“Without being noticed,” Molly added quickly.
“Oooh . . .” said the car. “I do love a challenge. . . . I would have to say: yes and no. Yes, I can quite definitely get you up there, but my stealth fields are no match for the Casino’s security systems. I’d be bound to show up on their sensors.”
“You get us up there,” said Molly, “and I’ll keep us from being noticed.”
“Deal!” said the car. “When did you have in mind?”
“Right now,” I said.
“Ah,” said Molly. “In broad daylight?”
I looked at her. “Is that going to be a problem?”
Molly scowled, considering. “The cover of darkness would have made it easier. . . . Let me think. There are all kinds of null zones scattered throughout the building, of various strengths. So any spell I might cast could fail, at any time, without warning. So, time to get creative. And just a bit sneaky. Frankie told us the Casino has a whole bunch of telepaths down in the cellar, broadcasting Don’t Notice Anything Unusual . . . I can tap into that, and wrap the field around the car. The null zones must be programmed not to override the denial broadcast.”
“You’re right,” I said. “That is seriously sneaky. Go for it.”
Molly gestured briefly, and the Scarlet Lady rocked back and forth. “Hey! That tickles! Kinda like it, though . . .”
“You are a deeply disturbing vehicle,” I said.
“You don’t know the half of it, big boy,” said the car.
“Get in the car, Shaman,” said Molly. “There’s no telling how long my override patch will last and somebody notices something.”
I got in behind the wheel, Molly took shotgun, and the Scarlet Lady drove quietly through the underground car park, careful not to draw any attention from the few hotel staff, who weren’t supposed to notice us any more. Once outside, the car roared back up the entrance road, putting some distance between us and the hotel. So I can get a good run at it, said the car, when I was unwise enough to ask. An answer which to my mind did not actually inspire confidence. She finally slowed, spun round to face the hotel building again, and then accelerated for all she was worth. We slammed down the road, faster and faster, our surroundings a blur, while Molly whooped happily. The hotel grew larger and larger before us, and I couldn’t help but notice that for all our impressive speed, we weren’t actually leaving the ground.
“Going up, soon, would be good,” I said. “On the grounds that the hotel is getting really very near. Going up, really soon now, would be a really good idea! Go up! Up!”
“Front seat driver,” said the car, dismissively. “Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed, Thunderbirds Are Go!”
The car’s crimson and white bonnet rose up abruptly, and the car leapt into the air, leaving the road behind. Sheer acceleration forced Molly and me back into our seats. The great curving front of the Casino building loomed before us, but the car’s bonnet kept rising until suddenly we were flying vertically parallel to the hotel front, whipping past the windows so fast they were just one long gleaming blur. The Scarlet Lady laughed loudly, blatting her horn triumphantly. Molly laughed along with her, beating both hands on the dashboard in a sharp paradiddle.
Sometimes I think I’m the only sane one on these missions.
“Pardon me,” I said to the car, “but I can’t help noticing . . . we seem to be slowing. As in, not going nearly as fast as we were. Are you running out of power? Are we actually going to reach the top of this building? Do I really want to know the answers to these questions?”
“Let’s all try to be optimistic,” said the car. “Think happy thoughts.”
“Are there any parachutes in this car?” said Molly.
“Safety features are for wimps,” said the Scarlet Lady.
She shot over the top of the hotel, and the bonnet came down sharply. All four wheels hit the roof at once, and there was a loud squeal of brakes as we hurtled towards the far side of the roof. I gripped on to the steering wheel with both hands, for comfort’s sake, while the deceleration pressed me back into my seat again. Black smoke spilled out from under the rear arches as we slowed and slowed, along with a hellish stink of burning rubber, until finally we slammed to a halt just a few feet short of the far edge. Molly and I bounced back and forth in our seats, and then slumped with relief. The Scarlet Lady engaged reverse, and moved us back a few yards from the edge of the roof.
“There you are!” she said. “Told you I could do it! Never doubted I could! Not for a moment. Now for the bad news. I don’t have enough energy left to fly us back down again.”
“Now you tell us?” said Molly.
“Be fair,” said the car. “You didn’t ask. Nice view, isn’t it?”
“I am going to have my uncle Jack reprogramme your personality with a sledgehammer,” I said. “Now, Molly and I have work to do. You, stay.”
“I love it when you’re all masterful,” said the car.
I got out of the car, slamming the door with more than necessary violence, and looked around. The hotel roof was flat and wide and open, with no one about. A cold wind whipped across the roof, ruffling my hair and tugging at my clothes. Molly came forward to join me.
“Are we still protected by your distraction field?” I said to Molly.
She shrugged, quickly. “It’s not an exact science. As long as we stay reasonably close to the car, probably.”
I walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down. It was a really long steep drop to the ground far below. I started to feel a bit dizzy, so I made myself keep looking until the feeling went away. Molly came and stood beside me. The drop didn’t seem to bother her at all.
“So, here we are,” she said brightly. “Part One of our Really Desperate Plan has been achieved. Really looking forward to seeing what Part Two might consist of.”
“Look at that drop,” I said. “I can’t believe Uncle Jack and Uncle James just jumped off here, and trusted to their handholds on the building to slow them down. I wouldn’t like to try it even now, with Ethel’s improved armour.”
“Which you haven’t got,” said Molly. “And, I think we should at least consider the possibility that your uncle Jack might have been exaggerating, just a bit.”
“Hard to tell, given all the things he really did do back in the day,” I said.
“If they really did do it, you can bet good money that there are security options in place now, to make sure no one ever does it again,” said Molly.
“Can you See any hidden security systems up here?” I said.
She looked around. “No. Nothing. Which is . . . odd. You’d expect something . . . if only to dissuade people like us.”
“There are no people like us,” I said firmly.
Molly stamped her foot on the roof a few times. “Seems solid enough. How are you planning to get down into the penthouse floor without the use of major explosives, which I don’t happen to have about me?”
“There’s a trap-door,” I said, pointing. “But that’s far too easy, and far too obvious. Bound to be alarmed.”
“Agreed,” said Molly.
I looked back over the edge of the roof. “I was always very good at climbing,” I said. “I used to climb around the exterior of Drood Hall all the time, when I was a kid. So I could get to all the places I wasn’t supposed to go.”
Molly grinned. “Like the girls’ dormitory, after lights out?”
“No,” I said. “I’ve always been the shy and retiring type.”
“I have noticed,” said Molly.
I lowered myself onto one knee and studied the exterior face of the hotel, with all its sweeping curves. There was a cold hard knot in my stomach.
“You want to climb down that?” said Molly. “Are you sure about this?”
“Absolutely,” I said. “But feel free to try to talk me out of it.”
I swung down over the edge before she could say anything. I needed to do it to prove to myself that I was physically fit and fine aga
in . . . and that my nerve was everything it should be. I couldn’t go through life hesitating and worrying, armour or no armour. I was a field agent, and that was all that mattered. I grabbed tightly on to every extruding curve, and forced my feet into every place where one rounded design met another. And step by step, foot by foot, I lowered myself down the side of the building. It was a lot harder than I remembered from my youth, but then, I’d been a lot smaller and lighter in those days. And, I’d had my armour. And, the drop had only been a few stories. I didn’t look down, just concentrated on finding new foot – and handholds. The cold wind whipped around me, blowing my hair in my eyes and tugging peevishly at my clothes. Trying to pull me away from the hotel face, and throw me down. I pressed myself as flat against the building as I could, and kept going.
No armour to protect me, nothing to depend on but my own strength and skill. I grinned to myself. I was going to have to do this, anyway, so I might as well enjoy it.
A line of closed and apparently secure windows stretched across the building, marking my arrival at the penthouse floor. The glass was opaque everywhere, so that Parris and his kind could look out on the world, but the world couldn’t see them. Which meant I had no way of knowing whether there was anyone home, and maybe watching me. I would have shrugged, but it didn’t seem like a good idea. I lodged my feet carefully, and tested the frame of the window with my fingertips. No obvious locks or hinges, or anything I could get a grip on. I could have smashed my way in with an armoured fist, or broken the seal with armoured filaments, but now . . . I was still considering the problem when I realised Molly was standing beside me, hovering in mid-air. I looked at her for a long moment.
“What?” she said. “You didn’t ask. I could have carried you down, if you’d asked.”
“I have my dignity,” I said.
“Don’t touch the glass itself,” Molly said briskly. “It’s alarmed. I can See the protections. Major league stuff, too. Expensive.”
“Give me your half of the Armourer’s lock-breaker,” I said.
I fished out my half, being very careful with every move I made. Molly handed over her half. The two pieces fitted easily together, clicking into place to form one smooth black square. No obvious controls, or protrusions, so I just pressed the thing carefully against the frame of the window. And the window opened, swinging smoothly outwards.
The solid glass pushed me away from the building with a firm, remorseless pressure, forcing me backwards. My feet scuffed and slipped on the curved surfaces, and I scrabbled helplessly for a hold on the smooth window frame. I’d just started to fall backwards when Molly grabbed me from behind.
“I can carry you in,” she said. “Or you can embrace your dignity, all the way to the ground.”
“Carry me,” I said.
Molly flew me in through the open window. I snatched the lock-breaker at the last moment, and the window swung smoothly shut behind us.
* * *
Inside, it was at least a fair bit warmer, away from the cold wind. Molly placed me carefully on my feet, and I nodded my thanks. A quick look around suggested we’d hit pay dirt first time out. We were inside a massive, sprawling office, packed with every luxury and comfort.
“I love it when a plan comes together,” I said.
“I love it when pure blind luck hands us a free pass,” said Molly. “You really should have left the window open in case we need to make a sudden exit.”
“You’ve done this before,” I said.
“I did have a life, before I met you,” said Molly.
“I know,” I said. “I try not to think about it.”
We both moved cautiously around what I very much hoped was Franklyn Parris’ office, careful to touch nothing. Very plush, very comfortable, thick carpeting, paintings on the walls. But somehow, still impersonal. No character, no individual touches. Just a place to work. Molly studied the paintings carefully, and then sniffed loudly.
“Bought by the yard,” she said. “Ordered out of a catalogue, to look good. No taste, or design. Just there to impress the visitors. And I can tell you for a fact, that Dali there is a fake. I stole the original years ago.”
“That was you?” I said. “I’m impressed. But the paintings are just that little bit too obvious, to hide a safe behind. Keep looking.”
I moved over to the large and impressive office desk, just bursting with all kinds of futuristic tech. I hadn’t even got within arm’s reach when Molly spun round and yelled at me.
“Stop! Don’t move! Don’t even breathe heavily! I’m sensing alarms everywhere!”
I froze where I was. “Have I activated anything? Am I in any danger? Should I start running?”
“You activated a whole bunch of silent alarms and weapons systems just by getting too close to the desk,” said Molly.
“Weapons systems?”
“Relax! I shut them all down the moment I sensed them coming online. They keep trying to turn themselves back on . . . but I think I’ve got control now.”
“Can I move yet?”
“As long as you’re careful,” said Molly. “I don’t trust this office. It’s hiding things from me. . . .”
“This would be so much easier if I still had my armour,” I said.
“You don’t need your armour,” said Molly. “You’ve got me.”
She strode over to the desk while I was still unclenching my muscles, and kicked it a few times, thoughtfully. She sank into the very comfortable swivel chair, bounced up and down a few times, and then spun round and round in it, laughing happily. Two steel clamps sprang out of the chair’s arms, and snapped around her wrists, holding her in place. I tried not to laugh. Molly spat out a Word, and the metal clamps exploded off her. Molly surged to her feet, turned on the chair, and tore it apart, throwing the pieces every which way. She finally stopped, breathing heavily, and glared at me.
“I have nothing to say,” I said quickly. “Not a word.”
We moved around the office, inspecting everything thoroughly, while being extremely careful not to touch anything. No trace of a hidden safe, or a hidden anything, anywhere. We went back to the desk, and considered it again. Molly gestured at the desk drawers, and they all popped open, one at a time. Molly leaned over, and peered into them. I knelt down, and looked under the desk. And that was when I spotted that one particular square of the fitted carpet that looked just a little bit more worn and used than the others. I gestured to Molly, and she came and knelt down beside me. She frowned at the carpet square, while I wished impatiently for the Sight my armour used to give me. She shook her head quickly.
“No alarms, no sensors, but there’s something off here . . . as though I’m not being allowed to See something.”
I took a cautious hold of the edge of the carpet square, and peeled it back a few inches at a time. We were both tense, ready to jump back at a moment’s notice. And then, finally, with the carpet out of the way, I could see the steel safe set square into the floor. I smiled triumphantly at Molly.
“Beginner’s luck,” she said, loftily.
I examined the safe carefully. Gleaming steel, a high-tech combination lock, very impressive. Molly whistled, impressed.
“That . . . is a Hockler-Strauss safe. Most expensive on the market, most complicated locking system, absolutely no way of opening it without a whole lot of really expensive equipment, which I don’t happen to have with me at the moment.”
I grinned, and held up the Armourer’s lock-breaker. “Never leave home without one. Thank you, Uncle Jack.”
“That’s cheating,” said Molly.
“We’re spies,” I said.
I set the lock-breaker on the steel surface, right next to the combination lock, and the locking system made a number of really upset noises as the numbers spun madly round. There was the sound of inner bolts drawing back, and then the door to the safe clunked open. I grabbed the handle and pulled the door all the way open, leaning it back on the thickly carpeted floor. Molly and I both leaned for
ward eagerly to peer inside. The safe was empty, apart from a single piece of paper. I reached in and took it out.
The note said: Nice try. By opening this safe you have set off a silent alarm that cannot be countermanded or shut down. Better luck in your next reincarnation.
“Oh, shit,” said Molly. “I hate it when they think they have a sense of humour.”
I tossed the paper back into the safe, and slammed the door shut. “Is there really a silent alarm? Can you tell?”
“I can now,” said Molly.
“Run,” I said.
Heavy reinforced steel shutters slammed down, covering all the windows and the only door.
“Run where?” said Molly. “We’re sealed in! Listen . . . can you hear that? Can you hear running feet in the outer corridor, heading our way?”
“No,” I said. “But I’m ready to take your word for it. Can you teleport us out of here? Just as far as the roof?”
“We’re in a major null zone,” said Molly. “It slammed down the moment the alarm went off. I could probably push some minor magics through it, if I really had to, but that’s all. Eddie, we can’t afford to be caught here.”
“I know,” I said.
“I mean, we really can’t afford to be caught and identified, Eddie! They won’t just kill us, they’ll make an example of us!”
“I know!” I said.
“Well, don’t just stand there—think of something!”
“It would be easier to think if you weren’t yelling at me! You know, for an ex-professional burglar, you don’t half panic easily.”
I drew my Colt Repeater, called for heavy-duty incendiary bullets, and opened fire on the shutter covering the window we came in through. And then Molly and I both had to drop to our knees and duck and cover behind the desk, as the blazing bullets ricocheted back at us, unable to penetrate the reinforced shutter. Several small fires started up, as the bullets set fire to some of the furniture and parts of the carpet. And then the sprinklers kicked in, covering the whole office. The fires were put out, and Molly and I got drenched. She glared at me.
“Wonderful. You have actually managed to make the situation worse. I’m soaked!”
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