Casino Infernale

CHAPTER SIX Robbery with Attitude

I don’t remember how they got me to the elevators. I remember drifting in and out, sudden flashes of pain, of people and places, and Molly yelling at Frankie to support more of my weight. I remember the taste of blood in my mouth, and light that hurt my one working eye, and voices that seemed to come from far, far away. I was broken. I knew that, but I couldn’t seem to care.

I remember being in the elevator, and Molly crying out with relief as the null lifted and her magics returned. She quickly cast a levitation spell on me so I could hang in mid-air, unsupported. It felt like being carried on the backs of angels. Molly leaned tiredly against the wall of the elevator, getting her strength back. The front of her dress was covered in blood. My blood. Frankie stood at the back of the lift, sulking because Molly had yelled at him. I looked down, and saw blood dripping steadily off me, to form a widening pool beneath my floating feet.

The elevator doors finally opened onto our floor, and Molly quickly floated me out of the elevator and down the corridor to our suite. I settled into the embrace of the levitation spell, like snuggling into bed. It felt good, peaceful, distant . . . far less painful than being hauled around. Any sudden movement meant fresh pain, sudden spikes that jolted me out of my protective daze, waking me up. I didn’t want to wake up. Molly opened the door to our suite and sent me floating in with a wave of her hand. I caught a glimpse of Frankie looking quickly up and down the corridor, to see if anyone was watching, and then he hurried in and locked the door behind him.

Molly lowered me onto the bed as carefully as she could, but I still cried out despite myself. Even the soft and supportive mattress was enough to put pressure on my broken body, and set all my wounds crying out again. Molly sank down onto a chair by the bed. She looked exhausted, and bad as I felt there was still enough of me left to worry about her. A simple levitation spell shouldn’t have taken that much out of her. Frankie dithered at the foot of the bed, hardly able to look at me, as though what he saw disturbed him.

“Should I ring for the hotel doctor?” he said. “I really think I should ring for a doctor. I mean, look at the state he’s in!”

“No doctor,” said Molly. “I can see how bad he is. I’m not blind! But I wouldn’t trust any doctor this hotel might provide. We can’t have anyone knowing how bad he is, and there’s always the chance the doctor might be able to tell who and what he really is. . . . You’d better be right about the surveillance bugs in this place, Frankie, because I am getting really tired of having to talk in circles. Anyway, we don’t need a doctor. I can heal him. As soon as I get my second wind. There’s something wrong here. . . . I think there’s a low-level null working everywhere in this hotel, hidden under the surface. Just enough to make every kind of magic an effort, and slow the players down. Give the Casino an advantage. . . .”

“You can sense that?” Frankie said dubiously.

“I can feel the extra effort involved,” said Molly.

“Can you still heal him?”

“I once brought him back from the shores of death,” said Molly. “This is just damage . . . I can fix damage. Go outside, Frankie, you’re a distraction. Guard the door, warn me if anyone’s coming, and don’t let anyone in unless I tell you otherwise.”

Frankie nodded quickly, and left.

“I thought he’d never go,” I said.

Molly levered herself up out of her chair and leaned over me, her face close to mine. “Hush, sweetie. I didn’t realise you were awake or I’d have put you under with a sleep spell.”

“No,” I said. “Don’t. I’m afraid to sleep. Afraid to let go, in case I don’t wake up again. This is bad, Molly. Really bad. I can feel . . . broken things, grinding together inside me.”

“That little bastard really did a job on you,” said Molly. “Who was he? It looked like he knew you, and you knew him.”

“An old friend,” I said. “And an old enemy. That’s the spy game for you, mostly.”

“I know, sweetie. Now shut the hell up so I can work on you.”

“Yes, doctor,” I said.

“We can play doctors and nurses later,” said Molly, trying to smile. “When you’re all better.”

“Can I be the doctor, for a change?”

“If you’re good.”

She kissed me briefly on the forehead, and then stood back, facing the bed. She frowned intently, her whole face a mask of concentration. She didn’t wave her hands around or chant incantations; most of that stuff is strictly for the rubes. She just gathered her strength, and drew energy from the hidden worlds so she could do what she needed to do. And just like that my body became transparent wherever she looked, so she could See inside me, and See how bad the damage was. The spell must have leaked at the edges, because I could See what she was Seeing.

My left arm was badly broken, in three places, splinters of shattered bone piercing the torn skin. Ribs were broken and shattered, all down one side. Some of them had pierced the lung. I could See great areas of internal bleeding, moving inside me like slow dark tides. Molly looked at my head. I couldn’t See what she Saw, but it must have been really bad, judging by the look on her face. It was actually something of a relief, to know I had good reason to feel this bad.

I was breathing as shallowly as I could, because even the smallest movement hurt so badly I had to fight to keep from crying out, when Molly finished her scan and shut off the spell. She sat down in her chair again. She was crying, silently. Great fat tears, rolling down her cheeks. I wanted to reach out a hand to her, but I couldn’t.

“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t, love, please.”

“Dear God, you’re a mess,” said Molly, sniffing back her tears so she could try to sound professional again. “I can’t believe how much damage you took in that fight. I can’t believe you hung on that long, to take him down.”

“Growing up with my family,” I said, “you learn to take punishment and keep going. I had to kill him, Molly.”

“Hush. . . .”

“I had no choice! He had to die, because he knew who I was, knew me from before. He would have told everyone if I’d let him live.”

“You had no choice,” said Molly. “He would have killed you. And if you hadn’t killed him, I would have. For what he did to you.”

“Can you fix me?” I said. “If there is a null operating here . . .”

“Low level,” said Molly. “I spit on their null. It’ll just make the job that little bit more difficult, that’s all. Means I’ll have to do it the hard way. And I’ll have to put a screen over us, to block out the bugs. Can’t have anyone watching this. Now shut the hell up and let me concentrate.”

“Yes, dear,” I said.

She spoke Words of Power over me, and I could feel her presence growing in the room, eclipsing everything else. I could feel her, as closely as I felt myself. Her mind, her soul, reaching out to me. Linking herself to me. And then she healed me, by taking my injuries into herself. She lay down on the bed beside me, taking my hand in hers, and one by one she took every broken thing inside me . . . and made them hers. I heard the bones in her left arm break, three times, but she never made a sound. My arm was immediately whole again, and I felt the magic course through her, as her bones healed in a moment. She stirred and stiffened on the bed beside me, sweat running off her face as she concentrated, taking my hurts and making them her own, so she could mend them inside herself. Because an injury shared is an injury halved, or at least weakened, and easier to deal with. My pain disappeared as she embraced it, and then rejected it. And she never cried out once. I knew what she was feeling because I’d felt it first, and I could only marvel at her strength.

And her love, that she would put herself through such hell, for me.

It took the best part of an hour to take on all my hurts and damage and put it right. I held her hand as tightly as I could. It was all I could do, all the support I could give her. In the end we lay on the bed together, side by side, still holding hands, staring up at the ceiling, breathing hard with the effort of everything we’d been through. Just . . . luxuriating in the peace and comfort that comes with not hurting any more. I was whole again. I could feel it.

“Well,” Molly said finally, “there went all the extra years of life I won at the roulette wheel. Just burned right through them to power the healing.”

“You’re going to hold that over me for the rest of our lives, aren’t you?” I said.

“Oh, yes,” said Molly. “You’d better believe it. You even miss one birthday and you are a dead man. God, I feel tired.”

“You feel tired?” I said. “I feel like I’ve been to hell and back.”

Molly laughed briefly. “I’ve done that, and it wasn’t as bad.”

We turned and cuddled up against each other. I held her to me, and we lay together on the bed for a long time. Trying to give each other strength, and support.

Eventually, we both sat up and stretched slowly. My joints creaked loudly, but everything seemed to have settled back into place. We rolled off the bed and got to our feet. My side of the bedclothes was soaked in blood. I looked down at my clothes, and there was more there, too. I looked at Molly. Her clothes were stained with blood from where she’d touched me. Molly stripped the sheets off the bed, while I headed for the bathroom. I pulled off my stained clothes as I went, dropping them to the floor. I didn’t want anything to do with them again. I turned on the lights in the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. In the harsh unforgiving light, I looked hard and grim and maybe ten years older. I got in the shower, and hunched under the steaming hot water for as long as I could bear it, before I started soaping the dried blood off my unbroken skin. After a while, Molly got in and joined me.

I’ll say this—Molly’s breasts have never been cleaner than when she showers with me. They positively glisten.

Afterwards, we got dressed in the clothes we’d arrived in. I think we’d both had enough of dressing to the Casino’s standards. Now that we’d seen what the Casino was really like, we just wanted to look like ourselves. We stood together before the full-length mirror and looked ourselves over. We looked . . . pale, but determined. I put an arm across Molly’s bare shoulders, and she slipped an arm round my waist. We both looked like we’d been through the mill, but it would still have been a brave or foolish man who would have gone up against the people I was seeing in the reflection.

“Do you still want to go on with this?” said Molly. “Are the games, and the mission, really worth all this? No one in your family can expect you to put yourself through such punishment. . . .”

“They don’t,” I said. “I do. We’re stopping a war, and saving untold lives. Doing the right thing. It’s always been important to me that now and again I take on a mission with no . . . ambiguities.”

“Doesn’t have to be us,” said Molly. “Doesn’t have to be you. Let somebody else do it, for once. Sir Parsifal would be only too happy to step in and take over.”

“He’d only screw it up,” I said. “He’s honourable. He wouldn’t stand a chance against the kind of tricks they pull here. They’d take him to the cleaners.”

“Then call in someone else from your family!”

“They’re not here, and I am,” I said. “By the time I could bring them up to speed, it would be too late. We can do this, Molly.”

She smiled, and leaned her head on my shoulder. “You always were too ready to take the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

“Someone has to,” I said.

“But what he did to you . . .”

“Just makes me that much more determined to give some of it back,” I said. I wasn’t sure whether I was trying to convince her, or myself. I was strong and sound in body again, but I did wonder . . . whether some important part of me might still be broken. Whether my nerve . . . was everything it should be. Whether I might hesitate in the crunch. I couldn’t have that. So, if the horse throws you, punch it in the head and get right back in the saddle again. And if the world hurts you, take the fight to the world.

“Come on,” I said cheerfully. “Let’s get this show back on the road. Lots to do, and lots of bad people to do it to. Call Frankie back in here.”

Molly laughed, kissed me quickly, and went to the door, while I peered into the mirror and gave myself a stern look. Drood is as Drood does.

Frankie hurried in the moment Molly opened the door, and looked quickly around for me. He seemed openly shocked and taken aback to find me standing easily before him. He looked me up and down, then looked at Molly, and finally settled for a baffled shrug.

“You look better!” he said brightly to me. “Quite amazingly better . . . Just as well, you’ll need to be strong, and I mean in tip-top shape, to go far in the Middle Games. You are ready to dive back into the Games?”

“Hell, yeah,” said Molly. “Are the Games ready for us?”

Frankie winced. “Confidence is good, attitude is better, but overconfidence will get us all killed. In slow and lingering ways. They don’t deal in money in the Middle Games; they deal in souls. You’ve proved yourselves worthy opponents in the Introductory Games, and that buys you entrance. You’ve earned major prestige and enough money that they’ll take you seriously . . . and when they see how you’ve bounced back from the beating you took in the Pit, that will definitely help to impress all the right people, but . . . these are the Middle Games. Only Major Players, now. From this point on, it’s all about how many souls you can bring to the table. And unfortunately, all you have to wager with is Molly’s much-mortgaged soul. You lose that, on the wrong bet, and it’s Games over.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said. “I think it’s time for a change in tactics. I’ve had enough of playing the Casino’s games, by the Casino’s rules. Where they have all the advantages.”

“What do you have in mind?” said Molly. “Does it involve cheating, bad sportsmanship, and gratuitous violence?”

“Remember the little gift my uncle Jack gave us before we left home?” I said. “The thing in two parts? I say we use it to burgle Franklyn Parris’ office, break open his safe, and steal every secret he has.”

“Yes!” said Molly, punching the air. “Oh, Shaman, you always have the best ideas!”

“No! No! No!” said Frankie, waving his hands around frantically, and miming people listening.

“Relax,” said Molly. “I already laid down a spell to garble our words to anyone who might be listening in. As far as any eavesdroppers are concerned, we’re just sitting around singing show tunes.”

“You can’t be sure of that!” said Frankie. “And anyway, it is still a really, really bad idea! The Casino Security people have installed major security devices and weapons throughout the building, but especially on the penthouse floor, and in Parris’ office. We are talking top of the line, best you can buy, magical and scientific defence systems, and any number of really nasty weapons!”

“Such as?” I said, interested.

“I don’t know!” said Frankie. “They’re secret! So secret none of the people I talked to know anything about them! That’s how secret they are! And, they’re backed up by Parris’ personal security men, the Jackson Fifty-five. Remember them? Allowed and indeed actually encouraged to kill, maim, and dismember anyone they encounter who isn’t where they’re supposed to be!”

“Please,” I said. “Remember who you’re talking to. I have broken into places that don’t actually exist, to steal things you can’t even detect with human senses.”

“It’s true,” said Molly. “I haven’t seen them.”

“That was when you had your armour,” said Frankie, still looking around surreptitiously.

“I’m still a Drood,” I said. “A trained field agent.”

“And I’m still me,” said Molly.

“I’m not sure which is scarier,” I said.

Molly beamed at me. “Nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Parris’ safe is bound to contain all kinds of useful information,” I said. “On the players, and the games. More than enough to move the odds in our favour.”

“Cheat codes!” Molly said happily. “Hidden back doors, blackmail information on the other Players, maybe even passwords to circumvent these bloody annoying null zones!”

“The safe,” said Frankie. “If there really is one in Parris’ office, which has never been confirmed, is on the penthouse floor. That’s dozens of stories above us! You’d have to defeat the defensive systems on each floor, one after another, all the way up. Which would take forever! And someone would be bound to notice!”

I looked at Molly. “Burgling the office is what my uncles Jack and James tried, back in the day. They thought it was a good idea.”

“Didn’t work out too well for them, though,” said Molly, judiciously.

“So, I think we’d be better off trying a different approach,” I said. “I say, start at the top. Break in through the roof of the hotel, and access the penthouse floor that way.”

“Brilliant!” said Molly. “How do we get up to the roof?”

“Still working on that,” I said.

“It does have the advantage of never having been tried before, to my knowledge,” said Frankie.

“There you go, then,” I said.

“That doesn’t mean it can be done!” said Frankie.

“Watch us,” said Molly.

“We are, after all, professionals,” I said.

“How are you going to get up to the roof?” Frankie said loudly. “You don’t have your armour to work miracles for you. The elevators are very heavily guarded, so Molly’s magic won’t work. Or were you perhaps planning to revitalise one of the dead Pteranodons, and fly up there?”

“Now you’re just being silly,” I said.

“He may not have his armour,” said Molly, “but he still has me. And the elevators are far too obvious anyway. I could teleport us up there, once I’ve got my strength back. There can’t be a null zone on the roof, or the hotel’s magical protections wouldn’t work there.”

“No,” said Frankie, very patiently, “but there are all kinds of nulls in the hotel, that could confuse your teleport, and send you somewhere else. And even if you could punch through the nulls, there are all sorts of protections in place on the roof, just to detect things like unauthorised teleports! You’d set off more alarms than World War III!”

“Keep the noise down, Frankie,” I said. “I’ve got a headache. And, I have an idea. We need to talk with the Scarlet Lady.”

“Oh, no,” said Frankie, miserably.

We sent Frankie off to do loud and annoying things in public to hold the Casino Security’s attention. Which he actually preferred to having to meet the Scarlet Lady again. Molly and I took the elevator down to the lobby. It played us orchestral versions of old Blue Oyster Cult standards, until Molly blew the speakers out. The moment we stepped out into the lobby, everyone there stopped talking and stopped what they were doing, to stare at me. Many of them openly took a double-take, and there were wide eyes and dropped jaws everywhere I looked. Apparently no one had expected to see me reappear this soon, let alone so manifestly uninjured and undamaged. A few people actually applauded. Others surreptitiously made signs to ward off evil spirits. I smiled easily about me, and headed quickly for the side exit, Molly walking haughtily along beside me. We weren’t in the mood to answer questions. Everyone hastily fell back, to give us plenty of room.

A private elevator on the far side of the lobby gave access to the underground car park. Exactly where Frankie had said it would be. The door said STAFF ONLY, but it opened easily to the access codes Frankie had provided. He really did know everyone on the hotel staff. An excellent example of the advantages to be found in good fellowship and generous bribes. The elevator descended rather longer than I was comfortable with, but eventually opened onto the private car park underneath the hotel. Just a large concrete cavern, with row upon row of parked cars, illuminated by harsh fluorescent overhead lighting. Molly and I had a good look round, before we ventured into the massive cavern.

“Where’s the Security?” said Molly. “I don’t see any Security people down here.”

“Most of these cars can probably look after themselves,” I said. “Frankie assured me there were only a few basic staff here, to raise the alarm if the automatic systems failed.”

“This is a hell of a lot bigger than I expected,” said Molly. “In fact, I would say this cavern is actually bigger than the hotel it’s situated under. Look at all these cars! How are we going to find the Scarlet Lady in the midst of all this?”

She had a point. Parked cars stretched away in every direction. I didn’t even know where to start looking.

“This is probably the result of bigger on the inside than it is on the outside tech,” Molly said wisely. “Pretty much comes as standard in the Nightside these days. It’s the only way they can pack everything in.”

“I do wish you’d keep out of that place,” I said. “You know I don’t approve.”

“That’s why I do it,” said Molly. “And anyway, you know you hate hen nights. Hey! I just noticed—there’s no null zone down here! Not even a low-level one, like in our suite!”

“Presumably because it might disagree with some of the vehicles here,” I said.

“I’ve spotted some basic security cameras,” said Molly. “And spelled them not to notice us. As long as we don’t hang around here too long.”

“Then we’d better get a move on,” I said.

I led the way through the maze of parked cars, being very careful not to touch anything, or even get too close to some of the more arcane vehicles. Depressingly, most of them were just the obvious muscle cars and restored classics. Typical cars of the super-rich and up-themselves celebrities. Overpriced, fancy, bought by people with more money than sense. Or style. A few really old makes that looked like they were held together by only faith and baling wire. And just a few seriously futuristic jobs, floating serenely in their parking spaces as though wheels were beneath them. But given the number of Major Players, there was nothing that really stood out. No pink Rolls Royces, or Black Beauties. And no sign anywhere of the Scarlet Lady.

“Shouldn’t there be chauffeurs lounging around?” I said vaguely. “Waiting to be called to bring the cars to their owners?”

“Hotel Security doesn’t allow other people’s staff to just hang around,” said Molly. “I asked Frankie. All personal staff are holed up in their own rooms till the Games are over. The guests have to believe that everywhere in the hotel is secure, or they wouldn’t come. Look at these cars . . . ugly, Technicolor monstrosities. Nothing here with a touch of character. Nothing worth stealing. Just, Look at me! I’m expensive! I feel like exploding the lot of them. Just on general principles.”

“Let’s finish the mission first,” I said. “You can blow the whole hotel up once we’re finished. I’ll help.”

“It’s good when couples have interests in common,” said Molly.

I dug out my cell phone, and dialled the Scarlet Lady’s private number. Molly looked at me.

“The car has its own number?”

“Of course,” I said. “Comes as standard, when my uncle Jack has worked on a car. Hello? Scarlet Lady! This is your lord and master!”

“You wish,” said the car. “What do you want, big boy?”

“Sound your horn and flash your lights so we can find you,” I said.

“I’m right behind you,” said the car. “I’ve been watching you for ages.”

She blasted her horn, and half a dozen rows down, there she was, the Plymouth Fury herself. Parked in her own little area of open space, with all the other cars packed up tightly together as though they were scared of her. Which was only common sense, really. I hurried over to join her, with Molly bringing up the rear and glancing suspiciously in every direction.

“I’m glad you’ve come down here,” said the car. “It’s so dull! Nothing to do, no one to talk to. Have you tried talking to a car? It’s boring! These cars have no character, and no conversation. And the few hotel staff on duty down here won’t come anywhere near me, after what I did to that uniformed twit who tried to park me.”

“What did you do to him?” I said, resignedly.

The car giggled, a deep, dark, disturbing sound. “He was a real disappointment, in every department. So I chased him round the parking bays a few times and then out the back entrance. Last I saw, he was still running. Teach him to disappoint a lady.”

“What are you, really?” I said.

“I’ll never tell!” said the Scarlet Lady. “An old broad like me needs to keep a few secrets. But you wouldn’t believe some of the things I can do. . . .”

“Can you fly?” I said, bluntly.

“Fly?” said the Scarlet Lady. “What makes you think I can fly? I’m a car!”

“I talked to my uncle Jack,” I said.

“Oh, him.” The car sniffed loudly. “Armourers should be like doctors—sworn to keep confidences. All right, yes, I can fly.”

“Really?” said Molly. “As in, up into the wild blue yonder?”

“Yes! Really!” said the car. “I am marvellous and amazing and can do many things. Though not for long, my power coils aren’t what they used to be.”

“I’m not going to ask,” I said.

“I wouldn’t,” said the car. “It would only upset you.”

“Can you fly us all the way up to the top of the Casino building?” I said.

“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 again . . . 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 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.