The Thirteenth Verse
On Chairman Cao's factory floor, Vivek's search party must outbid Salugi's crew for the crystal lens every Bridge needs while a battered robot's deliberately wrong shift-change verse is the only clue to where cat thirteen is hidden before the line seals for the night.
Vivek, Siru Agar and Marcus Gray reach Cao's crystal works on Planet 65 to bid on a Bridge-grade lens, only to find Salugi, Elsa Jones, Harry Brown and Willy Jones already bidding under Cao's amused eye over a live pour of molten crystal. Among the Upzie workforce a battered, protected TrustyBot has spent months hiding Bomani, cat thirteen, from Cao's inventory sweeps. When the mandatory shift-change chant locks the floor down, the TrustyBot deliberately fumbles its verse — naming a bay that doesn't exist — to point the heroes to the cat before an audit drone finds them both. The team frees Bomani through a factory mid-changeover while the auction clock runs out above them, and Cao's cheque clears for the other side.