"Let me get this straight," Jack said as he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "You've been talking to some mysterious person in Information Room 5. You and them have been trying to figure out why what happened to the Reactor Club and Alex happened."

Victor nodded.

"Victor, how do you know you can trust this person?" Lucas said, brushing a strand of blonde hair out of his eyes. Frank was silent, watching Victor with a blank expression.

"Alex trusted him. That's good enough for me," Victor said, shrugging.

"It could be a trick by the A.I." Jack said. "Hell, it could be Roger for all you know. I don't think contacting this 'Najar' is a good idea right now."

Victor tried not to get frustrated. Time was of the essence. He needed to get that information to Najar as quickly as possible.

"Alright, Jack. What if I prove it doesn't matter?" he said.

Lucas leaned against the maintenance room wall. "How do you intend to do that?"

"It doesn't matter if it's the A.I." Victor said simply.

Everyone in the room exchanged glances.

"Wanna run that by us again, Vic?" Jack said.

"If it is the A.I., then it already knows what I'm up to. If it was going to put me in the box for it, then it already would have."

"Hunh. That's actually not a bad point. Alright. Give me the cube and I'll see to it that this mysterious Najar gets the information on it."

Victor took the cube out of his pocket and handed it to Lucas.

"Okay. Meeting adjourned. Now how about that pee break?" Jack said, laughing.

Jack went ahead to make sure the hallway was relatively clear. It was getting late and the students were beginning to turn in for the night. Victor walked through the hall in his jacket, which Lucas had gotten for him. It was odd how life on Nexus seemed to proceed as usual. Frank took the rear, staying behind to make sure no one snuck up on them. Lucas walked next to Victor.

Jack whistled suddenly. Victor and Lucas walked over to the large class windows and pretended to star watch. Behind them Victor could hear the rolling wheels of several drones and two voices.

"How the hell is he able to hide?" It was Roger's voice. "We need to find him, and soon."

"How long have we got?" It was T.J.'s voice.

"I don't know. Not long. He didn't sound patient." There was something that Victor didn't expect to hear in Roger's voice. Fear.

"Well, he can't hurt us anyway, not until--"

"Shh!" Roger sounded desperate to stop T.J. from finishing that sentence.

"It doesn't matter. If he keeps hiding then his scores will drop so low that he'll be put in suspension."

Their voices faded further down the hall. That had been close. Victor wondered what Roger and T.J. were talking about and why they seemed so scared, but decided that it was something to discuss when he was safe.

They reached the bathroom. Victor showered and changed clothes. If they weren't smart enough to have someone guard the bathroom, then they wouldn't be smart enough to check if the clean clothes the service machinery left in his locker had been taken. When he was cleaned up and had relieved himself they headed back the way they had come.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"You're gonna have to sleep in the vents until this gets all cleared up, Vic. I'm sorry," Lucas said.

Victor nodded. He had expected as much and wasn't looking forward to it.

"We'll see if we can't get you some blankets and a spare pillow tomorrow. Good luck, man," Jack said as they kept watch while he entered the vents. He wished that he could go to the meeting in the Information Room, but it was simply too dangerous.

He sat on the vent maintenance room floor and lay on his back. Victor felt utterly useless as he stared at the ceiling. There had to be something he could do, something that he could contribute. As it was, he was stuck in the underbelly of the school.

The underbelly of the school...

That made Victor think. Where else did the vents lead? Surely the entrance from the cafeteria and the one in the hall that they had used to go to and from the bathroom weren't the only ones. Victor doubted he would get much sleep anyway, and in the coming days knowing other ways through the school might become critical.

There were four shafts that were large enough to crawl comfortably in that were connected to the room he was currently in. Which should he explore first? After a while he decided to explore other turns in the one that normally lead to the mess hall. At the split, one fork lead to the vent behind the food line. The other went elsewhere.

Victor followed it and eventually came to the dorms. Everyone was sleeping. Not particularly useful. He thought about trying to make his way to the Information Room, but discarded the idea. It was just too far to crawl, and the likelihood of getting lost was too high.

Victor heard the sound of talking in the vents. He realized that someone was having a conversation in one of the ansible booths. The booths were normally sound proof. That meant the only reason he could hear talking was because the vents were connected to the booths. As he searched for the vent opening in the ansible booth he began to wonder if the same idea had occurred to anyone else.

"...one knows, man. I swear."

It was Roger's voice. He could see Roger's legs from where the vent was located underneath the small table attached to the wall. Victor could hear the sound of someone else talking, but couldn't make out the words.

"I haven't said your name," Roger said.

The voice on the ansible said something else. It sounded agitated.

"I know, I know. I'm doing my best. I've got people looking for him. No one has really realized about the ansibles, yet. There were some attempts to call for help, but who cares? Any help is light years away--"

The voice on the ansible seemed extremely agitated. Though he couldn't hear what it was saying, it sounded familiar.

"You don't need to do that, man," Roger pleaded. "I'll get the fucker. Give me another day and everything can proceed as planned. Smooth as butter, you'll see."

Victor heard the ansible switch off. Roger sighed heavily. "Talk to me that way, asshole. I'm not afraid of you." He kicked his chair over and left the ansible booth.

Victor smirked. The trip had been well worth it. The next time he met with the group, he'd have something interesting to contribute to the conversation.