The Last Orbit: Project Ara

52: Digital Footprints #theCage

It was the not knowing that was draining his energy. Ruzgar had sent Roxanne a message asking her for any information she could get on Kelly. He didn't expect her to respond but he had to try.

There was one last thing he wanted to look into before leaving for the BlueGrid. He went through the movements of his last few time frames until he found the location, he had followed Kelly to.

The box was in a less crowded, quieter part of theCage. It was an i5, well maintained and up to date. Ruzgar knew for a fact that none of theDefaulters had a box in that area. He didn't have the time to sit around and wait - whoever the box was assigned to he was going to find out.

Ruzgar knocked on the door and took a step back, immediately realizing he was being a bit too aggressive. He took a deep breath as he tried to take his mind off how annoyed he was by it all. That however didn't work, as the door was opened by none other than the goldcoat, Mikhail.

Of all the binaries he had expected to see on the other side of the door, Mikhail was not one of them. He had a vein popping in his forehead as he glared at the goldcoat.

"What do you want?" asked Mikhail, confused by the death stare he was getting.

Ruzgar couldn't come up with one good reason why Kelly would be at Mikhail's box. "Why was she here?"

Mikhail frowned. "Who?" The second the word came out of his mouth, he found himself being shoved back only this time he had quicksilver running through his veins and he wasn't going to let a binary from theCage push him around.

Ruzgar fought to loosen Mikhail's grip around his neck as he was dangled two feet from the ground.

"Who?" repeated Mikhail, with smug satisfaction as he watched Ruzgar choke. He dropped him without warning, stuck his hands into his pants pockets and looked down at the binary.

"Kelly!" said Ruzgar, between coughs. He didn't care what Mikhail did to him, he wanted to know. "Why was she here?"

There was something about the way he was asking. Mikhail smiled. Ruzgar being at his box, had nothing to do with theDefaulters. "Because she's mine."

Ruzgar punched the glass wall of the box, leaving his knuckles bloodied and bruised. He was raging and badly needed something to focus on. Russo was the only other binary that knew about Mikhail. As he left him a message asking for his location, he raced off to the other end of theCage.

He never got a response from Russo but knowing that he had been blocked from theFence, Ruzgar thought of checking his box first. He didn't stop banging on the door until Russo finally opened it.

He was buck naked but Ruzgar couldn't care less. He stormed in, scratching his head as he looked around - the box looked like it hadn't undergone maintenance for many time frames now. With his mind elsewhere he wasn't really seeing anything.

The naked binary in Russo's bed rolled over, catching Ruzgar's attention. He snapped at her. "Get out!"

"Hey!" mumbled Russo, as he pulled on his pants. "This is my box."

"Shut up!" said Ruzgar, as he pushed for the other binary to leave. "Go! Get out!"

When the two of them were finally alone, Ruzgar picked up a bottle of blacks from a pile of clothes on the floor. He took two and tossed the bottle onto the bed.

Russo raised a brow at him. "You're welcome!"

"Who else knows about the goldcoat?"

Russo sat on the edge of his bed and rubbed his eyes. "No one!"

"Think!"

He gave him a good long look before repeating himself. "No one!"

"You didn't tell theDefaulters?" asked Ruzgar. "Kelly?"

Russo lay back and closed his eyes.

"I need you to think!" shouted Ruzgar as he grabbed him by the collar and made him sit up straight.

Russo cussed. "I told you already, I didn't tell anyone. Why would I tell Kelly? I can't even remember the last time I saw her."

Ruzgar kicked aside some of Russo's things and sat down on the floor. He held his head in his hands as he tried to come up with a reason why Kelly would be at Mikhail's box.

"I found her at his box," muttered Ruzgar.

"What? Why was she...?" Seeing the look on Ruzgar's face, Russo didn't finish his question. "Oh!"

"No! No!" said Ruzgar, strongly dismissing the suggestion while shaking his head. "No!"

Russo looked away. Clearly, he wasn't the only one thinking it. "Okay!"

As Ruzgar left the box, still lost in thought the lethal look in his eyes slowly disappeared. There was one other person they had shared their suspicions with - Roxanne. Even though he hadn't given her a name, whatever she had found out she could have shared with Kelly. That would explain why Kelly was snooping around his box.