"General Copper?"

"Yes," Mauve said, sighing deeply. "He was the General me and Silver operated under. He was a very secretive fellow, even more than Gero. I never met him in person. Neither did Silver. Nobody did. We always received orders from him indirectly."

Ravil nodded along.

"Right before the Red Ribbon Army collapsed, he sent me and Silver a note. Typed, not handwritten. He said that he had locked himself away in a vault underground. He said that it was never to be opened, unless it was absolutely necessary. The note also had half of the vault's location, and half of the code needed to open it. Silver has the other half. Clearly, whoever's blackmailing me wants access to his vault."

"Do you know why Copper chose to lock himself away?"

"No."

"And do you know why someone would want to open his vault?"

"I have no idea. Honestly, that's all I know."

"Alright," Ravil said. "Thanks for your help."

"You can catch him, right?"

Ravil was silent. He knew he couldn't give a definitive "yes" without being dishonest.

"We'll try to the best of our ability," he said. "I think our main priority now is locating Silver."

"I have no clue where he could be, unfortunately. We lost contact after the Red Ribbon Army collapsed. He might even be dead."

"Well, your blackmailer knows your identity, so it stands to reason that they could find out Silver's too. And if Silver has the other half of the code, they probably won't bother blackmailing if he was dead."

"I hope you're right. Good luck, detective."

"Before I go," Ravil said. "Can I have your half of the code? And the location? "

Mauve nodded. "CE4782. I know it by heart." For the location, she scribbled something down on a piece of paper, and handed it to Ravil.

Ravil thanked her again, and Deni mumbled something that sounded like "thanks," before the two of them left, and headed back to the center of the city. It was later now, and the streets and the sidewalks were mostly empty.

"So, what's the plan, exactly?" Deni said. "I mean, besides finding that Silver guy, because I don't see how that'll help us."

Ravil's eyes lit up slightly. It had been ages since he last got to explain how his investigative methods worked.

"Well," he said, while the two of them walked. "Since Mauve received a letter demanding her half of the code under threat of blackmail, it's almost certain that he received a similar letter, or is about to receive one. The second letter could provide more clues as to who sent it, or, perhaps we could even intercept the sender as he delivers it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Deni said. Ravil wasn't quite done talking, however.

"Additionally, he has the second half of the vault coordinates, too. If he gives us those, we could locate the vault where Copper is apparently hidden. And we know that our target will end up at that Vault eventually, so even if everything goes wrong, we know we can still find him there after the three weeks are up."

"Alright, I get it," Deni said. "So, are we going back to the hotel or what? It's like, fucking, two in the morning."

Ravil shook his head. "We have a limited amount of time, and it's best that we continue our conversation while the facts are still fresh in our minds."

"Fine," Deni said. "But I'm hungry as shit. Is anything still open?"

"Yeah, there's a diner not far from here, it's open 24/7."

Ravil lead her to the diner's doorstep. Truly, it was the essential diner, the first thing one would picture at the mention of the word. It was bright, cheerful, and everything was either red, white, or silver.

A pleasant young woman with red hair guided Ravil and Deni to the nearest booth, as she handed some them menus.

"You should have the burgers. They're great," Ravil said.

"Don't tell me what to order. I'm an adult."

"I wasn't telling you, I was making a suggestion."

"Fine. In that case, I'll have the bacon burger," she said to the waitress. Ravil ordered an ordinary cheeseburger, and a coffee. The two said nothing until their orders arrived after a short while. Deni tried to eat her burger slowly, but she ended up scarfing it down in two bites anyways. Ravil took a bite out of his, occasionally, but he mostly just sipped his coffee.

"So, how are we going to figure out where Silver is?"

"With this," Ravil said, pulling a device out of his pocket. It was similar to a phone, with a keypad, and a small screen. "I can use this to access my agency's database. IDs, criminal records, fingerprints, stuff like that."

"How do we use that to find him, though? Like, there's not just gonna be a guy named Silver in your database, right?"

"No," Ravil said. "We have very limited information about what happened to the ex-RRA members after the army collapsed. We know that a majority of the living members reintegrated themselves into society, using fake identities. We have very minimal information about those identities, however. Obviously, we don't know Silver's either."

"Alright, and you're sure that he's alive, because otherwise the guy wouldn't have sent Violet that letter, right?"

"Exactly. So we can assume that he survived the collapse of the Red Ribbon Army, and that his location is knowable."

"Well, it seems pretty simple to me," Deni said. "You just need to look for records of a guy who looks like him from around when the army fell, right?"

"You're exactly right," Ravil said, sipping his coffee. There was a hint of pride in his voice. He punched a few numbers into his key pad, searching for IDs matching Silver's appearance and age.

"It doesn't seem like anything's coming up," Ravil said.

"So, what, does that mean he's dead?"

"No," Ravil said. "He has to be alive."

"Alright, so how come he doesn't have an ID?"

Ravil took another sip. "Well, most RRA members got normal jobs, but I suppose he could've gone into hiding. That would explain why he isn't in our database, because he wouldn't have registered in the first place."

"I don't know," Deni said. "If he's in hiding, that'd mean that he'd be really hard to find, right? For us, and for the guy you're hunting down."

The waitress passed by again, and Deni ordered another burger. Once again, her attempts to savor it went awry.

"Okay, so hear me out," she said. "What if, he like, got a job, but it wasn't a job you need an ID for."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was working in a gang, right? I was getting paid, but I didn't have any ID or anything. I mean, I wasn't registered in your database, right?"

"I think you're onto something," he said. Ravil changed his search from IDs, to arrest records, and from the year of the Red Ribbon Army's collapse, to all of the following years. The machine hummed for several minutes, long enough for Ravil to finish his entire cup of coffee. Finally, it gave him his result. A man named Sullivan McCoy was arrested five years after the Red Ribbon Army's collapse, for various gang-related crimes, including assault and murder.

"Hm, that's interesting," Ravil said.

"What's that?" Deni said. She leaned over to look at his device, but she couldn't make out anything on the small screen.

"Silver took on the identity of Sullivan McCoy, and was arrested and sent to prison for various crimes. Apparently, he was just released a few weeks ago. That explains why our target just went into action now. They couldn't get the password from Silver in prison, it's too well guarded, and the mail is all thoroughly checked. Whoever they are, they must be desperate to find General Copper, if they're willing to wait decades for it."

"Alright, so, we know his name, and that he just got out of jail. Where is he now?"

"That's the thing," Ravil said. "There's no information on where Sullivan went after he was released. There's a chance that he changed his identity again."

"So, how do we find him, then?"

Ravil ordered another cup of coffee from the waitress. This one was their more expensive blend, dark in color and heavily caffeinated. He took a sip, but to his surprise, it was Deni who spoke up to answer her own question.

"Well, if he's using a fake identity, someone must've given it to him, right? If we can find the guy who made his fake ID, we can find out who he became."

Ravil cracked a smile. He couldn't possibly be happier with Deni right now.

He plugged in one final search for his database. This time, it was for people convicted of producing fake IDs in the area around Silver's prison. Then, he narrowed it down further, to those who were no longer in prison at the time of Silver's release. He was given a manageable list of a few names, and since they were all in the same city, he'd have no trouble checking them all.

"Alright, I have a list of people who could've potentially made a new identity for him. Silver's prison is in another city, though, so we'll need to drive there. We'll do it tomorrow morning, I think we both need some rest.

They trekked back to their hotel. The streets were completely empty now. The night was still, but the stars were bright, and the streetlamps were bright too.

They made their way back to their room. Their footsteps were silent, everything was so still. The stars were suspended in the sky, casting their glow down onto the ground; the streetlamps of the cosmos.

Deni was tired. Her eyes felt heavy and swollen. It was morning, she could just barely make out the sun behind the skyscrapers. The stillness was interrupted, and the stars retreated, making way for the pale blue of the morning sky. The bustle of the town started all over again. People moved about, engines roared. Deni did not share their active spirit, not now. Now, she needed to rest. She closed her eyes, and she drifted off to sleep.