‘Explosions. I think anyway.’
‘Should we find the others?’
Melissa shook her head. ‘The network’s down. There’s no way to contact them. The best thing to do is wait here until Nava comes to get us.’
‘You seem quite sure she will.’ Rochester watched as various people got to their feet, looking confused. A couple started for the doors.
‘She will. I have absolutely no doubt at all.’
~~~
In a panel on advanced medical spells and their potential effect on society, Courtney and Kyle both got to their feet as the detonations echoed through the building. Mitsuko did not stand, but she opened her ketcom out, reached for the messaging app, and then paused as she noticed the flashing indicator which said she had no connectivity.
‘The building’s network is down,’ she said. ‘No, I’m not even seeing a weaker signal from outside.’
Courtney bent to look at Mitsuko’s screen. ‘Jamming,’ she said, her voice low to avoid panicking the people nearby. ‘Someone’s jamming communications. Combine that with explosions…’
‘Someone’s attacking the symposium? Maybe the increased security suggested something might happen, but–’
‘We won’t know until we go look.’
‘We should stay put,’ Mitsuko said firmly.
‘What? But–’
‘Right now, Nava is on her way here. She’ll either stop off and bring Chess and Mel, or she’ll be heading to wherever they are from here. You did notice that she made a point of finding out where we were all going to be before we split up, didn’t you? When we’re all together, then we can see what needs to be done.’
‘The president has a point, Courtney,’ Kyle said. ‘She’s right about Nava. She is going to be heading this way and we would be better off working as a group.’
Courtney frowned. ‘You’re right.’ She realised that she sounded sullen and her frown got deeper. ‘I wish we had some information. What the Hell is going on?’
~~~
‘What’s going on?’
Nava found it interesting that Darius thought she would know. He had emerged from one of the theatres and fallen in beside her as she walked through the corridors of the centre, avoiding the relatively few individuals who had left the panels so far. That was going to change: pretty soon, she figured, there would be a large-scale exodus and total chaos.
‘I don’t know,’ Nava replied, ‘but if the first two people on my list have kept their heads, we’ll have more information soon.’ She turned left, pushing past a group of delegates who were standing at the door of a theatre, looking out with trepidation and confusion on their faces.
‘How are you going to–’
‘Mel,’ Nava said before he could go on.
Melissa and Rochester moved out into the aisle as Nava approached. ‘It’s bad,’ Melissa said.
Nodding, Nava turned to Rochester. ‘You did some scouting?’
‘Briefly,’ Rochester replied. ‘There’s one of those robot tanks in the lobby. The spider-shaped things. It wiped out the ASF people, and everyone else, down there. People in combat gear came in after it. They’re securing the ground floor, but they’ll be up here soon.’
‘Armament?’
‘The tank has machine guns and light cannons. The men are carrying assault rifles. Old-style things like you see the goons in action movies using.’
‘Okay.’ Nava mulled over that for a second.
‘How do you know all this?’ Darius asked. ‘You’re a support student. You can’t have been out there to scout.’
‘Sorcerer’s Eye,’ Melissa said. ‘Support sorcery does exactly what it says on the tin. Chess can go look around in conditions you’d get shot to pieces in. So, we provide the support you need to do the simple part.’ She frowned at the VP. ‘Nava understands that. Why don’t you?’
‘Never mind that,’ Nava said before Darius could start an argument, ‘right now we need to go pick up Suki and the others. When we’re all somewhere secure, I’d like Chess to do some more scouting.’
‘Of course,’ Rochester replied. ‘Where is more secure?’
‘Good question. Let’s go get everyone else first.’
~~~
The convention centre was basically built on three levels. Down at ground level there was the lobby, security facilities, the cafeteria, and the largest theatre where the opening ceremony had been conducted. At the top there were offices and meeting rooms. In the middle there were the bulk of the theatres and the bulk of the delegates who were now starting to panic as armed men rushed in, shouting for people to get down on the floor and make no sudden movements.
Nava had taken everyone up to the third floor and into an empty meeting room, ignoring Courtney’s questions until they were inside. ‘Melissa, lock the door,’ she said as soon as they were in. ‘Then I want you to put a wall up right behind it. Even if they break through the locking spell, they won’t be able to open the door.’ She neglected to mention the possibility of them blasting their way in with a grenade or something. Better to stay positive at a time like this. ‘Chess, get your Sorcerer’s Eye going. Fast survey of all three levels and the roof, please.’
‘On it,’ Melissa and Chess chorused.
‘That door doesn’t lock,’ Darius pointed out.
‘It will for me,’ Melissa replied, pressing her palm to the door in question. Light shimmered over the surface and she smiled. ‘You’ve never heard of Magelock? It’s funny because we don’t use the term “mage” these days. It was actually named for a spell found in fiction going back centuries. It’ll seal any door, lockable or not.’
Darius’s cheeks coloured. ‘I had actually heard of that,’ he mumbled just as Melissa summoned up a wall of energy which sat no more than two centimetres from the door and covered the entire wall. ‘That, um, that ought to hold them.’
‘Hope so. My walls aren’t the strongest, unfortunately.’
Fawn was now with them having appeared in one of the corridors as they made their way to the stairs up. She was ASF, but she was unarmed. She did not even have sorcery to work with and she was as much in the dark as everyone else. ‘What do you have on what we’re facing?’ she
