Compile:Quest

Chapter 13: Fossils

Lambent Laboratories, Cell 3,

Africa Dome

Peppermint stared at the man holding out his hand. Silver hair decked his weathered face and his brown eyes sheltered under bushy eyebrows. Pale, wrinkled lips drew into an awkward smile as he returned her stare.

She tried calling up Jasper's profile. What was wrong with her weConnect? The program opened, but everything was greyed out.

Acute embarrassment forced her to abandon it.

"Uh... hi," she managed.

Not being able to call up a stranger's profile made a first encounter so intimidating. She had no idea what type of person this man was. And he was still holding out his hand. She stared at it suspiciously. Was she supposed to give him something?

"I've already completed the form—" she began.

Peppermint jerked as a warm, firm grip enveloped her fingers. The man pumped her arm while she stared at him in shock. His eyes grew skittish, glancing between her and the receptionist as his lips bared into a rigid grin.

"It's good to meet you," he repeated.

Jasper's clipped tones and formal vocabulary sounded foreign. Was he from the EU Dome? The man's brown eyes crinkled at the corners as his gaze darted to her other hand.

"What on earth happened, child?"

Peppermint stared at a scrape on her palm. Did she get it from her fall in the transport tunnel?

"It's nothing." She tried to stop blushing. "Could you please tell me what this is all about?"

"Oh, you're probably wondering about your Medex."

She nodded. "Phoenix said there was a trigger or something?"

"Follow me. I'll explain on the way," the man said.

Jasper strode ahead of her, not glancing back to see if she would follow. The tall man walked with speed and precision, his mop of silver hair shifting with each jolting stride.

Peppermint hurried to catch up with im. "That transport was ancient."

"Phoenix ensures all denizens are born healthy," Jasper replied. "And that they stay that way. Which means the number of denizens crossing our threshold becomes less and less each year."

"But you have to use it. Doesn't it use a lot of—" What did old contraptions like that use again? "—Charcoal or something?"

"Charcoal?" The man halted in the middle of the corridor. He knotted his eyebrows at her.

"Uh... old stuff, stuck in the ground... tons of pollution, what's it called..." Peppermint trailed off, trying to remember a distant lesson dealing with the topic.

"Oh, you mean fossil fuels." Jasper smiled and continued up the passage.

He looked like a fossil. She banished the thought and glanced around her as she followed the man through the laboratory. They entered a lengthy breezeway. Foliage pressed against its glass walls.

Jasper turned into a branching corridor walled in concrete. They were heading deeper into the building now. Peppermint followed, shrugging her shoulders. It was so quiet in here.

"I suppose SUN doesn't feel it necessary to waste resources on maintaining a transport that's active once every two or three months."

Her brain scurried. "You live here?"