The Advancement of Mateo Matic: November 4, 2398

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Leona wheels herself down the hallway, and peeks into the room. Nope, not who she’s looking for. She continues to the next one. Not this one either. She knows that Cheyenne is in one of these rooms, but they wouldn’t tell her which. They also wouldn’t tell her if that’s just hospital policy, or if Cheyenne specifically asked not to see her. There we go, this room right here. Leona knocks on the door as she’s inviting herself in. “Hey. We haven’t talked yet.”

Cheyenne is sitting up straight in her bed, supporting her back on her own. It looks like a physical therapy exercise. “They told me you weren’t feeling up to visitors.”

“I don’t know why they said that,” Leona replies. “Mateo, Ramses, Kivi, and Marie all came to visit.”

Cheyenne just frowns.

“I wanted to apologize for what happened,” Leona says forlornly. “I never should have put you in that position. The whole thing about that place is that crime is legal. It’s no surprise that people took advantage of that.”

“Not all crime,” Cheyenne counters. “Bombings, which endanger not only a high number of people within the boundaries, but also neighboring areas, are not legal. Besides, didn’t you hear? The suspects are in custody.”

“I heard, yes. I know that they’re the ones who did it, but I still feel responsible.”

“I’m an adult, I made my choice.”

“You’ve lost so much already. Bridgette...” She was trying to start a list, but the first one is too heartbreaking.

“I don’t blame you for what happened to her either,” Cheyenne promises. “Look, I’ve not said much about my past, or my origins, but just know that you have nothing to apologize for. I was born into this secret underground world. You and your team didn’t bring me in, like you seem to think. I may even know more about it than you. If anything, I’m the one who put you in danger, by letting you know me.”

“I don’t believe that.”

Cheyenne chuckles. “You may change your mind one day. You’re time travelers,” she muses with a shrug. “Keeping secrets from people like us inevitably leads to failure.”

Leona narrows her eyes. She wants to know who this woman really is, but she knows that she’s not entitled to it. Still, she’s right. When you’re part of the salmon and choosing one network, you can’t expect to keep things from others, especially not if two or more people know about it. Even the adage, two can keep a secret if one of them is dead is completely meaningless for them. They probably would have cracked this nut a long time ago if the Third Rail weren’t stifling temporal manipulation, and hindering the circulation of information. “It doesn’t matter. That building was mine, and I was responsible for anyone in it, and anything that happened to them.”

Cheyenne nods tightly and respectfully. “Okay.” She leans back, and exhales, either finished with her exercise, or too tired to go on for now.

“Miss, you can’t be in here,” the nurse says from the doorway.

“We’ll talk later,” Cheyenne says.

“In the meantime,” she begins before turning her attention to the nurse, “I would like to speak with administration to find out why I’m not allowed to see my friend.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: November 3, 2398

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Kivi can presumably find anyone anywhere, but it helps to have a general idea of where they are. If their targets had run off to hide in Croatia, for instance, she probably would have never found them unless someone tipped them off to this fact. Fortunately, her SD6 team is not the only interested party. Investigators from multiple departments have been looking into the bombing of the former Balance of Power studios, and they do not believe that the culprits have managed to get out of the city. They’re still in New York, and as long as she doesn’t get distracted again, Kivi can take it from there. That’s not all the other investigators found.

A small group known as the Weighers of Justices have claimed responsibility for the attack. This is a new organization; so new that organization is a strong word to use for them. They say that they’re loyal to Solomon Powers and his legacy, and were retaliating against Leona’s legal killing of him, and her takeover of his microsovereignty. They’ve not released names, or shown themselves on camera, so this could all be a red herring, but Kivi and the other members of her team don’t care. Understanding motive is not part of their job descriptions. They just have to find these assholes.

It’s called a Pyramid Whelm. In a standard square or rectangular building, two members of the tactical team will take up positions on corners diagonal from each other. This allows them to watch for escape attempts from all side doors. A third member will take up a position on the roof, in case someone has some way out via helicopter or wingsuit, or something like that. When the main door of any given building is breached by two more tack team members, anyone hoping to evade capture will usually instinctively move to the back. The final two team members will be waiting for them at that exit. This is the most efficient use of a seven-member team, but it is a scalable tactic. A group totaling fourteen can double up on each position, or spread across a larger area, depending on necessity, threat level, and resource inventory. A single-family home can probably be contained with a single team, but an abandoned bulk store, for example, may need some extra people to cover all bases, but the same vaguely pyramidal formation is used in either case.

Before the Whelm comes the recon, which is when a single person, or maybe two people, attempt to gather as much information about a target location as possible before anyone else goes in. This is especially useful in urgent cases such as this, but it’s also risky if a security system tips the targets off to the oncoming containment. That’s what Kivi is supposed to be doing right now at that abandoned bulk story. But she’s not just doing it for her team, because they’re not preparing a Pyramid Whelm today. This is called a Deluge Configuration. It’s basically when every able-bodied law enforcer in the area comes out, and dominates a target location. This has become such an important case, despite the fact that no one was severely hurt, that everyone wants a piece of it. Leona Matic has her detractors—case in point, the bombing—but for the most part, she’s become very popular. People want to see the bad guys go down for this, so every department has a strong incentive to get it done quickly, and unambiguously.

Kivi does not feel the same way that everyone else does, and she knows that neither does Leona. That’s why she’s going to secretly convert the recon mission into a capture mission. She does not have the training or experience to take on all these guys on her own, but she’s doing it anyway, because it’s the safest way to go about it. It’s also the most rational, or maybe it’s more that a Deluge Configuration is an insane tactic. First of all, these people are bombers. This whole structure could be rigged up with explosives, which would put hundreds in needless danger. Secondly, when you have this many people who don’t even know each other, it would be incredibly easy for the suspects to slip away in the chaos. She refuses to let that happen.

As Kivi is double-checking her count of the suspects, Paula crawls up to her. “What are you doing here?” Kivi whispers. “You’re supposed to be hunting for underground exit points.”

“You think I’m going to let you do this alone?”

“It’s my job. I’m the Spotter.”

“Yes, but you’re not just spotting, are you? You were just about to go in alone.”

How does she know that? “What makes you say that?”

“I could see it in your eyes. Maybe I should be the Spotter.”

Kivi frowns. “The Deluge—”

“Is the dumbest thing that some guy with a computer keyboard came up with two hundred years ago. There’s a reason that the SD6 has never employed it once, because it doesn’t work. We’re surgical, that’s the whole point of a seven-person tack team.”

The Technician, Hurst crawls up to their position on the catwalk. “Hey, are we doing this, or what?”

Right behind him are Corolla, Hartwin, Klein, and Alserda. Now the whole team is here. “Are you mad?” Kivi asks their leader.

“No, you had the right idea, just the wrong tactic,” Alserda says. “We’re doing Hermit Crab Formation,” she orders.

“I’m not familiar with that one,” Kivi says.

Lieutenant Klein looks between Kivi and Corolla. “You’re in back.”

“Because I’m the newest?”

“Because you’re the smallest,” Alserda clarifies.

Hermit crabs live in shells created by other organisms. When one specimen grows out of its shell, it has to find a new one. So what they’ll do is get in a line next to each other, and trade shells one right after the other. In this case, Hermit Crab formation dictates the largest member of the tactical team approach the targets in front, hopefully giving the impression that there is only one person about to attack them. As soon as the targets see that an enemy is coming, and the tactical advantage of the ruse is lost, the crabs in back will break formation, and begin the attack using whatever means necessary and authorized. Despite the fact that two people on the team have never done this before, their technique serves them well. All bombing suspects are apprehended without anyone firing a single shot.

Once it’s over, Alserda conducts a brief interrogation in an attempt to ascertain whether there are any impending attacks. This is when they learn the truth. These guys never cared about their former boss, Solomon Powers. There was a vault in the sub-basement, which they robbed. The explosion was just to cover their tracks. They refuse to say where the money is, though. “That isn’t our problem,” Paula advises Kivi.

Kivi turns away, realizing that she’s right, and feeling a sense of relief in this truth. She’s not responsible for detecting clues, extracting confessions, or prosecuting crimes. She finds people; that’s it. What happens afterwards is out of her hands. Then again, that was Leona’s money. Maybe Kivi is responsible for recovering it after all.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: November 2, 2398

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Leona wakes up in a hospital bed. Her husband’s is the first face she sees. The nurse’s is the next. She tries to speak, but it doesn’t feel like her voice is coming out. The nurse hands Mateo a cup of water so he can hold it under Leona’s chin, and help her sip. Quenched, she can utter the only pertinent word right now. “Report.”

“There was an explosion,” Mateo begins to explain as the nurse is leaving to get the doctor. “They don’t know who, and if they know how, they’ve not released this information to the public. The investigation is going slow. The fact that the crime took place in a crime hole is causing some jurisdictional issues. Normally, an internal investigative team would be expected to handle this on their own, but when neighboring areas are at risk, external forces are willing to come in, which they have to, because—”

“Because I drained the swamp of nearly all staff, and absolutely all security,” Leona recalls. “I don’t regret it.”

“This being the case, police would usually try to get consent from the owner of the crime hole to step in, but since you were incapacitated...”

“They have it,” Leona says. “Anyone with the authority to investigate crime has my consent and support to do what they must.”

“I’ll text Winona,” Mateo says, taking out his device.

Once he’s done with that, Leona says, “go on.”

“Cheyenne and Marie were hurt; Cheyenne the least. She was conscious, and able to inform the rescuers that only the three of you were in the building at the time. Is that a fair assessment?”

“As far as we knew, yes. We kept a few staff to help with the transition, but we asked them not to come in today—”

“It’s the second of November,” Mateo interrupts.

“We asked them not to come in on that day,” Leona amends. “We wanted to walk the space, and envision the changes. Is it destroyed? Is the whole thing gone?”

“It is, yes. It was a massive explosion.”

“That’s a silver lining. We were just discussing how we would prefer to knock it down, and rebuild from scratch...assuming we haven’t lost ownership over it.”

“No one has said as much. I don’t know how it works.”

The doctor comes in and performs a basic examination on Leona. She has multiple bruises, a head laceration, and both of her legs are broken. She cracks a joke about this being a blessing since she didn’t have to cut them off, like last time. He doesn’t think it’s funny, but if he knew that she wasn’t lying... She’s going to make a full recovery, but the healing process is going to take some time. She will be confined to a wheelchair for the next three months at least, maybe even longer. She would be able to transition to crutches sooner, but there’s little point in trying that when both legs need time to heal. Leona is taking it surprisingly well. Again, if he only knew the kinds of things she has gone through, he would understand that this is not life-shattering news. It sucks, but if all else fails, she should eventually be able to just transfer her consciousness to a new body.

Shortly after the doctor leaves to let Leona get some rest, there is a knock on the door. Mateo answers to find Kivi on the other side. She steps into the room quietly, and looks around cautiously. She opens the door to the bathroom, like she’s expecting another person to be here. Then she settles her gaze back on Leona, and finally exhales.

“Are you looking for another bomb?” Leona asks.

“No, I was looking for the people who did it,” Kivi replies.

“What made you believe that they were in here? You don’t think that one of us did it, do you?”

“Of course not!” Kivi says. “I think I’ve overestimated how much control I’ve developed over my psychic abilities. I want to catch the people who did this to you, but my heart just wanted to make sure my friend was okay.”

“That’s sweet,” Leona says. “Thank you.”

“I better get back to the team.” Kivi lifts her watch up, and speaks into it, “code orange. Stand down.”

“Code orange?” Mateo asks.

“Like a detour sign?” Kivi explains. “These are not the droids we’re looking for.”

“Why do you know pop culture references from the wrong reality?” Leona questions.

“I dunno.” Kivi starts to back out of the room casually. “Why is a tree good? Why is the sunset good? Why are boobs good?”

Leona narrows her eyes at her. “I love you.”

“Love you too!” Kivi calls back just as she’s stepping out of view.

Leona manages to get a little bit of sleep before Ramses abruptly invites himself into the room. “She’s asleep,” Mateo tries to whisper, but it’s too late.

“I’m up.”

“Good.” Also without asking, Ramses lifts the bedsheets, and slides Leona’s hospital gown up to get a look at her legs.

“Oh good, you’ve graduated from medical school at last,” Leona jokes.

“I just need a quick look.” Ramses feels Leona’s upper thighs, and sticks his fingers down her casts.

“And a feel.”

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s your body; you built it for me.”

Ramses rolls his eyes. Then he takes out his version of a Star Trek tricorder, and scans her legs. “Yeah, I think this will work, but I can’t promise.”

“What will work?” Mateo asks, growing impatient.

“Did anyone tell you that we’re planning to raise the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the bottom of the ocean?” Ramses asks them as he’s checking Leona’s lymph nodes for an as of yet unknown reason.

“Yeah, what does this have to do with my wife’s medical condition?”

“Do you remember what happened to you when you teleported yourself into orbit? Did you die up there?”

Leona realizes what Ramses is thinking. “Oh. You think if I break the planet’s atmosphere, I’ll regain my transhumanistic upgrades, and reactivate my healing nanites, which will repair my legs.”

“That’s the idea,” Ramses confirms.

“Is that even a thing?” Mateo asks.

“Only one way to find out.” Ramses and Leona high five each other.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: November 1, 2398

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Kivi drops her bag on the bench, and opens her locker. She starts to undress. Paula Strand walks in to start doing the same, and gives her a bit of the stink eye. There is a hierarchy within the ranks of a tactical team. When Paula first started, she was at the bottom, and when her direct superior was promoted to the position of Lieutenant, she too moved up to become the Engineer. But even though Kivi is the new guy around here, she now ranks higher, because she officially entered the team as the Spotter. Hurst actually took a demotion when he decided to replace Paula as Technician, but he doesn’t seem to have any problem with that. It’s a special skill set, so it all works differently than what you might find in a military setting, where a rank determines one’s leadership level and pay grade, with specializations being a separate category. Here it’s arbitrary, really, that a Spotter ranks higher than an Engineer. Paula is taking it personally.

“So, you’re back. How long will you be gracing us with your presence this time?”

“I’m here indefinitely,” Kivi answers.

Paula scoffs. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“I’m sure you’ll retire before me, so you won’t be seeing it.”

Paula scowls now. “If we’re still working on the same team as my retirement approaches, promise to shoot me in the head.”

“That’s not my job. All I would be able to do is help Corolla shoot you.”

Paula tries to hold back her laughter, but she can’t help it. She knows that Kivi didn’t join the team to throw her weight around. Beyond the Leader and Lieutenant, no one generally gives commands. It really only happens in an emergency situation, when the two leaders aren’t around, and somebody has to make a decision. It makes it easier and safer to always know who that person will be without any argument. Paula needs to learn how to be an engineer, and Kivi needs to learn how to spot.

“Look, this is all new to me, but I’m committed now. I don’t wanna be anywhere but here. There’s some bad people out there, and some missing people too, and I think our new directive can do some real good in this world. Don’t you agree?”

Paula sighs. “I do. It is nice to know that we have a clear goal in mind. One of the most frustrating things about being on a tack team is you never know why you’re being sent off on missions. Now we know what we’re trying to accomplish, and I hope you know that I do appreciate that you bring that to our table in a way that no one else can.”

Kivi tugs on her shirt, and slams her locker shut. “I appreciate you saying that,” she says with a smile. She turns to head for the stall before the morning briefing, but that smile turns quickly into a frown. She’s struggling with this whole thing—not the decision—but the baggage, and the lack of honesty, she comes into every government room with. This seems right. This feels right. This must be where she belongs. But when she was born a few months ago, this job would not have been on her list of future pursuits, so it feels strange at the same time. She may be experiencing impostor syndrome. Her apparent psychic abilities give her the edge that she will need to be a great Spotter, but her lack of true experience—in anything—might sow doubt in her heart every day, and that could become debilitating.

Tactician Hartwin Seegers comes into the locker room, a hand over his eyes. “The briefing is starting early. There’s been an attack. This is an all-hands-on-deck situation.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: October 31, 2398

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They’re moving. They’re moving out of the lofts, and not just for their residential needs, but also for Ramses and Leona’s lab. This building was built to last, but it doesn’t belong to them anymore. They’re giving the whole thing to the new owners of Angela’s company to do with it what they will. Maybe they’ll expand, or rent out the upper floors. Or perhaps they’ll demolish the whole thing and replace it with a mini waterpark. Whatever they choose, it will have nothing to do with Team Matic. They should have known that something like this was going to happen. Their whole thing is an ephemeral, nomadic lifestyle. They don’t stay anywhere for too long. Best to not get attached.

A moving company is allowed to handle some of the generic equipment, like tables and beakers. The sensitive materials, however, must be done in house. Ramses is here today, directing Mateo and Alyssa on this task. They’re not in any sort of rush, though. The government-run lab where this will all be moving to is not quite ready for them. Well, the space itself is reportedly totally ready. Winona claims that they keep such future-use places primed in the event of an pandemic, or some other emergency need. That’s what’s holding up the opening process. They have to secure approval from about seven different departments to use one of them, because another emergency venue will have to be developed to replace it.

Mateo holds up a computer monitor stand. “This?”

“Green box, storage” Ramses responds.

“And this?”

“Also green box.”

“Should we really be trusting these people?” Alyssa questions. “I mean, consider everything that you did to make sure this place was yours, and not even the agency that gave it to you had access to it. All these lava lamps and security cameras. Now you’re just going to work in a place built by them, for them?”

“Yeah, I can see how strange that seems,” Ramses admits. “Past!Me probably wouldn’t understand, but things have changed. Our relationship with the government has changed.” They have already given them tons of data and technology so far that they never would have dreamed to do for any government in the main sequence. Trying to keep whatever’s left a secret seems futile at this point. A better facility is more important. “I would rather have unfettered access to an advanced mass spectrometer, and an MRI machine, than my own place. It’s time to grow the operation. I have a lot of things I want to do, and this new place gets me all that. Plus, I think it makes them happy, and we need to keep them on our side.”

Alyssa rubs a lava lamp like a genie might come out of it. “But I love these. I’ve grown accustomed to staring at them during my parking lot surveillance shifts.”

“Blue box,” Ramses says. “We’re taking them with us, not just for storage.”

“You will have some privacy, though, won’t you?” Mateo asks.

“Yes, that is the very first project on my list. They may think they’ll have free and full access to my work, but with the right resources, I can protect anything that we feel they don’t need to know about.”

“What resources will you need for that, and how will you be accomplishing it?”

“I need a submarine. We’re retrieving the AOC from the bottom of the ocean.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: October 30, 2398

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Vearden pulls up to the house, and turtles his head to look through the windshield. Arcadia fell asleep, even on this short drive. The internet says that it’s not necessarily a symptom of pregnancy, especially not this early. She’s probably just stressed, which is a symptom of pregnancy. “We’re here,” he whispers.

Arcadia opens her eyes. “Did I miss it?”

“No,” he laughs. “I think the agent is just pulling up behind us.”

As the SUV is parking behind them, Vearden gets out, and opens the door for his...his whatever—they’ve not come up with a word for it yet. “Hello, you must be Radha.” He offers his hand.

Radha shakes it. “And you’re...Varden?”

“Vearden,” he corrects.

“Nice to meet you. And you...Leona Matic?”

“I’m not Leona,” Arcadia says. “I’m her twin sister, Arcadia.”

“Forgive me,” Radha says politely.

“I need a new body,” Arcadia says to Vearden out of the corner of her mouth as they’re heading for the doorway.”

“I don’t see how the baby would transfer,” Vearden replies in the same way.

Radha unlocks the door. “Four bedrooms, two and a half baths. The master suite has a jacuzzi, and a walk-in closet, plus this cute little reading nook that I think you’re going to adore. The kitchen has recently been remodeled, as the previous owners were both professional caterers. They’re moving because their business got too big for it, but it should be perfect for a growing family. I assume you’re not far along.”

“Do I already have a bump?” Arcadia questions.

“Oh, heavens, no,” Radha says apologetically. “Your husband asked me to look for a good school district.”

“Oh, we’re not married.”

“Forgive me,” she repeats. “I was under the impression that you were Kalialists.” That must be a religion that doesn’t allow extramarital sex, or maybe just not pregnancy.

Arcadia has already looked into this. “We are Berarians.” As far as she can tell, it’s the least involved religion of them all. It’s not atheism, but they don’t really care about the nature of the almighty, or what the meaning of life is. It respects the rule of law more than some faiths. It recommends its members try not to bother others.

“I see. Well, here’s the open concept living room, breakfast dining area, and the kitchen that I was telling you about. That door in the corner by the bookcases leads to what I believe the original owners intended to use as a panic room. But then they moved, and the caterers came in, who never had it finished either. You can use it as a storage space, I suppose.”

Or they could use it as a panic room. “Oh, I would like to see that,” Vearden says.

Radha continues to show them through the house. It’s a nice place. On the outside, it doesn’t really look like something they would want, but that panic room almost sounds like fate. They’re trying to stay out of trouble, but it seems to find them, and that would be a nice thing to fall back on since Arcadia doesn’t have any powers, and because of the baby. They’ll consider making an offer.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: October 29, 2398

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By the time Mateo got himself out of the virtual construct that Ramses created to facilitate communication with the consciousnesses in the Insulator of Life, Aquila was gone. She probably didn’t know that they were about to find out that she stole, and is inhabiting, Bhulan’s body. They gave her an opportunity, and she took it without waiting around to ask any questions. She could not have gone far, but they’re not going to exert any effort chasing after her right now. The plan hasn’t changed. They were going to let Bhulan go. Now they know that they’re actually letting Aquila go. They’ll find her, and give the body back to its rightful owner. Until then, there’s a way to communicate with people inside the Insulator.

Unfortunately, the real Bhulan is being just as cagey as Aquila was. She’s refusing to give them any information about what she’s been up to, what her objectives are, or what other people she knows in this reality. They really want to find Danica, but it seems as though no one is interested in helping them with that. Mateo is starting to worry that she has something against him now, or that something is seriously wrong with her, and she needs him more than ever. Erlendr has been surprisingly quiet. When it comes to a Preston, that usually means that they know they’ve been beat, or they know that they’ve won. Arcadia gave them a little advice on how to get through to him, but it’s not really helping. It’s also not super necessary. As far as they can tell, he has been caught, and Meredarchos has lost the battle, which were the two major things that they were trying to accomplish.

It appears that all of their current problems have been solved, which leaves them the space they’ll need to accommodate all of the new problems that are coming their way. They still don’t know how to get their powers and transhumanistic enhancements back permanently, and they don’t know how to get back to the main sequence, but they’re at least safe. Not everyone survived to this point, but nothing is presently threatening the lives and liberties of those alive today. They even got Cheyenne back. She spent two nights in the government wing of a nearby hospital, and is being released today. There was nothing terribly wrong with her, but Andile’s body was on life support until Cheyenne’s consciousness was inserted into it, and it would have been unwise to just let her roam around the world without any medical observation. Kivi and Alyssa are picking her up now. No one’s sure if she’ll come live with them in the hotel suite, or even if anyone will be staying here for much longer.

“There’s something I have to admit to you,” Mateo begins. “It’s been weighing on me, and I would ask you kindly not to get angry at me for the fact that I’m only telling you now because the point is moot anyway.”

“Okay...” Leona says.

“Ram, could you come in here?” He calls.

Ramses comes in from his room. “Yeah?”

“This involves you,” Mateo says to him. “I’m afraid, in order for me to apologize, I’ll have to reveal to her how you helped me.”

“Okay...” Ramses echoes Leona from a second ago.

Mateo looks back at Leona. “You asked him to create a copy of your brain, so that it could be placed in Alt!Mateo’s head, so that when we sent it back to his timeline of origin, you could force that body to die, instead of letting it come back to the Third Rail.”

“I follow you,” Leona says.

“What you didn’t know is that I asked Ramses to use my mind for that instead. Of course it didn’t matter, because the Mateo we found in the Facsimile just did it for us anyway. Still, I think you have a right to know that I went behind your back.”

Leona nods, and looks over at Ramses. She tries to give him an opening, but he doesn’t take it voluntarily. “Is there anything you would like to say now?”

“No. I’m sorry I lied too,” Ramses replies, avoiding the truth.

Leona rolls her eyes, and looks back to her husband. “Ramses didn’t do as you asked. “He made a copy of himself for the suicide inducer. He was never gonna let either of us perform this task. And by the way, it was never a full mind, it was really just code that would have forced the body to let itself be killed. We only used our minds as a foundation for that code, because we trust ourselves. But it all worked out, and I’m not mad. Let’s just move on.”

“Okay...” Mateo agrees tentatively.

There’s a knock at the door. Still feeling awkward, Ramses gets up and tries to answer it. As soon as he opens the door a crack, it comes flying towards his face, knocking him to his back. Three men barge into the suite. Two look like muscle, and the one in the middle looks like he’s in charge. “Good afternoon, folks. I’m looking for an old patient of mine. Ah, there we are. You didn’t give me your real name, you just said that I could call you Arcadia. Then I see you on TV, and discover who you really are.”

“My sister’s not here,” Leona says as Marie is calmly stepping out of her room.

He sighs as he’s speaking, “ahh, you rich people. You always think you can talk your way out of things. Even when you’re outmatched, you believe that you won’t have to pay. I’m here to collect, and I’ll hurt anyone I have to in order to make that happen. Now you never said nothin’ about havin’ a twin, so you can see why I don’t believe that you’re not her, right? Care to fess up before my guys get a hold of ya?”

Marie looks over at Leona. “I’ll take the one on the left.”

“Fine with me.” The two of them attack the goons, and bring them to the floor with hardly any trouble. They severely underestimated who they were dealing with. “Rambo, you okay?” Leona asks.

Ramses is accepting the tissues that Mateo is using to sop up the blood from his face. “I’ll be all right.”

Marie pulls her wallet from her purse. “How much does she owe you?”

The leader guy is too scared to respond, so Leona snaps her fingers in front of his eyes. “Hey! She asked you a question. We have money, so how much do you need?”

“Uhh, she...she doesn’t owe money. She agreed to wipe my record. I’m a doctor you see, but I don’t have one of those, uh...licenses, ya know?”

“What did you do for her?” Leona asks him.

“It’s not my place to say,” he responds.

“Oh, yeah? Where is your place? On your feet...or on your ass?”

“She’s pregnant. I ran some tests, off the books.”

Marie takes out her handheld device. “Very well. What’s your name?”

“I don’t know that I should say.” He’s still so scared.

“How the hell are we gonna erase your record if we don’t know who you are, dipshit? Bonk,” she adds as she’s flicking him in the forehead.

“You can do that?” he asks.

“When Arcadia wants something like that done,” Marie says, “she asks me. So what’s your name?”

“Ernesto. Ernesto Coppola.”

“Two ps?” Marie confirms.

“Yes.”

She finishes tapping out the name, and sends it off to her contact in the Domestic Affairs Authority whose job it is to clean slates for informants and protected witnesses. “By this time tomorrow, no cop in the country will recall your name.”

“Th—thank you.”

“Arcadia has a new doctor now,” Leona explains. “If you ever come near her, us, or any of our associates again, I’ll put you in the ground. Now get the hell out of my hotel, and take your bruisers with ya.”

“It’s a problem that he found us,” Marie says to Leona after the bad guys are gone. “I’m sure Arcadia didn’t just give him this as her home address.”

“That’s my fault,” Leona believes. “I’m famous now, which means that Arcadia is too. His outfit probably has people all over the city, who can spot targets going into hotels and whatnot.”

“You know what you have to do then, don’t ya?” Marie asks, thinking it to be a rhetorical question.

“No.”

“You have to own it. Go back to New York. Take your throne at that political debate show, and build some clout so people can’t hurt you without risking the wrath of your loyalists.”

“The guy I murdered to get control of that show didn’t seem to have any loyalists. No one came after me.”

“That sounds like a him problem, it doesn’t mean you have to do things the same way he did. Do it better. He used the crime hole to justify killing people. Maybe you could...make it a sanctuary for refugees, or battered women?”

“Can I move the crime hole to a different place, say, Kansas City?”

Marie laughs. “It’s like an Embassy, which turns the soil under the property into a foreign state. Could you move it? Yeah, you could build a new one somewhere else, but that would be a whole legal thing. I don’t know the square dimensions of the zone, but you can go as vertical as you want. You might have to move to New York for a while, though, to make any of it work.”

Leona looks over at Mateo, who looks back with only a slight frown. “We’ve been apart before. I’ll know where you are. Go be, like, the president of a country.”

She faces Marie again. “Arcadia obviously felt like she hadn’t signed up for a government health plan. Would you make sure that she and her baby get the care they need from the best doctors available?”

“Of course,” Marie replies. “I wish I had known.”

Leona leaves for New York that night. Marie and Cheyenne decide to go with her.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: October 28, 2398

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Alyssa was closer yesterday, so Leona called and asked her to go out to Marie’s secret bunker in the woods to check on her Mateo. He was there, chained to the table, which was bolted to the floor. He didn’t think that Fax!Mateo was evil, so he was just chillin’ in there. He figured he would try to escape if no one came for him after two days. That would mean that the team believed the swapped twin gambit, and no one would be looking for him. It hadn’t occurred to him that Fax!Mateo would sacrifice himself to ensure that Alt!Mateo’s body died where it was supposed to in Reality One, taking with him anyone else’s consciousness trapped in the same substrate. It’s been about a day, and his plan seems to have worked. Alt!Mateo did not show up in the parking lot, and no reports have come in regarding destructive activity that matches Meredarchos’ M.O. He says that he can come back, but the chances of the team being the ones to have to deal with him again are low. They did all they could. They kicked him out of the house.

Everyone came back to the hotel, but they’re talking in the parking lot, in the new flying vehicle that Winona gifted them with, which yet remains unnamed. Kivi is up in the suite, keeping an eye on Bhulan. She will be returning to her SD6 team shortly, but she’s currently on leave, so she can get some rest after all this trouble. When she goes back, she’ll be part of missions unrelated to time travel, alternate realities, and powers. She’s just going to be a regular operative. It’s her calling. Arcadia and Vearden are planning their future together, so they may not stick around for much longer either. They probably don’t know yet themselves.

Bhulan has been exercising her right to remain silent. She follows all of their instructions, and accepts the food they place in front of her, but she doesn’t respond to questions, and she doesn’t speak up voluntarily. She’s not a prisoner, because she hasn’t done anything wrong, but they have strongly advised her not to run. She hasn’t tried yet, but she will. She knows where Danica is, and likely Tamerlane Pryce and Dalton Hawke, among who knows who else. She has a lot of answers that she’s simply unwilling to divulge. It’s not unreasonable of her to try to keep this information a secret, but they would at least like to understand her motives. “She’s protecting them,” Mateo offers as an explanation.

“Or she’s protecting us,” Marie counters.

Arcadia nods. “Bhulan Cargill is one of the most powerful travelers I’ve heard of, and you can’t rely on the power-suppressing properties of the Third Rail to protect you from her. I recommend we tread lightly. The people in my family are powerful too, of course, but we have never been guarded with our motives. The same cannot be said of her. It’s unclear who and what she cares about. Don’t think she won’t hurt you just because she hasn’t before. Her strength lies in her independence and enigmatic...ness. Plus, she’s theoretically been living in this reality for billions of years. It’s hard to know what that does to a person, even after knowing those who have done the same, like Danica.”

“If we let her go, will she see that as a sign of good faith?” Alyssa asks.

“Probably,” Arcadia answers. “Again, it’s hard to know what a person like that is thinking.”

“If we do let her go, would there be a way to track her?” Mateo is specifically asking Ramses.

Ramses is only half-listening. He has his laptop open, with the Insulator of Life plugged into it, looking for his own answers. Someone is in there all right, but it’s impossible to tell whether it’s Erlendr, or someone who has been stored the whole time. Ramses didn’t get a chance to test the interface before the whole thing went down at the black site. He’s working on it now.

“Rambo,” Mateo says.

“Huh?”

“I’ve heard you can spray people with something, like a...isotope, and that would allow you to track their movements. If we let Bhulan go, could she lead us to whatever she’s keeping secret from us?”

“You could do that, yes, except I believe that sort of thing is illegal, even under military direction. What I would do instead is launch another brain scanner. That way, we can find her whenever we need to, and it won’t wear off over time, like any radioactive spray would.”

“You can do that?” Leona asks. “You can build another one?”

“Of course I can,” he answers. “I just need a way to get it into space, and a way to deploy the payload, or access to a satellite that’s already up there. I’ve always been able to do it, I just don’t have the authorization. The last time we tried, it barely worked.”

“It’s more complicated now,” Marie reminds them. “Honeycutt is under heavy scrutiny for the fusion rocket launch. I doubt she has any favors to cash in.”

“Yeah,” Leona agrees. “The lab was run as a joint effort between a university, certain parts of the government, and private investors. It was never given the right to build a ship, let alone launch it, let alone launch it on that day without warning.”

“Still, maybe you could work that angle. Just because you don’t have any favors coming to you, doesn’t mean you can’t ask for them in exchange for something later,” Mateo suggests. “Having access to space would help us beyond this one endeavor.”

“I’ll do it,” Marie volunteers. “My history with her, and them, is longer, and Leona has things to do here. I’ll try to keep all of you out of it, from now on. I’ve been sulking for far too long, and it isn’t helping anyone. Heath’s gone, and I need to accept that.”

There is no response to this revelation. It’s her decision.

“What’s that sound?” Alyssa asks.

There’s a buzzing noise outside, getting louder, approaching the entrance. “That’s probably for me,” Ramses says. He stands up, and opens the hatch.

A drone is hovering in front of him. “Package for Ramses Abdulrashid?” comes a voice from the drone’s speaker.

“It’s Abdulrashid.” He takes the stylus, and signs his name on the screen. Then he holds his arms out to let the package drop into them. He comes back into the vehicle, and grabs the nearest blade, which happens to be Mateo’s quantum duplication knife.

“What is it?” Leona asks.

“A neural VR headset.”

“What for?” she presses, growing suspicious.

“I need to see who’s in the Insulator of Life. All I can gather is how much energy is being stored in there. If I knew how much energy one person takes up, I could estimate how many people are in there, but without a baseline, I’m just guessing. I can tell you there’s at least one, but there could be hundreds.”

“So you’re going to go into it yourself to find out?”

“Not fully,” he explains. “That’s what this is for. It will allow me to communicate with anyone inside. Don’t worry, there’s no chance of me getting trapped.”

“I don’t like that you’re the one doing it,” Leona admits, “considering your history with this object.”

Ramses stops examining the headset he’s just unwrapped, and looks incredulously at the wall. “What would you have me do?”

“She would have someone else go in.” Mateo takes the headset from him. “Tell me what to do. I’ll find out who’s in there once and for all.”

Ramses looks over at Leona, who shrugs. “I won’t make this decision unilaterally. I’m going to stop doing that so much. It’s been getting us into trouble. We vote.”

“What about Kivi?” Vearden asks.

Leona sighs. “Alyssa, please go tell Kivi that Bhulan is free to leave whenever she wants. You’ll both vote by voice over the phone. This isn’t a congressional hearing.”

“All in favor of Mateo doing this, raise your hand,” Leona puts forth after Alyssa hops out.

Everyone raises their hand, except for Ramses, but he doesn’t want to be the odd man out, so he follows suit. A few minutes later, Alyssa and Kivi both agree with the group, and inform them that Bhulan is packing her belongings. She didn’t come here with any of it. It’s all stuff that the team gifted her.”

Mateo leans his chair back, and lets Leona affix the headset to him. Ramses, meanwhile, links it to his computer, and makes sure that it’s talking to the Insulator of Life. When everything’s ready, he confirms that Mateo is ready as well, and then he switches it on.

Mateo finds himself being pulled into a room that looks like the inside of the Insulator. It’s not much, because Ramses didn’t take time to design anything fancy. Before too long, two figures begin to materialize, as Ramses pulls consciousnesses in from the real Insulator’s storage. One of them is Erlendr. He looks around a little, and then crosses his arms. The other figure takes a little bit longer, but once it’s complete, Mateo can clearly see that it’s Bhulan. “How long have you been in here?”

“One second,” Bhulan answers, “but that tells you nothing. Time doesn’t pass in this thing. This is the first moment I’ve been aware of my surroundings.”

“What was the date when you were stuffed in here then?” Mateo questions.

She sighs. “There was no date. It was prior to recorded time.”

“Shit. Someone is out there with your body. Do you have any idea who?”

“Yeah, I know exactly who.”

“Care to share with the class?” Mateo asks.

“Not the whole class.”

Mateo closes his virtual eyes, and sends a message to the real world. “Ram, can you discern three distinct signatures now? One of them is me.”

“Yes.”

“Try to toggle one of the others off. You have a fifty-fifty shot.”

Ramses gets it right on the first try. Erlendr disappears with no complaints.

“Go ahead please,” Mateo prompts Bhulan. “Who is in your body? It’s important; people I care about are with her right now.”

“You care about this person too.”

“Keep going.” He’s getting anxious about the answer.

“It’s your sister, Aquila.”