FORT PULLED HIS HEAD BACK through the teleportation circle, but instead of closing the circle right away, he just stared through it for another moment, letting the wonder of it all wash over him.
Okay, so he couldn’t open a portal yet, or go rescue his father. But teleporting would probably still prove pretty useful in the monsters’ dimension, so the time he spent mastering it wouldn’t be a complete waste.
And, well, if he had to go visit some of the biggest landmarks around the world in the process, who could blame him?
Something creaked out in the hallway, and Fort immediately froze, not sure if someone was coming, or if the facility was just settling. Looking around, he realized what it would look like if a guard came in: He was standing in the middle of a smoky-smelling kitchen, holding a book of magic he’d stolen from the headmaster. That might not go over so well.
Fort quickly hid behind one of the counters, just in case someone barged in to expel him, but the hallways went silent now, and no one emerged. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he stood back up and shut off the fans, hoping they’d done enough of a job to pass a quick inspection, and then turned off the lights. He went to leave the kitchen to find a safer spot to practice teleportation, only to stop. Was there a safer spot anywhere at the Oppenheimer School?
He couldn’t open teleportation circles in his room, not with his intense new roommate around at all times. And there were cameras basically everywhere else. At least the kitchen was out of the way, and there shouldn’t be a reason for anyone to come to the unfinished areas of the facility at this time of night. Besides, Cyrus had said it would be safe for them to destroy the books there, so hopefully that applied for a few more hours.
Fort flipped the lights back on, still worried about staying, but what choice did he have? Not to mention he now had a bigger problem. He’d been so focused on just getting the book and then immediately portaling off to find his father that he hadn’t considered where he could hide the book of Summoning if he needed to.
The kitchen definitely wasn’t secure enough. If nothing else, Rachel knew about it, and as angry as she was right now, he didn’t want to tempt fate by letting her get another crack at burning it. And his room wasn’t any safer, not with one bureau and a nightstand. Gabriel would find it for sure.
The problem was the book’s size: It was just too big to hide easily. The only place it might fit would be under his bed, and that just seemed like the most obvious spot in the world. And considering they hadn’t switched the two books of magic with their fakes, it wouldn’t be long before Colonel Charles or Dr. Opps came around looking for them.
If only there was a way to hide the book outside the school, someplace where he could still get to it. But that wouldn’t… wait a second. Fort slapped his forehead, amazed at his own ignorance.
Of course he could hide it outside the school. He could hide the book anywhere on earth, now that he had the teleportation spell!
He quickly flipped the book open, and read the spell again, letting the magic fill him. All he had to do was cast the spell, relearn it quickly, then deposit the book on the other side of the circle. Then he could open a new circle whenever he wanted and retrieve it.
So where in the world should he leave one of the most dangerous books in existence?
What he needed was something secure, like a bank vault. Only it had to be a vault that people didn’t go into very often, a vault that would remain undisturbed, yet still guarded. Something like… Fort Knox?
That could work! Fort prepared the teleportation spell in his mind, picturing the vaults full of gold at Fort Knox in his head. He whispered the words, gestured to the nearby kitchen wall again, then waited for the circle to open.
Nothing happened.
Fort frowned, not sure what he’d done wrong. The spell had worked fine the last time. Was Fort Knox magically protected somehow? No, that couldn’t be possible. The only one who knew anything about Summoning was hopefully hiding from federal agents in an airport with Sierra right now, and there was no way Damian would have cared about protecting the United States’ gold.
So why wouldn’t it work?
He started to open the book to relearn the spell, only to realize the words were still in his head. That made sense… he hadn’t been able to use the magic, so it hadn’t faded from his mind.
But what was the problem?
He pictured the Empire State Building again and recast the spell. This time, the green circle opened without any problem, and the cold New York wind quickly sent a shiver down his spine. Fort winced at the chill and immediately closed the circle.
So the magic still worked, but something about Fort Knox was stopping him.
Fort quickly relearned the spell and tried a new destination, one he knew well: the room he’d lived in at his aunt’s house. Again, the portal opened easily, and he found himself staring at a rowing machine, the one his aunt had moved to storage back when she’d taken in Fort.
But beyond bringing back the exercise equipment, she hadn’t changed anything else. The blanket on the bed was still the one from his old bedroom, and she’d kept all of his pictures up around the room.
As he stared at the bedroom, part of Fort wanted to step through the teleportation circle, find his aunt, and tell her that everything was going to be okay, that he’d be bringing her brother-in-law back soon. But instead, he canceled the spell and sighed deeply.
Either she’d see her brother-in-law soon, or she was better off not knowing. And he still had a teleportation issue to work out.
Reading the spell again, Fort considered the problem. Clearly the magic was still functioning okay. The only time a circle hadn’t opened was when he tried to jump into Fort Knox. But why would that one in particular not work?
Or was he thinking about this the wrong way? Maybe it wasn’t something about Fort Knox that didn’t work, but something about the other two places that did. What did the Empire State Building and his aunt’s apartment have in common? He’d never actually been to the Empire State Building, even though he’d seen pictures of it, so it couldn’t be that he needed to have visited a place first. But he’d also seen photos of Fort Knox, and—
Wait. Had he?
Fort frowned, trying to remember. Was there ever a time he’d actually seen pictures of Fort Knox? Thinking back, he realized instead of photos he’d just been imagining random piles of gold inside a huge vault, and that didn’t seem likely to be what it actually looked like. And now that he was searching his memory, he couldn’t remember what the outer building looked like, what color it was, or even where it was located.
Could that be the answer? He could only open a teleportation circle to somewhere that he’d seen, either in a photograph or in person?
There was only one way to find out.
Fort whispered the words and pictured in his mind what he imagined Jia’s hometown in China looked like.
Nothing happened.
Next he tried to open a portal to Dr. Opps’s office at the school.
Nothing.
The Oval Office.
Noth… wait, no, that one worked!
Fort’s eyes widened as he watched the president of the United States reading over some papers at a huge brown desk. He immediately canceled the spell, closing the teleportation circle as his heart threatened to explode out of his chest. That had been close! If the president hadn’t been reading at that exact moment, Fort might have been seen. And that would have been the end of everything.
And why had he even tried the Oval Office? Of course he’d seen pictures of it. He’d seen it thousands of times, probably! For some reason, he’d lost track of what he was doing and just started focusing on places he’d never visited. He needed to be a lot more careful in the future. Teleportation was just too powerful to mess around with.
But at least he’d figured out the problem: He could only open a teleportation circle to somewhere he’d seen photos of or had visited in person. Not that solving the issue helped narrow down where to stash the book to keep it safe.
What did that leave? Where was somewhere that no one else would go, but that Fort had seen before? Was there a place that only he had ever been? He couldn’t imagine anything, unless it was like a locker in one of his old schools? But even a locker would have been given to other kids by now.
Maybe he needed a different approach. Not someplace only he’d been, but maybe a place that only he could reach, with the teleportation spell. Not many people would be hanging out just below the spire on the Empire State Building. Or maybe like someplace inaccessible, someplace…
Someplace underground.
The solution came to him in a flash, and he immediately knew he had to try it, just to see. No one would be able to get there, so the book should be safe. Assuming there was any there left to stash it.
Fort bit his lip, then pictured the place in his mind. He unleashed the magic, and a circle large enough to fit the book opened in the kitchen wall. He slowly pushed his head into the darkness on the other side of the circle, and was happy to see that not only was there plenty of room to stash the book, but it looked like no one had been there since the attack.
He quickly relearned the spell, since if he didn’t, he’d lose the book forever once he closed the circle. For luck, he pulled out the Gettysburg Address brochure and stuck it between two pages. He wasn’t sure why, but it felt like his father would be watching over the book if the brochure was in there. Then, with a final pat good-bye, he slowly pushed the book through the glowing green circle into the darkness.
He gave one last look at the tunnel beneath the old Oppenheimer School, the one created by a giant scaly black monster when it had attacked Fort, trying to drag him down into its own dimension two weeks ago.
“I’ll be back, Dad,” Fort whispered, patting the book again. “Soon.”
And with that, he closed the circle, leaving the book behind in the darkness.