Chapter 27 – The Underground

  “Instances are up twenty percent month over month. I would advise we get as many field offices up and running as we can. We can always deactivate them if needed but then we have the facilities in pce.” – Data Analyst to Order Stabilitas Operations Command monthly readiness meeting.

  “Well? How did you like it?” Kurt asked Val when she stepped out of the bathroom. They had just eaten breakfast and she had gone to shower while he cleaned up the dishes.

  “It felt really weird at first. Like, I know I should feel water moving over my skin but when its all at once it was a little surprising.” She ughed and fluffed her almost completely dry hair.

  Kurt put the st pte in the dishwasher and started it up. “Other than that?”

  “Oh, its great!” Val was smiling as she came over and id a kiss on him. “Now I don’t have to pre pn washing my tail and other fur. Honestly, it’s a huge time saver just for my regur hair.”

  Kurt was about to comment his thoughts when the door to the hub opened and Penny stepped out, hustling across the wn and holding her briefcase over her head to shield her from the driving rain. He found it rather comical how she seemed personally offended by the droplets.

  “Hey Penny. Want a coffee?” Kurt said as she stepped through the door and hung up her coat. He noticed that she was wearing much more casual clothes that day. Her normal skirt or scks were repced by a pair of leggings and a fleece zip up sweater.

  “Yes please.” Penny grumbled and tried to wipe the hair out of her face. “It is fucking freezing out there.” She hissed and did her best to wrap herself around the coffee cup that he handed her.

  “You should try the shower!” Val said, suddenly very excited. “Its part shower part sauna and all amazing. Oh, then you can try the test enchanted item Kurt made.”

  Penny looked at Kurt and raised an eyebrow. “More enchanted items?”

  Kurt rubbed at a spot on the counter from where he got overzealous with his hot sauce. “Yeah, I made three more rings and a sort of magic body dryer.” He answered off handedly after deciding the counter was clean enough.

  “Four more enchanted items?” Penny said looking stunned. “You can’t be serious.”

  Val and Kurt both held up their hands to show the storage rings they both wore now. “The other ring went to my friend and the rock is in the shower. Val can show you unless you have something urgent.”

  Penny shook her head, looking a little shellshocked. “Well, important yes, but urgent? Not so much. We will be having another rift attached this afternoon, sometime around two.”

  “What do we know about it?” Kurt asked. His attention suddenly shifted and focused on Penny. He noticed her eyes go wide and she leaned back slightly.

  “Just that it will be a little less overall power than the st one.” She said. “We really don’t get much info until they attach, and we get a first look.” She shivered a little. “On second thought. Val, can you show me this shower?”

  Kurt smirked. “If you think rain and fifties is bad, you are not going to like it in a couple months.”

  Their handler seemed to shudder at the thought. “Can you at least consider building a covered walkway from the edge of the porch?” She then followed Val to the bathroom while muttering about crazy people that live in snow.

  Looking out the window, Kurt thought about her request. The door to the hub wasn’t far from the porch, only five or so yards. He would have to build steps into that edge of the porch since it was elevated slightly and had a railing there. He also thought about just connecting directly to the house.

  Val returned shortly after he heard the shower click on and caught him daydreaming. “What are you thinking about? Are you seriously considering putting up some sort of cover?”

  “Kinda.” He pulled out some paper and sketched a quick bird’s eye view of the property. “Its really not that far. I could literally build a breezeway for that like, fifteen feet. Get a door that goes from the garage to the breezeway and then move the one that goes to the hub, so it also opens there.”

  Getting into the zone once more, Kurt really began considering the project. The way the house and garage faced, meant that he could actually make a door Right into the living room at the far corner. He was beginning to like the idea and also the prospect of not having to deal with getting caught in the rain or snow with groceries and such.

  He had begun to dig out his cell phone to call John’s brother, the contractor, when Penny rejoined them. She was back in her leggings, but Val had lent her some fuzzy slippers and one of Kurt’s hoodies. It hung down to her mid-thigh, but she didn’t care.

  “That shower is amazing. The heat and steam. Uh, I could sit in there all day.” She was almost starting to talk to herself. “I wonder how it would feel on my scales.” She rubbed at her arms.

  Kurt raised an eyebrow and gnced to Val who was trying not to giggle. “Well, you are welcome to try it any time. Just, you know, pn ahead.” The comment seemed to snap her out of the little fantasy, and she looked over to the paper Kurt had been working on.

  “What’s this?”

  “Oh, just Kurt finding excuses to build more stuff.” Val said while wandering away to go light a fire in the firepce. “Why don’t you come cozy up over here while he deals with that.”

  Once more rolling his eyes, he followed through and called John’s brother, Mark. They must have been busy since the call went to voicemail, but he left a message and joined the girls in the living room.

  “So, what else is new?” Kurt asked Penny as she cozied up in one of the chairs near the slowly building fire. “Anything on those three that got picked up the other day?”

  Penny took a sip of her coffee and hummed in appreciation. “Yes, we actually managed to get something out of them this time. Our interrogators found out they are all part of something they call ‘The Path’. They didn’t eborate on it, but we did find out they are not local or not all local. They also have shit communication within their organization.”

  “How did you figure that out?” Val asked, leaning forward as Penny filled them in.

  “Well, one had a French passport. That was a pretty big hint.” Penny said with a smirk. “One was a local and the st was from Kentucky area. The other three were from down in Detroit. They didn’t know about the first crew, but we think they have some sort of spy or liaison in the area because they let slip, they got your description from ‘a contact’. No name on that, they didn’t know it and never actually met the person, having gotten their info from a dead drop, off of highway thirty-one.”

  Sharing a few other bits of information, Penny told them that none of the three would be a problem anymore. Apparently, one of the local necromancers was getting ahold of them for a ‘post-mortem interview’ before turning them into expendable maintenance workers for the order. A fate that Kurt decided sounded absolutely awful and very much wished to avoid.

  When he expressed his desire to never have that happen to him, Val reassured him but saying he would at least be a death knight if not a bone guardian. Needless to say, he was not satisfied with that line of reasoning.

  A ping on Penny’s phone ended that line of banter. She looked down and pulled a face. She quickly typed a few lines while Kurt and Val waited patiently. She looked up after locking her screen and saw them looking at her expectantly.

  “Looks like our timetable is moving up.” She said. “They are attaching a rift within the next fifteen minutes.”

  Kurt and Val sprang to their feet and headed for the basement. Penny followed at a more sedate pace, she didn’t have nearly as much equipment to put on. Both of them were stripping down as they entered the workshop. Kurt had set Val up with her own cabinet for soft goods and she had the code to the locker with their guns.

  While the agents got their gear on and started grabbing mags, storing everything in their rings as they went, Penny got the trio of radios going. She made sure they had fresh batteries, moving the next set to the chargers. Once they booted and synced, she passed them out.

  “Thanks Penny.” Val said. “Need anything beside the radio?”

  “Not really. I will manage in the outer office while I wait.”

  Kurt tossed her a poncho. “This will keep you dry on the way.” He then grabbed a small electric heater. “And this will help with the chill but feel free to use the house as needed.”

  They trooped up the stairs and out into the rain. Kurt and Val made a run for it since they were in pin fatigues, but Penny followed at a much more sedate pace. By the time she made it to the small office, Kurt already had the heater plugged in and warming up.

  When they opened the door to the portal room and saw the anchor starting to glow, they knew they had but a few moments before the gate fully established. Kurt and Val ran through equipment checks and did some basic prep to limber up.

  Moments after Kurt set his rifle sling, the portal opened up and formed the circur gate. The image resolved into a monochrome picture of some rocks. They waited for a little while, making sure there wasn’t anything else going on before stepping through.

  They stepped through the static like field and into a cavern. Well, a rge tunnel would be more appropriate description. The portal was facing a side wall at the end of a long tunnel.

  “Fuck, back out.” Kurt said and Val immediately jumped back through to the office.

  Penny was staring at them, surprised they aborted the initial probe so quickly. “What happened?” She asked.

  “It’s a god damned tunnel network. Couldn’t see more than a hundred feet with the glow of the portal.” He was already headed for the door. “Come on Val, you are going to hate this part so lets get it over with.”

  Kurt was headed right for his workshop with the kitsune hot on his heels. Penny elected to stay behind and try to gather more info on the rift while they were out. Once back in the shop, Kurt went to his locker with enchanted items.

  “How’s your bance?” He asked while pulling out a box near the bottom of the locker and bringing it to the bench.

  “Um, pretty good? Why?” She was curious and nervous about what Kurt was doing.

  Popping the lid open, Kurt withdrew a pair of gsses. “Because I got the enchantments right, but it doesn’t seem to fix the issue of depth perception and the first time I wore these, I was nearly sick.”

  Val took the gsses from Kurt as he dug out another pair. They appeared to be a typical protective eyewear that armies and police agencies favored. She naturally spotted the inscription running along the inner and outer rims of the frames.

  “They act like bridged night vision and thermals. Function off of mana and barely have any draw.” Kurt was expining as he put his own on for a second before taking them off and blinking. “Downside is there isn’t any depth perception unless there is ambient light so in complete darkness, like a cave, they might make you a little sick.”

  Kurt grabbed a small bag from one of the cabinets, opening it then closing it. He grabbed a second one and tossed it to Val. It was full of chem lights and little pill like versions of them. Val stored the gsses and bag in her ring so they wouldn’t get wet in the steady rain.

  Back through the door, brief expnation to Penny and then a long step through the portal. “Put them on.” Kurt said while sliding his gsses on his face. “We wont be going anywhere for a while so you can adjust to them.”

  Val slid the gsses on, then realized they wouldn’t fit because of how her vulpine ears were shaped. She altered her form to her more human appearance and set the temples on her now reformed ears. When she opened her eyes, she was both amazed and unsettled, immediately having to sit down.

  Kurt was far more adjusted to the enchanted eyewear but still went through the little familiarization routine he developed. Because the gsses weren’t exactly see-through in the traditional sense, everything was like looking at a television screen. Yes, you could tell things were farther away by the size, but the image was ft, and it took the brain a few minutes to adjust. He pnned for this to be a quick trip to recon the area and they could refit for the actual dive after finding out about the caves they were in.

  “Ugh, you were right. This is horrible.” Val whispered from his left where she sat on a rock. “How do you manage this?”

  “You should pick it up in a minute. Just rex and slowly move more as you adjust.” Kurt said. He test fired his IR ser into the wall, making sure it worked. He noted that it didn’t have much reflection and tested a few other pces like the floor, ceiling and along the wall. All of the surfaces absorbed the IR beam with hardly any scattering.

  Val was back in business after half an hour of adjusting. Kurt had her walk around for a little while and did some simple depth perception training. She picked it up fast and he was rather impressed at how well she adapted considering it was her first time wearing the gsses.

  “Remember, they have a sort of thermal vision. They will outline things that are hot or warmer than ambient temperature.” Kurt tapped the frame of her gsses and turned it on. “You should also be able to use the ser on your rifle which has a sort of flood light and the dedicated ser.”

  “Got it. Is it like a PEQ-15?” Val looked at the box that was attached to the top rail of the rifle Kurt gave her.

  “Yup. Just running back to a pressure pad. Front button is the light, back button is the ser. Just click for constant on and press for momentary.”

  Getting a nod from Val, he watched her test the buttons and getting familiar with the controls. While she pyed with her night vision, Kurt set down his talisman that marked the waypoint, just like the first rift. Finally, after an hour of the rift being open, they set off deeper into the tunnels.

  The first thing they noticed was the near complete darkness. After turning a bend in the starting tunnel, the ambient light from the portal had completely disappeared and they were forced to use what amounted to a very dim fshlight. The beam was extremely wide and couldn’t be seen by the naked eye, acting more as an ambient light to navigate than anything.

  They also encountered another problem, radios. After a few hundred yards, they had pretty much lost all communication with Penny. Kurt did back track to let her know but they were forced to press on without that line of communication back to the hub.

  Shortly after they lost radio contact, Kurt saw the first change in the tunnel. It had been retively narrow at around a dozen feet wide, but it suddenly opened up drastically. The ceiling was still the same height, but they could see what looked like a room. They crept forward, each taking a side of the tunnel and trying to cross their sectors of fire.

  When they reached the point that they could see more of the oval room, they stopped and took stock. The area was a sort of crossroads with three more tunnels converging on the one room. The one to the right seemed to slope up and curl back around out of sight while the two on the opposite wall sloped generally downward.

  Kurt summoned the bag of chem lights from his ring and extracted one of the rge ones with tape around the base. He cracked it, shook it and then waited a few moments for it to begin glowing. Once it was emitting an infrared light, he pced it on the back wall of the tunnel they were in, hidden behind a rock but allowed them to see the glow through their gsses.

  “We do a marker at every crossroads or intersection showing the way back. I don’t want to rely on the waypoint talisman in a tunnel network.” He whispered in her ear as they crouched just inside the mouth of their tunnel.

  Val nodded and pulled out a couple of her own chem lights, both marked with the rings of tape and stuck them through an open loop on her chest rig. “Which way?” she asked after securing the marker lights.

  “Fuck if I know. The core is probably deeper, judging by how the pull feels, so let’s see where the path going up takes us.” Kurt responded after a few moments’ consideration.

  They then proceeded up the tunnel to the right, going very slow so they didn’t make noise in the echoing passage. The tunnel was identical to the starting one for a few hundred yards until they found the first change. A small room had been carved out of the wall.

  Val spotted it before Kurt and waved her hand at him to signal they needed to stop. She pointed her ser at the ground and ran it toward the door before making a circle around it. He gave a thumbs up then flicked his finger back and forth between them.

  After they switched sides, they proceeded. Kurt was locked on the door while Val was looking farther down the tunnel. The doorway was on the outside of a bend in the tunnel so they could only see so far but it was enough to give some early warning. Val moved closer to the door, stopping several feet away and pressing herself into the wall.

  Kurt began sliding down the opposite wall, pieing the corner of the door frame. He did click on his IR light, shining the beam through the short doorway. He could see a room with what looked like tools and boxes inside but couldn’t make out much else.

  Deciding to just go for it, Kurt crossed over the narrow tunnel and pied around the door, taking in most of the shallow room as he did. Val moved to the opposite side and keep an eye on the hall while he took his first step into the room.

  Ducking so he wouldn’t smack his head on the archway, Kurt was just barely able to stand in what turned out to be a storage area. There were a few crates and a pile of tools in the corner. The rest of the room was filled with materials to build trusses, with little else.

  Reentering the tunnel, Kurt signaled for Val to keep going and they progressed at the same cautious pace. They didn’t have to go far before they found their first sign of the inhabitants of these caves.