Chapter 26: Which One Said Please?

Dante checked the adjoining store doorway when white light sealed the main exit. It was still open. Posey stopped beside Professor Vale, her notebook against her stomach, and the copy waited for her answer as though the emergency existed to give it an audience.

"I don’t have to prove anything to you," she told the figure, moving back when Professor Vale guided her away from the blocked exit. Her free hand found Dante’s jacket sleeve as they regrouped behind Professor Bell’s barrier.

The copy simply smiled without looking at Professor Bell, while Senn asked the officer in the store whether the connecting route remained open. The man answered from beyond the narrow doorway, explaining that the corridor exit was clear on his side of the new wall.

The technician opened her evidence case beside the desk. Dante retrieved his bag and used his shoe to stop her case sliding while she packed the player and sleeved card, then waited until she shut the lid before moving.

"Could you stop wearing my face?" Dante demanded. Was that the opening line he wanted witnesses to remember? Anika told him to save licensing complaints until they escaped, which answered the more useful question.

The copy lifted its hand, and white light spread over the control-room barrier in a slow curve. Professor Bell’s hooked lines brightened as he held them with two extended fingers, watching the window rather than wasting breath pretending it wasn’t pressure.

Professor Vale called security for outside isolation of the stage supply. The reply came clearly. Dante had expected secret battles to disable communications, but apparently a man could enjoy excellent reception while his double tried killing him.

Posey tightened her grip on his sleeve and glanced toward the store doorway. Dante turned with her, but his voice from the stage promised that everyone following him would be perfectly safe.

Dante recognized the pause before the promise from the recording Professor Bell had played. The copy was looking straight at Posey, using his own words to keep her listening while the barrier strained. "Senn, can we get through the store?" he asked, turning toward the open doorway instead of waiting for the thing to finish.

Senn directed them to the store. Dante moved with Posey, wanting their unfinished evening enough to stop arguing with his replacement. "Please stay with me," she whispered. He promised and kept his bag clear, giving the words something useful to mean.

Anika went ahead to check the narrow doorway, leaving room for the technician to carry the case past her. Dante checked the floor, then the copy’s raised hand. He wanted to warn Professor Bell if it moved again, not trip over his own bag trying to look fearless.

The figure tilted its head and called him frightened, sounding pleased with the discovery.

Professor Bell told Anika to assume it heard everything. Dante studied its confident posture. Of course it looked calm; the professor was taking the strain while it delivered lines. He recognized the attraction of that arrangement and liked the copy less.

"I am frightened, but you don’t get to take her anywhere." He kept his ordinary voice. His stomach remained awful afterward. Apparently claiming the moment didn’t automatically supply the strength to survive it, though he wished someone had explained that earlier.

A second strip of white appeared across the glass, separate from the barrier over the exit. Professor Bell drew a smaller hooked form with his free hand and spoke its final sounds through his teeth, bracing the protective wall before the new pressure struck.

The control desk jolted as the pressure struck Professor Bell’s shield. Senn steadied the technician as she backed toward the store with the closed evidence case, while Anika guided Posey and Dante toward the narrow entrance. Professor Vale stayed beside Professor Bell, passing his instructions to security over the phone.

"Move where I’m putting you, darling, and argue when you’ve got a door between you and that thing," Anika said. Her hand held the back of his jacket without touching his burns, making the instruction practical enough that he obeyed before becoming embarrassed.

The officer led them between the stacked scenery and through the store’s corridor door. Dante followed Posey into the passage, keeping his bag against his leg until the technician and her case were through. Anika came after them, while Senn stayed at the doorway to check that nobody had been left behind.

He looked back until the officer waved him along. His private version of this scene ended with him covering everyone’s retreat. The real one had Professor Bell doing that, and charging back with one useful hand would only increase the professor’s workload.

"Shouldn’t they be coming too?" he asked Senn, slowing without letting go of Posey’s sleeve. The inspector told him Professor Bell was covering their escape and Professor Vale was keeping security informed, then pointed him toward the next door. "Help me get everyone clear so they can follow us."

Posey tucked her notebook beneath her arm and offered him her hand. "Could you hold this one instead? I don’t want to pull on your jacket if you need to move." He took it with his good hand, grateful she had given him something to do besides imagine what was happening behind them.

At the passage door, Dante counted Posey, Anika, and the technician, then confirmed all three to Senn. An ordinary task, performed correctly. He could resent its lack of grandeur once the professors were safely through.

A muffled crash came from the control room. Dante turned toward it, but Senn held up a hand before he could step past him. The inspector called back through the open store doorway, asking whether Professor Bell needed help, and waited until Professor Vale shouted that they should keep moving.

"Jett is never choosing our next outing," he told Posey, keeping his voice low enough that it was only for her. "If he suggests a building with a stage, I’m reporting him before we buy tickets." Her mouth moved into a small smile, although she kept watching the door ahead.

A faint click came from the technician’s closed case. She stopped beside Senn and checked the catches without opening it, then held it away from her body when Dante’s voice came from inside. It repeated his complaint about Jett, right down to the pause before tickets.

Dante stared at the case, remembering the recorder’s loose power cable and the card she had put into its sleeve. He hadn’t said that line before today, and he hadn’t said it where the copy could see him. Then his voice spoke again from beneath the closed lid, telling Posey to let go of his hand because the man beside her wasn’t Dante.