by Lori Bond
“In the event of a fire, my lady, a knight would fly you to safety.”
“Awesome,” I said. I tapped my fingers on my teeth for a moment before flicking my hand up, summoning one of Percival’s never-ending mid-room screens. “Percival, show me a floor plan for the Rook.”
It appeared. The great room was easy to find on the map, seeing as it took up most of the floor. There was a stairway from Ginny’s study that led to the master bedroom, and I found my hall with my room and the other seven guest bedrooms. I still did not see a way down to street level. Finally, I gave up. Even though I suspected he would report it to Arthur, I asked Percival how a person got out of this place.
“Besides the elevator I control in the great room,” said Percival, “there is a stairway at the end of the residential hallway.” A blue dot appeared at the end of the hall my room was on. I had studied that wall. There was no sign of a door there. It figured that Arthur had one of the best secret doors I’d ever seen, not that I’d seen many in real life.
“Good,” I said. I flicked my hand again, and the screen disappeared. “Let’s go open it up.”
“As you wish, my lady,” said Percival. “However, I must warn you that Sirs Gareth and Gawain guard the door on the other side. They will not harm you, but they also will not permit you to pass.”
“Awesome,” I said again. “Then how exactly am I supposed to get out of here, Percival?”
“I believe Lord Arthur desires you to stay in the main living quarters of the Rook, my lady.”
“Which is your polite way of saying I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.” My dreams of running away from here were fading fast. I threw myself down on a sofa with my arm across my face. “Is there any place I can go?”
“Lord Arthur did not leave any direct instructions about the terrace.”
I pulled my arm down from over my eyes. “Why Percival, I believe you’re trying to help.”
If a computer had the ability to turn its nose up, Percival would have right then. “I am doing nothing of the sort,” said the AI, his computer-generated voice somehow managing to drip with contempt. He all but sniffed at me in disdain. “I have merely answered your question.”
Bouncing off the couch, I headed for the door leading outside. “Let’s see this terrace.”
I barely controlled my impatience while I waited for Percival to raise the portcullis and lower the drawbridge. Sometimes—pretty much all the time—I felt that Arthur took the whole medieval theme a little too far. Arthur’s home dripped with defensive weaponry, but I seriously doubted that the drawbridge, portcullis, or moat had any defensive value. I said as much to Percival.
“The moat is ornamental,” said Percival.
I wandered the entire terrace. As I had suspected, being out there didn’t bring me any closer to freedom. I was still seventy stories above the street. Even if I had a death wish and wanted to climb down the side of the building, the terrace stuck out from the sides—just like on a real rook chess piece. I would have to somehow climb over the side of the battlements, down a buttress and then inch sixty-eight stories down the sheer side of a building. I wanted to go home, but I didn’t want to go home in a body bag.
In the end, I contented myself with sitting on the drawbridge and dangling my feet above the moat. I should have been depressed about my foiled escape attempt, but with the sun shining down on me, I had a hard time maintaining my anger. After all, it was my fault I hadn’t been able to escape this time. I would plan better for the next time the Keeps left me alone.
“Lady Elaine,” said Percival later. I had no idea how much time had passed while I sat soaking in the sun. “Will Redding is ascending in the elevator.”
“Who?”
“Will Redding of LANCE.”
“Oh.” The calm warmth drained out of me. I pulled my feet onto the drawbridge and stood. “Tell him he can meet me out here.” My righteous anger flared up again. How dare Arthur send a babysitter to look after me. What did he think I would do? Escape?
“I will notify …” Percival’s voice began to trail off.
“Percival?” I asked, but there was no response.
The drawbridge I had been pacing on began to rise—and rise quickly. I was almost pitched off into the moat, but I kept my feet and ran back inside before the door shut.
The entire penthouse was going into some kind of lockdown. Huge metal shutters were flying down over all the exterior windows, and the normal electric power seemed to have shut off. The great room was now lit with creepy emergency lights.
“Percival,” I yelled again. “Percival!”
The AI didn’t respond. Adrenaline flooded my body, but I didn’t know if I should freeze or flee, or even where I should run. I had no idea until that moment just how much I relied on the disembodied computer voice to help me through most moments of my day.
Behind me, the door to the elevator began to push open, as if someone from inside was dragging at it. Somehow I managed to keep from screaming. Instead, I ducked behind the sofa. I was in one of the most heavily fortified and well-armed homes in America, and I had no way to defend myself against whatever was coming out of the elevator.
A pair of hands pulled the elevator doors open. A second later, Will stepped out around the door, just like a cop on a TV show, with his gun out and ready. “Elaine,” he hissed. The room was so silent with no Percival and no background computer noise that even though Will whispered, it seemed as though he had shouted.
“Will?” I stuck my head up above the couch.
“Thank goodness you’re still here. LANCE says there’s a Dreki assault force in the building.” He ran over and ducked behind the couch with me. “Where is the safe room?”
“What?” I was having trouble processing his words. “Dreki? Here?”
“The safe room,” said Will. “Surely Arthur has a half dozen of them built into this place. The room where you go if anything happens,” he added when I still stared back at him, completely dazed.
“My room,” I said. “I’m supposed to go to my room and Percival is supposed to seal me in and send knights. But something’s wrong with Percival and maybe the knights too.”
Will had already stood and was pulling me up with him. “Come on, let’s get to your room. We can probably seal it ourselves, and even if we can’t, it’ll be safer than this huge open space.”
I nodded and turned for my hallway. We had almost reached my room when something that sounded like shots came from the other side of the hidden door at the end. I didn’t stop to wonder or worry about whether the knights there could defend me. I pulled Will into my room and slammed the door shut.
Will fiddled with a keypad by the door that I had never even noticed. For two full days, I had sat here staring at the walls and ceiling of the room, and I had never once realized that the door had a keypad. How on Earth had I seriously thought I could either escape Keep Tower or stay alive once I was out? Had my entire plan been to trust in chance and luck?
No, there hadn’t been a plan. The Dreki would have been able to grab me off the street before I’d made it even a block. The realization of just how stunningly ill-equipped I was for the new realities of my life was more devastating and more frightening than the gun battle that seemed to be happening on the other side of my door.
“Got it,” said Will. Another metal shutter, like the ones in front of the windows, slammed shut over my door. My room had no windows, so we were now in a bunker-like space, completely cut off. Even the noise from the hallway disappeared. Will pulled over my metal desk, scattering pencils, papers, and my drawings all over the floor. He set it on its side and ducked behind it. “Get over here,” he said. “This will give us some cover.”
My desk wasn’t big. It was meant for a single person, and it was one of the old-fashioned kind that had drawers to the floor on either side. For both of us to fit in the space behind the table top, I had to duck down behind Will, as close as possible. He crouched in front of me, his gun ai
med at the door.
Without warning, something exploded outside the room. Will turned and dove over me, using his body to form a cocoon around mine. The building shook, and drywall rained down on us from the ceiling.
“You okay?” asked Will.
Dust covered me, and his chest crushed down on my back, but I wasn’t hurt. “Yeah,” I choked out.
Carefully, Will pulled himself and then me up.
“The door held,” he said.
For a long while nothing else seemed to happen. I helped Will pull the desk all the way over to the far wall. We both got behind it again, but this time, Will didn’t aim at the door. Whatever would come through wouldn’t be stopped by the six bullets in his revolver.
For both of us to fit between the wall and the desk, I had to sit on Will’s lap. In any other situation, I would have found it awkward to sit on the lap of a super-hot guy I’d only met once before. Will had one arm around me. I was curled into as tight a ball as possible with my head burrowed into his chest. In the past when I watched movies, helpless heroines always disgusted me. I wanted the woman to jump up and kick both the hero’s and the villain’s sorry rear ends.
It turns out in real life and death situations, I was more than happy to cede all control over to the person in the room with combat training. The feminist in me didn’t care at all that the person willing to sacrifice his life for mine was male. I thanked every god and goddess in every pantheon that there was someone else in the room willing to defend sorry, helpless, useless me.
“Reboot complete,” said Percival into the silent room. “Initializing.”
Will and I both tensed, but nothing happened.
“Elaine? Princess?” Arthur’s voice came over the speakers into my room. The explosion must have damaged the speakers because his voice kept cutting in and out. “Elaine, it’s okay. I’m here with an entire squad of LANCE paratroopers. The Red Ranger has rounded up the last of the Dreki and is taking them back to a LANCE detention center. You can come out now.”
I looked at Will. “Do you trust that? Do you think it’s Arthur?”
Will shook his head.
“Elaine, come on, sweetheart. I know you’re scared, but it’s safe.”
“Sweetheart?” I muttered. “Now, I’m really not coming out. That doesn’t sound like Arthur at all.”
“Elaine, I’m going to come in since you don’t seem to want to come out. Try not to hurt yourself attempting to stab me with a pencil. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but I’m wearing engineered carbon fiber titanium armor.”
Will and I looked at each other. “That sounds like Arthur,” we both said at the same time. Will gave me a small smile.
The metal shutter over my door retracted, and my door began to open. Will took careful aim, and I peeked over the edge of my desk. Through the dust motes that still clouded my room, Pendragon stepped inside.
The visor on his helmet snapped up, revealing Arthur’s enraged face. I’d never seen him look anything less than impishly cheerful. That his clear fury was directed at us shocked my already shell-shocked system.
“Isn’t this cozy,” Arthur all but raged. He pointed the laser cannon mounted on his right arm at Will’s head. “Get your hands off her.”
Will raised his hands above his head, proving without a doubt that he was not manhandling me.
“Elaine, get away from Baby LANCE, right this moment.”
Although I didn’t appreciate either the tone or the command, I stood up. Arthur was still pointing a cannon at us.
A voice squawked from the earpiece Will wore. I was going to need to do some serious work on my observation skills. I hadn’t noticed that before now either.
After taking a deep breath and looking as though he were about to do the bravest thing of his life, Will stood with me and took hold of my arm.
“I’m afraid she can’t leave me, sir,” he said to Arthur. “Controller Stormfield just ordered me to bring her in to the Institute.”
5
WHERE EVERYTHING AND NOTHING IS EXPLAINED
ARTHUR’S VISOR SLAMMED DOWN, AND HE AIMED THE PULSE CANNON on his other arm at the LANCE paratrooper standing in the doorway. Missiles sprouted up and down his arms and legs.
“Whoa!” I yelled, blocking Will’s body with mine. “Percival, get Ginny on the phone now!”
“Under no circumstances is Elaine leaving this building with you,” said Pendragon.
“No one said I’m going anywhere,” I said. “Percival, where’s Ginny?”
“Dialing now,” said Percival.
“But Controller,” started Will.
“Shut up!” I hissed at him. “I’m trying to save your life. Do you really think you and your men can win against Pendragon? And I’m not even talking about his other ninety-two knights and whatever else he and Percival have cooked up.”
“Hello,” said Ginny. She crackled over my damaged speakers.
“Hi, Ginny? It’s Elaine and Will Redding here. Arthur and LANCE are at a standoff over whether I should go into LANCE custody. It looks like I might get killed in the crossfire.”
“Arthur,” snapped Ginny. “Under no circumstances are you to start a firefight in the middle of the house. I am not living through another round of renovations.”
“Too late, my sweet,” said Arthur. “The Dreki set off a bomb outside Elaine’s room an hour ago.”
“I swear, if you don’t wipe Vortigern off the face of the Earth, I’ll do it for you. That’s the third residence they’ve ruined this year.” Ginny’s voice sputtered and hissed. I couldn’t tell if it was the busted speaker or her indignation.
“Firefight?” I said.
“Yes, Elaine, I remember. Will, I’m less than a half hour out from Keep Tower. Can you see if Controller Stormfield can meet me there, and we can all discuss this in a diplomatic fashion? I agree with Elaine that a firefight would defeat your purpose of taking her in alive.”
I glared at the speaker. I didn’t like sounding so disposable.
Will had nodded and received some kind of instructions through his earpiece. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Controller Stormfield says he would be happy to meet in person to discuss the situation. He too can reach Keep Tower in thirty minutes.”
“Excellent. Arthur, I expect to find Elaine, Will, and all the LANCE agents alive when I get home. Do you understand?”
“Fine.” Pendragon sounded like a sulky child denied the chance to burn ants with a magnifying glass. “But they aren’t taking her without a fight.”
“No one is going anywhere in the next half hour.” Ginny hung up.
“Can we at least get out of this room?” I asked Will and Pendragon. “It’s dusty, and I suspect no one will accidentally blow off my head in a larger space.”
“May I suggest the great room?” asked Percival. “I will begin repairs in this room and the hallway once you vacate them.”
“Excellent idea, Percival.” I pulled my arm out of Will’s hand and joined Pendragon. “Thank you for coming to save me again,” I told him.
Arthur’s visor popped open. He gave me a small smile. He reached around and patted my neck. Something on his armor caught at my skin and stabbed me. I flinched and reached behind me, but I only wiped off a tiny dot of blood. Whatever had caught at me hadn’t been big.
“Don’t worry about all this.” He waved at the LANCE troopers and Will. “No matter where you go, I will always be able to find you.”
For some reason, I found this rather ubër-creepy statement comforting. For the last couple days, I had been nothing but a selfish spoiled brat. I had been behaving like a child, throwing tantrums and sulking instead of helping with my situation. If I had been Arthur, I would have been more than willing to hand me over to LANCE and let me be their problem. I didn’t understand why he was being so protective of me, and I didn’t care. Right then, I was happy he kept rescuing me.
We made it to the great room without anyone discharging a weapon. The paratroopers ar
ranged themselves around the room as if they thought I would hurl myself out of a seventy-story window to evade them. Arthur stomped around in full armor, glaring at everyone in turn.
I pulled Will over to the couch with me. “Sit,” I told him, throwing myself down. We left huge dust streaks all over the thing, but I didn’t care. “Tell me why Arthur is so upset about you taking me in to LANCE.”
“It’s because they want to lock you away in the Tool Shed,” yelled Arthur.
“I’m talking to Will, not you,” I yelled back. “Is that true?” I asked Will.
Will shrugged. “Controller Stormfield thinks you’ll be safest at the Institute.”
I waited for a moment, but neither Arthur nor Will seemed inclined to elaborate. “And what is this Institute or Tool Shed or whatever?” I prompted.
“It’s a secure location for top assets,” said Will. “Our most progressive scientific research and intelligence gathering forces are there, along with some of our more unorthodox agents.”
“It’s a bunker hundreds of miles underground filled with misfit geniuses and people with paranormal powers,” threw in Arthur.
“Then I’m surprised you’re not there,” I snapped back. “We’re trying to have a private conversation.”
“It’s also like being in underground jail. I hope you don’t like the sun, Elaine, because if you go there, you’re never going to see it again.”
“I’m sure that’s an exaggeration,” I said, turning to Will. “Right?”
Will said nothing. He looked down at the revolver in his hand but didn’t answer. That did not seem like a good sign.
I looked around the room. It hadn’t been as affected by the blast, but lamps had been knocked over, and there was a crack arching up through some of the panes of the rose window. Keep Tower wasn’t feeling as secure as it had earlier when I couldn’t find a way out.
“Will,” I leaned over until our heads were almost touching. I looked deep into his eyes, like maybe I could pull a vision up out of them—something that would tell me what I should do. “Be honest. Should I go with LANCE to the Tool Shed?”
