Discovery

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Present

Poor Dave was just about to end his shift when the alarm blared.

He jumped up and out of his seat. "Class 2 unauthorised use of Circean Arrays, sir!"

Immediately murmurs broke out across the crowded operations room. Others turned away from their screens to peer at Dave and his workstation. The man watching over the room from a central platform rushed to Dave's station.

"Situation report?" He looked at Dave expectantly.

Looking at Dave was one of the most powerful men in the world. Although Leonard Sandoval's type of power wasn't very public or showy, its effects were extremely tangible. Many people often thought of him as a modern Machiavelli, with links to ministers and presidents of countries all over the world. He had this way of persuading very important people to dance to his tune. Some were legal. Most were not. 

Dave stood rigidly at attention. Nothing less would meet Leonard's expectations and would most probably result in punishment for Dave.

"Five individual Primus masses detected on origin end of the portal, sir. Circean Arrays activated at 15.37 UTC by an unregistered user. Registered owner Blake Smyth, Operator-Mentor, sir."

"Where is this?" he asked Dave.

Dave squinted at the screen. "According to our coordinates, the Array opened a Rift in the Eastern Seaboard to a location in south-eastern Asia, sir."

Leonard's lips curved upwards in a smile. "Send a retrieval crew to the origin site. Continue to monitor the situation. Notify me of any other developments."

Dave snapped off a sharp salute. On the outside, he looked every bit the obedient worker he was supposed to be, but on the inside, he was moaning at the overtime he'd be doing that night.

"Yes, sir!"

Dave watched as his boss, a very important man, exited the room contentedly. Perhaps doing this overtime wouldn't be too bad. If Leonard was happy enough, Dave might get a raise.

******

Jumping through the portal bestowed Rain with a severe dose of nausea. The instant he was through, he felt like crawling to the nearest bush and puking his guts out. But Rain fought to get the remaining half of Blake through before the closing portal cut him in half.

Rain heaved, and somehow managed to get Blake across, right before Blake's feet would have been severed. But he cut it a little close, shaving a little bit of sole off Blake's shoes.

As it shrank back into nonexistence, Rain saw the cloud closing in on the other side of the portal. And he could see now that the portal would have closed before the cloud could ever reach them. They had never been in that much trouble.

Rain sat back and sighed. Then Rain's body remembered that it was nauseous, and he rolled over to throw up.

When he was done hacking and coughing, Rain wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, standing up to survey his surroundings. On all sides, imposing vegetation hemmed the duo in a small clearing. The treetops choked out much of the sunlight, their trunks stretching up to meet the sky above, and wildlife chittered around Rain. Rain got the impression this was not anywhere near St Willough's.

"That was quite well managed," a voice said, with something almost like grudging admiration. Rain almost jumped out of his skin, whirling around to find a perfectly healthy Blake. 

"Weren't you totally out? Don't give me heart attacks like that!"

"I was never 'out'. I just thought it prudent to assess your adaptability."