Tough Choice

That just left option two, which was to just let them go. He had tech that could track their spatial disturbance, but that would surely fade after they had acclimated to this time period. So, it was an option with a built in (and unknown) expiration point. There had just not been enough verifiable research into this kind of rare phenomenon.

"Dammit!" Carl exclaimed, turning his radio on. He would wait about twenty minutes, then report an explosion in the part of the cave ruled unsafe (where Astra and Exotica had been). First, though, he had to cause the explosion...

There was a high pitched noise, and every MagiTek device in the lab suddenly shut down. "What the hell?!" said Sylvia, with cold menace. "Magic doesn't interfere with MagiTek, Carl, MagiTek is technology utilizing magic."

Mark was constantly having to put up with condescension from Oversight Director Sylvia Cabrera and her inner circle. They had the clearance, they had the money and the power and the authority, and they made sure that everyone on the support staff knew it. Mark was a scientist, dammit, and had left a prestigious professor position at a high-ranking university to come to this (admittedly better paying) government job. But he did not sign up to be constantly talked down to like--

"Mark," said Sylvia, raising an eyebrow and interrupting his reverie, "what happened? Get me some answers now!"

Mark accessed the terminal hooked to the lab server, and investigated the log reports.

1. Mark discovered that Siva's magic had reacted to being scanned, attacking the system. Thus, the failures.
2. Mark discovers that Siva had nothing to do with it, it was a virus in the system! Elsewhere in the building, another of Benjamin Naren's operatives puts the plan in place to extract Fred and Siva.
3. Mark discovered that it was some kind of spatial disturbance that had affected the system. He reboots it, and tries a passive scan.
4. But suddenly...
5. Meanwhile, Astra and Exotica...
6. Meanwhile, Carl...
7. Meanwhile, Benjamin Naren...

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