Tegan was passed out on the couch in the living room when Reggie, Hyacinth, and Nel returned. Reggie started making dinner since it was already 6pm. He preheated the oven and prepared some chicken to bake. "Hyacinth, would you mind helping me with the salad?"

"Yeah, sure. What are you making?" Hyacinth had been watching him pull things out of the fridge and trimming the chicken on the counter.

"Just gonna bake some chicken. Nothing fancy or anything. It's a pretty simple recipe. Mainly just rubbing olive oil on the chicken and adding some seasoning." The recipe was one of the first ones Reggie learned from his mother. Hyacinth walked behind him to grab the vegetables from the crisper in the fridge. Reggie's mother was big on having a good balance for meals, though it was mostly just at dinner. She would always have some sort of vegetable dish, or salad to go with the main dish. Reggie finished preparing the chicken and put it in the oven.

While Hyacinth continued getting the salad together, Reggie started cleaning up a little. There were a few bottles and random dishes in the living room. He figured Tegan got hungry and had something to eat before passing out on the couch. Reggie brought the dishes to the sink and decided he might as well load the dishwasher while he was in the mood to clean. Once that was done, Hyacinth had finished the salad. She put it in a big serving bowl and set it on the table.

"You can go sit down. There isn't much else to do except set the table." Hyacinth had come back to Reggie as if she was looking for another task, but Reggie had nothing else for her to do. "Thanks for your help."

"You're welcome." Hyacinth went to the cupboard and pulled out plates. Reggie was planning on setting the table but he wasn't going to complain about the help. He grabbed cups and silverware from the kitchen and added them to the table settings. A few minutes later, the oven timer went off. Reggie pulled out the chicken dish and checked the temperature with a meat thermometer. Seeing that it was cooked to the proper temperature, Reggie turned off the oven and brought the dish to the table. Nel and Hyacinth were already seated and Tegan was sitting up on the couch. The smell of food frequently woke Tegan up so Reggie wasn't surprised in the least.

WIthout saying a word, Tegan sat at the table across from Nel. Reggie wanted to say something but couldn't think of anything helpful. "Ok, let's eat." As soon as Reggie said it, everyone started to move as though they had been waiting for permission. Dishes were passed from person to person until everyone's plate was full. It was all too cordial for Reggie. No one was frowning or seemed angry but the tension was unbearable. "It's too quiet. I know you have something to say, Tegan." Tegan glared at Reggie as though she wanted to bore a hole straight through him. Reggie just glared right back. He wasn't going to back down just because she was giving him a look.

"Fine." Tegan finally gave in after several more seconds of silent glaring. "Dad, you should have told me you were still working for Mattias."

"It's not like it was a regular thing. It didn't think you would care that much."

"I don't need to hear your excuses. I don't really care that you are working for him again. I hate that you were hiding it from me. I don't know if I would be any less mad but...whatever. It doesn't matter." Tegan's cheeks were turning red. She opened her mouth again as though to continue her thought but closed it again without saying anything more.

"It looks to me as if it matters a great deal to you." Nel was speaking softly as he tried to coax Tegan into continuing. Reggie and Hyacinth were just sitting there slowly eating their food. Neither wanted to interrupt the unfolding emotional confrontation. Tegan was looking down at her plate but had yet to take a bite of anything. She seemed unsure of what to do. Nel waited patiently for her to respond. After a few minutes of silence Tegan looked up at her father.

"I-I worry about you. There was always a chance that you would go on a mission and never return when I was growing up. You would be gone for days or weeks as we waited at home wondering if this was going to the one you didn't come back from. Mom put on a brave face but I know she was just as scared as me. Scared that you would never come back." By the end, Tegan was speaking so softly it was hard to hear her but the look on Nel's face told them he heard every word. Maybe he never thought about the effect it had on his family. Reggie understood what it was like wondering if someone would return. There was always a chance his mother wouldn't come home when she was repeatedly in the hospital those last few years. Then one day she was gone.

Everyone around the table silently ate their dinner. There was less tension but the atmosphere was very somber. Nel was continually looking over at Tegan, though what he was looking for Reggie had no clue. Tegan was the one to break the stalemate. "This chicken is really good."

"Thank you. I like how easy it is to make but it is still very flavorful." Reggie was smiling at Tegan hoping the mere act would raise her spirits. She went back to eating without commenting further. Silence reigned once again. The meal ended without another word being spoken. Everyone worked together to clean up the table and then went off to do their own thing. Tegan immediately went upstairs and Reggie heard her bedroom door close. Nel also went to his room but not for another few minutes. He took the time to clean any built-up ash from his smoking pipe before retiring. Reggie had never seen Nel use his pipe, but he never smelled smoke in the house so he never felt the need to tell him not to use it indoors.

"I guess I will go to bed, too. Tomorrow could be a crazy day depending on what we learn from Nico. Might as well rest while we can." Hyacinth said goodnight as Reggie went upstairs. Her face looked slightly disappointed but Reggie didn't notice. He continued up the stairs and into his room. Reggie didn't feel very tired but was out almost the second his head hit the pillow.

***

Late the next morning, everyone was standing in the shack behind Nico. He had called them over as soon as the program finished searching the server data. Reggie had no solid info on the location of the new lab. However, he wasn't without his suspicions. Hyacinth's map pointed to the park again, and they had already learned the new lab was underground. The lab was possibly underneath the park. Even if Reggie knew for a fact it was there, he still didn't know how to access it. The park is basically just an open green space. Mostly grass with a few trees and a public restroom in one corner. There were no other structures that could serve as an entrance.

The next logical possibility was that the entrance was on an adjacent block. However, the park was surrounded on all sides by high rise buildings containing mostly office spaces. They would need to narrow it down more. They could try searching around each building but Reggie doubted the door would be obvious. It was likely an inconspicuous door with no markings that just looked like any other random doorway that could be found on buildings throughout the city. It could even have some innocuous label to throw people off. Reggie imagined a plain gray door with a label indicating the room beyond was related to building maintenance or supply storage.

"Did the search find anything useful, Nico?" Reggie didn't want to waste time with another presentation. The machine could be brought online any day. Though it didn't guarantee that would immediately end the world, Reggie didn't want to risk it.

"Just the name they used for the new lab. Probably a codename." Nico hit a few keys and a document appeared on a screen on the wall. "They referred to it as 'Madison' in a couple memos." The name immediately told Reggie where it was, though not as specifically as he would like.

"Madison is the name of the park we think is related. At least now we have some evidence it is likely located there but doesn't get us any closer. Is that all you found?"

"Yeah, sorry."

"I guess we will have to do this the hard way." Hyacinth looked at Reggie like she had no clue what he meant. Tegan's face lit up like Christmas, though. Reggie saw the look and realized how she probably had interpreted his remark. "We won't be blowing anything up, Tegan."

"Buzzkill." Tegan looked extremely disappointed but Reggie was fine with that. He would prefer to avoid any sort of explosion.

"What I meant is that we will have to search the surrounding blocks. I doubt the entrance will be obvious, so while we search we will keep an eye out for lab employees, or just Marlino employees. They all have those ID badges so they shouldn't be hard to spot." People would be heading to lunch soon so if they went straight there they might see a few people. "Let's go now and see if we can catch people heading to lunch or maybe just spot people we recognize from the lab."

Everyone nodded in agreement and headed out the door. Nico stayed behind to double check the server data and search for other leads on the web. Reggie and crew arrived at the park within 30 minutes and at just before noon. Most of the employees took lunch around noon in the old lab and there were likely plenty of them here in the new lab. "Split up. We all take a side of the park and try to spot Marlino employees. We will meet back up in half an hour." The group separated to cover different areas around the park. Since Nel, Tegan,and Hyacinth left in separate directions, Reggie stayed to cover the area they started in.

The sidewalks and other walkways were sparsely populated for the next few minutes until lunch time started. The amount of people in the area rapidly increased as people came out of the various office buildings around the park to head to lunch or just take a break from being in the office. At first, Reggie was watching all the building entrances but switched his focus to anyone coming out to the street from side entrances and alleyways. Unfortunately, ID badges were a common accessory for office workers in general and more than half of the people walking past Reggie had one attached to their person somewhere. He glanced at as many as he could hoping to spot the Marlino logo. It was a big blotch of color that was easily recognizable.

Reggie slowly walked along his side of the park as he looked around. Halfway down the block he crossed the street before continuing down the rest of the block. There was only one alley to cover so after walking the whole length, Reggie walked back to the alley and stood near the entrance while continuing to watch for that specific company logo. After 20 minutes, the crowd began to thin a little and checking badges was getting a little easier. It was another few minutes before the right badge walked by, though Reggie almost missed it. He had to quickly spin around in place, which to an onlooker probably looked pretty ridiculous but Reggie wasn't concerned.

Unfortunately, he didn't see where they came from but decided to keep an eye on them. It was a young woman, probably around Reggie's age. She seemed in quite the hurry, weaving quickly through the stream of pedestrians. The girl walked down the block, crossed the street and ducked into a cafe on the corner. Since there were no other leads, Reggie walked down the block and waited for them to leave the cafe so he could see where they went. It was nearing the half hour mark for the meetup and Reggie was worried he would miss it but then the girl came back out the door heading his way. She was moving just as fast as before and soon walked past Reggie back towards the alley he was watching earlier.

Reggie saw her turn down the alley and sped up a bit to get to the corner to see where she went, but by the time he got to the alleyway she was gone. There were a few random doors in the alley but without seeing which one she used, it was still a guessing game. Reggie walked back to meet up with the others to report what he found. Hyacinth and Tegan were already there waiting. "I found an alleyway with an entrance, though I didn't see which door it was but it must be down there. I followed a Marlino employee and lost them before I could see which door they used."

"That's great, because my side didn't have anyone from the company." Hyacinth was first to report her findings. She seemed glad to know someone had good news. "Tegan didn't find anything, either." Tegan nodded in agreement.

"Makes sense if the entrance was on my side. Let's head back there and see if we can figure it out."

"Hold up." Reggie was just about to turn around and walk abc when Nel called out. He seemed happy about something. "I have located an entrance. Saw a few employees come and go from an inconspicuous side entrance."

"I guess it makes sense there would be more than one." Nel gave Reggie a confused look. "I found an entrance, too. At least the general location of it. It's in the alley on my side."

"I suppose having more than one point of entry would be wise for an underground installation. Allows for more than one way out in case of emergency." Reggie agreed with Nel. Every company had to follow basic safety regulations, like fire exits and egress routes. There may even be more entrances depending on the size of the facility. Since Nel had seen the exact door to use, Reggie decided that was the better lead. Nel led the way as they went to check it out.