“It’ll still take time.” He glanced over at the old school clock hanging on the wall in the kitchen. “It’s past eleven now. It’ll be close to midnight when you’re ready to leave. By the time you get to the mall, you’ve both already been up for what—sixteen, seventeen hours? You’ll be facing whoever created this thing when you’re tired. You won’t be thinking as quickly or as clearly. The bad guys could win before you even get started and then where’s the world? Up sh…the creek without a paddle.” Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly, holding Claire’s gaze with his, lacing the fingers of his right hand through the fingers of her left. “You’ve got to weigh the delay against going in tired and unprepared. You should sleep tonight and go in tomorrow morning.”
Diana opened her mouth to deliver a blistering reply, and snapped it shut again as Austin said,“He’s right.”
“He’s a Bystander!”
“And I’m a cat, so listen up.” He climbed from Claire’s lap up onto the table, leaving sweaty paw prints on the polished wood. “Going in tired and unprepared is a good way to get our collective butts kicked but, more importantly, going in tonight gives the advantage to the other side.”
“You mean the Otherside?” Diana sniped.
“Don’t interrupt. Two Keepers and two cats head into an empty mall in the middle of the night and we might as well call first to tell them we’re coming. There’s no way even the most idiotic, written for television, evil overlord isn’t going to notice something like that. The moment we cross over, BAM! And that’s if we’re lucky. We all know there’s a whole lot worse than BAM waiting out there.”
“No, we don’t.” Ears saddled, Sam sat down on Diana’s foot. “What’s worse than BAM?”
“Splat. Crunch. Grind. Chew.” When no one seemed inclined to argue, Austin continued. “We get a good night’s sleep and go in tomorrow morning with all the other shoppers, hiding in plain sight. We slip across with no one the wiser, you two close down the segue, and we’re home by lunch.”
“Lunch?”
Austin snorted.“Okay, it’s a metaphorical lunch some days in the future.”
“Look, it’s my Summons,” Diana protested, tumbling Sam off her foot and jerking her chair away from the table. She had a strong suspicion that had come out sounding whinier than she’d intended.
“You came here for help,” Claire reminded her. “You were there, in the mall; is there a chance the copy will be matched up before morning?”
“No. But…”
“Then I vote we wait. But you’re right.” She raised the hand not holding Dean’s in surrender. “It’s your Summons. Only you can make the final decision.”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“Then stop acting so childish. When you got here, you were willing to stop for a sandwich, and now you’re set on charging in where angels fear to tread.”
“Angels don’t fear much,” Sam began, caught sight of Austin’s expression, and decided he’d rather be under the table.
Diana folded her arms and just managed to stop her lip from curling. Knowing they were right didn’t help. “All right, fine. We’ll go in the morning.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“And now that’s settled, I’m going to bed.” Austin stepped from the table to Claire’s lap to the floor, glaring at Dean on the way by. “These days, if I don’t stake my claim early, all the good spots are taken.”
“We’ll be there in a few minutes,” Claire told him, her tone very nearly making the words a warning.
“Oh, joy.” He stopped, one paw in the hall, and glanced back over an immaculate black shoulder. “Don’t forget to pack the cat food.”
“And thus we have the subtitle for my life,” Claire sighed, getting to her feet. “When you left to answer this Summons, did you tell Mom and Dad where you were heading?”
“They weren’t home. I left them a note.”
“You should call before you go to bed.”
“Yeah. Right.” Picking up her sandwich plate, Diana headed for the kitchen only to be stopped by Dean’s outstretched hand.
“I’ve got it.”
“I was just going to put it in the dishwasher. Claire said business was good enough that you guys bought a dishwasher.”
“We did.”
“So?”
The blue eyes behind the glasses met hers without apology.“I like to load it.”
“He has a system,” Claire put in.
“Whatever.” Diana handed over the plate and watched Dean walk into the kitchen. “He’s just a little obsessive,” she murmured as Claire moved up beside her.
“A little…”
The faded jeans stretched tight as he bent over to set the plate in the lower rack.
“…but there are compensations.”
“Oh, yeah. I can tell you’re with him for his mind.” Grabbing her backpack, she headed for the hall. “So, in the interest of being rested and prepared, I’m going to grab the key to room one and crash. Come on, Sam.”
Eyes still on Dean, Claire waved absently toward her sister.“Call home.”
“Bite me.”
*
Accelerating to make the end of the advance green, Dean cranked his truck hard to the left and roared up into the mall’s parking lot. Just after ninea.m. the temperature had already climbed past thirty degrees C; unusually hot for the end of June. Three adults and two cats didn’t leave a lot of room for air flow in the cab and exposed skin would have been covered in a glistening layer of sweat had not the fine patina of cat hair caught—and dimmed—the glisten.
“That’s the entrance by the food court,” Diana declared, pointing out the open window. “Turn here.”
Dean turned.
“If it’s the closest entrance to the Emporium, it’ll be the most watched and therefore the most likely to be guarded,” Claire argued, holding her skirt up off the damp skin of her legs with two fingers. “Turn back onto the roadway and head for the door Diana used last night. We know we can get through that one.”
Dean turned.
“We don’t know that we can’t get through the closer one.”
“We don’t want to risk setting off an alarm.”
“And the longer we spend wandering around the mall, the greater the chance we’ll be discovered. Dean, turn here.”
Dean turned.
“Charging in on a direct line to the Emporium is a lot more likely to get us noticed. Dean, turn here.”
Dean stopped the truck.
Both sisters shot him essentially identical looks of disbelief as they rocked forward against their seat belts.
“You either walk from here,” he told them calmly, “or you agree on an entrance.”
The cab filled with overlapping protests and no agreement.
Irresistible brown eyes met immovable brown eyes.
“Okay, that’s it.” Austin flowed up over the back of the seat. “Since two of us are out here sweltering in fur coats…”
“I’m okay,” Sam interrupted.
“Shut up, kid….sweltering in fur coats,” he repeated, “and there’s air-conditioning behind whatever door we decide to go through, I’m making an executive decision.” He jumped down onto Claire’s lap and put his front paws up onto the dash. “What’s wrong with those doors? They’re closest.”
Claire shook her head.“They lead to one of this reality’s anchor stores. The way things are skewed, we might not be able to get out.”
“Fine. What about the next doors?”
“Same store.”
“And the doors after that?”
“That,” Diana told him, arms crossed and sitting as slumped as her seat belt and the crowded conditions allowed, “is where I went in last night.”
“Then that’s where we’re going in today.”
“But it’s my Summons. I should be in charge.”
Austin’s head swiveled slowly around and caught Diana in an emerald glare.
“Okay,” she muttered, wondering whose bright idea it had been that Keepers hang out with cats. “We’ll go in there.”
“Excellent idea. Claire?”
She decided not to point out that it was where she wanted to go all along.“I agree.”