Walter could have warned her. She wasn’t sure that it would have helped, but at least she would have beeen able to mentally prepare. Sapphire was… Dyna didn’t want to say anything rude as she didn’t really know him, but…

Sapphire’s head lolled to one side. His blue eyes didn’t look at Dyna or at the two obvious technicians working on various consoles and terminals. His lips didn’t quite move and yet words formed in the air—not in Dyna’s mind—as he spoke.

“My presence isn’t known outside these walls.” “No one knows me.” “No one will know of me.”

“You’re supposed to be a secret?”

“Tell no one.”

“Okay,” Dyna said, readily agreeing with the single sentence that at least sounded like it had come from Sapphire’s general direction, even if his mouth hadn’t moved. “So you’ve come to support, but you’re not allowed to leave?”

“Support comes in many forms.” “We listen. Or try to. There…” “Is there anybody out there?”

Dyna blinked, trying to parse the… She honestly wasn’t sure if that was a cryptic statement or just Sapphire doing his best to explain. But as she was trying to think, it hit her.

Sapphire was classified as a mind reader. His power had an odd effect on himself where he, for brief instances, would basically be another person. So Walter could very well have sent him for the express purpose of mind reading Ado or Maple. To glean a bit more on their organization and technology. Unfortunately…

“I don’t think that’s going to work,” she said. “They’ve got these masks that block psionic energy. I tried to convince Maple to remove his, and he wouldn’t. Ado did remove her goggles,” Dyna said, thinking back with a hum. “But has since replaced them and added a full protective suit. Maybe I could try again?”

Sapphire sat—or maybe floated—without moving. He simply stared off into space, leaving Dyna shifting awkwardly. Just Dyna opened her mouth, his head snapped up. “Is there… anybody out there?” he asked again, voice coming from Dyna’s left.

“No. They’re wearing protective gear. I just said that.”

His head slumped back down. Dyna took a moment to glance about the room. Although much fancier, it really wasn’t all that different from the Tartarus truck. There were terminals and computers and measuring devices and portable tools hanging from racks. The two scientists, both wearing silver suits, were pointedly ignoring both Dyna and Sapphire. They had just spent half a day stuck in a relatively small space with him.

Dyna wasn’t sure that she could have done it.

Then again, there was a door in the back. Maybe they had left him here on his own and only came over after entering the city. Was there anyone else in charge?

“There are regular doctors here, right? The medical kind?” she asked, mostly looking toward Sapphire but raising her voice to address the whole room. “I’ve got a friend with a leg injury who probably needs it looked at again. Oh and I’ve got… anomalous materials in need of containment.”

“Attention please,” Beatrice said after a few announcement tones. “Please deposit anomalous materials into the Anomalous Materials Portable Psionic Insulation Chamber. To your left.”

One of the techs moved as Beatrice spoke, sliding open a panel on the wall to reveal a steel-sided box quite similar to the one Dyna had seen Emerald carrying the day they met. He pulled it out of a receptacle set into the wall, scanned it underneath a simple barcode scanner, then opened it for Dyna.

Removing the plastic heart from her pocket, Dyna frowned at it for a long moment. Was it really anything? It just felt so… unceremonious to get rid of it like this. Doctor Cross would probably be disappointed that she hadn’t created a new artifact. There just hadn’t been time. Since that phone call, things had been so busy. And then this popped up on Tartarus’ scanners, only it didn’t feel like an artifact. It didn’t feel like anything at all.

Maybe the scientists would figure something out. With that thought, Dyna dropped it into the container. The tech didn’t say a word as he closed it, scanned it again, and replaced it in the wall. A large spinning wheel, the kind found on vault doors, sealed that section of the room off automatically.

“Containment secured.”

Dyna quickly looked up to the corner of the room and found a security camera—one with five lenses behind a clear dome of glass. A bright red light underneath tracked Dyna’s minor movements, watching her as she shifted away from Sapphire.

“Beatrice?” In her shock at seeing Sapphire, Dyna had nearly forgotten that Beatrice had been the one to call her toward the trailer in the first place. “Is there a medical doctor here?”

“You may find Doctor Teeth in the Mobile Medical Sciences Laboratory. Beyond the door near Sapphire.”

“Excellen… Is Teeth his real name?”

“I am not permitted to divulge that information at this time.”

To Dyna, that meant probably not, but she shrugged. “Missed his calling as a dentist. I’ll… chat later, Sapphire,” Dyna said as she moved past him toward the rear compartment.

Sliding the door open, Dyna paused.

The rear trailer must have extended its walls while she was talking. It had a lot of space. More than she would have expected. While the front compartment looked like a computer laboratory with some scientific equipment on the side, this rear area was obviously a hospital. Or modeled after one. Some tables could fold out from the walls. There was a sink and possibly a toilet behind a small protruding door. EKG meters, blood pressure devices, and other light triage tools were hanging off racks. Dyna spotted some of the more esoteric equipment as well, things the Carroll Institute used to examine psychics.

Another two guards, wearing silver suits, stood at the rear wielding rifles. Three other men stood around the room, none of whom were armed. One stood near the back, looking at a display panel. Both the other two were in the middle of long, full stretches. Which just further confirmed Dyna’s notion that the walls had recently pushed out.

“Doctor… Teeth?” she asked.

The silver suited man furthest back turned toward her. The mirrored pane on his suit helmet didn’t let her see his face, but he raised a hand in greeting. “Just one moment. I am ensuring that the sedatives are having no ill effect on our guest,” he said, looking back to the panel.

“Guest?”

The far wall, between the two guards, held a glass pane. At first, Dyna had thought it was a window. The only window in the entire place. It was circular and small. Maybe the size of someone’s head, maybe a little bigger. With thick bolts holding it to the wall, it looked kind of like a porthole on a boat. But, stepping a little closer, the other side wasn’t the outside world at all.

Someone’s face was illuminated by faint blue lights than ran around the other side of the window. Someone Dyna recognized.

“Grafton is here?” Dyna asked with a hiss.

Even knowing he was being traded for Tartarus assisting with Ruby, Dyna wouldn’t have expected him to be brought out before Ruby actually got fixed. Him being here… probably wasn’t that much of a risk given that neither Maple or Ado had weapons. The former was a bit of a coward and probably wouldn’t try to rush in to free him. The latter… would probably just fix Ruby.

At this point, there wasn’t much reason to go out of their way to antagonize the Carroll Institute. Not unless they couldn’t fix Ruby. Even then, even with only a few guards, they probably wouldn’t be making off with Grafton if the Carroll Institute didn’t want them to.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“He is here. Obviously. Walter made a deal. The administrators agreed with his actions. Or so it seems,” Doctor Teeth said, turning fully to face Dyna. “Now you had an injury, correct? I did read the briefing before shipping out.”

“Not me. A friend.”

“Oh, yes, yes. This Matthew person. Where is he?”

“The announcement said only I should approach.”

“Oh, yes, yes… Beatrice? Can I get this stuffy thing off? I can’t even think with it on.”

“Ambient randi levels are high, but non-threatening toward mental or physical wellbeing. Class Three personnel may remove protective equipment.”

Doctor Teeth immediately peeled off the flexible silver helmet, tugging at the collar of the suit. The outer layer was like a dome of silver. Underneath, he wore a full-face mask that looked a lot like what a firefighter might wear when headed into a burning building. He quickly started stripping right there along with the two unarmed suit wearers in the trailer. Both guards standing outside Grafton’s psionic isolation chamber remained still, not taking off their protective gear.

Outside the protective gear, Doctor Teeth was a scrub-wearing older man with thin, silvery hair. Silver in the old-age way, not dyed as Dyna’s was. With a round, faintly wrinkled face, he had an immediately trustworthy air about him. Though Dyna wasn’t necessarily one to trust someone off appearance alone, he was here with the institute.

She wasn’t sure if the scrub-like outfit he had on simply something to be worn underneath the suits or if it was related to his profession. Both of the other two… assistants, Dyna presumed given their obvious deference to Doctor Teeth, were wearing identical clothes.

“Now then, that’s better isn’t it?” he said, donning a rectangular pair of glasses. Once they were settled into place, he waved a hand toward the other two. “I and my colleagues here are, combined, qualified to diagnose and treat mundane maladies and injuries. We were briefed on the injured subject, but so long as the hospital doctors knew what they were doing, there probably isn’t too much to concern yourself over.

“Beyond that, I specifically am a researcher in psionic energy waveforms and… well… I would like a chance to examine this so-called entity if at all possible. That is the reason I volunteered for this assignment.”

“Tartarus has it locked up in an oversized test tube. Out in their truck. I’m not sure how much they’re willing to share,” Dyna said with a sigh. “I don’t know how much I can help either. They’re wary around me. Always interrupting each other when they start straying from ‘safe’ topics.”

“But the entity is a safe topic.”

“Well… yes, but—”

“Excellent,” Doctor Teeth said, beaming a bright smile that showed off nearly immaculate teeth. He turned slightly, looking toward his assistants. “Then let us fetch the principal subject and ensure he is doing alright. While we’re at it, you can point out to me this entity.”

“I doubt you’ll need me to do that. It’s kind of obvious once…” Dyna trailed off.

Doctor Teeth wasn’t even paying attention to her. He moved over to the wall, pulled a heavy-looking lever, and stood back.

A gurney, much like the one Matt had been in when they fled the hospital, folded out from the wall. The two assistants took hold of it, but waited as a panel slid aside not far ahead of them. A cold breeze wafted in through the open panel, which just kept widening into a proper door. A ramp extended out, stretching far more than the small steps at the other trailer. It met the ground at a shallow angle, providing an easy method of getting the gurney up and down the high trailer.

As the two assistants navigated the gurney and Doctor Teeth moved to follow, Dyna paused, looking to the back of the trailer. “What about Grafton?”

“Who? Oh.” Teeth shrugged. “His vitals will be fine—the chamber monitors and regulates everything automatically. I’m just here in case of emergencies.”

Dyna was far more concerned with him escaping, but… he was apparently drugged and guarded. Not to mention that the chamber he was in probably couldn’t be opened from the inside. The suits would keep Grafton from waking up and mind controlling them into setting him free. Beatrice was presumably watching closely, though she might not be able to do much but sound an alarm depending on how annoying the so-called administrators were being.

Besides all that, there really wasn’t much reason to escape. So long as Tartarus followed through on helping Ruby, he was already being set free. No matter how much Dyna didn’t like that idea.

Grafton was a powerful mind-controller with augmentations that might or might not still be broken. Even if they were, Ado was right there. She could probably fix them up in minutes. Probably improving them while she was at it.

By the time she looked away from Grafton’s containment unit, Teeth and the assistants were already halfway across the parking lot. She hurried to catch up, figuring there should be at least one armed person around. Even if it wasn’t her job, she had a vested interest in ensuring Ruby and Matt didn’t come to any harm.

Any further harm.

“Bring out the injured,” Teeth called out, voice several notches louder than it really needed to be.

Everyone was just where Dyna had left them. No sudden attempts at running off with Ruby and Matt and the static entity. Maple stood stiff and straight just outside the truck, barely moving. Probably still worried about the two men with guns standing outside the first trailer—who were actually four now that Dyna looked. Someone else with a gun stood by the front of the Carroll Institute’s semi-truck cab and another stood at the newly deployed ramp. The latter two must have come from the cab. It was certainly large enough for a driver, passenger, and then two others in a rear bench.

“Is this her then?” Teeth said as he neared the truck, looking directly at the static entity. “I thought we were tending to a he, but I suppose—”

Teeth cut himself off with a startled hop in the air as a wave of static cascaded down the girl’s body. Once both his feet were back on the ground, he shifted in obvious unease, throwing a glance to his assistants. Neither of whom looked particularly enthused.

“This… is the entity?” he said slowly, now wary. His teeth were not showing. “I thought it was contained.”

Ado, utterly unflappable in her tone, tapped her knuckles on the glass tube. “This entity is contained. This one,” she said, nudging the girl with her silver boot, “is new.”

“Careful. Don’t kick her,” Dyna said.

Only for everyone present to turn toward her.

“What? Entity or not, I’m pretty sure she tried to help us. You heard her,” Dyna said, looking toward Maple. “Before you shot her.”

“I… Maybe. But—”

“Regardless,” Ado continued. “These scans must be made so we can properly calibrate our equipment. We lack a second containment unit, but it does seem to exhibit extremely negative reactions to disruptor waves. Properly attuned to its being, we may be able to ensure it stays inert long enough for us to properly contain it.”

“If…” Doctor Teeth started slowly. “If containment is required for our safety and you lack the means, it is possible that we inadvertently brought along a suitable alternative.”

“To the best of my knowledge, the Carroll Institute has never encountered entities before this week. I would be surprised if you have something that can contain entities.”

“It wasn’t designed to contain such things, but psionic energy is psionic energy.”

Ado offered a small nod, agreeing to that point.

“It is occupied at the moment, but things can be rearranged.”

Dyna whipped her head over to Teeth. “What? No. Absolutely not.”

“Come now,” Teeth said, turning. “Do you want to try to fight an angry bundle of psionic energy, taking the form of a human? Or would you prefer a regular old human?”

“The psionic energy,” Dyna answered instantly. “Of the two options, one tried to help, the other tried to kill me. Or at least mind control me. And put a whole airport in danger doing so,” she hissed.

“He’s going to be free sooner or later.”

“He is going to stay right where he is,” Dyna said. “And will not move an inch until Ruby is back to normal.”

She wasn’t sure if she had any authority here. She was an artificer. That came with some status. But this was probably akin to a military operation and Dyna was no general. She could call up Walter and maybe get his agreement. That would work.

But he didn’t argue. His teeth clacked shut as he glared.

He wanted the girl. Probably to study.

No… definitely to study.

But Dyna had other priorities.

“Matt is the one you are going to help right now,” she said, pointing into the truck when Teeth didn’t argue for a moment more. “The one with the leg injury. Matt, these people are doctors. Maybe not the most conventional doctors, but they have assured me that they are qualified to tend to injuries. So come out and let them take a look.”

Before anyone could argue, Dyna looked up to Ado. She couldn’t see any of Ado, but the same wasn’t true in reverse. Ado could definitely see Dyna’s expression.

“You,” Dyna said, “quit waving that thing around.”

“But—”

“No buts. Maple and I can keep a disruptor pointed at the girl. It worked well enough the first time. It will work again. You just focus on fixing Ruby. The sooner you do, the sooner we can all part ways and pretend like none of this ever happened.”

Dyna expected some flak from someone. Maybe Teeth. Maybe Ado.

Instead, it was like everyone reached a silent agreement to simply comply. Ado waved her scanner over the girl one last time, checking the results, before hanging it up on a rack and returning to her terminal. Teeth, watching her give in, sighed and looked further back into the truck.

“Matt, is it? Can you move forward to the gurney or do you need assistance?”

“I can move,” Matt said, followed by him getting to his hands and knees and crawling over to the waiting bed.

Dyna felt like someone should have helped him—or at least opened the side door so he didn’t have to crawl so far—but was too busy maintaining her glare at Teeth to do anything about it herself. He made it over in short time regardless. Once in the bed, Teeth and the assistants took him away without further comment. Dyna had half a mind to go after them, just to ensure that they didn’t do anything to him, but didn’t think they actually would. He was just a regular person with some minor psychic ability. Hardly worth getting upset over when compared to psionic entities.

Besides, Dyna had already promised to hold one of the disruptor guns up to the girl’s head.

“Well,” Maple said softly. “Think you made them mad.”

“I just want this to be done with,” Dyna said, pulling down the disruptor she had used against the Hatman. Something… felt wrong. The Hatman was unmoving and so was the girl. It was probably just her imagination.

She wasn’t going to get caught unawares.

“On that, I think I can agree.”