A short while later, Kyle is driving the golem while Joey navigates with the schematics he had come across earlier. The golem quickly clambers along, and follows the disturbed dust trail. She marks exits and relative positions, and the time it takes the golem to travel. The trail is lengthy, and the ducts divert several times, but there is only one distinct trail.
"I can't believe someone crawled a few hundred meters through this, and didn't have a panic attack," Joey mutters while watching the live feed. "We're right by the botany lab. The last vent was by the doorway marker."
"We have discovered a potentially fatal flaw in Asqualia's accessway and maintenance system. You can get almost anywhere in the facility. Even past ID check gates. It's mid-level access to get into the botany wing, because special training is required for some of the specimens." Kyle pans around and follows the disturbed dust. "Are we sure this isn't rats or something?"
"Hey, rats are smart, they know how to navigate quite well," she counters. "Besides, I don't see any urine or stool accumulated anywhere. Just dust. Plus, the tracks are two distinct scuff lines. I doubt even gilded rats have mapped out a lane system for their travels."
"Hmm. Good point." He follows the duct to the right. "Hey, why do they say, 'don't ever mess with gilded rats' anyway?"
"Well, for one, they're super docile, and have intelligence equal to a five-year-old human, and some people even keep them as pets. And if you threaten one or try to hurt one, they, and all their close friends, will devour you alive," she adds as if it's academia. He glances her way, looking anxious.
"You're kidding, right?"
"Nope. They'll release a pheromone to rally all nearby rats, because they do tend to live together in communal burrows. They'll gang up on a much larger, more dangerous predator. They can chew through flesh, bone, and even mage steel." Kyle gets squeamish at that description.
"So that phrase, 'Even the mightiest and oh so bold, should never harm a rat of gold' isn't just some silly nursery rhyme?"
"Yeah. Even dragons are mindful of them, and avoid hurting them by accident," she adds for emphasis. Kyle sighs softly.
"Man, that's pretty dark for a children's rhyme, but a good allegory for being nice to the small folk of the world."
"You wouldn't believe half the crap my mom used to say when I was growing up as a young kit. Now, let's focus on finding our thief." Kyle pans the golem’s singular lens forward and at the just-ajar grate. Someone has left it open, and they can see plants behind a barred and glass barrier. "Let's take a look. Can you get the grate open?"
"Alright Lexi, do your thing," he whispers. He uses the motion controls to get the golem to open the gate, just enough to squeeze by, and it vaults down the short distance. He pans the golem around, and examines a stash of garden equipment. There are distinct sharp-drawn marks on the floor. "What's with those–"
A motion to the left catches her eye, and she sees something wrap a vine around the golem’s torso. She looks on, annoyed when the carnivorous plant bites down with sharp teeth, and the feed goes blank.
Kyle glares at her before taking out his notepad, and adds a tally mark. "Golem death count, three," he adds with a growl, and taps his console impatiently. "I liked Lexi."
Joey sighs and stares at the now blank screen. "Well, the Mandroga plant presents a problem of ingress. Why on earth would they come in from there?"
"Dunno. Maybe so that no one in their right mind would go into an access-restricted area filled with murderous plants?" he suggests. "I certainly wouldn't. We need to get in there, look for more evidence."
"What else can you access from that area?" She glances at the schematics, and the entry door presents the sole means of getting inside. Someone would have had to badge in, deal with a murderous plant, crawl a few hundred meters, steal the supplies, then go back the same way, deal with the murder plant again, and then walk out. It seems highly impractical. "Kyle, are there any more subfloors in that area?"
"Uh…not sure." He looks at another layer and overlays it with the floor plan. "We are kinda close to the teleportal hub by that area, if it’s worth noting."
"This makes no sense. You have to badge in to get into that area. That's a big mistake, if they planned on being subtle, because they’ll leave an access entry. Let's check the logs, see who's been in there in the past few days." Joey closes her notebook, and winces. It feels like they are chasing a rabbit on this one. Why all this effort for just mana primer and a couple of fairly trivial items? Was this part of the plan to get people inside Asqualia? Maybe blast a path through bedrock? It would be rather bold–and exceedingly dangerous.
"You want to bother Curtis? Man, that guy can't chill to save his life," Kyle protests. "We should still check the room, and look for anything of interest."
"Maybe later. Let's pursue the low-hanging fruit first. This would be so much easier if we could just contact Nick!" She lightly bangs the table with her fist.
"Can't we just meet them in Mercadia Promenade?" Kyle suggests.
"No. King's taken an interest in Drenar and the others, and had eyes on them passively for a while. They have to find a way in, maybe if we gave them a hint through the remaining observer golem. Have you found out where the other entrances come out?"
"You know what? Hang on.” He pulls up the old feed from the golems earlier from his scouting, and lets out a sound of surprise. “I think it's closeby, that old Sherman Zylandra library near the lake is right about where that entryway is, accounting for some subterranean tunnels. But the accessway is sealed, you have to open it from the other side. Kinda weird, having a one-way door like that," he answers.
“Other routes?”
"Those other caverns could go for kilometers, and it's pretty rough terrain. It looks like there's been some erosion and the tunnels are barely navigable, some are even flooded. Not exactly a great place to launch a forward assault on a heavily fortified facility. Even the golems are having trouble in there. If they find a connecting path, we’ll find out eventually.” he swipes through the feeds. "If anyone managed to find a way through, that would be impressive by itself."
Joey mulls over the details. From a tactical perspective, overriding the teleportal, or somehow gaining access would be the most tactically advantageous maneuver. Being able to teleport behind back lines is extremely useful, based on her mage combat history classes. Entire library collections are dedicated to it. "We still can help tell them that the library is the surest access point. But, they'll need to figure out how to get in. Even if King follows them, the security detail can funnel them from only one avenue of attack. Maybe it's better if we do leak this."
"That's super risky, Joey. Are you willing to put the lives of everyone at this facility on the line, yours and mine included?" he asks softly. "King could even be planning for this, and have some kind of second attack wave from another location. They could get a small team through the cave system."
"Possible. Once we're sure who the saboteurs are, we'll contact Nick’s team, and tell them to beeline it here." Kyle looks at her, and his expression softens.
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"Joey. A plan like this could get people killed. You think you could live with that, if you're wrong? I know I couldn't."
It's a sobering thought that even with the best plan possible, it could still fail. It doesn't break her resolve. But it changes her assessment. They need to commit to finding the saboteurs, find out how they were planning the invasion, and from where.
"Alright. Let's follow every lead we've got, first. If all else fails, we put the whole place on alert and have Nick and company hurry here. Or you know, a whole company of SAF soldiers,” she proposes.
“Yeah, they’re drop-dead useless, Nick told us they think he’s crazy. Which would normally be right, except they’d also called Levine crazy. And his track record is incredible. I get this bad feeling that they’re going to be less than helpful.” Truthfully, she didn’t put much stock in the Conclave, given their history. Even she had skirted some of the more frustrating setbacks by keeping her heritage a secret from all but a few people.
I know for a fact Zameren fudged on my application for security concerns. He knew I was a psionic, and never batted an eye, and he's never told a soul. If Curtis knows, he’s definitely kept it quiet. A psionic is a massive security risk, regardless of how potent their abilities are. I guess this is his way of thumbing his nose at the Conclave and their ridiculous policies. Not sure how well he’d react if he knew I was a Kitsune, though.
She looks up at Kyle after a moment of thinking it through. “Let’s go check the security feed. I get this feeling like we’re racing against a clock.”
----------------------------------------
“Say that again?” Curtis taps a well-manicured finger on his desk and fiddles with his glasses frame when they approach him in his office a short time later. He’s a powerfully built man, barrel-chested, girthy arms, but with such a strangely quiet voice, and he keeps his brown hair short, like he is still on a stint in the military. A few wrinkles and old scars mark his face and hands. “You want security footage of the botany wing? Why?”
“We think there’s been some misplaced, or undisclosed transport of materials in the facility, and we’re just trying to help Reeves find his mana primer,” Joey assures him with a warm smile.
There is absolutely no way they are telling their security officer and the head of the volunteer defense force that they are tracking saboteurs just yet. Especially if one saboteur could be the man with access to every branch of the facility, minus the vault. Only Zameren has higher clearance, and even he would be averse to travel down there without a fully armed adventurer team. “Um, the Mandroga plants…have a nasty habit of chewing through anything laced with mana that gets within their range.”
“So, cut them open,” Curtis suggests. “Start there.”
“And get chomped in half? No, thanks,” Kyle snorts. “Not that I couldn’t burn them to a crisp at range, but the security log for the area would be much more helpful, and far less dangerous.”
“What idiot thought a carnivorous plant that can eat people was even in the ballpark of a sane idea?” Curtis asks with a frustrated sigh. “Seriously. Mages collectively don’t have common sense.”
“So, is that a yes?” Joey leads carefully. Curtis taps a few commands into his laptop. He turns the laptop for them to see. They wait a minute to see the footage roll back at high speed to the night before, from about dinner time, to the waning hours of the night. There’s a motion by the lab around 10:35 at night. The door opens and closes, but no one is there.
“Joey, what the hell was that?” Curtis asks, looking flabbergasted. “Was that optic camo?”
“There was a slight lensing effect. It had to be,” Kyle points out, and then Curtis rewinds the footage and slows it down. “Optic camo is mana intensive, it’s only practical for short durations when powering it from the mana from your own body. Now, that is the most effective way to use it, because back-up mana cells tend to generate a lot of heat, and thermals can pick it up.”
“Okay. Alright. I’m sold. I’ll pull up the log here of who badged in, and…” Curtis taps in a couple of commands, and then he frowns. “Why is the log missing from last night? It’s not just that door, it’s the whole east wing.”
“You sure that isn’t some kind of glitch?” Kyle presses. Curtis is firing on all four cylinders now, and is plowing through commands, his fingers are a blur as he tries to troubleshoot the problem. “I know that security can be a little wonky with the doors now and then–”
“No, that’s the problem. An individual door can be a little finicky with the biometric IDs on extremely rare circumstances, where they’ll open a door, but won’t register on the log. This shows that the whole area was out…let’s find the last log before the blackout.” He taps in more commands, and comes up with a few entries, just before nine. “Lavernius, Zameren, Swistak, Gladys…they all used the badge by the main entryway to the hall, over by the lab adjacent to the botany wing.
"Zameren I get, he visits all the labs, Swistak and Gladys, they practically sleep in that lab, and…Lavernius is on the maintenance crew.” he pauses for a moment. “Well, that tracks. I have a request jotted down for a fuse core replacement in the lab, one went out about two days ago.”
“So, nothing out of the ordinary?” Kyle insists. Curtis shook his head.
“Nah, it’s weird. Being out of commission for hours and nobody knowing about it? I’m going to write some code to raise red flags for people badging into areas they don’t normally work. It’ll take a while to go through it, and I’ll have to enter it manually. I just don’t know how they spoofed the system. Or who’s roaming around with optic camo,” he adds heatedly. “That’s already a violation of work policy. For obvious reasons.”
“Hang on. Do we have a security feed inside the botany wing?” Joey asks.
“Well, there’s one monitoring the entryway on the opposite side–”
“Does it have audio?” He squints, as if trying to remember, then he smiles.
“Yes, it does. Most of them do, but the quality isn’t particularly great. You’re lucky that we keep it on three days of data retention. Or, it would have been purged and written over.” He taps in more commands, and then the video syncs up to the inside of the room, and once again, the door opens, with no one visible, and closes a few seconds later. There are audible footsteps, and then a soft sigh.
“You look like hell. What happened?”
“Slight difficulties in getting the intended effect for one of my gambits,” the individual says calmly. “I’ll spare you the details. Where do we stand? We have objectives and a timer ticking.”
“This is getting difficult. They’re going to notice the missing supplies,” the individual says. Joey can’t quite make out the speaker, but it’s a male, possibly middle-aged, based on his voice and speech pattern. “I know you said you can do this without anyone knowing that we're here but…if Val gets word…”
“No need to worry. I’ve already made arrangements towards that specific outcome,” another male speaks, but Joey can’t get a pin on his voice. Only a slight British or Welsh accent, and he speaks with deep authority and confidence. He’s not in the frame, but he’s close to the camera.
Perhaps they had forgotten about the audio–most security setups went with the most basic of systems and only had poor visual quality, but Curtis had splurged a little extra on the budget for these ones. She narrows her eyes, trying to focus on the new voice. “This exercise will be harmless. A few research logs will go missing. And then, life will continue uninterrupted.”
“Yeah? You call tonight harmless?” The first male snarls. “SAF was crawling up my backside. I almost got my security revoked out of an abundance of caution, then your plan would have been useless. If she died, you can rest assured that you, and everyone who works for you, would follow suit swiftly. You told me she’d be safe, King!”
Everything else drops a level of magnitude of importance. She doesn’t have to connect the dots to know who the second man is.
“Fates. King is crawling through the walls of Asqualia,” Joey breathes out, and Kyle’s several choice curse words only add to the grim mood that’s gripping the room now. Even Curtis knows without context how bad this is.