Adalace: Partakes in a Literary Analysis

Teylon’s group all arrived back at Verdant dome late that afternoon. Out of sheer force of habit, they congregated at Teylon's place for a meal. Then Francesca and Tamara made their escape, as did Sarawatch. After all, they had just spent a week or so in each other's company, and they all felt like they needed some decompression. Next Kaydence and Juniper went to bed early, followed by Devina, and then Teylon also retired for the night.

That left five teenagers, sitting around the table.

"Tomorrow I’ll get to the Centre early and resume the search." said Adalace.

I'm getting scared. Are we really going to be challenging the rulers of our society just like that?

Adalace looked around.

I bet everyone else is frightened also by all of this. Think of something else to talk about!

"Ah, well, everyone, I keep thinking about my vision of Nethezal’s suffering, ah, Sarsaparilla, did you have trouble dealing with it when this soul reading stuff first started?"

"You bet I did. I was also worried about what you would think about it."

"That's right. Sorry, I was a bit concerned. But, having experienced it myself, I don't think you need to worry about that particular problem again."

"So, that bloke is definitely going crazy?" said Maggie.

"You bet he is. And every visit from Celeste drives him further into his descent into insanity..." said Adalace.

Every visit? Wait, does that mean I can do something about it.

"Oh crap." said Adalace.

"Huh?" said Maggie.

"Does that mean I should go to Celeste and tell her about that?"

"You do?" said Maggie.

"But Nethezal does deserve to suffer." said Sarsaparilla.

"Yeah he surely does, but, you know, all of that stuff about us not descending into evil ourselves... Means we have to make an effort not to let others suffer too much, no matter how much they deserve it." said Adalace.

"Oh crap," said Sarsaparilla, "So you, that is you and me, have to go and inform Sister Celeste, who will then presumably try to make things just a little bit better for him?"

"It looks like it." said Adalace.

"So, this is all part of you two not falling into evil, is it?" said Leroy.

"Yeah, it's proving to be a real pain." said Sarsaparilla.

"Well, I'm glad I don't have that particular problem." said Erasyl.

Doesn't he sound ever so smug.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you compensate by having other problems.” said Adalace.

“Indeed he does!” said Maggie, “But we’re all improving, aren’t we?”

“You know, all this talk from Teylon about Narrative Causality - it make me feel like producing a literary analysis of our little group.” said Erasyl.

“Oh, you mean like were we write a hundred words about the character of each of the main protagonists in the book?” said Maggie.

“Yep.”

“Sure, be my guest. I hope the two most dangerous females present don’t do anything too adverse if you upset them.” said Maggie.

Those two girls smiled their best smiles. Everyone else was not in the slightest degree fooled. But it appeared that they were willing to hear Erasyl’s little analysis.

Erasyl shifted uneasily in his seat, but he was not going to chicken out just because it might be a little bit dangerous.

“Well then, starting with Adalace..."

Maggie ostentatiously shuffled her chair half a metre away from Erasyl. "Just so that I don't get caught in the cross fire."

"Obviously the defining event for her was that - incident -" said Erasyl.

"Call it rape and be done with it." said Adalace. In a voice that was flat and even, but with the barest hint of emotion behind it.

"Ah, yes, your rape really smashed you down for a while. It disrupted your schooling and your socialising. You ended up prone to violent revenge fantasies about men, which I'm sure contributed to your subsequent school life being pretty lonely. So you concentrated on developing your esp powers. And on developing your ever so cute facade. And, how about I make a guess? I'll say that after you recovered a bit from your, ah, rape, you started thinking about getting access to as many computer systems as possible. Hmm?"

“Well, I suppose that isn’t too much of a wild leap of logic. You’re quite right. Back then I also had fantasies about accessing my rapist’s computer system and compromising it in some way, or framing him for some computer crime, or something. Fortunately I never did anything too illegal, since I was too scared of getting into legal trouble myself. Of course, right now such concerns have become irrelevant; after all, we are actually planning on taking down our current rulers, whoever they might be, so, ah, I’m going to get as many passwords and backdoors as I possibly can!”

“I suppose you already have access to all of our accounts?”

“Of course! But, don’t worry, I’ve only taken a brief look at them. I have no intention of bothering you in any way.”

“That’s a relief.” said Maggie.

“Considering our situation, I’m not all that worried by that.” said Erasyl.

“So, anyway, you ended up with a definite streak of evil in you, but now it is nicely counteracted by your relationship with Sarsaparilla. As long as you have her, I’m sure you will be all right. Correct?”

“Oh, I think I’ll give that essay a passing grade. Not an A, but it passes.” said Adalace.

“Then, next, we have Sarsaparilla.”

Erasyl turned his head to face her.

“I think you have always be just a tiny little bit sly and, shall we say, sneaky. Making it worse was the loss of your friend Kaydence. Having Kaydence's memento probably gave you the idea of pinching things from other kids, didn't it? I bet you kept on doing it right up to when you first met us, yes?"

Erasyl smiled congenially at Sarsaparilla. She in turn looked back with a level stare, until he started fidgeting.

“I suppose I might as well agree to that. And, in fact I did steal a few things. But not much. The last time at the orphanage, it was a measly one dollar coin from one of the other kids at the orphanage. Not much, it might seem, but remember none of us had much to start with. And losing her one dollar upset that girl so much she started crying. It was at the point I decided I didn’t want to hurt anyone like that again. So I managed to plant the coin somewhere, and let someone else find it. As far as I know, nobody suspected me.”

“Hey, that’s almost like Teylon’s story of the first con he worked!” said Adalace.

“Yeah, it is, but the difference is I contrived to return what I stole, and he didn’t.”

“Ok, I’ll do Teylon later. Anyway, back to Sarsaparilla. My guess is that you were slowly losing hope of making any social friends or indeed any connections of any positive sort with people. Weren’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess I was. Until a certain old man introduced me to a really wonderful young lady...”

Adalace put her arm around her and squeezed her gently. “We really do save each other.” she said.

“Next we have Leroy. And, to put it bluntly, you really do have a streak of bulliness in you, don’t you?”

“But, I have gone past all of that!” said Leroy, voicing his frantic disagreement.

“Sure, you have. But, consider, you didn’t have to become a bully in the first place, there are plenty of other ways of acting up without hurting anyone. And it took an extreme incident to bring you to your senses - Candide trying to commit suicide.”

“Yes, yes, that’s why I decided it was much better to be a hero!”

“Precisely. You consciously aimed to become a hero. But the normal person out to do good doesn’t think along such lines at all. He or she has no need to. I would say your emphasis on being a hero is definitely a reaction to your internal bully. You have become aware of how bad it can be, so you need to make an effort and act in an opposite way. And, now of course, having gotten a soul reading of Candide’s suffering, you are even more aware of your nature, and even more motivated to overcome it.”

“I can’t argue against that.”

“And, I say that Kaydence, without her realising it, influences you in a positive way. It’s just part of her naturally exuberant personality. She is happy to let you set the lead, but when you’re more negative side starts to get out, she tends to moderate your reactions.”

“Ah, I suppose so...”

“Actually, Sarsaparilla, was that similar to how you and Kaydence were, back at the orphanage?”

“Well now, it could be. I guess it could be...”

A giggle from Maggie. “Who would have thought, Sarsaparilla and Leroy have some definite similarities!”

A look of disdain from Sarsaparilla. “I’m sure we are only similar in things that aren’t of any great importance.”

“Sure, sure.” said Maggie.

“And of course, we have Maggie. Who, in spite of being very angry looking on the outside, forever threatening people with magneto hydrodynamic violence, is actually, at her core, nice all the way down. As, even if I do say so myself, am I.” said Erasyl.

“Well, Maggie yes, but aren’t you a bit presumptive about declaring yourself to be nice all the way to the core? After all, it’s not so long ago you were Mr Makes Crude Passes.” said Sarsaparilla.

“Ah, I’m never going to live that down, am I - well, yes, Ok, I’ll admit to being guilty to that charge, your honour. But I am improving. And, also, consider this:”

“The soul readings Esmeralda gave you, and Sarsaparilla, and Leroy also, were all pretty heavy stuff. Weren’t they? Whereas, both me and Maggie, what did we get? Memories of our mothers thinking about how much they love us, and a reading of each other, thinking about how we like each other. Completely different, aren’t they?”

“With extreme reluctance I’m forced to concede that you might have made a possibly valid point there.” said Adalace.

“So, continuing with Maggie, we have her suffering from the early death of her mother, and from her father retreating into his own grief and not managing to look after Maggie as well as he could have. That, plus that fact that she naturally has an abrasive personality...”

“Keep going, Erasyl. I shall think about what my future actions will be when you have finished...” said Maggie.

Which she said in a low threatening voice and serious demeanour. Which she spoiled at the end with a giggle.

“Anyway, it all ended well and she managed to develop a few friends also. And a boyfriend!”

“Since Erasyl is obviously getting a bit full of himself, let’s say that I give you his character assessment?” said Maggie.

"Let's see, his mother died so young he does not directly remember her. He was brought up by his father and two older brothers, and while they all loved each other, nonetheless the rest of his family, being great hulking brutes - ah, possibly handsome with it although I'm sure I can't tell, not really - where was I..."

There was a just audible snicker from Sarsaparilla here, but Maggie ignored it.

"So, he was definitely regarded as the runt of the litter. And when it turned out that he was bisexual, well, he must have had a bit of a rough time there. As evidenced by the fact that his social skills were abysmal. Fortunately he met up with us, and we have been steadily improving him all the while. And, yes, he really is decent to the core. And I have finally decided to accept my fate and declare that we are an item. Maybe somewhere, somehow, our respective mothers are introducing themselves to each other and probably giggling in glee."

At this, Maggie scraped her chair back to being right next to Erasyl's.

"He has potential, but he certainly needs more work."

"Well now, that sounds not too bad, wouldn't you agree, Erasyl?" said Sarsaparilla.

"Ah, yes, no problems!" said Erasyl.

"And, what about Teylon?" said Adalace.

"Given his strange combination of basically being a nice person, plus his frustratingly annoying blind spots what it comes to following through with looking after people, well, I don't know." said Erasyl.

"Yeah, he makes a great effort only to steal from the rich and corrupt, and to give most of it back, but then fails the final step of making sure it gets back to the original victims. And he wasn't even self aware enough to realise there was a problem there, until we had to drag it out of him." said Sarsaparilla.

"The same with his treatment of Emilia. He made an effort to look after her to a certain point. And then he failed miserably to take it to the next level." said Leroy.

"And, personally, even now, even after he has made some sort of peace with Devina, and committed himself to Juniper, he is still freaking out. I don't know what he is freaking out about, but there is definitely something going on in his subconscious.," said Maggie.

"After all, look how we didn't actually get the full story about Emilia the first time we asked him. He was still suppressing his memories of her, until the time that Juniper managed, purely without realising it, to cross examine him about it." said Adalace.

"In other words, he is still suppressing stuff. Probably from his childhood. Maybe he's damaged goods, so deeply damaged that even he doesn't realise it." said Erasyl.

"Well, Esmeralda hasn't given me the slightest hint of what that might entail. Presumably, it is not necessary to our job. Or even, maybe, it is far beyond our abilities to do anything about." said Sarsaparilla.

A sigh from Maggie. "Actually, my big concern is what's going to happen to Teylon and Juniper and Devina. I mean, Teylon is here for only a short period of time, Devina believes that she has no hope what so ever left, Juniper's mental state does not appear to be getting any better, and she is totally dependent on the other two. What can we do about all of that?"

Nobody had any constructive suggestions to that.

So they decided to call it a night. Except, Adalace had one last suggestion.

"Hey, here's an extra thought, maybe Sarawatch would like to come along with me and Sarsa when we visit Celeste, and tell her about Mirabella?"

"Now that idea I do like! Sister looked like she really did love Mirabella. But, will she believe it?" said Sarsaparilla.

"Who knows? We can but only try. And, after all that you have demonstrated, she has strong indications as to the truth of it all." said Adalace.

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Francesca: I should have apologised much earlier

Mid morning, the day after.

Life is shit sometimes, but that's no excuse to give up.

Francesca was standing on the grass in a non-descript park in Verdant. Just plain grass, a few shrubs, and not much of a view. In actual fact, it was the same location that the five teenagers had picked to have their first social outing without Teylon. And for a similar reason, it wasn't likely to attract many people. Right now, there were only two other people present. Richard and his wife, Valentina, both currently standing two metres in front of Francesca.

"Hello Richard! And hello to your wife. I suppose this is long overdue, but I'm finally getting around to offering you a formal apology for going off my brain and burning you face, way back then."

"Ah, yes?" said Richard.

"I realise I must have caused you some pain, what with the hospitalisation needed to fix the burns-"

Oops, must not reveal that I have insider knowledge of what he was thinking back then.

"Well, not that I know exactly what happened afterwards, but I presume you must have ended up in a hospital. Sorry about that. But, as we all know, I was a bit of a stupid hot headed delinquent back then. Ah, still, I'm glad you recovered. And are now living a happy life with a wife and children."

Richard shifted his position and exchanged glances with his wife. He took a deep breath, and replied.

"I, err, thanks. I mean, thank you for your apology."

He hesitated, gave another glance at his wife, and then continued.

"The thing is, in thinking about things while lying in that hospital bed, I came to the conclusion that I was just a little bit to blame also. Hmm, perhaps a fair amount to blame, actually. It wasn't very nice of me to make those comments to my friends, was it? So called friends, none of them ever visited me at the hospital."

"Yeah, right, it wasn't very nice, was it?" said Francesca. There was an edge to her voice as she started to loose her cool.

"I mean, why did you make such dickhead comments?"

"Maybe because I was, err, a teenage macho dickhead? But still, there was no need to try kill me, you know!"

"Kill you? I wasn't trying! I'm not that bad. Err, but maybe I was a bit close with that fireball."

"A bit close? Another few millimetres closer and I would have been dead!"

"Ah, Ok, sorry. I've already said sorry, you know. But still, what you said was so extremely hurtful."

"Fine, fine. And I've already said sorry, also. Ah, you know, I was being egged on by my friends, so I exaggerated for dramatical sake. In fact, I actually did like you back then. And, well, the, err, in bed part, was, err, very nice."

He snuck a look at his wife, and not finding her looking too askance, turned back to Francesca.

Now, how would I have reacted if I was hearing that for the first time?

"Really? You actually liked being with me back then? Aww, shit everything."

Francesca sighed heavily, and walked a few steps to one side and then back.

"I spent eight years thinking I was worthless as a woman. That no man would ever desire me. That they would all take a look at my face and think I was revolting. So I just stuck to my own company, mostly. Never even tried to have anything to do with men - well there was my job but that wasn't exactly a positive experience. And you tell me it was all a macho teenager stupid joke between stupid boys being total dicks. Geez..."

"But still, you were a bitch."

"Oh, I quite agree with you there. I still am. But even a bitch can seek love you know. And I wasted eight years thinking I couldn't."

Francesca looked at them both.

"But, that's all history. Can't be helped. Personally I'm not going to let it get me down. So, thanks for listening to my apology, and for clearing up a few things. I regret I wasn't in a position to do this years ago."

There was a period of silence, while both Francesca and Richard shuffled awkwardly on their feet, and then Valentina made her first contribution.

"Ah, Richard, some of that you didn't tell me before this..."

A sickly grin from Richard, "You didn't ask?"

"But, never mind, after all it was before we met, wasn't it."

Big grin from her. Then she turned to Francesca.

"Hmm, Richard had, a long time ago, told me some things about that incident, and, well, we were actually reminded about it when we saw you in the video feed about that attempted terrorist bombing attack at that high school show. I thought it was impressive, you sitting there maybe seconds away from dying, and just looking around in interest."

"Yeah, I thought that was just like the Francesca I used to know, that was exactly the sort of thing she would do." said Richard.

"But, since you didn't play any part in containing the bomb, why didn't you evacuate with the others?" said the wife.

"Nyah, how could I abandon my friends? Especially since Devina was supporting Juniper, who was containing the radiation and thus preventing everyone within a twenty metre radius from getting lightly fried."

"Ah, yes, Devina is another one of the Girls in Pink, isn't she?" said the wife.

"Oh, you know about that?"

"Sure, I'm Acting Chief Forensic Pathologist for Verdant. And I've gotten a few interesting bodies over the last year or so, most of them with a hole burned though them."

"Yep, that's me. Hmm, I hope you realise that I'm not sorry for killing those scum?"

"I take it that some of those scum were pushing White Angel?" said the wife.

"Yeah, that's right."

"Well, I also do a fair number autopsies on bodies that have died from that drug. Let's not go into the details, OK. But, you know, I don't really have any objection to those scums being zapped."

A big smile from Valentina. She put forward her hand

"So, can I shake hands, in support of the good job you were doing there?"

Big grin from Francesca. "Sure, no worries!"

They shook hands.

"Say, I don't mean to be disrespectful or anything, but aren't you're also a bit of a bitch, in the nicest way possible, of course?" said Francesca.

"Well, now, how about we get Richard answer that?"

The wife turned to her husband.

"Say, Richie, who would you say is the biggest bitch out of us?"

Two ladies smiling at him. Two lovely smiles. Richard wasn't fooled one bit.

"Ah, no, neither! You are both lovely ladies. Oh, and I'm totally committed to my wife, so there's no need to worry about such things!"

"Very good." said wife.

"By the way," she continued, "What's the story with those five men with strange brain trauma? It doesn't match up to any esp powers in the books."

"Ah, well, that's - someone else in our group. Wait, five? Let's see, there was the assassin on the space ship, Vicanef, the bloke who tried to kill Sarsaparilla, that bloke at the IronBark dome - That's the only ones I been told about..."

"That's curious, so, if your group only knows of four, does that mean there are two people who go around zapping brains?"

Francesca scratched her head, "I don't know. I shall have to ask about that. In those matters us Girls in Pink don't actually know all that much. We used to take our orders from some anonymous bloke over the phone. The orders to do those Judgements are, let us say, from an entirely independent person, and they are carried out by - somebody else."

The two ladies had entirely forgotten about Richard, patiently standing to one side.

"Judgements?"

"Yes, that's what the - somebody else - calls them."

Valentina tilted her head and appeared to be thinking about what to say next.

"This is all confidential information which I'm not supposed to divulge, etc, etc, but, you see, I'm also entrusted with other autopsies. For example, recently there have been five older teenage girls through our system. All dead from various physical trauma. And, just like the other bodies, I've been instructed to not make any further enquiries. Also from some anonymous bloke over the phone, although he did have the appropriate identification to establish his authority. Tell me, what great evil did those girls do?"

Valentina's expression had gradually morphed into something a whole lot more - intense.

"Ah, those. As far as we know, those girls were totally innocent of anything more than wanting to grow up and become adults with their own lives. Our group didn't have anything to do with their deaths, and in fact we managed to save two more from dying, and in further fact we are currently looking after them. Although, for the time being, I don't think it is wise for me to say anything further. But, I will say, I strongly believe that whoever it was that was issuing work orders to us Girls in Pink is also the ones responsible for their deaths. In fact, that is why us girls have given up on that line of work."

"Hmm, I see. Well, not really, it sounds like a complicated situation..."

"Actually, I don't suppose you know the addresses of these unknown people who issue you your orders concerning those bodies? We have quite an interest in meeting with them and having a little chat about certain things."

"The Girls in Pink, plus others, want to talk to the ones responsible for those dead teenage girls?"

"Yes."

"Well, now, I think we are on the same wavelength when it comes to such matters."

Valentina giggled and poked Richard in chest. "Hey, Richie, I think you have a particular type of woman you're attracted to, don't you."

Richard nodded his head, and happily agreed.

Valentina turned back to Francesca.

"Sadly, I don't have their address. But, I do have a very small clue - Did you know that the police force, as part of their background information to help them track down crimes, have constructed a table of how fast a postal item can travel between any two post boxes on Mars?"

"Ah, no?"

"Well, they have. And since the postal system is totally automated and runs continuously, the times are pretty consistent and precise. And it so happened that, on the day I did the autopsy on the first of those teenage girls, I got really worked up and rang that anonymous bloke, threatening to make this public. He said he would send me written orders explicitly forbidding me doing any such thing. He had me on the phone, waiting, and then said he had sent it, as in words typed onto actual paper, along with the seal of authority, and hung up. So I sat their fuming in fury until it arrived at our forensic office post box. And I just so happened to be staring at the clock on the wall, and so I got a good idea of how long it took. About twelve minutes. Quite a long time, I thought. So I accessed the police app that calculates postal distances, and it told me the time was invalid, because there are no post boxes eighteen kilometres from the centre of Verdant which is where the forensic lab is."

"Eighteen kilometres from the centre, hey?"

"Yep, that's right. I couldn't make anything of that, and after I received the order I decided I couldn't do anything either. But, anyway, perhaps you can?"

A long, cool, evaluative stare between the two ladies. Until Valentina said

"I think Richard is getting a bit restless. So, would you like to meet just me over coffee at some time in the future, if you actually do manage to do anything with that information?"

"I would be delighted to!"

They exchanged email addresses, and then Francesca said her goodbyes.

That certainly went much better than I thought, even if I did have to grovel a bit.

Walking back to her flat, she was surprised at how much lighter she felt.

Yeah, those unseen rulers really did stuff up my life...

OK, OK, it was also my fault. But still.

Now that that's out of the road, I can concentrate on Teylon's quest.

Eighteen kilometres out? Of course, that assumes there wasn't some random glitch in the postal system that day. Or maybe they add a random delay, just to obfuscate their location. Or something. Still, I'll be telling Teylon.

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

Teylon: At last he feels like he is making progress

It was the third night after their return. It was still the school holidays, and thus Adalace was free to sit at her computer all day, watching it grind its way through trillions of different possible passwords as it tried to crack the protection on the USB stick.

Naturally, Sarsaparilla spent most of her time there, also. And, right now, the whole gang was present. They had just finished another big feed, courtesy of Teylon's bank balance, and were discussing things. In particular, they were discussing Francesca's latest news.

"OK," said Adalace, "Here it is, a map of Verdant and its surrounding areas up to twenty kilometres out."

It appeared on her middle monitor. Naturally her password cracker program was still running, but its user interface window had been relegated to the corner of Adalace's far top left monitor.

"And here is a ring indicating the eighteen kilometre mark."

"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything at it, anywhere around Verdant, does there?" said Sarawatch.

The map showed the Test Range facility and its track, but it was only seven kilometres out from Verdant. It also showed the track to the rocket pads, but the rocket pads were thirty kilometres out, and not visible on the screen. It also showed two maglev tracks stretching out from one side of the dome, each of them heading in different directions. One of them was the one they all went on to go to the Blue Ocean Dome.

"But it is intersected by three tracks." said Teylon.

So Adalace produced a magnified satellite image of each of the three locations, and put them onto three of her monitors.

"Doesn't seem to be anything any different at those locations," said Maggie, "Maybe the distance was obfuscated, after all?"

"Ha! Not so fast. There are in fact five maglev tracks radiating out from the dome. The extra one is underground for the first forty kilometres, because of all of the hilly terrain. I know, since I took an interest in the subject, back when I was hoping to join some mining team." said Francesca.

"Ah, right, I forgot about that one." said Adalace.

She did various things with her computer, and within a minute had produced an outline of the underground maglev track, plus some typographical detail.

"Yep, there it is. See how, at about the eighteen kilometre mark, the track curves around some high ground, then continues onward? That particular piece of high ground is the site of an ancient volcano." said Francesca.

"Perhaps the tunnel is avoiding lava tubes or something?" said Maggie.

"Could be. Of course, the whole volcano is stone cold at this stage in Mars' geological history." said Francesca.

Adalace zoomed in her satellite image to the indicated area.

"The slope of a pointy hill, plus a few craters; there's nothing else to indicate that anything is there." said Teylon.

"If I was going to construct a top secret headquarters, I would make it underground and I wouldn't put anything on the surface to give away its location." said Francesca.

"In that case, when they evacuated the hole to put the headquarters in, where did they put all of the dirt?" said Devina.

"For that matter, how did they pay for all of that construction work, and how did they do it without anyone else being any the wiser?" said Maggie.

"Ha! That's easy. When the villain wants to have a top secret hidey hole from which to rule the planet, they always manage find a natural cavity in the rock, and adapt it to their needs!" said Leroy, "Narrative Causality insists upon it, since it gives lots of exciting plot options for the heroes as they search for it." said Leroy.

Sarsaparilla rolled her eyes. "This isn't a superhero book, Leroy."

"But, there is plenty of Narrative Causality to go around," said Teylon, "Esmeralda said so."

Juniper and Kaydence did not know what to make of that. The Girls in Pink exchanged certain looks. Sarawatch looked thoughtful.

And Adalace started twitch typing rapidly. A couple of minutes later -

"Well, that search didn't take long. I've managed to find a photocopy of an old survey report, listing gravitational anomalies around this side of the planet. And, if I overlay the anomaly map with my satellite image, what do we get?"

They all looked at the image on the monitor. There was the maglev track, curving around the volcano. There were the contour lines flowing around the volcano. And, right between the maglev track and the volcano itself was a crosshatch shaded area, maybe a kilometre in diameter.

"These crosshatches represent areas that have slightly less than expected gravity. See, if I zoom out, they are not all that uncommon. Also these other areas with the little squares have slightly more than expected gravity." said Adalace.

She zoomed back to the area of interest.

"And, see, how the eighteen kilometre line neatly intersects that particular lighter than expected gravity area, and how the maglev track is just outside of the area."

"Hey, that's neat work, Adalace!" said Francesca, "And, need I point out that lighter then expected gravity may be caused by a big void in the ground? Actually, lots of things can cause variations in the gravity force, but still..."

After some discussion:

"So, in summary, there could be an underground facility, and if there is, it is probably connected to the maglev tunnel by means of some hidden entrance. But, we have just ourselves to find it, and the powers to be will be doing anything they can to prevent us. The one thing on our side is that, we guess, Esmeralda is running interference for us, and making it difficult for them to act against us. But, we are still expected to find our own way there. At the moment this is probably beyond our means.

So, I suppose Adalace will have to keep up her good work and try to find out what is on that USB stick." said Teylon.

Eventually Adalace decided she had had enough for one day. So she closed down her computer and everyone returned to their current homes.

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

Deep Underground

Lenny said a few choice swear words that won't be repeated here. For once, Teresa didn't make any comments.

"Yeah," said Arnold, "Francesca goes to apologise to Richard, and just like that she gets a fucking huge hint about where we are. Within a bloody kilometre! How did that happen?"

"Of course, it never occurred to anyone to check what sort of person that Valentina is," said Teresa, "I mean, what is the probability that she would be so similar to Francesca that they would click almost straight away?"

"Not to mention that she is our acting Chief Forensic Pathologist, and thus knows a few things." said Prakash.

"But she should have maintained her professional discretion, and not blurted out our secrets like that!" said Terrence.

"Except that she is like Francesca, remember? So its not too strange that she might decide to act off her own bat, if the chance ever presents itself." said Teresa.

A brooding silence.

"But they still don't know how to get to us." said Prakash.

"But it is pretty much a no brainer that the access will be by some off shoot from the maglev track." said Terrence.

"But that is disguised as just another rock wall, and at that point the normal maglev trains are zipping past at 300 kilometres per hour." said Prakash.

"But..." said Terrence.

"Please, enough." said Lenny, looking tired.

"Let's just go onto our next agenda item, shall we?"