Chapter 62

SPLITTING THE PARTY

Alexander leaned against a crate, taking a few moments to let his heart rate slow. Annie pulled her helmet off first, the small oxygen canisters starting to run low. Talia followed, and Alexander pulled his own off as well. The air in the room was chilled, but breathable.

One by one, they shrugged free of the parachute bags. They had been a lifeline in the event of a failure, but Alexander was happy not to have needed them. Not because it showed what he could do with his power already and hinted at much more to come, but because besides the basic instructions Augustus had provided, he still did not know how to parachute.

Augustus collected the equipment wordlessly, flicked his wand with a muttered command, and the familiar door to his conjured closet appeared. He shoved the equipment inside, then reached in deeper and produced their gear. Masks and reinforced jackets; weapons for Talia. He passed them out with quiet efficiency.

It wasn’t their full kit, but it would do in a pinch.

Alexander pulled the mask over his face, letting it seal. Beside him, Annie was already pulling on her red jacket over the jumpsuit and drawing the zipper up. Talia performed a quick check of her rifle, then slid the katana free an inch before sliding it back into place.

The storage room was dim, barely lit by a strip of wall lights while the overheads were off. The gateway arch dominated the far wall, still intact but warped enough to be unusable. The opposite wall held a single reinforced door. Between them stretched a dozen rows of shelves, packed with crates and containers, each tagged and labeled.

Alexander stretched his senses. Refrigeration coils thrummed behind the walls, with smaller cooling units built into many of the storage containers. The door lock carried a faint buzz of current, tied into a security alarm. Beyond the door, webs of electrical activity spread outward; the usual suite of security systems were present, but more notable were the many secured doorways, as well as lots of equipment that he couldn’t understand the purpose of this far away. He also picked up on the subtle signals of dozens of people, roughly as many as they’d expected.

The place was more of a hidden lab than a sprawling facility, but it wasn’t small.

He pulled back his senses just in time to hear Annie whistle.

“Look what I found.”

She held up a frozen package of hotdog buns in one hand, and a vacuum-sealed bag of shredded cheese in the other.

“Seriously?” Alexander asked, unable to resist a smile. A small one.

Talia didn’t even look up from the refrigerated box she’d cracked open. She was already sifting through racks of neatly packed medical supplies. “Chemical stabilizers. Ethanol, formaldehyde. Several cryogenic storage agents. And here—” she pulled out a vial, holding it delicately in the dim light— “laminin solution. And… yes. Recombinant viral vectors. These are research stocks, meant for biological trials.”

Alexander blinked at her. “So, in English, exactly what we expected?”

“Yes,” Talia said, her voice clipped. She replaced the vial and shut the box carefully, as though she’d been handling explosives.

Alexander turned to Augustus. “How long for a portal home?”

The older man swished the wand lazily, eyes shut. He tilted his head as though listening to something distant. “Fifteen minutes. Twenty, maybe. There’s something here interfering, but nowhere near as bad as the spatial anomaly.”

Alexander nodded. “You should stay here and secure our exit then.”

“I agree,” Augustus said. “I’ll block the door after you leave to ensure I’m not interrupted. Hopefully it will be ready before you get back.”

Suddenly, a click sounded from the far wall. The door handle turned, and the sealed doorway cracked open, swinging inward with a hiss.

Light framed a man as he stepped through, turning and flicking on the overheads. Fluorescents hummed to life, flooding the room with light.

“About time you got here,” he said over his shoulder, his voice casual. “I was worried we weren’t going to get—”

The man froze when he turned back and saw them.

Annie moved first. She lunged around the shelving, her boot slamming into his knee with a crunch. He buckled with a yelp that never left his throat; her hand clamped over his mouth, her other gripping the back of his head. She hauled him further inside, dragging him across the floor like a sack.

Talia was already at the door, leaning out to check the hallway. Her eyes darted left, right, and then she shut it quietly.

Alexander and Augustus crossed the room, joining them.

The man was young. Early twenties, maybe. Pale under the overheads, eyes wide with terror. His shoulders shook as Annie held him down, her palm sealing his mouth, her grip steady on his head.

For a long moment, the four of them stood there, silent but for his muffled breathing.

Alexander crouched, leveling his gaze with the man’s frantic, darting eyes. “Do you know who we are?”

The man nodded rapidly, muffled noises spilling from behind Annie’s hand.

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Alexander studied him for a beat, then said, calm but firm, “We have no wish to hurt you. If I have my friend here remove her hand, are you going to be a problem?”

The man shook his head just as frantically.

Alexander held his eyes for another second, weighing the fear against the risk. Then he glanced up at Annie and gave her a quick nod.

She pulled her hand back slowly, muscles tensed ready to strike if he screamed.

The young man gasped, trembling where he knelt. His voice cracked as it tumbled out. “Please don’t kill me. Oh, god, I can’t even pretend to have kids, I’m too young.”

Behind him, Annie made a strangled sound, her shoulders jerking as she fought back a laugh. Alexander couldn’t see her expression behind the mask, but she looked like she was about to choke on the giggle.

Alexander’s face twitched, but he kept his voice flat. “Who are you? What do you do here?”

The man bobbed his head quickly. “Quartermaster. I’m—I’m the quartermaster. I receive shipments, make sure the reports get handed over, and then I catalogue and track everything. Inventory, logistics, that’s all me. I only took this posting because—because they were paying me so much. Like stupid money. The kind of money where, when this is done, I’ll never have to work again. For like, ever.”

His words spilled out nervous and fast. Alexander let him run until he trailed off, breathing hard.

“Are there any security forces in the facility?” Alexander asked. “Weapons? Superheroes? Cybernetically enhanced soldiers?”

The man shook his head quickly; then he faltered, nodding instead. “Three security officers. They do rotating shifts. And, uh—Doctor Miller has powers! Everyone says so. Not that I’ve ever seen them.”

Alexander’s eyes flicked up to Talia and Augustus, then back to the trembling man. “Where would the security officers and the doctor be now?”

“Well, most everyone’s sleeping…” the man began.

Talia cut him off. “It’s the middle of the day in Argentum.”

The man blinked. “Argentum? Never heard of it. We all came from Europe, through the gateway back there, so… we’re all on Central European time.”

Alexander gestured for him to continue.

“Right, yeah. Security usually hangs out in the entertainment lounge or security room. If they’re not there, they’ll be doing a patrol, I guess. And the doctor…” He hesitated. “Probably asleep. He’s got a private room. But sometimes he’s awake at weird hours, doing his work.”

“What work?” Alexander pressed.

The man’s shoulders hunched. “I don’t know. It’s restricted. Only the scientists and the doctor have passes for the elevator.”

Alexander let out a slow breath, thinking for a moment. Then he looked the kid in the eye.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he said, voice steady. “You’re going to sketch out a layout of the facility. Show us where the labs are, and the places security hangs out or patrols. And anything else you can think of that matters. Then, my friend Talia here, who has impeccable skill, is going to knock you out long enough for us to do what we need and leave. In fact, mark a good spot on the map for us to put your unconscious body, okay?”

The man’s eyes widened by the second while Alexander talked. It was as if Alexander had asked him to dig his own grave. Finally, he stammered, “I—I have nothing to write with.”

The team exchanged glances, followed by collective shrugs. Then Annie brightened.

“Oh! Here.” She reached into her jacket and pulled out the frozen bag of shredded cheese. “We can use this to map it out.”

Alexander blinked once, then sighed reluctantly. He took the bag from her, pinched a corner with his gloved fingers, and tore it open. The cold, pale shreds spilled onto a stainless-steel crate. For a ridiculous half-second, the absurdity of the moment hung between them, easing the tension slightly.

“Fine,” Alexander said. He scraped the cheese into a thin line with a fingertip and began to draw on the floor. He tapped the square shape he’d mapped out. “This is the storage and gateway room. Tell me where everything else is.”

A short time later, Alexander, Annie, and Talia stepped out of the storage room, pulling the door shut quietly behind them. The air outside was warmer, carrying the faint scent that came from a bunch of people in an enclosed space with recycled air.

Alexander shifted the unconscious quartermaster higher on one shoulder, the young man’s arms hanging limp as a rag doll, and commanded his favorite drone to follow just over his other. The plan was to record everything he came across, to add to the pile of evidence they would have at the end.

Annie and Talia moved ahead of him, sweeping the corners with quick checks. The halls were silent, the doors shut, and the lights dimmed. So far, the man didn’t appear to have lied; it was nap time for the people running this place.

They rounded another corner, pressing on until Talia slowed. She passed two doors, paused at the third, and glanced back. Alexander swept his senses through the panel beside it, feeling the simple security and alarm system connected to it. He pulsed a command. The light flipped green.

Talia cracked the door, scanned inside, then gave a curt nod. Alexander stepped past her, dropped the quartermaster onto the lower bunk, and stepped out without a word.

He paused in the hall, the weight of decisions pressing on his thoughts. He exhaled. “We need to split up.”

“Nope,” Annie said immediately, crossing her arms. “Bad idea. Classic bad idea, splitting the party. Auggy says so every time we do it during game night.”

Talia’s frown was quieter, but no less pointed. “Dividing our strength further risks failure. We should stick together.”

Alexander shook his head. “If we’d gotten here without being detected, I’d agree. But we were seen, and Santiago isn’t powerless. With his resources? He might have other ways of getting here. He could even have supers digging their way down from the prison already. We’re on the clock.”

He ticked points off on his fingers. “We need footage from the security office. We need the administrator’s reports from his personal device. And we need to get into the research wing and see what they’re actually doing here.”

Talia’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s doing what?”

“I’ll do the research wing,” Annie cut in, her hand clenching like she wanted a fight already. “I don’t know how to get the other stuff anyway.”

Alexander shook his head. “You’ll go after the administrator’s device. It will be in his office or his room.”

“But—”

“If you can’t figure out how to pull the drive, bring the whole thing,” Alexander said, interrupting her objection.

Annie slumped, muttering. “Fine.”

Talia folded her arms. “Then I’m going after the security footage, I assume. I can’t access the research wing without setting off every alarm.”

“Exactly,” Alexander said, then looked between them. “If anyone runs into something they can’t handle, call for help. No hero shit. Auggy’s location is our fallback. We regroup there if this turns bad.”

Annie held out a fist, bouncing back with a grin behind the mask. “You know the drill.”

Alexander met it, then Talia, the three knuckles rapping together.

Then they split. Alexander headed down the right-hand corridor, toward the heart of the facility, while Annie and Talia moved the other way, footsteps soft against the cold floor.

The silence of the complex pressed in around Alexander, but all he could think about was the fact that somewhere below, behind steel and concrete and locked doors, the real secrets of the facility waited.

And when he revealed them to the world, Santiago Systems would be finished.