Gregor ushered them towards what had previously been the back wall, ‘Quickly, this way.’

Amy realised the blinding light was from the headlights of a very non magical looking van parked outside the new hole Gregor had made. It was unclear to her if the van had rammed the wall or if something more complicated had happened. Baron and Thomas staggered towards the new exit but Amy hesitated. Gregor looked down at her and said ‘Hurry Amy, we only have moments.’

Amy didn’t move. She couldn’t stop her hands shaking. So much had happened so quickly, too much for her to process, adrenaline and fear were not bringing the clarity she needed to make good decisions. She realised she wasn’t making decisions anyway, and hadn’t made a decision of her own since the debacle at the pub. She was just a rag doll being thrown from one situation to another with no understanding of what was happening other than the growing realisation that people might be trying to kill her. She didn’t even know why. Gregor’s appearance had the shape and size of a rescue but she knew as little about the Monk as she did about the Department of Health and Aged Care.

‘You’re not with them?’ she asked.

Gregor shook his head. ‘No, they want to do to us what they almost did to you.’

‘What? What were they going to do to us?’ Amy eyed the pile of crows, resisting the obvious implications.

‘I think you know Amy, we don’t have time for this. Whatever you think about us it can’t be worse than this.’

‘Why does everybody think we know anything?! Isn’t it clear we have no idea what is happening?

‘Come on Amy!’ shouted Thomas, he was climbing into the van through a side door, a little recovered from the shock of whatever had just happened. Seeing no better options, but despising her apparent inability to effect this chain of events, Amy forced herself to put one foot in front of the other and climbed into the van. Inside the van Amy saw it had blacked out windows and no seats. Baron and Thomas were already sitting on the floor along with another man. Gregory climbed in and closed the door behind him. The monk climbed into the driver's seat and started a low hum. The front windows were as black and as all the other windows in the van.

‘Why are you humming? Aren’t you going to drive?’ pleaded Thomas. ‘Why are the windows black! This does not feel like a well organised rescue.’

Amy took a look at the other person in the van and for the second time in a minute recognised someone she had not expected to ever see again.

‘You!’ she said. The other man was tall, lanky, had his hands zip tied behind his back, and was wearing a familiar black Pantera t-shirt.

‘You!’ responded Janik, with a look of shock that mirrored Amy’s. ‘Are you the reason for all this?’

Amy, Thomas and Baron shared a series of looks as they each recognised the magician from the mall at slightly different times.

‘I don’t know,’ said Amy. ‘Maybe.’

‘What did you do? You’ve got us on the wrong side of some heavy people.’

‘I don’t know! How do we know it wasn’t you? You’re an actual thief! We didn’t do anything, I don’t know why people are overestimating us so much! Could it be more obvious that we have no idea what we’re doing! So either you did something, or they think we did something and they have no idea what they are doing. So no one knows what anyone is doing, or why we are sitting in a van that is not driving away! Hey! Greg! Are we going or what?’

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The monk stopped humming, muttered ‘We are already gone.’ then resumed his monotone.

That was too much enigmatic nonsense for Amy. ‘Not fast enough. Come on boys.’

She reached for the door and pulled on it. It was locked.

‘No! This is bullshit! You haven’t rescued us! You’ve just abducted us again!’

Baron scurried over to Amy. ‘You think so?’

‘This door is locked from the outside, and look at that bogan from the mall, his hands are bound!’

Baron joined Amy in pulling the door. ‘Help! Open the door!’

Janik rolled his eyes. ‘Calm down you idiots. The government grabbed me, then the monks did, just like you I suspect. My hands are only tied because this is how they were when the monk grabbed me. But this is probably a kind of rescue of sorts. And there’s a good reason why the door is locked.’

Baron continued to pull on the door with Amy but with slightly less violence. ‘Why else would it be locked?’

‘The monk there is dampening everything so you can’t feel it, but I recognise the humming. Open the window and look out.’

Amy and Baron looked at each other. Thomas reached for the window controls and surprisingly the window obediently went down about halfway. He tentatively peeked outside. A confused look crossed over his face, and he pulled himself up, put his head out the window as best he could and looked down. He pulled his head back in the window and opened his mouth but instead of explaining what he saw he just let it hang open silently.

‘What?’ said Amy.

For a moment Thomas just continued to sit there with his mouth open. Then he closed it and reached up and closed the window.

This time when Thomas opened his mouth, words came out. ‘We’re flying.’

Amy and Baron shuffled over to the window and reopened it, all three of them now crowding to look through it. Both Amy and Baron’s mouths fell open exactly as Thomas’ had. They were drifting about five meters above the streets of Kings Cross, slowly making their way towards Potts Point and the harbour, gaining altitude as they went. The people below were so close Amy felt like she could have reached out and touched them, but they paid no attention to the floating van at all. As they gained altitude they could make out more of the city, grids of street lights below, lights from the high rises that crowded around Circular Quay still above them. It was a still night and they were low and slow enough that their passage was absolutely silent. For a moment so were they, lost in the slow moving spectacle of the harbour bridge starting to appear around the corner, and the lights from the city and boats reflected on the still water.

Baron broke the silence first. ‘Why is no one looking? Why can’t they see us?’

‘I don’t know any magic that makes you invisible.’ said Amy.

‘This flying van thing is old magic’ contributed Janik from the floor. ‘People used to travel like this all the time before modern aviation. It’s a really slow, expensive, and inefficient way to travel but I guess it’s better than being murdered. The invisibility thing is …. new but I think I know what they are doing. Can one of you untie me now please?’

‘I don’t think so Pantera man, I like you this way. I don’t trust you any more than I trust the government goons or this weirdo humming in the corner.

‘Mmmmm my name is Gregor mmmmmm’ Gregor intoned from the corner.

‘Yeah we know Greg! But we don’t trust any of you!’ shouted Amy.

Gregor turned his neck to shout at them from the driver's seat. ‘It’s not Greg! It’s Gregor! Name’s are important!’. The van immediately began to drift towards the ground, and Amy and Thomas began shrieking.

‘Gregor!’ shouted Janik, ‘Hum!’

Gregor resumed his low monotone hum and the van resumed its sluggish ascent, leaving the edge of Potts Point and drifting out into the harbour. Greg shuffled to face Amy and Thomas, who looked shaken, it was impossible to tell if it was from embarrassment at their high pitched shrieking or from the shock of plummeting to the ground.

‘Leave him! Levitating an object this size is complex and difficult magic, if you want to survive just shut up and sit down.’

Baron closed the window and all three slumped to the ground.

‘We’re sorry Gregor,’ said Thomas.

Amy kicked him in the thigh, ‘We’re not sorry! He’s kidnapped us! Well he might have. Or he rescued us I guess, possibly.’ She released a long tightly held breath. ‘I’m sorry Gregor. Names are important.’

Gregor continued his low humming.

‘I’m Janik,’ said Janik.

Amy gave Janik a long look. ‘What a stupid name.’