“Yes, Sir. It seems contained at the moment.”

“Good,” Walter said. “I expected a call sooner.”

“You said to call when I was alone. Things have been hectic.”

“I understand. Ruby?”

Dyna glanced over toward the truck. They were still at the high school. Still parked out front. In the thirty minutes since the Hatman’s capture, he hadn’t moved. Not even a slight twitch or jerky motion in the permanent marker covering his face. Ado hadn’t explained anything about how the containment tube actually kept him contained, but Dyna suspected that it was sedatives. Or perhaps some kind of constant psionic disruption that worked like sedatives to a being like the Hatman.

“Ruby is… unchanged. Still intangible.” She had updated him on that much via text messages. “Ado was supposed to be looking into finding a solution for that, but… there has been one additional complication.”

“Oh?”

“Some… being emerged from a… Ado called it a spatial anomaly. Honestly, I’m a bit out of my depth here.”

“My team will be arriving before long. They can assist from there. But until then, describe what happened?”

“Some hole in the world. Not a physical pit that someone could jump through, but… something broken. Maple walked into it and back out without apparent harm. Something else must have spotted him because that something came through shortly after, disrupting the hole on its way out. Ado and Maple are currently consulting with Doctor Darq and… Id about what to do with it. They only have one containment tube, so no way to lock it up. Because of that, they are a bit on edge, not sure if this thing is going to wake up and attack them or not.”

“And this new entity?”

“Takes the form of a woman in ragged clothes. Looks like she stepped out of an old television having connection issues. Constant ravages of static ripple across her body. She… There is something familiar about her. I’m not sure what. I don’t think she is any missing friend of mine, but I might not know because of my memories.” Dyna paused a moment before adding. “Oh yeah, and she spoke. Tried to warn us of the Hatman’s presence. Did warn us, I suppose.”

“Odd. Did you detect anything in your mind? Could it be a mental effect? Broadcasting familiarity to get you to lower your guard?”

“I… Maybe? I was wearing the protective mask Tartarus provided. It is off right now to keep them from listening in, but… the Hatman’s memory alteration didn’t make it through the mask.”

“Just something to be aware of. The Carroll Institute’s team will be there shortly. Try to keep Tartarus from going anywhere or relocating the entities. We want a look at them. It is hard to believe the institute has missed something like entities for years since the Advent, but… Working in this field, little surprises me anymore.”

“I don’t think they’re planning on moving anytime soon. I can show the team the spatial anomaly as well, though there might not be much left.”

“Whatever data we acquire is data we didn’t have before.”

“Point taken,” Dyna said with a shrug. “I’ll—”

“How are you holding up?”

“Me? I… I’m fine?”

“Truly?”

“I mean… A lot has been happening. Some of it has freaked me out, true. But—and maybe this is just me talking after the danger has passed—none of it has been Emerald popping up out of nowhere during a training exercise. I know that is just training and Emerald wouldn’t actually do… whatever the Hatman might have done, but…” Dyna shrugged despite him not being able to see. “The Hatman freaked me out when I first realized we encountered him. With the masks from Tartarus letting us see and remember him, he just isn’t that scary.”

Walter left a long silence on his end of the call. When he did speak, he hummed in understanding. “That is why we have such training,” he said. “But I would like to schedule you for an extra therapy session a week for the next month. Objections?”

Dyna frowned, but shook her head. “Not really. I mean, I’m going to be seeing the doctors anyway, right?”

“True.”

“If that’s all, I’ll… Wait! I almost forgot.” Dyna’s finger went down to her pocket where she traced over a lump. Ado and Maple might have forgotten about it with the new arrival. Dyna almost had. Dropping her voice to a scarce whisper, just in case Tartarus had fancy listening devices around their truck, she said, “I might have found an artifact.”

“Might?”

“Well… Tartarus had these sensors and a heart appeared on one of them. I have it in my pocket at the moment, but I didn’t and still don’t feel calm in its presence like I did with the other artifacts. So I’m not sure. It’s definitely something strange though.”

“We’ll have to investigate,” Walter said. “Our team should have an artifact containment unit on hand to keep it safe until we can get it back to Psychodynamics.”

“How soon will they be here?”

“One moment,” Walter said, voice going softer as he leaned away from his phone. He came back shortly. “They’ve entered the city and are currently navigating toward the high school. Fifteen to thirty minutes, barring unexpected issues.”

“Good. I’ll try to keep Tartarus from leaving then.”

“I’ll be in contact upon their arrival, I presume,” Walter said.

The call ended immediately after, leaving Dyna to drop her arm to her side and pocket the phone. She took a breath and put the protective mask over her face once again. She wasn’t sure that it was really necessary at the moment. Having tested it, Dyna could still see and remember the Hatman inside his containment tube. But she still took a wary glance around, looking for anything that might have been out of place.

Neither Maple or Ado looked panicked or even mildly alarmed, however, so Dyna figured there wasn’t much to be worried about.

Back at the truck, Ado stood over the prone form of their static-like guest, waving a whole variety of instruments then checking the readings on her terminal. Maple, standing outside the truck itself, had similar instruments that he was waving over himself.

“Something wrong?” Dyna asked him.

“Just making sure I didn’t pick up any cross-dimensional diseases from carrying the girl… or… whatever psychic equivalents there might be. I don’t know. This isn’t my field of specialty.”

“You really don’t seem like the kind of person who should be working with an organization like Tartarus.”

“No kidding,” he said. His tone of voice the verbal equivalent to a sarcastic teen’s eye-roll. “Id is helping me with a problem I have. But I swear, this is the last time I do field work. I swear…”

Dyna opened her mouth. Maybe to try to convince him to quit working for Id, some promise that the Carroll Institute could help him better than she could with their funding and official nature or maybe just that Id was kind of a giant bag of dirt not only for invading other people’s minds but also because of her sending her employees into situations they were drastically uncomfortable with. But she couldn’t quite find the words. As Maple continued scanning himself, Dyna found herself donning a frown behind her mask.

She wasn’t too pleased with the institute at this particular moment in time. Granted, there was no way anyone but the most powerful precogs could have known that the Hatman would be here, but their support had still been lacking. At the very least, the administrators could have unleashed Beatrice. That would have solved at least some of the complications.

Besides that, Maple clearly knew of the Carroll Institute and, more specifically, their Psychodynamics division. If he thought they could help, he probably would have gone to them already. Without knowing more about whatever problem he had, Dyna couldn’t begin to make false promises.

Her attentions turned aside, moving past Ado—who she doubted would be convinced of any traitorous notions—to the final member of the small group. At least, the final member of the group who wasn’t at least partially out of phase with the rest of reality.

Hopping up onto the back of the truck, Dyna took a seat with her legs dangling off the back.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, repeating the same question Walter had just asked of her.

Matt, leaned up against the wall and keeping his eyes anywhere but on the Hatman’s containment tube, shook his head ever so slightly. “Fine. Painkillers are starting to wear off again.”

Dyna glanced down to his leg, hidden under the same hospital gown he had been wearing before. “There are some actual doctors on their way here,” she said softly. “They shouldn’t be too long.”

He looked up, looking directly at Dyna. “What are—” he started, before dropping his gaze. “You don’t look like I remember.”

“I dyed my hair,” she said, running her fingers through it. It felt… unpleasant. She had been running around, sweating and stressed, and had only used cheap motel products when she last showered.

“It’s not that. You’re different somehow. I…” He shook his head, glancing aside. “I don’t know. I’ve hardly been around people for I don’t even know how long. Ever since he started coming after me.”

Dyna almost asked about his parents. If this had been going on for a year or so, he would have been seventeen during most of it. Assuming he still wasn’t seventeen. Dyna honestly wasn’t sure exactly how old he was, only that they had been in the same grade in school. As a minor, he should theoretically have parents around.

But if they weren’t around…

Something bad could have happened. It might be something as mundane as them abandoning him—horrible, yes, but it was hardly the worst thing Dyna had heard of parents doing to psychic children. Or it could be that they fell victim to the Hatman.

No matter what, bringing it up now would probably not be a good idea. The Carroll Institute was filled with therapists. That would be something for people with far more expertise to handle.

Instead, Dyna decided to focus more on the first part of what he said. “It’s been a long time. I’m not a kid anymore. I’m a psychic too. Kind of. Maybe.” Dyna shrugged. “I’ve had training in… uh… self defense. You… I assume have changed a lot too. Your hair is the same, but…”

“But?”

Dyna frowned. Both their faces were hidden behind masks, so he wouldn’t be able to see it. But something had been on Dyna’s mind for a while now. Namely, she didn’t have many memories of her childhood. Part of that was certainly the Hatman’s doing. There had been that other book as well. Maybe more besides—thus far, nobody the institute had brought in had been able to send her back to that sanctuary through hypnosis like Harold had managed.

She couldn’t remember much about Matt. Most of what she remembered was less something from her memory and more a vague confirmation after having seen the picture from her mother and the reports from the institute.

Dyna looked over to the woman on the other side of the truck. Ado stood over her, waving some tool with a long rod and a small disc on the end. It looked like a metal detector, but probably wasn’t.

“Do you recognize her from anywhere?” Dyna asked.

Matt looked over and, after a moment of staring, shook his head. “Should I?”

“I don’t know. I feel like she’s familiar to me, but… I thought I was recognizing her from one of the pictures you had hanging up in the closet of the house we found you in.”

“The house? The… oh. Oh god…” His hand smacked into the silver mask, knocking it slightly askew. “The kid you were with, I… I don’t even know where that—”

“It’s fine. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“But—”

“She’s fine. Or was fine.” Dyna pointed up to the harness—poor Ruby was still hanging up. The harness was swinging back and forth as if Ruby were kicking her legs. Not in an attempt to escape, but just out of boredom. “That’s her. She was at the hospital too, I think, but the Hatman might have made you forget that.”

“I saw her face,” Matt said, sounding utterly horrified. “She didn’t have a face.”

“It wasn’t as bad as it looked?” Dyna said. She probably shouldn’t mention artifacts, although it seemed a bit late to keep secrets with everything that had gone on. “It’s hard to explain, but she is perfectly fine right now. Or she would be if Ado got around to doing her job.” Dyna raised her voice with the last sentence, shooting a quick look over to Ado.

The chief engineer didn’t even pause her metal detecting. “The chamber is performing its own scans on the contained entity,” she said. “There is little for me to do before it is finished.”

“In any case, Ruby is fine,” Dyna said, looking back to Matt. In an attempt to get him to think about something different, she pointed over to the woman. “What about her? Anything?”

Matt didn’t answer for a long time. He just sat there, hands rubbing together in an nervous tic. Eventually, he shook his head again. “I don’t think so. I memorized every single one of the ghosts’ faces. Hers doesn’t look familiar.”

“Maybe I’m imagining things,” Dyna said, shaking her head.

“What’s wrong with her?”

Dyna didn’t have an answer to that.

Ado, on the other hand, looked over. “That, Mister Quincy, is what we are trying to determine.”

Narrowing her eyes, Dyna glared at Ado. “How do you know his name? How does she know your name?”

“Wasn’t I supposed to say?”

Dyna shook her head. “These people aren’t good people,” she hissed in a whisper. Probably a useless whisper. The headset in the mask could pick up even quiet noises. “They kidnap people and invade their minds and all kinds of nasty things like that.”

“But… then why are—”

“I quite resent that sentiment,” Ado said. “We are certainly no worse than those you work for.”

“Excuse me?”

“Or do you think Grafton is being given a fair trial? Incarcerated in a secret government facility.” Ado spoke without interrupting her scanning. She didn’t look up. She didn’t even angle her head away from the girl on the floor of the truck. “Do you suppose he got a single phone call or option to contact a legal representative?”

“That’s… You can’t just put a mind controller in a court room. He’d get the judge and jury—”

“Do you suppose he would ever have seen the light of day again were it not for Id brokering the deal she made?”

Dyna pressed her lips together, glaring. But she didn’t open her mouth.

She didn’t have an answer.

She was spared from having to try to answer by the sound of a large vehicle rolling up to the school.

Where the truck Tartarus used was a small affair, the kind of thing any regular person might rent for a day to move a few larger belongings from one property to another, the vehicle that rolled up was massive. It was the size of two full freight cars, connected by an articulating gangway connection, and pulled by a semi-truck. The two trailers had panels on the sides, lit by a strip of lights along the bottom side. It looked like the panels would pop out, similar to the dining area or bed space of an RV.

The general color scheme matched that of Psychodynamics. It lacked any wood furnishings, but the predominantly white body was accented with gold. The small lights along the bottom lit up the simple brain logo of the Carroll Institute, along with the name of the institute and a slogan. Tomorrow’s Minds, Today.

Dyna always thought it was a bit cheesy.

It pulled up along the rear of the Tartarus truck, using the wide and empty parking lot to maneuver. The wheels stopped with a loud hiss from the brakes.

“We… uh…” Maple shifted in obvious discomfort as one of the side doors opened, lowering his scanning tool slowly. “We don’t have to worry about getting captured, right? I mean, I don’t want to be here very much, but if the alternative is bunking with Grafton…”

He trailed off as several of the silver suited men, a common sight down in Psychodynamics, stepped out from the open door. Two, armed with assault rifles, immediately moved to flank the open door. Dyna took it as a mildly good sign that they didn’t point their guns toward anyone present. She was far, far to exhausted to entertain the idea of a fight breaking out here.

Not that it would be much of a fight. Near as she could tell, neither Maple or Ado carried guns. Actual guns. The disruptors didn’t count.

“Those suits are disgustingly bulky and likely not nearly as effective as they could be.”

“Id will probably be upset if you try upgrading their tech level.”

“Yes, but I could—”

“Ado,” Maple interrupted, not quite glancing back over his shoulder. “Maybe you could put your devices down? Don’t want them to think we’ve got weapons while they’ve got their guns out.”

“They’re posturing. They aren’t going to do anything. It’s all just a show.”

“Show or not, those don’t look like prop weapons to me. I would really prefer if you—”

Two familiar incoming-announcement tones played over external speakers. “Attention please. Dyna Graves, please report to the Mobile Psychodynamics Command Center. All others maintain a distance of ten meters.”

“Well,” Dyna said. “I’ll be back shortly.” Turning to Matt, she glanced between him and Ado. “Don’t let them kidnap you or anything.”

Ado let out a small harrumph as Dyna hopped off the back of the truck. After thinking twice, Dyna stopped heading toward the Carroll Institute vehicle, turned back to the truck, and removed her mask and headset. She even left the flashlight behind. Everything that Tartarus had given her just might have some kind of recording tools hidden into it. As the owner of the Spymaster’s Mirror, useless though it was, Dyna was aware of such things.

The guards didn’t move much at all as Dyna approached the much larger trailer. It was possible that she knew them under all that protective gear, but it was just as likely that they had merely been briefed and given pictures. Or maybe they just knew her from around the institute. Either way, they didn’t react up until Dyna reached the truck, at which point the one on the left just nodded his head toward her.

Stepping up the few extended steps to get into the trailer, Dyna paused at the threshold. She wasn’t surprised at all to find the interior nearly indistinguishable from the laboratories at the Carroll Institute. It was filled with equipment and fancy to the point of being a questionable use of taxpayer money.

What really made her stop was the person not quite sitting in a chair.

“I—” “We—” “—have been sent to assist.”

“Oh…” Dyna started, forcing a smile. “Hello Sapphire.”