Summary: Natalia and Jeffries take Cecil's radio team to a mountain, Carlos receives more requests from the City Council and the scientists consider an addition to their team.
"So what's the name of this person who wants to join us?" Ellie said with a mouthful of wheat-free tacos.
"Rachelle." Jeffries said, as Carlos looked through the CV that she'd given the team.
"She already lives here." Brent continued. "It seems that her mother is from Tennessee but her father is a Night Vale residen'. She moved here five years ago. She graduated from the community college las' year with a degree....wait, in 'Science'? You can' have a degree in just 'science'."
"Oh you can." Ellie said enthusiastically, accidentally sending a small piece of red pepper flying across the table. "Carlos has one."
"Seriously?"
"Yes." Carlos said matter-of-factly.
"It just means that you have a ph.D in all three core sciences. Biology, Chemistry and Physics. At some universities, you can group it as just 'science'."
"You can do that at ours?"
"Yes." Carlos grinned. "I said it as a joke originally. I think the board had been out drinking the night I asked, so they said yes. They couldn't take it back so they just left it. But it seems that in Night Vale, they're so dedicated to scientific opportunity that they actually have it."
"Wow. Well, what do we think?" Jeffries said.
"I say we inv..."
"Dr Green, please finish your taco before you speak again." Natalia grumbled, wiping a splatter of salsa from her top.
Ellie swallowed her mouthful and smiled at Natalia apologetically.
"Sorry. Anyway, I say we invite her along."
"Then it's settled. We'll schedule a meeting for her. Carlos, when do you have time to...?"
"Um." Carlos mused. "Two weeks time, I think?"
"Two weeks?!"
"The City Council have been throwing more things at me."
The team fell silent. They knew that Carlos couldn't refuse the City Council. But they did need the extra help or Carlos would end up killing himself through lack of sleep. It was an endless circle of difficulty whenever the Council were involved.
"Two weeks it is, then." Jeffries said. "But in th' meantime, we'll be helpin' ya out, Carlos."
"Rachelle Hower. Let's hope she's what we're looking for."
Natalia's phone started buzzing loudly. She pulled it out of her pocket. "Oh, it's Cecil. Hey, Cecil. What's up?....oh man, I completely forgot. Yep, we're on our way now. See you soon!"
Carlos looked at her with a questioning expression. "What's going on?"
"We're taking Cecil and a few interns to a mountain."
"Oh, geez." Jeffries groaned. "I forgo' about that too. I'm meant ta be goin'."
"Oh." Carlos said. "Can I come?"
"I'm not sure." Natalia said quietly. "Dr Green is staying behind. Maybe stay and get some R&R."
Carlos sighed. He supposed that they were right.
"I'll make you lemon cake and handle the Council." Ellie said enthusiastically, thankfully without a mouthful of taco. "Um...wheat and gluten free of course."
Her blue eyes had just had a glint of mischievousness. Carlos quickly hypothesised that wasn't a good thing.
~
"See. A mountain." Jeffries said proudly, puffing up his chest as the radio team gawped in disbelief.
"But mountains are a myth, a fairy story. It's what parents tell their kids about at night if they want them to grow up to become geologists." One of the radio station crew complained from the back of the group.
"This is an illusion!" Another voice declared. A low murmur of agreement echoed around the radio station team.
"It is not an illusion." Natalia said calmly. "Look. Touch it. Mountains are real." All three of her eyes looked at the team earnestly. "Feel it. It's existing."
Cecil stepped forth from the crowd. "Miss Johnson, I fear you must be mistaken. It is flat all the way round. This...apparition...it cannot be real."
Natalia's eye on her hand rolled.
Jeffries stepped around her. "Please, Mr Palme'. Just touch it, you'll see. Plus, Carlos said how nice it'd be ta have ya all see science and nature at work!"
Cecil shifted. Jeffries felt slightly smug; he knew that would work, even if only on Cecil. He knew that Cecil was self proclaimed "very into science".
The radio station host gingerly reached out his hand and touched the large ragged slope of rock in front of him, before exhaling in a whistle.
"It's real..." He whispered in wonder.
The other members from the radio station hesitantly approached the rock face too with the same reaction.
"Well." Cecil huffed. "There is regrettably, one mountain. There is every possibility that you fabricated this to fulfil your crazed fantasies of mountains."
Jeffries just sighed.
~
"It is only the truth seeker who wonders, why is the glass there? Why is there water all over the floor? Why is it covering every other surface of the house? Who or what is doing this to us? Welcome to Night Vale...."
Carlos smiled slightly as he heard Cecil's voice on the radio. Ellie had brought the two of them hot chocolate and they had just finished watching a documentary on the Hadron Collider. There had been a brief notice that had flashed up on the screen just before the program started, obviously from the City Council, stating that everything they were about to see was a lie, but it had been interesting enough.
"How are you feeling, boss?"
"Brilliant, Dr Green. I feel so refreshed. And I have so many experiments to finish, so-"
"Carlos..." Ellie sighed.
"This town. This place. It's so scientifically interesting. It is the most amazing and terrifying place that I have ever been in my life. A place where the laws of physics don't apply and science doesn't make sense. It contradicts every single belief I ever had and it continues to keep me occupied...."
Carlos smiled gently.
"This town has doubled my passion for the wonder that is science! And that is the most excellent eventuality."
As Carlos turned back to his tinkering with his dangermeter, Ellie's previously quizzical face had softened.
Night Vale made Carlos happy. It was plain to anyone who knew him.
Despite the crazy City Council, the police, the danger it posed and the stalker radio hosts, it was the most scientifically amazing place in the entire world. Perhaps any world.
"...now for corrections. In a previous report, we at Night Vale Community Radio were talking about the commonly-held belief that there is such a thing as mountains. We scoffed at this belief, and bellowed repeatedly, 'It is flat all the way round. It is FLAT all. The. Way. Round.'"
"Oh, listen, Carlos! They're talking about the others." Ellie said happily.
"...took us for a drive out to a mountain. We looked at the mountain, and even touched it, and it was definitely real. Therefore we are forced to admit there is indeed at least one mountain in this world..."
Jeffries laughed from the doorway as he wiped his loafers on the doormat. Natalia followed suit.
"Hey, you two."
From the radio, Cecil's voice continued.
"I'm still not completely sold on there being more than one mountain. It's possible that the mountain apologists built a single mountain in order to prove their skewed world view."
"Oh we had tha' all afternoon. Cecil wouldn't 'ave it tha' there were moun'ains." Jeffries muttered resentfully.
"Oh don't mind Cecil." Natalia grinned. "He's just not sold yet."
~
After the team had caught themselves up on the events of the day and had begun to cook dinner, the phone rang. She lazily answered it.
"Hello?.....oh. Carlos, it's for you."
Carlos rose from his seat, placing his dangermeter on the table and taking the phone from Natalia.
"This is Carlos." He listened for a long time. "I should think so. I have heard a lot about it after all.....the fifteenth? I think I can do that. It is for science, yes?.....oh good. Goodbye."
"Secret Police?"
"No, the Council again. They want me to go to Desert Bluffs on the fifteenth. They want me to investigate the 'stupid Desert Bluffs science'."
"What do they mean by that?"
"From what I gathered, it works to the same improbability as Night Vale, but with a few differences. I wanted to investigate it anyway, so now would be an excellent opportunity to expand my scientific knowledge! Who wants to come?"
"I will." Natalia said. "Besides, someone senior has to be here to interview Rachelle that day."
"We'll do that." Ellie offered. "Brent and I can stay here, and you two go to Desert Bluffs."
"Sorted, then. In the mean time, we have more scientific mysteries to unravel!"
The rest had done Carlos good. The curious twinkle in his eye had returned, and all the team could tell that the next few weeks would be ones of great discovery.