Hecat stood to one side as Klein and Copeland studied the image of the house. Klein drew on his traveling cloak and hat, his musket slung from a shoulder.
“I think we're ready,” said Klein. “Is there anything else we need to know, Hecat?”
“Zus didn't explain his interest other than keeping the clock branching out,” said Hecat. “I think he feels like he can steal a march on the other pantheons if we can solve this and give him the credit.”
“I don't think we're doing anything like that,” said Klein. “Something is wrong with this. I'm not sure what, but I can feel it.”
“The threat is real enough,” said Copeland. “Someone has to do something. It might as well be us. We already know that no one knows, or will do anything. We might as well be the ones to step forward.”
“Once we find the source of this, we're getting rid of it,” said Klein. He gave Hecat a steady stare to see if he would do anything to gainsay his decision.
“I don't have a problem with that,” said Hecat. “I just want to go back to my retirement.”
“How was retirement treating you before this?,” asked Copeland. He started for his car.
“Fairly decently,” said Hecat. “I have a place on the beach where I can be as lazy as I want. I can see four galaxies from my chair. Sometimes I go into town and have a martini and a wonderful dinner.”
“And Zus called you away from all that?,” said Klein.
“The king doesn't have to answer to the peasant,” said Hecat.
“That's what every tyrant says right before they get put up against the wall,” said Copeland.
“Get in the back,” said Klein. “I'm riding shotgun.”
Hecat did as he was told. The front was more likely to get bombarded, so sitting in the back behind Klein and Copeland with their personal defenses was better than not.
He put aside any question of being shot from behind. Copeland's car had some enchantment for speed on it. Anything chasing them would have to be faster than light.
Copeland got behind the wheel and the car roared to life. He turned in the yard and headed into the jungle. His tires caught fire as the car roared across the branches of the tree to their destination.
He pulled to a stop behind a black car parked beside their target. He cut the engine and got out. The air seemed full of energy to him.
“Some kind of agency car,” said Hecat. He stood next to the back door on the passenger side. “Someone else knows about the house.”
“What kind of agency?,” asked Klein. He looked around, musket cradled in his arms.
“Anti-magic,” said Hecat. “We might not have to do anything at all.”
“How many men?,” asked Copeland.
“Maybe two,” said Hecat. He walked around to the trunk. There was a screen to prevent people like him from opening the trunk. It impinged on his awareness enough to make him pull it out of the way so he could open the trunk with a touch of his hand. Empty trays on rollaway shelves greeted him. “They might have tried to go inside already.”
“Hold on,” said Klein. His face went blank as he lit his eyes with white light. He snapped back seconds later. “They're inside. I didn't see where they entered.”
“I'm going to say the front door,” said Copeland. “What does that do to us?”
“Nothing,” said Klein. “We still have to get inside and deal with this. If we come across them, we ask them to side with us to save the universe.”
“If they don't want to do that?,” asked Copeland.
“Then we leave them somewhere out of the way while we conduct our business,” said Klein. “We're not here to kill people. We're here to shut this blockade down.”
“Seems reasonable,” said Copeland.
“Do we try to use the front door too?,” asked Hecat. The wind whispered to him, and he didn't like what it was saying.
“I don't think so,” said Klein. “I think we should try to get through a window on the second floor.”
“I don't think those are windows, Howard,” said Hecat. He glared at the illusion. “But we can get through them. They seem to be a natural weak point.”
“I'm ready if you can break one of them apart so we can enter,” said Klein.
“I got this,” said Copeland. “We just need a touch of fire.”
The wheel man flicked his wrist. A sword of flame sprang into his hand from some other place. He looked up at the false window. He slashed the air with the sword. A blade crashed into the wall, breaking the wood apart, setting the ends of the planks on fire.
“Let's go before it closes back up,” said Klein.
He sprinted for the wall. He grabbed the siding with his hands and pulled himself up the side. He burst through the hole, his musket pointed at the room beyond the sudden door.
“Come on, Copeland,” said Hecat. He pulled his coat around him. “I can get us up there with a lot less physical exertion.”
He pushed down on the air. A rebound lifted him and Copeland up to grab at the closing hole. He made sure that the wheel man got inside before he did. Then he stepped over the threshold.
He wanted to go back to his retirement. Rushing into danger would not get him that.
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“We have to go up,” said Klein. “The source of all this is above us somewhere. Something is clouding my vision.”
“Steps, or elevator?,” asked Copeland. “I don't know if they will take us where we need to go.”
“We should take this staircase and look around at the next floor,” said Hecat. “There should be something up there to point us from there.”
“All right,” said Klein. “Let's see if you are right.”
“I'm always right about direction,” said Hecat. “That's one of the few things I can still do without a problem.”
“I believe you,” said Klein. “Let's go up the staircase and look around.”
Hecat realized the monster hunter wanted him to lead the way. He started up the staircase with his hands in his pockets. He could still protect himself while letting his companions fend for themselves.
On the other hand, Klein could defend himself just as easily as Hecat. He was more than capable of killing anything less than a giant monster with his musket.
And he was capable of killing giant monsters with his other weapons.
Copeland wore the mark of the Enoch. His flame was capable of doing some things that just magic couldn't match. Killing creatures was the least of its uses.
Hecat paused at the top of the staircase. He looked around. Someone had opened a portal from somewhere to the house. Why? He looked around again. He could feel a small amount of danger approaching.
“Something odd just happened,” said Hecat. “We might have stumbled on the security system.”
“We still have to push forward,” said Klein. “We will deal with whatever it is when we see it.”
“I can hear something to our right,” said Copeland. “Sounds like footsteps.”
“We need to go in that direction to reach the next leg,” said Hecat. “Do we fight, or try to go around?”
“Let's see what we might have to face before we decide to try to go around,” said Klein. His eyes glowed as he explored ahead with his mind. “It's dead men.”
“What do you mean dead men?,” asked Copeland.
“Someone has raised an army of dead men and told them to fill the halls,” said Klein. He snapped back to himself. “The room we want is still above us. We will have to fight to reach it, and shut this down.”
“We can go around and try another angle,” said Hecat. “Follow me. We might still have to fight, but hopefully it won't be as many if it's not a full frontal assault.”
“I feel these dead men will chase us,” said Klein. “They have the looks of hounds.”
“Then we'll pick our spot and deal with them when we have the advantage,” said Hecat. He headed down the corridor, sniffing the air as he went. He picked out another staircase and they headed upwards.
“What do you think the real security is going to be like when we reach whatever is controlling this?,” asked Copeland. He trailed behind, eyeing things for ambushes.
An exhalation of flame would make any ambush by an animated object the shortest fight he could make it.
“I don't know,” said Klein. “Someone watching us might have called the dead men in the hopes we would walk into them and be taken by surprise.”
“So we might be waiting on something worse than zombies to appear?,” said Copeland.
“Maybe,” said Klein. “Or they are a distraction to keep us away from the controls by sheer weight of numbers.”
“We'll get to the controls,” said Hecat. He pointed upwards. His finger moved to the left. “Even if the control room is moving.”
“I think we need to go a little bit faster, Hecat,” said Klein. “We don't want to be caught in a fight when we could be dealing with the problem and putting everything to sleep.”
“I could get there in an instant, but that means leaving you two behind on your own,” said Hecat. “I can't bring you with me.”
“I think we can handle things on our own,” said Klein. “And it will be a distraction and a second prong of an attack. And we have yet to meet your agents. They might still be down below us somewhere.”
“All right,” said Hecat. “I'll try to open a guided path for you to follow behind me.”
“Go ahead,” said Copeland. “We can handle any zombies coming up behind us. Stopping this thing from growing out of control has to take the priority.”
Hecat reached out into the aether. He grabbed hold of the lines moving through the structure. He yanked himself across several floors and stepped to a landing outside a massive door. He frowned at the obstacle.
“Where did you come from?,” he asked himself as he looked at the metal monster blocking his path.
He looked around for another path to get around the door in his way. All of the paths led to this blockade, and it refused to honor any magical pulls on its nature. He needed to trick it somehow.
He touched the cool metal with his index finger. He traced the outline of components until he was sure he had a likely solution to the lock. He pressed his hand against the panel. He pulled it away. A series of clacks followed his movement. The lock's lever handle fell down on its own.
That had worked better than he had thought it would.
He grabbed the handle and pulled on the door. It refused to move. He exerted a little energy to warp the air around him. The door slid open under the pressure.
Hecat stepped inside the next chamber, hands in his pockets. He didn't want to doom the universe by touching something without thinking. He felt that Zus had been right. A key had been used to start the house into growing. If he found it and took it away from the house, things might go back to normal.
He wondered who would be ready to stop him from trying to take the key. He hoped it was someone who didn't resort to violence and was agreeable to a little chat about things.
He proceeded down the aisle between the banks of machinery that surrounded him. He didn't bother calling for a surrender. He was too worried about being ambushed while he was trying to find the key.
He had no doubt that someone was in the room with him. He could almost sense the intent to fight, but knew that questions had to be answered first before they started fighting.
If he was recognized, he would be questioned about what the Mountain wanted, and why they had sent him. Zus's transparent veil of deniability would go up in smoke.
“Ah, Hecat,” said a smooth voice. “I should have expected that you would start snooping around.”
“Zus wants to know what you think you are doing,” said Hecat. He looked around but didn't see the other man.
“He would, wouldn't he?,” said the invisible speaker. “I'm afraid that I am not at liberty to divulge what I am doing at the moment.”
“You're obstructing this branch of the tree for sure,” said Hecat. “You're going to have to stop that for sure before you break this part of existence off.”
“I don't think you are in a position to stop me,” said the speaker. “I have been asked to perform a service, and I intend to do that before I take things over and start my own scheme.”
“What does that scheme happen to be?,” asked Hecat. He felt he knew where the voice was coming from in the machine bay. All he needed was a clean shot.
“That would be telling,” said the voice. “You can go back and tell Zus to mind his business. I will talk to him when I'm ready.”
Hecat wondered if the king of the sky would like being dismissed by a madman with a mad plan.
“Let's call him now and you can explain everything,” said Hecat. “Then I can go back to my cabin in the woods.”
He raised his hand as if to connect where he stood with the Mountain. He noticed a glint and dropped down. One of the machines exploded in a shower of sparks. He winced at the smoke and small fire trying to fill the room.
“See what you made me do,” said the voice. “Now I will have to fix that unit to carry out the rest of the plan.”
“No one asked you to shoot at me,” said Hecat. “We could have settled things peacefully and you could have left before my associates arrived to talk to you.”
“I'm not scared of your two mercenaries, or the two agents from the local reality,” said the voice. “They will be dealt with by what I left in the walls for them.”
“I don't think you have anything that can deal with Howard Klein,” said Hecat. “I think you should give peace a chance.”
“I would rather boil a baby,” said the voice, cracking its veneer of patience for the first time. “None of you will stand in my way for long.”