This was it.
For several days, Dom had been busy. With the information Elle had given him, he had managed to contact her erstwhile former employer - not the goons the man had sent to do the job last time, but the man himself - and with some fast talking and the promise of something else from his own personal collection of treasures, as well as the emerald, a meeting had been set up.
It was to take place on neutral territory; the Natural History Museum in London, as a matter of fact, necessitating a few favors being called in by Dom to enable the place to be prepared the way he needed. With a couple of trusted mages from GrangerGuild's Research and Development Department working on that, he had then turned his attention to something he considered far more important - removing all trace of Elle Marlowe and her daughter from Earth.
In a matter of days, he'd had her bank account emptied, the contents pushed through several other temporary accounts before ending up under the care of Rhy'Din's own banking system. Her home, which had been picked over by the same goons who had threatened her, was packed up; her belongings, and Daisy's, safely transferred into storage in Rhy'Din City, and the house itself hastily sold to a friend who worked in London's real estate market. That profit, too, had been pushed through another maze of temporary bank accounts before ending up in Elle's personal account on Rhy'Din. The paper trail, if anyone tried to follow it, ended the moment the first of those temporary accounts was closed. It would be impossible to trace her that way.
Satisfied that Elle and Daisy were now as safe as they could be on Rhy'Din, Dom had returned his attention to the upcoming meeting. It was a risky business, certainly, but he had more at his beck and call than simply wits and the ability to take a punch, assets he knew he was going to have to make use of if he wanted to get out of this alive. Security at the Natural History Museum had been replaced by hired GrangerGuild security men and women for the day - a necessary precaution, and one he'd had to talk fast to the board of directors to have them agree to. Once they understood, however, that their museum was merely a neutral location, and that their own treasures were in no danger, they had agreed, prepared to trust the professor who had contributed a great deal to their enterprise in his own way over the years.
He waited in Hintze Hall, the first great space in the museum as you entered, standing beneath the tall dinosaur skeleton that was understandably the museum's pride and joy. It was difficult not to feel nervous, especially with the groups of school children wandering around. He knew the dangerous men he was about to meet with would not think twice about harming a child, but he was fairly confident that they would not have an opportunity to do so.
A raised voice brought his attention to the entrance way, and he felt his tension rack up another couple of notches. There they were, arguing with the security guards who were insisting that they pass through the hastily installed metal detectors and hand over any weaponry they might be carrying. It wasn't standard procedure for the museum, but Dom wasn't taking any chances. The GrangerGuild team were not going to let anyone pass through the entrance while armed, not today.
There seemed to be a good few of them there, reluctantly divesting themselves of guns and knives, submitting to being patted down with bad grace. At least seven of them, but of that seven, Dom found his eyes focusing on the one man who had not set off the detector at all. Confident enough not to go armed ....that was his mark. A man not too much older than he was, Dom estimated, probably in his late forties, watching his goons with a certain amount of wry humor. He didn't seem annoyed by this setback, only amused. That wasn't very reassuring.
Still, he was here. Phase one complete.
Remaining where he was, Dom watched as the group approached him, careful not to show any emotion at all when he was addressed.
"Professor Granger, I presume?" the leader of this gang of thugs greeted him, offering a hand to shake. "I am Mark Cornell. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Mr. Cornell." Dom inclined his head to the man, shaking his hand politely. His eyes swept over Cornell's six "friends". "Work outing, is it?"
Cornell laughed easily, reclaiming his hand as he fell into step with Dom, the six others ranged about behind them. "My fellows get to see so little of culture in its preferred context," he explained, though Dom had a feeling this had more to do with a concern that he was going to cause them issues. "It is rare, professor, for anyone to reach through lines of communication and contact me personally. I am curious to know how you managed it."
Leading the way through the Dinosaurs and into Human Biology, Dom glanced at the man, one brow raised. "You don't really think you're the only man in the world who has contacts, do you?" he asked, careful to put only curiosity into his tone. Any hint of mockery, and he didn't think they'd make it to the room set aside for their meeting.
"Odd, that a professor should have such contacts that would make this meeting possible," Cornell pointed out. He was fishing for information, no doubt so he could seal up the lines Dom had used to find him.
"Just call me the Indiana Jones of anthropology," Dom suggested with a wry smile of his own. He wasn't stupid enough to hand over names. If this didn't come out the way he had planned, that would put friends in grave danger.
He was very aware of the six men walking behind them, aware of how pinned in, how cornered he was going to be very shortly. Through the Mammals exhibit, and into the Blue Whale room, he kept up the polite, inane chat, leading the way up onto the viewing gallery, and finally into one of the research rooms that had been set aside for this one moment in time.
There, on the desk of the otherwise unremarkable room, lay two precious objects - the emerald that had started this nonsense in the first place, and a golden idol with sparkling diamonds for eyes. Both priceless, in their own way, and one very important to this plan of his. The room seemed to grow smaller with eight men in it, the door closing behind them with a sharp click of the lock. Dom straightened his shoulders, steeling himself for what was coming.
Cornell stepped smartly to the desk, running his fingers over the shining gold of the idol with a covetous touch. "Exquisite, Professor Granger," he complimented Dom, looking down at the emerald the professor held in his own hand. "But tell me ....what do you think you have accomplished here?"
"We made a deal," Dom reminded him. "These, in return for your forgetting Elle ever existed."
"My dear Dominic, what a charming fool you are," Cornell laughed, shaking his head. "I have a score to settle with darling Elle and her precious daughter. Did you really think I would be so easily put off?"
Dom let his lips curve into a sardonic smile. "No," he admitted, "but I was counting on you being a colossal idiot."
As fury replaced the laughter on Cornell's face, Dom opened his hand, letting the emerald fall to the hard floor they stood on. Notoriously fragile, the priceless gemstone shattered, and the room lurched as the spell activated. The idol's eyes glowed, golden arms opening to reach upward, and with a blinding flash of light, they were quite suddenly no longer within the Natural History Museum any longer. In fact, they were no longer on Earth.
The desk was gone; the windows, gone; the door, gone. All that remained was a ten foot by seven foot cell, sealed shut, allowing no sight of the world beyond, no hint as to where they were or what had happened, the floor scattered with the remains of the emerald. Cornell growled; double-crossed, and with no real understanding of what had been done, he snapped out an order.
Before Dom could even step backward, a heavy fist smashed into his face. Pain exploded through him as another fist took him hard in the kidneys; yet another punch slammed into his stomach. Weaponless they might be, enclosed in a magically sealed cell that would keep them alive for an eternity, but he hadn't counted on them being angry enough to beat him rather than plead for release. He fell heavily to his knees, grunting as feet joined the hands pummeling him, barely aware of the sharp slice of crystal as he fell further, curling up as tightly as he could. Bloodied fingers scrabbled for his other hand, pressing down on the stone in his ring, wishing with all his heart for home.
With another flash, he felt himself transported, gathered up by magic in the split second before another blow fell, deposited firmly in the panic room beneath Maple Grove Manor. There was no one there this time to collect the injured party; no one had expected him to arrive home this way. But he was home. He'd done what he had set out to do, feeling the smugness of success along with the painful realization that he might have put himself in a little more danger than he had expected to.
He could feel the sting of the emerald shards embedded in his cheek and side as he tried to move, but each stretch of his muscles brought with it a new explosion of pain. Breathless, he curled himself tighter, squeezing his eyes shut as the alarm went off above him. Someone would come looking soon, he knew, fighting a losing battle to stay conscious in his bloodied state. But he'd done it. Elle and Daisy were safe.
Safe as houses.
For several days, Dom had been busy. With the information Elle had given him, he had managed to contact her erstwhile former employer - not the goons the man had sent to do the job last time, but the man himself - and with some fast talking and the promise of something else from his own personal collection of treasures, as well as the emerald, a meeting had been set up.
It was to take place on neutral territory; the Natural History Museum in London, as a matter of fact, necessitating a few favors being called in by Dom to enable the place to be prepared the way he needed. With a couple of trusted mages from GrangerGuild's Research and Development Department working on that, he had then turned his attention to something he considered far more important - removing all trace of Elle Marlowe and her daughter from Earth.
In a matter of days, he'd had her bank account emptied, the contents pushed through several other temporary accounts before ending up under the care of Rhy'Din's own banking system. Her home, which had been picked over by the same goons who had threatened her, was packed up; her belongings, and Daisy's, safely transferred into storage in Rhy'Din City, and the house itself hastily sold to a friend who worked in London's real estate market. That profit, too, had been pushed through another maze of temporary bank accounts before ending up in Elle's personal account on Rhy'Din. The paper trail, if anyone tried to follow it, ended the moment the first of those temporary accounts was closed. It would be impossible to trace her that way.
Satisfied that Elle and Daisy were now as safe as they could be on Rhy'Din, Dom had returned his attention to the upcoming meeting. It was a risky business, certainly, but he had more at his beck and call than simply wits and the ability to take a punch, assets he knew he was going to have to make use of if he wanted to get out of this alive. Security at the Natural History Museum had been replaced by hired GrangerGuild security men and women for the day - a necessary precaution, and one he'd had to talk fast to the board of directors to have them agree to. Once they understood, however, that their museum was merely a neutral location, and that their own treasures were in no danger, they had agreed, prepared to trust the professor who had contributed a great deal to their enterprise in his own way over the years.
He waited in Hintze Hall, the first great space in the museum as you entered, standing beneath the tall dinosaur skeleton that was understandably the museum's pride and joy. It was difficult not to feel nervous, especially with the groups of school children wandering around. He knew the dangerous men he was about to meet with would not think twice about harming a child, but he was fairly confident that they would not have an opportunity to do so.
A raised voice brought his attention to the entrance way, and he felt his tension rack up another couple of notches. There they were, arguing with the security guards who were insisting that they pass through the hastily installed metal detectors and hand over any weaponry they might be carrying. It wasn't standard procedure for the museum, but Dom wasn't taking any chances. The GrangerGuild team were not going to let anyone pass through the entrance while armed, not today.
There seemed to be a good few of them there, reluctantly divesting themselves of guns and knives, submitting to being patted down with bad grace. At least seven of them, but of that seven, Dom found his eyes focusing on the one man who had not set off the detector at all. Confident enough not to go armed ....that was his mark. A man not too much older than he was, Dom estimated, probably in his late forties, watching his goons with a certain amount of wry humor. He didn't seem annoyed by this setback, only amused. That wasn't very reassuring.
Still, he was here. Phase one complete.
Remaining where he was, Dom watched as the group approached him, careful not to show any emotion at all when he was addressed.
"Professor Granger, I presume?" the leader of this gang of thugs greeted him, offering a hand to shake. "I am Mark Cornell. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Mr. Cornell." Dom inclined his head to the man, shaking his hand politely. His eyes swept over Cornell's six "friends". "Work outing, is it?"
Cornell laughed easily, reclaiming his hand as he fell into step with Dom, the six others ranged about behind them. "My fellows get to see so little of culture in its preferred context," he explained, though Dom had a feeling this had more to do with a concern that he was going to cause them issues. "It is rare, professor, for anyone to reach through lines of communication and contact me personally. I am curious to know how you managed it."
Leading the way through the Dinosaurs and into Human Biology, Dom glanced at the man, one brow raised. "You don't really think you're the only man in the world who has contacts, do you?" he asked, careful to put only curiosity into his tone. Any hint of mockery, and he didn't think they'd make it to the room set aside for their meeting.
"Odd, that a professor should have such contacts that would make this meeting possible," Cornell pointed out. He was fishing for information, no doubt so he could seal up the lines Dom had used to find him.
"Just call me the Indiana Jones of anthropology," Dom suggested with a wry smile of his own. He wasn't stupid enough to hand over names. If this didn't come out the way he had planned, that would put friends in grave danger.
He was very aware of the six men walking behind them, aware of how pinned in, how cornered he was going to be very shortly. Through the Mammals exhibit, and into the Blue Whale room, he kept up the polite, inane chat, leading the way up onto the viewing gallery, and finally into one of the research rooms that had been set aside for this one moment in time.
There, on the desk of the otherwise unremarkable room, lay two precious objects - the emerald that had started this nonsense in the first place, and a golden idol with sparkling diamonds for eyes. Both priceless, in their own way, and one very important to this plan of his. The room seemed to grow smaller with eight men in it, the door closing behind them with a sharp click of the lock. Dom straightened his shoulders, steeling himself for what was coming.
Cornell stepped smartly to the desk, running his fingers over the shining gold of the idol with a covetous touch. "Exquisite, Professor Granger," he complimented Dom, looking down at the emerald the professor held in his own hand. "But tell me ....what do you think you have accomplished here?"
"We made a deal," Dom reminded him. "These, in return for your forgetting Elle ever existed."
"My dear Dominic, what a charming fool you are," Cornell laughed, shaking his head. "I have a score to settle with darling Elle and her precious daughter. Did you really think I would be so easily put off?"
Dom let his lips curve into a sardonic smile. "No," he admitted, "but I was counting on you being a colossal idiot."
As fury replaced the laughter on Cornell's face, Dom opened his hand, letting the emerald fall to the hard floor they stood on. Notoriously fragile, the priceless gemstone shattered, and the room lurched as the spell activated. The idol's eyes glowed, golden arms opening to reach upward, and with a blinding flash of light, they were quite suddenly no longer within the Natural History Museum any longer. In fact, they were no longer on Earth.
The desk was gone; the windows, gone; the door, gone. All that remained was a ten foot by seven foot cell, sealed shut, allowing no sight of the world beyond, no hint as to where they were or what had happened, the floor scattered with the remains of the emerald. Cornell growled; double-crossed, and with no real understanding of what had been done, he snapped out an order.
Before Dom could even step backward, a heavy fist smashed into his face. Pain exploded through him as another fist took him hard in the kidneys; yet another punch slammed into his stomach. Weaponless they might be, enclosed in a magically sealed cell that would keep them alive for an eternity, but he hadn't counted on them being angry enough to beat him rather than plead for release. He fell heavily to his knees, grunting as feet joined the hands pummeling him, barely aware of the sharp slice of crystal as he fell further, curling up as tightly as he could. Bloodied fingers scrabbled for his other hand, pressing down on the stone in his ring, wishing with all his heart for home.
With another flash, he felt himself transported, gathered up by magic in the split second before another blow fell, deposited firmly in the panic room beneath Maple Grove Manor. There was no one there this time to collect the injured party; no one had expected him to arrive home this way. But he was home. He'd done what he had set out to do, feeling the smugness of success along with the painful realization that he might have put himself in a little more danger than he had expected to.
He could feel the sting of the emerald shards embedded in his cheek and side as he tried to move, but each stretch of his muscles brought with it a new explosion of pain. Breathless, he curled himself tighter, squeezing his eyes shut as the alarm went off above him. Someone would come looking soon, he knew, fighting a losing battle to stay conscious in his bloodied state. But he'd done it. Elle and Daisy were safe.
Safe as houses.