It didn’t look like an evil lair; that had to be a good sign, right?
Alex wearily tried to tell herself that as she stood in front of the Royal Purple base. It was a fairly large complex, bigger than she’d been expecting. Of course, it probably needed more space, given that the portal at its center was bigger than the ones she had seen before, but it was still surprising to see exactly how much open ground stood between the complex and the nearest houses.
The entire complex was surrounded by a low wall. Unlike the near-fortress at Red Blade Securities, this one was just above head height, and had been built out of brick rather than blunt concrete. It almost seemed decorative, as if it was put there to remind people of the borders of the danger zone around the portal rather than some kind of attempt at security. It wasn’t an idle warning, either; Alex could already smell magic in the air, and had since the first moment that she had passed that barrier.
There was a cluster of buildings at the center of the complex, but there was also plenty of space between them. Most of them looked like apartments or rowhouses, built in tidy batches around the middle of the compound. Other buildings looked more like office buildings, all steel and shining glass. Further away, she thought she could see some kind of factory, and something that reminded her of an airplane hangar as well. Trees had been planted along the paths between buildings, and wide fields filled the space between the wall and the rest.
It almost looked like a college campus rather than a Surveyor corp’s base. There was only one exception, but it stood out amidst the rest of the complex by sheer size more than anything else.
Right in the center of the complex, a tower rose into the sky. There were two smaller towers next to it, to one side and a little to the front; each one had some kind of helipad at the top, and the faint sounds of engines reached her ears. Behind the tower, equidistant from the smaller towers, she could see the hints of a massive gymnasium of some kind.
The central tower caught most of her attention, however. It seemed almost like a defiant monument to Greylight Industries’ success. She pictured it burning for a moment and then shook her head. One thing at a time.
Alex walked into the front door of the tower, noting the guards stationed in unobtrusive locations around the massive lobby. They had to be ex-Surveyors; the magic was too thick for normal humans to work here. They were stationed in small alcoves on either side of the main doors, where they could easily flank anyone who came through. The rest of the room was littered with furniture, but none of it looked like it would be useful cover if the guards took exception to her. She could only see two exits, doors on either side that looked heavy enough to fend off a Brute’s hammer.
She forced herself to ignore the guards as she walked across the spacious room, heading for the front desk where a woman was typing away at a computer. Her footsteps seemed to echo through the quiet of the room; there weren’t any visitors that she could see, and a part of her wondered what the point of the place was. Aside from having the space to display some admittedly impressive murals of famous Surveyors, it seemed like there would have been better uses for the space. The one on the back wall was the largest, and it showed a gathering of stylized Surveyors charging towards a portal, weapons raised in dramatic heroism.
The receptionist looked up immediately as Alex stepped up to the desk. She smiled. “Alexandretta Morrison?”
Alex grinned back, though she could feel the tension in her expression. “Yes, that’s me.”
The woman stood and offered her a hand to shake. “My name is Lisa, Lisa Matterson. Your supervisor will be right down. He’s actually pretty excited to meet you! If you want to take a seat?” She gestured to the admittedly comfortable-looking chairs that had been drawn up in clusters on either side of the lobby, gathered conspiratorially around small, low tables just a hair too close to the ground to be easy to rest something on. Alex eyed them for a moment and then shook her head.
“No thanks. I’ll just wait here.”
Lisa nodded easily. Then one of the doors opened, and she looked over with an expectant grin. Her expression froze a little, and her smile vanished a moment later.
Alex followed her gaze and saw another pair of Surveyors enter the lobby. The first one was a shifty-looking man. He stood a little taller than her and had a grin that put her a little on edge. His green eyes flicked over her in a brief evaluation, and his grin widened in a way that Alex definitely didn’t like. With an overly casual gesture, he combed one hand back through his long brown hair and looked back at the second person.
The second Surveyor was an enemy. A bad one.
Mona Naylor had worked for Greylight Industries for well over a decade. She had a long career full of steady work and displays of skill. Several times she’d survived missions where others had not, and her simple ability to persevere had guaranteed her continued ascension. Press interviews and Surveyor enthusiast sites had confirmed that her main skills were in long distance fighting and evasion.
She’d also been given several promotions and special training by Greylight Industries, all around the same time the Crimson Blade had been put into a hospital bed. She would have been at the top of C rank at the time; now she was likely at least midway through B rank—and she was among the two dozen or so suspects that Alex felt almost sure had tried to kill her mother.
Naylor’s near-black eyes narrowed as she met Alex’s gaze. Alex forced herself to glance back at Lisa, trying to use the chance to restart her breathing. Encountering an enemy here was not unexpected, but to run into her now, on the first day…
It could have been just a coincidence.
Was she going to be working directly for someone who had tried to kill her mother? As a D rank, she had no chance against a B rank, not even if she caught her off guard the way she had Wells. What was she going to do?
Lisa’s expression was professionally neutral, but Alex thought she could see a hint of a grimace. Her racing heart calmed slightly, even through her hands clenched for a moment. She had to calm down. They couldn’t see any sign of what she was planning to do. Everything was depending on—
“Ms. Morrison?” The cool, almost contemptuous question nearly made Alex flinch. She turned and looked into Mona Naylor’s eyes. It took an effort to grind out an answer.
“Yes?”
Naylor raised an eyebrow. Then she smiled, in a way that made Alex think of a shark finding dinner. It didn’t help that her eyes seemed utterly unaffected by her expression. “My name is Mona Naylor. It’s good to meet you.”
The other Surveyor extended her hand, and Alex forced herself to take it. She kept her grip light and felt a confident pressure from Naylor’s hand. “Good to meet you, too. Are you going to be my supervisor?”
There was an explosive snort of laughter from the man next to Naylor. Alex looked at him, and he rolled his eyes. He ignored her and looked at Naylor instead. “Looks like our new gopher has high ambitions, Rabbit.”
Naylor looked back at him with a faint hint of distaste. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she sighed. She looked back at Alex with an almost sympathetic smile. “No, Ms. Morrison. You’ll be working with someone… more suited to your level of work.” The words seemed like they should have been reassuring, but there was still that same sense of contempt there that rankled.
Her companion threw back his head and laughed. “Ain’t that the truth!” Naylor gave him another look, but he just grinned at her. “What? She should be happy that she’s getting a good little captain gopher to work with.”
Alex looked at him, and he extended his own hand. When she took it, he bore down with sudden crushing force, as if he was trying to grind her bones together. “The name’s Owen Lewell, but you can just call me Jester. Nice to meet you, Valkyrie.”
She looked back at him, her eyes narrow. The grip hurt, but not so much that she couldn’t squeeze back and make things uncomfortable for him, too. Given his build and the personality behind it, he’d probably invested in Strength, but not Life. For a moment, Alex felt the temptation to give him a taste of his own medicine.
Instead, she allowed herself to wince and pull back. He gave her one more strong squeeze, and then let go. Alex shook her hand slightly and quietly made a note to herself. Another entry on her list of things to take care of, some day. Jester just laughed again, but Naylor silenced him with another look.
When Naylor looked back at Alex, there was a small quirk at the corners of her lips, like she was restraining a smile. Perhaps it made her happy to see the new girl put in her place? “You’ve already made quite a name for yourself, Ms. Morrison. I just hope you haven’t let it get to your head. We don’t want any little rebellions around here.”
Alex couldn’t help the smile that twisted her lips. “No. I’m sure you don’t.”
Naylor blinked. There was a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes for a fraction of a second. Then she stepped forward, her expression darkening. “Listen, D rank, you’d do well to—”
“To ask the advice of her supervisor, correct?”
Naylor blinked, and she turned to look past Alex. A faint grimace crossed her expression, though Jester grinned widely. Alex turned, reluctantly tearing her attention away from her enemy to look back.
Another Surveyor had entered through the opposite doorway. He was at least ten years older than she was, shorter than Jester, but still a little taller than Alex. The newcomer had dirty blonde hair that seemed disarrayed and brown eyes that were fixed on the other Surveyors. More importantly, he was carrying a massive battleaxe that was laid casually across his shoulders as if it was a feather.
The newcomer frowned, striding across the lobby towards them. “You know, I had this whole introduction planned to impress my new team member, and you guys are really messing it up. Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
Jester snorted. “Don’t act so tough, Abbott. We don’t answer to a gopher captain.”
“Because you have much more important things to do, right? Like shaking my new D rank’s hand?” The newcomer smiled in a way that seemed wolfish. “Wanna shake my hand, Jester? I promise I’ll go easy on you.”
Alex blinked as the man extended his hand and she glanced backwards in time to see Jester take a step back. The shifty man was glaring at the newcomer—Abbott?—with a sullen expression. “There’s nothing wrong with having a little fun, Abbott.”
“Of course not.” Abbott’s smile grew a bit wider. “Are you saying it isn’t fun to shake my hand? That’s kind of rude.”
Alex had to bite her lip to keep from snorting in amusement, and Abbott glanced at her and winked. Then he extended his hand to her. “Welcome to Royal Purple Contracting. My name’s Ryan Costello, though most people call me Abbott. They like their nicknames and handles around here. What should I call you?”
She shook his hand. His obvious investment in Strength should have made her worried about whether she would get her hand back, but Abbott didn’t seem to have as much to prove as Jester did. All she felt was a grip as firm as steel that very carefully didn’t squeeze any more than necessary. “Call me Alex. Or Valkyrie, I guess.”
“I’ll stick with Alex outside the portal, I think.” Abbott nodded and then looked back at Naylor. “Now, is there anything else, or can I give her the tour?”
Naylor was watching him with anger clear in her expression. She glanced at his axe, and her expression darkened a little more. Then she turned and stalked back towards the other door, Jester sidling along in her wake.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Abbott watched them go for a few more moments. Then he snorted and looked at the receptionist. “Lisa, is she good to go?”
Lisa nodded, a satisfied expression on her face. “She’s cleared through security.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Lisa. Thanks.” Abbott turned away as Lisa blushed, and gestured for Alex to follow him. “Let’s go give you your introduction, Alex. Follow me.”
Alex followed Abbott through the door he had entered through. It led into a hallway lined by conference rooms and offices, with a bank of elevators at the end of it. She discreetly tried to keep an eye on the doors as he strode down the hallway towards the elevators. The axe across Abbott’s shoulders faded away as he walked.
“So! Welcome to Royal Purple Contracting, Alex. What do you think so far?”
The question carried a bit of an edge to it, but Alex just looked back at him with a neutral expression. “I’m… still deciding.”
Abbott laughed. “Fair enough.” He turned back to face forward. “Again, I apologize for not meeting you right away. I was actually looking forward to seeing you.”
“You were?” Alex couldn’t quite keep the skepticism out of her voice, and he looked back at her with raised eyebrows.
“Why wouldn’t I? After all, working with the leader of the Red Blade Revolution was always going to be an interesting experience.”
The reminder of her sudden, uncomfortable publicity brought a grimace to Alex’s face. “I didn’t lead a revolution.”
“More like a tea party, then?” The question was laden with enough irony that she forgot her neutrality enough to glare at him. Abbott just chuckled and spread his arms wide and slowed his pace so that he was almost next to her. “You can’t blame me for being curious. Especially with how eager other parts of Greylight were to get their hands on you.”
Alex felt her blank expression slam back into place. She watched him carefully, slowly flexing her fingers. “Is that so?”
“Oh, yeah. Definitely.” Abbott stretched his arms and laced his fingers together on the back of his neck. “You wouldn’t believe how many times they told me you’d be ‘better off’ being part of their programs, or how it would benefit Greylight Industries as a whole to not have you around here. Why, some of them even suggested it would be dangerous for me to supervise you.”
She blinked. The conversation was not what she had expected. “They… threatened you?”
“Some of ‘em, maybe. Others though…” His expression settled into something a bit less genuinely amused. “They seemed to think you’d be dangerous to work with. Even pointed out that neither of your previous bosses survived your tenure with them, along with plenty of your former coworkers.”
Abbott came to a stop. When she looked at him, he met her eyes in a sudden, intense study. “Well. Are you planning on killing me, Valkyrie?”
An instinctive denial nearly came out, but Alex felt herself fighting back against it. She met his stare with one of her own, and her fingers twitched as if she could already feel her axe and shield resting in them, ready for use. “I don’t know. Are you a griefer with some kind of secret plan I need to stop?”
The accusation sent a flicker of amusement through his eyes, though it barely seemed to touch his expression. For a long heartbeat, he just watched her.
Then he smirked. “Nope!” He leaned forward, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “At least for the griefer part. I do have a few nefarious schemes going, though. Keeps me on my toes.”
Alex snorted despite herself, and his grin grew. She shook her head as he started down the hallway again, forcing her to stride after him as he made for the elevators. “Nefarious schemes, huh?”
“Oh, yeah. Definitely.” Abbott gave her a wink and then stopped in front of one of the elevators. “You won’t see me coming until it is way too late. Just giving you a heads up.”
“Good to know.” Alex didn’t quite roll her eyes, but it was a close-run thing. He reminded her of Sam a little, which was not the worst thing. Her smile faded a little as the elevator opened and he beckoned her into it. She doubted things were going to be as good as they seemed.
“Here at Royal Purple Contracting, we have one mission and one mission only. To make Greylight Industries look good.”
They were a bit further up in the main tower, and she’d already been shown the infirmary and a few of the other facilities. She’d asked him what exactly she would be doing, but Alex hadn’t been prepared for the sarcastic response.
Abbott had watched her as he made the statement, and something of her reaction must have shown through. He smirked. “Yeah, I know. Greylight isn’t exactly a popular name these days, and there’s a lot of very good reasons for that. Their Survey practices are questionable at best, and probably criminal at worst. Very few people are going to look at the brand and think of a general benefit to society.”
He waved at the facility around them and shrugged. “The executive board recognizes that, though, which is why we exist. We’re basically the example that Greylight can point to and say, ‘See, here is why you allow our unbridled greed! Sometimes we do things that look good on the news!’ As a result, the people they bribe go to bed with less painful consciences, and the public decides to ignore whatever minor abuses they commit in the name of profit.”
To hear things stated so blatantly out loud was… interesting, to say the least. Alex still couldn’t quite persuade herself that he was being entirely serious, but she spoke up anyway. “It seems like you are saying we shouldn’t expect to do much good here at all.”
Abbott looked at her with a surprised expression. “Oh, no, that’s not what I mean to say at all. You see, in order for Greylight to get all those benefits, they do actually have to have something good happen here. We really are a company that helps out other people. Greylight wants us to, since they need the good publicity. They definitely try to make sure we are doing it as cheaply as possible, but they aren’t exactly going to be getting in our way as we work.”
“As a result, you’re going to be doing the kind of work you probably always wanted to do at another company.” Costello began ticking points off on his fingers as they walked. “Our primary job is to respond to various emergencies involving other Surveyors. We can be called in to recover lost Surveyors, investigate unstable portals, and even resolve Escalation Events. Our clients include different Survey corps throughout the region, and our contracts with them guarantee we can resolve their situations within a day of their request.”
Alex frowned. “How can we possibly get there that fast? Are there that many portals close to this building?”
“Actually, no.” Costello turned a corner and gestured to the wall of the next corridor. Unlike the previous hallway, this one had one side made of glass. “Behold, your new best friend, the GV-36 Greyhawk.”
She looked to the left, and her jaw dropped. The windows gave her a very clear view of the top of one of the side towers, and she hadn’t quite expected the machine that was resting there. “Is that a helicopter?”
Abbott’s grin couldn’t have gotten any wider. “Nope! It’s something called a tiltrotor. It can go from a helicopter to a kind of propeller aircraft in midair. Increases the speed and range of where we can deploy, without having specialized landing strips or platforms.” He nodded at the craft in satisfaction. “With one of those, a team of our contractors can be at any portal in the eastern United States in less than three hours. We have three of them, and nothing any other contracting group owns can even come close to matching them.”
Alex could believe it. The craft looked almost like a larger version of some kind of drone; the rotors on either wing were odd, but she could picture them tilting forward to supply thrust easily enough. “So whenever we get a call…”
“We hop in a Greyhawk and head out.” Abbott folded his arms across his chest. “Typically, we have teams that are on call each week to respond to any emergencies. Teams that aren’t on deck can spend their time training, or on vacation, I guess.” He shrugged. “It’s rare to have more than two emergencies at a time, but we do have a backup team for when things are getting rough. At least two Greyhawks are prepped at any time, while the third is down for maintenance.”
She nodded slowly, running the numbers through her head. “How often does each team get a call, then? Once per week?”
Abbott’s expression grew a little stiff. “Optimally, we’d only get one call or so a week. When things get rough, though, we could get multiple emergencies a week when we’re on deck. It’s best to be prepared to scramble, so the on deck team spends the week here in the facility, ready to head out at a moment’s notice. For that reason, they also don’t tend to train during that time, to keep them from being affected by training accidents and the like. We’d want our Surveyors at peak efficiency when they are needed out there.”
It was fairly easy to read between the lines. If Greylight wanted to squeeze maximum publicity out of their Royal Purple stunts, while also being cost efficient, they probably want the least number of teams available for calls each week. Which meant that whatever Costello said about ‘optimal’ scheduling, she could expect to be heading out multiple times a week when she was on deck.
In a way, it was a relief to realize that her biggest opponent here would be penny-pinching by the executives. Better than an experiment gone wrong or a drug lord, at least.
She nodded. “When we aren’t on deck, what do we do?”
“A good question, Surveyor Morrison.” Abbott gestured for her to walk with him. “Allow me to show you.”
“Here we have our training center. Not bad, don’t you think?”
There was a definite hint of pride this time, and Alex could easily understand why. Both Golden Swallow and Red Blade had maintained training facilities for their Surveyors. At Golden Swallow, they’d been little more than an afterthought, not even located close to a portal; at Red Blade, they’d been centered around the dueling rings, with occasional other activities.
Here, it seemed, they took things a little more seriously.
She could see at least half a dozen dueling cages. Unlike the rings, they were lined with metal bars that were clearly meant to limit the effects of any magic used; she could see explosions of fire and lightning lashing around inside, even from a distance. Outside the cages, there were other spaces for exercise, ranging from a simple track circling the area to a set of weights that would make an Olympic lifter stare, to a climbing wall that reached all the way to the top of the dome, nearly five stories overhead. Target ranges and training dummies were lined up in an area across the space, and obstacle courses dominated another corner nearby.
Surveyors were weaving their way through all of them, moving with the kind of power and grace that spoke of C ranks. Alex felt a mixture of envy and awe as she watched two axe-wielding Surveyors batter at each other in the cages, unleashing waves of ice and wind with each swing. Another C rank was attempting to annihilate a training target with concentrated sunlight, while another wove a pillar from vines.
Yet what really caught her attention was at the very center of the room, fenced off from the rest by a simple metal barrier. It was a portal, larger and more powerful than any she’d ever seen. The glowing hole in reality glimmered and rotated in a continual whirlpool of energy, accentuated by the occasional lick of purple lightning that snapped across its face. Magic poured from it like water from a waterfall; Alex could smell it in the air like a sweet, intoxicating perfume.
She blinked as Abbott’s hand landed on her shoulder. When she looked back, she realized she’d actually taken a step towards the portal. He raised an eyebrow at her and smiled. “Impressive, isn’t it?”
Alex nodded, her eyes going back to the portal. “Yes. It is.”
“I know that Red Blade Securities takes pride in its training regimen, but we work just as hard, if not harder, here.” Abbott stepped up beside her. “Do you know which group of Surveyors has the highest casualty rates?”
Coming out of her daze a little, she glanced back at him. “E ranks?”
Abbott nodded. “That’s right. A lot of Surveyors who are new to the fight tend to get in over their heads and don’t have the skills or the mindset to get themselves back out again. An awful lot of E ranks just take a wound and decide they’d rather not step through any more portals again, which is just as bad for the rest of us.”
He paused, and his smile grew a little less sincere. “Want to guess which group comes in next?”
Alex blinked. The obvious answer would have been D ranks, as the next weakest group, but her mother had already emphasized the real answer. “C ranks.”
Abbott snorted. “Yep. Right again.” He shook her by the shoulder a little and let go. “Care to explain why?”
She took a moment to muster her thoughts. It was a little difficult with the allure of the portal still pulsing nearby. “E ranks get in trouble because of the lack of power and the lack of skills. D ranks usually don’t get in trouble, both because they have more skill, and because any D ranks that aren’t serious tend to stop at that level and go into management or other Survey-adjacent careers.”
He nodded. “Whereas…”
Alex grimaced. “Whereas C ranks are where the majority of the serious Surveyors end up. They gain a lot of power, but end up getting used for more serious operations, like Raids, suppressing Escalation Events, or supporting attacks against much higher rank portals. By contrast, B and A rank Surveyors are much rarer and go on much more selective missions, meaning they don’t get risked as often in a bad situation. As a result, C ranks take far more casualties by percentage than every other rank except for E.”
“Good answer, Alex. Somebody’s been paying attention to the statistics!” Abbott gestured to the surrounding training center. “By and large, our Surveyors range from midway through D rank to higher C ranks. We only have two B ranks, one of which you’ve already met. They are the best of the best that we can get our hands on, and we do our best to make sure that they get everything they need to be successful. Despite that, we still take losses. You see that spike, right in front of the portal?”
He pointed, and Alex nodded. It looked like a miniature Washington Monument, standing directly in front of the portal. Abbott nodded. “That’s where the names of the people who don’t come back go. Every time we train here, we pass by those names. I never want to see your name, or the names of your friends, on that spike. Do you hear me, Alex?”
Alex looked back at Abbott, and was shocked by the utter seriousness of his expression. There was no hint of the humor in his eyes now, and she nodded. “I hear you, sir.”
Abbott gave her a faint smile. “Good.” He looked back at the portal. “The company maintains this C rank portal as an opportunity to give our Surveyors field training. When you aren’t on deck, you’ll be going through twice a week. Since none of you have hit C rank yet, I’ll be going through with you until I feel like you’re ready to handle it on your own. Do you have any questions about that?”
She felt a tremor of uncertainty now. He was going in with her and the others? Neither Wells nor Liliana had ever gone through the portal with her. The prospect of managing a Survey with Abbott present seemed… risky, somehow. “Are you sure? It seems like that might make it hard for you to keep us alive.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I think you’ll find I’ve gotten pretty good at this, you know. You might even learn something.” Then he looked at the portal and snorted. “You’d think you might be a little nervous about going into a C rank portal as a D rank, but apparently life has scared all of that caution out of you, hasn’t it?”
Alex looked back at the portal. She realized it had been more than a month since she’d last gone through one of the vortexes; she hadn’t been allowed to do so since the Revolution, in fact. Was that why it seemed so… enticing now? Or was it something about the rank of the portal itself?
She tore her eyes away from it to look back at him. The scent of magic was still filling her nostrils as she drew in another breath and then let it out slowly. “We’ve dealt with worse.”
Abbott raised his eyebrows at her. “Then here’s hoping that you’re not wrong, Valkyrie. We’ll see you tomorrow.”