“Maybe we should have waited until winter for this.” Said Helmut as Tanya took a turn necessitated by the search pattern.
“Do you sense your body?” Tanya asked. They were using Telepathy as the roar of the jet ski made using vocal communication unwise.
“No, not yet.” Helmut replied, “But are we even near the right spot?”
Agent Mentalis cut in: “The melt cycle has made conventional geographic searches impossible. However, the hyperglaciator’s permafrost coating at the bottom of this lake is thickest here, so it’s bound to be near your body.” It was a little strange, as a woman of science, to know that a mountain of ice was beneath this liquid water, but Agent Mentalis had explained the phenomenon quite thoroughly to Dr. Zhou on the way here to Grulovia. In summary: The hyperglaciator was designed to make ice that sank. It only sank to about two hundred meters, but the depth of the lake was half that, so it didn’t matter. Tanya was unclear as to why this was supposed to be helpful.
“It occurs to me, “ Agent O’Peia said over the mental link, “-that if the ice is mostly here because of psitanium deposits reinforcing the cryokinetic core, that the thickest part may instead be where the largest deposits are instead of the center of the effect.”
The link was silent as Tanya continued to maneuver the jet ski in the predetermined search pattern. “I remember a rocky coast.” Bob sent. “Are there any islands on this lake? I don’t see any… is the lake at a higher than normal elevation? How’s the rainfall been this year?”
“Perhaps we should all take a good look at the lake’s perimeter before we start doing research in that direction.” Recommended Agent Boole. “Come on Bob, let’s take a walk around the lake.”
“Ugh, walking…” Bob moaned, but he started moving nonetheless.
After another half hour, the search pattern had covered the entire area, with no detectable tether. “Well, there goes the easy way.” Helmut commented as Tanya brought the jet ski back to the base camp, which was a lakeside cabin of some rich Grulovian that they had rented for the expedition. Agent O’Peia handled that part, Tanya wasn’t really clear on the specifics.
“Well, I do have a few ideas, and made sure to bring my toolbox and some spare psitanium.” Agent Mentalis said, telekinetically fetching the aforementioned toolbox. “Tanya, where did I leave the spare psitanium?”
“You put it in the thawing pod to save space.” Tanya said as she refilled the jet ski’s gas tank.
Agent Mentalis thought back, and nodded in agreement. “Right, right. Dr. Zhou, where did you put the thawing pod?”
Dr. Meiling Zhou was a half-Chinese Norwegian cryonics scientist, a capable psychic in her own right, and overall was just a pleasant lady. She volunteered because she liked field work a lot more than her peers. “Oh, I put it near the dock. I’ll get your psitanium, Dr. Mentalis.” Also, she had great English skills. Most of them could only read in English, with atrocious spoken English.
Once retrieved, Agent Mentalis explained his idea. “While I was hoping that Helmut could just sense his body using normal methods, there’s a few reasons why he can’t. First, the local psitanium could be providing interference, lowering the effective range of the tether.”
“The psychically active neural tissue should still be functional.” Dr. Zhou explained. “Even while frozen. However, a frozen debrained body is unprecedented. No data exists. It may not be transmitting whatever psychic signal that normally allows a disembodied brain to locate it.”
“It’s not really a signal.” Agent Mentalis corrected, “It’s more like an antenna that picks up the brain’s signal.”
“Right. But it could be absorbing the signal instead of reflecting, if we continue the radar comparison.” Dr. Zhou said, “We could perhaps run some tests? I’m sure we could find a psychic animal nearby we could use… Or perhaps the University of Grulovia has some material we could use?”
Agent O’Peia groaned. “Can we avoid dealing further with the Grulovian government?”
Bob and Agent Boole walked into the cabin’s door. “I don’t think we found the right spot.” Bob announced.
Agent Boole climbed onto a recliner and telekinetically retrieved a cup of tea that Agent O’Peia presented to him. “We did find two spots that roughly looked right.”
“They weren’t.” Bob insisted.
“We can all take a look at them tomorrow.” Agent Boole said with a soft smile. “I’m optimistic.” Despite that smile, his emotional state was turbulent, the optimism struggling against the man’s general anxiety.
“Yes, I think that’s enough searching for today.” Dr. Zhou said, “Now, I’ve made everyone some Raspeballs - they’re potato dumplings.”
“That sounds delightful.” Agent O’Peia said, “Helmut, do you think you can play us all the Psychoddessy again? For old time’s sake?”
“I’d love to.”
---------------------
Something seemed off, was Tanya’s immediate thought upon waking, the only illumination being the faintest hints of sunlight from the pre-dawn sky. Not because she wasn’t sleeping in psychoisolation as per usual, she had tuned her personal shield to block telepathy and slept like she never left the front, quickly and dreamlessly on a cot in the same room with Dr. Zhou. There weren’t enough beds for everyone, as while four bedrooms was quite a few bedrooms, it was not enough, and as the one with the youngest bones, Tanya was quickly volunteered to be the one who slept in a cot that was in the Pelican’s emergency kit.
But… it felt like she was back on the eastern front again, that nagging feeling that she got when she had to wake up to find reports of another act of sabotage by the NKVD. Quickly, she got up and turned invisible, creeping throughout the cabin to check on everyone.
Dr. Zhou was sound asleep, sprawled over the bed in very little clothing. Agent Mentalis was also asleep, bundled up in the blankets but she could sense his dream, his mind lazily broadcasting his desire for garlic bread. Agents O’Peia and Boole, in the master bedroom, were quiet but present, and Bob’s room with Helmut… was empty.
The covers of the bed were thrown aside, and the window was open, letting in the cold air in great amounts… but there wasn’t anything like the kind of struggle she’d expect if they were taken, instead of just leaving to get an early start. Tanya peered outside the window, looking for signs of passage. The windowsill was scuffed, and both sides of the frame also had some signs of recent disturbance. Given how questionable it would be for Bob to fit through this window… Checked out.
The plants around the window… have definitely been telepathically manipulated. They were put more or less back into their original positions, but between the freshly disturbed dirt beneath them and slightly unnatural bends in the branches, it was clear.
She closed the window. “Amatuers.” She spat, “Didn’t even close the damned window.” Using a small dose of pyrokinesis to ward off the chill, Tanya went to start preparing breakfast.
Slowly, the other members of the expedition settled around the dining table, as Tanya served up omelets along with hash browns, as they were still eating off of the groceries that they brought with them. “Bob and Helmut went to get an early start.” Tanya idly announced. “Snuck out through the window like a pair of teenagers.”
Dr. Zhou chuckled. “Well, you would know, right?”
“Quite.” Tanya replied, not bothering to correct her misapprehension. “Now, Agent Boole, I saw the distinctive stone formations myself in Helmut’s mind, so could you show me those coastal segments you mentioned once the sun’s risen a bit more?”
“Oh certainly.” Agent Boole said, in a much better mood than last night, “As fun as this adventure is, we really should be efficient about things.”
“Oh dear.” Agent O’Peia said, “I just tried to send a message to Bob and Helmut, telling them to come get breakfast.” Tried? Uh oh.
“Did they say no?” Agent Mentalis asked, frowning.
“No, I couldn’t reach them.” She replied, brow furrowed. “I know I’m not as close to them as I should be, but I should be able to reach them. It’s like they’re in psychoisolation.”
“That’s not good.” Dr. Zhou said, “Who or what could do that in this part of the world?”
“Well, there’s the Deluginists.” Agent Boole said, “They’re a rather influential group in Grulovia, as you can imagine.”
“Who are the Deluginists?” Dr. Zhou asked.
“A bunch of crazies.” Agent O’Peia said dismissively. “They believe that Maligula was a dark goddess or something and seek to call her back to Earth, resurrect her, find her in hiding… the specifics vary based on which batch of cultists you’re talking about.”
“It would make sense that they’d have a base of some kind at the site of Maligula’s final battle.” Tanya reasoned.
“They probably thought they could handle any wild animal they found.” Agent Mentalis added, “I certainly didn’t worry about anything like that.”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“To be fair, there are lynxes that can use cryokinesis here.” Agent O’Peia warned, “They’re a little dangerous.” First rule of psychic animals: The predators get the dangerous powers.
“Quite reasonable cats, actually.” Agent Boole commented, “Normally it's quite difficult to get cats to do anything, but they were surprisingly willing to fight when I asked.” He paused, thinking about that. “On that note, they’re quite territorial, so don’t get too far from the shore or you’ll provoke them.”
“Well, it’s time to switch the focus of our search, then.” Tanya said, sighing. “Agent Boole, can you get some animals to help us track them down?”
“Oh, good idea.”
---------------------
As it turned out, there was an owl that saw them leave. Bob and Helmut snuck out and took one of the PSI speeders (basically flying scooters) out of the jet, heading in the direction of the town that was closest to the lake. This was “early in the night”, so Tanya estimated a bit before midnight.
Agent Mentalis stayed behind with Dr. Zhou to watch the jet and raise the alarm if necessary, but the rest of them went to the small town, which was called Borsec, Tanya flying under her own power and Agents Boole and O’Peia taking the other PSI speeder.
Borsec was rather familiar looking, the Grulovian architecture reminding Tanya of her time in the mind of Agent Cruller's janitor persona. It wasn't quite the same, all of the buildings were less than twenty years old, the entire town washed away by Lucrecia's destruction of the nearby dam. The original summer chateau of the Gzar (a title that still makes her roll her eyes) was still intact, but it has been converted into an anti-royalist communist propaganda museum, emphasizing the poor management of the Maliks and glorifying the "proletariat revolution" that overthrew them.
Unsure where in town they could have gone, they first visited Lucrecia's memorial to pay respects to her memory, although the fact that the tomb was empty was now common knowledge, after someone broke into it. Most people assumed the body was stolen, but the thieves would certainly know the truth: it was empty the whole time.
“The existence of the Deluginists always confused me.” Agent Boole admitted, out of the blue while they were looking at the statue of Lucrecia. “I mean… Lucy was a person, like anyone else. No matter how powerful. Even if you reject that… She was a terror. Who would want her to return?”
Tanya scoffed. “They called me The Argent. White Silver. As if I was a heaven-sent angel to deliver victory to the Empire.” She gestured to the statue. “If I had one of my men reincarnated here, or maybe one of the General Staff, and they told me that there was a cult trying to get me canonized for killing tens of thousands of people, I would believe them.” She had long stopped being surprised at the irrationality of the masses. “It’s a feedback loop. One person does a few great things, demonstrates power beyond what is thought possible, and the religious kooks start thinking that there’s something more going on than what is apparent. Hidden conspiracies of witches, the blood of the divine, the hand of God.” Tanya seized the water in the reflecting pool, causing it to surge upward in an effigy of Maligula. “Every victory proves the theories, increasing its reach and the fervor of the fools. It doesn’t take many for people to assume that their new goddess can work miracles, and that’s when they start eyeing their greatest enemies with greed in their eyes.” The hydrokinetic effigy shifted, hunching over, the dress turning ragged, and the hair tying itself up into a bun. “But she is only a woman, and it’s been a long time since the power of a single person could matter on a grand scale. They are fools for thinking that Maligula can solve their problems, and they are fools again for thinking that she would if she could.” Tanya let the water drain from her grip, gently settling back into the reflecting pool.
Agent Boole hummed. “Yes, I suppose the parallels are quite apt.”
“People don’t like thinking things through.” Agent O’Peia added.
“They saw Maligula before she fully lost control over herself.” Tanya elaborated, correcting her. “No one just… spontaneously becomes a monster. While the evidence suggests that she was too far gone at the end, Agent Mentalis’ files on her documented that she was…” Tanya paused as she tried to find the right word. Glorious? Happy? Pleasant? Ah. “Heroic, at first. She only killed the invaders, and that buys a lot of good will. It’s not so difficult to believe that when someone whose first impression of her was being the hero hears about how she was a madwoman who killed thousands, they dismiss it as propaganda.” Tanya snorted as a memory bubbled up to the surface. “There was this one time, where I met Princess Hildebrand. Earlier that week was probably the battle where I killed the most people directly. She never really understood military matters, not like her sister did. She had heard about that bloody battle, as she was high up in the propaganda department, and asked me how I got those ‘mass murderers in the 203rd’ to listen to me.”
“Oh dear.” Agent Boole said.
“Ouch.” Agent O’Peia agreed.
“That’s about right.” Tanya said, wincing. “She had this image of me from a previous propaganda shoot, that I was just a mascot of the military instead of an actual soldier that killed people. She flat out ignored all of the parts of her briefings that said that I was a better killer than any one of my men. If someone who deals in propaganda as their trade could be so delusional, the sky’s no limit for a less educated person.” Without the real thing around? It would be much worse.
Agent O’Peia smiled. “That’s a good story. Have you ever considered writing?” Tanya didn’t dignify that with a response.
“Still, while it was nice to pay our respects and think on Lucy’s life…” Agent Boole said, “-we still don’t know where Bob and Helmut are.”
“Fact 1: They left to go to the town early in the night.” Agent O’Peia said, “Fact two: they’re currently not contactable, so we assume they were captured.”
“Well, if those are separate events, the question is simple: where would Bob want to go when it’s late in the evening?” Tanya asked rhetorically, already leaving.
“The pub.” Both of the Psychonauts said at once.
---------------------
It was morning, so the pubs were closed. But Borsec was a pretty small town, and when there’s only around three thousand inhabitants, it becomes practical to ask around at the primary industries of the area… fancy bottled water, tourism, and spas. Apparently the area had several mineral springs, which meant that the freezing cold state that the Hyperglaciator imposed on the lake didn’t actually inhibit them from making use of it. Which was pretty convenient. It did explain why Agent Mentalis wasn’t forced to fix the damage though.
The only one who was actually fluent in Grulovian was Agent Boole, but he was able to telepathically pass on enough understanding that Tanya could muddle along when combined with their previous experience.
“I’m not a customer today. I am looking for my uncle.” Tanya explained to the front desk at the spa. “He is brain in ball. Very distinctive. Have you seen any floating brains in balls last night? He may have been at the pub. Have any of your workers been at the pub yesterday?”
The front desk worker, a large but kindly looking old man thought for a moment. “I quit drinking, girl. I haven’t been to the pub in years.” He explained. “But one of the masezas sure likes his spirits…” Tanya frowned. She didn’t know that word… “Buy some of his time and you can ask your questions.”
Hmm… Tanya opened up her mind to read the thoughts of the front desk person. Hm, it looks like he was being honest, just trying to make more money while doing so. “Ask him if he was at the pub late last night. At least until midnight.”
The old man stood up and wandered into the back, and after a few minutes of waiting, he returned. “Yes, he’s seen your brain ball uncle. Now, 5,000 leu for an hour.” So about ten dollars. Yeah, that sounds about right for a soviet puppet state’s economy. Fortunately, Agent Mentalis had thought ahead and had acquired some leu in advance of their trip; apparently the government was very strict on forbidding the usage of foreign currency for normal economic transactions.
After double-checking with telepathy that he wasn’t trying to scam her, Tanya paid the man and was led into… ah. ‘Maseza’ meant ‘masseuse’. That made sense. A muscular man wearing a tight t-shirt and shorts grinned at her in a strange way that Tanya realized was supposed to be flirty after picking up his general intentions with telepathy. He definitely didn’t speak any language she knew fluently, as it was difficult to pick up on his precise thoughts, just the broad strokes of them. The front desk man, despite sticking to Grulovian, knew enough… she guessed Russian, for it to be easier to read. “Greetings. I am Andrei, your masseuse for this morning. Now, if you would please remove your camasa and lay down on the table, we can begin. If you’re shy, I can turn around.”
Tanya spent a moment trying to translate the unfamiliar noun, glad that the mental link to Agent Boole was helping her understand as much as she was. Was he saying ‘shirt’ or ‘clothes’? Well, she certainly wasn’t going to strip completely, even if he’s just doing his job. She gestured for him to turn around, and followed his instructions once he did. She was just wearing a turtleneck sweater with an undershirt and some cargo pants, either that or her jacket being her usual method to avoid having to carry a purse. One of the things she learned in this life is that you couldn’t get away with carrying just a wallet and phone like you could as a man. Without living life as a civilian, she didn’t learn that in the second.
Not that Tanya owned a cell phone. Telepathy was much more convenient, so she’ll wait until the technology matures before getting one. Tanya decided to let the massage begin before the interrogation, and relaxed for the event.
“So much tension, little miss.” Andrei commented as he poked at her back, taking some oil and rubbing his hands with it. “Relax. Andrei will take care of you.”
Remaining silent, Tanya allowed the massage to begin, the smooth hands kneading her back with expert skill. Andrei grunted with effort as he worked, but the force of his actions weren’t nearly enough for that to be more than theater.
“Ah, little miss.” Andrei said after a few minutes, breathing heavily. “Are you, perhaps, some kind of Lady of Iron?”
What is he… Oh. She’s still reinforcing her body psychically. At least she remembered to lower her barrier… “Ah. I apologize Andrei.” Tanya said, abashed. She activated her psychic resistance formula at low power, which would prevent her from subconsciously reinforcing her body. “Try again, gently.”
This time Andrei’s touch was much rougher, although he immediately softened it after realizing the difference. He was confused, but did his job nonetheless. This was not Tanya’s first massage, even in this life, and once he got into the groove of things it was quite pleasant, as expected.
Still, she was here for a reason, so she eventually started projecting her thoughts in his direction, because she was too relaxed to work her jaw. “Now, you went to the pub last night, right?” She asked. This method of communication should also help optimize her shaky Grulovian.
As he wasn’t looking at her face, he didn’t seem to notice that he wasn’t hearing her with his ears. “Yes, little miss.” He replied, “My grandmother has an excellent remedy for hangovers, I’m fresh as a daisy, I am.”
“Did you see an elderly man with a large gray beard come in with a brain in a ball? The brain was probably floating?” Tanya continued.
“I did, little miss. My manager said the brain was your uncle? His friend was very shaky and irritable, desperate for some liquor. The bartender gave him some Tuica and he calmed down quite a bit.” Andrei paused as he worked at a knot of tension, focused on his job. “I think your uncle’s friend has a problem.”
“I’m well aware.” Tanya sent, sighing. Damnit, Bob… “When was this, and were they still there when you left? When was that?”
Andrei hummed as he worked, thinking about his answer. Tanya got flashes of images, Bob sitting at the bar. “They came in around eleven at night, I’d say. I left at midnight, had a shift to get to in the morning, you know. They were still there, drinking away, not really talking to anyone but each other.”
“Do you know anyone else I could ask who was there longer?” Tanya asked, humming in contentment as the massage continued.
“No, but the bartender would know. He lives above the bar, so just knock.” Andrei replied. Tanya hummed, smiling at the success of her objective as Andri rattled off directions. “It’s Dorin’s pub, down main street between the courthouse and the general store. Talk to Dorin.”
She sent the information to the Psychonauts Agents, hopefully they’ll be able to act on that information. As for her… She paid for an hour and she’ll get her hour. She should get massages more often…