“The Archivarian must be retrieved,” the Hiru said. “Immediately.”

No pressure. The ants were still a good two hundred yards away. The spheres drifted perilously close to the point where they would become a problem.

“The retrieval may have to wait.”

The Hiru leaned forward, his voice gasping. “The Archivarian cannot maintain its form in your planetary conditions. He must be submerged in inert gas to contain himself.”

Inert gas meant an argon chamber. A piece of cake, but only on the inn grounds.

“What happens when he loses his form?” I asked.

“He is a being of energy.”

Not good. So not good. The release of energy could mean anything from explosion, to bright light, to complete disintegration of the local space-time continuum.

“He must be retrieved. We have risked everything.” Desperation vibrated in his voice.

This information would’ve been excellent to have had earlier. “How long?”

“Thirty-four minutes.”

Damn it. I tossed a counter on the wall, seconds ticking back from thirty-four minutes to zero.

“Very well,” I said. “How will the Archivarian know my people?”

“Take this.” The Hiru’s left forearm slid open, revealing a small pen-like transmitter. “He will hunt your signal.”

And so would the Draziri, if they ever put two and two together. Arguing about it would waste time we didn’t have. After we dealt with this initial assault, the Hiru and I would have to sit down and talk.

I nodded and cut off the communication.

“I’ll take care of it,” Maud said.

I loved my sister so much. “Take my car. It’s bulletproof. Walmart is only seven or eight minutes from here.”

“My lady,” Arland said, and it took me a second to register that he wasn’t talking to me. “I would be honored to assist.”

“I can handle it,” Maud said.

“Take the vampire, my dear,” Caldenia said. “You never know when you may require muscle.”

Maud’s eyebrows knitted together.

I pulled the feed from the Park Street. At first glance everything appeared normal. Fortunately, the inn had been recording the street for the last four hours. A comparative analysis took only a few fractions of a second and the contours of four Draziri lit up on the screen, each wrapped in a high tech camo cloak. The cloak mimicked the surroundings the same way a chameleon would, replicating the fence and the bushes with painstaking accuracy. They must’ve had some way to block their body heat as well, because they didn’t show up on the infrared scan.

The Draziri waited in the shadows, two by Mr. Ramirez’s fence and two on the other side of the Camelot road leading into Avalon subdivision. They caught a lucky break - Mr. Ramirez had left for his weekly bowling meeting and took his dog with him.

“How much cover can you give me?” Maud asked.

“I can do Mom’s Take Care,” I said.

“That should be good enough.”

“Exit won’t be a problem,” Arland said. “But the return may present a slight difficulty.”

Thirty minutes. We had to decide now.

Arland was right. The Draziri wouldn’t expect them to leave, but they would expect the vehicle to return. My range was limited and I was bound by the innkeeper laws. I couldn’t do anything too loud or too obvious. The Draziri would ambush the vehicle on its way back. One well aimed shot from any number of fun galactic weapons, and my sister, Arland, and the Archivarian would be vaporized.

A quick calculation took place behind Maud’s eyes. She turned to the vampire. “Lord Arland, it is my honor to accept your generous offer.”

Arland unleashed his smile. It bounced from Maud like dry peas from the wall.

My sister strained, concentrating. I felt the inn move in response. The ceiling above us parted and car keys fell into her palm.

“Told you,” I said. “Like riding a bicycle. Don’t forget the Hiru’s gadget.”

She turned and ran. Arland followed her.

The robot spheres clicked in unison, preparing to explode. I smiled and punched a hole through reality. For an instant, an orange plain flashed under a purple sky, a vista that couldn’t be found anywhere on Earth. The dimensional rip bit at the spheres. The robotic mines vanished, transported in a moment to a planet thousands of light-years away. There was no return from Kolinda.

I let the ants continue.

“You’re toying with him, dear,” Caldenia said.

“I’m letting him think he still has an ace up his sleeve.”

“I approve.” She smiled, her eyes sparkling with delight.

The image of the garage appeared on my left. Maud revved the engine. Arland sat in the passenger seat, a positron cannon in his hand.

I took in magic, building it up.

“What is ‘Mom’s Take Care?’” Caldenia asked.

“You will see.”

The magic wound around me, tight and ready. The inn creaked.

Maud gave me an okay through the windshield. I shoved with my magic. The garage door vanished. A tunnel of dirt, stone and the inn’s roots whipped into existence, spinning down the driveway and turning right, down the street. Maud gunned it. My car shot through the tunnel like a cannonball and burst onto the pavement. The Draziri stared after it, too stunned to fire off a shot. I pulled the tunnel back and dissolved it. The whole thing took two seconds. From the street, the house once again appeared normal, just as it had been a few moments ago.