“Are you sure it’s Tek?” Grit asked for roughly the fifteenth time in the last minute, causing Cassia to grind her teeth in annoyance. She was struggling to figure out how to move the ship they’d stolen. Or rather, the ship they were trying to steal. She didn’t have time to help Grit with his emotions.

“I’m not sure,” she said, proud that she’d managed to at least address his question. “I am, however, mostly sure that this ship doesn’t have jumping capabilities.” Grit looked over at her from the passenger seat. His shoulders were slumped forward awkwardly. Apparently the IPF didn’t have officers as large as Grit.

“So maybe Tek isn’t orchestrating some grand plan, then,” he said. Cassia looked at him questioningly, and he shrugged. Or, at least, tried to.

“She would’ve given us a jumper, right?” he asked simply. Cassia considered that, but then shook her head.

“I don’t know that she would’ve,” she said slowly. “Maybe she’s trying to push us to do something else here on Earth-1. Or maybe she doesn’t have enough pull to get us a better ship.” She saw Grit suddenly stiffen in his seat.

“I think we need to leave now,” he said when she glanced at him, then he pointed out the window where an IPF officer was approaching with a confused look on his face. Cassia looked at the dash display and saw that she’d missed another ship pull in behind her. She swore under her breath and Grit immediately buckled his seatbelt.

“Guess we can jump later?” he asked. In response, Cassia punched the accelerator. The ship rocketed forward, and the approaching IPF officer leapt backwards in surprise. Cassia could see him on her display as he raced towards his ship, shouting into his communicator. Grit sighed in the passenger seat and Cassia frowned at him as she yanked the vehicle around a sharp turn.

“What?” she asked. “You would’ve preferred I sit there, answer the officer’s questions, and then get re-arrested?”

“No,” Grit said in a gloomy tone. “But it would be nice to have a break from being on the run at some point.

“Yeah, well, when we save the multiverse you can go ahead and settle down with your girlfriend and make purple children together.” Grit looked out the window and Cassia immediately regretted her comment.

“I’m sorry, I just -” suddenly there was a crackle from the speaker on the dash that almost caused Cassia to leap out the window.

“Grit? Cassia?” a familiar voice said through the radio. Grit immediately swung back around in his seat.

“Tek?” he asked.

“Hello, Mr. Patterson,” Tek replied, with a note of fondness in her voice. Cassia rolled her eyes. She didn’t have time to reply, though, because her dashboard display beeped to warn her of an impending collision. Checking the monitor, she noticed that the pursuing IPF ship had crept up behind her. Apparently the other driver had authorization to damage the stolen vehicle.

“You should be aware that the IPF has issued authorization to damage your vehicle, if that’s what it takes to stop you,” said Tek’s crackly voice through the radio. The ship behind bumped the back of theirs, throwing them forward against their restraints.

“No shit,” Cassia muttered, scanning the dash. “Does this old bucket go any faster.”

“I’m afraid it does not,” Tek replied. “It’s tough to work remotely, so you’re just going to have to make do.”

“So it was you who was helping us,” Grit stated. There was a pause before Tek replied.

“I’m sure I have no idea what you are talking about, Mr. Patterson, and my official advice to you is to pull over and turn yourselves in to the IPF.” Cassia sighed inwardly. Even from a distance the detective was able to frustrate her. Grit smiled, though, because of course he did. The ship bumped them from behind again, a little harder, and Cassia swore under her breath.

“Should we, um, do something?” Grit asked, and Cassia almost punched him.

“I’m doing it,” she growled. “One more second…” The road they were on was just a feeder road, albeit a large one. She’d spotted the turnoff for the mainway up ahead, and had initially planned to avoid it in the hopes that surface streets would be easier to hide on. But now that she had a tail that was faster than her, it was time to improvise.

“Hold on!” she managed to call out as she yanked the steering controls to the right, just as the ship behind moved forward to nudge her again. The old IPF flyer shot towards the rapidly disappearing mainway ramp, clipping a wheeled vehicle on the way by. Cassia watched with satisfaction as the pursuing ship attempted to follow, only to ram nose first into the guardrail. There was silence for a moment as the ship flew down the mainway, until Tek finally cracked back through the speaker.

“That is going to cost the IPF a lot of money,” she said, though Cassia thought she detected a surprising amount of amusement.

“Sorry,” she said, shrugging at Grit. “Where do you want us to go?” There was another long moment of silence from Tek, and for a moment Cassia thought that maybe she’d lost the connection.

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“Why would I want you to -” Tek finally started to say, and Cassia groaned loudly.

“Cut the crap, Detective!” she said forcefully. “We know you had a hand in this. The second you talked to us on the radio you confirmed it.” Tek gave a crackly sigh.

“I am one of the few in the IPF who believe in the Varynnic line, and the Eldest, having anything to do with the holding together of the multiverse.” Cassia stifled her gasp, and felt her face grow pale.

“You may remember I mentioned this to you when I apprehended you,” Tek continued, though Cassia could barely hear her beyond the rushing noise in her ears. Tek was still talking, she thought, and she saw Grit glance over at her.

“Are you ok?” he asked worriedly, his gruff voice snapping her attention back to the present. She jerked the ship to the side to avoid another vehicle and forced herself to be calm.

“I’m fine,” she said tersely. “I’m sorry, Detective, could you repeat that?” The detective sighed again.

“I said, I have found evidence, or about as close to evidence as you could expect to find, concerning the location of something called the Weft. I gather from that noise you just made that you know of such a thing.” Cassia kicked herself for making a sound out loud and giving away any sort of information to Tek.

“Please stay on the road,” Grit said in his gravelly voice. She paused for a moment to roll her eyes at him and then focused back on Tek, as she maneuvered back into the correct lane.

“What do you know about the Weft?” Cassia asked, keeping an eye on a vehicle in her monitor that she thought maybe had been behind them before.

“I’d love to ask you the same thing,” Tek said. “I’m sending you some coordinates now for the location of my source.” Cassia was fairly certain Tek was still talking, but the vehicle she’d been watching had now sped up to exactly level with her. She glanced out the side window and saw a visored face looking back at her, with a small green lightning bolt across the side.

“Bounty hunters!” she shouted. “Why now?” She watched the man raise a weapon and point it towards her, lowering his window, and she yanked the steering controls to the right. The ship lurched away, narrowly avoiding other vehicles on the mainway. Grit shouted in alarm. Tek was still talking on the speaker.

“Sorry, Detective, I’m a bit busy right now,” Cassia grunted. “Got a bounty hunter on our ass.” The bounty hunter had rapidly followed her jolt into another lane. Cassia cranked the ship up to maximum speed, zipping in and out of lanes to dodge traffic, but the bounty hunter stayed directly on her tail.

“Grit, you’re going to have to shoot him,” she said as the ship blasted around a large hovercraft of gaping tourists. Cassia pulled a small weapon from her waistband and handed it to him.

“But this is just a stunner,” he said. “It won’t do anything to the ship.” Cassia glared at him.

“I know that,” she said, biting off the words. “You’re going to have to shoot through the open window. I know you can shoot, so don’t make excuses and get the job done, soldier!” Grit frowned at that last bit, but then he unbuckled and tried to squeeze behind her to aim out the driver’s side window.

“What are you doing?” she asked. “Get over there on your side, you idiot!” Then she rolled down the passenger window. Grit blushed, which was surprising, and rolled back into his seat before taking a ready position.

“Brace yourself,” Cassia muttered, then smashed the brakes. The ship lurched to a stop, and the bounty hunter behind her went flying by, narrowly avoiding slamming into the back of them. He quickly flipped the ship around and came back, dodging traffic going the opposite way. Cassia jammed the thruster forward again and the ships raced towards each other.

“This is it, Grit!” she shouted. “One chance!” At the last second, she veered to her left, and the bounty hunter went flying by. She was fairly certain she’d heard the electric sizzle from the gun, but she wasn’t sure until she saw the ship hit the mainway wall at full speed in her rear monitor. Cars and ships frantically dodged the wreckage, quickly jumbling up into a tangled mess. Cassia smiled.

“Well done, soldier,” she said, patting Grit on the arm. He tried to maintain his stoic look, but she could see he was proud.

“I assume you’ve lost the bounty hunter?” Tek cracked from the radio. Cassia jumped. She’d forgotten the detective was still there.

“Yes. Your boyfriend here is a good shooter, Detective.” There was a long pause on the radio, and Cassia couldn’t smother her grin. Grit shifted uncomfortably next to her.

“Well done. I expect the bounty hunters are monitoring the IPF radios somehow. I’ll have to look into it later.” Tek continued as if she hadn’t heard Cassia. “Did you get the coordinates?”

Cassia studied the monitors for a moment before noticing a flashing light in the bottom corner of the main screen. She tapped the icon. There was an electronic beep and then a map displayed on the screen.

“Looks like it,” she said to Tek. “Where are we headed?” She waited for a response, but there was nothing besides a few random bursts of static.

“Detective?” she asked, then looked over at Grit. He looked worried, which was no longer surprising. She briefly wondered why he was so insistent on hiding his feelings towards the detective.

“Tek?” Grit called, leaning towards the speaker. There was a loud static burst, and he jumped back.

“I’ve got to go,” Tek’s voice said, sounding strained and out of breath. “Follow those coordinates. I’ll try to meet you there, or contact you another way.” Another burst of static obscured any other words she may have said. Cassia tapped the speaker.

“Detective? Where are you sending us? Why should we do what you want us to?” she asked, irritated to find that she wanted to follow the detective’s orders.

“Just…to find the Weft. We’re all…the same…here…or not.” Tek said, static going in and out of the speaker and making her sentence almost incomprehensible. Cassia looked at Grit, who shrugged.

“Tek, are you ok?” he asked. There was a pause, then another large burst of static before a moment of clarity.

“Don’t worry about me, Mr. Patterson. Just get to those damn coordinates!”

“Where are you sending us?” Cassia asked again, still unsure she should just follow Tek blindly. In response she received rapid bursts of static before one sentence made it through.

“His name is Elias Thorn.”