Nico twisted his hair, the left hank that hung long, around his index finger. His gaze was glassy as it drifted across the blank room. Yet it sharpened, imperceptibly, when it grazed Kyte. She had been occupied with the map and various cyan tabs hovering in the middle of the room. Tabs were shuffled at 20-minute intervals on average and a few have stayed up the whole time. Right after Yinzhu left, Kyte threw themselves into the research.
Kyte rapidly scanned the 3d map. Taking into account the Mercury energy readings and cross-referencing those with the base locations, the data collalessed in three general areas: the inner circle of the first tier, scattered about the second tier, and in the underwater mining complex. There were a few exceptions on neighboring islands that may be of importance too. Now, she needed to narrow it down to just one cluster or an outlier.
“Nico.”
“.....”
“Nico, come here.”
“......why?”
Kyte looked over to where Nico had once again slumped into a chair, head dangling out of sight. They sighed.
“We need to narrow down the location of this lab or base. There are clear clusters forming and you are informed on which locations are implausible.”
Nico wanted to help, and he really did. He didn’t want to be cuffed again. The few short hours in that neck cuff already gave him a cramp. But, he was just so comfortable in his doom-slump that standing up was inconceivable, so he didn’t…until his neck snapped forward as a result of a nasty jolt.
“Wha–!?” He shouted, but the rest of the scream died in his throat when he saw Kyte’s unblinking gaze way too close for comfort. At the same time, he also realized he was caged into the chair by her arms as she loomed over him. Nico’s pretty confident he could beat an untrained university student blindfolded, but he was so taken aback by the intensity flickering in Kyte’s eyes that he did not even register that breaking free as an option. A sheepish smile tugged at his lips out of habit.
“The least you can be is helpful after you got me into this mess,” Kyte leaned in closer, “so get up and tell me where the meteor can’t be.”
It was so tempting to nod–one seamless motion and the terrible stare would dissipate, along with Nico’s chance of survival.
“N-O,” he spat back, glaring at Kyte with what he hoped was the same intensity.
“You think your life is already forfeit,” Kyte remarked with a deceptively distant tone.
“Hah! I know it is, which is why this dead man walking has no reason to help you or the government. Imma just spend my last days in peace before the boss comes to cull me.”
“But what if I…this operation is the chance for you to live.”
A slip-up? What had Kyte intended to say?
“You seem a gambling man, Nico,” Kyte continued, “so take a gamble on this one with me, no?”
Clearly, this Kyte had another plan, if that slip-up, intentional or not, was to be trusted. What has a dead man to lose? Whatever terrible plan the student had would at least be more fun than sitting in a cell. Maybe he could get a couple more bottles of wine in him too before he goes.
So, Nico nodded. Kyte’s eyes returned to their normal, impassive state. She stood up and walked to the map like Nico was scuttling behind her; he was. Following where she pointed to, Nico carefully took in the locations. It wasn’t hard to visualize most of their facilities, both inside and out, as indeed he had been to most of them, even briefly. Nico didn’t miss how Kyte’s gaze remained trained on him as he sorted through his thoughts.
“The small cluster of bases closest to the coastline of the first tier are all for storing Mercury about to be exported. They have no facilities for testing,” Nico carefully started. Kyte deleted those dots from the map.
“That base on Nacre Island is nearly abandoned and there were talks of demolition right before I left, but it is possible that they refashioned it.”
Kyte changed the dot color to yellow. A dot in a miner neighborhood on the edge of the second tier was changed to green on Nico’s appraisal of a possible working lab facility. They continued this rhythm until they were left with five green dots and four yellow dots. They were all generally near the bottom of the city complex.
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“Am I done here?” Nico asked with a yawn. Really, those government brutes had kept him up all night with useless questions like: where is your boss? As if he would tell them even if he knew. All the lack of sleep and the mild hangover was really getting to him now. Kyte gave him a curt nod, which he only caught a glimpse of, as he was already sauntering back to his chair. Right as he was about to sit down, Kyte asked “ What do you suppose this meteor thing is?”
“If it’s not a conspiracy, which it likely is, then it’s another piece of junk that the higher-ups are gonna start a mini-war over. Count me out of that.” Nico responded with a huff.
“But suppose it falls into another’s hands, what will happen then?”
“Then that poor soul is as good as dead. Because even if that meteor’s only use is making sensors go crazy, it’s rare enough for the powers to spill blood over.” Nico replied, and added, “they’ve killed more for less.” The only response he got was a soft hum before the rapid taps of hologram windows began.
Which led to the current moment. From watching the tabs Kyte had up, Nico was certain that she went through the locations Nico disregarded again with the government data. So much for trust, he silently scoffed. Not that he was one to talk on that subject. He also noticed as the hours dragged on, that there were certain windows that did not seem to be related to the meteor situation. Those windows were always kept just outside of his sight line so that if he wanted a good view, Nico would need to get up and expose his watching, that was until Kyte pulled up a window that displayed an advertisement for a green-space project on the second tier. The advert had large block letters announcing the time–19:00– and the address of the grand opening of the glorified patch of grass. Now this was interesting. Nico tilted his head up in a shallow nod. The advert was soon replaced with a Mercury energy graph from yesterday. Well, guess Nico will be seeing Kyte again tomorrow.
When it hit 22:00, Kyte called for Nico again. He promptly straightened up and walked to the map again. Kyte had a blurry underwater photo displayed. She pointed to the center where a gray blob could just barely be seen.
“This is the best photo the government has of this lab. The photonic barrier the mafia has around this place is even better than state-of-the-art,” Kyte explained. Nico is listening, but he was more focused on trying to remember which base that was.
“There is very little data on the comings and goings of the place due to its high intelligence defenses. It is quite isolated and inaccessible by anything but a submarine. All of that in addition to continued abnormal readings, albeit minimal in magnitude, from that place as recent as three days ago makes it a highly probable location. The base is called–”
“The Iron Maiden.” They both said simultaneously. Nico chuckled and ran a hand down his face.
“It’s a walking death trap is what it is. We and that government-industry plant would do good to listen to the name and quit now. You know, my neck isn’t even that sore from the cuff. What’s a couple more months?”
Kyte had the audacity to smile at him.
“Perfect. With the location down we just need a plan to scout it out.”
“You’re acting like it’s easy!? You do know how absurd that task is right? They have sent us on a suicide mission!”
Kyte maneuvered a few windows to pull up a blueprint of a submarine. Its design was sleek and minute. Nico noted the Grade 5 missiles attached under its fins. The government certainly isn’t stingy with firepower. “SeaSong” was written at the top.
“This is the perfect vessel. Small and equipped with invisibility cloaking and enough firepower in a pinch,” Nico wanted to interject that with those missiles they could level 10 buildings, but Kyte continued, “ and most importantly, it doesn’t run on Mercury. Interference from the meteor should therefore be null.”
Nico reached over and pulled the photo of the Iron Maiden up again.
“That,” he points an accusatory finger at the blueprint, “is great and all, but,” he gestured at the photo, “what about when we are actually inside the place? I, nor anyone who won’t shoot you on sight, can tell you the internal layout.”
“Which is why we will take multiple trips–”
“And exponentially increase our chances of getting caught and executed?!”
Kyte’s eyes flashed with that same intensity from earlier, and in that instant, Nico felt his heart seize up like a rabbit seeing the shadow of a hawk.
“Do you have a better idea?” Kyte questioned through a tight smile.
Nico mumbled out a “no.”
“Perfect. Now then,” she turned back to the windows, “the first trip down can be a solo mission with the goal of scanning the outside of the base to start constructing our own plans of the place. From the interference of the photonic cloaking, I think I can re-model a scanner to at least bypass most of it. The other task will be to stay to see when people are coming in or out, but maybe cameras can be used instead. The other two will monitor the situation above water.”
Nico shook his head, “aren’t you just a student? How can you mod a scanner and cameras to bypass tech like theirs?”
Kyte smiled, “Oh I certainly can’t, but the good thing about university is that there is no shortage of eager researchers looking to show off. I’m sure they can do it with the simple incentive of bragging rights. Plus, this photograph is relatively dated, the tech to overcome the barrier shouldn’t be too far off now.”
Map scene drawn by author [https://i.imgur.com/23qPD3X.jpeg]
He let Kyte finish her plan, which confirmed without a doubt that researchers love the sound of their own voices going on and on about their ideas. At the end of it all he shook his head once more and ran his hand through his bangs again, “just don’t tell Yinzhu I was a part of this. I don’t want to get stabbed if she actually pops a blood vessel.”
“Well if this scares you, I’m worried how well you will be in the near future,” Kyte said with a knowing glint in her eyes. Nico sighed again and simply dropped his head into his folded arms on the table as he resigned himself to getting dragged into two, two! of Kyte’s outlandish plans. Damn his curiosity and past occupation.