WALT’S LIBRARY
BOULDER, CO
10 NOV 2011, 19:14 MST
“If I have seen it...” mused Duncan. “That seems oddly plausible. I feel like I have, but... where? When?”
Ben spread his hands. “I’m afraid that is well outside my area of expertise.”
Duncan glanced around. The bookshelves were all well warded, over and above Ben’s orders to keep them from being touched. The table, however... “May I look at these books?” asked Duncan, gesturing toward the reading table.
“Look at, yes. Touch... I’m afraid not.”
“One can learn much about a book without touchin it directly,” mused Duncan.
“Just so,” replied Ben with a smile.
Duncan turned their full attention on the books, and their magical sight was not blocked as it was with the bookshelf wards. They could sense everything about them, every word. Every place where they had lain open was recorded in tiny creases in the binding.
The first book was Principia Arcana, and seemed old enough to be an early printing. It was even autographed by the author and Duncan paused for a few moments to wonder at it. Isaac Newton himself had penned it.
“I thought Newton wrote Principia Mathematica?”
Ben pointed to a shelf. “We have a first edition of that as well. Clever man. I wish I could have met him, but he was far too busy for a mere printer’s apprentice.”
Duncan raised an eyebrow. “High praise from such a storied thinker as yourself. You’re on my own list of historic figures I’d love to talk to. How much of Ben is in there?”
Ben made a small frown of distaste. “I’d rather not...”
“Sorry I asked. Poor form.”
“Indeed.”
Duncan turned to the other book on the table. “De praestigiis daemonum? I’ve not heard of...” The open page caught their eye, the crystal formations looked all too familiar. “Ghouls. Thanovores, as Walt called them. All sorts of nasties in that tome.”
“Many of the depictions seem fanciful,” agreed Ben. “Yet Walt found its information on Thanovoroes quite accurate.”
Another section of the book had been extensively perused in recent years, Duncan noticed. Mentally reviewing the pages they had scanned brought forth a scowl. “Demons? What did Walt want to know about them?”
“I am afraid I am forbidden from discussing that.”
Duncan studied Ben’s carefully expressionless face. “Different rule. Curious. Thank you, this has been helpful, even if I can’t find my goal directly. However much I’d like to stay and chat, tonight is not the time to tarry.”
“Ah well. I do hype you’ll find time to visit again.”
“I’ll do my best,” replied Duncan with a nod. They stepped back onto the elevator platform, and a touch of magic set it to descending. When it reached the bottom, the door to Mickey’s room opened automatically.
Duncan gave the mouse a cheery wave. “Cute trick with the ‘it’s a trap’ bit.”
Mickey grinned at him cheekily. “Gosh, thanks!”
The far door opened, and Duncan was off like a shot. They left the robot body behind and darted into the sky as a pure crystal once more.
As they hung in the sky over the pretty lights of Boulder, they pondered their next move.
“Duncan!” cried Gwen across their link. “You’re back!”
“Sorry love,” replied Donna. “Walt’s library was superbly shielded. Might be the most private spot on the planet, and who can blame him?”
“Are you okay? I was worried...”
“Is that why you’re currently over Alberta and hugging the US border? Planning a rescue?”
“Of course. Now that you’re safe...”
“I’m not sure we’re out of the weeds, yet,” sighed Donna. “We still need to find the Worldstone, and fix whatever Walt did to it. All while dodging whatever further attempts to stop us will emerge.”
“Did you learn anything helpful at Walt’s place?” asked Gwen.
“There was a message for us, ‘It is hidden in plain sight. If you have seen it, you will know it.’ We;re almost positive we have seen it. But we don’t know where. It would help to know what it looks like. I was able to get a good look at Walt’s copy of Principia Arcana. It has a whole chapter on the Worldspell, but Newton refused to speculate on the source of it, as he had not been able to observe it.”
“Bother. Perhaps something in Wilhelm’s library has more? Bunhill and Henry were supposed to be hunting for that sort of thing, but I know that in his paranoia he’d encrypted his notes.”
“Can you patch us through? I think that’s our best lead.”
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, and some gushing thanks from Bunhill and Henry for everything Donna had done for them, they asked what Bunhill had uncovered.
“We got Wilhelm’s notes back from the cryptography team a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, he used code phrases for many key things, so despite breaking the code we don’t have everything. We think we know Glockenspiel refers to the Worldstone, though. He was not able to locate it, but had favourite references on the nature of the stone. Give us a couple minutes to get to the library and we’ll read them to you.”
Donna drifted lazily in the sky, scanning periodically for threats while they waited. Whatever the General had done, there were no fighters snooping about. The only aircraft they could sense were commercial airliners, racing through the sky on this errand or that. The cargo planes felt different from the passenger liners, they could feel the bright sparks of all the lives in the latter, a few even looking in their direction but unable to see a tiny crystal for all the lights below.
“Okay,” said Bunhill at last. “Here we go. The nature of the enchantments upon the Worldstone would be strongest if it closely resembles the Earth itself. So it should be a sphere.”
“Or an oblate spheroid,” interjected Gwen. “But to most people, that fraction of a percent flattening wouldn’t be noticeable.”
“What would it be made of?” asked Donna, mind abuzz with spheres they might have seen.
“That’s more speculative. One of the references insists that it should be a polished granite sphere. The other claims that a single, perfect crystal would better hold the enchantment.”
“Oh! I have seen it. It was there in a room with millions of dollars worth of gemstones, and of all of them, that one flawless sphere called to me.”
“Where?” asked Bunhill and Gwen at the same moment.
“The Smithsonian Natural History museum. The gem exhibit has the world’s largest quartz sphere. It’s beautiful, and just over a foot across. Talk about security. Anybody who likes can walk right up to it, but touching it is out of the question.”
“Wouldn’t someone have noticed an incredibly powerful artifact in the middle of the most popular museum in the world?” asked Gwen.
“It was in a separate case, undoubtedly warded against detection. But think about it – it’s the anchor of a spell that covers the entire world. You wouldn’t be able to see its aura as a distinct thing, it’s everywhere.”
“OK, if it’s so secure, how would Disney have gotten his hands on it?”
“Old Walt was pretty influential. He practically ran the FBI’s magic division, and trained their best guys. He’d have been able to get a private session with it with the wards down just by asking.”
“And you?” asked Gwen. “How do you drop the wards?”
“Brute force, if I must. Road trip!”
Gwen laughed. “Mr. Faulkner goes to Washington.”
Donna teleported up higher into the atmosphere and poured on thrust. “Time to fix this, then hopefully we can go back to our vacation. Speaking of which, who’s on fantasy duty while you’re out playing hero, Gwen?”
“Ray’s got it covered. No worries.”
*** *** ***
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
10 NOV 2011, 19:41 MST
General Shepard was admiring the newly lit up DEFCON board when one of the soldiers called out, “Target is in motion again.”
“Figures. What trouble are we in now?”
“Sir?”
“Where’s he headed this time?”
“Pretty much due east.”
The general turned to study the map projection on the big screen. “That’d put him right over Washington. What’s he playing at? Assuming his target is in DC, how long do we have?”
“Assuming he sticks to his previous speeds, about half an hour.”
“Brown, can you contact him to find out what the hell he’s playing at? Heading to DC will stir up a real hornet’s nest.”
“I doubt he’s much concerned about that,” replied Agent Brown, but he pulled out his phone to build their chain of communication once more.
“Hah,” said Brown after a tense minute. “Good news. They’ve figured out where the Worldstone is.”
“If it’s in Washington, I don’t think that’s necessarily good news for us. Can you warn him that he’s headed toward some of the most protected airspace in the US?”
Before Brown could reply, his phone started to blare a loud alarm. “What the hell? Unauthorized communication...” He glanced around the room, to where the maintenance tech was crouched over his toolbox. “You! What the hell are you playing at?”
The tech stood up with a “deer in the headlights” look on his face... then his eyes went opaque as his body collapsed to the floor.
Under the watchful eyes and guns of several soldiers, one approached the maintenance tech’s body with a medkit. After a moment he shook his head. “He’s dead. What the hell just happened?”
“Suicide spell,” grumbled Agent Brown. “Someone had a deep suggestion buried in his control spell, and didn’t want anyone to track it back.” He approached the tech, then pointed to a small crystalline device in the toolkit. “Whoever’s on the other end of that knows everything we were just talking about. Close the case, and that’ll shut it off, it’s silver lined.”
As the body and toolkit were being removed from the control center, one of the console watchers called out. “Got something interesting for you, General. Looking Glass just changed its transponder ID.”
“Oh? What to?”
“Air Force One.”
“Oh hell,” muttered Brown. “The President’s awake.”