Chapter 38: Sting Operation
Dawn filtered through the briefing room window, turning every drifting mote of dust into something stark and visible.
Kyle stood at the head of the table, one hand braced against the spread out documents.
"The direction is set," he said. "From this point on, we move on several fronts at once. Before the Obsidian Group realizes we are circling them, we need harder evidence. Not suspicion. Not intuition. Something they cannot explain away."
He turned first to Arthur.
"Internal data is the key. I want you digging into every person, every department, and every permission chain linked to Transit Station No. 7. Focus on who accessed the system after maintenance, whose credentials were invoked during off hours, and whose trails look too clean."
Arthur nodded at once, his expression sharpening. "Understood. I will cross reference authority logs with access timestamps and flag any ghost logins that appeared after system repair. If someone slipped in through the cracks, I'll find them."
The moment he finished, Baron let out a low snort.
"Captain, I'm not saying this to be difficult," he said, though the look he shot Arthur made it clear he very much was, "but handing the most sensitive part of the investigation to a newcomer who dropped in yesterday feels a bit bold, doesn't it? We still don't know how well he meshes with us. What if something gets overlooked?"
Hodell touched the bridge of his nose and said nothing.
"Baron," Kyle said, frowning, "that's enough."
Baron looked aggrieved. "Captain, I'm just saying…"
"Enough."
Baron opened his mouth again, then thought better of it and grabbed the cup in front of him with all the pent up energy of a man who wanted to argue but had lost the ground beneath his feet.
Kyle's eyes narrowed immediately. "Baron. Stop drinking."
Baron froze, then slowly lowered the cup and looked at him in disbelief.
"Captain," he said helplessly, "this is water."
Kyle gave a short cough, clearly refusing to admit the mistake, and continued as if nothing had happened.
"Loyi, Eileen, you two handle external intelligence and support. Loyi, I want everything public on the Obsidian Group. Executives, board members, shareholders, abandoned projects, strange cash flow, back door funding, shell partnerships, all of it. Eileen, you coordinate perimeter surveillance. Use the observation points we planted yesterday and keep watching the main routes into and out of the vein. The moment there's any unusual energy movement, I want to hear about it."
Both acknowledged at once.
Kyle turned to Baron.
"You're with me. We'll take the front route under the cover of a routine security inspection. While we're at it, we'll probe the management side and inspect the abandoned sectors that might be getting used for something off the books."
That finally pulled Baron out of his sulk.
"Now that sounds like real work." He cracked his knuckles and grinned. "If they've got something to hide, I'll make them sweat it out."
Last came Hodell and Sasha.
Kyle's gaze rested on them a beat longer than on the others.
"Your side is the most dangerous, and probably the most important. You'll infiltrate the core area and track the missing ore. The model only gives us a likely direction, not certainty. There could be changes on site, hidden variables, or something we have not considered. Stay sharp. If the situation feels wrong, pull out immediately."
Hodell met Sasha's eyes. Both nodded.
…
By the time they reached the deeper reaches of the mineral vein, the last traces of daylight had already been swallowed whole.
The great excavation zone resembled the throat of some underground giant, vast, dark, and impossible to see to the end of. The roar of magitech drills and transport systems rolled endlessly through the tunnels, turning the entire place into a living machine.
Sasha led, silent as a shadow.
Hodell followed a step behind, every movement careful, measured, and nearly soundless.
The walls around them were scarred by old and new tool marks. Thick energy conduits snaked overhead, humming like the pulse of some slumbering beast. Following the route Loyi had prepared and the detector's guidance, the two of them went deeper and deeper into the transit network.
At last, Sasha stopped and checked the screen.
The detector needle had stabilized.
"This is the route," she whispered. "The missing ore was most likely mixed into the main logistics stream and sent toward Processing Plant No. 3."
Hodell did not answer right away.
His eyes narrowed.
The main tunnel ahead was alive with noise, dense energy signatures, and the constant churn of large scale operations. But at the edge of his perception, from a far narrower and far more dilapidated abandoned branch tunnel, there came another fluctuation.
Subtle.
Intermittent.
Wrong.
Yesterday, he could have dismissed it as specialized machinery. Today, combined with Lamia's warning, he no longer wanted to ignore anything that felt out of place.
"Wait," he said quietly.
Sasha turned.
"There's something else." Hodell lifted his head slightly, gaze fixed on the abandoned side passage. "The energy fluctuation over there doesn't feel like machinery. It's too irregular."
Sasha glanced at the detector, then back at the tunnel.
"That branch is abandoned. It could be unstable. Collapse risk, unregistered traps, unknown defensive measures."
"Which is exactly why it's a good hiding place," Hodell replied. "If there's anything important buried here, it won't be sitting in a well lit processing hall."
Time was slipping.
Every second they remained increased the risk of exposure.
Sasha studied him for two silent seconds.
Then Hodell made the decision.
"We split up. You follow the main route, confirm where the ore is going, and gather evidence. I'll check that fluctuation. Keep radio silence unless it becomes necessary. We regroup here at the agreed time, no matter what."
Sasha's brows drew together.
But in the end, she only said, "Be careful."
"You too."
Then they parted.
…
The abandoned tunnel smelled of rot and mineral dust.
Broken rails lay half buried beneath gravel. Splintered beams and rusted scraps were scattered everywhere. Most of the support structures had long since collapsed, leaving jagged stone teeth jutting from the walls.
If this had been his previous life, it would have been a perfect horror game map. One weak flashlight. A tiny circle of light. Endless dark beyond it.
Fortunately, he did not need light.
Bat Habit turned the darkness from an obstacle into little more than an inconvenience.
The deeper he went, the clearer the energy fluctuation became.
No longer vague.
No longer easy to explain away.
It pulsed with a slow, unsettling rhythm, like a hidden heartbeat deep within the mountain.
Hodell slowed, taking out a magic guided instrument and beginning a careful series of readings. Frequency. Intensity. Residual signatures. He marked every abnormal point as he advanced.
The tunnel began sloping downward.
Then the stone changed.
The walls here were not wholly natural anymore. Some sections had been shaped. Cut. Reinforced.
His eyes sharpened.
"Artificial excavation…"
He turned a nearly right angled bend and abruptly emerged into a small cavern.
Something stood at its center.
It was roughly man sized, some strange magitech structure that resembled a piece of modern sculpture more than any practical machine. Energy lines pulsed across its surface. Thick conduits like roots burrowed down into the stone and disappeared toward deeper places.
Hodell inhaled slowly.
Then he took out the detector and switched it to a high precision scan mode.
This time, he was not relying on instinct alone.
"This is the right era for tools," he murmured under his breath.
The instrument began to hum softly. Invisible scanning waves spread across the structure, and a partial three dimensional model started building on the crystal panel strapped to his arm.
Then the moment the scanner made deep contact with the thing's operating patterns, the machine screamed.
A shrill buzz tore through the cavern.
The structure flared blood red.
All the previously stable energy lines turned frenzied at once.
Hodell's heart dropped.
A lure.
Not just a device. Not just a hidden machine.
A trap designed to be found.
A sting operation.
He cut the scan immediately and sprang backward, one hand already reaching for the communication badge on his chest.
No response.
His pupils contracted.
"The line's been cut."
This place had become a kill box.
Without wasting another thought, he turned and bolted for the exit.
He made it only as far as the bend in the tunnel before rapid footsteps burst from the darkness ahead.
Four figures in black tactical uniforms rushed into view, their movements smooth, quick, and disciplined. In an instant, they spread and blocked the passage.
Their eyes were cold. None of them bothered with introductions.
An invisible pressure descended on the space.
Hodell's head throbbed sharply.
Psychics.
He moved at once, trying to break through before they could fully synchronize, but the air around him thickened into something like glue. His momentum dragged, then stumbled.
An invisible force seized his ankle and whipped him sideways into the rock wall.
Pain exploded up his leg.
He twisted in midair, barely stabilizing himself by generating a repulsive burst underfoot.
One of the attackers stepped forward, fingers hooked slightly inward.
A concentrated telekinetic shock blasted toward him like an invisible battering ram.
Hodell did not retreat.
He raised his right hand and compressed a violent mass of source energy in his palm. Heat gathered. Pressure peaked.
Then he fired.
The two attacks collided head on with a deafening crack. The telekinetic wave was thrown off course by the eruption of heat and impact, though Hodell still felt a scorching pressure rake across his shoulder.
There was no pause.
A mental spike stabbed toward his mind from the flank. At the same time, layered telekinetic restraints cinched around his limbs, trying to lock his body in place.
His eyes hardened.
He forced his concentration inward and expanded a chaotic barrier around his consciousness, grinding against the mental intrusion with brute resistance rather than elegance. His mastery in that area was far from complete, but advancement had at least given him the beginnings of a defense.
At the same time, he drove a high frequency vibration through the energy wrapped around his body.
The telekinetic restraints shivered.
One of the men reacted in surprise. "He's interfering with the field."
The fourth attacker stepped in.
Then the real pressure came.
A far stronger telekinetic suppression net crashed down over the tunnel like a collapsing ceiling.
The very air seemed to harden.
To compress.
To crush.
"Target confirmed," the apparent leader said coldly. "Ryan of the Rapid Response Department. Prepare for memory erasure."
Memory erasure.
So that was the goal.
Not immediate execution. Not yet.
In their judgment, he was only a newly appointed specialist with little seniority, a manageable problem to be neutralized quietly.
The pressure around him mounted with terrifying efficiency.
Hodell's energy simulations were beginning to lag behind the pace of their coordinated attacks. Four trained Psychics working in concert created a tightening web. The more he strained against one strand, the more the others closed in.
A heavy telekinetic blow slammed into his ribs.
Something cracked.
Pain burst through his side so sharply it almost blanked his vision.
His breathing staggered.
Fine. Then there was no point holding back.
A ruthless glint flashed across his eyes.
He abandoned delicate control entirely and poured source energy into the emergency energy communication rune with savage force.
One of the black clad attackers felt it first and shouted, "Stop him!"
Another's expression changed. "That amount of energy, he's trying to force an emergency transmission!"
The organization of official personnel had adapted long ago. Communication badges could be jammed, destroyed, or isolated. So the Emergency Energy Communication Rune had been developed as a last resort. It did not require mana specifically, only raw power.
The stronger the injection, the farther the signal could punch through.
But the cost was equally brutal.
In a place like this, where the local interference was already severe, if Hodell wanted Sasha, the nearest possible ally, to receive anything at all, he had to flood the rune with enough source energy to overwhelm the blockage by sheer violence.
It was the kind of move that could cripple a weaker Super.
"Has he lost his mind?" one of the attackers shouted. "At this output, he'll cripple himself even if we don't finish him!"
The answer came in the form of light.
A complex emergency rune exploded into existence in Hodell's hand. It shone with painful brilliance for a single heartbeat before discharging a silent, incredibly sharp pulse that bored through the telekinetic blockade and burst outward in all directions.
At that same instant, a brutal telekinetic strike smashed into his left side.
Crack.
The sound of breaking bone rang clear in the tunnel.
Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth and pattered down onto the dust below.
The four attackers paled.
"A high intensity emergency signal got out," one snapped. "Put him down now!"
Telekinetic pressure wrapped around him in layers, grinding against body and mind alike. Hodell dropped to one knee, vision swimming for half a second.
Then he pushed himself back up.
The daily grind of the Energy Refining Method had not been glamorous, but this was exactly why it mattered.
Energy roared through him.
He drove it into a violent vibration field and tore at the telekinetic bindings clamped around his body. Their pressure wavered for an instant.
That was enough.
He compressed everything he could into his fingertips and launched a savage counterattack at the man nearest his left flank.
The four of them swore at almost the same time.
"He's still fighting?"
"He's tougher than predicted!"
What they had expected was a newly promoted specialist who would fold once isolated.
What they got was a monster who refused to go down even with broken ribs and four coordinated Psychics on top of him.
…
Far above the mining zone, on a white washed cliff swept by snow and wind, a woman in pure white stood motionless.
The pale winter light fell over the cliff face, turning the hem of her robe into something almost unreal against the storm.
Below her, the mine machinery roared on in endless lines, ignorant and mechanical and loud.
When the emergency fluctuation burst from deep inside the abandoned tunnels, a faint light moved through her violet eyes.
She watched for only a moment.
Then she stepped forward into the falling snow and disappeared.
.....
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