Bohdi hears the sound of a gunshot and Skírnir’s laughter. He races in the direction of the sound without thinking, his hand going to his knife, the only weapon he has. He turns one corner, and then another and arrives just in time to see Amy and Beatrice huddled behind Beatrice’s umbrella. Something molten and glowing is smoldering in the carpet just beyond their feet.
“You will pay for this,” Skírnir says.
Bohdi lifts his eyes to see Skírnir raising his wand beyond the two women on the floor. The magician is standing over the crumpled body of Gerðr.
Without thinking, Bohdi flips open his blade and prepares to throw it. Before it leaves his fingers, Skírnir sways on his feet, his gaze going somewhere off into the distance.
It’s only then that Bohdi sees the dark circle of a bullet wound square in the center of Skírnir’s forehead and the thin trail of blood trickling down one side of his nose. For an instant, his eyes meet Bohdi’s. He looks—confused. And then he falls to his knees, wavers, then falls face-first onto the floor.
Beatrice lifts her head in the magician’s direction. “First shot was a warning,” she grumbles.
Behind Bohdi comes the sound of footsteps. He snaps his knife shut, slips it into his pocket, and backs around the corner, just as agents rush past him. He sees his buddy Marion with them, she gives him a barely perceptible nod, but then rushes down the hall.
Bohdi turns to see Steve and Thor walking shoulder to shoulder.
Scowling, Steve says, “What happened!”
Bohdi shrugs and shakes his head, still a bit in shock. “Beatrice shot Skírnir?”
“Skírnir is still in the cafeteria…” says Steve, his voice trailing off. Pulling out his phone, Steve calls someone while barreling past Bohdi with Thor a step behind. Bohdi hears shouts beyond them, and then Thor’s voice. “What treachery is this?”
Without really thinking about it, Bohdi backs into the dead-end hallway. As he watches the agents race past, he has a revelation. Thor needed Skírnir to open World Gates.
His heart starts to beat fast. Despite Steve’s words to the contrary, humans do have a working theory about how to open World Gates…He takes a ragged breath, remembering what Amy said. The Norns will tell you anything, in exchange for an object of power or an impossible task.
Turning, he takes a few more steps down the hallway. Fingers shaking, Bohdi touches his back pocket where his wallet with the picture of his maybe-parents is.
The FBI has an ongoing investigation into Bohdi’s past. But so far, they don’t even know his real name—and the people in the picture, his maybe, probably, parents—their identities are even farther off. Ruth has told him how much she and Henry worried about Steve when he was in Afghanistan…how they still worry about him every single day.
Do the man and woman in the picture worry about Bohdi?
He hears Thor shout, “The old woman killed a loyal subject of Asgard!”
Bohdi’s attention snaps to the present as Steve roars back, “That loyal subject was trying to kidnap one of our own!”
Thor shouts again. There is the sound of something hitting a wall hard. Above Bohdi, some plaster falls to the floor, and then he hears Thor’s footsteps thundering closer. The giant man passes the hallway that Bohdi is in without even glancing up, hammer gripped tightly in his hand.
Bohdi blinks at the hammer. He remembers Amy holding Laevithin, Loki’s magical sword, two years before in a broken cage of Promethean wire. An instant later, she had vanished into another dimension.
Bohdi hesitates only a second more before racing after Thor.
x x x x
Thor is past security and out the revolving doors before Bohdi catches up to him. Police are redirecting cars and foot traffic away from the sidewalks and street surrounding Thor’s chariot. Even though it’s Chicago, and nearly noon, Thor and Bohdi are oddly alone. If Bohdi is quiet, and Thor doesn’t get too close to the agents guarding his chariot, they won’t be overheard.
Sprinting forward, Bohdi grabs hold of one of Thor’s forearms. “Wait!” he shouts.
Thor’s response is instantaneous. Whipping his body around he wraps a huge hand around Bohdi’s neck and raises his hammer over Bohdi’s head.
The ADUO agents by the chariot start to move in their direction, but Bohdi waves a hand. They slow but do not stop completely.
“What do you want?” Thor snarls, the hand around Bohdi’s neck tightening a fraction.
Bohdi grins, even though the pressure on his windpipe is making his eyes water. “To help you!”
Thor snarls.
“I know where the Norn…gate…is,” Bohdi grinds out.
Thor releases his neck, and gasping for air, Bohdi turns to the guards, smiles, and waves. They stop, though their leader’s scowl is visible over his sunglasses.
Leaning forward, Bohdi whispers, “And I can take you to Nornheim myself.”
“You’re lying!” says Thor.
Actually, Bohdi is just maybe over promising. ADUO’s research is mostly theoretical.
“No,” Bohdi says. He lowers his voice to a barely audible whisper. “Here’s how….”
When he’s done, Thor nods his head, though his eyes are narrowed. The agents are still far enough away that they can’t have heard, but their eyes are fixed on Bohdi and the Viking.
Giving them a smile, Bohdi takes a pen out of his pocket and a battered business card from his wallet. Thrusting them into Thor’s hand, Bohdi shouts at the ADUO agents. “Just asking the big guy for his autograph!”
They’re a little too far away to hear—but Bohdi thinks he sees a guy’s nostrils flare in a snort.