I pulled the feed from the Park Street. At first glance everything appeared normal. Fortunately, the inn had been recording the street for the last four hours. A comparative analysis took only a few fractions of a second and the contours of four Draziri lit up on the screen, each wrapped in a high tech camo cloak. The cloak mimicked the surroundings the same way a chameleon would, replicating the fence and the bushes with painstaking accuracy. They must’ve had some way to block their body heat as well, because they didn’t show up on the infrared scan.
The Draziri waited in the shadows, two by Mr. Ramirez’s fence and two on the other side of the Camelot road leading into Avalon subdivision. They caught a lucky break - Mr. Ramirez had left for his weekly bowling meeting and took his dog with him.
“How much cover can you give me?” Maud asked.
“I can do Mom’s Take Care,” I said.
“That should be good enough.”
“Exit won’t be a problem,” Arland said. “But the return may present a slight difficulty.”
Thirty minutes. We had to decide now.
Arland was right. The Draziri wouldn’t expect them to leave, but they would expect the vehicle to return. My range was limited and I was bound by the innkeeper laws. I couldn’t do anything too loud or too obvious. The Draziri would ambush the vehicle on its way back. One well aimed shot from any number of fun galactic weapons, and my sister, Arland, and the Archivarian would be vaporized.
A quick calculation took place behind Maud’s eyes. She turned to the vampire. “Lord Arland, it is my honor to accept your generous offer.”
Arland unleashed his smile. It bounced from Maud like dry peas from the wall.
My sister strained, concentrating. I felt the inn move in response. The ceiling above us parted and car keys fell into her palm.
“Told you,” I said. “Like riding a bicycle. Don’t forget the Hiru’s gadget.”
She turned and ran. Arland followed her.
The robot spheres clicked in unison, preparing to explode. I smiled and punched a hole through reality. For an instant, an orange plain flashed under a purple sky, a vista that couldn’t be found anywhere on Earth. The dimensional rip bit at the spheres. The robotic mines vanished, transported in a moment to a planet thousands of light-years away. There was no return from Kolinda.
I let the ants continue.
“You’re toying with him, dear,” Caldenia said.
“I’m letting him think he still has an ace up his sleeve.”
“I approve.” She smiled, her eyes sparkling with delight.
The image of the garage appeared on my left. Maud revved the engine. Arland sat in the passenger seat, a positron cannon in his hand.
I took in magic, building it up.
“What is ‘Mom’s Take Care?’” Caldenia asked.
“You will see.”
The magic wound around me, tight and ready. The inn creaked.
Maud gave me an okay through the windshield. I shoved with my magic. The garage door vanished. A tunnel of dirt, stone and the inn’s roots whipped into existence, spinning down the driveway and turning right, down the street. Maud gunned it. My car shot through the tunnel like a cannonball and burst onto the pavement. The Draziri stared after it, too stunned to fire off a shot. I pulled the tunnel back and dissolved it. The whole thing took two seconds. From the street, the house once again appeared normal, just as it had been a few moments ago.
The counter said twenty-nine minutes. Good luck, Maud.
“Our mother used this to provide additional security for high-risk guests leaving the inn,” I said.
“Your mother is a remarkable woman,” Caldenia said. “Now what shall we do about the ants?”
“I think they are having such a nice time walking,” I said. “We should let them continue.”
Caldenia leaned forward and watched as I broke the laws of physics to keep the ants moving. The soil beneath them shifted subtly, a large chunk of the lawn crawling back just as they moved forward. From their monitors, the ground would appear perfectly stationary. Eventually whoever was monitoring them would figure out that they were no closer to the house than they were ten minutes ago, but it would buy me some time.
It bought me fifteen minutes. The ants finally turned, attempting to exit and I jettisoned them into Kolinda’s wastes.
Thirteen minutes.
Across the road, a Draziri abandoned subtlety, hopped onto the wooden fence, and ran along it with breathtaking grace all the way to the right, out of the range of my quiet guns. Another dashed in the opposite direction. The rest followed, splitting into two groups. They were moving through the subdivision, half to the left and half to the right, not sure from which direction the vehicle would be returning.
I launched two probes. The tiny cameras streaked along the street, tracking the Draziri and the split screen showed two groups of invaders. The one on the left holed up next to Timber Trail, a quiet street that was the newest addition to the Avalon subdivision. Lined with houses, it led to an elementary school. The group on the right crouched on the fence just behind the bend of the road. One, two, three, four… Eight on each side.
He had a lot more troops than I expected.