Underworld Eclipse was the largest club in Socrico, but with so many people packed in there, it just felt like a sardine can. In fact, I think I would have had more room to dance in a sardine can. At least it gave me an excuse to move as little as possible.
Nina, swinging her hips to my left, was making the most of the space we had and attracting a lot of attention as she did. Somewhere beyond the wriggling crowd, Cassia, Erin, and Gem were getting drunk at the bar. Erin could hold her liquor, but Cassia wasn't much better than Nina. And, despite being a bartender at The Silver Star, Gem was already wasted.
Around me, strobe lights pulsed purple and blue, and gold lasers flowed over the crowd like waves. Hologram men and women danced on shielded stands, encouraging any rare soul who remained hesitant to join in. Everyone everywhere was glowing as they shimmied and grinded to the synth-pop beat.
We'd been offered glow-in-the-dark face paint upon entry, and Nina had gone for a tribal look, painting stripes across her cheeks and nose. I had a pink butterfly glowing beneath my left eye. Nina had initially wanted to write BRIDE on my forehead, but Erin had thankfully helped me dissuade her.
She spun in a circle and fell against my chest with a smile. I sighed and tried to pry her off, glancing at the fire escape we were slowly inching towards. I had a plan, but I couldn't really go on my mission and leave her like this.
Just as I'd disentangled her, Cassia, Gem, and Erin pushed through the crowd. Nina turned and latched onto Erin. Gem, her hair dyed turquoise tonight, grabbed Cassia's hands and started dancing.
Erin raised an eyebrow at me over her girlfriend's head. When I pointed to the fire escape, she didn't question it. She just nodded and returned her attention to the three drunks.
Leaving them in her hands, I shoved through the remainder of the crowd. When I reached the fire escape, I pulled my warrant card out of my bra and punched down on the door handle. Pushing it open, I stepped into the bitterly cold night.
A bouncer was standing a few feet ahead of me. He turned around as he heard the door, and by the time I'd set both feet on the ground, he was scowling. I flashed my warrant card.
His scowl deepened as he glanced from my card to my dress. "What are the police doing here dressed like that?"
"It's my hen party." I folded my arms across my chest, trying to trap in some heat. "But while I'm out here, I'd like to ask some questions that might help my current investigation."
He looked at my face properly. "Aren't you the one from the news? You're marrying your sergeant."
"That's me. Inspector Rames. Levi Ford works here, doesn't he?"
"Yeah. What do you want with him?"
"A chat. Is he here tonight?"
I'd tried asking the bouncer on the main door when we'd arrived, but he'd ignored me. Fortunately, this one had no queue of people to pretend to be occupied with.
"Levi called in sick," he said. "I don't know what you want with him, anyway. He's a good guy."
"I just have some questions, that's all. He should be at his flat, then?"
"I don't know where the hell he is. I just know he's not here." The bouncer turned around. "Now leave me alone before I kick you out."
I went back inside. The stuffy air and pulsing bass hit me like a sledgehammer, and I winced as I cut a path back across the dance floor. I couldn't see my friends anywhere in the dizzying crowd, but I decided that I'd worry about finding them later. What I needed to find right now was my coat.
Once I'd retrieved it from the cloakroom, I went out the front, where bouncers were conducting ID checks and clients were taking a break to smoke. I strolled a good distance away, then stopped in the shadows and put an audio call through to Alex.
He sounded surprised when he picked up. "Amber?"
"Hi. We're at Underworld Eclipse. I've asked around, and Levi isn't here. Apparently, he called in sick."
There was a long pause. "You asked around?"
"Of course. I'm not just going to dump the investigation tonight."
"You should. We wouldn't be finding Levi any faster with you."
Well, that was a bit back-handed, even if it was true. I scowled at my tabphone. "Check his flat."
"We have. He's not at home, and he's not answering his calls. I've applied for an arrest warrant."
"Where are you?"
"Still at the station; still trying to crack this tracking block. It's starting to look like he hasn't done it himself. The security is too complex."
"So he's somewhere with a blanket block?"
"That's my theory."
A blanket block was an automatic blockage of tabphone tracking as soon as someone entered the affected area. It was mass tabphone hacking, and it was always done to hide mass criminal activity.
Just where was Levi?
There was a shriek and a chorus of giggles behind me, and I turned to see my friends spilling out the club's doors. Nina had almost fallen over. Cassia and Gem were laughing while Erin put an arm around her waist.
"What was that?" Alex asked.
I smiled sadly and turned my back on them. "Nina. It looks like we're going somewhere else now."
"Have fun."
"I could just come back. I could help you --"
"No." His voice softened. "Amber, I snapped at you earlier because I'm stressed about this investigation and I'm stressed about the wedding. You just need to forget what I said. It wasn't true, and you didn't deserve it."
"I feel guilty."
"Don't. You're supposed to be having fun, not working. If it makes you feel better, you're not missing anything. At this rate, I doubt we're going to find Levi before sunrise."
I still hesitated, fiddling with the toggles on my coat. We'd been having a good night just twenty-four hours ago. A night I'd believed in. Maybe I needed to hold onto that. This wasn't the first time Alex and I had argued, and it probably wouldn't be the last. We had a stressful job, and thanks to my decision not to hire a wedding planner, a very stressful wedding coming up.
"Okay," I said. "But I'll check in with you when I can. I love you."
"I love you, Amber. Take care." He ended the call.
I turned back to my friends. Nina had fallen out of her shoe and was struggling to put her foot in it again. Erin was trying to guide her ankle, but she was laughing too hard to be helpful. It probably had something to do with the fact that Nina was stroking her hair like a cat. Gem and Cassia were clinging to each other and giggling.
Suppressing a grin, I raised my voice sternly as Nina finally put her foot back in her shoe. "What are you all doing out here?"
Gem clapped her hands. "Laser tag!"
"What?"
"Laser tag!" Nina repeated. "It's time for laser tag!"
"We haven't booked it," Cassia added, her red eyes not quite able to meet mine. "There's one nearby. Might have closed, might not. I don't know the time."
"We're going to play laser tag?" I clarified. "While you're all smashed?"
Gem nodded vigorously. "Nina's idea."
I hadn't doubted that for a moment. What I was doubting was whether any laser tag facilities would be open at this time of night -- and whether they would let my intoxicated friends in.
"It's not them you should be worried about," Erin said, a competitive gleam entering her eyes. "It's those of us who will still be able to hit our targets."
A little bit of adrenaline ebbed through me at the challenge. I grinned. "Fine. You're on."
***
"I am not drunk," Nina said as her bloodshot eyes were scanned in the waiting area. "Not drunk."
I groaned. After finding a laser tag arena that was miraculously open, I'd instructed everyone in the group to try their hardest to act sober. Now I realised that had probably been the wrong thing to say to them.
"I am sober," Nina said happily as she stepped away from the eye-scanner and beamed at the man who'd just processed her payment. "Very sober."
"Sure, honey." He looked at the woman standing behind her. "Name?"
I breathed a sigh of relief as Nina trotted over to us. We'd all managed to enter the next game.
"We haven't done this since we were teenagers," Cassia slurred at my side. "It was fun."
"You were always rubbish," I replied.
"Fun."
We had a safety briefing, and then we were taken into a room full of metal racks with vests and laser guns hanging from them. I swapped my coat for the body armour, noting that it didn't have any lights to help me be seen in the dark. The difficulty had been racked up.
Once everyone had put their laser vests on -- some of us with more difficulty than others -- we lined up to be released into the arena. I was the first, and the man on the door either didn't realise that I'd taken my shoes off or didn't care, because I was promptly nodded through.
I entered the dark arena with a racing heart. Back when I'd been a teenager, I'd occasionally played laser tag at a very basic, very cheap place. The floor-to-ceiling plywood walls shaping the maze had all been black, and I'd walked into them constantly. But this place had glow-in-the-dark spray paint all over its barricades so that we could see them, just like --
"Ah, shit." I touched my cheek and turned around to look at my friends as they entered. Their faces were all lit up in neon orange and hot pink paint.
Gem was the first to start laughing. I couldn't stop myself from joining her. With just a butterfly, I was lucky -- the rest of them had really gone to town with their designs. Picking them out in the dark and taking a shot would be easy.
Erin went to find a hiding place. I followed her, leaving Cassia and Gem to giggle at each other and Nina to softly complain that she'd lost one of her shoes in the cloakroom.
The game began while I was still working out where the hell I was, and I backed myself up against a purple wall, glancing around to check no one was coming to shoot me. Orange railings glowed halfway through the air above, signalling another level. That would be a good place to identify my targets from.
I started moving again, using the walls for protection while I looked for a way up. I'd just spotted the ramp when I caught a flash of face paint from the corner of my eye.
I slammed back against the wall I'd been peering around, hoping I'd missed being shot. When my gun didn't deactivate, I looked again.
Gem was wandering back in the direction she'd just come from, her turquoise hair almost as bright as her face. "Cassia? Where are you? You promised we'd work together!"
I lined up the shot and pulled the trigger.
Gem's gun buzzed. She screamed and turned around. I ducked back behind the wall, listening to see if she'd come after me.
Seconds later, I saw her running up the ramp, exposed to everyone. Just as her gun let her know that it was working again, I shot her and retreated.
Once I was sure she'd gone, I rounded the walls and made a break for the ramp myself. I was halfway up when a laser beam landed on my chest. I dropped to my stomach (against the rules) but I was shot before I hit the ground.
While my gun deactivated, I slithered the rest of the way up, scanning the barricades ahead for a hiding place. When I reached the top, I rolled behind a half-wall on my right. Then I rose to my knees and peeked over it, my heart galloping.
Not too far away from me, flowery face paint glowed in the dark for a second and then vanished. My assailant was Erin.
I smiled and swung my laser gun up to rest on the wall. When the paint appeared again, I fired. Erin made no sound herself as her gun powered down, but I could see enough of her silhouette as she ran away to know that she'd flipped me off.
I went after her.
I stopped at the next wall. Checked the way was clear. Ran to another. Some of them formed little rooms, but I was trying to stay out of those as much as possible. Unfortunately, even when our environment was glowing it was still confusing, and I realised that Erin could have gone off in any direction.
Someone whooped below. Changing targets, I ran back to the railings and dropped to my knees.
Nina and Cassia were high-fiving as a stranger fled behind a wall, his gun buzzing. A split-second later, I'd pulled my trigger, and Cassia's gun was doing the same.
While she and Nina realised they were in the open and scrambled to get away, a different laser found my best friend. She looked up to my right and grinned just before she vanished. "You traitor!"
Nearby, Erin laughed.
"Cassia!" Gem called again from our level.
"Coming!" Cassia slurred. She re-emerged and staggered off in completely the wrong direction. I shot her again.
My gun buzzed as it deactivated.
I rose and spun on my heel. Erin was standing two feet away from me. She stayed long enough to flash me a wicked smile, then vanished into the darkness. I chased after her with a score to settle.
Sod's law, of course, meant that I lost her completely. I shot some strangers I came across, then finally decided to try entering one of the rooms. It was only the size of a box, but it was opposite the ramp and it had a window. I crouched down beside the hole and kept a lookout for anyone coming up.
Cassia was the first to do so, still calling to Gem. I shot her in the back and ducked down.
A high heel clattered to the floor outside, followed by a soft sigh. "I've lost it again."
Nina appeared in the entrance, one shoe off. I was surprised by how fast her trigger finger moved as her eyes locked on mine. We fired at almost the same time.
Her gun buzzed.
She frowned. "What? I hit you!"
While the police officer in her may have powered her reflexes, it had not helped her eyesight. Her laser beam was aimed way above my head.
As her gun reactivated and she continued to stare at mine in wonder, I tried to shoot again. But I was laughing too hard to pull the trigger.
***
First place went to a young man who wore a grin that suggested he was a long-running laser tag champion. I came second. Erin came third. The rest of my intoxicated friends were at the bottom of the leaderboard.
As we left the building, Gem turned to me. "Let's have a nightcap at The Silver Star. I want to sit down."
I wanted to sit down, too. I might not have played laser tag in my heels, but I had done an hour of dancing beforehand, and it was starting to catch up with me. My calves were aching, and my feet were crying out in protest. "Okay."
"I know a shortcut," she said. "Follow me."
She tottered off in the opposite direction. Cassia went after her. Erin fell into step with Nina, and they linked hands. Suddenly forgotten on my night of honour, I brought up the rear.
We quickly turned off the road and clip-clopped down an empty backstreet like Victorian horses pulling a carriage. When we were almost at the end, Gem veered off into an alley. I could hear shouting in the not-too-far-distance.
I slowed down. "Gem, maybe we should go a different --"
She walked out and turned the corner, taking the others with her. I had no choice but to follow.
There were more voices now, dozens of them roaring. My friends turned another corner and vanished. I hastened to catch up with them.
When I did, they'd stopped dead.
Amid the scraps of rubbish and the dark skyscrapers, a circle of people had gathered. Their fists and tabphones were raised. They chanted and shouted. Bright clothing flashed in the middle as two people fought.
Affray was the first thing I thought. Statutory offence. Arrest them.
I fumbled for my tabphone so that I could call for backup. In the circle, there was a loud thump as someone hit the floor. The roars grew. At the back, a man stepped onto an old wooden box and bellowed over them. There was shuffling in the circle, and two more opponents stepped in.
A black shape swooped down from the sky, bright blue eyes flashing. Another joined it. Erin caught my arm and yanked me back, and yet another PRB dropped where we'd been standing. They were filling the night sky like locusts.
The crowd scattered as human police officers arrived from both ends of the street. Somewhere in the sudden onslaught of people, the rest of my friends vanished.
"Fuck!" I squinted into the dark. "Cassia! Ni--"
Someone grabbed my other arm and turned me around. "You're under arrest -- Amber?"
I stared up at Sebastian. "Hello. Please don't arrest me."
"Hello, yourself." He smiled in bemusement. "What are you doing here? You should be partying."
"Wrong place, wrong time." I kicked off my heels. "Come on."
Sebastian released my arm and cut his way through the struggling crowd of police officers and spectators. I hurried after him.
I'd only taken two steps before I found trouble.
DC Laney was struggling to detain two fighters, even with the help of a familiar police academy trainee at her side: Cadium, the older brother of Emz and Indigo from Rise & Grinder. The fighters were the man and woman who'd been up next.
Laney slammed the man against the wall and handcuffed him. The woman turned and punched Cadium in the face, and he stumbled back.
I was there a stride later, grabbing her arms and pulling her behind her back, and then Laney returned with more handcuffs. I left her to make the formal arrest and went to the young trainee. I wasn't sure he was even supposed to be out here. "Cadium, are you all right?"
He'd slumped against the wall, one hand pressed to his bleeding cheek. Now he smiled weakly and tried to stand up. "Inspector Rames. Are those your new work clothes?"
"Cheeky." I grinned and offered him my hand. "It's my hen party. Well, it was until --"
His eyes widened. Two arms suddenly fastened around my neck and jerked me back, squeezing. I stumbled, scrabbling to pull them off, the breath rushing out of me in surprise.
Spots swam before my eyes. My legs gave out as I gasped for air.
"Let her go!"
The arms vanished. I crashed to the floor and wheezed.
"Don't move, or I'll shoot," Alex said.
Handcuffs clinked behind me.
My vision slowly cleared. Cadium was staring at me with an open mouth, his face white.
Alex crouched down beside me. "Amber?"
"Thank you," I gasped. My fingers curled into the concrete as I struggled to get my breath back.
His gaze was filled with concern. "Can you stand?"
I nodded.
He took my arms and hauled me to my feet. My knees turned soft, but he held me firmly against him. His gaze swept over the tender skin of my neck, and his grip tightened. "Bastard."
"I'm okay."
"What are even you doing here?" His gaze trailed down my dirty dress and landed on my bare feet. He frowned. "And what have you been doing?"
"Playing laser tag and arresting people."
Around us, the flurry of activity was dying down. It looked like most of the fighters had escaped, because there were more police personnel than arrestees. My friends were safe and sound on the other side of the street. Cassia was being sick, Gem had fallen down, and Nina was whining because she'd broken the heel of her shoe. Erin was trying to make her take the other one off before she fell over.
I turned back to Alex. "What are you doing here? I didn't even get the time to call this in before you all arrived."
"We had a tip-off just as I got around the tracking block. Levi was here." Alex had a glance around for himself. "But he's not now."
"Sir?"
We turned together. DC Laney was approaching us, Dixon at her side. My governor gave me the same bemused sweep of the eyes Alex had, his brows rising.
Laney extended an evidence bag containing a cracked tabphone. "Levi Ford's, sir. I found it at the side of the road."
"Thank you." Alex took the bag, his jaw tightening. "Now we have nothing to track him with. Just when I'd almost found him..."
"We'll get him in the morning," Dixon said. "Give up now. You need to go home and sleep."
Erin integrated herself in the huddle as if she was part of the police, leaving Nina to her own devices. Sebastian also joined us with his sergeant, Otto Gibbs. He frowned across the street. "What's happened to your sister, Amber?"
I looked at my friends again. Cassia was on the floor with Gem now, and they were both clinging to each other and giggling.
"Tequila," I said dryly. "Lots of it."
But by then Sebastian had already gone to them. He offered Cassia his hand, and once he'd pulled her up, she flung her arms around him. "My hero!"
I put my head in my hands. "She's going to regret that in the morning."
"We should probably ditch the plan to have a nightcap," Erin said. "I think they've drunk enough."
"I'd better sleep over at Cassia's flat and take Gem with me. Someone needs to keep an eye on them."
"I'll bring them back to the hotel with Nina." Erin shrugged and smiled. "This is supposed to be your night. Go home and enjoy your fiancé."
I blushed.
Alex took my hand. "I like the sound of that idea. But you're going to need some shoes before we go anywhere."
Dixon frowned at my feet again. "Yes, I was wondering why you aren't wearing any."
"I'm not very balanced in platforms, sir, so I took them off. They're around here somewhere."
I stepped away to find them, but Alex pulled me back and swept me into his arms, bridal style. "There's broken glass everywhere. Just point me in the right direction."
I did, and he carried me off into the darkness.