They left that Saturday morning directly from the school’s tarmac. Technically, the expense of the private jet could be written off as a test of the new emissionless propulsion system recently developed by the labs. It should revolutionize the entire airline industry in the next few years.

  Thalia lugged her suitcase up into the jet as Adam had a prolonged goodbye with Annabelle. They hugged tightly. Annabelle’s arms constricted him like two snakes. It was oddly nice.

  Lauren and Lucy were also there to see them off. Lauren’s jacket had been repaired and cleaned, and her wounds had disappeared. Lucy gave Adam a full hug, while Lauren’s was more like a swift pat.

  “You two gonna be alright?” Adam checked.

  Lucy thought about it, finger tapping her chin. “Well, we have really relied on your protection up until now…”

  Adam groaned. “Great, even Lucy’s a smartass now.”

  Lucy laughed, always a wonderfully pure sound. “I’m just messing with you. Go have fun.” She squeezed his arm and gave him a look. Lucy seemed to understand this trip was about him and Thalia getting on solid ground again. Hopefully she could help Annabelle understand that if they had a girl talk.

  He gave one last wave and joined Thalia on the plane. They were in the air minutes later.

  Adam sat across from his friend. Her brown eyes were focused out the window on the disappearing ground. There was no energy or excitement about going home in her slumped posture.

  Adam tapped her foot with his. She blinked and looked at him.

  “What’s with you?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she said with slight irritation. She seemed to catch herself, and her expression cleared. “Thanks for doing this. I appreciate it.”

  “Of course,” Adam said. Thalia’s family had their own wealth, but if she went alone they would have bought her a first-class ticket on a commercial flight. Adam figured this might be a bit nicer.

  Thalia yawned and lounged like a cat across her seat. She wasn’t talkative, but Adam had made her get up pretty early so they could have a full day with her folks. The flight north to their place was only two hours to the nearest airport. He left her alone, and she napped for most of it.

  Adam breathed in cold, crisp, rain-infused Washington air as they disembarked. Matty, Thalia’s youngest older brother, waved at them from out of his open-top jeep parked at the end of the private airstrip.

  “So, kill any big monsters yet?” Matty asked his sister beside him and Adam in the back seat. They traveled down a sloping road with thick rows of evergreens on either side. Despite the weather being even colder than Pacific City had reached so far, Matty traveled around with only a windshield in front of him and in a tank top and shorts. His short hair was dyed blonde except for the roots, and a ring hung from his left ear. One strong arm was kept on the steering wheel, while the other casually leaned out the window.

  “We’re not really there to kill monsters. At least I’m not,” Adam chattered. He was freezing, but knew he’d be ribbed if he complained. He regretted not bringing a heavier jacket.

  “Did you really have to show up in this?” Thalia criticized her older brother. “You’re killing Adam back there.”

  “It’ll put some hair on his chest!” Matty said. Thalia flicked his tattooed shoulder. “Ow!”

  The route they traveled turned off into a smaller country road, then eventually a private driveway a mile long, hidden beneath dripping, moss-covered boughs, clouded sunlight filtering in between tangled branches.

  The path ended, trees giving way to sprawling estate grounds covered with green grass and natural meadows. In the distance, wooded mountains framed the horizon with the sky. The forest continued in every direction, hiding the sanctuary from any view except directly above. Sitting in the center of it all was the Wild family mansion. Four floors and rooms upon rooms with large windows, log and stone siding, and piping chimneys rising from the sloping roofs. A gravel driveway wound its way towards the broad front porch, on which a group stood waiting.

  Matty ruffled Thalia’s thick locks. “Welcome home, kiddo!” He turned around. “And you too, Adam. You know this place is your home too.”

  Adam sniffled his dripping nose. “I know. Thanks.”

  No sooner had they exited that all the Wild family came forward with hugs and welcomes. Thalia was swarmed by her three nieces, each of them growing out their hair down to their lower backs.

  Thalia picked up Lilah, the three-year-old, and pretended to bite her tummy. Lilah squealed.

  Thalia’s parents were just a bit slower behind. Thalia’s mom Bella, a short and soft woman with straighter and darker hair than most of her children came and hugged Adam first.

  “Mom!” Thalia complained.

  Bella kept her arm around Adam as she looked at her daughter. “You’re getting plenty of attention. This is the boy who brought my daughter back to me when she’d otherwise never come home until graduation.”

  “That’s not true…” Thalia said, with a begrudging tone of knowing there might be a little truth to it.

  “I couldn’t let her spend her sixteenth birthday away from home,” Adam said.

  Bella pinched his cheek. “I like this boy. He should be one of my sons.”

  “Mom!” Thalia yelled, mortified.

  “What?” Bella asked, eyes wide. “There’s lots of ways that could happen.”

  Bella smiled at Adam, and he gave a small embarrassed smile back. There was bound to be a certain level of teasing about the two of them, at least until it came out that Adam was seeing someone else. Now didn’t seem like the time.

  Thalia’s older brothers gave out rough hugs to her and Adam. Bryce, Axle, and Matty were all good guys, though they were all closer in age to each other than to Thalia and Adam and always had that half-generation sibling distance.

  Max Wild, patriarch of the family, was the last in line to greet them. He was tall and solid like the trees around his property, and like the trees only seemed to grow more so with age. One might not guess he was a millionaire ex-adventurer and animal researcher by his simple, down-to-earth look. He wore a beige work jacket, jeans, and a cap with the Wild International Project logo that his greying auburn hair swooped out of at the edges.

  Max used his long reach to pull Adam and Thalia together, squishing them both into a hug with him.

  “Hi dad.” Thalia’s muffled voice.

  “It’s good to have you two here,” he said simply.

  “Inside! Inside!” Bella urged everyone. “I’m not spending the weekend feeding you all soup when you get sick!”

  Everyone settled in the spacious, cozy den. A fire crackled behind an iron gate at the front of the room, spreading warmth among the couches and recliners. Two floors of bedrooms and offices looked over the space from beyond natural wooden railings.

  Adam settled into his spot and relaxed. He always found the Wild family lodge to be so comfortable. He and Thalia used to push the couches together and make pillow forts, then pretend it was their safari lodge that offered safety in between expeditions. He thought about those memories and smiled.

  He saw Thalia watching him from the other side of the couch. Firelight played against her skin and danced in her eyes. She held the rough-cut wildstone in her palm. He wondered what she was thinking.

  “How’s that thing treating you?” Axle the middle brother asked. He sat in a recliner. They were all waiting for Bella to bring out sandwiches for lunch. She refused any help from Adam.

  “It’s working well for me so far,” Thalia said. “I can still take on any animal aspect. It makes my mind feel a bit… predatory, though.”

  “Remember to use it in moderation,” Max advised seriously. “The wildstone is potent, and even after all these years we still don’t understand its mystical powers fully.”

  “I’ve been wondering,” Adam butted in, “how come Thalia was the one to inherit it?”

  “Oh believe me, we each tried to claim it,” Bryce said. He was the oldest, with a thick beard and wide chest. He bounced one of his daughters on his knee. “It has a different effect on all of us. I could barely use it for five minutes without trying to start eating people.”

  “I could only use frog powers,” Axel said.

  “I pissed on the rug,” Matty reported.

  Sandwiches were served, and they ate while Adam and Thalia fielded questions about Rosewell.

  “It’s good you’re keeping the family superhero tradition alive,” Axel said when they got to the events of the first patrol. “It keeps you strong. Keeps your senses sharp. We’re forgetting that it’s natural to struggle.”

  “Says the guy whose mom still makes his meals,” Bryce said with a mouthful of sandwich.

  Axel threw a pillow. “That happens in nature too!”

  After lunch, Thalia led Adam outside. He had borrowed a coat from Matty. The nieces wanted to come with, but Thalia made them stay inside. It made Adam curious what she was up to.

  They walked to the barn at the edge of the clearing. Thalia opened the door to the stable of family horses. The air was slightly warmer inside and filled with the musk of animals and the dry sharpness of wood and hay.

  “What are we doing?” Adam finally asked.

  “Going for a ride.” Thalia opened one of the stables and led a chestnut stallion out.

  “I don’t know how to ride horses,” Adam reminded her.

  “That’s why we’re only taking one.”

  Thalia fitted the horse with a saddle and all the things needed to guide a horse Adam couldn’t name. She hooked her foot into the stirrup and climbed onto its back. She had Adam open the barn door, then shut it again after she guided the horse out.

  “C’mon cowboy, get up here,” she offered her hand down to Adam. He wasn’t sure what the plan was, but he trusted her. She yanked him upwards and he settled in behind her on the saddle.

  “Hold on tight,” Thalia warned.

  Adam’s grip around her waist started slack, but he tightened it quickly as the horse sped up to a canter. He pulled his chest forwards to Thalia’s back. They soon left the meadow behind for a forest trail.

  The journey was quiet except for the hoofbeats of the horse and the sounds of nature around them. The trail gradually went upwards around the slopes of one of the small mountains. They passed hills covered in mossy beds of forest decay, mushrooms of all sorts sprouting from fallen logs. Dark green ferns everywhere dripping with dew. Even as the weather grew cold for the season, the pine trees above them held firmly onto their needles, as they would even when the snow came. The Northwest rainforest was one of Adam’s favorite environments in the world. He let his surroundings calm all his unquiet thoughts. He snuggled against Thalia's back, feeling her long hair against his face. She didn’t say anything about the close contact one way or another.

  Adam’s eyes were closed and his breathing deep when they slowed and began to stop. There was rushing water ahead. He could hear it and smell it. He opened his eyes and looked around.

  The trail ended at a stone outcropping slick with moss and lichen. They were a decent ways above ground level by now. Before them was a languid pool of clear water. It was fed on one side by a small waterfall running against the stone shelf on the other side of the pool, and the edge of the outcrop dribbled the water out in an equally small cascade. It was a tranquil little place, fitting for a painting.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “This is where we’re stopping?” Adam asked. The answer was obvious.

  “You get off first,” Thalia said.

  Adam stumbled his way off the horse, careful not to slip and dislocate something. Thalia dismounted much more gracefully. She tethered the horse to a nearby tree. Then she took off her boots and socks and left them nearby.

  Adam posted himself against the nearest tree. He could see for miles around in one direction, including the lodge below in the clearing.

  Thalia came over and leaned against the closest tree across from him, copying Adam’s posture.

  Adam exhaled a small laugh. “What are we doing?”

  “I dunno.” Thalia’s face didn’t give anything away. She was so hard to read lately.

  Adam stared at her. She stared back, tilting her head back and forth.

  “Shouldn’t we be spending time with your family?” Adam asked. “They’re the whole reason I brought you up here.”

  Thalia’s eyebrows slowly raised. “Oh? Are they? The reason you brought me up here?”

  “What does that mean…”

  Thalia had grabbed the top button of her shirt and undid it. She watched for Adam’s reaction. He said nothing. She undid the next three.

  “Thalia,” Adam said warningly.

  She defied him by undoing the rest of the buttons and stripping off her shirt. She dropped it to the ground. She leaned against the tree again, her bra now her only top.

  Adam’s mind raced. He tried to breathe calmly. This was wrong. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.

  “What did you do that for?” he asked, trying to stay calm.

  Thalia’s answer was to reach for her pants button.

  “Thalia!” Adam barked nervously.

  She undid the button and zipped her pants down. She bent and stepped out of them. She stood there in her underwear, bold and unashamed, still not saying anything.

  Adam held her gaze as she walked towards him. His brain was misfiring. Dread filled his stomach. One way or another he was about to lose a cherished relationship. Thalia drew closer.

  Then she stepped around him and went to the pool of water. She lowered herself into it up to her neck, hair spreading around her head. She turned around and looked at dumbstruck Adam as she kicked away from shore and kept herself afloat.

  “Coming in?” she asked.

  Adam coughed, trying to purge the tension from himself. His face was flush.

  “Are you crazy? It’s less than forty degrees out. I’d die.”

  He sat on the bank, knees pulled against himself. He found his friend hard to look at.

  “You really thought I was coming right for you, didn’t you?” Thalia asked.

  “That was mean,” Adam huffed.

  “Mean because you were afraid I was seriously trying to make a move on you, or because it didn’t happen?”

  “The first one, obviously.”

  Thalia swam for a while longer. She came out dripping and grabbed a towel out from a saddlebag. Adam looked at her again once her clothes were fully on. The ride back was equally quiet.

  The rest of the afternoon passed at the lodge with the Wild family. Bella clearly noticed the grass and dirt stains on Thalia’s clothes, but didn’t pry. The evening approached.

  “Are you still taking me to Parrotville?” Thalia asked Adam. She was on the floor with a niece in her arms in the process of falling asleep. The part left unsaid was or is the vibe ruined and you want to go home? Adam had been a bit sulky since they returned. Thalia didn’t apologize for her little stunt. Adam was deeply embarrassed by it. Mostly embarrassed for not having said more in the moment.

  “Of course we’re still going,” Adam said. His heart wasn’t in it. He wanted to go home, back to Annabelle’s embrace. But he’d ride this trip out instead of abandoning her. The reconciliation was not going well.

  The two of them drove together back to civilization, to the Parrotville located on the outskirts of Cascade City. Neon palm trees and a gaudy sign hung over the entrance, reflected in puddles of oil-slick water in the parking lot. Inside, a tropical-shirted hostess led them to a corner booth. The tiki-themed place was only half full, but Adam had still made a reservation. Thalia eagerly informed the hostess it was her birthday, which meant the talking parrot came out with every item they ordered.

  A waiter brought them their colorful drinks, a parrot perched on his arm.

  “SQUAWW! Happy birthday young lady!” the parrot recited, head bobbing. “Have a tropitastical year!”

  Thalia beamed and clapped her hands together. The waiter took their food orders, the parrot repeating the silly menu names.

  “Isn’t that bird so cute and amazing?” Thalia asked when they left.

  Adam sipped his ocean blue slush. “He’s overdoing it a little.”

  “You are such a stinker,” Thalia said.

  They talked about nothing in particular for a while. Mostly school things. Adam hadn’t told her yet about what was going on with his foundation. She would have been the first person he told just a few months ago. Something had come along and untethered them. Different expectations, he supposed. Or maybe he just wanted something to himself. His own little conspiracy to work on while everyone else was playing hero. Maybe he wanted to solve something on his own, to prove he could.

  Adam must not have talked for a minute.

  “Are you gonna be all pouty and sad the rest of this trip?” Thalia asked.

  “Hm?” he looked at her.

  “It was one little joke between friends,” Thalia insisted. “We were alone, and I wanted to mess with you.”

  “That can’t happen again, Thalia.”

  She looked affronted by his tone. He had said it pretty seriously.

  “Says who? Your little girlfriend?” Thalia snipped.

  “What exactly is your problem with Annabelle?” Adam accused. He had been wanting to say something for some time now. It finally came up out of him.

  Thalia’s eyes bulged. She leaned forward to match Adam’s energy.

  “That girl is freaky. She just sits there, smiling and staring, or does some weird move to make you laugh. It’s like there’s no thoughts in her head. She’s just a hanger-on that wants your attention. I mean, how long are you seriously going to pretend she can be a proper girlfriend to you?”

  Adam couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “That is so shallow of you to say. I’m not pretending anything. I genuinely really like her. She has a beautiful and funny personality, and there’s nothing wrong with the way she looks either, for the record. She’s a good person.”

  “Really? So you’re just going to keep dating her, then marry her, then if she can even have kids, you’re going to have a bunch of rubbery, bouncy, blank-eyed Atlas children?”

  “Who said anything about marriage? I’m sixteen! But yeah, you know what, maybe I will! There would be nothing wrong with that. I don’t know why you have a problem with it. Unless, what, you’re jealous or something?”

  Thalia looked ready to blow up. Just then, the waiter returned with a tray of food on one arm and the parrot on the other.

  “Alright, here’s the typhoon saucy shrimp with zest fries!”

  “SQWAA! Saucy shrimp!”

  “And here’s the island feast pig roast with a captain’s salad!”

  “SQWAA! Enjoy!”

  Thalia stared daggers over the hot food as their waiter left again.

  “I am not jealous!” she whispered.

  Adam felt like pressing the sore spot. “Right, so that didn’t just become a prank when I clearly wasn’t going to take my clothes off too.”

  “You are so cocky!” Thalia whisper-shouted. “You think every girl around you wants to be with you because you’re handsome and rich. You’re all oh, woe is me cause I don’t get to dress up in a costume and get beat up with the other teens. My life is so hard having to run a successful business at sixteen. I’ll just have to comfort myself with my living sex doll.”

  Thalia’s mocking stung. Tears threatened to wet Adam’s eyes. He grew quietly angry. The rest of it he could handle, but saying that about Annabelle was a line too far.

  Thalia seemed to realize what she had just said.

  “Adam…”

  “I am never going to tell Annabelle you said that.” Adam’s voice was low and serious. Maybe moreso than it ever had been. “Because that’s not you. And I hope that you two can still be friends someday. But if you can’t respect her, I don’t know how much longer we can be friends for.”

  Surprise and fear overtook Thalia’s face. Her mouth hung open like she wanted to say more. But nothing came out.

  Adam passed the car keys across the table.

  “I’m gonna take the jet home. I’ll send it back for you in the morning. Tell your family sorry I couldn’t stay.”

  He left the booth, food untouched.

  “Adam… I’m sorry.” Thalia said. She couldn’t look directly at him, more at where he was just sitting.

  He nodded.

  “That’s a good start.”

  He left the restaurant, prepared to call a cab. Any lingering feelings he had for Thalia were abandoned at the door. He felt sick for still having room in his heart for her for so long. She had never said anything like that before, at least not around him.

  Hours later, full dark outside the window by the time Pacific City came into view. Adam checked his phone. He had service again.

  “Adam!” Annabelle’s surprise and delight came through clearly. “What’s up? I thought you guys would be starting the birthday ritual.”

  “Thalia’s gonna have to howl without me tonight,” Adam said. His voice was husky.

  “Did something happen? Where are you?”

  “Almost back. You wanna go to my place tonight?”

  “Sure! But we won’t be able to be there long with curfew.”

  “You let me worry about the school,” Adam said.

  He hung up and called Rosewell’s administration. It took him awhile to convince them to let him take Annabelle out overnight.

  “Abigail practically lives at the foundation,” Adam reminded the staff member.

  “Does this stay have any genuine academic or heroic value?” she asked. She clearly knew who Adam was with. They probably kept a whole file on each student relationship.

  “Yeah, it does.”

  “Mhm.” The staff sounded unconvinced. “This won’t be a weekly occurrence.”

  “Yes ma’am. I’ll bring her back safe.”

  Annabelle was waiting patiently for his arrival, an overnight bag in her hands. Seeing her again made Adam’s heart leap. It reaffirmed his decision to leave Thalia behind. He didn’t know what the future of things with his friend would be. It felt so unstable and ugly. He just wanted comfort tonight.

  Annabelle didn’t press him for details on their way into the city. Adam appreciated that. She just offered an aura of support as he drove them. She was so sweet and genuine. No matter what the world thought about her, Adam was going to protect her. No one else’s opinion mattered. He’d give her the world.

  Adam was kissing her before the elevator opened to the penthouse. They twirled together in each other’s embrace down the hall. Annabelle was ready to go all the way to the living room. Adam was more ready to stop mid-hall.

  Annabelle looked around for why they were stopping. Her eyes went to the bedroom door as they shared a deep kiss.

  “Oh. Oh.” Annabelle realized what he was getting at. “Is this happening?” she asked quickly.

  Adam caught his breath. “Do you want it to?”

  “Yes. Absolutely.”

  A trail of clothes was left behind. Adam and Annabelle spent some time doing things that infatuated teenagers have been known to do.

  After the excitement was over, Adam stared at the ceiling of the bedroom with his head on the pillow. Annabelle lay half on his chest, finger tracing his skin. A thin sheet covered their bodies. It was the first time for both of them. That was the first thing they talked about. They agreed it was an amazing first time.

  It was getting late. Adam’s eyes closed.

  “Did you leave because Thalia doesn’t like me?”

  Adam groaned softly.

  “Can we not talk about her tonight?”

  “She doesn’t like me.”

  “I know.”

  "Is it because she’s in love with you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He paused for a moment before confessing.

  “I think she tried to make a move on me while we were gone.”

  Just saying that felt like betraying his friend in a way. But it had to be said if he was going to continue this relationship.

  Annabelle was quiet now. Adam waited for her to say something. He was afraid of what it would be.

  “I don’t want to ruin this awesome moment. But can you do me a favor?”

  “Of course,” Adam said. Never talk to Thalia again? That would would sting, even if it was maybe fair.

  “Can you kindly evict Abigail?”

  That wasn’t on Adam’s mind at all.

  “Abigail?”

  “She has an unhealthy obsession with you. She talks about you all the time when you aren’t around. I’m not saying cut her off, but I don’t think she should be living here. It would make me more comfortable.”

  “…Okay,” Adam said. “I can do that.”

  Quiet.

  “…Now?”

  Adam shuffled down the halls of the basement in slippers and his pajamas. Automatic lights came on before him as he walked. He passed a few midnight janitors, nodding to each. Abigail’s storeroom was the door up ahead on the right. He hoped he wouldn’t be waking her up just to boot her out. Either way though, she had to go. Adam had to keep his new girlfriend happy. He wanted things to work with her more than anything.

  He knocked on the storeroom door.

  “Yes?”

  “Abigail? It’s Adam.”

  She opened the door. She had been awake. Still dressed in her mechanic’s outfit. Goggles with digital lenses pushed up her hair.

  “Adam. Hello. What brings you here at this late hour?”

  Adam rubbed this back of his messy hair. “Yeah, I’m really sorry to bother you this late, this is a really shitty time to bring this up, but…”

  “You’re evicting me?” Abigail guessed.

  “Uh… yeeeeeah…”

  Abigail nodded. Her lips formed a thin line.

  “I see. I’ve become a drain on your resources.”

  She walked inside her room. Adam stayed at the door. Abigail bent down and pulled out a duffel bag from underneath a workbench.

  “No, it’s not that. In fact, you can take whatever you want with you. I just… it’s a liability thing… my insurance.” He shrugged like that explained everything.

  “It’s alright.” She packed rumpled clothes away. “You don’t have to explain. I only wanted to help around here.”

  “You’ve been so helpful with projects,” Adam said genuinely. “Dr. Madison complements you in every meeting. Really, we should be giving you severance pay—”

  “No, no,” Abigail dismissed the thought with a self-pitying voice. She started taking down her tool rack and huffed. “I just wanted to do what I could, keep things stable, keep an eye on the volatile technology underneath us…”

  “Underneath us…?” Adam didn’t understand. “You mean here, in the basement?”

  Abigail breezed past to collect things off her cot. “No. The sub-basement. That’s where the real danger is kept, isn’t it?”

  Adam turned to follow her. “Uh, we—we don’t have a sub-basement.”

  Abigail side-eyed him as she passed again.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  “If I’m wrong then I’m wrong,” Abigail insisted. She zipped up her duffel. “Only, I can sense technology. The longer I’m around it, the more intricately I feel it. There is something thrumming beneath our feet. Something quite complex. I didn’t want to pry. I assumed you knew.”

  Abigail smirked as Adam considered this. She had played the ace up her sleeve to remain here. Continuing the eviction was the last thing on his mind.

  “Show me,” Adam said.

  In the hallway, Abigail ran her hand against a blank expanse of the secure metal corridor. Adam followed.

  “There’s a hidden door somewhere. I can feel the mechanisms.”

  She stopped abruptly.

  “Here.”

  The section of the wall her hand rested on was just as blank as the rest of it. If there was a door, it was hidden extremely well.

  “Can you open it?”

  “I need a moment to talk to it.” Abigail put both hands on the wall and closed her eyes. Words that didn’t sound like any human language babbled from her lips.

  A pneumatic hiss sounded, and a narrow slice of the wall retracted upwards. A corridor opened before them. Metal stairs led downwards into darkness.

  Abigail grabbed a flashlight off her toolbelt.

  “Shall we?” she asked merrily.

  They followed the stairs downwards into cool, dry darkness. The yellow beam cut through to illuminate rough stone walls. Adam wasn’t a claustrophobic guy, but the space was uncomfortably tight. Abigail led the way downwards what must have been at least forty feet.

  The stairs opened to a doorless room. It was hard to tell just how big it was, as there were no lights on. Dust filtered through the flashlight beam. It went upwards to a ceiling that must have been just below the basement floor.

  “What is this place?” Adam asked like Abigail would have any better idea.

  “Best guess? Some kind of tech black site,” Abigail said. “This whole place is active. I don’t know how to explain it. I can feel it so much stronger now. It’s fascinating.”

  Adam wasn’t sure he liked the eager tone in her voice. He asked her for the flashlight. He swung it around, trying to find anything discernible around them. There were high shelves cluttered with objects. Most of them looked like scientific equipment. Some were covered with tarps.

  "Extra storage...?" Adam wondered aloud. "Why wouldn't I know about this?"

  Abigail wandered through the darkness ahead. "I'm telling you, something happens down here. You should really let me have a go at it."

  Not knowing what else to do, Adam followed his human tech-bloodhound further in. They came to objects the were the size and shape of shipping containers, stacked in a row. There were large black letters on the front of each of them. Adam scanned the words with the light.

  BUCCANEER

  VOLCANO

  BLACKSMITH

  ENCORE

  They came to the last one in the row, at the very end of the room.

  “That’s what I could feel from above. It’s the heart of this place,” Abigail whispered from behind him. She had circled around when he wasn't looking. He shivered at her voice.

  Adam slowly approached the container, flashlight trained on it.

  WATERSHED