Zara moved through the facility like she’d walked these corridors a thousand times. Solomon followed close behind her, Dylan at his side. The worker hall stretched ahead—a cavernous space filled with aliens of every description. The hum of machinery and the murmur of alien voices filled the air.

It turned out she knew more people here than expected. Solomon’s suspicion of her began to grow. She seemed overly familiar with the staff.

"Zara. What are you doing here?" a bald, pink-headed alien asked, looking at her with deep suspicion. "You have been going into the restricted area repeatedly. That place is forbidden."

Zara cleared her throat, then looked at him and smiled smoothly. "No, I was just given a task and went to check around the area."

"Yes, okay. I am watching you," the bald alien said. He pointed two fingers at his own eyes, then pointed them directly at Zara.

The senior officer looked ridiculous, but Solomon didn’t laugh. It wasn’t a laughing matter. Once the alien had walked away, Solomon leaned in and whispered to Zara, making sure no one else was close enough to overhear. "You know this man. How long have you been here? How long have you been working here?"

"Well, let’s see. I have blended into this place," Zara replied casually. "As I said, I am undercover here."

Solomon exchanged a glance with Dylan. Undercover. That word could mean anything. It could mean she was a spy for the resistance. It could mean she was a spy for the enemy. Either way, it meant she was hiding something. Solomon had spent enough time in the D-Class district to know that people who hid things usually had a reason.

" Nobody knows that I am after the gem or anything else. So right now, I am going to find my desk, sit down, drink some coffee, and listen to my colleagues’ rumors."

She walked forward, completely ignoring Solomon and Dylan.

Solomon watched her walk away, then turned to Dylan. "She can’t be trusted. Look at how familiar she is with that bald alien. If that alone isn’t enough proof she might attack us, we should agree not to trust her. We’re just going to use her."

"I agree," Dylan said.

Solomon nodded, folding his arms as he walked in the direction Zara had gone. He watched her sit down, still curious about her role and why she was the one handling the undercover work. At the very least, he couldn’t just stand around and do nothing. He needed to find a way to make himself useful.

Zara sat down near a green-skinned alien woman who had spherical features, and a brown-skinned alien with three eyes. Both were working on their computers and talking in low voices.

"The new specimen hasn’t been brought yet. The boss is angry," the brown-skinned, three-eyed alien said.

The green-skinned alien responded, "Well, the boss won’t be happy about that. But the sub-boss has promised to bring new specimens soon. For now, all we need to do is work hard and continue with our research to find a new source of income for the alien trade."

The alien trade? Solomon wondered curiously. He stood there for a moment, waiting to see if they would continue the conversation, but heard nothing more.

He walked back toward Zara, who was sitting at a desk, pretending to be busy on her computer. Dylan walked over to talk to her as well.

"So, we’re here. Have you found out anything?" Dylan asked.

"No," Zara replied without even looking up at him.

Dylan glared at Solomon, and Solomon glared back. I have such a trashy partner, Solomon thought.

Dylan caught his expression and shrugged. "What? She’s our best lead. You want to wander around this place blind?"

"I want to not get stabbed in the back."

"Then watch her back. I’ll watch yours."

Solomon didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure Dylan understood what he was asking. Trust wasn’t something Solomon gave easily anymore. Cassy had burned that out of him.

"I am looking for the gem," Zara muttered. "Let’s all sneak into the main facility to find it. Then maybe we might actually find what we need."

Solomon kept his doubts to himself. Just as Dylan had suggested, they were going to follow her lead. It seemed like the easiest path, and she could easily help them find the gem.

Zara walked naturally through the corridors, pretending she was just heading to the restroom. They passed through several doors until they arrived at an open-space facility. Zara began pressing a code into the security panel. She was clearly familiar with everything and had access to all the codes.

"How do you know all this?" Solomon asked.

Zara just smiled, glancing back at him. "Because I can hack through stuff. My occupation in this world is basically a hacker."

It seemed like a reasonable explanation, but thinking too deeply into it only brought up contradictions. What if she was actually a working part of the organization? Solomon couldn’t prove it. What if she couldn’t be trusted at all? What if she was working with the enemy willingly? He strongly suspected it, but he had no proof.

They followed Zara deeper into the facility, passing through another heavy door. The moment they stepped inside, a series of sharp screams echoed through the air.

Solomon’s heart raced. Where did that scream come from? This place looked like a standard corporate office, meaning it had to be directly connected to the alien firm. Was something horrific happening here?

As the screaming continued, Zara turned around. "Let’s go check it out."

Solomon criticized her in his mind. She’s so stupid. They were hearing sounds of clear danger, and her first instinct was to run toward the screams. Solomon wouldn’t normally run toward that kind of trouble, but Dylan didn’t say anything to stop her either.

Zara opened the door ahead. Inside was a bloody human with white, vacant eyes. The person’s lips were sliced open, an arm was completely missing, and blood was splattered all over their clothes. The human launched themselves forward like a wild animal. The figure seemed to have lost all posture, moving as if their spine were gone.

"What the hell," Dylan muttered, drawing a sword and slicing the creature cleanly in half.

Even after being severed, the top half of the body fell to the floor and began crawling directly toward Solomon’s feet. Solomon brought his boot down, squashing it instantly. A drop of dark blood splashed near him, but his mind was racing with a completely different kind of dread.

"What is this thing?" Solomon asked openly.

"Obviously, it’s a failed experiment," Zara answered.

"What is a failed experiment doing wandering around?" Solomon demanded. "Is this an accident, or does it have something to do with the alien farm?"

"This is one of their products, yes," Zara explained, shaking her head. "But this is bad."

"Are they trying to create an apocalypse?" Solomon asked.

"Well, I don’t know. I’m not sure, and I don’t want to be around to find out," Zara said. "Anyways, I have some files with information related to the alien farm. It’s stored in a unique room ahead. There’s a hidden door, and if I open it, we can get more details on the alien farm project."

"Where are the files? Let me see them," Solomon demanded.

"It’s stored in my neural interface, and you don’t have access to that," she replied. "But I can let your system scan the information."

"Whatever, just do it," Solomon said.

Zara transferred the data over. The information flashed before him, detailing the true scope of the Alien Farm Project: 17,000 humans had been processed. The project had faced massive failures. Twenty new goods had just been brought in, and they required one hundred more to continue. The text was jagged and unclear in some parts.

Solomon’s hands clenched into fists as he looked over the data. Everything was falling into place. It seemed they were experimenting on humans for a major project, and 15,000 subjects had already failed. Now they had a new batch of products to start a new round of experiments on a hundred humans.

Solomon stored the information at the back of his mind, saving it for later.

The numbers lingered in his mind. Seventeen thousand. He tried to picture that many people. The D-Class district he grew up in held maybe five thousand on a good day. Multiply that by three. All of them dead or worse. And this was just one facility. One project. How many other Alien Farms were out there?

Approaching the wall, Zara pressed another sequence of codes, and a hidden door slid open. She sighed. "Gorak. I told you to stop camping in the intel room."

"And I told you to stay out of my territory." The bulky, heavily built man in the center of the room cracked his knuckles. A prominent scar ran over his left eye. His voice was low and menacing. "Who are the new ones?"

The man looked down at them, his scarred face splitting into a grimace.

"More rats in my territory."