Gone. Missing. Slept at his teammate Ji's apartment, then disappeared in the morning.
Why had he stayed there instead of with Sienna?
He claimed he had to repair the mech after Marvin's duel. It'd be a late night, he said.
But the truth was, Ji wasn't there at all that night. Bob had turned off his NID tracking, meaning that no one could confirm where he had been.
Sienna told them this on the shuttle as they headed to Ji's apartment. The high end shuttle allowed them to sit in the cabin at two opposite-facing booths while the autopilot guided them along the airstreams. Marvin's heart hammered in his mechanical hull as the skyscrapers flew past their feet and the megacity warped around them. He couldn't wipe the thought that somehow, this was his fault. Bob had been tracing his steps before his murder, after all.
"I called Inspector Kobayashi—he's an acquaintance from Mecha Realm. He should be on the case soon," Sienna said. "I've also talked to all of Robert's friends and teammates. No one saw him after 6 PM yesterday."
"When did you see him last?" Caroline asked.
"We had lunch, then I had to go to a meeting," she replied. "Nothing seemed off."
The shuttle's AI announced that they were approaching the Lagrange point, and the world outside flipped 180 degrees. The transition was so smooth that it seemed like the windows were playing a video. Now they were flying in the flipside sector.
"Can we at least find his NID traces?" Caroline asked.
Sienna nodded absentmindedly. "Ji's on it right now."
Just like what Bob did for me, Marvin thought. What did he find?
The shuttle flew for another few minutes before docking beside a skyscraper. A side door opened, revealing a tunnel that funneled them directly into Ji's room. The shuttle would autopilot to a garage afterwards.
It was a standard, mid-class apartment, with a layout similar to Renee's but without the luxury. The textures were duller and less reflective, furniture was slightly torn, paint was peeling, and various wires and other items were strewn about. But it had personality.
Ji himself was at the living room table, clacking away at a laptop. He nodded to Sienna, Marvin, and Caroline when they entered but didn't say a word.
"Any progress?" Sienna asked.
"Give it a few more minutes," Ji said.
"Was he actually here?"
"It would seem so." Ji pointed to the misshapen kitchen; specifically, at the coffee machine and the dirty mug beside it. Then he brought their attention to an open cabinet, a bowl in the sink, and a box of cereal left on the counter.
"Problem is, the cameras were down," Ji explained, turning back to his laptop. "Whole building had a blackout. No way it was natural."
"Hacked?" Sienna asked.
Ji shrugged. "Maybe, but I know for sure Bob can't do something like that. It could've been collateral damage from something else."
"But the timing."
"Yeah."
Sienna walked to the bedrooms, nervously tapping her hand against her leg. Marvin and Caroline started to follow, but Ji cleared his throat.
"Are you the ones who knew Theo?"
Marvin tensed up. Caroline spun around and sputtered a reply.
"Not me. Steve and another one of our teammates knew Theo."
Ji nodded and his eyes darkened. "Did you know this would happen?"
"I…" Caroline looked at Marvin, and he could only stare back.
They had all known the Manhunters were a big deal. Bob had been careful. Caroline had been almost too careful. Marvin… Marvin had followed Caroline. How could things have escalated so quickly?
Marvin remembered what Ishaan had said—a hacker had killed his bodyguard. A hacker beyond the Manhunters' status. Could it have been the same one who had disabled the apartment cameras?
"Doesn't matter now," Ji said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Do you two have any idea where Bob could be?"
Marvin and Caroline exchanged looks again. Dead hung in the air like a plague. What else would someone have done to silence Bob? Unless, of course, he had disappeared on his own volition and it had nothing to do with Marvin's death.
Caroline was apparently on that wavelength, as she asked Ji, "What are the odds that this isn't related to Theo?"
"Bob's clean," Ji replied. "Sienna and I have known him since we were kids."
"Would he have left on his own?" Caroline asked.
Ji scowled. "You can't think it's more likely—"
"Ji, what's this?" Sienna suddenly called.
Three heads snapped towards the hallway that led to the bedrooms. Sienna emerged from the shadows, clutching a picture frame in her left hand. Marvin focused his vision and made out the photo's details: Bob and Sienna herself standing on a terrace high above the city, the flipside sector hanging above them like a chandelier. Marvin figured they were on one of the floating islands.
"Where'd you get this?" Sienna demanded.
Ji squinted. "Isn't that…"
"Yeah, it's the one in our room. Our room."
"Bob must've brought it," Ji said quietly.
Marvin frowned. Why would Bob have brought a memory of his fiance unless he had known something would happen to him soon?
"Did he say nothing to you at all?" Sienna asked.
"Maybe it's a coincidence," Ji said.
"There's no way," Sienna said.
"Someone probably threatened him," Caroline seconded. "And he knew he had to make a choice by the end of last night."
Marvin raised an imaginary eyebrow. That was an awfully specific conclusion.
"Or it's here as a red herring," Sienna said, waving the photo. "Maybe someone broke into our apartment and took this."
Also a very specific conclusion. Or maybe both of them were just smart.
"You're saying he was never here?" Ji said.
Sienna gave him a look that said, Obviously and pointed to the laptop.
Ji glanced down and smiled mirthlessly. "We've got two traces from the past week."
Marvin, Caroline, and Sienna all gathered a little closer around the table.
"One's in the badlands. That's a deflection I'm assuming." Ji looked up at Marvin and Caroline, correctly assuming they didn't know what that meant. "When people use signal blockers, they bounce their traces into the badlands. Best way to do it without arousing suspicion.
"This second one, though. It's some apartment complex in Nagatown."
Ji tapped two fingers on his laptop and dragged out a hologram, expanding it till it filled the table. It was a 3D map with a red pin marking the signal's source, which was underground near a square clearing. The gates and monotone high rises of the apartment complex could've been found anywhere in Nagatown, but it was what was across the street that made Marvin shudder.
Jori's Noodle Shop.
There was no mistaking it. That pin was in Sangeet's hideout.
Marvin kept as still as possible, terrified that any reaction would look incriminating. On the contrary, Caroline immediately gasped and turned to Sienna.
"We know where that is," she said. "It's a bootlegger's storage. We buy our mech parts there."
Sienna and Ji stared at her. Marvin squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the bombardment of questions.
Fortunately, Caroline beat them to it as she continued, "We can take you there. Sangeet will probably know if Bob ever stopped by."
"You guys take Ji," Sienna said. "I'm going to check Robert's and my apartment."
"I'll stay here. We can touch base later," Ji replied. A little too quickly, Marvin noticed, as if he were afraid of going alone. That was fair—there was ample reason to suspect him and Caroline.
Sienna glanced between the three of them. Her eyes narrowed on Marvin, but she said nothing.
I'm sorry, Marvin thought. Even if he was not responsible for Bob's disappearance, he had made a mistake of not telling them his identity. He'd led them down a false trail, and something along the way may have compounded an already bleak future.
Yet now he had to keep his name all the more hidden. If Sienna and Ji knew, they'd be quick to blame him. Maybe rightfully so.
"I'll take Ji's shuttle. You guys take mine," Sienna said to Caroline and Marvin. "Let's regroup tonight."
Caroline and Marvin could only nod.