Chapter 1167 Side Fangs: “Interrogating Chumbler” (Part 2) (Stella)

I watched as Evy studied the small device Chumbler had fessed up to having gotten from the Taramin labs folks so she and her friend could come here. It looked like a regular remote for a TV, just with no text on it whatsoever.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"The immediate temptation is to try pressing a bunch of buttons to see if it works," Evy said. "But that might be risky. Or pointless, if it's programmed to send people specifically here, that might be all it does."

"Or it could be dangerous," I said.

I didn't want to touch whatever the remote looking thing was. Even before I knew my mother was working for them, I had a funny feeling whenever I heard anything about the Taramin Labs in the news. I didn't know exactly why, because they presented themselves as generally on the up and up. Them owning and having hands in various parts of my life became more ominous each day.

Evy checked around the device, not finding anything of note right away.

"Alright, just gonna try one button," Evy said. "If I get zapped somewhere else..."

"Let's not worry about the worst case scenarios right now," I said, not wanting to think too hard that we may already be in one.

Evy pressed a button, I wasn't sure if it was at random or if she had a hunch which would work. She dropped the remote immediately as it started to rumble.

"If it explodes, my ghost will be suing you all," Chumbler said. She yelped and hid under the table as something projected upward from the remote. The projection was a bust of a stern looking woman.

"Greetings, hired hands," the woman said.

"Oh, yeah, that's the one we talked to," Z.O.K. said.

So this Dr. Vesper really was behind this.

"If you are viewing this, that means you have attempted to modify or interact with your supplied void traversal equipment," Vesper said. "And this video serves as a reminder that you are to remain in place for the duration of the experiment. Repeated instances of you going against your hired task will reflect poorly, and could result in termination."

"You didn't tell me that part," Z.O.K. said, punching Chumbler in the arm.

"I didn't listen to this! I was not made aware this was even a message we could hear!" Chumbler said. "And so what if they fire us?"

"They'll probably make us give the money back too!" Z.O.K. said.

"That's probably the best we're getting out of this thing," Evy said, ignoring the students' squabbling. "So Vesper's running some kind of experiment on our kids. And it's one that required chaperones to be put in a casino...?"

"This couldn't possibly be approved, right?" I asked. "Like, Kitty maybe would OK this...well, maybe not...? But Caya for sure wouldn't..."

Penteldtam strummed his fingertips on the table maybe a bit too urgently.

"Everything all right?" Evy asked.

"So, hypothetically, if I maybe am now remembering having a chat with scientist from the Taramin Labs...and maybe some other things that may relate to our current situation...how mad would you be?" Penteldtam asked.

"Well, I'd be more relieved you got fired, no offense," Evy said.

"OK, fair, I get that, but then you also maybe wouldn't want to beat me up if I accidentally had a hand in it?" Penteldtam asked.

"We'll decide that after you tell us," I said. I didn't want to beat him up, obviously, but I hoped being at least a bit intimidating would get him to the point already.