Chapter 1035 (2/2)

At the core of Kharon was the powerplant that made all of the facilities possible on a mobile platform. It was the masterwork of an extremely overworked Wendy, who sat with a rather numb and blank expression as she stared at Randidly. “What do you mean I need to go back before you turn it on? It’s my engine!”

They were standing on a steel walkway around the cylindrical column that was the core of the reactor. Around them was a vast chamber, designed to house the powerful ambient energy that the impressive engine Wendy designed would throw off. Even though the walkway they used to arrive here was lined with dim lights so they didn’t fall off into the depths of the spherical energy housing chamber, the vast darkness was incredibly oppressive.

For now, the heart of Kharon had yet to experience its first beats. And Wendy had been positively tingling with excitement to see those moments.

Sighing, Randidly shrugged rather helplessly. “I have some… guests who are coming this way. Some very confused and foolish people. I expect things will get violent. So it’s better if you return to the Alpha Cosmos for now.”

“I will seriously burn this all down,” Wendy fumed. She fumbled in her pocket for several seconds and produced a miniature blow torch. A bright blue triangle of flame flickered to life in front of the nozzle as Wendy looked defiantly at Randidly.

He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Wendy, there’s no need for that. And we both know that it’s pointless. Kharon is built of stone and steel anyway, what will you burn down?”

Your fucking ego, Wendy fumed. She waved her torch back and forth to demonstrate how seriously she took this issue. “Then I guess I’ll melt the inner wall of the reactor.”

“You would burn down something you spent so long to build? Before you even turn it on?”

“I’m staying,” Wendy said aloud through gritted teeth, forcing her voice an octave downward so she sounded more authoritative.

Their eyes were locked for almost thirty seconds. Randidly’s expression softened. “...fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Wendy kept her blow torch lit for several more seconds to make sure he was serious about the capitulation. Then she directed a surly grimace his way and deactivated the torch. As she did so, she grumbled at him. “If these guests are so dangerous, why do we need to wait for them to arrive? Just start the damn thing up now and the whole city will run away from them.”

“Isn’t there something cathartic about the first action this city takes being an exorcism of the demons that covet its image?” Randidly said with a smile. Then he patted one of the steel walls. “Isn’t that right, buddy?”

Vvvvmmmmmm.

A pattern of light in the shape of a closed eye danced across the walls as the entire room rumbled. Where there was once vast darkness, for a split second they seemed to be standing at the center of a vast sphere of forest green light. Wendy paled and took several steps backward. “T-that is what you spent so much time working on?”

“Yup.” Wendy despised how smug Randidly’s expression was, but she couldn’t deny that her first sighting of this mysterious project that consumed him was certainly impressive. But she wouldn’t put it past him to have made it extremely showy in order to demonstrably outdo her own contribution to the city...

Randidly continued to speak while Wendy’s thoughts simmered dangerously. “Plus, they snuck into the Erickson Steel compound when there was supposed to be a complete blockade; someone let them in. It won’t get rid of the problem of them tracking the city completely, but kicking those couple of people who helped them out will be a good start.”

“Ah, so it’s a trap. You have people watching them?” Wendy asked disinterestedly. Instead, she walked over the wall and knocked experimentally against it. To her deep satisfaction, no impressive phenomena manifested. As I thought. Randidly is crafiter than I thought.

“Actually no, but my area of observation grew quite a bit recently,” Randidly replied. “Plus, like calls to like; their greed will resonate with the people who are supporting them. With that, it will be pretty easy to sweep out all of the low hanging rotten fruit.”

Wendy opened her mouth to ask how that worked, but Randidly raised a finger to his lips and pointed toward the end of the hallway. Along a suspended catwalk that connected the main core of the engine to the outside world, three people were approaching.

They came cautiously at first, hesitantly moving through the darkness where only their path forward was visible. But when they neared the bright white light that was shining from the terminal screen of the reactor core, their steps lengthened with purpose.

“I believe introductions are in order,” Randidly said in a booming voice. The reverberations echoed out the wide inner chamber designed to capture and harness the radiation from the core with such efficacy that wondered how many joules of energy Randidly’s voice contained. The three figures stopped in their approach.

Wendy shivered. Standing next to Randidly Ghosthound, she suddenly felt extremely hot. Sweat trickled down her back. He seemed to be burning more energy than even her reactor could produce.

“Evan Crane. Just a fan of your work, Mr. Ghosthound.” The right figure said. It was difficult to distinguish his features through the strange suit of armor that he was wearing. But a casual glance was enough for Wendy to distinguish that there were strange components functioning behind the scenes. Her fingers itched for the chance to dismantle it.

“Chuck Ballard, head inspections officer for the area in which Erickson Steel operates,” The gruff man on the left said. He folded his arms and stared off toward the intricate runes and mechanisms that covered the wall of the outer reactor chamber. It seemed that one had a vision Skill of some sort.

“And I’m Senator Cliff Heathridge. Truly, what a pleasure to meet you here, Randidly.” The middle figure said warmly.

Wendy winced as the heat whirling around Randidly intensified. “I’m sorry gentleman, but it appears that you are lost. This is for authorized personnel only. Please, let me escort you out of here.”

“That won’t be necessary, Mr. Ghosthound,” The man who introduced himself as Senator Heathridge said with a sad smile. “Or at least, we must simply insist that you accompany us in leaving. You are wanted on suspicion of illegally importing underpriced Zone Seven materials and passing it off as ore you’ve managed to extract with your ‘mineral rights’ in the area. Considering all the recent excavation work you’ve done…”

Senator Heathridge idly examined the gleaming steel reactor in which they stood. “...we have quite a few questions for you.”