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the gimkrah lies in wait
surrounded by emptiness
deep in the heart of darkness.
“That is indeed annoyingly vague and flowery,” I said. “Plus, now I have ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas’ stuck in my head except with deep in the heart of darkness.”
Jill made a noise in the back of her throat. “Great. Now I do, too!”
“Glad I could share.” I read through it again. The last part sounded like Mzatal during his millennia of walled-off isolation. Alone, with a ruthless heart. “Maybe something will pop for me when I get to Mzatal’s palace.” I folded the paper and stuck it in my front pocket. “Still way more than we had before. Thanks, Giovanni. We’re hoping to leave in twenty minutes, so if you need to do anything before we go, now’s the time.”
He nodded and hurried off to the guest room.
Jill gave me a worried smile. “Be careful and come back in one piece.”
I gave her a cheeky grin. “Will you have macadamia white chocolate chip cookies waiting for me?”
She snorted. “Sure. As soon as you get me macadamia nuts and white chocolate.”
“Damn. How about sugar cookies?”
“You got it. And I won’t even add sardines.”
• • •
As soon as Pellini and I finished double-checking weapons and gear, we bundled Giovanni into the Humvee and headed to the Earthgate. Tandon and Kellum followed us over and went through the security checkpoints with us, then settled in to wait. If it turned out that Giovanni was unable to pass the arcane perimeter around the crystals, my two security guards were ready to scoop him up and get him the hell out of there, hopefully before any DIRT personnel decided to scrutinize our “expert consultant.”
Captain Hornak looked as if he’d rather chew glass than have anything to do with us, but he remained professional and made no attempt to interfere with or question our mission. Hell, maybe he was hoping this jaunt of ours would rid him of a Kara-sized thorn in his side once and for all. Niceties taken care of, my trio proceeded toward the crystal gateway and the invisible arcane barrier that, thus far, very effectively blocked everyone but Pellini and me.
“I propose we each take one of Giovanni’s hands,” I told Pellini as we neared the barrier, “and think super hard about how much we want him to come with us.”
Pellini nodded slowly. “When I was a kid, Kadir showed me how to ‘slide’ through matter in the sparkly dimension. It wasn’t so much about thinking as believing it had already happened. Since this barrier is Kadir’s, his believing method just might work on it.” He took one of Giovanni’s hands, and I took the other. “Maybe do your pygah, and we’ll cruise on through.”
“That’s probably better than my plan of running at it full-tilt while praying for the best, like Platform Nine and Three Quarters.” I grinned as Giovanni gave me a perplexed look. Apparently his download from the current-day flows didn’t include finer details such as Harry Potter. “After this is over, we’ll get you caught up on the current cultural icons,” I promised him.
“Here goes,” Pellini said.
I blew out a breath and reminded myself that Pellini had a close tie with Kadir and was practiced in the believing technique. Tightening my grip on Giovanni’s hand, I relaxed into a pygah and imagined all of us smiling between the crystals. A casual stroll forward . . .
And then we were through the barrier and at the base of the Spires. We cautiously released Giovanni then breathed mutual sighs of relief when he stayed right beside us, clearly unaffected by any aversions or compulsions to leave.
“So far so good,” I said. “Now for the fun part.” Right. Fun. I wiped sweaty palms on my pants. Nothing set a mood quite like the total uncertainty of using an alien teleport gate. I was pretty sure it would take us to Kadir’s realm, but for all I knew we might end up in a galaxy far far away. Or simply disintegrate. “Let’s see if we can fire this puppy up.”
“You have any idea how to work it?” Pellini asked as we stepped between the Spires.
“Nope. I’m implementing Standard Operating Procedure Alpha.”
His mouth twitched. “So we’re winging it.”
“Pretty much.” I set a hand on the crystal to my right. Pellini did the same to the other one.
“I hope I never have to find out what Standard Operating Procedure Beta is,” he muttered.
I laughed, clinging to humor to combat the ohfuckohfuckwhatthefuckamIdoing sproinging around my gut. “Stop your whining and focus,” I ordered with an oh-so-stern glare.
“Yeah, you’ll look like an idiot if you can’t make it work,” Pellini said. “In front of Captain Hardass, no less.”
“Me? What about you? You’re the Kadir expert.”
