Restless Evening
Penn went to retrieve things out of the bus. He grabbed his knives, a rope, his nickel plated .357 Magnum, and his Beretta. Later that evening, Sketch sat by the window, watching the storm clouds over the horizon grow closer. All the turbulent activity and frequent lightning befitted the cataclysmic storm. Sketch went back to her computer system and continued downloading the floor plans of the compound.
As night began to descend in the dusk, Isotophes and Dr. George stood outside, a few hundred yards from the building. "It does look like an odd structure of fiber-glass and stainless steel, doesn't it?" she said.
"You need to seal up all the secret trap doors and passages in there. Except the underground tunnel to the airport," Dr. George instructed her.
"Already did, sir. I even let Lurch know where a few of them are. Those are the ones I put the contact cement in and around. Just because. . ."
"What about the supplies, and the containments?"
"I got it all down. I got Sketch on it, the floor plans are being looked over. This place will be easier to rebuild now that we have the equipment, if anything happens."
"And the telescope? The lens and the beam?"
"It's almost ready. We're only going to get one shot at this. That storm is a mother-ship out there, and NASA's probably already tracking it." Isotophes looked up at the sky knowingly. She looked back at Dr. George. "By the way, who are those two fellows that NASA sent here, anyway? Didn't Monday Eve suggest they were not from NASA though?"
Dr. George looked at her with a blank expression. "I don't rightly know, they say they're magicians. What the hell kind of cover is that?"
"I don't know who they are, but the names sound familiar, I know I've heard them before. The one called Teller, he says they've dabbled in expeditions from time to time. They have a grade D in Scuba diving. Master divers, you know. But what are they doing all the way out here in the desert?" At that Dr. George furrowed his brow in confusion.
Later that night, they were all gathered around a very large table. The lightning was a glaring series of flashes as the thunder could be heard getting closer, weaving the entire compound in an eerie glow as everyone ate quietly. Lurch sat by Sketch. Isotophes, Nuzz and Monday were talking casually. Breaker ate quietly and looked at no one. Penn and Teller were staring at everyone. Dr. George was staring at them.
Finally, Lurch broke the small talk. "Why do we have a solar density gun?" he asked blatantly while looking at each and every person seated at the table.
"I have it in safe keeping. No pissing off the aliens and blowing us all to Hell, or Hell's Basin as it were," Dr. George informed Lurch.
"Aliens?" Penn asked with a slight quiver in his voice.
"These kinds of missions are usually suicide, so you should know that any use of force or hostility will set us back years, like it did last time when alien paranoia caused the last team to do something stupid. Tracking these rare magnetic storm fields won't hail an invasion, it's what's waiting on the other side of that storm. They knew not with what they were dealing with." Dr. George said cryptically.
"Your little case of dynamite is also outdated." Lurch added in reference to Penn and Teller's stash of goodies.
"Teller has already told me that everything is non-weapons grade," Sketch said.
"Nitro that couldn't even put a dent in a Yugo," Mole chimed in, snickering.
"NASA won't get the jump on anything this time." Isotophes said distantly. Penn and Teller looked over at Isotophes. She just pushed her food away and took a drink of the sparkling clear water with a faraway look in her eyes.
"It was all Teller's idea. He planned everything." Penn said sheepishly referring to their travels in the desert. The others still thought of them as agents who also turned rogue. Teller's expression went from blank to wide-eyed.
All of a sudden the tarantula ran across the table. There was calamity and Sketch tried desperately to catch the poor thing. "Do not hurt my spider!" she cried while leaping from her seat. The spider continued its path off of the table and down to the floor. "I used to have one like it." Breaker remembered.
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