Almost as if it was deja vu, El saluted and left the room, struggling not to slam the door behind her. She glanced out the window, yup, it was morning. Another all-night… interrogation. There couldn’t be any other word for it. And worse, El shook her head, a member of the Church with explicit orders not to talk about the “rumored blue lizards” with anybody who wasn’t on the mission.

Rumored? What the burning Blaze was that supposed to mean? Like she hadn’t seen them with her own burning eyes? El took a deep breath and stepped away from the door before she opened it and charged back in to show that burning priest a rumored boot up his…

“Assuming that didn’t go well?” a voice asked.

El paused mid-step and mechanically turned her head in the speaker’s direction. The voice was vaguely familiar, and she found a young man sitting on a nearby bench, leaning against the wall with a book in one hand.

No uniform, but she knew that face. Where…?

Ah!

“Lhogan, wasn’t it?” El asked, and forcibly pushed her rising frustration down.

“You remembered!” he said with a smile. “I think that earns you a reward,” he added, and picked up something he’d had sitting on the bench beside him.

“Is that…?” El asked, her stomach growling at the wax-paper-wrapped treasure in his hand.

“A sandwich from Flannigan’s?” Lhogan finished for her. “You bet it is. Figured you might be hungry after…” he gestured with the sandwich toward the door. “Well, after that.”

“You have no idea.” El walked over to him, her hands extending involuntarily toward the hand-crafted delicacy. “What kind?”

“Fiery pork-bomb,” he said. “Hope you like spicy.”

The back of El’s hand wiped across her mouth to stop the drool from showing. “It’ll do,” she said and took the offered sandwich. “But, not here. It wouldn’t be pretty if I saw any of the men in that room for the next… oh, I don’t know… century.”

“How about some fresh air then?” Lhogan asked. “There’s a courtyard not far from here with some picnic benches. Brass never goes there.”

“Lead the way,” El said, her fingers twitching to open the paper wrapping. No. She had to wait. The sauce on the pork-bombs could be messy to eat while walking. If she dropped any on her boots, she’d be shining them for a week.

“Yes, Corporal,” Lhogan said with a too-formal salute, then smiled and ushered her down the hall.

Lhogan was right; the courtyard wasn’t far, and El’s stomach thanked him for that. It was also mercifully empty, and El promptly sat down and peeled open the sandwich. Savoring the glorious aroma for only a few seconds, she took a bite of the luscious creation and sighed contentedly. Just the right amount of heat. Three more bites vanished before she looked up at Lhogan seated across from her, leaning on one elbow and with a quirked smile on his face.

“Do I have sauce on my mouth?” she asked and quickly wiped it with the single provided napkin. Only one? It was very good she hadn’t tried to eat it while walking.

“This doesn’t count as the dinner we agreed to, by the way,” Lhogan said.

“It’s going to be hard to top this,” El said and took her fifth bite. Not only the spice, the meat was cooked to perfection. It practically melted in her mouth.

“I could get you two next time?” Lhogan joked.

“Well played,” she answered. “And, thanks for this. How’d you know I’d be in there?”

“Little bird told me,” Lhogan answered cryptically.

“Not many birds would know,” El pressed. “Not to mention you’re the first person outside of my wing who’s spoken to me in almost two weeks.”

“I’m generally stuck on guard duty,” Lhogan explained. “Don’t have a strong enough Spark to even get off the ground,” he said with a shrug. “Overheard a couple of researchers talking about your return. I don’t know the details of the trouble you got in, but they think it’s going to accelerate the plans for taking Guld.”

“What’s that got to do with researchers?” El asked and put the last bite of pork-bomb goodness in her mouth. Too bad Lhogan hadn’t actually brought two this time.

Lhogan raised an eyebrow as she licked her finger, then shook his head with a smile. “They’re in weapons development. That’s where I’m usually stationed. You should see some of the stuff they’ve developed. Actually, do you want to see it? I can take you on a tour.”

“That your idea of a date?” El asked.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Well, given the look on your face when you left that room, I figured you might be game for testing out the new artillery. The mobile artillery. You know, blow some steam off by blowing some stuff up.”

El’s stomach wasn’t full, but it’d tide her over for a bit. “Oh, let me at it!” she said. “But, that doesn’t explain what you’d said earlier?”

“Ah, well, if the war’s timetable is moved up, it means they are going to move straight from minor testing to full deployment. These weapons are going to be on the battlefield in days, instead of months.”

“Is that safe?” El asked.

Lhogan stood and offered El his hand. “Come and find out for yourself.”

El also stood, but didn’t take Lhogan’s hand. “Don’t get ahead of yourself there.”

“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” he said.

“No, but I could break a guy’s arm for it,” she responded.

“I’ll… keep that in mind.” Lhogan gulped. “Shall we then?”

“You won’t get in trouble for bringing me?” she asked.

“Nah, they’re always looking for more people to test out the weapons. Different Sparks react differently to them. That’s why they haven’t been widely deployed. I think the plan for these is to get them in the hands of the Firestorm anyway, so it couldn’t hurt to have you put one through its paces.”

“Why are we still standing here then?” El asked and cracked her knuckles. New weapons? And artillery at that. Sure, they were probably designed with the golems from Guld in mind, but could they work on the blue newts as well? Could they somehow prevent more people dying?

“Right this way, my lady,” Lhogan said and led them out of the courtyard opposite where they entered.

The small haven of greenery quickly gave way to the orange and red curvature of the base’s buildings. They passed several other soldiers in uniform, some rushing to deliver messages, while others moved at a more leisurely pace like El and Lhogan. And not a one of them even so much as nodded a greeting to her.

“What did you do?” Lhogan asked her as they passed the third pair of people clearly ignoring her.

“I…” she started. I lost two battles against an enemy the Church doesn’t want anybody to know exists. “I can’t tell you,” she said out loud instead. “Orders.”

“Yeah, well,” Lhogan said and turned to look after the two who’d passed them. “You’re going to have to do something pretty impressive to prove yourself and get in their good graces again, huh?”

“Who says I even want to?” she asked. Prove herself? Why in the Blaze should she need to prove herself? Then again, if she did, would it make them more likely to believe her?

“I just figured you wanted to live up to your brother’s name,” Lhogan said with a shrug.

“This weapon testing,” El said evenly. “Will you be the target?”

“Uh… no…?” Lhogan said. “That’d be dangerous.”

“Then I’d encourage you to watch what you say,” El said without breaking stride.

“R-right… well, we’re here,” Lhogan said with a forced smile, and waved at a pair of guards as he led El into a large, four-story building.

The long, non-descript hallway led them past two more sets of guards, at which Lhogan had to sign them both in, before they finally entered a massive room that had to occupy the majority of the building. The ceiling towered above them, clearly reinforced, the wall on her left was lined with targets and target dummies. The wall to her right… that wall was… glorious.

Weapons of all shapes and sizes, dozens upon dozens of them, hung on various racks. Beautiful electrum shone under the unflickering light along three-quarters of the wall, while the last quarter was full of… mattresses? Why did somebody lean mattresses up against the wall?

Three people in long orange coats, clearly researchers, looked up at their entry.

“Loogie?” one of them addressed Lhogan by some kind of… nickname? “What are you doing here on your day off?”

“Hey, Felps,” Lhogan said. “Brought a new test subject for you.”

“Test subject?” El crossed her arms.

“I mean that in the best way possible,” Lhogan replied.

“Reaaaaaally?” Felps said, rubbing his hands together. “Is that a Firestorm emblem I see on her shoulder? Oh, yes, yes, those are wings! This is getting exciting!”

“The mad-scientist bit is just an act, right?” El asked. Felps couldn’t be any older than his mid-twenties, but the other two researchers present were obviously deferring to him.

“Not an act at all,” Lhogan said. “Felps here is responsible for almost everything in this room.”

“He’s a bit of a prodigy,” one of the other two researchers, an older man, said. “Though he sometimes forgets there are people inside the uniforms.”

“Yes, yes, people. People all over the place. In uniforms, in the bathtub, walking down the street. You don’t need to remind me where people are. Opera, get the monitoring equipment set up. I don’t want to lose an ounce of data,” Felps said to the female researcher.

“It’s Opena,” she said to Felps with a sigh, then turned to El. “My name’s Opena, not… oh, never mind. Yes sir,” she said and headed toward a mass of equipment against the far wall.

“Good,” Felps turned to the older man. “Insulation, take the young lady and get her hooked up.”

“Right this way, if you’d please,” the older man said and gestured for her to follow. “Name is actually Insulad, but you may call me whatever you like.”

“Sure,” El said and followed. “What are we hooking me up to?”

“Just a few non-invasive sensors to see how your Spark reacts to the weapons you’re testing. There have been varying reactions to some of them, and we’re working to isolate the cause.”

“Varying reactions?” El asked. “Anything dangerous?”

“Just minor spontaneous full-body combustion,” Felps said cheerfully. “Don’t worry though, he’ll be out of the hospital in twelve to sixteen weeks. Or was it months?”

“Uh…” El said and stopped walking.

“Don’t mind him,” Insulad said with a grandfatherly smile. “That was just once back when we first developed the weapons. We’ve long-since worked out what caused that, and corrected it.”

“So, then why do I need the sensors?” El asked.

“Stop asking so many questions and just put them on. We have data to collect!” Felps urged.

“It’s a fair question,” Insulad said more calmly. “For some of the tests, the weapons have completely failed to activate, while others have pulled too hard on the tester’s Spark. Nothing serious, just exhausting. We are trying to determine if it’s similar to the Firestorm’s wings where the user needs to have a certain level of Spark. Actually, we believe that’s the case, so we’re trying to figure out what that level is.”

“So, I’m not going to burst into flame?” El asked.

“Probably not,” Felps answered. “Probably being in the range of sixty-eight to eighty-five percent.”

“There’s an eighty-five percent chance I will or I won’t burst into flame?” El asked as Insulad placed small disks on her temples and shoulders.

“There, all done,” Insulad said. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”