…..CHAPTER 31…..
It was a process-and-a-half to get into the base. He found himself frisked no less than three times. Oscar, too. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell the soldiers and officers present that he didn’t need weapons. Oscar’s frown the moment it crossed his mind made him glad he’d clamped his mouth shut.
Once inside, they were led through a warren of hallways, rooms, and several locking mechanisms that didn’t sound ominous at all.
Oliver spent his time using his magical sense to feel around himself, because he was surrounded by magic, and somewhere in that magic was a sensation of…something off.
There were a lot of witch crystals here. A lot. He wasn’t sure how many, but this whole complex was a vortex of magical energy, and his whole body buzzed with it.
“Christ,” he muttered. Something was definitely wrong.
Oscar shot him a questioning look.
“Crystals. Everywhere. Magic everywhere. It’s like drowning in caffeine.”
His eyebrows shot up but he didn’t say anything. Culver, walking in front of them, shot a look over his shoulder, eyes expressionless, brows up.
They’d entered a room with a viewing window now, and Oliver walked over to look down into a large room full of mechanical gear, computers, stations for witches to work magic into crystals just like at the power plant. But here, the crystals weren’t held in complex boxes and concealed from view from the witches that dumped magic into them—legal and illegal catchment alike, that was what happened for the grid.
These crystals weren’t hidden because frankly it would take a room to hide them. And here, deep in the secret workings of the base, hiding was unnecessary.
Oliver swallowed hard. Fuuuuuck. Now that’s a crystal.
Eighteen crystals about twice the size of a man were hooked up to various computers and meters, clamped into place and gleaming white light as energy from the witches standing next to them poured in the power. Each “minor” crystal had four witches working on it. Hmmm…thus the reason they’re glowing white instead of the native color of the witch.
He snorted at the notion that those crystals were minor, considering they were four times the size of the ones in the Denver Gridhouse.
But in the center of the vast room was a crystal so massive Oliver shook his head and blew out a breath. Yeah. It would need its own house. Eyeing it, he guessed the thing was at least fifty feet in diameter.
“Oh my god,” Oscar breathed.
Oliver nodded agreement. And for the first time, he thought he understood the reason for the suits watching him.
“This is the main energy depot for the mountain region,” the General said at his side. Oliver looked up at him, the man’s face gleaming from the glow of the crystals. He turned his head to meet Oliver’s gaze, eyes sharp and rapacious.
Oliver waited.
He lifted that eyebrow again. “Something is wrong with one of the sides.”
Shrugging, Oliver nodded. “Yes, I know. So you want me to…what…fix it?”
“Bingo.”
Oliver turned back to the sense of wrongness he’d begun to pick up on halfway down to this level underground. For just a moment, it wasn’t the only ‘off’ sensation he had, but the other wasn’t dangerous or strong enough to hold his attention.
Besides the astonishing amount of magic around here due to the witch crystals sucking up magic, there were dozens of witches. He sensed a crap-ton of talent around here. He also wondered how it was that Oscar had gotten his hands on Oliver all those years ago, because he had a feeling he might have ended up here if Oscar hadn’t.
“Why me? You have dozens of witches around here.”
“True. But we don’t have one powerful enough that specializes in both Lattice and micro-work.”
Oliver turned a skeptical look on him. “Bullshit.”
The man’s jaw tightened.
“Even if I couldn’t sense all the raw fucking talent around here, you wouldn’t have this facility up and running without a Lattice specialist. These are crystals we’re talking about. Crystals are as about Lattice-heavy as one can get.”
He turned back to the room below them. “Our lead witch died. She tried to fix it, and it killed her.”
“How?”
“We don’t know. She was a single-skilled level ten, but though she favored Lattice, she didn’t specialize in micro work. We expect a fellow level ten with micro talents to be able to correct this problem.”
“I’m not a level ten.”
He turned his face back to Oliver with a cool smile. “Bullshit,” he said softly, mockingly.
Oliver didn’t let himself flinch or even so much as blink. “You’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m a nine. But I’ll admit to a decent aptitude with micro.”
He nodded toward the room. “Have at it, boy.”
Oliver held his stare for a beat, then turned toward a door that he guessed opened into the room, Oscar on his heels.
“Director Dale, please remain here.”
“I’ll be right back,” he said.
His elbow was caught, and he found himself swung to face Oscar.
Oliver met his gaze, saw the worry in his Handler’s eyes. “It’s okay. I’m just gonna check this out. I won’t do anything until I know what’s going on.”
Oscar nodded and let him go.
Someone opened the door for him with the swipe of a security key. When the door opened, Oliver shivered at the power that swept over him. “God,” he gasped. The man gave him a quizzical glance. He shook his head and went in.
Finding himself on a metal grate landing, metal railings around him, and steps in front, he took the stairs down, his feet noisy as he descended despite trying not to. It curved around the circular concrete walls until he reached the floor underneath the observation room above. He was now in a small open space outside the ring of smaller crystals. Stepping between them, his gaze went to the largest witch crystal. Oliver stared at it, mind whirling with magic, more than he’d ever felt in his life. The crystal called to him in a way he couldn’t begin to describe. Fear and awe swamped him. He’d never seen such a massive chunk of Lattice in his life, and it called to him on a level that only another witch would understand.
Oliver gave himself a hard shake and closed his eyes, jaw clenched. He could quite literally get lost in the master crystal. He realized he was shaking. Oliver gave himself a mental slap, too, and turned without being told to the problem. He approached it warily, the sense of ‘wrong’ getting stronger with each step. Oliver stopped in front of the culprit.
Aware of the witches around him where they worked, he felt it when most of them disengaged. A woman approached from behind him. “Sir?”
“Did the crystal kill her?”
“Yes.” Her voice was full of aching grief. “She was trying to find out what it was. She was going to try to fix it, but diagnosing it came first. Whatever it is, she activated it, and it slapped her down like a fly.”
Oliver took a step toward the large shaft, easily taller than Tracy.
His elbow was again seized. He looked over his shoulder at her fearful wide eyes. “What?”
She gulped. “It’s…it’s just that I don’t want anyone else… It was…”
Oliver gently pried her hand off his arm, gave it a gentle squeeze, and turned back to the lethal crystal.
No, it wasn’t the crystal that was deadly. It was that wrongness he’d sensed. “How could anyone have installed this damn thing?” he muttered.
“What?”
“It’s so…obvious. Why was this crystal installed in the first place? Someone had to have known it was flawed.”
She looked blank. Oliver stared at her, then looked at the others. More clueless stares. “You mean you didn’t…you didn’t know it had something wrong with it?”
They exchanged glances and head shakes. Oliver wanted to check in with Oscar, but kept his gaze on them.
No one had felt this? Not even the level ten? He needed confirmation, but to do so might alert them to his power…because he clearly did feel it. Shit! Now what?
Oliver stared at them, mind racing. Okay…okay, he could do this. “No one felt the weird vibe? Specifically you Earth witches?”
They shook their heads.
“Fire witches?”
Again, a few shook their heads.
“Who has Lattice?”
A timid young man lifted his hand, and an older woman, probably near retirement age, stepped forward.
“You two come over here. Stand with me. Open your minds and magic, and focus on the middle of the shaft.”
They obeyed.
The woman immediately flinched. “Oh god,” she gasped and backpedaled.
The man stared and stared. He knew immediately when he saw it because the blood drained from his face.
Oliver crossed his arms as he turned to stare at it, too.
It was like a lesion on the crystal. He’d never seen anything like it, but it was small, and it was surrounded by a framework of Lattice that looked like it belonged. Problem was, it didn’t, and it reeked of Fire magic, too.
Another problem was, a level ten witch with Lattice had not sensed it, hadn’t had a clue it was there.
The fact that he, a purported level nine, had sensed it, was a huge red flag.
Even more than was already on his file.
Oliver considered the spell for a long moment. There was something about it, a sensation of…evasion? Using his magic, Oliver looked at the spell from all angles, puzzled by that sensation.
Finally it dawned on him what he was seeing. It was the remnants of part of the spell, still lingering, but spent.
Ohhhh… I see it now. Clever.
An intercom hissed and squeaked. “Can you see it, Witch Oliver?”
“Yes,” he answered grimly.
“How? How did Witch Tina not see it?”
He shrugged nonchalantly despite being anything but. “Not sure. I’ll explain later. It could be that she didn’t have the Sight, but I think this is also part of the spell. Like I said, I’ll explain once we have a moment.”
There was a long quiet pause.
“Explain,” came a curt demand.
Oliver shook his head of his magical vision and tilted his head to look up at the observation room above. “What do you mean? Some witches can see magic in real time. Couldn’t she?”
They didn’t answer, so he turned back to the crystal. Hopefully that was enough to put them off any trail his power might take them down.
Besides, if he was right, the facts of this spell were going to be his shield.
Yeah, this was going to suck. But he needed to touch the damn thing to get a bead on how to deal with it. The Lattice spell surrounding the inner workings concealed it, making it impossible to tell how it was fashioned.
“Alright, I’ve gotta see what it is and how it works. I need an Earth witch and a Fire witch, one with Lattice, and one with…” he paused, considering. “There’s no sensation of waves or light…”
He turned back to them. “Is there anyone with the Plasma Aspect?”
No answer. “Damn. Do any of you have the Aspect of Heat?”
One woman lifted her hand, a bewildered look on her face. “Uh, I don’t sense any Heat, sir.”
“You wouldn’t. It’s wrapped up in Lattice. Believe me, you’ll see it in a few. Come up here with me. And you,” he pointed to the woman with Lattice. “You, too.”
She shook her head frantically, eyes widening in fright.
“It’s okay. You’re not doing anything with the magic, I am. You’re there to anchor me.”
She gulped.
“Witch Sady, you’ll do what you’re told,” came harshly over the intercom.
She flinched and bowed her head. With a weak little nod, she stepped forward.
Oliver scowled up at the window, then reached for her, took her elbow. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “You’ll be safe.”
She didn’t respond, so he had to just let her deal.
Placing the two women behind him, each of them with a hand on one of his shoulder’s, he linked his magic with both women. Oliver set the Earth witch to anchor his working in the position of Omega, and the Fire witch to the position of Watcher. Neither position did much if any work, performed more as support for the rest of the witches in any working. So they weren’t going to actively help in this melding of their magic. Because of that, he wasn’t technically serving as Alpha, but he wanted their magic joined with his just in case he needed them, and it was the joining that made this a working, and him the Alpha.
Oliver tilted his head, hands extended toward it, magic probing the crystal. The fault was small. He could fix it easily. But the sensation of wrongness made him hesitate. He wasn’t sure what this thing even was. What was it, why was it wrong, how had it gotten there, and when… Observing it from all angles, he finally picked at the Lattice structure of the spell.
Pain and heat hit his magic like a ball of lightning…which it technically was.
“Fuck!” Oliver jerked back from the crystal, shaking his hands as they stung. “Goddammit!” he panted.
The other two witches also leaped back, eyes wide, though they hadn’t been zapped like he had.
Oliver stared at the huge rock, mind seeking…
Oliver smiled grimly. Oh yeah. He could do this. Now that he knew what it was, how it was made, he could undo it.
“What happened?” a sharp demand came over the intercom. In the background he heard Oscar’s cussing and demands.
Giving his fellow witches a reassuring smile, he turned his face up to the window, bracing himself. He had no idea how these military people were going to respond to this news. The only thing he knew was that it was a masterpiece of magic, blended between two witches and placed…
Who, when and where he couldn’t answer. But he did have the what and how. And he suspected he had the last piece of information…why.
“It’s been sabotaged,” he said into the silence.
How could silence become even quieter? He wasn’t sure how, but it did.
And then two men with guns arrived, clattering down the stairs to stand on each side of him. Dimly he sensed the other two witches hustled away. The rest of the witches disengaged, the room dimming to crepuscular levels.
“No, wait!” he snapped, leaping forward and slapping one hand against its warm surface, to drop his energy into the crystal before the last witch could withdraw.
Everyone froze in place.
Oliver closed his eyes at the near catastrophe. “Oh thank god,” he breathed. Oliver shot his magical gaze at the crystal to scowl at it, mind and magic locked with the Lattice that was the crystal’s molecules.
He felt Oscar’s hand on his shoulder and shrugged it off. “Oliver, we have to get out of here. It could be dangerous.”
“It is dangerous,” he said softly, mind moving, magic weaving through the forms. “A Fire witch did this, with an Earth witch to guide and conceal… It’s… God, Oscar, it’s…intricate. It’s going to take a Fire witch working with me to undo this shit. And I want a Water witch here, too.”
“You’re not undoing it, Oliver. It’s going to be removed and destroyed and replaced with a crystal that you’re going to inspect top to bottom.”
He shook his head sharply. “No! We can’t! The spell is a trap. If we undo it from its grid now, it’ll explode.”
The quiet was back again.
“I can remove the spell, but I’ll need help. We can do this.”
“Oliver…”
“I can do it,” he said firmly, pulling his mind from the crystal to turn to Oscar, hand never leaving its surface, still gleaming brilliant green, infusing the massive thing with his native magic.
As he turned he found himself surrounded by soldiers. He blinked at them in surprise. Okaaaaay. He’d been very deep in the crystal to not notice their arrival.
He looked at Oscar, who shrugged. “They wanted you out of here before you could trigger anything to make it blow up the base.”
Oliver snorted. “It’s not a bomb.” He frowned. “Well, not really. More theoretically. If it’s activated, it’d melt the place down. Plasma is the prime component of the thing, so it would reach some fairly exotic temperatures. Besides, it’s not a matter of just letting the thing go and leaving. Ironically, that would set it off.”
“What do you mean?”
Oliver met the gaze of General Culver. “Do you want the explanation now? Or do you want me to deal with it? We need to get the witches back in here to power this crystal.”
His brows drew together. “Power it? We need to evacuate everyone.”
Oliver sighed in exasperation. “Jesus christ,” he muttered. “If you want the explanation now, fine. You see, the energy has no ‘native’ as we call it for witches. The body of the individual witch is what determines how the magic…”
“Enough!” he snapped. “I know that much, you little punk. Why would the crystal blow if we take away the energy?”
“It’s part of the spell, part of the sabotage.”
“Fine. You think you can remove it and save everyone’s ass as well as one of the most expensive military bases in America?”
Oliver didn’t bat an eye. “Yes.”
Culver seemed fond of his eyebrows, which rose yet again. “What do you need?”
“The witches I work with and know best, and who know me. I need help, because some of this is Fire magic.”
“And you know this how?”
Oliver’s smile was cool. “Because magic is magic, and my Element means nothing in the way magic is understood. I was just explaining that. But as you said, you apparently already know about it.” Oliver’s tone and words held all sorts of snark.
His eyes tightened, his anger ticking up a notch. “So you can fix something a Fire witch did?”
“Yes. But only because an Earth witch was involved. Let’s just call it a back door.”
“Huh,” he said. His gaze went to the huge chunk of rock causing their current problem. When he looked back, there was something in his eyes that Oliver didn’t like. An acquisitiveness, something predatory… “You can fix it?”
Oliver nodded. “I want my fellow witches from the Bureau to help me. We’ve worked our magic together, so we’ll know each other’s every move.”
“Who do we need?” Oscar asked.
Oliver thought about the set up he wanted and gave a nod. “Gwen for Water. Steven and Isla for Fire, Ian and Sarah for Earth.”
Oscar paused. “Do you want Melinda, too? You’ll need a Watcher.”
God he loved it when Oscar understood. Oliver nodded immediately. “Yes. Good thinking. And I think Val, too. She can steady Gwen.”
“And you don’t need steadying?” the General asked.
Oliver met his gaze. “No.”
His mouth twitched. “And why not?”
“Because I’m Alpha,” he said simply.
His brows rose. Dude, cool it with the eyebrows! “Meaning?”
“I’m leading the working, and you can’t have two leaders in a working.”
Oscar took out his cell phone. “I’ll get them started on the way down here. It’ll take at least an hour-and-a-half, what with security,” he said, heading for the stairs. He paused and turned back. “Oliver, come with me. You’re going to need to relax and prepare for the working.”
Directed by Oliver, witches were returned to the room, and he made them focus their energy directly at the sabotaged crystal. “It won’t hurt you as long as you don’t touch the patch. Just funnel energy, and don’t stop. It’s if you stop that there will be problems.”
Oliver followed Oscar then. He wanted out from under that man’s eyes. Culver was giving him the creeps.
They were back in the control room above the catchment room when Oscar shook his head with a tsk. “Still can’t get out. I may need a freakin’ landline. I don’t want to have to go all the way outside.”
They had to go all the way outside. Oliver found a nice rock to sit on in the dark. Several soldiers were pacing around them, others were clearly on some sort of break. But they weren’t soldiers, more like tech personel or something. Oliver had no idea.
Once he was sitting, he let his mind calm down for this task. For once he was grateful for the magic he had in his inner reservoir. He hadn’t dumped today at all, so he was nearly full. He spent a few moments filling his tank, then dropped into meditation.
“What’s he doing?” someone asked sharply nearby.
“He’s working, leave him alone,” Oscar said, then turned back to his phone.
“He looks like he’s asleep,” someone said.
“He’s not. Just stay away from him.”
Oliver ignored it, letting Oscar deal with it. Then he remembered he likely was glowing with his magic. And in the dark, it would show. With a slight case of paranoia, he tucked his other Elemental magics deep inside to keep them from making an awkward and damaging appearance.
Yeah, that was the last thing he needed, the military aware of his status. It was already giving him the heebie-jeebies just being here.