Following her arrival back on campus, Dyna realized that she had no idea where to go. A quick call to Beatrice resolved that problem.

She had figured that she would be directed down into the deepest darkest depths of Psychodynamics, deeper even than the Vault, perhaps. However, instead of taking the elevator in the administration building down underground and into Psychodynamics, the elevator went up.

The administration building had the appearance of a modern skyscraper—though stunted with only six floors plus the arboretum dome on top. The elevator didn’t even go all the way to the highest of the regular floors before stopping. Dyna stepped out onto the fourth floor and, following Beatrice’s directions, headed from the large open area where the elevator dropped her off toward a short hallway.

There were two offices in the hallway. One on either side. Dyna could see clearly into both of them; their walls were solid panes of glass. Even the doors were glass. A lot less privacy than she had been expecting from the mysterious administrators, but she supposed not many people came up to this floor.

In fact, there was someone else here. At the end of the short hall, near the doors to both offices, was a fairly extravagant desk. Matching the doors and walls, it was made from glass. Frosted portions provided tasteful decoration to keep it from being just a solid sheet. At the terminal behind it, a shorter man typed away. A glass plaque with frosted lettering identified him as Justin Joesph IV — Administrative Secretary.

As Dyna approached, he stopped typing on the keyboard. He looked up, clasped his hands together, and smiled.

“You must be Miss Onyx.”

“That’s…” Dyna sighed. She still felt like the whole alias thing was a bit silly. Even if it kept her name of records that she would probably prefer it far away from, everyone knew who she was. It wasn’t fooling anyone. That said, she nodded her head. “Yeah. I guess I have a meeting with Mister Theta?”

“The office to your left,” he said, pointing to his right with one hand while pressing a button merged with the surface of his desk with the other. The door of the indicated office let out a small hiss and slid aside. “Administrator Theta will be with you shortly.”

“Alright. Thanks,” Dyna said, stepping toward the room.

The door hissed shut behind her.

The office was large and open, but still had a vague division into three parts. The first, furthest from the door, was a long black-marble desk. A small terminal occupied the far end of it, leaving the rest smooth and blank. A matching black marble wall stretched just slightly longer than the desk—reaching from the window to about the halfway point of the rest of the room. Thin bars of brass were set into it at varying angles and the entire center had been carved inward to form a bookshelf, upon which a great variety of books looked like they had been arranged more for decoration than actual reading.

Where the bookshelf’s black marble ended, a new section of the room began. A meeting room of sorts. There was a long wooden desk surrounded by black leather chairs. One wall, made from wood, clearly had either a television or a projector screen recessed into the ceiling. Other than that, it was a fairly simple area, leaving little to distract from any meetings that might be held. The wall between could be extended to fully partition off the meeting room from the rest of the office.

Front and center, a respectful distance from the desk and meeting area, was something for more casual encounters. Two long couches and one small chair, all set around a low table. There was a potted plant that might have been fake in one corner and a few abstract statues on the table that might have come from that hobbyist shop.

A quick glance around for a familiar feature found nothing. There were none of Beatrice’s five-lens cameras anywhere in the room. Looking out the window, she didn’t see any in the hall or in the similarly-decorated-yet-subtly-different office across the way. Beatrice was apparently not allowed in here.

Dyna wasn’t sure where she should sit. There were too many options. The lounge-like area would have been her first choice, but maybe this wasn’t so casual a meeting. The chairs across the desk or around the meeting table could be more appropriate. The secretary had given her no indication and, looking through the large windows back to the hall, he wasn’t paying her any mind. With the way the terminal was off-center, he had his chair angled away from her in order to…

He was playing a video game.

Still, Dyna didn’t think she could be comfortable in an office like this. Working or visiting. It was… too awkward. At any moment, that secretary could turn around and see her standing around.

Best to find something to do.

The books behind the desk seemed like something she could at least pretend to look at while she waited. In truth, she was a bit nervous. Beyond nervous, even. While she approached the shelves, she didn’t even look at a single spine.

The whole bus ride back, she had been psyching herself out, realizing that she was psyching herself out, trying to calm down, and back to the start. It wasn’t her fault. The way everyone talked about them, from Beatrice to Ruby, made them sound like they were some omniscient council lurking in the shadows while keeping the Carroll Institute dancing to their puppet strings. Dyna knew that was ridiculous; people in real life didn’t act like cartoon villains. Mostly. The jury was still deliberating on Id.

Seeing his office actually put her at ease. At least somewhat. It was… normal. A bit fancy, yes, but for the office of an important person, she felt it was probably average at best. There were certainly some CEOs out there with far, far more opulent offices. And the window for a wall gave it an air of transparency. Like there wasn’t anything to hide.

Dyna doubted that there was nothing to hide. That was just what the design choices made it feel like.

A hiss of the door behind Dyna made her jump a foot into the air. She turned around to find… not what she expected to find.

From his deep voice, Dyna had expected someone more like Walter. Large, barrel-chested maybe, with muscles to fill out whatever clothes he wore.

Instead, Ichabod Crane stood in front of her. A scrawny man with tailored clothes that couldn’t hide how little muscle he had on his body. His nose, large and pointed, still looked small when compared to his ears. His ears would put those of a flying elephant to shame.

The door slid shut behind him as he stepped into the room, carrying a thin attaché case in one hand and a whole bundle of folders under his other arm. He stopped and smiled a kind smile when he noticed Dyna standing behind his desk.

“Ah, Miss Onyx. May I call you Dyna? Or would you prefer Miss Graves?” he said, voice unfitting in how deep it was, yet still familiar from the brief phone call.

“Yes please,” Dyna said. “I mean, the middle one, if that’s alright. Just Dyna.”

“Oh? I would have thought your preferences would align with a codename.”

Dyna gave a half-hearted shrug. It was a bit… cringe-worthy? Ruby and Emerald sounded fine. Like it was just their regular names. Dyna didn’t even know their real names—though Ruby insisted she didn’t have one. Alexanderite, when shortened to Alex, was fine as well. Sapphire was a bit strange, but… well…

No one would confuse Sapphire with anyone normal.

In comparison, Onyx wasn’t really a name people walked around with regularly.

Codenames were probably fine, but only when they didn’t sound awkward to use.

The administrator took her shrug for a full response. “Then, Dyna, if you would like to take a seat,” he said. With his arms full, he could only nod toward the lounge chairs toward the middle of the office. “I’ll be with you in just a moment.”

Dyna popped out from behind his desk immediately, hoping he didn’t think she had been snooping, and quickly—without looking like she was rushing—headed over to the seat around the low table.

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“I apologize for my tardiness,” he said, taking her place behind his desk. Setting the case on top, he opened a drawer and started unloading the supply of folders from under his arm. “There were some changes recently. Very recently. Caused a bit of alarm among a few of my coworkers. I had to calm them down and set matters in order before coming here.”

“It’s no problem. I just arrived.” Though if she had known that he wasn’t ready for her, she would have stopped at the dorm first. She was still carrying her purchases around.

Hopefully he wouldn’t ask.

“Ah. Good. Good,” he said, sounding somewhat distracted as he read the front of one of the file folders. Rather than place that one in the drawer, he slid it over toward the terminal at the end of his desk. Work for later, Dyna assumed. “In truth, I’ve been wanting to meet with you for some time,” he said as he filed away the final folder. Looking up, the corners of his eyes wrinkled as he smiled. “Just haven’t had a good excuse until now.”

“You need an excuse to talk to people? Aren’t you supposed to be one of the top bosses around here?”

“That doesn’t mean I can simply ignore rules and protocols. I helped design most of them and, because of that, I know well the reasons they are in place.” He gave a wan smile as he stepped away from the desk and took a seat on the longer couch. With it being fairly low to the ground, his lanky body looked a few sizes too large.

“Make no mistake,” he continued, “the Carroll Institute has its enemies. With the rise of psychics, it pays to be more than careful. Wouldn’t want those of us running the place suddenly working against it. Anonymity, restricted meetings, extra training in the hardening of the mind, regular examinations and screenings to ensure everyone is still themselves… It’s tiresome, bothersome, time-consuming, and generally annoying, but helps to keep everyone safe.” Leaning in, he dropped his voice to a false conspiratorial whisper that took no effort to hear. “You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get a date when you’re obligated to perform full background checks and get their mind scanned to ensure they aren’t spies or otherwise compromised.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a turn-off,” Dyna said, not sure what else to say. Better to try to get the topic back on track. “So what changed today? I mean, I’ve been making off-hand comments about meeting with you guys for… months now. Most of those comments were less serious intentions to try to meet and more complaining about whatever was bothering me at the moment that I felt I could blame on other people, including today, so it just seems odd that Beatrice would choose this time to reach out to you on my behalf.”

“There was an… ah… incident that required me to ascertain the location and current actions of several of our operatives, you included. Beatrice was already on call with you, providing a convenient method of immediate contact.”

“Incident?”

“Well, I can’t say too much. A few of us had a bit of an abrupt change in scenery,” he said with a laugh as if sharing a joke that Dyna wasn’t a part of. “It is under investigation, but seems to be resolved for the moment. Don’t worry about it.”

That wasn’t something Dyna was sure she could do. What happened that would require them to contact her? Had someone been snooping around the computers again and, knowing she had done so in the past with Ruby, wanted to make sure it wasn’t Dyna? Had something happened to one of the other artificers? Was someone after her—or the others—again?

Her frown must have conveyed her thoughts. He held up a thin finger and shook his head. “It is resolved. Nothing to worry over. Nothing bad happened to anyone. Rather, I was hoping we could discuss a small matter of some actual importance.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, I…” He trailed off, looking to his sides. Not finding whatever he was looking for, he glanced down at the floor then leaned forward until he was looking underneath the couch. He sat back with a frustrated frown, only to snap his long fingers. “Ah.”

Standing, Administrator Theta crossed the room, picked up the attaché case from his desk, then walked back. Setting it down on the low table, he flicked open the two latches and opened the top.

The first item he pulled out was a small pill-like bit of black plastic. He set it down on the table. “This,” he said, “is a tracking device.”

Dyna didn’t bother to hide her scowl. “You want me to swallow that?”

“First, no,” he said, laughing. “That’s wacky nonsense. It would just pass through your system. We want you to carry it with you until you agree to a minor surgical incision to allow for a subdermal tracking device.”

“Excuse me?”

“It isn’t anything nefarious. You recall what happened to Ruby recently? Disappearing from our reality and popping into another? You found her because a tracking device worked. We would hate for something similar to happen to you and have no way of locating you to bring you back.”

“That…” Dyna kept up her scowl, but she had to force it a bit. They could already track her phone, she was absolutely certain of that. Maybe they would have to let Beatrice off her leash a bit, but they could do it. Carrying around an extra device seemed unnecessary.

Yet it did make some small amount of sense. What had Walter said back then? Two methods of tracking Ruby had failed but a third had succeeded? If this, or the subdermal implant, was the same as that third tracking device… it probably wasn’t a terrible idea.

Maybe it didn’t sit right with her because of her apartment and the somewhat subversive experiments she planned on doing there outside the institute’s direct oversight. At least they were telling her about it. She glanced over to the transparent glass looking out into the hall, wondering if she was reading a bit too much into the open and nothing-to-hide image it presented. Some of the tests that she somewhat regularly underwent required anesthesia. They could easily have slipped in a tracking device without her knowing during one of those sessions.

They were not only telling her, but asking for her permission. And apparently giving her time to think about it with the pill-like tracker.

“I could… probably do that,” she said.

“Nothing to worry about. I have one, as do the other administrators. Walter, Doctor Cross, all the other artificers. It is a fairly standard bit of equipment for everyone’s safety.”

“I see,” Dyna said, picking up the tracker. She wasn’t quite sure where to put it. Maybe her wallet?

“Good. Next up,” Theta started as he pulled out a photograph.

Someone Dyna recognized.

“This man, Phineas Darq. Spelled with a q. We want to know more about him.”

Dyna slowly shook her head. “Everything I know already went into my report.”

“Yes. We would like you to find out more, if possible. You have means of contacting Tartarus.”

“Maple gave me his phone number,” she said with a mild grimace. “Assuming he hasn’t ditched the phone.”

“Great. Use that. I, personally, would prefer if you avoided physically meeting with any of them—”

“So would I,” Dyna mumbled.

“But Tartarus represents an extreme unknown. More so than other psionic research initiatives.”

“Because of entities?”

Theta nodded his head. “You, at the moment, are our only real ‘in’ with them. The method through which Doctor Darq sent his research on the Hatman has been dormant and unresponsive since the event. We already know Id is interested in you and would like to use that.”

“I’m not sure how appreciative they will be to get a call from me. I don’t think we parted on the best of terms. I kind of stole… uh… everything they had. The Hatman. November. That model heart—which nobody has gotten back to me about yet. One of their masks. And a disruptor. They walked away from that with nothing more than some broken equipment.”

“Then this operation will also serve to gauge their continued interest in you and whether or not they represent a future problem for you and the institute as a whole.”

Dyna folded her arms across her chest, leaning back in the seat. This, somehow, was even less appealing than carrying around a tracking device. It was not lost on her that they wanted her to have a tracking device before trying to contact Tartarus either. Did they expect her to get kidnapped? Nothing bad had happened last time, true, but there had been extenuating circumstances with the Hatman on the loose.

Then again, more hazard pay would be nice. Now that she had an apartment, getting a car was a slightly higher priority so that she could move between the institute and Idaho Falls at will rather than on the bus schedule.

And maybe… she could get some other concessions out of this.

“I want access to the artifact database,” Dyna said, nodding her head. It was what she had wanted earlier and that hadn’t changed. Doctor Cross had said that the administrators blocked his attempts at additional artifact creation experiments. She considered asking for that, but if denied, that might tip her hand a little too far and too early.

Dyna did not want to find herself under even more scrutiny while trying to create artifacts. Not if the administrators thought they had a good reason for stopping it. Unless she found out that reason and was able to argue against it, Dyna would try to keep her plans to herself.

Theta, for his part, hummed a bit in his deep voice. “What do you plan to do with the database?”

“Browse it?” Dyna said with a shrug. Realizing that that probably wasn’t a good enough reason, she quickly continued. “I mean, I didn’t exactly have a proper artifact selection process. Can’t I swap the mirror with something else?”

“Swapping is a question for Doctor Cross and Walter.” Tilting his head to one side, he asked, “Does the mirror displease you?”

“It’s… Yes. Yes it does. Half the regular clairvoyants here probably are better suited to do what I do with it. They would do it better, even, since they don’t have to carry around a physical object.”

“I see. As I said, you would have to talk with the specialists to know more. But…” He nodded his head twice. “Yes, I should be able to grant you limited database access.”

“Good,” Dyna said, trying not to smile too much. “Then I can try contact… Wait, one more thing.”

“Oh?”

“Beatrice.”

“Beatrice? What about it?”

“I want the ability to raise her… I don’t know what it is called, exactly. Operating level? Permissions? Her ability—”

“That,” Theta said immediately and without hesitation, “is something I will not be agreeing to.”

“But… why? She could be doing so much more.”

“Yes. That is exactly why.” Theta closed his case, locking the two latches again. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to let that one drop.” He stood up. “I’ll see to getting you access to the database as soon as possible. As for the information gathering mission, I will have a meeting with Walter later this week to determine the exact details and parameters of the operation. He will meet with you sometime after. Does that sound good?”

Dyna let out a sigh. She could probably say no. Contacting Tartarus was probably on the very bottom of things she wanted to do. But that would probably see her with no access to the artifact database. And that, she wanted. One out of two would have to be good enough.

“Alright. Just tell me when and where.”