The speed rail to Denmark would only take about one hour and to pass the time Elias and the twins played a game. The rules were simple, the one that told the best background story for the other passengers on the rail won.

But as Elias was about to tell his backstory for an older lady they were interrupted by a news broadcast that took over every screen display on the speed rail. This was something that rarely happened and they thought that something bad must have happened.

“At about 09:00 today a young man lost his life in the district of France, he was staying at the Molinaré hotel. It is said that he fell from his balcony and the guards have yet not ruled out murder.”

The trio just stared at the displays in chock. The murder was not something that was unheard of but it was rare. And now when they were about to leave their home district they all felt uneasy about it.

Ella and Freja started to whisper about something and Elias wondered if they have been spared from the harsh world. In the slums, people died all the time from sickness, prototype testing or just harsh conditions. And to be honest prototype testing should be viewed as murder by vanity.

Sure, people signed up for them willingly but that was just because they needed money for their family.

“Is France part of our travel plan?”

Freja asked when the screen displays returned to show the scenery. But Elias didn't have time to answer before Ella said.

“It is, but I think it's like the fourth stop or something like that.”

“Do you think it will be safe then?”

Elias thought about the last question for a while, surely they would have caught the murderer by then. Guards are effective and get help from the system to catch murderers and they still haven't ruled out suicide yet. But Ella reached the same conclusion as Elias and answered Freja that it should be safe by then and that it probably was just a suicide.

Apparently, the suicide rates had raised since the whole soulmate thing. They had talked about that in Elias school. Something about that before people found their soulmates they were a little happy with life but now they find pure happiness and when one of the pair dies the other doesn't see the point of living. They even said that suicide was bad for the world and a person that committed the act was a shame for every factory worker that had to cover the workload of one missing worker.

The speed rail comes to a slow stop and they called out that they had arrived in the district of Denmark. So the trio left the rail behind them and stepped out on the small plaza outside of the station. Elias had thought that Denmark would look totally different from Sweden but it looked almost the same, even the people looked the same. Small streets and old buildings surrounded the plaza and the smell of newly baked bread lingered in the air.

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“So should we eat or find a place to rent bicycles first?”

Ella asked while peering at the old buildings as they walked down one of the small cobblestone streets.

“Can't we just stop and get something to drink first, this heat is killing me”

Freja answered her sister and Elias saw that they both looked hot so he pointed to a small open-air-café. The twins happily went into the small house to buy some drinks and Elias sat down at an empty table. This felt so strange to him, leisurely sitting at a café waiting for a cold drink.

The twins came out with a tray with glasses full of a dark liquid and ice, it looked so good in the heat.

While they sat there in the shade and enjoying their cold drinks Ella took up her displaycom and Freja just told Elias what they would do at the festival. Music, dance and tons of food stands.

“I think we should rent bicycles here”

Said Ella after a while and pointed on a map on her discom and Elias tried to understand why that was the best place and why Ella had chosen that place.

“You see, they rent point-to-point. That way we don't need to get the bicycles back to the same store when we leave again”

Freja nodded in agreement to what Ella had said like it was she that had said it all along. And Elias agreed that it sounded like a good plan, happy not having to deal with the hassle of keeping the bikes safe while enjoying a festival with a couple of hundred people.

So they decided to drink up and head over to the bike store and start the journey but they had to walk for a bit and Elias still had cramps in his legs so it took them a while to get there.

In true Ella fashion, she was ahead of to other two. Where did she get her energy from?

“Shouldn't we be more cautious, they did warn us about robbers stealing codes right?”

Elias asked Freja that kept the same tempo as him and he hoped that is was out of friendship and not pity.

“I think we can be at ease”

She answered and gave him a questioning look and then continued.

“Robbers would not target a group of people in the middle of the open street in broad daylight, isn't that a recipe to get caught?”

“But still...”

“Elias, you are such a mother hen”

Freja quickened her pace to catch up with her sister but turned around to stick her tongue out at him and then gave him a big smile. When the girl was together they burst out in laughter and Elias felt that the whole mission of keeping them safe and all that would be a hard endeavor.

They were almost at the store and just had to cross a small grove to get there. To Elias, the small grove felt like a wide and scary forest as he could not see anything but trees as they entered. It took them about ten minutes before they saw any sign of civilization again and the whole thing had made Elias feel uneasy like someone was watching him from behind every tree there was. A perfect spot to rob someone he thought to himself as they came out from the forest and out on a small paved street.

But he could clearly see a line of people standing outside a small red house with a bicycle sign that said: “Best wheel” and the twins hurried to line up.

Apparently, there were many people going out to the festival and Elias hoped that there would still be some bikes left when it was their turn. He did not want to walk all the way there, or rather his legs would not make it there.

“I'm sorry girls, we only have two tandem bikes left”

The clerk informed them when they finally got to the end of the line. This would not have been a problem if there had been more people in line but no one had entered the long line after the trio.

“But if you wait for a short while I am sure that someone will come wanting to rent a bike and then you can share?”

The twins agreed to wait and they went outside to wait for someone to appear. This way they would save some money at least even if Elias wanted to get there and rest before the festival started.

“So how long do you think it will take before someone gets here?”

He asked and before any of the girls could answer him there where a rustle in the bushes at the edge of the grove. A boy appeared in dirty clothes and a grim expression and he looked determined to destroy anything in his path.