“Looks like we’re in for a long ride,” Cal said after they found out just where they would be bunking. At least they each had their own space, even if it was incredibly cramped. For one of the very few times Cal was glad to currently have his smaller frame, as it made navigating the tiny room that much easier.
“I’m just glad to make the trip. Compared to my last visits to the Under Library and the fact that I’ve been stuck as an Agency victim, this is almost a vacation,” Andy said with a smile. Bill nodded along as his friend spoke.
“Sean, if you’re okay talking about it, what does the Agency generally make you do? Was it just fighting Gryalth before us?” Cal asked, looking at the newcomer on their trip.
“I’ve spent the last seven years primarily being used to either deal with Gryalth operations, rarely are they direct interactions with the invaders themselves, though. Usually, we are cleaning out some of their monsters,” he answered, not looking happy at the course of his life.
“Weird tentacle bears? Or were there other things?”Andy followed up with his own question, reminding Cal how much he had hated those bears early on. They had been a constant source of his nightmares in many an early loop.
“I’ve fought the bears. The tentacles gave me nightmares for months, but they have nothing on the ocean goats. Those things roam the bottom of the oceans and sometimes even get into the bigger lakes. No idea what they are looking for exactly, but they can eat anything, anything, and anyone. I’ve lost so many friends to them,” Sean answered solemnly.
“I’m sorry for your loss, I wish we were able to help earlier. That said, we haven’t encountered one of those yet. How dangerous are they?” Cal asked. He didn’t like pressing the man but wanted to know everything about the possibility. There was no real way he was joining the loop this cycle anyway, so at least he would forget this conversation ever happened.
“They are the most dangerous of the singular monsters I’ve encountered. There are rumors of swarms of insects, though. The Agency tends to keep us from sharing as much information as possible and I’ve never personally encountered any, but I do not doubt their existence. From what I’ve heard, they are often used to guard some of the facilities the Gryalth truly care about instead of just being used in their experiments or to gather resources,” Sean explained further.
“Hrm, how many facilities do they have on Earth? I’ve found a couple, but I didn’t think they were that widespread,” Cal asked, now worried about just how much the Gryalth controlled under his nose. Then again with how much power the Agency had amassed, it seemed plausible they had done so for a real tangible threat, and the Gryalth very well fill that role entirely.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“I can’t answer just how many, but I’ve personally raided seven facilities. It’s generally where the Agency gets so many of its children recruits, the ones the Gryalth have already found and captured, not that that’s all of their recruits. Don’t let me fool you into thinking they are doing good here. They kill us all just the same. But yes, generally, the Gryalth facilities I’ve raided haven’t had any of the truly frightening monsters I’ve heard rumors about,” Sean answered, taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it as he finished. It didn’t seem to do anything about the anger on his face. Who could blame the man? He’d been through hell for a long time, and while he had come this far in trusting Cal as a potential miracle, Cal wouldn’t blame the man at all for never letting go of the rage. He knew he couldn’t try as hard as he could, it refused to entirely abate.
“Besides human experiments, what else have you found?” Cal asked, pushing further, figuring he might as well get it all out of the way now. It wasn’t like Harold wouldn’t be doing the same kinds of questions on the others. Well, probably better questions. Cal was impressed at how much that man knew. The fact the scientists who were added to the loops had caused such problems but were also the only reason they had Harold was an annoying coincidence.
“In one of them, we found a large mirror-like thing. It looked to be used for crossing between dimensions. But we never could figure out how exactly it worked. I know we’ve captured several of their smaller spacecraft out of a large multinational raid I was involved in a few years back. That was the biggest I’d ever seen. Didn’t even know the Agency had connections with other nations before that one,” Sean said.
“Yeah, I’ve seen the mirror before. There’s one on Pluto. But the spacecraft explains some of the alien technology, they must have had a few crafts before that raid. I wonder how far out the Agency actually has made contact then,” Cal said, considering the possibility. Did they know about the Pluto base? It explained how they were able to figure out how to track Twonger. They must have had some idea of how his ship worked from studying other, possibly similar ships.
“I honestly had no idea they had made contact outside the Earth, well beyond the invaders, until you all told me they had. Whoever is involved in that has managed to keep it very secret. Rumors do spread among the ogres, even if we try to hide how aware we actually are from our handlers. It goes poorly for us if they catch us actually paying attention,” Sean explained.
“Someday, you are going to have to give me a list of everyone you can identify in your torture, and we will make sure they are dealt with, even after the loops finally end,” Cal said this not as a possibility but as a promise of the future. Those monsters had lost any right to a happy ending, and he would make sure they didn’t get one.