Cedar blanched, he jerked his head around to see if the android was anywhere in sight.

“What the hell’s gotten into you Detective?” Jones asked. “You’re tetchier than virgin in Madam Morto’s Dungeon Club.”

“Just alert Sir,” Cedar tried to set his features into something resembling a natural non-guilty expression. “You say you’re here with Gwyneth? How is she?”

Cedar looked to see if he could catch sight of the Captain’s wife, she was always a friendly lady. Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be found. Instead, Cedar got another glimpse of turquoise blue hair as a man wheeling an empty cart traversed past the end of the aisle.

“Don’t pretend to understand small talk Tanaka,” Jones shook his head, “it doesn’t suit you.”

“Right,” Cedar repeated awkwardly, flinching a moment later at the small pop the tub of powder gave in his hand, he had evidently been squeezing the package too hard.

“Well this was notably unpleasant,” Jones stated drily. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

“Yes Sir,” Cedar coughed, a small puff of white desiccant powder had floated up into the air and was currently dehydrating his mouth and throat. Cedar could feel his eyes watering as he strained not to cough again.

“Christ,” Jones shook his head. “Thank fuck you’re good at your job.”

With that, the captain walked away down the flickering aisle of projection screens, pausing at the end to let out a shuddering huff. He turned back round to Cedar, and gestured at a nearby TV, “Just make the next headline that we’ve solved the case yeah?”

“Right,” Cedar nodded firmly, he could feel damp patches growing at his armpits, despite the AC blasting dustily up above them.

Cedar groaned as deposited the now busted package of desiccant on a nearby shelf and checked his wristband, it had been ten minutes already and he didn’t want to risk Vaki waiting by the only exit down from this floor where the captain could spot him.

Cedar hurried over to the moving walkway but there was no sign of the android. Cedar tapped his foot impatiently, waiting another few minutes before he headed towards the canned goods aisle.

“Oh come on,” Cedar groaned as he saw their abandoned shopping cart in the middle of the aisle next to an empty one. He frowned as he looked around for Vaki, checking all the aisles in turn. He shivered as it brought up a childhood memory of him and Aster getting lost at the store, running up the aisles frantically looking for their Nanny. With hindsight, the Nanny had probably been more terrified than them, no one wanted to lose the Deputy Governor’s kids.

Not that Cedar was even sure Deputy Governor Sho Tanaka would have much noticed. Cedar froze as he mentally scolded himself, he knew that wasn’t true. His father may have been absent a lot of the time but after Aster’s abduction he’d gone damn near out of his mind, drinking himself to an early grave.

“Vaki?” Cedar chanced calling out, once he had checked that Captain Jones had finally exited the store. “Where the hell are you?”

Cedar jogged up to a security guard sat behind a tall desk in a swivel chair. “Hey, I’m looking for someone.”

“Bar down the road’s probably a better bet for that,” the security guard replied blithely, not even looking up from his phone.

Great, thought Cedar, a comedian. Also was there just something about Cedar’s appearance that made everyone he interacted with constantly accuse him of being on some sort of sexual prowl?

“Hilarious,” Cedar grit out, ripping his badge from his belt and slamming it on the desk in from of the guard, at least that got the fucker’s attention.

“Okay,” the guard let out a long suffering sigh and spat his bright pink gum into a nearby trash can. “How can I help you Officer?”

“It’s Detective,” Cedar snapped, “and I came in here with a young man, black pants, grey top, black mask and a dark beanie.”

“Doesn’t narrow it down much,” the guard narrowed his eyes as if he was finding the situation amusing.

“Christ,” Cedar growled, drawing back away from the guard in frustration and hurrying out the automatic sliding doors of the store to look around the street. He found himself power walking back to his apartment, expecting to find Vaki all small and crouched by his door like the first time. But the gallery was empty, most people in the area having retired inside their homes already.

Cedar hadn’t told Vaki the apartment’s pass code but given that the other man was an android he figured he should still check inside. Maybe Vaki could do some crazy magic shit by sticking his finger in the electrical socket or something.

“You here?” Cedar shouted as he strode inside, the soggy floor had now started to ominously bubble, great big translucent balloons of brown. Cedar wrinkled his nose as he realised the chemical soap was drawing out all of the dirt that had been trapped inside the carpet fibres. He now seriously regretted all the times he had walked around his lounge barefoot.

The apartment was predictably empty and still. Cedar swore again before relocking the door and heading back towards the store.

“You have a Bird’s Eye camera,” Cedar snapped at the guard as he re-entered, shoving past a gaggle of adolescent girls who giggled and ogled him from behind their phones.

“Good detecting,” the guard grinned lazily, his mouth now full of more gum.

Cedar’s patience snapped as he jerked out his hand and grabbed the front of the guard’s shirt, yanking him forwards so their noses were nearly touching. Finally, the guard had the decency to look nervous.

“Listen here you piece of shit, you are going to do your damn job and get me that surveillance footage for the past half hour or I swear to god I will have you down the station and in a cell with the worst of this floating space hellhole, understand?”

“Y-yes,” the guard stammered, clumsily fumbling for a small remote control from under the desk and hurrying over towards the escalator.

A few minutes later Cedar stood in the back room of the store with his arms folded across his chest, staring intently at a fuzzy screen.

“There,” Cedar snapped, pointing at the figure of Vaki disappearing into the canned food aisle.

“You understand I can’t change the angle of the footage?” the guard stated, looking anxious lest Cedar lose his temper again. “It’s just random, where the bird chooses to hover.”

“What fucking use is that?” Cedar groaned as the video seemed to pan frustratingly away from Vaki’s direction.

“It’s just a gimmick!” the guard threw his hands up, “for us to pass the new security laws without keeping up the maintenance costs on the CCTV. You know this entire grocery chain in close to going under anywhere. Rumour is the CEO lost a whole tonne of money recently, been embezzling it out of the company for years. God knows what there is to buy in this place though, not exactly many luxury purchases -”

“Pause it!” Cedar shouted, slamming his palms on the metal desk and staring at the screen. “Rewind it five seconds.”

The guard followed instructions with shaking hands as Cedar watched a turquoise blue haired man walk past the aisles with an empty cart. The man paused to stare down each one until he came to the aisle that Cedar had seen Vaki walk down. As if on cue the man turned to disappear behind the same stack of shelves but not before Cedar watched him draw something out of his pocket, some kind of flashing device.

“That’s an EM pulsar,” Cedar murmured, the small handheld electromagnetic pulsars were illegal black market tech and could be used to temporarily deactivate anything electronic that they were fired at.

“Let it keep playing,” Cedar ordered, his throat felt drier than when he had inhaled the desiccant powder. Sure enough, out of the corner of the Bird’s Eye footage, Cedar watched as the blue haired man reappeared without his cart, instead he was supporting the limp body of a young man. Given that it was a Friday night, the scene happily passed as a couple of friends, one of which had indulged in too many shots.

The Bird’s Eye swooped away a moment later to see Cedar shaking his head and placing a powder packet on a shelf before striding towards the escalator.

“I missed you by seconds,” Cedar growled, reaching out his hand and drawing it back sharply before he made contact with the blurred image.

“You recognise someone?” the guard asked apprehensively.

Cedar narrowed his eyes and thought about the man with turquoise blue hair. Cedar knew he had seen him somewhere before.

Cedar clenched his eyes tightly shut as he tried to focus his mind. Pictures of Vaki’s hurt expression flashing across his vision as the other man had walked away from him. No, Cedar needed to cast his memory futher back than that, he had known someone was following them in the alley, on the way back from…

“Creon,” Cedar snarled.