“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?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

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.