She was left unmolested, so she went to the mess hall. It was set up on the floor just beneath the roof. Undoubtedly Kaiser was going to make the General—his last name seemed to be Mulligan—forget every word Hawk had said, save for the ones he wanted the general to remember. She personally felt she’d dispatched herself well. She hadn’t vomited too much of the unbelievable truth out, she hadn’t broken down in tears, and she hadn’t given Kaiser an inch. But she was at one singular disadvantage here: She was a woman, and these were two men from the wonderful world of paid misogyny. Kaiser would have the General remembering a hysterical, overeducated little girl in very short order.


    She had to give her name twice, and they had to phone security, but she was given a meal of frito pie, one apple, and one container of water. She said thanks, was ignored, and went off to find someplace to eat and get comfortable. She waited another half minute, but no one from upstairs followed her. Neither Em nor Dyson. Well, her two friends were probably going to work on getting their affairs in order. You know. Just in case.


    She’d been munching for a few minutes when two MPs walked over to her table. She groaned, inwardly, but said, “Yes?” as civilly as possible.


    “General Mulligan would prefer it if you stayed within eyesight.” They said, and rocked back onto their heals.


    “Is he scared I’m going to steal the chili?” She said. But they stared straight ahead and didn’t give her an inch. Oh, she hadn’t missed Alex nearly so much as she did right now, when he would have fucked with them until they all wound up as very good friends. The best she could manage was to continue eating.


    The guard nearest her, the female one with Duchamps on her lapel, said, “Now.”


    “Okay. Let me rephrase this for you people. Doctor West, would you please follow us back to the roof.” She motioned towards those doors with every word. “That is how you ask politely.”


    “This is a military operation, ma’am. You’re expected to follow orders.”


    “I’m expected to follow orders. Except I’m pretty sure those orders are going to be to sit down and stay out of your way while you go barreling forward in ways that will waste time that we do not have.”


    “This is a search and rescue—”


    “No. It isn’t. Not anymore. You just haven’t had enough time to figure that out yet.” But her stomach had soured over with the chili. “Fine. I’m not hungry anymore.” And she got up, half throwing herself in front of the MPs. They lead her to the elevator without touching. Finally, the doors were closed. The elevator began to move.


    A hand reached out and hit the red stop button. The elevator shuddered into obedient stillness. The female MP, Duchamps, grabbed her shoulder and flung her into the wall of the elevator, hard.


    “First off, West, I do not appreciate being treated like the enemy before I’ve had a chance to earn it. Second, I understand your hostility. I have a cousin in Bittermoss School.”


    Hawk’s gut plummeted down to her feet. “Oh, God—Look, I—”


    “I don’t. I lied.” Duchamps said. “But the General ordered me to see if you really believed that the children at Bittermoss were dead. Based on the way you just nearly vomited on my shoes, you do. But you think your husband is alive?”


    “It’s not that simple. And I have no provable way to explain it. But yes. I do believe that the children down in that hole are dead.” She paused. “But we’ll be finding their descendants, if we find a way in.”


    The two MPs glanced at each other. The female, Duchamps, said, “You’ve probably got another minute before they’ll notice we locked down the elevator.”


    “Alex would have been inside the Prism. Maybe with other people, maybe alone. I don’t know. The things inside the Prisms get…changed. We don’t know exactly why, but it seems to shield other, similar lifeforms from the effects of Glass energy. We’re calling them Archetypes. I think that’s what Alex has become. Archetypes are much longer-lived than normal lifeforms—we think.”This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    “You think.” The MP said.


    “Yeah. Listen, I’m assuming you’re doing this because the General does not trust Kaiser—”


    “Like a hole in the head, he trusts him,” The male MP said.


    “—and that’s great. And I know that nothing says Alex is alive or that he’ll be sane or even human when I find him. But I have to try, okay?” she said, and looked hopefully at the MP.


    “We’ll report all this to the general.” The male MP said.


    “Okay, that’s good, I guess.” She said.


    “And one of us would like to hit you.” Duchamps said.


    “She wants to hit you. When someone talks violence, it’s always her.” The other guy said.


    “You want to hit me?” She said.


    “It’ll sell the idea that you’ve been roughed up by us. Keep Kaiser from thinking we’re asking you questions.”


    “Oh.” Hawk said. Then, “Let’s go without the hitting.” She said.


    And then braced herself as the elevator began to move.


    They didn’t exactly hit her, just roughed her up a little bit, the sort of thing you’d see if you resisted the General’s kind offer. She was good natured about it. They’d just told her, after all, that they did not trust Kaiser either, and they—or the General through them—were testing her to see if she’d be useful. Could they use her against Kaiser? She hoped she’d shown them she was game.


    Back on the roof, Em gave her a concerned look when they got a good look at her now mussed up uniform. She gave them a quick gesture in response, the non-verbal I’m fine. Em didn’t look comforted, but they kept their tone level when they said, “How’s the food?”


    “Better than anything we’re going to get in the hole,” Hawk said. There’d been nicknames for the place circulating through the camp all day, enough that even she heard a few of them. One person was calling the hole “Holia” and the missing children “Holians”, which would have sounded better if it weren’t a direct mockery of her theories. “When are we going, General?” She said.


    General Mulligan sighed, and was silent for a long time, looking out at the ruins of Boston. Only the astral spikes of the Event Horizon moved down there. The rest was silent. Finally, he began to speak. “It seems you’re right about a few things, West. One of my people was supposed to report to me at 1600 hours. They’re reporting back minutes after they left, but they say it’s sixteen hundred. Their watch says it’s sixteen hundred. And they have over four hours of camera footage they did not have when they went in.” And he looked at her expectantly.


    Hawk took a moment to do the math. “It’s noon. So eight hours passed in…what?” she said. And now her heart was pounding hard, because this would tell her the odds on even finding Alex down there. Sixteen hundred was four PM. “Four hours equals…what, five minutes?”


    “Faster than that. It was near instantaneous, according to his CO. If it weren’t for his watch, he’d be in a heap of trouble.” A pause, as the wind blew harsh across their faces. Mulligan kept looking at the hole. “How the hell am I supposed to tell six hundred parents that their kids are gone? That this shit is a total loss?”


    Kaiser stepped forward. “Sir, I understand your emotions. Mrs…Doctor West’s theory about time in the Rifts is compelling and there’s a lot of evidence to support it. It’s not something that needs to be known beyond this…rooftop.” He said, and shrugged.


    But the General had already tired of Kaiser, because he ignored the man eloquently. He turned, full body, to Hawk. “I need you to explain, Mrs. West, why you think your husband is still alive?”


    “I don’t know that,” she said, honestly. “I just hope that what we saw in the Bronx repeats itself here, and…I don’t know. Maybe he’ll just be immune.” She took a deep breath.


    “So let me ask you another question, Doc. Let’s say that I buy the multi-dimensional whatsis theory that you and the other eggheads are parroting in my direction. I buy that down there, inside that hole is a pocket universe where time is moving faster there than it is here, and that there could be multiple generations of people in there. Do we think they’re going to be peaceful?”


    “I don’t know.” She said.


    He nodded. “Alright. Then I will make a deal with you, Mrs. West. I will let you go down to that hole right now. I will even let you sit in there to your heart’s content, staring at the pretty crystal walls until judgement day or we break through, whichever comes first. But I will do this on one condition, alright? You will listen to me, and you will listen to my people. They say jump, you say how high. They say go, you go. Stay, your ass is glued to the ground until they say otherwise. Same goes for Kaiser, and the rest of your people.”


    “Sounds good. Can I bring my things already?” she said.


    “Why bother? In the pocket, out of the pocket, we’re going to be staring at that hole and that goddamn drill for a while.” He said.


    “Because if I’m in the hole, I don’t have to think about how much time Alex is losing,” Hawk said, and tried to pretend like she didn’t see the empathy and shared pain in Emile’s worried eyes.