Calamity (Reckoners, #3)(64)

“Team Hip still good?” I asked.

“Ready and waiting,” Cody said.

We continued, passing close to Loophole’s table. The lean, short-haired woman was shrinking servers and making them dance on her table for the amusement of her gathered crowd. I’d always wondered…

Megan steered me onward as I started to linger.

“Her powers are awesome,” I whispered to her. “She has incredible control of what she can shrink and how she does it.”

“Yeah, well, ask for an autograph later,” Megan said.

“Um…are you jealous? Because your powers are way better than—”

“Focus, David.”

Right. We walked around the room until we approached a small door marked with a restroom sign. It was in the central hub, same as the kitchens. We stepped in, and as Tia’s plans indicated, beyond was a small service hallway, with a restroom on either side. Straight ahead was our goal. A nondescript white door, obviously important—the other doors were still salt, heavy and awkward to move. This one was wood, with a silvery doorknob.

I got out a set of lockpicks. “This would be easier if you could swap the door for one that wasn’t locked,” I said, working on the knob.

“I might be able to do that,” she said. “But I don’t know if I could make it permanent. Which would mean that you’d enter through the door, step into another dimension, and change things there—then it would all swap back once you stepped out.”

“You fixed the cupcakes,” I said.

“Yeah,” she said softly, looking over her shoulder. “This is new territory for me, David. Always before, if I pushed this far I lost myself. I often ended up dead. It’s not a good mix, knowing that you’re immortal and having no sense of responsibility. Perfect recklessness.”

I got the door unlocked. It was an easy one, nowhere near as difficult as what Abraham and Mizzy would have to deal with. This door wasn’t locked to keep out determined interlopers; it was here to prevent the casual passerby from getting hurt. I swung the door open.

Beyond were a large generator and an engine that turned the floor. Megan and I slipped into the chamber before anyone entered the hallway to use the restrooms, and I took out my mobile for some light. It was cramped, and the floor was coated with powdery salt.

“Sparks,” Megan said. “How do they get this all in here? They redo this every week?”

“It’s not as tough as it sounds,” I said. “Loophole shrinks all this and carries it up in her pocket. She then shrinks some workers and sends them into the walls and floor with drills to place the wires she needs. With Helium levitating the floor just enough to keep it from grinding, they can get it spinning again.”

I knelt beside the machinery, picking out the engine. It was connected to some wires and metal gears below.

“That’s the power cell,” Megan said, pointing at one part of the machine, “with a backup diesel generator.”

“We didn’t plan on a backup,” I said. “Is that going to be a problem?”

“Nah,” she said, holding out her hand. I placed the box from earlier into it. “We’re fooling with the cords, not the generator itself. We should be good.”

I held out my mobile, the instructions for clipping on the device pulled up. I held this for her as she attached our little box to the proper wires. When we stepped back, I could barely tell it was there.

“Step three complete,” I announced, satisfied. “We’re pulling out of the generator room.”

“Roger,” Cody said. “Tapping Abraham and Mizzy into the main line. Be ready, you two. Let Megan and David extract, and we’ll move to step four.”

“Roger,” Abraham said.

“Groovy,” Mizzy said.

“There’s that word again,” I said, pushing out into the restroom hallway. “I tried looking it up. Something to do with record grooves? It—”

I broke off, suddenly face to face with a serving girl leaving one of the restrooms. She gaped at me, and then at Megan. “What are you two doing here?” she asked.

Calamity! “We were looking for the restrooms,” I said.

“But they’re right—”

“Those are the peasant restrooms,” Megan said from behind. I stumbled out of her way as she strode past me. “You expect me to use the facilities of the common servants?”

Megan wore the mantle of an Epic like it had been designed with her in mind. She stood up taller, eyes wide, and flames began to flicker in the hallway.

“I didn’t—” the server began.

“You question me?” Megan demanded. “You dare?”

The server shrank down, lowering her eyes, and fell silent.

“Better,” Megan said. “Where might I find the proper rooms?”

“These are the only ones that are maintained. I’m sorry! I can—”

“No. I’ve had enough of you. Away, and be glad I don’t want to upset our great lord by leaving a body for him to deal with.”

The woman scampered out into the main party room.

I cocked an eyebrow at Megan as the flames faded. “Nice.”

“It was too easy,” she said. “I’ve been abusing my powers. Let’s get Tia and pull out.”