Chapter 55 – Silverport Amusement Park

“Thank you.” I accepted a coffee cup from Quinn. The amusement park was condemned, so parking was a little tight until we went in and got the keys. As such, Quinn decided we should park at a coffee shop and walk over there.

”Thank you for the cupcakes this morning.” Quinn smiled, and lifted her own cup up high. I got something warm, but the maniac Guardian got an iced coffee. As if it wasn’t already cold enough outside with all the rain. “They made the classes pass so much easier.”

”I’m glad you liked them.” My tail softly twitched from side to side. We spent a lot of time on them last night. It was a really nice time, and even the boring day spent holed up in my office at the academy couldn’t take away from that. I just wish it was longer…

It was weird, though. Sylvie was still mad at me—that much she made apparent every five minutes so I wouldn’t forget. And yet she still snuggled close while we baked, and didn’t push me away. I didn’t quite know how I felt about that. Could affection still exist at the same time as anger, disgust, or disappointment? Could love exist without being needed? …Heh, yeah right. That was a crazy thought.

Anyway, we were here for the inspection. The Perimeter Defense Force was extremely intensive about all the inspections and things we needed to do before they’d send over a Calamity. It wasn’t like we were asking much, but they held the power in this case.

”It’s a good thing you found a way to do this by the books, Reyna.” Quinn slid her hand into her pocket as we walked along the streets of the western districts. Rain scattered around us, though we remained perfectly dry.

”An old friend helped me out.” I owed Bruce dinner or something. Now that I could actually afford to take people out to dinner, there was no reason not to.

“You have friends?" Quinn looked genuinely surprised. It was totally fair. It still surprised me that so many people were willing to talk to someone like me. “Well, give them my thanks when you get the chance.”

“Thanks from Guardian Tidebreak. He’d probably want your autograph.” Although Bruce didn’t look it, that guy was a Guardian fanatic. Most of my posters came from either him, or the dumpsters outside of bookstores.

”I’ll sign a photo of us together when we get the chance.” She sipped at her coffee cup with a soft smile as we walked around a street corner—and there it was. The Silverport Amusement Park in all its decrepit glory.

A gothic wrought iron gate surrounded the entire thing, though the original construction crew had evidently cheaped out on protective coatings. It was a rusty mess of iron spears stabbing into the sky like they wanted to give the clouds tetanus. At least we wouldn’t have to worry about perimeter security. Anyone with a hint of self-preservation wouldn’t want to get near that. Should still get something rigged up for the Calamities, but that was Quinn’s job to figure out.

At the center of the amusement park, wreathed in broken roller coasters like a regal crown, sat the Ferris wheel. It was heavily decayed from over a decade of neglect, and several of its gondolas had fallen off or dangled precariously in the wind.

A ticket booth converted into a guard station sat at the entrance, and a man in a fancy suit stood just outside while talking into his phone. “Is that the realtor?”

”Well, I haven’t hired a clown yet, so probably.” Quinn laughed, and shook her head. “C’mon. He should have the keys.”

As we approached, the man hung up his phone and moved toward us with a wide corporate smile on his face. He reached forward with two hands and shook Quinn’s hand. “Ah, Miss Everydyne! Thank you so much for coming out to see me personally.”

“Just call me Quinn.” Her expression pulled weirdly. Ever since her dad cut her off in the Academy, she really disliked being called by her last name. “Jason?”

“I’m honored you remember my name!” The man backed away from her, and nodded to me. “You must be Reyna.”

”You know me?” I looked at the man in surprise. He really did his research on the buyer of this old place, huh?

”Saw you in the papers a few times.” He cheerfully waved a hand. “It’s good to see you alive and well, Canary. The entire city was on the edge of its seat when the papers started publishing your story. Not too often a Canary takes the spotlight.”

”No kidding.” I still wondered about that. Like, it wasn’t that impressive of a story to begin with. I just made it back through the Mire. I couldn’t comprehend just why it blew up so much.

“Reyna here deserves it. I couldn’t ask for a better partner.” Quinn clapped her hands together, and the water across the man’s suit scattered into the window. “How about a quick walk through the place?”

”Of course, of course.” The man pulled out a set of keys, and approached the main gate. It was the only part of the entire park that looked recently renovated, and had a brand new lock on it. “The Silverport Amusement Park really was the crowning jewel of our great city alongside the academy.”

”Why’d it shut down, then?” It couldn’t have been that great of a crowning jewel. I remembered it being active when I was super young, like eight or something. It’d been well over a decade since then.

”Ah, well…” The man rubbed at the back of his neck, and cast a superstitious look around. “President Kimble cut funding to Project Mirth when he took office. There’s thousands of abandoned places like this across the UCS. They were built up quickly under Mirth, then left to rot when funds ran dry. Silverport was lucky with the amusement park. Most of them were abandoned just before they could go into operation. Sad, really.”

Heh, good old President Kimble. Probably should’ve guessed that guy was responsible. How many terms was he on now? Four? Five? Project Mirth, though… that sounded vaguely familiar. Maybe I read about it in a textbook somewhere.

”Mirth was a project seeking to improve the lives of citizens by providing entertainment venues with massive government support to encourage operations.” Vigil regurgitated a textbook definition from somewhere. The sudden voice in my head made my ears flick around in irritation.

I lightly patted Vigil’s head as thanks, and tuned back into the conversation as we approached a carousel surrounded by abandoned game booths. Jason waved around the place. “I think you’ll be very pleased with your purchase! Although the park is admittedly worn down, it still has good bones! Not sure what you’ll do with it. Its future is still promising with a little renovation.”

“I appreciate the thought.” Quinn sipped at her coffee and side-eyed a strength test booth. “Any of these old attractions still work?”

Jason moved over to a dart throwing booth, and patted the worn out fabric. ”The park was never unplugged from the city’s infrastructure. If you get the power turned back on, over 60% of the attractions should still be operational with some minor issues.”

“Might make it more interesting for our students if we got the power back on,” Quinn muttered under her breath.

”Make it more realistic, at least. Most of the time, they’ll be responding to active places anyway.” It wasn’t very common for entire sections of the city to be shut down outside of Electrick appearances and riots.

The Guardian nodded, and pulled out her phone. “I’ll get it set up.”

“Ladies, if you need any construction work, don’t hesitate to give us a call! Although we’re acting as realtors in this deal, Stark Construction is still one of the best in the UCS.”

”How’d you even acquire this place to begin with?” Quinn asked. “I imagine it wasn’t high up on your priorities considering Stark Construction hasn’t done anything with it.”

”In the interest of diversifying incomes, our great CEO snatched up a ton of properties like this back when Project Mirth went down. The government was selling it all for almost nothing back then.” He waved his hand. “That was all a long time ago, though.”

“Buy low, sell high?” Quinn put down her phone. She sipped at her coffee, and stared over the brim of her cup at the guy. “This place wasn’t cheap.”

”Yes, well… aha.” Jason quickly moved onto something else and started rambling about how great of a purchase this place was once more.

While she worked on that, and Jason talked about the virtues of Stark Construction, I took a walk around the central area just in front of the Ferris wheel. This place was downright eerie by all means. Decayed places usually felt weird to go through, but the amusements hadn’t aged well. It was perfect for what we were going to use it for. Hopefully it’d scare the faint of heart out of this career path.

I stared at a weathered poster hanging on a booth. It was so discolored I had a hard time reading it. The UCS flag sat dimly with the words Project Mirth! Your happiness is our reward! Happiness, right. Somehow, I highly doubted the UCS invested so much in Project Mirth just to keep the civilians happy.

My nose twitched, and my ears instinctively flattened down to the sides of my head. The scent of antiseptic wafted out of a weathered arcade. I expected rain, mildew, and rust, but definitely not antiseptic. Why was that here?

”Something wrong, Reyna?” Quinn asked me, and her halo abruptly flared to life. The conversation she was having with Jason instantly died.

”I… I’m not sure.” I paced back and forth for a moment while my nose stung. It was definitely coming from the arcade, and quite strongly at that. “Jason, has anyone been through here recently?”

“No? We usually have a roster of guards stationed at the gate to ward off delinquents, but they were warned off coming in here.” He looked around the place, and his polite smile died slightly. “This place is a little dangerous. Ah! But nothing that can’t be fixed with just a bit of work!”

“We already bought it. You don’t have to keep trying to sell it.” Quinn smirked, and shook her head. “What’s up?”

My eyes narrowed on the worn out arcade. “You sure no one’s been in here?”

Jason’s smile turned a little strained. “Well, you know how it is. Delinquents and the like enjoy breaking in here to graffiti everything. It’s a real problem for our company.”

”I bet it is.” Because there were people just lining up to buy abandoned entertainment venues. Under the antiseptic, I caught the scent of machine oil.

“If anyone has been, they did so illegally!” Jason shouted righteously. He practically wilted when the two of us stared at him. “Ahem, this is private property after all. Shall I call the Peace Keepers to investigate?”

”Nah, we’ll take a look. Probably just kids playing around.“ Quinn crushed her coffee cup and tossed it into a trashcan off to the side. She might as well have tossed it on the ground considering no one would come to pick that up.

“Something tells me they didn’t come with Girl Scout cookies.” My tail stilled behind me. I felt like we were being watched. After a moment, I pinpointed an analog CCTV camera sitting up on the roof of the arcade. It was newer than everything surrounding it, though the model was ancient. I softly muttered to Vigil, “you see that too?”

”Affirmative, Operator Reyna. This unit detects no network to connect to.” Vigil’s eyes pulsed weakly as I held him up to look at the camera.

”Not much of a surprise.” Networks were handy, but analog stuff suggested whoever set this up didn’t want it to be accessible. It was common enough in black sites. Sometimes the best protection was simply stuff so old no one knew how to work with it.

Regardless, it definitely wasn’t kids. Not a normal gang stash either. I’d expect the place to be tagged up to ward people off. Corporate black site, then? They probably would’ve bought the amusement park outright to tie up loose ends, though.

The antiseptic in the air suggested something clinical, so a Reaver Calamity chop shop was much more in line. Or maybe some kind of old drug lab? I could totally see something like that getting set up here. Not everyone was like Hades and kept a massive drug lab out in the middle of the Mire.

I felt Quinn’s eyes on me, and my arms tightened around Vigil’s plush body. “It’s, uh, coming from the arcade.”

”That…” Jason’s expression froze, and he looked away from us. After a moment, he nodded his head and spoke up once more. “Our internal documents have the arcade marked as non-accessible. Our system specifically told me not to go into it when doing my presale inspection.”

“Why?” Quinn eyed the man sharply.

”I’m not too sure.” He shrugged helplessly. He had a shifty look to him like he knew more than he was letting on, though. Or maybe that was the look of ‘above my pay grade’?

“Mmm…” The Guardian eyed the building thoughtfully. “Was that mentioned in the original sale agreement?”

”I believe we said it was a condemned building.” Jason tried to smile. “Honestly, Guardian, I don’t know what’s in there. There’s a lot of weird things about several of our properties. Most of us realtors go by a don’t ask more than we need to mentality.”

I could see that. It was a pretty fair approach, too. Although Quinn and I were stuck deep in the less-than-mundane world, most of the people in the cities were just normal people doing their jobs. “I believe you.”

Quinn locked eyes with me for a moment, and then slowly nodded her head. “Probably best you get out of here, Jason. Just in case.”

Jason fidgeted uncomfortably, and pulled the set of keys from his pocket. “I know you’re a Guardian, but probably best to be careful anyway.”

Quinn swiped the keys. Her halo pulsed lightly over her head, and cast a dim blue glow across her face. “I appreciate the warning, but we’ll take it from here.”

“Yeah…” He shivered, and rapidly backed away from us toward the entrance to the place. “If you need anything in the future, just call. We have plenty of better properties for sale.”

“Thank you.” Quinn waited for him to leave before speaking up again. “What are we looking at, Reyna?”

”I don’t know.” The fur along my tail was slowly starting to rise similar to when I approached Overlaps in the past. There wasn’t the feeling of thousands of eyes watching me, though. “Stay close.”

”Right behind you.” Quinn shuffled over to my side as we moved to the old arcade. Whatever it was, we’d get to the bottom of it with a quick look around.