Orson helped Teddy spread the tarp across the entire dune buggy and locked it in place at the wheel wells. The storm had moved over the valley, carried by a wind that whipped Orson’s hair and coat.
Compared to the open sky around it, Orson could see the enormity of the storm system, stretching up like a hammer raised high before a strike. In the magnification from his goggles, he watched the dancing lightning, arcing between curves of cloud.
“Can I send a message to April before you get started?” Teddy asked. “Just an easy local call, in case we get stuck in there. I’ve only seen clouds like that here a few times. That thing is packing, man, and this valley sometimes only gets a couple inches of rain in a whole year. Last spring a big storm hit, and cars were underwater. This German tourist got stuck in the relay building. He came here on a motorcycle so he couldn’t leave.”
“What was a German tourist doing out here?” Orson asked. “Was he safe in the building?”
“Well, maybe he wasn’t German,” Teddy said. “He might’ve been Swiss. Or Austrian. His accent sounded German. I hope he was German – I made him a German Chocolate Cake. Maybe I should’ve made Zuger Kirschtorte.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Orson said. “Never mind, Ted. We can try this another time. Do you want to race the storm back to your place?”
“We probably won’t make it,” Teddy said. “And we don’t want to get stuck in the open desert in a big storm. Just do your thing, man.” He stepped between Enoa and Jaleel. Enoa was in her zoned-out Shaper mode. Jaleel held the door open and still stared at his drawn diagram.
“What are we doing now?” Jaleel asked.
“We’re going to give Teddy a little privacy to call home,” Orson said. “Then I’ll try to get out those messages before we’re washed away.”
“Are we really in danger?” Jaleel stepped aside and allowed the door to close. “Or do you have life preservers or something hidden in your coat?”
“If nothing else,” Orson said. “I’ll fly us up on the roof, but I think we’ll be safe. This place has to have a lot of security. Roger’s no dummy. He would’ve been robbed blind years ago if this place wasn’t fortified.”
“Robbed and flooded are different things,” Jaleel said. “Have you ever been in a flood? My aunt’s house was destroyed three summers ago, and she lived pretty far from the Mississippi River, but it was like the water came right up out of the ground.”
The building door opened. “All done,” Teddy said. “You could’ve come inside. I don’t know why he has the door close automatically. It’s like something in a slasher-movie.”
“You sure about staying?” Orson asked. Teddy nodded. “Okay. Actually, Jaleel, the Aesir got pulled into a river by flash flooding. That’s how we found out about boat mode.” He rested his hand on Enoa’s shoulder. “We’re getting started.”
She blinked her eyes, as if she’d been sleeping. “The moisture in the air – it feels strange,” she said. “It feels like it’s freezing, like it’s going to snow.”
“See,” Jaleel said. “And we don’t have the Aesir here, Orson.”
“It snows out here,” Teddy said. “A dusting at a time, but it’s been more the last couple years. Used to be only once in a decade. It’s really late for snow. Some years, by this time, it’s already pushing triple digits in the valley.”
“Is there any other way to move deeper into this building?” Enoa asked.
“Nope,” Teddy answered. “Most of this just houses all of Roger’s equipment.”
“There is a restroom around the back,” Orson said. “I took my bathroom break, and you should too. I already felt a couple drops of rain. Once we’re inside, I think we’ll be fine. I doubt Roger isn’t prepared for this. Teddy, the man who was trapped here, last year. Was he okay?”
“Uh,” Teddy said. “Do you mean the German Swiss Austrian man? Yeah, he was fine. Roger had to rescue him though.”
“We definitely can’t drive back?” Orson asked. “There’s no way we’ll make it away from the storm?”
“It could hit at home too,” Teddy said. “We usually don’t get as much, but that same storm, last year, flooded my garage a little bit, before we finished it. That was the first time I had that. But this building was fine. The Shoshone are good at keeping ahead of the changing weather, and Roger has this place like Fort Knox. He has money sitting here sometimes weeks without him collecting it.”
“Okay,” Orson said. “If we can’t drive back, all we can do is get to work here. If it starts to flood in there, I’ll fly us to the roof. If it floods up to the roof, then we’re out of luck. Now, why don’t you visit the bathroom, fill your water bottles, whatever you have to do, while I pay and get started calling.”
“And visit the vending machines in the bathroom.” Teddy pulled his wallet from his jeans. “I was so worried about getting the buggy safe I forgot snacks.” He drew out several coins. “Roger has what’s supposed to be original recipe Doritos, like they had at Disneyland in the sixties, but they have nacho cheese like their mass market version. It’s apocryphal to the lore, but I love them. April and I tried to reverse engineer the recipe, a few times, but even her chemistry skills and my knowledge of the culinary arts were not enough. I don’t know where Roger gets them. He won’t tell me!”
The rain began for real, light, but steady enough to audibly drum on the dune buggy’s tarp.
“Ted, maybe we talk about this inside.” Orson drew up his coat’s hood.
“Sorry!” Teddy handed coins to both Enoa and Jaleel. “They’re a transcendental experience, man.”
“Um, I’m happy to help with the vending machine run.” Enoa pulled on the hood of her cloak. “But…”
“They have the chips without cheese too!” Teddy interrupted. “Enoa, you’ll experience what my lack of willpower has kept from me – the true 1960s Disneyland flavor. I envy you.”
“Okay,” she said. “Thank you. While I’m asking, how gross is this bathroom? I want to be prepared.”
“Enoa!” Jaleel held his arms over his head. “If you’re waiting, I’m going first!” He ran around the side of the building. Enoa followed after him.
“It’s not bad,” Orson called after her. “It’s only for customers.” He stepped inside and sat down at the terminal. “I have another reverse engineering job for you and April, if you’re game. Remind me when we get back.”
“Did you bring that syrup?” Teddy stood in the alcove and prevented the door from closing. “You’ve been talking about that for eight years.”
“I did,” Orson activated the terminal. “Enoa and I almost got shot getting it.” The image of Cartoon Roger appeared on the center screen.
“Pick your communication type.” Roger spoke slower in this recording and the words aligned with his cartoon avatar’s flapping lips. “Then pick your payment method.”
Orson selected ‘single-burst: self-encrypted’. Then he turned on the portable battery packs on Teddy’s spare desktop computer and monitor. He pulled the interface cords toward the keyboard where ports had opened for them, but he took too long plugging in the borrowed computer – too long for Roger’s cartoon recording.
“Pick your communication type,” Roger said again. “Then pick your payment method.”
“One time,” Teddy said. “I came out here to call Samson, when he was reporting from this ecological situation in the South Pacific, and it got stuck on that screen. He just kept saying, ‘pick your’ over and over. Pick your. Pick your. Pick your!” Teddy cringed. “An hour! An hour, I tried to make him stop. I tried everything, even the old turn-it-off-and-back-on-again trick. I eventually gave up but it haunts my dreams. If my sins outweigh the good I do in this life, that will be my punishment. Roger saying ‘pick your’ forever.”
“How’s Samson doing?” Orson asked. “And if we get stuck like that during a flood, I’ll lose it. I’ll chop this damn thing right out of the wall.”
“Samson’s okay,” Teddy said. “The GJG is still trying to recruit him, but he’d never join something like that. International news is a tough gig right now, though. We talk pretty often. Us black sheep gotta stick together.”
“I don’t think you have to worry,” Orson said. “Samson would never put up with the way they operate. I run into them every so often.” Orson plugged Teddy’s computer into Roger’s system. All monitors now displayed the same, new screen – ‘select currency’.
Then Orson scrolled through dozens of payment options: dollars from several countries (though not the Pacific Alliance), as well as ‘Credits – Jalvien’, ‘Credits – Starsyne’, ‘Doubloons’, ‘Gold (Other)’, ‘Euros’… He stopped reading when he reached ‘Liberty Coin’.
“What do you think of this?” Orson pointed to the screen.
“People could pay that dude in bottle caps if he could convert it back to gold.” Teddy shrugged. “What are you looking for, Pacific Alliance?”
“Yeah,” Orson said. “None of the Alliance currencies were listed with the other dollars.”
“He’ll have it at the end with the unstable currencies,” Teddy said.
“That’s unstable? But he has Liberty Coin here?” Orson continued scrolling and found Teddy was correct. The dollars for the North American Alliances were listed at the very beginning of the ‘new/unstable currencies’ section.
“Almost everybody here is gonna use Alliance money,” Teddy said. “So he’s gonna add a surcharge for it.”
Orson made his selection and gathered the necessary coinage, seventy-five Pacific Dollars. He slid the coins into a slot on the wall.
“Okay,” he said. “Here we go.”
Lightning flashed. Thunder sounded. A roaring downpour followed just after. Orson flinched. Teddy jumped aside, almost letting the door slip shut. He caught it, just as Enoa and Jaleel rushed inside, already drenched to the skin, holding full water bottles and bags of chips. The bags were marked ‘Doradito’.
“I’m sorry you got rained on,” Teddy said. “I should have gone back myself.”
“I’m not gonna blame you, Teddy.” Jaleel handed bags of chips to Teddy and Orson. “If Orson sent me on another food run, I’d complain at him, but not you. Enoa, can you transmute the water off of us?”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Um,” she said. “I’m afraid I’d cook us if I tried. It turns to steam, so I think we’ll just dry the normal way.”
“I didn’t think to pack towels.” Teddy allowed the door to close. He took that spot nearest the door and leaned against it. Jaleel and Enoa stood on either side of the desk chair. They had little room to move, their clothing dripping onto the floor. But they were inside, and the door locked, leaving all sounds of the storm outside.
Orson looked down at the desktop computer, pressed to the wall. “Enoa, please hit the ‘enter’ key. That’ll finalize the encryption to hide address locations for our, uh, recipients, just in case. It should be set up already.”
“Okay.” She pressed it.
“Hmm.” Orson saw no change on either blank screen. “It should still work.”
“How does Teddy’s computer know what to do with Roger’s?” Jaleel asked.
“Because the only thing it does is encryption,” Orson said.
“But that isn’t how,” Jaleel said. “You have no idea how this works, do you?”
“I have an idea,” Orson said. “These devices are both from that old 1980s secret Hierarchia sci-fi tech complex.”
“Is that the official name?” Jaleel laughed.
“Very funny,” Orson said. “Anyway, they were built to respond to each other. I know that’s only surface level, but this is why I’m so careful. I guess I’ll just start the transmission to Pops and see if it works.”
Orson typed in the address code Pops had given him, but the message window didn’t arrive. Instead, Orson saw the image of a phone. A small computer jingle filled the booth.
Before Orson could question the situation, Pops appeared on the screen. He sat in a mostly-darkened, wood-paneled room, wearing an open bathrobe and an ‘Age of the Dinosaurs’ T-shirt.
“Oh-ho!” he said. “You are alive! Good to see ya, kid. Eloise told me some of the details already. Did you get my message?”
“Yeah,” Orson said. “We did. Actually…”
“What the hell is this?” The cartoon image of Roger ran onto the computer display, charging from out of view at the right edge of the screen. “What are you doing with my transmitter, Gregory? This isn’t a single-burst transmission, and you didn’t pay for a call.”
“Shows what you know,” Pops said. “Did you think you’re the only one who salvaged an IHSA Iridium Ten? Orson, call me some other way. I don’t know what’s up with Elmer Fudd, but I’m not talking to you with him eavesdropping.”
“Elmer Fudd?” Roger said. “And who are you, Orson’s grandpa? Run back to Granny. It’s not safe for old fossils like you to play with tech that’s a third your age.”
“Yeah, like I’m about to get offended by a grown man who pretends to be a goddamn Looney Tune. Orson, really, call me some other way.” Pops stood up, as if to cut off the call.
“Pops,” Orson said. “I did this to…”
“Listen, you stupid ox,” Cartoon Roger interrupted. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with. I make signals invisible, do you understand? There’s no way safer than me. I could’ve sent messages from the basement of the Pentagon before it got craterized and they wouldn’t have known.”
“Orson, you don’t need this dumb freak’s help,” Pops said. “I don’t care how good he is.”
“He does need me,” Roger began. “Alright, old man…”
“Who are you calling old?” Pops asked. “You look older than I do, but it is hard to tell. I wasn’t drawn by Hanna-Barbera.”
“Both of you stop!” Enoa shouted. “Orson paid for this call, right Orson?”
“He did,” Roger said.
“Too much, I’m sure,” Pops said.
“Roger, let us have this call,” Enoa said. “I’m sorry the two-way call scared you. I’m sure most of your customers don’t have anywhere near the capabilities Mr. Darlow has. If it’s safe to continue, let us keep talking in private.”
“Did you say Darlow?” Roger asked. The cartoon man turned to the side and regarded Pops’s video feed. “Huh, alright. I’ll let you talk. Hopefully we don’t hear from each other again.” Roger walked out of sight at the right edge of the frame.
“It looks like your reputation precedes you,” Teddy said.
“Hi Pops,” Jaleel said.
“Hello,” said Enoa.
“Hi, Ted.” Pops smiled. “Hi, kids.” He ducked out of view.
“What are you doing now?” Orson asked.
“I’m calling Eloise,” Pops said. “We agreed to call once you made contact. It was a bit of a bonding moment. We never really talked much one-to-one. She needs to know what’s up and I don’t want you paying more to that guy.”
“If he detects another signal,” Orson said. “He might come running back.”
“So you did make it!” Eloise appeared in a new window that grew from the left of the screen. “Why didn’t you write again, after you got to Teddy’s?”
“Hi Eloise!” Teddy waved.
“Hi Ted.” Eloise returned the gesture.
“I assumed you’d figure we got there,” Orson said. “And I was tired. And I knew we were coming out here today so I thought it would be best just to talk to you now.”
“Where’s Dr. Stan?” Eloise asked. “She’s still okay, isn’t she?”
“She stayed back at Ted’s,” Orson said. “She didn’t have anybody to call.”
“April is talking to her about the scientific disciplines,” Teddy said. “She’s a chemist, and she misses discussions with her own people.”
“Yeah,” Orson said. “That.”
“I have messages from the other survivors,” Eloise said. “Dr. Ikaro sent out her beacon this morning, and the Alliance brought all the Advisory survivors here.”
“How is Ikaro?” Orson asked. “How was the stay with the Antler Clan?”
“Who?” Pops asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Orson said.
“No mention of the Antler Clan,” Eloise said. “All of them were gathered on the riverbank, waiting for the Alliance. Ikaro’s glad to be alive, but she’s shaken. Her whole life was destroyed with that lab. And the rescue team confirmed that both Penningtons are dead. Their bodies were found together. The Liberty Corps left all of the corpses with a warning.”
“Shit,” Orson said. “No Liberty Corps pursuit?”
“They’re all after you.” Pops stood and stepped out of frame, returning with several folders of papers. “I had another set of flyovers from their probes. They’ve been back in Alabaster, and in Nimauk, and over Littlefield. I tried to have their drones followed but they lost us… This Liberty Corps base you’re looking for,” Pops said. “Where is it?”
“Idaho,” Orson said.
“I was afraid you’d say that.” Pops nodded and drew several pages from a pale blue folder.
“Is that important?” Eloise asked.
“Reidel Khunrath Helmont!” Pops said. “The man who’s hunting you was career Hierarchia but he wasn’t in the regular chain of command. He was their backup plan and their plan for the future. In nineteen ninety-four, he was set up to safeguard against more corruption in the IHSA Research, Recovery and Development Sector. But he’s been training for this his entire life, building the IHSA into a standalone power.”
“What RRD stuff was going on then?” Orson asked. “That was way after Gamma and way before Nation.”
“Not too much,” Pops said. “They inaugurated a new Administrator then too, used the letter Theta.”
“Did you say Theta?” Enoa interrupted.
“He did,” Eloise said.
“Who’s Theta?” Orson asked.
“Not as many records about Theta,” Pops said. “She left the office quietly about six years later, but I don’t see any drama. She didn’t shoot herself into space, or get murdered by their own clone, and didn’t turn traitor like half the other RRD Administrators.”
“Okay,” Orson said. “Enoa, why do you know about this Theta?”
“She studied Anemos,” Enoa said. “She studied the Shaping my aunt documented for them.”
“How do you know that?” Orson asked.
“I found it for her,” Eloise said. “Last week, before the Liberty Corps attacked the Scientific Advisory. I looked through my library for anything about Enoa’s Shaping.”
“What else did you learn?” Orson asked.
“Can this wait?” Pops asked. “I don’t want to interrupt your family Come-to-Jesus moment, but you need to know this. The Idaho place you’re looking for was set aside for Helmont. It’s called the Pinnacle Holdfast. It’s the Hierarchia remnant. It’s designed to rebuild the organization after any conceivable calamity. Not only can it house thirty-thousand personnel, it has the backups to most of their research and their records. It’s the secret storehouse for everything.”
“Yes!” Orson laughed. “Finally, we’ve got a lead. How did you find this? The Pacific Alliance guys found shit-all about Helmont.”
“Remember, I spent the first year after shutdown recovering written records,” Pops said. “Helmont was clever. He spent the eighties setting up connections with worldwide bases, getting spies, finding people who would make copies for him. There are only a couple things I couldn’t find – when he actually learned to Shape and what his connection was with Nation and the Opal saga that got you in the game.”
“This is everything Pops,” Orson said. “You gave us everything! This is it! We can really do this!” He looked at Enoa and Jaleel, but neither of them were smiling.
“You need to take this seriously.” Pops flipped through his folder. “This is why the western Liberty Corps is so prepared. This is why they have so many Shapers. This Helmont has been in power for decades, teaching people to make their minds into weapons. That’s why some of their older knights are named for Alchemists or Occultists, not letters like the main Hierarchia. The IHSA wanted powered warriors, no matter who they were. They wanted mutants and casters, anyone they could use. But Helmont’s focus is different. He wants a whole order of Shapers that he trained.”
“I’m glad I didn’t put any money on the base being new,” Jaleel said. Orson nodded.
“Kids,” Pops said. “This isn’t just some random old Hierarchia Base. It’s the ultimate base. Except for Montauk and the place in the Quiet Zone, with the fallout shelter they built for the feds, there is no IHSA location more secure or powerful on this continent.”
“That’s also why they have a Starbird carrier there that nobody knew about,” Orson said.
“Those probes could be from there too,” Pops said. “I never saw the design before. And I have this.” He pulled a picture from the folder and held it up for the camera. It displayed what looked like a flying bell, almost the size of a house, above a small town. “This is Helmont’s personal shuttle. He did a little flyover after he captured that Maros group. There’s stuff in the Pinnacle I don’t know anything about.”
“If that probe comes back,” Eloise said. “And I shoot it down – that might teach them to spy on my town and it might teach you something about that place.”
“Eloise,” Pops said. “You don’t know what this thing can do.”
“No,” she said. “But I know what I can do.”
“What are you shooting?” Carlos’s voice came through the feed from Littlefield. He walked into view, Dino following after him. “Hi everybody.” He waved. Everyone waved back, before Dino ran ahead and stood up with his forepaws beside Eloise. His neck flap extended, and he barked excitedly.
Pops jumped back. “I’ve heard about him, but…”
“There’s my buddy!” Orson said. “Does Dino know Orson’s voice?”
“That is pretty startling, man,” Teddy added. “He looks like that dude who ate Newman in Jurassic Park.”
“No, he doesn’t!” Carlos hugged Dino, his shoulder visible beside the dog’s radar flap. “He’s our good boy!”
“I definitely do not think going after this probe is a great idea,” Orson said. “What if that gets Helmont to fly over Littlefield in his battleship?”
“That would be moronic of him,” Eloise said. “Unless he wants to start a war with the Alliance. I’m the perfect person to do this.”
“I don’t think I like this either,” Carlos said. “We just… You could have died fighting Sloan. Please don’t put yourself in danger again. Please tell her, Orson.” He stood behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders.
“Yeah, I don’t…” Orson trailed off when the distant beeping started from his coat. He unzipped the breast pockets and drew out the Aesir’s robotic keys and his kazoo, until he found what he was looking for, the ship’s sensor taken from the Aesir’s dashboard.
“What is that?” Jaleel stood and looked at the device. Orson set it beside the keyboard and switched off the alarm.
“That’s a sensor,” Orson says. “It detects approaching electromagnetic fields, and repulsors, and any potentially-dangerous things the Aesir usually warns me about. When I’m away from the ship, I bring it along.”
“That alarm means something or someone is headed straight at us,” Orson said. “But I can’t say much more from this.”
“Coming here?” Teddy stepped away from the door.
“Maybe one of those probes finally found you.” Eloise leaned away from her fiancé.
“How well do you know Fudd?” Pops asked.
“Easy everyone,” Orson said again. “It’s a skimmer or something like it, right over the ground.” The screen displayed an elevation graph, a green line stretching from side to side, barely in frame. “I can see the altitude.”
The line then stopped and held steady – a single dot.
Orson adjusted the screen. He saw that the dot was only a short distance from a white arrow – the mark that showed the device’s own location.
“It’s here.” Orson stood. “Whatever it is.”
“Should we keep the call open?” Eloise asked. “Did we give you away?”
“If you did,” Orson said. “Roger would know it. He’d be back here. I don’t know what this is.”
“I do know what’s up.” Cartoon Roger walked from the right of the screen. “My landlords are here to pick you up. The storm’s getting nasty out there. Ted’s lady let them know you were here.”
“Have you been listening in?” Pops asked. “Orson, I don’t care how much you paid…”
“Don’t start with me again,” Roger said. “I’m here trying to fix myself some lunch and now I’ve got to play errand-boy. Cathy wanted me to give you the heads up she’s almost here. Otherwise she’d have to barge right in. Soundproofing has its disadvantages.”
“Thanks, Roger.” Orson walked to the door and opened it. “Let’s see how bad this storm is.”
He’d been so consumed by what he’d learned and what might await him that he’d almost forgotten the storm.
The sky was pitch black and lightning danced above them. Winds had turned the rain almost horizontal. There was sleet mingled with it, and it splashed when it struck the ground. The springs Teddy had mentioned now surged above the earth. The water was spreading. The world shimmered in the light from Orson’s goggles.
A military skimmer approached them, through the storm. Orson saw the deluge clearly in its headlights. The craft edged forward, until it stopped beside Teddy’s dune buggy. The wind pulled at the buggy’s tarp. The locks held, but the covering rippled, as the storm struggled to tear it free.
The hovercraft still bore the mark of the Hierarchia’s Omega sector, but the horseshoe-like Omega had been altered, repainted. Now its shape was only part of a golden sun, with a complex bird portrait inside it.
A female voice boomed from the skimmer. “Hello Orson! Where’s Theodore? This is Cathy speaking.”
Teddy forced his way from the door and waved to the skimmer.
“Ted,” she said. “April called. It’s not safe in this storm. The road’s already flooding, and it could all freeze tonight. We’re here to take you home.”