Fun. That wasn’t the first word I’d apply to a multi-year fight for the future of your civilization, but as a way to keep your spirits up when facing a struggle you knew you could only begin to imagine, it was worth a shot.
I was glad they’d found my killbot tech useful even though I didn’t love being partially responsible for political assassinations. The Human Ascendancy deserved what they got, but the precedent would linger. If Kal's group were lucky enough to win and future generations celebrated their success, assassination might be viewed as a legitimate technique for people dissatisfied with their governnt.
As the picture faded from my mind, I resolved to check in with her and also Katuk more often. You never knew what could happen next in a war or after.
I knew from experience that unpleasant truth didn’t only apply to her life. It was anyone’s guess how long they’d be cleaning up dead fungus in Grand Lake. Not to ntion that we hadn’t had Travis’ funeral yet.
Not long after that, the pumps removed the last water from the airlock and we floated into the base’s hangar.
We exited the hatch to find Haley and Vaughn waiting for us.
Vaughn wasn’t in costu, wearing black jeans and a grey t-shirt with “Hardwick Industries” on it. The T-shirt showed traces of muscles he hadn’t had four years ago.
Marcus looked him up and down, “Wearing family swag today?”
Vaughn shook his head, his ponytail brushing across his back, “I got roped into family stuff today. We did real work clearing away fungus crud downtown, but it was still a photo op. ‘Look, the Hardwick family gives a crap about the city,’ see? I an, I do care, but this was all about being seen to care. A bunch of my cousins got roped in, even Lucas’ family—which feels a little weird since his dad’s in jail for being involved with the Nine.”
Jaclyn let out a breath, “You’d think that would give them an out.”
Nodding, Vaughn said, “With how involved the Nine was in making it happen, yeah. I don’t think that detail has made it to the press yet. Well, unless I’m forgetting sothing. We’ve done so much stuff in the last couple of days that we could have made a general announcent and it would have blurred into everything else. We didn’t, right?”
I looked around the group, “Not unless the board did and I doubt they would.”
Haley frowned, “I’ll check with Kayla. What all did you do?”
Marcus took a breath and said, “You rember Victor from Nick’s Higher Ground internship? I either killed him or an alternate-universe version of him this morning and then we t the real him this afternoon. Well, I might have t both the real him and an alternate universe version because, depending on how ti travel works, they might not have split yet.”
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Haley looked from him to the rest of us, “That made no sense at all. If it’s a long story, maybe we should use the table in the main room.”
Shaking her head Jaclyn said, “I think we’re in the opposite situation. We think we know where Magnus might be and we should go back there as soon as we can in case it changes.”
“I did leave bots there,” I said, checking back on them. They all still worked. The wounded henchn had been removed from the damaged spaceships and workers were pulling out seats, cable, and even components of the control panel system from inside—which was interesting. Bearing in mind that Jaclyn had ruined the hulls, I’d have expected the Nine to throw the remains into the ocean.
They didn’t strike as environntalists, but I supposed they might be looking to see if we’d missed anything during the heist. Also, they might have so kind of forensic team equivalent.
“Plus,” Cassie laughed, “we might have started a civil war inside the Nine.”
“We should unload the Artificer and Abominator stuff before we do anything else,” Rachel said, looking back at the jet. “Our best chance for keeping it hidden is inside the storage rooms. If all of that weaving around when we left is any indication, Magnus can sense Artificer tech inside the jet.”
Haley looked around the group, “I think we need to go over this in a eting, maybe with remote team mbers listening in.”
“But no one who might let Jody listen in,” I said. “I’m about 99% sure he’s part Ghost, Artificer, or both in addition to working with Magnus.”
Sighing, Haley said, “Let’s unload first and you can tell what happened as you do it. Maybe I can summarize it for everybody or at least skip to the important parts when we talk.”
It didn’t take long to unload the Artificer relics and explain what happened, maybe half an hour. It hadn’t taken that long to steal them, but we had to move Abominator gear around to find space for them.
By the ti we were done, we’d gone through the whole story with Haley and relocated to my lab. It felt less official than sitting in front of the giant screen at the original League’s table, but cozier—at least for . I sat on a stool next to the counter on the wall where we’d placed the computer where I did most of my work. Haley and Marcus sat with at the counter and Rachel, Cassie, Vaughn, and Jaclyn sat at the nearest table where they tried not to knock on one of my bot assembly machines. I’d already set it to make more.
Jaclyn asked, “Is anything happening on the island?”
I checked and as the last half hour of footage flashed through my mind, I said, “No. I think I should try to get the bots into the big building and try to find Magnus. From the way he searched, he almost had to be there. It might be worth seeing what I can find out about defenses though. I feel like we might have to send in everyone we can. If this is the Nine’s secret HQ, we’ll need the League plus more. I’m willing to take a chance that the Midwest Defenders aren’t controlled. Maybe there are more options… The Probationers, maybe? And Pri wanted to be in on the end. We pretty much promised him he could.”
Vaughn let out a sigh, “If we’re going to bring Sean and Dayton in on that, we’ll have to handle Jody first. I know he’s an asshole, but they like him. I think they suspected him themselves even before you told them. It might be easier than you think.”
Rembering my run-ins with the three of them, I said, “Or we could leave them alone?”
Vaughn laughed. Rachel said, “You know better. They’ll get involved sohow.”
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