"And the orbiters are in position," Bishop said.

Victoria nodded. "Good."

They were now more prepared to capture Josephine when she did inevitably land. The old model wall bots those orbiters carried probably wouldn't come up. The newer models could still deploy faster and without human interaction, but it was nice to have the alternative. Wherever Josephine landed, whether in open field or a covered building complex, the military would be ready.

Between all options at Victoria's disposal, she couldn't think of a way that Josephine could outwit her. Even with Tan and his erratic flying, Victoria had already won.

...or Victoria just hadn't figured out what they were doing yet. Her mind was admittedly foggy. She glanced over at Willow. The hawk was sound asleep.

She really should do the same. Even if just to lay down for an hour, it would help. Nothing else was going on. Bishop would notify her the moment Josephine's ship started descending, that's if Victoria wasn't already aware through her own constant tracking. More importantly, she couldn't afford to be drowsy.

"I think, Bishop, I might actually turn in for a bit."

"A good choice, Your Majesty. I will watch them. You'll have your phone on you?"

"Yes. Regardless of whether they do something, I want you to wake me in..." She brought up her phone's screen. There was the notification. She vaguely recalled it coming up before. Unlocking her phone, she read the message.

> "Office terrarium 00:12, Nov 13th 2055: Fault detected."

For a second, her mind couldn't make sense of those words. It just puzzled them, even though she recognized it as a warning she'd typed long ago, for a threat she hadn't considered in ages.

She snapped into focus. Her mind was in her office at the tower top. The lights were off, but she still saw the cage. The front was caved in. Marzipan was missing. Who? Who in the hell would have let him free?

The answer came immediately, and as much as she wanted to choke the life out Helena's skinny little neck, this wasn't the time. That notification came almost forty minutes ago. That's a hell of a head start. Where would Sakhr go?

Her mind jumped to the conservatory reptile section. One dead tortoise was on the walkway. Several were missing from their enclosure.

Damn it all.

Her mind raced about.

The lobby. The grounds. The shuttle bay. The rooftop. The security suites. The elevators.

...

The elevators.

There they were.

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

"Your Majesty?" Bishop asked. "When should I wake you?"

She spun to Captain Gandara. "Shut down the elevators now."

"In... this building, Your Majesty?"

"Now!"

----------------------------------------

Sakhr and all his fellow escapees were in the elevator sliding down the side of the Capital Tower. It stopped, smoothly and without any jarring, and then nothing. Sibyl pressed buttons. Still nothing.

Winnie's relief was profound. Somewhere, someone had found out. If it wasn't Victoria, she would know soon enough.

"Well, there you go," Alex said. "What twenty more seconds would have gotten us."

Sakhr grunted.

"We should probably get out of the elevator," Christof said.

"Yes. Help me." Sakhr handed Helena to Sibyl and pried at the elevator door. Christof joined, but it wouldn't budge. Quentin shouldered to the button panel and opened a small compartment. He flicked a switch, and the doors popped. Sakhr and Christof easily slid them open.

"Did your power tell you that?" asked Christof.

"No. My rudimentary knowledge of elevators did. How come none of you knew?"

"I don't remember elevators having switches like that."

"All repulse elevators do. How long were you all in tortoises?"

"Long enough," Sakhr's tone ended the conversation. The elevator was stopped midway between two floors. One by one, each climbed out into an office hallway.

Sakhr led them to the stairs. He started heading down.

Christof hesitated. "They're going to have people waiting for us."

"They may, but they won't hurt us. Not in these bodies."

"But they can apprehend us."

"They won't come near me. Victoria knows I'd just swap bodies. Therefore, they can't come near any of us."

Alex spoke. "Perhaps you're forgetting about those hazmat suits they wore when they put us in tortoises in the first place."

"I'm not forgetting," Sakhr replied testily, "but we don't have a choice. If we stay here, we will encounter those hazmat suits again, but they only just shut down the elevators. That means they've only now realized we're loose. Our best chance of escaping is if we move right now before she organizes. Now, come along."

He resumed down the stairs. The others followed.

Six floors down, the stairwell ended on floor eight. Sakhr tried the door. It didn't budge.

He turned to Quentin. "Do you know this building? Is there another stairwell?"

"Yeah, but it'll end on this floor too. It's the security floor. Everyone coming and going gets screened here."

"Are the doors normally locked?"

Quentin shrugged. "I don't know. I never used the stairs before, but I wouldn't think so. Seems like a fire hazard."

"Can we can break this down?"

Quentin's eyebrows raised. "Does it look like you can?"

A mere glance at its steel frame was enough to answer that.

"What about any—"

"Who's there?" a voice yelled through the door.

Sakhr yelled back. "This is Princess Helena. Is this door supposed to be locked?" His accent was less pronounced.

"Tower's just gone into lockdown, Your Highness. I can't let anyone through."

"Why? What's going on?"

"Don't know, but something. You should probably wait upstairs. It'll be over soon."

"But I need to get out now. Surely the lockdown doesn't apply to me."

"Sorry, ma'am, but the lockdown came from the queen herself. Nobody is passing, not even you."

Sakhr glanced at the others. "Is my mother in the building?"

"She's in the security headquarters downstairs."

"Good to know," Sakhr muttered. He looked at the corners of the stairwell ceiling. "Let's assume her eyes are on us through every camera in the building."

Winnie knew Victoria didn't need cameras, but there was no reason to correct them.

"Quentin," he continued, "are you sure there is no other way to the lower floors?"

"Nope. Each security floor has separate stairs and elevators. Everyone goes through the lobbies."

"How many security floors are there?"

Quentin considered. "Just two, I think. This one, and the ground floor one."

Christof spoke. "I remember when we first came here, we landed in some kind of garage on a higher floor."

"The docking bay, yeah. Floor eight. That's why security is on this floor, but now that I think about it, Victoria has a personal bay on the roof."

"Is somebody with you?" said the voice through the door. Everyone ignored it.

"Will there be a ship we can use?"

"Maybe," replied Quentin.

"Then let's go."