2025.02.18 — Morning
Early the next morning, Mercer received a report.
The survey stakes had been pulled up and moved outside the test unit.
They had not simply fallen over.
From the photographs sent from the site, it looked as though the stakes had first been pulled from the ground, then moved haphazardly to other locations.
Mercer headed to TB-3 earlier than planned.
When she arrived, the surveyor showed her the stakes’ original positions.
The ground still bore the marks where they had been pulled out.
Several meters away, some of the uprooted stakes had been pushed only partway into the ground, while others had simply been left lying there.
Several stakes that had been set along the boundary of the test unit had been moved from their original positions.
The surrounding area showed the same signs of trampling as the day before.
Mercer looked back and forth between the stakes’ current positions and the site plan.
An animal hadn’t done this.
If someone had moved them deliberately, though, she had no idea why.
“It kind of looks like this part was left clear when the stakes were moved.”
Andrea pointed to a spot near the center of TB-3 as she spoke.
Then she immediately looked back down at the records.
Mercer did not respond. She gave the surveyor instructions.
“Put the stakes back in their original positions. Check everything else too. Make sure nothing else has changed.”
The staff began returning the stakes to their original positions.
Another staff member checked the surrounding area for any other changes.
The surveyor read out the recorded coordinates, and Andrea checked them one by one.
After a while, her hand went still.
“We’re missing two stakes.”
Before Mercer could answer, the staff member taking the measurements called from behind her.
“Dr. Mercer.”
She turned.
“The magnetometer is reading 48.2 nanoteslas. Yesterday, the highest reading was 9.6 nanoteslas.”
“Forty-eight?”
Mercer leaned over the instrument display.
“Same spot as yesterday?”
“Yes. Same measurement point.”
The staff member verified the measurement point again, then repeated the measurement with a different instrument.
The reading barely changed.
“The backup unit reads 47.6. So this isn’t an instrument malfunction.”