Dreams Of The Golden Age Part 27

ANNA quickly located Teddy, sprawled out asleep on the bottom step in the emergency stairwell behind the elevators. When Dr. Mentis psychically knocked out everybody on the ground floor, he really knocked out everybody.

"He should wake up easily. Just shake him a bit," her father said.

"Teddy, wake up, come on, we don't have time for this." It seemed cruel, but she grabbed his chin and shook, and was about to move on to a good solid slap when he groaned and brushed her away.

"Wa.s.sit?" he mumbled.

Lew got to his other side and the two helped him sit up.

"Ow," he said, resting his head in his hands. "What happened?"

"Sorry about the headache," Arthur said, though the faint smile he wore didn't seem very apologetic. "I've never been able to reduce the side effects."

Paulson's men arrested and cleared out the hired thugs. There'd been some argument about what they could be arrested for; they hadn't made any attacks, the building was private property so technically they couldn't be subject to any weapons charges. Paulson decided on obstruction of justice with more charges pending and had them all arrested on principle. Mentis examined a couple of them, but all any of them seemed to know was that they'd been hired to protect the building-not by whom, and not why. So that didn't help much. They knew there were further security measures upstairs, but again they didn't know exactly what.

Anna tried getting Bethy on the headset, but the thing had gone dead. On a hunch, she ran back outside. "Bethy?"

"Anna? Are you there? Can you hear me?"

"The radio went dead inside the building, away from the doors. I don't think I'm going to be able to keep in touch with you." She wouldn't be able to keep in touch with anyone else, either.

"So I really am freaking useless," she muttered.

"No, you're not," Anna said. "Go to the hospital and stay with Grandma, she needs you. Take your cell phone, I'll call when I can."

"Have you found Mom yet?"

"No. But soon, I think." The building was so well defended, Mom had to be here.

Bethy swallowed hard, and her voice trembled. "I love you, Anna."

This was no time to be tearing up; Anna scrubbed her eyes. "I love you, too. I'll call you soon." She hoped she'd call her soon.

They gathered around the elevators and looked up at the ceiling, as if they had X-ray vision and could see through solid matter to better plan their next moves.

"May I suggest that we not take the elevators?" Arthur said.

They started climbing the stairs, along with a handful of Paulson's SWAT team. They almost had an army. The stairs were concrete, and steel railings crawled upward around a tall shaft, a tower that felt simultaneously claustrophobic and expansive. The walls felt like they were closing in, but just a few floors up she could lean over the railing, spit, and watch the glob sail downward forever.

"We still don't know where exactly in the building Celia is, do we?" a.n.a.lise said. They were strung out, curving around to the third landing. Anna didn't know how she felt about Teia and Lew's mom tagging along. But when she thought about Typhoon tagging along-well, that was different.

"Anna," her father said, "can you sense her or are you still blocked?"

She paused, leaned against the railing, and focused that inner, unerring compa.s.s on her mother. Celia still showed as a blank. More than absent. As an afterthought, she tried to find Eliot-and he'd vanished from her awareness as well. Farther up the building was a psychic bubble keeping her locked out. This must be driving her father bananas.

"Nothing," she said with a sigh. "But I think we should start with the thirtieth floor. That's where we scouted before."

Teddy looked at her. "You scouted here already? When?"

"Over the weekend, we had to get some information-"

"What we?" Understanding dawned, and he scowled. "You went out with the Green Gizzard, didn't you? Why didn't you call me? I could have helped- She glared. "Green Gizzard? What does that even mean?"

Paulson snorted suppressed laugher. "We've been calling him the Weasel."

Arthur said, "As in 'Pop Goes the'? That's inspired."

Eliot was going to hate that. Anna had a feeling this was the name that was going to stick. Well, that was what he got for not coming up with his own.

Arthur said, "Captain, what are we likely to find as we move on?"

"Anything. Everything. I don't know. Automatic firing mechanisms, explosives, trapdoors. Think of the worst the old Olympiad faced and ratchet it up a few notches? This is someone who knows your MO after all, to be blocking your power."

"That's what has me worried. Ghost, how do you feel about scouting on a bit more stealthily?"

"What, me? Yeah, sure." Settling a determined frown on his features, Teddy raced ahead and vanished.

Anna resisted shouting after him to slow down and be careful.

They pa.s.sed the sixth landing. Anna really ought to start working out. Teia, Lew, and Sam obviously worked out. They were pulling ahead. Anna probably could have chased after them but found herself lingering near her father.

"Kids, slow down!" a.n.a.lise called as the Trinity climbed farther ahead, pa.s.sing even the SWAT officer Paulson had put in the lead. "G.o.d, to have that kind of energy again."

Arthur held out an arm. "Everyone, stop. Be quiet."

It seemed impossible that the whole crowd of them could be quiet. Anna held her breath, trying to hear what her father obviously listened to, his head tilted, focused.

"It's gas," a.n.a.lise murmured. Anna heard it then, a hissing, as if several helium tanks were filling balloons at once. The sound came from somewhere above them. Her nose started tickling, which might have been her mind playing tricks. She held her breath, just in case, but that would last only so long.

The stairwell started to fill with a pale orange-tinged fog.

"Is that knockout or poison?" a.n.a.lise asked.

"Doesn't matter, we've got to move," Paulson stated, pushing his SWAT guy back down the stairs. "Get out of here, get gas masks-"

Above them, Lew leaned over the railing, his hands outstretched. Somewhere far overhead, a vent grating started rattling. A harsher blowing of air overcame the hissing, and what started as a slight draft quickly swelled to a gale. Anna and the rest of the party hunched over, bracing as the wind carried away dust, debris, sc.r.a.ps of paper all the way from the building's lobby, drawing it spiraling up along the stairs and away. The blast of wind thundered upward for several minutes, carrying the poisonous fog with it. Finally, the wind faded, the air stilled. Teia held on to Lew, who slumped on the railing, drained. But the stairwell was clear, the air fresh. The gas nozzles had stopped hissing, presumably after running empty.

"Wow," a.n.a.lise murmured. Her smile seemed wistful.

That would be only the first of the traps.

Braced against the railing, Paulson was shaking his radio, not getting a signal. "d.a.m.n it. This whole situation is ridiculous. You"-he slapped one of his SWAT guys on the shoulder-"go back downstairs, get the tech guys to shut off power to the whole building. It's probably not even on the grid, so tell them to go into the bas.e.m.e.nt and look for generators. And watch for traps." Paulson sighed, and the wrinkles on his worried brow seemed even deeper. "If I'd known we had a fortress sitting in the middle of the city all this time, I'd have shut it down."

"Save it for later, Captain. Let's keep moving."

"My heart is not going to thank me for this," he muttered.

"If you need to stay-"

"No. I'm fine. Let's go."

About ten floors up, the stairs gave out. One minute Anna stood on solid floor; the next, the floor had dropped, the individual stairs collapsing into a seamless ramp that curved endlessly downward. Letting out a yelp, she rolled a few feet before managing to grab the railing.

The chaos seemed to go on for a long time. Startled shouts echoing, the sc.r.a.ping as one of the SWAT guys, thrown off balance by his gear, tumbled all the way down. Arm wrapped around the railing, clinging, Anna was able to survey the damage. Even the landings had tilted, offering no safe haven on the now impossible stairs. Paulson had slipped down to the next flight before stopping himself; Teia and Lew clung to each other. a.n.a.lise had already been hanging on the railing and managed to stay upright, bracing now to keep from falling. Arthur had stabilized by pushing up against the wall.

"Is everyone all right?" Arthur called. Which was weird-he should have been able to just know, reaching out to them with his mind. Which meant- She looked for Teddy and couldn't find him. Even if he'd been far ahead of the rest of them, even invisible, she should have been able to sense him. But she just couldn't tell. She closed her eyes, and the world became a blank, all her friends and family invisible to her. She opened them again quickly, lest the vertigo of it overtake her. "Dad, I think we're within range of that telepathic block."

"Yes, I'd noticed. This is your chance to think all those terrible thoughts you work so hard to hide when I'm around."

She stared. "I don't think horrible thoughts. Much."

His smile was wry. He was close enough to reach out, brush her cheek. "You had some dust on you," he said.

"Dad, are you scared?"

He thought a moment, looking up the endless turning of stairs to their unknown goal. "I'm cautious. The block shows how close we're getting." He must have seen some look of consternation on her face. "If I stopped to think of it, I would be scared, so we can't stop. We must find your mother. We'll be scared later, all right?"

The trek up the stairwell became a mountain climb, stepping carefully and hoping the soles of their shoes gripped, clinging to the railing and hauling themselves up, hand over hand. Anna's father got in front of her, sandwiching her between him and Paulson, as if that would keep her safer. She glanced up once and spotted Teddy in the lead, looking back to catch her gaze. He offered a grim smile before turning to run ahead and flashing to invisibility.

Paulson got rid of his suit jacket, and damp circles of sweat showed at his armpits. Arthur kept his trench coat on, like it was part of his uniform.

The worst trap came on the twenty-fifth floor, so close to their target Anna had already felt the first flash of elation at impending success. Almost there. They'd find Mom, catch the bad guys, and be home in time for dinner. Never mind that the details still hadn't completely clarified.

This time, Sam stopped them, managing to look anxious even under his mask. The brash fighter had turned into a grim campaigner.

"Hissing again," Sam said. "You guys hear it?"

"More gas?" Arthur said. "I'm starting to smell it, sulfury..."

"Oh, G.o.d," a.n.a.lise said, pure dread in her tone. "That's propane. Something's on fire."

They looked up. A light was coming toward them, yellow flickering to orange, wavering with heat. The sound was like distant jet engines coming on, one by one. With each hiss and flare, a flame shot from a projection on the wall-not part of the girders and bolts in the building's framework as they'd been disguised to appear, but nozzles and ignition systems, shooting out gas, lighting it, filling the stairwell with fireb.a.l.l.s.

Waves of heat roiled toward them, and the paint and drywall were scorching, bubbling. The fire was scouring the stairwell.

"Move," Paulson shouted. "Get to that door, get inside."

Teia was already there, both hands around the doork.n.o.b, yanking on it, rattling it. "Locked!" she called back.

"Teddy!" Anna shouted. "Teddy, ghost through the door and unlock it!"

Lew shouted back, "He went scouting ahead, I don't think he's here!"

Anna cursed. Well, at least he'd be safe from this. Weirdly, she thought of prom. Wondered if he'd ask anyone else, after she was roasted. So simple a trap in the end. They'd be burned to cinders before even reaching the thirtieth floor. She was too stunned to even be afraid.

The lead SWAT guy pushed past the teens to make his way to the door, drew a pistol to fire a shot at the doork.n.o.b, when Paulson yelled, "Do not fire that gun in a roomful of propane, Mitch.e.l.l!"

The guy winced, chagrined, and put his gun away.

Teia said, "Sam, maybe you can blast the door-"

"My lasers have the same problem as the gun!" he said, frustrated. Teia let out a string of curses.

With unnatural calm, Arthur reached up to put a hand on a.n.a.lise's shoulder. The woman flinched away; her eyes were round with terror.

"a.n.a.lise, there are water pipes in the walls, yes? Connected to the sprinkler system. Are they active, and can you reach them?"

"I should have known," she murmured. "I thought, we're in a f.u.c.king building downtown, two miles away from the harbor, Typhoon wouldn't be any d.a.m.n use here anyway. But no."

Arthur repeated, "a.n.a.lise-"

The woman squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head in fierce denial, clinging to the railing with both hands.

The steel rail was starting to get hot.

"Hang on!" Teia shouted. "I got this!" She gripped the rail, her arms braced, her whole body tensed with effort. A trail of leafy frost edged away from her hands, then shot out in speeding, winding patterns of ice around the railing, crawling both up and down. The air grew cold, then it grew colder. The frost reached Anna's hands, but she didn't dare let go. Her breath fogged, and the cold stung her face.

Teia reached up, blasting a sheet of frozen air particles up the center of the stairwell, past the upper landings, toward the oncoming wall of fire. The approaching jets of flame sputtered, and for a moment, Lady Snow had the advantage, sending wave after wave of cold toward the fires, which fought to stay lit, to continue progressing downward like some burning avalanche.

A drizzle began falling down the stairwell, a mist of droplets as Lady Snow's cold met the fire, vaporized, and became rain. The next set of jets lit, and the droplets turned to fog, more frost dripped off the railings, and the heat won out.

Drenched with water, Teia shouted out in frustration. The air was steaming.

Arthur said, commanding, "a.n.a.lise. Typhoon. You must do this."

"I can't!"

"Then we burn."

Anna had never heard her father sound so ... otherworldly. Cruel, that was it. She had to keep reminding herself, this was Dr. Mentis now. The hero thing, it wasn't just a costume you put on and took off. This was what people meant when they called it a persona.

Growling through set teeth, a.n.a.lise turned away and braced against the railing, looking eerily like her daughter when she did. Her back tensed, her shoulders bowed and trembled, as if a great weight settled onto them.

Anna had crept closer to Arthur, who somehow found her hand and gripped it.

The rain began to fall in earnest. What had been a mist turned to drops, then sheets.

The sprinkler system must have been shut down-not surprising, considering the b.o.o.by trap that had been put in place. But the pipes behind the walls still held water, and sprinkler heads still projected into the stairwell, giving the building a semblance of normality.

a.n.a.lise pushed off from the railing to lean against the opposite wall, clawed her fingers as if she would break through the drywall with her bare hands, tipped back her head, unmindful of the water falling on her.

Suddenly, the sprinkler heads burst, and jets of water sprayed out to compete with the blasts of fire. The stairwell filled with falling water. Not just rain, but a powerful waterfall. Water ran in a river down the sloping ramp. The fires sputtered, struggling to keep the gas jets lit, and finally the flames died.

a.n.a.lise fell, and Arthur caught her, leaning her against the wall and murmuring in a comforting tone as the sprinklers and pipes ran dry and the rain stopped.

"I thought it was gone," she said, her eyes shut and head bowed.

"No, you only put it away for a time," Mentis said.