He'd spent the last few days in a maintenance tunnel three blocks from the apartment, curled against a humming pipe that kept him warm enough to survive.

  Sleep came in fragments, twenty minutes here, thirty there, always broken by footsteps, imagined sounds or the memory of falling.

  On the morning of their arrival, he went back to the apartment building.

  He took the stairs this time, eleven floors of careful ascent, and paused at the door.

  “If they're smart, they left someone. If they're smarter, they left something,” he thought as he entered and swept the room with his eyes.

  The room was empty but he noticed that the furniture was slightly different from how he left them. He decided to wait at the apartment door.

  An hour later, he heard them before they arrived, the hiss opening of the elevator inside the pod room.

  Bella entered first. Then Anna. Then Mary.

  They stopped when they saw him standing there, one foot already in the hallway.

  "Come outside," Roman said.

  Bella turned. "What?"

  "Outside. Now. Don't ask questions."

  They exchanged glances, and followed him.

  He led them to the lobby.

  “They came searching for me a few days back, and nearly caught me. They had guns,” he said as he scanned the surrounding.

  Bella's face went pale. "That's, that's illegal. Inspectors cannot—"

  "They're not inspectors anymore. They're hunters. And hunters make their own rules."

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Anna stared at Mary. "The V'keth leadership... they authorized this?"

  "Someone did. Someone with enough power to override your precious laws." Roman said. "The question is how high it goes."

  Mary's voice was barely a whisper. "All the way?"

  "You're not safe here. Any of you. If they're willing to break their own laws, they're willing to do worse." He pulled out the tablet, the one Mary had given him. "I have a plan. But it requires trust."

  Anna stepped forward. "Tell us."

  Roman handed her the tablet.

  "Aethryx. The AI. You need to contact it today, and tell it to build the app exactly as I've outlined. The platform for Trabs to connect, to share, to find each other. Let it grow organically. Don't force it. Don't control it. Just... let it exist."

  Mary took the tablet, her hands trembling slightly. "And then?"

  "And then it spreads. Through families, through communities, through the cracks in your perfect society." Roman paused. "By the time they notice, it'll be too late to stop."

  "We can do this," Anna said.

  "Today." Roman's voice sharpened. "Not tomorrow. Not next week. Today. You two don't have much time. They'll come for you eventually."

  Bella spoke for the first time in minutes. "What about me? Why am I not going?"

  Roman met her gaze. "You stay with me."

  "For what?"

  "For now, you only need to listen." His voice softened, just slightly. "You'll understand later. We're not in a good position. For all we know, they're already on their way."

  Anna and Mary exchanged a look. Then Anna stepped forward and hugged Bella. Mary joined them.

  They cried into her shoulders while she stood frozen, her own eyes tearing up.

  Then, slowly, they pulled away.

  Mary wiped her face. Anna steadied her breathing. They looked at Roman and hugged him too.

  He stiffened for a moment, surprised, then relaxed and held them back.

  He then pulled back and looked at them. "This might be the last time you see us."

  "It won't—" Mary said.

  "Your leaders are wicked." Roman cut her. "You'll see it soon. I wish you didn't have to. But you will."

  They just stared at him, as if not believing what is happening.

  "Go," he said.

  They went.

  The lobby was quiet after they left.

  Bella's voice was hoarse. "I don't understand what you're planning."

  Roman turned toward the elevator.

  "The plan works best when you don't understand."

  He walked. After a moment, she followed.

  They rode up in silence. Walked the hallway in silence. Stopped at the apartment door in silence.

  Roman pushed it open.

  The apartment was exactly as they'd left it. He crossed to the window and looked out at the city below.

  Bella stood behind him.

  "I'm going to tell you something," he said. "And I need you to trust me completely."

  “Okay.”

  Roman turned from the window, and began to explain.