As surreptitiously as possible, Buck spoke into his wrist. The Blu-Fang communicator blended into his cuff and the earpiece sat comfortably behind his ear. "Hazelnut, you in position?"
"Baked goods en route," came the reply.
Hazelnut entered the lobby with a foil-wrapped tray in her hands. "Hellooo…" she sang, checking the receptionist’s nameplate. "Tracy! I was hoping to see Roy Groubledon? If he’s available?"
The receptionist blinked, but buzzed a door. A moment later, Roy stepped into the lobby, smiling wide.
"Hazelnut! What a nice surprise!"
"I thought I’d drop off some extra sweets—my neighbor and I overestimated the batch again…" She lifted the foil. Warm, sugary air filled the lobby.
Roy nearly floated. "We’re not supposed to let non-personnel inside, but… for the break room? I mean—Tracy?"
The receptionist was already reaching for a cookie.
Roy led her into a small break room that maintained the smell from years of cheap, brewed coffee, though his radio crackled with an urgent message. He sighed. "Never a dull moment. Guess I'll have to take my break later. Sorry, but we'll have to do this another time."
Hazelnut shoved a cookie into his mouth before he could turn. "Go. I just need to use the ladies room and I'll show myself out. Won't be a minute." He nodded, attempting to chew yet still savor the confection. She waited until he rounded the corner, then flipped up her cloak’s hood and slipped past the restrooms. It was far from perfect invisibility but as long as no one stared too hard, she would go unnoticed. A facilities map hung near the corridor intersection. Phone raised, she snapped a picture.
A metallic wheeled drone rolled up beside her. A green laser shot out from it and passed over her body.
"UNIFORM NOT RECOGNIZED. PLEASE PRESENT IDENTIFICATION."
Hazelnut froze. Her cloak had always withstood detection, be it infrared, thermal or even magical scans. This level of security was unlike anything she'd seen.
"REPEAT: UNIFORM NOT RECOGNIZED. PLEASE PRESENT IDENTIFICATION. YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS TO COMPLY."
She shoved Roy’s ID directly in front of the sensor, trying to block its scan while taking another photo of the map. The robot scanned the ID and gave an irritated beep. A cable-arm snatched the ID from her hand.
"ID DOES NOT MATCH FACIAL SCAN. FACIAL SCAN DOES NOT MATCH PERSONNEL ON FILE. VACATE THE PREMISES OR AUTHORITIES WILL BE CONTACTED."
"I’m going, I’m going—sheesh." She ducked out of the lobby as fast as "casual" would allow. "Sorry guys," her voice crackled in Buck’s earpiece. "I got a pic of the map but they saw past my cloak and took the ID. I'm not getting in that way again."
"I’ve got the map," Sparks responded. "We’re up next. Talk soon." The line of personnel slowly plodded forward as each employee held out their card to be scanned before entering. He leaned forward and whispered in Buck's ear. "It occurs to me that our cards might not work now."
"They'll work," Buck replied, hoping the confidence in his voice was as real as it felt. "Just act like you're supposed to be here and no one will question it."
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He held the ID card under the scanner and crossed his fingers. A moment passed.
Then another.
And another.
"BEEP!"
The light turned green. Buck released a breath he didn't realize he was holding and stepped inside. Sparks held his card under the scanner and it approved him immediately. "How come it made me sweat but didn't make you wait at all?" Buck grumbled.
"It has taste," Sparks murmured, already studying the map on his phone.
Three sublevels. B1—offices. B2—security systems. B3—turbines and… "experimental" rooms.
The interior of the plant was brightly lit and extremely clean. White floors and walls with rounded edges. It was all very clinical. They found the elevator and rode it down.
Hazelnut whispered into their ears: "I'm back inside. Made it through a very (oof) tight ventilation shaft. I'm gonna find a security room and help from there."
The elevator stopped at B1. A bleary-eyed badger shuffled in.
"Hey fellas. TGIF, amiright?" He faced the doors, oblivious.
Buck and Sparks exchanged wide-eyed glances and mouthed silently:
The badger turned, squinting at the pair. "You guys new?"
"Orientation yesterday," Buck said, dropping his voice an octave. Sparks flipped his phone to show the map.
The badger yawned. "Yeah, this place is crazy. My name’s Barry. You are…?"
"Tom." Buck thumbed at Sparks. "This is Jerry."
"Right on." The doors mercifully opened at B2. "Well, this is me. See you around."
Sparks hammered the CLOSE button. Buck rounded on him. "Knock him out?!"
Sparks blinked. "What? It would’ve worked."
"Were you planning on carrying him around for the rest of this?"
"Of course not. That would just slow us—"
The elevator dinged again.
B3.
They stepped out into a cavernous chamber. Two giant turbines thrummed below a walkway. Chrome drones rolled around the floor on treads. A single console waited beside a door.
Sparks nodded towards the console. "I can disable security from there. I just need… three uninterrupted minutes."
Buck grabbed a wrench from a misplaced toolbox and lobbed it into the far corner—clang. Both drones beeped and rolled away to investigate.
They slipped over to the console. Sparks pulled a shard of obsidian hanging from around his neck—etched with runes pulsing red—and slid it into a port.
Across the room, the drones arrived at the distraction. "MISPLACED TOOL DETECTED. NO PERSONNEL SCHEDULED FOR MAINTENANCE. INVesTiGaaaatattiinnggggggggg."
Their lights dimmed and went still.
"We've got maybe 30 minutes before they reboot," Sparks advised. "The cameras should now be on a loop. I suggest we split up to cover more ground."
Buck grabbed Sparks by the wrist. "Not a chance, matchstick. How do I know you don't have anything else up your sleeve?" Something already stunk about this whole ordeal and with Sparks suggesting they split up after using some hidden magic doohickey, the smell was getting worse.
"We're currently trespassing in a high tech power plant's non-disclosed sub-basement. If I was trying to slip away, this is NOT how I'd do it." Sparks huffed. He pulled his arm from the rat's grip and pushed through the door.
The hallway beyond branched off to four rooms.
"Fine, but we do this my way," Buck grumbled. "Check these two rooms. I'll check the ones further back. Call out if you find anything."
The first room Buck opened was glowing—literally. Awash in a fantastically colorful blue-violet light coming from a shallow pool, filled with a strange fluid simmering quietly in the center. Multiple cables fed out of it into banks of instruments. Dials and needles pulsed, recording something about the pool and its contents. The cables ran along the ceiling across the hallway into the opposite room. Buck crossed and stepped inside. Dozens of monitors flickered. Every screen with a different readout. The central one was the biggest and caught his eye due to a single sentence on the display:
EIDOLON_ACTIVITY_
A status bar twitched… flat at zero.
Then suddenly, it jumped—
EIDOLON_DETECTED_