Darren nodded at Rick, hoping the gesture relayed how grateful he was for Rick’s ability to stay focused on the important things. “Let’s start the briefing, then. Nyle, what do you have for us?”
Hooking up his tablet to the two holographic boards, Nyle pulled up a string of 3D data and formulas on one of them and the blueprints of a building on the other.
“It took me a while to access the data inside the ring, and if not for Sara’s help, I doubt I’d have managed to so quickly. But anyhow. What you see on the left board is what was inside. I don’t understand it too well myself, but it’s a breakdown of the ES2—the Second Evolution Sequence.” Scrolling up toward the beginning of the data feed, he zoomed in on a segment that seemed to depict a series of compound chemical reactions. “I believe this here is a step-by-step manual that will allow us…” He rubbed his cheek, knitting his eyebrows together. “Or well,someonewho understands what the fuck all of this is to replicate it.”
“Wait. An evolution sequence?” Rick said, looking more than a little confused. “As in the next step in what… Human evolution?”
“Yes. The first part of the Valrais Legacy comprises a way for humankind to evolve,” Darren confirmed, then gave Rick the rundown. Under different circumstances, he’d have withheld some of the information until he was sure Rick was loyal, but Nyle had already run all kinds of checks and Bea had scanned him for transmitters and other such devices when he’d boarded the Maine. Besides, Aiden trusted him and Darren trusted Aiden’s judgement.
“That’s why Marcus…” Rick trailed off and Darren could see the regret in the man’s eyes as they bounced between him and Aiden. “So, this is only one of the sequences…” He inclined his head at the left board.
“Which brings us to the stuff I found out about the vault where I believe Marcus has the other ring stored.” Nyle raised a finger before Rick could interrupt with the question everyone had wondered when Darren had told them. “Without knowing what it really is. To him, it’s just another trinket he stole from the Valrais.”
Which was the only reason they even stood a chance, because if Marcus as much as suspected what he was in possession of, he’d long have upturned every stone to find the two rings and get his hands on the sequence so his scientists could study it. And if that were to happen, there really would have been no stopping him.
Darren didn’t realize he’d been shaking his leg until he felt the reassuring warmth of Aiden’s hand on his thigh. The touch was light, but grounding, and without thinking, he covered the slender fingers with his own. Unexpectedly, Aiden didn’t attempt to break the contact, instead letting Darren’s fingertips rub gently along the length of his hand.
“The blueprints I managed to get from the construction company that built the place suggest it’s a four-story warehouse with three sublevels. It’s in regular use, which unfortunatelymeans the site is manned.On top of having surveillance,” Nyle explained, highlighting various areas across the vault’s levels.
“How many people work there?” Darren followed up with, his hand still draped over Aiden’s. If Aiden had no intention of putting a stop to it, then Darren wasn’t going to do it either.
“Between a hundred and hundred fifty, separated into three shifts.”
Making a humming noise, Rick squinted. “For that size and set up”—he flicked through the data Nyle was presenting via one of the desktop computers—“anything above sixty staff would be an overkill.”
Darren looked at Rick, narrowing his eyes. He didn’t know all that much about these things, but given Rick’s background, his evaluation was probably spot on.
“It’s what I thought as well,” Nyle agreed. “It’s why I think there is an extra section that was left out of the official blueprints.” He spun the 3D visualization around, highlighting the entirety of the ground floor in orange.
“What, like another sublevel?” Bea jumped in, her focus on her own tablet where the same data was displayed.
“Yep,” Nyle chirped, focusing the 3D view on the area where the stairs were. “It would also explain the discrepancy between my estimated electricity usage and the actuals. Although part of them are often attributed to recurring faults in the power grid connectors.”
“That is a known issue superstructures face,” Aiden pointed out. He leaned forward and loaded up the vault’s stats on the holoscreen in front of him. Below them, he also brought up a comparative data set from a similar facility for the last year. “It averages five-to-twelve percent.”
Nyle nodded, directing their attention to yet another set of data. “I cross-referenced the numbers with the rest of Marcus’ warehousesandother compounds of similar size, and while, yes,I can see it occurring across all of them within the lower end of those parameters, none of them show amounts as highs as eleven-point-five percent.”
Aiden frowned at the numbers. “Even spaceports and power distribution centers rarely go over ten.”
“That’s gotta be where our vault is then,” Bea concluded, dumping the tablet she’d been looking at in Kristen’s lap. “And the spike is extra juice for whatever special security measures they have in place.”
Would extra security cause that high of a spike, though?
Going by what Aiden had said, it seemed unlikely, or at least when it came to standard security measures. So then, for these numbers to make sense, Marcus had to have come up with some new high-tech solution. Or, alternatively, it wasn’t the security system that was causing the spike, but something else. Production? Butwhat ofif the warehouse was supposed to be mostly for storing things?
“Exactly!” Nyle clapped his hands. “That’s what I think, although they could be using it for something else. Maybe there’s a data center housed inside, like a small one which wouldn’t require as much power.”
That too was an option, Darren supposed, but in the end, it didn’t really matter what Marcus used the extra power for. All Darren needed was a way in and out.
Nyle drummed his fingers along his chin. “Ideally, I’ll need an extra day to try and track down what security vendors were used. That should hopefully give us enough to work out what sort of stuff they have in place.”
“That’s fine. It means”—Darren licked his lips, a pleasant tingle starting where his and Aiden’s hands were still joined—“Aiden and I will have time to study the layout.”
“You aren’t going alone, then?” Bea leaned back into her chair and folded her arms behind her head.
“No.”
She grinned, looking between him and Aiden. “Good.”
