The group have fought and won the battle for Ni’Challan’s space station in the Graveyard of the Machine god. But, not without a cost. They now lick their wounds and prepare for the next big push, the attack on Doctor Strangelove’s secret lab somewhere in the wastes of Ruk.
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Two broken souls here and one lost one up in the labs, Rain thought, and wondered if Algernon heard. It didn’t matter. They’d been there for him, and he’d be there for them. Rocking the Peggy-box, he sat in silence with Bruce, while keeping his Allsong link open for Algernon.
In Rain’s world, things were looking up.
“You can’t keep ignoring me forever. Talk to me Bruce,” Rain said as Bruce stared dully into space at the kid, the newly discovered biological brother of Algernon and Peggy.
He said nothing.
“You know he’s only alive because of you. Peggy wasn’t going to do anything, he was the enemy. Algernon was going to shoot him where he lay and… I wasn’t there. You were. You gave him first aid and saved his life…”
“I shot him. Would have shot him dead.” The words came out monotoned and forced like coming from a long way away. It was an effort for Bruce to speak at the best of times, and now it was almost painful.
“But you didn’t. Don’t you see that makes all the difference?” Rain leaned forward, the Peggy-box still cradled in his arms.
“The scariest thing was… I was having fun!” Bruce said, deaf to Rain’s plea.
“It’s okay to enjoy doing something you’re good at, and you’ve worked hard to be that good.”
“Righteous violent bastard,” Bruce ground through his teeth, self-loathing dripping from every word, “I was that violent bastard from Halloween all over again, that was me.”
Rain remembered well the persona forced on Bruce as when they translated to Halloween. The undead hunter had been a driven and violent character that had only just been held back by Bruce’s nobler side. It had been a scary time for Rain too, now was caught negotiating between an influential undead individual and the raw violence of his friend, the one he’d come to rely on to keep him safe. All this sat between them in the silence of the convalescent room.
Bruce mumbled something to himself that Rain just caught.
“I’ve lost divine favour.”
“What…do you think you’re a paladin of God now?”
“I tried to walk in his ways,” Bruce replied.
“Well, if you think you’re in trouble with the Almighty then I’d suggest, ask Him.”
Bruce scoffed loudly, a sad single huff that carried with it all the bitterness he currently felt.
“Don’t give me that, you know that’s not how it works.”
“Sure, it is. I was raised Catholic, so there are a few more layers between me and the Big Man,” Rain replied thinking back on his own failed attempts to reach the Divine, “ But you Protestants can talk to him whenever.”
“He doesn’t talk back like…like this.” Bruce gestured, his hand moving back and forward through the space between them, “You can’t hold a conversation with God.”
“This is exactly how it’s done. Through others,” Rain leaned back in his chair, smiling at the irony of the thought, “Right now, I’m the word of God to you.”
Bruce shook his head and turned back to the kid.
“He’s just a kid, a naive, brainwashed innocent. I thought I was better than that.”
“You have always been a man with a strong ethical base. You always held yourself and others to a higher standard,” Rain said, reminiscing about the moment Bruce and he had met, on an Intercity bus just outside New Orleans. He’d been chatting up a girl, a pretty young thing who he’d charmed and groomed to take him home that night. He’d been hoping for a hot meal, free place to sleep, a local companion to show him their city and…whatever else she’d been willing to offer.
Bruce had seen what he was doing and started a fire and brimstone sermon on the wickedness of the flesh and how he should be ashamed to prey upon a young innocent such as that girl. A kid. It was still the same sermon, but now he was preaching it to himself.
“You were always the compassionate one,” Bruce mumbled, “When Algernon wanted to poison Dona Ilsa and her lot, I was all for it, but you knew it was wrong, you pulled me up, and you were right.”
“Bruce, you forget how we met? We were kicked off the bus because you couldn’t stand by and see an innocent taken advantage?”
Bruce blinked, and a little colour returned to his pale face at the memory of that night in the rain.
“I’d forgotten about that.”
“And that instinct of yours has always been there, protecting me. Remember Peggy’s Rockwheeler mine we tripped?”
“She detonated on us,” Bruce corrected, and Rain smiled at the memory.
“Yeah, right. I never felt safer than in that moment when we thought we were going to be blown sky-high,” Rain laughed at the memory, “Because of you. “
Bruce’s mouth twitched at the memory of sheltering the little man as the static charge of Peggy’s mine went off around them. It was quickly replaced with a frown as another memory entered the conversation.
“And then you left me.”
Puzzled, Rain wondered for a moment if Bruce had confused him with his wayward father, Jimmy. Rain remembered distinctly standing on a street corner in Nederland, Colorado planning to steal a car and leave, get out of town, the group, everything. The thought of how Bruce stood by him, supported his ideas and endeavours. It had turned him around.
“But I didn’t, and it was because of you…”
“You left. Left me with Peggy the tin-can and the kid that can’t be trusted.” Bruce turned his bloodshot gaze on Rain and Rain noticed how suddenly tired Bruce looked, “ You did something to your brain and left me with the robot you. I was alone.”
And then Rain put it together. When the group had first translated into Ruk, the Allsong opened to Rain. In it, he found relief from his grieving by splitting his emotional mind from his rational and leaving it in the cloud of the Allsong. He’d thought to gain a little peace from the pain, a little freedom in which to help Algernon deal with his problems.
“Ah,” He replied in a long drawn out exhalation, “That was a mistake. I didn’t realise how much of who I was, was tied to that emotional side.”
Bruce looked up, unsure he’d heard correctly.
“Your better side,” He replied, and Rain was surprised to find himself agreeing.
“I never intended to make you feel alone, the contrary. For that I’m sorry, I let you down. I will always have your back, as you’ve always had mine.”
Bruce nodded, listening but not really taking it in.
Rain felt the stirring of the Strange behind him, a force waiting to be used. Instinctually, he touched the Strange, the power flowing into his words and to Bruce.
“I will always have your back, as you’ve always had mine.”
A moment past. Another and then something in Bruce seemed to relax, just a little.
“So, we had a two-day head start on Strangelove, but we’ve used some of that already,“ Rain changed the subject, and Bruce seemed more receptive, “Are you going to be alright to take the labs?”
“I’ll have to be. We still have to save the world, “ Bruce seemed about ready to get up at that moment and leave, but then remembered the kid still unconscious in the bed beside him, “ We need someone to look after him. And someplace secure.”
“We could wait until he wakes. His future is tied to what we find at the lab as well, and he knows it better than even Algernon.”
“We can’t take the kid! He’s too much of a risk!” Bruce vetoed the idea. The words, so similar to the arguments he’d made about Algernon’s activities with the group so long ago.
Rain’s smile broadened, “Okay, whatever you decide.”
“Ur…right then,” Bruce looked sideways at Rain unsure why he agreed so readily, “You go find some help from the Quiet Cabal, see if they have any medical aid. And a cell or something.”
Without a word, Rain stood, gave Bruce the Peggy-box, nodded and left to do just that.
Algernon was kicking around the lab, wondering what he should do. He didn’t feel directly threatened by the Quiet Cabal at that moment, but part of him still considered them (and everyone in Ruk) the enemy. He stalked the labs looking for ways to escape. If one was needed. Hypothetically.
When he found a lone access portal in a quiet corner of the labs, he quickly connected and started poking around. Sure that in this out of the way spot, his actions were unwitnessed, he started looking for ways to catastrophically collapse the system from the inside, making for himself an escape route…if the need arose. When his probes were rebuffed, he heard in the real world, the sound of heavy boots thumping down the hallway. Quickly, he discarded the more incriminating searches and brought up medical files on the DNA testing Peggy had just conducted. From the corner of one eye, he could see the security guard from the front desk walk into the lab and march directly towards him.
“And what are you up to?” The guard asked, slightly out of breath from his trip to the labs from downstairs.
“Oh, I wanted to see the results of testing. Did I do something wrong?” Algernon asked, turning to face the guard as if he had nothing to hide.
“Was that all?” The guard asked, gesturing for Algernon to vacate his seat at the access portal. Algernon complied and made way for the rotund guard. The security guard scanned through what was currently up to access, made a harrumphing noise and disconnected.
“Well, check with Giquabee if you have any questions about that stuff,” He said, a little deflated that he hadn’t been able to catch his spy, “She’ll walk you through it.”
“I will, thank you and sorry if I caused any trouble,” Algernon looked genuinely abashed, a curious school kid not causing any real harm. The guard left with one last long look and Algernon had to admit to himself he was getting better at this stuff.
A quick, polite conversation with Tabaseth and Rain had obtained medical help and a secure place in which the injured boy could be kept until their return. Just as he was about to leave, Rain remembered Algernon and his desire for the biggest and baddest killing weapon available.
“One more thing. For the attack on the lab, Algernon will need one of your very impressive guns.”
Tabaseth looked like he was going to refuse for a moment. It was one thing to hand over a dozen walking weapons in the form of venom troopers to humans to use off Ruk, but handing a human a weapon within Ruk was another decision entirely, “I know we’ve asked a lot of our friendship, but we’re committed to seeing this through, for all our benefits.”
“No need, no need,” Tabaseth relented, “Of course, we’ll be happy to provide you with whatever weapons you need.”
Rain let Algernon know that a new weapon was ready for him to pick up, and returned to the room to find Bruce, Peggy and the kid were where he’d left them. Peggy’s metal box had been put to one side by Bruce, and as Rain informed Bruce about the arrangements, he picked up the box once more.
A sudden jolt of electricity zapped from Peggy’s metal shell to Rain. Convulsively, his hand let the box go, only catching it again as his legs gave up under him as he sat heavily on the ground.
A happy schoolgirl, maybe seven years old being dropped off at school. Two parents, a smart wild-haired woman and her excitable husband waved goodbye promising to see her that afternoon. The afternoon came, the girl waited at the school gate and waited and waited. No one came; no one could be found. Police were called. She was taken to the police station where an unguarded computer showed her what no one could tell her. CCTV footage at the tram stop. Her parents walking, hand in hand, into the underpass. Electrical interference, a flash of light and splash of water. Her parents were never seen again. Late that night, an older woman, her frizzy hair pulled strictly back in a tight bun came to claim her. Her Yaya. There was no love for the girl in those stern features. She took the girl home out of duty.
The images repeated again and again—the last moments of Margarita Athena Portaculis Martin’s childhood.
Rain was drowning. Peggy’s emotions were overwhelming. It was like being taken under by a wave. There was no up or down, no control and only the power of the vision to be relived over and over again. Gasping to remember who he was in the sea of confusion, loss and misery, he struggled against the tide and produced a ball of fire, his tiny sun from the Dreamlands. Centring all his thoughts on it he drew on the vision for reference, creating a new image of the couple, the woman with the wild hair and her husband full of life. He made the image older, maybe twenty years and placed them behind bars in the depths of a secret hidden lab. Now, with the image secure in his mind, he shared it with Peggy, tormented and lost in her past.
Suddenly, Rain was back in the room. Bruce was distracted by two white-clad members of the Quiet Cabal who attended to the unconscious boy. Peggy-box was flying again beside him, the hologram once more present, though flickering as if unsure it should be there at all. The whole ordeal had taken but a moment, a few seconds though Rain felt he’d run the common at The Estate again, with the same results. Peggy’s hologram turned to face him.
“We’ll find them.” He said shakily, “Are you with me?”
“No, I’m… next to you,” She replied equally as shakily, but in her usual pedantic manner.
Rain nodded and laughed, “That’s pretty good too. I’ll take it.”
The flyer scudding over the Ruk landscape as the city of Harmonious and its surrounding suburbs gave way to wilderness. In Ruk, it was in the wild places where the chaos reigned. Here, The Strange traversing spacecraft that had saved the last remnants of a planet long lost to a planetvore grew wild. Organic-steel that once made up the crafts structure were now Ruk’s mountains, valleys and plains. Where the instructions have been lost or corrupted, the land grew chaotically, creating spires and sinkholes, random cancerous outcroppings and places inhospitable to life. It was one of these outcroppings of organimer that the flyer was heading for now.
Rain turned away from the bleak landscape and to his companions on the flyer. Bruce was up the front, asking procedural questions about the expedition. Peggy was flying back and forwards down the centre of the craft, the hovering robot’s equivalent to pacing. Algernon was staring out the window as Rain had been, his expression unreadable. Across his lap, the larger of his two crossbows, modified with laser bolt for Ruk, but no force bolt rifle in sight.
Didn’t you like the gun they offered? Rain asked, drawing Algernon’s attention away from the window. Now connected via the Allsong mind-link, Rain could feel that Algernon had not been blindly looking out the window, but actively trying to remember.
No, I loved it, everything I’d ever wanted. I just found I was really shit at it so decided to stick with the crossbow. I sort of prefer it now, anyway. Algernon looked at the crossbow and patted it fondly.
So do I, Rain confessed, Ever since you got your first one in Railsea. No deafening bang, now blinding choking smoke… and with the thought came the gut-churning fear that guns generated for Rain.
Still, even now you know?
Still, maybe more now I know what it means? I don’t have the memories, but the ripples of those events still live on. Rain sighed, his own trauma reminding him of what Bruce had said about the ritual Rain had pushed on Algernon as they entered Ruk.
Brother, I need to speak seriously to you about something…something… Bruce brought up in regards to what I did as we translated into Ruk, He showed his hand, the scar still puckered and red. He looked to Algernon’s hand where it’s equivalent was already healed over and at the edges fading away.
He was angry with me for doing it. He said it was an unspeakable act that steals a person’s sense of worth, their feeling of safety and freedom. It was meant to be the complete opposite. It was meant to be a reminder that no matter what, you are not alone.
Yeah, I know, it’s cool! Algernon replied with all the excitement of a teenager recently indoctrinated into a secret society. Like, it meant we’re together.
Exactly! Rain replied as all his concerns about the moment left him. It was the same for me when you made the mind-link, like you were confirming what I’d said.
Don’t worry about what Mr Bruce says, sometimes he thinks the weirdest things, Algernon went back to looking out the window and Rain saying nothing, only sharing thoughts of gratitude.
Yeah, you’re right. I really appreciate the mind-link. I just wish we could keep it outside of Ruk.
It’s really handy.
Bruce walked through the flyer a few minutes later with the plan from the pilot.
“The Quiet Cabal for their own reasons don’t want to be associated with our little expedition. We’re being dropped off outside the base. The pilot has given the coordinates where he will be waiting for the next 48 hours. Once we’ve done what we need to, he’ll meet us there. None of their forces can be seen entering the labs, plausible deniability or some bullshit.”
As Bruce said this, the flyer dropped and banked to the right as it swooped low over a jagged rock outcropping and seemed to head straight towards the rock wall. Looking down through the pilot’s window, the group could clearly see a large natural cave opening. As the pilot guided the flyer into the opening, a bored tunnel appeared, finally ending in a large cavern. The walls of the cavern were random and encrusted with organimer, but the floor was flat and machine-worked. In the space, two other smaller craft stood waiting, but no one was in the area, it looked deserted. The far end of the hanger was better lit and a doorway with two sliding doors visible.
“We should do something to those aircraft,” Algernon pointed out the two aircraft, “I could sabotage them into flying for a few minutes then…drop out of the sky.” He expressed the idea with such enthusiasm Rain couldn’t help but agree. Bruce, on the other hand, didn’t.
“What if we need one of those aircraft to escape? Leave them. We can nobble them on the way out.”
“What if we’re running then?” Algernon protested.
“Knowing our luck we’ll be running then,” Rain replied, only speaking from experience.
“So ground them so they only pursuit can be on foot,” Bruce held firm, only to have Peggy enter the conversation.
“I can help. We can mess with the antigrav for the shuttles, set up a piece of code that shuts down power that we can easily clear if we need the vessel.”
The argument went back and forward as first one vessel, then the other was investigated. In the end, between Peggy and Algernon, a complicated system where the aircraft would fly as normal until moved into top gear, as in pursuit. Then the craft would fail and keep its pilot and crew busy while the party made their escape.
While Algernon and Peggy were busy with the aircraft, Rain had been studying the door. Two metal doors closed the hanger off from the rest of the complex. A keypad on one side was the unlocking mechanism, but there were no clues as to what the code could be. As soon as Algernon was free, Rain called him over.
“I want you to try something, just rest your hand on the keypad, don’t think about it and push a few buttons. See what happens.”
“But what if I get it wrong and it locks us out?”
“We’re likely to get more than one chance. It’s worth a try.” Rain urged, and Algernon did as he suggested. After Algernon pushed the fourth button, however, the keypad made a buzzing sound and reset.
Peggy now stepped up and with one movement flipped off the keypad cover to reveal the circuitry underneath. She quickly isolated the keypad’s connection to the door and…the door slowly opened. Bruce in front of the opening doors, both guns out and ready for whatever came their way. They revealed an empty corridor sloping down and around to the left.
“Doctor Peggy,” Algernon drew her aside as the group started down the ramp, “It’s come to my attention that our relationship has changed. I can no longer assume you to be the stepmother figure to my young teen protagonist from the documentaries. But there are also no documentaries where the older sister is a robot. Do I now consider you a sister on whom I should now perform pranks or is there another relationship I should emulate?” he asked in all seriousness.
“Do not prank your sister,” Bruce said over his shoulder as he led the group.
“Yes, Dad,” Algernon replied automatically before returning to Peggy.
“Try Weird Science, 1985 directed by John Hughes for your reference,” She replied simply, her memory for cult films coming to her aid.
“You know, you can write your own script for how to behave, “ Rain suggested, “But, no pranking your sister are definitely words to live by.”
“Yes, Mum,” Algernon smirked.
From down the tunnel, a whirling-sloshing sound caught the party’s attention, and Algernon was reminded of a memory long hidden. It was night, and he was sneaking around the complex through the restricted areas he had no business being.
“Up ahead, I remember a pool of mud and metal creatures swimming in it,” He said, his vision distant, watching through the eyes of his younger self as he explored the spaces, “ Further on the passage splits. To the left the living quarters, to the right the Powerplant and below that, the High Energy Lab.”
Sure enough, as Bruce looked around the next corner, he saw a massive pool at least as big as an Olympic swimming, full of viscous mud. As he watched a large metallic body moved sinuously under the surface, its sides only glinting occasionally through the muck. Across the surface of the mud, a board lay holding three bowls, Above three pipes led up and out to another part of the complex. Here, as in the hanger, there was no one else around.
“Do you know where those go?” Bruce pointed the pipes out to Algernon who could only shake his head.
“Interesting, Peggy also poked her head around the corner, “What do you think they’re here for?”
“They must be useful to Doctor Strangelove…somehow,” Was all Algernon could say.
“Can we get a sample of the mud?” And from inside Peggy’s metal exterior, she produced a small vial. Algernon took the vial and using his levitate he sent the vial over the intervening space. It was a delicate task. Not one attempted with the usual sledgehammer style Algernon was used. As he held the vial steady, balancing the forces, Rain reached out a hand and sent The Strange flowing through. The vial was carefully dipped into the mud, withdrawn and returned to Peggy with a deep sigh of relief from Algernon.
“Thank, Mum,” He said with relief. Rain gave him a confused look.
“It’s not a role I ever would have chosen for myself. I guess, why not Mum?” Rain replied, shrugging his shoulders and following the group down the passage.
Peggy started noticing the surveillance cameras halfway down and whenever she found one she’d knock it out. Having found a few made the group wonder how many they’d missed further up and in the hanger. It was too late to worry now as they came to the intersection promised by Algernon and had to make a decision.
“The power plant and high energy lab or the living quarters?” Bruce asked Algernon, “Where are they likely to keep your parents?”
“I don’t know, I never saw them in the High Energy Lab,” Algernon confessed disheartened, “Though, if we want to blow this place up we should head for the power plant.”
“Blowing things up is for when we’re leaving,” Bruce countered, “What about security for this area, armed forces, what can we expect?” It was true, there had been no one around so far, and the lack of personnel was starting to look ominous.
“Usually there’s a few venom troopers about…maybe she took them all with her when she left to attack Ni’Challan?”
“Hopefully.”
“Well, let’s start with the known and move to the unknown,” Rain offered, “The Power plant, lab, living quarters and then onward from there.”
After more of the usual discussion, the group headed towards the Powerplant with the idea of just finding out how the base was powered and working out how they could use it to their advantage. The passageway opened up to a gantry running in a ring around the top of a circular room. In three locations, stairs led down to the plant room floor where a column of barely contained lightning trapped behind a force field.
“What is it?” Algernon asked Peggy who sent her mind into the Strange and asked the same question.
A creature of lightning, trapped. Came the unusually clear reply and the party boggled at the thought of a being of pure electricity and what it must have taken to capture it in the first place.
Rain watched the creature, following its gestures, the squeaks and sparks it made, but he could not determine a clear language. Though the creature seemed angry, often in pain and was clearly frustrated by its imprisonment, he did not think it was intelligent and soon lost interest.
Algernon found a bank of batteries, and the start of a plan started forming in his mind.
“This room is above the High Energy lab. I bet blowing up these batteries would do serious damage to the lab below.”
“How about the rest of the lab?” Bruce asked, and Algernon had to confess that the organimer the room was carved from and would absorb much of the shockwave.
“We’d destroy this space, maybe damage some of the lab but the other parts of the base are too far away.” Algernon had to put his sabotage plans on hold for a second time.
“Releasing the creature would probably cause some damage,” Peggy suggested, “It could attack the first thing it sees as well, which could be us if we time this wrong.”
At one side of the Powerplant, an elevator stood ready to take the group down to the High Energy Lab. Peggy, now more than her usual paranoid, checked the elevator for traps. Rain watched Algernon as he moved around these spaces he’d known before. Gone was his little kid brother from the flyer, here the survivalist walked, taking in the threats and opportunities to wreak havoc. Here stalked the killer.
As a group, they took the cleared elevator and travelled down through the floor to the lab below. Here a numb of the column above protruded through the floor and spider’s web of powerlines to various lab tables where experiments were in different levels of readiness. Algernon knew this space well. He’d spent some time down here helping with experiments, though at the time the nature of those experiments had been different. Now the Doctor seemed to be focused on cybernetics and robotics. The rest of the party fanned out, Peggy and Rain searching together for anything large enough to hold a person while Bruce, crowbar in hand, looked through stuff closer to the entrance. Algernon did not leave the elevator.
A clatter from a pile of previously searched through robot parts made Peggy and Rain turn to face a rising armed drone. Bruce was ready with his crowbar and was first to act, piercing one of the drone’s rotors, grappling it in place. A movement from another pile caught Rain’s attention as a creature the size of a fat guinea pig scrambled out from under robot parts. With surprising agility, it’s stubbly malformed legs propelled it towards his chest. Turning side on, Rain let the creature sail by, but not before getting a good look at the thing. It was a walking blob of meat, most resembling a piece of artery or heart tissue. The creature plopped onto the ground and hid under a table. Not before Rain pointed it out to the rest of the group.
Unfortunately, more trouble in the form of a second drone rose from a third pile of robotics scrap. It gave a cheery beep before launching a small missile directly at Algernon. He ducked away, and the missile exploded behind him, denting the back wall of the elevator. The first drone lit a cutting torch and tried aiming at Bruce. Using his crowbar as a lever, Bruce forced the torch away.
Peggy sent balls of plasma at the two drones, both finding their targets and linking the two with a blue arc of energy. In its light, Algernon took a moment to study the drones, their strengths and weaknesses as Rain did the same, searching for the heart creature on the floor. Bruce grabbed his crowbar two-handed and smashed the impaled drone into the ground, the drone broken into pieces scattering across the lab floor. The heart creature leapt up from a darkened corner at Bruce, he batted it away with his crowbar, sending it across the lab into another pile of scrap.
The second drone started shaking and giving off a high pitched whine. Suddenly, a pulse of electromagnetic energy spread through the lab. It momentarily sent Bruce’s head spinning and glitched out Algernon and Rain’s Allsong link for a moment, but Peggy the robot was not so fortunate. Instantly, her hologram disappeared, and the box dropped from the air and crashed into the ground, one more piece of technological junk.
“The drones are called Scrap drones,” Algernon said, sharing the information he’d gathered from the Allsong, “The cutting torch, missiles and the EMP are their only weapons. They’re weak at the joints, “ He pointed out to Bruce.
“The little creature is an angiophage. It will eat and replace your heart if you let it,” Rain grimaced, as he too shared what he’d discovered, “They’re an ugly assassins tool.”
As the EMP had also taken out his crossbow, Algernon threw it aside and prepared to catch the angiophage when it leapt out again. He didn’t have to wait long. As Rain moved to stimulate Bruce for his assault on the final scrap drone, the angeophage made its move on him. Before he knew what was happening, the angeophage was wriggling impotent centimetres off his chest. In one movement, Bruce easily swung his crowbar through the second drone and down on to the wriggling angiophage, smashing it to a pulp on the lab floor.
“Oh, did I miss something?” Peggy’s voice came from the box as it slowly started to right itself again. The tableau of the three boys said it all, Rain clutching his chest, Algernon only now releasing the levitate and Bruce wiping the goo from his crowbar. “Sorry, I missed it.” She said as she went back to her searching.
She didn’t find any stasis pods, nothing in the room was set up for bioengineering at all. They did, however, find a few more cyphers, another grenade and a force armour.
“I could make use of the grenade, Mr Bruce,” Said Algernon thinking of all the creative shenanigans he could get up with with a grenade.
“I don’t think so,” Bruce went to put the grenade away in his bag when Rain held out his hand for it.
“I could look after it for you,” He seemed to say in all sincerity, but Bruce’s instinct about the little man’s true intent asserted itself. Was it the sparkle in the eyes? A twitch of the mouth?
“Sure you could,” Bruce smiled and pocketed the grenade.
“Sorry, Algernon, I tried.” Rain said as Peggy handed him the force armour cypher. Without a second thought, he put the small black box on his belt and turned it on. The angeophage had come a little too close for comfort.
The High Energy Lab explored, and no notes of parents found the party took the elevator back to the Power plant. Algernon posed a question to the Allsong,
Does Doctor Strangelove know we’re here?
The answer was simple, No.
Peggy asked the Strange her own question,
“How many hours is Strangelove away?
Seven to eight hours, The Strange replied in her voice.
They had seven hours to explore the rest of the base, find what they were looking for, work out how to sabotage the Power plant force field and get out.
And still have time to make Berkley for Peggy’s meeting with Noel.
A Strange Life 