Chapter 52: Show Them Your Worth

The building was even larger on the inside.

Reinhard had expected Eclipse to be impressive.

He hadn’t expected this.

The moment he walked through the entrance beside Lucien, the sheer scale of the place became obvious. Researchers worked behind reinforced glass, studying strange materials suspended in containment chambers.

While medical staff hurried between laboratories carrying sealed cases, and armed security stood at measured intervals down every corridor, as still as statues and considerably more alarming.

A team of Awakeners marched past them in the opposite direction, their weapons still crusted with dirt and dried blood.

A moment later, another team came through carrying several sealed containers between them, and farther ahead, a group of analysts sat hunched around a long table covered in maps and reports.

Reinhard slowed as he looked through another glass wall. "This isn’t a company."

Lucien glanced at him. "You’re learning quickly."

"I was going to say something much more impressive."

"You can save it."

The employees noticed Lucien almost immediately.

"Good morning, sir."

Lucien nodded. "Morning."

Another bowed slightly as he passed. "Good morning."

Reinhard watched it happen three more times. "You really are important here."

"I told you I was involved."

"You neglected to mention that everyone bows when you walk by."

"It didn’t seem relevant."

"It seems extremely relevant. I paid attention to you in Marvello because you had a nice coat. I would have paid a lot more attention if I’d known people bow."

Lucien laughed.

Reinhard’s expression sharpened. "So what happened with that future I showed you?"

"The mission went almost exactly the way you showed me."

Reinhard leaned back slightly. "Almost?"

"There were differences. That’s the nature of possibilities, isn’t it?"

Reinhard smiled faintly. "So you followed the warning."

"I did."

"How much support did you send?"

Lucien paused. "A Calamity."

Reinhard went quiet. "A Calamity?"

Lucien laughed. "You don’t know this? Even knowing who your wife–"

"Yeah, yeah. Just tell me."

Lucien laughed again. "As you know, the normal rankings goes up to SSS. But there are people who go beyond this normal grading system."

Reinhard raised an eyebrow. "And those people are called Calamities?"

"Yes." Lucien’s tone became more serious. "If an SSS-Rank is someone you send to deal with a disaster that can destroy a city, a Calamity is someone you send when that disaster has become a threat to the Megacity itself."

Reinhard let that sink in. "That’s quite the rep."

"They earned it," Lucien said.

"That group must have been important," Reinhard said.

Lucien laughed. "They’re the future of our little company."

Reinhard was quiet for a moment before saying, "Then I’m glad you listened."

"Me too."

They passed a heavily secured corridor with several magical seals layered over its entrance, reinforced doors beyond them, and armed guards on both sides. Reinhard glanced at it. "What’s in there?"

"Something you don’t need to worry about."

"That’s twice now. First the bowing, now that door."

"You’re keeping count."

"I’m a merchant. Counting is my whole personality now." Reinhard looked back at the door over his shoulder. "And in my experience, the things I don’t need to worry about are exactly the ones I should."

Lucien smiled and kept walking, and Reinhard didn’t push. Not yet.

Through another glass wall, he watched researchers studying a dark crystal while one of them recorded results on a tablet.

Farther on, medical staff worked around an unconscious Awakener as magic circles turned slowly in the air above his body.

In another lab, a team carefully pried open a damaged container, and beyond them, a group of Awakeners was checking gear for what was clearly an expedition. Everything here seemed connected to everything else.

Reinhard looked at Lucien. "How much of the supernatural world does Eclipse actually touch?"

"A little of everything."

"That’s vague."

Lucien shrugged. "Research, resource management, artifact recovery, medical development, expedition support, and Awakener services." He glanced sideways at Reinhard. "If something has supernatural value, and the ordinary market can’t handle it, there’s a good chance it ends up here eventually."

Reinhard nodded. That was enough to know.

...

Eventually, Lucien brought him into a secure archive, and Reinhard stopped dead in the doorway. It was enormous. Thousands of physical records lined the shelves along every wall, and the center of the room was filled with glowing displays full of digital files, artifact records, resource databases, expedition reports, medical research, and historical documents, information gathered over decades. That alone made Eclipse dangerous. And useful.

As they walked deeper in, Reinhard noticed several records listing values in the millions, and every merchant instinct in his body sat up straight. His hand drifted toward his pocket, toward the Lens.

He did not put on the Lens. He wanted to, very badly, but he kept his hand in his pocket with great discipline and made a small, pained noise.

Lucien glanced at him. "Are you all right?"

"I’m fine. Nothing. Keep walking." He looked away from a shelf with deep sorrow. "There’s a record over there that’s mislabeled by at least four hundred thousand, and I’m not going to say anything."

"How could you possibly..."

"I’m not going to say anything."

He wasn’t here to browse. He had a far more important reason for coming. "Lucien."

"Hm?"

"I need to find three things."

Lucien stopped. "Only three?"

"Three that matter."

Reinhard paused with his hand on his phone for one careful moment. Someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to keep Eclipse away from Emily’s recovery.

But Eclipse’s own message had already mentioned the Oath Keeper Water and the remaining materials.

They knew he was shopping, and hiding the list would only make him look foolish. What he wouldn’t hand them was the answer to who it was all for.

He took out the phone and showed Lucien the list. Life Gold Water. Lightning Emperor Key. Lightkeeper Dew.

Lucien looked at the screen for a moment, and something unreadable passed behind his golden eyes. Then he gestured at a nearby terminal. "Let’s see what Eclipse knows."

They entered the first name, and a record appeared.

Life Gold Water. Status: Historical record confirmed. Current Stock: None.

Reinhard frowned. "Nothing?"

"Not at the moment."

"Can Eclipse get some?"

"We can search."

It wasn’t a promise, but it was better than nothing.

Lightning Emperor Key. Status: Multiple rumored locations. Confirmed Current Holder: None.

"Rumors?"

"Unfortunately."

"Any reliable ones?"

"Some."

"That’s not reassuring."

"It’s better than no information at all."

Reinhard sighed and typed in the third, and the screen changed almost instantly.

Lightkeeper Dew. Status: CLASSIFIED.

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed. "Classified."

Lucien nodded. "The last confirmed record is classified."

"Oh, good," Reinhard said. "That’s very reassuring. I love it when the thing I need is a secret."

Lucien laughed. "I never said it would be safe."

Reinhard leaned back against the terminal. None of the three were sitting in some convenient warehouse waiting for him to buy them, but Eclipse had records, rumors, and leads. That was the difference between having money and having access. He could spend another thirty million searching the whole world and still come up empty, while Eclipse might find it simply because it already knew where to look.

"If they aren’t for sale," he said slowly, "can Eclipse still find them?"

"That’s what we do."

"Even if no one wants to sell?"

Lucien finally looked straight at him. "Finding something and buying something aren’t always the same thing."

Reinhard nodded slowly. That was valuable.

His gaze went back to the three names on the screen, and his mind went to Emily, to her Gnosis, her legs, and the treatment. Everything he had been doing was meant to give her another chance, and Eclipse might be able to cut that path in half.

But there was something else he couldn’t set aside. He remembered the factory, the assassins, and the thoughts he had pulled out of that last terrified man’s head.

House Baal wants Emily Ashcroft.

And the other one.

Whatever happens, Eclipse cannot find out that Emily’s Gnosis has recovered.

His expression turned more serious. Why? That was the part he still didn’t understand. House Baal wanted Emily, Silent Night had been hired to help them, and yet someone had been very specific about keeping Eclipse away from the truth.

He wasn’t going to decide what that meant yet. Eclipse might have interests of its own, or reasons for wanting Emily, or it might know things he didn’t. He simply didn’t know enough. So he would watch, and learn, and use whatever Eclipse could offer him.

There was only one problem. Eclipse wasn’t going to help him just because he asked nicely. He needed leverage. If Eclipse considered him useful, its attitude toward him would change, and if he became valuable enough, helping him would start to benefit them. That was the point.

A blue window slid quietly into view.

[Investment Opportunity Available.]

[Target: Emily Ashcroft.]

[Current Value: B+.]

[Objective: Prove your value to an organization capable of accelerating the target’s recovery.]

[Difficulty Grade: C.]

[Current Success Probability: 70%.]

So that was the investment. Not money, and not another purchase. He had to become worth something here. Seventy percent, he thought. The System believes in me more than Lucien does.

He dismissed the window before Lucien could notice his eyes moving across empty air. "I’ve decided something."

Lucien raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I think I want to stay."

Lucien smiled. "I was wondering when you’d say that."

Reinhard looked around the archive one more time, at the records, the research, and the resources. Everything Emily needed might be somewhere in this building. He just had to earn his way deeper into it.

Lucien pulled up another screen. "Eclipse doesn’t give unrestricted access to outsiders."

"Outsiders?"

"That’s what you are."

Reinhard smiled and looked back at the vast archive behind them. He had three impossible materials to find, a wife to save, and now an organization that might actually be able to help him do it.

He turned back to Lucien. "Then I’ll have to stop being an outsider."

Lucien’s smile widened. "That’s the spirit."