"It's the fog!" I yelled to Molly. "Disperse the fog! That's what gives them a hold on this world!"
Even as a dozen of the dark shapes fell upon her, Molly raised both hands and blasted the fog with a sheet of blisteringly hot flames. The fog was blown away in a moment, consumed by the intense heat, and along with the fog went all of the dark shapes. The air was clear and distinct and utterly empty, and Molly and I were left alone on the snowy prospect.
I sat down hard. I couldn't tell how badly hurt I was without lowering my armour, and I wasn't about to do that and expose myself to the cold. I hurt all over, but it didn't feel like anything was broken. I flexed my fingers and my toes, and tried to probe my ribs through my armour, but had to stop that because it hurt too much. Molly came crashing through the deep snow to join me. She wasn't hovering anymore, from which I deduced that the fight had taken a lot out of her too. I forced myself up onto my feet again. We stood facing each other, like two fighters fresh out of the ring, trying to hide how hurt we were.
"You okay?" I said finally.
"Down, but not out," she said. "You?"
"Shaken, but not stirred. What the hell were they?"
"Beats the hell out of me," said Molly. "Some kind of demon. Clearly someone at Area 52 didn't place all their faith in science."
"Magical attack dogs," I said. "Hate to think what Area 52 paid for their services…"
"Come on," said Molly. "We have to get out of here. There's always the chance the fog could re-form, and then the demons would be back again."
"Moving right along," I said. "Moving right bloody along."
Finally, at a point in the snowy landscape that looked just like every other, the Merlin Glass appeared in my hand without waiting to be summoned, and shook and shuddered like a divining rod in the presence of an underground lake. I held it firmly, and the scene in the hand mirror exactly matched the scene before me. Molly peered over my shoulder into the Glass, and sniffed loudly.
"I'm starting to think that thing's alive."
"Funny you should say that," I said. "The Armourer thinks there's someone trapped inside the Glass, hiding in the background of its reflections."
"Okay, seriously creeping me out now," said Molly. "As long as it doesn't turn out to be a young Victorian girl with long blond hair."
"I said that!"
"You would."
I put the Glass away, and studied the scene before me with my Sight. And there, buried deep under the snow, was a circular steel door, maybe ten feet in diameter. I pointed it out to Molly, and she whooped loudly as she confirmed it. I dug away the snow with great handfuls, and then looked back to see Molly watching me.
"You could help, you know," I said.
"I just like watching you work," she said. "Or maybe I just like the thought of you all sweaty."
"Oh good," I said. "I knew there had to be a reason. Want me to build you a snowman, when I'm done here?"
"Did you bring any carrots?"
"Damn," I said, clearing the last of the snow away. "Knew I forgot something."
"Why did they bury the entrance so deep?" said Molly, coming in close for a better look. "It's like no one's used it for years."
"From the look of it, this was never intended for use as an entrance," I said. "This has all the appearances of an emergency exit. For getting out of Area 52 in a hurry, when the brown stuff is hitting the revolving blades."
I crouched down in the hole I'd made, and studied the steel door carefully. Molly pressed in close, peering over my shoulder. The door was solid steel, inches thick, with a really complicated locking system. Reminded me very much of an airlock.
"I could probably smash through this," I said finally. "It's only steel. But given the sophistication of the locking systems, I'd bet good money that any break in the door's integrity would result in a complete shutdown of the access systems. Not to mention setting off all sorts of alarms and security systems. Which means… either we figure out how to open all those locks, or we don't get in."
"When in doubt, cheat," Molly said cheerfully. "Lend me that Chameleon Codex thing of yours, for a minute."
I reached through my golden armour at the wrist, carefully undid one of my cuff links by touch, brought it out and handed it to Molly. I watched interestedly as she pressed the cuff link carefully against the various sensors, picking up the latent DNA traces left by whoever touched them last, preserved, hopefully, by the snow and the cold. She then held the cuff link up, muttered over it for a while, and suddenly a small cloud of dust motes was flying around her hand. They leapt up and coalesced into a vaguely human shape, becoming gradually clearer and more distinct as Molly shaped them with her muttered Words. She was putting together what we in the trade call a smoke ghost: a mindless, soulless re-creation of a human body, made from discarded DNA, skin flakes and other human remnants, mixed with whatever happened to be floating about in the air at the time. Not real, not even the memory of a person, just a flimsy spectre created from what men leave behind them. They don't tend to last long, but you can do all kinds of interesting things with them.
Molly's first few attempts at smoke ghost sculpting weren't too successful-deformed and misshapen, bits missing or wildly out of proportion… but eventually she put together something that would pass. It crouched in the hole with us, bent over the steel door, made of shades of grey so fine it was hardly there. It had no sense of presence, of anyone actually being there with us, which was actually quite disturbing. I gestured sharply for Molly to get a move on, and the smoke ghost moved jerkily as Molly moved it with her mind. It presented its grey eye to the retina scanner, touched the fingerprint lock with a grey fingertip, and even managed a few words for the voice recognition circuits. And then it collapsed, returning to the dust from which it was made.
"Freaky," I said.
"Lot you know," said Molly. "I knew this guy who used to put together smoke ghosts just so he could have sex with them…"
"Far too much information," I said.
The steel door revolved slowly beneath us, making low grinding noises, and then fell away, revealing a bleak steel chamber below. A light snapped on, illuminating the chamber. It had no details, no controls, just a single red button on one wall. Molly drew back, shaking her head.
"No way. There is no way on this good earth that I am trusting myself to that. I mean, come on; it looks like a coffin!"
"Emergency escape capsules are not usually noted for their frills and fancies," I said patiently. "It's the only way in, Molly."
She scowled. "Damn thing hasn't been used for years. Suppose it gets stuck halfway down? Or we can't open the door at the other end?"
"Then you'll just have to teleport us the rest of the way."
"Jump blind? In a base crawling with all kinds of shields and protections? Are you crazy?"
"I was hoping for a rather different response," I said. "Look-this is the only way into Area 52 that we know of. And time, as you have already pointed out, is getting tight."
"I really don't want to get into that thing," muttered Molly.
"I'll hold your hand," I said. "You'll be fine. Come on, be a brave little soldier and you can have a sweetie afterwards."
"You want a slap?"
We helped each other down into the steel chamber. It was big enough to hold maybe half a dozen people, if they were all on really friendly terms. It was the lack of details that made it so claustrophobic; this wasn't a place people were supposed to be in, unless they absolutely had to. I pressed the red button firmly, and the heavy steel door lifted back up into place, revolved a few times, and was still. For a worryingly long moment nothing happened, and then the chamber descended slowly into the depths. There was no sound of any motor, no sense of speed, only the sense of falling into an unknowable pit.