Catherine exited the taxi cab, stepping onto the pavement, paying the driver as she did so, waving him goodbye without saying a word, and took a look at the building she was meant to meet her contact at. The Thales Observatory. It was an older building, one of the earliest still standing that had yet to be renovated since the overture that started when the people of Orion began immigrating en masse to Athens. A popular tourist attraction, especially to younger children, it still garners massive crowds who might want to get nice scenery photos while on vacation, but now as Catherine wandered into the door, she found it’s halls empty of citizens or staff, not even someone at the ticket counter to ask for her entrance fee.

She rolled her eyes, and made her way up the stairs, ignoring the voice in the back of her mind screaming at her that this was a bad idea, at the top floor, she spotted a single person, and younger man in his mid forties, bushy brown beard with a single white streak below is lip, buzz cut, and wearing a black leather coat, and worn blue-white jeans. His head was down, nose-deep in a pile of paperwork, either he didn’t notice Catherine’s arrival, or he knew and he was trying to look cool.

“Y’know, if you wanted to talk to me…” Catherine began with a snarky smile, “You coulda just met me at my apartment,” she continued, leaning against the railing to look at the scenery, “Or are you gonna say you government boys aren’t keeping tabs on me?”

The man side eyed her before clearing his throat, “We were keeping tabs on you, yeah,” his voice gravelly, almost strained, “but once we realized you were keeping to yourself, we started to back off.”

Catherine looked out over the horizon, out toward the coastline where the waves smashed into the rocks, out another hundred feet where snow sprinkled against the energy field Orion placed to allow those inside the bubble to control the weather climate, she lamented a bit, waited for the man to start talking, “So, Al-”

The man interrupted her, putting down his paperwork, “Nope, Magnus today.”

Catherine let out a laugh, “Magnus…?”

“Paige.”

“God that name sucks”

“You came up with it.”

“In my defense: I was drunk, and I didn’t expect you to use it.”

“Well it’s on all my paperwork.”

“Oh, I am so sorry,” Catherine said, trying hard not to laugh.

“Why?”

“That’s a really bad name. Hope you’re not stuck with it for long.”

Magnus shrugged his shoulders a bit, “At most, one or two assignments, before it’s on to the next.” He said, joining her, leaning his back against the guard railing.

“So, Magnus,” she said, putting emphasis on his name out of jest, “Why’d you call me out here?”

Magnus slid her a manilla envelope, and a small package wrapped in blue twine, “Open the package second.”

Catherine nodded, taking the folder, and opening it. It was full of soil readings, rock formations, mathematics she could only hope to understand, radiation spikes and dips, and photos of people with silver-blue rock forming on their body like scales.

Catherine, trying to keep her composure at the sight of the people in the photos suffering, asked, “What is this?”

Magnus sighed, “That’s from Sparta, or what remains of it. In the last fifteen years, the radiation inside the dome has dissipated, it’s almost…soaked into the rocks, the dirt, the plants around Sparta, weakening the rocks. The boys in the lab, mainly those Orion fucks, they’re saying if we don’t do something in the next two or three years, those rocks are gonna turn into putty-sand, and once it falls, the radiation is gonna start spreading throughout the rest of the continent.”

Catherine held up a photo of one of the people, “And what’s this?”

“Some kinda radiation sickness, those rocks grow on people’s skin, and if it does, it means they might have a week, two weeks at-best before they croak. The people who are still in Sparta began burning their bodies to prevent the spread, but one of the medics I talked to think that’s just making it worse.”

Catherine, still staring at the photos, asked, “Why are there still people inside the city? It was bombed to hell over a decade ago.”

“Bunch of them were either stuck there during the bombing, a lot returned in the years following the war, hoping to regroup, recoup their losses, only to get radiation poisioning.”

“Is there any way to help them?”

Magnus’ face turned grim, “A bullet.”

“Magnus!” Catherine shouted “What the hell!?”

“A quick death is better than living in agony for a week.” He said. Catherine crushed the photo in her hand, shaking in anger at his response. “That…isn’t the only reason I called you out here,” Magnus continued, “Decon Robert Grace would like a word with you.”

Catherine looked at him, “Why, what did I do?”

“Dunno, wouldn’t tell me.” Magnus said, “He just has an offer for you, and I think you should take it.”

Catherine looked back out over the horizon toward the waves, and let out a sigh, “Tell him I’ll consider.”

Magnus slid what looked like a business card into Catherine’s pocket, “I can’t, you have to tell him in person.”

Catherine glared at him, “You government types are weird.”

Magnus let out a small laugh, almost inaudible, “Better than being an Orion freak.”

Catherine ignored his remark, again looking at the technological advancement they’d gifted Athens, “Y’know, ever since I’ve come back, I’ve seen the stuff they’ve given us, the weather changing, the floating cars, the digital technology…”

Magnus interrupted, “The laser weapons.”

“The what?”

“Oh, right.” Magnus said, digging into his leather coat before pulling out what looked like a normal revolver, “a gift from Grace.” Catherine took it, trying to open the ammo cylinder. “That’s not how it works. It’s self-fed coolant, it just fires by itself.”

“So how do I reload?”

“That’s the neat part.” Magnus said, tapping his temple with his forefinger, “you don’t. It feeds off a piece of what they call Hades plasma inside the grip of the revolver, feeds into the cylinder which has coolant upon firing. Once you shoot, the cylinder moves to the next chamber, and the one you fired last re-cools itself with gel.”

Catherine remarked, “Got that memorized do ya?”

“Look, I had to attend like, five orientations, be thankful you don’t have to.” Catherine went to hand the revolver back, but Magnus shook his head, “Think of it as a gift.”

Catherine nodded, before making the gun vanish into her Void, making it vanish like a magician’s card trick. “If Aiden had Ascended, if he were the big boss up on that mountain, humans wouldn’t have reached this state of…advancement for another hundred-maybe hundred-fifty years if it was up to him.”

Magnus nodded, “But what about you?”

“What about me?”

“What do you think of all his rich advancement?”

Catherine pondered for a moment, carefully considering her answer, “It’s cool…but scary, I feel like it’s too much, too fast. But I’m not against it.”

“Good to know.” Magnus said, getting up to leave, “But I gotta get going, duty calls.”

“Whoa wait, where are you going?”

“Hades, bosses upstairs want me to look in on Soul, apparently there’s some kinda gang war happening there.”

Catherine raised her eyebrow, “The Athenian government…is overseeing an Orion project, on Hades soil?”

Magnus threw his hands in the air, “I don’t make the rules Catherine, I just enforce ‘em”

Catherine smiled and waved him off, before turning her attention to the package. Opening it up, revealed a rose medallion, colored blue instead of red. Her eyes widened in shock, looking all over it for a note, lettering, any kind of blue, she turned her attention to the packaging, on the inside which housed the medallion, in tiny reverse lettering was an inscription.

“IT’S TIME TO REJOIN OUR SECT. - M”

Catherine rolled her eyes, “Oh what, we’re spies now?”