The logistics team tried to engage in friendly conversation with her as they waited, but Tessa tried to avoid conversation. She wanted to hide in a corner until Finn returned, but that would raise some red flag concerns. Instead, she just tried to stay quiet, hoping they would give up on a conversation, and eventually, they did.
Finn returned and presented the logistics team with their forged orders. They didn’t seem to suspect a thing, so the men started loading up the pallets of H.I.V.E tech onto several forklifts. Tessa and Finn each rode on a forklift toward the laboratory.
To ease her mind, Tessa turned on some tunes. Her taste in music evolved as her personality changed. The more enraged she became with H.I.V.E, the angrier her music became. She picked a heavier playlist and turned it on shuffle. The first song was Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Manson. A melodramatic ballad with periodic bouts of screaming. It matched Tessa’s mood. On the inside, she wanted to scream and destroy everything in sight with her Evo power, but Finn insisted on this covert mission.
Instead of a violent outburst, Tessa subdued her primal urge to exact revenge and escorted the logistics team. The caravan of forklifts halted in front of the laboratory bay doors, and H.I.V.E security reviewed Finn’s orders and the cargo manifest. The security guards swept the cargo to make sure they introduced no hazardous material into the laboratory. They were hunting explosives.
After their attack on Tessa’s base, they were expecting a retaliation. The heightened security concerned Tessa, but she remained confident Finn would carry out his ruse.
After a brief stall, security allowed them to proceed. The logistics team delivered the equipment to a large cargo elevator to transport into the laboratory’s top-secret sub-basements. Finn’s information confirmed the existence of secret sub-basements, but he didn’t know how many levels deep the complex went.
The forklifts took turns one at a time, meaning Tessa and Finn would split up for some time. Finn would travel ahead of Tessa to ensure a smooth transition. If there were questions regarding their paperwork, Finn could field those inquires before Tessa arrived. That would elevate the need for Tessa herself to engage in a risky conversation, which might lead to someone recognizing her.
When it was her turn, Tessa entered the elevator and descended along with the energy core she refused to let out of her sight. The elevator moved, and she sensed it moved fast, leaving butterflies in her stomach from the rapid decline. She got the sensation of falling. This cargo elevator must be an express elevator to the top-secret level.
The descent took a good deal of time despite the rate of speed, meaning they were rooted deep in the earth at this point. The elevator slowed and came to a halt with the doors opening to reveal a vast open chamber shelled in concrete and supported by skeletons of steel girders.
Lights dotted the ceiling and stretched out into oblivion as the room stretched for ages — cranes attached to scaffolding transported equipment and supplies from one end of the room to another. Along the sides of the massive cavern were glass viewpoints where laboratory scientists could gaze out onto their creation.
Tessa saw the new arc, which filled most of the room. H.I.V.E engineers were hard at work building their masterpiece. The room was abuzz with activity, and the energy core drew a crowd. There was an electric excitement in the air; everyone awaited the energy core.
The excitement confused Tessa. H.I.V.E had no way to charge the core. They needed her power to activate it. It worried Tessa they might have discovered another way to power the core, and that was terrible news.
As the crowd gathered, Finn approached her to move to the next phase of their mission. The crowd of people might work to their advantage. Finn and Tessa could disappear in the chaos. They would blend in as H.I.V.E security, and Finn led the way to the weapons vault. Since they entered the laboratory, Finn was hard at work breaching H.I.V.E computer servers. He had access to all the base schematics by this point. That was the bonus of having a technomancer in their group.
Finn could also make short work of the weapon’s vault digital lock. Once inside, they filled duffle bags with C-4 and detonators. Finn didn’t need any device timers because he would press the proverbial button in his mind. They exited the vault with their payload and began their tour of the arc with periodic stops to plant explosives.
As they were walking along the outskirts of the room around the arc, Finn cried out in surprise. When Tessa turned to look at him, she noticed he was clutching the right side of his neck. Tessa whirled around to find the Director of Science, Marlize, standing behind her with a contingent of H.I.V.E security. She dressed in a stark white lab coat with a red sheath dress and matching heels on underneath.
She spoke down to Tessa, “I figured out how you’re getting into our systems. A technomancer. How clever.”
Finn’s eyes opened wide in terror, “My power is gone.” He was digging at the skin on the side of his neck.
Tessa noticed a metal implant behind his ear that was likely blocking his mental ability. Tessa lifted her hands, “Let him go, and you can have me. I can charge your core.”
She cackled at Tessa, “You
