"So where's the bunker?"
Are there enough skull fragments or genetic residues for a reconstruction? Not one I'd want to depend on, but I don't think any of them are Agent Carlyle. Shame about the collection.
Hopefully nothing
truly irreplaceable was back here.
Hm.
Sprinklers aren't tied to a fire alarm that could be deactivated with the press of a button. It's a purely mechanical process. When the glass gets hot it breaks and then there's nothing to stop the water spraying out. The system isn't quick to trigger -unlike smoke alarms- but once it does it keeps going until the water pressure gets too low. A fire could burn in the face of that quantity of water, but only if it was very hot.
Like, hot enough to evaporate the water on contact. Which kind of makes it even
worse, because then you have scalding steam to worry about.
I scan the floor. Yes, chemical residue. Someone used incendiaries. The humans remains aren't good enough to tell me if they were shot first. Looks like a… Grenade? Though it could be some sort of custom mine. Not laser or plasma-.
Tuppence waves her right hand in front of my eyes.
Guess Carlyle had some kind of
thermite-based charge. or possibly
phosphorus-based.
"Just trying to work out what happened."
"Is he deyed?"
The fellow who was at the centre of the fire? Quite
considerably so. The man you're looking for? That remains to be seen.
"Probably not."
She stares at me for a moment, then gestures ahead of us. I blink.
Just when you need to be
acting, OL, you're standing there overthinking things.
"Ev'rythang's burned up. Ain't gonna burn ahgeyan. They're deyed. There any more traps?"
"Not that I can detect. And this looks low tech."
Could have been as simple as a
claymore or improvised trip-wire. Entirely within Carlyle's skillset.
Alright, I suppose that it doesn't exactly matter…
I walk inside, Tuppence just behind me. I.. step around the human remains, but beyond basic respect I don't think there's much point in preserving the scene of the crime. Actually…
They've been here at least a month, OL. I don't think you have to worry about the state of their soul.
I wave my right hand, a wave of orange gathering up the ash and melting the exterior of the mass into a container for the rest. I deposit that out of the way and then gather what I can of the human remains, laying them out off to the side.
And then I close my eyes and bow my head.
...Still, if it makes you feel better...
"I commend the souls of these poor unfortunates into the care of Lord Hades. I pray that he judges them generously, and that they find peace in his realm."
"… Oh."
I open my eyes to see Tuppence closing her eyes and bowing her head.
Ah. Yeah, that would feel kind of
awkward.
"You don't need to do that. You're not a Hellenist."
She raises her head to look at me. "No, but… I thawt we were…"
Just being polite? Careful, one of the Olympians might take a shine to yo if you get their attention.
"Oh, sorry, you can say a prayer if you want. I… Just didn't think you were religious."
"Ah didn't think you were."
And when someone starts saying a prayer for the dead, you hush up and pay your respects. It's only good manners.
"I've been to Heaven and met the gods I worship. I say prayers to help the souls of the deceased to reach their afterlife, and I've proven that it works. I have no 'faith' because I've never needed it. I made a deal and I'm sticking to it."
She frowns, not knowing what to make of that. "So how come you sent an angel to look aftah Mom?"
Ah. That handily covers the status of Missus Beresford. Presumably he's got his work cut out for him right now, though.
I shrug. "He was available, persuadable and capable. Ah."
"Whut?"
"I believe that I've found the 'bunker'."
Let me guess: Hidden by a convenient but now destroyed set of shelving?
I stride across the now-cleared storage room and over to a heavy metal door. There are actually several, and the rest look like they're vaults for holding the most valuable objects. This one on the other hand isn't wired up like the rest, and I can't scan the interior. Or rather, I'm getting… False but unconvincing readings, like there's a weak deception spell on the place but it doesn't know how to lie convincingly to a power ring scan. I could probably destroy it, but I'd a rather not just go around destroying things when there's no need.
Ah. Basically hiding in plain sight amongst the crowd. The spell is probably a 'nothing to see here, move along. This is not the vault you're looking for.'
trick.
Tuppence grabs the door and-
"Tuppence-."
Ah, skipping the tedious lock-picking process in the finest Barbarian tradition...
-rips it out of the frame with a screech of torn metal and a crack of fractured brickwork!
"For goodness-."
...Gratuitous Property Damage. As long as the doorframe doesn't have any traps activated by its destruction. But I doubt SHADE's budget stretches
that far here.
"Ah, you bothered looking for me."
A somewhat dishevelled man steps out of the darkness, a copy of the weapon I'm holding for Tuppence held unsteadily in his hands.
That would explain the old fires out here, yes.
"And here I was looking forward to drinking my own urine again."
"That's a bit odd, Agent Carlyle. Can I offer you some actual water instead?"
Ick. Seriously, either he's a little cracked after this long, or he's just cracked in
general.
His eyes narrow slightly. "No helmets, and you sound coherent. So either I'm hallucinating again, or-."
He shoots Tuppence in the centre of the chest, plasma beam blasting her across the room!
Rude! Although she
did pull your hidey-hole's door open. Easy to assume they're hostile until proven otherwise.
"Or you found another telepath!"
The recoil makes his stumble back, but he tries to bring his gun to bear on me as I form a railgun and load a crumbler round.
Careful, OL. You want him intact enough to
talk, after all.
"No way would the real Orange Lantern-."
I shoot out the main electrical power cable to the primary capacitor, causing the hydrogen feed to shut down automatically.
...Ah. That works too.
"Read the manual? Because I did."
He looks at the gun as Tuppence picks herself up and checks the burns on her abdomen. Nothing too serious.
Dannered toughness for the win. Though she may need a bit of time in the sun to even out the new patch of
suntan.
"Ah, nuts." He tosses his weapon aside and takes a step back. "I guess-"
He twists his lower jaw slightly to the side-.
A poison tooth? How cliche can you get?
"-I-."
I zip forward and clamp his head in a scolds bridle construct before he can bite down on his… Yes, cyanide tooth. A flash of orange and I've replaced it with a regular tooth. Check for other suicide devices… Nothing. Check his general health…
Oof. OL not taking any guff now, is he?
I dismiss the construct. "When was the last time you slept?"
"I can sleep…" He wobbles. "-when I'm dead. Or rather… I can't, because you can't sleep while wearing a behavioral regulator."
...That explains the general loopiness. I'm guessing he's only getting any rest when he collapses from
exhaustion.
"That's what you're using to keep the Anti-Life out?"
"Something… Something like that."
Presumably one of the most brute-force examples of the process.
"Okay." I raise my rings towards him. I can't replace sleep, but I can deal with some of the consequences of constant wakefulness.
He blinks hard twice as the affect hits him.
"Whoo! Damn, son, that's the best hangover cure I ever felt!"
"Whoa. Okay. Shit, is she-?"
Tuppence prods her fully healed stomach, then scowls at him.
"Guess that thing needs to go back to the drawing board." He sighs. "Okay. What do you need?"
I mean, she
is tougher than the average person. Don't take her as typical of the result. On the other hand, they probably intended it for use against superhumans anyway...
