Chapter 87

Site 00 never slept.

Travis could confidently say that this place was quickly becoming a sight to behold. Behemoths of concrete, rebar and steel were being born of the earth, hiding unspeakable things beneath their peaceful façade. The earth itself was a tomb of alien and magical things, only some of which would one day come out of hiding, becoming rays of hope for the human race as a whole. The rest, better to leave it there. Not forgotten, but hidden.

It would be madness to anyone to even think that Site 00 had been achieved in just a few days. And yet that much was true. It was truly remarkable, what human ingenuity could achieve when coupled with unfathomable amounts of money, manpower, heavy machinery and just a sprinkle of magic. Although, things became much easier to believe once one considered just how much money they were spending to make Site 00 a reality.

It was a non-issue. Soon, they would be printing money left and right. And even if they weren’t, the amount they were spending was pennies compared to the wealth of a multinational corporation. It boggled the mind of the regular person, sure, but the regular person did not think in terms of billions of dollars and perhaps that was for the better. If they did, they’d understand just how much power money wielded in the modern world, where certain things like distance from civilization and the need for exotic materials were no longer the same limiting factors they were a few decades ago.

He found Maggie at her laptop in the temporary structure she and Michael called home these days. Travis wondered whether Michael even slept there anymore, considering how much time he spent in the dungeon and its dilated time.

“He says he always tries to make it back home for the night,” Maggie said. “But he’s getting conflicted feelings about it. He says he feels like he’s wasting time.”

Travis hummed, knowing that the girl wanted to say more.

“I don’t get it, though,” she said after a moment, her index finger on her chin. “Why is he in such a hurry? I thought he took care of the…” she shivered, “threat.”

“He did,” Travis said, projecting confidence. “There’s nothing to worry about anymore. Nobody can hurt you here.”

The girl nodded, but her eyes were misty. “Then why is he pushing himself so much?”

“The world is changing. The reason why nobody can hurt you here is because of his hard work, which means that he can’t stop.”

For a moment, Travis wished he didn’t have to do this himself. David was infinitely better suited to handle these situations. Where was the old man when Travis needed him?

“Okay…” Maggie said. “He said I can go back if I want, but I don’t think I want to. I want to stay here.”

“You can stay here all you want,” Travis said.

“I thought I would go to university next year,” the girl muttered.

“What degree did you want to get? Most of them are useless, you know?”

She seemed to recoil as if struck, “Business.”

Travis shrugged. “You’re better off here. This is the future, after all. The rest of the world will struggle to catch up.”

“I see,” said the girl.

“Here.” Travis handed her the badge. He explained what she could do with it, which was access pretty much whatever she wanted.

Michael was putting a lot of trust in his sister, barely a couple of days after rescuing her. Compared to how he talked about her before, it was as if she was a whole other person in his mind after the incident. Was his guilt fogging his critical thinking? Fortunately, Travis had already thought about contingencies in case Maggie decided to do things she wasn’t supposed to do. This was his turf, after all, and no all-pass could change things.

The girl clutched the plastic rectangle in her hands, muttering a weak thanks. ”Do you know when he’ll be back?” she asked.

“Michael? He went to the dungeon a while ago. Should be on the way back,” Travis said. Even though, he thought, it’s very probable he spent several days in the Valley. Will he even remember he has a sister to take care of when he emerges from there, I wonder?

He decided to send David a text, explaining the situation. Let the old man decide how to approach the subject with the Lexington siblings, while Travis dealt with matters he was better equipped to handle.

“Thanks,” Maggie said. “This is all very strange. I feel like I’m in a dream, surrounded by things that don’t make sense. At least I’m not alone.”

Travis nodded. “Right,” he said. Even he could feel how lame that was.

Maggie didn’t seem to mind, smiling at him instead. “I can see I’m making you uncomfortable,” she giggled. “You’re all tough and powerful all the time, but I know you care. Thank you for being at my brother’s side. He talks about you sometimes. He is very grateful.”

Travis coughed. “Well,” he said awkwardly, “that’s the least I can do. On that matter, I better get going. Good night.”

“Good night!”

As he left, Travis turned back once. Michael would be here shortly, he knew. There was no need to stay longer. Maggie was not the immature schoolgirl Michael had made her out to be. Whether it had always been like this, and Michael had been unable to see it, or whether it was due to the recent events and the soothing mind magic that had been required to fix her… he couldn’t tell. But she was good and well, and that had to be enough.

Am I… happy for her? Damn. Never thought this would happen. But who knows? One day, perhaps, I will have a little girl of my own and I will be happy for her too. Perhaps this is the first step towards being able to find love again.

He shook his head. The sun had long set, plunging the site into darkness. Lights, both electrical and magical, banished the darkness in many places, but the nature of the unfinished construction site made for many places where shadows could lurk. There, in the dark pits in the earth, between the unfinished concrete beams and the rugged rebar, he imagined monstrous things prowling and lurking. The things Michael had claimed to be able to see in the mana in the air. Those strange ripples that even he sometimes thought he saw, at the edge of his vision. Tricks of the light, perhaps, or hungry ghosts.

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Things are moving quickly, but not quickly enough. Some, he thought as he looked at the dwindling piles of gravel being used to pave the road, less quickly than others.

The road had been a real pain. Bringing all the gravel, making the foundations, the drainage, keeping Johanne happy by not cutting too many trees. Hell, keeping Michael himself happy by not cutting too many trees… the damn road was going to cost more than some of the buildings they were constructing!

Road aside, he made a mental note of all the many things that he needed to be aware of.

He raised a finger: the day after tomorrow, Michael and he were going to meet with a representative of the Occult Affairs.

A second finger. There was a city at the edge of the expanding area around the dungeon that was about to be swallowed up in the ever growing cloud of mana, and there was no saying what could happen. Given all the anomalies that were popping up left and right in Site 00 and in the forest nearby, there was no way they would be able to keep magic a secret for much longer. Thankfully, being the paranoid man that he was, Travis had already set plans in motion to deal with that. The place was full of Operatives and Unity personnel, posing as volunteers. Helping out in the city, making themselves seen and known so that when it was time for Candle Light to come in guns blazing, the city would trust them.

Then, a third finger, there was the whole deal with Area 51. Trevor was on it. Travis personally hoped nothing would come out of the investigation, that Trevor would come to him and tell him that Area 51 was a scam, a conspiracy theory. That it was just a normal black site like many others.

Another finger: keep an eye on at least three individuals who were posting videos on social media about feats they were able to do that were borderline superhuman.

And, of course, a fifth finger: because if there were other powered individuals, then there had to be other dungeon entrances.

The list went on and on. Find sources of ancestral magic. Finalize the first-response task forces for Candle Light. Prepare the first teams to be sent into the dungeon. Review the files on Theobond, perhaps even meeting the King of the Castle himself.

Soon, Travis had gone through enough fingers to make several hands, and even then more and more ideas popped into his mind the more he thought about it. Talk to Michael about using Jennifer’s power to make toxic waste disappear. Talk to Michael about using Trevor’s skill. Johanne had said she was confident they would reverse engineer it, sooner or later, and after she was done they could hopefully use it as a sort of universal storage system. That had to be a priority. It would speed everything up by a large margin.

Then there was the matter of reviewing the background information on the many scientists, workers, operators and personnel coming to work at the site. Then there was the matter of handling the construction of the other sites. Of the auxiliary activities. Of the charity works. Of the more normal investments, activities, and the acquisition of startups and factories to act as a front for the more magical innovations. There was the matter of handling the PR side, although thankfully Travis had already found a skilled person to do most of the work, which meant that he only had to read the documents and approve what the PR specialist proposed.

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. They hang over us like invisible Damocles’ swords. Just because you can’t see the incoming problems doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

Normally, it would be impossible to impose such strict time frames. Days rather than weeks or months to get things done. But with the dungeon? One could go in, and ten minutes later come out as a disaster for the whole human race.

That’s what Candle Light and Unity as a whole are competing against.

That’s why I spend so much time in the Valley, assholes, he thought back to Jennifer and Trevor, who were blessed with the luxury of not being the ones in charge. It’s not that I like it in there. The amenities, the good air, the bountiful nature… they cannot hide the sense of dread that emanates from the dungeon. Only Michael actually likes it in there.

Me… I have to go there. I don’t get a choice. Otherwise this whole ship will sink faster than the fucking Titanic.

***

The next morning, he was at the edge of the property together with Johanne, David and Trevor. The latter being there since it was a part of his own skill that was about to be witnessed in action. Michael had gone home to spend some time with his sister, and would be spending some time with her after having spent several days in the valley.

“Did he get the skill?” Travis asked as the trio waited for the silhouette of the truck to become big enough to make out more details about it.

“He did.” The woman offered no other information.

Travis shrugged. Michael would fill him in on the details soon enough. “Naoshida industries will deliver the first batch of equipment today,” he said to the woman.

This seemed to get a reaction out of her. She looked up from the strange instrument she was using to study the incoming truck for long enough to lift an eyebrow, “good,” she said, “I will check whether the equipment is up to standard.”

“Since we are chitchatting,” David inserted himself in the conversation, “I’m meeting with a Saudi prince today. He liked our selection of gems and proposed a partnership.”

Travis chuckled, “the days of you managing a pawn shop, bored out of your mind, are long gone, aren’t they?”

“That they are,” the old man mused. “Here it is.”

The truck parked at the side of the road. There were no markings visible on its exterior. In fact, it was so generic it drew the eye to itself rather than the opposite. A generic man greeted them, dressed in a generic work uniform. He handed them an unmarked package, nodded to them, and drove off.

“So that’s how [Ghost Market] works,” Trevor said. “Interesting.”

Travis hummed, thoughtful. He made a quick call, before frowning.

“Come on,” David urged him on, “don’t leave us hanging. What do you have?”

The head of Candle Light shook his head. “Nothing.”

“What do you mean nothing?”

“Facial recognition did not even identify that the mailman had a face. The rest of the truck is unmarked, and it’s impossible to discern a manufacturer based on its looks. The whole truck itself… we placed cameras on the road, and it appeared in all of them.”

“Alright. Then what’s the problem?”

“There’s a traffic camera down the road, several miles away. No truck passed there, and there are no forks in the road between there and the last known location where we know the truck was still real, for lack of a better term.”

“Are you saying it vanished somewhere between the two cameras? Somewhere nobody could see it disappear?”

“That’s what I’m saying. Same thing when it came into being.”

“It can’t be.”

“On the contrary,” Johanne interrupted David, “it can very well be. I tried to analyze all signatures that we know of. Magical, elemental, Qi as well as the more mundane ones like heat, radio, and even brain waves which you all surely know have a presence in the electromagnetic spectrum. What I found when I looked at the truck and the man, was nothing. Nothing but visible light, that is. We should try to measure gravity next, but I doubt we have instruments that are sensitive enough for that.”

“But the package…”

“The only real thing there. What was it again?”

“Our first try,” said Trevor as he opened it, “just a stone from the forest.”

“I shall study it,” Johanne said before glancing at Travis, “according to protocol, before declaring it safe. Then I shall verify if it’s the same stone we picked up from the forest or not.”

“Alright, I’ve seen enough.” Travis said. “Next delivery should be all the bullshit from the car ambush, right?”

“It’s being delivered later today,” said Trevor.

Travis nodded. “Candle Light will handle it. Jennifer will have to be present, of course. We need her magic.”

“I shall tell her myself,” said Johanne, “I have questions to ask her about her magic. Do not worry, Tyrell, I will fill out one of your dossiers and send it over once I have enough data. By the way, are we a go with Dr Kavins?”

“The vitality drug?” Travis asked. It had been mentioned to him in passing.

Johanne nodded. “I presented the request in the form you instructed me to. Did you not review it? If so, please do.”

A deep sigh made its way out of Travis’ respiratory system, impossible to suppress. “Of course. I’m going to the Valley next, I’ve got a lot of stuff to sort through.” He tapped his pocket. The others didn’t know the meaning of the gesture, of course, but there was a memory stick full of documents and things to review and approve. Travis would be abusing the heck out of Michael’s laptop in the Valley.