'There is that,' I said. 'Hello, there he goes, up the back stairs to the top floor, and the auction site. At least he's got enough sense to let his troops lead the way…'
The black-and-gold-clad mercenaries moved silently up the back stairs, moving with calm and sinister grace. They'd clearly rehearsed this. One man went ahead holding up a Hand of Glory, its dark magics defusing the few security spells in the stairway. Another soldier shut down the electronic surveillance systems with a small localised EMP. The Doctor gave every indication of actually having thought things through. Either that, or he'd hired someone who knew what he was doing. I knew which way I'd bet. The Doctor's troops reached the top of the stairwell, and the man in the lead started packing plastique against the closed door. Doctor Delirium really wanted his Door. And didn't care who got hurt in the process.
I sighed heavily, and told my torc to? pull back its extension. The golden sunglasses ran quickly down my cheek, and back into the torc. The world seemed very grey, and very empty, without the Sight. I looked at Luther.
'We're going to have to get personally involved,' I said. 'A hands-on practical intervention, with no holds barred. If the Apocalypse Door really is as powerful as the Doctor clearly believes it to be… he can't be allowed to have it.'
'Unfortunately, I have to agree,' said Luther. 'It's time to armour up and smite the ungodly with vim and vigour. But Eddie, please, let's try and keep the collateral damage down to a minimum. I have to live in this town.'
'You suit yourself,' I said. 'Personally, I plan to beat the shit out of anyone that doesn't run away fast enough, throw the Doctor and his troops back through their own dimensional door, grab the Apocalypse Door and then leg it for the nearest horizon.'
'A workable plan,' said Luther. 'And at least this way, we don't have to face the bloody dragon.'
I subvocalised my activating Words, and my golden armour leapt out of my torc, insulating me from the world in a moment. I flexed my arms and breathed deeply, feeling strong and sure and more than ready to kick the arse of Evil and make it cry like a baby. Luther armoured up beside me, his golden form blazing brightly in the LA sun. For a moment he looked like the Oscar statue come to dangerous and vicious life, and then the armour shifted and stirred about his body, the strange matter flowing into new shapes and forms as he concentrated. The torc provides a basic suit of armour, like a second skin, and for centuries that was good enough for the Droods; but then a soldier from the distant future showed us how to reshape and personalise our armour, the better to strike terror into our enemies and suit our individual needs and capabilities. It takes a lot of concentration to make a new shape, and hold it, but we're learning by doing.
Given the shape of Luther's armour, it was clear he'd spent entirely too much time watching old Transformers cartoons. His armour was large and bulky, padded out with gun emplacements that might or might not actually do anything. I was ready to bet good money that his armour would revert to standard the moment the mayhem started, and he needed all his concentration for the fight. I still kept to the basic shape, just jazzing it up a little here and there. I favour the old knightly style, with hints of greaves and a breastplate. I still kept the featureless golden face mask. Nothing like a blank eyeless face to freak out the bad guys.
'So,' said Luther. 'A traditionalist. This is the city of the future, Eddie. Only the very best will do here. Try and keep up.'
'Funny,' I said. 'I was about to say the same to you.'
'Oh shit,' said Luther, abruptly.
Once again, he was staring up at the top of the hotel. I craned back my head and followed his gaze. Another dimensional doorway had opened up, hovering in the sky above the roof of the Magnificat. And this time, it was very much the real deal. A state-of-the-art, all-the-bells-and-whistles gateway; a perfect circle some hundred feet in diameter, with edges so sharply defined you could almost hear the air splitting as it hit them. I caught just a glimpse of a whole different sky through the circle, before it dropped down over the chained dragon. The Lampton Wyrm looked up, startled, its hideous gargoyle head rising up and up on its long neck, and the circle just sucked the dragon up off the roof and into itself. The circle then collapsed and disappeared, taking the dragon with it. All that remained on the roof was a short length of glowing chain.
'Happy as I am to see the dragon gone,' I said, 'I find myself seriously disturbed. That… had to take a hell of a lot of power. Which means… someone else has come early to the auction.'
'Why does everything have to be so complicated?' said Luther, wistfully.
The dimensional gateway returned, just as large and twice as impressive, and a whole army of armed and armoured men fell out of it onto the hotel roof. They were all dressed in basic leathers and body armour, with no identifying patches or tags. They moved quickly to rehearsed positions on the roof, while a core group set up explosive charges.
'So, the Doctor goes in through the backdoor, and this bunch goes in through the roof,' said Luther. 'Should be interesting… Any idea who these new boys are, Eddie?'
'Not a clue. No one should have been able to organise an operation this extensive without our knowing something in advance. I shall have some serious words with the family pre-cogs when I get back.'
'The new boys aren't local,' said Luther. 'Do we assume they are also here for the Apocalypse Door?'
'Would seem likely,' I said. 'Though I really hate the idea that there are two sets of people who know more about it than we do.'
The new arrivals blew a hole right through the roof with a shaped charge, dropped a bunch of ropes through, and rappelled down into the top floor. And at pretty much the same time, Doctor Delirium's plastique charge blew the stairwell door clean off its hinges, and they all charged through into the auction site. Both sides took one look at the other, and opened up with all guns blazing. Bullets filled the air, mowing down the auction's security guards in a moment. The remote-control zombies were punched this way and that by the impact of the bullets, staggering back and forth, with dust and bone fragments erupting from their bullet-riddled bodies. One by one they went down as their legs were blasted out from under them, and they lay thrashing or crawling on the floor, ignored by both sides.
The two sets of soldiers dug in at opposite ends of the auction room, using overturned furniture and the shielded auction items for shelter. The firefight was doing a lot of structural damage, but there weren't many bodies yet. Both sides were clearly professionals. The shooting gradually died down to occasional suppressional fire, as both sides considered what to do next. A remote control zombie rose up on one elbow, and denounced both sides with its dead voice. There was a single shot, and its head exploded.
'So much for our original plan,' said Luther. 'What do we do now?'
'We go in,' I said. 'We bestow beatings on one and all, take the guns away from both sides, and shut this nonsense down before it starts attracting attention. Then I will grab the Apocalypse Door and it's head for the horizon time.'
'Shouldn't we take some prisoners, ask some questions?' said Luther.
'If you must,' I said.
'I feel I should remind you, there are two private armies in there, going head to head with extensive firepower, explosives and nerve gas grenades,' said Luther. 'You really want to just charge right in?'
'Two armies; one for each of us.'
Luther shook his head slowly. 'There is such a thing as overconfidence, even for a Drood.'
'First problem,' I said. 'Our armour should get us through the hotel's outer defences okay, but we are going to set off all kinds of alarms… The last thing we need is for the two sides to discover who's coming, and team up against us.'
'Worry not,' said Luther. 'I've got a basic can opener and alarm-suppressor that the Armourer sent through, just the other day. For testing. He thought I might find a use for it, given that LA has so many secrets to hide, and so many different ways of hiding them. It should open up the force shields and the magic screens, while shutting down the alarms. Notice my emphasis on the word should.'
'The Armourer has always believed in the triumph of optimism over experience,' I said solemnly. 'It's not that his wonderful gadgets don't work; it's just that they will insist on working in unex pected ways. But you can't complain, or he sulks. All right; let's do it.'
'Lock and load,' said Luther. 'And God help the guilty.'
'Native,' I said sadly. 'Definitely native.'
We moved forward, two golden statues striding across the plaza towards the Magnificat Hotel. No one noticed
