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We don’t get far before Dermot stops at a door and knocks. “We can’t leave this guy out,” he says.
The door opens and Cal is standing there, stooping to see who it is, because he’s taller than the door frame.
“Inez,” he beams. “You weren’t long.” Cal starts to ease himself through the doorway – he has to turn sideways – then spots me and blinks. “Archibald? What are you doing here?”
“I missed your moustache, so I came back,” I quip.
Cal laughs, squeezes through and engulfs me in a bear hug. “I was worried about you,” he says. “We shouldn’t have abandoned you in New York.”
“Don’t be silly,” I smile. “I abandoned you.”
Cal laughs again and hugs me even tighter.
“My ribs,” I wheeze, feeling my face turn purple.
Cal releases me with a chuckle. Then he frowns. “But why are you here?”
“Winston couldn’t come,” Inez says diplomatically. “Archie agreed to travel with us in his place.”
“But you said you needed Winston,” Cal reminds her.
Inez shrugs. “Winston thinks Archie’s up to the job.”
Cal nods approvingly. “Then I’m sure he is.”
“I wish I had your confidence,” I sigh.
“So do I,” Inez says with a wink.
“What’s the plan?” Cal asks. “Are we going to find Baba Jen, bash a few skulls together and whisk her out of here?”
“We told you we couldn’t do that,” Dermot groans. “Urszula’s a deviser. This is her zone. She’d destroy us.”
“She’d have to catch us first,” Cal sniffs. “What about it, Inez?”
“I agree with Dermot and Maiko,” Inez says.
Cal rolls his eyes. “So what’s our plan B?”
“I’m going to gamble with Urszula,” Oleg says. “If I win, we all get to walk away and live happily ever after.”
“And if you lose?” Cal asks. “Can I dent a few heads then?”
Inez snorts with laughter. “We’ll see,” she says, and we resume our march.
We make our way through the city to a pod packed with guards clad in yellow. Half a dozen are sitting behind a table, processing a line of people. We join the line and say nothing as we shuffle forward.
“Reason for coming?” one of the guards asks when we get to the front.
“I’m here to gamble,” Oleg says breezily. “These are my cheerleaders.”
The guards study us carefully, paying special attention to Inez, who’s covered her face with a scarf, so only her eyes are showing.
“Names?” the guard who spoke before asks.
“I’m Oleg,” the thesp says, “and these are my colleagues, Dermot and Maiko.”
“The other three?” the guard enquires when Oleg doesn’t elaborate.
“Friends,” he says.
The guard doesn’t comment on that. It seems that names aren’t mandatory.
“We’ll check for weapons,” one of the others says.
“Mais oui,” Oleg murmurs, “but my shy friend would like to keep her scarf on.”
“She can be checked behind a screen by a blind sentinel,” the guard says.
We move past the table and hand over any weapons that we’re carrying, to be stored for retrieval when we leave. Then we’re patted down by guards, who run fine combs through our hair and examine every last patch of our clothes.
The guards let Inez go behind a screen with a blind woman who’s been summoned to examine her. Inez emerges a minute later, scarf back in place, and the blind woman lets the guards at the table know that she found nothing amiss.
“Have you been here before?” a guard asks as we’re shepherded to a door.
“All of us except the boy and the big guy,” Oleg says.
“Are you happy to explain the rules to them?” the guard asks.
“We’ll do our best,” Oleg smiles.
“Then welcome to the Spin Zone,” she says. “If you believe in gods, this would be a good time to start praying.”
The guard slides the door open. I’m expecting a rope, but instead there’s a wooden platform to the largest pod I’ve yet to encounter. We file across it one at a time, and the door at the far end slides open as each person approaches, then closes behind them.
I’m last in line – I don’t know if I was positioned at the back for a reason, or if that’s just random – so I watch all of the others cross and disappear. As I’m crossing the platform, I get a feeling that I’m going to be attacked. I look around warily, fingers clenched, ready to defend myself, but nothing happens and after a few tense seconds I relax.
“Cool it, Archie,” I mutter.
Then I take the last few steps, the door opens, and with no idea of what lies ahead, I step into the Spin Zone.