She stepped out into the blinding sunshine and warm breezes of Earth, bleeding, exhausted, and victorious.
The rest of her team was already giving a report to Liliana, who was smiling so hard that her face seemed to be something like a rictus. Her team captain glanced in her direction, and for just a moment, there was sheer hatred on Liliana’s face.
Then she went back to listening to Alessa’s report, nodding away with occasional comments. Alex fought the instinct to laugh. She’d won. She’d won!
“Congratulations, Surveyor Morrison.”
The voice nearly made her jump. She turned to see Dylan Forsmith looking at her, his grey eyes examining her. He nodded slightly. “I understand that there was a Killer waiting for you on the other side?”
Alex nodded. A part of her was unwilling to admit it—she wanted to be the one to destroy that enemy, and handing it over to a C ranker seemed like a surrender—but if he had already heard from the others, then there was no point in lying. “It was leading a bunch of other Grue to ambush us, but we cut down a lot of its troops. If you go in now, you might be able to catch it.”
Forsmith turned to look at the portal, his eyes examining it carefully. “True. Unfortunately, my instructions were to only enter the portal if there were significant Surveyor casualties today.” He glanced at her. “Thanks to your work, it seems like that is not the case.”
She hesitated. It had almost sounded like a compliment. “Thanks. It means a lot coming from a C rank Surveyor.”
He gave her a wry smile. “C rankers don’t deserve as much respect as you seem to think, Alex Morrison. There are just as many fools and cowards among us as there are anyone else. We’ve just managed to survive longer.”
Alex remained quiet, both grateful and unhappy that Forsmith wasn’t immediately leaping through the portal to wipe out the Grue waiting there. “Survival is a good thing to manage. At least, from my perspective.”
“Yes. Of course.” Forsmith looked back at the vortex and sighed. “Then again, sometimes you can work very hard to survive and find that the people who made that survival so difficult see your success as a victory for their ideas. They think you survived because of their interference, rather than in spite of it. It is a problem.”
She blinked. There was a hint of criticism for the Group in those words. Clearly, he knew what was going on, and perhaps was implying he didn’t approve of it, but he seemed unable to do anything to stop it. If he couldn’t prevent it from happening, what was she going to do? “My mother always said that survival is the first step. Without it, you can’t go on to the next one, but that means you can’t forget the next one once you’re ready for it.”
He paused, raising his eyebrows. Forsmith looked back at her, as if seeing her a bit more clearly now. “Your mother has wise advice for you, then. May I ask what she does for a living?”
Alex paused, mentally cursing herself for bringing up her mother here and now. The exhaustion must have affected her more than she thought. “She’s on disability, unfortunately. An incident a long time ago.”
“Ah. My apologies.” Forsmith was still watching her, making her feel like she was being weighed and measured. He opened his mouth for what was probably another question and then paused. His eyes flicked in the direction of Liliana and the others. “Your team captain appears to want a word with you, young Surveyor. Again, you have my congratulations for your work today. You show great promise…and I will remember your mother’s advice. As should you.”
“I will.” Alex nodded and then turned to find Liliana smiling up at her. The team captain was very nearly tapping her foot with impatience, and it was hard for Alex to conceal her instant flash of irritation. At least she was alive to deal with the woman, unpleasant as it was. That had to count for something.
After one exceptionally agonizing report, Alex was on the bus headed back to the dorms. Her exhausted teammates sprawled on the seats around her, seemingly just as worn out and drained as she was. Liliana had neglected to join them—she’d claimed to have other business with Surveyor Forsmith—so at the very least she didn’t have to deal with that same insincere smile anymore.
She closed her eyes, tempted to sleep for a moment. It would only be a short nap since the dorms were fairly close to the portal. Short or not, it seemed like an incredibly nice idea. Even a half an hour was better than nothing.
Alex opened her eyes again as someone thumped into the seat across from her. She saw Sam rocking a little back and forth with the motion of the bus, his eyes fixed on her. The Adept smiled. “Hey. Sorry to wake you.”
“No problem.” She forced a smile. “After the day we’ve had, I’m surprised you aren’t that tired.”
Sam’s smile widened a little. “Oh, I’m worn out all right. I don’t think any of us would have made it through without your help, though.” His expression grew a little more serious. “So. About that hunch you had…”
A feeling of dread swept through her. She liked Sam, and the rest of her new team, for that matter. It didn’t mean that she trusted them enough to talk about what Zach had been doing with her, though. The last thing she needed was for one of them to go running to the Group with news of what she had been up to. “Yeah, what about it?”
He shrugged. “I was thinking that it probably saved our butts today. If we had gone in without any clue at all, we might have thought it was a normal mission. We might have gotten in too deep and been swarmed.”
Brian laughed from where he was lying across a seat further up in the bus. “You’re saying facing hundreds of Grue and a freaking Killer at the portal isn’t normal? Cause it’s starting to feel normal at this point.” A tired chuckle echoed from where Tim was collapsed across another seat, along with a weary sigh from here Alessa was slumped, looking out the window.
Sam glanced in their direction and lowered his voice slightly. “You’re still planning on doing some Skill training over the weekend, right? And maybe up until our next mission?”
Alex felt her eyes narrow as she looked at him. It was clear he didn’t think she trusted him fully. Fair enough, she didn’t. At the same time, he seemed to want to change her mind. What was he playing at? “Yeah. It might hurt for a bit, but it’s better to get the training in.”
“Do you mind if I join you for it?” His smile went a bit crooked at her expression. “I figure maybe if I put in some of that Skill training too, I might be of more use to the team next time.”
He scratched at his dark hair with one hand. “And who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to get a little bit of a hunch or two on my own?”
She blinked. It wasn’t the worst idea; after all, if she could convince them to train up their combat skills, it would give them much more of a fighting chance against the Grue. Of course, she wouldn’t have the chance to mess with any of the monitors anymore, but if Zach already had enough in place to be able to warn her… “Sure. I’m heading out there around two in the afternoon tomorrow. Does that sound okay to you?”
“Absolutely.” Sam nodded, his expression relaxing a little. “I’ll be there.”
“Hope you like running.” She grinned, and Sam grimaced a little. Then he shrugged, obviously considering the price worth it. Alex was only kidding anyway; it was going to be far more useful to have him spar with her. His spear work wasn’t bad, but getting him more ranks in his Melee Skill would only help him be more useful in a fight. Maybe he’d be able to actually fight on the front line, rather than picking up her leftovers.
Then Sam glanced towards the front of the bus, the corner of his lips twitching. “Anyone else want to join us?”
Brian let out an agonized groan. Tim muttered something noncommittal, and Alessa just gave another heavy sigh. Alex exchanged a silent look with Sam, and then they both chuckled to themselves. The rest of the bus ride home was quiet, with most of them half in and out of sleep. After the day she’d had, Alex needed the rest.
By the time she got back to the bunk, Alex was mostly hoping for a chance to collapse and ignore the rest of the world for a while. She had no such luck; the members of her former team were waiting for her.
“So how was it? What kind of Quests did you get?” Audrey’s obvious excitement was practically coming off of her in waves. The Squire was crouched on the opposite bunk, literally sitting on the edge of the bed as she leaned towards Alex.
Clara was sitting next to her, her tall frame somehow folded into the narrow space. She nudged her teammate. “Give her a second, Audrey. She’s exhausted.”
“Yeah, yeah. I just want to know what it was like.” The Squire looked back at Alex and grinned. “It was your first level two Survey! There had to be something different about it, right? Right?”
With a sigh, Clara gave Alex a sympathetic look. Alex managed a tired grin, and then looked up at Joanna, who was standing off to the side of Audrey’s bunk. The Adept was apparently attempting to look uninterested and was completely failing. “Do you have questions too? Might as well get them all out of the way before I pass out.”
Joanna’s lips twisted a little, like she was trying not to grimace. “I…am curious about what we will be facing on Monday, yes. But if you need to sleep first, I understand.”
Alex chuckled a little, and Joanna gave her a half-hearted glare. Then the Adept rolled her eyes, and Alex decided to stop teasing her. “Okay. There were a lot more Grue, of course, but that wasn’t it. You’ll get two Main Quests, now, not just one. The first one was your typical kill mission, but the second one directed me to go and explore an area. An area where the Grue had set up a Camp.”
The others all blinked. Joanna’s expression grew a little distant, as if she was partially lost in thought. “That is actually kind of convenient, especially if we’re wanting to complete all the Hidden Quests.”
“There were a lot more Grue guarding it, though, so be careful.” Alex shifted a little on her bed, wincing. “Of course, we got a little lucky. More than half of them ran off to try to ambush us at the portal, so we had an easier time of it.”
“A portal ambush?” Clara’s voice grew sharp and a little shrill. The Acolyte had reached up and grabbed at the shirt over her chest, right where the arrow had hit her. “Was it led by…”
Her words trailed off, and Alex winced again, for a new reason. “Yeah, the thing was there. Tried to hit me a couple of times, but my shield was enough to keep it off me.” She gave Clara a quiet grin. “Thought about going after it, but…”
“Someone managed to talk some common sense into you?” Joanna snorted. She shook her head. “Whoever it is, I owe them some congratulations. And maybe some serious questions on how they managed it.” She didn’t seem to notice Clara turning a little red as she continued. “Was one of your Hidden Quests to take it out?”
Alex nodded, and Joanna muttered something under her breath. “That’ll make a full clear really difficult for us. Though maybe we’ll be able to settle some scores if we do.”
Audrey cleared her throat. “I’m assuming it was the same one, Al?” Alex nodded, and Audrey’s face briefly grew lethally serious. “Good. I was worried the C ranker somehow got it. If it’s still out there, then I call dibs, okay?”
“Only if I don’t get to it first, Audrey.” Alex smiled at her and then gave Clara a reassuring nod. The Acolyte gave her a grateful smile. Then Clara’s expression turned into a wide, blooming grin, and Alex felt a hint of trepidation.
“I don’t want to hear about some stupid Grue, though. I heard you are starting up some kind of training program near the portal tomorrow.”
Alex blinked. She levered herself up from her bed for a moment. “What? Who told you that?”
“Oh, a little bird might have mentioned it.” Clara tilted her head from side to side. “So you are meeting some folks for sparring inside the containment area, then?”
“Sparring? Inside the containment area?” Audrey’s eagerness rang yet more alarm bells in Alex’s head. The Squire looked at her and somehow managed to lean even further forward. “So, who else is going to be there? Can I come?”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Alex gave Clara an exasperated look and then focused back on Audrey. “It’s not a training program or anything. I’ve just been going on runs around the area to level up one of my Skills, and one of the new guys on my team asked if he could come with. We’ll do some sparring to try to get his weapon Skill a little higher for the next Survey.”
“A boy, huh?” Clara exchanged a mildly amused look with Joanna, and then waggled her eyebrows at Alex in a way that she found infuriating. “What does Zach think about that?”
Alex felt a wave of mortification beyond anything she’d ever known before. “He doesn’t know anything about it, and he doesn’t need to. It’s not like he’s a Surveyor anyway, so he can’t come.”
“Wait a minute, who is Zach? I don’t think I’ve heard about this yet.” There was a truly malicious amount of curiosity in Joanna’s question, and the look on the Adept’s face suggested she had just stumbled over some incredibly juicy information. “Is he someone she knows from home?”
Clara glanced at Alex, and then gave her an apologetic shrug. “He’s a researcher in the Portal Analysis Department. She met him when she was assigned there the other day.”
“Ohhh. I had wondered…” A calculating look took over Joanna’s expression. “This explains a lot.”
“No it doesn’t. No it doesn’t!” Alex didn’t know whether or not putting her hands over her ears would make things better or worse. “He’s just someone I know, okay?”
“But wait, who’s the guy she’s training with? Is it the sword and board guy?” Audrey’s expression seemed baffled by the subtext going on between Clara and Joanna, but she seemed unhappy at the prospect of being denied the chance at more sparring.
“No, I think he’s the spear Adept. Sam, I think his name was?”
“Oh, I know him! He’s always sneaking around the cafeteria. So if Zach isn’t serious, is this guy? If he isn’t, can I come along tomorrow to train too?”
“Even if he is, it might be wise to provide for a…chaperone to accompany her. We wouldn’t want any rumors to start.”
“Oh, you’re right! Especially since Zach might hear and take things the wrong way…”
Alex groaned and rolled over onto her back. Why hadn’t the Grue been the worst part of her day? As her roommates continued, she shifted so that she could put the pillow over her face. Maybe she’d get lucky; maybe she’d accidentally smother herself.
The next day, Alex caught an early bus home to her parents’ house. If she was going to spend an entire afternoon doing Skill training, she at least wanted a bit more than plain cafeteria food first.
She walked in the door, too tired to go through the whole process of knocking. The smell of pancakes and bacon already cooking greeted her the moment she stepped into the hallway. Her day was instantly better, and the sound of her father humming away in the kitchen made the aches and pains in her body suddenly fade a little. “Mom? Dad? I’m home.”
“Hey!” Her father’s booming voice echoed out of the kitchen, and she heard him stomping out towards her. Her greater Speed and Strength didn’t seem to matter at all as he practically tackled her halfway down the entry hallway. “Well, there she is! Your mother has been keeping me updated. She stepped out for a little, though. How are you? They still putting you through the wringer?”
“A little.” Alex was faintly proud of herself that his hug no longer completely squeezed the breath out of her. Either that, or he was remembering his own strength just a little better. “I hit level two, though!”
“That’s incredible! At this rate, you might be a D rank in no time.” Eric pulled back and beamed at his daughter. “I knew you would be great at this. I just…you’re being careful, aren’t you? Your team is taking care of you out there?”
Alex thought over all the times that she’d needed to more or less save her teammates. Then she remembered a few vivid moments where they’d literally pulled the Grue off of her. “Yeah, Dad. They’re watching out for me, and I’m watching out for them.”
“Good. That’s what I want to hear from my girl.” Then he looped an arm around her shoulders and practically dragged her towards the kitchen. “Come help me out with some scrambled eggs, and tell me all about how things are going. Your mother never gave me enough of the gory details, and I want to hear all of it!”
One incredibly satisfying breakfast later, Alex sat back from the wreckage of her meal with a sigh. She looked over at her father, who was taking a bit more time with his own plate. Of course, that plate had been piled a little higher than hers, but it was still unusual. “So what do you think, Dad?”
He picked at a clump of eggs for a moment, his expression serious. “It sounds like you’ve got a pretty serious situation there. Kind of like the time I was under Fire Chief Samuelson. You remember that?”
“Yeah.” Alex had heard the story a few times, as well as going through it when she was younger. The fire chief over her father at the time had taken a dislike to Eric, and every time a particularly risky situation came along, he had sent her father into the inferno—sometimes literally. It had been a bad situation, and Eric had needed to keep Muriel from storming down to the firehouse to ‘discuss’ things with the chief personally a few times. Fortunately, the man had retired after a bad heart attack a few months later. Otherwise, the risks her father had been running would only have been able to end one way.
She looked up at him, remembering the frustration she had felt as a child during those times. It was easy to recognize that same frustration and fear in her father’s expression now. Alex tried a half smile. “Is there anything I can do about it? Anything that helped you?”
Her father sat back from his meal with a scowl. If the eggs on his plate had been able to, they might have felt fear as he grimaced at them. “A better man might suggest that you buckle down and work harder. Just keep plowing through whatever she gives you until you either impress her or you get promoted out of her supervision.” He gave her a raised eyebrow. “It looks a bit easier for you Surveyors, what with that ranking system you have. Once you hit D rank, you might be able to get away from her.”
Alex nodded, and Eric continued. “The honest truth, though, is that your job is dangerous. Your boss is making the job even more dangerous, to the point where she might be actively trying to get you killed. The closer you get to getting out from under her, the more she’s going to try to make things difficult for you, until she either gets what she wants—which is you hurt or dead—or she slips up somehow in a way that gets her in hot water. Whatever reason she has to dislike you, she’s not being rational about it already, so you can’t count on her to not go to extremes to finish her grudge.”
She sighed. “So I have to wait and hope she has a heart attack? Cause I have to say, she seems a little too healthy for that.”
“No. I’m not saying that at all.” Eric gave her a level look. “What I’m telling you doesn’t go past this room, understand? I don’t care what reason you have, you don’t repeat it.” Surprised, Alex nodded, and her father gave her a tight grin. “That thing with Samuelson…it wasn’t exactly solved the way the headlines told it. You remember the Garden Square Fire? The one with the big warehouses?”
Alex nodded again. It had been a really bad fire, one that had her mother up waiting for Eric to come home until a lot later that night. Her parents seemed to trade that burden of worry back and forth for each other, one waiting for news of a tough Survey, the other staying awake late until the night as a distant building burned. Each time, they’d always come home safe. At least, they had, until her mother had not come home. Until she’d gone to the hospital instead.
Eric sat back in his chair, his eyes going distant. “It was one of the worst fires on record. The whole place seemed to be on fire, and by the time we got there, it was clearly a total loss. There was nobody inside; it was just a warehouse, and all of the guys inside had managed to break open a side door and get out that way.”
She nodded, wondering where he was going with the story. He often had told her about the fires he’d fought and the ones where he’d saved people. This fire wasn’t one he’d talked about before, even though it had been in the papers and everything. In fact, it had been the last big one just before Samuelson retired, she realized.
“So we get there, the building is burning away, but there’s no reason to go in. Our plan in those kinds of situations is to cordon the place off and keep it from spreading to other spaces; tough luck on the people who have stuff inside, but property isn’t worth losing lives over, and we all know that. We start getting set up with our hoses and start chucking water on the fire, wetting down the roofs on the surrounding buildings, all that kind of thing.”
“Then Chief Samuelson gets there.”
Eric paused, his face twisted up with remembered hate. “The old fool rode up to us and said he heard voices inside. We told him that all the workers were out, and that there was no sense in sending people in after ghosts. He disagreed. Said we needed to head in and rescue someone. Said he knew exactly who he needed to send.”
He looked at Alex, and his lips twisted. “We all knew what he was trying to do. There wasn’t a man or woman there who doubted that he was just trying to get me hurt. I nearly hung up the gear right then. No matter what your dreams are, they aren’t worth dying for, not out of petty pride. Remember that.”
“I didn’t do that, though. Instead, I put my gear on and headed in. Not the best idea, but I was angry, and I already had a plan ready. Still, I almost got myself killed. The smoke and the fire were…indescribable.” Eric shook his head, a faint expression of awe on his face. “For a moment I wondered if I had pushed it all too far.”
“Then I buckled down and worked my way partway through the building. Partway through, I took off the beacon they give us—you know, the one that tells them where we are if we go down. I tossed it in some wreckage and walked back out the door the workers had used. Turned my radio off, and let some of the guys on that side of the building know I was out. Didn’t want anyone else going in after me, though I doubted that Samuelson would have sent in anyone. Anyone else but me, I guess.”
“That fire burned for four hours, and for four hours the rest of the crew watched him stare at the flames. They saw how satisfied he looked, saw him abandoning me. Saw him watch the roof come down, and hear that beacon chirp away inside.”
“Then they saw him almost go berserk when I showed up after. He chewed me up and down for not reporting in after I came out, said he’d been so worried about me, all that stuff. The rest of the guys just sat and watched him. I went home and expected him to fire me afterward.”
“Instead, the guys got together and… talked to him after. It was decided that he would retire, for the sake of his health. He was gone by the time I came back the next day, and nobody ever said another word about it.”
Alex stared at her father, stunned. She’d never heard anything about it before, and she could understand why. The fire chief had basically tried to kill her father, and his crew had staged something like a mutiny afterward. If it had become public, the city would never have heard the end of it. “So what does that mean for me?”
“It means that this lady who has it out for you…she’s going to push it too far. Farther than you expect. When she does—and she will—I don’t want you to keep working hard with your head down and your stubbornness strong. I want you to catch her in the act, and kick her hard enough that she reaches orbit, understand? Help everyone out there know what she’s doing, and that if she’ll do it to you, she’ll do it to them too.”
The seriousness in Eric’s voice landed with extra emphasis, and Alex nodded slowly. “Until then, what do I do? Just lay low?”
“As if you ever could.” Her father laughed then, his subdued expression cracking apart like a glacier melting. “No, just keep going through what you need to do. Keep doing whatever it is that gets under her skin. In fact, it’s a little better if you keep bothering her; it’ll make it harder for her not to overstep. Maybe she’ll slip up before everything gets way too far.”
Well, at least that was something she could do. It seemed like if she was a natural at anything, it was irritating Liliana. “I will, Dad. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” He paused, and then her father winced. “In fact, please don’t. Your mother never knew about…all that. I was a little worried that she’d go find the guy and have her own little talk with him. Still might, arm or no arm. So let’s keep that between us, shall we?”
Alex nodded again, and Eric gave her a sad smile. Then he heaved a sigh and picked up his fork. “And now I might have let these things get cold. A fine punishment for being such a sad sack. Still…”
He started to dig back in, and Alex watched him for a moment longer. Then she got up, taking her own plate to the sink. As she passed him, she patted his shoulder. He put up a hand to cover hers for a moment. That brief contact said more than any words, and then she continued on to set the dishes in the dishwasher.
“Forsmith talked to you again?”
Her mother’s question was sharp, and Alex nodded cautiously. She’d been careful to tone down Liliana’s part in everything—the last thing she needed was for Muriel to show up at the containment area trying to settle things herself—but she had talked freely about everything else. Her mother had come home just as she and her father were washing up, and then dragged her out for a walk around a nearby park.
Right now, however, she seemed more concerned by the C rank’s words. “Sounds like he might be the one that was poking around the record’s office, then.” Alex straightened up in alarm, but Muriel shook her head. “He didn’t find anything. At least, not there. The records were all buried deeper than he had access to, and my buddies there had him chasing the wrong trails anyways. We’re still safe.”
Alex relaxed. “Good.” She shook her head. “I must have said something that clued him in.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Muriel grinned. “I can handle him if it becomes a problem. Knowing him, it probably won’t. Especially since he is probably almost as worried as you are about what Golden Swallow is doing.”
“He did sound like he was having trouble with it. Almost like he was trying to explain why he hadn’t stopped it yet.” Alex shook her head. “If he can’t stop it, what hope do I have?”
Muriel shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. Sometimes there are projects that get official backing…as long as they are under wraps. A C rank like Forsmith will have contracts in place to keep him from talking, but a lowly E rank like you?” She gave Alex a smile. “You’ve got a lot more freedom. Getting the word out about the project might be enough to get it canceled all on its own.”
“And I’m sure they would never think about retaliating after that.” Alex grimaced.
“Well, they may bench you for a little while, but they can only keep you occupied for two years. After that, you’ll be free to go where you want.” Muriel shrugged, an odd gesture with one arm. “Just keep your head down and stay helpful, at least until you see what’s going on. Then do what you need to do.”
Not the most helpful advice, after what her father had said. Still, it was a good perspective to have. “Thanks Mom. I will.”
Her mother turned a little to thump her on the shoulder. “Still, I’m proud of you! That Survey was a hard one, and you still turned it around. Smart move hitting the Camps, by the way. That’s probably the only way you could get out of that situation, you know.”
Alex blinked. “Why is that? Because it lured out the Grue?”
“Not just that, sweetie.” Muriel’s grin turned a little predatory. “Camps generate new Grue, but they can also sustain large groups of them. If a Camp goes down, the Grue attached to it can fade away. That’s probably how the Killer knew you were there so quickly. It saw part of its army evaporate and knew why.”
“Well, that makes sense.” Alex frowned. “So wait, if we had stuck around to hit more Camps…”
“Then that poor Killer would have ended up all by itself.” Her mother chuckled to herself. “It affects the amount of magic coming through the portal, too. If you’re hitting a portal with large amounts of magic coming out of it, killing a Camp or three can make a dramatic difference. It helps that the Grue can’t rebuild them very quickly either, so if you can keep picking them off, the portal should start calming down.”
Alex thought about the spikes in magical energy coming from the portal. “How often do they rebuild them? Like one a week, or more than that?”
“One a week?” Muriel frowned, turning her head to stare at her. “It should take them at least two weeks to recover from one of them going down. Maybe longer, if the portal isn’t that active. Why?”
She shrugged. “Just getting a feeling. I think this portal is recovering them quicker, specifically after the company is doing whatever they are doing.”
“Well, that wouldn’t be particularly wise.” Muriel shook her head, her frown growing deeper. “Those Camps can start spawning more than just Grue, and Killers are just the beginning of what you could see if enough of those things get built. The portal can get out of control, fast. I don’t know what the company could get out of risking that happening.”
“Good question.” Alex grimaced. “Let’s hope I don’t get the chance to find out.”