I hadn't noticed. Glancing down, I found that one of the glossy black pouches on the glossy black belt of my glossy black armor had a small glow around the edges of the top flap.

Except for a moment where I concluded that Syndicate L had been going for looks rather than functionality with the design, my attention gravitated to the pouch. As it did, I remembered what was in the pouch.

Back when we'd met with the Wizards' Council and a few other hidden immortals, Urin, a former Cabal member who dated back to Sumer, had given me a rock. Flat and white, it hadn't looked like much, but he'd claimed it had a connection to Lee's device and to the Artificers.

He'd said that they'd stolen it, preventing it from reaching Magnus. It was supposed to allow a person to find the device and maybe control it. He didn't say how he knew that.

I'd felt a prickle of energy when he gave it to me, but nothing else. Now, though, I could feel it in my head. It didn't offer any kind of user interface or even a connection, but it had a steady presence.

I wasn't the only one who could feel it, either. Still camouflaged, Rachel turned to look at the glow, using her implant to say, "Don't do anything with it now. I think I've seen something like it before, but I need to think about it."

"Cool," I thought back, adding one more variable worth watching to a long list. My implant slotted it in with the others.

Replying to Dr. Transylvania, I said, "Thanks. That will either help or complicate my life in ways I can't yet imagine."

For one, it might be something that Govan, whenever he showed up, might want. If it could act as a key to Lee's device, we'd be handing the Destroy faction even more power.

Dr. Transylvania laughed, "That's true far too often. I'm going to try to break the wards. If I manage it soon enough, you'll have undead on your side. At worst, we'll be here guarding the way out."

"Either way, it'll help," I said and glanced off the side of the roof. Though the battle was still going strong, the combatants, whether human, vampire, or one of the tall, faceless undead fighting alongside the vampires, paid no attention to us.

Part of me wanted to ask Dr. Transylvania why all of his undead were dressed like they came from a dinner party in the last century or two, but I didn't. Some mysteries could remain mysterious. We had to get inside.

The Atoner said, "Precisely, you all should move now. We'll handle the outside."

"You got it," I said, glancing over at Ape Nasty, who grinned at me, his large and very sharp canines visible.

"Have fun storming the castle," he said.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I raised an eyebrow that he had no chance of seeing through my helmet. "Does that make you Miracle Max?"

"Billy Crystal's fucking hilarious," he said. "Love that guy."

Dr. Transylvania looked up from the collection of magical symbols around the door in the roof to add, "He does."

Then he backed away from it and said, "There's likely to be an explosion, but the magic isn't linked to it."

Izzy stepped in front of the door, visible only around the edges of her suit, "I'll handle it. Everyone, back up."

Everyone did, and she flew up and then down through the door. Dr. Transylvania wasn't wrong about the likelihood of an explosion. It did explode, throwing fire 20 feet into the air. My thermal sensors pegged the temperature as more than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit in spots.

It struck me as serious overkill. Even the Cabal's best troops didn't regenerate as well from fire.

On the other hand, Izzy floated out of the remains of the doorway unhurt. Not even her hair had been singed. The silvery shield that surrounded her during combat was fading into transparency as I watched, showing that her costume was set to match mine—black and glossy.

Anyone who knew her powers had the potential to identify her now, but we'd zapped every camera we could with the lasers when we'd fired on the Nine's troops.

Izzy landed, saying, "I smashed the flamethrower. It's built into the ceiling around the door. You can look at it if you're curious."

"Will there be much to look at?" I asked.

She laughed. "No. Sorry."

We gathered and went through the burned and shattered doorway, almost all of us now visible and appearing to wear Syndicate L-style armor. The exception to the rule was Tiger. Syndicate L wasn't known for employing giant armored dogs, and Jaclyn had been sighted walking him (in costume) many times.

On the other hand, having a massive, almost visible presence among a group of people in armor could only freak out whoever we had to fight.

True to Izzy's word, I could look at the damaged flamethrower trap, but there wasn't much of it left. The main mechanism had been made out of the same blue-green metal alloy I'd seen in Abominator technology. Though smashed, it appeared to be the size of a video game console—smaller than I'd have expected for all that fire.

My implant didn't suggest a similar Abominator weapon as I looked at it, which worried me. It showed that someone, probably Rook, had grown comfortable enough with Abominator technology to create new devices using it.

I checked out the hall ahead of us, and it appeared to be what Hal and Izzy thought it was—a passageway used only by the Nine's guards and maintenance people. Between the concrete floor, white painted walls, alcoves filled with boxes, and short hallways leading to the turrets on the roof, it felt like a bunker. The boxes of bullets, weapons, plastic drums full of water, boxes of MREs (Meals Ready-to-Eat), and medical supplies completed that impression.

We ran down the hallway, heading toward the only engagement we'd be in as a group. The hall ended where the island's, and arguably the Nine's, control center lay. At the center of the building, it appeared to be watching over the island and the Nine's operations—including the organization's teleportation system.

The center of the teleportation system lay just off of it. If we took both and shut them down, we'd prevent anyone from coming in. Even better, we'd make it harder to coordinate the fight against us here.

That would pay off for the group of us heading in to free Jody, take down Magnus, and get Lee's device.

In the meantime, of course, we had to get down to the control center. The hallway ended in an elevator that brought people down to the entrance hallway.

On the other hand, running to the end of this hallway, smashing through the wall, and dropping into the control center from the top of the room would be quicker.

Jaclyn and Izzy shot down the hall ahead of us, gaining speed as they went. It wasn't as if any of us would have a problem with a three-story fall.

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