I felt more comfortable riding beside Boyband, having the secret of the Bite behind us. We would have to feed again before we took a ride to the Violet district. I doubt I had to tell Boyband that. He could feel it in his body as much as I could. How we would manage to take out prey in the Violet district with their advanced security was beyond my present capability to plan.


    “Did you open the files yet?” he asked.


    I shook my head. “You?”


    “Should I?”


    “You can once I do, but don’t worry about the load. Deleon did a brilliant job in organizing his company, but the man doesn’t do it all himself. His notes in the files will reveal how little he cares to spend time for clarity.”


    He chuckled.


    “I’ll skim through it a bit on our way to the Violet district, but let’s just enjoy some time to relax.”


    He bounced his legs and rubbed his fingers together.


    I smirked. “Or maybe it would be a pleasant distraction.”


    “Yeah, I’d have to agree there,” he said.


    “Don’t worry, you''ll be able to control your hunger better after some time. Maybe the indigo upgrade will help.” I wondered why he had given Boyband the upgrade so soon after receiving his bite. Why hadn’t Deleon upgraded us earlier? Useless questions for a senseless man who thrived on the tension of a mystery.


    He shrugged, turning to look at the woman sitting a few seats away. His eyes were stuck on her.


    Zeg.


    I should have accounted for the stress the surgical modifications would have on our bodies. We should have had at least two sets of teeth each to keep us held over for a few days. If Boyband lost control of his appetite, it would be my short-sighted fault. “Don''t think about it.”


    He smirked with a challenging glare. Whatever childish innocence he had was hidden behind a bestial hunger. He looked the other way, seeing another man asleep with his mouth mode open. Only these two people were with us on the three-thirty train.


    “Devóne,” I demanded.


    He stared at me with a clenched jaw.


    “A distraction is what you need. Open the file.”


    “I can''t focus. My mind is buzzing.”


    I sighed and wiped my face.


    “Tell me about how you got here,” he said. “A story might help distract me. I can''t focus on the assignment until I feed.”


    “Now isn''t a good time for that.”


    “Tell me,” he hissed.


    I felt his words grasp my soul. “The zeg was that?”


    He furrowed his brow in confusion.


    “You shac! You tried to use your coercion modification on me, didn''t you? Don''t think Deleon is stupid enough to let you boss your superior around. Zeg, now I don''t know if I can ever trust you with my story.”


    Anger fell to vulnerable fear. “I-I''m sorry, Petya.” His eyes shot to the woman, then to the man who slept with an open mouth. His eyes widened. He shook his head and looked back at me. “I don''t know how long I can hold it in for. Fine, read from the file. At least that''s something.”


    I almost reprimanded him for burning energy by using his Bite modification, but he needed more love than condemnation. I was better at the latter.


    I opened Deleon''s instructions in my neurospace and spoke as I read from the file.


    First target: Anton Jackson - Finian producer, well acquainted with many Entertainment executives, but not one himself. Despite this, he is one of the elite Finians and is closely tied to all they do in the entertainment party. I have a meeting set up a few hours after your arrival at one of his studios. He believes you are coming to introduce a new cochlear implant that can improve general human reception for Finian music. The Finian outlook on tech is quite unique. Their existence relies upon its success. Let this serve as a natural transition into gauging his interest in Firstlight.


    “Even if he isn’t an executive,” Boyband asked, “how did Deleon land him? He produces for zegging Naoma.”


    “You listen to her?”


    “No, but I bet you do, you poor shac. Everyone falls for her music. It''s all–”


    “Factory produced? Made to attract? Yeah, I know. You want some niche music? I’ll show you.”


    Boyband shook his head. “Doubt it. You ever heard of Docile Caribou? Blinchik?”


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    I laughed. “You’re joking, right? Those are the musicians people listen to when they want to sound like they know music. Give it a few more years and you’ll know music. I’ll send a playlist over after this, though I doubt you’ll like it.”


    “Zeg, you sound so pretentious right now.”


    We shared a laugh. Mine grew weak as he stared at the woman a few seats away. “Let’s stay focused on the assignment.”


    “But that doesn’t explain how Deleon landed a meeting with him. Deleon looks like your typical Blue district executive wannabe. I doubt my parents can…I-I doubt my parents could have landed a meeting with him even though we were elite in the Indigo district.”


    “Deleon claimed to have a wide influence and a large corporation, but none of us ever see beyond our assignments. The business side of Osteolyte is a mystery. Frankly, I don''t care to know.”


    “How can you not?”


    “I have no belief that he is doing good. What he has made of us gives me little reason to believe that he actually wants to cure Techbone. I just do what I''m told.”


    “Then what? Do you think it will ever end?”


    “I hope so.” My hope was a frail thing. If I thought too much about the repetitive cycle of labor, I would start to panic. It was best not to pass it on to Boyband, but I didn''t want to lie to him. A distraction would better serve its purpose.


    “Let''s stay focused on the file.”


    He nodded as if shaking free a headache.


    Firstlight has connections to Reef Records. Whether that connection is more than a mere investment is for you to discover. Reef Records is the label attached to most of Jackson''s clients, namely your second target.


    Second target: Naoma.


    Boyband smiled with a gaze fixed on the ground. I dismissed it as another withheld insult from him but soon learned that assumption to be a poor mistake.


    I went further into my neurospace, looking for any online mention of Reef Records having a history sponsoring Firstlight, but searched to no avail. Firstlight was hardly mentioned online. I was searching from the wrong point. As Deleon had suggested when we first exposed their research, Firstlight was likely a small branch of a large conglomeration. Jelly fiend research was probably a mere tenant of their overall goal, just as it was with Osteolyte.


    What I could find about Reef Records was little more than advertisement–and with links to the Entertainment ruling party propaganda.


    Deleon had too many resources—namely people—to spend on some large web of corporations just because one of them was a competitor in his research. It was easy to believe this was true, but I had learned from my distrust of society that I could not believe his intentions were so simple.


    We would soon learn more than ever that entertainment for purposes of joy had long expired.


    Capitalism killed art.


    I faded out of my neurospace too late. Boyband was mid-sprint down the train car towards the woman.


    I dashed towards him at twice the speed, pulling him back just as he grabbed her shoulder. I ripped his hand from her, leaving deep gashes in her semi-translucent sleeves.


    She screamed. I held him back, but he continued to reach for her like a starved hound, teeth bared ready to eat her entire jaw.


    “Stop!” I shouted, pulling him back and burning a little of my Bite reserve without enough to exacerbate my hunger as well.


    “Come here!” he shouted at the woman. “Now!” His urgency spoke with an inhuman power, depriving him of any civility. He was going feral, wasting his entire Bite reserve to satiate a single feeding.


    The woman stood from her seat and walked towards him. Bereft of emotion, she tilted her head back and opened her mouth as if trying to catch food.


    As soon as she came within his reach, he shoved his hand into her mouth, ripping out half of the bottom row of teeth with one hand while his other hand wrestled with mine around his waist.


    She dropped, moaning with a dead stare as he ate the bloody teeth he had taken from her mouth. I couldn''t tell if she had lost consciousness or was still under Boyband’s coercive spell. Blood pooled from her mouth, soaking into her pink jacket.


    I spared the man behind me a second of my attention. He hid behind a seat, now wide awake with bulbous eyes staring at us from over the top of the head cushion.


    The cameras were fixed on us, likely sending out a silent alert to alert the next station that a cannibal and his distracted companion were arriving. Luckily, the next station was our destination. Even if it wasn’t, Boyband’s lack of control would have forced us off to fight our way through Republic officers. With each rising district giving more power to law enforcement, I expected the worst outcome.


    I let Boyband go. He dove at the woman and broke her jaw, once again finishing his feeding as messily as a starved child. As he chewed and came to himself, he looked back at me. Anger dissipated as shame filled worried eyes.


    I shook my head. “Just finish her. We have no choice now.”


    “What do you mean?” His mouth was full and he spit out a crowned tooth.


    “We are going to have to face a whole squad of enforcers at the next stop. I’ll take the other guy. We’re going to need all the reserve we can manage to avoid arrest, if they are patient or survive an execution.”


    The man ducked down behind the seat with a whimper.


    “I’m sorry, Petya.”


    I shook my head. “We’ll talk about it later. Finish eating and have your belongings ready. We’re going to have to run.”


    He nodded and picked at the remains of her broken teeth.


    I sighed as I strode towards the cowering man. I couldn’t see him, but I heard silent prayers and heavy breathing.


    “Please, please, please,” he cried, staring at me through the crack between the seats.


    It was best to be done with him. There was no point in torturing myself over whether I was going to feed on him. I hated feasting on anyone who saw me coming. Not giving my prey time to agonize over what was coming made it easier for me to bear on my conscience.


    I dashed forward, broke his neck rather than burning any of my reserve to scramble his mind, and broke his jaw open to expose my meal.


    I had little time to think about savoring each bite. I was hungry enough but could have gone another day without needing to feed. His teeth were well cared for, but my mind was too occupied by Boyband compromising our assignment.


    I heard moaning and grunts among the pounding of fists against the floor and looked back. Boyband was throwing a tantrum, reminding me how young he was. I laid the corpse of my prey on the ground, his bloody face facing the floor.


    I licked the blood from my lips as I walked towards Boyband. I would never drink blood on its own, but its metallic taste was a nice compliment to a fine set of teeth.


    “What is it?”


    He turned back to look at me, eyes red with tears.


    I sighed and checked the map on my neurospace. We had a few minutes. Even if I had thought of a solution to cover up our feeding, we wouldn’t have the time to do so.


    “You’re going to have to learn to control yourself soon enough, Devóne. I’m not going to be able to cover you each time.”


    “Wha–” He sniffed and smeared blood across his face. “What are we going to do?”