Nineteen

 

“Can you deactivate that thing and send the room back to normal?” I asked Evelyn.

“I’m not sure. But why would I want to do that?”

“The best hostage against someone with an ego that size is himself. I bet we’ll get what we want if we tell him we’ll cut off his youth magic if he doesn’t cooperate.”

“But what I want is to make him suffer.”

I tried not to sigh in exasperation and thought of a way to get her cooperation. “I’m sure we’ll get to that eventually. But since at the moment you seem to be giving him a gradual, ordinary aging and death, you’re not really bringing him down. My way, he suffers more.”

That got her interest. “Really? Okay, then we’ll try it your way. What do I need to do?”

“Hold that thing and look threatening. Now, come on.”

Keeping to the shadows along the wall, we worked our way around the room. With a magical barrier surrounding the knights, I wasn’t sure Evelyn could get through it to approach Mordred directly, and even if the barrier was one-way, I didn’t want to trap Evelyn in there, in case this didn’t work. Instead, I aimed for Mordred’s end of the table, where we might get close to him without being inside the circle.

The MSI folks and the former frogs looked pretty glazed. Mordred’s villain monologue must have been somewhat less than enthralling. Even Merlin looked bored. Owen perked up, and I realized he’d noticed me. He immediately went still again after that initial reaction, so no one else picked up on it.

When we were behind and just to the right of Mordred’s throne, I stepped forward through the gap between two of the knights, cleared my throat, and said, “Excuse me. I hate to interrupt, but there’s something you should know.”

Every eye in the room—except for the frozen knights—turned to stare at me. “What is it, Miss Chandler?” Merlin asked before Mordred had a chance to.

“I just thought you’d be interested in knowing that the protective magic on this room isn’t working anymore.” I gestured at Evelyn, who’d come to stand beside me. She held up her magical gizmo. “You’re going to age like everyone else. It might even be accelerated, come to think of it. I don’t believe that wrinkle was there before, and was your hairline like that ten minutes ago?” That was a lie, but I needed to sell this if it was going to work.

Mordred came off his throne and spun to face us. “What?” he asked, his voice shrill with panic.

“It might not be permanent,” Evelyn said. “I can restore it if you cooperate.”

I was surprised when Mordred recognized her. “Don’t you work for me?” he asked. “Why are you doing this? Do you know what I do to traitors?”

“It’s no worse than what you do to people who think they’re your friends,” she said with some bitterness. “You only thought I was working for you. I’ve really been working for myself all along. And if you don’t want to die, old man, you’ll do what she says.”

“All you have to do is let us go from here,” I said.

I could see the dilemma in Mordred’s eyes. Should he give up some power now or take the risk of dying like a normal person? He let his breath out, his body sagging slightly, so that he looked years older, then he gestured. I felt the magical barrier drop, and the knights moved back to their places by the wall. “You may leave,” he said. “Now restore my magic.”

“Not until we’re sure that when we leave, we end up where we want to go,” Evelyn said.

Merlin rose from his seat. “Everyone gather ’round, now.”

The others all clustered around him, but Kenneth cried out, “You’re going to just let him go?” He looked stronger than he had before, and he was no longer cradling an injured arm—apparently the room’s magic had worked on him, as well as Mordred.

He and Philip both shot magic at Mordred, who disappeared. A frog appeared on the floor where he’d been. It tried to hop away, but I’d had a fair amount of practice in catching frogs already that day, so I was able to scoop him up and hand him to Merlin, who dropped him into his pocket.

Evelyn stared open-mouthed at Kenneth. “Granddad? Well, Great-great-granddad? Kenneth Vandermeer? I’ve seen pictures of you, and you look just like that.”

“Great-great-granddad?” Kenneth asked, his eyes growing wide.

Philip clapped him on the shoulder. “A long time has passed. You have a lot to catch up on.”

“I didn’t even know I was a father,” Kenneth said, sounding stunned.

Evelyn gasped. “And you’re my great-great-uncle Philip.”

“We can have the family reunion later,” I said. “For now, we’ve got a company to warn and save.”

The magical folks did the spell, and I was relieved when it took me along with them. We found ourselves back in Roger’s office, but there was no sign of the trussed-up Roger. A couple of frogs hopped along the floor, and Trish lay in the corner, her wrists bound with a printer cable and packing tape over her mouth.

While the others set about restoring the frogs to their human selves, I removed the tape from Trish’s mouth and unwrapped the cable from her wrists. “What happened?” I asked.

“The security forces got in, and they were just too much. Roger said something about an appointment to keep.”

“He’s attacking MSI,” I said.

“Your old place? I guess you still work for them, huh?”

“I have been all along. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just spitting mad.”

“Then let’s go deal with them.” I stood and helped her to her feet, then turned to Owen. “Surely you didn’t leave Roger’s beacon in Merlin’s office.”

“No, I brought it to my lab to study it,” he said, then he went pale. “Oh no, that’s where he’d arrive if he gets through. We’ve got to get back there, or get it away, or something.”

“Then let’s get back,” Rod said. “We can retrace our own spell. The MSI people can get through our shields, but the rest of you will have to take the long way.”

“I’ll take care of getting them out,” I said. When the MSI gang had vanished in a blink, I gave a “follow me” gesture to the frog people, Trish, and Evelyn. “This way.” I hoped they hadn’t shut down the portals so that we were stuck in London because that would be a long trip back, and I didn’t have a passport.

Out in the hallway, the scene was chaotic as employees rushed for the exits. Alarm sirens sounded throughout the building. There was a ripple effect in the hallway, like the portal was breaking down. I didn’t know what would happen to us if we were in the middle when it failed, but we didn’t have much choice. We all made a run for it, sprinting down the hallway. I felt a bit disoriented for a second, like my body was in a suspended state, but then I stepped out on the other side. The others all seemed to be with me. I hadn’t taken a head count, but it didn’t look like anyone was missing. Where the portal had been was now a blank wall.

I wasn’t sure if we had to go through more portals, only that the garage where the car went every day was in Manhattan. We needed to get out before any other portals between us and the exit failed.

The scene in the galleries around the atrium was even more hectic, as all the employees rushed to their changing rooms so they could get their stuff back and get out before the magic holding this enterprise together gave out entirely. Had breaking the magic on Mordred’s lair done this, or did it have something to do with Mordred being taken out of the building?

I led the group to my changing room, fighting my way through the sea of panicked people, so I could at least get my purse. I didn’t know if I’d have a chance to get back here once we left, and I wasn’t leaving my credit cards and keys behind. I also took the opportunity to put on some shoes and grab my coat while Trish and Evelyn ushered everyone through the room and out the door.

The alarm on the wards went off when I tried to leave while still wearing my Collegium gear, but by this time, it didn’t make much difference. The whole place was already in chaos. My group followed me through the room and to the elevators.

There were a couple of limos waiting in the garage. We ran up to one, and the driver rolled the window down. “Out of the car,” I ordered.

“Excuse me?” he asked. A second later, he was a frog. I looked back to see Philip smiling grimly.

“We can restore him later,” he said.

“Can you drive?” I asked him.

“I haven’t yet learned that skill.”

“Trish?”

“I’ve got it. But where are we going?”

“Philip, direct her to MSI. As many of you as can fit, get in.” We proceeded to learn how many former frogs you could fit in the back of a limo. When the car was full, it took off. “The rest of you, with me,” I said.

The driver of the next car I approached was already out of the car and standing with his hands up. “The key’s in the ignition,” he said.

“Thanks!” I replied. “Now, go see to your colleague over there, and you might want to look into other job opportunities.”

I got that car loaded, then slid into the driver’s seat to find Evelyn already sitting in the front passenger seat. “I’m coming with you,” she said.

“Okay. You can be lookout.” I adjusted the seat so that I could reach the pedals and turned the key, starting the car. I could drive, but I’d never driven in New York, so this was going to be a new experience for me. Fortunately, what I drove back home was a pickup truck with a long bed, so maneuvering a limo wouldn’t be that different. I hoped.

We came out of the garage and into something that looked like a service alley, which opened onto a busy street. I paused to check my bearings. Judging by the positions of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, I guessed we were probably not too far from Madison Square. I pulled out into traffic, made it to the next street heading across town, and then turned onto Second Avenue heading downtown. That may not have been the fastest way to go, but it was the way I was more sure of, and the last thing I needed was to get stuck on a highway, unable to get off when I needed to.

It was some of the most nervewracking driving I’d ever done. I was used to driving in the country or in a small town. I might have occasionally braved Austin traffic, which wasn’t pleasant, but that tended to be gridlock on freeways rather than a grid of streets with stoplights on each block, not to mention all the crazed taxi drivers, suicidal bike messengers, and oblivious pedestrians. It was particularly interesting barely moving a block at a time when driving a vehicle that seemed to take up a whole block.

I glanced in the side mirror and saw another black car following me. In this city, that wasn’t unusual. In fact, it seemed like half the cars on the streets were either yellow cabs or black car-service vehicles. But I had a funny feeling about this black car.

I thought for a second about trying evasive maneuvers, but decided not to bother. For one thing, there wasn’t a lot of evading you could do when crawling along in city traffic and stopping at lights. For another, they probably already knew where I was going, so it didn’t matter whether or not I lost them. My only real concern was that they might try to stop me before I could get to the MSI building.

Without taking my eyes off the road, I said to Evelyn, “See if you can find an intercom button or some other way to talk to the back.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her lean forward and examine the dashboard.

“Got it,” she said after a couple of minutes. “What do you want me to say?”

“They’re all magical people, right? See if they can do anything to shield us against the car that’s following us.”

She hit the speaker button and relayed that request. “We’ve got it,” came the reply, “but it would help if you could give us visibility in here.”

Evelyn searched the dashboard again and hit a button. “How’s that?” she asked.

“Great. Now, what about the moon roof?”

She found another button, and I could only imagine the attention we’d get with a person in old-fashioned clothes popping up through the roof of a stretch limo in the middle of city traffic. But hey, as long as it worked. And this was New York, so maybe no one would notice or care.

My hands were white-knuckled on the steering wheel as I tried to maneuver around slower traffic and insert some other cars between us and our follower. I felt a little sorry for all the people in the back of the limo, who probably hadn’t put on seatbelts. Some of them may never have even been in a car before, and this wasn’t the best introduction to the modern world.

I glanced in the mirror again and couldn’t see our tail. “Do you see another black car behind us?” I asked Evelyn. She leaned to check her mirror.

“There are black cars, but I can’t tell if one is right on us. I’ll ask the people in back.” She triggered the intercom again and asked about our follower.

“They’re still there, but farther back, and they shouldn’t be able to see us,” came the reply.

“You didn’t make us entirely invisible, did you?” I asked in a panic. Looking like a huge, blank space of pavement in Manhattan would be very dangerous. Any huge, blank space of pavement would immediately be filled, and physics said that two things couldn’t occupy the same space at the same time.

“No. We just look silver instead of black.”

I actually said, “Whew,” out loud and tried to relax a little while maneuvering an ocean liner through city streets full of smaller cars that kept darting in and out when they found an opening.

By the time I crossed Houston, I was feeling a little more comfortable, but soon I found myself in the more confusing layout of lower Manhattan, where the simple grid pattern dissolved. I navigated on instinct from that point, turning onto streets headed in the direction I needed. I whooped in triumph when I saw the building ahead of us and pulled up in front, behind the other limo that was already parked there. It wasn’t a legal parking place, but the car wasn’t registered to me. I figured the Collegium could pay the parking ticket or impound fee.

I jumped out, ran around the car, and opened the passenger door. “Okay, everybody out,” I said.

While the former frogs did their impression of a circus clown car act, with one after another emerging, I glanced up at the building’s turrets. I didn’t see any sign of a fight going on. It looked perfectly ordinary.

The black Collegium car pulled up just as the last person made it out of the limo. “Hurry, get inside,” I shouted. I ran in at the tail of the group before the car’s driver opened his door. Inside, I found Trish, Philip, and their group waiting in the lobby. “We weren’t sure where to go,” Trish said.

“I guess we could listen for the sound of battle,” I said, but everything seemed awfully peaceful.

Just then, Owen came running down the lobby stairs, Rod and Jake in his wake, holding a small, glowing object. “I think I’ve got it shielded, but I don’t know if it will work against his countermeasures,” he said, panting, as he sprinted through the lobby toward the door. We all scrambled to get out of his way.

“How long did it take you to get here?” I asked Rod. “I’d have thought you had plenty of time to move it.”

“Sorry, my fault,” Jake said, wincing. “I put it away, and it took us awhile to find it.”

Owen had almost reached the door when I heard a sizzling sound. There were a couple of pops, and several harpies fell out of the sky, crashing to the floor to lie motionless. A second later, another group appeared, along with a few of the skeletal creatures, and they surrounded Owen. More harpies and monsters arrived, and then, finally, Roger stepped out of thin air.

He paused to straighten his tie before glancing around at his surroundings. “Interesting. You moved the beacon. Obviously.”

Merlin came walking down the steps into the lobby. “You may as well give up now,” he said. “You won’t get any farther into the building, and your organization is on the verge of collapse. You were playing into your boss’s trap, all along.”

“Yeah, you should thank us,” I said. “He was setting you up, giving you enough rope to hang yourself. You’d never have taken over.”

“It’s been done before.” He was as calm as ever. I had to wonder if this guy was maybe a robot. Nothing seemed to rattle him.

“The book was a fake,” I said. “It’s been the same boss all along, for the past thousand or so years. He was getting you to do his dirty work, and then he’d have trapped you and got you out of the way.”

“Where is he now?”

Merlin pulled the frog out of his jacket pocket and smiled. “I’ll find a good home for him.”

Roger laughed. It was an eerie sound, more like an evil “mwa ha ha” than true mirth. “Then the way is clear for me.”

“Not so fast,” Sam the gargoyle said, swooping down from the ceiling. “Now what say you take your ladies and your skeletons out of here. Go try to take over what’s left of your company.”

“You won’t find much left,” I said. “And you’ll need an airplane to get to your office. Things are kind of falling apart.”

“It’s only a building,” he said with a shrug. “It’s the organization that matters.”

“I believe you’ll find that’s gone, too,” Evelyn said.

He turned to her, raising an eyebrow. “Really—you, too, Evelyn? Et tu, Brute.”

“Obviously, you’re not as sharp as you think you are, since you had two plants working closely with you,” she said with some relish.

“But why? Didn’t I treat you well? I was a good boss, to both of you.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the security forces converging on the lobby. Gargoyles circled above, keeping the harpies in check, and other people and creatures emerged from various passageways. I knew we needed to buy time to have all our people in place.

“It wasn’t really about you, Roger,” I said, walking toward him. I hoped he’d be distracted by following my movement and not notice the other motion around him. “I was on a mission. It wasn’t personal at all. Actually, you were the best boss I ever had. That is, until you started turning my friends into frogs. That’s not exactly something I can overlook. Mostly, though, I was using you to get to your boss, and it worked, so thanks!”

Evelyn apparently picked up on what I was doing, or else she just wanted to give him a piece of her mind, because she followed my lead. She walked straight up to him. “I was also using you to get to your boss, but for me it was all about revenge for what the Collegium did to my family.”

“You worked for me for years!”

“I’m very patient,” she said with a shrug. “And you did help me achieve what I wanted, so I owe you thanks for that.”

By this time, all our forces were in place. Merlin stepped forward and said, “Enough talk. Stop this foolishness, call off your monsters, and surrender. We have you surrounded.”

Roger glanced around, seeing that he was, indeed, surrounded by angry former frogs and the entire might of MSI. But he didn’t look the way you’d expect someone who was cornered like that to look. There was no tension in his body language, no fear in his eyes. He merely smiled, his eyes remaining cold and hard. “I’m not the only one who’s surrounded,” he said.

I followed his glance to where Owen still stood in the middle of a bunch of skeleton men while harpies circled him overhead. They’d homed in on him because he was holding the beacon, so he’d never had a chance to get to the rest of us.

He, too, looked calm for someone in that kind of situation, but it wasn’t the same emotionless, effortless calm Roger had. If you knew Owen as well as I did, you could spot the signs of tension in his bearing. He held his shoulders like someone squaring off for a fight, and his eyes were wary, darting around to take in his surroundings.

The room grew very quiet and very still. “What are you going to do, Merlin?” Roger asked. “The moment you make a move on me, your wonder boy gets it. I know he’s good, but can he really take on that many people at once?”

It would have been just like Owen to say something like, “Don’t worry about me, do what you need to do.” In fact, he’d said that sort of thing before. But I don’t think any of us expected him to do what he did.

He knelt very slowly, so slowly, in fact, that it was hard to tell he was actually moving. When he was low enough that he could bend and touch the floor, he dropped something small and shiny—the beacon. It rolled across the floor to the other side of the room.

I was just starting to wonder why he’d done that when there was a loud cracking sound, like a very close lightning strike. I felt a surge of magic so intense that it was almost painful, and suddenly all the harpies and skeleton creatures were in a different part of the room, surrounding the beacon, and surrounded by the MSI people. I figured Owen must have somehow managed to trigger the beacons the creatures had used to home in on his beacon, sending them to its new location. He had said he’d been studying it.

“Now would you care to surrender?” Merlin asked.

“Actually, no,” Roger said genially. “I’d rather fight. You see, I figure if I manage to take you out, I still get what I want. I can take over.”

He raised his hands as though to attack Merlin, but although Merlin was really, really old, his reflexes were fast, and he was already on the defensive, easily deflecting whatever Roger had aimed at him.

At the same time as Roger’s attack, his creatures also turned and went after the people who surrounded them. It turned into a massive magical free-for-all.

I noticed Trish standing stunned near the doorway and made my way through the melee toward her. “This—this is insane,” she said.

“Yeah, magical fights can be pretty intense, but we should be safe enough. Their magic can’t affect us. We should probably stay on the lookout, in case they try something sneaky.”

“Do you do this sort of thing all the time?”

“Fights like this? Once every few months, give or take. It depends on who the bad guy is at that time.”

I racked my brain, trying to come up with a way I could contribute to the battle, aside from shouting the occasional warning when a skeleton creature came up behind one of our people. Then I came up with an idea, based on my brief experience from having magical powers. Magical power wasn’t unlimited. People with magic had the ability to turn latent power in the atmosphere into power they could use. Some places had more natural power than others, so there was more power to draw upon. This building had extra power supplied to it, to support all the magic used within its walls. Without that, there would be less power to draw upon, and the people who had the ability to store more power or create more power with less input would have an advantage.

I knew that Owen and Merlin were among the most powerful wizards around. In fact, Owen was so powerful that he was watched very carefully in case he went bad. They’d be able to keep going long after everyone else was drained.

What I needed to do was shut off the power.