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This passageway seemed familiar. It was more utilitarian, less like it was trying to emulate a castle or an old European university. That was where I expected to find the utilities. In a normal business, that’s where the server room and switchboard might be. Actually, those were here, too, but there was an additional utility in a magical company.
We reached a room that said “Power” on the door, and I tried to open it. It didn’t budge, and I saw that it required an access card. I normally had a card that gave me universal access in the building, but I’d left it behind when I’d pretended to quit. I supposed I could always run up to my old office to get it back, but we didn’t have time for that.
Instead, I pounded on the door, shouting, “Open up! This is an emergency!” Surely a system so critical would be manned, especially when we were under attack.
A face appeared in the door’s narrow window. “We’re on lockdown,” the man said. I couldn’t tell if he had a long, skinny face or if the window distorted his shape.
“Yes, I know. There’s a battle in the lobby. That’s why I need you to shut down the enhanced power circuits.”
“Why would I shut it down during a battle?”
“Because the bad guys are using our extra juice, too.”
He whirled away from the door. I didn’t know for sure whether he was turning things down or calling security to report the crazy woman who was demanding that the power be turned off.
“How will we know if it’s working?” Trish asked.
“We won’t notice anything, and it will take a while before it affects anyone else. We’ll just have to go back and see how things are going.”
“We can stay on the safe side of the barrier, though, right?”
“I think that would be a very good idea. This is definitely a case where discretion is the better part of valor.”
“And it keeps them from having to worry about rescuing us.”
“Exactly!” Though I had to admit that I hated watching from the sidelines.
We hurried back to the lobby, not running, but not dawdling, either. We paused on the upper landing to watch. The battle was still raging, but it had scattered. Roger and the skeleton people were still more or less surrounded, though a few creatures had managed to break past the surrounding good guys. The harpies were all over the place, engaging in aerial combat with the gargoyles and a few fairies. I noticed Trix looking like some kind of warrior Tinkerbell, flitting around and blinding harpies with sprays of sparkling dust.
The traitors were grouped at the barrier, shouting in frustration as they stood by helplessly, like football fans watching a game on TV when their team was losing. A couple of gargoyles guarded them, so apparently they’d already been rounded up. I recognized Rocky and Rollo, who weren’t the brightest of Sam’s gargoyle corps, but I didn’t think they’d let their prisoners get away. I allowed myself the tiniest of thrills that Gregor was probably out for good after this.
I focused my attention on the lobby. All the combatants looked rather tired. They were using a lot of energy. I knew from experience that Owen would probably collapse after this, sleep a few hours, wake up and eat everything in sight, then collapse again and sleep for about twelve hours. But was the exhaustion here the regular stress of prolonged magical battle or the effects of a decreased power supply? I wasn’t even sure how big an impact the power would have. New York was on a nexus of power lines, which was why there was such a huge magical population here.
But it did seem like Owen and Merlin were starting to have a bit of an upper hand. Everyone else was more or less evenly matched. A few of the harpies and skeleton creatures had been taken out of the fight and seemed to be magically immobilized. Now they just needed to deal with Roger to shut it all down for good.
Owen finished off the skeleton he was fighting and turned to see Merlin closing in on Roger. He ran to join Merlin. Roger was still utterly calm. You’d never have guessed that he was in a crisis. Only the spark of anger in his eyes, so strong that it was clear from where we were, gave away the fact that he was fighting an all-out battle.
The two MSI wizards got him backed against a wall. Roger shouted for backup, but his creatures couldn’t get away from the MSI people or the former frogs they were dealing with. I noticed that the frogs fought with a rather intense ferocity, and I supposed I could hardly blame them after what they’d been through.
Philip and his brother made an especially good team, and Evelyn had joined them. It was starting to look like the fighting was winding down, that victory was in the cards. But then the creatures began moving whatever fight they were involved in toward Roger, so that soon Merlin and Owen were surrounded by lots of little battles, and every so often, the creatures were able to get in a blast of something at them.
“This looks like it could get real ugly,” Trish remarked, and I had to agree.
“They probably remembered that they won’t get paid if Roger goes down,” I said. “But I think I have an idea.”
“Does this idea involve going down there and running through all that?”
“It does. But you don’t have to come with me.”
“You think I’d let you leave me behind? Come on.”
We headed down the steps to where Rocky and Rollo were. “Hey, Rocky!” I said.
“Katie! How’s it goin’?”
“It’s been better. Can you do a favor for me?”
“Sure thing. What?”
