Shreya was half asleep at her desk while she looked at the numbers the warehouse manager had sent over. She had been trying to inspect warehouse 223 since she got her new job, and it was finally happening.

The silent alarm Zahra had rigged up on her personal dox file went off while she was in the middle of a long inventory list. Why were people always underestimating her? If Varnusha had a personal dox file no one would dare touch it, but because I happen to look good in a dress people think they can touch my things without me knowing about it. She was fuming.

Normally she would send Maks to go bring the underling to her for punishment, but they had insisted on ensuring the safety of the warehouse for her trip there tomorrow and her traveling security detail wouldn’t be here until the morning.

She had promised to stay in her room no matter what, but she was the boss here, right? If she wanted to be the boss she had to act like the boss. Security details answer to their charges, not the other way around. If I want to be taken seriously, I have to take myself seriously. She got up and grabbed her sweater and marched out of her office with all the self-confidence she could muster.

The small security office wasn't that far from her personal room but as she reached the door she realized she was about to surprise a security officer without any sort of security herself. I really am stupid sometimes. No wonder I keep needing rescuing.

She looked around the hallway for something she could use if necessary. She decided her best defense was instead to activate the vocal holo transmitter, which would record everything that happened until she deactivated it and send it to her hidden files on her personal computer. She had told Zahra how to access it should Shreya ever mysteriously disappear.

If something went wrong, Zahra would know what happened and how to either find her or blow the whistle on her killer. Small comfort, but comfort nonetheless. Shreya took a deep breath and opened the door.

----------------------------------------

Tor was glad to be away from the chatterbox for a while. Binard was a good kid, but he missed the quiet Shreya provided. God, I miss her. Even the air in the office seemed fresher when she was there. How did she do that?

He had left the small town a while ago on his walk towards warehouse 223. The town's only real purpose was a rest stop for the train and a refill station for the gas miners who worked the fields.

The fields themselves that Tor was walking around were mostly barren with some tall bluegrass strewn about. He was on some sort of ancient road with crumbling buildings on the sides. They were the remnants of the Aeolians who once lived here.

Tor had spent too much of his childhood fascinated by the people. They had drawn the short end of the stick when they got the pick of the land. Random gas eruptions, no knowing whether the gas that was coming out was helpful or not. Constantly having to repair their homes and shops. That's no way to live life.

Their founder had been an enormous fan of a dead culture and had named everything after it. He imagined how she thought the term Aeolia seemed poetic to describe the land. The land of the wind.

Whatever had been learned from the studies of these gases here was lost to history now. Anna Katapodis wrote solely in the dead language she loved, Greek, and her notes were locked up in the museum in Saltec. Tor had studied it before being the High Journalist and created the most complete Greek lexicon on Henear. Unfortunately, only the four students at the university who studied dead languages cared about it and the jargon used to describe all the equipment and measurements she had used.

As he walked through the barren land Tor let his mind wander back to the meeting with Drake at the library, Anemoi…Aeolus…Kalos…Kakos…Hades. What strange people, I wish I could have met them.

Maks whistled, it sounded so close to what the birds sounded like Tor almost didn't catch it. He looked up and came back to reality where he saw an angry Maks shaking his head. Tor ran over to meet him. “Sorry, just lost myself there.” Tor looked around to scope out the building, “Are we all set up for our personal tour?”

Maks looked at Tor and simply shook his head in the affirmative. I love that man. Why use any words when none will do?

The warehouse was off in the distance with two guards at the main entrance. There was one back door with a camera aimed at it. With how far out this building was, this type of security could only mean one thing.

The air is in there. I can’t wait to watch it all fall out from under Varnusha. Maks signaled to Tor they would be entering the main entrance from the west so it would appear they came straight from the Estate. The plan they had concocted was that Shreya would be touring the facility tomorrow to ensure the proper protocols were being followed and her personal guards had insisted on ensuring the site's safety before her arrival the next day.

Maks and Zahra had informed Shreya that scheduling a meeting to a ‘secret’ warehouse would only make the people in charge get rid of all evidence, if they were to go ahead of schedule they could help mitigate that and ensure there was no trap being laid.

They circled around and met up with Zahra. She gave Tor a pack with an extra set of clothes and a security card, Tor would go in as a new security officer they were using to carry their bags.

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“I don’t like this Tor,” Zahra said. “Too much security for a building all the way out here. Shreya has been to at least a dozen of these warehouses, but none of them have had a security detail. There's nothing out here to secure the building against. You could easily set up cameras and if someone was coming you would know with enough warning to do something about it."

She turned to Tor and gave him a stern look he might have mistaken from a mother if he had had one. "No deviating from the plan Mister Tor. If there is a need for a hero today it will be Maks or me. You are to tell the story, no matter how it ends.” Tor took a big breath and simply nodded. They packed up their gear and headed out towards the warehouse.

As they approached the warehouse the two security guards stood up a little straighter, “Name, badge, and reason for visiting warehouse 223 please?” The guard wore a blue-gray suit that buttoned up to the neck with a matching short-billed cap, his nametag read, Roberto.

“Maks, Zahra, and Drew, here are our badges." Maks took the lead and handed the man their passes to the guard. "We were sent ahead of Miss Shreya to ensure her visit here tomorrow would go smoothly." Roberto looked over their badges and handed them back.

"Who are you, and describe to me the main duties you perform. If you’re approved I will expect you to be here tomorrow when she arrives, if not then I shall appoint a replacement.” Though Maks was a short man, he was not someone to be taken lightly.

He never wore a shirt that constricted his huge arms and Tor could see the guard eyeing them and wondering if he could stand any sort of chance in a hand-to-hand fight with this man. He decided he couldn't and just like that Maks was now in charge.

He informed Maks he was the lead guard at this door and would ensure their complete safety under his watch. Maks made no reply except a look that ensured he would expect no less. They were ushered in and the guard, Roberto followed them in.

If Tor had tried to get in as the High Journalist, Roberto would have no doubt delayed his entrance until someone more powerful came along and gave the ok. All Maks had to do was stare someone down and they were in. Befriending Maks and Zahra was one of the best things Tor had ever done as the High Journalist and most of Henear had no idea how much they owed to these two beautiful people.

Warehouse 223 was impressive and Roberto had good reason to be proud of his posting. He was clearly given the keys to one of the biggest gas warehouses on Henear. There were three large-scale rooms with almost floor-to-ceiling crates full of various gases being mined.

Roberto took it upon himself to show them around from the vantage of the catwalks, and as he walked them from one room to the other he explained how this was the main shipping warehouse because of its vicinity to the train.

As he was talking and walking around, Tor hung back and started looking for anything out of the order. He found an inventory list and skimmed it over. With his total recall, he would be able to remember this list for the rest of his life. After looking it over and figuring out how much air was stored here he did some mental math and figured there was enough air stored here to fill the Floating Eye for 10 years at full capacity.

The bastard. Of course, I’d find this much air here, it’s enough air to let Wilea have their children approved for next year. Wilea needs to stand up for itself more often.

“Please don’t get too far behind Mr. Drew!” Roberto called out from the next catwalk over.

Roberto is quicker than I thought.

They walked through into the next room and again Tor hung back to check out the second room's inventory list. This room had enough Giddy gas to make all of Henear happy to see the end of the world and not even care.

Why would Varnusha store this much Giddy gas? What's the end game here? Tor started to get a sinking feeling in his stomach, even scarier than the giddies he saw a small amount of a gas he had never heard of before, HN-4242. He looked at the descriptors for it and saw it was a golden gas that had just been discovered and was scheduled to be shipped directly to Varnusha's estate.

In the early days of Henear, there were stories about golden storms that were completely devastating to the founders. Everyone assumed the color of the storms was somehow related to the gases.

Green storms always gave people a feeling of not caring about anything, similar to the feeling one got on the giddies. Blue storms always made people calm and cooperative, though the gas for it was never commercialized as people didn't crave it the way they craved the giddies.

Golden storms had become a myth on Henear. They had all but stopped before the first generation had died off. The story was that when a golden storm came the people fell in love with life. Babies were often born nine months after a golden storm. Back when you could have babies at will.

It was just a myth though, people have looked for the golden gas. It doesn't exist anymore if it ever did. As he stood there thinking, Roberto strode over to him and tore the inventory list out of his hands.

"Mr. Maks, your subordinate is unauthorized to look at these lists. Please take control of your man!" He held up the inventory list as proof of his misbehavior.

"My men have been tasked with the safety of the Air inquisitor herself. Nothing is unauthorized for them. Or perhaps you would like to question the Vice Regent himself in this matter?" Maks said with complete authority. Roberto withered in his presence.

"No sir, your word is enough evidence for me. I would ask that any further snooping at least be done in my presence. If something should be found I will need to immediately address it." Roberto said.

"Drew, report," Maks said without even looking at Tor.

"Sir, these lists should be sent immediately to the air inquisitor. She will find these interesting." Tor grabbed the sheets out of Roberto's hand and gave them to Maks. He looked them over quickly then handed it to Zahra, "Do as Drew has said. Send them immediately to Ms. Shreya. She will need to see it before the tour tomorrow."

Tor knew Maks was smart, but he could barely read. Maks' skills lay in his ability to read people and determine threat levels. For some reason, Maks trusted Tor in everything he said, and if Tor said to send it to Shreya, those documents would be sent to her in the next few minutes.

Zahra nodded and began scanning them into her holo to be sent. Once she did she made a signal to Maks that Tor didn't quite understand. She saw something I didn't. That was strange. Tor scrolled through the list in his mind, wondering what he had missed.

Maks responded with a hand signal that looked as though it was a perimeter search, but it confused Tor. Zahra nodded and immediately took off to search the warehouse.

"Roberto, I would like to get to the ground floor. Show me where these boxes are, we need to open them immediately."