Chapter Six

The door to the radio station was locked when they returned, but Cecil produced a key and let the three of them in. The hallway was as empty as it had been before when Leon had gone exploring. Instead of bothering with all of the searching that Leon had found himself doing earlier, Cecil simply brought the small group directly into the broadcast room, without any sort of difficulty with locks. Leon took a note of it, wondering if there was a more complex security system in place than he had originally though, one that automatically identified people who were meant to be there and those who weren't. The puzzles that he had solved could be some kind of override, in case the system was compromised.

As he mulled this over, Cecil led Carlos over to the broadcast apparatus, where Carlos immediately set to work. "This shouldn't be too hard," said Carlos. "It's a simple matter, scientifically speaking, to change the direction and frequency of the radio waves broadcast from this station to work with your communication device."

"And I will be able to talk with my at-home agent?" asked Leon. "Because I need some sort of backup or some way out of here. Especially now that I have found you, and there might be the implementation of bioorganic weapons here in Night Vale."

"Leon," said Carlos, "I don't think that you really understand the full implications of what is going on here. This isn't just bioorganic weapons—this face is full of unexplainable things. Trust me—I've tried. I have been running every kind of experiment that I can think of to try to explain things about what is going on here, but all I've been able to figure out are some predictions and solutions to the more simple problems."

"There are more things to this world than just science," said Cecil. This sounded ominous to Leon, but Cecil was smiling as he said it, with a tone that spoke of nothing wrong with the world.

"Well," said Leon, "I just need to worry about the things that are explainable, and that I know I can stop, then. And that means the BOWs, whatever they might be, and why ever they might be implemented."

"That's probably a good idea, for now," said Carlos, looking up from the radio equipment. "I feel that might be the most logical move to make."

"Plus," said Cecil, "you're stuck here. In fact, we should probably bring you to City Hall to pick up your welcome—"

Cecil was cut off by the sudden intrusion of a woman's voice. There was no woman, but her voice was perfectly understandable in the sound-insulated room. "Cecil?" it asked. "Cecil, is that you?"

"What was that?" asked Leon, his hand moving to his holster on instinct.

"That's Dana!" said Cecil. "She's my former intern. We lost her to the dog park about a year ago."

"Cecil, I came to warn you," said Dana. "You are in grave danger."

"From what, Dana?" asked Cecil. "Is it the mountain? Because I thought we discussed that. It doesn't exist. Ignore it, and remember your training from school."

"No, it's much more than the mountain, which isn't really there, because it doesn't exist," said Dana. "I am not sure what it is, but there is a great danger her in—or, rather, as I'm not physically there with you—there in Night Vale. Be on your watch. I have to go now. Someone's coming."

"Run, Dana, you can make it. Away from the mountain!" shouted Cecil. He wasn't sure where to face to face Dana, as he could not see her in her parallel dimension, so he shouted at the file cabinet that held some old records for use on older programs. "Get to safety!"

"Not me," said Dana. "You. Someone's coming for you!"

"What?" asked Cecil. There was no reply. Dana had gone.

"Carlos, how is that radio coming?" asked Leon, with a furthered sense of urgency.

"Not as quickly as I anticipated," said Carlos. "It's much more complex than any radio system I've ever worked with before."

"It was built that way specifically, I think," said Cecil. "That way, it could avoid tampering and other stuff like that."

"That's exactly what we're doing, I suppose, said Carlos. "Or rather, I don't suppose, I know, to be exact."

"Maybe I should check what danger we might be in, that Dana warned us about," said Leon, although he wasn't sure how the former intern had communicated with them. He did know that when a warning was given, it was best to heed it.

"No," said Cecil. "You're wanted by the Sheriff's Secret Police. Any other diligent citizen would report you immediately if they saw you. I'll go and check. It's much more likely that I would be here, even if it isn't my radio slot right now."

Cecil brushed past Leon, reentering the hallway and shutting the door behind him. He found that the hallway was not empty as it had been earlier. He was facing the Night Vale Community Radio program director and his boss, Lauren Mallard.

"Oh! Hello, Lauren," said Cecil. "I'm surprised to see you here today."

"As am I," said Lauren, inspecting her employee. "Didn't you show end an hour or so ago?"

"Um, yes," said Cecil, "but I wanted to make sure that I got everything together for my next show." Lauren raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "Keeping the vocal chords ready. It's a great defense against throat spiders."

Lauren watched him, running his story through her mind for a moment, and then spoke. "Well, Cecil," she said with a cheery face and a stoic everything else, "I would hate to lose the voice of Night Vale to something totally preventable." Her eyes narrowed. "That would be a shame, if you were to be destroyed by something that you could completely prevent, wouldn't it?"

"It sure would!" said Cecil, with extra enthusiasm. Lauren scoffed.

"Well, don't stay too late," said Lauren. "Some of the Strexcorp higher-ups will be coming over from Desert Bluffs for an inspection of the station. I wouldn't want them to catch you in the middle of your vocal exercises."

"No problem, Lauren," said Cecil. He backed out of the way and let her past, and she unlocked and entered the Station Management's office. When the door clicked shut behind her, Cecil breathed a sigh of relief. His heart was pounding in his chest and he re-entered the broadcast room.

"That was the program director," he said to the two other men. "We have to leave now—there will be some Strexcorp people coming here soon, and we don't want Leon to be caught up in their arrival."

"I need more time to do this," said Carlos. "I could give you an exact time, but that itself would take more time…"

"That's fine," said Leon. "I don't need to get caught here. That would totally invalidate all of the work you've done, anyway. Cecil, you can get us back in tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, of course," said Cecil.

"Then we'll come back then," Leon said. "Let's just hope that we don't get caught before then."

"Okay," said Cecil. "And did you know that Strexcorp is based in Desert Bluffs? Eurgh." He stuck out his tongue in disgust. "It leaves a bad taste in my mouth."