Hank was told the facility was state of the art. No one had ever smuggled a weapon of any kind inside without security knowing about it. Yet the staff that worked in these labs within the building had begun to take the security they had for granted. There was no such thing as a perfectly secure building, but this utopia of scientific study had started to believe there was. They had faith in the people protecting them, but faith by its very definition was to believe something wholeheartedly despite the lack of evidence to back up the claim. The reality of that statement came to Hank with the subtly of a sledgehammer between the eyes when the detonation occurred in his own lab. The loud bang came out of nowhere and without warning, as the blast had shattered windows and shaken the building, which no doubt put the fear of God into a building full of highly intelligent non-believers.

Had Hank not been wearing protective googles that automatically adjusted, he was so close to the event that the flash would have easily blinded him. Thankfully his partner had his back turned and was merely affected by the blast itself as it had sent him flying into the wall, resulting in some minor injuries but nothing else. The same blast had also flung Hank across the room, propelling him over a table and crashing the floor behind it. Machines that had been running such as surveillance cameras and various medical devices had all shorted out, and a few of them even exploded as if they had been overloaded with power.

The result was Hank’s medical facility had turned into a complete disaster, as the room looked like someone had tossed a live grenade into it. Yet that wasn’t the thing that had upset Hank, as equipment could be easily replaced. What infuriated Hank the most was the status of his patient: he was gone.

“Where the hell is he?” Hank cried out.

“Where’s who?” his partner said, trying to get up. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure, Daniel.” Hank replied, looking around. “I thought you said he was clean! Where was he hiding that grenade?”

“He didn’t have a grenade!” Daniel informed him, “We did several scans and even a complete strip search just to be sure. Even if he had one shoved up his ass, the scanners would still have seen it. Wait, where is he?”

“Is there an echo in here?” Hank asked, “He’s gone!”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“That’s not possible!” Daniel said, struggling to get to his feet. He was sure the blast had broken a few ribs and they hurt every time he tried to breathe. “The door is still secure. There’s no way he could get out of the room!”

“Well, he did.” Hank said, gesturing to the empty table where the man they had in the room once laid. “Are you suggested he teleported out?”

“That’s not possible, even if he had the kind of tech.” Daniel answered, “This facility has defenses installed to defend against teleportation. There is no way he could get out of here. This doesn’t make any sense!”

“Your ability to grasp the obvious is truly stunning.” Hank said, as he slowly got back to his feet. He could feel pain in his body, as he was sore from being flung from one side of the room into the other.

“Then what else could it be?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know,” Hank replied, “Aren’t you and your staff supposed to be the brains around here?”

“There were no explosives on him when he came in here, “Daniel repeated, “So unless he made a bomb out of materials in his cell, I have no idea what the hell caused that explosion!”

“Let forensics do their thing,” Hank said, taking a seat to collect himself. “If it was a device, they’ll find fragments.”

“And if they don’t?” Daniel asked.

“No!” Hank roared back, “We are not talking about that again!”

“We have to talk about it,” Daniel insisted, “If forensics finds nothing, then it’s the only explanation that makes sense.”

“I’m not entertaining this at all!” Hank repeated, rejecting his line of thought. “There’s no evidence to suggest they are anything more than an unproven folktale.”

“Folktales have to start somewhere,” Daniel noted, “That prisoner might have been a projection from a cave…”

“Stop it!” Hank ordered, standing up and almost face to face with his partner. “You do not suggest that theory to anyone or even try to file it or you’re out of here. Are we clear on that, Daniel?”

Daniel took a deep breath. “Alright, I won’t file it.”

“Good,” Hank said, as he walked to the door. “We have enough problems at this facility, so the last thing we need is to spread rumors about men who can naturally time travel in caves with supernatural powers. It’s just ridiculous!”

“Some of us believe it,” Daniel protested.

“Believe it on your own time,” Hank chided back, “Here we focus on reality and what we can prove. And that’s the end of this. Clean up this mess and wipe records of this person so no one else investigates it after we’re done.”

Hank stormed out of the room and decided to walk to medical to get a check-up and make sure he wasn’t hurt. The explosion blew him clean off his feet, so there was bound to be a few pains from it. He was just lucky his ears were not ringing. Regardless of what happened he still refused to believe in Daniel’s nonsense. He wouldn’t believe in such fables unless they could be proven. In their century, it was just the way things were done. Fairy tales were for kids, and Hank wasn’t in the mood to have any of it.