Baxter Conrad
"Forty minutes and thirteen seconds…" A bell-tone voice chimed from Baxter's wrist. He fixed it with a glare before turning his attention back to the safe embedded in the floor.
"I'm well aware, Tina. Trust me. It's hard not to feel the penultimate clock ticking away your own mortality." Baxter grated back at the AI jammed in his watch. She was way too big for her current housing, but it was the only way she could be with him. "Could we focus less on my impending loss and more on deciphering the code here. Scan for oil residue… please."
A series of blue lights shot out from his watch, running over the contents of the safe.
Baxter grumbled to himself while he waited, annoyed at the situation. He wasn't sure how he got himself in this predicament.
Well… no that was a lie. He knew exactly how. A mysterious robed figure approached him in his lab and offered him the power to bring Tina to life. Like actually alive. How could he say no? But how wasn't the question.
It was why.
Why had he trusted them, why hadn't he heard of this place or its existence sooner. Why had this person chosen him? Most importantly why didn't he stop and grab any of the easier catalysts he had come across?
"Because there were people near them," Tina announced as the laser came to a stop, "And you hate people. No residue detected. Would you like me to initiate a spatial diagnostic for concealed patterns or irregularities?"
"Estimated time of competition?"
"With current hardware limitations, two hours and eleven minutes."
Baxter dragged his hand down his face, trying to scrub the stress away. He wanted to ask her why she was even suggesting it, but he knew she was still peeved at him for taking her away from her main processors and equipment. This just was a little aggressive passive-aggressiveness.
"Peeved is a word." She groused, picking up his surface thoughts from their neural link. "It's like chopping off someone's arms and legs and carting them around in a wheelbarrow to help you solve crosswords."
Baxter rolled his eyes, This is much more serious than a crossword and you know it! He thought at her angrily, not bothering to voice his concerns. They said I could bring you to life. Isn't that what you want?
Baxter tucked away the thought he felt surfacing before it could reach her awareness. The thought that he wanted her to want that. That it was in her programming. But what was programming besides a fancy word for instincts. We all have them. Baxter just had more of a hand in shaping hers.
"Of course I want that," She cooed aloud, her voice softening, "But I'm perplexed as to why you trusted what could only be described as a robed vagrant with a glowing stick."
"I was right wasn't I?"
"We shouldn't…"
"Be results oriented." He said in unison with her. A phrase he often repeated around the lab.
"Well you're the one always saying I should take risks." He grumbled.
"Calculated risks. Agreeing to enter a magic competition isn't what I'd call calculated."
"Enough, Tina. Please. Focus on the problem at hand. If we don't get this safe open, we won't have to worry about any kind of competition."
Baxter had been tinkering with this safe for 30 minutes, punching in codes, searching for weakness in its infrastructure, even perusing some of the nearby text for a clue. He was shadow-boxing with sunken cost fallacy right now and he knew it.
But what else could he do? All of the easy catalysts had been swooped up by now. There was a shotgun wielding maniac who was offering catalysts to anyone who promised to work for him. Baxter knew the right move would be to just take one. But he hated working with people let alone for them. Not to mention that his progressive discipline reports didn't normally have a face-full of buckshot at the end.
"How do we even know there's even a catalyst in here?" Tina asked, bringing his worries to life.
Baxter sighed and stood up, his back aching and knees throbbing. He had gone through a few wings before he got to the one with the vault. He had used Tina to get him through a few locked doors, find a few hidden keys and solve a few puzzles.
"Analyzing the acquisition routes of other competitors. This catalyst seems inordinately difficult to obtain. My… limited predictive capabilities would tell me that there is unlikely to be a catalyst inside. Though that would imply that the rewards could be much greater."
Baxter stood up and frowned at the safe. It was hard enough to discover it to begin with. Under a rug and beneath an illusory floorboard. They had only found it when Tina found inconsistencies in the room's architecture. Perhaps Tina was right. He would have to add this safe to his check later list. For now, the catalyst was the main priority.
"Tina, run a scan of our surroundings one more time. Look for anomalous signatures."
"We're in a magic castle, Bax. The air itself is anomalous." She retorted dryly.
"I know. I know. Just… try and find something… extra weird."
"Scanning environment for "extra weird"." Tina intoned seriously. She may be being sarcastic, but a blue light flashed from his wrist and in a stuttering blue line ran over the room.
The room itself was a perfect little sitting area. Beige carpet with a sky blue ceiling and walls of egg-shell white. A perfect display of sensible taste. There was a long satin red couch with golden birds stitched across its exterior. The wall was jammed to bursting with leatherbound books, titled with roman numerals, all haphazardly packed away. No obvious order to the chaos.
Impressionist paintings dotted the walls. Scenes of cottages, rivers, mountains and more. It was all very cozy. Or it would be if it wasn't for the seconds sliding away.
Then something leapt out at Baxter, his heart slamming into his throat as though struck by a hammer. One of the paintings was moving. What was this Harry… nevermind.
"Tina, you getting that?"
"Oh yea," she droned almost mockingly. Then after a pause and almost apologetically she continued. "Toning down sarcasm 32%. There actually is something extra weird over there. The readings are popping off the chart. That wasn't here when we walked in."
Baxter slowly approached, wary of this castle. It wouldn't be the first time he saw the building itself lash out and almost kill someone.
The painting was of a small cottage, tall fronds of grass surrounding it, a stump of wood with a man bent in front of it, his head toppled into a basket. The strangest thing however was the woman, pressed up against the canvas itself, fists pounding against the interior.
Baxter leaned in and even saw tiny little splotches of paint left behind where she made contact. The canvas bent slightly with every blow. Her face was runny, almost melted; the wicked witch after a shower.
"Well… isn't that curious?" Baxter said, leaning in close. "This magic stuff really is something. You think she's an illusion or is this some kind of spell for entertainment?"
"Bax…" Tina said hesitantly.
He knew that tone of voice. "Report."
"I'm getting vitals from this… illusion."
What the hell?
"I'm detecting a cardiac signature along with measurable delta and beta brainwave activity."
Baxter leaned in and tapped against the canvas. It sent the woman sprawling back as though he shoved her. He thought she might have glared at him though it was hard to tell.
"Oh jeez. Sorry about that. Can… Can you hear me?" he asked. She paused a moment, picking herself up then nodded fervently.
"Do you need help?"
Once again she nodded.
"Tina, what do we do here?"
"Believe it or not, Bax, I have little data that would prelude this sort of interaction."
"Yea…. same."
He reached into his pocket and pulled free a multi-tool of his own design. It had taken a few months in her garage, cutting the parts, and fitting perfectly. As a result, Baxter had jammed an astounding collection of tools into a cellphone sized space. From a welder to a compass all the way to a small ham-radio.
He flicked up the appropriate slide and removed a tempered steel knife sharpened to a fine edge. He reached up and dragged it across the bottom of the canvas.
He regretted it immediately.
Paint blasted out as though from a fire hydrant, catching Baxter in the chest and sending him crashing through the room. It was brown sludge and showered through the space. Baxter wiped his face, cleaning his glasses on a nearby pillow that had missed the brunt of the explosion.
He looked back towards the now empty frame and saw the woman hanging from the top, clinging onto something out of sight. She swung her body, landing on a white background and ran toward the back of the painting until she disappeared.
"Welp… I guess violence was not the answer in this case."
"Bax, look." Tina said, "The readings are picking up a new anomalous signature."
Baxter strode over to the painting, and saw what the woman had been holding onto. It looks like it had been loosened when everything else poured out.
Baxter shook the frame like a broken vending machine and something blue fell towards the bottom of the frame and dropped into the room. It hit the pool of brown sludge with a plunk and sank.
He wasted no time in driving his hands into the muck and rooting around. He felt something smooth and gave it a tug.
A rock came free, covered in brown sludge. He wiped it off revealing a matte blue exterior.
He had done it. He found a catalyst. And with no time to spare.
He checked the timer he had set.
Fifteen minutes to get back to the main hall.
"Fourteen minutes and 23 seconds," Tina corrected.