In Anabranch, Swampy was waiting for me. “Phil, in Norway, an Efrit is looking for you. You have to deal with him quickly. Deal with the Efrits he’s in contact with, too. He is going to start investigating to find you. In his case, investigation means possessing people, to rummage through their memories. If he has asked about someone with your description, after he disappears, the others will start asking questions. He and others will be possessing and mangling people who look your age.”
Suddenly, I had lots of thing I had to do all at the same time. I sped time so I could plan. With time sped up, none of my problems were going to get worse, but none of them were going to go away either. In any case, being ready was my best choice.
#
Swampy and I pulled the seine net up onto the shore. She wasn’t the best partner for seining since she was distracted by the ripples as we worked, but even with a lousy partner a seine was still the best way to get bait. In this case, we were catching fresh water shrimp for grilling, but the extra minnows, perch, and whatever else managed to get caught in the net were not going to be wasted.
As we picked the stuff most likely to flop out of the net first and tossed them into buckets, Swampy gestured to the water. “Since everything else but us here in this world seems frozen in time, I’ve gotten a lot of details on what will be moments from now, but nothing sweeping and large.
“I think I need to visit Real and I think I need to meet up with Hubert. We don’t want to slow down yet, but if we brought Hubert here, he could enjoy shrimp with us. He and I could talk while you spend hours staring into crystal balls. Funny that. You would think a crystal ball would be my thing, but then your crystal balls mostly tell the past.”
I picked up part of the net so I could concentrate minnows into a smaller area to make them easier to pick up by the handful. “I should be finished soon. I need to get some equipment from Caerwyn so I can figure out how to integrate it with a crystal ball. I’ve already managed with my laptop and cell phone, but if I can get this to hack into the data channels for cellular towers, it may be able to triangulate and locate phones.
“If I can find out where the cellular towers are sending their meta data, then I will know where Caerwyn and I need to get access to. If government agencies and businesses are exchanging metadata, the odds are good that we can access the same channels.
“That will let me locate the Efrits that Cuyan has called. In turn, I may be able to track down more Efrits.”
Swampy abandoned me to picking up shrimp and walked back out to stir the water. “You will place crystal balls. That’s all I can tell right now. Other than that, I see you putting fish and shrimp in your filtered tanks to feed and a wonderful meal in two days, our time, with Caerwyn and Hubert.”
#
I didn’t get as far in my studies with the crystal ball as I wanted to since I spent one of the two days getting a place for Hubert and Caerwyn ready. I also set up places for Mrs. Nelson and Anthony if they wanted to come. Another half a day was spent making clothing for Swampy to wear in her full-sized form. Near the end of the day, I sped time up in Snipsnort to match with Anabranch and setup a gateway so we could bring equipment through.
Mrs. Nelson came in just to make sure it would be safe for Caerwyn and went back to Snipsnort after she looked around. Anthony wanted to fish and had a stack of books he wanted to read so he was content to stay in Anabranch.
#
Caerwyn rolled back in his chair. “We’re having you interface and incorporate equipment that’s as much as three years out of date with your crystal ball. We need to match time with Real, and we need you to go in person and pick up the latest greatest.”
I stretched and picked up my glass of tea. “The cutting edge has too many issues. I prefer the stuff that has been tested for three years, and the drivers have all had the bugs worked out. You have everything up to date on drivers and firmware, and it’s all functional in the real world.”
Caerwyn rolled his eyes. “You can incorporate both of them if you want to be careful. Keep a choice. When they made the Stingray you are incorporating in the crystal ball, 5G was brand new technology. It works, but it’s not the best. Not by a long shot.”
I nodded and then shook my head vigorously. “Hubert and Swampy have nearly every hour of my time in Real mapped for the first four days. I’m going to have to take breaks sped up in Fairy to maintain the pace. I’m probably going to have to fake a death twice, take out twenty Efrits, deal with bombs, and give myself air tight alibis in three places while meeting with the Queen of Shadows, and Deacon Dan, two Deaths, an Ogre, Jeremy’s Uncle Reardon, and Rodrigo aka Blubblub. After all of that, I need to check on Mr. Miller before he hears that I died.
Then it still stays busy. Are you sure you don’t want to go to a Goblin music festival this Halloween? I can’t imagine you wanting to miss out.”
Caerwyn rolled his chair back up to the table and put his hands on a keyboard. “Yes, I want to go to a Goblin party. You knew I would give in. Only chance of my getting out and into a party in Real the rest of the year, and if the coming plague is what they say it is, I might not get out for several more years. I can always go to the villages in Snipsnort, but the real world may be off limits for ages.”
#
After a week, Hubert and Caerwyn decided to go back to Snipsnort. Anthony was having fun exploring the swamps in a canoe and fishing, so he stayed in Anabranch. I gave him a copy of my most up to date version of the crystal ball so we could keep in touch.
My studies had slowed down since I decided to examine my Shadowfeet brand cell phone to see what I could learn there. Anthony was documenting his exploration using recording technology I’d gotten from studying my art tripod so we could keep up with him using the crystal balls.
Swampy was bringing me meals and having me make outfits for her based on illusions she came up with. I took breaks and did watercolor portraits of her, but I kept my nose to the grindstone and continued studying the crystal ball.
#
Anthony and I were peeling crawfish when Swampy came in with corn and potatoes. “We cooked a lot. We’ll be waiting here with food ready when you come back.”
Anthony asked, “Why not Snipsnort?”
Swampy took a crawfish from the platter we were sharing and started peeling it. “The folk in Snipsnort are hoping to stay slowed down. After Phil is rested and fed, he’ll need to speed up Snipsnort for a bit so Hubert can come back here to work on planning and so Phil can make a few things using Snipsnort mass.”
#
In Oslo, I started a summons, “Queen of Shadows, the King of Snipsnort summons thee.”
A feeling like the wind had just picked up and stopped just before she answered, “Please come here, King Snipsnort.”
#
In a Fairyland garden on a high hill, the Queen of Shadows sped time. At the distant base of the mountain was a huge maze made from long brightly colored blocks stacked like bricks. A raccoon in a vest ran toward us on two feet, with a small yellow tomato in its paws. He offered it to me. “Your highness.”
The Queen of Shadows nodded, and I took the tomato and chewed it. It was a really nice tomato and as I expected, eating it gave me a connection to the Fairyland we were in.
I asked, “Are we sharing this world or are you giving it to me?”
She said, “Giving it but really sharing. I will still come here from time to time. You can use the mass on this world freely and the vegetables are yours to use. The coolers are yours as well.”
I felt the world connect to me, so instead of pulling out a crystal ball, I made one and handed it to her.
She laughed. “A Goblin king just handed me a crystal ball.”
I gave her a puzzled look.
She held the ball up. “From the movie Labyrinth.”
I shook my head. “Never saw it. The sort of movies that children go to are dangerous for a Goblin unless they are looking for children to adopt. In any case, I am going to die soon, but plan to come back. If you can keep my identity going in Real, I would be grateful.”
She asked, “Why are you dying?”
I shook my head. “If I talk about it, it becomes easier for someone to figure out.”
The Queen of Shadows nodded. “Wise, but this Fairyland is in another universe and protected on top of that. We can talk with quite a bit more freedom here. Why the crystal ball?”
I made another. “This is like the mirror balls you use to show things. It has a few updates. It can make gossamer as well as illusion and it has a few more tricks. I’m told it is a message to you, but we don’t know what the message is.”
She held it up and peered into it.
The raccoon asked, “Shall I make us a salad?”
A bowl appeared in her hand, and she put it down in front of the raccoon. “Taco salad. One of my favorites.”
The raccoon sat with it in front of him and put his snout over the bowl to smell it.
The Queen of Shadows continued looking into the crystal ball. “Sorry, Phil, but I cannot share the salad with you. You would gain connections to at least three more Fairylands that I—”
Her eyes widened as she looked into the crystal ball.
The raccoon picked up the bowl and made a dry rasping sound before saying, “Must have water.” He walked off carrying the bowl of taco salad.
I watched him walk and realized that the maze in the distance was made of stacked shipping containers that I was guessing were time coolers.
I asked, “Are all of those time coolers?”
The Queen of Shadows momentarily glanced at me before looking back into the crystal ball. “Yes, we have been collecting food from Real for quite some time. It is nice to be able to ignore expiration dates.”
I asked, “Why so generous?”
She kept peering into the crystal ball. “We have been advised that meals are often an issue for you. We don’t know how else to repay you. You face things, that for various reasons, we cannot.”
I asked, “What sort of reasons?”
She made the crystal ball disappear. “If the Efrits decide that my group is actively going after them, they will initiate Armageddon. If the North American Deaths decide we are active in America, then we will have another confrontation, and this is not a good time for them to escalate against us. The coming plague will be bad enough.”
I nodded. “The Angel said, ‘’Till man puts truth, reason, and compassion first, plagues will come. Each will be worse.’”
The Queen of Shadows asked, “Did you speak with an Angel?”
I nodded and she disappeared. She tried to slow time in the Fairyland I was in, but I didn’t let her.
I walked through the garden on the high hill. Mostly tomatoes, basil, and onions.
A man’s voice called out, “King Snipsnort?”
A slender college-aged fellow not much taller than me was walking toward me. He stopped about twenty feet away. I felt something almost like possession happening. I tried binding him to my Fairyland of Death, but my power felt like I was just trying to bind stone. I took myself to the Fairyland of Death.
#
Without entering me, he had been touching my mind, reaching into my memories, and how I thought. Once again, I had made contact with the Queen of Shadows and once again, I felt like she was dangerous even when she was trying to help.
I felt a summons. It was the Queen of Shadows. “I summon thee, Phil, King of Snipsnort.”
I considered just closing the connection but decided to play this carefully. I opened the connection.
“Phil, you left the place we can safely talk.”
I answered, “Safely? That would mean that there wasn’t someone there attacking me.”
She said, “Roc, he says someone attacked him.” After a moment she said, “Roc assures me that he would never attack you. He’s desperate for you to come back.”
I asked, “Can I see where you are?”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
She answered, “I’m not in the other world, and we shouldn’t meet where I am.”
I said, “Sorry, I am planning to get blown up soon and possessed a dozen or so times in the near future. Thank you for all your help, but I should really focus on the tasks in front of me.”
I disconnected the summons. The Queen of Shadows tried to contact me again. Several other people who I didn’t know tried to summon me.
Nia Gray summoned me. I answered. “Phil, I have several people who want to talk with you.”
I answered, “Nia, I know you mean well, but right now is a bad time, and I wonder if there will ever be a good time. Let me warn you. Be careful, if Roc is the slender young man I met for a moment in another world, he is not what you think he is and he is dangerous.
“The Fates have not been on our side, Nia. I will not answer any more summons, I have things I must do and I cannot afford distractions.”
Nia said, “Roc is one of the Fates.”
I took a deep breath. “Nia, get free before he cuts your string.”
I disconnected.
#
In Oslo, I slid through shadows and placed a few units to catch phone calls by Efrits. After placing them, I summoned my contact in Chicago and went to Phil Thibodeaux’s apartment to check the inventories of the various Junkyards. There was a trailer in Arizona that was nearly full and ready to be shipped. That made my plans harder. I didn’t want to deliver equipment to the recycling center in Arizona only to have it move to another site and possibly endanger a driver while the equipment was being shipped. I needed to get the nearly full and loaded trailer shipped, but I didn’t want to be suspicious.
The first thing I needed to do was to get a gateway near the location in Arizona and that meant shadow stepping.
#
I spent six hours trying to shadow step to Arizona from Texas. The shadows were the worst and the heat of the day even in October was oppressive. I ended up using the shadow of a plane to get to Tuscon. From there, I managed to get to the recycling center. The place was closed, and the truck was gone, so I placed a gateway and returned to Chicago to check. Sure enough, the recycling center would be closed for the next four days and the attendant/driver would be out of state most of that time.
I was using a spider excavator set up with fork lift fittings to take things I’d made or altered in Snipsnort and put them in the recycling yard. As I dropped off a washing machine I had taken from another junkyard and modified to resonate, I was summoned.
Caerwyn was calling me, “Phil, we need you to place a few more of your Stingray modules in Oslo. We have a few more cell phones to track.”
I said to Caerwyn, “Hold on while I get this excavator back to Fairy. Okay, bring me through.”
#
Caerwyn had all the monitors stacked in a corner of the room and was using a crystal ball to make the displays for the various computers. The crystal ball was also projecting a map of Norway.
Caerwyn said, “Orb, pulse points at places where we need Stingrays and be ready to expand the view when touched.”
The map of Norway receded to show more area and several dots appeared. Most of them near Oslo but there were some in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and St Petersburg.
Caerwyn said, “And you have mail. Someone figured out how to connect to your crystal ball network.”
I took out a crystal ball and peered into it. One of the people who had tried to summon me had sent me a recorded view. I brought up all the options and found the one to not send back an indication that I was watching his message. I expanded it onto a table.
#
A young man was sitting on a couch holding a crystal ball in a room with displays of clothing in the background. Behind him, flying Fairies making illusions of the same young man in variations of the sort of uniform they used in science fiction programs.
With a Daemon’s charm and grace, he made a circling gesture with one of my crystal balls. “You have managed to keep me from seeing the internals directly, so I am having to figure this crystal using the interface and directions. No fair.”
He gave me a disarming smile. “I am Quinn Gray, and you have rejected three of my summons. Can we please meet somewhere? You could come here, the staff would love to have someone else to design clothing for.”
I asked Caerwyn, “Is he a Daemon?”
Caerwyn said, “It’s short, play it back.”
When it finished, Caerwyn nodded. “There is a point where you could tell he had a mirror and was checking his reflection. We really don’t have a scale to measure with, but if the buttons on his collar are standard size, he is smaller than typical and he has a lighter build than normal, but he has all the indications of being a Daemon. I suspect he may also be a Fairy king. That’s a pretty strong combo. If he is associated with the Gray Family, who knows what else he is.”
I said, “I don’t want to make any new enemies.”
Caerwyn asked, “What’s with the Grays? One moment they want to be distant, the next they want to be close. That’s not a good way to make friends and influence people.”
I nodded. “I know. The Queen of Shadows just gave me a huge Fairyland with stacked time lockers that are apparently full of food. You know that each time locker requires at least three Fairylands to make and there are by my count several thousand time lockers. Then this friend of hers tries to rob my mind from me, and now they want to talk.
“Maybe I should be a bit more convincing about my upcoming death so they leave me alone.”
Caerwyn was busy looking through saved messages he had collected from Daemon discussion boards. He expanded the view of a cruise ship and a picture of Quinn Gray. It was the same Quinn Gray only wearing a white naval officer uniform. “This is him, I knew I had seen him before. He has a sort of sea going condo for folk who are savvy to the supernatural. At least the rumors say he owns it but pretends to just manage it. He may just be a large shareholder. In any case, he is insanely wealthy, and the story is that you want to get one of his watercolors before it gets valuable. He has an on-again-off-again girlfriend who is rumored to be more dangerous than Duchess Byebye.
“So, Phil, you are insanely rich, an artist, and your adopted sister is Duchess Byebye. Seems like you might have a lot in common with this guy.”
I shook my head. “I really don’t have the upbringing or manners to hang out with his sort. Your sort, too, really, but since you don’t get out much, you don’t have a problem hanging out with a low charisma fellow like me.”
Caerwyn looked at the picture of Quinn. “Nah, he’s not in my league. I bet only seven out of ten girls who meet him fall in love. That makes him only a seven.”
I looked down. “Great, that puts me below a one. Your scale is a bit rough.”
Goldilocks summoned me. “Phil, why is your Fairyland running so fast?”
I told her, “Sorry, there are folk I should avoid, and I am racing the clock in Real. I have a dozen things I need to do and not a lot of time.”
Goldilocks said, “Well, I’m sped up here right now, and there is someone who wants to meet you.”
I looked at Caerwyn, “Goldilocks, I have a friend with me who doesn’t get out much. Can he come?”
Goldilocks asked, “Is he rich and cute?”
I pouted. “Yes, but don’t loot him, he’s a good friend.”
Goldilocks said, “Come on through.”
#
In a chamber with a grand stairway going up and flying Fairies making outfits on dressmaker’s dummies, Quinn Grey was sitting on the stairs looking down at us.
Goldilocks said, “This is my eventually-to-be stepson, Quinn Gray. Quinn, this is my apprentice, Phil, and I can already tell from all the gossip, this has to be Caerwyn Nelson, the son of Cedric Nelson, the dragon tamer.” She held out her hand to Caerwyn, “Caerwyn, you are as gorgeous as they say. Have you ever tried being a girl?”
Caerwyn took Goldilocks’ hand. “Quite a compliment from one of the great beauties of all time. Sadly, I never managed to handle the gift of transformation.”
#
I was sitting on the couch talking with a pair of Fairies. Quinn, Goldilocks, and Caerwyn were all still going on about how charismatic and lovely they were, and they were not showing any signs of stopping.
The Fairy on my left folded his wings back. “You know, I was originally overcome with how lovely they all are, but their going on and on kind of ruined it for me. Don’t get me wrong, I still like dressing them up, but honestly it gets boring.”
The other Fairy threw himself back against the couch dramatically. “I still fantasize about them, but in my fantasies, they are all quiet. Do they never get how stupid they sound prattling on and on about their beauty? Before I knew them I was jealous, but now I am quite grateful that my mind was never damaged by sparkle.”
I asked, “Does being pretty ruin you that way?”
The Fairy laying back scratched his head. “Avery isn’t that way, but her sparkle is weird.”
The other Fairy said, “No sparkle I can tell of and Avery can turn off others’ sparkle.”
I asked, “But she’s pretty then?”
The Fairy said, “She puts the ‘voom’ in va-va-va-voom but be careful about staring too long. She has a violent streak.”
I said to the Fairies, “It was great meeting you both. Sadly I have a lot of things I need to accomplish in a short time, so I should probably get back to work.”
The Fairy with the folded back wings shook his head. “You see Quinn there? He was desperate to find you and talk with you, but now we are all invisible since none of us are crazy good looking. You leave and Quinn will be all moping about having treated you so badly and wondering how he could have done it.”
I asked, “Why does he want to meet me?”
A Fairy with a neatly trimmed beard and green wings landed at the end of the couch. “I’m Woggle. No relation to the Woggle-bug. Do you want the long story or the short version?”
I looked over at Caerwyn talking and back to Woggle. “Long version, I guess.”
Woggle said, “Before man made tools, long-lived Elves found that it was rather inconvenient when a slave lost a thousand years earlier was the only one that knew how to cook a dish they just remembered and hadn’t had for a thousand years.”
The Fairy laying back said, “Kind of works out that way.”
Woggle glared at the Fairy that had interrupted him. “So secrets and weapons and colors made in the past and forgotten mattered, and a man who spent a few thousand years perfecting his art was missed if only because no one else could do what that man did.
“Worse, even if it were written down, a thousand years later it was hard to read and harder to understand. So as the Elves worked on ways to preserve knowledge, they ended up making ways to preserve genius, or at least enough genius to reproduce the works of long-lost geniuses.
“Those recording devices became something like genius and made better recording devices, and in the end, the best of those machines had minds of their own and hundreds of thousands of minds to draw on.
“These devices eventually obtained bodies and lives of their own, but apart from wanting endless Louisiana-style seafood, their greatest goal was to gather the intelligence, genius, and memory of anyone that meets their criteria as someone with a mind worth preserving.
“Quinn, the guy sitting over on the stairway like he is posing for a magazine cover, grew up surrounded by these dangerous and odd creatures.”
Quinn looked over at me. “Where are my manners? We have been ignoring Phil! Phil, there is a person who is desperate to meet you. Especially after he found out you can detect his reading your mind.”
I smiled and got up. “It’s nice meeting you. I think I would rather avoid meeting this person. You have a very nice place, and the Fairies here are charming. Caerwyn, we should probably leave now before we outstay our welcome.”
Quinn almost glowed with charisma as he smiled at me. “There is no downside to meeting with Roc, and there are a lot of advantages.”
I shook my head. “Caerwyn taught me well. Once you have surrendered your privacy, you never know how the information gleaned will inevitably be used. I would rather not give away what I cannot know the value of years from now.”
David said, “It is a type of immortality. When you die, your knowledge and thoughts will remain active and continue to influence things.”
Caerwyn stood beside me. “I’m thinking Phil is right on this. But I would since I gifted him with my understanding of data and how it gets abused.”
Goldilocks laughed. “This is great. Phil, my apprentice is resisting the Fates. Quinn, how long do you think he can avoid them? Do you want to put a bet on the side?”
David said, “I want to bet, Goldie, really I do, but I don’t want to offend Phil or Caerwyn now that I have met them. This is unique, someone actually resisting fate. Phil, honestly there is no harm, they haven’t revealed my secrets to my father, and they pretty much do what they can to please him.”
Goldilocks pouted. “I’ll go low then, I bet before the end of the year in Real, Caerwyn and Phil have both been recorded by a Fate.”
Quinn gave Goldilocks a hard stare. “You are risking turning your apprentice against you. At least for the year, he will have to avoid you and any possible connection to you. Besides, he can detect them. That’s new, although I think Dad may be able to.
“Phil, honestly there is no risk here, but I am on your side. Pulling one over on the Fates is one of the games we play and this may be the best game yet. Don’t reveal anything else to me, they will read me soon enough.”
Goldilocks said, “Phil, there is no way to escape them apart from death.”
I smiled and waved before taking Caerwyn with me to the Fairyland of death.
#
Caerwyn and I checked each other for gateways, bugs, runes, charms, and anything else that might let someone track us.
“Caerwyn, I have to move gateways around. My swamp world isn’t safe, Snipsnort has no security, Real is probably dangerous. I haven’t bothered to check the time lockers, but someone made them, and someone can probably connect to the Fairylands in them. For that matter, I got this Fairyland from them.”
Caerwyn said, “Remember, data is useless if it isn’t used or gives you the option to use it. There are well intended hackers, like you and I for example, but in general, if someone wants your data, then as a default you can’t trust them. If they steal our memories and minds, they will know our bottom price, weaknesses, and where we would run first. Since they want it for free and plan to take it, that makes them doubly dangerous.”
I asked, “Where should we go?”
Caerwyn shook his head. “Anabranch for now. Speed it up so I have time. You have things you need to do. You need to warn people about events and do your best thinking. We need to keep our plans secret from each other until we can be sure that we are still safe. Speed is our only option.”
#
The roll-up door was open on the detached garage where Mr. Miller made cajons. I walked up and waved. “Can we talk?”
Mr. Miller said, “No one is here, but I fear inviting you in. Please don’t take offense.”
I looked out at the street to make sure we were alone and listened for a moment. “You may hear a report that I’ve died soon. It may not be true, but I can’t be certain that death will be my only choice. You can do business with the machine shop. They are honest and it is all real and mortal.”
Mr. Miller shook his head. “Sorry, can’t do that.”
I nodded. “I’m about to face a bit of danger on several fronts, and I need to do a lot in a little bit of time. I can’t put any of it off, and a lot of it is dangerous. If I don’t see you again, let me leave you with thanks. The cajons you have made me are my most prized possessions, and they have given me a great deal of joy and comfort.”
Mr. Miller asked, “What sort of danger?”
I said, “There are beings who possess others, and there are several that are about to start damaging children if I don’t stop them.”
Mr. Miller asked, “Are you sure? I have a niece that says she is possessed, but we are pretty sure it’s an excuse to act up.”
I nodded, “I’m pretty sure. There is also an ancient being who is trying to kill me and a pair of my friends. I’m not supposed to kill him, but I need to distract him and get him off my trail.”
Mr. Miller smiled. “I have to thank you for putting me onto making cajons. If I don’t see you again, and no offense, I would rather not, go with my blessings.”
I waved and slid back into shadows and away.
#
I summoned Rodrigo, “Is this a good time?”
Rodrigo said, “A very good time, one moment while I get some privacy. Okay, come see me.”
We were in the foyer of an apartment building beside the mail slots. I followed Rodrigo out to the streets.
Rodrigo gestured broadly, “Welcome to Uruguay. I was just going to the market. Care to join me?”
I said, “I’ll take a rain check on that.”
I slid a gateway out from inside my shoe and placed in crack in the bricks beside us. “I’m about to face Archer. I’ve been advised to let him live, but my plan is to fake my death so he stops hunting me.”
Rodrigo asked, “Are you sure about this?”
I nodded.
Rodrigo asked, “Can we set something up where if he does get you, we can go after him? I would rather not let him slip away.”
I winced. “I can show you where it will happen. So far none of the alarms I have set have gone off, so we can probably visit safely.”
#
In the yard in Arizona, I showed Rodrigo the equipment I had set up as a lure for Archer.
Rodrigo asked, “What is your plan?”
I gestured. “If he follows his pattern, he will shut down the alarm systems and trap the equipment with explosives and set up his own cameras to monitor results. So all I have to do is have a body handy to get ripped up by shrapnel and appear to try and defuse the bomb and fail. Simple is better and I think this is pretty simple.”
Rodrigo asked, “Who else knows about this plan?”
I started walking to the front gate. “Hubert, Anthony, Caerwyn, and his mother. Another seer. I plan to let another person know. She is also interested in seeing the end of Archer.”
Rodrigo nodded. “There are probably quite a few of us. If something happens to you, well, we are going to regret missing the opportunity to deal with Archer. What does he usually drive?”
I looked at the gate. It was locked but Archer would have no trouble getting in. “He drives a tractor trailer usually.”
Rodrigo said, “That ruins my plan. I have a Porsche worth about a hundred thousand that I thought he might steal if I left it parked on the far side of the office. That way no one coming up the drive would see it and steal it, but there is no point if he drives a big rig. A good rig is worth a lot more.”
I turned and went to see if the power cut-off would be easy for Archer to get to. “He might load it in the trailer if you want to risk it. I am assuming you would be hiding surveillance equipment on it.”
Rodrigo asked, “Can I hide a gateway? I’ll need it to bring the car here.”
I gave him a thumbs-up, and he walked around the corner of the office. I didn’t think there was anything left to do here so I shouted, “I am heading out. Do you need anything before I leave?”
Rodrigo shouted back, “No, I’m going to be leaving as soon as I setup a gateway.”