Zelda Verada's Arc

Chapter 4 of 13

The cooler and the files sat on Zelda's bench in the garage. She had samples now, and evidence of what they were. But knowing where the vault hid its worst secrets meant nothing until she reached them. She spread Mary's rough map across the steel equipment rack and traced the route down. Three or four months to clear the lower level room by room. That was the honest number. She stopped counting the days it would cost her and started counting the people it would take. She laid out the plan aloud so Mary could hear it. Mary would run the medical lab up top. She would manage supplies, drugs, and treat anyone hurt in the descent. Mary tapped her folder and nodded once. "I can hold the top," she said. "If you keep the wounded coming to me alive." That left the tech. Zelda keyed her radio and reached Logan, the Atomic Cats salvager working the ruins nearby. He arrived within the hour, Aussie hat pushed back, two fingers missing from his right paw. He looked at her map before he looked at her. "Non-medical tech," Zelda said. "Anything down there that isn't a scalpel or a scanner is yours to log and recover. I need the paths cleared and the machines read before we trust them." Logan studied the collapsed route marked in red. "Blast damage. Old, but old doesn't mean safe." He set one paw on the page. "I read machines by what's missing. Down there, plenty's missing." He glanced at his short paw. "That's how I lost these." He looked up. "I'm in. There's data below worth my contract." Supplies were the last gap, and the largest. Zelda had spent her favors dry. She could not stock a three-month operation on goodwill she no longer had. She needed a buyer who paid in equipment, not promises. She called Kira Dallas. Kira ran logistics for Reilly's Rangers. Zelda had never met her, only heard the reputation: a woman who verified everything and trusted nothing until it sat in her own paws. Kira answered fast, voice clipped. "Look, I don't move on a handshake," Kira said. "What do you actually have?" "Viable tissue samples. Prewar medical research. Diagnostic tech coming up from the lower level." Zelda kept her voice level. "I need a steady supplier for a long dig. You need reliable stock. I can prove I produce." A pause. Papers shifted on Kira's end. "Hah. Everyone says they produce." Then, slower: "But samples pulled fresh, that tells me how you work. Send me the manifest. If it verifies, the Rangers stock your operation and I take first pick of the recovery." "Done," Zelda said. The line cut. Zelda stood in the garage with her three roles filled: Mary on medicine, Logan on tech, Kira on supply. The base had a shape now. The descent had a start date. She had a team, and no favors left if any of them failed her.