A Cup of Tea At Past Midnight

They pulled to a quiet stop next to a house on the street corner, the lights dark in every window. Was she home? Probably, not like the info broker went out often. Rei pulled off her helmet and they both got off, and she went up and knocked on the door.

“Who’s there?” A distorted voice sounded from the other side of the door.

“It’s Rei, dear. Mind if we come in?”

“You brought a guest?”

“Not an unwanted one.”

After a few moments the lock clicked, and the door was opened by a short girl with thick glasses, her dark hair tied into two long braids that hung past her waist. She glanced past them down the streets, then ushered them in.

“Come in quickly… It’s not safe here.”

Rei and Calix entered, and the girl closed the door behind them. “Who’s this, Rei?”

“Atlas, this is Calix, someone I just picked up tonight. Calix, this is Atlas, one of the best info brokers I know.” She patted Atlas on the head.

“Is this for another job, Rei?” Atlas fidgeted with her long sleeves, glancing between Rei and Calix with some degree of nervousness.

Rei heaved out a long sigh, rubbing her sore back. “Yeah, just got it tonight, and we’ve already encountered trouble, would you believe it? Had a small skirmish on the way here."

“Why - why don’t you two come in and sit down, and you can tell me about it?” Atlas led them into the small living room. “Would you like some tea?”

“Yes, please.” Rei took a seat on the worn black couch, its stuffing peeking out from the seams. “It looks like you cleaned up a bit around here.”

Old leather books stacked the shelves, a dusty globe sitting on a table, its colors faded. Calix stood there, running a finger over the bindings. “Do people still read these?”

“Once upon a time.” Rei leaned back, cracking a grin. “Pretty cool, right?”

“Mm.” He picked up a volume and flipped through the pages, tracing the words. “Jules Verne?”

“Have you read him before?”

“Back in secondary school, yeah.” Calix placed the volume back on the shelf. “Only digitally, though. These must be worth a lot.”

“Not really,” Atlas replied, coming back in with two cups of tea. “No one wants physical books anymore. They’d burn them if they could. Careful, the tea is hot.”

Calix sat back down, wincing, and Rei took up one of the mugs, sipping the hot drink, which felt good after the alcohol she had had earlier. “Do you have any bandages?”

“Are you - Oh…” Atlas spotted the blood dripping down Calix’s leg, and she quickly hopped up and went to go find some medical supplies. “I’m so sorry! I should’ve gotten it sooner…”

“No, no, you’re good.” Calix gave Rei a faint smile. “Your friend seems nice.”

Rei opened her mouth automatically to say, “She’s not my friend”, then closed it upon realizing that based off of the definition of friend, they most certainly were. So instead she swallowed and said, “Yeah, she’s great.”

Atlas brought Calix the bandages, and he began tending to himself, and Atlas looked at Rei expectantly. “What do you want to know?”

“Did you notice the lights tonight?” Rei asked. “They’ve been acting weirdly. Going out. Do you know anything about that?”

“The lights…” Atlas glanced out of the window. “Well, this area is very poorly lit, so if they went out, I wouldn’t have noticed… Are they back on now, though?”

“They are. But who knows how long they’ll last?” Calix looked up, raising an eyebrow. “And if the lights go out, well… Who knows what would go out next? All the power that’s running the city? The people wouldn’t be able to survive. And in the darkness, crime would skyrocket…”

Rei hadn’t even thought of that. She had only found it unsettling, none of it her problem. Perhaps because she was a bounty hunter, and she had her bike, she didn’t really consider herself a citizen of R’veno, and thought that she could leave at any time. But he was right. The whole city would collapse if it lost its lights.

“So we were wondering…do you know anything about the lights?” Rei set her mug down, and looked earnestly up at Atlas. “We’ll give you part of the money.”

Atlas let out a long sigh. “It’s too soon for me to know anything about the blackout, or whatever happened, but I do have information on the power grid over the city; would that help?”

“That would very much help, thank you.” Rei took another sip of her tea. “Is it up to date?”

“Should be.” Atlas led them over to one of the tables, and pulled off the tablecloth and books that rested on top, and a screen opened up on the surface, glowing a deep teal. She tapped a few buttons and pulled up a hologram, and enlarged it so that they could see the winding pathways throughout the city.

“That’s a lot of lights.” Calix let out a long whistle. “And this is the whole city?”

Atlas enlarged the map, and the hologram expanded to fill the whole room, so that they could see all the layers below ground, filled with winding tunnels and pipes and wires.

“How long is it going to study this architecture?” Rei asked, trying to touch one of the buildings, but her hand passed right through.

“If you’re going to be detailed, this could take weeks on end,” Atlas replied, shifting her glasses. “How much of it do you need?”

Rei glanced at Calix. “What do you think?”

“I think we just need to know where the main power sources are, and the breakers,” Calix replied, turning the hologram around. “It’s not easy to turn off all the lights of the city unless you get to the main source, and I doubt that they’d have all the power in one place. Is there a more simplified version of this map?”

“Sure, I can remove some layers.” Atlas tapped a few more buttons. “Just one moment, though…”

Just as she said that, however, a shot rang out, and the house was plunged into darkness.