Season 1, Episode 6 - The Tree Plot IV - "Plan of Action"

Later that morning, Esther arrived in the basement below the Tertiary Building of the Academy. By late autumn, it got cold down there, the thick concrete walls offering little in the way of warmth. Esther buttoned up her greatcoat as she walked past stone-faced Technical Servicemen analyzing the walls and floors in the basement. The corridors down there were a labyrinth designed to confuse any invaders and withstand an atomic bombing (hopefully); the intruder from two days ago apparently bypassed all of that.

By now, the actual area of breaching - the jail cell row - had been thoroughly examined and analyzed by the Academy Support Department. Nonetheless, the inner circle of the Academy had a meeting down there that morning; some members, especially Security Chief Iyeguda, couldn’t believe a break-in was possible.

When Esther arrived, Jon the security guard, waiting outside the iron door that blocked off the jail cell row, ushered her inside, following behind her. She found Iyeguda kneeling on the ground, knocking on the iron bars of the cell that once belonged to Jackson the New Yorker. Ms. Essex, the head of the Support Department, leaned against a wall down the hallway with her arms crossed, a cigarette in her mouth. Mr. Shokahu and Ms. Mogami stood off to the side, Shokahu his usual quiet and Mogami her unusual quiet. Mr. Stockham, rubbing his chin in thought, gave Esther a welcoming nod.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Iyeguda muttered, knocking harder on the iron bars. “Our security down here is excellent. How could she have gotten through?”

“We know already,” Essex complained, sounding seriously annoyed. Esther ducked her head a little when she glanced at her; a mercenary named Osip who was close to Essex had been killed around the same time the Academy break-in occurred. Between that and her usual sardonic mood, Essex’s words and attitudes served to increase the tension in the air.

“An Earth Swimmer,” Iyeguda repeated, a vein threatening to pop across his bald head. Essex felt sorry for him; he had over a decade of good service for the Academy, only for a spy ring, a smuggling ring, a State Police raid, and now the most recent incident to happen all in the span of a few months. His Technical Servicemen weren’t enough, and he couldn’t have been happy about the rival Pond Free Corps rapidly gaining in strength.

“Even if she was an Earth Swimmer user,” Iyeguda continued, frowning, “She would’ve had to swim far too great of a distance to reach here. The ground below the Academy is sealed off by Lilu-”

“Iyeguda,” Stockham interrupted, though his tone remained friendly. But there was a firmness in his voice that suggested this wasn’t a conversation topic to be openly stated. Esther, of course, already knew about what was below the Academy, but an uncomfortable amount of eyes focused on Jon.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll, uh…go.” Jon awkwardly stepped away as everyone watched; he shut the iron door behind him, leaving the inner circle to talk amongst themselves.

“All I’m saying is that the Academy underground would be inaccessible,” Iyeguda concluded.

Essex took a long drag. “We did the research. What did we find, Esther?”

Esther gulped as all eyes were now on her. “The Earth Swimmer was, uh…Circuit 4.”

“4!” Iyeguda repeated, his eyes wide. Mogami also gasped; Stockham displayed no concern.

“That’s impossible!” Iyeguda continued. “The last Circuit 4 died during the Presidential Restoration. Nobody’s come close to sniffing that level of power since!”

Essex shifted her arms, looking bored. “We analyzed the traces of Rddhi left behind on the walls, floor, and ceiling. Our tests indicate Circuit 4. And Lilu’s power level is currently Circuit 3. 4 is greater than 3, right?”

Iyeguda frowned, but he did know enough math to understand Essex’s point. “Then why wait?” he asked. “We’re assuming the Second Restorationists are behind this since we have confirmed sightings of the Alchemist when the Cabot Shopping Center was attacked at the same time.”

Esther noticed Essex briefly shifting her attention to the ground for a moment before resuming her bored look.

“The Restorationists had been operating their smuggling ring here for months,” Iyeguda said. “Why wait until now to break into the Academy?”

Stockham rubbed his chin again. “It does make you wonder. Lilu is set to achieve Post-Terrestrial Circuitry three days from now. It’s been offline for the better part of a year now, yet the Restorationists break in just a few days before it's set to activate.”

“Lilu’s been giving off signs,” Shokahu suggested. “If this Alchemist is as strong as we believe him to be, then he might’ve noticed.”

Stockham nodded. “Yes, yes…I see. Esther, we know this isn’t the Alchemist himself who did the break in, right?”

Esther fumbled over her words. “Uh…uh, yes, yes we do. Analysis of the smuggling ring incident and the Cabot incident show signs of matter being rearranged on a molecular level by the Alchemist. We found no changes in matter here - hence we believe an Earth Swimmer moved right through it all into the jail cell row.”

Stockham gave Esther a nod at that; she recognized the gesture and immediately pulled out a notebook to record his thoughts for him.

“I see two possibilities,” he began. “It’s possible he didn’t have an Earth Swimmer among his followers until very recently. But, when we look at all the evidence as a whole, I find it far more likely that he's had one up his sleeve for a while now…he’s had the ability to kill any of us this entire time, but hasn’t…we know from our after-action reports from the smuggling incident that he’s a highly talented recruiter, and even has an interest in our users…”

He reached his eureka moment. It wasn’t like in the stories of scientists shouting as their vials bubbled over; it was just a quick flash in his eyes. “This whole thing was merely a show of power.”

Iyeguda reacted to the conclusion most strongly. “Are you serious? He broke into here and Cabot just to show us his strength?”

“Well, killing Stefano and recruiting Jackson and Shannen were certainly a nice collateral,” Stockham admitted. “But think about it. He has done very little to destabilize the development of our Rddhi users here. He demonstrated to us that he has a Circuit 4 among his followers. He’s demonstrated his own power. The Alchemist wants us to catch up to him.”

“But why?” Iyeguda asked.

That question stumped the group. Everybody remained silent for a moment; even Stockham failed to produce an answer. Esther tried her best.

“Um…is he outsourcing Rddhi development to us?” she suggested. “Maybe, we train the users, but then he recruits them over when we’ve gotten them powerful enough. Uh, that way, he has to use less resources on training.”

“Perhaps,” Stockham said. Esther felt like a proud daughter at hearing those words, because it wasn’t a rejection sort of perhaps, it was a that’s possible sort of perhaps. “We have no answers for his Circuit 4, but our newest users proved to be more than a match against his newest users in the smuggling fights against Harriet and Roman.”

He clapped his hands. “But that’ll have to be answered another day. We’ve done all we can against the Alchemist, and once Lilu activates, we should be safe from any Restorationist activity in our fair district.”

Esther saw Iyeguda frown upon hearing that; he couldn’t have been happy about an metaphysical defense system proving to be more useful than his Technical Servicemen.

“Let’s focus on what we’re doing now,” Stockham said. “Cleansing both ourselves and the Navy of the Dorrites. And perhaps the entire city at this rate. Shokahu, you’ve confirmed Dorrite activity in Fore River right?”

Esther glanced over at Shokahu. Something just never clicked between the two of them. He seemed too cynical about the Academy, and while Esther wasn’t exactly an optimist, she did believe in what she was doing. Shokahu seemed to do it because he had resigned himself to it.

“They have a whole underground base there,” Shokahu said. “And they have ties to the Fore River Military Police. Their Captain Firmino has blocked any further Naval investigation into the matter.”

“And Fore River supplies laborers to the Naval Dockyard,” Stockham realized. “No wonder the infection spread to the Navy. Close contact. But the Navy will have to sit tight for now while we get some answers. Namely - who’s funding the Dorrites and helping them construct that base and even an army?”

“We found evidence of qiyejituan involvement,” Shokahu answered. “Pan-Asian mercenaries armed with Pan-Asian weaponry were patrolling the grounds. Considering how many qiyejituan were involved in New England reconstruction efforts, it’s tough to pin it down to just one, if it even is just one.”

“And there was that Asian phrase as well, correct?” Stockham asked, turning his attention to Esther. “Have you translated it?”

“自我毀滅,” Esther said aloud. “Chinese for ‘self-destruction’. But, uh, when I looked further, I found that the symbols matched Chinese textbooks from prior to the Great Asian War. It can also mean ‘destruction of the self’. This, um, ideology, was crucial to explaining that war. Sacrificing your own desires in favor of the national goal. Ego d-death. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any more information beyond that.”

Stockham smiled. “I have a solution for that.” He gestured over to Iyeguda, who produced two ID cards out from his jacket and handed them to the Chairman.

Stockham examined them. He kept his friendly smile, but the lights went out in his eyes. “...Ron Mexico and Lennay Kekua?”

“They’re good names!” Iyeguda protested.

Stockham glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow. “This is seriously the best you could do?”

Iyeguda waved with his hands in exasperation. “You said that as long as I perfectly replicated two Institute student IDs, I could get creative with the names!”

“Obviously, he meant to a reasonable extent,” Essex dryly supposed, earning a glare from Iyeguda.

Esther raised a hand. “Um…two student IDs?”

Stockham handed an ID over to Esther; she looked down and saw her own photo from school picture day staring timidly back up at her. Next to her picture, she saw the proud, plumed Corinthian helm, the words SPARTAN PRIDE written below, the words INSTITUTE FEEDER HIGH SCHOOL written above.

“The Institute has traditionally had the most Asian investment in New England,” Stockham told her. “Within its library, you’ll find information on qiyejituan’s who have invested in Fore River specifically, along with more information on the ‘destruction of the self’.”

“Why wouldn’t it be at another library?” Mogami asked, finally chiming in. “Like Narragansett Public or even our own?”

“As with us and Cambridge, the Institute is highly territorial,” Stockham explained. “Fore River is its turf - it’ll keep any information related to it within its own library. Same with the majority of Asian investment and involvement in this country.”

Esther gulped as she realized what he intended for her. “Um…Mr. Stockham, I’m no good with acting…”

“That’s alright, you just need to keep quiet,” Stockham said as he handed over the other ID. “You can let him do most of the talking.”

Esther went red as she examined the ID. Her traveling companion, Ron Mexico, would be none other than Isaac.

“All due respect,” Shokahu said upon seeing his name. “Wouldn’t somebody more…socially adaptable be better suited to the role? Dan Turner and Reed operate in a manner similar to chameleons when it comes to social situations.”

Stockham nodded in understanding. “I see where you’re coming from. But Isaac has proven himself in several missions in the past. We can trust him. I haven’t proven Dan Turner can be trusted yet. Hanai and Clayton are looking into second-year students up in Androscoggin this week. They’ll be heading south to Connecticut to examine his place of origin after that.”

Iyeguda snorted. “If you hadn’t cut my budget, I could’ve examined the second-years’ places of origin before they actually came here.”

Esther supposed the Academy standards of entry were pretty loose when it came to things like anything beyond a basic background check.

“I cut your budget because of our perceived peaceful situation,” Stockham said politely yet firmly. “And because of a global economic collapse nobody could’ve expected.”

Esther gulped again, because the three New England Rddhi schools - even the Academy - bore much of the responsibility for the Asian stock market crash of several years ago that plunged the world into its current depression.

Iyeguda grumbled in defeat; Stockham continued. “And as for Hibiscus…considering the past between Isaac and Esther, I thought their powers combined would be much stronger than whatever magic Hibiscus can whip up for us.”

Esther briefly caught Stockham’s knowing glance; her heart skipped a beat at the thought of her and Isaac doing something together, just the two of them.

“Isaac wants to be more involved in the Academy’s doings,” Stockham told, reaching the natural conclusion of the inner circle’s pow-wow. “I say, it’s time we let him. You may reveal the Circuitry to him, Esther. I’ll trust your judgement - just make sure he comes out of this investigation at the Institute library with even stronger convictions about serving the Academy. I only have two conditions - first, that he has you home by midnight, otherwise I’m shooting him out of a cannon-”

“Mr. Stockham!” Esther protested. Mogami stifled a giggle.

Stockam laughed, but then he grew serious. His eyes no longer had that hint of jovialness in them.

“Do not, under any circumstances, reveal anything about Lilu to him. Nothing about Lilu reveals this room. I’m even going to have Jon watched for hearing its name.”

Esther gulped for the third time in the past five minutes.

“Lilu is our endgame,” Stockham concluded. “Its Firmament will establish Nirvana on Earth. And then we’ll know peace for all time.”