Terry Saunders glanced at his appointment book and sighed. He was still failing to get anything out of the latest gamer girls group they'd picked up for spreading dungeon propaganda.

His team had already relayed the info about their network to the appropriate authorities to get the website and upcoming ebook shut down, naturally. Still, there was something unmistakably different about this group from the others, and that bothered Terry.

For one thing, their pamphlet included information even Terry's superiors found helpful, and they'd been studying the dungeons since day one. That alone was enough to give him pause, but then there was the sheer stubbornness of the group.

Terry had plenty on them. Public recordings of their presentations, webcam footage with visibly warped light but sound unhindered. But they clearly knew more than they were saying. Their public addresses had disclosed more than they shared since being brought in. The pamphlet even more.

Terry would dearly love to get his hands on a copy of the alleged ebook, but even moving through their best channels they couldn't find a copy anywhere online. It hadn't leaked, or been uploaded to the pre-order page.

The discovery of the Tamer class hadn't been a revelation; it had been found early on by the research teams capturing dungeon monsters for study, and there were even dozens of subjects working to level their Tamer class, but to have one prancing around in the public eye with a dinosaur in tow had riled up an awful lot of the wrong sort of attention.

The more leaks they sealed, the more kept popping up. Terry wasn't sure why his superiors hadn't just ordered a military lockdown of every dungeon, since that seemed like the only possible way to keep a lid on this secret they so clearly wanted protected, but maybe their sway was less far-reaching than they wanted everyone to think.

To this day, Terry wasn't sure if their organization was run by the government, or if it was an independent operation run by someone stupidly rich. Whatever it was, it was secrecy behind secrecy. He didn't even know the names of half the people he worked with, many of them having somehow changed their nametags to display agent numbers instead.

A sharp rap at his door, which he acknowledged with a gruff 'Enter', and Agent 317 entered.

"Nothing to report?" Terry guessed.

317 nodded. "The full transcript has been filed. Nothing of note."

Terry briefly wondered if a bit of proper fear would be enough to make the stubborn gamers talk, but their operational parameters were clear. Capture, question, recruit if possible, but otherwise focus on containment without injury.

There were plenty of uses for Awakened individuals. It would be wasteful to deliberately squander them over a little stubbornness.

Still, if a couple stray monsters happened to be overlooked, it wouldn't be the end of the world if a few of the prisoners got a bit mauled. Perhaps then they'd be more open to negotiation.

Terry flipped through the interrogation transcript without much hope, then glanced back at his appointment book. He could spare a half hour. Technically, he should be dealing with the paperwork, but that could wait.

"Have the ringleader brought up. Dismissed."

The agent nodded and left.

Terry made a quick note, then gathered his things.

Enough secondhand information. He wanted to see for himself.

"Oh, wouldn't I just love to get in a dungeon with you!" the Ranger exclaimed, sitting straight with her legs crossed at the ankle as though this were a business meeting instead of an interrogation, somehow folding her manacled hands behind her back in a way that only augmented the look of professionalism. "I've never fought alongside anyone so high level. Do you think you could solo one? I bet we could clear it together, just you and me."

Terry held up one of her professionally-printed trifold pamphlets. "Cassandra Jackson. What do you think you're doing?"

The prisoner shrugged. "Saving the world, isn't it obvious? Gotta level up before the monsters do. Right?"

"This information is classified and highly dangerous. You've been handing it out to children."

"Like I said, saving the world."

"This isn't a game, Miss Jackson."

"Then why don't you quit playing around and tell me what you really want from me?"

"Where did you come by this information?"

"Independent research. I've been studying dungeons since the day I found out about them."

"So have we. Your information is stunningly complete." Assigning stat points, for one thing, was something Terry's superiors had yet to figure out. Discovering that health regeneration could be improved from its baseline of one per minute was a groundbreaking discovery. Yet this group handed out the bizarrely specific details like they were common knowledge.

"Guess I got lucky."

"So you claim full responsibility for this distribution?"

"You know it was me." She gestured down to her purple shirt, which bore a cartoon version of herself waving a manabow, emblazoned with her 'real life RPG' slogans. "I dragged my sister and her kid into it, which I now regret, but have you seen them? Free marketing is free marketing."

"Why are you so insistent on sharing this information? Do you have any idea the kind of mess you've caused? How many people have died because of this?"

She drew herself up, looking suddenly businesslike again despite the comic tee. "I am confident that my actions have done more good than harm. The information can't stay hidden forever. It's been, what, four months, and we've already met hundreds of Awakened all across the country. You may be able to stop people from spreading it too wide online, but people talk."

Terry knew that. He'd filled out a dozen reports on the very topic.They had compounds set up around a dozen dungeons across the country, but there were dozens more entirely outside their control. A security risk and potential threat all at once.

"You can't suppress it forever. And when it does get out," she pointed to the pamphlet in his hands, "it's best if they have a guide so they know what their choices mean and how to have a better chance of survival. Otherwise, you'll end up with too many Fighters with no one to support them, and a frontloaded force that has no sustainability."

"This 'event' your website is predicting?"

She leaned forward, her eyes suddenly intent. "You've felt it too, haven't you?" She took a deep breath, leaning her head back as though tasting the mana in the air, eyes going distant. "They're coming. Soon. Sooner than you can guess. And when they arrive, we must be ready. The whole world must be ready to meet them, or the earth will fall to fire and desolation." Her voice had taken on a dreamy, almost gleeful lilt.

For some reason, the only word that came to Terry's mind was 'prophetess.'

Then the moment passed, she blinked and sat up straight again, the businesswoman again. "Sorry, you were saying?"

Terry felt oddly shaken, out of his groove. The script called for him to... ask something, probably, but whatever it was had escaped his mind. He thought he could feel something, some distant resonance of foreboding, something he thought he might have felt for months...

But, no. That was silly. He shouldn't let one desperate woman get to him. She was just trying to unbalance him.

Then the alerts started ringing and the perimeter breach scanners lit up. They were all retrofitted to run on mana, naturally, which made things like voice communication rather impossible for the moment, but they could do things like 'make a thing light up somewhere' pretty easily.

"We'll finish this later." Terry turned to leave the room, secretly glad for the chance to escape and calm his thoughts.

That odd intensity. The absolute conviction with which she spoke utter nonsense without any accompanying signs of madness. He couldn't believe her, but couldn't dismiss her as simply insane either. It nagged at him.

He wasn't used to being this unsettled.

It must be something about her mana presence. Terry would never be so flustered by simple words. He was better trained than that.

"Do ring me up if you change your mind about the dungeon," she called after him, the playful note back in her voice. "I would truly love to see what you can do."