“These points contain that much power?”
“More,” Ursula answered. “If it sets off a chain reaction throughout the network…New York will be known as the city with four boroughs.”
“Three, really,” I corrected. “No self-respecting New Yorker thinks Staten Island is part of the city.”
“True,” Ursula admitted. “I’m going to have to stay here and try to bleed the energy off the line with my hammer. This means—”
“You won’t be able to face Toson at Times Square,” Monty said, putting it together. “Toson is either very clever or extremely desperate.”
“I’d rather deal with very clever,” I said. “Clever people take steps to not make mistakes and fail. Desperate people usually accept failure as an acceptable outcome.”
“Or a combination of both,” Ursula added. “Maybe he knows he’s cornered or running out of time, and this is a Hail Mary play.”
“The orbs he fired,” I said. “What if he knew Jen was close to the end of her shift? He mentioned it when we fought. He fires the orbs and starts the clock on these golems. You saw how hard it was to stop one golem. Can you imagine what he’ll be like—with three?”
“I have my team looking for a way to interrupt this process,” Ursula said. “In the meantime, I’d suggest you find a way to combat these things. One that doesn’t require the equivalent of a runic nuke.”
“I have an idea,” Monty said, and I groaned inwardly. “It may be risky, but I think it can work.”
“Does it involve permutational peristalsis?” I asked. “I only ask because you sound overly excited, which is usually a bad sign.”
“It’s permutational persistence, and rubbish, I don’t sound overly excited.”
“Sure, you don’t.”
“What does he want to do?” Ursula asked, looking at me, then at Monty. “You do sound a little on edge there, Tristan.”
“This hub is a power source, correct?”
“Yes…a considerable power source,” Ursula answered, clearly still unsure of where Monty was going. “One that shouldn’t be tampered with—if you know what I mean?”
“It’s almost identical to the Earth’s Breath in design,” Monty said, gesticulating. Something he did when he encountered a new theory or the possibility of blowing up the city. “I have a way to shortcut the energy output so that the energy being shunted to the golems is stopped.”
“How exactly?” Ursula said, stepping in between Monty and the hub. “What is this shortcut?”
“Using permutational persistence in runes, instead of numbers, I can, in essence, ‘confuse’ the hub into constantly redirecting its energy through these conduits instead of into the golems above.”
“Have you tried this before?” Ursula asked, and I braced myself. “Has this permutational persistence worked anywhere else?”
“This would be my first attempt,” Monty admitted. “But I know it will work.”
“Get out of my hub,” Ursula said, forming her hammer with a crack of lightning. “Don’t make me tell you again.”
THIRTY-TWO
“I’d say that went rather well,” Monty said when we got into the Dark Goat, and I pulled away from the near-hammering at the hands of Ursula. “Don’t you think?”
“Oh, sure,” I said, nodding. “Getting flattened by an angry werebear wielding a hammer of devastation is how I like to unwind, you know—take a load off. Maybe an arm or leg, too.”
“I know my permutational persistence sequence can work, I just need a large enough stable power source to test it on.”
“Tell me you aren’t thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
“We need to flush out Toson.”
“Agreed,” I said. “How about we just give him a call? You know, something friendly and non-threatening, like: ‘Hey, Toson, come out so we can shred you’?”
“This would be the equivalent of giving him the most urgent call. Without the central hub, his plan falls apart. If I can make it appear like the main hub is losing power—”
“Ursula and her team will ride in, slamming you upside the head with her hammer?” I asked. “Is that the outcome you’re looking for?”
“No, Toson will come to us,” Monty said. “He will think the hub has siphoned too much energy from downtown and come to investigate the central hub.”
“He won’t come alone—he has a golem with him,” I said. “With two in the oven downtown.”
“We won’t allow him to activate the other two.”
“Who’s going to be there to stop him?”
“We’ll be there to stop him,” Monty countered. “The shortcut should nullify the effects of the golem’s siphon.”
“We didn’t do so hot last time—well, you did, but I don’t think that was the plan, Human Torch.”
“What do you think is going to happen tonight?” Monty asked. “Once Toson knows Orahjene completed her shift?”
“He’s under time pressure,” I said. “He’ll try to take the central hub and increase his power to match hers.”
“Precisely,” Monty said. “We can’t let that happen.”
“How strong will she be?”
“Stronger than his level right now, and clearly beyond me,” Monty admitted. “This is the only window we have.”
“We can’t go around playing with a nexus point—not just a nexus point, the central hub,” I said. “Did you forget what Ursula said about these points going off? You’ve never done this before.”
“I find your lack of faith…disturbing.”
“Did you just Vader me?”
“When have I been wrong?”
“I seem to recall facing Toson, and InvisiMonty was nowhere to be seen because his shortcut didn’t work. Does that count?”
“I wasn’t wrong,” he said. “I was missing information. My permutational persistence sequence is correct. I can make it work.”
“I wish we had something stronger than your permutational persisting theory,” I said. “Something that could solve this without all the agony and pain I sense coming our way.”
“Life is pain,” Monty said. “Besides, contrary to popular belief, a runic nuke does not exist.”
“A runic nuke sounds like a good idea right now,” I said. “Or at least one that wipes out magic. That way—”
“Don’t,” Monty said, his voice slicing through the Dark Goat. Even Peaches’ ears perked up at his tone. “Don’t ever make that suggestion in the presence of a mage or any magic-user.”
“What?”
