The Law of Averages

Book 2: Chapter 175: Responsibility

"How can you tell?" Dan asked immediately. He peered at the screen. The cosmic generator looked like a piece of performance art. " Do I need to shut the door?" The last thing he needed was for his house to start spewing cosmic radiation from a pinhole.

"You've never been to an upgrade facility," Abby said, her eyes not leaving the television. They were focused and narrow, tension lined her face. "They usually have a big one of those mounted in the dousing chamber. It... looks almost identical, actually." Something in her seemed to unclench. Her brow began to furrow.

"What is it?" Dan asked. He reoriented the portal, searching for whatever she'd seen.

Abby suddenly lunged for the laptop, and started to furiously scroll through the Evo Church's official website. "That room looks an awful lot like a dousing chamber; a shielded area where upgrades are applied. The Evo Church have their own cosmic generator, which means they might have their own upgrade patterns." She swapped tabs, and ran a search. "I've never heard anything about that before, so I'm trying to figure out if it's on the books or not."

Dan grunted, most of his attention on the screen as the Elder and Madison looked down at the generator. The metal struts slowly increased their rotation speed. The arcs of electricity slowed, settled, stopped. The orb at the center of the device grew brighter still, then began to darken. It wasn't a gradual darkening, but rather a sudden change of shade starting from the center and radiating outwards, like someone had spilled black ink across its surface. As the orb moved from white to black, the light in the room dimmed until nothing could be seen.

The Elder tapped in a quick command on the nearby control panel, and the shutters snapped shut. He gestured towards the corner of the room, and a quick reorientation of the camera showed a door, leading to a stairwell landing. The two men moved silently through the door, and started down the stairs.

Abby made a displeased noise beside him. "I think it's legal," she decided.

"What?"

"The generator," Abby said. "I think it might be legal." She spun the laptop's screen towards him. He glanced down, and was greeted by a wall of legal text. Her finger tapped on a particular line for emphasis.

"Um." Dan squinted at it. Looked like gibberish, to him. "Think you can summarize?"

Abby huffed impatiently, and flipped the laptop back to herself. "Nevermind. Look, Danny, say you've got a company looking to sell upgrades. There are a lot of hoops to jump through before you can secure a licensing agreement. I think the Evo Church could sidestep many of these requirements by claiming a religious exemption."

Dan frowned at her. "You said they were like the People. Natural worshippers."

"Cosmic energy worshippers," Abby corrected. She flipped back to the church website. "I don't see anything in here about forbidding upgrades. They just think Naturals are the most pure expression of 'Evolution Everlasting'."

"Do you see anything about selling upgrades?" Dan inquired.

Abby shook her head. "No. But I don't think they'd advertise it, either. I'd guess only those within the church are allowed access to whatever is on offer."

On the screen, Madison had reached the base of the stairs. Another door barred his path, with a number pad locking it. The senator moved aside, to let his companion enter the passcode. The door lock buzzed, and they stepped through. They entered another enclosed room, this one even in height with the cosmic generator. More shuttered windows blocked sight of the dark chamber beyond. In the center of the room was a marble slab mounted on a waist-height pillar. Another orb, similar to what lay inside the dousing chamber, sat on top of it, surrounded by a translucent square case.

This orb was a deep brown, almost wooden. No, not almost. It was wood, dark and carefully carved into shape. Dan watched as the spherical lump darkened further, an oily resin pouring out from somewhere deep within, spreading like black mold. Madison crouched down, peering at the thing as it fouled.

"I never get used to the feeling," the old senator commented.

Riding a hunch, Dan snaked out a tendril of his veil and sent it scurrying across the floor. It wrapped itself around the pillar, crawling up, up, up, until it reached the wooden orb—and rebounded! Dan almost flinched at the suddenness of it. He fumbled, grasping feelers encircling the sphere, and gasped as he made contact. Mere moments later, parts of his veil were rejected, pushed out from the orb's center like oil rising out of water.

It was the darkening, Dan realized. Whatever was being done to the orb, was actively fighting against his veil. He pulled back, worried about being discovered. Madison hadn't seemed to notice, but Dan would not push his luck. Instead, he drove down, beneath the marble floor, and found the source of the change.

There was a transfer pipe running through the center of the room, leading from the base of the pillar, underneath the shuttered windows, and into the dousing chamber. He followed it further, all the way until it reached the cosmic generator. He found the podium at the center of the swirling struts, the focus of its power, and his veil sank into it without issue. It was an unfamiliar alloy, but the mere fact that he could feel it meant that something was different about the other sphere.

"I think Madison did something to that piece of wood," Dan said. It was the obvious conclusion. Why else would the damn thing be made of wood? But what had he done, and why?

He felt a lurch in the alloyed sphere. A subtle change in its composition. The two men on camera turned towards the shutters, and Dan opened a new door to allow for sound. The wooden orb was now completely black. It looked like nothing less than a charred lump. Nevertheless, Madison reached for the translucent case and popped it off without a care. He reached for the orb, ran his finger along its surface, and hummed in satisfaction.

"It's done," he said. The Elder nodded in agreement. He moved to a nearby control console, and opened the shutters. The lights in the chamber had been turned on, and bright rays streamed in from the dousing chamber. The metal struts had lost their momentum, and were slowly coming to a stop. The center orb had returned to less reality-bending color, a polished, light bronze.

"You are satisfied, then?" the Elder asked.

Madison nodded. "I will return next week with a new vessel for the Church's use. And, of course, a generous donation."

"Of course," the Elder agreed. He gestured to the charred orb. "But this one is yours to use as you see fit. Grant the gift of Evolution Everlasting to one worthy of its favor."

Madison reached for the orb, and pocketed it without ceremony. "I shall."

The words sent a shock of adrenaline through Dan. The Elder had been very careful with his words thus far. Even if every word spoken had been leaked to the press, nobody could make a solid accusation. This was the most damning evidence of what was actually being done, here.

"Well shit," Abby said from beside Dan. "I guess we know who's responsible for all the vigilantes popping up."