“This is infuriating.” Krystal leaned back, putting both hands behind her.
Alex stopped and plugged some numbers into a computer tablet. “We’ll figure it out.”
“How? It finally did something, and yet it remains as much a mystery as it was before.”
“I have an idea.” Torrik put out a finger and let a butterfly land on it.
“What?” Krystal looked back at him.
He flicked his hand, and the butterfly fluttered away. “Why not take it back up to the station and let the lab there have a crack at it?”
“If we move it, then we will violate the rules. And then Ren Tech will tie BADGE up in court. That’s why we’re doing this in secret.”
Torrik sat up and said, “But, with the spell around this, no one can see it. If we get a shuttle down here, all we have to do is make sure and move the sphere inside this spell, and no one will be the wiser. I can cast another perception spell over it on the shuttle and it will stick to it until we get it into the laboratory at your station.”
Alex said, “That’s risky. Many things could go wrong. But, it might work.”
Krystal mulled this over in her mind for a moment and then nodded. “It will be stretching it, making our job of keeping this under the radar that much harder. But it would give us a lot more tools to work with.”
“Then, let’s do it.” Alex said.
Krystal held up her comm. “First, we need to clear this plan with Nova.”
Alex took out his BADGE comm. “Let me. I will signal Chase, which should be safer and less noticeable.”
“Good idea.”
He tapped into his comm controls and then frowned. “This is odd. I can’t get through.”
Krystal tried hers. “Same here. How can we have no signal? The BADGE system is global and powerful.”
“Guys...” Torrik was too his feet.
“I can’t get anything. Try restarting it.” Alex tapped his harder.
“GUYS!” Torrik grabbed Krystal and turned her.
The sphere was now opening, a bright light shining from inside.
“This is it! The camera still works. Alex, get footage of this.” Krystal took a step closer to the sphere.
They watched as the sphere opened wide, splitting in two hemispheres. Amid the wires and compact computer technology, there was a bright blue mass of energy.
“Is that pure morphonic energy?” Krystal asked.
Torrik, magic filling his hands, said, “Examination is later. I want to know why it is opening. We didn’t do this.”
“I don’t think...” Alex jumped when the swirling vortex flashed and flickered. “What’s happening?”
Krystal turned to say something when that blue light beamed so brightly it forced all three to cover their eyes. A crack of light, a popping sound, and Krystal was pulled toward it and sucked inside. The sphere slammed shut.
“Krystal!” Alex threw down his comm unit and pounded on the surface. “KRYSTAL! CAN YOU HEAR ME! LET HER GO!”
“Alex, stop!” Torrik went to grab his hands, but Alex avoided him.
Rage boiled to the surface and Alex charged his hands with power and went to slam the sphere. “GIVE MY WIFE BACK NOW!” He hit it over and over.
Torrik grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back. “What are you planning on doing, killing her to free her? She’s inside that thing.”
Alex screamed in a wet, sobby voice, “Get her out!”
“I don’t know if we can. We need to get Nova. We now have proof these things are stealing people.”
Alex crumpled up on the ground, burying his face in his arms. “Krystal. I’m sorry. It should have been me.”
Torrik turned and held a hand up. A bubble formed around the sphere and then vanished. “We have to find a way to contact Nova.”
“I’m not leaving this.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll stay right here. I have an idea.”
***
“Director, I have something.” Chase walked over with a computer tablet in her hand.
“What is it?”
She flicked her fingers across the surface and put a log of information on the screen. “The ground station nearest David Millar reported they continued to check in on him. Our agents on the ground aren’t full BADGE agents, just members of the fight clubs that work with us.”
“And?”
They don’t follow all the rules you impose on BADGE agents. David Millar was a class 4 suppression case. He is powerful, but his powers weren’t a significant risk if they went uncontrolled for too long. So, according to regulations, the check-in was only once a month. We can’t find any cell or computer activity for him since he left us, and the first check-in was a month later. Reginald Barkley was the man sent to check, see his most recent photo.” She changed the image on the main screen.
Nova saw a middle-aged man smiling with friends at a birthday party. All, including Reginald, were wearing Ren Wear.
“Where are you going with this?”
She said. “The spheres started going inert after the Ren Wear came on the market. Missing persons cases are all reported long after the fact, people just happen to notice someone is missing. No one is seeing anyone abducted. If the spheres are pulling people in, someone should have noticed by now. Some might have been at night, in a place where no one was around but a victim. But I can’t believe all got that lucky.”
Nova put her logic together. “92628, I want a cross-analysis of all reported missing person cases near the spheres. Were any of the missing persons seen being abducted?”
The robot ran the numbers. “Forty-seven cases of child abduction reported, five cases of car theft abduction.”
“What about known morphonic people that went missing? Any of them seen taken?”
“Negative. No cases of morphonic humans being abducted have been reported by any witnesses present.”
Nova pressed the comm on his wrist, “Doctor Henderson, have you finished that follow-up analysis of the Ren Wear?”
She answered, “Not yet, but you need to see this. I will pipe this up to you.”
The screen changed to a view inside the high-tech lab on the station. Dr. Henderson and several other scientists worked around a table with dissected Ren Wear glasses. She looked at the screen while holding up a thin cable.
“This is a normal cable used for cell technology. All external scans told us this was nothing abnormal. We dismissed this as regular tech the first two times we examined the glasses. But Dr. Franklin had a brilliant idea to rip them apart. Inside this cable, in side the computer chips, and even the plastic of the glasses themselves, is technology I haven’t ever seen before. It is microscopic. It runs on morphon energy, and it is doing things we still haven’t determined.”
“Could this technology alter the perception of wearers?”
She frowned at him. “How did you know?”
“A hunch.”
“Well, we don’t know if that is true, but we are seeing something like that. This is... well, we don’t know how... it seems to filter reality to the viewer in subtle ways. My guess is the longer they are under the power of this altered perception, the deeper it digs into their mind. Long-term exposure could lead to a comma-like state, where the mind depends completely on the Ren Wear. At least, that is what all our projections show.”
“Damn. Then Ren Tech controls what people see.”
Dr. Henderson said, “It goes deeper than that. This tech seems to scan for morphons, seeking them out. Again, it is far too sophisticated for us to make any conclusions, but I know this is seeking something.”
“Send me all your current data. I think we have enough to make a case at the U. N. to let BADGE truly find out what Ren Tech is hiding.”
“We haven’t finished our examination yet.”
Nova replied, “This is enough to prove our point. Keep working. We need to know all we can.”
“Will do. Good luck, sir.” The screen changed back to normal.
“Chase, when we get that data, I want you...”
“NOVA!” EB zoomed out of the lift and was up in Nova’s face, holding him by the collar.
“WHAT THE! GET OFF ME!”
EB said, “It’s Torrik! He just sent me a magic message. They can’t contact you, the signal is being blocked or something. It’s bad, really bad!”
“What’s going on?” Nova asked, pulled EB free of him.
“It’s Krystal. The sphere just ate Krystal!”
“Alert! Alert! New data!” 92628 called out. “Sensors indicate Ren Tech spheres are going inert across the planet at an accelerated rate.”
Nova looked up at the world map. The dots were slowly changing color as more of them lost their morphon signature. “Dear God! We’re too late.”
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