“I don’t like that,” said Tanya, a strong accent surfacing with her anger.
“Yeah, me neither,” hissed Thao. “If the Core found a way to track reconditioned SINs, they can track about sixty percent of the Suburbs’ population.”
“...What else did Ghost find?” asked A. with his low and slow voice.
Dante slowly took a drag on his cigarette.
“How about you tell me what you found first?” he retorted.
“As arrogant as ever...” hissed Thao.
“The black Overcrafts come about three times a week and only carry two passengers,” immediately said Tanya. “A pilot and a co-pilot. They don’t land either; I think they try to stay out of our weapons’ range.”
“You’ve studied them,” said Dante, raising an eyebrow.
“I do not like those ???????? on my territory,” she groaned. “My men have been watching them ever since we first noticed them.”
“...So have we,” said A. “The Core is preparing something for the Suburbs.”
He suddenly took a little object out of his pocket, making everyone alert. Eden moved to place herself in front of Dante, and most men in the room took out their weapons, pointing them at him.
The only ones who did not react at all to the threat were the Zodiacs. Dante took another drag on his cigarette and, very discreetly, put his hand on Eden’s waist to gently pull her closer to him. She blushed, but no one else seemed to have noticed. The other bodyguards all had eyes on A., but the man didn’t even look like he had noticed. Each of his movements was so slow; Eden even wondered why she had reacted to someone who looked so harmless... unless her instincts felt something past his apparently apathetic behavior. She glanced around, ignoring Dante’s hand. She obviously wasn’t the only one who had reacted... No, there was definitely something more dangerous than meets the eye about that guy.
Still, the little device he had pulled out was inoffensive. Everyone lowered their weapons, as if nothing had happened, while he fiddled with it.
“Ah... There we go,” he said with his raspy voice.
A little beeping resonated in the quiet room, and a hologram appeared. It was another map of Chicago; it certainly was not as detailed as the Apple Pan had given Eden, since it was only 2D. Still, the map was very easy to recognize, with a clear line separating the Suburbs from the Core. A. pushed a button, and several colored areas appeared. Eden realized those were, more or less, all the different neighborhoods of the Suburbs, while the Core appeared in blue.
“...Where did you get this?” asked Thao.
“The Tiger isn’t the only one who knows talented hackers...”
“Ghost?” asked Tanya.
Dante and Eden exchanged a quick glance. However, A. slowly shook his head.
“No... Courtesy of the Edge.”
Eden gasped.
“You know how to contact the Edge?” she asked.
All eyes turned to her, probably surprised to hear her talk. Thao and Tanya’s eyes went to Dante as if to silently ask if he was allowing this young woman to speak, but Eden didn’t care about those two. Her eyes were fixated on A. The male Zodiac too had slowly raised his eyes to meet hers. They were still expressing nothing, but he stared at her for a while, before slowly nodding.
“I knew too,” said Tanya, with a pissed expression, “before that stupid hacker of mine flew...”
Eden’s expression fell. Why did she have a feeling that this hacker the Dog was mentioning was no stranger at all? Next to her, Thao chuckled.
“Didn’t you say he had been captured by your enemies? So what now, you scared him off?”
Tanya glared at the Rat, but that didn’t wipe the smile off of Thao’s face. It was clear that that woman loved to get on others’ nerves, but the Russian woman, as angry as she was, didn’t give in, and ignored her instead.
Meanwhile, Eden felt a cold chill down her spine. If the hacker who had fled was Loir... did that mean he could really contact the Edge? He had never mentioned anything before... No, he had pretended not to know a thing each time the subject had been brought up. Eden had never asked openly, but still... Once again, she felt like Loir’s past was a mix of lies and mysteries he had no intention to unveil. She glanced at the Dog… Was that woman responsible for Loir’s state? Despite her appearance, Eden knew she shouldn’t be deceived. No Zodiac had ever reached their position by mere luck...
“...Who’s the blondie?” suddenly asked Thao, her tone colder than before.
“My new bodyguard,” retorted Dante.
