Broker

Chapter 132

Even with the noise, it was strangely quiet. It was an odd thing to think, but Barry really couldn’t help himself at that moment. He crossed his big arms and glanced out the ultra-thick window that looked out into the massive trench. A few sea critters that were able to handle the astounding pressures flitted by, blissfully unaware of what was transpiring on the other side of the glass. He took a deep breath, fresh air filling his lungs, and turned his attention to his immediate surroundings. 

He was standing in a large room made entirely of heavy metal. Over a dozen men were moving about here and there, moving boxes and working on the walls. Faint temporary lights glowed overhead. There were a few doors leading out, one large one that opened up opposite the window and led deeper into the slowly growing complex. On either side of the room there were additional doors that opened out into secondary passages. One of which would be to an elevator shaft that extended up to the ocean floor far above. They’d be building a secondary outpost there once time permitted.

For now, there were far more crucial things to cover.

The main doors hissed open and a two men stepped inside, Trigger and Amos. Trigger was beaming, a long suitcase held in one hand and a skip to his step. He was talking light-heartedly with Amos as they approached. Amos glanced away from their discussion and looked up to meet Barry’s gaze. His jolly look went a bit more serious before he cracked a grin, “Like the view, Kingshark?” He asked.

Barry raised an eyebrow and shrugged looking out into the water, “It’ll do, Technocrat,” He grunted as the younger man came to a stop in front of him. The both of them stared at one another for a few heartbeats. The air grew tenser, neither of them blinking, even Trigger took a full step back before Barry finally snorted and burst into laughter. He reached out and picked the scientist up for a moment and pulled him into a bear hug, “It’s freakin’ amazing man! Damn!” He laughed, setting Amos down.

Amos laughed and brushed himself off, “I figured!” He said, “Shall I show you around? You should probably have at least a basic idea of why you’re able to breathe in here.”

Barry gave him a nervous look, “Half of what you say is gibberish to me, y’know that, right?”

Amos shrugged, “I’ll keep it at the kindergarten level.”

Barry rolled his eyes, “Thanks, man, thanks,” He chortled before glancing over at Trigger, “Got you a new toy?” He asked, glancing down at the long box in his second-in-command’s hands.

Trigger broke into a wide grin, patting the box, “New suitcase,” He said sarcastically before standing up a bit straighter, squaring his shoulders, “Oh, and there might happen to be a new gun in there designed by Technocrat himself, on top of an additional reward from the big boss for putting up with your crazy ass.”

Nearby, Amos snorted out a laugh and Barry crossed his arms, “Hey now! I ain’t that bad!” He paused and then grinned, “What she give ya?”

His second smirked, “Mobility power according to the letter attached,” He pat his pocket, “She sent something for Wake too. Didn’t open his letter so no idea what he got.”

The supervillain nodded sagely, “She takes good care of her people, that’s for sure,” he said, pleased, “Welp! Go have fun with that, can’t wait to see what you’re capable of. Amos! If you wouldn’t mind?” He asked, gesturing grandly towards the doors that he and Trigger had just come from.

Amos straightened dramatically and adjusted the goggles around his neck, “It would be my pleasure!”

–

Shortly after that they arrived in an enormous room that had been one of the first constructed throughout the growing subterranean facility. Unlike the room from before, this one was already lit with permanent lights, strips that extended across the room and provided a steady ambient glow that felt warm on the skin. The dark metal walls and floor had been covered in a white material that felt a little like something between marble and metal beneath Barry’s feet. Large pipes jutted out of the walls in the rear of the room before feeding seawater into a pair of basins.

It was after the basins that things started to get confusing, as far as Barry was concerned. There were various machines everywhere moving and pumping all sorts of things, including a bunch of large cylinders filled with some sort of odd, glowing algae. There were several more of them but they had some sort of covering on them. He narrowed his eyes at it and Amos gave him a sidelong look.

“This is the heart of your life support system, under tons and tons of rock and in the deepest part of your facility. The only access is through these doors and the intake pipes which probably have more lethal security measures than a federal vault,” He said with a proud puffing of his chest.

“You uh… really outdid yourself, man,” Barry said, scratching his head and trying to make heads or tails of any of it. It just looked like a big mess to him. A really organized and neat mess. Everything was in rows but all of it was just… “What the hell does any of this do? What’s with the tubes, is that algae, it looks odd?” He asked.

Amos brightened, “That, my friend, is a very unique strain of algae,” He said, walking over to one of the tanks and putting his hand on the glass surface. Barry walked over and peered inside, he could see something glowing in the interior that the gross plant was wrapped around. There were also light sources lining the lids of the tank, providing even more light. “It produces large amounts of carbon dioxide and breathable oxygen.”

Barry squinted at him, “Ain’t carbon dioxide toxic? I get that plants need it but why do you need so much of the stuff?”

Amos nodded, “Yes, but the co2 isn’t for you,” He said with a chuckle and gestured at some of the tanks, “You might notice that half of the tanks are covered at the moment. Like you said, plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to produce that breathable air. These tanks will switch between night and daylight modes and the carbon dioxide will be distributed accordingly on a rotation,” He explained, “All of the excess breathable air is sent to the life support system to be stored in tanks or cycled into the building.”

Barry raised an eyebrow, something about that didn’t seem quite right. He scratched his head and wished for the millionth time that he hadn’t skipped out on all that extra schooling. He squinted at Amos who grinned at him and waved for him to follow. They walked over to the two water basins filled with pure seawater.

“Seawater is amazing,” Amos said, “It can be used for so much with the right equipment. The first thing this room does is desalinate it,” He gestured to a machine on the left, “That’s taking all the salt out, which can be stored and used,” He then gestured to another group of machines, “Those are purifiers,” He said, “Some of the salt-free water will be cleaned for drinking, showering, whatever,” He waved his hand and then turned to another set of machines on the other side of the room, “Now those are special.”

“Don’t leave me in suspense, doc,” Barry grumbled, growing increasingly lost.

“Those are water electrolysis machines,” Amos said, “They’re taking the desalinated water and breaking it down into oxygen and hydrogen. The interiors of the tanks are cold enough that the oxygen turns into a liquid form while the hydrogen gas is pumped out. It’s being stored in cold tanks as liquid reserve fuel and will be used automatically if the tanks reach capacity,” He said, “The liquid oxygen is used as a coolant or…” He grinned, “It’s returned to room temperature and given to the night tanks for the algae.”

Barry made a face, “It’s all looping around.”

“That’s the point!” Amos chuckled, “It’s not a perfect system, still gotta maintain it. So some of your crew will be trained for it, but otherwise it’ll provide more than enough water, air, fuel, and salt for you guys. We may have to empty out the salt at some point, since eventually it’ll pile up,” He scratched his head, “Maybe we can sell it, I dunno.”

Barry took a deep breath and savored the taste of the air for a moment before nodding at Amos, “Welp, it definitely works!” He laughed and clapped Amos on the back, “You did a damn good job!”

“Wasn’t just me, I oversaw it a little but we had a whole team on this project,” He said before looking a little sad, “Lost some of them in the bombing.”

Barry hesitated and lowered his hand, he looked towards the machines that were keeping his men alive so deep under the water and then back at Amos. He put his hand on the man’s shoulder, “We’ll get her back for ‘em, promise ya, brother,” He gave the younger man’s shoulder a squeeze. It would have felt so strange calling him that, thinking about their relationship just over a year before, but now, well, he couldn’t see Amos as anything else but a trusted friend. Someone he’d raise hell for. He felt a twist of anger in his gut and let go of Amos’ shoulder so he didn’t hurt the smaller man. “I’ll make her pay,” He growled, clenching his fist.

Amos glanced up at him, a little surprised for a moment, before relaxing into a smile. “I know you will, Barry, thanks,” He said with a relieved sigh, “Make it hurt, will ya?”

Barry grinned, “The boss gave me license to go wild when she pulls the trigger,” he said, “And lets just say my definition of wild has evolved a bit,” He added, and didn’t even try to hide the menace from his tone. “C’mon, I got somethin to show you now.”

–

Barry watched as Amos crouched down on the side of the yacht. It took a while to get up here with the elevator still incomplete, but they were making do. Not far away, the cargo ship was steadily emptying of materials as the members of the crew were moving up and down from the surface. He gave Amos a moment to take in what he was seeing as another member of his crew walked over. The tall woman was taking a long drink of water from a bottle as she came to a stop at Barry’s side.

“How’s it going?” He asked.

Bubs shrugged, “Can’t complain, the bubbles I’ve made will last a few more hours before I have to refresh ‘em, so I’m taking a break. The digging crew is finally all down there, by the way.”

“How many did we bring?”

She tilted her head, scratching at her thick black hair, “Sixteen mundane-to-uncommon shapers, six rares, and one pure elementalist as foreman,” She said with a huff, “International team, thank fuck we have those earpieces or none of us would understand a damn thing the others say,” She glanced down at Amos, “Wait, ain’t he the guy who made ‘em?”

“Yup,” Barry said with a grin, “Thank him later, he’s having a moment.”

Amos held his hand out over the water for a moment, Barry could tell he was practically holding his breath. After a few heartbeats a large shape drifted towards the surface and a small white hill broke through the water. He flinched only a little before relaxing and pressing his hand against the slick skin of the massive beast. Barry tilted his head and smirked, watching as a whole range of emotions washed over Amos’ face. The scientist opened and closed his mouth before finally looking up at Barry.

“D-did you, Barry, did-did you do this?” He asked, trying to find words, he’d been so eloquent earlier.

“Yeah,” Barry said with a smirk, “Havin’ some breakthroughs myself.”

“Y-you I mean- I- he- a-” He looked down at the creature again. “It.”

“He,” Barry corrected, “That’s Big Red, he was a Great White when I found ‘im, he’s a Megalodon now.”

Amos pulled his hand away and got to his feet, he marched up to Barry and grabbed him by his shirt, looking him dead in the eyes, “You regressed a Great White shark into a Megalodon?” He demanded, his eyes somewhere between panic and excitement, “You brought an extinct species back to life, on a whim?”

Barry pursed his lips and thought about it for a moment, Bubs laughed next to him, pat his arm, and walked off. A bubble formed under her and she drifted off the yacht towards the cargo ship. Barry scratched his neck, “Well now that you say it that way, it does sound way more impressive, don’t it?”

Amos ran his hands through his hair in exasperation, “Y-you!” He closed his eyes and exhaled, “So I’m guessing this isn’t what you wanted to tell me about? I doubt um… ‘Big Red’ can make a trip onto land for what Sonya has planned.”

Barry grinned and chuckled, he was about to open his mouth to speak when a sound shook the air. He blinked, not recognizing it for a heartbeat. An explosion? He looked towards the cargo ship, it looked fine. He looked towards the water, nothing in the base, he turned around- 

FWOOOSH!

A column of water erupted from the sea on the opposite side of the yacht. The water sprayed over him and Amos, Amos spluttering and covering his head as he got down to a lower position. Barry just frowned, glaring towards the distant shape approaching them. His lip twitched, “Ey, Amos, might wanna turn on that techno-power thingy of yours. We’re about to have eyes on us,” He growled, his fingers twitching at his sides, “You got that thing set up to block detection of the new base, right?”

Amos, who was now sitting on the deck, looked up at him wide-eyed, “Y-yeah? What’s happening? I’m not prepared for-”

“You don’t need t’be prepared for shit, go into the yacht and stay there and stay safe, you’re my guest,” Kingshark snarled, taking a few steps forward towards the other side of the Yacht, his skin turning gray and his body increasing in size. “Let everyone know to get to safety, I got this.”

“Got wha- oh holy shit,” Amos stumbled before immediately running to the interior of the Yacht, “On it!”

What Amos saw, what Kingshark saw, was a naval destroyer heading straight towards them, cannons leveled. Just as Amos dipped inside the ship a dark shape raced towards Kingshark before coming to a stop in the air. He looked up at the drone and wrinkled his nose in disgust as the speakers on the device crackled to life. “Supervillain Kingshark! You are to hereby surrender to the United States Navy and cease all operations in these waters. Comply immediately!”

Kingshark scoffed and stared up at the little machine, “Or what?” He snarled, and launched himself into the water.