K is for Kamabo (Splatoon)

Chapter 5

Friday, 10:30 p.m.
Flounder Heights

"Marina, take a look at this."

Pearl wheeled her chair away from the desk as Marina leaned into the screen. The three drones had finally reached Mount Nantai, and one of them had caught something unusual in the trees. The point sensor beacon was practically invisible even to the trained eye, but Marina's video processing algorithms combined with her flying eyes' ability to detect electronics could see right through the camouflage. Highlighted in orange on Marina's computer, the beacon stared down the trail like a wary animal.

"That's not Octarian tech," Marina observed. Then, directing her voice to the computer, she ordered, "Drone 310-E, fingerprints."

The orange blob grew larger on-screen as the flying eye approached the beacon. Whoever placed the beacon there had tried to conceal it, and the bark putty they had used was covered in fingerprints. A quick scan revealed that the fingerprints matched those of a certain Natalie Tilus from Inkopolis.

"Ha! Gotcha!" Pearl cackled, scooting her chair back up to the desk. "Now we just gotta find where she went." With one hand on the mouse and the other on the screen, Pearl targeted the trail that wound around Mount Nantai, sending one drone directly down the path and two into the wilderness flanking it.

Marina examined the on-screen map. Mount Nantai was pretty big, and three flying eyes would not be enough to scour the entire place. They would need more information if they wanted to see the whole picture. And to get more information, they needed more drones.

"We gotta get more eyes over there," said Pearl, echoing Marina's thoughts.

The city had hundreds of drones flying around Inkopolis proper, but diverting more of them to Nantai was unfortunately not a feasible plan. Most of them were running on less than half charge, and the backups still needed more time to reach full battery. Even if they made it to Mount Nantai, they wouldn't be able to fly all the way back. Taking more flying eyes off their routes might also rouse the ire of their superiors—the drones technically belonged to the city, and the DPC was already being generous with giving their inventor full control.

Marina put her fingernails on her lips, mentally weighing her options. She had a whole batch of prototype drones sitting in her room that didn't belong to the DPC, with better specs and new features. They hadn't been tested yet—Marina didn't want her prototypes' maiden voyage to be out in the middle of the wilderness, but the mountain was looking incredibly suspicious tonight, especially with the strong possibility that Craig had sent one of his personal contacts to investigate. Pearl and Marina needed to take the prototypes out to Mount Nantai and get a clean sweep. That would give them a better idea of what was happening and a better chance of finding Natalie.

A small part of her mind was telling her to back off. Marina could just go to bed and let the DPC do its thing tomorrow. She technically had the weekend off. This wasn't her responsibility, and if Natalie was really an agent, then maybe she'd take care of everything. But another part of her knew that this was bad. Craig never called anyone into his office. He had certainly never bothered to talk to DPC recon people before, so his little hunch was serious. And Marina knew what the Octarians were capable of, having seen their activities firsthand. Playing it safe now could only spell trouble later down the road.

It was time to take the initiative. Marina needed eyes on Mount Nantai. She needed them now.

"The prototypes..." Marina faltered, still lost in her thoughts. "We need to go."

Pearl was already moving to gear herself up. "Mount Nantai, right now, yeah?" she asked. "I'm coming with ya. You ready the fliers, and I'll get the rest of our equipment."