Ray walked the outside of Grandview. The sparks on top of the university gave him

an all clear. He couldn’t figure out how the circle could be drawn in the little amount

of time left to the Face of Ba’al appearing.

He didn’t know enough about magic, and how it worked. He had been lucky to be

given a device that operated on his thoughts, without requiring a lot of technical code

to be input.

Affirmative.

He was missing something, and without that key piece, he still might not be able to

counter the event.

The worse part is the enemy could be anybody. It could be Sam, Sandra, any of the

people at the Blue Oak, any of Lord Brian’s group except for Lightner, and anybody

he hadn’t seen wandering the streets.

Lightner had to be one of the champions sent in to help fight this. That meant he had

some kind of magic weapon too. But he only talked in yes/no, and a shrug for

anything else he couldn’t answer with yes/no.

Had the weapon caused that?

Did he only have so many words he could say and didn’t want to use them up?

He still didn’t know enough about that. The only thing he did know was Lightner

wasn’t working for Woad, and Woad’s people.

How many others were on the ground with him, doing what he was doing?

Some of them had to be in with the local adventurers and looking around for the next

door to open. This might be a change of pace for them depending on their

circumstances back home.

Some of them might not want to go back home when they were done.

He supposed he could make a good living here if he had no reason to go home. The

lamp was an excellent tool for a lot of things. It was a sonic screwdriver for any door.

Only he did want to go home, and he was going home.

He needed to talk to a mage who knew about summoning. Neffer seemed to know his

stuff, but he was taking care of his own business right now. There had to be someone

he could consult.

How would he find somebody like that? And would that person be trustworthy?

He didn’t think the lamp could help with that. Magic wasn’t something it was

designed to look for despite its construction.

He also felt like he was ahead. There had been four waves so far. No one had even

looked at how the stars were affecting things. He had found that out on his first day.

Of course, it would make it easier for him if Abyssal summoning left a visible mark

on the summoner. Then all he would have to do was look for someone with that mark,

and punch them in the face.

Why didn’t he stick around if he wanted to wreck the world? Maybe he wanted to

make sure his spell would end the world before he killed himself.

Ray still didn’t like that as a motive.

He paused in his patrol to look into the estates from outside. Was Grandview even in

place two hundred years ago? If it was, wrecking it could be more than a vague

alignment of stars. It could be an old plan that was on the verge of working.

“Hey, mister,” said a boy coming up the street. “Have you seen my rabbit?”

“Lamp?,” thought Ray.

Negative.

“No, I haven’t,” said Ray. He paused. The boy wore clothes like his, and not the usual

tunic, shirt, pants the rest of the population wore for casualness. “Where are you

from?”

“North Carolina,” said the boy.

“I’m from California,” said Ray.

“Los Angeles?,” said the boy. He grinned.

“No,” said Ray, smiling at the change of expression that got. “I have a business up

north of San Fran. What’s your name, bud?”

“John McHenry,” said the boy. “Mostly people call me Johnny Mac.”

“Ray Gunn,” said Ray.

“You’re kidding me,” said Johnny Mac. “You’re lying.”

“My dad thought he was funny,” said Ray. “Why are you here? This isn’t a place for

a kid.”

“Why not?,” asked Johnny Mac.

“Because someone is trying to wipe out the city, and you could get killed,” said Ray.

“What could you have wanted that you would trade for that?”

“I had some problems back home,” said the boy. “When the Duke came along and

offered this deal, I thought it was the way out I needed. The problem is the Duke

stuck me with this useless rabbit for a helper, and he runs off any chance he can so

I have to look for him all the time instead of taking care of my business.”

“What is the rabbit’s name?,” asked Ray. He bit back a smile. At least he got to pick

the weapon he needed instead of just being stuck with something that was a

hindrance.

“Bubbles, or something,” said Johnny Mac.

“Bubbles?,” said Ray.

“Like the singer,” said Johnny Mac.

“That’s Buble,” said Ray. “It’s a whole different pronunciation. Maybe your rabbit

keeps leaving because you can’t say his name right.”

“His name is Bew Blay?,” said Johnny Mac. “Who names their kid that?”

“It’s French, Master John,” said a very British voice surrounded by a seven foot tall

pink bunny rabbit.

“I will state for the record that I am sorry,” said Ray. “I thought you had lost your

mind.”

“He has very little to lose, sir,” said Buble. He straightened his pink tailcoat with

gloved hands.

“You’re supposed to be helping me,” said Johnny Mac. “Instead I have to look around

for you. What is that all about?”

“I only have a certain amount of time to spare for you, Master John,” said the rabbit.

“I have numerous other duties to perform.”

“How much time do you have, Buble?,” asked Ray.

“A little under five minutes, sir,” said the rabbit butler.

“We need to know if this wall is marked with anything that can summon monsters

from the Abyss,” said Ray. “You can call me Ray if you want.”

“I’m sorry but I can’t help you, Ray,” said Buble. “I can only help Master John.”

“Is the wall marked up?,” asked Johnny Mac. “We might be fighting soon and the

information is vital.”

“There are enchantments on it,” said Buble. “They’re not active. I don’t think they

can be disenchanted since I can’t read the markings. They are mixed together and

disguised fairly well from what I can see.”

“Somebody made the wall to create the summoning spell?,” asked Ray.

“Go ahead and tell him, and then tell him how to disrupt the summoning spell without

causing problems,” said Johnny Mac. “If we tear it down, there’s no guarantee the

replacement wouldn’t be enchanted either.”

“I have to say I don’t know how to disrupt it, but I can say that someone went to a lot

of trouble to make each individual swirl a letter,” said Buble. “It’s ingenious.”

“Can you drop us off at someone who does know so we can consult?,” asked Johnny

Mac. “This might be the key to our situation and your end of the job done.”

“I know someone who can help you,” said Buble. He raised his hand. “I have to get

back to my silver polishing.”

Ray flipped inside out for a second. When he recovered from the feeling, he held back

from puking on the front door step of a cabin that looked like it had just kept itself

from falling over by snagging on to a tree.

Johnny Mac stood absolutely still, eyes closed. He slowly raised his hand and flexed

the fingers.

“You okay?,” asked Ray.

“I hate it when he does that,” said the boy. “He knows how it rips at your system, but

he does it anyway. Folding space is just fine and dandy, Master Johnny. Except he

folds you too, the evil rabbit goat humper.”

“Those are words I never expected to hear,” said Ray.

“I hope his silver gets shoved somewhere the sun don’t shine,” said Johnny Mac. He

took a deep breath. “I think I’m okay.”

“Are you sure?,” asked Ray. “I can wait for you to curse some more if you want.”

“Let’s do this, Ray,” said Johnny Mac. “I’m not sure where he dumped us, and I don’t

want to hang around.”

“Before we go in, no eating, no drinking, no side tangents,” said Ray. “We need to

know about the wall and how to get rid of it. Anything else is extra. Also no

bargaining. We don’t want to come out owing more than what we entered with.”

“He might want your metal hand,” said Johnny Mac.

“Can’t have that,” said Ray. “It’s not mine to trade, and I have to return it when I’m

done. I suspect the same for Bubbles, so don’t think the Duke will let you trade one

of his away to someone else.”

“It would be good payback looking at this place,” said Johnny Mac. “He could really

learn to buttle here.”

“Again, no,” said Ray. “We might need him if we screw up, and you don’t want to hit

a hard limit on what your boss will put up with before we’re done.”

“I got it,” said Johnny Mac. He held up his hands in surrender. “I promise I won’t do

anything stupid.”

Ray nodded. He felt the lamp power up inside his arm. It hadn’t acted fast enough to

stop Buble. Could it stop whomever lived in this rickety old shack?

“Ready, Lamp?,” he thought.

Affirmative.

Ray checked his surroundings. He thought it was earlier in the day from when they

had been teleported from the city. Buble was something to send them across the

continent. Maybe he could carry a letter home if Johnny Mac didn’t mind asking him

to do that.

Trees clumped around the house. Lines of bark formed imaginary faces that glared

at him. The grass was long and deep enough to cover a car. The windows of the place

had been boarded over sometime in the past and the wood had never been taken

down.

“You know what this reminds me of?,” asked Johnny Mac as Ray lifted his hand to

knock.

“Have no clue,” said Ray. He knocked on the door.

“Jeff Foxworthy’s haunted house joke,” said Johnny Mac.

“I can see that,” said Ray. He listened at the door. He didn’t hear anyone moving

around inside. He knocked again.

“Maybe Bubbles was wrong,” said Johnny Mac. “Being a rabbit might make him

prone to errors.”

The door moved inward on creaking hinges.

“Lamp, amplify voice please,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

“Hello the house,” called Ray. His voice was just shy of thunder to his ears. “I’m

Raymond Gunn, and this is Johnny McHenry. We would like to talk with you if there

is anybody home.”

“Come in and we’ll talk, young man,” said the voice of a sprightly granny.

“This won’t end well,” said Johnny Mac.

They stepped across the threshold, and into the darkness beyond.