The Crossover (7 page)

The cart, draped with a white tablecloth, rumbled right on by the concession area. Lodrán was waiting there, and Freddy joined him. Lodrán immediately started a mostly one-sided conversation, waving his hands and leaving Freddy to grunt, “uh-huh” from time to time. He was amazed how fast Lodrán picked up the local slang; even his accent was nearly gone. Then, Lodrán put a hand on his shoulder and turned Freddy down the corridor. “I gotta water the bushes,” he said.

“Yeah, me too.”

They passed the targets, standing in front of the elevator. Lodrán continued chattering, “I tell all my clients, don’t look back. Never look back,” he said. “Past behind you, world in front of you.” They ambled on, and Lodrán suddenly stopped. “Who’s calling now?” he asked, turning to face the way they’d come and fumbling his phone out. “Yeah?” He nudged Freddy. “Where are they going?”

Freddy whispered, “That’s an elevator. It goes up and down.”

“Yeah?” Lodrán continued to yap at his phone. “Well, can you find the stairs, then?” He nudged Freddy again.

“That’s the stairs.” Freddy nodded to the door directly across from them.

“Alright. Well, listen… I need to get moving here. Talk to you later?” Lodrán pocketed his phone. “Luck of the draw whether they go up or down, I guess. If Chelinn were here…”

“They’re going down,” said Freddy. “See the lights next to the doors? The down arrow is lit. That means they’re going to the basement.”

“Good work. You may be suited to the Silent Art after all. Find a place where you can watch the elevators, and call me if they come up.” Lodrán took his phone out again, and disappeared through the stairway door.

The stairway ended after two flights of steps, and Lodrán emerged chattering at his phone. “Yeah, I went downstairs, there’s too much noise up there.”
I wish we had these things at home
, he thought,
it would make blending in so much easier
. Up ahead, the targets glanced back at the sales guy who wanted a little privacy, and gave it to him. Lodrán continued to babble until they turned a corner, then pocketed the phone again and pulled off his boots. In bare feet, he could run without making a sound.

The walls here in the basement were much like those in the loading area: blocks of uniform size, but covered in paint that was a bare step short of white. The lighting—in Lodrán’s mind, the most amazing thing in a world of amazing things—was like in Chuck’s store. Long glowing tubes, burning with no smoke and little heat, but suspended from the ceiling rather than recessed. Except for the lighting, the basement felt like home.

Reaching the turn, he stopped short and listened to the cart rumble along. Lodrán suppressed the urge to steal a peek around the corner.
If you know what to listen for, your ears are as good as your eyes
, his safehouse master once told him.
And your ears can hear around corners
. Lodrán could paint the scene in his mind’s eye easily enough, since he’d seen it seconds ago: the man in the green jumpsuit leading the way, two men in white outfits pushing the cart, and the last man looking over his shoulder. More amateurs.

“In here,” came a voice. The cart stopped, then keys jingled and a door opened. The cart rumbled again, quickly muffled. Lodrán finally dared to risk a look; he walked across the opening, poking at his phone with a sidelong look down the hallway. One door was open, nobody standing watch. He stopped, phone to his ear, and counted: fourth door on the right. He turned and made his silent way back to the stairwell door.

“We have what we need,” he told Freddy, punching the buttons that would connect him with Chuck.

“Hello?” said Chuck.

“Hi,” said Lodrán. “They really did deliver the package. I found where they left it.”

“That’s good. Chelinn says you need to join us here, though. He’s got the booth set up, but we still need to unpack the merchandise.”

• • •

They gathered at the auditorium early Saturday, well before the con opened. Freddy slipped away, then returned and touched Lodrán’s elbow. “That room downstairs? It’s locked.”

“We expected that, right?” said Chelinn. “Lodrán heard them unlocking the door. It stands to reason that they would lock it behind them.” He grinned. “Not that a lock would slow you down much, Lodrán.”

“These locks are more sophisticated than what we face at home.” Lodrán shrugged. “Fortunately, I’ve had opportunity to practice. Given a few minutes, I will prevail.”

“Here they come,” said Chuck, in his wizard outfit. Down at the end of the auditorium, attendees crowded through the doors, an endless torrent of humanity.

“So many people,” Lodrán breathed.

“Heh. There’s more than this, but the others are at the keynote address.”

“What’s that?”

“Oh. That’s where someone gives a speech. It’s a local author this year.” Chuck grinned. “A lot of people who come to these cons want to be authors as well. It gives them a chance to network—meet other people, maybe someone who can help them along. They have writing workshops, critique groups, roundtables, you name it.”

Further conversation was cut off by the throng reaching Chuck’s booth. People swarmed around them, marveling at Chelinn’s and Lodrán’s “costumes.” Lodrán, who considered attention potentially fatal, quickly grew nervous.

Chuck soon noticed Lodrán’s discomfort. “Go outside,” he said. “Take a walk. We’ll be alright here. Keep an eye out for you-know-who.” Lodrán nodded and left before Chuck could change his mind.

The front entrance was still crowded with people lined up to get in, and Lodrán went to the loading docks. A security guard let him through, after a quick glance at his vendor’s pass, and Lodrán breathed a sigh of relief in the dim quiet. He considered slipping downstairs and picking the lock on the door concealing the bomb, but dismissed it. The lock would give way, but then what?

He considered his options: stand in one place, or get some fresh air outside? As he’d done plenty of the first already this morning, he chose the second option and went to the parking lot. So much iron here… Chelinn had already bought several large boxes of nails, as much iron as he could carry, for the return trip.
Imagine your car to be made of gold
, he’d told Chuck,
and you’ll understand how we feel when we sit inside one
. He wandered between the cars, lost in thought.

“Hey!” a woman’s voice called out. “Hey!” Lodrán cursed himself for his continued lack of vigilance, then turned in the direction of the cry. A woman stood next to one of the cars, making a “come here” gesture. Lodrán looked around—he was the only other person in sight—then shrugged and made his way over to her.

The woman was round and soft, not the standard of beauty here, but close to Termag’s. She wore tight clothes that made her curves bulge, and her shirt was imprinted with lettering. Chelinn had thrown himself into learning the local script more than Lodrán, but after a moment he made out a cryptic message:
GEEK GIRLS RULE
. Her hair was much like Chelinn’s: the same color, straight, but cut shorter.

“Hey,” she said again as he approached. “Could you call someone for me? I locked my keys in my car. And my phone. And my purse.” She sighed. “Great way to start a con, huh?”

“This is your car?” Lodrán asked, getting a nod in response. “I have some, uh, locksmith training. Maybe I can get it open.”

“Oh, could you? You’d be my hero!” She laughed, a little self-conscious. “I’m Annie Chester.” She looked at Lodrán’s vendor badge. “Wow, that’s a strange first name.” After some discussion with Chuck, Lodrán insisted on keeping his name but chose “Roth” for a surname. “How do you pronounce it?”

“Much like it looks,” he said, pronouncing it for her. “It’s from my mother’s side of the family.” He took out the leather pouch that held his lockpicks. “This might take a few minutes, but I don’t think it’ll get the better of me.”

“Nice outfit, by the way,” said Annie, as Lodrán got to work. “Where’d you get it?”

“Um… I made it myself,” said Lodrán, slipping his first picks into the lock. “You should see my friend Chelinn though. He should be at the booth. I got—what’s the word?—too many people, so close together…”

“Claustrophobic. Wow, that’s gotta be rough at a con.”

“Crowds and closeness are not the problem, so much. But I was stuck in that booth and couldn’t move around.” Lodrán twisted his picks and heard a
click
. “Ah!” He pulled on the handle and the door swung open. “That went a little quicker than I thought it would.”

“Yes!” Annie squealed and hugged him, then gasped and froze a moment before releasing him. “Sorry. I got a little excited.” She looked embarrassed.

“I’ll survive.” Lodrán grinned. “I think there’s still a line at the front. I can bring you in the back if you like.”

“Tempting. But I’d need to get my pass and stuff anyway.” Annie scrutinized Lodrán’s vendor pass again. “Age of Heroes. Will you be there?”

“That’s my home away from home this week.”

“Okay. Well, thanks again. I’ll swing by when I get inside. Hey… what are you doing tonight? You wanna show an out-of-town girl around?”

“I’m from out of town myself, but maybe we can discover this place together. N— Chuck says there are parties in the hotel every night, and a vendor badge will get me into most of them.”

“Sounds great! I’m staying in the hotel, so I won’t have to drive anywhere.” She grinned. “We’ll work out the details when I come by.” She threaded her way between the cars, jiggling in ways that made Lodrán smile. He walked back to the rear entrance, thinking about how a mere scrap that The Hand threw your way could make a difficult situation so much more bearable. Even if he never saw her again, it was… well, Chelinn would approve of him plying his trade this way.

• • •

“We did some fantastic business today, so I thought I’d treat my staff to some decent food for a change.” Chuck grinned and raised his beer mug. “You guys were part of it, at least.”

“Lodrán, why don’t you step into the lobby to wait for your friend?” Chelinn sipped his beer, then smiled and took a longer drink.

“I’m that obvious?”

“No. Someone would have to know you very well to note that your attention is divided. I just happen to be one of those people.”

Lodrán laughed, finished his mug, and stood. “Whoa. This is stronger stuff than back home.” He shook his head once, then slipped away.

“She’s welcome to join us!” Chuck called after Lodrán. He smiled, thinking about the young woman who had come by the booth at the tail-end of the initial rush. Like nearly everyone else, she’d gushed over Chelinn’s “outfit” but then told them how Lodrán had unlocked her car for her. Chuck suggested a party with an open bar that started at nine tonight, and the deal was sealed. He looked at Freddy, and grew sober. “We need to talk about tomorrow.”

“I thought that was already figured,” said Freddy. “Lodrán will open an office around ten, and we’ll phone the cops from there. Then we hightail it back to the booth and get ready to pack up the important stuff and evacuate.”

“There’s an outside chance that one of the staff will discover it before we make the call. What do we do if that happens?”

“I don’t see how it changes things much,” said Chelinn. “Either way, we can’t break camp without raising suspicion, until we get the evacuation order.”

“The thing that really worries me is what happens if we don’t get the order,” said Freddy. “What if the cops decide if it’s a hoax? Or if they have someone at the 911 place to make sure a call doesn’t go through? I ain’t gonna stay around to find out.”

“A fire would get everyone out,” said Chuck. “Too bad you can’t teach me a spell to start a fire, Chelinn.”

“It takes a certain temperament for a beginning mage to work Fire magic. Mine, for example.” Chelinn grinned. “Your temperament, I think, would be better suited to Air or Water spells. But given your technology, the Principle of Necessity would normally demand that you start fires in the usual manner.”

“If I hadn’t seen what I seen, I’d think y’all were just yappin’ about some game.” Freddy drained his mug.

“Normally,” Chuck agreed. “But this isn’t a normal circumstance, is it? Besides, someone carrying flammable materials through a crowded building would be remembered when the fire actually starts.”

“Hey!” said Annie, with Lodrán in tow. “Thanks for inviting me, I was gonna go find a fast-food joint.”

“No problem,” said Chuck. “What are you drinking?” He flagged down the waiter. “I think we all need a refill on our beers. No more shop talk, folks. Time for happy-babble!”

“A Cabernet for me.” Annie laughed. “Have you guys already ordered?” They nodded and she took a quick glance at the menu. “The Chicken Salad Oratorio looks good, especially since I ordered red wine.”

“Now there’s someone who has her priorities straight,” Chuck laughed. “Wine, then food!” Everyone, including Annie, joined the laughter.

The waiter brought their drinks. “Your entrees should be ready shortly,” he told them. “The salad won’t slow things down much, so we’ll bring them out together.”

“A toast.” Chelinn raised his freshened mug. “To friends well-met on a strange journey.”

“And to friends well-come in time of need!” Chuck matched Chelinn’s grin.

“I’ll drink to that!” said Annie, giving Lodrán a nudge. He smiled and drank with the others.

Some hours later, Lodrán and Annie tottered up a hotel hall, arms around each other. Annie laughed on occasion at their stumbles, while Lodrán tried to remember how the elevator worked and how he would find his way back to the exhibition hall. The style of dancing here was chaotic, but he did well enough to get a compliment from Annie. Not that it required much more than letting go of one’s inhibitions, and the drink made that simple. He’d not drank so much since that night he found himself peering into the chambers of Lord Tarchus’s daughter. He never could bring himself to break up that stolen necklace, more wealth than he could spend in a hundred years—

“Here we are,” said Annie, fumbling a small card out of her pants pocket. Lodrán watched as she inserted it in a slot above the door handle, then withdrew it. Lodrán heard a click, and she opened the door then gave him a hesitant smile. “You wanna come in?”