the dark-skinned man who had originally spoken said. He gestured to the short man first, and then to the other man with the braided hair. “His name’s Dean, an’ this is Travis. I’m Fraser.”

Tomlee nodded. “Tomlee.”

“Pleased tuh meet ya,” Fraser replied amiably.

Dean frowned. “So yuh gonna plead guilty, Tomlee?”

Tomlee shifted uncomfortably. It wasn’t a polite question. Travis and Fraser rolled their eyes, as if they knew where this was going.

Without waiting for a response, the stocky man continued. “Well I’m not gonna. I was accused of murder, an’ I didn’t even do nothin’!”

Tomlee had no choice but to wait as the man’s rant carried on.

As he did so, Tomlee’s mind wandered. He had no choice but to plead guilty. Hopefully, the severity of his sentence would be lessened, but he was sure armed robbery would get him at least ten years. Coupled with that would be the penalty for the civilians that were injured.

Before long, the van glided to a stop. Dean trailed off as the doors were opened.

There were more guards now as they were taken and escorted into a squat, solid building. A few passerbys looked at them, no doubt wondering what they had done.

Tomlee forced himself to stare straight ahead, his jaw set. He looked at the others from the corner of his eye.

Fraser was nonchalant, as was Travis. They were the type that let nothing get to them. Dean, on the other hand, looked the most nervous. He was breathing heavily, and a bead of sweat could be seen at his temple.

The building opened up into a large room filled with chairs. At the very front, a judge sat behind a podium. It was nowhere near as fancy looking as a Courtroom, but that didn’t matter to Tomlee. This was where his sentence would be decided.