Classified Ministry of Defense Research Facility, Rangerville Crater, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, 7:20PM
Molly felt she was usually pretty good with strange. In high school, she and her friends - Carmilla, Cas and Gwen - had been the weird girls who dressed in black (except Gwen who always wore white), listened to strange music and talked about the occult. Cas and Gwen had been genuine witches. Most of the engineers she'd ever worked with were at least quirky. Clients were always a little odd, and the MoD could be downright bizarre at times. Sinister government agents at her door... well, Molly had dated Yuki 'Snow' Behr for years, so that was almost the most normal thing about her day.
However, Project Orchid, whatever it was, was messing with her friends, and that was too much. Sure, maybe she'd only known Dylan and Jess for a week, but they were still friends. Molly wasn't going to let this go. She wanted answers, and the only place she knew to look for them was the abandoned secret lab.
On the not-so-unlikely chance the MiB were watching, she changed into something casual enough to say 'night out' (while still comfortable for walking the desert). Then she drove around for a bit, remembering Yuki's advice on spotting and throwing off a tail. If anyone was following her, they were better than she was (which, she admitted to herself, wasn't all that unlikely).
After a bit of evasive driving, she headed out to the crater and made the dusty hike to the lab.
The trick, Molly thought, was going to be finding some meaningful clue without finding whatever might have 'infected' Dylan. Assuming he'd been infected here. Maybe Zombie Jess, and this mysterious Mother, had caught up with him later. That made sense. Zombie Jess and Dylan had wanted her to eat that strange fruit, and MiB Hunt had been going on about fruit... including pie, salad and salsa. Maybe Dylan had come home to find a bowl of strange zombie-making fruit salsa on the table.
Still, no reason to be careless, Molly thought. Let's avoid strange plants, menacing fruit and definitely not eat any pie, salad or salsa that might be lurking around the lab.
Damn it, she thought, now I'm hungry.
Resisting the urge to go through to the breakroom fridge for a snack, Molly turned her attention back to searching for clues.
Nothing, nothing, more nothing, Molly thought. For a society trying to think of itself as paperless, people sure generated a lot of meaningless paper.
"Finding anything useful?" a man's voice said.
"AGH!" Molly shrieked. "I wasn't..."
"My apologies," the man said, suppressing a chuckle.
"OK, one, you do not sneak up on someone breaking into a classified government lab," Molly snapped. "Two... what the Hell are you doing here, Lucius?!"
"I am investigating a disruption in the Balance," Lucius replied with a slight grin. "Which, as I believe I've told you, is the reason I came to Rangerville in the first place. I confess, I am rather wondering what you are doing here."
"Trying to find out why Jess is sleepwalking," Molly snapped. "And why Jess and Dylan have turned into wacked out zombies who want me to eat strange fruit! And why the Men in Black are showing up at my door, confiscating the fruit and warning me not to eat any salsa! And does any of this have anything to do with those strange plants and the explosion here two weeks ago... and why that made the MoD move up its project deadlines... and what in the Hell is Project Orchid!"
"Oh, I see," Lucius said mildly.
The fact that he did, in fact, act as if her rant had made everything clear to him, annoyed the hell out Molly.
"Do you know what's going on?" Molly demanded.
"If I knew what was going on, I wouldn't be here investigating, much like you are," Lucius said. "In fact, I suspect you may already have a better grasp on the situation than I do."
"Yeah, but you know more than you're saying," Molly said. Deep down, she desperately hoped it was true. No matter how annoying it seemed, she really hoped this odd man, or witch or whatever he was, knew the answers.
"I suspect a great deal more than I'm saying," Lucius admitted. "It's rather an occupational hazard, you might say. However, the difference between what I suspect and what I know is both significant and important."
"Terrific," Molly sighed.
"Molly, it seems clear to me that you and I are both investigating the same mystery," Lucius said. "A mystery that, if I understood you correctly, has touched the Sigworth family. I believe we could better help them if we worked together on this... or at least shared what we know."
"Has anyone every told you, you talk funny?" Molly said.
"Constantly," Lucius smiled.
"OK, Obi-Wan, tell me what you know, or suspect," Molly said.
"Roughly three weeks ago there was a disruption in the Balance... the harmony of mystical forces that form the foundation of our Realms, our worlds," Lucius explained. "The disruption originated here, in the Great Western Desert, and coincided with the appearance of those strange plants. The Witches' Council sent me to investigate.
"So far, I've been able to determine that those plants are clearly not from this Realm," he continued. "I have also observed several of these 'zombies' as you refer to them. They appear to be most active at night, while in the day they seem to behave normally. I believe the zombies and the plants to be connected, not merely in time but in fact. There is a bond between them.
"I was able to discover the rumors about this lab and the explosion here, which seems to have happened at the same time as the disruption. So, I came here to investigate, and found you here ahead of me," Lucius concluded. "Your turn."
"You're something holding back," Molly said.
"Correct," Lucius smiled. "Your turn."
"OK," Molly said. "Here's what I know..."
So, she laid it out for him... the FutureTech project she'd been called in on, how she thought it was related to the explosion of the lab, Jess's sleepwalking, what she and Dylan had found about Project Orchid during their first visit to the lab, and what had happened with Zombie Dylan and Jess and the MiB.
She considered holding something back, just to be bitchy, but in the end, she told him everything.
"So, what do you think?" Molly asked when she'd finished.
"I think we need to get through that giant door," Lucius replied.
"Yeah, if the MiB don't snatch me first," Molly sighed.
"It might be best to avoid that," Lucius smiled. "I believe this may be an opportune moment for you to accept the offer of hospitality I extended earlier."
"You mean crash at your place, instead of going back to mine, in case they're waiting for me?" Molly smiled.
"Precisely," Lucius smiled back.
"Well, I've had worse invitations," Molly said. "Where are you parked? I'll follow you back."
"I don't drive," Lucius said mildly.
"How did you... you know what, never mind," Molly said. "I'm hungry and tired. Come on, Obi Wan. I'll drive."
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