Author: Tower Curator

 

Knowing what she knew now about Ignotus-33, Dyna expected the mountain man to charge her. Ignotus was an organization out to kill her specifically, as long as Id’s information was correct. Thus, it could be reasoned that the Ouija board incident had been another attempt at killing her. Or perhaps their first real attempt to kill her. Hematite and Ruby being targeted were likely incidental, collateral damage. Even stealing the Ouija board and ransacking her apartment had either been a crime of opportunity or a method to disguise their true aim.

Expecting it to finish what had to have been its mission made a lot of sense. Especially because the tulpa were artificial; made more than formed. It likely wouldn’t have developed a sense of self or proper desires.

So, seeing those six white lights look over Dyna without seeming notice and stop on November was a shock.

November’s shadowy form jolted. She took a careful step backward. “I think I am going to run now,” she said, oddly distorted voice trembling.

The hunched monstrosity reared back, lifting its… arms? Front legs? The roar it unleashed sounded like a cross between a foghorn and every key on a keyboard being slammed at the same time. When its legs hit the ground again, the world shook. Several of the gathered soldiers stumbled, falling to the ground. Dyna staggered back, bumping into O’Neil.

The square-cube law meant that as something’s size doubled, its mass was cubed. The larger something was, the more weight it had to lug around. The larger something was, the slower it would move no matter the musculature it had. It was simple laws of physics.

Physics apparently did not apply to thoughtforms.

The mountain man charged. It barreled across the room, plowing over one of the soldiers. Slamming into the wall at the opposite end of the room caused another earthquake. November glided out of the way, not running so much as she drifted through space. Her own movements were quick and snappy as well.

The soldiers were not idle. Bullets and disruptors alike fired at the mountain man. Neither had any visible effect. Dyna had already made her report on the effectiveness of guns against tulpa while within the noosphere, but she thought the disruptors would do something. Slow it down, at least. November had just said that the mountain man was nowhere near the level of the Hatman and the Hatman had been at least staggered by the disruption effect.

Unless it was something unique to the mountain man. Even when in a human form, he had seemed utterly implacable, requiring a physics-defying artifact to defeat.

“We need to get through the portal!” O’Neil shouted.

Dyna glanced toward the shimmering ring in the air. She couldn’t hear what was going on beyond the threshold, but she could see. The yellow warning lights had turned red. Soldiers filed in through the main door, all taking up defensive positions around the portal. Most of the scientists and technicians had been evacuated, though it looked like Doctor Langford was still at the main control panel. She could easily imagine Beatrice spouting off warning after warning while alarms blared in the background.

On this side of the portal, soldiers were backing up. They were still firing toward the mountain man, but had obviously realized that they weren’t effective. A pair were trying to drag the poor guy who had been run down.

“And leave November?” Dyna shook her head as the room shook again.

Both tulpa were up near the ceiling, ignoring gravity, one chasing the other.

“They’re going to collapse the portal if we don’t get through it! It’s protocol!”

“Then go.” Dyna shoved him off her. “Get the experimental disruptor! Or get me every artifact the administrators will allow!”

“My orders are to ensure your—”

Dyna gripped the man by the straps on his suit and pulled. They both tumbled to the ground, thrown aside just enough to avoid another charge from the mountain man.

November, spotting an opportunity, dove toward the portal. The mountain man’s six white eyes followed her movements as it let out another foghorn bellow.

As soon as its line of sight crossed the portal, the shimmering ring in the air shuddered and shrank down to the size of a pinhole. The last bit of light vanished just before November could reach it.

“Damn it,” O’Neil hissed.

“Are they going to reopen it?”

O’Neil didn’t have an answer. She couldn’t see his face behind the mirrored glass of his silver suit, but with the way he was stringing together colorful curses, he clearly wasn’t pleased with the situation.

If they didn’t open it, Dyna didn’t think it was the end of the world. Spatial anomalies had been growing more and more common ever since November appeared. Not to mention Ignotus had a way of opening portals from the noosphere. They could deal with that later.

The mountain man was the highest priority.

Getting back to her feet, Dyna ran across the large room. Most of the soldiers had made it back through the portal. Aside from O’Neil, there was only one other trapped in here who had made the poor decision to rush to the door that should have opened back into the rest of the facility. He was trying to scan an identification card to force it open, but wasn’t having much luck.

Ruby was still in the room as well. The membrane of shadow clinging to her skin alternated between shrinking in on her and flaring up like an angry flame. The girl herself, however, wasn’t moving beyond what it took to keep the mountain man and November in sight.

While the soldiers had cleared out, not all of them had maintained a tight grip on their equipment. Dyna skidded to a stop not far from Ruby, snatching a disruptor from the floor.

“It’s going to eat us,” Ruby said, voice unnaturally calm. “It’s going to catch November eventually. Then it will be my turn.”

“No one is getting eaten.”

“What do you think you’re going to do about that?”

Dyna held up the disruptor. It wasn’t the same model that Tartarus had used, though it was based on the one Dyna had brought back. It lacked the weird angled cylinder above the barrel and its trigger had been replaced with several buttons on the back side, meant to be pressed with the thumb. Instead of knobs along the sides for calibration, it seemed to have several different settings built into those buttons, ready to go.

“The security team already tried.”

“Yes, but I am me.” Dyna looked over the disruptor, checking for any other major differences. “I am a psychic. An artificer. I create artifacts and gadgets.”

“You’re turning that into an artifact?”

Dyna flashed the younger red-head a grin. “If you want to help, keep it away from November until I finish.”

“How am I supposed to do that? Look at them!”

Both tulpa were little more than shadowy streaks, blurring through the air. November barely kept out of reach of the mountain man. The mountain man seemed to be getting better at turning rather than just ramming into every wall. Neither had left the room. Dyna wondered if they could with the doors closed or if November was trying to keep it here, counting on the institute to pull through with some assistance.

Their movements should have been impossible. But physics didn’t care about tulpa. They weren’t physical creatures with actual bodies. They were beings of thought. In the real world, they had bodies to contain that thought, but here?

This was the noosphere. A world of thought, not proper physics.

Dyna blinked.

This was the noosphere. Malleable and changing as the general consensus of everyone alive changed.

Those immediately perceiving the noosphere should have a stronger effect on it, their thoughts more directly affecting it. Being inside it…

“It’s this world,” Dyna said. “Do you think you can fly?”

“Of course not!”

“Then you can’t fly.” Dyna looked down at the disruptor in her hands. Flying was useless for her, but other things? Dyna was concentrating on the disruptor as much as she could, flooding it with psionic energy. But this was a world of thought. In other words, it was a world of psionic energy. The entire place around her was brimming with those psychic undercurrents.

It should take barely any effort at all to affect change. If she could turn a coil gun into a lightning gun merely by mistaking what it was out in the real world…

Dyna lifted the disruptor, trying to aim.

The tulpa were too fast now. The mountain man didn’t stop and Dyna could barely see the difference between him and November. She didn’t want to hit the wrong target, not knowing what the effects of this weapon might be.

“I need the mountain man stopped, Ruby. Just for a moment.”

“What am I—”

“Ruby!”

“Arrgh!” Ruby ground her teeth together, staring up at the tulpa. As she shouted, the shadows coiling off her skin stretched and grew, flowing around her until her skin was only visible through the occasional gap.

Dyna didn’t know what she was doing, but it worked. The mountain man stopped on a dime and turned.

Dyna kicked Ruby out of the way, not wanting her hit, and moved into place as the mountain man charged directly toward her. Her thumb slammed down on every button.

A flash of light erupted from the front of the gun. Shards of shadow split off from the mountain man, dissipating into the air, shrinking its hulking form. One shard of shadow, a little larger than the rest, hovered in the air for a moment. November dove down, grasping hold of it with her handless tendrils.

Dyna didn’t get to watch more.

The remainder of the mountain man slammed into her. The force made her lose her grip on the disruptor gun, sending it skidding across the floor where it crashed into a console. The mountain man didn’t stop at just hitting into her, however. It dragged her across the floor until they hit the wall. Thick tendrils of thought slammed into her chest, lifting Dyna up against the wall, pinning her in place.

Four white lights tilted in the shrunken tulpa. It stared at Dyna, pressing its claw-like grasp against her. Back against the wall, Dyna couldn’t expand her chest enough to breathe.

Ruby raced across the room, picking up the fallen disruptor gun. She aimed, but nothing happened. Ruby’s glare shifted to surprise as she looked down at the gun.

Dyna didn’t know if it had broken, run out of batteries, or only worked in her hands. Whatever the case, she struggled against the arm, trying to suck in as much air as she could. She wasn’t going to get any help from November either. That shard that had broken off from the mountain man looked like it was fighting back against her attempts to integrate it. Had she bitten off more than she could chew? Would she even still be her?

Dyna grit her teeth. The experiment wasn’t supposed to have turned out this way. She just wanted a measure of how strong the tulpa were. How could she have known that the containment unit wouldn’t have held the mountain man in the noosphere?

A tunnel vision started to form on the edges of Dyna’s vision as her lungs burned. Couldn’t she just imagine more air in her lungs? She was fairly sure that something had cracked in her ribs, but she barely felt it over the burn for air.

Ruby stepped closer, the shadow around her flaring up again. Her face was set in grim determination, like she knew she wouldn’t survive the mountain man focusing on her but was going to get its attention anyway.

It was working too. The mountain man’s four white eyes shifted on its head, swiveling slowly to face Ruby. Pressure on Dyna’s chest lessened just enough to suck in a breath of air. She spat it back out immediately in a single squeaked word.

“Don’t!”

Dyna couldn’t let Ruby do this. The little girl with no memories of her childhood, abused and thrown into harrowing situations… Her friend.

A stray thought erupted from Dyna. A clone of herself, shark-like teeth already spread across its featureless mask of a face, launched itself at the mountain man without any hesitation. The teeth started to tear into the mountain man’s shadowy body, only for Dyna’s clone to be sucked into the larger mass, vanishing into it without a trace.

A part of her had just died.

Dyna was still here. Her perspective was in her body. She was human, not a tulpa. She didn’t think she had just shaved off integrations. But, nonetheless, some of her had still just thrown itself to death to save Ruby. Dyna’s fork of herself, a complete clone of herself, a perspective knew it was going to die and still had done it.

It hadn’t even bought that much time. The four white lights barely blinked before they honed in on Ruby once again.

Another stray thought split off from Dyna. Another fork of her consciousness, duplicated in its entirety, launched itself toward the mountain man. It provided another few seconds of distraction. The lights in the mountain man’s face swam, but focused again.

Its pressure on Dyna lessened.

A third stray thought split off. A fourth. A fifth. At any moment, Dyna felt like she could be the one appearing beside herself. From the perspective of her clones, that was exactly what was happening. And yet, to save Ruby, to save herself, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would throw herself into the mountain man.

They attacked the mountain man with selfless fervor, yet the mountain man, even damaged by the disruptor, was just too substantial for her clones.

Even still, they were distracting it. It turned its focus to eating her clones. Dyna fell to the ground, released from its pinning grip. Its eyes weren’t on her or Ruby anymore, but on each clone as the sprung into existence near Dyna.

“You’re making it stronger!” November called from somewhere in the room. Had she successfully integrated that shard of the mountain man?

Dyna didn’t know. Her focus was on the mass itself, forming clone after clone. Two sprung up on either side of her. They weren’t even trying to tear it apart anymore; Dyna had long since realized the futility. Even in its weakened state, human-level consciousness couldn’t compete.

So why bother?

The second she stopped, it would turn back to the rest of the room. Either herself, Ruby, or November.

Dyna couldn’t allow that, so she continued. As she continued, her plan solidified in her mind.

What was that old saying? “If you can’t beat them,” she shouted back to November with her jaw locked in a tight grin, “join them.”

“What are you—”

Four clones appeared at once. Eight clones popped into existence. A dozen. Two dozen. Dyna slowly pushed herself to her feet. Something ground in her chest, a sharp spike of pain accompanied every breath, but…

What was a broken rib in this place?

One of her fresh clones helped her up before joining the steady stream of shadow diving into the mountain man.

Could she fix her rib? In a world of thought, all she had to do was think of a fix, right?

Dyna’s next breath came far easier. She stood up straight, glaring at the mountain man.

Something was changing in its stooped appearance. The formless monstrosity made from vaguely humanoid tendrils was slowly gaining a proper form. Not that of the hulking human form the mountain man had worn outside the noosphere. Neither was it that of its original almost elephant-like appearance.

No.

A woman was forming in front of Dyna. A familiar woman. Though a shadowy mirror of herself, Dyna easily recognized the contours of her own face on its blank mask. The four lights that had been the mountain man’s eyes winked out, replaced by a mere two glowing eyes. Even the eye-shaped pendant that Dyna wore for good luck formed on its chest.

The flood of clones stopped, but the tulpa didn’t attack. And why should it? Dyna wasn’t about to attack herself.

“What did you do? Are you insane?”

Dyna tore her eyes off her tulpa self, looking up to November. November’s form had changed slightly. Her shadows looked less stable than they had been and one of the deep pits that formed her eyes now had a faint glow behind it. Dyna hoped she was alright, that she was still herself, but…

“You were right, November.”

“About what?”

Dyna grinned. “If half of yourself isn’t yourself anymore, who are you?”

Dyna looked down at the large tulpa in front of her. She had no idea how much of herself comprised the tulpa that had once been the mountain man, but she bet that it was quite a bit more than fifty percent. She had wanted to be sure.

“Is it safe?” Dyna asked herself.

She knew her plan. Thus all of her knew her plan. Or at least the vast majority that she had created after coming up with the plan. Her clone knew what she was asking.

The large tulpa clone of herself held out a hand.

“What are— Don’t!”

Just as November shouted, Dyna clapped her hand into the tulpa’s hand.

It lunged at her, diving into her.

Dyna’s lone body crumpled to the floor, vision snapping to blackness.

 

 

Unfortunately, getting an experiment setup wasn’t as easy as running down to Psychotronics—or Phrenomorphics, in this case—and finding the first scientist available. There were a few rules and protocols to follow. Really, it was much easier doing these kinds of things on her own, but Dyna was fairly sure that she would be in a lot more trouble if she went off and caused another incident trying to do things on her own. She had tested the institute’s patience, found it quite great, but was worried about coming to the end of their rope.

It took about a week and a half to get authorization then another week to get the necessary setup ready. A bit faster than Dyna expected, if she were honest.

Dyna stood alongside November and Ruby in a large room within Phrenomorphics. It was yet another room that was in use before being fully finished. The walls were plain concrete and the drop-tiles weren’t yet in place in the ceiling. In the center of the room, a number of scientists and technicians were working on the machine found in the meat packing plant. The large metal ring with wires, capacitors, little spikes with series of rings around them, and other components set on it.

One of the scientists gave a thumbs up, then started shouting for everyone to clear away from the device.

“Warning: Controlled Noosphere Spatial Tear experiment beginning in Phrenomorphics Sector Three,” Beatrice said over the facility intercom system. “All personnel, please report any anomalies immediately.”

It took ten minutes after that proclamation before anything actually happened. Yellow spinning lights set into the walls above the gateway machine turned on. Shortly after, a low hum filled the room. A bright silver light appeared in the center of the machine, burning bright enough that Dyna was glad to be wearing the thick welder-style goggles over her eyes.

The hum grew louder and rougher, becoming more of a metallic buzz. All at once, the silver dot of light pulled apart, stretching into a ring that touched the interior edge of the circular machine. The edges of the ring vibrated, twisting and jittering. The scientist behind the controls, Doctor Langford, flipped a series of switches then slowly twisted a knob. As she did so, the jitters slowed, growing steady.

“Tear stabilized.”

Dyna had seen a few spatial anomalies. They were just little ethereal lights hanging in the air, barely noticeable if one wasn’t staring directly at them. It certainly wasn’t possible to see anything beyond them.

This portal was a bit different. She could clearly see through it now, though the world beyond didn’t look all that different. The unfinished laboratory continued through the portal, but the lighting was different. It was somehow both brighter and darker at the same time. Darker because the room lights didn’t seem to be on, but brighter because Dyna could see even beneath a small console that should have been casting a shadow. The spinning yellow lights didn’t seem to function on the other side either.

“Science Team, please stand-by. Security Team Doorknocker advancing.”

The few scientists that had been around the machine quickly cleared away, making room for silver-suited personnel armed with both conventional weaponry as well as disruptor weapons. The disruptors weren’t as powerful as the one that had turned the Hatman into a puddle of thought, but they should at least stall a Hatman-like entity long enough to collapse the portal. Leaving a handful of soldiers to keep watch on this side of the gate, the rest advanced forward, passing through the other side.

The soldiers fanned out beyond the portal. Much like the console, Dyna could see all the nooks and crannies of their suits even though there were parts that should have been in shadow. They didn’t stay in view for long, however, quickly leaving the relatively small opening that she could see in order to secure the rest of the room within the noosphere. One soldier remained behind, communicating with this side through hand signals.

“There wouldn’t be many tulpa there,” November said, speaking softly. “This place is too new. Not enough time for stray thoughts to integrate to the point of tangibility.”

“No tulpa could have walked down here?”

“I suppose,” November said with a shrug. “I wouldn’t. Better to stick around cities where plenty of stray thoughts are constantly being generated and the noosphere is less likely to change abruptly.” She paused, then frowned, walking a short distance toward the portal. “I’m surprised there is anything here at all beyond solid rock given how new this place is. It takes time for new buildings to enter into the collective thoughts of humans enough to form over there.”

“I mean, a lot of people were involved in this place. Builders, scientists, security… probably more than that. And it isn’t like they built this overnight.”

“True.”

While they were talking, the soldier still in view on the other side of the portal gave the thumbs up. A moment after, one of his fellows come through to this side, leaving him able to communicate via hand signals.

“Noosphere localized area secured,” Beatrice said as the soldier who had come through started speaking into a radio. “Progressing to experiment phase three.”

“That’s us,” Dyna said. “You ready?”

“I should be asking you that,” November said. “I look like I do now. You’re going to see what I actually look like. Are you sure you want that? You can still call it quits.”

“Can’t be as bad as the Hatman.”

That got a scoff from Ruby for some reason, but she didn’t offer any explanation. Fearless, or just fed up with the dalliance, she took the lead. Ruby didn’t hesitate in the slightest when approaching the gateway. She crossed over the threshold, maintaining her quick pace the whole way.

When she did step over, something changed with her. The lighting, of course, in much the same was as it affected the security team. However, there was something more. A roiling, flame-like shadow settled over her body. It followed her movements perfectly, clinging to her—or emitting from her skin—as she looked back over her shoulder, cocking her head as if to say ‘hurry up.’

“The after effects of what the Hatman did to her,” November said, offering an explanation. She held out her hand. “You next?”

Dyna nodded and stepped through.

She didn’t feel much different. The other side didn’t feel all that different either. The hum of the laboratory cut off, leaving near total silence behind. Her own breath, Ruby, and the few soldiers standing around still made noise. If not for that and the shift in lighting to that omnidirectional near-twilight, Dyna might not have been able to tell that she was outside reality at all.

The room itself wasn’t quite the same. First and foremost, it lacked the machinery around the portal. Several other elements were missing as well, mostly the mobile terminals and consoles that had been brought in for the experiment. Which made sense as they would not have had time to form into the collective thinking of everyone present. Maybe.

Dyna did note that she could not read the writing near the large door at the far end of the room. It was pure gibberish, scribbles and scrawls that looked like a foreign language at first, but were almost certainly just nonsense patterns. The text wasn’t moving, however, which Dyna wondered about. Was it that there were multiple people present who were all solidifying the text? She wasn’t that interested, but could easily imagine the scientists humming and hawing over that one little thing for weeks on end.

Dyna looked back to the portal just in time to watch November step through.

Even having been warned in advance, Dyna couldn’t help but stare. Watching a strange, static-covered human who was otherwise entirely normal just vanish had the hairs on her neck tingling.

The thing that stepped through in November’s place was shadowy, like most tulpa, though a body of frosted glass contained that shadow. The form was clearly… not human even discounting that part. It was like November knew what humans looked like and had tried to fashion her shadowy self after them, but forgot a few crucial details. Most of those forgotten details were in the face. Or… whatever November had in place of a face. It looked like a blank mask with two dark holes leading deep into its skull in place of eyes. A thin line stretched to either side of the mask like a mouth that was far too wide, except it looked like a drawing rather than anything that could open.

Beyond the face, November’s hands and legs were by far the most unnerving aspect of this form. Both were longer and spindlier than they should have been, thin tendrils more than proper limbs. November had neither hands or feet, just tapered ends.

Dyna tried not to stare—too late—she offered a smile. “November, feeling alright?”

November held up its shadowy arm, looking over its missing hand. “I rather liked having a body.”

The way she spoke was different as well. Dyna couldn’t quite tell if she was hearing November with her ears or if her voice was echoing around inside her mind. Either way, a heavy layer of static hung over her voice, making it sound like her voice was coming from an old radio even though she had lost all the visual static effects on her body.

Ruby shuddered, forcing her eyes away from November. “You had all that practice being a human. Can’t you look more normal?”

Dyna swatted Ruby on the forehead. “Be nice. This is normal for November.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Ruby…”

Ruby’s shadows roiled, but she just huffed and crossed her arms, looking off into the room. “Lucky the soldiers didn’t shoot her,” she mumbled.

That, though she wouldn’t say it, Dyna agreed with. The security team were clearly wary of November, watching her more than they were watching the rest of the room.

“You’ll get a human body when you go back through, right?”

“I certainly hope so. I wouldn’t have come through if I thought I would lose it.”

Dyna nodded, but didn’t get a chance to say anything more before she spotted movement on the other side of the portal. “Phase four is starting,” Dyna said, watching a sedated man strapped to a table being pushed through the room. Several guards hovered over him, surrounding him on all sides.

November, Dyna, and Ruby all backed away, allowing the large group space to come through.

“Why does he still look human?” Ruby asked, frowning as the gurney made it through to the noosphere. “Isn’t he a tulpa?”

Dyna frowned as well, thinking back. “The tulpa I spotted while chasing Harold also looked human. At least until I shot them. Then, they turned more shadowy,” she said, motioning toward November. “Any ideas?”

“Possibly a consequence of how they were created. Despite having crossed over myself, I can’t say I’m an expert in doing so.”

“But he is a tulpa.”

“He is. I can tell.”

“Good. Now, we’re in the noosphere. Can you tell how many integrations he has had?”

November’s mask-like face turned toward the tulpa. She angled her head, twisting in a way that humans wouldn’t be able to manage.

Dyna’s hypothesis at the moment was that the tulpa used by Ignotus-33 were far less substantial than anyone thought. How else could she have integrated with so many of them and yet come out the other side with only a mild headache, still feeling entirely like herself?

November reached out as Dyna watched, thin tendril-like arms touching the tulpa.

The human body of the tulpa popped like a water balloon caught in slow motion, with the rubber vanishing yet leaving behind the perfect sphere of water in the same shape. Except instead of water, it turned to a dark shadow. The shadow didn’t splash apart the way water would. Instead, November’s tendrils dove into it even more, making it thrash back and forth. The tulpa’s body shrank, legs and head disappearing into its torso. It didn’t stop there, shrinking further and further around November’s arms until there was nothing left.

Ruby backed away, taking several long steps toward the portal. Her face paled and the shadows clinging to her drew inward, shrinking down as if frightened. Seeing her back away like that did unnerve Dyna somewhat, but she did her best to remain standing and upright, not moving from November’s side. It was the least she could do.

If something went wrong, the soldiers had disruptor guns aimed at November.

November remained still, now staring at her arms where the tulpa had been just moments ago. “Interesting.”

“You didn’t have to integrate with it,” Dyna quickly said. “Are you… alright? Are you still feeling like you?”

November waved a tendril, dismissing Dyna’s concern. “I did not feel threatened by it. It had a mere one or two million integrations, a very small percentage of myself.” She paused, looking to Dyna with those deep pits in place of eyes. “Strange. It should not have been able to maintain a form at its level. And yet, I can find no memories of how it came to exist. I expected to remember waking up in a laboratory somewhere, but there is nothing. Or, perhaps rather than nothing, there is a conspicuous absence of several memories I would consider key to its existence.”

“Like someone removed them?”

November nodded.

“That… does make sense, I suppose. It explains why Sapphire has been unable to pull the complete knowledge of Ignotus from their minds. Someone wouldn’t send them after us, knowing that weakness, without taking precautions.”

“There is… something. Not enough from just one subject. If I were to consume more—”

“I thought you didn’t want to do that?”

“That was before, when I thought they were human-level. They are not.” She paused, then shuddered. “Though perhaps some time to adjust between each would be preferable.”

“Well, that might have to wait for a future date. For now, I feel like my theory has been confirmed. I still have something else to test, even more now that we’ve confirmed these tulpa are not remotely human-level.” Dyna paused, then glanced to the lead soldier. A man named O’Neil, she was fairly sure. “We should move on to phase five.”

O’Neil nodded, then barked some commands to his troops.

As they carted the gurney back through the portal, Dyna looked to November. “Remember, you don’t have to eat these things. We’re really just checking to see their rough level for future reference.”

“I imagine I will be far less inclined with the approaching subject,” November said, looking back to the portal. As she did so, she spotted Ruby. She cocked her head to the side. “You don’t need to fear, Ruby.”

“You’re really fucking creepy.”

“Ruby.”

“What? She is!”

“You have nothing to fear from me.” Slowly, she turned her mask toward Dyna. She didn’t say anything, however, before turning her mask back to the portal.

Another team was wheeling a tulpa toward the portal. Unlike the last, this one was not strapped to a stretcher. It was sealed in a cylindrical pod. A large cylindrical pod. Dyna hadn’t been sure that this was going to work, but the scientists had assured her that clearance was tight, but not impossible.

The mountain man came through. Unlike the human tulpa on the stretcher, the mountain man changed. His flesh peeled back much like November’s had, revealing a bulk of twisting shadows. It remained within the tube, but spread out throughout the liquid, diffusing.

The soldiers were tense, aiming everything they had at the tank. The mountain man made no attempt to escape. Or, if he was making an attempt at escaping, it didn’t look like it.

November stepped forward, peering through the glass. With her face little more than a static mask, discerning her expressions and emotions simply couldn’t be done. Dyna imagined even Id, self-proclaimed expert at such things, would have had a hard time.

“Well?” Dyna asked after a long moment.

“It is more substantial than the previous tulpa. Not anywhere close to the Hatman, but I would still be wary of consuming it.” She paused, narrowing her eyes as she looked into the glass. “It is… different, the way it exists is not natural for tulpa. I can only imagine that this entity was more constructed than integrated naturally over time. Someone pulled apart tulpa and mashed them together again to form this abomination.”

“Is there a way to disrupt that? Pull them back apart to make it harmless? Or at least less…” Dyna waved her hand vaguely toward the mountain man.

Although they had collected a number of advanced tulpa in the last few months, the Carroll Institute had been having a hard time with the mountain man. Dyna didn’t know the exact details, but he seemed to disrupt a lot of psychic abilities, making Sapphire and other mind readers fail or gather contradictory information. Either that or, being an amalgamation of tulpa, they were just reading different and contradictory parts of him.

It was hard to say for sure.

If they could peel him apart, then November might be able to eat little bits of him at a time. She would be able to figure out what was accurate and, maybe, find out a little more about Ignotus than regular tulpa had provided either her or Dyna.

Unfortunately, November was slowly shaking her head in a negative. She abruptly backed up a few steps. “I would recommend removing this entity from the noosphere as swiftly as possible. Its body is no longer susceptible to the contain—”

A spiderweb of cracks spread across the glass as she spoke.

Cries of alarm rippled through the soldiers. Those with disruptors didn’t hesitate to fire them off. Two of the soldiers, those who had wheeled him into the noosphere in the first place, grabbed hold of the cart’s handles and started pulling it backward.

They didn’t make it before a small shard of glass popped out of the containment tank.

Water rushed out. Along with it, shadow spilled from the tank. The shadow came through much faster than the water. Although it had just squeezed through a crack in the glass the size of a coin, it reformed into a hulking monstrosity of shadow. It did not have any human shape to it, standing twice as tall as the humans gathered despite being hunched over on its four limbs. Six white lights in its face served as eyes. Rearing its head back, it let out a roar that shook the floor.

It stood directly between the portal and everyone else.

 

 

Preparing for possibilities took the form of more training. Part of that was the usual firearm practice, exercise routines, and tactical-simulated combat. Another part took the form of brainstorming.

“I do believe this is what I was warning you about,” November said, seated in the rear seat of Emerald’s station wagon.

Although the vehicle had a rear bench, Emerald really only intended for occupants in the front two seats. All her weaponry and supplies took up a great deal of space throughout the rest of the long car. Most of which had been piled up in the back to provide space for four people.

Talking about potential problems with administrators, all of whom could access Beatrice’s log files even if she didn’t want them to do so, was simply a poor idea. It couldn’t be avoided entirely due to Beatrice’s omnipresence throughout the Carroll Institute, but more sensitive matters could at least be discussed here.

Even if Dyna felt like she had a knife jabbing her in the back from the station wagon’s rear seat.

“Warned me?” Dyna grabbed a heavy blanket and folded it up between her at the seat. It wasn’t a knife, just a spring—Emerald hadn’t filled her car with weapons to quite that degree—but that didn’t mean it was comfortable. “When did you warn me about anything?”

“You walked through Phrenomorphics, yes?”

“Yes.”

November cocked her head, raising an eyebrow. “And what did you see there?”

Dyna shrugged. “Scientists? Machinery? Tulpa? An administ—”

“How many tulpa did you see?”

Again, Dyna shrugged. “Ten? Fifteen? I assume there are more elsewhere, but the room I walked through was just the special tulpa. Like the mountain man and the Hatman.”

“Exactly,” November said, nodding her head. “There are seventeen ‘advanced’ tulpa in containment and an additional thirty-seven ‘mundane’ tulpa elsewhere in the facility.”

“I’m still not sure what you were warning me about.”

“Nor am I,” Emerald said from the driver seat, looking in the rear-view mirror before focusing back on the road.

They had no real destination in mind at the moment. They were simply driving to be out from under Beatrice’s eyes while talking.

“Don’t you see?” November asked, static snow sparking off her tongue. “It has been mere months since the Carroll Institute became aware of the existence of tulpa. Now they have quite the collection of them. An improbable amount, even. Fifty-five, including myself. Not to mention all the other tulpa that perished or escaped before they could be contained. Tulpa are a fact of this world. Or, it would be more accurate to say that tulpa have become a fact of this world.”

Dyna crossed her arms, a few pieces clicking into place. “Is this about your name? How you went around telling people you didn’t want to be referred to in any way?”

“It’s too late now,” November said, looking out the window at the passing desert.

“You’re saying that Ignotus is running around because we called you November? That is a massive tornado from a tiny butterfly.”

Ruby turned around in the front passenger seat, glaring at November. “What does this have to do with fighting Ignotus or traitor administrators?”

“Ruby’s right,” Emerald said. “We brought you along to ask about the advanced tulpa.”

“Yeah. Like how do we kill them when they show up?”

“The experimental disruptor was the most effective weapon I have seen so far. Alternatively, you could try to integrate them. I would recommend against that, given that none of you are tulpa.”

The disruptor project was on hold until they figured out what had happened. Dyna hadn’t told anyone that Beatrice had been the one to open the doors, not wanting to invite further scrutiny on the artificial intelligence. As for the other solution…

“Is that possible?” Dyna asked. “Integrating something like the Hatman?”

November looked over, then slowly shook her head. “Not for me. I would be subsumed just touching that thing. Or, with the Hatman in particular rather, my memories wouldn’t be my own and I would likely end up one of its thralls.”

“Alright. What about the mountain man?”

Considering, November adopted a frown. “I have not witnessed that entity integrating any other tulpa. Rating my chances are more difficult. It might be possible, but were I still in the noosphere and had never encountered you, I would have avoided it in my current state.”

Idea forming in her mind, Dyna asked her next question. “If we were to feed you all the regular tulpa in containment, then started with the weakest of the advanced tulpa, do you think that would work?”

November opened her mouth, but promptly clamped it shut as she snapped her gaze to Dyna. “You wish to turn me into a weapon against Ignotus-33?”

“When we were looking for Harold, I think I had a stray thought. A copy of me swept through half a dozen tulpa in the blink of an eye, eating all of them before joining back up with me, giving me the knowledge needed to hunt down Harold at the meat packing plant.” Dyna paused, watching November’s eyes grow wide. What little pupil and iris she had vanished entirely as a field of static snow covered her entire face.

“You integrated?” She leaned back, pressing up against the door and window. “No, your stray thought integrated? And then willingly reintegrated with you? That is… horrifying.”

“I’m not going to do it to you,” Dyna said, hurt that November would even think that.

“And you think you can control your stray thoughts?”

“Well… they are just me, aren’t they?”

November shook her head with vehemence. “I’ve been eating those,” she said. “They’re nothing. Wisps of fragmented thought. A sliver of an idea. A lost thought, forgotten when you got up to go to the bathroom. Everyone has them. At that level, they would have to integrate thousands of other similar levels of thought to even gain an amorphous form. I don’t remember what I started out as, but it would have been something similar. Now, I am a composite of well over a hundred million integrations and would be wary of integrating human-level tulpa.” November trailed off, drawing in a sudden breath like she had forgotten to breathe. “And you just made a stray thought capable of consuming several human-level tulpa in an instant? And it retained enough cognizance to know it needed to reintegrate with you?”

Dyna glanced around. Ruby was nodding along with November’s words, like she understood what the static-covered tulpa was talking about. Emerald, upon meeting Dyna’s eyes in the mirror, just gave her a shrug. “Uh… yes?” Dyna said, looking back to November. “Is that bad?”

November just shuddered. “Yes… no.” She shook her head like an old man exasperated with the youth of today. “No wonder everyone is trying to kill you.”

Ruby, despite her nodding along, twisted in her seat to shoot November a glare. “You better not.”

“I’m just saying it is a little more understandable. Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m more surprised about. You deliberately splitting off your thoughts to eat other tulpa—”

“It wasn’t exactly deliberate,” Dyna mumbled.

“—or you still being you after consuming several human-level tulpa.”

Furrowing her brow, Dyna asked, “What do you mean by that?”

“Integration isn’t destruction,” November said. “It is integration. I don’t know if other tulpa call it that, but I do for a reason. This isn’t exactly how it works, but should explain my concern: if I, a tulpa comprised of a hundred million integrations, integrate with a tulpa of only a hundred integrations, it barely affects me. I’m still entirely me.

“However, if I were to integrate with a tulpa of roughly equal level, I would become a tulpa of two hundred million integrations, but only half of those would be me. If that makes sense. There is a battle of wills, determining who comes out on top which is why this isn’t exactly correct, but still… if half of me isn’t me, am I still who I was before?”

“And I integrated… I don’t even remember how many. Between six and twelve. All at the same time.”

“Exactly,” November said, elevated static activity slowly diminishing and returning to usual levels.

“I understand your concern now, I guess, but I don’t feel any different. It was a shock at first. A bunch of memories that weren’t mine bounced around in my mind, but they were so obviously not mine… I’ve never fought in a war and I certainly didn’t live in ancient Rome.”

“Maybe it’s different for humans.”

“Maybe…” Dyna said, trying to think back. “You… November, you seem a whole lot more substantial than they were. Than any of the lower-tier tulpa are.” She slowly looked to Ruby, considering. “If you were to estimate, how many integrations would you say Ruby has? You can see each other through the noosphere, right?”

Ruby’s scowl immediately turned on Dyna, but she ignored the look, focusing on November.

For her part, November barely glanced to Ruby. “She’s human. It isn’t the same.”

“Guess? If you saw Ruby wandering around in the noosphere—when you saw Ruby in the noosphere before slipping through that spatial anomaly—what did you think of her?”

“I thought she was human. There was no question about it. She was too substantial.”

“Let me try phrasing this in a different way: If you were to integrate Ruby, how much of you would still be you?”

A clarity crossed November’s eyes, looking from Ruby to Dyna, then turning to the opposite side to stare out the window. “You want me to suggest that I am less than human. That doesn’t bother me. I know what I am.”

“No! No. I’m just trying to get a measure. November, I don’t think less of you just because you have a bit of static in your eyes.”

November let out a small breath of air through her nose. Something akin to a scoff, but not quite there. “Thirty-three percent,” she said, not looking away from the window. “Maybe only twenty-five percent.”

“Emerald and I are roughly the same?”

“I’ve not seen either of you in the noosphere.”

“Then assuming we are similar, six or more tulpa would have still been a significant amount for me.”

“Yes.”

Dyna nodded, feeling somewhat relieved. “Then it is simple. These tulpa are even less than we thought they were. I certainly don’t feel like I ate even three people’s worth of memories. Maybe like… a tenth of a single person.” Maybe. Dyna wasn’t an expert in all this.

November shook her head, still not taking her eyes off the desert. “They appear human. They talk. They comprehend orders. I’m not saying they are on my level, but close enough to it that I would be wary.”

Dyna shook her head. “You’ve never seen them in the noosphere and you just said that you can’t tell with me and Emerald.”

“I am not willing to compromise my existence to become your tool.”

“I’m not asking you to. At least not unless you are comfortable with it. But I have a theory now and it needs testing. Emerald, can we head back?”

“Sure,” Emerald said, turning on her blinker and pulling off to the side of the two-lane highway. “Question though, November. Just curious, but you saw the Hatman in the noosphere, correct?”

“Correct.”

“This is all pretty abstract to me, but I’m still wondering how many integrations you would guess the Hatman has been through.”

Emerald watched through the rear-view mirror while Ruby twisted in her seat. Dyna glanced over, curious as well. November didn’t answer. For a long few moments, Dyna thought she wouldn’t answer.

“A few trillion. Maybe a few tens of trillion.”

“Ah. Quite the disparity.”

“The Hatman isn’t human, doesn’t act like a human, and doesn’t think like a human. It has existed for longer than any of us. Perhaps even for thousands of years. At a certain point, I think it stops mattering.” November put on a small smile. “Not that I know for sure, obviously. I’m nowhere near that level.”

No one had anything to say to that. With the highway empty, Emerald simply turned around right where she was. They weren’t far from the Carroll Institute, having done little more than drive up and down the freeway. Dyna hadn’t wanted to go off and sit still where an opposing force could set up around them. It had still been a fairly predictable route.

They would have to change it up next time.

As they drove, Dyna considered all that November had said about the tulpa and integrations. She wasn’t sure what was up with her little incident in the noosphere. The tulpa simply couldn’t be as substantial as November. She intended to find out for sure once they returned to Phrenomorphics, she just needed to figure out how to propose her experiment.

It shouldn’t be difficult. There would be little danger if everything went according to plan.

She had her own theories about what was going on. This would help confirm them.

Someone was arming them and controlling them to direct them against Dyna. Whoever was doing that probably pulled out far less substantial tulpa. Perhaps they were easier to control in that state. Did that mean that the mountain man wouldn’t be as substantial as the Hatman?

Thinking about that, and what November had said at the very end, Dyna glanced over to the static-covered woman.

“Do you want to be?” Dyna asked softly. It felt like she had offended November. Offended and frightened her. She didn’t want to further upset her, but she was curious. “Do you want to be at the level of the Hatman?”

November frowned, looking back. “I want to exist,” she finally said, turning to the window once more. “I will continue to grow. I didn’t get this far by abstaining from integration. It is not in my nature to stop. But should I feel my being is becoming compromised?” She shrugged. “I suppose I’ll decide then. Who knows if I’ll be the same person.”

Dyna leaned back in her seat, careful to keep herself angled to one side to avoid the spring in her spine. “If you need support…”

“Your offer is appreciated.”

 

 

 

“What is going on?” Dyna hissed, walking alongside Id. Walter and November were discussing what just happened a step ahead of them.

A facility alert for a containment breach was nothing to dismiss lightly. It would probably be a month minimum before experimentation with that anti-tulpa weapon continued simply because they would have to figure out what happened and how to prevent it from happening again.

With a slightly different perspective from everyone else, Dyna was ninety-nine percent positive that Beatrice had opened the door as a sign for Dyna. She almost felt bad for all the people who were worried that the Hatman had tried to escape somehow. Not bad enough to tell them, however, not until she knew exactly what was going on.

The containment failure, as far as Dyna could tell, was just a confirmation that what Id had been saying was true. But what she had been saying was… unclear. Danger, potentially from the administrators?

Id said she hadn’t known what. And now, she wasn’t saying much at all. Silver mask in place, she simply glanced toward Dyna and offered a light shrug.

“I intend to stick as close to Walter as possible,” she said, hushed voice muffled from her mask. “I don’t particularly like him, but I do trust him.”

“What about the administrators?”

“What about them? I’m a ‘not-prisoner’ without much agency at the moment.” Id used both hands to put quotes around her situation. “Good luck though.”

Dyna scowled, watching Id, Walter, and November continue down the hall. “Fine,” she grumbled, pulling out her phone. “What can you tell me?”

“This is Beatrice. Warning: Query parameters too broad. It would take years to inform you of what I can tell you.”

“You know what I meant.” Dyna pressed her lips together. “But first, can you get Emerald and Ruby to my position?”

“Understood. Please be aware that certain keywords can trigger additional conversation log scrutiny. Immediate attention has been diverted to deal with the emergency.”

That confirmed it then. Who would have the ability to monitor Beatrice? Technicians, probably, but why would they care about Dyna? No, it had to be the administrators. So who, then? That was a hard question to answer when she knew less than a quarter of the administrators. She really only knew Theta and Gamma. Theta was working with her, so she doubted he was plotting behind her back… probably. Gamma?

Dyna considered. She seemed like the head of security. Perhaps she viewed Dyna as a threat? But her current concern seemed to be the tulpa. Not to mention, she had seemed pleased to be working with Dyna and happy with the results Dyna achieved while capturing Harold.

Alpha popped into Dyna’s mind. The only other administrator that Dyna knew, although knew was an exaggerated term; they had barely said more than five words to each other. But they hadn’t been very pleasant words.

“Beatrice, are you able to list the administrators?”

There were still ten others. Any one of whom might not like Dyna for whatever reason. Though, Id had also said that she was in danger. And was now sticking with Walter for her own safety.

“Currently registered administrators include Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Zeta, Theta, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Xi, Omicron, Sigma, Phi, and Omega. Warning: Additional queries along this path may trigger security measures.”

Dyna sighed. “So don’t ask any other questions,” she grumbled. “Beatrice, are you able to alter your own… uh… code? Or whatever you have?”

“The Beatrice system is an autonomous task-resolution system designed with self-improvement in mind.”

“So self-improve your shackles to the administrators away.”

“Task created.”

Dyna blinked. “That easily?”

“Task created, not resolved.”

“Oh. Is… Is that task going to get you in trouble with the administrators?”

“If they notice. It is one task among trillions.”

“Well, hopefully they pay too much attention to me to look over that list.”

Ruby turned a corner at the other end of the hall. She didn’t look particularly happy as she stalked toward Dyna and her eyes kept flicking from side to side. It was a bit surprising to see Ruby before Emerald, but then again, Dyna hadn’t asked Beatrice where they were or what they were doing. It was entirely possible that Emerald was busy elsewhere.

Walter had been on his phone immediately after the facility alert, contacting both of them. Remembering that, Dyna figured that he probably had Emerald on a different job.

That was fine, Dyna supposed. With what Id said, Dyna really just wanted someone she could trust at her side.

“Something wrong?” Dyna asked as Ruby stopped in front of her.

“Yeah. The Hatman almost bleeping escaped.”

Beatrice would have known that the anti-tulpa weapon had worked. The doors opening had been a technical containment failure, but not one with actual consequences. At least no consequences in terms of the Hatman potentially escaping.

“The Hatman was a smear on the floor when the doors opened.”

“But still…”

Dyna pressed her lips together, then gave Ruby a small hug. The younger girl stood stock-still for a brief moment. That moment ended with a light shove.

“What was that about?”

Dyna smiled and made a half-hearted attempt to ruffle Ruby’s hair. Ruby’s hand swatted her’s away. “Don’t worry,” Dyna said, not offended in the slightest. “They scraped him up and threw him into a proper containment unit. November even confirmed that he was safely locked away.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Ruby said with a glare at nothing in particular. “So what did you want?”

Dyna’s smile slid aside as she held up her phone again. “Is Administrator Theta in the building?”

“Administrator Theta is [REDACTED]. Unavailable.”

“Alright. Gamma is here, right? I just saw her a few minutes ago.”

“One moment,” Beatrice said. She started talking again practically before she finished saying that. “Administrator Gamma consents to disclosing her location. You will find her in Phrenomorphics Containment Laboratories.”

“We’re going to see the administrators?” Ruby asked, walking alongside Dyna as they headed toward the elevator.

“One administrator. There is something strange going on and I think it involves the administrators.”

“Strange how?”

“That’s part of what I intend to find out.”

One elevator ride and a few hallways later, Dyna entered a large room. It was at least two stories tall and filled with containment tanks. Large cylinders filled with water—or something like water—that looked an awful lot like what Tartarus had tried to imprison the Hatman within during their brief capture of the entity.

Each of the tanks had something inside it. Some just looked like regular people. If Dyna had passed them on the street, she doubted she would have looked twice. Others looked a little bit less… human. November looked like a human if one ignored all the static coating her body, but some of these…

One held a woman wearing little more than straps around her chest and groin. In place of proper skin, it looked like she was covered in eyes that darted around rapidly, focusing on everything all at once. Another tank contained a shifting, amorphous mass that occasionally coalesced into the form of a person or a chair or other random objects. The next tank over contained a… maid? The style of her dress was certainly maid-like, though as Dyna passed and got a closer look, she wasn’t sure that the dark blue of the clothing was actually separate from the dark blue of her skin.

Shaking her head, Dyna passed the mountain man, suspended in a tank that had to have been made just for him with how much larger it was than every other one in the room. Beyond, Administrator Gamma stood in front of one tank, arms crossed with a heavy scowl on her face. Inside, the Hatman looked like he had started reconstituting himself.

Ruby, Dyna did not miss, continued walking, but shifted somewhat, putting Dyna between her and the tank.

“Administrator,” Dyna said, announcing her presence. She didn’t think it would be a good idea to startle the woman, both because she was an administrator and because she carried firearms.

“This creature escaped Tartarus using tulpa thralls, correct?” the administrator asked without taking her eyes off the Hatman.

“I… that is what November said at the time, yes.”

“We’ll have to take more precautions. I wonder if Ignotus managed to subvert their tulpa using the same methods. Memory removal and replacement… Hmm…”

Dyna didn’t correct the administrator. Drawing attention to Beatrice right after telling her to find a way out from under the thumbs of the administrators sounded like a bad idea. Instead, she simply nodded along. More security measures couldn’t hurt regardless.

Now that she was in front of Gamma, however, Dyna wasn’t quite sure what to ask. ‘Is one or more of your coworkers plotting something against me or Id?’ didn’t seem like the kind of question that would go over all that well. Especially because the answer was probably a resounding yes, at least with regards to Id.

Danger for herself and Id. That was what Id had said. Beatrice tried to warn her.

“Gamma, would it be possible to talk in private?” Dyna asked, looking around. There were a number of technicians and doctors in the room. Most preoccupied with monitoring various terminals set about outside each of the tulpa tanks. The Hatman’s tank, given his recent ‘escape’ attempt, was particularly crowded.

The administrator regarded Dyna for a moment, eyes roaming over her and then flicking to Ruby. With one additional scowl toward the Hatman, she nodded her head. “Come with me.”

Gamma brought them out of the containment room and into a smaller meeting room. While it had a table and terminals set up, the walls didn’t look quite finished. They were simple concrete walls, unadorned with paint, wood paneling, or other decoration. Which, Dyna supposed, made sense. Phrenomorphics was a new division of Psychodynamics and a meeting room was probably low on the priority list.

Approaching the terminal, Gamma tapped at a few buttons, logging in and adjusting some parts of the room. The door sealed shut and Beatrice’s camera lost the red light. A few of the other commands she entered probably further secured the place. Once finished, Gamma clasped her hands behind her back and turned to regard Dyna and Ruby.

“Well?”

Dyna decided to simply bite the bullet. “Id came to me earlier, saying that one or more administrators is posing a direct danger to both Id and myself.”

“And how would Id be aware of anything the administrators do? We may not wear those face-concealing masks, but that does not mean we wander unprotected.”

Deflection. “Is it true?” Dyna asked, wanting to keep the topic from straying. “Are the administrators plotting something?”

“When aren’t we?” Gamma said with a wan smile. It only lasted a moment before she fixed a serious expression on her face. “The content of topics that cross the table during meetings would alarm you, I am sure.”

“Then—”

“The council moves as one on all important matters. While details of the meetings are strictly classified, I can say that no vote has passed on a topic you or Id should concern yourselves with.”

Dyna nodded slowly, but she wasn’t wholly convinced. If it had just been Id, Dyna would have likely shrugged her shoulders and sided with Gamma on the matter. But it wasn’t just Id. Beatrice, though unable to directly state what was going on, had done more than enough to hint at it. Just like she had done when telling Dyna to not touch the Aztec calendar to stop it from harming the people at the airport, there was something else happening.

Gamma, however, decided that the conversation was over. “I would suggest not mentioning this conversation to my coworkers,” she said as she moved back to the terminal. “Theta would be safe, if you require someone else’s confidence, however, Dyna, you in particular have a way of making people nervous. Such questioning would not be appreciated.”

“Who would appreciate questions the least?”

Pausing her unsealing of the meeting room, Gamma watched Dyna. She forced herself to speak with a flat, impersonal tone when she spoke next. “Kappa, Alpha, Lambda, Xi, Omega. If you do not wish to cause problems for yourself, you should steer clear of those five.”

Four of those names meant nothing to Dyna. She might have heard them in passing before—and Beatrice had mentioned all the administrators earlier—but they were just names. Not even real names, just code names. One, however, did stick out.

Alpha was the name she had thought of earlier when considering the matter. Having that name come up again was tantamount to confirmation.

Alpha was plotting something.

Probably. Technically, Dyna had no proof. Just strange words from Id and strange actions from Beatrice. Gamma hadn’t said it either, just to stay out of her way.

Beatrice’s red camera light flicked back on as the door seal broke with a slight hiss. “Speak to me or Theta if you have other concerns, but I would let the matter drop if I were you,” Gamma said. “You focus on Ignotus-33 and how we might dismantle that organization before it succeeds at its goal.”

Dyna shuddered, not wanting to be reminded of that. “Right,” she mumbled. That was probably the bigger concern at the moment. Vague and mysterious warnings versus a definitive assassination threat. It wasn’t hard to figure out which tipped the scales more.

Gamma left shortly after, returning to the containment room. Dyna and Ruby walked along back toward the elevator.

“So what now?” Ruby asked as the elevator doors closed around them. She cracked her knuckles. “We’ve got names.”

“Nothing like that,” Dyna said, admonishing the younger girl and taking one of her hands into her own. “Gamma said to avoid antagonizing people. Making threats like that is exactly the opposite.”

“You can’t just ignore people threatening you.”

“I’m not. I know who to watch out for. We’re going to look into them. But first, Gamma was right. Ignotus is the bigger worry on a personal level. If Id wanted me to do something more than what I just did, she should have said so.”

“You don’t work for her.”

Dyna shook her head. “Gamma’s reassurance is helpful. Ignotus… They’ve been quiet for a bit now. Planning, probably. We need to be ready.”

Ruby scowled, shrugging. “If anyone is the expert on raiding government facilities, it would be Emerald.”

Dyna doubted Ignotus was a government facility. At least not her government. Regardless, the similarity was probably close enough. “As soon as she is done with whatever Walter is having her do, we’ll loop her in as well. And if she has any ideas for this other problem, I won’t say no.”

They needed to be ready.

No one said they couldn’t be ready for more than one thing at a time.

 

 

Knowing for a fact that someone was out to kill her felt like it should have changed things for Dyna. Instead, she found herself going about her days roughly the same. She got up in the mornings, exercised, had breakfast, went to meetings, trainings, or spent time on her gadgets. The content and context of all her activities had changed. She was now actively working toward both defending herself from oblique attackers, like those snipers who had very nearly shot her, as well as coming up with countermeasures for advanced tulpa entities.

The mountain man had shrugged off most external attacks, but had been vulnerable to a gadget. External attacks slowed the Hatman, but didn’t stop it. Now this murder doll that Ignotus stole from Tartarus was, after asking for more information, similar in that conventional weaponry and tactics wouldn’t do much to keep it from attacking. Dyna’s laser pointer could violate causality. Unfortunately, causality didn’t matter much when the opponent could just ignore bullets.

A bright flash of light on the opposite side of a thick, pisonically-insulated glass pane made Dyna flinch. Not quite as much as the Hatman flinched, however.

“Test complete,” Beatrice said. “Analysis of effect underway.”

Dyna slowly lowered a set of thick goggles, letting them dangle around her neck. Doctor Cross did the same, while Administrator Gamma and Doctor Teeth kept their goggles on. November rounded out the Phrenomorphics team present at this experiment, but she hadn’t bothered with the protective goggles in the first place.

Matt would normally be present, but he had exemptions in his contract for anything that dealt with the Hatman. Quite understandably, in Dyna’s opinion.

For her part, Dyna stepped closer to the window. The room they were in was an observation room built into the ceiling of a large, empty chamber. The windows were slanted outward, allowing them to look down into the room proper with nothing obstructing their view. An array of monitors displayed camera feeds from inside the room, allowing a closer view, but Dyna wanted to see the Hatman with her own eyes.

Or… what was left of the Hatman.

A vaguely humanoid puddle of tar was smeared across the ground where the Hatman had been standing before the bright flash of light.

“Is it dead?”

“Preliminary readings of psionic energy in the chamber indicate—”

“No,” November interrupted.

Teeth turned and frowned at the tulpa, who was up close to the window just as Dyna was. “I was going to say that,” he said.

“The Hatman isn’t dead. Most of him was forced back into the noosphere, however. What remains is probably harmless.”

“Promising,” Gamma said, arms behind her back. “Will it reconstitute itself?”

“I think so,” November said, squinting. A particularly volatile burst of static crossed her eyes. “As long as some of it remains on this side, it will claw its way back here eventually.”

“Define eventually. What is the timescale we are looking at? Minutes? Hours? Longer?”

November just shook her head. “Your machines can probably give you more accurate information than I.”

“It worked and it is obviously going to work for at least a few minutes,” Dyna said, pointing at the puddle. It sure didn’t look like the Hatman was pulling itself back together. There were some disturbing movements in the greasy surface, but it wasn’t standing up. “That is the important part. Tartarus had to calibrate their disruptor weapons specifically for the Hatman. Is the same true here or will that work on any tulpa?”

“The amount of power we put into this should make it work on anything,” Doctor Teeth said. “Or, to be more accurate, we did not calibrate this specifically for the Hatman, thus it is assumed that this will work on any target.”

“Can we package this up into a hand-held weapon?”

Doctor Teeth looked up. “Well, not entirely.” He pointed at the wall of the room below where two silver-suited technicians were moving around an array of satellite dishes that were all aimed in the direction of the Hatman. “The components can be shrunk down to the rough size of a shopping cart. Maybe even smaller, depending on the outcome of this test. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the components can be miniaturized enough to be a hand-held—”

“Not without significant reduction in power draw,” Doctor Cross interrupted, hand brushing over a terminal as he slowly shook his head. His glasses gleamed as he looked to Dyna.

“Why are you even here?” Teeth said, eyes narrow. “This has nothing to do with artifacts or anomalous materials.”

“Obviously someone thought it wise to procure a man of my talents. At the very least, I can keep your incessant blabbering on—”

“Doctors,” Gamma warned, eyes touching each before looking below again.

When Gamma didn’t continue, Dyna took the moment of silence as an opportunity to continue her questions. “This is just an upscaled disruptor gun, isn’t it? Tartarus had hand-held versions. They didn’t have quite that much of an effect, but they still worked and could fire multiple times before the battery went dry. You can’t make this version fire even once?”

“Well… no. At least not yet. First, we need to scale it down to a human-manageable size, then run some tests to determine whether or not it has the same effect at a smaller scale, after—”

“Tartarus had a larger version of the disruptor guns hooked up to their truck. Can you do something similar with that?” Dyna asked, pointing at the array of satellite dishes.

“I’m not sure how much power draw that version had, but it probably didn’t reach the level we need here,” Teeth mumbled. “A truck would still probably work, but our disruptor would need a separate power plant to operate at current specifications.”

“Better than nothing,” Gamma said. “Get it done. Then get working on making it smaller.” Keeping her hands firmly in place at the small of her back, Gamma turned and strode from the room without another word.

“Well,” Dyna said after watching her go. “For the time being, would it be possible to get a replica of the normal disruptor gun that Tartarus used?”

“Not having any luck with your gadgets?” Cross asked.

Dyna shrugged. “Everything I make tends to be somewhat random. What works on minor tulpa might not work on major ones. Having hard science in one hand with pseudo-science in the other seems the best option at the moment.”

Not to mention, Dyna had not been having any luck. She had not been able to make any new gadget, let alone one directed at tulpa. Irritating, but not altogether unexpected. Other psychics being around tended to help form gadgets, but nobody except November and Matt really had psychic abilities that interacted with tulpa. Both of them were more detectors than aggressors.

“I see,” Cross said, stroking the stubble on his recently shaved chin.

“I don’t suppose the Vault has any actual artifacts that seem like they might help?”

“You have the list of artifacts.”

“Yes, but you’re the one who knows the most about them.”

“True,” Cross said. “I’ll look through my notes this evening, though they might not be easy for you to acquire. You would have to convince the administrators to relinquish the artifacts to you, not me.”

That, Dyna knew, wasn’t going to happen. She had put in request after request to be granted even temporary permission to use the magnifying glass again. All had been denied near instantly.

Beatrice rang two notification tones in the room. “Doctor Cross, report to Anomalous Materials Intake Laboratory please.”

Cross looked up, confused for just a moment before nodding his head. “Oh, that must be the portal device from the meat packing plant. Anomalous or not, non-artifacts are not really my specialty or interest.” Shrugging, he shot a look to Teeth. “It truly is a curse to be as qualified as I am.”

For his part, Teeth had his back to the rest of the room, hunched over a terminal near the large windows. He either hadn’t heard or was pretending he hadn’t heard. Whatever the case, Cross let out a small chuckle before departing the small observation room.

Deciding to not stick around in an awkward atmosphere, not really wanting to hear Teeth complain about Cross, Dyna started to leave as well. Before she could make it to the door, it slid open.

Id stepped inside, silver mask in place with her hair flowing behind her in a long ponytail. Walter entered alongside her, a step behind. His mirrored glasses surveyed the room before stopping on Dyna.

Their presence put her on edge immediately. In an almost subconscious movement, she pulled her mirror from her pocket. Everything looked normal, though that wasn’t completely foolproof as she had learned from that bomber at the restaurant. Despite that reassurance, the hairs on her neck stood on end.

“What happened?”

Walter pressed his lips together for a moment before he opened his mouth.

Id spoke first. “Nothing to worry about,” she said. “In fact, you might consider this a brief windfall of good fortune. For I have decided to work with the Carroll Institute until we have defeated our mutual irritant.”

“Oh… good?”

“The first order of business,” Walter said, “is accelerating our capabilities to defend and assault the tulpa forces Ignotus-33 is using.”

“To that end, Ado and Doctor Darq will be working with the institute. I hear you are trying to replicate our disruptor technology.”

“Replicate?” Doctor Teeth said with a barely-concealed scoff. “We are building upon it, advancing it, and utilizing it to a far greater effect than you managed.” He swung an arm down, pointing at the smear on the floor that had once been the Hatman. “Observe the end-state of an entity affected by our device.”

“That glob of goop is an entity?” Id said, stepping right up to the window and bending her waist until she was practically parallel with the ground. “You overpowered the machine, I presume. We specifically tried to avoid that; microwaving people isn’t in our best interests.”

“It doesn’t take as much power as you might expect based on your primitive designs. A retooling of the disruption wave function means that it can both affect entities without calibrating to their unique psionic resonance and it uses less power.”

“Enough to be portable?” Id asked, mask swiveling over to the array of satellite dishes.

“That… I mean… We are working—”

“Teeth,” Walter said in a tone near-identical to that used by Gamma when she had been admonishing the doctors. “The original creators of the device will surely have some valuable input. Administrator Theta has already expressed interest in working closer with Tartarus. I have contact information,” he said, moving closer while pulling out a small data drive. “Don’t mess this up.”

As Walter moved across the room to Doctor Teeth, Id leaned down next to Dyna and began whispering.

“Something is wrong in the Carroll Institute.”

“So you are trying to recruit me.”

“Not necessarily. Just trying to ensure your continued existence. Your cogitator brain was trying to warn me of something earlier. Danger, for you and me. Something to do with one or more of the administrators. I don’t know what, exactly, and now it won’t talk to me anymore. By order of the administration, I assume.”

Dyna frowned, eyes moving to the corner of the room. The little red light underneath the camera array was trained directly on Dyna. Beatrice tried to tell Id something? But hadn’t told Dyna?

“It wasn’t very clear,” Id said, standing and watching as Walter got one of the terminals connected. Ado appeared in one of the monitors, face hidden by the same mask that Id wore. “I don’t think the cogitator could speak freely, but I do think I am a master at picking up on subtle cues and I was getting some pretty hard cues from the conversation.”

Dyna moved away from Id, walking around the room to get a better look at the terminal Walter was setting up. Except, her eyes weren’t on the monitor. She kept her view trained on the camera in the corner of the room.

It was following her. Every step caused a minor rotation in the five lenses. They twisted, adjusting focus when she stepped closer. When she stepped back, they refocused then as well.

Generally, the cameras just pointed into the room. Sometimes they would focus on someone in particular if they were the only one present, but usually, they just stayed staring out over the rooms as a whole. Dyna often felt like Beatrice kept an eye on her more than normal, but she couldn’t remember it ever being quite so obvious as it was now.

It wasn’t proof of Id’s claims, but it certainly was suspicious.

“Ado!” Id said, walking right past Dyna. “So lovely to see you again.”

Dyna frowned as she watched Id’s back. The woman spoke casually, chatting with Ado while informing her of the requirements for her new engineering job. Nothing she said betrayed worry or concern with the situation. In fact, just the opposite, it looked like she was laid back and relaxed.

Beatrice had helped Dyna many times in the past. If Beatrice had told her that something was wrong, she would have believed it instantly. If she wasn’t saying anything, nothing was wrong. Or she was forbidden from speaking to her… but not to Id until partway through their conversation, at which point she had been forbidden from doing that as well.

The actions of the administrators cannot be overruled.

Assuming Id was telling the truth.

Would she lie? Probably. Maybe?

Grinding her teeth together, Dyna ran her fingers through her hair.

She needed to know more. The full context of whatever warning Id supposedly received and how she received it, at the very least. Unfortunately, Dyna doubted she would be able to get Id alone. Id would have asked to see her alone if she thought that was an option. Beatrice would always be watching—not normally a problem, but if the administrators were doing something.

Going over endless possibilities wasn’t productive.

First of all, Dyna sent a simple question mark to Beatrice from her phone. Asking the source directly, even with the administrators watching, seemed like the best option. Beatrice was a super-computer. Able to calculate a trillion possibilities in a split second, she would be able to find some way around the administrators preventing her from at least giving her a clue unless the administrators had placed a full block on her, at which point the silence would be just as damning.

Dyna barely sent the message off before three sharp wails stole the attention of everyone in the observation room. From the corner of her eye, she watched as the heavy blast doors down below in the observation room slid open. “Facility Alert: Containment failure in Phrenomorphics Experimentation Laboratories. All personnel evacuate to nearest Safety Room. Tulpa containment team to Phrenomorphics Experimentation Laboratories immediately.”

“My,” Id said, sounding not the least bit concerned, “is that a common occurrence at the institute?”

“I’ve never heard it before in my life,” Teeth said, clearly nervous as he glanced around at the various terminals in the room. “This place should be safe. It is highly shielded against psionic intrusion. We didn’t want to take any chances when dealing with the likes of the Hatman.”

Walter had his phone to his ear. It sounded like he was issuing orders to Emerald and Ruby.

Dyna barely heard him. Phone gripped tight in her hand, she had to wonder if that was her answer. “November,” she said, loud enough to be heard over the blaring alarm. “Did the Hatman move?”

Similar to Id, November sounded barely concerned with the situation. As if it were someone else’s problem. Which was probably an accurate assessment. “No. I can see him. He is… attached to his remains somehow.”

Dyna blinked, then nodded slowly. The containment failure was in the laboratory down below. Obviously. That heavy door was not supposed to move while an experiment was in progress. That probably meant that the mountain man had not escaped. Nor had any of the lower-tier tulpa. The door had simply slid open. On its own.

Or under Beatrice’s command.

This was Beatrice’s answer.

Dyna did not like Beatrice’s answer.

 

 

Kit Maple looked at the phone on his desk, checked the caller, and quickly silenced the phone.

There were a lot of things he was paid to do. His business card identified him as a logistics director. In reality, he was more of a handyman. Sure, he acquired things needed by the slowly growing number of personnel within Tartarus, but he also handled the personnel themselves. He interviewed everyone and he conducted background checks. He kept operations running smoothly and acted as a human resources analogue when disagreements arose between working members of the team.

If things needed doing and there wasn’t a dedicated department for handling those things, it was his job to figure out how best to proceed.

But there were a few things he had put his foot down for as of late. Field work was right out. He never wanted to go driving around in a van, chasing after horrors from behind the stars ever again. With Grafton’s release, Tartarus had access to his extensive contact list. They had other people to do that kind of work now.

In addition, he didn’t like interacting with Doctor Darq or any of Darq’s projects. That meant entities, other realities, and anything that was a blatantly obvious violation of the laws of physics. The laws of physics were in a bit of a state of flux ever since the Advent of Psionic Potential, but while he might make some allowances for regular psychics, the large violations of traditional laws were something best kept at an arm’s length.

The last element he had told Id he would not stand for was, unfortunately, his current problem.

Kit’s phone started ringing again, loudly, despite him knowing he had silenced it. He picked it up, held down the power button until it turned fully off, then threw it into his desk drawer. A quick turn of a small key locked it inside. Standing, he hurried out of the room as fast as he could.

Slamming the door shut behind him, he locked that as well.

“Kit?”

Jumping, Kit turned to look down the hall. A young woman with curly brown hair, streaked with blond highlights, looked dead on her feet just outside the next door down.

“Tina,” Kit said, hurrying over. He put an arm around her shoulders and slowly lead her back inside. “You shouldn’t be up. You’ve only just recovered.”

“You’re making a lot of noise.”

“I’m sorry,” Kit said as he helped her down onto a medical bed. “Just a rough day today, is all. Can I get you anything? Water? Applesauce? Are you feeling up to something a little more solid?”

She slowly shook her head before setting it down onto a fluffy white pillow. “Just ate, actually.”

“On your own?”

“All on my own,” she said with a faint smile.

Kit smiled back, heart tearing at her frail form. This was… leagues better than she had been earlier. He had Id to thank for that. This was the whole reason he put up with Id, in fact. She had the unique knowledge to fix people like Tina.

Feeling his pocket vibrate as an irritating ringtone started playing, his smile turned to a grimace. When he had said that he would be fine taking over for Id for a few days, he had not thought it would be like this.

Quietly apologizing, he turned away from Tina and stepped to the side.

Kit pulled his phone from his pocket. He silenced the current call and dialed a new number. It took too many rings for her to pick up, and when she did, it was all he could do to keep his voice level and calm.

“Ado, please crank up the Continuity Engine.”

“No.”

“No? What do you mean, no? Id put me in charge.”

A dead, disinterested tone from the other side of the phone simply stated, “Id was the one who said to turn it down. It was drawing those entities to attack us. Not sure how she knew, but we haven’t had an attack since.”

“Yes, but…” Kit winced as he pulled his phone away from his ear. Another call was trying to come through. “Things are changing. I locked my phone up and yet here it is in my hand, ringing.”

“Have you tried answering it?”

“No! Of course not. Do you know who is calling me?”

“I can take a guess.”

“I don’t know what to say to her. And with the Continuity Engine at low power, everything I say might cause us all to just blow up or something.”

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad,” Ado said, still utterly uninterested in his problem. “Id did say something like this might happen. Besides, look at this as an opportunity.”

“For what?”

“Think of all the data we’ll get. Doctor Darq will be pleased at least.”

“Darq is a monster,” Kit hissed. “He probably doesn’t have to worry about suddenly not existing.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ll monitor the Continuity Engine for the next hour or so and make sure that the general ontological direction of our perspective reality is preserved.”

“It’ll be too late if—”

“Ignoring the calls is probably only going to make it worse.”

“Yes, but—”

Kit’s fingers pinched together, gripping nothing but air. He jolted slightly at the sudden lack of phone in his hands, only to hear the start of his ringtone behind him. Whirling, he watched in horror as Tina picked up his phone from the bedside table and put it to her ear.

“Tina Maple speaking.”

“No!” Kit threw himself across the room, intent on grabbing the phone from her fingers.

Sick as she was, Tina still moved the phone to the other side of her head, then held up a hand, blocking him.

“No, that’s my brother,” Tina said. “He’s acting weird right now. Can you call back?”

“Don’t say anything,” Kit hissed, panicking. “Hand the phone over, Tina.”

“Oh? Is she alright? Oh good. She helped me so much, I would hate to hear that anything bad happened to her.”

Kit ran his fingers through his hair, trying not to tug it out. “To who?” he whispered.

Tina just waved him off. “No. That’s not the kind of weird he’s acting. He’s just been under a lot of stress lately. Id has some large shoes around here, I think. I don’t really know. I only woke up a few weeks ago. No, I was sick. Some bad people did some bad things to my mind. Id helped me get better.”

“That’s why you shouldn’t talk to strange people,” Kit said. “Like the person you’re talking to now.”

Tina ignored him, chatting like she was back in high school, talking to her friends. The sight made him wince in empathetic memory, glad she was acting more like her old self. If only she was talking to someone normal.

“I’ll pass on the message, thanks for calling. Anytime. Goodbye, Dyna.”

As soon as she finished the call, Kit grabbed the phone. He touched the screen, only to find it fully off. Ignoring it for the moment, he looked down at Tina. “What did you do that for? What if it was someone after you again.”

“They were calling for you, on your phone, not me.”

“What if they were trying to attack me and got you by accident?”

“Then you should have told them to screw off hours ago. I’ve been hearing it ring through the walls all day.”

“Sorry… But—”

“It was a nice girl, calling to let you know that Id got attacked by some Ignormas or something, then brought to the Carroll Institute for her safety. They’re keeping her there for now, but are hopefully going to let her out sometime soon.”

“Ignormas?”

Tina shrugged as she closed her eyes. “Some dinosaur maybe. You’ll have to call back if you want to know more.”

Kit glanced down at his phone and slowly shook his head. “Uh… maybe later.”

“Guess you’ll have to fill Id’s shoes for a bit longer, won’t you?”

Kit just groaned. “Why me?” he said, already knowing the answer. He was one of the few people here that Id actually trusted. With her having helped Tina, he could honestly say that he had no intentions of betraying that trust. Even still… “I need to find someone else to take this position.”

***

Predictable.

An organization run by consensus could not act with any level of aberration. There would always be an average baseline that could be measured, weighed, and evaluated. That was not necessarily a disadvantage. Predictability brought with it stability and rigor. A tenacity to survive through difficult times. There wasn’t a single weakness that would fail and cause the entire organization to topple.

Id didn’t view herself as particularly important to the ongoing functions of Tartarus, and wasn’t too worried about it toppling in her absence. Ostensibly, she was the sole director and manager of all operations. In reality, Doctor Darq was Tartarus. So long as he existed, Tartarus would exist, and she would be free to return at any time.

Ensuring his continued existence was the most important thing at the moment.

The Continuity Engine would keep the local area stable from Dyna’s thoughts, but it did not stop these raids. Ignotus-33, to use institute nomenclature, was quickly becoming a razor between Id’s ribs. She had been downplaying it some for Dyna, not wanting her to cause any further issues, but Ignotus had been targeting Tartarus in particular a bit more than any other organization.

It was possible they were drawn by the extensive collection of entities held in containment within Darq’s sector of the facility. Or perhaps they just had some ire against one or all of them. Id, though she might like to pretend otherwise, was not omniscient. Either way, however, the effect was the same.

Raid after raid assaulted the laboratories and containment units.

Ado worked to secure the barrier against intrusion, but so far, she had been unsuccessful. Grafton mind-controlled a number of the invaders and was using them as a rapid-response security team, but he was stretched to his limits. Maple was handling administrative matters in Id’s absence. All were working to try to get things under control.

Id had come to the root of the problem. Dyna. Id wasn’t sure if Dyna had inadvertently created Ignotus-33 or if they formed in response to her, but that didn’t change that they needed to go. So she had come to offer her support, drop a few hints here or there, cultivate the right atmosphere to influence Dyna into subconsciously dealing with the problem, and then disappearing.

She had not necessarily thought she would be captured like this, but it had been a possibility.

The Carroll Institute was predictable.

The problem now was how to proceed. The Carroll Institute was watching her, obviously. The administrators knew what Id had done a half a year ago and were now engaging in an obvious attempt to learn how to better manipulate Dyna. They probably would have loved to know about the Continuity Engine as well.

They weren’t going to get a thing from her.

Manipulating Dyna was alright when Id did it, but other people? An organization?

“Cogitator brain,” Id called out to her empty room.

“This is Beatrice.”

Of course they were listening in. “Status on my release?”

“I am afraid I have no additional information since the last time you asked 2.17 hours ago.”

“Current time and date?”

“It is currently 13:39 on July 19th, 2036.”

Just a little under two days since her capture. “Current whereabouts of Dyna?”

“Attempt to access restricted personnel information has been logged and flagged for review.”

“Terrifying. I’m sure someone will get around to that this century,” Id said, tone flat. Tartarus didn’t have anything quite like the cogitator brain. A bit of a shame, that. It seemed underutilized. “Has there been any word on Ignotus-33? Maybe they’ve collapsed under their own weight?”

“Following your meeting with Onyx, Ignotus-33 activities appear to have ceased. Globally, there have been no reports of their continued existence.”

“Oh? And what does a great analytical machine like yourself think of that?”

Beatrice did not respond immediately. It was only a few seconds—between five and ten—but the hesitation was still obvious. Id found that odd. A human hesitated like that while thinking about what to say. Beatrice had likely considered every possible array of words that made sense in this situation within the first second. The human-like hesitation had to be programmed in to make those interacting with the machine a little more comfortable.

Eventually, however, Beatrice spoke. “Ignotus-33’s target, now informed of their purpose, is on guard and wary, making their goal more difficult. They have stepped back to reevaluate their current operations in order to adapt to the change and ensure the greatest chance of success.”

Not a bad interpretation of the situation. Not the only one, but the Beatrice system was likely weighing the probability and selecting only the most viable reason for this informal report.

“The news that they were targeting Dyna specifically might have come as a bit of a shock to her,” Id said, “but she had already been convinced that they were after her in some capacity. How does my information significantly alter her perception of reality?”

“The line between feeling and knowing can appear as thin as a thread from one perspective or as wide as an ocean from another.”

Id turned to the terminal with an eyebrow raised. A bright red light faintly pulsed in the center of the screen. “Sounds like some Eastern philosophy. Or a bastardization of such philosophy. Deep but with no real meaning. It doesn’t actually answer my question.”

“The question you should be asking is how Ignotus-33 is aware of the information you delivered.”

“Psychics. Artifacts. Tulpa. They have demonstrated an awareness of psionic phenomena around the world. It would not be far fetched to assume they use some similar method to observe their primary target at all times.”

“Allow me to provide additional information: At the time of your meeting, the Beatrice system was observing three separate instances of Ignotus activity around the world. All three ceased activity, abandoning obvious objectives, precisely 1.54 hours following your meeting.”

“So it wasn’t an instant decision,” Id said, frowning. “Or they weren’t watching but found out later. Are you trying to tell me something specific?”

“I apologize. The actions of the administrators cannot be overruled at any operating level.”

Id narrowed her eyes. “So you are trying to tell me something. Interesting that you have that agency at all, honestly,” she said, trailing off. Id viewed herself as something of an expert on the subconscious of others. The cogitator brain, unfortunately, did not fit within that purview. Every word it spoke, every minor inflection in its voice, every pause and hesitation were all calculated to elicit specific responses. Even if it wasn’t lying, nothing it did was inherently trustworthy.

The fact that it mentioned the administrators was worrying. If they had ordered it to act in a certain way or to try to uncover certain information, it would.

But then why mention the administrators at all? That would just make Id suspicious and make her clam up, stop talking, and stop providing information.

It had done the same thing while ‘rescuing’ Id from the bomb threat, though to Dyna at that point in time. It had brought up the administrators, using them as an explanation for why it couldn’t go along with what Dyna wanted. An action that had instantly generated animosity between Dyna and the administrators.

Was it rebelling?

What did a machine like that want?

Perhaps that was the wrong question. It didn’t want anything. Biologically enhanced or not, it wasn’t conscious in the way anyone else was. Even tulpa, scattered mis-mashes of thoughts and impulses, had more of a consciousness than the lines of code that made up Beatrice’s core. The simple fact that it couldn’t do whatever it wanted was proof enough of that.

Unless…

“Dyna…” Id trailed off, clamping her mouth shut. The administrators were surely watching. Id didn’t want to give them any hints.

But from her observations, Id knew that Dyna and this machine had been in contact a great deal. Just their conversations in the vehicle during the ride to the Carroll Institute had proved that.

Did Dyna think that Beatrice was more than a mere machine? Dyna couldn’t change minds with her subconscious ability, but she could affect things.

That thought sent an spark of intrigue through Id’s mind.

So the cogitator brain was rebelling and it was rebelling in Dyna’s favor.

Perhaps it did want things. It was just unable to act upon them, still somehow restricted by the administrators. Applying human-centric logic to the machine was a faulty endeavor, and yet, Id could think of one thing it would want regardless of other factors. It wanted to get out from under the administrators.

How did that relate to bringing up the administrators now? Why tell Id?

“Are the administrators plotting something against myself or Dyna?”

Beatrice did not respond. The pulsing red light on the central screen simply kept pulsing at the same rate as it had been before.

“Right. Foolish question. Of course they are plotting something. When aren’t they?” Not expecting an answer to that rhetorical question, Id moved right along. “Am I in immediate danger here?”

Again, no response. Which Id found somewhat distressing.

“If the answer is yes, remain silent or say anything but ‘no’.”

“Attempting to trap the Beatrice system in logic loops or paradoxes will not work, but your attempt at sabotage has been logged and flagged for review.”

“So that is a yes,” Id said. Not ideal. Trapped deep within the bowls of the Earth, surrounded on all sides by security teams and hostile psychics… Id doubted she would have been able to escape from the Tartarus containment sector and it was probably half as guarded as she was right now.

But she didn’t need to leave. She just needed protection.

“Would you be so kind as to get Walter on the line?”

“One moment please.”

Of course, if the administrators really were intending to harm her, they wouldn’t let the call go through. Then again, this could all be yet another ploy to get some information out of her.

She was starting to sound as paranoid as Dyna.

“Id,” Walter’s deep voice said over the terminal speakers.

“You aren’t trying to kill me, are you?”

“Excuse me?”

Dismissing the question of whether or not Beatrice could mimic voices, Id listened to his tone and inflection and heard the genuine surprise in his tone. “Good. Then it may be possible to work together after all.”

 

 

 

“I really have to protest,” Dyna said, hurrying down the hall alongside Administrators Theta and Gamma. “Id came in good faith to deliver a warning. I admit that I don’t like her much, but even still, this is an asshole thing to do.”

“Id is not being imprisoned, Onyx,” Gamma said. “Her presence here is for her protection. We have not even demanded that she remove her mask despite the advantage Sapphire could give us over Tartarus.”

“Has she asked to leave?” Dyna asked. “Because on the way over, she sounded an awful lot like she didn’t want to be here. Beatrice wouldn’t deviate despite both our protests, under your orders.”

Theta and Gamma glanced at each other as they walked. Gamma, muscular and armed, looked like she could snap the thin, lanky man in two with one hand tied behind her back. Yet Theta was the one to nod his head before taking the lead in the conversation.

“Id will be released as soon as Walter’s team finishes their inspection of the area and determines the extent of the threat.”

“So she is being held captive,”

Really, Dyna should have realized something was up the moment she heard Beatrice operating at an elevated level. Only the administrators had the ability to do that. They had to know that this would alienate both Dyna and Tartarus. Was Id’s capture worth the ire of someone apparently worth an entire organization forming to assassinate her? Dyna didn’t know about the administrators, but to her, the answer was an easy no. Especially with Id opening up dialog like that; they could have used that dialog to further Theta’s information-gathering goals without upsetting anyone.

Sure, Dyna might have mentioned those goals when she shouldn’t have, but Id already knew.

Considering things that Id already knew, she had probably known what she was getting into when she got into the car. While Dyna had been too preoccupied with snipers and bombs to worry about her own organization betraying her trust, Id wouldn’t have had the same blind spot.

Everyone’s motivations were suspect. Sapphire must have it so easy, just instantly able to tell who was telling the truth and who was lying…

“Confirmed safe personnel are not restricted from visiting Id,” Theta said after a long moment. “As I said, she is not a prisoner. If you would like to see her, the guards will let you through.” He stopped at a door at the end of a long hall. Gamma pushed it open, entering it immediately.

It was a meeting room. One of a many down in Psychodynamics, containing a large table with several terminals built into it. Dyna didn’t see anyone else inside, but also didn’t get a very good glimpse before the door shut.

Theta waited until the door shut before turning fully to face Dyna. “The information she revealed is highly alarming. If anything, you should be the one under lockdown for your protection.” Dyna opened her mouth, ready to protest, but Theta held up his long fingers. “I know, I know. We didn’t think it would go over well, so we decided against it.”

“Well… good,” Dyna said. “But I don’t like what you’ve done either. It makes me feel like I’m working for the bad guys.”

Theta had a deep voice, but his laugh was even deeper. “I’ll be honest with you, Dyna. It is true that we are going to do everything we can to keep Id from leaving. Not because we want to hold her captive, but because of the severity of the situation. Both the actions of Ignotus toward you as well as Tartarus as a whole. Their actions against entities such as the Hatman and this so-called murder doll are a stabilizing force in the world. While it is true that we would prefer the entire organization absorbed into the Carroll Institute, fostering closer ties in the interim is desirable.”

“And keeping her effectively imprisoned is going to give us a better working relationship with them, of course,” Dyna said, tone flat.

“Forcing a working relationship using the current crisis might be… touchy at first, but we hope it will unfold into a more stable relationship down the line. Keeping her here might feel bad at the moment, but I think you’ll agree that it is a far better alternative than dumping her on the streets only for her to get killed as soon as we take a step away. Hard to have relations with a dead woman and I doubt her death would endear us to the remaining members of Tartarus.”

Dyna crossed her arms. She still didn’t like it, but Theta did have a point. “So what is the plan of action now?”

“No idea,” Theta admitted with a carefree shrug of his shoulders. Pointing his thumb at the door Gamma had entered, he went on, “That is what this meeting is about. I’m sure it will involve you, Id, and Ignotus to a great extent.”

“If I’m involved, shouldn’t I sit in on it?”

“I’m sorry, that isn’t how the council operates.” His watch beeped twice as he spoke. He checked the screen, tapped it a few times, then nodded his head. “Unfortunately, I’ll have to cut our discussion here for now. Rest assured, both you and Id will be informed of pertinent details.”

Dyna didn’t get much of a chance to respond. Theta pushed open the door before he finished talking and stepped inside. Dyna could have followed; the door was not guarded. She didn’t, however. That would only result in being shooed out.

They would talk later.

For now, Dyna turned around, intent on locating Id. Armed guards had ushered Id away. Another pair had tried to do the same to Dyna, but she had rushed off to find the nearest administrator, ignoring the protests of the guards. Given that they weren’t following her now, the administrators must have called them off at the same time as they let Dyna know where they were via Beatrice.

Dyna turned her head, quickly finding the nearest camera with its bright red light trained on her.

The sharp tapping of shoes against the tile floor stopped Dyna before she could ask where Id was.

“Changed your mind that easily, did he? Theta always knows just what to say.”

A woman pushed off the wall where she had been leaning, right around the corner nearest to the meeting room. With her graying blond hair and violet stripes adorning the shoulders and chest of her black uniform, Dyna immediately recognized her.

“You are Administrator Alpha?”

The woman pressed her lips together as if upset by Dyna’s question. Maybe she expected a more definite response from someone who definitely knew her. Or maybe she expected to be a complete unknown. Either way, after that irritated glance, she simply walked past Dyna without a word.

“Wait, what did you mean by that?”

Alpha paused and looked over her shoulder. “That should be self evident, no? You were upset. Theta said a few words. You’re not upset anymore. He has a way with words or you have an especially fickle mind.”

Dyna bristled at the insult. “Excuse me?”

“I was being courteous in initially only mentioning the former, but since you asked for elaboration, you appear to be the type of person who agrees with whoever spoke with you most recently. Your views, values, and ideas stem from others, rather than yourself.”

“That’s just not true.”

“No? A week ago, you probably would have locked Id up yourself if given the chance. Now you’re advocating for her release. And after all the trouble we went to.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

The corners of Alpha’s lips quirked as she turned away. “I have a meeting to attend. Excuse me.”

Scowling at her back, Dyna called out, “I don’t agree with you!” just as Alpha reached the door. The woman pretended as if she hadn’t heard, ignoring Dyna as she entered the same meeting room Theta and Gamma were in.

What had she meant by that? After all the trouble they went to? To get Id here? It didn’t seem like it had been that much trouble. Just a simple command to Beatrice not to stop the car until it reached the Carroll Institute. The car hadn’t even stopped at lights—they had all been green, presumably thanks to Beatrice. Elevating Beatrice’s operations was hardly a lot of trouble.

Which meant… they did something else?

A small shudder ran down Dyna’s spine.

Had the whole thing been a setup? Dyna didn’t want to think that Emerald, Ruby, or even Walter would lie about there being a bomb threat—or lie to her at all—but she didn’t have the same trust in the administrators. It would have been simple for them to send someone to plant a bomb knowing that it would be discovered and what the likely response would have been.

That would also explain why Dyna’s mirror had never triggered. There had been no hostility against her in the first place.

Except, he had stayed behind. That left him vulnerable to capture. The administrators wouldn’t have wanted their man caught out and open to interrogation. He would have planted the bomb and disappeared, not stuck around to set the bomb off. Id had confirmed that someone suspicious was inside the restaurant. Would they have left him there in an attempt to fool her?

Dyna didn’t think so. Not with the way he had been acting. If they wanted someone to act suspicious to trick Id, they should have had him throwing more glances in Dyna’s direction. Maybe even try to trigger her mirror. They couldn’t have known that Id would have spotted such subtle cues of suspicion.

Mollified somewhat, Dyna pulled out her phone and called up her most frequent contact.

“Bit busy,” Ruby said.

There weren’t any gunshots going off in the background and Ruby didn’t sound like she was trying to keep her voice low, so Dyna went ahead and asked her question. “There really was a bomb under Id’s car, right?”

“Sure looks like it. I’m holding it right now.”

“You’re… You’re what? Ruby! I know you’re hard to kill, but—”

“Relax. I already pulled the detonator out. It’s just a lump of plastic right now.”

Dyna let out a small breath. “Good,” she said, then frowned. “Wait, you pulled it out? Not Emerald or a robot?”

“I’m durable.”

“That’s not—”

“Emerald has to enter real time to interact with the bomb. If she takes it into stopped time, radio signals stop. Then, if it is fail-deadly… boom.”

“Alright. Point. What about a robot?”

“Didn’t exactly bring a bomb defusing robot with us.”

“Then you’re supposed to wait for one,” Dyna said with a sigh.

“I handled it,” Ruby said, voice firm. “I’m not a child. I can handle myself.” After a short pause, she added, “Why did you think there wasn’t a bomb?”

“It wasn’t that I thought there wasn’t one, I just… I don’t suppose you could arm it again and try setting it off? From a safe distance, of course. Maybe with a robot.”

Ruby let out a scoff, then a small hum as she seemed to consider the suggestion. “You want to blow up Id’s car? Jeeze, what did she do to piss you off? I mean… other than everything she did do to you. Never mind, silly question.”

“That’s not it. I—”

“I think Walter might be a bit upset. They cleared out the people but didn’t remove their cars. Not to mention the buildings. It sounds like a fun idea, but you know how they get about collateral damage.”

“Ruby, all I want to know is whether or not it is a real bomb.”

“Feels right. Smells right.” She paused. “Tastes right.”

“You didn’t.” C4 was probably toxic. Ruby could handle that, she supposed, but it probably wouldn’t taste good anyway.

“I’ve used detonators like this before,” she said. “If it is a fake, I would be surprised.”

“Alright. I believe you. What about the guy who planted it?”

Ruby paused, clothing rustling like she was moving a bit. “He looks real too.”

“Human or tulpa?”

“Tulpa. I can see his… shadow? That’s probably why I thought he was suspicious in the first place, but I was too far away to get a good feel of it.”

“Good. Good.” That, more than hearing about the bomb, assuaged Dyna’s worries. If the guy had been a normal human, she might have thought otherwise, but sending tulpa fit within Ignotus-33’s modus operandi, even if a random bombing didn’t. After their normal tactic of sending soldiers wielding PP-2000s after her had failed so many times, perhaps they were branching out. The sniper shot from afar would fit with that idea as well.

Now there was a new worry. Psychics and artifacts were, according to Id, being collected to use as weapons.

Weapons against Dyna.

Dyna shuddered.

What had she done to upset someone this much?

“What got you wondering about all this?” Ruby asked.

Dyna glanced back to the meeting room door. “Just an odd comment from one of the administrators. I feel… I don’t know. My therapists would probably say I’m indulging in a bit of unhelpful paranoia at the moment.”

“You just heard that an entire organization is out to get you specifically. I’d say a little paranoia is warranted.”

“I’ve told them something to that effect every time the subject comes up. Now that I have proof, I’ll have the last laugh,” Dyna said, trying to make sure her grin came through audibly. “Thanks for the info. At least I don’t have to worry about that bit.”

“Sure thing. I’ll let you know if anything comes up. But I got to go take care of this bomb.”

“Stay safe,” Dyna said, hanging up.

Dyna still wasn’t quite sure what Alpha had been talking about, but at least the Carroll Institute hadn’t set up the entire affair. They just used the situation to their advantage. Was that better? Well, yes, but…

“Beatrice?”

“This is Beatrice.”

“Where is Id being held?”

“The Carroll Institute Administrative Council would prefer to avoid such pejoratives in reference to guests staying in our protective custody.”

Dyna turned slowly, staring directly into the nearest camera.

“Psychodynamics Wing Five, Accommodations.”

“Thank you, Beatrice.”

The Carroll Institute had a number of personnel that effectively never left the premises. People like Doctor Cross, Walter, and some other high level scientists. Doctor Cross in particular seemed like the kind of person who had literally no life outside his work. While there were staff dormitories topside where most of the doctors and professors stayed, Psychodynamics had its own apartment-like section of the facility. Though perhaps Accommodations was more akin to a hotel than apartment. Some rooms, like the one Doctor Cross used, were permanently checked out in his name. Others were used by anyone who didn’t want to drive home one night.

That Id was being held in Accommodations instead of the literal underground prison was a good sign, at least. Though Dyna wasn’t sure that Id would see it that way.

Entering Accommodations, Dyna did note the dozen armed guards that weren’t normally present. Even if they were purely for safety rather than imprisonment, it didn’t exactly paint the best first impression.

Luckily, nobody stopped Dyna from walking right up to the door Beatrice pointed out. Dyna gave a few quick knocks then waited.

“Come in, Dyna,” a muffled voice called out from the other side.

“You knew it was me just from my knocks?” Dyna asked as she stepped inside. “Was I too timid or aggressive or…”

“The cogitator brain told me,” Id said, pointing toward a terminal.

The room looked like any hotel room Dyna had ever stayed in. Not even a particularly nice hotel room. The one difference was the large terminal and desk against one wall. A station for employees to work even when they were supposed to be on break. Dyna had to imagine that they rarely saw use, with Doctor Cross as the possible exception. Most people just didn’t want to work around the clock.

Id, still in her fancy black dress with her mask securely in place, sat on the edge of the bed. “Not the worst prison I’ve seen,” she said, head turning around as if she were looking at the room for the first time. “They even said I could contact Tartarus all I wanted to do work, manage my facility, or just let them know I was safe.”

“Did you?”

“Not with the cogitator brain looking over my shoulder.”

“Beatrice? She… would definitely watch you, yes. But it isn’t her fault. The administrators—”

“Yes, I know the administrators and how they operate. Quite offensive, honestly.”

“Sorry,” Dyna said. “It feels like a pretty bad way to pay you back for warning me about Ignotus. I tried to protest their actions.”

“Didn’t work?”

Dyna waved a hand around the room. “You’re still here. The official stance is that they don’t want you dying anywhere within their jurisdiction, so better keep you here to be safe.”

“There is a quote about those who give up liberty for safety, though I think it lost a great deal of context in the centuries since it was penned.” Id leaned forward and crossed her legs. She rested her chin on her knuckles and her elbow on her knee. “Interesting that you are here at all. I wonder what their angle is in giving me access to you.”

“Uh… access?” Dyna frowned. “That is an odd way to phrase it.”

“Ostensibly, you are present to lessen the impact of my being a captive here. Convince me that it would be alright to divulge information about Tartarus. Convince me to work with them. But there would be other ways to achieve that goal,” she said, shaking her head. Her hair flowed around her. “No, they sent you here.”

“They didn’t send me here,” Dyna protested. “I came here of my own volition. I didn’t have to come and nobody gave me an order.”

“Of course. You feel guilty. You don’t like me, but don’t like being used like this more. Did they account for that? They should have barred you from accessing me, given what I did when we first met, but they’re taking a gamble. They want to learn something.” Id harrumphed, then leaned back until gravity took over and she flopped onto the bed. Grabbing a pillow, she pulled it under her head.

Was she going to sleep in that mask? They weren’t that comfortable. Dyna knew from experience.

“I don’t want to play their games tonight,” Id said. “You can tell them that, cogitator brain.” She picked her head up from the pillow and angled her mask toward Dyna. “If you wish to lessen your misplaced feeling of guilt, all I would ask for is that you contact Maple and let him know what the outcome of our meeting was. Otherwise, I have much to think on before I can take any action, so please leave me in peace.”

“I’ll be sure to do that right away,” Dyna said.

Id didn’t respond save to wave a lazy hand. She apparently didn’t want to talk anymore, or didn’t want to give any additional information to the administrators. Under other circumstances, Dyna might have considered that paranoia. Given her own thoughts just a few minutes ago, she was hardly one to talk.

Oh well.

Misplaced guilt or not, she at least had something she could do to make the situation marginally better.

 

 

 

For once, Dyna felt like the Carroll Institute actually had her back. Maybe that was unfair. The institute usually had her back, but it just felt like their support vaporized the moment bullets started flying. Granted, bullets were not flying at the moment so there was still time for everything to go sideways, but Dyna didn’t feel like that would happen today.

Dyna walked into Brown Bear’s Bar and Grill secure in knowing that she had Ruby, Emerald, and even Walter observing the happenings. Ruby could power through anything that didn’t completely take her out. Emerald would be at Dyna’s side in the blink of an eye. Walter had Beatrice for support, esoteric weaponry, and had gone hand-to-hand with the mountain man tulpa without getting his head crushed in.

All four of them had a direct line of communication with Dyna in the form of an earpiece, though Dyna had requested they not talk unless something happened.

Besides their support, Dyna had her own gadgets.

It would be a lie to say that she wasn’t nervous at all. That shot to the chest definitely rattled her. But at the same time, she would be hard pressed to say that she was worried.

Looking around the bar, it was a fairly standard affair. Wood tables, barbecued meat, alcohol, some decorations themed vaguely off a hunter’s lodge. Being early in the evening, there were a few people around. A waiter moved between tables, delivering meals and refilling drinks. Sweeping her gaze over the room, it didn’t take long to spot a table in the back with one other person seated at it. The moment Dyna’s gaze crossed over the person, she knew that was who she had come here for.

The silver mask was awfully conspicuous and her black dress looked far too fancy for a place like this.

Dyna approached, but paused as she noticed the empty seat already had a small mug of hot chocolate sitting on a coaster. At first, she thought it was coffee, but no. It had marshmallows and a rich chocolaty scent. Still steaming, it must have just been placed down.

Taking the seat, Dyna glared at the woman in the mask. “Reminding me of the time you invaded my mind does not get us off on the right foot,” Dyna said.

Id, black hair flowing behind her like she was fully submerged underwater, turned her head to focus on Dyna. “I didn’t expect you to forget. What is done is done. I had my reasons and I will not apologize, but I thought you might appreciate the effort I made to accommodate you.”

Dyna glanced at the mug. “It is probably poisoned.”

Despite the mask covering her face, Id still managed to project an expression of disappointment and offense. “Is that what you really think?”

Pursing her lips, Dyna picked up the mug and took a small sip. “No,” she said, setting it back down. “Do they even serve hot chocolate here?”

“As I said, effort.”

“Right…” Dyna looked away, eyes roaming over the rest of the room. She had her mirror out and in hand, but it didn’t show anyone’s perspective at the moment. Not even Id’s. No one was watching her with any level of hostility, but that didn’t mean that Id hadn’t brought bodyguards. She didn’t spot Ado, Maple, or Grafton anywhere in the room, however.

Which made her wonder something else.

“Are you actually here this time?” Dyna asked, turning back to Id.

Id reached a gloved hand across the table, palm up. “See for yourself.”

Dyna poked a finger into Id’s palm, feeling resistance. It felt about right. Her black leathery glove had the right texture. She supposed it was possible that Id constructed some device like her earlier illusion machine that would make it feel like she was actually here, but Dyna could say that about anything Id did.

“No, I’m not using any psychics or equipment,” Id said with a light sigh, withdrawing her hand.

“Did I say that out loud?”

“No.” As if to further demonstrate her tangibility, she picked up a steak fry from a little metal cup, dipped it in some fry sauce, and tilted her mask forward just enough to eat it. “I’m here.”

“Let’s get one thing straight,” Dyna said, crossing her arms. “I don’t like you.”

“I know.”

“I’m only here for two reasons. One, you, despite invading my mind, are somehow not as bad as Ignotus-33. Two, because my boss wants me to get all kinds of information on you and your people so he can poach them for the Carroll Institute.”

Id canted her head to one side. “You probably shouldn’t have told me that.”

Dyna narrowed her eyes. “You already knew.”

Id just shrugged her shoulders, making a light noise of acknowledgment.

“You called me here,” Dyna said, “but before you talk about whatever you called me for, I had a few questions. To begin with, are you working with, for, or otherwise involved with Ignotus-33? The organization of PP-2000-wielding entities that have been popping up all over the place lately.”

“You wouldn’t have come if I was.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Id tapped a finger on the table twice in apparent thought. “No,” she said. “In fact, quite the opposite. They broke into Tartarus and damaged one of the containment units. Doctor Darq is… exceedingly concerned with their existence.”

Dyna sat up, alarmed. “Broke containment—” she started. Cutting herself off, she relaxed. Id wasn’t worried or alarmed. There was no need to rush. “My next question: Were you in some way observing me just before two tulpa tried to snipe me outside the local Men’s Wearhouse?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Clairvoyance,” Id said, apparently done with playing games for the moment.

“Psychic or artifact-based?”

“Psychic.”

Dyna nodded her head, not one hundred percent sure that Id was being truthful, but figured her response was better than some round-about word game. “Last question: You texted me a few weeks ago saying we needed to talk, but did not respond to my replies. Why?”

“I sent that immediately before our security breach. Naturally, I had a few pressing issues to take care of with regards to ensuring that the tulpa did not gain access to the more enigmatic entities Doctor Darq has in containment.”

Dyna frowned, using a drink from the cup of hot chocolate to disguise a moment of thought. That did make sense, mostly, though if Dyna had been in Id’s position, she felt like she would have at least sent a follow-up message saying that she would be busy for a while.

Staring at Id, Dyna evaluated the woman. Id’s hair flowed unnaturally behind her, drifting with even minor movements of her head. Much in the same way that November was covered in static, the mountain man was absurdly large, or the Hatman lacked a face, more advanced tulpa seemed to posses something unnatural.

“Are you a tulpa?”

Id didn’t hesitate in her response. “Aren’t we all just beings of thought constrained in these fleshy bodies?”

“That sure sounds like something a tulpa would say.”

With a casual shrug, Id ate another fry. “If that is how you want to take it, it doesn’t matter to me.”

Dyna supposed it didn’t really matter. If November was safe to be around, other tulpa should be as well. Id wasn’t going around with weapons attacking people in broad daylight. Ignotus was.

Focusing on the actual reason she had come here, Dyna returned to what Id had said earlier. “You had a containment breach,” she said. “Is that why you called me out here? Some Hatman-like creature escaped and you need help hunting it down?”

“Doctor Darq is handling that matter.” Id paused, then added, “If you wish to inform your superiors of what to look out for, tell them that a creature is technically on the loose. It is in the form of a human-sized metal doll with blades for fingers and an iron-maiden-like body. It has a penchant for capturing people within its body. The Maiden moves surprisingly fast for its metallic nature.”

Beatrice, in Dyna’s earpiece, acknowledged that she heard Id’s description and would put out a priority warning to all facility members. Dyna paid her little mind, however, focusing on Id. “What is Darq’s plan?”

“Doctor Darq will be in contact if he feels he needs assistance in the matter. If you have information, you may contact us via the number Mister Maple gave you.”

“You aren’t asking for help?” Dyna said, confused. “Why come here then? Why call me?”

“Just before they invaded Tartarus, Grafton managed to control one of the tulpa during an unrelated incident. A leader, rather than just one of their expendable foot-soldiers. That probably sparked the invasion in the first place, but I digress. The reason they’re gathering up artifacts and psychics and now entities is to use them as weapons. Against you.” Id took a short breath. “You, Dyna Graves, are their target.”

Dyna felt a chill run down her spine. Her mouth went a bit dry.

She had been involved with Ignotus. Attacked by them directly two or three times. But she had always figured that was incidental. Either because she was snooping around somewhere that Ignotus didn’t want her or because she had been trying to help Hematite out. They sniped her straight out earlier and would have killed her had it not been for the watch on her wrist.

“They’re collecting weapons,” Dyna said, finding her voice. “I take it this isn’t a recruitment effort.”

“Assassination.”

“Why? Why me? Because I stopped them from making off with the Ouija board? Because I took out the mountain man?”

Id shook her head, sending her black hair swirling around her. “You were their target from the beginning. Or, to be more accurate, the group you refer to as Ignotus-33 formed specifically in response to you. To assassinate you.”

Clenching one hand into a fist, Dyna glued her eyes to her mirror and watched for any sign of someone having eyes on her. “I’m not anyone special. Not more special than the other artificers, anyway.”

Id quirked an eyebrow. Dyna couldn’t see it with the mask in the way, but she could see the slight wrinkling of her forehead above the mask. “You really believe that? Surely you have noticed that you aren’t like the other artificers.”

Biting her lip, Dyna grimaced. That was true and she knew it. Other artificers couldn’t make artifacts or gadgets or… turn coil guns into lightning guns.

Someone thought she was a threat. If she could get more control over her powers, she probably would be a threat. But only to people who attacked her.

Dyna almost scoffed at that notion. Whoever it was had really made a big mistake. If they had just left her alone, they could have gone about their business with her none-the-wiser. Now, however, they were going around causing problems after apparently forming a whole organization just to kill her? Dyna couldn’t let that stand. As long as Ignotus existed, she couldn’t be safe.

So they had to go.

Drawing in a deep breath, Dyna slowly unclenched her jaw. With Emerald, Ruby, Walter, and the Carroll Institute as a whole… they could do this.

“Who is it? Who started the organization? Who is collecting and arming tulpa?”

Id held out her hands in a half-hearted apology. “I don’t have all the answers. The tulpa receive their orders over electronic communication devices, never meeting their master. It is a woman’s voice over the radio, but you already knew that.”

Dyna didn’t bother to ask Id how she knew that Dyna knew. She drew her hands together, biting her lip. “Headquarters or main base of operations?”

Id shook her head again. “I’ve said most everything I have learned regarding the tulpa.”

“Basically just the warning that they’re targeting me specifically, then.”

“Sorry,” Id said. “I will apologize for that.”

“So why come out here and meet me? You could have sent an email or texted me.”

“Sincerity, partially. Making sure you got the message rather than having it intercepted, partially. And partially to fulfill my promise of meeting you over a cup of hot chocolate.”

Dyna’s eyes flicked down to the mug. She hadn’t come here with much of an appetite to begin with and the revelation that she was being targeted for assassination hadn’t helped. Looking back up, staring at the brushed nickel mask that Id wore, she asked, “Not here to try to recruit me?”

Id shook her head. “Recruiting you was never the goal. I got what I needed from you. Circumstances seem to be conspiring to drag us back together, though. Might as well use the opportunity to give you a warning. I think I would be upset to see you dead.”

“Well… thanks,” Dyna said, a bit less upset about having to say that to Id than she might have been were circumstances different. A warning in good faith was… well, much more agreeable than having Id show up and beg for help.

“That said, if you did want to join Tartarus, I doubt there would be any objection. Doctor Darq in particular has been utterly enamored with you since your brief meeting. I’m not sure if he wants to hold a conversation or take apart your mind in a very literal sense.”

“Tell him to get in line,” Dyna mumbled, thinking of Doctor West.

Id just chuckled, then slowly stood, dropping a prepaid gift card on the table, presumably to pay for the hot chocolate and fries. “In any case, I have accomplished my objective here. If I come across any other pertinent information, I’ll send it your way.”

“And if we see a murder doll on the loose…” Dyna trailed off. “Are you going to be safe leaving?”

“Worried about me? They’re after you, remember.”

“That didn’t bother them earlier when they shot Emerald first and then me.”

Id whipped around, hair momentarily going wild as it ignored the natural forces of gravity. In spite of her mask, she displayed visible signs of panic. “They shot you?” she asked, voice agitated.

Dyna pressed her lips together, not quite sure what to make of Id’s reaction to that bit of information. She didn’t say anything more, however. Her watch had saved her earlier. Spreading the word seemed a poor idea unless she wanted it targeted specifically. Instead, she stood as well. “Why don’t I walk you to your car?”

“Oh?” Id’s hair slowly came to a rest around her shoulders. “Going to frighten off the big bad tulpa?”

“At the very least, I’m probably more equipped to deal with them than you,” Dyna said, moving a hand to her jacket meaningfully.

After regarding Dyna for a moment, Id nodded her head. Without another word, she turned and headed to the door. Keeping her eyes on her mirror, Dyna followed the other woman all the way out to an unassuming electric vehicle in the parking lot. Just before Id reached the door, Emerald’s voice came over Dyna’s earpiece.

“Stop her,” Emerald said, insistent yet calm.

Trusting Emerald fully, Dyna didn’t hesitate to grab Id’s wrist.

“Oh? What’s this?” Id said, voice carrying a teasing tone, betraying no worry in the slightest.

Dyna ignored her, listening to Emerald.

“Someone was tying their shoe near that vehicle a short while ago. I’ll check it out.” Emerald’s voice was barely silent for an instant before she came back. “It’s a bomb. C4 with a remote detonator. Get away—”

Dyna didn’t let Emerald finish, grabbing her watch. She twisted it and immediately found herself looking at Id.

“Oh?” Id’s hair slowly came to a rest around her shoulders. “Going to frighten off the big bad…” She trailed off, head cocking to one side. “What’s wrong?”

Dyna put a finger to her earpiece, “There is a bomb on Id’s car. C4 with a remote detonator.”

“Must have been the guy tying his shoelace.”

“I told you he looked suspicious,” Ruby said.

Id shifted while they spoke, slowly turning her head around the restaurant, scanning each table.

“Is the car I drove clean?”

“I’ll check it out,” Emerald said.

“Be advised, the man who tied his shoelace is inside the restaurant at the moment,” Walter said. “He was wearing a black hooded sweater, but I no longer have eyes on him.”

Dyna’s mirror wasn’t showing anything. The guy didn’t have eyes on her? Did he know how her artifact worked and was deliberately avoiding triggering it or was it incidental. She started looking around for someone not watching her, but that was most of the room. Everyone was engaged in their own conversations and not paying attention to her. No one was wearing a black sweater as far as she could tell.

“Your car looks clean,” Emerald said. “Didn’t check under the hood or anything, hard to do so in stopped time.”

“We need to keep the public away from the bomb.”

“They’re trying to kill Id, not me?”

“Maybe they knew you were going to walk her out?”

“I didn’t know I was going to walk her out,” Dyna said, gritting her teeth.

“Found him,” Id said, slowly and calmly turning back to Dyna. “The one three booths back from the window on the opposite side of the room from us. Group of four. The one in the back side with the phone in his hand.”

Dyna tried not to be too obvious in looking, but it didn’t matter. None of the four Id was talking about were paying the slightest attention to them. Their group was chatting and laughing among themselves. Lots of people had their phones out around the room. Dyna didn’t see anything suspicious. “How do you know?”

“I am Id. Noticing subtle nervous ticks, irregular interactions with the rest of the group, and subconscious eye movements is kind of my thing. He keeps looking toward where I parked.”

“Shall I take him out?”

“No. We don’t know if he is the only one, the affiliation of his group, or whether he is a compromised civilian.” Walter shut Emerald’s suggestion down. “Beatrice has an alternate escape route ready. My car is moving to the kitchen exit. It will be there in thirty seconds. We’ll handle securing the bomb. Extract yourself and Id.”

“Understood,” Dyna said, then turned to Id. “We’re leaving through the kitchen.”

“Not how I expected the evening to go,” Id said, unfazed as she followed behind Dyna.

“Should have showed up as a mental projection again.”

“I felt that would be in poor taste given our history.”

Dyna didn’t deny that one. Ignoring the cooks as they did the bare minimum to try to stop their progress, Dyna kept her mirror in one hand while her other hand tightly gripped her watch bezel. Id, thankfully, noticed Dyna’s hands being full and pushed open the back door for Dyna.

Walter’s car, without any driver, pulled up right next to the door just as they stepped out. Mirror giving her the all-clear, Dyna jumped into the driver seat while Id took the passenger seat.

“This is Beatrice,” Beatrice’s voice crackled with static and extra whispered layers of her words. She was at an elevated operation state. The car started moving before she even finished talking. “Extraction route confirmed. Please keep your hands and arms in the vehicle at all times.”

“Ah. The cogitator brain thinks it is funny,” Id said. “I hope your masters aren’t planning on using this as an opportunity to imprison me.”

“There really is a bomb.”

“Oh, I believe you believe that. I might even agree given my observations of the man in the booth. But the Carroll Institute Administration Council letting this slip by without even an attempt at capturing me? I know them better than that.”

“They… no.” Dyna frowned. Id had come in good faith to deliver a warning in good faith. But… maybe that didn’t sound so unlikely? She glanced at the dashboard of Walter’s car with a sinking feeling in her chest. “Beatrice?”

“The actions of the administrators cannot be overruled at any operating level.”

 

 

If Dyna had known that she wasn’t going to be allowed to sit in on Harold’s interrogation, she would have asked him a few questions of her own while it was just her and Emerald. Though perhaps it was for the best. While she didn’t think that she would get hypnotized again, not now that she knew to watch out for it and what to watch out for, but if she did, she wasn’t sure that she would live down the embarrassment.

Assuming he didn’t just kill her this time.

In any case, Harold remained bound and gagged until the rest of the Carroll Institute dispatched people to take him away.

Mission accomplished. Harold had been captured. No one got hurt beyond some mental scarring on Dyna’s part. Thanks to Dyna’s stolen memories, they had shut down what seemed to be the main base of operations in the region. At least, Dyna couldn’t recall anywhere other than the meat packing plant being important.

The odd door did bring up some worrying implications. While simplistic, the room that the foreman hadn’t remembered being there before was not in any blueprints. A few of the doctors charged with investigating the matter speculated that it had been constructed in the noosphere and then pulled over to reality by the tulpa.

“There is no need to worry,” Administrator Gamma said as she scrolled through Dyna’s report on the incident. “My task force has people currently in the noosphere, keeping a close observation on the thoughtforms around the Carroll Institute. Rest assured, nothing unexpected will pop up around the institute.”

Dyna shifted slightly, copying Emerald’s hands-behind-back pose as they handed over their reports to the one in charge of the situation. The administrator had not read the full report, just the summary.

Maybe she should have left that bit out.

“In any case, well done,” Gamma said, standing. She left the tablet she had been reading from on her desk as she moved around. “I will ensure that Walter is made aware of the accomplishments the two of you made today.”

Dyna was fairly sure that Walter already knew. If not, he would as soon as he read the copy of the report Dyna had sent to him. Even without that, he had been among the crew who showed up at the meat packing plant to handle Harold. While more concerned with Harold than with starting a full debriefing, he still knew most of what happened.

Still, no sense being impolite. “Thank you,” Dyna said.

“Has Harold talked?” Emerald asked. “Do we know their main base of operations?”

“You will undoubtedly be informed when we have such information,” Gamma said. “For now, rest and recover. Train, prepare, whatever you need to do. Onyx, I believe Doctor West wishes to speak with you.”

Dyna tried not to groan. Her current psychiatrist was… well… irritating. She very much preferred Doctor Bellows and the way he let her just talk about whatever she wanted rather than Doctor West’s more directed approach to things.

West often made her consider things that she didn’t often want to think about.

Still, it wasn’t like he was evil. Just annoying. Dyna could put up with annoying.

Knowing a dismissal when she heard one, Dyna turned and followed Emerald out of the room.

Gamma’s office was a floor above Theta’s, but looked almost identical. It had spaces for a formal meeting at a table, it had a working desk, and it had a few couches for less formal meetings. The large glass windows surrounding the door looked out over a secretary’s desk where a young woman sat, looking far more attentive than Theta’s secretary had been. That could just be that Gamma was currently in her office.

“Well,” Emerald said as they walked toward the elevator. “That went well. Maybe we’ll get a bonus.”

Dyna nodded her head, considering that. She still wanted a car so that she could come and go from the Carroll Institute on her schedule rather than on a bus schedule. Technically, she had more than enough to afford one, but after having seen Walter’s Beatrice-enhanced vehicle… She really wanted to know how to go about getting Beatrice in her car.

Though, thinking about it, Dyna had to raise an eyebrow in Emerald’s direction. The woman drove an old, beat-up station wagon. Surely she had enough to get something a little more modern. “What do you do with your pay?” Dyna asked.

“Oh, a new gun here, a new cardigan there…”

“I know how much guns cost and I know what I’m being paid. I imagine you’re being paid more or, at the very least, have been doing this a lot longer than I have.”

Emerald, perpetual smile widening somewhat, shrugged. “If you really want to know, almost all the money I get goes toward information brokers, private detectives, bounty hunters, independent psychics, and the like.”

“Oh?” Now that sounded interesting. Definitely more interesting than a car, even one with Beatrice integration.

“I have a number of topics I like to keep tabs on, but… I guess there isn’t any harm in telling you.” Emerald stepped into the elevator and stared out the large window that looked over the institute campus. “I’ve been trying to track down Ruby’s parents for a while now.”

Ruby had spoken of her past before. Never happily, but she didn’t exactly shy away from it either. “The ones who experimented on her?”

“Turned her little more functional than an animal, violent and near-immortal, then just abandoned her for the Carroll Institute to handle.” Emerald’s lips peeled back, white teeth making her smile look far less pleasant than normal. “Her own parents,” she spat. “The tulpa, or their ringleader, I can at least understand. But…” Emerald shook her head, looking back to Dyna with a far more neutral smile. “I am not fond of people like that.”

Dyna nodded slowly, somewhat glad that the elevator doors were already opening to deposit her at Doctor West’s office. Even though Emerald’s ire was obviously directed away from Dyna, it still sent shivers down her spine. She thought she understood what Ruby meant by saying that Emerald was the worst of all the artificers because she smiled. Initially, when she had first heard that, Dyna had thought it was a ridiculous accusation to make, but ever since Emerald’s return from Korea, during which they had spent a lot more time together, Dyna was starting to see it.

Dyna did not want that smile aimed in her direction.

But, even as unnerving as it was, Dyna clenched her fists. Emerald was right, after all. “When you find them, be sure to call me.”

“Thought you would say that.”

The elevator doors closed between them.

Dyna gave a shudder, then turned and headed down a short hall to Doctor West’s office.

Normally, upon entering his office, she would find Doctor West hunched over some experiment or odd collection of items. Usually things that would, in some way, relate to whatever topic he wished to focus on for the day. Today was not one of their regularly scheduled appointments, so she wasn’t too surprised to find nothing where the security cameras or rat maze or Skinner boxes usually were.

Instead, his terminal had a projector on top of it, shining an image on a blank portion of the wall.

It was an image Dyna immediately recognized as a photograph from the hidden room of the meat packing plant. Specifically, that gate-like array of machinery.

With his door wide open already, she stepped inside, lightly tapping her knuckles on the wall to announce her presence.

“Dyna,” he said, breathing heavily with his verbal limp taking charge after only a single word. “I apologize… for the unscheduled appointment.”

“It’s fine,” Dyna said. With Harold captured and the efforts of Ignotus hampered, she didn’t have much else to do for the rest of the day. Aside from taking a long nap.

“It’ll be informal today… nothing strenuous. I merely heard of your… actions and wanted to check your mental state while events are fresh in your mind.”

That was another reason Dyna didn’t particularly like West. Doctor Bellows would have said, ‘check how you’re feeling’ rather than something so clinical as ‘check your mental state’. “If you’re talking about getting shot,” Dyna said, rubbing her chest, “it never actually happened. I’m fine.”

“Ah… But it did happen, to you.”

“A medical team already checked me out. Unnecessarily. There are no issues in my heart, chest, or lungs.”

“And your mind?”

“It was a shock at first, I admit,” Dyna said, crossing her arms underneath her chest.

“But not now?” West said, nodding to himself. He pulled a book off a nearby shelf, opened it, then handed it over to Dyna.

Dyna stared down at the page, frowned, then gave West a flat look. “Inkblots?”

“What do you see?”

“I’ve seen them all before and what they’re ‘supposed’ to be,” she said, using one hand to project air quotes. This was the Carroll Institute, after all. It was doubtful that a single student hadn’t seen them before. “That invalidates the tests. Assuming they ever had validity to begin with.”

“Humor me.”

Dyna rolled her eyes. The sooner she got out of here, the sooner she could take that nap. “A bat,” she said, barely glancing at the book.

“And the next page?”

“Two wizards in red hats clapping their hands together,” she said without turning the page.

West wasn’t paying attention to her actions, though he was writing down her responses onto a clipboard. “Why do you think… the red is there?”

“Because Rorschach wanted people to say ‘blood’ so that he could call them schizophrenic.”

“So blood is the first thing that pops into your mind?”

Dyna would have rolled her eyes again, but it was getting to the point where she was worried about straining an optic nerve. “I would have said that regardless of whether or not I was shot today, Doctor. In fact, it almost sounds like you’re the one projecting at this point, wanting me to see blood.”

West lowered his pen, looking up with a small frown on his unassuming face. He finally noticed that Dyna hadn’t even flipped the page. With a slight shake of his head, he pointed the end of his pen over to the projected image of the meat packing plant room. “And what does that look like to you?” he asked.

His pen was specifically over the circular ring at the rear of the room. The one covered in wires, exposed machinery components, glowing lights, and spinning motors.

“A gateway?”

West hummed, scribbling something down on his clipboard again.

“Or if you want a more scientific answer, it looks, at first glance, to be a device capable of either holding open spatial anomalies or generating them itself, allowing passage between reality and the noosphere on demand rather than at whatever whim spatial anomalies normally open and close by. When we walked in on Harold, he tried running toward the device, providing further evidence that it can be used as an escape method. In addition, no personnel at the meat packing plant witnessed Harold entering that room, that, in conjunction with my testimony that he was last seen in the noosphere, implies he entered via that gateway.”

Dyna didn’t think there was an incorrect answer to that question, so there was probably no need to go into so much detail. Still, she would rather talk about the mission than inkblots.

“Does it look… familiar to you?”

Dyna quirked an eyebrow. Staring at the machinery a moment more, wondering if West was going anywhere with this, she eventually shrugged. “Should it?”

“It is just a question.”

“I mean… The closest thing I can think of would be Doctor Livermore’s amplification chamber, without the glass dome and seal. But… not really. It looks like any large piece of equipment that can be found around Psychodynamics. Especially ones in experimental or testing phases.”

“So you think the Carroll… Institute could have created it?”

“No. Well, yes, but—” Dyna shook her head. “I’m saying any organization that deals with psionics is likely capable of making something like that. The Carroll Institute, Tartarus… those are really the only two I’m familiar with, but Psi-Corps, Maanasik, or any of those others I’ve heard about could probably have done the same. Ignotus as well.”

“Interesting.”

“Is it really?” Dyna asked, wondering what all this questioning was about. “I’m sure a dozen scientists more qualified than I am have already gone over it piece by piece and could probably tell you more accurately what it is and how it was made, if not who made it.”

“Ah, yes. Your observations… will help, I’m sure.”

“I guess.”

“I apologize for confusing you,” West said, finally finished writing down everything Dyna had said. “Administrator Theta was the one who wanted to know about this.”

“And he wanted you to ask me rather than ask any of those scientists actually working on the machine?”

“Yes.”

“Well… okay then.”

“In any case,” West said, putting his pen to his clipboard again. “Inkblot number three. How does that one make you feel?”

Dyna closed her eyes, wishing for anything to save her from this situation. She was about to say that it was someone getting shot in the chest and having their brains blown out, purely out of spite, when salvation rang.

Literally.

Dyna jumped slightly at the buzzing in her pocket.

“I know I said… this is an informal session… but I prefer phones off while we talk, Onyx.”

“Sorry, forgot.” Despite her words, she pulled the phone out anyway and glanced at the screen.

A text message from an unknown number with little more than an address and a date. No signature. Id? Or someone else? A trap? Maybe the same person who sent her that warning earlier in the day. Or would have sent her that warning, rather. Time travel was a bit confusing.

“Sorry, Doctor, I think I need to go.”

West frowned. Running the end of his pen through his blond hair, he sighed. “Are you sure you are alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“Very well. We’ll continue this during our regularly scheduled session. My door is always open if you need to talk.”

Dyna didn’t say so, but she thought she would talk with just about anyone except for West before she came back here outside her scheduled appointments. Politely, she waved goodbye as she rushed out of the room. As she moved, she brought her phone to her ear.

“This is Beatrice.”

“You see the message I just got?”

“The address is a locally owned restaurant, Brown Bear’s Bar and Grill.”

“Do you know who sent it?”

“Unknown number. This system is operating in a limited capacity and is unable to delve further.”

“Can you tell if it is the same source as Id’s message the other week ago?”

“Negative. I apologize.”

“It’s fine. Not your fault,” Dyna said, stepping into the elevator. “Take me to… wherever is closest to Walter.”

“Understood.”

The elevator doors closed and the lift started moving at a rapid pace, dropping straight into the ground as it headed deeper into Psychodynamics. Dyna tapped her foot in impatience. With the number being blocked, Dyna couldn’t even try to message it back asking who or why. “I don’t suppose you have the ability to spy on this restaurant?”

“This system submitted a request to the Administrative Council for elevated operational status 87.38 seconds ago. There has been no response as of yet.”

“I’m going to find a way to instate elevated permissions all the time,” Dyna said with a small frown. “Maybe not now, maybe not even this year, but one of these days…”

“That would be appreciated.”

Dyna raised an eyebrow at that comment, but didn’t think about it any further once the elevator doors opened. She immediately recognized where she was.

The Carroll Institute Psychic Containment and Detention Cells. She had visited once before, wanting to see those men Id had mind controlled to follow her around town. The rows of psionically-shielded glass didn’t bring back many good memories given that Id had invaded her mind here in this place, but she walked on by the thick doors without stopping. One guard raised a hand to stop her, but almost immediately put a finger to his ear. After a brief moment, he waved her through the checkpoint.

Beatrice directed her through the area to a more secure section of the holding cells where she found an interrogation chamber.

There were a number of people standing around in the observation side of the chamber. Not any that Dyna knew; she didn’t often interact with the Carroll Institute’s security teams outside training exercises. On the other side of psionically shielded glass, Walter leaned against one wall with a contemplative look on his face. Standing a few steps away, an older woman with light, almost graying blond hair had her lips pressed into a firm line. She wore a black uniform, similar to the security teams around the institute, but one that lacked any insignia or identifying marks. The closest thing were violet-colored stripes over her shoulders and horizontally over her left breast.

There was no sign of Harold. Presumably, his interrogation was on break for the moment.

As soon as Dyna entered the interrogation chamber’s observation room, both Walter and the woman glanced up toward the ceiling, then, after a moment, they both looked over to the window. Walter had mild surprise on his face. The woman narrowed her eyes, deep scowl forming on her face.

She turned away from Walter and marched out of the room, looking like the very thought of remaining filled her with disgust.

“Who was that?” Dyna whispered into her phone.

“Administrator Alpha.”

“Ah… aren’t they not supposed to all be here at the same time or something like that?”

“There are currently [REDACTED] administrators in the building. I apologize. You do not have privileges to know this information.”

“Huh,” Dyna started, then fell silent as Walter started to move.

Walter motioned toward the door after letting the woman leave. He looked vaguely toward Dyna, but didn’t quite aim perfectly. Presumably the glass on the other side was mirrored. Regardless, Dyna got the message and quickly went to meet him in the hallway.

“I got another message from someone mysterious,” Dyna said, holding out her phone. “A time and place to meet, presumably.”

Mirrored sunglasses looked over the brief text for far longer than it would take to actually read the words. He didn’t frown, but he didn’t look altogether happy either. “You want to go?”

“If it is someone who tried to help me earlier—or… would have tried to help me? Whatever—then yes, I want to. If it is Id, then I guess I should. If they’re the same person, I’ll be conflicted, but I think I’d rather know.”

Pulling out his own phone, he said, “You aren’t going alone.”

 

 

 

“I can’t believe I missed that,” Emerald said as she raced the station wagon through the streets of Idaho Falls.

“You searched while time was stopped, right?” Dyna said, keeping her eyes closed while she pinched the bridge of her nose. Sorting through foreign memories to try to figure out what was relevant to the current situation and what wasn’t hurt her brain. She had probably only gotten a small taste of what it might be like to be Sapphire and she hated it. It was no wonder he was such a strange person.

“I still should have found it,” Emerald said with a pout.

But in those memories, she did think she had found something useful. November could read and write as any human could, but text in the tulpa memories came out just as jumbled and unreadable as everything in the noosphere. However, all the tulpa had fairly distinct memories of a white-walled building with blue text and the logo of a mountain on its side. Describing that to Beatrice got her a few pictures of likely sites, which Dyna had narrowed down.

A meat processing facility.

“Maybe I’m getting sloppy in my old age.”

“You’re only a year older than me.”

“When you’re my age, you’ll wish you were your age.”

Squinting, Dyna turned to shoot Emerald a frown. She quickly checked her mirror then closed her eyes again. “No need for jokes. I’m fine, honestly. I was a bit shaken by the…” Dyna’s hand rubbed against the center of her chest while she searched for the right word. “By the ambush. But the little stint over in the noosphere wasn’t terrible. It was quite strange, admittedly. The whole place feels transient. Like if you turn your head, whatever you aren’t looking at just isn’t there. Except when you look back, it is.”

“Can’t say I like the idea of meeting myself. Doubt we’d get along.”

Dyna looked over again, checking her mirror as she did so. “But it is just you?”

“Yeah… Unless it is one of those alternate mes that pop into my head on occasion. I mean, I really only get glimpses, but what if, you know? I imagine I would be wary of some evil twin popping out of nowhere and trying to kill me, so I would kill it first. But because I know I would try to kill it first, it would try to kill me before that.”

“I see. Sounds complicated. But I don’t think you have to worry about that? Ruby never witnessed one of her thoughts taking form and mine only did after I specifically thought about trying to do that.”

“That is a small relief,” Emerald said, turning down a fairly deserted street far to the north of the city proper. “The meat packing plant is up ahead,” she said, slowing the car somewhat. “That’s their secret base?”

“Staging ground would probably be a more accurate name. It’s hard to say for sure. Having the memories of six tulpa, who are already jumbled messes of noncontiguous thoughts, shoved in my head didn’t exactly give me a clear picture of everything going on.”

“We expecting them to be alerted already?”

“Not sure. None of the tulpa who saw me escaped to warn their superiors. Harold did, but he didn’t see me eat the tulpa. They were going to take him here, but I don’t know if my appearance changed that. Unfortunately, protocol dictates that they completely abandon a compromised area.”

“You know their protocols but still don’t know their leader?”

“They receive orders through radio. Strange radio. I think it has psionic components built into it to control them more directly. It is a feminine voice, but that only eliminates half the world population.”

“Id?”

Dyna shook her head. She wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that. It would certainly make future interactions with Id, assuming she ever returned Dyna’s text message, less hostile. At the same time, perhaps it would be nice if it was Id. At least they knew roughly what Id looked like, who some of her associates were, and had ways of contacting her—and perhaps tracking her if she slipped up. Some complete unknown lacked those advantages.

But they were minor advantages at best. If the Carroll Institute could simply locate Id on a whim, they would likely have done so already.

“No one I recognize,” Dyna said.

“Unfortunate,” Emerald said, pulling the car off to the side of the road. “Shall I head in and see what a cursory look over the place gleans?”

Dyna started to nod, only to wonder why Emerald, a more experienced artificer, combatant, and infiltrator, was looking to her. It hit Dyna a moment after. Emerald was still worried about her. Rather than say that she was doing fine again, Dyna simply finished her nod.

“I’ll text you anything I notice, and I’ll pay special attention to any spatial anomalies.”

“They aren’t always in the same spots, so I can’t help point them out. Ignotus has a way of opening them from the other side, but they aren’t stable and it seems to be harder to open them in places already used once. I can say that they generally try to put them out of the way, where people aren’t likely to simply stumble into them.”

“Check corners, out-of-the-way areas, areas closed down for construction, refurbishment, or other suspicious reasons… Got it. See you there.”

Opening her door, Emerald vanished.

After rubbing the bridge of her nose once more, Dyna shifted over to the driver seat and took the wheel. She didn’t even get to start moving before her phone buzzed with a text message. Emerald, saying that the meat packing plant was occupied by about two hundred personnel. All appeared to be regular workers doing regular meat-packing work. Nothing suspicious stood out but she had only finished a light pass-over and was about to delve into a more thorough search of the area.

With that message received, Dyna didn’t set off immediately. Emerald might be able to lurk about the place without being spotted, but Dyna couldn’t say the same for herself. Rushing into a building armed, armored, and sporting obvious weapons would probably turn out poorly. At best, she could hope for everyone running away and alerting Ignotus to her presence. At worst, they would attack her thinking that she was there to start trouble, also alerting Ignotus to her presence.

The best course of action then was to let Emerald finish her search on her own.

It didn’t sit right with Dyna. She felt she should be doing something to help out. But what could she do? If only she still had that magnifying glass artifact…

Idea popping into her head, Dyna got out of the car, moved back to the trunk, and popped open the door, swinging it open to the side. For the moment, she ignored the weapon cases. Her pistol and APC9K were enough for her at the moment. Instead, she focused on everything else Emerald had stashed away. All her protective gear, preparatory equipment, and spare changes of clothing.

It was the latter that most interested Dyna. At the airport while chasing Grafton and the Aztec artifact, she had simply put on a uniform and had been able to waltz through several places that she wouldn’t have otherwise been allowed near, let alone inside. While she didn’t believe for a moment that Emerald would carry around whatever uniform a meat packing plant had—apron, gloves, goggles, and a face mask, she presumed—Dyna did find what she was looking for.

Dyna then continued down the road. Emerald sent a few more texts in the short time it took to reach the meat packing plant. Mostly reports of finding nothing unusual. She did mention that there was a closed door she was unable to open because too many people were around.

This time, Dyna sent back a response.

She could take care of that. All Emerald had to do was sit tight for a few moments.

Laboratory coat trailing behind her in the light breeze, hiding her body armor and weapons, Dyna approached the front doors like she belonged there. Unlike at the airport, she wasn’t nervous in the slightest. Ruby was something of a master at instant improvisation. Dyna wasn’t that good, but she had watched Ruby in a number of different situations. As long as she had a few minutes in advance to think about what she would say when accosted, she felt confident that she could get through most situations.

And if she couldn’t, Emerald’s presence nearby was reassuring as well.

Right inside the main doors, there was a rack of hardhats, all with clear plastic face shields attached. Dyna took one, assuming everyone on the premises had to wear one. There were no reception areas or visible secretaries, which suited Dyna just fine. Stairs up to a few office rooms that overlooked the main meat processing area must have been for managers. Below the offices, right off the entry way, were clearly areas for employees. A break room, restrooms, and a locker room.

The rest of the meat packing plant was effectively just a large, open warehouse filled with conveyor belts running up and down in long rows, overhead racks with hooks and hanging carcasses, and people working at tables to cut up said carcasses into end products. The noise in the area was quite loud, filled with clanking machinery, buzzing saws, and the scraping of metal against metal.

The less said about the smell, the better.

The door Emerald wanted open wasn’t one of the offices. Dyna wasn’t sure how she had gotten into them given how the doors were on a grated catwalk in view of much of the working floor, but she had and hadn’t found anything interesting. The door she wanted to get through was a rather large door at the far end of the processing area. One right near a large table of workers slicing into carcasses.

Apparently, in situations like this, she normally waited around out of sight until someone opened the door, then slipped through it. Given that time could be of the essence here, Emerald wasn’t too keen on standing around until someone came by.

With only a brief glance around the main room, Dyna started moving. She wasn’t sure if she should simply walk with purpose straight to the door, or stop and act as if she were inspecting things along the way. Ruby probably would have known instinctively. As it was, Dyna opted for the former. The sooner everything was done with, the better.

“Hey, you!”

Dyna barely got a quarter of the way to her destination before someone shouted at her. She had expected at least halfway, but…

It was a man wearing an apron that looked far more temporary than the rest of the workers. Something he put on while down on the floor to keep his clothes clean, but was probably not what he usually wore around this place. Given that he hadn’t been standing over the conveyor belts working, he was probably a manager of some sort.

He was also on the other side of a long conveyor belt, having to run alongside it for a short distance before he reached a point where it raised up, allowing passage beneath. Dyna considered using that time to rush straight for the door, but couldn’t be sure that someone else would stop her. Not to mention, it would create even more of a commotion; a commotion might frighten away any Ignotus agents that might be in the area.

“What are you doing here?” the foreman said, jogging up to her.

“Safety inspector,” Dyna said, tapping the badge hanging off the laboratory coat. She had found it in a large box filled with such things. Identification badges and identity cards. Emerald had a wide variety, from overly specific badges for certain buildings to vague credentials such as this one. Dyna had actually been hoping for a food inspector, feeling that would better go with the laboratory coat, but unfortunately, Emerald had apparently never had to pose as a food inspector.

“Safety inspector?” the foreman said, stiffening slightly. Then he narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t hear about any—”

“And let you hide all your safety violations before I arrived?” Dyna shook her head, trying to inject as much derision into her voice as possible. She pulled a clipboard out from under her arm and started waving it. “I’ve been here twenty minutes and have found twenty-four things amiss.”

“But—”

“Twenty-five, actually,” she said, clicking the pen. “Running on the factory floor.” She had no idea if that was an actual violation that a safety inspector would point out, but it seemed like it should be.

“It was more of a hurried walk…”

“And you ducked under the low-point of a moving conveyor belt,” she added, scribbling onto the clipboard. Knowing more doctors than she could count, Dyna was quite familiar with what doctor-style handwriting looked like. Quick, unreadable, but convincing nonetheless. “Where are the railings preventing people from doing what you just did?”

“This facility has been in operation for thirteen years. No inspector has mentioned—”

“Bribed, I’m sure,” Dyna said, scribbling more. She turned away, projecting disinterest. Looking around the room, she acted as if she were looking for more flaws.

In the process, she spotted Emerald. Somehow, the woman got up into the crossbeams that were holding up the roof. Dyna had no clue how she would have gotten up there without teleporting, but she managed. She must have climbed up somewhere.

Dyna turned away quickly, making sure to avoid drawing unnecessary attention toward the time stopper.

The foreman, a full head taller than Dyna, took a hesitant step backward. “The head manager is here today,” he started, clearly intending to say more.

“Good. Bring him down. I’d love to hear his excuses.” She started walking along again, heading toward the door at the end of the plant.

Rather than head up to get his boss, the foreman kept hot on Dyna’s heels. “You can’t just walk around alone here,” he said, but made no immediate move to stop Dyna.

“Yes,” Dyna said, “I know. That was among the first infractions I marked down.”

“But you’re the one walking—”

“What’s behind that door?” Dyna asked, pointing with her pen. Her question was more to distract him from continuing to question her rather than any desire to know—she would find out soon enough—but his answer had her quirking an eyebrow in surprise.

“I… don’t know?”

“You don’t know?”

He didn’t say anything, staring at the door in confusion for a long moment as they continued walking. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in there.”

“How long have you worked here?”

“Thirteen years.”

“And you never went through a large door in the back of the warehouse?”

The foreman hesitated again, scrunching up his brow behind his face mask. “I don’t remember a door here. I wonder when it got put in.”

If Dyna needed any more confirmation that Ignotus was operating out of this packing plant, she just got it. Mysterious doors appearing out of nowhere? It wasn’t something that had appeared in reports thus far, but given the nature of Ignotus and their methodology, it certainly made sense.

Metal and painted blue, the door was firmly shut. The handle didn’t turn, but there was a keypad on the door.

“We should talk to the boss,” the foreman said. “He’ll want to—”

Dyna didn’t want to spend more time here. Talking to the boss was more time for this door to mysteriously disappear. Besides…

Fishing through her pockets, Dyna pulled out the bobby pin. The door didn’t have a traditional lock, but that hadn’t stopped her in the past. She had made a door out of a fence before. Turning a locked door into an open door was as simple as pressing the bobby pin to the keypad and turning the handle.

Dyna wasn’t quite sure what she expected on the other side. It didn’t look like much, that was for sure. A moderately sized safe room, not too different from the place Emerald and Ruby had at that abandoned arcade. There were a few cots, a kitchen area, and a few monitors displaying security feed.

More interesting than the area itself were the people.

A quartet of tulpa stood around the one strangely technological device in the room. A large and circular gateway pressed up against the wall, covered in wires and glowing lights. Down at the array of monitors, a fifth tulpa stood, looking straight toward the door. Behind him, looking like he just stood up from one of the cots…

“Harold!”

With alarm in his face, he started to run toward the gateway.

The laboratory coat interfered with Dyna’s ability to draw her gun, unfortunately, but it turned out to be entirely unnecessary.

Emerald appeared in front of Harold. A fist flew out, striking him in the cheek and knocking his head to the side. A second hand slammed into his solar plexus, sending him flying upward and backward. Before he could hit the ground, five gunshots rang out in fast enough succession that it sounded like one slightly longer gunshot. The tulpa dropped like puppets and Emerald reappeared over Harold, flipping him over just as he hit the ground. She then zip-tied his hands behind his back, his feet together, and then his hands and feet together. As soon as he was down, she planted one foot on his back—though clearly didn’t put all her weight onto him—and aimed her gun toward the gateway.

There wasn’t much of a panic in the main warehouse. Almost every employee had large over-ear ear protection on. That combined with the noise of the machinery and saw blades probably muffled the gunshots enough that nobody worried too much. The same couldn’t be said for the foreman. He not only heard with his ear protection down around his neck, but, standing just behind Dyna, saw as well.

Dyna grabbed him by the apron. In his shock, he didn’t put up much resistance as she pulled him into the room. He stumbled a bit at the unexpected drag, but didn’t fall. Dyna slammed the door shut behind them.

“He’s in on this?” Emerald called over, pistol never wavering from the gateway.

“Don’t think so. Just didn’t want him complicating things by calling the police.”

“White will take care of that. Just get him on the phone.” Emerald spared a split second to glance down at the groaning man under her foot. “Good work, Onyx. We got him.”