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Out in the hallway, the scene was chaotic as employees rushed for the exits. Alarm sirens sounded throughout the building. There was a ripple effect in the hallway, like the portal was breaking down. I didn’t know what would happen to us if we were in the middle when it failed, but we didn’t have much choice. We all made a run for it, sprinting down the hallway. I felt a bit disoriented for a second, like my body was in a suspended state, but then I stepped out on the other side. The others all seemed to be with me. I hadn’t taken a head count, but it didn’t look like anyone was missing. Where the portal had been was now a blank wall.
I wasn’t sure if we had to go through more portals, only that the garage where the car went every day was in Manhattan. We needed to get out before any other portals between us and the exit failed.
The scene in the galleries around the atrium was even more hectic, as all the employees rushed to their changing rooms so they could get their stuff back and get out before the magic holding this enterprise together gave out entirely. Had breaking the magic on Mordred’s lair done this, or did it have something to do with Mordred being taken out of the building?
I led the group to my changing room, fighting my way through the sea of panicked people, so I could at least get my purse. I didn’t know if I’d have a chance to get back here once we left, and I wasn’t leaving my credit cards and keys behind. I also took the opportunity to put on some shoes and grab my coat while Trish and Evelyn ushered everyone through the room and out the door.
The alarm on the wards went off when I tried to leave while still wearing my Collegium gear, but by this time, it didn’t make much difference. The whole place was already in chaos. My group followed me through the room and to the elevators.
There were a couple of limos waiting in the garage. We ran up to one, and the driver rolled the window down. “Out of the car,” I ordered.
“Excuse me?” he asked. A second later, he was a frog. I looked back to see Philip smiling grimly.
“We can restore him later,” he said.
“Can you drive?” I asked him.
“I haven’t yet learned that skill.”
“Trish?”
“I’ve got it. But where are we going?”
“Philip, direct her to MSI. As many of you as can fit, get in.” We proceeded to learn how many former frogs you could fit in the back of a limo. When the car was full, it took off. “The rest of you, with me,” I said.
The driver of the next car I approached was already out of the car and standing with his hands up. “The key’s in the ignition,” he said.
“Thanks!” I replied. “Now, go see to your colleague over there, and you might want to look into other job opportunities.”
I got that car loaded, then slid into the driver’s seat to find Evelyn already sitting in the front passenger seat. “I’m coming with you,” she said.
“Okay. You can be lookout.” I adjusted the seat so that I could reach the pedals and turned the key, starting the car. I could drive, but I’d never driven in New York, so this was going to be a new experience for me. Fortunately, what I drove back home was a pickup truck with a long bed, so maneuvering a limo wouldn’t be that different. I hoped.
We came out of the garage and into something that looked like a service alley, which opened onto a busy street. I paused to check my bearings. Judging by the positions of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, I guessed we were probably not too far from Madison Square. I pulled out into traffic, made it to the next street heading across town, and then turned onto Second Avenue heading downtown. That may not have been the fastest way to go, but it was the way I was more sure of, and the last thing I needed was to get stuck on a highway, unable to get off when I needed to.
It was some of the most nervewracking driving I’d ever done. I was used to driving in the country or in a small town. I might have occasionally braved Austin traffic, which wasn’t pleasant, but that tended to be gridlock on freeways rather than a grid of streets with stoplights on each block, not to mention all the crazed taxi drivers, suicidal bike messengers, and oblivious pedestrians. It was particularly interesting barely moving a block at a time when driving a vehicle that seemed to take up a whole block.
I glanced in the side mirror and saw another black car following me. In this city, that wasn’t unusual. In fact, it seemed like half the cars on the streets were either yellow cabs or black car-service vehicles. But I had a funny feeling about this black car.
I thought for a second about trying evasive maneuvers, but decided not to bother. For one thing, there wasn’t a lot of evading you could do when crawling along in city traffic and stopping at lights. For another, they probably already knew where I was going, so it didn’t matter whether or not I lost them. My only real concern was that they might try to stop me before I could get to the MSI building.
Without taking my eyes off the road, I said to Evelyn, “See if you can find an intercom button or some other way to talk to the back.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her lean forward a
nd examine the dashboard.
“Got it,” she said after a couple of minutes. “What do you want me to say?”
“They’re all magical people, right? See if they can do anything to shield us against the car that’s following us.”
She hit the speaker button and relayed that request. “We’ve got it,” came the reply, “but it would help if you could give us visibility in here.”
Evelyn searched the dashboard again and hit a button. “How’s that?” she asked.
“Great. Now, what about the moon roof?”
She found another button, and I could only imagine the attention we’d get with a person in old-fashioned clothes popping up through the roof of a stretch limo in the middle of city traffic. But hey, as long as it worked. And this was New York, so maybe no one would notice or care.
My hands were white-knuckled on the steering wheel as I tried to maneuver around slower traffic and insert some other cars between us and our follower. I felt a little sorry for all the people in the back of the limo, who probably hadn’t put on seatbelts. Some of them may never have even been in a car before, and this wasn’t the best introduction to the modern world.
