Chapter 25:

That night, Will drove up to where the HQ compound was located and did a quick drive around the area to get a better feel for the layout of the streets around it. He wanted to take a more methodical approach to this trip than he had the first time.

Since the property was out in the hills, there weren’t that many streets to see. Truthfully, there wasn't really much to see, period. Undoubtedly, that quality was one reason they had decided to use this area in the first place.

It wasn't long before he found himself ready to proceed on foot. Rather than just finding a spot he could pull off the road like before, he found an entrance to an off-road vehicle trail. About one hundred yards in there was a small clearing with a decent sized tree he could park behind, to hide his car from any casual observers.

After parking, Will got out of his car and focused on his sight and hearing to be sure his surroundings were empty. Not noticing anything, he began the brief hike to the compound, and once he got within sight of the property line he slowed his pace.

He wanted to be very certain to keep a close eye out for any kind of security systems. He found it interesting, and mildly concerning, that the middle of nowhere place Frankston lived in had more in the way of detection devices than branch HQ. He couldn’t help but wonder if it were something to do with the main people who lived in those places, or what they may be hiding.

Admittedly, he was the type to expect people like the ones he was dealing with, to be awful. That said, he also had yet to be proven wrong, but he did assume there would be exceptions to the general rule somewhere.

Crossing the property line with his energy tap suppressed, he again didn’t see any security measures. He also realized it might boil down to simple arrogance. From what Cierra had told him, this guy wouldn’t be the type to see normal humans as any kind of a threat. As far as other Activated were concerned, he probably just assumed his position and familial links were enough to keep him safe.

He knew he had stepped into range of danger when he suddenly sensed the pull of another Operator in the main building. It surprised him because he was further away from the source of that signal than he had had to get in order to sense Frankston, and he assumed that to mean his range had increased since his trip just twenty-four hours ago. That was also when he realized he had seriously messed up the night before.

He hadn’t had his energy tap suppressed when first walking up to the building. Anyone inside would’ve been able to feel his approach. He could only assume he had gotten lucky, since he also hadn’t sensed anyone besides Frankston.

While possible, Will found it extremely unlikely the branch head would’ve been masking his signature while relaxing at home. If he hadn’t been home at the time, though, that made Will wonder where he HAD been. It also brought up the question of if Frankston had intentionally made his visit during a time when the head wouldn’t be on site.

These were all questions Will just didn’t have answers to at the moment. Dropping it for the moment, he focused on maintaining his stealth, and keeping a watch for movement with all of his senses. For several minutes he waited, but never saw or heard any movement, and the Operator in the house seemed to be stationary.

When he was confident he hadn’t been detected, he started at the edge of the property, and moved in a circuit around the property line. Once again failing to spot any security, he began to move in from the edge of the property. For several minutes, he maintained a slow and steady circuit of the property. When he got behind the outbuilding Frankston had been in, he spotted something he hadn’t noticed the night before.

The roof of the outbuilding had a decent sized chimney poking up from one corner of the building. That wasn't necessarily out of the ordinary, as a lot of these buildings had wood stoves for heating. Being separate from whatever climate control system the main building had, if the building was regularly used, some way to keep it warm made sense.

Even knowing it wasn't all that strange, though, it bothered Will. For one, the building just didn't seem that old. Usually, for something this modern, the owner would just use an electric space heater. It didn't look old enough to not have had electricity wired in when it was built.

Something else that he would need to consider later. A lot of things could have negative connotations if he didn't keep his natural bias under control. Therefore, he would collect data first and go from there.

Continuing his plan, he finished the outside recon of the property without anything else giving him pause, and decided to do a lap around the smaller structure to try and see into it from the windows on its exterior. This was uneventful, as he didn’t see anything obvious that caught his attention. He did notice, however, that one wall of the structure didn’t have any windows.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Deciding now was a good time to sharpen his sight, he very slowly began forming the reservoir of energy in his eyes that would allow him to see clearly in low light. He had to keep the flow slow and steady, because he really didn’t want to cause a spike in his energy tap that would alert the person in the main building.

Once he was satisfied with his vision, he looked back through the windows closest to the wall with no portals of its own. He would have to go in, but it seemed like the wall on the inside of the building was closer than it should be. It looked like there was a space roughly five feet deep that was walled off from the rest of the main room.

Deciding now was the time, Will once again focused on his surroundings for several minutes. He then checked the window closest to the entrance, to look for possible sensors. Finding none, walked up to the door.

There, he detached the tool Artie had created for him from the wrist of his left arm. Placing one end of the tool against the opening of the lock, a tiny metallic probe extended to enter the mechanism. From there, it used some sort of scanning tech he didn't understand to determine the position each tumbler would need to be in to open. Then came the cool part, as a very small stream that looked like mercury flowed along the probe and formed into the shape of the needed key.

With the temporary key formed, all he had to do was turn the lock, and just like that he was in.

Stepping through the door, Will’s first observation of the space was that it really just looked like a storage space. Looking around at the various boxes, he didn’t see anything that stood out. There was some old furniture covered in sheets, an old looking workbench in one corner with woodworking tools on it, an old china cabinet, and a couple of racks that held framed pictures and portraits.

After seeing the main space didn’t hold anything of value, Will moved to the wall that seemed out of position from the outside. With his eyesight enhanced, he could see it had a mural painted on it that showed a man in old fashioned regalia. He was holding court on a slightly elevated dais at the head of a long rectangular table. The table had a line of several people on both sides, all looking up toward the man at the head of the table, so the view was of the backs of their heads.

He would’ve just assumed it was some old painting, except he recognized the man painted at the head. Even his cape was familiar.

All Will could think was that either the man was some important ancestor of the branch head, painted here as some sort of homage. Either that, or the branch head here had some serious delusions of grandeur to go with his obvious pretentiousness. Moving closer, Will looked all along the wall, trying to take in details while ignoring the image itself.

At first he didn’t spot anything that registered as something he should focus on, but then he looked at the ground leading up to the wall. Just barely visible, he noticed a few small discolorations on the concrete leading up to the wall. Taking a wider view, he realized he could see other spots on the floor, and if he connected the dots they led to the door.

Taking a closer look, it became obvious the trail had been created by some sort of dark liquid dripping from someone walking across the floor, and he remembered the splatter that covered Frankston’s white lab coat. Following the trail up to the mural, he began to run his hands lightly over the mural. Then, when his fingers reached the edge of the door in the painting, he felt a tiny crease in the wall.

Following the crease with his fingertip, he became positive he was looking at a very well concealed door. Not seeing anything that could be a handle, he pushed down slightly on either side of the secret entrance, and just barely noticed a slight, inward movement from the section of wall that looked like the table in the painting.

Slowly increasing the pressure he was exerting, the doorway moved in about an inch, and a small cutout appeared on the inside left of the frame. In the cutout, Will spotted two buttons with labels above them. The ‘O’ and ‘C’ labels seemed pretty self explanatory, so Will tried to press the one under the first label.

It didn’t budge, so Will tried the other one, and it didn’t move at all either.

He had yet to spot any security, and everything he had seen hadn’t made the branch head seem like an overly deep thinker. Additionally, the dude clearly had some kind of fixation with archaic aesthetics. With that in mind, Will got an idea of how someone like that might build a secret door. Inwardly shrugging, he decided it was worth a shot and put a hand over the first button again. Slowly, he began to increase the amount of force he was putting on the button.

He was thinking this could be some sort of security that required a strength check. Given how much force he was using, it definitely didn't seem like a normal human would be able to beat it without some sort of tool. His guess was confirmed a few moments later, as he must’ve reached some threshold of pressure. The thing in the wall had just suddenly given way, and he heard what sounded like some absurdly old fashioned mechanism engage in the wall.

The grinding sound he heard from the door opening reminded him of the screech he had noticed the previous night, just before Frankston had emerged from the building. Luckily, opening the door hadn't been overly loud. That did not mean the same would hold true for when the door closed, however.

Quickly looking around, he spotted the workbench and walked over to it. It was basically just old fashioned hand tools, and he didn’t spot any spray lubricant. He did get lucky, and spot what he was pretty sure was an ancient tool for oiling things in one corner. It basically just looked like a capped off funnel attached to a long narrow snout, with a forty-five degree angle at the far end.

Shaking it lightly told him absolutely nothing. Then he tried pressing lightly on where the open end of the funnel would be. It felt like he pushed in and reversed a very shallow bubble in the metal covering the end of the tool, and a tiny amount of liquid could be seen starting to form a drip hanging from the other end. Touching the liquid to rub it between two fingers showed Will what he was hoping for, that it was definitely some type of oil.

"Tin man, eat your heart out," Will thought, sarcastically.

Then, oil in hand, Will walked through the newly revealed opening in the wall.