We have time. That was the first thing I typed back, not wanting to say anything out loud, just in case there was any way for someone to overhear. They won't give out any of the rings until the end of the games. There's a whole special ceremony for it. That's a really big deal, not a thing they'd just skip or change. If you earn a ring, it's awarded to you at the ceremony, not before.

I didn't type that perfectly or fully, of course. Not with the way my fingers were shaking as I laid all that out as quickly as I could tap the screen. But that was the gist of it, and the others got it.

Paige responded immediately. That tracks with what we're hearing. It sounds like two people up there talking about the ceremony. One of them is demanding to know how long it will take to replace every ring with their duplicates. They have half of them done right now. The other one says the remaining half will be done before Saturday, in time for all the rings to be awarded.

I had some mixed feelings about that. Well, okay, I was having a lot of feelings in general, and a pretty large majority of them were bad. There were so many screaming thoughts in my head, I could barely keep from blurting them out loud, no matter how risky it would have been to talk. But at least that meant we weren't on as much of a clock as we might have been. There was still a metaphorical bomb counting down before absolute disaster, but the timer was several days long. We had time to figure something out, to decide who to talk to and how to stop this thing.

Sierra was still squinting up toward the ceiling with an annoyed expression, before sending, Do you think you could melt down and squeeze your way in through this hole? Her hand gestured to the spot where they had pried the electrical outlet cover off to access the system that had allowed them to overhear all that. If you could just slide up between the walls to the next floor and get a good look at who those two are, it could help end this whole thing pretty damn quick.

Paige snapped her gaze from Sierra over to me, clearly almost saying something out loud, but catching herself at the last second. Instead, she sent, That could be dangerous, if they have a way to spot you. We couldn't get up there with you fast enough to stop anything they might do.

I'll be okay, I sent back. She's right, we need to know who we're dealing with. Just wait here.

This really was our best chance to get the information we needed, and considering the threat those rings apparently posed, we didn't have time to talk everything through. I pushed all my intrusive worrying thoughts out of the way and stepped over to that tiny hole. It was only about two inches across and slightly more in height. Plus it still had the outlet itself in the way, so the actual open space was maybe a quarter of an inch. Far too small for most things to fit through.

But I wasn't most things. I just hoped this would work. Reaching out, I slid two fingers through that space and focused intently. This wasn't just about shifting into my liquid state. I wanted to do that in a very specific way, starting with my fingers and working my way back through the rest of my body, all while pushing my liquifying self forward further and further past the outlet and into the space between the walls. I'd never really tried to do something like this before. But hey, there was no time like the present. At least I had all the motivation I needed to make it work.

As quickly and carefully as possible, trying to get up there before those people left and we ended up with nothing to show for the effort, I transitioned to my pink puddle state while pouring my body into that small space. Even once I was past the outlet and between the walls, the area was still only a few inches wide. But I made it through, my puddle form pushed up against either side to hold myself there so I wouldn't go sliding down to the floor. My weird, fishbowl vision in that form showed me a few other tiny holes above that I could slip through, so I started to squirm my way up bit by bit, sliding over more cords and pipes, all the stuff usually hidden behind walls.

Only then did I start to worry about other security measures that might trip me up, or worse. How would I explain why I was doing this if someone noticed? They had to protect this building from Touched powers. Really, all I could do right then was hope that most of their efforts were focused on stopping this sort of thing from allowing someone to break in from the outside, and that not so much was put toward protecting the interior of the building once you were already in.

Oh right, and Paige and Sierra too. I could also hope that they were able to disable any security that might've still been in place to stop this sort of thing. Between those two and the fact that we were already inside the building, I should be able to pull this off. Maybe. Hopefully. Probably.

Naturally, I wasn't already under enough stress as it was with all of this, so my brain had to come up with something to make it worse while I was trying to focus on climb-sliding my way to the next floor. Specifically, it started to question whether this was actually the first time these Biolem rings were being used. After all, the technology for this had been around for years, and there was nothing saying whoever was behind this had to show their hand immediately. What if there were already a bunch of previous winners who had been injected with this shit and could be controlled? It was a thought that sent a heavy shudder through me, and convinced me to push harder. Whatever this was, however long it had been going on, we had to stop it now. And the first step of that was for me to get up there so I could see who these people actually were.

Once I was up to the right level, I focused on finding a way to see into that room. Obviously, the electrical outlet covers here were still intact, and I couldn't exactly ask the people on the other side to take them off for me so I could see them better. I was going to have to do this myself.

To that end, I slither-slid my way to the nearest metal air duct and pushed a bit of my pink-self off, leaving it there. As I hoped, once it wasn't part of me, the pink paint settled onto the duct and I was able to trigger it, weakening that small bit of the duct so I could push my way through. This was all very… weird. I was liquid, a mobile puddle of paint sliding up through this very cramped space. Now I was going from the area between the walls, down into the vent. And yet, I didn't feel claustrophobic at all right now. I didn't feel anything like I had down in that supply closet with the others, even though this space was a lot smaller than that. Maybe I was just focusing on the much more pressing danger we were dealing with. Biolem brainwashing was a bit distracting.

Then I didn't have any more time to think about that, because I was able to get down into the duct and slide over to the nearest vent inside the room itself. The duct wasn't at all like what they showed on television. There was no way a full-sized person could get in here. It was far too tiny. Even a small child wouldn't have been able to be in here. But I could make it like this, and I was able to move right up to that vent so I could peer out. All while silently praying that I wasn't too late. If those people had already moved on, this would all be for nothing and we'd be no closer to knowing who was behind this. Please, let us have this win. Give us something here.

I had already been hearing muffled voices through the wall, giving me some hope that I wasn't doing this for nothing. And sure enough, as soon as I was close enough to the vent, the voices became much more clear. First there was a male voice, saying, "-- after that inspection. No one's going to look too closely at the rings until the actual ceremony on Saturday. No one else can even get to the damn things until then. Like I said, we're good. So don't worry about it."

By that point, I was able to see through the vent, shifting my view to focus on the room beyond. It looked like some sort of kitchen area, actually, with several stoves, a long metal table right in the middle, two tall refrigerators, and more like that. The guy who was talking was standing in the doorway, his back to where I was so I couldn't see his face, of course. Worse, the person he was addressing was on the other side of that doorway, so I couldn't see them at all. Come on, step back inside, turn around, move out of the way so I could see your partner. Do something.

It was a vaguely familiar female voice that responded. "Don't tell me not to worry, you know how important this is, how fucked we are if we mess it up. You know what she'll do to us if anything goes wrong now."

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She? Was this about Cup after all? Was that who they were worried about? Somehow, that didn't seem right. Cup was in custody. Very secure custody. Would these two really be that worried about-- well okay, maybe they would, given who Cup was and what she'd already pulled off. But still, I felt like there was something else going on here. The woman down there sounded too scared, almost petrified by the thought of upsetting this person. Were they being forced into doing this?

"Look, I know," the guy replied, still stubbornly standing there with his back to me so I couldn't see anything important. "We don't want to piss her off. Or be anywhere near her again if we can help it. But we can do this. We'll get her what she wants, take the money, and then get the hell out of here before it all falls apart. She'll be too busy turning all those Touched into her own little army of brainwashed slaves to even think about us. We just have to hang on a little bit longer."

Okay, yeah, these two definitely weren't in charge of whatever was going on here. And they were clearly terrified of this woman they were working for. And of course I couldn't count on them to actually say her name out loud or show each other a picture of her or anything useful like that.

On the other hand, I was given a decent look at both of them as the guy turned a bit and stepped back into the room. Unfortunately, he wasn't familiar. It was just some pale guy with blotchy skin and long brown hair wearing a security shirt. The woman, however, I definitely knew as soon as her face was revealed when he stepped out of the way. And I was right about her voice sounding familiar. It was Nqobile, the woman who had been acting as the emcee for these games. So apparently she was involved in this, which kind of annoyed me. I had actually liked her. Well, as much as you could like someone you only knew as a sporting announcer. It wasn't like we were friends or anything, but still. Part of me saw it as a betrayal, weird as that was.

At least she didn't seem to be the big bad behind all this. That person was still a giant question mark. Unfortunately, I was only able to be happy about that for a second before remembering that that meant we had no idea who was actually behind this. Sure, it was just great that Nqobile was doing this at least partially out of fear, yet that didn't actually help solve the situation. Not to mention the whole part where they were still accepting what sounded like a lot of money for it. I wasn't quite ready to call them innocent just yet. Especially given how callously they had referred to the whole brainwashed Touched slaves thing.

So, that didn't tell us who was in charge, but maybe I could get that information anyway. It occurred to me that it might be worth it to just pop out and show myself. I could tell them that they needed to explain everything so we could put a stop to this. Maybe if they knew they didn't have a chance of getting away with the money, that might be enough for them to throw this boss of theirs under the bus. Especially if it meant they could get protection from her.

No, that wouldn't work. At least, probably not. They seemed more afraid of her than they would be of me. And I still didn't know exactly who to trust. After all, they had this boss, who could be anyone. She might work in this place herself, or be one of the participants. If I tried to blow the whistle on them, what were the odds of this boss doing something terrible? What if they were too afraid of her to tell us who she was before she found out her plan was in danger and lashed out?

All of that flashed through my mind before I heard Nqobile retort, "Sure, if she doesn't just kill us herself. I don't know how she found out we needed that money, but I don't trust her for one second, and neither should you. But then, if you knew anything about who to trust, we wouldn't be in this shit to begin with. You--" she cut herself off then, and I was pretty sure this was all part of a long running argument. The two of them definitely had a complicated relationship of some sort. But whatever, they could work out their issues in prison once this was over.

The guy put his hands on her shoulders and kept trying to reassure her that it would all work out. They would have the money they needed to take care of it, whatever 'it' was, with enough left over to disappear. And all of the authorities would be too busy to worry about them. He had it all taken care of. All they had to do was follow her rules, do what she wanted, and the rest would be simple. His obviously deluded bullshit made me want to punch him, and I didn't have anywhere close to the whole story. These two were making me sick.

Oh yeah, and they were making me angry too. I seriously just wanted to jump out and confront them. Seriously, what the fuck were they thinking? There had to be a better option for how to deal with their problems (either the one they needed money for or this woman they were afraid of) than selling every single Touched here down the river. To say nothing of all the other innocent people who would obviously be hurt or killed by whoever this woman was when she forced the Touched to do bad things. What the hell kind of selfish bullshit was-- yup, I was getting angrier.

My thoughts on all that were interrupted as Nqobile gave her partner a little push. "Look, they almost have the magician's pets cleaned up. They're calling me down there to get things started again. So it's now or never. Take the next batch of rings down and put them where they belong before they put the other guard back on his post." She held up what looked like one of those small ring boxes, except this one was made of metal and had a thumbprint sensor on top. "I'll put this one somewhere safe. You're absolutely sure your Tech friend can do something with it?"

The guy was nodding. "Yeah, yeah, that's his whole schtick. Get him tech to look at and he can develop a counter to it. If we show him the ring, he'll be able to put together something to disable it. So why don't we just take it to him now instead of pussyfooting around and hiding it?"

Nqobile swatted the side of his head. "Because, dumbass, there's no way to take this thing out of the building and past all those security tools they've got. It'll set off every sensor in this place. Once it all goes down and they're distracted by… everything else, they'll be too busy to notice one more alarm. We'll get it out then and let your friend look at it. If everything falls apart, we'll trade the cure he comes up with for our freedom. And maybe a little something extra for our trouble."

Okay, if I hadn't already been angry, that would've done the trick. If they had stuck around together any longer and said anything else about how they were totally fine with screwing over the rest of… absolutely everyone just for their own benefit, I might've actually jumped out and started swinging. But I still wasn't sure if showing that I knew what they were up to was the right move. As it was, I might be able to find out more by playing it quiet and eavesdropping on them later. Besides, if she was gonna hide that ring somewhere, maybe I could grab it and see what Paige and Sierra could do with the thing. They knew a fair bit about Pittman's work, after all.

Yeah, it was probably better to play this safe. We still had several days before this plan would be put into effect. I could-- maybe I should just take that ring, see what Paige and Sierra could do with it, then tell my parents what was going on. Not as myself, obviously, but as Paintball. After all, they had all the resources of the Ministry. And obviously, they weren't behind this. Wait, unless the 'she' these two were talking about was my mother? Could that be a thing? Now I was even more uncertain about what to do. My instinct was to say absolutely not, there was no way my mother could be a part of this. But I was obviously biased, and she was quite capable of doing bad things, things that could terrify other people.

By that point, the guy was heading out. I made a mental note to remember his face and try to find him later. I wished there was a way for me to shift back into my physical form and take a picture with my phone, but that was pretty impossible in this narrow space.

Meanwhile, Nqobile moved over to what looked like a blank piece of wall. She touched part of the wall repeatedly, tapping out some intricate pattern that I would never remember, then leaned in and seemed to let a beam of light scan her eyes. With that, a piece of the wall slid aside, allowing her to put the ring box in there before it sealed up again. The woman looked around once more, seemed satisfied that everything was fine, then walked out.

As soon as it was clear and I was as satisfied as I could be that they wouldn't come back in, I pushed my gooey, liquid self out through the vent, dropping down to the floor below before shifting back to my physical form. From there, I moved quickly, using pink paint on the part of the wall Nqobile had opened up. Making a hole, I reached in and took the ring box out. Then I made sure it was sealed up once more, tucked the box away, and stepped back over to the vent. Focusing, I pushed my finger up against the grill there and began to melt back into my puddle self. Like before, I did it a little bit at a time, while pushing my liquefying parts through that tiny space and back into the vent. From there, I just retraced my steps (so to speak) back down to the supply closet. I needed to see what Paige and Sierra thought about all this.

Except once I emerged into the closet and reformed, it was empty. Wait, no, not empty. There was a phone sitting on the floor. Blinking, I hesitated before reaching down to pick it up. As soon as I did, it buzzed with an incoming video chat request.

Hesitating slightly, I finally reached out to accept the video chat. Was this Paige and Sierra? Did they have to go follow someone else?

No, it wasn't them. In fact, I couldn't see anyone at all at first, just a black screen. But I heard a woman's voice immediately speak up. "I'm so happy right now, you have no idea. I thought I was gonna have to go out of my way to get you involved, but here you are! Now, I need you to keep quiet about what's happening. Play the matches and don't tell anyone about this. Believe me, I'll know. Say one word to anyone, try to trick me, and I'll be very disappointed. If I'm disappointed, both of your friends here die. That's a promise."

The view then showed Paige and Sierra, lying unmoving on some random cement floor somewhere, before shifting around to show the person responsible for this.

"And believe me, Paintball, I may do a lot of bad things, but I don't break my promises," Casura informed me.

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