Part Four

"What in the Hell are you watching?" said Michelle, as she came into their apartment's living room after some post-dinner cleanup in the kitchen.

"Hot Box Office Special Program," said Vic, grinning. "It's featuring the famous X-Rated comedienne, Cherry Crosby."

"Is she the one who performs in the nude while pretending to masturbate?" said Michelle, sounding dubious.

"That was one time, for a stage play," said Vic, mock seriously.

"Think I'll pass."

"Oh, it's another X-rated performance artist who does that," said Vic, straight-faced. "He's on later."

"EWW! ICK!! NO!!!"

"Okay, okay," said Vic, laughing. "I was actually about to change channels, anyway. "

"Sure you were," said Michelle, grinning, as she dropped onto the couch beside Vic and gave her a hug. "How about watching that new classic western DVD we just got?"

"Works for me."

* * *

Once more, a group of the Bay Area Guardians prepared to fly to Silver Lake.

"This time we take Tiger with us," said Mesa, glancing at Steel Lace to see her nod in agreement.

"Yeah. He's a talented engineer who is familiar with mask tech, old as well as new. Which on top of his resistance to mind control and psionic influence means he'd be very handy investigating an old, mad science lab and dealing with possible interference from that strange man. So it's him, Andrea, and you with a psi damper."

"Those two might be able to handle me if I get controlled," said Mesa, smugly.

* * *

The trio took the same plane, this time with Tiger piloting.

"I am quite capable of controlling this aircraft," said Andrea. Despite maintaining her usual mild demeanor, the others could tell she was irritated. Especially Tiger, with his empathy. He remembered how surprised he and others had been to learn this worked on the android.

"Sure," said Tiger, amiably, "but I need the flying hours."

Andrea allowed herself to be mollified. The three superhumans settled in for a long, quiet trip. Until...

"I spy with my little eye..." said Mesa.

"Oh, please," said Tiger, looking back from the controls and rolling his eyes.

"Don't. Start." said Andrea.

Mesa sighed and muttered something unintelligible under his breath, but otherwise remained quiet for the rest of the trip.

Without Cumulous along the landing was not quite as smooth this time; there was a wind raising a bit of chop. However, they made it safely to the shore, where they again beached their plane and tied up, to the different tree but with a similar knot. This was actually at a different part of the island's shore than they had beached on previously. They now had better information about where the fisherman had landed, and used the path he described as having taken. One which appeared to be both well worn and recently traversed.

"These are animal tracks," said Tiger, after briefly squatting to examine something. "Moose, mostly. Be careful. They're big and can be aggressive."

"How did one of those get here?!" said Mesa.

"They're good swimmers. Maybe there's something on this island they like to eat."

They proceeded until they could see the house, and paused.

"All's quiet," said Mesa, in a low voice.

"Let's hope it stays that way," said Tiger. "Look, there's the side door the fisherman said he used."

"There does appear to have been recent activity there," said Andrea. "By which I don't mean moose browsing."

"What did Cumulous say about the condition of the roof?" said Tiger, as they reached the steps.

"Uhm, I don't recall him saying anything specific about that," said Mesa, staying on the ground as Andrea climbed onto the small porch and examined the door. "Just that this building was in better shape than the others."

"The fisherman said he went only into this particular structure?" said Andrea, examining the door.

"Yeah," said Mesa, nodding.

"This door has been replaced recently," said Andrea. "It has been made to look old and weathered, but it is a modern, steel clad door with an exterior veneer which resembles long exposed wood. The period lock installed in it does not actually engage the socket in the frame. Instead, the door is barred from the inside."

"Okay," said Tiger, after moving beside her and closing his eyes for a few seconds to use his sense of perception to double-check what Andrea had discovered. "Let's see if we can get inside some way which will be less noticeable than busting in here."

"I think I better wait somewhere out of sight," said Mesa, with a sigh. "I'm just not built for stealth."

"He does have a point," said Andrea. "He can keep watch from beside this entrance, out of easy sight in the bushes here, to spot anyone looking around for intruders. Meanwhile, we look for a way to intrude as unnoticeably as possible."

"Works for me," said Tiger. He glanced at Mesa. "You got your ear bud in? Okay, call out of you need to, and we'll do the same."

The pair were nearly around to the main entrance of the building when Andrea touched Tiger on the arm. Seeing she had his attention, she pointed to a window just above them.

"It appears to be unlatched," she said, quietly.

"Any alarms?"

"None that I can detect."

Tiger boosted Andrea closer, with her eventually standing casually balanced on his upraised hand. After a bit more examination she slid the bottom part of the window carefully up. This obviously had not been opened in many years, and even with her care made some noise, but not much. The android climbed inside and stepped to one side. The supernaturally strong and agile Tiger then jumped through, rolled deftly to his feet to avoid making noise and grinned at Andrea. Who had already turned to close the window. Tiger scowled briefly at being ignored, then sighed in resignation.

"There's the hole in the floor the fisherman saw," said Tiger, quietly. He looked around. "Most of this side of the house is one big room. There's the front door, to our left, and the door we just tried, to our right."

"Copy," said Mesa. "All still quiet out here."

"Looks like a simple bar across the door. We'll let you in."

Soon the three were back together, the side door closed and barred behind them. Getting out, even through a wall, would not be a problem for any of them.

"That's some hole," said Mesa, impressed and keeping his distance. He looked up. "I'd say the roof leaked some time in the past - probably decades ago - and it was repaired, but the floor was left open because they weren't actually using this room. Looks like all they did was remove the rotten wood."

"Could be," said Tiger. "Let's try to find some way down besides jumping. I can't see a lot through that hole, but there is definitely ice down there."

"The floor has actually been reinforced, all the way to the edge," said Andrea. "I am also sensing clues which indicate there were extensive renovations below. Perhaps the hole was left to allow large pieces of equipment to be brought in. The front entrance is a double door."

"Interesting," said Tiger, paying attention to what she said but distracted by his search. "The only piece of furniture in here is that old clock. Okay, playing a hunch, here. Maybe whoever remodeled the place was a Batman fan."

"What?" said Mesa, as Tiger approached a long-case clock on one wall.

"Batman," said Andrea, after a quick search of her internal popular culture database. "Fictional costumed adventurer. The connection with here and now being that an early portrayal of the entrance to the cave under his mansion had it being accessed through a grandfather clock."

"There's definitely something behind this," said Tiger, frowning in concentration as he felt around the old clock. "Here's some sort of latch. Hang on, it's pretty corroded. Fortunately, the case is substantial."

The clock turned out to be hinged to the wall on one side. Tiger managed to carefully pull the heavy piece of archaic timekeeping equipment around far enough to reveal a narrow flight of stairs beyond.

"Looks like this runs inside the wall between rooms," said Tiger, nodding, as he pushed the case the rest of the way open. "Okay, flashlights on for those who need them."

"Which is just me," said Mesa, with a sigh, as he pulled a powerful, compact light from one of his large pockets. He held it high above his head, to light they way for Tiger. "Lead on, MacDuff."

The air upstairs had been cool. As the three supers descended it grew positively frigid. Fortunately, none of the trio were susceptible to these temperatures. Once they were at the bottom of the stairs they spread out a bit on the icy floor and simply stood and looked.

"No power," said Andrea, scanning. "Everything in here is at ambient temperature, and has been for decades."

"I see several bodies on the floor. Some of them straight ahead, at the base of that big, vertical tube in front of the main console," said Mesa. He shook his head in frustration. "Everything is covered in rime. Can't really see more from here."

"This place is filled with repurposed war and post-war military tech," said Tiger, sounding impressed. "Much of it radio gear. A lot of what's here is obviously custom built, though. Like that tube Mesa noted and the row of other vertical tubes to the left. Each of which is more than large enough to hold a person."

"One of the Kravaals experimented with cryogenic suspension," said Mesa, his voice quiet. "Could there still be anyone alive in those tubes?"

"Possibly," said Andrea. "However, the bodies on the floor have obvious freezing damage."

"One of the problems with freezing someone is that ice crystals - like crystals in general - tend to grow and consolidate, the smallest losing to the largest," said Tiger. "That disrupts the tissues, usually fatally, in living things which aren't prepared for hibernation. A good cryopreservative can prevent that, as can a rapid enough freezing, which creates vitrification, followed by keeping the body at true cryogenic temperatures. Those... bodies on the floor show damage typical of people who have simply been frozen. Though I don't think that was the cause of death."

"I agree," said Andrea. "Though there is perceptible damage, I am not detecting anything which might be the actual cause of death."

Tiger began carefully walking across the slippery floor towards the bodies.

"Wonder what their power source was..."

"Cumulous said one of the outbuildings probably had generators in it," said Mesa.

"Ah. Yeah, that sort of arrangement is typical of isolated installations from when this place was built. Even those not on islands."

He reached one of the bodies, crouched and stared. In the dim light he used his sense of perception far more than his eyes.

"Interesting."

Andrea moved gracefully past him to the single tube in this section of the lab. She stopped, startled, and looked down at the base of the tube.

"There is a child, here. A female, most likely in her late pre-teens."

"Damn," said Mesa, still quietly.

Andrea placed her hands on the tube - being careful to avoid the bodies on the floor - and cleared a patch of frost. Tiger rose and moved beside her.

"There is a costumed woman inside," said Andrea. "Floating in some sort of thick liquid. I believe it is a liquid fluorocarbon. Which explains why it is not frozen."

She carefully removed the frost from more of the tube.

"That woman in the costume... she looks like the original Radio Star," said Tiger, frowning, as the contents of the tube were better revealed.

"According to my sensors," said Andrea, "she's a kindred spirit. An artificial human. What is commonly known as an android. Though a very primitive one."

Was there a bit of smugness, there? Never mind...

"I thought that guy looked familiar," said Tiger, suddenly snapping his fingers, and glancing down at one of the frozen bodies. "That's the original Mordecai! He disappeared about the same time as Radio Star, too. After a brief career of causing problems with his artificial people."

"He and his son and grandson are all infamous for making androids," said Mesa, nodding.

"Indeed. It was studying the work of the current Mordecai which led to my parents experimenting with androids. That eventually led to me."

Tiger crouched again, to better examine the frosty body on the floor. However, his attention soon turned to the oversized glasses laying near the fallen man's head.

"Those aren't just glasses," he said, after a moment. "Whatever vision correction service they provided, the lenses are also multi-layered. Probably served as some sort of display. There's even a fold-down, telescoping antenna. I'm also sensing circuitry in those huge frames, especially in the ear pieces. I'd have to check in a proper lab, but I bet they're TCI equipment."

"The which?" said Mesa, who had extremely good dexterity, but - given his size and weight - was not about to risk walking on the icy floor. A slip by him could easily result in damage to something which wasn't him.

"Trans-cranial induction," said Andrea. "A way to put information directly into the brain. Supposedly not developed until decades after this lab was last in use."

She looked around for a moment, then pointed.

"There appears to be a jack at the end of a cable, over there, suspended on some sort of hook to keep it handy. It would be a perfect fit for the socket on the left side of the frames."

"Yeah," said Tiger, nodding slowly, as he looked at the console she indicated. "Probably used radio - whatever encoding format he invented back then - when the data rate was low or he needed the mobility. Then plugged in when he needed a higher data rate."

"What was all of this for?" said Mesa, plaintively.

"We may never know," said Tiger, with a shrug. "However, I see a couple of reel-to-reel recorders over there. Whether they were used for voice or data or a combination, they could tell us."

"They are cold enough for the cellulose acetate substrate used back then to be very, very brittle," said Andrea, cautiously.

"Yeah. I think we need to get a full forensic team in here. Warm this place - carefully - and find out just what we've got."

"And what the Hell happened," said Mesa, slowly.