I was in Quantum flight to ArcCorp. I’ve heard a lot, but I’ve never been there. It’s supposed to be a huge city, there was talk of a city planet. It would not be that huge, I thought to myself.

At that moment, I came out of the Quantum flight. I could not believe my eyes. The thing in front of me was not a planet, it was a gigantic metal ball. The planet ArcCorp was actually completely covered with buildings. I could not see any green, no desert, no mountains.

While approaching the landing zone Area18, I lost my courage. How should I find a single person here. As far as the eye could see, houses, houses, houses. Billions of people had to live here.

Just before I reached the Riker Memorial Spaceport, I flew over the city center of Area18. The headquarter of the ArcCorp mega corporation towered above all other buildings. It was like on Hurston. The corporations had to put their size and superiority to the show.

I was assigned a landing permit and a hangar directly. Below me, the hangar doors opened. I waited for them to open completely. But the opening to the hangar did not become bigger. I looked down incredulously. Was that serious? I should land my Cutlass in this small hangar? I got a bigger hangar even in Levski. Carefully, I groped myself down with the maneuvering thrusters. Then the shrill sound was heard when metal scraped over metal. Now I probably had a big scratch in the right engine.

The spaceport was bigger and neater than any other landing zone I’ve seen so far. There was even a VIP lounge. And there was no waste.

I flew to Area18 Plaza with the Cityflight . When I got out, I slowly looked up. My God, the buildings were high. I stood there for a while and looked up into the sky, until I got a spasm in my neck.

I made my way to the central square. I wondered where to start looking for Tecia Pacheco. There was a lot of security on the way. Probably there were also many BlacJac security agents on the streets. It would have been too risky to just ask people on the street.

I just walked around a bit and got an impression of Area18. There were certainly areas somewhere that were a bit darker. I would definitely find the right people there.

I did not have to search for a long time. I found the G-Loc Bar apart off the main square. The buildings were so dense here that hardly any daylight came to the ground. Cables were stretched across the alley. I grinned. Here I was at the  right place.

Opposite of the bar was a fast food stand. I grabbed a pizza. I quickly got into conversation with the seller. He told me that not everything was happy sunshine on ArcCorp. There were many problems with drugs. BlacJac would crack down. But it was unclear if all the actions of BlacJac where legal. When he said goodbye, he told me to stay away from the side streets. They would not be safe, bad people would stay there.

What were the lower levels in Lorville and Levski were the side streets on ArcCorp. Now I knew where to start the search. Right next to the G-Loc Bar, it went into an alley. There was no daylight here. The alley was lit only by the billboards. I went inside. Slowly my eyes got used to the darkness. Garbage bags were on the ground. Light fog hung in the air. It smelt rancid. I went on slowly. The hall of my footsteps was heard from the walls. Then I stood in front of a sofa and a table. It did not go on. I was at a dead end. I looked at the scene. Someone had made themselves comfortable here. I did not notice that someone approached from behind. Then I felt a blow on the back of my head and it was getting dark.