Chapter 87Site 00 never slept.

  Travis could confidently say that this pce was quickly becoming a sight to behold. Behemoths of concrete, rebar and steel were being born of the earth, hiding unspeakable things beneath their peaceful fa?ade. The earth itself was a tomb of alien and magical things, only some of which would one day come out of hiding, becoming rays of hope for the human race as a whole. The rest, better to leave it there. Not forgotten, but hidden.

  It would be madness to anyone to even think that Site 00 had been achieved in just a few days. And yet that much was true. It was truly remarkable, what human ingenuity could achieve when coupled with unfathomable amounts of money, manpower, heavy machinery and just a sprinkle of magic. Although, things became much easier to believe once one considered just how much money they were spending to make Site 00 a reality.

  It was a non-issue. Soon, they would be printing money left and right. And even if they weren’t, the amount they were spending was pennies compared to the wealth of a multinational corporation. It boggled the mind of the regur person, sure, but the regur person did not think in terms of billions of dolrs and perhaps that was for the better. If they did, they’d understand just how much power money wielded in the modern world, where certain things like distance from civilization and the need for exotic materials were no longer the same limiting factors they were a few decades ago.

  He found Maggie at her ptop in the temporary structure she and Michael called home these days. Travis wondered whether Michael even slept there anymore, considering how much time he spent in the dungeon and its dited time.

  “He says he always tries to make it back home for the night,” Maggie said. “But he’s getting conflicted feelings about it. He says he feels like he’s wasting time.”

  Travis hummed, knowing that the girl wanted to say more.

  “I don’t get it, though,” she said after a moment, her index finger on her chin. “Why is he in such a hurry? I thought he took care of the…” she shivered, “threat.”

  “He did,” Travis said, projecting confidence. “There’s nothing to worry about anymore. Nobody can hurt you here.”

  The girl nodded, but her eyes were misty. “Then why is he pushing himself so much?”

  “The world is changing. The reason why nobody can hurt you here is because of his hard work, which means that he can’t stop.”

  For a moment, Travis wished he didn’t have to do this himself. David was infinitely better suited to handle these situations. Where was the old man when Travis needed him?

  “Okay…” Maggie said. “He said I can go back if I want, but I don’t think I want to. I want to stay here.”

  “You can stay here all you want,” Travis said.

  “I thought I would go to university next year,” the girl muttered.

  “What degree did you want to get? Most of them are useless, you know?”

  She seemed to recoil as if struck, “Business.”

  Travis shrugged. “You’re better off here. This is the future, after all. The rest of the world will struggle to catch up.”

  “I see,” said the girl.

  “Here.” Travis handed her the badge. He expined what she could do with it, which was access pretty much whatever she wanted.

  Michael was putting a lot of trust in his sister, barely a couple of days after rescuing her. Compared to how he talked about her before, it was as if she was a whole other person in his mind after the incident. Was his guilt fogging his critical thinking? Fortunately, Travis had already thought about contingencies in case Maggie decided to do things she wasn’t supposed to do. This was his turf, after all, and no all-pass could change things.

  The girl clutched the pstic rectangle in her hands, muttering a weak thanks. ”Do you know when he’ll be back?” she asked.

  “Michael? He went to the dungeon a while ago. Should be on the way back,” Travis said. Even though, he thought, it’s very probable he spent several days in the Valley. Will he even remember he has a sister to take care of when he emerges from there, I wonder?

  He decided to send David a text, expining the situation. Let the old man decide how to approach the subject with the Lexington siblings, while Travis dealt with matters he was better equipped to handle.

  “Thanks,” Maggie said. “This is all very strange. I feel like I’m in a dream, surrounded by things that don’t make sense. At least I’m not alone.”

  Travis nodded. “Right,” he said. Even he could feel how me that was.

  Maggie didn’t seem to mind, smiling at him instead. “I can see I’m making you uncomfortable,” she giggled. “You’re all tough and powerful all the time, but I know you care. Thank you for being at my brother’s side. He talks about you sometimes. He is very grateful.”

  Travis coughed. “Well,” he said awkwardly, “that’s the least I can do. On that matter, I better get going. Good night.”

  “Good night!”

  As he left, Travis turned back once. Michael would be here shortly, he knew. There was no need to stay longer. Maggie was not the immature schoolgirl Michael had made her out to be. Whether it had always been like this, and Michael had been unable to see it, or whether it was due to the recent events and the soothing mind magic that had been required to fix her… he couldn’t tell. But she was good and well, and that had to be enough.

  Am I… happy for her? Damn. Never thought this would happen. But who knows? One day, perhaps, I will have a little girl of my own and I will be happy for her too. Perhaps this is the first step towards being able to find love again.

  He shook his head. The sun had long set, plunging the site into darkness. Lights, both electrical and magical, banished the darkness in many pces, but the nature of the unfinished construction site made for many pces where shadows could lurk. There, in the dark pits in the earth, between the unfinished concrete beams and the rugged rebar, he imagined monstrous things prowling and lurking. The things Michael had cimed to be able to see in the mana in the air. Those strange ripples that even he sometimes thought he saw, at the edge of his vision. Tricks of the light, perhaps, or hungry ghosts.

  Things are moving quickly, but not quickly enough. Some, he thought as he looked at the dwindling piles of gravel being used to pave the road, less quickly than others.

  The road had been a real pain. Bringing all the gravel, making the foundations, the drainage, keeping Johanne happy by not cutting too many trees. Hell, keeping Michael himself happy by not cutting too many trees… the damn road was going to cost more than some of the buildings they were constructing!

  Road aside, he made a mental note of all the many things that he needed to be aware of.

  He raised a finger: the day after tomorrow, Michael and he were going to meet with a representative of the Occult Affairs.

  A second finger. There was a city at the edge of the expanding area around the dungeon that was about to be swallowed up in the ever growing cloud of mana, and there was no saying what could happen. Given all the anomalies that were popping up left and right in Site 00 and in the forest nearby, there was no way they would be able to keep magic a secret for much longer. Thankfully, being the paranoid man that he was, Travis had already set pns in motion to deal with that. The pce was full of Operatives and Unity personnel, posing as volunteers. Helping out in the city, making themselves seen and known so that when it was time for Candle Light to come in guns bzing, the city would trust them.

  Then, a third finger, there was the whole deal with Area 51. Trevor was on it. Travis personally hoped nothing would come out of the investigation, that Trevor would come to him and tell him that Area 51 was a scam, a conspiracy theory. That it was just a normal bck site like many others.

  Another finger: keep an eye on at least three individuals who were posting videos on social media about feats they were able to do that were borderline superhuman.

  And, of course, a fifth finger: because if there were other powered individuals, then there had to be other dungeon entrances.

  The list went on and on. Find sources of ancestral magic. Finalize the first-response task forces for Candle Light. Prepare the first teams to be sent into the dungeon. Review the files on Theobond, perhaps even meeting the King of the Castle himself.

  Soon, Travis had gone through enough fingers to make several hands, and even then more and more ideas popped into his mind the more he thought about it. Talk to Michael about using Jennifer’s power to make toxic waste disappear. Talk to Michael about using Trevor’s skill. Johanne had said she was confident they would reverse engineer it, sooner or ter, and after she was done they could hopefully use it as a sort of universal storage system. That had to be a priority. It would speed everything up by a rge margin.

  Then there was the matter of reviewing the background information on the many scientists, workers, operators and personnel coming to work at the site. Then there was the matter of handling the construction of the other sites. Of the auxiliary activities. Of the charity works. Of the more normal investments, activities, and the acquisition of startups and factories to act as a front for the more magical innovations. There was the matter of handling the PR side, although thankfully Travis had already found a skilled person to do most of the work, which meant that he only had to read the documents and approve what the PR specialist proposed.

  Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. They hang over us like invisible Damocles’ swords. Just because you can’t see the incoming problems doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

  Normally, it would be impossible to impose such strict time frames. Days rather than weeks or months to get things done. But with the dungeon? One could go in, and ten minutes ter come out as a disaster for the whole human race.

  That’s what Candle Light and Unity as a whole are competing against.

  That’s why I spend so much time in the Valley, assholes, he thought back to Jennifer and Trevor, who were blessed with the luxury of not being the ones in charge. It’s not that I like it in there. The amenities, the good air, the bountiful nature… they cannot hide the sense of dread that emanates from the dungeon. Only Michael actually likes it in there.

  Me… I have to go there. I don’t get a choice. Otherwise this whole ship will sink faster than the fucking Titanic.

  ***

  The next morning, he was at the edge of the property together with Johanne, David and Trevor. The tter being there since it was a part of his own skill that was about to be witnessed in action. Michael had gone home to spend some time with his sister, and would be spending some time with her after having spent several days in the valley.

  “Did he get the skill?” Travis asked as the trio waited for the silhouette of the truck to become big enough to make out more details about it.

  “He did.” The woman offered no other information.

  Travis shrugged. Michael would fill him in on the details soon enough. “Naoshida industries will deliver the first batch of equipment today,” he said to the woman.

  This seemed to get a reaction out of her. She looked up from the strange instrument she was using to study the incoming truck for long enough to lift an eyebrow, “good,” she said, “I will check whether the equipment is up to standard.”

  “Since we are chitchatting,” David inserted himself in the conversation, “I’m meeting with a Saudi prince today. He liked our selection of gems and proposed a partnership.”

  Travis chuckled, “the days of you managing a pawn shop, bored out of your mind, are long gone, aren’t they?”

  “That they are,” the old man mused. “Here it is.”

  The truck parked at the side of the road. There were no markings visible on its exterior. In fact, it was so generic it drew the eye to itself rather than the opposite. A generic man greeted them, dressed in a generic work uniform. He handed them an unmarked package, nodded to them, and drove off.

  “So that’s how [Ghost Market] works,” Trevor said. “Interesting.”

  Travis hummed, thoughtful. He made a quick call, before frowning.

  “Come on,” David urged him on, “don’t leave us hanging. What do you have?”

  The head of Candle Light shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “What do you mean nothing?”

  “Facial recognition did not even identify that the mailman had a face. The rest of the truck is unmarked, and it’s impossible to discern a manufacturer based on its looks. The whole truck itself… we pced cameras on the road, and it appeared in all of them.”

  “Alright. Then what’s the problem?”

  “There’s a traffic camera down the road, several miles away. No truck passed there, and there are no forks in the road between there and the st known location where we know the truck was still real, for ck of a better term.”

  “Are you saying it vanished somewhere between the two cameras? Somewhere nobody could see it disappear?”

  “That’s what I’m saying. Same thing when it came into being.”

  “It can’t be.”

  “On the contrary,” Johanne interrupted David, “it can very well be. I tried to analyze all signatures that we know of. Magical, elemental, Qi as well as the more mundane ones like heat, radio, and even brain waves which you all surely know have a presence in the electromagnetic spectrum. What I found when I looked at the truck and the man, was nothing. Nothing but visible light, that is. We should try to measure gravity next, but I doubt we have instruments that are sensitive enough for that.”

  “But the package…”

  “The only real thing there. What was it again?”

  “Our first try,” said Trevor as he opened it, “just a stone from the forest.”

  “I shall study it,” Johanne said before gncing at Travis, “according to protocol, before decring it safe. Then I shall verify if it’s the same stone we picked up from the forest or not.”

  “Alright, I’ve seen enough.” Travis said. “Next delivery should be all the bullshit from the car ambush, right?”

  “It’s being delivered ter today,” said Trevor.

  Travis nodded. “Candle Light will handle it. Jennifer will have to be present, of course. We need her magic.”

  “I shall tell her myself,” said Johanne, “I have questions to ask her about her magic. Do not worry, Tyrell, I will fill out one of your dossiers and send it over once I have enough data. By the way, are we a go with Dr Kavins?”

  “The vitality drug?” Travis asked. It had been mentioned to him in passing.

  Johanne nodded. “I presented the request in the form you instructed me to. Did you not review it? If so, please do.”

  A deep sigh made its way out of Travis’ respiratory system, impossible to suppress. “Of course. I’m going to the Valley next, I’ve got a lot of stuff to sort through.” He tapped his pocket. The others didn’t know the meaning of the gesture, of course, but there was a memory stick full of documents and things to review and approve. Travis would be abusing the heck out of Michael’s ptop in the Valley.

  Strategic Rationale for Site-00 Location

  Candle Light Internal Memorandum

  To: All Candle Light Personnel

  From: Level-1 Operator "Fleeting Man" (Travis Tyrell)

  Subject: Strategic Rationale for Site-00 Location

  The decision to construct Site-00, including our headquarters and primary containment facilities, as well as research facilities within an Area of Influence (AoI) has been met with some understandable questions and concerns. This memorandum aims to crify the strategic rationale behind this choice and outline our long-term pns for adapting to the evolving magical ndscape.

  Rationale:

  Inevitable Expansion: Current projections indicate that Areas of Influence, fueled by dungeon mana emissions, will continue to expand over time. While the exact timeline is uncertain, it is increasingly likely that a significant portion of the pnet, if not the entirety, will eventually fall within these zones. Establishing our base of operations within an AoI allows us to proactively adapt to this inevitability, minimizing future disruptions and ensuring operational continuity.Operational Efficiency: The presence of ambient mana within an AoI offers significant advantages for our work. It provides a readily avaible power source for individuals with magical abilities, enhances the functionality of certain artifacts and equipment, and may even accelerate research and development processes reted to magical phenomena.Strategic Preparedness: While the expansion of AoIs presents challenges, it also offers opportunities. By situating ourselves at the forefront of this change, we can gain valuable insights into the nature of mana, its effects on the environment and technology, and potential threats or benefits associated with widespread magical saturation. This knowledge will be crucial for developing effective containment strategies, mitigation measures, and ultimately, for safeguarding humanity's future in a world increasingly shaped by magic.Containment Protocols for Mana-Sensitive Artifacts:

  We acknowledge that certain artifacts may exhibit unpredictable or dangerous behavior when exposed to high concentrations of mana. For such objects, we are implementing a tiered containment approach:

  Short-Term: Secure storage outside of Site-00, utilizing specialized mobile containment protocols.Mid-Term: Construction of dedicated off-site facilities in regions considered to be far enough away from AoI sources.Long-Term: Development of contingency pns for relocating critical artifacts to extra-dimensional spaces, orbital ptforms, or other environments isoted from the effects of ambient mana.Conclusion:

  The decision to embrace the challenges and opportunities presented by Areas of Influence is a calcuted risk, but one we believe is necessary for the long-term success of Candle Light's mission. By adapting to the changing world around us, we can ensure that we remain at the forefront of understanding and managing magical phenomena, ultimately contributing to a safer and more harmonious coexistence between humanity and the emerging magical forces.

  Discimer: The information contained in this memorandum is cssified and for internal use only. Unauthorized disclosure is strictly prohibited.

  Addendum: Regur updates on the progress of AoI expansion, containment facility construction, and contingency pns will be provided to all personnel. Your vigince and adaptability are crucial as we navigate this uncharted territory together.