They were barely down the road from the school, the crowd of gawkers still clustered in the front parking lot, when the first firetruck whipped by, sirens wailing. Wilma was driving his car, and David didn’t care. He was in the back seat with Mari. He could feel her quivering as she leaned into him.

To be fair, he was quivering as well.

I guess I really am pretty… He shook his head. Mari could have died. Sure, Mari and David had been in problems before, but there they could do something. Even that big trash monster… well, they might have been able to run away from it, but that pit, opening up under them, the soil and crushed concrete just giving away as Mari slid down, hands frantically trying to stop her fall… David closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

And then his phone rang. David shot upright like he’d been shocked. He reached into his pocket and grabbed the phone, only for it to slip out of his hands and fall onto the floor.

“Fuck!” he shouted.

“It’s okay, David, calm down,” Wilma said.

“Y-yeah, right.” David nodded and reached down to get the phone. He glanced at Mari. She was still pale, her hair and face caked with dust.

“Right,” David said. It was Mom. “Mom?”

“David, where are you!?” Mom sounded terrified.

“On the road—when the earthquake hit, we decided to leave. We were in the car when whatever it was happened.” David glanced up at Wilma and saw her nod minutely. “Me and Mari would have just gotten in the way, so we left for work.”

“Oh, thank God,” Mom said. “Are you certain everyone was in front?”

“Yeah, that’s why I left,” David said. “You don’t think I’d just leave everyone.” Now David felt a little insulted.

“No. Not at all. It’s just that… We were already rolling for a fire alarm that came from inside the building. But the building’s too unstable to get to that part yet, so I was wondering if you knew anyone might be…”

“No, Mom, I didn’t hear anyone going in there. Maybe it was some kind of… I dunno, coincidence, or maybe whatever caused the explosion did it?”

“Maybe. But we’re making a list of students, teachers, and parents who were here. David, if you know anyone who was on the list for registration who left or never showed up, get their names for us, okay?”

“Sure—Mari’s with me.”

“Good. Make certain she texts her parents. Gotta go—love you!”

“B—Love you, Mom.”

Mom didn’t tend to be that demonstrative, but… I could be dead right now. We both could be…

Mari had her phone out. “I texted Mom and Dad,” she said. “I—” her voice caught, “really don’t want to talk to them right now, not until I’m calmer…”

David put his arm around her. “Well, good news, you don’t have to wait until we’re finished registering for classes.”

Mari’s laugh was as much sob as it was a laugh. “Thanks.”

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” Wilma said. “First, back to the medical couches, which you two should know on a first-name basis by now. Then, you take a shower and put on some clean jumpsuits, and then we talk about what the hell happened back there.” As she spoke, she pulled to the side of the road as another firetruck sped by, followed by two police cars and a hazardous materials unit. Glancing back towards the school, David saw several helicopters flying around it.

“Has anything like that ever happened before?” Mari asked.

“Not really. The first time had something like this happen, but that was after we used a forty-kiloton nuke to punch a hole in the universe.” Wilma focused on the road ahead. “We’re going to need more people. Ten minutes later, and half high schoolers in your town could have been dead.”

David swallowed, his throat uncomfortably tight. Hank, Judy, Mari… Then he was pressed against Mari as Wilma took the turn, heading towards the headquarters. Her phone beeped.

“Good, Antonio got out. He’ll meet us in a few minutes.”

“Right,” David said. “And then we’ll…” figure out what to do. He looked over at Mari. He could see the same thought in her eyes as he had. The mall, the movie, the interstate—there was no place in town that something like that wouldn’t kill hundreds of people. The Man With the Bags was one thing, but this was like…

Terrorists with car bombs… No. Worse. At least you could try and figure out what a terrorist wanted.

The car was silent as Wilma drove them to the headquarters.

Mari ached, but the warm water playing over her body was helping relax her muscles as she stood under the shower in the women’s locker room.

Wilma had ordered them onto the beds and then scanned them, talking about how they had the ‘devil’s own luck.’

“No fractures, no concussions. You also got zapped, but no sign of any severe damage, probably because of your affinity, since seeing the Aether isn’t the only thing you can do. You can also tolerate being hit by it.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” David had asked.

Wilma had rolled her eyes. “Right, I didn’t figure ‘oh, you can handle sticking your finger into a 110 outlet better than most people can’ was something that would be of practical use for you. Now both of you get into the showers, and get that crap off of you.” She pointed.

Mari snorted at the expression on David’s face at that. She leaned back, letting the hot water cleanse the last of the dust from her face, and ran her fingers through her hair. Then, the water was off, and she reached out to grab a towel.

I’m going to have to store normal clothes here if this keeps up, Mari thought. She was wearing a jumpsuit, but everything else had been ruined. Maybe I’ll just pour some oil on my clothes so that I’ll have an excuse.

David was already sitting at the big conference table, along with Wilma, Antonio… and a lot of food?

“I got Italian, some teriyaki chicken from the place down the road, and of course, we’ve got soda.”

“You’re eating?” Mari asked.

“You’ve had a pretty rough day,” Antonio said, no humor in his voice. “I wouldn’t gorge, but take it from someone who knows, tension and low blood sugar does not a happy combo make.”

“Right…” Mari said, slipping into the chair next to David. She looked at the food. I suppose I could eat a little… Mari picked at the food and, surprisingly enough, found herself hungry. She started eating, David doing the same next to her.

And Mari realized she was calming down. Eating was normal. Eating was what you did every day, unlike almost dying…

Finally, Mari was finished and almost felt like a human again. She looked over to David, nodded, and then they turned to face Wilma and Antonio.

“You said you never saw anything like that before,” David said. “At least not without a nuclear bomb. What do you think happened?”

“We don’t know,” Antonio said. “Breaches have been increasing, but it’s been… a steady increase. This was as if…”

“A tipping point was hit.” Wilma looked grim. “You ever see a dam break?”

“Yeah… On the news…” Mari said.

“What they don’t show you is that for the longest time, the dam looks fine. Nobody sees the tiny little cracks. Nobody sees the water, or if they do, it’s a tiny little leak… then one day, the whole thing…” She mimed an explosion with her hands.

“I…” Mari fell silent. That might mean there would be more—or worse. She had a sudden image of Kado’s junior high school, students and teachers screaming as the ground opened up under—

“Hey,” David said. Mari started and looked over at him. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Sure. I’m fine. Just, you know, thinking about everyone getting washed away when the dam collapses…”

“We don’t know that’s the case,“ Antonio said.

“But we don’t know that it isn’t,” Wilma replied, an edge in her voice.

“You’re right,” Antonio said. “But let’s focus on what we do know and can learn.” He typed in a few commands, and the screen came up with the map of Allendale. “The general aetheric level shot up and is currently at .8 to 1.1.”

Mari tensed. That was a lot higher than it was normally, even if it was below what would be considered dangerous.

“But…” David stared at the school, currently surrounded by a red ring. “What about the school?”

“Level one,” Antonio said. “But look at this. The sensors showed the breach in real-time, but let’s slow it down…” Moments later, the display zoomed into the school, and the breached started to open, slow enough for them to watch. “See that? The center of the breach was level nine. But it fell off, fell off faster than anything we’ve ever seen before. In fact…” The image showed a spike, almost like a needle.

“Oh, you’re kidding me,” Wilma muttered.

“What?” Mari asked. “It… I don’t get it.”

“We’ve never seen anything like that before, but we did hypothesize something that might look like that,” Wilma said.

“What?” David asked.

C’mon, just tell us, Mari thought.

“The other side of the nuclear detonation that punched the original hole.”

Wait, wha—” The other side?” Mari asked. “You mean, like someone in the aether, trying to do the same thing?”

“Maybe.” Antonio shrugged. “I also had some things that appeared when I was closing the breach. O12 picked them up on their visual sensors.” He fiddled with the controls, and now the screen showed the view of the robot, concrete and soil falling down into the pit as it placed another sealer into place—and then it paused. “Here.”

Mari stared at it. It was the imprint of a shoe—but on the loose soil, so it had come after the breach. And now…

“When the tentacle got David, I thought… I thought I saw someone cut it off, with a knife or sword.”

“You did? Another student?” Wilma asked.

“I… I don’t know.” Mari shook her head. “It was all happening so fast, but we didn’t see them on the way out…”

“They could have headed out the other way,” Antonio said.

“Or been caught in the breach,” Wilma replied.

Mari’s stomach lurched at that.

“We’d have to wait until the authorities determine if there are any missing persons.”

“What about the other group? If they sent someone to take a look at the school—well, they already saved us once.”

“Yeah, but swords aren’t really their thing.” Wilma shook her head.

“I… I don’t know if it was a sword,” Mari told Wilma. “Like I said, it happened really fast, and I was kind of distracted.”

“Yeah,” David said. “Me too.” He glanced at Antonio and Wilma. “I mean, I’d like to say I saw something, but I wasn’t paying any attention while that tentacle was around me…”

“Don’t blame you.” Antonio nodded. “Now, outcomes.”

“What?” Mari asked.

“Mari, a high school just partially collapsed into a sinkhole, and it was only good timing that kept it from being the kind of body count that goes into the history books.” Wilma glanced over at the monitors and touched a button. One monitor came to life showing a smiling woman staring at the camera.

“And the town of Allendale narrowly missed a tragedy as Omar Bradley High School partially collapsed into what is being called a sinkhole or possibly a natural gas explosion. We don’t have many videos of the actual event but…” The film cut to a shaky image from someone’s cellphone as people ran away. Mari swallowed as she saw a pillar of greenish fire shoot up, even as part of the multipurpose room seemed to sway and fall into the fire. The image cut back to the reporter, her smile not changing in the least. “As you can see, it looks like Allendale’s high school students may get to enjoy a little more summer vacation!” Then the story flipped to some corruption scandal.

Antonio muttered something about dirty laundry and whether or not the man was dead yet.

“Bad news, that’s going to get a lot of attention here,” Wilma said.

“Well, nobody died…” I hope, Mari thought.

“A lot of people could have died, and either someone was criminally negligent regarding a gas pipeline or surveying the ground under the school, or there’s something weird happening.” Antonio shook his head. “You’re going to be getting everyone from the FBI to the geological survey people, and that assumes they don’t find anything really weird.”

“Will they?” David asked.

Wilma and Antonio looked at each other. “We don’t know,” Wilma said. “The problem is that aether leaves nothing behind when it dissipates.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” David asked.

“No,” Antonio said. “Because if they don’t find a sign of a pre-existing problem, like a busted gas line, or a cavity under the building that someone missed, if all they have is an explosion with no real reason for there to be one…”

“People get interested,” Wilma said.

“And if the aetheric levels are higher because of this…” Mari looked to the map. “That means more breaches, and if people are already looking…”

“Yeah.” Wilma stared at the map. “Bad times for everyone.”

“But why here? Why now?” David asked.

“I don’t know. If someone was trying to… punch through, it could be something the other firm would do, but I don’t think so. It’s too risky.” Antonio frowned.

“Mexico City,” Wilma muttered.

“That was an accident, and they never repeated the attempt.”

“Maybe they think they could get it right this time,” Wilma said. Then she shook her head. “But no, they would have had more than one person around, and it’d make no sense to trigger it then, not when you could just wait a few hours and have the whole place deserted. They don’t benefit from the FBI getting involved any more than we do.”

“Yeah.” Wilma frowned. “Come with me, kids.” Mari and David glanced at each other as they followed Wilma to the equipment racks. She pulled out some equipment, including new sensor glasses, control units, and a pair of aether neutralizers.

“These aren’t registered,” Wilma said. “They’re not in the inventory, they don’t exist.”

“Wilma,” Antonio burst out. “What the hell?” Wilma looked back at Antonio but kept talking to Mari and David. “You keep using your work equipment for work, but take these home and stick them somewhere out of sight.”

“Once again, Wilma, what the hell?” Antonio said. “How does that help us?”

“Not that I mind having more science-fiction gadgets,” Mari said. “But I’m…sort of confused. We already have our work gear so…”

“So if say the FBI finds us, or our bosses decide that we need to pull out. They probably won’t want a pair of kids to come along, and in any case, I bet your parents would have something to say about it. But what if the aether levels don’t go down? What if you run into another Man With the Bags, and we’re not here, and the FBI has this place locked up tight.” Wilma sighed. “Maybe I’m being an old woman, but if everything goes to shit, I’d be happier if you have some means of protecting yourself.”

“Do you… Do you think it will get that bad?” David asked from where he stood by Mari.

“I… I have no damned clue, and that’s scaring the hell out of me,” Wilma said.

“Right. I don’t know if Wilma’s right,” Antonio told David and Mari.

“I usually am,” Wilma replied.

“Yeah, but not always. Anyway, with all these outside groups running around, you’re out of the field for now. You come in, and I’ll run you through some maintenance training, but you two have had about three near-death experiences since we met, and that’s more than enough.” Antonio looked like he was going to say something else, but then his phone went off, echoed a moment later by Wilma’s. “And I think the boss wants to have a word with us. Okay, get on home, your parents probably won’t want you on the road right now and… try to avoid any more disasters?”

“We’re trying,” Mari said. “The problem is that the disasters keep hunting us down!” She flipped some of her hair back. “But I’ll go home and bemoan the fact that I can’t register—” She broke off and stared at the map. “Wait a minute—how are we even going to have school? The high school is gone!”

“They’ll find a way,” David said. He nodded at Wilma, who already had her phone up to her ear as she headed out of the room, Antonio following her. “Besides,” David said in a lower voice as they headed to the garage, “it’s probably better this way. If things keep going weird, maybe they’ll cancel all the schools.”

Which would be nice, except for the reason. Mari had a sudden urge to go running to the FBI. Sure it was a secret, but it was easier to keep before you had to think of aether bombs just waiting to go off. On the other hand, they probably wouldn’t believe her. And if they did, Mom would be really pissed if she was in prison for her junior year.

“So,” Mari said. “Your mom is going to be gone all day.”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s go have some fun. Mom’s coming home early tonight, so she won’t get bent out of shape if you’re over for a movie night.”

David glanced around at the hallway as he reached out and pushed the door open, the hot air of the garage mixing with the air-conditioned building air. “You know, I think that’d be a great idea. Just as long as I get to pick one of the movies.”

“Cool. We can also steal Kado’s console for a while.”

“Touch his console?” David said, and Mari smiled. David sounded less freaked now, and she was feeling less freaked. “Won’t that lead to our sudden death?”

“Maybe, but I can always offer to rent him one of his violent games.”

“The one your parents don’t like him playing.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault if I forget to put the game away, and Kado finds it…”

“Sneaky.”

“Yes, I am. Let’s stop and grab some snacks for tonight…” Because we need this, Mari thought. They’d just gone to the movies and mall, but now they had another disaster to deal with… And I hope we’ll be able to keep having fun like this.

Hunting aether breaches had just become a whole lot less fun, after all.