(4 days before the switch)
Location: Outskirts of San Francisco, California, world of Earth.
The tires of the SUV crackled over tiny pebbles, shooting them out of the tread over the remaining gravel even as Thomas moved slowly to avoid kicking up a cloud of dust. Through her window, Vivian looked at the imposing silhouette of the old factory. It stood isolated, a hulking monument of brick and rusting metal against the afternoon sky, its boarded-up windows like vacant eyes. Though derelict, it had its own beauty, far-surpassing its well-groomed past.
This was the furthest prospective site, a property so off-the-grid it barely registered in official records. And precisely why it was so intriguing to Vivian.
"Here we are," Alex announced, his voice cutting through the heavy silence of the group looking in reverence. He seemed to relish the stark, almost desolate atmosphere. "The old Greyson Textile Plant."
Vivian paused, her hand on the door handle, a flicker of recognition in her eyes. "This was your family's original factory, Alex?"
A subtle shift into nostalgia crossed Alex's face, a momentary softening that quickly firmed into something more guarded. "It was," he confirmed, his voice a little quieter. "The very one. Took a fair bit of maneuvering, and a lot of legal hoops, to buy it back. It had changed hands several times after the bankruptcy. But no one ever did anything with it." He didn't elaborate, but the underlying sentiment was clear: this place held a personal significance beyond mere property value.
Vivian nodded as she hopped out of the vehicle, her eyes scanning the perimeter. The air here was different and heavier than at the warehouse. It carried a faint, metallic tang mixed with the putrid scent of mold, decay and decomposition from dead animals somewhere nearby. She pulled out her tablet, the screen a brightening rectangle in the factory's imposing shadow. She began by recording a panoramic view of the exterior.
"It's a perfect candidate for an early test site," Vivian murmured, more to herself than to Alex. "Isolated, minimal traffic, large interior and no active security. An ideal experiment site for an aspiring arsonist."
They moved toward the imposing, privacy-screened security fence that surrounded the property—a standard setup for environmental remediation sites. Alex pulled out a set of keys with a mix of pristine keys and rusty, bespeckled ones with surfaces that made Vivian wonder if they might break off in the heavy padlocks. There was even a larger iron one that looked like it went to the lock on a medieval castle. He unlocked the chain-link gates as if he'd done it a thousand times before, leading them toward the massive barn-like doors of the main facility's loading bay.
Thomas slid the heavy doors slid open, revealing a vast, cavernous space swallowing the sounds of their footsteps. Dust motes danced in shafts of light filtering through gaps in the roof, illuminating a landscape of fallen debris, rusted machinery, and a pervasive sense of abandonment.
"How do you want to start?" Alex asked, his gaze sweeping the interior, a hint of anticipation in his voice.
"We follow the burn patterns," Vivian replied, her voice crisp and professional, already absorbed in her task. She handed out purple nitrite gloves to everyone and disposable masks. Then she turned on the powerful flashlight on her phone, its beam cutting through the gloom. "Remember, just like the warehouse, we're looking for the story of any small test fires left behind."
She looked at Alex. "Since Thomas was the one who flagged this property on his security sweep, where exactly did he spot the burn sites?"
Alex gestured to Vivian, Thomas and Jae. "It should be over here."
Vivian eyes examined every surface as she took pictures and made notes.
Alex watched her, then spoke up. "Please share with the rest of the class, Vivian."
"Sorry. I'm still not used to having company with me who aren't already knowledgeable about building fires."
She paused and considered if that would be insulting, but when she saw no reaction, she continued as if she was a tour guide.
"See here," she pointed, the beam highlighting a section of concrete floor. "The spalling is extensive, deeper than at the warehouse, indicating a more prolonged, intense burn. And the way the charring radiates outward from this central point... it's like a bloom, indicating the origin."
She paused again, then moved to another section. "But I already noticed that this isn't the only test area. They were experimenting with different methods. Perhaps even coming back several times."
Vivian's light swept across another section of the floor, revealing a network of fine, almost crystalline cracks in the concrete, forming distinct, small peaks. "And over here," she continued, her voice tinged with excitement, "this is fascinating. The concrete is exhibiting signs of an Alkali-Aggregate Reaction, or AAR for short. See how the cracking forms these little peaks? That's characteristic of the internal expansion. It's a chemical reaction, where certain aggregates in the concrete react with alkalis, causing it to swell and push against the non-expanded sections. In simpler terms, it's like someone deliberately introduced a chemical accelerant here that caused this specific kind of damage, mimicking a very particular type of structural failure. It's a highly sophisticated method."
Alex knelt, running a gloved finger over the intricate cracks. "So, they were trying to make it look like a structural defect, rather than arson?"
"Possibly," Vivian affirmed. "It's like a magician trying to make a trick look like an accident. They're not just burning; they're engineering the burn to tell a false narrative. This takes a deep understanding of material science, not just basic chemistry."
"But it could also be a way to cause structural damage so that when the fire is set, it will cause even more damage, making the property unrecoverable. And potentially endanger anyone attempting to extinguish it," Vivian explained solemnly.
"We should probably look for AAR indicators in all of the suspicious fires. The most recent ones may even still have residue."
She moved deeper into the factory, her gaze unwavering.
"And then there's this." Her light illuminated a section where the metal supports in the floor were severely warped, almost melted, and the surrounding concrete was fused and vitrified, exhibiting a peculiar, almost iridescent sheen. "This isn't typical fire damage. This is consistent with something like thermite. The flash, the intense, localized burning, the rapid heating of metal, it all supports thermite burns at extremely high temperatures — far hotter than a conventional fire. That's why it's used in welding or for cutting through thick metal. To use it here, in a controlled way, suggests they were testing its destructive potential, perhaps for specific structural components. It's a completely different approach from the chemical expansion we just saw, or the accelerant-based burns."
"So, they are functioning as more than mere arsonists," Alex mused... "They're... scientists? Or engineers?"
"Or artists of destruction. But thermite is not a substance anyone can possess. You have to get a license from the ATF. We should check names of ATF licenses for explosives to see if any of them look familiar," Vivian countered, her voice low. "They're refining their craft, like a composer perfecting a symphony of chaos, or a pitcher experimenting with different grips to throw the perfect, unhittable curveball. Each burn is a lesson, a refinement of their technique."
"You almost sound impressed, Vivian," Alex commented as he watched her face change with each possible clue.
"In some ways I guess I… am…" Then, her eyes caught something. Tucked beneath a twisted piece of metal, almost completely obscured by rust and debris, was a small, dark object. It was unassuming, easily mistaken for another fragment of the decaying factory. But Vivian's keen eye, trained to spot the anomalous, recognized its distinct shape.
She knelt, carefully pushing aside the surrounding detritus with a gloved hand. It was a striker, the kind used in school chemistry labs to ignite Bunsen burners. Its flint wheel was corroded, and the metal body was bent, clearly broken. It would have been overlooked by anyone not specifically looking for an ignition source, or by someone who didn't understand its significance.
Vivian picked it up, holding it delicately between her thumb and forefinger. "Alex," she said, her voice quiet, a new note of intensity in it. "Did this factory ever have an on-site lab? Perhaps with Bunsen burners? Or anything that needed a controlled, localized flame for its textile production?"
"I'm not sure if it is still here, but there was a chem lab for R&D, pre-treatments, finishing and quality control," Alex responded. "Did you find something else?"
Vivian turned the broken tool over in her hand, her gaze sharp, analytical. "This is an ignition source. A striker. And it's broken, as if it was used, and then discarded in haste, or perhaps even deliberately damaged to obscure its origin. Could we visit that lab?"
Alex, accompanied by Thomas, went to look for where the lab was or used to be. Jae stayed with Vivian and helped record the different test sites they had already identified. Vivian, continuing to sound excited, said to no one in particular, "This building is a treasure trove of potential leads. Now I know what resources I should ask for."
But Vivian was also facing some time constraints. She had to report for duty at the fire station in just three days. And, unknown to her and Ally, a Switch was going to take place in four days.