by Jim C. Hines
I crept to the edge of the truck to look around. Armed guards stood at the entrance of Scot Tower, one human and one sparkler. Barriers blocked several intersections. Soldiers patrolled in small groups along the edge of the roads. They’d turned New Millennium into a military base on lockdown.
‹I’ve made contact with Vince and Charles,› said Talulah. ‹They’re in research. They’ve got a security escort, and their access to New Millennium systems has been restricted to almost nothing.›
‹Give me a direct link to them?›
‹Done.›
‹Vince, Charles, this is Isaac. Has Talulah filled you in on the plan?›
‹Hell, yeah!› exclaimed Vince. ‹Nice to know you’re not dead, Boss!›
‹I’m rather happy about it myself. Before we go any further, I need to make something clear. I’m not your boss anymore, and I won’t order you to do this. You’re free to say no, and you’ll probably be a lot safer if you do.›
‹The hell with that,› spat Charles.
‹What he said,› Vince added a half-second later.
‹We don’t know exactly where they’re working to bring the IAS project online. The code has to be pulled out of several books, then compiled through a program Talulah wrote. Kiyoko can’t run it herself; she needs additional hardware, probably a group of high-speed servers. Talulah’s going to work on finding those servers. Once she does, Lena and Deb will try to physically destroy them. Talulah will do what she can to fry them remotely.›
‹Where are the sirens?› asked Vince.
‹That’s one of several potential flaws with our plan. We don’t know yet. I’m hoping to get to Babs so I can use her security cameras and other Big Brother tech to find them. Talulah should be joining you in research shortly. She’ll help take out your babysitters. Your job is to keep her safe and give her time to get into the network.›
I took out the potions Jeneta had created from H. G. Wells. “Don’t try to run or move too quickly. Magic gives us some leeway from friction, but this potion isn’t as forgiving as some. If you push it, you’ll burn your clothes and skin right off.”
“How long do those last?” asked Deb.
“Maybe twenty minutes, subjectively speaking. Only a second or two will have passed in real time.”
“Stay away from any guards wearing those magic dampers,” said Talulah. “Minimum safe distance is about three feet before they interfere with your mojo.”
“Invisibility?” suggested Deb.
Talulah answered before I could. “It would block us from cameras and mundane vision, but it won’t screen our thoughts and emotions, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve set up infrared scanners at the doors.”
“We’ll be moving too fast to see anyway,” I said.
Lena unsheathed Excalibur. “Ready when you are.”
“Everybody remember Newton’s second law.” I handed out the potions. ‹On my count. One . . . two . . . three.›
We walked out from beneath the truck. I put the few remaining drops of potion onto Smudge’s mandibles to bring him into synch with me. I stripped away the magic of Wonderland, restoring all of us to normal size. The guards stood like statues frozen in time.
Talulah set off in a slow jog toward research while I headed for the front doors of Scot Tower. I circled around the guards and applied a gentle kick to the edge of the door. The metal hinges shattered.
Newton’s second law: force equals mass times acceleration. Our mass was unchanged, but our velocity and acceleration had increased enough to inflict unimaginable damage to others, and to ourselves if we weren’t careful.
I slowly pulled the door out of its frame and slipped inside. I circled past armed guards and other New Millennium personnel, being careful to stay out of range of those with magic-dampers. I reached the stairwell and destroyed that door as well.
Moving at this speed was the next best thing to having superpowers. I wondered if you could really run across water like speedsters did in the comics, but that experiment would have to wait. ‹I’m inside Admin. How are you doing, Talulah?›
‹Just got to Franklin Tower. Once I get to my office and jack in, I’ll have to wait for this potion to wear off. I can’t interface with the system at this speed.›
‹Understood.›
I reached the fourth floor, where two men in military uniforms stood outside the outer door to Babs’ office. Both wore magic-dampeners.
I pulled a straw from my back pocket, along with one of the sand-pebbles I’d gathered outside. It had expanded along with me and my clothes, caught up in the wake when I stripped away my shrinking magic.
I approached the first guard and dropped to one knee, careful to stay out of range of those damn pearls. After tucking the pebble into the straw, I lined the end up with the M4 assault rifle gripped in his hands.
This was going to be so cool.
A puff of breath launched the pebble. It shot out, struck the center of the rifle . . . and stopped, suspended in relativistically slow time.
Friction had melted half the straw. I trimmed off the end with a pocketknife and repeated the shot on the next guard’s rifle. I used a second straw to fire pebbles at their holstered sidearms. Once time sped up, the kinetic energy in those tiny pebbles should make a wreck of their weapons. I could already see cracks starting to spread through the metal of the first M4.
As for getting in, I picked a spot on the wall about four feet to the left of the door, away from the guards and their magic-dampers, and kicked.
Cinder blocks crumbled inward. I continued to kick, widening the hole until it was large enough for me to squeeze through. I had to shift a little to the left to avoid one of the steel studs.
I pushed broken cinder blocks and drywall out of the way and crawled through the wall. The outer office—Kiyoko’s office—was empty. The inner door was cracked open.
‹Isaac, I’m in position, ready to plug in and raise hell. Would it be wrong to draw a Sharpie doodle on Charles while I’m waiting for this to wear off?›
‹Yes, it would. Wait, what kind of doodle?› Smudge squirmed in his cage, anxious and glowing red. ‹I’m at Babs’ office. My fire-spider has a bad feeling about this.› I peeked through the doorway. ‹Aw, crap.›
‹What is it?›
Babs was seated at her desk. Russell Potts stood looking over her shoulder at something on the computer screen. Behind them, toward the corner of the room, Kiyoko held a pistol to a seated, handcuffed woman I guessed was Darlene Jackson-Palmer. Her eyes were red, and she wore a magic-damping amulet.
Darlene’s left eye was puffed like a pair of leeches. Blood dripped from her split lower lip. The knuckles of Kiyoko’s left hand were swollen and bloody.
‹Kiyoko’s here. She’s been torturing Darlene Jackson-Palmer to force Babs to cooperate. Darlene’s wearing a magic-damper. I can’t reach them without losing my speed, and I don’t think I could take Kiyoko in a fair fight.› I considered shooting a pebble at Kiyoko’s gun, or at Kiyoko herself, but in either case I risked the gun discharging and killing Darlene. I studied the effects of the pearl more closely. ‹They’ve modified the magic-damper. The effects aren’t radiating out from the pearl. It’s generating a spherical shield. Anything passing through gets nullified, but inside the sphere, Kiyoko’s still hooked up to her clones.›
‹Can you tear it down?›
‹I think—wait, no. Damn, that’s clever. If I’m reading this right, the pearl is held in some kind of stasis. It’s in the process of exploding. That shield is the magical shock wave. If I break it, the physical shock wave kills Darlene, Kiyoko, and possibly everyone else in the room.›
‹Who the hell came up with that?›
‹Babs, probably.› I edged around the desk to see what she’d been working on. ‹Double-crap. They know we’re here.›
‹How?›
‹It looks like they set up a wider perimeter outside New Millennium, an invisible infrared fence or some such, and we tripped it. As
soon as you’re back to normal operating speed, let Bi Wei know she might be getting company.›
Heavy-duty headphones hung around Babs’ neck. Potts clutched a matching pair in one hand. I studied the other windows on Babs’ computer. ‹She’s got a sound-editing program running and a microphone plugged into her system.›
‹Is it IAS?›
‹Doesn’t look like it.›
The audio clip was a jagged graph on the screen, one minute and four seconds long. I sorted through the notes on her desk until I found what looked like a script. ‹It’s voice masking software. They’re prepping a speech, claiming this is retribution from Vanguard, the Porters, and all oppressed creatures who feel it’s time to rise up against humanity.›
‹What are you going to do?›
‹It’s Vegas. I’m going to gamble.› I grabbed a pen and paper from Babs’ desk. The ballpoint immediately tore through the paper. The pencil I tried next simply broke. I found a fine-tip Sharpie that functioned, more or less, at superspeed. It went dry after a single sentence.
“Seriously?” Moving at superspeed, the wicking action couldn’t draw ink to the pen’s tip fast enough. I scrounged through Babs’ desk, then Kiyoko’s in the outer office, gathering more Sharpies. I tucked the finished note into Babs’ hand and turned my attention back to Kiyoko.
Anything within that shield was unaffected. It would only nullify magic passing through the barrier.
I pulled out the compact mirror. Time to try some nonlinear thinking. If the glass had been larger, I could have tried to reach through to take the gun from her hand, but I didn’t have the books I’d need to create another portal.
On the other hand, I might be able to make this one effectively smaller.
I grabbed the Sharpie from Babs’ desk and started blacking out the outer edge of the mirror.
MAGICAL BLAZE IN THE WEST BANK CONTINUES TO SPREAD
In the past twenty-four hours, a fast-growing blaze has destroyed approximately two hundred square miles in the West Bank. Efforts to combat the flames have been ineffective, leading many to believe the fire is magical in nature.
Spokesmen for both the Israeli and Palestinian governments deny responsibility for the blaze, which has destroyed several Israeli settlements and driven more than fifty thousand Palestinians from their homes. Both governments blame the other for igniting a magical war using weapons they couldn’t control.
The flames are centered in the northern part of the West Bank, and have thus far not crossed the Jordan River.
At approximately one a.m. local time, fourteen hours after the start of the fire, Palestinian militants began launching rockets into Israel. The Israeli military has gathered near the border, but appear to be holding back until the path of the flames can be determined.
One Israeli official threatened to refuse to allow Palestinian refugees to cross the border if the attacks continue, saying, “For every rocket that lands on our soil, a hundred Palestinians will die by fire.”
Israel’s Prime Minister was quick to disavow that threat, but did go on to say that the need for increased security would hinder their efforts to help Israeli settlers and Palestinian refugees fleeing the flames.
Many nations are offering aid, equipment, and personnel to assist in fighting the blaze and helping refugees. The Porters have dispatched a libriomancer from Denmark who will attempt to use magic against the fire.
Exact casualty figures are unknown, but official estimates put the death toll as high as five thousand.
BY THE TIME I finished working, the speed potion was beginning to wear off. I stood up, wiped my palms on my vest, locked the door connecting Babs’ office to Kiyoko’s, and waited.
I heard a low click from Babs’ desk. A second followed, then a third as her fingers slowly struck the keys.
Kiyoko turned her head toward me. Out in the hallway, two guards swore as their weapons exploded. I also had the satisfaction of seeing Russell Potts jump so hard he fell on his ass. The desk blocked me from seeing whether my sudden appearance had managed to make him piss himself.
“Hi,” I said brightly. “I’m here to give you the chance to surrender. I figure it’s what the Doctor would do.”
“What doctor?” Potts snapped as he recovered. “Who are you talking about?”
“Doctor Who?” I threw up my hands in exaggerated disgust. “Never mind.”
The gun at Darlene’s head never moved. Kiyoko cocked her head to one side. “I’m sensing an attempted intrusion into our systems. I presume that’s Talulah Polk’s doing? Order her to cease her efforts and surrender herself.”
“So you can kill millions of people? I’m not going to—”
“You can’t bluff me, Isaac Vainio. I’ve been inside your brain. I’ve seen your memories, the way you think, the lines you can and can’t cross. I know you’ve snuck more of your friends in to help cause mischief, and that you’re probably planning another clever quip right now to mask your fear and anger about losing New Millennium.”
“I didn’t lose it,” I muttered. “It was right where I left it.”
She smiled. “I know you more intimately than Lena. I know you’ve touched death before, and that the threat of death won’t make you cooperate. Not your death, at least. But you have a chauvinistic protective streak toward women, one that was compounded by your failures with Jeneta Aboderin.”
‹Found it!› Talulah exclaimed. ‹The IAS is running on a server bank in admin. Lena, Deb, you’re up.›
‹Be careful,› I said. Sweat trickled down the center of my back. My heart was pounding like I’d just run a marathon. I did my best to match Kiyoko’s smile. “When they pulled you out of that book and programmed you, whose idea was it to make you talk so much?”
“You can’t stop this, Isaac,” said Potts.
I pretended to stifle a yawn, then jerked a thumb at Kiyoko. “She’s scary. You’re just embarrassing yourself. You’re strong and tough and evil, sure, but Kiyoko could snap every bone in your body without breaking a sweat. So why don’t you shut up and let the grown-ups talk?”
He scowled and started to respond.
“Isaac’s verbal barbs are how he masks his helplessness,” Kiyoko said. “Engaging him is counterproductive. He won’t assist us until I’ve demonstrated the consequences of refusing, just as I did before.”
I took a step toward her and Darlene.
The gun swung around toward me, and I froze. Kiyoko nodded once, then aimed the barrel back at Darlene.
“Isaac, please,” whispered Babs.
“All right, stop! You win.” I raised my hands and inched closer. To Darlene, I said, “I won’t let her hurt you.”
“I wish it were that easy.” Kiyoko sounded genuinely regretful. “The problem is, you’ve gotten out of similar situations before. It’s given you a sense of invulnerability, an irrational refusal to accept that you might lose. Unfortunately for Ms. Jackson-Palmer, there’s one effective way to shatter that overconfidence.”
She pointed the gun at Darlene’s leg.
Darlene closed her eyes. Potts clenched his teeth.
“No!” Babs stood and reached toward Kiyoko. Electricity surged from one of her rings, only to dissolve when it struck the magic-absorbing field surrounding them.
Kiyoko pulled the trigger. The walls amplified the thunderous crack of the gunshot. Darlene screamed.
Blood darkened Kiyoko’s shirt. She staggered against the wall. The gun slipped from her hand.
“Isaac?” Babs stared at the bullet hole in my vest.
“I’m all right.” I tugged open one of the Velcro pouches on the front of my vest and carefully removed the compact mirror. “The bullet was coming out of my vest, not going in.”
Russell Potts launched himself toward the gun. I started to reach for the magic of Babs’ enchanted rings, but she was quicker. She caught him by the wrist and collar and spun, smacking him face-first into her desk. Power crackled down her arms. Potts doubled over and collapsed to the fl
oor, his body twitching and spasming.
I stripped away the magic binding Kiyoko’s weapon and my mirror. I’d blackened everything but a small circle at the center, roughly the size of the gun barrel. I kept part of my attention on Kiyoko as she slid down the wall. “I opened a portal into the pistol. The bullet went into that portal and came out through this mirror.”
“How?” asked Babs. “Her shield . . .”
“Blocked incoming magic, like your lightning bolt. Gateway doesn’t work like that. It’s not a linear journey. Have you ever read A Wrinkle in Time? It’s like that, just two points bypassing the space in between. The bullet left my mirror and passed through the shield. That would have stripped off any enchantments, but the bullet itself kept going.”
One of the guards pounded the door. They had free run of Kiyoko’s office, thanks to the hole I’d kicked through the outer wall, but I trusted Babs’ security to keep them out of here.
Babs held up the note I’d written. “You’re sure about this?”
“I’m sure, and thank you. There’s no way I could have taken you, Potts, and Kiyoko together.”
Kiyoko was no longer breathing.
Babs freed her sister and carefully removed the shielding pearl from around Darlene’s neck. She dropped it into a padded metal box. The effects disappeared. Babs immediately activated another of her tattoos and used it to heal the worst of Darlene’s injuries.
I crouched next to Potts. “I need to talk to him.”
Babs waved a hand, and his seizures eased. Blood bubbled from his nose. He sat up, his back against the desk, and glared at me. “You’re monsters.”
I stepped to the side, staying out of his reach. “The thing is, I’ve been trying really hard not to be a monster. But if you don’t call this thing off right now? Then yah, I may have to get monstrous.”
“He can’t,” said Babs. “Kiyoko is coordinating things. She’s got one clone with the sirens. I don’t know where they’re being kept. Four others are calibrating the software for the broadcast. She’ll have sent more to find out what happened here, and to deal with us.”