Ray led the way into an unrelenting black space lit by round orbs floating in the air.

He felt that the room he stood in was bigger than the whole shack on the outside.

“Lamp, can you reach Woad from here?,” Ray thought. The spark in the back of his

mind was a big comfort. “Also look for a way to punch out of here if we have to do

it. Don’t forget Johnny Mac in the planning.”

Affirmative.

“Send Woad everything we know so far,” thought Ray. “Also that we’re consulting

with someone that the Duke’s champion’s assistant knows, but the assistant isn’t

trustworthy to me.”

Affirmative. A flash of light pierced the black from the arm. Done.

“Can you reach Barbara?,” asked Ray.

Affirmative.

“Send her a note to let her know I’m still alive as of this moment,” thought Ray.

“She’ll know I’m still kicking at least.”

Affirmative. Another flash of blue light vanished into the darkness. Done.

“What was that about?,” asked Johnny Mac. He had an eye on the darkness, and

seemed ready to fight or run depending on what came out of the black.

“This space can touch where the guy I know exists,” said Ray. “I sent him and my

wife a text message to say I’m doing all right. If I knew where the Duke lived, I could

do the same for you.”

“So someone knows we’re here if we get killed?,” said Johnny Mac.

“Yep,” said Ray. “I don’t know what they could do about it, but Woad doesn’t seem

the type of guy to let something just slide by.”

He waited ten years to call in a marker that he had no idea he would ever need. That

takes a lot of patience.

Affirmative.

“Maybe you could relay a message for me,” said Johnny Mac.

“I can try,” said Ray.

“You got some paper and a pen?,” asked Johnny Mac.

“Sure,” said Ray. He dug into his food wallet and pulled out a clean sheet of paper,

his pen and bottle of ink. He handed the supplies over.

Johnny Mac laboriously wrote out a message on the piece of paper. He waved the ink

dry. He folded the paper up, and wrote For the Duke on the back. He handed the letter

over to Ray before he capped the ink and shook the pen off. He handed the supplies

back as Ray held the letter up in his metal hand.

A blue flash sent the message on its way.

“Maybe the Duke won’t keep Bubbles around as a butler when he reads the message,”

said Johnny Mac.

“He was the only way you could get a message to the Duke?,” asked Ray.

“Yeah,” said Johnny Mac. “He hasn’t really been a big help in any of this. I half

expect he dropped us in some kind of trap. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Ray put his pen and ink away. He was glad that Woad trusted him enough to give him

something that was useful and aware of the spirit of the command as well as the letter.

Affirmative.

They found a gold door in the dark, and pushed into a throne room. Ray took a

moment to look around.

The walls were covered with gold writing from ceiling to floor, and the ceiling looked

a long way away from his point of view. White stone made up the floor, but ribbons

of cloth formed paths to the other side of the room. A dais with a chair made of gold

and silver sat at the end of the ribbons. Lions roared as the arms of the chair, eagles

formed from the back to glare at the intruders.

A woman sat on the throne. Her beauty didn’t match the granny voice that had asked

them to come in. She looked too young, too voluptuous, and too underclothed to be

anyone’s granny.

Ray didn’t like the way the gemstone eyes in her tiara followed him as he stepped

sideways from Johnny Mac. He didn’t want to get hit with his sudden partner in one

shot.

The face of the fake granny looked more like a mask than a real woman. She smiled

at him. He commanded his spark to get ready to fight.

“How do you do?,” asked Ray. “I’m Raymond Gunn, and this is John McHenry. We

were told you know all about summonings from the Abyss.”

“Perhaps I do, but I have a price for anything I give,” said the granny. Ray tried to

ignore the way her bosom moved when she adjusted her seating.

“What’s that?,” asked Johnny Mac. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her.

“I require three nights of pleasure,” said the granny. She gestured for them to

approach. Johnny took two steps closer to the throne.

Ray crossed his arms, and remained in place.

“You don’t like this proposal?,” said the granny. She leaned forward to stare at Ray

with her dark eyes.

“There’s two things, ma’am,” said Ray. “We don’t know how much time we have

until the end of the world so we can’t even promise you five minutes of pleasure.”

Johnny Mac frowned at him, making a shushing motion with his hand.

“And I’m married to a wonderful woman who looks ten times better than you,” said

Ray. “Your feminine wiles just aren’t going to cut it. So you can turn off whatever

this is, and let’s be serious. I don’t have a lot of time, and I don’t have a lot of care.”

“Rayyyy!,” said Johnny Mac. The whine said you’re screwing this up for me.

“Your butler hates you,” said Ray. “This is so obviously a trap with a spider woman,

I’m glad you sent the letter to the Duke. There’s no way you’ll survive three days

with her.”

“I would like to try,” said Johnny Mac.

“You know better,” said Ray. “Think with the brain in your noggin. Let’s go. We

don’t have time for something that isn’t going to help us.”

“Wait, Ray,” said Johnny Mac. “Let’s think this through. Maybe we can come up with

a solution to make everyone happy.”

“You just want to get your bones jumped,” said Ray. He made a gesture with both

hands, and said in a lower voice, “Spider woman.”

Then he made a throat cutting gesture with his metal hand.

“Yes, I am a teenager with all that implies,” said Johnny Mac. “But let me talk for a

second.”

Ray made a go ahead gesture with his hand.

“Here’s the problem, ma’am,” said Johnny Mac. He gestured while he talked, but his

demeanor had taken on a folksy turn that Ray didn’t associate with him. “Ray and I

have a job to do. We’re trying to prevent a summoning of reality eating monsters from

invading this world, eating everything and then moving on to other places from here.

We’ve been assured that total destruction will result if we can’t do anything.

“The assistant who was supposed to be helping me has assured me you know

everything about summonings. There is no summoning you can’t stop.

“Now, we think we have found the place the summoning is going to happen, we kind

of know when it’s going to happen, but what we really would like to do is prevent the

summoning from happening at all.”

“That will cost you more than three days,” said the granny. She rested her chin on her

hand.

“See we want you to turn the circle off for good,” said Johnny Mac. “It should be a

snap for someone with your stated ability.”

“And what will you give me in return?,” asked the granny.

“You still want the pleasure?,” said Johnny Mac.

“Yes, but more than three days for what you expect me to do,” said the granny.

“Buble!,” called Johnny Mac. “Front and center!”

“We talked about this,” said Ray.

“Spider woman,” Johnny Mac retorted.

“Yes, Master John,” said the pink rabbit dropping into the throne room from the

ceiling. “How may I serve you for the next three minutes?”

The butler looked around, and fear went through his pink frame. Ray frowned at the

confirmation of his suspicions.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” said Johnny Mac. He grabbed the taller butler’s arm in a death

grip. “I don’t believe you told us your name.”

“It’s Ishvar,” said the granny. A shark smile of perfect teeth slid on her face.

“You haven’t been honest with me, have you, Buble?,” asked Johnny Mac. “You have

been slacking off instead of helping, trying to get me killed, screwing up the job.”

“I will do better, Master John,” said Buble. His ears twitched as Ishvar leaned forward

on her throne.

“Will you now?,” said Johnny Mac. “I’ll put in a word with the Duke when this is

over. We’re going to have to ask you to help us in the real world, Miss Ishvar. Can

you do that?”

“Almost certainly,” said the granny, standing. “What do I get out of it?”

“We want to save the world, and you want to get laid,” said Johnny Mac. “That’s the

basis of our agreement, right?”

“We also want the guy who is doing this so we don’t have to come back here in fifty

years and do this all over again,” broke in Ray.

“That’s agreeable to me,” said Ishvar. She smiled again. “The schemer, and the

scheme, for my gratification.”

“You can’t do this, Master John,” said Buble. “You can’t trade me.”

“You tried to kill Ray and me,” said Johnny Mac, in a flat voice. “I think the Duke

will understand. My granny always used to tell me something that seems perfect for

this situation.”

Buble looked at him with round eyes.

“You made your bed, lie in it,” said Johnny Mac. He pushed the butler forward. “You

can have five minutes with him now, but after that we work.”

Ishvar grabbed Buble in her arms. He tried to pull away from her grip.

“How much will you give me when the work is done?,” asked the granny with a

smile.

“It depends,” said Johnny Mac.

“On what?,” she asked. She rubbed her face against Buble’s.

“On how much he helps us,” said Johnny Mac. “Clock’s ticking.”

He turned and walked away. Ray followed with one last look at the two spirits. He

pushed through the golden door after his companion. A scream followed them as they

walked under the floating lights.