Victor DeRosa was, as always, having a bad day. The chefs had finally figured out how to make a couple of decent meals, and he was actually looking forward to eating one. It was on its way from the kitchens when the director of Central Communication had burst into his office unannounced to discuss some “important business.” Ordinarily this was an acceptable frustration. Alas, he knew that this particular interruption would cause the food to be lukewarm, and the thought of having to wait even longer for a fresh dinner caused his blood to boil. He regarded the toadish man before him, who had spent the last several minutes heaping praises on DeRosa for all his accomplishments.

Warranted, to be sure. Nothing he didn’t know. His patience worn thin, he steepled his fingers and met Addison’s eyes. “Get to the point, Director. What, exactly, was so urgent that you needed to see me without notice?” The tone was flat and dangerous. Addison was a useful man, but far from irreplaceable now that his grip on the government had been solidified.

“Vic – ah – Councilman, sir. We were getting some strange readings from the bandit camp in Duilleag over the last month, and after further study, I’ve determined that the cause was a Transportation Array.”

“And you’re certain?”

Victor kept his tone calm, but there was an eagerness bubbling up that he was struggling to suppress, all thoughts of the meal he missed immediately evaporating from his mind.

“There’s no doubt at all, sir. A Transportation Array was activated roughly a month ago, and has been recharging, steadily syphoning mana in Duilleag ever since. At its current pace it’s likely it will take at least another year, maybe more, before it’s functional again.”

Addison paused, dabbing at the sweat on his brow with a kerchief before continuing. “Of course, with our current understanding there’s room for error. I’m not sure how a group of bandits got their hands on one, but I’d very much like to examine it. Why, think of the applications! We could…”

The Central Communications director blathered on for a while, with Victor no longer listening. Transportation Arrays were a closely guarded secret for a reason. The ability to move people and supplies nearly instantaneously across the mana network was too useful. They had been instrumental in the formation of the Central Authority – allowing troops and provisions to suddenly appear at critical moments, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

In the years of peace that followed the establishment of the Central Authority they had become less and less necessary. Supply chains were developed, resources were more effectively managed, and threats from nature were suppressed. Even still, they had a place for disaster relief. In those early days it was a more open secret, but as time wore on, they faded into obscurity. That owed mainly to the fact that the Originators had taken the majority off-planet when they’d left, and only a handful remained. At least until that man took them.

There was only one person who had both the knowledge to use them and the opportunity to obtain them. I’d hoped you were dead, Valentine, Victor thought, keeping a scowl from forming on his face as he returned his attention to the man in his office.

“Why, I could scarcely believe it, but after all the analytics there was no doubt. I must tell you, Councilman, that it was a real undertaking to discover it. I had never seen the schematics before, but after pulling a handful of records, we were able to piece it together…”

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Victor’s breath caught at that word, and his gaze sharpened as his eyes fixed on his guest. He thought he’d controlled his expression well enough, but Addison seemed to notice the change and visibly paled, stopping halfway through his sentence.

“Sir, would you like to me to inform Reynolds? We can dispatch a unit right away. Yes, that would be best. I-I’ll get going right away, sir. Thank you, sir.”

The middle aged man was sweating again, and made his way towards the door. With a sigh, Victor activated MANA WHORL and effortlessly slammed the door shut, while other tendrils of mana wrapped around Addison and held him fast. “Addison, who else have you told?” Victor said with a sigh.

“N-N-Nobody of importance, I swear! I barely knew about their existence myself! I just had my analysts run the numbers, that’s all! I swear! Please! Please! Pl-“ *SNAP* Addison’s final word was cut short with a quick twist of the mana that had encircled him – his neck breaking cleanly. Now alone, Victor allowed the heat to rise in him as he gritted his teeth. Now he would have to deal with every analyst who had touched this project, and likely the staff at Central Administration who had released the records. Addison was easily replaced – bootlickers were a dime a dozen – but competent analysts were much harder to find. Still, it was a necessary cost.

The revelation of a recently-used Transportation Array was significant, though the other fact it confirmed was equally so. Gregory Valentine was alive. Victor came up in Central Defense with the man, and despite different convictions he’d respected Valentine until he turned deviant. Victor genuinely believed he was dead; it had been nearly a decade since he’d last heard the name mentioned. But the pieces fit too well, and if Valentine was still out there, Victor would be a fool to take him lightly.

That wasn’t to say, however, that he was without options. He opened his desk drawer, then with the tendrils of mana still circulating around him he lifted the false bottom and simultaneously opened the seven locks. The lid popped open, the explosive within disarmed as he took out the small device. When Valentine defected, he’d taken the three remaining arrays that were locked in the Central Defense Vault. What he didn’t know at the time was that there were two other arrays still in the Central Authority’s possession, and Victor had one of them. While he wasn’t certain where the last was held, it was likely as not on the other side of the world, destroyed by the calamity that had changed everything.

Knowing one of the arrays was unusable for the better part of a year, that would leave Gregory with a maximum of two that were functional. Used appropriately, he could probably mobilize a strike force of eight to ten awakened. That was a threat – even eight elite awakened soldiers in the middle of Nierburg could cause a lot of chaos. What’s more, the existence of the arrays would mean that there was no way to guarantee a decisive blow. Valentine and his ilk could simply escape if they were cornered. Furthermore, short of taking the field himself, Reynolds was the only other man who could hold his own against Valentine, and even that was likely a coin flip at best.

His frown deepened as he considered the problem. If the Central Authority fielded more military power to pin Valentine down, he and his followers could simply jump to Nierburg and strike a deathblow to Victor’s growing empire before it ever had a chance to blossom. The alternative was to leave him out in the wild uncontested, and risk passivity playing right into his enemy’s hands. A conundrum to be sure, though as he considered all his options an idea began to form. Victor smiled. My advantage, Gregory. He deactivated MANA WHORL, still holding the device while he continued to consider the path ahead, completely ignoring the lifeless body of Addison on his floor until he nearly tripped over it. Snapping out of his reverie, Victor decided on the next steps. He called the one man he knew he could trust.

“Reynolds, get to my office. Alone. We have work to do.”