“Shut it down. Shut it all down. Not the Continuity Engine!”

Lights dimmed. Vats of suspended brains stopped their bubbling. Terminals winked off. One by one, the equipment in the large room stopped moving. All except the large machine that looked like three turbine engines arrayed around a grated fan set into the floor. Arcs of electricity danced between tall metal poles. Coils of wire hummed in a gentle vibration around the large rotors.

“Mister Maple, proceed with relocation checklist. Prioritize analysis of our power situation.”

Having an internal power plant would be ideal. Being connected to a power grid would draw power, cluing people in that something had happened. Maybe not immediately, but if the Carroll Institute ever unshackled its cogitator brain, they would be discovered immediately. Even if that never happened, some pencil-pusher at the local grid would eventually notice something.

Though, looking over at the rumbling generator providing power to the Continuity Engine, she had a thought. Something she hadn’t even considered until just now.

“Actually,” Id said, holding up a long finger that stopped the masked man in his tracks. “Focus on the diesel generator and our ventilation. We cannot shut down the Continuity Engine, so we might have to temporarily evacuate.”

“Yes, sir.”

As Maple hurried across the room to check on the generator’s piping, Id turned to the woman seated at the main control panel for the Continuity Engine.

“Ado, any complications?”

With a perfectly stiff back, Ado rotated her chair. Unlike most others in the room, she didn’t have the silver mask over her face. Instead, she wore a pair of rectangular goggles with tiny lights flashing and dancing across their lenses. The imager over her eyes provided readouts of every operation the Continuity Engine undertook at any given moment.

“Seventeen minor spikes detected within the last two minutes. Continuity Engine maintaining ontological inertia. Power draw within tolerances and is currently decreasing at an unexpected rate. Eight point three times faster than projections indicated. Hypothesis A: Attention has shifted away from us. Hypothesis B: Inertia is a more apt term than originally thought. Hypothesis C: Combination of—”

“Sir,” Maple called. “The generator’s ventilation is flowing through the pipe and the detector shows nothing here. The exhaust is going somewhere outside this room.”

“A good sign,” Id said, turning her attention away from Ado despite the woman continuing to list ideas. “Proceed with relocation checklist. We’ll leave the generator for now. Let’s proceed to securing our new home. As for the rest of you…”

A dozen identically dressed individuals stood around. She couldn’t see their faces behind the silver masks they wore, Id didn’t need to see their faces to identify the subtle, subconscious motions they made. Lost. Confused. Uncertain. As expected from a bunch of nobodies. Actors hired to play a part, to present the illusion of a far larger organization than existed in reality. They had been given their lines, most of which was just a single line or two in response to certain lights lighting up in their masks.

Id twisted a knob, pulled a small lever on the console and pressed a black button.

A dozen actors jolted, twitching momentarily. A small shudder wracked everyone in the room with the exception of Ado, Maple, and Id herself.

“Well done,” Id said with a bright smile “The show is over for the night. I believe we got all the footage we needed. If you all would be so kind as to remove your costumes.” She turned on her elevated platform and motioned toward the door. “Masks on the hooks and laboratory coats on the hangers, if you please.”

They shouldn’t remember any specifics from the last few hours or the next few hours. Each of their masks contained a small neuralyzer, designed to disrupt the hippocampus and cortex through specific visual and electric stimulus, temporarily freezing the formation of memories. It wasn’t perfect, but Id felt it unlikely that a bunch of extras would be investigated. They had just been on another job, hardly memorable. It was just a stepping stone on the road to their fruitful acting careers.

Id moved past them, heading for the door. It was a large door, far larger than it had been when they had been using the storage facility. Made from solid metal, it looked far thicker than strictly necessary. It was the kind that opened horizontally, though the two halves didn’t meet at the center point and it was not a straight vertical seam. The door had teeth.

The predominant colors were white and black with red accents. Glowing red accents. A bit edgy, but probably what she should have expected. To its side, a panel asked for a hand print.

Id wasted no time in slipping off her glove and placing her hand flat against the glowing red panel.

The light pulsed and the door slid aside, opening to an industrial hallway. Every bit of the aesthetic was built for purpose. There were no gradual angles or curves. The floor was a smooth concrete, painted black, while the walls and ceiling were white. Thin red stripes ran along the floor and walls, providing a small accent color. Large glass windows on either side of the hallway showed off more rooms filled with machinery that Id couldn’t wait to begin exploring.

Something was floating in one large vertical tube. A person? Its body was covered in ridges and lines, looking more like it had an exoskeleton than proper skin, if the exoskeleton were made from bronze. Some biomechanical construct? Thick cables ran from its spine up into the ceiling above the tube.

Id felt in control of herself more than other people felt in control of themselves, but she couldn’t stop that subconscious tingle of fear that her mind created at the sight of an unknown human-like creature.

It could just be nothing. Little more than a prop like most of the ‘show’ room had been. But at the same time, she would have to be careful. Though thinking about it, Id wondered how much of that room was actually functional now.

Unfortunately, she had a job to do before the science could start.

“This way, this way,” she said, motioning for the actors. They would need their hands held for a short time. Until their memories stabilized. Though Id would certainly not be around them when that happened. “It was one hell of an after-party, wasn’t it?” Id said with a smile. “Half of you aren’t even walking straight. Ha. Ha.”

A few of them murmured to each other. Some cradled their foreheads. The headache they were experiencing probably felt an awful lot like a hangover. It would pass.

One of them managed to put a little more effort into their voice. “Yeah… Where are we?”

“A club. Don’t worry. Mister Maple here will see to getting you home. You don’t need to think about a thing.”

“And how do we plan to do that?” Maple whispered. “Your checklist is too vague.”

“It’s not like I knew exactly how things would turn out. Consider it not vague, but with room for interpretation.”

“Where exactly are we?”

“Location B-3,” Id said with a casual shrug. “Somewhere around Dallas, Texas, presumably. We won’t know until we get outside.”

“And where is the exit?” Maple said as the small group approached an intersection. A four way crossroads in the tunnel. “We do have an exit, don’t we?”

“I think it is quite intuitive to imagine buildings with entrances and exits,” Id said, looking from one identical hall to the next. “And I do know intuition a little better than most. This way,” she said, choosing the left path.

The end of the hall stopped at another of the thick horizontal doors. Id pressed a hand to it, activating it. It opened up to an elevator. A large freight-style elevator. Id couldn’t suppress her grin at seeing just how many buttons there were for floors. They had plenty of room for expansion. The L button for the lobby was underneath the rest of the buttons. That implied that they were in a tall building. That did strike her as somewhat odd. She had been expecting an underground facility along the lines of what the Carroll Institute had deep in the bowls of the former Idaho National Laboratory.

“If it works, it works,” Id said, counting the actors as they shuffled into the elevator, making sure she wasn’t leaving one behind.

As soon as it started moving, one of the actors retched and vomited in the corner.

Id clicked her tongue, wrinkling her nose.

“We’re going to need a custodial crew.”

“Grafton will be able to find us temporary workers who won’t ask questions in the short term. Though this?” Id sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to take care of it. Wouldn’t want our shiny new place to start rusting already.”

Despite being a freight elevator, the doors opened right to a hallway leading to a lobby. Quite a simple lobby, one that looked like any office lobby. There was a long and currently vacant reception desk, several television monitors behind it, a few chairs near the front windows, and even a few potted plants that were hopefully fake and wouldn’t need watering.

The large windows looked straight out onto a something like a train platform. A large, sleek, and red, white, and black locomotive sat just outside. Id didn’t have a clue where it would go. Out of here, presumably. Hopefully that wouldn’t be a problem. If a building or railway had just popped up overnight, people would notice.

Setting Ado on the task of building a device to keep people from noticing the building at all might be a little more important. Id made a mental note to mention that as soon as she returned to the Continuity Engine.

“See them outside and, if possible, find a map of where that train goes,” Id said. “I’ll try to find a janitorial closet and a mop.”

Maple nodded and, after looking toward the windows with a small sigh, he started herding the actors out onto the train platform.

Perhaps it was actually a monorail.

Id kept her mask on as she moved through the lobby, despite being alone. It was just… safer with it secure in place. She quickly found the restrooms and, guessing, assumed that a supply closet would be just around the—

“Oh my. Tourists? At this hour?”

Id cocked her head, then slowly and calmly turned around to find the source of the voice.

A shorter man stood in the middle of the hall. The hall she had just walked through. There were doors on either side. Normal doors, not like those of the facility up the elevator. Just regular wooden doors that she hadn’t heard opening or closing. She hadn’t felt the air pressure change. And the man himself wasn’t the kind of person easily overlooked.

He wore a light blue laboratory coat, tan slacks, a button-up shirt, and a polka-dot bow tie.

Given his mention of a group, he must have been talking about the actors on their way out of the building. But the building’s lobby wasn’t visible from this hallway and his eyes, hidden behind a dark set of welder’s goggles, were obviously aimed toward Id.

“You… work here?” Id asked.

That could be another problem. One more that Id hadn’t even considered. This was a building presumably in Dallas. Right up until this moment, Id had thought it was created from nothing. Now? A slight worry niggled at the back of her mind that this was an existing facility. It couldn’t be unused. Could it?

“Of course. Doctor Phineas Dark, head of Tartarus Containment Facility’s Metaphysical Research Division, Collective Unconsciousness Entity subdirector. At your service,” Dark said with a flourished bow.

“Doctor Dark, of the—”

“No, no no. Wrong. Dark.”

“Dark?”

“With a q.”

“Darq.”

“There we go,” Darq said, clasping his hands together. “Everyone gets it wrong at the start.”

He put on a bright smile. Which… Id found odd. She considered herself quite adept at recognizing the subtler movements people made and determining what they meant. Everything about Darq’s body language indicated that he was beyond happy to be here, talking with her. His posture was attentive. Both feet were aimed in her direction. No sign that he was looking to escape the situation.

And yet, Id found him impossible to read. All those indicators should have screamed out to her that he was being genuine. They didn’t.

Id adjusted her mask ever so slightly, reseating it to ensure that it was fully in place. “This place is called the Tartarus Containment Facility?”

“Indeed it is. Questions? Comments? Concerns? If we’re going to be working together, it would be best to get all the cumbersome introductions out of the way as soon as possible.”

“What makes you think we’re working together?”

“You mean to tell me you aren’t part of the crew who just started setting up the Psionic Engineering and Replication Division?”

“Excuse me?”

“A whole new section of the facility manifests from nothing and you expect me to not notice?” Darq shook his head. “That’s literally my job.”

Id narrowed her eyes behind her mask. They needed Grafton here immediately. If this place was already in use, by another psionic research group no less, his expertise could ensure that a hand-over went smoothly. They had exhausted far too many resources just to get this far, too many to just abandon it at the first sign of opposition.

It would have been far better to wind up with an isolated facility out in the middle of nowhere, someplace where nobody would look.

Best to learn as much as possible.

“What exactly do you contain at this containment facility?”

“Oh just about anything that potentially poses a threat to humanity’s existence. It used to be so quiet here, but the last decade or so has been quite busy. The Advent of Psionic Potential really ruined a lot, didn’t it?”

Id pressed her lips together. That non-answer had to be deliberate. Unreadable though he was, she doubted he would give a better answer if she asked again.

So she changed tracks.

“How many people work here?”

“Four people. Myself, I’ve already introduced. I believe you know Chief Engineer Gloria Ado and Logistical Director Kit Maple. And, of course, yourself. You need no introductions.”

Tension raced down Id’s spine despite herself. “You… know us?”

“Not personally.”

“You know me?”

Darq hummed, rubbing a finger over his clean-shaved chin. “Perhaps you do need an introduction, Head Director Id. Mononym, huh? That’s odd. Well, I still don’t know you personally, but I assume that will change as we progress into the future.”

Id stood still, staring. This… shouldn’t be possible. Id knew how Dyna’s mind worked. No matter the situation, no matter the stimuli, Dyna could not change minds. And yet, it felt like this man had done more than just read their names off a piece of paper that might have appeared on his desk.

Id’s first thought was that Dyna had somehow created Darq along with the rest of this facility, which also shouldn’t be possible, but no… he had mentioned that this place had been in operation for ten years. Since the advent. Or rather, even longer than that as he had only gotten busy after the advent. He didn’t look older than twenty years. Thirty at the absolute most. Which meant he would have been working here in his teens?

Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong.

Id needed to meet with the others. Preferably away from this Darq.

But… one thing stood out to her among the names he listed.

“No Grafton or Porter working here?”

Darq hummed and shook his head. “Nope. Not that I know of. Those names mean nothing to me.”

“Because they haven’t arrived yet?”

“Their physical presence shouldn’t matter. They aren’t on the employee roster. Sorry, don’t know what to tell you. If you would like me to look into the issue, Head Director, I can. Though that sounds more like a job for our logistical personnel.”

Id hesitated before nodding. “Quite. I’ll… assign it to him.”

“Very good. Anything else you need?”

Head Director… That meant that she was his boss? How? If she was his boss… “Return to your… usual duties for the moment. I’ll call for a meeting later on. I would like for you to present a report detailing everything about this Tartarus and anything it is holding in containment. Especially any artifacts.”

“Artifacts?” Though unreadable, his body language still spoke of confusion. He quickly shook it off, however. “I’ll prepare a brief slide show. Do you have an exact time for the meeting?”

Id shook her head, then stopped. “Let’s make it tomorrow morning. Eight o’clock.”

“Very good.” Doctor Darq clasped his hands together. “I’ll have something prepared. Oh, and by the way, you can find a mop in the closet through that door over there,” he said, pointing.

Id turned, noting the door. “Thanks, I—”

It had only been a second. One split second.

The hallway was vacant once again.

Clenching her teeth, Id decided to ignore the closet for the moment. She power walked straight back to the lobby.

Maple stood just inside the doors, looking down at his phone. The actors were meandering about outside. Id paid them little mind, focusing on larger problems.

At her approach, Maple glanced up. Far more readable, Id picked up on his agitation, unease, and a hint of anger. “Bad news,” he said.

“Strange people appearing out of nowhere?”

“What? No. Grafton’s been captured. Harold’s phone seems to have been disconnected as well. Might be captured too.”

Id stilled as realization hit. “They… aren’t on the employee roster. Because they can’t work here.”

“Excuse me?”

“We have problems. Big problems.”

“Yeah. Without Grafton—”

“No. Bigger problems. Something about this place…” Id looked around the lobby. It looked like any regular building lobby if she ignored the train. Nothing odd about it at all. Except, she noticed the televisions behind the reception desk. They hadn’t been on before, had they?

They were now, displaying three red hexagons arrayed like an inverted radiation warning symbol. Each spun slowly in place on the displays. Underneath, written in a simple font, the word Tartarus faintly pulsed and faded with red light.

“We aren’t alone here.”