Dillon escorted Luc, Kylian, Dr. Renard, Viviane and the twin girls at gunpoint to the Order of One Justice’s research Transportal. They took an elevator up from the courtroom floor to the laboratory floor since the Order’s research Transportal was buried into the side of the cliff several stories up, closer to the surface. When they arrived, Kylian, Viviane and Dr. Renard noticed that the Order’s Transportal looked similar to the one they were used to at the UEN’s National Laboratory, but they were not exactly the same. There were small, eerie differences. What remained the same, however, was the large machine with two chambers wrapped with heavy gauge cables, a large power source off to the left that glowed with a slight green haze and row upon row of computer cabinets full of rack-mounted servers and miles of networking cable snaking every which way. At the center of the laboratory was the control console for the Transportal. Once they all assembled in the Transportal’s laboratory, Case Carswell entered last and stationed himself at the observation platform at the front of the room.

“So, Renard, you should recognize this equipment, yes?” Case asked Dr. Renard. “Show me something I’ve not seen before.”

Dr. Renard stepped up to the control console in the middle of the laboratory. The touch surface was much smaller than the one he was used to at home. There were manual controls and analog indicators mounted to the Order’s control console’s panel which were absent from the one at the UEN’s National Laboratory. Dr. Renard, with a puzzled look on his face, punched a few buttons mounted to the control console’s metal housing and used his fingers to work the small touch surface. The indicator lamps glowed and the analog dials twitched with activity as Dr. Renard tried to configure the Order’s lab equipment.

“Your Transportal is crude, I’m afraid,” reported Dr. Renard. “I don’t know if I can show you anything until it has been upgraded.”

To be told that the Order’s equipment was old and crude was not something Case wanted to hear. In fact, just hearing Dr. Renard mention it infuriated Case and he became suspicious that Dr. Renard would not reveal any of his secrets like he promised. Case challenged Dr. Renard’s assessment.

“How can you say that? This Transportal was built using plans stolen from Universities from around the UEN if not from your own National Laboratory!”

“Yes, I recognize this control panel mostly. It’s a layout from an earlier vision of the Transportal we used to use nearly a decade ago.”

“Then what is the problem, Renard? All your breakthrough experiments were conducted with even earlier equipment. Why can’t you use this?”

“As I was saying, your technology is crude to the point that, although sufficient for rudimentary demonstrations of matter teleportation, the operations are highly manual. I won’t be able to perform any advanced experiments merely by myself at the controls.”

Case was furious. Even with Dr. Renard, the inventor of teleportation, helping out, the Order was still unable to conduct the advanced technological experiments Case was desperate to see performed in his secret compound.

“You say you cannot operate the Order’s research Transportal by yourself, but here we have TWO others qualified to assist you!” Case swung his arm and pointed his finger at Viviane and Kylian who stood next to each other. “Which one of them do you want?”

Dr. Renard was about to protest Case’s breaking of his deal to release all the innocent parties when Viviane raised her hand and spoke up!

“I’ll do it!”