“Five orbs?”.

“That’s all we have around, Augusta,” replied Margie Rutter. The British Scouts had scoured their entire headquarters for any stray “Core” equipment, but the collector items were few in numbers. All of those had been moved into equipment by the high tier members, even though a second defensive core had been there, relatively useless compared to Cowen’s current. But none of them was going to leave the newest in Professional equipment laying around, to be picked by anyone.

“Bollocks. Five. The old company must have found over a hundred since we killed that first legend. We probably got thirty at least since we split off, we’re the largest group doing major lairs.”

She leaned over the doorframe to the company’s headquarter entrance, drumming her fingers over the frame in thought. Jonas and the rest of the Adapted team had made sure they were not interfering with the slightly frantic search. The tier six Professionals had stopped at picking personal chests and cupboards but had checked everything else.

She pounded the wood, who resisted the Strength-enhanced shock – probably a wood from the labyrinth itself rather than an imported material – and made a decision.

“I need to see the boss. Right now. I’m heading to London,” she announced to the Scouts’ watch duty woman.

Cowen turned and noticed Jonas, staying quiet in the entrance hall.

“Come with me, Sims. We need to talk to my boss. And fast.”

“Coming.”

The strange thing for Jonas was that he was attracting fewer glances in London than in Gatepost. Professionals had an idea of who he was, and seeing him wearing an Artefact robe drew attention. But for Londoners, he wasn’t probably different from any Professional, and he and Cowen were certainly mistaken for members of the same team by any passer-by, obviously going on some kind of usual Professional errand or something.

After all, he reflected, he was certainly looking different from what he’d been during the grand parade after the re-opening of the Gate. Wearing artefact robes rather than civilian attire, no one would spare him a glance. He wondered if even Lieutenant Bollen would notice him unless he watched carefully.

Certainly, no one along the street next to the park seemed to. A simple sign of the head in respect for Professionals, a sidestep, and that was all.

Cowen knocked on the door to the Labyrinth Minister and didn’t even wait until an answer came, barging in immediately. Jonas followed very carefully, hoping that there would be no explosion from the government minister against one of his nominal employees.

“Cowen. You’re perfect, as always. I was discussing some aspects of the latest British Scout foray with… ah, Sir Sims. Welcome as well,” Lord Wellesley said, rising from his seat.

Jonas immediately noticed the robed man seated in front. Babbage was the minister’s host. He politely acknowledged both men, as Cowen charged into the office and grabbed a seat.

“I was discussing with Mr Babbage the recent developments, notably your potential new zone type. Which, I think, he finds very interesting.”

“As always. The new Adapted Team continues to provide endless questions about the Labyrinth. The Royal Society and the Archives have never been so excited in almost a decade,” Charles Babbage said.

“Now, seeing both you and Augusta Cowen come in, I assume the initial foray was successful, and you have confirmed things,” Richard Wellesley said.

“Well, Lord Wellesley, my Physics confirmed the trunk thing, the silly bugger, seeing as he has been enabled for one of those zones for nearly a year,” she replied.

“Habborlain? Really?”

“Yes. While you were tasking me with a scout mission, he went on and did one for himself.”

“That’s great news. So, we have multiple access to that trunk system, then?”

“Yes and no. The problem is Biskanta, getting specific access through there will be a pain in the nether regions.”

“Ah,” Babbage said, immediately grasping the significance of the zone’s peculiar set-up.

“What about other tiers?” Wellesley asked.

“That’s not the important part. The important part is that we need money, lots and fast.”

“Hmmm. Cowen, you know, lots of people come into government offices asking for lots of money all the time… but Professionals rarely do. What’s put a bee in your bonnet?”

“We have things to track, buy back and do it fast, my Lord. Before anyone realize what they are.”

Both Babbage and Wellesley immediately looked toward Jonas. He raised his hands in defence.

“Not my fault. We just found about it… okay, my team’s fault. Maybe.”

“Explain yourself.”

“An entire new equipment slot.”

“Apparently so. And that’s why we need a massive effort, and quickly. There must be almost two hundred of the core orbs around the United Kingdom, in the hands of collectors and art dealers and suchlike. We’re never going to get all of them back, but getting an additional piece of equipment for as many of the British Scouts as we can, that will boost tremendously our capacity,” Cowen explained.

“I know the King has a collection of the things in Windsor,” Babbage said. “And outside of that one, the Archives have almost certainly the second largest, if not the largest one. There’s probably over twenty-five of them between the Gatepost and London offices.”

“Can we…”

“I think the Archives will reserve the right of the first choice,” Babbage said, smiling.

“How much money are we talking about?” the minister asked.

“Probably as much as you can find. Once we start buying the items, people are going to notice, and prices are going to climb. And some collectors will not want to sell unless you seriously entice them.”

“Which will fuel the speculation.”

“Yes.”

“Thankfully, you can’t find your gear on a simple shared descriptor,” Babbage said.

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“No, unless you have the right - wrong - skills. Although, people familiar with someone will notice if our vitals and Potentials climb up abruptly, but we don’t seem to have visibly changed any piece of equipment. Almost every scout is fully heroic, and replacing a piece of equipment with a new one increases our potential only so much. If you can do the math, something will be odd.”

“Unless you don’t use them yet,” Wellesley said.

“That… might work. It would be like civilian attire. You keep the real equipment in puppet and wear only your chosen looks. Once you’re out in the field with your team, you break out the goods,” Cowen said after a moment of thought.

“Aren’t people going to be upset that you’ve purchased their gear once they find out?” Jonas asked.

“Most of the orbs aren’t probably in the hands of Professionals. But… let’s say it’s mostly a matter of getting them back. If you weren’t supposed to have them, then you aren’t really missing them.”

Jonas made a face.

“We’ll deal with that. You don’t even have to be implicated. We’ll go through intermediaries anyway because if a major Labyrinth company is involved in suddenly buying every orb in the market, the fox will leave the henhouse very fast,” the Labyrinth Minister said.

“I presume the Archives will be discreet?” he inquired immediately.

“It’s hard for scholars to stay silent for long. But in this case, I’ll make sure we do, until it blows up,” Babbage replied.

“So you’ve not done tier three yet.”

“No, my Lord. We did run back immediately once we realized the existence of the twelfth equipment location. We’ll resume exploration soon, of course. But for now, it’s just the tier two basics, and, I think, what Sir Sims and his team did on their side.”

“You did the tier one zone, Sims?”

“Yes. I would say… it’s pretty much in the same vein as the tier two,” Jonas said, starting to describe their experience.

“And the construction had a descriptor representation,” Babbage asked.

“That’s what it looked like. A bit inverted, but the keystone over the arch can’t be anything else, but a representation of the Gate descriptor.”

“Well, if it is built by the same Creator as the rest of the Labyrinth, it makes sense there would be a representation of the descriptor. Even though it remains hidden from everyone, he’s made one there,” Wellesley noted.

“A bit heavy on the symbolism… but that confirms the trunk structure. It is intended as a straight line across the Labyrinth, tier by tier. With an end at the bottom… and who knows where the top lies.”

“If there is an end to the Labyrinth, you mean,” Jonas said.

“We have entered a couple of tier seven zones. Not too many yet, but we do know there’s at least a tier eight zone since that Gate required eight lairs completions to cross,” the British Scouts boss said.

“We’ll see what lies between Donerkal and Zabarkal, but I have very little faith they do not connect,” Cowen added.

“And we get four zones every tier. You’re validated for those?”

“Maybe, yes. I do not know if the Plaza completion counts as a lair,” Jonas said.

“I doubt it,” Cowen interrupted. “Everyone got the Plaza completion, all eleven of us. That never happens for lairs beyond six people.”

“Okay, so we’re still enabled for tier ones and one guardian away from the tier two. If Cowen and her team go further, we’ll check those lower tiers.”

“I am going to break my rules, and poach you from my brother, I think.”

Jonas laughed slightly.

“Ira’s going to love it. He’s decided we should do exploration, seeing as we typically go where nobody has gone or almost never go.”

“So, what zones are you exploring?”

Jonas fished his notebook and pulled the fresh note page.

“The four tier-one Gates we’ve found were labelled Montcalf… Alpherg… Brocarres… and Eokrufiri. Not on the master list again, so no other connection to the British sector yet. We were going to check at least one of these, but we headed back to Donerkal once we fought the Ancient.”

Richard Wellesley’s fingers tapping on the desk froze at the list.

“Balls.”

He rose and warned them, “I need to see Arthur immediately. Don’t leave.”

Jonas and Cowen exchanged gazes, the Imposing Knight obviously as nonplussed as the Solid Aethershaper. They both turned to Babbage, who was apparently as surprised as they were.

“I think he must have recognized one of those names. No idea which one, though,” he said.

The Duke of Wellington had been apparently at the War Office next door, for the two Wellesley brothers returned within the hour. The three Professionals had busied themselves by discussing various theories about the trunk system, the possible existence of other zone types since there were obviously specially designated zones.

Babbage, in particular, was extremely excited about the idea of having various enablers for things beyond access to Gates. He was certainly planning to mount an expedition with some Archivists and see if people that had missed the Plaza completion would see the entire Profession list or not. But the list of Professions, while nice, did not excite him as much as the possible applications – if any – to non-trunk Plazas. And other aspects of the Labyrinth, maybe.

“The possibilities are truly unbounded,” he’d said, facing the prospect of having ways of unlocking alternate features of the Labyrinth.

“Ah, Sir Sims. My truly best employee now,” the Duke said when entering.

“I’m not her Highness, my Lord,” Jonas replied.

“True, but you bring me such interesting gifts,” he said.

“Now, my brother Richard said he wanted to hire your team away, but you made an interesting counterpoint,” the Duke added, surprising Jonas.

“I wasn’t aware I made such.”

“Your tier-one trunk zone… you are pretty sure it has a Gate connecting to Brocarres.”

“Yes, my Lord. Positive. You know of it?”

“I happen to, yes. Getting intelligence out of the French is hard. We got lucky with some useful documents from the Colonies, but the French Dominion’s Labyrinth operations are wrapped more tightly than one of the mummies Bonaparte brought back from Egypt.”

Everyone sat suddenly straighter, getting interested in the introduction.

“There was one young Professional from Bonaparte’s that had a beef against the government. Nothing even Labyrinth-related, merely some dispute about land rights in his province that got unjustly – or so he thought, at least – adjudicated against his family. He wasn’t very high, mid-tier two only, but he deserted, came across the Channel, and talked to us a lot.”

“Now, all of this was in 1810. Most of what he knew wouldn’t be applicable anymore, but one thing does not change and never does, and that’s geography. The Labyrinth doesn’t change. And Brocarres is one of the dozen zones we do know about the French sector. It’s a tier-one, indeed, and one that connects to Argentmart.”

Jonas knew that famous one, at least.

“And Argentmart is the tier one French entrance into the Labyrinth.”

“Yes, Sir Sims. You’ve just delivered to the War Office a most interesting gift – a backdoor straight into the very heart of the Dominion.”

The team was gathered around their usual table at The Frozen Boar, talking in hushed tones.

“So, Wellington want to mount an offensive on the French… from the Labyrinth?”

“It wouldn’t be an offensive from the Labyrinth per se. But that’s the trick. Moving a couple of teams across many zones of the Dominion would be noticed because you’d need to run so many lairs, and end up pretty useless. They could prepare and mount a defence. But if you can conduct a large-scale strike, at the right time, you can destabilize things enough that we can attack on the mainland and have a chance of success.”

“We’ve been locked in a war for nearly two decades,” Guss remarked.

“But an assault of the Chateau de Versailles, conducted through the Gate, could be enough to let us get a foothold on the land, and possibly dealing a blow to Napoleon’s capacity if combined with a more mundane attack at the same time.”

“And they’d go through the trunk.”

“Yes. The limiting factor, for now, is the access through Othary and the rare crows. You can enable a single six-person group every two to three weeks, so we’re talking potentially a year or two until everyone involved is in position. Then you have to sneak into Brocarres, get one completion there – possibly the lair from which you arrive, and Recall immediately. Until the day.”

“How will they keep it secret,” Alton asked.

“They are going to be very careful about who they bring in, of course. They’re not even sure if all the Scouts are going to be requisitioned by the High Labyrinth Office. But apparently… we’re going to have lots of people recruited into our company.”

“And we are involved,” Jonathan noted, smiling.

“Yes. And it also means that the existence of the trunk and access must be kept a secret.”

“How are we going to explain our Artefacts?” Ira asked.

“There was a suggestion we’d hide them in puppets – which we would have gotten for free. But I explained too many people had already seen us, and the Artefacts vanishing would be noticed. But the Archives will be covering for us. We’re always involved with them for experiments, so they’ve lent us the Artefacts for now.”

“Can they do that again? For real?” Laura said.

“They don’t have that many. Those things still fetch very large prices, even underleveled which our own would officially be. But what they have is a large collection of Orbs.”

Everyone frowned at the mention.

“Apparently, many Professionals are superstitious or something, and it’s common to think that the level on the orb represents how good you did in the fight.”

“But the content of the chest is set before you even fight the guardian,” Jonathan replied.

“We know that, but nobody else does, right? So the thing is, a lot of the orbs left for the Archives to study are low levels. They’ve got at least half a dozen below level 100.”

“Why does this sound convenient. Looks like a bribe,” Alton noted.

“The word ‘reward’ was used, I think,” Jonas replied.

“As long as we are going to attack the French, I’m on board. Even without a free Core,” Jonathan concluded.