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 forward 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!”
“Have you got a better idea?” I said, putting the gun away. “Because I’m perfectly willing to listen to one. Can’t you at least turn the sprinklers off?”
“Which part of major null are you having trouble understanding? Do something! The security systems are all putting themselves back online!”
I took out my cell phone and called the Scarlet Lady.
“What do you want?” said the car. “I’m busy having a perfectly lovely time shooting down pigeons.”
“The brown smelly stuff has hit the fan!” I said. “It’s all gone horribly wrong, and we’re trapped inside the penthouse floor. Can you do anything to help?”
“Oh, sure!” said the car. “I still can’t fly you down . . . but, if you can get out a window, there is something I could try. . . .”
“Do it!” I said. “Whatever it is, do it. I’m sure it’s a perfectly reasonable plan, and I love it to death. Now get moving!”
“People are always in such a hurry,” said the car.
I put the phone away, just as Molly’s head came up sharply.
“Weapons systems are back online!”
“Shut them down again!” I said.
“I’m trying!”
Energy guns appeared in the ceiling above us, and beams of sharp dazzling light stabbed down, shooting holes through the furniture. Molly and I threw ourselves underneath the desk, figuring Parris wouldn’t let his defence systems shoot up his special desk. The energy beams got as close as they could, blasting holes through the floor and setting fire to the expensive carpeting. The sprinklers went into overdrive, and then shut down one by one as they ran out of water. That was something.
I reached up around the desk, and attached the lock-breaker to the side of the desk computer. It immediately turned itself on, and the monitor obligingly opened up all its files to me. I cautiously raised my head enough to see what I was doing, found the file responsible for the weapons systems, and shut them down. All the energy beams snapped off. Molly and I emerged cautiously from behind the desk. The air was very still, and smelt strongly of ozone.
“I was almost there,” said Molly.
And then we both looked round, as we heard heavy footsteps outside the office door. They stopped abruptly, there was a pause, and then I could just make out agitated voices arguing about how were they supposed to get in when the lowered shutter had closed off the only door. There then followed a certain amount of arguing and raised voices, over who was going to have to go back and get the cancellation codes to raise the shutters.
I grinned at Molly. “Okay, that buys us some time.”
“To do what?” said Molly. “All right, stop grinning; you’ve had an idea. Show me.”
I hurried over to the shutter covering the window we’d come in through, and slapped the lock-breaker against the window frame. The lock-breaker overrode the locking system, and the shutter rolled up. Fresh sunlight spilled into the room. I opened the window, and looked out. And there was the Scarlet Lady, parked in place next to the window.
“Just enough power left to cling to the wall!” she said cheerfully. “Sort of anti anti-gravity. Don’t ask me to explain, I’m just a car. Get in while it’s still working, whatever it is.”
Molly and I scrambled out through the window. The car opened her doors, I threw myself into the front, and Molly scrambled into the back seat. The doors slammed shut, and I hauled myself sideways into the driving seat.
“Go! Go! Go!” I said.
The Scarlet Lady shot off down the side of the building, as easily as if she was driving down a somewhat bumpy road, accelerating all the way. Floor after floor shot past us, and the ground came flying up towards us.
“Keep going!” Molly yelled from the back. “I’m out of the null, and pumping out Don’t Look At Us! at full volume!”
We roared down the side of the building, the passing windows just a gleaming blur.
“Tell me you’ve got a plan!” I said loudly to the car. “Tell me you’ve got a very specific plan about what to do when we hit the ground! Preferably something that doesn’t involve actually hitting the ground!”
“Of course!” said the Scarlet Lady. “I am known for my plans! Hang on, you’re going to love this!”
And at the very last moment, with the ground leaping up to smash the car right in the radiator grille, the Scarlet Lady’s bonnet rose up and leapt away from the building. She revved her engine for all it was worth, and we flew away from the wall and out onto the road. All four wheels hit hard, and we rocked back and forth before straightening out and heading off down the road.
“Let us all praise self-regenerating power coils!” said the Scarlet Lady, cackling loudly. “And just enough power for a last-minute save!”
I sat slumped in my seat, trying to get my breath back. “I am going to rip off your bumpers and piss in your petrol tank,” I said, eventually.
“Get in line,” Molly said feebly, from the back seat.
“Humans don’t know how to have fun,” said the car.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Mind Games, and Others
The Scarlet Lady drove us back to the hotel. Molly and I sat slumped in our seats, getting our second wind back. A successful mission fills you with pride and adrenalin, and it’s champagne all round and party till dawn. A complete balls-up, on the other hand, takes all the energy out of you, until all you really want to do is go to sleep and forget all about it. Molly and I didn’t have that luxury. The overall mission wasn’t even half over, and we still had the Medium Games ahead of us. Still, even though breaking into Parris’ safe hadn’t provided us with anything useful, I was glad I’d done it. Because it proved I didn’t need Drood armour to act like a field agent. And, that I could still take calculated risks without my armour to protect me. I mentioned this to Molly but she wasn’t in the mood to see the funny side, just yet. She was still glaring at me. I was still pretending not to notice. Of such helpful compromises are successful marriages made. The Scarlet Lady dropped us off outside the main hotel entrance, and we left her to find her own way back to the underground car park.
“There’s enough of my denial field still clinging to you, that no one will notice your return,” said Molly. “In fact, they shouldn’t even have noticed you’ve been gone.”
“Like I care,” said the car. “Anyone down there
even looks at me wrong, I’ll run them over and park on them.”
“I wish you were even a little bit joking,” I said. “The whole point of a secret agent, and their car, is not to be noticed.”
“I do not do the modesty thing,” said the car. “I prefer to intimidate people with my magnificence.”
“Well, that’s one way of putting it,” said Molly.
“I heard that!” said the car. “See you later. If you should happen to get into trouble again . . . feel free not to call me. I shall be terribly busy, indulging in some serious me time.”
And she sped off, revving her engine unnecessarily. Molly and I looked at each other, considered saying many things, and then just gave up and headed for the main entrance. Before we could even venture inside the lobby, Frankie came running out the doors to intercept us. He looked flustered and alarmed and not at all happy. He slammed to a halt before us, paused a moment to get his breath back, and then glared accusingly from me to Molly and then back again.
“Where have you been?” he said, just a bit hysterically. “What have you been doing?”
“You don’t even want to know what we’ve just been through,” I said. “I was there, and I don’t want to know.”
“What are you so upset about, Frankie?” said Molly. “Did one of your bribes run out at an awkward moment?”
“All hell’s breaking loose in the Casino,” said Frankie. “Alarms going off everywhere, more sirens and flashing lights than the civilised mind can cope with, and a general security clampdown. You need to get back in the lobby before they seal off the hotel completely!”
“Then what are you doing keeping us hanging around here?” I said. “Holding us up with unnecessary explanations? Really, Frankie, you are letting the side down. . . .”