To Be Determined

Chapter Fifteen: The Technician

Bella sits easily in my lap, allowing me to stroke her back. It is a long and bumpy drive to the outskirts of the city and the beginning of the desert. Iliad's entire organization is run out of the basement of a dilapidated schoolhouse. Shortly after the collapse that followed the plague, educational institutions became rural, as most of the survivors were those who escaped large cities and avoided contact with outsiders. It was only in the last 50 years that all the university and university preparation schools were developed. Lochea became the education hub of this small continent. Other schools exist of course but nothing like our city. I decided to leave my bag in the car and place Belladonna on my shoulder.

I feel my muscles grow even tenser as we approach the building. Rain begins to pour harshly but it does not encourage me to match Iliad's pace. I feel vulnerable but am in no position to let that show. I don't know how I could let Iliad in again, that is a demon that I'll have to struggle with alone later on. Walking through the door sends a chill spidering down my shoulder. It reminds me of my early education, probably age eight or nine. We had moved to Lochea when Asha and I were ten, so this sour nostalgia is old. Iliad pulls open a trap door and goes down first, I place Bell on the floor of the main level, she can search for spiders or other miscellaneous insects while I descend into the metaphorical pit of vipers. I have no idea when the last time she ate was, but I am fairly certain that my family would not let my familiar starve while I was away. At the bottom of a short ladder no larger than a stepstool, Iliad helps me to the floor.

There is a short descending staircase that leads into the open door of the laboratory. It is incredibly sterile and far more spacious than one could anticipate. Three others sit at computers or stand at counters working at their stations. I recognize all three of them, former students of mine. They were the top of their class. They always went above and beyond to help their peers. I'm equal parts disheartened and perplexed. These former students had the world in their hands, why would they turn to a terrorist organization?

One of the students, a guy named Leonard with sandy brown hair notices me and stands up. "Professor Saris? What are you doing here? Why aren't you wearing your lab coat?"

I recognize that none of these people had seen me outside of office hours. Iliad hands me a coat and a fresh set of gloves, planting a kiss on the cheek as he does.

"Come on Leo, you know Lyvia is my wife."

"That Olyvia?!? I didn't know that she existed outside of the microbiology department. Still, that doesn't explain why she's here now."

"Who else would be a better candidate? She's been studying the plague for the last ten years and is an accredited disease ecologist. I don't know why I didn't recruit her earlier."

"You said that she would murder you in the utmost literal sense."

"I will refrain from murder to any degree until after my tour," I say, falling back into the no-nonsense teacher role that I had perfected in the last 10 years.

"Ah yes, right this way Professor." Leonard practically trips out of his seat when he stands up. Everything in the lab looks extremely basic, nearly rudimentary, the equipment that is there looks eerily similar to the equipment that I use to teach my labs. That's when everything hits me; All of the missing equipment from the last several years and documents that have gone missing from my desk have ended up down here. "Thanks to the contribution of your research, most of what we do down here is magic related. It is a great deal easier to know what we want when we know the pathophysiology and don't need to waste time doing multiple tedious trials. Not saying that what you are doing with those trials isn't important, I don't intend to insult you because we couldn't do what we have without you. Once we realized that the original cause of the plague was not microbial, but magical in origin, the missing pieces began to fall in place."