“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?” Analise 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 compass 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 passed 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!” Analise called as the Trinity climbed farther ahead, passing even the SWAT officer Paulson had put in the lead. “God, 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,” Analise 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?” Analise 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, scraps 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,” Analise 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. “Damn 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 basement 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 scraping 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. Analise 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.