Lae was practically a professional at watching panic form and progress among communities by now, and when she had judged the guard had stewed in his own imagination for long enough, she went over to speak with him.

"Is there an emergency exit somewhere here? In case they ask us all to evacuate?" Lae asked.

"What?" the guard asked, startled.

"I'm new here," Lae said, "remember? I just came here today. I don't know the emergency procedures."

"There's no way out apart from the stairs," the guard said firmly.

"I know that's a lie," Lae said sternly. "That's against building regulations, and a place like the Northern Hotel would not break regulations. It's too great a risk."

"There was an emergency hatch," the guard admitted, "but we sealed it off."

"With what?" Lae asked. The guard shrugged.

"It's over there if you want to take a look," he said, pointing. Lae wandered over. It was a little hard at first to see where the hatch had been, as the cultists had painted over their work to make it blend in, but the bolts where the ladder up to the hatch had been had left holes in the wall, and from the right angle you could see the slight difference in texture. on the ceiling.

"Leonard, give me a boost?" Lae asked.

"Of course," Leonard, joining his arms into a sling. Lae stepped up onto his hands and then his shoulders, and then started scratching off the paint to see what was underneath.

"You'll hurt yourself doing that," Leonard said, looking up at Lae's handiwork.

"I heal quickly," Lae said, shrugging. Leonard tore off some of the buttons from his coat and passed them up to help as scraping tools. Lae worked for a few minutes, then peered up at the sealant she had uncovered.

"I think I've seen this one before," Lae said, prodding the sealant with one of her unbroken fingernails. "We had to do something with it to escape the Thugborn a couple of months ago."

"So you know how to escape?"

"I know how we escaped last time," Lae corrected. "But I don't have perfect pitch, and we don't have any way of freezing the sealant, so I'm not going to be able to replicate what we did back then."

"You could go through the vents instead," Sreta offered, having walked over to see what they were doing.

"What?"

"The vents. We'd all fit through, and they let you keep your buttons, so you can screw the grate off."

"Let's do that, then," Lae decided. "Onwards, Leonard!"

"I've fallen so far in the world," Leonard sighed, and walked them over to the grate, Lae walking her hands across the ceiling to steady them.

"You given up?" called the guard.

"I"m going to get this building up to spec," Lae called back. She looked at the screws, wedged one of Leonard's buttons in the first one, and began to turn.

*

"What's wrong?" the silver ball mocked. "You didn't care about civilians before. Or do you think it matters where they die?"

"Eventually my hand will slip, and you'll all go up," Mindeham said. "Why don't you hand over your prisoners, and I'll leave you alone?"

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"How do I know you'll not kill us all after you've evacuated our guests?"

"How do I know you'll not keep back some of your prisoners?" Mindeham countered. "There has to be some trust between us, or we'll just sit here until I fall asleep."

"Oh, we'll kill you long before that," the silver ball said.

"That will have exactly the same effect," Mindeham said.

"Only we'll have at least gotten our revenge."

"Sure," Mindeham said. "Whatever. But wouldn't it be great if instead, we--"

Lae walked into the lobby.

"I just thought you'd want to know," she said, "that I've evacuated everyone in a ninety metre radius."

"Well, then," Mindeham said, just before the receptionist shot Lae.

"This super sucks," she said, before passing out from the blood loss. Mindeham looked at her collapsed form, then at the others.

"You know, I think I'll let her decide," Mindeham said.

"What?" the silver ball said.

"Give it a minute," Mindeham said. Lae's corpse breathed, and then choked.

"Ugh," she said, standing up. "I hate that." She steadied herself on Mindeham's shoulder.

"I'll leave this up to you," Mindeham said. "They're messing with your station."

"Will they disarm themselves and let themselves be arrested?" Lae asked.

"I don't think so."

"Then kill 'em," Lae said shrugging. The silver ball opened, and a bright green teddy bear jumped out.

"Please!" it said. "Spare my life! If I hadn't made this cult, they were going to strip me down for parts!"

"Manuel," Lae said, "Is this yours?"

"Er..." Mindeham said, staring at the teddy robot. Lae picked it up by the scruff of the neck.

"Tell you what," Lae said to the cultists. "We'll let you live, but we're kidnapping your leader."

"You won't get away with this," the receptionist said.

"Watch us," Lae said, and walked out of the lobby, Mindeham following.

"Thanks for the save," he said.

"I think it's starting to become my job," Lae said, sighing. "You can probably disarm that thing now."

"I forgot to ask the ship how to do that," Mindeham said. "So just in case, I think I'll go over there to get instructions."

"Take this robot with you," Lae said, tucking it underneath Mindeham's arm.

"Where are you going?" Mindeham asked.

"To the police station," Lae said. "My cousin's truck has probably got a parking ticket by now."

"I owe you one," Lae said as she dropped the truck off at Jarad's house.

"And I owe your parents," Jarad said. "Can you try to make it even?"

"I'll try," Lae sighed. "Give me a bit." She waved goodbye, and slightly reluctantly headed to her parents'.

"We'll keep your debt for you," Lae's mother told her sternly, "if you then owe us the price of the screen."

"What is it worth?" Lae asked. Lae's mother told her. Lae blinked.

"Sure," Lae said, getting out her hand computer and transferring the money across.

"I don't want to dip into your savings, dear," her mother said.

"Oh. No, I get a good salary these days."

"Enough to retire back here some day?"

Thinking on it made Lae realise it was something she really didn't want to do. Besides, how could she retire, now that she was cursed never to grow old?

"Have you seen the news?" her father called from the other room. Her mother shook her head.

"Someone's brought Preasi and Mindeham together," she said.

"Wait, what?"

"Oh." Lae's mother looked embarrassed. "It's a superstition from your grandmother's time. If you space certain of the idols together, you get certain effects."

"And Preasi and Mindeham are chaos," Lae said.

"Yes. Preasi causes Mindeham to cause chaos, which she then exploits."

"Good for sales, then," Lae said, laughing nervously. "Look, I'd better get back to my ship, see how my coworker's doing."

"Invite them back for dinner," her father called.

"Yes, dear, that would be wonderful," Lae's mother agreed. "You're practically living with this person, and we'd worry less if we knew what they were like."

"...Sure," Lae said. "I'll ask."