Author: Tower Curator

 

Dyna sped through the subdivisions at frankly unsafe speeds. Normally, she thought she was a safe driver. She might not exactly follow the speed limit, but she didn’t go so fast that she thought she was in danger of being pulled over. Without fail, she used her blinker, didn’t swerve through multiple lanes of traffic, and kept a respectful yet not aggravating distance from other vehicles.

Today, however, she didn’t know that she had time to play it safe. Matt was almost certainly out here in one of the abandoned homes. The Hatman was after him. Tartarus, if that was what they actually called themselves, had an interest in the Hatman and, therefore, likely had an interest in Matt too. With all these people after him, Dyna wanted to get to Matt first. Before the Hatman. And definitely before Id’s crew.

Although they had left without a fuss, Dyna wasn’t going to trust them further than she could throw their truck. She didn’t know what they wanted or why they were here beyond their claims of pursuing the Hatman, but she had a feeling she knew how they knew about this place. Id had been in her mind. Her quip during their last meeting about hot chocolate proved that. It wasn’t a far stretch to assume that she had spotted the same ‘book’ in the back of Dyna’s mind that Dyna had.

From there, Id could have done the same thing the institute had. She tracked them down, discovered that one of them was missing contact information, and got curious enough to investigate.

Was it a coincidence that someone showed up now, at the same time that Dyna was investigating the matter?

Possibly. But probably not. As far as Dyna knew—unless Harold had been lying about his involvement—the Carroll Institute had still yet to find out who leaked Dyna’s personal information in the first place. That person, or anyone else who knew about this little vacation to Wyoming, could have fed Id a bit of information. That didn’t quite explain why Maple, if that was his real name, had been so surprised to see her, but maybe he just hadn’t been expecting her to be there.

Regardless of the hows or even whys, Dyna didn’t have much doubt that Matthew would be far safer with her than he would be with Id or the Hatman. Ruby hadn’t even talked about hurting him since they got back from their second trip to the trapped house.

“Another circled property upcoming on our left,” Ruby said, looking down at both her own phone and Dyna’s phone. One had a GPS map pulled up, the other had the picture Dyna had taken from that closet.

Slowing the car down to proper neighborhood speeds, Dyna held up her mirror. It had changed the first time they had found Matt. She was hoping that it would do so again. Although she had hammered out some of the finicky behavior by focusing more on the perceived target—generally herself—rather than the perceiver, she still wasn’t quite sure what made the lenses turn dark when she wasn’t looking for an observer. If Matt wasn’t near a window, peeking out, her artifact might not register.

She really needed something else. It still irked that Matt managed to get away in their first encounter. That wasn’t wholly the artifact’s fault, but something would have been nice.

“Nothing?” Ruby asked.

“No,” Dyna said, lowering the mirror. “Next house?”

“Just around the corner. We’ve only got five left, so hopefully he is at one of these places and not somewhere unmapped.”

“Walter might still come through.”

He had called her back, finally. After agreeing with Ruby’s suggestion that they get Matt out of the area, he said that he would be assigning several additional personnel to trying to track him down. Tartarus was a concern, but unless they proved immediately dangerous, they were to be ignored.

The Hatman was to be avoided if at all possible. He was too dangerous. His ability to modify memories alone wasn’t something Walter wanted them to mess with, not to mention his apparent imperceptibility and obviously unpleasant tendencies toward kidnapping people.

If the Carroll Institute could get Matt to relative safety, and if the Hatman really was obsessed with specific individuals, they should be able to use Matt to safely lure the Hatman into some kind of trap.

The details were for other people to think about. Dyna just had to focus on what was in front of her right now.

Turning the corner that Ruby indicated and dropping the speed of the car, Dyna held up her mirror once again.

It changed almost immediately.

“Found him?”

“No.” Dyna grit her teeth as she looked up to the regular rear-view mirror. “Not Matt…”

A man walked down the sidewalk, wearing a dark coat and a wide hat. He seemed in no rush, casually moving along at a steady pace.

From the angle, now that she wasn’t looking down at him from above, Dyna could clearly see under the Hatman’s hat. But she still couldn’t see his face.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

Dyna slowly nodded her head.

His face, just like in Dyna’s memories, was obscured. Thick black marks in the air covered his eyes and mouth. They weren’t static either. It wasn’t part of a mask. Every step he took, the markings changed. Like somebody was actively taking a permanent pen and scribbling out parts of his face. The angle of his head shifted, the scribbles changed.

Dyna hit the accelerator, speeding off down the street away from him. A part of her wanted to spin the car around to try to run him down, but another part of her was convinced that wouldn’t work.

Something was very wrong with that man. In fact, she wasn’t sure he was a man at all.

He didn’t chase after them unless she counted him continuing his walk in the same direction that he had already been headed. Dyna took the first turn possible, only to wind up in a cul-de-sac. She used the circular part of the street to spin the car around, but stopped before driving back out onto the road that the Hatman had been walking down.

“What is a phase-walking entity—or whatever they called it?”

“I don’t know,” Ruby said with a shudder. “Am I scared? That’s… stupid. He was doing something again. In my mind. I felt it. That must be what it is. I’m not scared.”

Again, Dyna hadn’t felt anything. She wasn’t sure if it was immunity, as Ruby had suggested last time, or just insufficient training. Either way, it didn’t make her feel any better. In fact, she rather wished that she had felt something. At least it would be consistent. They might be more able to figure out what was going on.

Dyna snatched her phone back from Ruby. Two taps started a call. The other end picked up before the first ring ended.

“White—”

“What is a phase-wandering entity?”

Walter hesitated just a moment before answering. “Not sure. Nothing in our database matches the terms used. We put in an information request with our European Union counterpart, but they haven’t gotten back to us yet. Unfortunately, there are few ISO standards for terminology—or anything else related to psionics—at this time. You may have overheard the other organization discussing something we call something else.”

Dyna clicked her tongue in annoyance. “We found the Hatman again.”

“Status?” Walter said, concern in his voice.

“We’re fine. He was just walking along the road. I sped off. I don’t think he messed with my mind—maybe it doesn’t work if he can’t see people directly?”

“Ruby is with you?”

Dyna glanced to her side, just to double check the yes, Ruby hadn’t been kidnapped without her noticing. “She is.”

“Good. We’re trying—”

“Hold on.”

Sitting at the end of the cul-de-sac, Dyna saw him walking down the sidewalk. Just as he had been when she drove off. Had he broke into a run to get this far already? Or was he just a faster walker than he appeared?

Ruby quickly pulled up her phone and started recording a video.

Dyna just watched, foot hovering over the accelerator. Running him down didn’t feel like it would kill him, but it might stop him from moving long enough for them to drive far away. He didn’t turn into the small neighborhood, however. After a brief pause at the corner, where he looked both directions as if there was actual traffic around, he crossed the street and continued on his way.

“The Hatman just walked by. Ruby is still with me. We’re fine.”

“I don’t like the unknowns in this situation,” Walter said. Dyna could hear his frown. “I want you two to—”

“Wait… Ruby. Where was the next circled house?”

Ruby quickly pulled up her copy of the map and immediately put on a grimace. “End of the street. Same direction our friend was headed.”

Dyna took a breath. “That’s where Matt is. I don’t know how, but the Hatman knows.”

“Dyna!” Walter said. “You are not to engage with the Hatman. We don’t know how he works or the extent of his abilities. He may have an artifact as well.”

“Don’t need to engage with him,” Dyna said, dropping her phone into the cup holder as she put both hands to the steering wheel. “Just need to engage with Matt.”

Dyna tore out of the cul-de-sac at speeds that she was pretty sure put her up on two wheels when she turned. After that drop in her stomach, she leveled out. The end of the road was a T-intersection. Two houses were both roughly at the end of the street.

“Which one?”

“Left.”

Blowing past the Hatman as he continued his steady walk, Dyna pulled right alongside the house’s driveway. “We go in, grab Matt, and get out of here.”

“If he isn’t cooperative?”

Dyna pressed her lips together. “Break his arms. But let me try shouting at him first.”

Just before opening the door, Dyna looked down the street. The Hatman was still coming. Assuming he didn’t suddenly increase his pace, they could have anywhere from three to five minutes before he reached the house.

Pushing open the door and getting out, Dyna let out a hiss.

She was worried. She was panicked. Her heart pounded in her chest.

But she couldn’t quite remember why.

They were here to get Matt. To get him out of here before something bad happened to him. Dyna wasn’t absolutely sure why something bad was going to happen to him, but with everything else and knowing why they had come here in the first place, Dyna could only come to one conclusion.

“He’s gone,” Ruby said, probably thinking the same thing.

“No.” The Hatman had to be around. And if he was, he was still there. Just invisible. Or imperceptible. Or unrememberable. The same thing, really. “He needs direct line of sight to activate his powers? Or…” Dyna shook her head.

She could think about him later. For now…

“Let’s move,” she said, rushing around the car and to the house. “Matt!”

“Careful. He’s probably still armed.”

“Yeah. Matt! It’s Dyna, remember me?” Dyna slammed her fist against the door in two hard knocks before ducking off to the side, not wanting to get her fingers shot off like Ruby.

No shot actually came, however.

“We need to hurry. I don’t know why, but we need to hurry…”

“Matt, I’m coming in,” Dyna called. She reached for the door handle using the sleeve of her jacket—just in case it was hot for some reason—and found it to be loose and broken. A hard jerk twisted the latch. After that, it only took a gentle push to throw open the door.

Dyna immediately ducked aside again. Ruby, far less fearful of getting buckshot to the face, charged right in through the open door.

When she didn’t hear any immediate gunshots, Dyna followed.

This was a smaller house than the previous. No second floor. The door opened up straight into a living room. There was a kitchen and dining room in the back, all part of the same open space. The garage was on the right. There was at least one bedroom on the left, through a small hallway.

“I’ll check left, you check right?”

“Watch for traps,” Ruby said, walking off. “And hurry. We need to get out of here.”

Based on the other house, Matt favored taut wires attached to spring-loaded swinging arms or sabotaged floorboards to make someone fall through. Dyna didn’t see either on her way through the living room.

There was a bathroom right at the hall opening and then a bedroom on either side.

Dyna barely had to peek into the first bedroom.

“Ruby!”

It looked like Matt had taken apart a lawn mower, intending to use its blade and maybe even some of its motor as a trap.

There was blood all over the floor. The ragged jeans he wore were torn up all along one leg. Fat, muscle, and even bone were exposed beneath the torn skin of his right leg. He was still breathing hard, heavy breaths that Dyna didn’t even need to try to look for. He was still alive. But he wasn’t awake.

Ruby came skidding into the room just behind Dyna.

“Idiot.”

“No time. You get his legs. I’ll grab his shoulders.”

Ruby moved up right next to his hips and looped one arm around each thigh. She didn’t flinch or balk at the blood getting all over her. Dyna, being the larger of the two, managed to get his upper body off the ground without too much difficulty. He really wasn’t that heavy. In fact, she was willing to bet that he was underweight by quite a lot. Living out in a bunch of abandoned homes without anyone else around and likely scavenging or stealing for food wouldn’t leave him in the healthiest position.

Actually moving him was a bit more awkward than Dyna hoped. Ruby was strong, but that didn’t make up for her height deficiency. While he didn’t weigh much, Matt was lanky. His feet practically dragged along the ground as they carried him out of the house.

Outside, Dyna still didn’t see the Hatman anywhere. She didn’t think they had been inside for any real length of time, but he could be on top of them for all she knew. Dyna didn’t know what would happen if he actually made it to them. Maybe he would just touch Matt and they would both disappear, leaving Dyna without memories of why she was even here in the first place or why Ruby was covered in blood.

Matt didn’t disappear, however. Not before they got him to the car. They couldn’t exactly be gentle with him and ended up just shoving him in the back.

“I’ll tie off his leg,” Ruby said, climbing in the back with him.

Dyna didn’t argue. She circled the car as fast as she could. Having left it running while they were inside, she didn’t have to do anything but throw it into drive and slam her foot down on the accelerator.

She didn’t breathe easy until they turned down two other streets. Well on their way out of the abandoned neighborhood.

“You’re still with me, right Ruby?” Dyna asked, glancing back. Ruby was there, pulling a belt tight around Matt’s leg.

“Yeah. Your friend might not be for too long. I think he’s lost a lot of blood. He needs medical attention.”

“The institute—”

“Is half a day away even if we drive non-stop above the speed limit. Maybe he’ll live, but if he doesn’t… mission failure. We did all this for nothing.”

Dyna chewed on her lip, gnawing a bit of dry skin. “There will be a hospital somewhere around. But if the Hatman is still after him…”

“Maybe it is time to set our own traps. I’m far more adept than your friend here.”

“In a hospital?”

Ruby, visible in the mirror, shrugged. “Unless you want him kidnapped out from under our noses.”

“No. We’ll guard him.” Dyna looked down to the car’s on-board navigation. It didn’t exactly have a button for hospital handy. “Are your hands free?”

“Grimy, but yes.”

“Find me a hospital. Then we’ll have to check in with Walter.” As soon as she spoke, Dyna’s phone started vibrating in the cup holder. “Actually, I bet that’s him.”

“You should probably pick up before he does something drastic. And the hospital… back to the main road we used to get here and take a left.”

“Got it.” Dyna promptly grimaced as the phone buzzed again.

She wasn’t exactly looking forward to getting yelled at.

But it worked. Matt was here and not abducted. Or dead from blood loss.

It worked.

Now they just had to get him stabilized. As soon as he wasn’t in any danger of dying, they could rush back to the Carroll Institute, get him down in Psychodynamics, and let the doctors there take care of him in relative safety.

Simple. Easy.

Hopefully Walter would agree.

 

 

 

ATTENTION: Priority Objectives Updated. Please review and acknowledge.

PRIORITY 1: Ensure continued safety and cooperation of Primary Asset: Dyna Graves.

PRIORITY 2: Locate and acquire Principal Subject: Matthew Quincy.

PRIORITY 3: Extract Primary Asset and Principal Subject to CI.

PRIORITY 4: Avoid entity codename: Hatman. DO NOT SEEK.

PRIORITY 5: Safeguard interests of CI.

END OF LINE

 

Ruby’s fingers twitched as she watched Dyna peer out the motel door’s peephole for the tenth time in as many minutes. Hand on her pistol, Dyna then moved over to the closed curtains over the large window just to the left of the door and peeked out from the small crack between the wall and the curtain. Finding nothing, she then paced back and forth with furrowed brows. After a minute of that, she returned to the peephole.

Pressing a finger to her eyebrow to keep it from twitching, Ruby glanced back down at her phone. Not only had the difficulty of her job just jumped a notch, but now Dyna was acting like this.

Dyna was paranoid. She would get thoughts in her head and wouldn’t be able to let them go. Ruby was fairly certain that she was seeing a therapist for it at the institute, but Ruby knew better than anyone that therapists didn’t just magically fix issues. Still, this was the worst that Ruby had seen since the big incident back in Idaho Falls. Which had also been the first such instance of paranoia that Ruby had noticed. She hadn’t known Dyna much before that.

This relapse was going to make everything more difficult.

“We have some leftover pizza from last night,” Ruby said, vaguely gesturing to the room’s miniature fridge. “You should eat something. Keep your energy up.”

“He could be out there right now, watching us.” Dyna chewed down on the edge of her thumbnail. “We wouldn’t even know.”

“All the more reason to not starve yourself.” When she didn’t move from her spot at the window, Ruby sighed. “Dyna, please.”

This was supposed to be Emerald’s job, whining at her for not doing something. Ruby had only been doing this for an hour and she was already exhausted. Emerald cheated, of course. She had infinite patience. And if she somehow still ran out, she could just freeze time and recollect herself before continuing.

Ruby couldn’t think of a single thing that Emerald didn’t cheat at.

And yet here she was, trying to do her best to channel Emerald. Putting all her acting skills into keeping a small smile on her face, her voice calm yet firm, and her hand off her gun. Which was something of a challenge.

Despite her attempts at calming Dyna, Ruby was… uneasy as well. Maybe part of it was Dyna’s restless antics rubbing off on her, but she couldn’t deny that things weren’t normal. When she got outside the house and found the man with the hat gone—or rather, couldn’t even remember that she had been looking for the man in the hat—she had locked up. Something strange had been going on that didn’t feel right to Ruby. Yet she couldn’t quite put her finger on just what it was.

Which likely meant that Dyna’s current theory was correct in that the Hatman had been there. Maybe watching them, maybe ignoring them as he walked off to find his actual target.

This Matt person.

He had obviously come to the house looking for Matt, but had somehow been able to sense his absence and moved on.

A psychic was supposed to manifest their abilities in roughly only a single manner. Sometimes a psychic could look like they were doing multiple things if they were creative enough, but it was still only a single power.

This guy could apparently disappear completely, modify memories, sense nearby people—or the lack of a nearby person—and even appear in people’s sleep if the notebook Ruby had taken was to be believed.

He had to have an artifact. Maybe more than one. Multiple artifacts were supposed to interfere with each other, failing to reliably activate their effects or causing unintended effects due to that same interference. Or so said Doctor Cross. But who knew if that was right. The man himself admitted that this was all very new science and even things they thought were certain might not actually be so.

“Dyna,” Ruby said as the older woman started her pacing over. “The window doesn’t open. We’ll hear the glass shatter. And the door is locked, chained, and you even dragged the desk chair over to prop it up under the handle. He’s not getting in without us noticing. And if he does turn invisible, you peeking out every five seconds isn’t going to help.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“Dyna,” Ruby said, deepening her tone ever so slightly. Just like Emerald did. Still smiling, still letting her know that she wasn’t upset, but was just a teensy bit disappointed. Pointing at the end of the motel bed, Ruby said, “Sit.”

Dyna hesitated, but furrowed brows from Ruby got her marching across the room.

“Now take a deep breath. Calm down. We’re safe here and now.”

“That man kidnapped someone out from under my nose—from under several people’s noses. Nobody noticed. I didn’t even remember until—”

“I know. I know. But we’ve taken reasonable precautions. Panicking right now is going to make things worse. Emerald always says that a decision made in panic is a bad decision.”

Ruby wasn’t sure at all that Emerald’s advice was good advice, but it usually sounded good. At the moment, that seemed like the important part.

And it seemed to work. Dyna closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, just as Ruby instructed, and let it out slow.

“Better?”

“No.”

“What if I told you that this guy isn’t even after us?”

“Wha—”

“Have you forgotten about your friend?” Ruby waved the notebook back and forth. “The whole reason this hat guy is out here is for Matt. And that house filled with traps was for the Hatman in return. You think he’s going to drop Matt for us?”

Ruby wasn’t actually sure if her guess was accurate. If someone saw her out on a clandestine mission, she might have to figure out a way to take care of them before continuing on with her main objective, or maybe she would ignore them entirely. It depended on tons of mission factors.

This guy wasn’t a spy. By all appearances, he was just a kidnapper. A psychic kidnapper, true, but not someone with grand schemes or deep plans.

Without a psych profile compiled by the eggheads for her to read, Ruby had to make some guesses.

Her primary guess was that this guy got obsessed with a single target. The notebook was mostly gibberish, but some of the earlier entries actually had dates. The Hatman had been slowly pursuing Matt for the better part of a year now. At least. For him to suddenly switch targets now just because they had been in the house Matt was supposed to have been in seemed wrong to Ruby.

No guarantees, but…

“We screwed it up,” Dyna said, grimacing as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Messed what up?”

“The trap. We walked in there, used up all his ammo, forced Matt out… What if he doesn’t have enough time to set up traps at another place before the Hatman chases him down?”

“There were a lot of places circled on that map we found.”

“But were they set up for defense? Or just storehouses of extra food?” Dyna bit her lip. “Walter hasn’t called me back yet. We’re not supposed to leave.”

Ruby glanced down at her phone. The screen was blank, having idled for too long, but she had a feeling she knew what Walter wanted from them. He was probably just trying to figure out a slightly more delicate way of wording it for Dyna. Or, knowing of Dyna’s paranoia, wanted more information in the hopes that it might calm her.

“Do you think he needs our help?”

Dyna held in a breath without answering. After a moment, she deflated. “We don’t even know where he might have gone.”

“True,” Ruby said honestly. “But it is probably somewhere out in those abandoned suburbs. Besides, are we really safer here than we would be in the car? At least we would already be mobile should Walter say that we need to return to the institute. And maybe if we drive around, your mirror will activate and show off your friend. We can grab him and get out of here.”

Slowly, Dyna started nodding her head. “You’re right. About the first part, at least. He won’t be able to just open the door and make us forget about it if we’re driving down the street.”

“Exactly.”

Nodding her head with far more confidence, Dyna looked to the bathroom. “Give me a minute. Then we’ll drive around. At least until Walter calls.”

As soon as Dyna disappeared into the bathroom, Ruby stood and approached the large windows. Unlike her current roommate, Ruby did not think she was paranoid. She wasn’t afraid either. Ruby couldn’t actually remember being afraid of anything, ever. While she wasn’t smart, a scientist, a doctor, or even a real employee of the Carroll Institute, just existing near them led to her picking up a few things.

Fear was a psychological response to danger or perceived danger. With her artifact, Ruby didn’t think she experienced danger in the same way other people did.

So no fear.

Ruby still peered out with narrowed eyes, looking over the small parking lot outside their motel room. She only partially focused on what she was seeing, choosing to concentrate on the back of her mind instead. The man in the hat had definitely been emitting some psionic energy when she saw him from above. A tingle in the back of her mind.

“Ready?”

“Yes,” Ruby said without turning away.

She felt nothing right now. Nothing but a strange tension in her stomach.

Moving the chair away from the door, Dyna unlocked, unlatched, and then opened the door. The car was only a few steps away from their door. Not even quite the width of a standard sidewalk. Dyna remotely unlocked the doors while Ruby peered into the rear seat. Nobody was there, but just to be sure, Ruby got into the back and swiped an arm through the empty space before climbing ahead into the passenger seat.

By the time she was done, Dyna had the car started and rolling out of the parking lot.

“We good?”

“Green,” Ruby said, relaxing. “See? No issues. Back to the abandoned suburbs?”

“Is that really a good idea?”

“A moving car is a moving car. We’ll be in a much better position to find and rescue your friend too.”

Though she pressed her lips together, Dyna didn’t argue. She pulled out her mirror, rested it in her lap, and turned the car down a familiar road without even plugging the address back into the GPS navigator.

Ruby kept her eyes peeled as they moved, especially once they entered the twisting neighborhoods of empty homes. Both for their mysterious kidnapper who she was under express orders to not try to find as well as any sign of Matthew. She was looking for movement in windows, any external evidence of traps, and maybe even recent disturbances, though the latter would be far more difficult to spot.

She did not expect to spot a large truck, however.

“Hold up. Turn around?”

Dyna, apparently having not noticed, hesitated a moment before following along with Ruby’s suggestion. Though once she saw the street Ruby was pointing at, she let out a long breath. “This is the same road the house was on.”

“Yeah, well… Looks like somebody is moving in.”

Down the road, right in front of the house that Ruby had been inside twice so far, a vehicle was parked in the street. It looked like the large truck that people might rent when moving house, except instead of logos and phone numbers plastered on the sides, it had a fairly simple logo of three red hexagons. No phone number. No words at all.

Not very good advertising.

“That can’t be coincidence,” Dyna said with a scowl, coming to a stop at the far end of the street.

“Agreed.”

Two people were outside the truck, both dressed more like exterminators than a moving crew. One leaned against the side of the truck, clutching his arm. The other seemed to be fussing with him.

Ruby snapped open the glove compartment and pulled out a telescopic attachment for her phone.

“Looks like one of them is bleeding,” Ruby said, adjusting her phone for a clearer picture. “Cut open his arm.”

“Stepped on a trap in the house?”

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

“What were they doing in there? Walter didn’t send them, did he?”

“No,” Ruby said. “He would have told us. I don’t recognize the logo. Could be a fake, could be another organization.”

“Think they know anything?”

“They know enough to be here.”

“Point.”

Ruby reached back into the glove compartment and pulled out another device. This one looked somewhat like a flimsy plastic gun with a fold-up barrel and a long cord hanging down from the back. At the other end of the cord were a pair of ear buds headphones. She slipped the left one into her ear, offered the right to Dyna, then cracked the window just a small bit.

“—we doing out here!” one of them barked out. “Going to die of tetanus now. What a shit life.”

“Tetanus lives in dirt, not rusty saw blades,” the woman fussing with him said. “And unless you were lying to us, your boosters are all up to date. It’s just a slight laceration. I would have it cleaned and stitched up by now if you weren’t whining so much.”

“It stings.”

“What a baby,” Ruby whispered.

“Not everyone can regrow a head.”

“Shush.” Ruby pressed the ear bud to her ear as the two started talking again.

“Don’t look behind you,” the man said, tone lower but still audible to the microphone. “but a car pulled up and just stopped. Watching us? Think that’s our guy?”

Despite his instructions, the woman stood fully upright and turned down the street. “No,” she said. “Dark called it a Class Two Phase-Wandering entity. Based on the handbook he gave out, I don’t think it can drive. Or maybe… I don’t think it would drive.”

“Think they know anything then?”

“If they live in the area.”

“Might as well ask then. Maybe we can get out of here quicker. Stupid Dark,” he mumbled. “I bet he’s the Class Two Phase-Wandering entity. Whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

“You should read the handbook. Besides, this is giving us a perfect opportunity to field-test this equipment. Some of it operates on principles that I can’t even—”

“Don’t even start. I have a headache just thinking about it.” He shoved off the side of the truck, brushing the woman away from him. For a brief moment, Ruby caught a glimpse of his arm. The black fabric with a few white pieces of trim had been sliced clean through at his bicep. Red stained a bit of the cloth, though with the way his clothes moved, Ruby didn’t get a good look at the actual injury. “I’m going to talk with our friends.”

Dyna, voice a whisper, leaned over and asked, “Do we leave before he gets here?”

Ruby quickly slipped her equipment back into the glove compartment, pulled out her gun and chambered a round, then ensured the gun was nice and concealed in the overly large pocket of her hoodie. As she worked, she answered Dyna’s question. “And lose our chance to get some information?” She shook her head. “We have the advantage. We know he is from some organization, though we don’t know what one. He doesn’t have the same information about us.”

“That just means we can’t ask him anything without letting him know.”

“No. It’ll be fine. Just pretend we live a few blocks away and saw the moving van while on the way to get groceries or something.”

“What about the Hatman? What if he’s still here?”

“Don’t roll the window down far enough to fit through and he can’t kidnap us without us knowing.”

“I don’t—”

“Quick. He’s here.”

The man came up to the driver side window, not looking wary in the slightest. He walked right up and tapped his knuckles on the tinted glass. It took nudging Dyna in the side, but she rolled down the window just a small crack.

“Hello there,” he said, leaning over. He cupped one hand to his brow to shield his eyes from the sun as he looked into the car. “I was just wonderrrahhhh! Ah!” He pulled back with that yelp as if a wasp jumped right in front of his face. “Oh… damn it all.”

Dyna glanced over to Ruby, who could only shrug in response. “Are you alright?” Dyna asked, looking back.

“Ah. Ahhh… Right. I’m fine. Just fine. No problem here. Just… ahh… A cut!” He promptly clamped a hand over the hole in his jacket, which made him grimace. “Got a cut. Clumsy me. Stung a bit all of a sudden. Haha.”

His smile strained at his lips as he stared into the car. He wasn’t even blinking.

“Oh. Well…” Dyna glanced over again before putting on a smile that… could use some work. “We were just driving. Got groceries,” she said, tone a bit too stiff to be convincing, not that it looked like their guest noticed. “Saw a moving van and got curious. Someone moving in? It’s been so long.”

“Nope. Nothing like that. Nothing at all happening here…” He trailed off, a look of horror crossing his face. “No wait. Don’t think that. Something is happening here. Obviously,” he said with a sudden nervous laugh. “Uh… government… something. Fugitive! We’re tracking down a dangerous fugitive. That’s right.”

“O…Oh.”

“Yes. A big man in a big hat,” he said, holding his hands out quite a bit wider than the actual Hatman’s hat. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen anything like that?”

“No, I can’t say—”

“Yes we did,” Ruby cut in, mostly to prod him. She had a feeling she knew why he was acting the way he was. Maybe not completely, but that initial reaction? “Remember mom? On our way to the store? Walking right over there,” she said, pointing toward the truck. “You called him creepy.”

Dyna stared at Ruby for a long moment. It took another nudge to get her to turn back to him. “Oh. That man. Yes. He was walking down the street here just a few hours ago. But I turned away and when I looked back, he was gone.”

The man’s mild state of panic diminished. He stood without saying anything before eventually forcing a smile. “You… You really saw him?”

“I think so?” Dyna asked with a glance to Ruby.

“Yep!”

Moving his hand to his forehead, the man pinched his eyes shut. “Why me? I just… Dark,” he hissed like he was swearing. Dropping his arm left a red smear on his forehead, not that he seemed to notice. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small black and white card. Holding it in just the very tips of his fingers, he flicked it through the open window as if afraid to get any closer. “That has my number on it. Please… Uh… don’t call me. But I guess if you see him again, do. I…” Looking over his shoulder toward the truck, he took a step back. “I’ve got to go.”

Turning, he started walking away. That walk turned into a light jog for about five steps before breaking into a full-on sprint. Before Ruby could get the microphone back out, he said something to the woman, who had been fiddling with some tablet in her hands. She promptly whipped her head over to the car. Without a word more, both rushed for the cab of their truck.

“That was strange,” Dyna said, looking down at the card she had picked up off the floor of their car. “Kit Maple. Logistical Director. Tartarus.” She handed it over.

Ruby frowned down at the black card. The text of his name and title along with a phone number, embossed in white, sat just beneath a triple hexagon logo done in a reflective red. “I think I’ve narrowed down what organization they’re from,” Ruby said, taking a picture of the card for later sending to Walter.

“Really?” Dyna asked, note of sarcasm in her tone. “Did the card help?”

“The card gave me the name, assuming it isn’t a front, but it was his reaction to you that told me who he is.” Ruby looked up, staring Dyna in the eyes. “How many people outside the Carroll Institute would recognize you?”

To her credit, it took Dyna only a second to catch Ruby’s meaning. Her eyes widened before turning narrow as she looked at the truck. “Id?”

“Not saying it for certain, but that would also explain his odd mannerisms. After seeing you, he clearly wanted to leave, but wasn’t able to just turn around and run away. Probably had to be friendly. His boss still wants to recruit you, after all.”

“Didn’t sound like he was here for me.”

“No. He was surprised to see you too.”

Dyna and Ruby watched as the truck, an old diesel, threw up a column of dark smoke. It started off down the street, moving away from their position.

“Is it really alright to just let them leave?”

“We have a different mission,” Ruby said, deciding to just go ahead and say it. “We need to find Matt before the Hatman gets him.”

Dyna took a breath and nodded her head. “Before the Hatman or our friends find him.”

 

 

 

“Keep in mind the themes. You will not have analytical tools and will have to rely on intuition based on what the object is or represents. That will likely be the key, attempting to use a mundane object in accordance with its themes should see you infusing your psionic energy into it.”

“Alright. And I can do this while already possessing an artifact?”

“That answer is slightly more complex. In short, possibly. Though without running tests during the process, we won’t know for certain.”

“Okay.”

“I theorize that any object can become an artifact when inundated with psionic energy, but you may find it easier to take an object that already has meaning. In other words, plucking one of a hundred mass produced objects off a store shelf will be harder for you than going to a charity shop and finding a relatively unique object with history behind it. That is likely a psychosomatic hang-up, but I posit—”

“I’ll keep that in mind, but I’ve got to go. Sorry,” Dyna said, hanging up the phone just as Ruby stepped out of the bathroom.

Her wild hair wasn’t quite so wild at the moment, dampened by water. She had apparently foregone the hairdryer. Dyna could empathize. She knew she forgot something when packing. The motel did have its own hairdryer, but it was more like a lukewarm fan. No hot air at all.

“Who was that?” Ruby asked, looking up at Dyna with heavy shadow around her eyes.

Dyna blinked twice at her somewhat strange appearance before answering. “Doctor Cross,” she said honestly. “He just wanted to tell me a few things and were you getting into my cosmetics?” Dyna asked, changing the subject.

“No.”

“Ruby…”

“Maybe.”

“I thought stupid makeup was for stupid people with big heads like Emerald? Then you come out here looking like Pris.”

“Is a pris good?”

Dyna pressed her lips together. “It’s a character from a movie. I don’t know if you’d like it.”

“An old movie?”

“Yeah.”

“You know,” Ruby said, moving about the room to pick up the ribbon that made her artifact look like a proper necklace. “I’ve been meaning to ask… Are all the movies you watch twice as old as you are?”

“No? I mean… Maybe. A few of them…”

“Huh.”

“Anyway, Walter hasn’t gotten back to me yet, so rather than sitting around and doing nothing, I want to go back to that house,” Dyna said. “Look around a bit and see if there are any clues there as to where he might have gone.”

“Better than nothing, I guess.”

“Yeah. You ready to go? We’ll pick up some quick breakfast on the way.”

“Sounds good.”

Ruby didn’t have much in the way of equipment, but Dyna slipped into her ballistic vest, threw her jacket on over the top, then grabbed a pair of goggles. Just in case. It was probably pure luck that house splinters hadn’t wound up in her eyes. Or worse. Her ear protection dangled on strings around her neck. With a gun at her hip, not that she intended to use it on Matt, she felt mostly ready to go.

As they stepped outside the motel, Dyna checked her mirror to find nothing alarming. With that, they got into the car.

Now knowing the way out to the house, at least a little, it didn’t take much time to get out to the rows of abandoned homes even with having stopped for some eggs Benedict at a local diner. Dyna somewhat expected police cars or at least crime scene tape all over the house, but found it left exactly as she had last seen it. The door was wide open and pieces of the house were splintered all over the front porch.

“Who would report it?” Ruby said after Dyna voiced her thoughts. “Not like he has any neighbors.”

“There were at least ten gunshots between all of us. Or, between you and him. I didn’t fire anything. But I figured someone would have heard.”

“Anyone out here is probably out here illegally. Doubt they want cops snooping about.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Dyna said, handing over a napkin. “You’ve got some hollandaise sauce on your chin.”

Ruby’s eyes, shadowed by the excessive makeup, widened. She snatched the napkin and started furiously rubbing her chin. “Let’s go,” she said without even asking if she got it all. “I’ll be on guard for bowling balls this time. And paint cans, hot doorknobs, blowtorches, nails in stairs, and—”

“You don’t have to list every trap. I get the idea.”

“Oh? I haven’t even gotten into the list of traps I thought of that he might also have come up with. Really, if that hadn’t been a movie, the kid would have been dead. The moment you make the enemy aware that there are traps, they’re going to be wary and not just keep blundering into them. You’ve got to be lethal from the start. So I would have—”

“And that’s what I was afraid of,” Dyna said with a sigh as she exited the vehicle. She didn’t have any odd feelings and the mirror showed off nothing interesting. Matt wouldn’t have returned and that all but proved it to her.

“Oh please,” Ruby said, stepping up next to Dyna. “The movie didn’t teach me a thing. If Emerald had told me a week ago to defend a building like that, nobody would have gotten inside alive.”

“I’m honestly not sure if you’re trying to be reassuring.”

Ruby flashed a grin and then stopped at the front door.

Dyna stopped as well. With a glance toward Ruby, she raised a hand and knocked on an intact bit of siding. “Matt?” she called out. Just in case. “It’s Dyna. Not here to hurt you! Just to talk.”

“I don’t think he’s home.”

“Me neither.”

“Me first?” Ruby asked, pulling out a small yet high-powered flashlight from her pocket. “I can take a hit.”

Dyna grimaced, feeling guilty again. “Sorry,” she said, fingers tracing over the mirror in her pocket.

She had no idea what she was going to do about that. Even after speaking with Doctor Cross, she was still uncertain. From before, from when she had bound with the Aztec disc, albeit temporarily, Dyna had received a brief lecture about how artificers with multiple artifacts was technically possible but not advised in the long term due to ‘hostile resonance frequencies’ of the artifacts interfering with each other. That meant that upon returning to the institute, she would almost certainly be going through the decoupling process once again.

Dyna’s immediate hope was that she would be able to trade in her mirror for something else. What that something was…

Dyna had no idea. She first needed to find an object that she wanted to try turning into an artifact. That sounded like an ordeal all on its own. Aside from the vague notion of better, Dyna didn’t have a clue what she wanted.

It had to be something portable. It wouldn’t be a good idea to turn a house into an artifact, if such a thing were even possible. Doctor Cross suggested that something like that wasn’t. Emerald’s pocket watch had a number of internal components, but it was conceptually just a timepiece. A car was theoretically one item, but had too many obviously individual components. The door, the windows, the radio, the wheels, the steering column, and so on. Existing artifacts in the Vault were invariably ‘single’ items, even if they were made up of a few different pieces.

A toy car, on the other hand, would probably work. It might embody the themes of speed or transportation… or childhood and fun.

Even before Doctor Cross’ call this morning, Dyna’s mind hadn’t let her sleep much. She had been too busy thinking about possibilities. It was honestly overwhelming.

She had to wonder if, perhaps by talking with Walter, she might just swap the mirror for an existing artifact from the Vault. One with its themes and ideas already known. But at the same time, if her natural psychic power was to somehow create artifacts…

Well, the institute existed to study the development of psychic powers. It would honestly be remiss of Dyna to not try to use her ability.

“Dyna!” Ruby called from somewhere in the house. “I think I found something.”

Dyna slowly closed the refrigerator door on a bunch of warm and frankly putrid food that Matt had hopefully not been eating. Lost in her thoughts, she had barely noticed herself walking around the house, investigating little things. Stepping over a loose floorboard, she moved back to the entryway where Ruby had gotten her head smashed in the day before. “Where are you?”

“Upstairs!” Ruby paused for a moment before calling out, “Watch out for every third step!”

Dyna froze with her foot hovering over the step. She slowly pulled back, noting a thick cut in the wood. A bit of weight would probably have sent her straight through it. Uncertain what might lie underneath and in no hurry to find out, Dyna carefully stepped over before climbing the rest of the steps.

“What is it?” she said, reaching the top.

“Come look.”

The top of the stairs was a small landing with four doors around it, all open. One led to a small bathroom. Two next to each other were mirrored bedrooms, though neither had any furniture. The last door was a much larger bedroom where Ruby’s voice had come from. Dyna walked into the latter room, stepping over a small wire poking out between exposed floorboards.

The master bedroom must have been where Matt spent most of his time. A mattress sat directly on the floor, covered with several dirty blankets. Cans of food were stacked up next to one of the walls. It looked like he had set up some small propane camping grill just outside the window, set up on a piece of plywood that clearly hadn’t been part of the original home construction.

Despite there being a bathroom just outside, there was another one attached to this master bedroom. Next to it was a walk in closet. Light from Ruby’s flashlight danced about in the closet. Shining her own flashlight on the floor, Dyna carefully moved over. It didn’t seem like there were any traps here, however. Matt probably hadn’t wanted to trip over them when getting up to go to the bathroom.

Did the water in this place even run? Dyna shuddered at the thought of what the bathrooms might look like.

Walking into the closet, however, Dyna had to let out a small breath. “Wow.”

“I know, right?” Ruby said, running a finger down a wall. “I didn’t even know they made newspapers anymore.”

Dyna took her eyes off the walls to shoot a strange look at Ruby. Deciding not to comment, she glanced back.

Every square inch of the walls was covered in scraps of newspaper or magazines. Little clippings. Some were full articles. Other pieces were just small segments. Sentences and words that must have had meaning to him. A few pictures stood out, usually surrounded by chopped up paragraphs and other articles.

“No red string tying it all together,” Dyna said, humming.

The ceiling and, actually, the upper parts of the walls were mostly blank. It looked like he had started to try to put up some clippings, but had either not finished or decided it was too much work to get up so high. The floor was uncovered as well, though it did have a littering of intact magazines, newspapers, a few pairs of scissors, and several sticks of glue.

“When you said he went crazy, I didn’t know you meant like actual trapped-in-the-basement-of-Psychodynamics-with-Doctor-Tarr levels of insane.”

Ignoring Ruby, Dyna took a closer look at one of the more prominent photographs of a young boy. The text, chopped up and assembled around him, included several instances of kidnapped, missing, and disappeared. Then there were the dozens of instances of Hatman surrounding the photograph. None were all one word. Some were two separate bits of text stuck together. Others were individual letters chopped out of various headlines and titles, making it look like one of those stereotypical ransom notes from really old movies.

The most complete clipping near the photograph seemed to be an excerpt from an article just stating the child’s name and date he went missing.

Pulling out her phone, Dyna snapped a photograph to send to Walter later on. Dyna didn’t know the kid pictured even a with a name and a face. She doubted he was an acquaintance of hers. Walter would be far more equipped to track down information about him.

Crouching down, Dyna found another photograph a little lower on the wall. Once again, it was surrounded with kidnapping, missing, and Hatman. She took a picture of it as well, only to take another glance around the room.

“Are all of these missing kids that were kidnapped by the Hatman?”

Ruby shrugged. “That’s what the implications are, if you believe it.”

“You don’t believe it?”

“I believe you,” Ruby said. “But these? This guy could be attributing every missing person with this Hatman, regardless of whether or not he was involved.”

“True, I suppose,” Dyna said, taking a picture of another section of the wall. “Still, just in case, we should get photos of all this to Walter.”

“Yeah. Especially this bit.”

Turning to the same wall with the door, Dyna found Ruby pointing at a section of the wall that wasn’t quite like the rest. Something was glued up to the wall, but it wasn’t newspaper or magazine clippings.

“A map?”

It looked like a sheet torn straight from a physical atlas. After taking a picture, Dyna stared at it for a long few moments. It was a map of the suburbs. Probably the same suburbs that this house was located in. There were symbols drawn on at various points. Some lots were crossed out with thick black marks. Others were circled. Some had both circles and crosses.

And a few of the crosses had smaller symbols near them. A long flat line that jutted upward around the center. “This is a hat, right? The little mark?”

“Maybe.”

Tension gripped Dyna’s stomach. “These marks are all over the place. Is the Hatman here?”

“Hope so. I’ll crack his skull in.”

“The symbol shows up around a lot of the crossed out properties… Has Matt been fighting the Hatman?” That could explain why he had opened fire despite Dyna and Ruby obviously lacking hats or any other physical characteristics of the man. If he had been expecting someone else. Someone a little more prone to kidnapping…

Uneasy, Dyna turned to look around the room. Did he have more of these? Did he make a new one every time he had to move?

Dyna blinked twice as her flashlight beam crossed the far end of the closet. There was a face she recognized there. The little girl from her memories. The one who disappeared. The Carroll Institute hadn’t managed to track her down. Not even a name. And yet, in a vague sense, Dyna still managed to recognize her. Of course she would be here. Matt had remembered something, so here she was. Dyna stepped forward, about to look for a name, only to freeze.

Around the photograph, more clippings had been glued to the wall. But just beyond those, Dyna saw it. More clippings covered the wall, but they weren’t random. There was an organization to them. Darker clippings spread outward, wide over the top of the picture of the girl. It wasn’t a single image, but a collage.

A collage of a hat.

Once she saw that much, the rest stood out against the background noise of the newspaper-covered wall. A face made up from text, pictures, scribbled over scraps, and more. But it wasn’t a complete face. There were gaps. Bare wall showing through. There were no eyes. No mouth. Just empty blanks.

“He used to come when I slept,” Ruby said, holding up a small tablet of paper that might have been better used for a grocery shopping list. Her flashlight illuminated numerous scribblings. “He just stood and stared. Watched. Now he comes when I’m awake.”

“We should leave,” Dyna said, feeling a tingling in her fingers. “We need to go.”

Ruby looked up from the tablet. “You didn’t even finish taking pictures.”

Dyna wasn’t listening. She had a bad feeling. Grabbing her mirror, she glanced down. “Black lenses.”

Ruby flipped the tablet shut and slipped it into the pocket of her hoodie. Her gun came out. She promptly drew back the slide, chambering a round. “Could be your friend.”

“Could be a man with a hat.”

“I’m honestly fine with either,” Ruby said, moving out of the closet. She approached the windows of the master bedroom that looked out over the backyard and peered out, using the wall as cover. “Nothing out back.”

Dyna walked out of the room, stepping over a trap on the way, and entered the right of the two other bedrooms. Its windows should look out toward the front. Dyna did the same that Ruby had done, just barely peeking out enough to see the sidewalk down below the house.

She immediately sucked in a breath.

A man walked down the sidewalk. He moved with purpose, but not at a hasty speed. Each step was languid, as if he had all the time in the world to get to his inevitable destination. Dyna couldn’t see his face. He wore a long black coat and a hat with a brim that stretched out clear to his already broad shoulders.

“You see him too, right?” Dyna asked as Ruby came up alongside her. She had to be certain.

“Yeah… You’re not the crazy one,” Ruby whispered. The corner of her eyebrow started twitching. “He’s doing something. Messing with my mind. Not strong, but the moment I looked at him, I had to start fighting it.”

“Really?” Dyna closed her eyes, focusing inward for a moment. “I don’t feel anything.”

“You saw him as a kid. Already got exposed to the trick. You’re probably fighting it off easier.”

“Maybe…”

“So what’s the plan? Ambush him when he comes in? Rush him now?”

“We need to report this to…” Dyna trailed off, watching as the man came to a stop outside the house.

He stood on the sidewalk, well within reach of the car they had come in, but seemed to pay it no mind as he turned to face the house directly. Dyna sucked in a breath and held it as he simply stared. She couldn’t see his face. The wide brim of his hat hid it just as much as it kept the visible sliver of her hidden from his eyes. She wasn’t sure if she wanted him to look up. It would let her see, but at the same time, she was afraid of what she might find.

The man angled his head to the side, just slightly. After a moment of silent thought, he turned back to the direction he had been walking and started down the sidewalk once again.

“He’s leaving?” Ruby hissed. “Not today you aren’t—”

“Ruby!”

The younger girl was already out of the room. Dyna chased after her, hopping over a trip wire before skipping the sawed steps on her way down. She made it to the entryway and out the door just a few steps behind Ruby.

Ruby had her gun out and aimed down the street in the same direction that the man had been heading. Only a look of confusion crossed her face.

It didn’t take much to figure out why. The street and sidewalk were empty.

What…

What had they come out here for again? Why did Ruby have her gun out?

Unease gnawed at Dyna’s chest as she glanced up and down the street, seeing nothing. Pulling out her mirror, Dyna looked at her own face. No black lenses, no alternate perspectives. And yet…

Intuition or gut instinct, Dyna wasn’t sure, but she snapped at Ruby. “Get in the car!”

“Wha—”

“Car!” Dyna shouted, already rushing past the girl to the driver side of the vehicle. “Now!”

To her credit, Ruby didn’t argue further. The moment she had both feet in, Dyna stomped her foot down on the accelerator. She stared in the rear-view mirror, watching the empty street behind their car until it came time to turn.

“What was that about?” Ruby snapped.

“I don’t know. I… had a feeling. Like you might just disappear and I wouldn’t even know it.”

“Dumb.” Ruby clicked her tongue as she dropped the magazine from her gun, pulled the slide back until she ejected the chambered bullet, then started pressing the bullet back into the magazine. “Why was I… We were investigating the house. And then someone showed up on your mirror. But I can’t quite remember…”

“We were investigating the Hatman. I think… I got such a bad feeling about standing out there in the open. I think he found us.”

Ruby paused her movement, closing her eyes. “I didn’t feel any psychic in my head. Not after getting outside.”

“Neither did I,” Dyna said through grit teeth. “Neither did I.”

 

 

“How is Ruby?”

Dyna looked over to the sole bed in their cheap motel. Sitting atop the quilted faded floral covers, Ruby laid on her back with her hands pressed against her eyes. Her face wasn’t quite back to normal yet, but it was at least bearable to look at. She mumbled something under her breath over and over again.

Leaning a little closer, Dyna frowned.

“I’m not going to kill him. That would fail the mission. I’m not going to kill him. That would fail the mission. I’m not going—”

“Walter’s asking how you are.”

“I’m going to rip out his eyes and shove them so far up his—”

“She’s fine,” Dyna said, moving over to the window of their room. She didn’t stand directly in front of it, but rather off to the side. Using a single finger, she carefully slid the curtains aside just enough to peek out at the vacant parking lot. “I’m sure she’ll be up and about in no time.”

No sign of being followed, not that she really expected that. Matt had been running, not chasing after them. In fact, if her mirror lenses went dark again, that would actually be a good thing. She might be able to figure out where he had gone.

Where would he have gone? One of the other abandoned homes? Casper was surrounded by basically nothing. Lots of trees, the mountain… Did he have wilderness survival skills?

“Good,” Walter said. “While you were moving Ruby back to the motel, I got into contact with both Behavioral Analytics and the Personnel Location Program. The latter group are attempting to track him down, but it might take some time. Especially if he doesn’t settle in one spot.”

“How long does he have to stay still for the Locators to find him? If he takes a nap…”

“It depends on the Locator in question. We have four precognitives and four clairvoyants in the program. One can only see locations that someone considers home, one precog needs a relatively recent photograph to function. Those two are unlikely to provide actionable intelligence. As for the others? I’ll keep you informed.”

“Thanks,” Dyna said, hoping her scowl wasn’t audible. She wished she would have known about the photograph thing before. Not that there had really been an opportunity to take a picture.

“As for the Behavioral Analytics Laboratory, they suggest that Matthew is paranoid and fearful, likely—”

“I could have told you that. No laboratory required. Besides being armed, that place was filled with traps. While waiting for Ruby to heal enough to move her, I spotted no less than eight different trip wires and while dragging her out of there, I noticed something that had probably been destroyed during her initial breaching shots. And that’s without exploring further than the entryway. I wasn’t exactly interested in walking around a booby-trapped house with Ruby down.”

“Wise. But I was going to say that someone like that likely has other places set up similarly. Areas and hideouts that he has prepared in advance where he can feel safe. The sheer number of abandoned areas in the city provide plentiful locations for him to fall back to. It is doubtful that he has left Casper. He won’t want to be out of his familiar territory.”

“That’s… good,” Dyna said, closing her eyes. “Sorry for snapping. I’m just… frustrated.”

“Given the situation, I would be surprised if you weren’t. But try to avoid letting that dictate your actions. You’ll make more mistakes, increasing frustration which will lead to more mistakes.”

“Easier said than done,” Dyna mumbled away from the phone.

Walter let out an amused hum. Apparently he still heard, but he didn’t comment on it. “There is lower confidence in the following because of limited information and personality modeling data, but Behavioral Analytics also suggests that, should you encounter Matthew again, he may be less hostile and more open to conversation now that he is more certain that you are not the subject of his fears.”

“The Hatman.”

“Unfortunately, we still have next to no data on who or what this so called Hatman actually is.”

“Matt has to know something. Or at least, he remembered the same thing I did. Or maybe it came after him and he managed to get away.”

“All just theories until we actually make contact. There’s…” Walter trailed off as a mumbled voice started talking in the background. Beatrice, probably. “I’ve got to attend to a few matters. I hope I have more actionable information later on. For now, stay put until Ruby fully recovers. And take care. It has only happened twice before, but loosing her head tends to make Ruby… irritable.”

Dyna glanced over just in time to hear Ruby mumble again.

“I’ll shave his teeth with a rusty disposable razor…”

Dyna groaned. “Hope I can keep her out of trouble.”

Walter chuckled and, without a single other word, disconnected the call.

With a long sigh, Dyna slipped the phone back into her pocket. She trudged around to the other side of the bed and slumped down onto it. The mirror in her other hand reflected her own glum face. Dark smudges marred her right cheek. A few red marks poked through the smudges that had come from slivers she hadn’t even noticed getting. It was probably lucky that she didn’t have worse injuries.

Ruby could survive a buckshot pellet to the brain. Dyna couldn’t. Just one of those things flying through the wall would have made this moment impossible.

She had been so… useless. Ruby could survive having her head crushed to a pulp. Emerald would have been able to waltz past all the traps and disarm Matt without any real danger. Dyna wasn’t exactly sure about the extent of Sapphire’s powers and, based on how he acted, she would never want his abilities, but at the very least, he could float. He could have chased after Matt without triggering traps and would have caught up to him quickly. Alexanderite…

Actually, Dyna wasn’t sure what Alexanderite did. Was it the singing? Or did he just like to sing as an aside?

Whatever it was, he probably could have solved at least some aspect of the situation far better than Dyna had.

And what did she have? Nothing. She was a glorified clairvoyant.

Actually, glorified implied at least a little superior. There were probably a dozen clairvoyants running around the Carroll Institute that could do what she did without having to carry around a dumb mirror everywhere they went.

Dyna had something now. And that something was something. She should be grateful. She was grateful. But it just wasn’t enough. Her peers so drastically outclassed her that it was hard to believe that she was somehow in the same league as them.

Something cold pressed up against Dyna’s cheek. She jumped out of bed, gun snapping from her holster to…

The amused face of Ruby. Her eyes were bloodshot, making them look even redder than normal. But aside from that, she looked fine. Normal. Nobody would be able to tell that a bowling ball had slammed into her head then crushed it into the ground.

Her regeneration was just too good.

Dyna flicked the safety on and slid the gun back into her holster. “Did you have to do that?”

“You weren’t listening to me.”

“I was attempting to tune out your mutterings and depictions of torture. Muttered depictions of torture. Are you all fixed up now?”

“Mostly. My eyes still sting. I hate fixing my eyes. It’s the worst. By far.”

“Worse than your brain?”

“There are no pain receptors in your brain,” Ruby said, matter-of-factly.

“Oh… Oh. I guess that makes sense?”

Ruby nodded, only to grimace and press her palms back up against her eyes.

“How… uh…” Dyna’s eyes dropped down to Ruby’s throat. The black ribbon that normally looked like it was holding her gemstone was off to the side, sitting on top of the old-fashioned lamp on the end table. The gemstone wasn’t in the little metal ring of the choker, however.

Right where an Adam’s apple might be found on someone else, the bright red gemstone jutted out of her throat. The skin touching it was inflamed and red. Thick vein-like protrusions spread outward like a spiderweb, pulsing faintly in time with her heartbeat. It was something that wouldn’t go away no matter how much Ruby fixed herself up. Normally hidden by the ribbon, Dyna had only seen her bare throat once before.

Dyna tried not to stare.

“I heard about it before,” Dyna started again, “so I wasn’t surprised, but how do you put your brain back together? Don’t you kind of need your brain to run your artifact?”

All movement in Ruby came to a stop. She stilled, teeth clenched together. A bright flare from her gemstone washed the room in a red light. As the light faded, the tension in Ruby’s shoulders fled. She dropped her hands away from her eyes and looked over to Dyna.

The bloodshot, borderline subconjunctival hemorrhaging in her eyes swirled about. The red faded and her eyes cleared up to a far more natural white. She snapped her neck from one side to the other, making far louder cracks than Dyna could ever hope to accomplish.

“My parents did something to me,” Ruby said. “I don’t know exactly what and I try not to think about it, but I don’t know how much of me is actually in my brain.” To emphasize, she tapped the ruby gemstone in her throat. “Don’t bother thinking about it too hard. There’s a whole team back at the institute trying to figure it out.”

Dyna didn’t say anything. After staring for a moment longer than she meant to, she slumped back down into her side of the bed.

Ruby was… definitely something. A little ball of anger and violence with a messed up past that probably justified her nature. Dyna wasn’t quite sure why—maybe it was just from bonding over movies—but she did trust the younger girl. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t a little afraid of her, however.

Maybe afraid for her.

How did someone’s brain just exist in a ruby?

Or perhaps consciousness was the better term.

“Shouldn’t you wear some kind of like… thick steel shield-like necklace? Something to protect the artifact?”

“It’s fine. Its hard to damage and it is still part of me, meaning I can fix it.”

“But—”

“It’s fine, Dyna. I’ve talked plenty about this with Walter and other doctors. And before you freaked out and pulled your gun on me, I was trying to ask what Walter said. He’s not calling us back to the institute, is he?”

Dyna stared a moment before shaking her head. Ruby was almost more tense now than she had been when her eyes had been screwed up. Worried about failing the mission? Probably. If Dyna knew one thing about Ruby, it was that the little girl wanted respect. For people to listen to her and to treat her more like they would treat Emerald.

Screwing up a mission was probably one of her worst fears.

“No he isn’t. We’re to stick around until you’re back up to one-hundred percent. Then probably stick around a bit more while we wait for information. He’s got some people looking into where Matt might have gone.”

Ruby immediately relaxed, sinking further into the quilted covers. “Good. I won’t mess up this time.”

“I don’t think you messed up. Just got surprised.”

“That’s messing up.”

“Speaking of Matt, when you ran inside, shooting your gun—”

“I wasn’t shooting at him,” Ruby said, suddenly defensive. “I couldn’t have missed harder without turning my back to him.”

“I know. I’m saying thanks for not hitting him. I know you could have.”

“Well…” Ruby shifted where she sat. “You’re welcome.” She suddenly sat herself up on her elbows, fixing Dyna with a glare. “But how did you know there was going to be a bowling ball?”

“I didn’t. It’s just that there is this movie with a kid who traps his house because burglars are coming and the situation just made me think of it. That’s all.”

Ruby crossed her arms, adopting a pout that actually made her look her age. “We better watch it. I need to know these things.”

“You’re going to get all kinds of bad ideas,” Dyna said with a long sigh. “But I guess we’ve got nothing else to do tonight. I’ll see if I can find it on my phone. First…” Kicking her legs over the side of the bed, Dyna got to her feet. “There was a vending machine just outside. I’m going to buy a few snacks. Want anything?”

“You know what I like.”

Anything that wasn’t sweet. Nuts, popcorn, potato chips. As long as it didn’t contain too much sugar, she was good with it.

“Need me to come with you?”

Dyna shook her head. “Vending machine is just on the other side of the wall.”

“I’m not supposed to take my eyes off you.”

“You took your eyes off me for a few hours while you didn’t have eyes,” Dyna said, then immediately regretted it. Ruby was just trying to follow orders. “Sorry. I’ll leave the door open and shout if anything happens.”

“Okay.”

Stepping outside, Dyna immediately shivered. Late February air in Wyoming was quite chilly, especially now that the sun had set. Scuba diving and jet skis were definitely off the table, even if they miraculously managed to resolve this Matthew issue tomorrow.

After first giving a firm tug on the card reader to make sure it wasn’t fake, Dyna bought a few snacks. Being an exterior unrefrigerated vending machine, most everything available was savory. She grabbed a few bags of chips and then…

Dyna looked out over the parking lot. And looked past it, off toward some large box-like building peeking over some distant trees. With a frown, she drew her mirror.

It reflected herself. Nothing more.

“So useless,” she mumbled, staring down at her face. The situations it came in handy were a little too specific. Even now that she could observe perspectives that weren’t outright hostile, such as the people in the training scenarios, it still was just too limited to be handy.

Barely aware of what she was doing, Dyna swapped the mirror for her phone. She scrolled down her contacts list until she found the name she wanted. Hitting dial, she waited.

And waited.

And it went to voice mail.

Grumbling to herself, Dyna tried calling again.

This time, a grumpy voice answered on the second ring.

“What is it? I’m busy!”

“Doctor Cross.”

“Delta?”

“Dyna.”

“I’m not that hungry.”

Dyna blinked twice before realizing he misheard her. Then she just rolled her eyes. “I had a question.”

“Do make it quick. We’re running quite fascinating tests on the satellite data centered on the Korean artifact—”

“That is related to what I wanted to talk about. The Korean artifact just manifested or was created all of a sudden, right? Just a week ago or however long its been.”

“Nine days, fourteen hours, two minutes, thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five seconds.”

Dyna didn’t care about the exact time. She ignored that and pressed on. “My artifact, the compact mirror, also underwent the same process, correct?”

“A bit more gradually, but yes. I have written seven thesis papers on the creation of artifacts and various methods—”

“Doctor Cross,” Dyna could cut in. Cross could talk about three things indefinitely. Artifacts, artificers, and himself. Letting him get started on a subject involving all three would see her unlimited cell plan being pushed to its limits. “Do you believe science should be repeatable and reproducible?”

“Of course. Finding ways to turn the nonsense the Carroll Institute outputs into proper science is one of my many goals.”

“Then you must be interested in reproducing a recent experiment.”

“Oh? Something on your mind?”

“You told me once that artificers are misnamed. That artificers refers to someone who creates something, not uses it. I created the mirror, didn’t I? Can I do that again?”

Dyna could picture Cross’ grin pushing his beard aside and straining his lips. “Oh my dear beautiful Delta. You are getting so far ahead of yourself. I have drafted no less than one-hundred ninety-seven experiments. You may remember that I wanted to get started with such experiments immediately following the previous… incident. The Carroll Institute has rejected every proposal.”

Dyna leaned up against the wall of the motel, looking up at the stars overhead. “I’m not at the institute right now.”

Even without him saying a word, she could hear that grin of his.

“I just want something useful. Something better than a handicapped clairvoyant.”

“Give me a day to work through some things. I’ll call you.”

Sucking in a breath as the call disconnected, Dyna felt a dozen butterflies tumble around in her stomach.

But… they felt like the good kind of butterflies.

Chips in hand, Dyna headed back to the her room.

 

 

 

Dyna stood, stretching her back until a series of snaps ran up her spine. The drive hadn’t been that long, but it had forced her to sit roughly in one position in a rather small electric car for half the day.

And she had insisted on driving. Ruby could drive, in a technical sense. Dyna wasn’t quite sure how many rules of the road she actually knew. Let her handle the high-stress situations if they came. For just a calm drive across some flat, relatively empty roads, Dyna was more than qualified.

Unless Ruby had a growth spurt on the trip over, Dyna was also the only one qualified to get them a room at the Casper Supreme Nine. Luckily, she didn’t have to pay for it from her own pocket. Walter had kindly provided a card with a few thousand dollar limit on it. She was to use it for just about every expense, from food to the motel.

His approval apparently made this an institute sanctioned mission.

“Your room key,” Dyna said, handing over a simple card bearing the inn’s logo. “Room seven.”

Ruby, slumped against the car door, looked up from her phone with an exaggerated groan. “Do you know what the population of this dump is?” she asked, wiggling the screen back and forth.

“Sign on the way in said nearly sixty thousand.”

“Yeah, well, guess nobody went out and updated it. Since the oil fields and coal mines shut down, population has dropped to half that. Walter wants us to have fun here? What are we supposed to do? Does Casper even have a movie theater?”

“I’m sure they do, but we can watch movies back home.”

“Oh great,” Ruby said, tone flat. “The one source of entertainment this hovel is likely to have and we’re not doing it?” Ruby hummed in thought. Her eyes lit up in just the sort of way that made Dyna grimace. “Hey, half those buildings we passed are probably abandoned. Do you think we could—”

“We’re not blowing up a building for fun,” Dyna said, tone flat.

“Oh come on. If not fun, then I’m sure we could get paid from the city. We’ll give them a huge discount. They’ll love us and it will count as a job. We even brought our own C4.”

“No, Ruby.” Dyna let out a long sigh. “There’s a nice river and trees everywhere. And the mountain looming over the town. Maybe we could go on a hike…”

“Eh.”

“Or rent a boat and fish.”

Ruby stared over at Dyna with narrowed eyes. “Did someone overwrite your electrochemical patterns with those of an old man?”

“How about we rent scuba gear or jet skis?” It was honestly probably a bit too cold for that. Assuming this town even had a place to rent such equipment. Dyna wasn’t too optimistic.

But Ruby actually straightened her back at that. “Really—”

“More importantly, we have a job to do here first. Remember?”

Ruby dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand. “Finding your crazy friend? That’s like an afternoon of work.” She paused, only to narrow her eyes. “Though I do have to wonder who would come here for their mental health. I see nothing in the database promoting therapists or psychologists in the area.”

“Maybe he just wants open air and nature. And less people than in California.”

“Seems like he could do better with a good doctor. What’s nature going to tell him to get him over his issues?”

Dyna raised an eyebrow. “Have you seen a therapist, Ruby? It might do you some good.”

“Unless I’m out on a mission, I have twice weekly sessions with Doctor Zaius. He’s like… okay.”

Dyna opened her mouth, about to ask just what Ruby meant by that. Was this doctor actually earning some approval from her? That was surprising. Ruby… was Ruby. The poor doctor.

Instead of commenting, however, she just nodded her head and started the car. “Good. I guess. We’re going to drive around before going into our room. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious, alternate escape routes, or…” Dyna trailed off at a hefty sniffle coming from Ruby. “Are you getting sick?”

“No. Just… so proud. You’ve grown up so quickly.” Ruby promptly wiped a very real tear away from her eyes.

Which, despite being a real tear, had to be faked. Dyna knew well just how good of an actor Ruby could be when she wanted. Sometimes she wondered if she had ever seen the actual Ruby, only to dismiss the notion as ridiculous.

Ruby was too… Ruby to fake it when she didn’t have to.

“Yeah, yeah. Just keep an eye out.”

Despite having claimed to Walter that she was in charge of the mission, Ruby had been fairly passive. At least once Dyna insisted on being the driver. After that, she had acted mostly as a child should. Namely, she took a big long nap, woke up to grumble about fast food, and then went back to sleep almost immediately after getting a hamburger.

Dyna didn’t mind in the slightest. If this were a stressful situation, she would be happy to hand over control to the more experienced Ruby. At least so long as she retained the right to veto any plans that involved explosives. But the fact was that it wasn’t stressful.

Leaving the Carroll Institute had made Dyna’s palms sweat. She had kept her head on a swivel, both checking with her mirror as well as looking about with her own eyes for any sign of Id or her crew. But nothing happened. They got out of Idaho Falls, on the road, into Wyoming, and all the way here to the city of Casper. All without encountering a single troublesome incident. And unless that changed, Dyna was happy to be in charge.

Even now, driving around what was to be their home for the next week, Dyna didn’t see anything alarming. Certainly no sign that they had been maliciously drawn out here as Walter theorized.

Maybe they would be able to have a nice relaxing week.

Then again, there was more than just one inn in the city. It could be that whoever drew her out here would be watching Matt rather than any one of a dozen inns and motels. That was assuming that this, coming out here to find him, was their intended action for Dyna to take. It was entirely possible that some idiots were sitting around in California, waiting to kidnap herre there.

They’d be waiting an awfully long time.

“Anything?”

“Nothing too special,” Ruby said. “Walls are probably thin. We could knock down side walls if we need a second door for whatever reason, or the back wall for a quick exit into the alley. From there, we could—”

“Maybe… we try to avoid blowing up the motel. Especially with us inside it. It isn’t even abandoned.”

“You asked.”

“I did. I’m sorry.”

“Back to the motel? We should check out the interior as well. I’m not expecting much.”

“Me neither. But before that, I think I want to do a quick drive around town.”

“Going to be a really quick drive.”

“Yes, yes,” Dyna said. “I get it. It’s a small city. But I mostly want to check in on the address we got. ‘Case the joint,’ is the phrase, I believe.”

Ruby regarded Dyna for a long moment. “You really are all grown up, aren’t you?”

Dyna rolled her eyes. “I just want to make sure that it isn’t surrounded by suspicious people. I’ll feel a whole lot better about properly visiting later having indulged in my paranoia beforehand.”

“Understandable.”

Pulling off to the side of the road, Dyna fished out her phone and copied the address given for Matt onto the car’s computer. The GPS did its calculation and a route popped up. It was clear on the opposite side of the city, which was only a mere ten minutes away.

Following the fastest available route, Dyna quickly realized that they were not heading to the good side of town. Not in terms of danger. It wasn’t gang ridden territory or filled with supremacists. It was just… abandoned.

On the way into town, they had passed a few larger buildings that had likely been involved in the oil or mining industry. All had had dark windows and crumbling walls. But those had been… not exactly expected, but Dyna didn’t blink an eye at their presence.

Here?

There was something unnerving about driving through what had likely been a homely little suburb at one time and seeing nothing but shattered windows, planks of plywood in the windows’ place, overgrown yards, and graffiti-covered walls. More than one home looked like it had been the victim of a fire that went ignored, leaving little more than a skeletal husk of charred wooden beams in an otherwise overgrown lot.

“Your guy still lives here, right?”

“I don’t know,” Dyna said, drive slowed to a crawl as she slowly looked around at all the houses. Not a one looked lived in. A consequence of fifty percent of the population up and leaving. “The institute gave me the address. If he’s not here…”

“Could be anywhere,” Ruby said, removing a pistol from her holster. “I don’t like this.”

“I’m going to be upset if you shoot my friend.”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist. I’m not going to shoot anyone I don’t want to shoot.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better. The institute didn’t provide a picture, but from my memories and some pictures my mother sent, I do know that he had a short mop of curly blond hair. Even if other things changed, I imagine that is mostly the same.”

“Unless he shaved his head.” Ruby slowly looked over to Dyna. Her eyes roamed from the top of Dyna’s head down her back. “Or dyed his hair.”

“Obviously,” Dyna said, running a hand down her own hair. “Silver or black?” she asked.

“What?”

“I thought the silver was super cool when I first got it done. Ethereal and mysterious.”

“Uh huh.”

Dyna took her eyes off the road for just a moment, frowning at Ruby. “Wrong person to ask, I suppose.”

“I feel like someone is watching us. Get your mirror out.”

“I don’t feel anything,” Dyna said, complying with Ruby’s request anyway. “And I would appreciate if you didn’t steal the one thing that makes me special.”

“Intuition counts for a lot. No psychic powers here.”

“Right,” Dyna said as she flipped open the mirror. They were driving slow enough that she didn’t feel a need to pull over. Two perfectly normal lenses reflected her own face. She snapped it back shut. “Nothing. Is that intuition or imagination?”

Ruby let out a small, annoyed grunt. “Something’s wrong here.”

“That I can believe. I’d be surprised if this place isn’t filled with squatters. But hopefully none upset with us enough to trigger my artifact.”

“I’m not worried about squatters, but… What is it?”

A chill ran down Dyna’s spine. She immediately flipped open the mirror once again.

“One point of view. Watching from an elevated position. Window, not a roof. It’s to our—”

The very robotic voice of the car’s navigator casually piped up. “You have arrived at your destination.”

Ruby snorted, looking out the passenger window with narrowed eyes. “Your friend already hates us and we haven’t even gotten out of the car yet.”

The home was, much like most other homes in this section of town, looking rather abandoned. Nobody had tended to the yard in years and the pale yellow paint was peeling off the siding. All the windows on the ground floor had been boarded up, though the upper floor looked more or less normal. Dyna saw a curtain move as the perspective on her mirror shifted away and blanked out.

“Well… dang. I only wanted to drive by then maybe take a nap.”

“If he hates us this much already just seeing someone stop at his house, he might run.”

Dyna clicked her tongue in annoyance. “I shouldn’t have stopped. I would have just been a random car driving around. Now… Let me get my vest on.”

“He could be sneaking out the back right now. I should—”

“Not leave my sight,” Dyna grunted as she reached into the back seat and pulled on a ballistic vest. “You heard Walter.”

“Inconvenient.”

“Maybe,” Dyna said, slapping the velcro down. “Those were the conditions.”

“You ready?”

Dyna adjusted the gun on her belt, making sure it was ready to be drawn. “Let’s go. And please don’t shoot him.”

“If it is actually him. Could be whoever set this trap.”

“In that case, we should get information from them.”

Dyna could hear Ruby’s teeth grinding together, but the younger girl still nodded her head.

“I know you’re skilled enough to get this done without killing whoever is in there. I’m not. I need your help, Ruby.”

Those few words actually got Ruby to straighten her back in pride. “Don’t worry,” she said, grinning. “I’ll show you how breaking and entering goes.”

“We’re not breaking and—”

Dyna didn’t get a chance to finish. Ruby was already outside the car, scanning the neighborhood in a slow turn, looking for anything suspicious in the windows or on the rooftops. Apparently not finding anything, she waved Dyna out of the car and started heading up the flagstone path to the front door of the home.

Consulting with her mirror, black lenses but no eyes on her, Dyna stepped out and rounded the car. The entire time she moved, she kept coiled and ready to dodge bullets if any sights popped up on her mirror.

“The first thing you have to worry about with a hostile subject holed up in a house they’ve been in for a while is traps,” Ruby said as they crossed the yard.

“Like bowling balls swinging down the stairs?”

Ruby paused as her brain visibly processed the image. “I… was thinking something more like a claymore strung up to the door or a grenade tapped to the frame with a nail ready to pull its pin if the door is opened. That’s the stuff I would do.”

“Most people don’t have access to claymores or grenades. Probably.”

“But bowling balls? Where did you get that idea from?”

“Oh boy. Have I got a treat for you. Remind me to…” Dyna stopped abruptly and shook her head. “No. Wait. This is a bad idea. Forget I said anything.”

“If you’re done, we do have a job to do,” Ruby said, pointing a thumb toward the door from her position to its side, back to the wall. “Now the front door is the most likely place for traps, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find a strip of spikes in front of the larger windows. Windows make a lot of noise when breaking, so it is generally less needed to have a lethal trap there as the noise will alert you.”

“He already saw us.”

“True. And these windows are boarded up anyway. Probably harder to get into than the door.”

“Should we just knock? Maybe he’ll answer.”

Ruby, lips pressed together, stretched her arm out to the oval cutout in the door that had once had a window, but now only had a plank of plywood in its place. She tapped her knuckle three times.

On the third strike, the plywood exploded outward along with the clap of a shotgun.

Dyna sucked in a sharp breath. She had been around the other side of the door frame, out of the line of fire. Now she pressed herself up against the wall as hard as she could. She glanced at her mirror as she drew her pistol. The lenses were still blank. He didn’t have eyes on them.

“Great idea,” Ruby said, tone dripping. Two of her fingers snapped back into place with a sickening and wet crack. “Any other bright ideas?”

“No ma’am. Lenses are dark. No eyes on us. At least we know he is still in there.”

“At least,” Ruby ground out. She pulled out a thick little gun. Something Dyna had never seen before. It looked like a cross between a revolver and a flare gun. “I’m breaking down the door.”

“You’re shooting down the door? What if you hit him?”

“Shots are coming from up high,” Ruby said, pointing at the porch where a few planks of wood had turned into splinters. “Probably on the stairs. Now get down.”

Dyna didn’t argue. She slipped on some fancy ear protection, ear buds that would automatically mute themselves when a noise was too loud but let quieter sound, such as voices, through.

Ruby didn’t bother with any kind of ear protection. For better or worse, her ability let her effectively repair any damage to her body, including hearing damage, instantly. She just pressed the thick gun right up to the door and pulled the trigger.

A heavy slug went straight through deadbolt, ripping it apart along with a significant portion of the door around it. She immediately moved down to the handle and, pressing the gun against the wood between the handle and the frame, pulled the trigger again. The door creaked open simply with the force of the gun. Ruby gave it a helpful push with the flat of her foot in a hard kick.

She immediately ducked around the side of the home, just in time to avoid a scattering of buckshot.

“Matt!” Dyna called out. “I’m Dyna Graves. We went to elementary school together! We’re not here to—”

Splinters exploded around Dyna as bits of the door frame got taken away by another shot. Buckshot had better penetrating power than most people thought. Luckily, either he didn’t know that or he was deliberately not aiming directly for her, but for the side of the open door instead. Either way, Dyna ducked down and repositioned just underneath the front window, not wanting to remain where she had already revealed herself.

“Not sure he’s listening.” Ruby peered around the side, pulling back only seconds before another blast of pellets flew through where her head had been. “Pump action. No way of telling how many shells he’s got. He’s on the stair landing. It’s dark inside. Couldn’t see his hair. I can disarm him if I take a hit. Buckshot is a bitch, but I can do it.”

“Ruby… You don’t—”

“Keeping within mission parameters, and without Emerald around to think for twenty minutes inside the span of a second, this is the best I’ve got. You got a better idea?”

Dyna’s mind raced. She considered as many things as she could. From peeking their heads around the corner until he ran out of ammunition to going around back and somehow making the situation better from that side of things.

But before she could make any decision, Ruby peered around the corner. She ducked a shot again. This time, instead of pressing her back to the wall, she kicked off and charged, firing her gun twice.

“Weapon down!” she barked out. “Now!”

Their opponent answered with another blast from the shotgun.

“What the—”

Dyna grit her teeth and leaned around the corner, just in time to see a surprised Ruby let out a yelp.

A heavy ball, swinging on a long rope attached somewhere high up in the stairwell, came down and caught Ruby directly in the face despite her best attempts at ducking. Her tiny body went flying down the stairs, face visibly mangled. The ball hit what should have been the apex of its swing, only for the rope to snap. Ruby’s body hit the ground at the bottom of the stairs and the bowling ball crashed down, crushing her skull completely.

Their assailant skidded down the stairs, jumping the first few from the landing. He stopped at Ruby, aiming his gun only to turn off to the side and projectile vomit across what might have once been the living room.

He had curly hair. Long, ragged, curly hair with a matching beard. With the way it was matted down, he likely hadn’t cleaned it in at least a few weeks if not longer. Judging by the state of things, he might have been out here for months if not years.

But it was him. Matthew Quincy. The one all her friends said went clinically insane. Based on his actions over the last few minutes, Dyna could believe it. Dyna couldn’t remember him being even mildly violent as a child.

He was sick and distracted. The shotgun hung limp from a single hand.

Dyna moved around the side of the door, intending to relieve him of his weapon before he could recover.

He snapped up the shotgun far faster than Dyna expected, aiming it her center mass. He didn’t fire. Not right away. He squinted with a bit of slime running down his chin, staring at her.

“Matt,” Dyna said, trying to keep her voice soft and calm while keeping her gun arm tense. She wasn’t going to die here. She didn’t want to shoot him, but if it looked like he was going to fire… “It’s me. Dyna? Remember? We were friends with El. Went to his birthday party.”

He took a step back, eyes frantically dancing around, gaunt skin giving him a skeletal look. With every word she spoke, he took a step further away from her. Not aiming up the stairs, but rather toward the kitchen in the back of the ground floor.

“I know about the Hatman,” Dyna said before waving to the lifeless corpse of her companion. “We know about the Hatman. We can help. We can… No, Matt!”

Matt turned and swung open the sliding glass door hard enough to shatter it. Not that he cared. He rushed out, moving in a full sprint toward the chain link fence in the back. It wasn’t quite a full-height fence, allowing him to easily vault over it and continue sprinting away.

Dyna started to follow, moving into the kitchen, only to step on a small wire. She didn’t hesitate to throw herself to the floor. A nail covered plank swung down from the ceiling, propelled as if spring loaded. It would have hit her square in the chest had she not taken a dive.

“Damn it,” she hissed, slamming a fist into the ground. Their one lead, now on the run. He probably wouldn’t be back here. “Damn it.”

Picking herself up off the floor once she was sure there weren’t any other surprises attached to that string, Dyna stared out the shattered sliding door. There was no sign of him.

Teeth grinding, Dyna moved back to the entryway where Ruby remained limp on the floor. The ball had apparently maintained enough momentum to roll off her face, which really didn’t make things better. Grimacing, Dyna pressed the back of her hand up against her nose.

Ruby was alive despite her head being crushed. Dyna could see the slow movement of flesh and bone as it stitched itself back together and the gemstone in the center of her throat burned a bright red. It went slow, the knitting of flesh. Far slower than any other time Dyna had seen Ruby use her artifact. And it wasn’t pretty. Her whole frontal lobe had been caved in and the bone of her skull shattered.

Anyone else would be dead.

Moving a few steps away, Dyna pulled out her phone and checked the time before making a call.

“White oh-one-six.”

“Temp dash five-five-three-two. There’s been an incident.”

 

 

 

“Look. All I’m asking is why Beatrice would use this method of getting into contact with you.”

“I don’t know. She did the same thing before when she told me to touch the artifact without actually telling me to touch the artifact,” Dyna said as she reset the timers on several scheduled emails intended for herself. “Maybe something about the situation forced her to do this.”

Ruby scoffed. “Assuming she couldn’t just call you, or whatever, why not text or email? You think hacking into Livermore’s files and changing around some images is really more likely? That sounds more like something she absolutely wouldn’t be able to do.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t understand the rules she has to live by.”

“Did you try asking?”

Dyna sighed, glanced up, made eye contact with the red light on the security camera, and said, “Beatrice, have you been trying to tell me something?” The phrasing was a bit different this time, but she doubted that would change much.

“I apologize. I do not know of what you are referring to.”

Dyna nodded and looked over to Ruby. “See?”

“That just tells me that she didn’t do anything. The glorified secretary,” Ruby mumbled.

“Well that doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“How?”

Dyna set down her tablet and leaned back in her chair. “Who else would it have been? Livermore seemed upset that he couldn’t continue with the experiment. He suggested Emerald, but Emerald is far more likely to just tell me than anyone else. And she’s been gone for a week now. She also wouldn’t have known about Livermore’s experiment. Anyone else with access to Livermore’s files would probably just have told me too. So it has to be the one person who is restricted and constrained in her actions. Right?”

“That does make a small amount of sense.”

“So you see why we need to figure out a way to elevate Beatrice’s permissions, so she can tell us properly what she was trying to tell us.”

“Or, hear me out, why don’t we not do that.”

“What?” Dyna spun in her chair. “Why?”

Ruby ran a hand through her red hair, wiggling it back and forth as she went. “Well, I don’t have any idea where to begin with something like that. It isn’t like I can just look up the institute’s directory for Beatrice’s technicians like I did with the memory specialist. Not only that, but Beatrice is like super top secret stuff. We won’t be able to just waltz in and waltz out without so much as a slap on the wrist like we did last time. I don’t even know where to waltz into or out of.”

“That’s…” Dyna slumped back, folding her arms. “Then what do we do?”

“Why not focus on the information you’ve already received rather than how it got to you. You said it showed your other friends going missing. The institute tracked down their contact information, right? Give them a call and ask if they’ve been kidnapped lately.”

“That… could be phrased better.” But it wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, it was probably a much better idea than what Dyna thought of. Assuming someone was out to get them, it would probably be better to contact them sooner rather than dither about trying to squeeze information from Beatrice.

Time could be of the essence if people were in danger.

Turning back to her desk, Dyna pulled up her tablet. She swiped through a few files she had been sent, looking for one in particular. It didn’t take long to find. A full list of her childhood friends and their current contact information.

Emmanuel Fultz, the one whose birthday had been at the water park. Dyna herself was included in the list for some reason. She knew her own number. Then there were the other three. Ken Zahradnicek, Victor Thorpe, and Matthew Quincy. The last of whom didn’t actually have a phone number or email address. He did have a mailing address, so she would have to send an old fashioned letter.

Later.

It was somewhat amusing that her mother had remembered absolutely none of her friends correctly—or had gotten them mixed up with other classmates—but it wasn’t quite amusing enough to bring a smile to her face. Things just felt too serious at the moment.

To start with, Dyna decided to contact those who could be contacted instantly. She typed Victor’s number into her phone. Before she could actually hit call, however, Ruby made a small snort noise.

“You don’t think he’s actually going to answer, do you?”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“I used to get like twenty calls a day—mostly about car insurance—before I blocked everyone. Now only Walter, Emerald, and you can call me.”

Dyna narrowed her eyes. “And Beatrice, right?”

“Sure,” Ruby said with an entirely unapologetic shrug. “Look at your own phone, how many calls do you ignore?”

“I get it, I get it. Fine. I’ll send a text stating who I am and… something casual.” Dyna’s eyes roamed around the room, looking for a conversation topic before realizing that she had one right in front of her. “They’ll think I’m crazy if I start talking about a spooky man in a wide hat kidnapping them one by one.”

“I’m not entirely sure you aren’t crazy. Most artificers are.”

“So instead,” Dyna said, ignoring Ruby’s comment as she nodded at her tablet. “I’ll ask about this guy. Why doesn’t Matt have a phone or email address? I assume the institute would have found it if he did have information. It’s a good question and maybe one of them will have some useful information about it.”

“A much better plan.”

Nodding, Dyna started typing on her phone. She included her name, a brief reminder that they all went to school together, and then wonderings about Matt’s contact information. Once all three messages were sent, Dyna set down her phone and waited. There wasn’t much else to do.

She had been putting off contacting them because she didn’t think there was much that they could do. Their memories would have been modified just as her own had been. She had considered contacting them right away, if only to get them in to see a Carroll Institute memory specialist, but the specialists hadn’t been able to help her in any way shape or form over a long period of time. What good would they do to people just stopping by for a weekend or two.

Though he had been a traitor, Harold’s hypnosis had actually been the thing that got her closest. None of the other hypnotists they had brought in even managed to send her to that sanctuary with the books. Though all of them had different methods and may not have been aiming for that, but still…

“So what’s the plan for after?”

“After?”

Ruby waved a hand toward the phone. “What if one of them is being chased around by your man in a hat? Or what if none of them are? What are we going to do about it?”

“I didn’t really plan that far ahead.”

“You never do, do you? You know it is easier to make decisions at tough times if you’ve already made them in simpler times. Emerald says so.”

“That’s very wise of her. But I don’t think I’m about to go buy a plane ticket back to California until I at least hear back from them.”

“We are leaving then?” Ruby adopted a wide grin. “Great! I’ve been feeling the cabin fever, ahh!”

“What?”

“From that pirate movie we watched.”

“Oh. Right. But no, at least, I don’t think so? We would need to talk to Walter, I think.”

“Oh, it’ll be fine. There hasn’t been a peep from Id in months. You even went into the city without incident once or… was it just the one time?”

“Twice.” Both times with Walter, so Id probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything anyway. But it was a valid point. “It isn’t like I don’t want to get out of this place. I mean, I’m curious about this guy especially,” she said, pointing to Matt’s conspicuous lack of contact information. “Did the institute send someone to the address to check on him or what? And why no phone number? Who doesn’t have a phone or email in this day and age?”

“Great! I’ll procure our tickets to… Wyoming?” Ruby said after squinting down at the tablet. “I thought they were all from California.”

“Must have moved. And wait, we at least need to tell Walter.”

“Tell me what?” The deep tone of voice didn’t make Dyna jump. She turned in her seat to find Walter tapping his knuckles against the open door. “May I enter?”

As Dyna nodded her head, Ruby jumped into action.

“We’re going on a mission. I’m in charge.”

Dyna had to roll her eyes at that. Though Walter, eyes hidden behind his glasses, hummed and nodded.

“Are you now? Duration, location, objectives?”

“A day or two, probably? And Wyoming, apparently. The objective is to track down Dyna’s suspicious childhood friend.”

“He’s not suspicious. The situation is. Who doesn’t have a phone number? And we weren’t planning on this, just tossing ideas around.”

“I’m pretty sure we are. Dyna just wanted your okay and here you are to give it.”

Walter hummed, looking from Ruby to Dyna. “Doctor Livermore might not be happy having you disappear so soon after getting authorization to begin his experiments.”

Dyna blinked. “That’s… not that big of an issue for me. The first time turned out so well after all.” Despite it having that message from Beatrice, something about that enclosed chamber didn’t sit all that well with Dyna. She wasn’t all that enthused to enter it again.

“He is in quite the rush to get his equipment returned to normal, I understand.”

“Great,” Ruby said. “If he’s having problems, we have plenty of time. Maybe he’ll get his shi—”

“Ruby.” “Ruby…” both Dyna and Walter said at the same time.

“Maybe he’ll get his bleeping shit together by the time we get back.”

“You’re lucky I sent Emerald away.”

Dyna just sighed.

“But you do have a point.”

“She does?”

“Of course I do. You’re going to be spending a few days just sitting around in the institute. Might as well spend it doing something useful.”

“Quite,” Walter said. “I’ll authorize it under three conditions.”

“Yes,” Ruby hissed.

“First; Ruby, you never leave Dyna’s side. Id’s still out there somewhere, evading our best clairvoyants. We don’t want either of you falling into her hands. Especially with us still unsure of her motives.”

“Orders clear, Sir.”

As Ruby gave a sloppy salute, Walter turned to Dyna. “I doubt I need to tell you this, but don’t try to abandon Ruby, no matter how irritating she gets.”

“Hey!”

“I wouldn’t. She isn’t that annoying once you get to know her.”

“Exactly.” Ruby nodded her head in agreement before abruptly stopping. “Wait…”

“Second,” Walter said, moving on before Ruby could think too hard. “Anything strange, and I mean anything, and you remove yourselves to a safe place and immediately contact me. This man in the wide brimmed hat, Id or one of her affiliates, or even if you merely suspect the presence of another psychic. You will alert me immediately.”

“I can handle—”

Walter leaned down at the waist, putting his mirrored lenses inches away from Ruby’s face. He spoke in a tone both calm and impeccably clear. “Immediately, Ruby. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Sir,” she said, voice a whisper as she gave a far more proper salute.

“Good.” He stood back up to his full height. “Good. Finally…” He took a deep breath and looked between Dyna and Ruby. “I suppose you should enjoy yourselves.”

“Uh, instructions unclear?”

“You might have felt like this has been a vacation, but you’ve still been stuck around the institute. And Dyna, you’ve hardly left since the incident. Wyoming might not have the most urban locales to visit, but they have an abundance of natural beauty. Take a week and drive down. Make contact with your old friend, but ensure that you leave enough time for you.”

“Assuming nothing is wrong,” Dyna said. “I mean, what if the man with the hat is out there?”

“Then you contact me immediately as per my second condition. We’ll work out what to do from there.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Any questions?”

“No, Sir!”

“I don’t think so,” Dyna said before glancing at Ruby. She stared for just a moment before looking back to Walter. “Uh, Sir?”

“Good. Ruby, I want a report up to the usual standards within an hour, including all relevant details. Get moving.”

With a nod of her head, Ruby dashed outside the room. A moment passed before she sprinted right back in, grabbed the tablet with the contact details of everyone, and rushed back out. “Can I borrow this? Thanks!” she shouted, already out of the room.

Dyna just shook her head, not even annoyed with the girl’s antics. She was clearly excited about getting out of the facility. If Walter’s light chuckle was any indication, he thought it was amusing.

“Is this really alright?”

“You aren’t a prisoner here, Dyna.” Walter straightened his red tie. “Though I originally came down here to deliver a small warning. I wasn’t expecting to send the two of you off on a mission.”

“Oh?”

“Despite Doctor Livermore’s earlier statements, both he and I are in agreement that Emerald did not tamper with his machine.”

“Right.” Not surprising. Dyna didn’t believe it either.

“Rather, this may be an attempt to lure you out of the Carroll Institute orchestrated by Id. She is the only one likely to know about you specifically and has demonstrated the ability to compromise our staff in the past.”

“And you’re… still alright with Ruby and I going off on a road trip?”

“Based on previous interactions, the current analysts do not believe Id intends you harm, but rather likely wished or still wishes to recruit you. Danger should be a minimum. From her. You’re not to join her as some kind of double-agent, but if she does make contact, any information you can glean may provide insight into her location, motives, or other vital information.”

“So spy on her as much as possible? Pretend to be interested in her offer?”

“Acceptable. You have full agency here. If you wish to rebuff her entirely or even remain here at the facility, I won’t argue against that. Just remember that living in fear and paranoia will lead to you staying down here for the rest of this facility’s existence.”

“It’s not paranoia if they’re actually out to get you,” Dyna mumbled.

Walter apparently heard. He quirked the corners of his lips. “Fine line to walk. Don’t let Ruby push you into doing things you don’t want to do. If you wish to remain here, just make it clear to her.” With a nod, he brushed an imaginary fleck of dust from his vest, turned, and headed out.

That left Dyna frowning to herself. Ruby wasn’t pushing her. Maybe a little bit. Or maybe a lot…

Her phone buzzed before she could think much further. A text message from Victor Thrope. The first to respond. Dyna quickly skimmed through the short message. A bit of pleasantries. ‘Hey, how are you doing? Haven’t heard from you in forever.’ Fairly standard stuff. But a bit came in the third text that made Dyna raise an eyebrow.

Matt, Victor, and Emmanuel all went to the same middle school. Not the same one Dyna had gone to. But Matt apparently didn’t stick around for long. He ‘went crazy’ and his parents sent him to a bunch of psychologists. Victor apparently hadn’t heard from him since middle school and didn’t know where he was now.

That really piqued Dyna’s interest.

Going on this trip wasn’t actually something that Dyna was opposed to doing in the first place or she would definitely have protested more. Ruby might be a little pushy, but she was a ten year old. And now? After reading that? Dyna immediately felt the opposite of opposed.

Dyna quickly sent a text back. Just a few comments about how Matt’s… condition was unfortunate. Then she bit her lip.

There was really no easy way to ask what she next wanted to ask, so might as well rip the bandage off all at once.

This might sound strange, she typed out, but you haven’t seen any creepy tall men with wide-brimmed hats have you? Maybe out of the corner of your eye or maybe you can’t remember exactly where you saw him…

She started typing out a second message elaborating further, only to get interrupted by an incoming text.

You too?

Dyna deleted what she had partially wrote and sent a single question mark in response.

The Hatman. Shortly before getting pulled out of school, that was all Matt would talk about.

Sitting up straight, Dyna clutched her phone tight. Matt knew. Or he remembered something. Or the man in the hat came back and Matt saw. He could know something that Dyna didn’t.

Finding him just became all the more important.

Tell me everything, please?

 

 

 

Dyna’s back hit hard against the hotel kitchen’s cupboards. Her chest violently rose and fell as she took in breath after breath. Sounds of footsteps had her tightening her grip on the compact pistol. Reaching into her evening gown, she pulled out her mirror.

Each of the two lenses showed off different perspectives. Two different people were watching her. With her back to the kitchen island, they couldn’t see her directly, but it was enough for the mirror to work. One of the perspectives came from the far door, the one leading out to the main employee section of the hotel. The other was on the opposite side of the room. The… If Dyna remembered the plans for the building properly, it was the walk-in refrigerator? He must have ducked inside once he saw her coming.

Dyna waited, watching the mirror. She kept her muscles tense, ready to move. She waited and waited, it felt like hours but was probably more like five seconds. Eventually, one of the perspectives changed. It leaned forward just a bit, moving out from cover.

Pivoting around her heel, Dyna leaned around the side of the kitchen island where the perspective’s point of view had not been directly observing. Dyna squeezed her finger around the trigger just as she had been taught. Three times. Three light pops. One exaggerated groan preceded a heavy thud.

Dyna pivoted back with clenched teeth, making it into cover just as the other perspective emerged and started firing at her. She felt things whizzing by overhead. Nothing hit her, but it was close. Too close for comfort.

The one shooting at her made a fatal mistake. He fired too many times. As soon as Dyna heard the empty click, she moved. Already knowing exactly where he was, she aimed and fired in an instant. One shot in the center of his mass, a second square in his head. He had a mask on with thick goggles for eye protection and a grated mesh to protect the rest of his face, but he still went down.

Both lenses of her mirror turned dark. They didn’t turn to their normal, reflective state, meaning there were still other people in the area. But none with eyes on or near her. Dyna didn’t hesitate to move forward.

She stopped at the first man she had fired upon, an older man wearing the black suit of the hotel concierge staff. He was down and unmoving, his gun—a small sub-machine gun that she didn’t immediately recognize, lay not far from his fingertips. Making a split-second decision, Dyna holstered her pistol and picked up his SMG. This was meant to be a simple reconnaissance exercise. Not a full-fledged assault. She hadn’t brought the ammunition to spare for fighting the entire hotel crew.

Why were they fighting her in the first place? They couldn’t be mind controlled. Her watch was supposed to have a psionic energy detector built into it that would warn her of such things in advance. So they had to be attacking her because…

Because why? Probably just because.

It was so… stupid. Who did they think they were fooling?

With a small roll of her eyes, Dyna checked the SMG. She had learned something over the last few months. Guns were all the same. Make? Model? Whatever. Emerald and Ruby would be upset if they heard her say so, but there really wasn’t a difference. Maybe the safety would be positioned differently. Maybe the weight and balance would be a bit different. But when it came to checking how many cartridges the slightly curved magazine had in it, making sure that a bullet was already in the chamber, and readying a firearm to fire, learning one gun was the same as learning ninety percent of guns out there.

Gun at the ready, Dyna advanced. She moved down a hallway with her finger on the trigger.

It was a bit more awkward to hold her compact mirror with a large SMG than it was with a small pistol. Dyna had to hold the former with two fingers while supporting the barrel of the SMG with the rest of her hand. Not ideal, but when the dark lenses flashed a warning of what awaited her around the next corner, Dyna couldn’t complain.

She pressed her back up against the wall, took a deep breath, and stepped around, opening fire immediately.

There were a few small chairs and tables knocked over, providing feeble cover. The room for continental breakfast, though the counters and trays were empty at the moment. It wasn’t a large room. There wasn’t any room to hide. And with her mirror able to help her pinpoint exactly where her opponents were, she managed to send three to the floor in as many shots.

Someone standing just on the other side of the wall grabbed the barrel of her gun and wrenched it upward. Dyna reacted on instinct, twisting to use the momentum to slam the butt of the gun into the face of the one who touched her. A padded forearm blocked it.

Dyna immediately let go, backing up to give her the space needed to draw her pistol once again. She held it up, aiming, only for a slapping fist to knock her shot off to the side. She tried to aim back, only for another quick strike to shove her hand too far to the other side.

She didn’t get a chance to aim a third time. A fist hit her wrist, opened and grabbed, then twisted. Dyna lost the grip on her gun. As it clattered to the ground, the hands yanked her forward, throwing her off balance. Knuckles hit her chest.

Dyna crumpled, gasping for breath.

Her assailant towered over her, drawing a blade that they quickly pressed to her throat.

“Your close quarters still needs work.”

Dyna slumped as the tension drained from her muscles. She sat on the floor, panting for breath. Emerald, standing over her, pulled the knife back and slipped it into her hotel uniform. The infuriating woman cocked her head, looked over the continental breakfast room, and nodded to herself.

“Good shots though.”

“Why?” Dyna said between breaths.

“Hmm?”

“Why did they start attacking?”

Emerald took a second look over the room. “It’s good training.”

“It doesn’t make any sense! The scenario was that I was scoping out a meeting place for a future meeting between two people completely unrelated to the hotel or its employees! Why are the hotel staff even armed?”

Emerald shrugged. “Never know what to expect.”

“There are reasonable expectations! Minimum-wage earning staff aren’t going to throw away their lives like this.”

“The hotel was clearly a front for Id’s organization. The people here are well trained assassins.”

“Who just sit around posing as waiters and cooks and concierges?”

“Exactly,” Emerald said, bright smile across drawn across her face.

Dyna just groaned, too fed-up to argue any more. She focused on rubbing at her chest where Emerald had hit her, trying to massage out the pain.

“Are you alright?”

“Fine,” Dyna said, shrugging off her own protective mask and goggles. All around her, the people she had ‘killed’ were taking off their own protective gear and getting to their feet. The exercise was clearly over for now.

“You are doing much better though. Go back and watch some recordings of the first month. You’ll probably die of embarrassment.”

Frustrated though she was with the absurd scenario, Dyna could at least take some pride in that.

She had enemies. Real, tangible enemies. Id hadn’t shown herself since Grafton’s capture, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t out there. And then there were other psychic organizations who would love to get their hands on any random artificer they could. Dyna hadn’t actually encountered any thus far, but she also hadn’t left the Carroll Institute more than a handful of times. Walter wanted her at least able to properly defend herself, both mentally and physically. Especially should someone like Harold try to hypnotize her again.

“I’ll schedule you for additional hand-to-hand training. And maybe ask Ruby—”

“Please don’t.”

“—to surprise you every now and again. And maybe I’ll—”

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

“—show up and give you a few personal tips. Randomly.”

A few calm tones echoed over the overhead speaker system, quickly followed by Beatrice’s smooth voice. “Attention: External scenario shutdown initiated. All personnel are to recuse immediately for area cleaning and reset.”

Emerald put on a smile. “Come,” she said, holding out a hand to help Dyna back to her feet. “I’m sure Walter will want to debrief. We’ll discuss exactly what happened and where you went wrong.”

“I can already guess.” Dyna clapped her hand into Emerald’s. “I didn’t avoid you.”

“Ah, such flattery. Are you alright?”

“I’ll probably have some bruises. Not much padding on this dress. This wasn’t even supposed to be that fancy of a hotel, why did I wear this?”

“Always dress appropriately.”

“Yes… I get it. Expect the worst of every situation. That’s what all these training sessions have taught me. I don’t know why I expected something to not go wrong for once. Things always end up this way.”

Once in a while, it would have been nice to have everything just go exactly as planned. That had to happen sometimes, right? Not in the Carroll Institute, apparently.

Dyna and Emerald dropped off their equipment on the way out of the Reconfigurable Situation Preparedness Chamber. From there, it was just a short trip down the hall to reach the RSPC Control Room. It had a number of computer systems set up to monitor and even change the layout of the simulated buildings. What was a hotel today could be a conference center tomorrow, or a school, or even a strip mall—though it didn’t do such a good job at simulating exterior environments.

Normally, Walter would be standing over one of the main terminals, ready to go over the events of the exercise session. Today, however, the room was empty. Not completely vacant, but only the lower level technicians manned their stations. Grøndahl, the engineer who designed the facility, wasn’t around either. Although he had apparently designed the Simulation Chamber for assessing clairvoyants and precognitives, he still showed up to every single session that Dyna had participated in despite his distaste for combat exercises.

“Huh.”

Emerald looked just as confused as Dyna felt.

“Something must have come up?”

“I suppose so,” Emerald said. “I wonder if I should debrief you instead. It won’t exactly be objective coming from me, but—”

Two calm tones sounded over the speaker system, interrupting Emerald. “Attention: All on-site artificers must report to Office Complex Briefing Room Three. Immediately.”

“Ah.”

“Should we be worried?”

“There’s no alarms going off, so probably nothing to worry over.”

Actually getting to the Psychodynamics Office Complex required a trip back down the hall, to the elevator system, and then a short trip on its rails. Not a long journey for Dyna and Emerald, but somehow, they still managed to be the last of the artificers to arrive.

Ruby sat on one facet of the octagonal table. Knowing her well, Dyna could instantly recognize a bad mood. The way she held her crossed arms, the way she furrowed her brow, and the way she stared daggers across the table… Pretty much anyone would recognize that disturbing her was a bad idea.

Despite that, Emerald promptly walked up, ruffled her hair, slipped her arm out of the way of a knife just in the nick of time, and took a seat at her side.

Across the table, the subject of Ruby’s initial glare hummed softly to himself, hardly looking like he was bothering anyone. It took Dyna a minute, but recognition clicked. He had straight, jet-black hair, more cosmetic makeup than everyone else in the room combined, and especially shimmering eyes. Dyna hadn’t actually met him in person before, but this was the owner of the Music Box, Alexanderite.

Who, according to Ruby, had committed a grave offense. He liked to sing.

Ruby didn’t like many people. Dyna still wasn’t sure what she had done to earn the younger girl’s affections, but she wasn’t going to let Ruby’s opinions color her own. Adopting her best smile, Dyna held out a hand.

“Hello, I’m—”

“My dear!” Alexanderite said in a sing-song tone of voice. He turned toward her, but his shimmering eyes didn’t quite focus on her. “Could this be mysterious Onyx?”

“Uh…”

He stood, flourishing a long-tailed jacket out from behind him with one hand. His other hand, dressed in a white glove, swept gracefully forward and took hold of Dyna’s hand. Not to shake, but to bring it to his lips.

Dyna quickly pulled her hand out of his loose grip.

Undaunted, Alexanderite bowed deep at the hips. “I have heard tales of your feats. Your fiery vanquishing of dastardly foes have moved me to pen a tale in song to cement your story among legends.”

“Uh… It… sounds like you’ve heard a great deal of exaggeration,” Dyna said, trying to keep her smile. “Or you’ve got the wrong person. I’m pretty sure I’m not Onyx.”

“Nonsense! I shall prove it with a rendition. Regaling as the bards of old! Oooh~ I’ve got this notion—”

“Alex.” The deep, rumbling, bass tone of Walter’s voice as he entered the room stopped the owner of the Music Box in his tracks. There hadn’t been music playing, and yet, Dyna could swear she heard a record scratch. “Not now.”

Alexanderite’s shoulders slumped. Without a single other word, he sank back down into his chair.

Dyna used the opportunity to quickly scuttle around the table, taking a seat next to Ruby. “Is he alright?” she whispered.

“No,” Emerald said.

“Told you,” Ruby said.

“Quiet.”

Walter reached over the table and swiped a few keys of one of the embedded terminals. The lights promptly dimmed in the meeting room and the overhead screens lit up with a map of the world. It spun around once before focusing on the Korean peninsula. The world map was drawn in cool blue light, but right at the rough center, a pulsing red light flashed over and over again.

“Approximately two hours ago, satellites detected a psionic emission from somewhere north of Seoul. Preliminary analysis suggests that this is a new artifact instantiating. Beatrice’s analysis is continuing in the hopes of discerning a little more information, but given the political instability in the region, the administrators want our hands within reach as soon as possible.

“To that end, Emerald, you and Alex will be departing for Seoul as soon as humanly possible. Expect further resources and information to be made available as we get a better grasp on the situation.”

“Yes!” Alexanderite cried, leaping to his feet. “They shall sing songs of our—”

“Excuse me,” Emerald said. Looking in her direction, Dyna couldn’t help but feel her heart skip a beat. The smile usually so ever present on Emerald’s face looked like someone had ironed on a hasty replacement. “I am not sure what Alex offers that Ruby or even Onyx can’t already provide. And I know I work with them far better than… others.”

Dyna blinked. Leaning over to Ruby, she whispered, “Am I supposed to be Onyx?”

She just got a shrug in return.

Walter didn’t pay her side question any mind, focusing his mirrored lenses on Emerald. “Alex speaks fluent Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese.”

“Ah. Well, if he is mission critical… Why not send Ruby in my place, she can—”

“Don’t you dare foist this off on me you bleeping bit—”

“You’re always talking about how you want more responsibility, freedom, and people who listen to you, so now—”

“This is not what I meant and you know it.”

“Where’s Sapphire? I know his talents would work simply wonderfully alongside Alex.”

“Emerald,” Walter said, gaze somehow piercing despite being hidden behind his pince-nez glasses. “I trust you to remain professional.”

Like the saddest balloon, Emerald utterly deflated. “Very well. You know my fees for this kind of work.”

“Indeed. You’ll be—”

“Yes! Adventure awaits!”

Emerald, smile strained, dropped her head into the palm of her hand.

“Gather what you need. Submit your requisitions. Reconvene at the topside motor pool in thirty minutes.”

Both Alexanderite and Emerald stood and walked out of the room, one with obvious excitement, the other with the resignation of someone told to dig their own grave.

“Was there something more for us?” Ruby said, leaning forward with plain excitement. Apparently she did want to get a job. Just not one with Alexanderite.

Which Dyna found completely understandable. When Ruby had claimed that all the other artificers were insane, she had thought that was just Ruby’s rebel nature seeing the worst in others. After having encountered Sapphire and now Alexander, Dyna was starting to wonder if there was a bit more to it than that.

She also had to wonder if they weren’t being deliberately kept away from her. Dyna had hardly seen Sapphire in the last few months, this was her first encounter with Alexanderite and it had been beyond brief, and still had yet to encounter Aquamarine or the dreaded Hematite.

“Nothing so… remote,” Walter said.

“Important you mean,” Ruby said, crossing her arms, excitement dying.

“With Emerald gone, I’ll need you to step up in protecting Dyna. That is a job of vital importance.”

Ruby didn’t look convinced. “Is she leaving the institute anytime soon?”

“She isn’t a prisoner here, Ruby.”

“But you aren’t sending her off somewhere that she would actually need protection.”

“Not at this time, no.”

Dyna held up a finger before Ruby could get more upset. “Not to interrupt, but… has there been any news on the kidnapper or any clue toward my missing memories?”

Walter slowly shook his head. “We have tracked down the most likely candidate for the missing child from your past, as mentioned in the update report last month, but there have been no further developments. Locating their whereabouts today after a decade of not even realizing that someone has been missing is proving… difficult.”

“What about Beatrice? I’m sure she could…”

Again, Walter started shaking his head. “Beatrice has been assisting in data crunching, but little more. The administrators have yet to restore my ability to elevate her operating status to the degree you witnessed, deeming my previous elevation to level five ‘frivolous and without due checks to ensure that such action was warranted.’” Walter didn’t often speak with sarcasm or a mocking tone, but this time it seemed he couldn’t help himself.

“That was when I needed help, wasn’t it? They don’t think that was worth it? They were just going to leave me out in the cold?”

“You being in danger is the only reason I’m not in more trouble. The administrators do not trust Beatrice and definitely do not trust raising her operating status on her word alone. To be fair, my irritation at several matters did result in me failing in double-checking her request.”

“Someone else could be in danger right now.”

“It’s been ten years, Dyna. The administrators aren’t going to approve a request for something that old.”

“He could be out kidnapping more people right now!” Dyna’s fists hit the table.

Walter didn’t even flinch. “We are doing everything we can,” he said, voice calm. “And we will discuss what we can do moving forward. But for now, I must attend to this artifact retrieval.” Although calm and collected, his voice carried a note of finality to it. Dyna didn’t bother arguing as he left the room.

She just sat there, scowl on her face matching that of Ruby’s.

“Who are these administrators, anyway?”

Ruby gave an angry shrug. “No idea. Never seen one as far as I can remember.”

“I think I’d like to give them a piece of my mind.”

 

 

 

“Shut it down. Shut it all down. Not the Continuity Engine!”

Lights dimmed. Vats of suspended brains stopped their bubbling. Terminals winked off. One by one, the equipment in the large room stopped moving. All except the large machine that looked like three turbine engines arrayed around a grated fan set into the floor. Arcs of electricity danced between tall metal poles. Coils of wire hummed in a gentle vibration around the large rotors.

“Mister Maple, proceed with relocation checklist. Prioritize analysis of our power situation.”

Having an internal power plant would be ideal. Being connected to a power grid would draw power, cluing people in that something had happened. Maybe not immediately, but if the Carroll Institute ever unshackled its cogitator brain, they would be discovered immediately. Even if that never happened, some pencil-pusher at the local grid would eventually notice something.

Though, looking over at the rumbling generator providing power to the Continuity Engine, she had a thought. Something she hadn’t even considered until just now.

“Actually,” Id said, holding up a long finger that stopped the masked man in his tracks. “Focus on the diesel generator and our ventilation. We cannot shut down the Continuity Engine, so we might have to temporarily evacuate.”

“Yes, sir.”

As Maple hurried across the room to check on the generator’s piping, Id turned to the woman seated at the main control panel for the Continuity Engine.

“Ado, any complications?”

With a perfectly stiff back, Ado rotated her chair. Unlike most others in the room, she didn’t have the silver mask over her face. Instead, she wore a pair of rectangular goggles with tiny lights flashing and dancing across their lenses. The imager over her eyes provided readouts of every operation the Continuity Engine undertook at any given moment.

“Seventeen minor spikes detected within the last two minutes. Continuity Engine maintaining ontological inertia. Power draw within tolerances and is currently decreasing at an unexpected rate. Eight point three times faster than projections indicated. Hypothesis A: Attention has shifted away from us. Hypothesis B: Inertia is a more apt term than originally thought. Hypothesis C: Combination of—”

“Sir,” Maple called. “The generator’s ventilation is flowing through the pipe and the detector shows nothing here. The exhaust is going somewhere outside this room.”

“A good sign,” Id said, turning her attention away from Ado despite the woman continuing to list ideas. “Proceed with relocation checklist. We’ll leave the generator for now. Let’s proceed to securing our new home. As for the rest of you…”

A dozen identically dressed individuals stood around. She couldn’t see their faces behind the silver masks they wore, Id didn’t need to see their faces to identify the subtle, subconscious motions they made. Lost. Confused. Uncertain. As expected from a bunch of nobodies. Actors hired to play a part, to present the illusion of a far larger organization than existed in reality. They had been given their lines, most of which was just a single line or two in response to certain lights lighting up in their masks.

Id twisted a knob, pulled a small lever on the console and pressed a black button.

A dozen actors jolted, twitching momentarily. A small shudder wracked everyone in the room with the exception of Ado, Maple, and Id herself.

“Well done,” Id said with a bright smile “The show is over for the night. I believe we got all the footage we needed. If you all would be so kind as to remove your costumes.” She turned on her elevated platform and motioned toward the door. “Masks on the hooks and laboratory coats on the hangers, if you please.”

They shouldn’t remember any specifics from the last few hours or the next few hours. Each of their masks contained a small neuralyzer, designed to disrupt the hippocampus and cortex through specific visual and electric stimulus, temporarily freezing the formation of memories. It wasn’t perfect, but Id felt it unlikely that a bunch of extras would be investigated. They had just been on another job, hardly memorable. It was just a stepping stone on the road to their fruitful acting careers.

Id moved past them, heading for the door. It was a large door, far larger than it had been when they had been using the storage facility. Made from solid metal, it looked far thicker than strictly necessary. It was the kind that opened horizontally, though the two halves didn’t meet at the center point and it was not a straight vertical seam. The door had teeth.

The predominant colors were white and black with red accents. Glowing red accents. A bit edgy, but probably what she should have expected. To its side, a panel asked for a hand print.

Id wasted no time in slipping off her glove and placing her hand flat against the glowing red panel.

The light pulsed and the door slid aside, opening to an industrial hallway. Every bit of the aesthetic was built for purpose. There were no gradual angles or curves. The floor was a smooth concrete, painted black, while the walls and ceiling were white. Thin red stripes ran along the floor and walls, providing a small accent color. Large glass windows on either side of the hallway showed off more rooms filled with machinery that Id couldn’t wait to begin exploring.

Something was floating in one large vertical tube. A person? Its body was covered in ridges and lines, looking more like it had an exoskeleton than proper skin, if the exoskeleton were made from bronze. Some biomechanical construct? Thick cables ran from its spine up into the ceiling above the tube.

Id felt in control of herself more than other people felt in control of themselves, but she couldn’t stop that subconscious tingle of fear that her mind created at the sight of an unknown human-like creature.

It could just be nothing. Little more than a prop like most of the ‘show’ room had been. But at the same time, she would have to be careful. Though thinking about it, Id wondered how much of that room was actually functional now.

Unfortunately, she had a job to do before the science could start.

“This way, this way,” she said, motioning for the actors. They would need their hands held for a short time. Until their memories stabilized. Though Id would certainly not be around them when that happened. “It was one hell of an after-party, wasn’t it?” Id said with a smile. “Half of you aren’t even walking straight. Ha. Ha.”

A few of them murmured to each other. Some cradled their foreheads. The headache they were experiencing probably felt an awful lot like a hangover. It would pass.

One of them managed to put a little more effort into their voice. “Yeah… Where are we?”

“A club. Don’t worry. Mister Maple here will see to getting you home. You don’t need to think about a thing.”

“And how do we plan to do that?” Maple whispered. “Your checklist is too vague.”

“It’s not like I knew exactly how things would turn out. Consider it not vague, but with room for interpretation.”

“Where exactly are we?”

“Location B-3,” Id said with a casual shrug. “Somewhere around Dallas, Texas, presumably. We won’t know until we get outside.”

“And where is the exit?” Maple said as the small group approached an intersection. A four way crossroads in the tunnel. “We do have an exit, don’t we?”

“I think it is quite intuitive to imagine buildings with entrances and exits,” Id said, looking from one identical hall to the next. “And I do know intuition a little better than most. This way,” she said, choosing the left path.

The end of the hall stopped at another of the thick horizontal doors. Id pressed a hand to it, activating it. It opened up to an elevator. A large freight-style elevator. Id couldn’t suppress her grin at seeing just how many buttons there were for floors. They had plenty of room for expansion. The L button for the lobby was underneath the rest of the buttons. That implied that they were in a tall building. That did strike her as somewhat odd. She had been expecting an underground facility along the lines of what the Carroll Institute had deep in the bowls of the former Idaho National Laboratory.

“If it works, it works,” Id said, counting the actors as they shuffled into the elevator, making sure she wasn’t leaving one behind.

As soon as it started moving, one of the actors retched and vomited in the corner.

Id clicked her tongue, wrinkling her nose.

“We’re going to need a custodial crew.”

“Grafton will be able to find us temporary workers who won’t ask questions in the short term. Though this?” Id sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to take care of it. Wouldn’t want our shiny new place to start rusting already.”

Despite being a freight elevator, the doors opened right to a hallway leading to a lobby. Quite a simple lobby, one that looked like any office lobby. There was a long and currently vacant reception desk, several television monitors behind it, a few chairs near the front windows, and even a few potted plants that were hopefully fake and wouldn’t need watering.

The large windows looked straight out onto a something like a train platform. A large, sleek, and red, white, and black locomotive sat just outside. Id didn’t have a clue where it would go. Out of here, presumably. Hopefully that wouldn’t be a problem. If a building or railway had just popped up overnight, people would notice.

Setting Ado on the task of building a device to keep people from noticing the building at all might be a little more important. Id made a mental note to mention that as soon as she returned to the Continuity Engine.

“See them outside and, if possible, find a map of where that train goes,” Id said. “I’ll try to find a janitorial closet and a mop.”

Maple nodded and, after looking toward the windows with a small sigh, he started herding the actors out onto the train platform.

Perhaps it was actually a monorail.

Id kept her mask on as she moved through the lobby, despite being alone. It was just… safer with it secure in place. She quickly found the restrooms and, guessing, assumed that a supply closet would be just around the—

“Oh my. Tourists? At this hour?”

Id cocked her head, then slowly and calmly turned around to find the source of the voice.

A shorter man stood in the middle of the hall. The hall she had just walked through. There were doors on either side. Normal doors, not like those of the facility up the elevator. Just regular wooden doors that she hadn’t heard opening or closing. She hadn’t felt the air pressure change. And the man himself wasn’t the kind of person easily overlooked.

He wore a light blue laboratory coat, tan slacks, a button-up shirt, and a polka-dot bow tie.

Given his mention of a group, he must have been talking about the actors on their way out of the building. But the building’s lobby wasn’t visible from this hallway and his eyes, hidden behind a dark set of welder’s goggles, were obviously aimed toward Id.

“You… work here?” Id asked.

That could be another problem. One more that Id hadn’t even considered. This was a building presumably in Dallas. Right up until this moment, Id had thought it was created from nothing. Now? A slight worry niggled at the back of her mind that this was an existing facility. It couldn’t be unused. Could it?

“Of course. Doctor Phineas Dark, head of Tartarus Containment Facility’s Metaphysical Research Division, Collective Unconsciousness Entity subdirector. At your service,” Dark said with a flourished bow.

“Doctor Dark, of the—”

“No, no no. Wrong. Dark.”

“Dark?”

“With a q.”

“Darq.”

“There we go,” Darq said, clasping his hands together. “Everyone gets it wrong at the start.”

He put on a bright smile. Which… Id found odd. She considered herself quite adept at recognizing the subtler movements people made and determining what they meant. Everything about Darq’s body language indicated that he was beyond happy to be here, talking with her. His posture was attentive. Both feet were aimed in her direction. No sign that he was looking to escape the situation.

And yet, Id found him impossible to read. All those indicators should have screamed out to her that he was being genuine. They didn’t.

Id adjusted her mask ever so slightly, reseating it to ensure that it was fully in place. “This place is called the Tartarus Containment Facility?”

“Indeed it is. Questions? Comments? Concerns? If we’re going to be working together, it would be best to get all the cumbersome introductions out of the way as soon as possible.”

“What makes you think we’re working together?”

“You mean to tell me you aren’t part of the crew who just started setting up the Psionic Engineering and Replication Division?”

“Excuse me?”

“A whole new section of the facility manifests from nothing and you expect me to not notice?” Darq shook his head. “That’s literally my job.”

Id narrowed her eyes behind her mask. They needed Grafton here immediately. If this place was already in use, by another psionic research group no less, his expertise could ensure that a hand-over went smoothly. They had exhausted far too many resources just to get this far, too many to just abandon it at the first sign of opposition.

It would have been far better to wind up with an isolated facility out in the middle of nowhere, someplace where nobody would look.

Best to learn as much as possible.

“What exactly do you contain at this containment facility?”

“Oh just about anything that potentially poses a threat to humanity’s existence. It used to be so quiet here, but the last decade or so has been quite busy. The Advent of Psionic Potential really ruined a lot, didn’t it?”

Id pressed her lips together. That non-answer had to be deliberate. Unreadable though he was, she doubted he would give a better answer if she asked again.

So she changed tracks.

“How many people work here?”

“Four people. Myself, I’ve already introduced. I believe you know Chief Engineer Gloria Ado and Logistical Director Kit Maple. And, of course, yourself. You need no introductions.”

Tension raced down Id’s spine despite herself. “You… know us?”

“Not personally.”

“You know me?”

Darq hummed, rubbing a finger over his clean-shaved chin. “Perhaps you do need an introduction, Head Director Id. Mononym, huh? That’s odd. Well, I still don’t know you personally, but I assume that will change as we progress into the future.”

Id stood still, staring. This… shouldn’t be possible. Id knew how Dyna’s mind worked. No matter the situation, no matter the stimuli, Dyna could not change minds. And yet, it felt like this man had done more than just read their names off a piece of paper that might have appeared on his desk.

Id’s first thought was that Dyna had somehow created Darq along with the rest of this facility, which also shouldn’t be possible, but no… he had mentioned that this place had been in operation for ten years. Since the advent. Or rather, even longer than that as he had only gotten busy after the advent. He didn’t look older than twenty years. Thirty at the absolute most. Which meant he would have been working here in his teens?

Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong.

Id needed to meet with the others. Preferably away from this Darq.

But… one thing stood out to her among the names he listed.

“No Grafton or Porter working here?”

Darq hummed and shook his head. “Nope. Not that I know of. Those names mean nothing to me.”

“Because they haven’t arrived yet?”

“Their physical presence shouldn’t matter. They aren’t on the employee roster. Sorry, don’t know what to tell you. If you would like me to look into the issue, Head Director, I can. Though that sounds more like a job for our logistical personnel.”

Id hesitated before nodding. “Quite. I’ll… assign it to him.”

“Very good. Anything else you need?”

Head Director… That meant that she was his boss? How? If she was his boss… “Return to your… usual duties for the moment. I’ll call for a meeting later on. I would like for you to present a report detailing everything about this Tartarus and anything it is holding in containment. Especially any artifacts.”

“Artifacts?” Though unreadable, his body language still spoke of confusion. He quickly shook it off, however. “I’ll prepare a brief slide show. Do you have an exact time for the meeting?”

Id shook her head, then stopped. “Let’s make it tomorrow morning. Eight o’clock.”

“Very good.” Doctor Darq clasped his hands together. “I’ll have something prepared. Oh, and by the way, you can find a mop in the closet through that door over there,” he said, pointing.

Id turned, noting the door. “Thanks, I—”

It had only been a second. One split second.

The hallway was vacant once again.

Clenching her teeth, Id decided to ignore the closet for the moment. She power walked straight back to the lobby.

Maple stood just inside the doors, looking down at his phone. The actors were meandering about outside. Id paid them little mind, focusing on larger problems.

At her approach, Maple glanced up. Far more readable, Id picked up on his agitation, unease, and a hint of anger. “Bad news,” he said.

“Strange people appearing out of nowhere?”

“What? No. Grafton’s been captured. Harold’s phone seems to have been disconnected as well. Might be captured too.”

Id stilled as realization hit. “They… aren’t on the employee roster. Because they can’t work here.”

“Excuse me?”

“We have problems. Big problems.”

“Yeah. Without Grafton—”

“No. Bigger problems. Something about this place…” Id looked around the lobby. It looked like any regular building lobby if she ignored the train. Nothing odd about it at all. Except, she noticed the televisions behind the reception desk. They hadn’t been on before, had they?

They were now, displaying three red hexagons arrayed like an inverted radiation warning symbol. Each spun slowly in place on the displays. Underneath, written in a simple font, the word Tartarus faintly pulsed and faded with red light.

“We aren’t alone here.”

 

 

 

Dyna sniffed. Feeling an unpleasant sensation running down the back of her throat, she quickly ran to the sink. After spitting, she grabbed a tissue and blew her nose as much as she could.

“My nose is bleeding again.”

“Quite frankly, Miss Graves, you should consider yourself lucky if that is the worst you’re experiencing.”

Glancing back over her shoulder, Dyna met the mirrored lenses of Walter as he stood back near the door to her temporary accommodations. Over the past three days, she had been spending all her time trapped in what was effectively a prison cell. Or perhaps a decontamination chamber was a better way of putting it.

It was a long metal box with an uncomfortable bed and merged bathroom. Medical equipment lined the walls, built into the metal box. Dyna had only just been cleared to remove most of it. Meals arrived through a small opening near the bed and Beatrice’s security cameras watched her every move.

The decoupling process was not pleasant. Doctor Cross had been correct about that her first day. Survivable, yes, but hopefully she wouldn’t be going through with it a second time anytime soon.

Walter’s face was actually the first human face she had seen since the Carroll Institute containment team arrived at the airport and ushered her into the back of a windowless van. In retrospect, Dyna was surprised she hadn’t been in an all out panic over the thought of them tearing away her memories again. She must have been too exhausted from the events of that night to have thought about it too much.

“I don’t feel very lucky.”

“No. I imagine not. The decoupling is complete, however. We would like to keep you in observation for another week to ensure that there are no lingering complications, but you will be allowed out of this chamber. The psionic shielding it provided should no longer be necessary to prevent you accidentally using the artifact.”

Dyna nodded, keeping a tissue pressed up to her face. “That’s good, I guess.”

“Oh?” Walter said, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you would be pleased to hear the good news.”

“I am. I just…” Going back out, facing the rest of the world? It felt like she was getting off too easily. “Shouldn’t I be in prison or something?”

“Would you like to go to prison?”

“No… I just…”

Walter stepped further into the room, taking a seat on the bench-like bed. “I have… issues with how the events of the evening were handled. Poor decisions ran rampant.”

Dyna winced.

“Not you. At least not wholly you. Emerald and Ruby have already received a stern talking to. Should you learn from the events, yes. But you were following along with those who should have known better.”

“Most of the ideas were mine. I pushed Ruby into going after Harold.”

“And Ruby failed to contact a superior when the situation proved to be more uncertain than originally thought. And Emerald…” He trailed off, giving a sad shake of his head. “I intend to pull all three of you into a room and go over every decision made, step by step, analyzing whether or not better options were available at each point of the night. But not until you’re feeling a little better. Again, most of the fault lies with those who should have known better. Even still, things didn’t go so poorly. The night could have been worse.”

“Harold got away. Grafton got away. Id wasn’t there to begin with.”

“You recovered a potentially dangerous artifact and prevented it from causing a large incident. Emerald recovered actionable intelligence. Mister Porter is unfortunately missing, but, and I understand that you may not have heard this during your isolation, Ruby managed to prevent Grafton’s escape. He is currently in secure holding.”

“Really?” Dyna said. She had been wondering what happened to Ruby and why she had never showed after ending the call. “How did she manage that?”

“Saw him speeding away from the airport. Engaged in pursuit. Damaged the vehicle. Captured him. He is not a physically capable man; once the vehicle failed, she had no trouble at all.”

“Did he… talk at all?”

“Not yet. He will be my next stop of the day,” Walter said, tone taking a turn downward. “I wished to ensure that you were alright and not needing anything first.”

“Ah. I see.”

“Something you wanted to get from him?”

Dyna leaned back against the wall near the sink, tilting her head backward to see if that helped at all. Though really, the motion was just to buy her time to think. Her isolation had given her plenty of time to mull over her memories and her thoughts on what happened. Even to the point where Walter’s plan of taking them into a room and going over the events of the night one by one didn’t seem daunting at all. She had already considered dozens of better options for what she could have done.

But there were things that did still confuse her. “Id,” Dyna said after a long moment. “I wonder if he knows what Id is up to?”

“That is one of the items we hope to find out.”

“I mean… She’s showed up in front of me twice now, but hasn’t done anything. She just talks about nothing, says she got what she wanted, and then vanishes. I don’t understand what she wants from me or why she keeps coming to me. Even as an artificer, I don’t feel like someone important. The mirror isn’t exactly useful and she doesn’t even ask about it. Grafton didn’t even take it from me when he captured me.”

“We have teams analyzing your transcripts of both encounters. Unfortunately, truly knowing what someone is thinking is difficult even for the Carroll Institute. At least without direct access to someone’s mind.” Walter offered a small smile before sighing. “It could be that she or another mind reader were standing around, peering into your thoughts. The conversations could just be mental triggers to get you to think about certain events, people, or things in order to more easily read such thoughts. We don’t believe at this time that you were compromised in any way. No lingering trigger words to get you to perform certain actions or anything like that.”

“That’s good, but… I just don’t feel like she’s done with me. I… She’s not going to leave me alone. I don’t know why she didn’t outright kidnap me—maybe because she keeps saying things like how she’s trying to help me. It’s… She’s trying to recruit me, isn’t she?”

It wasn’t a question, but Walter still nodded his head.

“That is one of the possibilities. I wouldn’t call invading your mind a friendly overture, but her hostility is questionable at best. What is clear is that she is attempting to subvert or undermine the Carroll Institute as a whole. And steal materials we would rather not have outside the Vault.”

That made Dyna look back down. Crumpling up the tissue and disposing of it, she did a quick check. Her nose didn’t seem to still be bleeding, though she wasn’t sure how long that would last.

“The Aztec calendar is safe here, isn’t it?”

“We have examined events and determined that Mister Porter used his authority as Doctor Cross’ assistant to remove the artifact from a testing apparatus where it was supposed to remain overnight. In the Vault, it is impossible for anyone to retrieve on their own. Both my own and Doctor Cross’ recommendation is that it remain in the Vault indefinitely given the obvious danger it presented to the general public. When testing inevitably resumes, it will be under only the strictest of guard.”

“That’s… good.”

Walter crossed his arms, hiding the red tie and vest he wore. “You don’t sound like you believe me.”

“Not you,” Dyna said quickly. “Just… I’ve realized that I don’t know much about the Carroll Institute as a whole.”

A thin, wan smile pressed Walter’s lips into a thin line. “Ruby told me about your concerns.”

Dyna winced. So much for trusting a ten-year-old to keep their mouth shut.

“I’ll have you know that I have never ordered any alteration of your memories. Nor do any files I have access to suggest that the Carroll Institute tampered with your mind. While I do admit that there are a select few files that even I do not have access to, I took the concerns Ruby brought up quite seriously and investigated to the best of my ability.”

Dyna let out a long sigh. That was a relief, wasn’t it? At least as long as she trusted Walter. Which she was pretty sure she did. And if the Carroll Institute really wanted to erase her memories, they would have had ample opportunity over the last few days. Enough to make her completely forget that she had been worried about it in the first place.

Of course, she couldn’t prove that they hadn’t modified her memories and just left everything she could remember as a way of further distracting from what they had changed, but Dyna quickly clamped down on that line of thought. Cyclic reasoning and doubting would just lead her into another downward spiral of panic and paranoia.

That kind of reasoning had lead to the incident in the first place. Or her involvement in the incident. Presumably, Harold would have gone out on his own regardless of her actions.

Walter stood, checking the time on his smart watch. “In any case, you’re free to leave the isolation chamber. I ask that you remain within Psychodynamics for the next week and, if you have any odd sensations, feelings, or medical complications beyond your occasional nosebleed, please contact myself or Doctor Cross immediately. Failing that, should we be unavailable for any reason, check into the infirmary in Sector C.”

“The nosebleed isn’t anything to worry over, is it?”

“Not according to your scans. The doctors aren’t quite sure what is causing them, but there is no sign of hemorrhaging in the brain, which was originally the major concern. We’ll continue testing to ensure you’ll be alright.”

“Good. Thanks,” Dyna said. Grabbing a few more tissues for later and shoving them into the pocket of the medical scrubs she had been given, she followed Walter out of the small chamber.

The very first thing Dyna saw upon reaching the main hall of Psychodynamics was a little red-haired girl sitting on a chair that looked like it had been dragged over. Possibly stolen from one of the vacant offices.

Ruby popped up instantly, looking a little startled. Between her messy hair and rapidly blinking eyes, she must have dozed off. Dyna did not miss the way her hand snapped to her pocket, only to freeze. She had probably been going for a knife before she realized just what woke her.

“Are you alright?” she said as fast as she could. “Are you crazy? All the other artificers are, so it would be bad if that other artifact broke your brain. Did you get hurt? You’ve got a bit of blood just above your lip. Walter didn’t punch you, did he? I didn’t think you did that bad for your first real night—”

“Ruby,” Walter said, tone flat.

“It’s really my fault. I shouldn’t have left someone so na-scent alone. I knew Emerald would be there and she could have chased that guy while you and I dealt with the traitor but I—”

“Ruby.”

“Although I am a little mad that you lost the gun. How could you just get hypnotized like that? You should have ignored him and his words—”

“Ruby, please.” Walter’s tone didn’t change, but the third time was apparently the charm.

Ruby clamped her mouth shut, looking away from Dyna to stare up at Walter. “She’s not in trouble, right?”

“I would worry a little more about yourself.”

That got a scoff from Ruby. “I know how these things go. I can handle anything. She doesn’t and she can’t.”

“I’m fine, Ruby. Just got some random nosebleeds. Doctors don’t know why yet.”

With a long hum, Ruby looked straight up. Between her shorter stature and her step forward taking her right into Dyna’s personal space, it was like she was looking right up Dyna’s nose.

Realizing that Ruby was doing exactly what it looked like, Dyna gently pushed her back. “I’m fine.”

“Come,” Walter said, turning toward the door adjacent to the decontamination room that Dyna had just left. “You two can talk later.”

Doctor Cross sat in the next room, using an inflatable exercise ball as a chair. The terminal in front of him was covered with lines and graphs. Dyna spotted her name among the text, figured they were about her, and promptly felt too tired to try to investigate further. If there was something wrong with her, someone would presumably tell her. Until then, she decided not to worry about anything.

Of mildly more interest to her was the pedestal. Like a miniature version of the psionic vault that she stored her artifact in when doing certain tests where its interference might hamper results. Doctor Cross took one look at her, typed a few words into his terminal, then turned toward the pedestal.

The angular walls started folding down, revealing just what Dyna expected to find.

The compact mirror.

“The artifact,” Doctor Cross started without even a single ‘how are you doing, Dyna?’, “is producing constant psionic emissions. A ninety-seven percent increase in randi levels over a like period of time compared to emissions released prior to this… incident.”

Dyna started nodding her head, only to pause and shake her head. “I’m a bit tired. Please tell me what that means so I don’t have to think too much right now.”

“I believe you are aware that your artifact selection was a single-blind test. Two objects were artifacts. Two were not. Your selection was not. And yet, you claimed it produced anomalous effects. Effects we found difficult to demonstrate or analyze.” He paused, pushing back his lips into something that was either a grin or grimace. “That is no longer the case. I believe we have witnessed first-hand the creation of a proper artifact.”

“Ah… so…”

“So!” Cross’ grin—or grimace—widened further. “Artificer, I want you in my laboratory first thing in the morning—”

“I am mandating rest and relaxation,” Walter said. “A minimum of one week.”

“A week? A week!” Cross stood, planting his hands on the desk beside his terminal. “There is science to be done! She has rested for three days. Long enough! We must analyze every aspect of the events, going over each instance where the artifact activated in an attempt to determine exactly—”

“Rest, Doctor Cross. If she wishes to answer questions, that is her prerogative, but you will not be throwing her through the grinder to get a few data points.”

“It’s fine, really,” Dyna said quickly, eying her compact mirror. Something had changed with it. She wasn’t quite sure when it might have happened, whether while she was in isolation or perhaps during the night, but she could feel something different about it. “I’d rather be doing something anyway. I don’t like to be cooped up with nothing to do.”

Staring at it, she felt… calm. Content.

And exploring it? That sounded good to her. If she was trapped down here for a week anyway, might as well get some good out of it.

Cross, apparently pleased with her response, simply sat back down and started staring at the terminal once again. Walter, she noted from the corner of her eye, was staring at her. He didn’t say anything for a long moment. He ended up shaking his head before he spoke.

“Your other belongings,” he said, pulling open a drawer.

It took a mild force of will to tear her eyes from the compact mirror, but once she noticed her phone, wallet, and the little eye pendant she usually wore, she quickly reached over.

Her phone had been plugged in. Nice of them to keep it charged. Picking it up, it immediately buzzed to alert her of missed messages.

They were from her mother. A few texts and a few pictures of old scrapbooks.

Dyna immediately opened them, hoping they were what she thought they would be.

Pictures of her own birthday party, a few months before the El’s water park birthday. Although she couldn’t remember their faces clearly from the hypnotism session, the picture of the six of them sitting around a birthday cake was crystal clear. The younger version of herself didn’t have white hair, but rather a short black bob. Which made sense as she had only dyed it just before coming to the institute. Emmanuel sat immediately to her side, along with three other boys that she could only vaguely remember.

The last person, a little girl with long dark hair, didn’t look familiar at all. Dyna tried to think, tried to remember, but came up blank. If she had come to a birthday party, she must have been someone Dyna knew. Unlike everyone else at the table, Dyna couldn’t even scrape together a single memory of the girl. Nothing in school. Nothing from home. Although the birthday, with its baseball theme, somewhat stuck out to her now that she had seen pictures of it, she couldn’t remember the girl.

“Something wrong?” Walter asked.

Dyna nodded slowly. “Ruby mentioned my memory issue? This,” she said, turning the phone around for him to see, “is part of that. I think the girl on the end got kidnapped by a psychic when we were kids.”

Walter’s lips pressed together as he stared down. His mirrored lenses hid his eyes, but the way his eyebrows furrowed made it look like he was taking it seriously. After a long moment, he straightened his back. “Send me a copy of the images and, when you feel up to it, write down everything you can remember or think you remember about the situation and send that to me as well.”

“Okay. I can do that right now, I think.”

Walter nodded. “Then I best take care of my business before getting your report. Remember, if you need anything or feel ill, contact myself or Doctor Cross. Excuse me.”

He turned, which prompted Ruby to twist the phone down so that she could see as well.

“Which one?”

“The girl on my left.”

“Which one is you?”

“The… only other girl…”

“Huh. Doesn’t look like you.”

“My hair isn’t naturally white.”

“Huh,” Ruby said, looking between the picture and Dyna. After a few back-and-forths, she shrugged. “Huh. So we get to crack the head of some kidnapper?”

Dyna looked at the little girl with the prominent widow’s peak. She flipped through, looking at the other pictures, but none of them showed her face clearly. She was smiling along with everyone else in the picture and yet, Dyna couldn’t even remember her name. None of the pictures were labeled, unfortunately. Her mother’s message accompanying the pictures simply said that this was the only birthday of the year that made it into the scrapbook. It was a bit disappointing that the water park events hadn’t been chronicled, but that made sense. That hadn’t been her birthday.

“I hope so,” Dyna said, slowly putting down her phone. She had some work to do. Maybe this girl was still out there. Maybe not. “I hope so.”