12 Days of Fiction 2017: Day 9.

A Brief Update

“Wait, what? You found the body?”

“Well, not actually,” Maren said.

“Oh, my head hurts too much for this. And I’m hungry. Give me a sec.”

I stood and got some more coffee. As I was serving it, I thought of Brooks brewing it and cursed him. I considered throwing it away, but it was perfectly good coffee.

“We need new security,” I mumbled. I didn’t really feel like cooking, so I went for the reserves in the freezer. I unpacked some lasagna from last week and put it in the microwave.

Another gulp of coffee seemed invigorating enough to allow me to continue.

“So…”

“So, the point is two days ago, you managed to crawl into your bed, then phased out. And I started thinking how we would have tackled the problem,” Maren said.

“The Neodyne problem.”

“Of course. So, the lab location first.”

“We only have the papers. They mention no names, no places.”

“Yes, but they’re pretty exhaustive with the procedures necessary to… manufacture the bodies?”

“Ah, I see…”

Maren used the house projectors to give me images. She called up a map of the city.

“Obviously, I started supposing the location was within the city and surroundings. This area. Brooks didn’t mention it, so I thought that would be a given. Then I started factoring in facts we did know or could deduce. As you can imagine, I sourced my material off official and, let’s say, unofficial sources.”

“I see. Safe passage in and out for supplies…” And yes, several zones were shaded in a faded red. The microwave pinged and I picked the lasagna. On my way back to the couch, I grabbed a fork and started eating.

“Energy consumption…” Maren said. Zones in green appeared, some overlapping with the red ones. “I removed zones too close to residential areas. Nosy neighbours are always a problem.” And some areas faded out.

“Easy access to water, according to the papers! I remember they mention the river at least twice!”

“Good!” Maren said. But she had done this herself before, so she was basically teasing me. “Now, buildings owned by Neodyne or known subsidiary companies…”

We had three areas, not too large, not too small. All of them close to the river. All of them in neighbourhoods that were industrial enough that, say, a series of trucks occasionally entering or leaving a warehouse wouldn’t be too out of place.

“And this is what I got. Then I waited for you to come back. I thought you could use some of your tricks…”

I stared at the map. But my gut didn’t tell me anything. I stuffed some more lasagna into my mouth.

“Lef’s fry saff geofancy,” I said.

“I hope you said what I think you said,” Maren laughed.

I smiled and searched for my spell. At this level, geomancy was easy enough, cheap enough. Vermilion points appeared at the tip of my fingers. I concentrated on the image floating before me, and then moved my hands as if I was trying to frame it within my fingers. The spell indeed did it, adding a new layer on top of the map. I thought of the problem and closed my eyes, letting my hands drift…

“Got it!” I heard Maren say.

I opened my eyes and closed my hands. The spell faded, but Maren had already marked the point in the map. She zoomed in.

“Hm. Four warehouses, all owned by Stock and Storage Co.”

“Which is owned by Neodyne?”

“Not directly, but yes.” A tangle of company names appeared beside the map, and Maren connected Neodyne and Stock and Storage Co.

“Officially, all of them are abandoned or unused. But unofficially…”

New layers appeared superposed on the map. Specially, one with yellow lines. The electric network.

“These warehouses are not supposed to be using energy, but actually, they have been in the past months. This is the power used during that period.” The lines shone bright.

There was no more lasagna left. I picked a banana. It was a bit over-ripe, but I needed it.

“Okay, let’s pay that warehouse a visit,” I said. I finished my coffee and stood.

“Like that?” Maren said. I was still in my bathrobe.

“Oh, no. After last night…”

“Two nights ago, actually…”

“Two nights ago. Right. I’m going to equip myself a bit more thoroughly.”

I entered my room and opened my closet. I went straight for the black leather case and dragged it out, laying it open on the bed.

“Let’s rock and roll,” I said.