The fire on the horizon grew in size as they drove closer. The beige building billowing smoke came into view just as their car passed a long line of cars heading the opposite direction. One police-manned gate and a quick parking job later and they were standing right outside the burning building. Alongside them were diligently working firefighters and surly looking police. Kaleb shot them his own derisive look, but Claire and Abby steered him away from anyone in charge. Given his track record with authority figures, Kaleb understood.
Jar-lock moved to discuss things with the cops as Vivienne moved to speak to the firefighters. Kaleb drew his quad-gun as people rushed around with fire hoses. The building was thirty feet high and seemed to extend back a long way. Several more like it sat in a row right next to the towering inferno. All of them were emblazoned with a brand for a cereal company Kaleb didn’t recognize. He worried that the flame would spread to the other buildings, but the firefighters were already seeing to that.
Overhead, Farrah’s drones started taking in the scene and started tracking the missing employees. Kaleb wanted to jump right in, but Two Gun flagged him down.
“We need to wait, son. We’ve got two other agencies here and we need their go ahead before we rush off.”
Kaleb rolled his eyes, but sat back as he watched the fire eat away at the gigantic building. A roll-up door was wide open and he could see more fire inside. Rows of pallets and wide shelves were slowly collapsing as their slim structures were burned to cinders. Police and firefighting drones were in the air, and Kaleb watched a tubby firefighter drone dump water across the building’s roof. Everything seemed to be well in hand here. All they needed to do was rescue the trapped civvies and they could mark another win down.
Vivienne quickly returned with a harried-looking alien. They seemed both sweaty and annoyed as the tall Vivienne dragged them over. The alien was in a suit and tie, but it was bedraggled and Kaleb could smell smoke coming off of them. Everyone crowded around the alien and Vivienne as she gave introductions.
“Mr. Flarink, this is the Lone Star Hounds and we’re here to get your people out. What can you tell us about their ID trackers?”
Flarink’s eyes crossed over all of them before he gave a weak sniff. “As I explained, our TekNik brand IDs were supposed to help identify survivors in scenarios such as this. But come to find out, they are slightly unreliable.”
“How slightly?” Two Gun asked.
“Some have simply stopped functioning, while others imply our people are miles away. It’s been a fiasco!”
“So we don’t know where your people are?”
Flarink nodded slightly. “Some of the devices do appear to be operating correctly, but the others…”
He trailed off as the fire seemed to flare up before their eyes. Kaleb basked in the feeling of warmth washing over his scales. All around them, firefighters rushed to figure out what had caused the flare up. The alien, Flarink, wiped sweat from his head with a pocket square and looked worriedly at his building.
“What exactly are you cooking in there that’s feeding this fire so much?” Kaleb asked.
“Why, I don’t know what you are implying, sir. But we are a legitimate cereal company. Trilli-O’s cereal has been in operation for decades.”
“Okay, but that still doesn’t explain how this all happened.”
“And that’s not our concern right now.” Jar-lock’s voice interrupted any response Flarink was about to give.
The large mage gathered everyone’s attention before he spoke. “We have been authorized to go in and rescue as many people as we can. Fire and Safety will monitor the situation out here while we hunt down the employees. Once all that is completed, our team will stay to help with cleanup and investigation.”
Kaleb sighed as he realized the more exciting aspects of this little jaunt were going to be saved for later. Right now, they had to march into a burning building. Sighing to himself, he took off his lab coat and threw it back into Two Gun’s car. He saw the others doing the same with any of their loose clothes. Abby took off her hoodie, Two Gun his hat, and Vivienne rolled up the sleeves of her robe and put her hair in a ponytail. Once they were all ready to go, Jar-lock lead them toward the open roll-up door.
The fire popped and crackled all around them and the air heated up quick. Smoke was everywhere and Kaleb ducked low as they all crossed the threshold. As soon as they were in, Vivienne and Jar-lock activated some spells that surrounded the entire team in protective shields. Kaleb blinked at the white outline that now covered his body. He could feel it, like a skin-tight suit protecting him from the flames.
“The spell won’t last long, so don’t stray too far. Viv and I will combat the fire here and create a safe space. The rest of you conduct search and rescue. Start at the front of the warehouse and continue toward the back.”
As Jar-lock finished speaking, a long beam from the ceiling crashed into a tall shelf, sending both to the floor, burning. Kaleb gulped as he looked up and saw more joists and beams on fire above them. He twirled his quad-gun to ice and moved away. Two Gun and Claire traveled to the left corner by their entrance as he and Abby took the right. They ran as shelving around them burned and smoke obscured their vision. Thankfully, Viv and Jar-lock’s protection spell made it easy for them to ignore the environment as they searched.
The fire around Kaleb hissed and sputtered out as he waved his gun around. A cloud of ice ate away at the fire as he and Abby moved through the stacks. The shelves wobbled ominously at times, but he and Abby kept an eye on things as they moved. Sometimes a shelf would collapse, sending a wooden crate careening into the cement floor. Burning cereal was everywhere, and Kaleb swore he could smell burning marshmallows. Even through the spell covering his body.
Abby tapped his shoulder as they cleared another row of shelves. “We need to go get our shields reapplied. Jar-lock said they wouldn’t last long.”
Kaleb looked down at his body and he could see the white outline fading slowly. He gave the short woman a grunt and a nod before he stopped spraying ice everywhere. He’d created a large area of safety for them with the Quad-gun, but the fire would soon try and eat its way closer again. They ran back to the entrance and quickly found Jar-lock and Vivienne. The pair of them were creating their own area of safety as the fire raged all around. Combined with the firefighters outside, Kaleb was sure they would have everything in hand.
Claire and Two Gun arrived almost at the same time as Kaleb and Abby did. Claire was carrying two limp bodies on her shoulders as Two Gun led the way for the taller woman. Kaleb saw four bodies already laying next to Vivienne and Jar-lock. They had their own shields and seemed to be breathing fine. As Claire sat down her new finds, Vivienne started casting healing magic on them. Kaleb turned to Jar-lock and pointed his Quad-gun at the flames to help.
“No one on your side?!” Jar-lock shouted over the flames.
Kaleb shook his head as he laid down a sheet of ice. “Not yet.”
“Claire and Two Gun found an employee lounge of some kind! These people were collapsed in there!”
“Collapsed?!” Kaleb asked in confusion. “Why would they collapse?”
“I don’t know. But I’d wager that whatever happened, happened quickly. They didn’t have enough time to get out. So they sheltered in place. But the fire ate up all the oxygen, and they collapsed.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Kaleb nodded at the theory, but something in his gut felt off. He shoved the feeling away and waved a hand at Jar-lock to get his attention.
“We need to re-up our shields. Abby and I are almost to the halfway point on our side. Unless we find more survivors, this next cast should last us.”
Jar-lock nodded as he pulled both of his arms back. The frosty air the big mage had been throwing at the fire disappeared and Jar-lock’s fingers traced a sigil in the air. With whispered words, Kaleb saw the white outline around his body solidify again. He turned to Abby to see her checking on the bodies. Her shield had also been recharged, same with Two Gun and Claire. The old cowboy was waving for Kaleb to come over. He waited for Vivienne to take her place at Jar-lock’s side again, before he addressed Two Gun.
“What is it?!” Kaleb asked as Vivienne and Jar-lock used ice and water spells to keep the fire back. The loud hissing made the noise even worse.
“Have you found a source of all this yet?!”
Kaleb shook his head. “No! But I thought we weren’t supposed to be looking yet!”
“Sure, prof, like you haven’t been trying to solve this puzzle!” Two Gun grinned.
Kaleb smiled back as he shrugged. “I have some theories, but nothing concrete yet! But I think Jar is right: Whatever happened, it was quick. But I also think it started from inside!”
“Why?!”
“All the scorch marks and damage inside are much worse than it is outside! Keep an eye out and I’m sure we’ll find out what caused this.”
Two Gun gave him a thumbs up as Abby and Claire signaled they were ready to continue the search. Kaleb and Abby dove back to their side of the warehouse and started traveling along the wall. Shelves were collapsing everywhere and Abby had to pull Kaleb away from several falling beams. But soon a small structure appeared through the flames. Kaleb made them a path with his Quad-gun, and they soon found themselves outside the skeleton of a small office. The walls were blackened and collapsing. Its windows were shattered and spread out along the floor. Kaleb put as much of the fire out as he could before they got any closer.
The small interior office was an absolute shell of its former self. Through the collapsed windows, Kaleb could see desks and filing cabinets inside. As well as some kind of server farm. But everything was burned. Abby tapped his shoulder as he tried to fight back the fire. Her pale finger pointed inside the office.
“Body!” she shouted in his ear.
Kaleb grunted against the noise, but nodded his head and walked closer. As he did, he kept up a steady stream of ice. They hopped through a broken window and entered the office as Kaleb continued to firefight. Abby rushed the slumped over body. It was seated at a desk, its head and face black from burns. She checked the person’s vitals, but Kaleb knew it was a lost cause. Abby met his eye and shook her head. Kaleb nodded and started to walk back out, but something flashed green and blue in his peripheral vision. He spun to find the source as Abby sullenly walked over to him.
It took her running into Kaleb to snap her out of her funk. Kaleb was too distracted by the military-grade server embedded into the wall of this supposed cereal company. Fire suppression foam covered half of the server and even seemed to harden around the lower half of the electronics. Someone had chipped away at the foam and had successfully uncovered a lower rack of the server. A drive had been pulled, and Kaleb moved to investigate further. Abby's slim hand grasped his arm and dragged him back, almost making him trip. Rounding on the smaller woman, Kaleb wanted to ask why she was stopping him. But then the ceiling collapsed in front of them.
The server and several desks were quickly buried under rubble as Kaleb backpedaled. Abby maintained her grip on his arm as they both turned and dove out the office window. Kaleb quickly snapped to his feet after rolling to safety. Nearby, a black cocoon of shadows engulfed Abby, before it quickly spat her back out again. She reappeared on her feet a few steps from him.. Kaleb started spraying things down again as Abby pulled him down. She shouted in his ear again, and Kaleb wanted to roll his eyes.
“You’re welcome!”
Kaleb gestured with his gun that they should continue. Abby smirked and turned her gaze back to the collapsing office space. The short roof of the in-door office had collapsed and whatever they had found was now buried. Kaleb was sure that in whatever aftermath came from this little outing, they would not be allowed back in there. The company would claim proprietary secrets and the cops would say it was out of their purview. But whatever that server had held, it was enough for someone to try to burn down a building.
He and Abby continued their journey down the right side of the warehouse. They found three more bodies, two of which were breathing. Taking the bodies back to Jar and Vivienne, Kaleb tried to explain what they had found. But was waved off for later. Which Kaleb understood, shouting in a smoke-filled warehouse was getting old.
It took them a few more trips to clear the remaining warehouse. Once Two Gun and Claire joined them at the back of the large space, they teamed up to travel down the middle. At that point, they and the firefighters had put out enough of the flames that it was safer to move around. The warehouse’s support beams were scorched, but they seemed to hold. The building creaked ominously, and it probably smelled terrible. But they didn’t have to shout anymore.
But when Kaleb tried to explain what he found again, Two Gun and Claire both stopped him. Kaleb sullenly stopped trying to bring it up. But when they got back to Jar-lock and Vivienne, he could see why they stopped him. A cop and a firefighter were in a heated discussion with Jar-lock. Kaleb couldn’t hear what they were saying. But from the frustrated look on Jar’s face, he could tell it wasn’t a cheerful conversation.
Not wanting to impose, Two Gun and Claire led Kaleb and Abby out of the warehouse. Once outside, Kaleb was surprised to see that evening was turning into night. The street lamps had come on and police sirens blazed red and blue in front of the warehouse. Again, he tried to bring up what they had found, but Claire coughed aggressively over him. Two Gun practically dragged Kaleb toward their car before he managed to get a word in. Once he did, it was less the complimentary.
“What the fuck is with you two?!” Kaleb hissed as he looked around.
Firefighters and police were lingering around the smoldering building. But it didn’t look like anyone was trying to overhear. Two Gun waved for him to calm down as Claire gulped down a bottle of water she had procured from their car. Once the big woman was finished, she reached into the front seat and brought out two more bottles. She passed them to Kaleb and Abby before whispering.
“It was an inside job.”
Kaleb stared blankly at her before he snorted. “No shit. How did you two figure that out?”
“The bodies in the break room, for one. The way they were slumped over. It looked like someone had put something in their food. The ones we saved were barely alive as it was.”
“Another clue was I found tracks outside an emergency door along our wall.” Claire said. “It looked like a small truck.”
Kaleb nodded. “So someone drugged the warehouse workers? Stole something from this ‘cereal company’ and then set it on fire to cover their tracks.”
“Yeah, ‘cept we don’t know what was stolen.”
“There was a drive missing from a high-grade server rack.” Kaleb supplied.
“All this for one drive?” Claire asked.
“People have done dumber things.”
“And why aren’t we telling the cops this?” Abby asked.
“The real question is, why didn’t they tell us?” Claire argued. “The tracks are obvious and we all know there is nothing inside this warehouse that could’ve started this fire. We couldn’t even find the source of the blaze. Could you?”
Kaleb shook his head. “No. The fire was everywhere, but I couldn’t find a point of origin.”
“Us either.”
Kaleb watched Jar-lock and Vivienne stomp their way out of the warehouse. Vivienne was visibly pissed off, but Jar was keeping his cool. But Kaleb could see a large vein pulsing on the mage’s forehead. Whatever conversation the two mages had with the cops and firefighters, it wasn’t a good one. They all became quiet as Jar-lock joined their little circle. The big man took a long, shuddering breath before he blew it out slowly. His obvious anger seemed to calm Vivienne as she watched her boyfriend.
“Jar…?” Abby asked.
“They won’t be paying us for this little escapade.”
Kaleb grunted in annoyance as everyone started shouting angrily. Toward the warehouse’s entrance, he saw a pair of cops watching them with smiles on their faces. Kaleb had to forcefully stop himself from going over and electrocuting the smug assholes.
“They say since we didn’t bring the bodies out to be looked over by ‘trained professionals’, we forego we’ve broken our contract. Our job wasn’t to administer aid, just get them out before the fire was put out. We didn’t accomplish that, so they are saying we failed in our mission,” Jar-lock explained.
“I’ve already submitted our drone footage, and a written reprimand to city hall.” Farrah said in their ears. “I don’t know how long it’ll get stuck in red tape. But they can’t penalize us for going above and beyond.”
“Doesn’t stop them from trying.” Claire hissed.
Kaleb rubbed a hand down his face. His body was hot, and he desperately wanted another water. “Let’s go home. We saved some lives and uncovered some hidden plot. Let’s discuss what we do next back at the hangar.”
Everyone around him nodded as a small voice spoke up from behind their huddle. “Umm, excuse me… What plot?”
They all turned to see Mr. Flarink wringing his hands in frustration. Kaleb grinned as he pushed his way toward the sweaty alien.
“That depends, Mr. Flarink.”
“On what?”
“How much you want to know what happened to your corporate warehouse? And how badly you want what was taken from you.”
Kaleb grinned as the sweaty alien’s eyes bulged in understanding. He looked back over at the cops, who were still patting themselves on the back. Kaleb’s friends pushed closer, blocking Mr. Flarink from the smug cop’s gaze. The alien seemed to wrestle with something internally before he came to a decision.
“How much do you charge?”