The device was telling her the lake water had a deadly pH level of 1.2. Not only that, but it was also apparently 0.3% mercury.

Maxie exhaled through her nose, barely stifling a confused laugh. She mouthed the words, "what the fuck?" before removing the fluid tube and putting it back in again for a re-scan.

1.2 pH, 0.3% mercury.

That's absurd. She tried to look at the situation with a sense of humour, but the volon encounter from mere minutes ago still had her on edge. The device's obviously false readings weren't doing much for her peace of mind.

Max stepped out of the van, glancing over at Wire once again to make sure he was still keeping watch. With her sense of security temporarily restored, she walked to the vehicle's trunk and rummaged around her supplies, picking up a couple more test tubes and a second fluid sample analyzer. Notably, a different brand than the previous one.

Shutting the trunk and returning to the comfort of her van, she inserted the water sample into the new device, staring in anticipation at its screen.

And she stared and stared. After about fifteen long seconds, the device finally spat out the weird result of 100% hydrogen and 1.3 pH.

"Cool. Thanks," she huffed. There's no chance in hell that both of these are broken. She picked up her water bottle from the vehicle's cup holder and added some of its contents to one of the extra test tubes, inserting it into the first device with the same settings enabled.

It instantly displayed a very ordinary reading of the water's composition and its slightly alkaline pH. She did the same tests on the second device, which gave her similarly normal readings.

So it's the lake water. Something about that realization sent a chill up her spine; she'd encountered faulty equipment multiple times in her career, but never faulty water. With the volon encounter weighing on her mind and the lack of any explanation for the strange water, she couldn't help but wonder if volon activity was to blame for it.

Unwilling to trust the devices' readings, Max decided to triple-check the water's pH level with a foolproof method. She reached over into the glove box and pulled out a small box of pH test strips, promptly dipping one into the water sample from the lake. It was hard to tell the exact value from the strip's colour alone, but after a few seconds of waiting, it confirmed what the devices were saying. The lake was fatally acidic.

This is beyond weird. Maxie furrowed her brow, trying to make sense of the situation. Would the acidity have anything to do with the rising water level...?

She tossed the used strip on the campervan's floor and set everything else on the passenger's seat, next to her laptop. She pulled the computer onto her lap and opened it up; it only took a few seconds to boot up from sleep mode.

Navigating to her sonar imaging program, she eagerly watched as the computer produced a 3D scan from the data the boat had already sent. As Max suspected with such acidic water, the scan showed almost no signs of life floating around, not even vegetation growing along the lakebed. However, the lack of life had the side effect of giving her a clear view of the form and layout of the lakebed. It was pretty standard fare; the lake became rocky and jagged near the bottom, gradually sloping down to a large patch of perfectly flat ground about 460 metres deep.

The flat area was peculiar enough for her to raise an eyebrow. After rotating the 3D scan to get a better look, she concluded that the sonar was working properly and the flat area wasn't another water glitch; every 10 seconds, a new scan would come in, and Max could see tiny details shift around - most likely from the boat changing position by minuscule amounts. Nevertheless, the flat area remained intact. Even though the water was doing weird things to her fluid analyzers, she doubted it could mess with sonar technology in such a way.

She stared it at for a while, waiting to see if anything would happen. To her dismay, the lake stayed the same, no matter how many times she spun the 3D scan around.

Disappointed, she minimized the sonar program and opened up another. This one read data from the stake she'd placed in the ground, displaying a line graph tracking the water level over time. It hadn't been long since planting the stake, so the graph had very little to show, aside from tiny fluctuations in height from the gentle ebb and flow of the water.

But that was okay. Maxie was pleased that something was working normally without making her question the state of her equipment.

Now for the fun part. Waiting.

She put the laptop back on the passenger's seat, stepping out of the van to join Wire. Quietly walking around with her friend for several paces, she confirmed that the area was clear, allowing herself to breathe a sigh of relief.

"What, don't trust me?" Wire ribbed.

"No, nothing like that. You try keeping your nerve after getting snuck up on by a volon."

"Eh. Understandable."

Max leaned back against the driver's door of her van. "So, this lake is fucked," she announced.

"Huh?"

"Not only is the water glitching out my sample readers and telling me it's loaded with mercury, but the lake's pH levels are so low it's akin to battery acid," she explained. "And the sonar shows almost no signs of fish or plant life underwater. Which checks out, if it's that acidic..."

"Mercury? Battery acid? How is that possible? I've been here before. I was even in the water and I didn't die."

"...What? When?"

Wire paused, leaning their head to the side. "Maybe... a couple months ago?"

"That recently?"

"Yeah. I came out here with a couple friends for a swim before all this volon shit blew up. The water was fine. Last I checked, my friends are still good too."

Max didn't take Wire for a fibber. But it was either that or allow the creeping realization that something was very wrong with this lake to worm its way deeper into her mind. There was no sane explanation for the body of water becoming that deadly in such a short period, unless she missed an obvious incident regarding the lake. But she'd looked up everything she could prior to the trip, and there were very few notable mentions of the area. Nothing online had anything relevant to say about the conundrum in front of her.

She shook her head. "This is weird. You got any theories?"

"Mate, I'm the bodyguard, not the scientist."

"Yeah, fair. I've just never seen anything like this before. I have no idea what to make of this." Max sat down on one of the camp chairs, racking her brain for something she might've missed.

No rivers or streams nearby... no significant sources of pollution in the area... no abnormal weather patterns... and no explanation for the rising water. I could take a trek around the shore with Wire and see if anything is running into the lake, but I'd rather leave this mystery unsolved than risk my life any more than I already am. If we get jumped by another volon, I am out of here. If my boss doesn't like it, he can suck it.

She was starting to give more credence to the idea that volons had something to do with the lake's mysteries. The alien fiends were still poorly understood, and they were most certainly present around the lake. Were they infecting the water? Filling up the lake somehow, for some reason?

I'm starting to think this is beyond my pay grade.

"Max. Come here. Quickly, Max." Wire's voice was hushed, but his tone was urgent.

She stood up and power-walked over to Wire's side, looking out at the water.

"Look." He pointed to the left, several dozen metres down the shoreline.

Max saw it right away, her mouth ajar in apprehension. Shambling across the nearby shoreline was a humanoid figure, too shrouded in mist to identify. Their gait was unnatural and twitchy, staggering towards the water.

"It's another volon. It must be," Max whispered.

"Yeah, probably."

But why isn't it coming for us?

Despite the creature's relatively close proximity to them - close enough where it would surely be aware of their presence - it just kept lurching towards the water. They both continued staring as the silhouette waded into the lake, deeper and deeper, gradually submerging itself until it was totally underwater.

Where's it going...? Maxie's eyes widened as she realized something. "Wire, keep watch. I'm going to check the sonar."