Xavier got back to the hotel and imdiately walked into the lift.
The lift took him up in silence.
When the door to his room opened, the first thing he saw was Arlen.
She was at the table, slate screens open, cables and adapters spread out like she’d tried three different ways to brute-force the sa locked problem. Her hair was tied back ssily, shoulders tight, eyes locked on the data in front of her, jaw set hard enough that it looked like she’d been clenching it for an hour straight.
She didn’t even look up when Xavier walked in.
Xavier closed the door behind him and stood there for a mont, watching her work.
He wanted to ask her about the progress, but watching her, he already had a guess that she was having a hard ti and probably hadn’t found much.
He could read it in the way she leaned toward the screen, in the way her fingers kept tapping through the sa nus like she was hoping the system would get tired and slip. He could read it in the small pauses where she stopped moving, stared, then started again like she refused to accept the answer she was getting.
He walked over, quiet, and removed his gloves and suit. Arlen still didn’t notice. Her focus was too deep.
Xavier exhaled once through his nose, then made the call.
He pulled his device out, thumb sliding across the interface, selecting a contact that didn’t live on Jupiter and didn’t care about local politics.
Angel.
The holo ring went out.
Once. Twice. Three tis.
When she finally picked up, her hologram stayed dark. Just her voice, rough with sleep and irritation.
"It’s the middle of the night here," Angel muttered. "You have a talent for calling at the worst possible ti, Xavier."
Xavier kept his voice even. "Turn the holo on."
"No," she said imdiately. "I’m not cara-ready."
"Angel."
"I said no."
Xavier leaned back against the wall beside the table, eyes on Arlen, who was still fighting whatever wall she’d hit. "You’re always cara-ready. Turn it on."
He heard her sigh like it physically hurt.
"Okay, fine," she said. "But if I look like a cri scene, that’s on you."
A second later the hologram snapped to life.
Angel appeared sitting up in bed, hair a ss, face bare, eyes half-lidded with exhaustion. A sheet was pulled up to her chest, and she had that look people got when they’d been woken up mid-dream and forced back into reality without warning.
She blinked at the cara, then squinted. "Oh my god. You look like you’re about to sue soone."
Xavier didn’t smile, but the corner of his mouth shifted slightly. "Good to see you too."
Angel yawned, didn’t bother hiding leads. "If this is a social call, I’m hanging up and pretending you never existed."
"It’s not," Xavier said.
"Of course it isn’t." She rubbed her face with one hand and stared at him through the holo like she was trying to decide whether she hated him or admired him. "What is it this ti? You broke sothing expensive? You started a war by accident again?"
Xavier’s gaze flicked to Arlen. "How are you doing?"
Angel paused, like that question had surprised her more than it should’ve.
"I’m alive," she said. "Working. Tired. Trying to pretend my life is normal even though you keep calling from other planets like you’re ordering takeout."
Xavier nodded once. "You eating properly?"
Angel’s eyes narrowed. "Are you checking on right now or is this a setup?"
"Both," Xavier said.
She gave him a look, then smirked despite herself. "I ate. Don’t start acting like you care. It’s creepy."
Xavier finally let a small smile show. "You’re the one who turned the holo on. That’s consent."
Angel scoffed. "Don’t use my words against while I’m half asleep. It’s illegal."
"You wanna see sothing cool?" Xavier asked with a smirk on his face.
"What is it?"
Xavier reached under his mask and took it off, revealing his fully healed face.
"...!" Angel’s eyes widened in surprise. "Is that real?!"
"Of course it is. It’s fully original and even this thin line you are seeing will fade away in a few days. It’s a long story. I will tell you everything so other ti. But for now..." Xavier shifted his weight slightly, voice staying calm. "I need you to pull sothing for ."
Angel’s expression changed imdiately, the sleepiness still there but pushed aside by focus. "Yeah. There it is. I knew you didn’t call to ask about my diet."
Xavier kept the holo steady as Angel shifted against her pillow, the sleep still clinging to her but no longer in control.
"I already know why you’re asking," she said. "You’re late to this part."
Xavier frowned slightly. "Late to what part?"
"The bounty," Angel replied. "On Lyra. On Reva’s group. It’s everywhere outside your bubble."
Xavier’s eyes flicked once, subtly. "I didn’t see anything."
"Of course you didn’t," Angel said. "You’re in Helior Pri. Everything there is filtered, sanitized, curated. If sothing doesn’t serve the families or the corporations, it doesn’t exist."
She shifted again, pushing herself more upright. "But everywhere else? Your fans are losing their minds. Campaigns, protests, boycotts. They’re hamring anyone tied to the bounty, calling Kylus a butcher. Lyra and Reva are their favorites. People don’t forget that."
Xavier absorbed that quietly. "I didn’t expect that kind of reaction."
Angel snorted. "You don’t expect a lot of things when you’re sitting at the center of the storm. Cos with the position."
He nodded once, then asked, "Did Viola reach out to you after the bounty went live?"
Angel shook her head. "No. And that’s probably a good thing."
Xavier looked at her more closely. "Explain."
"If they’d contacted you or ," Angel said, "it would an they’d run out of options. Last resort. People don’t burn their safest lines unless they’re cornered."
She paused, letting that sink in. "The fact that they haven’t reached out ans they’re still moving. Still in control."
Xavier leaned back slightly, tension easing just enough to notice. "So you can’t track them?"
Angel t his gaze. "I won’t," she said plainly. "And I shouldn’t. If they want to be found, they’ll decide when. Until then, silence is safety."
She gave him a tired look. "Trust that. If they were in real danger, you’d already know."
Xavier held the silence for a mont, then nodded. "Alright."
Angel exhaled, so of the edge leaving her shoulders. "I’ll keep my eyes open anyway. Quietly. But you don’t want to pull on threads they’re deliberately avoiding."
"Understood," Xavier said.
Angel shifted on her bed, eyes narrowing like sothing had just clicked. "Can you access my custom hover from where you are?"
Xavier frowned slightly. "The hover is on Earth. I left it with you."
Angel shook her head. "I loaded it onto the ship with Reva and the others before they left. I didn’t tell you because you were already juggling enough disasters."
Xavier straightened a little. "Did you give them access? Keys. Passcodes. Anything."
"No," Angel said. "And I’m guessing they didn’t try forcing it either. You wired that thing like a paranoid god. One wrong interference attempt and it turns into a very expensive fireball."
"That’s intentional," Xavier replied.
"Obviously," Angel said. "Which is why it still matters."
Xavier watched her through the holo. "Then why ask about it?"
Angel leaned closer to the cara, sleepiness finally gone. "Because the hover isn’t just a vehicle. Every system in it is custom. Navigation stack, sensors, internal sh, passive listeners. It runs like a distributed node that talks to my tools. Server on my side, client on yours. If it’s powered and moving anywhere on Jupiter, I can make it whisper."
Xavier stayed quiet, letting her continue.
"I can piggyback its sensors onto Jupiter’s transit layers," Angel said. "Traffic grids, environntal monitors, low-level city infrastructure. I can slide through gaps most systems don’t bother watching. It won’t be clean and it won’t be fast."
She paused, then added, "It’s like searching for a needle that keeps changing shape inside a haystack that never ends. I can’t brute-force every street, every district, every country. Jupiter’s too big."
Xavier’s eyes shifted slightly as the angle locked into place. "Then bring the car to Helior Pri."
Angel blinked once. "You think they’re headed there?"
"They are," Xavier said. "They wouldn’t stay outside forever, and Helior Pri is the only place that erases pursuit instead of slowing it."
Angel nodded slowly. "If the hover enters Helior Pri’s transit envelope, my odds improve. The city’s control layers overlap. Patterns tighten. People stop being invisible."
"Do it," Xavier said. "Once the car is there, you’ll have sothing solid to pull on."
Angel sighed, then smiled despite herself. "The things I do for you."
Xavier tilted his head. "For them."
She rolled her eyes. "Keep telling yourself that."
The holo flickered as she cut the connection, leaving Xavier standing in the quiet room while Arlen worked behind him, unaware that one more thread had just been tied back into the hunt.
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