Stress

 

Department stores had too many things in them. Too many useless things. Dyna wasn’t sure who bought half the crap lining the shelves. Everything caught her eye; she kept watch for even the smallest thing that could help.

They had bath robes, bath towels, bath rugs, bathtubs, bath sponges, bath soap, bath bombs, bath—

Dyna stopped and glanced back. Bath bombs? That had bomb in the name, but… No. She doubted that would work. Despite the name, the thematics weren’t there. Not unless she wanted to give their opponent some kind of makeover or cleansing.

Next section.

Bathing suits, suit ties, suit vests, suit jackets, light jackets, winter jackets, denim jackets, bomber jackets…

There was that word again. But no. Again, the themes didn’t fit with what she needed. In fact, she needed to rush right past the clothing areas of the store. Could clothes be artifacts? Yes. She knew of several examples. The Hopkins Hat, no less than three plague masks, dozens of regular masks, gloves, and so on and so forth. But most of those got their themes from their unique designs and associations with their owners, not simply because they existed. Regular clothing didn’t fit and this wasn’t a costume store.

Floor jack, bottle jack, a decorative jackdaw, the game of jacks, the game of Monopoly, the Game of Life, life jackets, and she was back to jackets for some reason.

Stopping and turning around, Dyna made for a rather small corner of the store where she had passed the board games. The Ouija board was, after all, just a game. It wasn’t advertised like one, but it was published by a board game company. It had worked out well enough as an artifact. Perhaps another game would work?

Dyna walked past lego sets, Jenga, the crocodile that chomped down when the wrong teeth were pressed, marbles, dice, playing cards, Chinese Checkers, bocce, about thirty or forty different variations of Monopoly, trivia games…

She paused at Operation, considering it for a moment. The game of surgery where you had to remove remove a whole bunch of nonsensical ailments from a patient without the pair of tweezers touching the sides of the board. Doing so would cause a buzzing noise and the patient’s nose to light up, indicating pain.

Dyna wasn’t sure exactly how it would work as an artifact. Most artifacts didn’t actually do anything with the item themselves. Ruby’s ruby didn’t require her to wave it over her body and Sapphire’s control rods didn’t need to be puppeted. At the same time, Dyna’s mirrors required her to look into the lenses and Emerald’s pocket watch required a tap to the stem.

As such, she could imagine a possibility where the game of Operation could be set up and, perhaps while thinking about a specific target, used to cause pain or even kill someone. One of the game pieces to remove from the patient’s body was, after all, a heart. Complicated, maybe, but more complicated than the Ouija board?

Maybe. It was hard to say.

Dyna grabbed it off the shelf and immediately started running back toward Hematite. Was it the best choice? Probably not. She kept her eyes open on the way back. But unfortunately, everything in the store was just too… generic. She couldn’t think of anything better off the top of her head.

It would have been nice to have Mel around. She could have just made an object on the fly that would have fit exactly with what Dyna needed—and it would have been filled to the brim with psionic energy already. Dyna wasn’t exactly sure what she needed, but that was beside the point.

Of course, it was best that Mel wasn’t here. Her utility would be completely overshadowed by her being… normal. Hematite might claim that she was normal and Dyna might feel like she was normal, but the fact was that they weren’t. Both had gone through some training. Both had gone through harrowing incidents. Mel would likely be given the same self-defense courses that Dyna had gone through. Then she would probably be offered the more advanced courses that Dyna had accepted. But today? Here and now?

She was just a psychic initiate of the Carroll Institute. Not an artificer.

Dyna’s path back to Hematite took her through a familiar spot of the store. A mannequin shoved aside and, not far away, one of the soldiers down on the floor. She swept the submachine gun’s flashlight over the body.

He wasn’t moving.

Keeping her weapon trained on his head and her mirror open toward her, Dyna carefully approached. He still didn’t move.

Entering into close quarters with a downed opponent was a great way to get grabbed and have the situation turned on its head. Or so said Emerald. But at the same time, there were some things that could only be done in close proximity.

Stretching her foot out, Dyna nudged the man’s helmet.

Lax, his head rolled to one side. There was zero muscle resistance.

Dead. Or so deeply unconscious that he might as well have been. A black balaclava hid his face, so she couldn’t see much besides his closed eyes. They didn’t open.

Dyna pressed her lips together. She was honestly surprised that she had managed to land a hit on him. The moment had been chaotic, dark, and stressful. The lighting especially had not done her many favors. With only the dim emergency lights, she had really only been able to see silhouettes.

It only took one lucky bullet to hit the right thing to kill someone and she had unloaded a full magazine in his direction. She didn’t see a wound now, but nudging his head back and forth, she couldn’t see any way that he could possibly be active.

Just in case he was only unconscious, Dyna knelt and pulled the thick strap of his pp-2000’s lanyard over his head and off his arm. After checking to make sure that the safety was engaged using the flashlight of her other weapon, she slung it over her own shoulder. She didn’t know how many bullets these things held and, while she could probably figure out how to reload them easily enough, she doubted she would be able to reload effectively in the middle of a fight. Having the option to toss one away and pull the other up was too great to ignore.

He had a pistol as well, holstered at his hip. Dyna took that as well, quickly checking that it was loaded, chambered, and had the safety on. It didn’t fit into her own holster—she didn’t know the model—but shoved it into her jacket pocket nonetheless.

These people all seemed to have standardized uniforms. That meant that the guy she had told Hematite to talk to would probably have a sidearm as well. Dyna wasn’t too worried—she would have heard the gunshots if any were fired—but figured it would be best to hurry back as quickly as possible.

She still wasn’t sure where the fifth person was. Unless the board had been wrong—or had been counting Hematite for some reason—then there should still be another lurking around somewhere. But her mirror had yet to activate and she had yet to see any evidence of another person.

Could the fifth have left the building? Maybe Ruby had alerted the another squad and the fifth had gone to reinforce them—the fifth threat could even be the one that took Ruby down—and was now on its way back. Or maybe the threat was already back, lurking around…

Dyna pushed the thoughts from her mind as she hurried back.

She slowed down once she reached the bedding section of the store, not wanting to rush straight there just in case Hematite had been captured and now had a gun to her head. Hematite didn’t seem stupid so much as nervous, however, so Dyna wasn’t expecting it.

Sure enough, she found Hematite standing a safe distance away. The soldier’s sidearm was lying a short distance away, pinned under Hematite’s foot. Dyna wasn’t sure why she hadn’t picked it up, but based on her handling earlier, wasn’t too surprised that she hadn’t. Hematite didn’t seem the most comfortable with a gun in her hands.

“Find out anything?”

Hematite jumped, glared, then glared at the soldier. “These guys are part of a small team. Four squads like the one we fought. He says he doesn’t know where the other squads are.”

“What are they after?”

“Research materials.” Hematite paused, then nodded. “Artifacts.”

Dyna figured that, but it was nice to have confirmation. “Who are they or who are they working for?”

“He said Russian Psi-Corps.”

“But he speaks French?”

“He isn’t speaking it now.”

Dyna frowned. A mistake on her part? She didn’t think so. French and Russian were fairly distinct and, while she didn’t know either language, she knew Doctor Cross originally came from Russia. It was rare, but he occasionally said the odd word that Dyna didn’t understand.

This man’s earlier words to her hadn’t sounded like those at all.

“Did you ask who they had that might be able to fight off Ruby?”

“Beatrice?”

Having been put onto speaker phone, Beatrice spoke. Dyna didn’t understand a word of it, but the same was obviously not true of the soldier.

He snorted. A forced faux laugh, but one that still communicated mocking disdain. He said something after. Again Dyna failed to understand. However, she was partially confident that it was not the same language he had first used with her. It probably didn’t matter now, but it would be good to bring up with whoever ended up investigating this incident.

At the moment, she needed to survive long enough to worry about that investigation.

“We were the scout team. Gloat while you can. The Tool-User won’t disgrace himself.”

“We’re not gloating,” Dyna mumbled.

At the same time, Hematite flicked her eyes down to the phone. “Tool-User?”

Dyna didn’t quite catch the first bit of what Beatrice said, but it ended with ‘instrumentium’ or something. The same words that the soldier had just said. Beatrice continued in English after letting the phrase hang in the air for a moment. “It isn’t a natural phrase. Etymological analysis indicates deliberate construction for a specific use.”

“Artificers,” Dyna said. “Or artificer singular. I hope.”

“Your assessment agrees with my own pattern recognition engine.”

“We already knew that,” Hematite said, then shot Dyna a frown. “Unless you thought Ruby lost to a few guys with guns.”

“No. I figured it was either an artificer or an entity.”

“What can their artificer do?” Hematite asked, looking from the phone to the soldier.

Beatrice translated the question. The soldier bared his teeth, spat on the ground at his side, and then clamped his jaw shut.

“I don’t think he’s going to answer.”

“Any analysis from Ruby’s fight with him?”

“Following Ruby disconnecting her call, this system was unable to meaningfully observe the encounter due to limited operational status.”

“Still? Do they want to to get three of their artificers killed?” Dyna, grinding her teeth together. “You call up Administrator Theta right this instant and tell him that I will—”

A short burst of noise came from the phone. It was not quite static but Dyna wasn’t sure how to describe it beyond garbled noise. Distant whispering that sounded almost like Beatrice talking to herself started up a moment after. With all that background noise still playing, a far more defined and audible instance of Beatrice took over.

“This system is now operating in an elevated capacity.”

“That’s it? That’s all it took? I didn’t even finish my threat.” A probably empty threat at that, given that if they died here, it wasn’t like Dyna would have been been able to follow through.

“Stated goal: Assist Carroll Institute artificers. Expected elevated runtime: Unknown. End state: Artificer exfil OR thirty minutes pass,” Beatrice said, all while that garbled background noise that sounded like old modems trying to connect to the internet carried on. “Appropriating local resources for CI-BEATRICE use. Street-level camera control online. Analyzing Ruby-Unknown battlefield—STANDBY. Warning: Current location disconnected from power grid. I cannot access internal cameras of the Kent Lockwood Department Center at this time.”

“We turned off the power,” Dyna said, glancing back toward where the employee area was. It wasn’t far away. “We could turn it back on, I think.”

“Immediate tactical assistance will be limited unless the situation changes.”

“Then we better get on it.”

“There might be computers or servers we have to turn on for her,” Hematite said. “You already know where the power is. I can probably find the security office with my intuition.”

“Splitting up again?”

“You didn’t have a problem splitting up when you went to get…” Hematite waved the phone toward the box pinned under Dyna’s arm. “A board game? What are you doing with that?”

“A… backup plan.”

“Uh huh.”

“What about him?” Dyna asked, waving a hand toward the soldier. “We just going to leave him here?”

“Emerald, Ruby, or Aqua would have killed him already. I…” Hematite shuddered. “This feels like killing in cold blood.”

“He was trying to kill us just a few minutes ago,” Dyna said with exceedingly little sympathy. If he and his friends didn’t want to wind up dead, they shouldn’t have tried attacking people who were just minding their own businesses. “Do you think we can get any more useful information out of him? Beatrice?”

“Precise details of the situation are unknown to me. My recommendation may be flawed.”

“Great. We—”

The sound of shattering glass and faint pops of suppressed gunfire interrupted Dyna. She tensed, moving her finger to the trigger of the submachine gun while simultaneously checking her mirror.

The only eyes on her were those of their captive soldier. Though they didn’t remain on her for long. He angled his head back, drew in a deep breath, and started shouting in whatever language he had been speaking.

Dyna’s finger tightened around the trigger. The stock kicked into her shoulder and the man slumped over. Something wet and warm struck Dyna’s face, but she forced herself to not flinch.

Hematite, on the other hand, jolted. She jumped back with wide eyes. “You shot him,” she said, pointedly not looking in his direction. Her eyes were locked on the ceiling. In the dim emergency light and the radiant light from the submachine gun’s attachment, she looked pale. Paler than usual, anyway.

“He was trying to get us killed,” Dyna hissed. “Actively trying, not just in the past. And we’re out of time. We need to move.”

“Recommendation: Restore power or vacate these premises.”

“Hematite? What does your intuition say?”

“I… I don’t know… I need a moment.”

“Don’t have one,” Dyna said, turning. Between the shout and the burst from the submachine gun, suppressed though it was, they couldn’t stand around and chat. “To the power switch. There is probably a back door for employees if we need. Try to decide by the time we get there.”

Dyna counted three steps of her own before she heard Hematite’s lighter footsteps coming along behind. Despite wearing platform boots, her footfalls managed to sound timid and unsure.

“You killed him,” Hematite said again, mumbling as if she were talking to herself in disbelief. Dyna didn’t bother dignifying that with an answer, which just resulted in Hematite talking again, this time louder and more obviously directed toward Dyna. “I thought you were normal—someone like me, just caught up in all this mess. But you’re just as crazy as the rest of them.”

“I’m not crazy. I just don’t want to die. And if someone is trying to kill me, I’m not going to cry over choosing myself over them.”

“We could have just walked away. He couldn’t walk.”

“He could tell whoever is after us what our plans were and where we were going. Not all of us can just sit down and expect our enemies to kill each other because of our very presence. Some of us have to do things ourselves. And when precogs are predicting my death—”

“Warning: Infighting is [counterproductive] to current goals.”

Dyna clamped her jaw shut. Beatrice was right.

Hematite, however, didn’t agree. “You didn’t have to come after me at all. I might not have predicted your death if you hadn’t. I would have figured something out on my own. I didn’t need your help.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think I’m the kind of person who can just up and leave my friends when they’re in trouble.”

Hematite’s soft steps stopped. When they didn’t start right back up again, Dyna turned, expecting to have to snap at the girl. Instead, she found her wide-eyed with… an expression on her face.

“Friends?”

Dyna blinked. “Yeah. Sure.”

Hematite opened her mouth and closed it without saying anything. Hugging Dyna’s phone to her chest, she quickly stepped into the lead, but not before Dyna caught her black painted lips curling into a small smile. “I’ll take the lead,” she said. “I have the good luck, remember?”

Feeling a chill run down her spine, Dyna hurried to fall in step at Hematite’s side. Not at all sure of how that luck worked, Dyna didn’t exactly want to be in the back if her luck was influencing her to take the lead.

At least the argument stopped. Talking like that, even in the quietest of whispers, was a good way to further give away their already compromised position.

Reaching the employee only door, Dyna held up a finger over her lips. If someone was on the other side and heard them chatting…

Hematite, despite not having a weapon, pushed through the door first.

Nothing bad happened to her.

Dyna moved in with far more caution, pieing off around the corner as best as she could.

The back hallway seemed deserted. Thankfully.

Hematite went right up to the power switch and threw it into the on position. While she did that, Dyna headed over to the side of the door where she had left the Ouija board.

There was nothing there. An empty spot. Sweeping the flashlight up and down the floor in the area didn’t reveal anything.

The Ouija board was gone.

“Beatrice,” Dyna said slowly. “We have a new high priority objective.”