Cal leaned against Gwen. He was empty, out of power, with nothing left in his core.

He took Karl’s dark gem and carefully placed it into the pocket of holding in his suit coat, placing it between the rock tumbler and Barb’s file folder he’d pulled out of the secret archive. “Cardi is in the inner sanctum. Wish we had more time to grieve, but we don’t. I’m sorry Daphne, Fullgeers, about your friend.”

Fullgeers hissed, “Vengeance. Vengeance for our fallen comrade. He wasn’t just a friend. He was…family.”

Daphne wailed more, leaking water.

They moved the squeaking IBM tank carrying the surviving breakroom cores over next to Hurricane.

Daphne started out yelling but ended up whispering. “DON’T WORRY! WE’LL PROTECT the goat. We still have some…” and then all they heard was her tap dripping.

Gwen frowned. “Her voice matrix must’ve failed. Mixed blessing there. Watch them both, Fullgeers.”

The coffee machine hissed in fits and spurts and then went blank. The screen showed a frowny face, which turned into an angry face. Then the face nodded.

Both breakroom cores were silenced once more. For all the time that Cal had worked for DUDE, only Karl had been able to talk, and now he was gone.

Cal swallowed down the grief. He could mourn the heroic freezer later. “Helga, do you have any Apothos left in you?”

Helga shrugged. “I might be able to do another Intimidating Roar, but no Demo Day, and no Combat Decoupage. And without Hurricane, my Destructive Charge…isn’t. It won’t do much.”

“Gwen?” Cal asked.

The rogue winced. “I got my wings, and my rope, and enough silverware for a February wedding on Eritrea. Not a June wedding. I have my limits. What about you, Cal?”

“A few spells, but none of my B-Class abilities.” Cal said. “I gave pretty much all of my Apothos to Pinkerton. Plan D.”

Amorfo broke into Cal’s brain.

Cardi and her army ran down through the labyrinth, heading for the central Office of the Worst Co-Worker and the pedestal there.

Amorfo’s child form had managed to turn some of the army to stone—all of the centaurs were rock ponies, including Deisel—but the skeletal students were immune. Cardi had a Makeup Mirror spell that turned the gaze back onto Amorfo, which turned his guardian form into solid rock.

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Cal had to think quickly. He had to slow down Cardi and Courtney somehow. Yes, the Crypt Counselor was still alive and being terrible.

Cal so wanted to bring her down. He still had his Enhanced Conference Call ability he’d not used, and there was still one of statues there, in the labyrinth, right outside the Office of the Worst Co-Worker. Wonder of wonders, it was a statue of Cal, but all heroic and tall and handsome, with perfectly pointed ears and a strong jawline. Yeah, if only.

Cal connected to the statue, and then he found himself holding a pretty good-sized sword, though he didn’t have much experience with that kind of thing. He immediately was overwhelmed by the stifling smell of cologne.

Cal saw Cardi and her troops heading down a hallway down the way. He busted through one cube wall, then another, then another, heading straight for the enemy army. He smashed through the last wall and sprinted right through skeletal students and Mean Ghouls. For being made of stone, he moved pretty well.

A few of the Untreated Undead grabbed for him, but not before he brought that big stone sword down on Courtney Cortisol the Crypt Counselor. He mashed through her knees, and then, when she hit the floor, he crushed her skull with his stone sword.

If nothing else, that psycho therapist—two words—was dead.

Cal turned, brandishing the weapon. “Run! Run from me! Beware the living stone!”

The attack was so sudden, and so violent, that Cardi and her army scattered.

Plan C…as in…creamed corn

The elven accountant deactivated the Enhanced Conference Call and then pulled back to see the entire cubicle maze in the huge cavern of the first floor’s inner sanctum. Near the desk of the Worst Co-Worker the cream corn fountain suddenly erupted, spouting out gushing volcano of creamed corn, tons and tons of creamed corn. That mess splattered the cubicle walls, then covered them, and then began to rise. The mixture of the cologne and the corn wasn’t pleasant.

Cardi had managed to rally her troops, and they were heading back through the maze, heading toward the pedestal, but already Cardi and her crew were having trouble swimming through the lethal liquid vegetable dish.

Cal then remembered something the Dudusa had sent.

Amorfo lost it.

Cal interrupted him.

Before Cal could lay into the Dudusa, the spell failed. They didn’t have the Apothos to keep it going.

Cal gulped. He wanted to wallow in the CBD’s lotion. “We have ten minutes to kill Barb or we’re all dead?”

Gwen laughed. “This really is office work. Same nonsense. Different day. Okay, Cal. Let’s go see which side Pinkerton is on. Maybe Kronke really is a saint.”

Both Gwen and Helga leaned on Cal as they limped across the Acapulco’s scattered gold toward the most important fight of their lives.