“Oh, lovely idea, except for—oh, darn—I seemed to have missed the Society’s introductory class on lock picking along with every other non-existent introductory class,” Jo responded inkind.
“You can open it.” He leaned against the opposite wall, hands in hispockets.
“Do we need to review? I’m a hacker, not a locksmith.” Jo pointed to the mechanical lock. “I know you’re from the dark ages, so I’ll break it down: This is notdigital.”
“You sure get feisty when you’re on a mission.” He whistled. “Look, doll, I’ve watched you work for days. I’ve seen—and felt—your magic when you were hunched over your setup in thepenthouse.”
She had felt it too, if only just a vague whisper of it somewhere in the back of her mind. But that was still just hacking, her magic making it easier,maybe, but not doing it for hercompletely.
“I think your magic is much more than just digital,” Wayne went on, as if recognizing her resolve wavering. “Why don’t you take a look, andtry?”
Yuusuke’s life depended on them getting inside, which meant she owed it to him to take every opportunity presented to her. Even if she didn’t exactly believe it waspossible.
Jo squared off against the door. She put her feet shoulder-width apart and her hands on her hips. She took a deep breath, and invited the power to fill her veins. She felt a trickle of sensation at the back of her mind, just like at thehotel.
“Open sesame!” Jo threw her handsup.
The door did nothing, but Wayne doubled over inlaughter.
“I don’t think that’s how it works,” he said, gasping forair.
“No shit.” What did he think would happen? They didn’t have time for this and he was crackingjokes?
“Try again, for real this time,” he encouraged, probably after seeing the lack of amusement on herface.
Jo turned back to the door and stared at it, letting her mind run away fromher.
Truth was, she wanted to open it. She wanted to figure out all this magic business sooner over later and just do it. She wanted to harness its power to help her friend. But Wayne was being as helpful in assisting with the learning process as a cold soldering iron to a stripped wire. Maybe he was trying to get her to figure it out on her own; maybe he was trying to teach her by not teaching her; but now wasn’t the time for lessons. Now was supposed to be the time toact.
Jo swallowed back her annoyance and summoned every ounce of determination to do justthat.
She looked at the padlock. She didn’t know the first thing about lock-picking. But the longer she looked, the more it seemed to unravel before her. Of course, nothing physically changed about it. To her eyes though, it was as if the structure began to be rebuilt in straight lines and practical knowledge, like blueprints coming to life in thevoid.
“I have an idea. . .” she uttered, much to her ownsurprise.
Jo tapped her watch and looked around the small clearing they were standing in. There wasn’t much to work with. She needed something heavy, something—like that piece of piping that had sprung loose from the guttersystem.
It’ll do, a disembodied voice assured her the moment Jo had it in herhands.
Jo worked her way back to the door, but her eyes didn’t fall on the lock. Instead, they drifted over to the hinges on the side. She was calm, abnormally so. It was as if she wasn’t clocked into reality; everything around her had gonehushed.
At least until the loud bang of the pipe meeting the door echoed off every wall—twice, in quicksuccession.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Jo frantically tapped her watch, dropping the pipe with a clamor in the process to disappear before anyone could look to investigate. A window opened above them, one man hanging out. He must have assumed it was just the pipe coming loose, because he returned inside with a shrug. He didn’t even see that one hinge had been struck in just the right way for the old bolts to pop loose from the mortar. Or that the other had its pin broken clearthrough.
“Well done.” Wayne pushed on his watch once they were sure no one else was coming. The muscles of his back strained against his shirt as he pulled off the door—much more muscle than Jo had previously given the man credit for. He set the iron to the side and pulled out of time. “Couldn’t pick something lighter?” he huffed, and wiped his palms on histrousers.
Jo ignored his griping and remained focused on the pipe. “Well done? I literally smashed my wayin.”
“You knew how to break the hinges,” he pointedout.
“Anyone would’ve tried to smash it. Anyonecould’ve.”
“Anyone would’ve gone for the lock, not the hinges. What’s more, doll, is that it took you just two perfect strikes. You knew it would break. You knew just where to hit it and with how much force.” He paused, actually giving Jo a chance to counter, but she didn’t, couldn’t. Truth was, she had known, in that weird back-of-the-mind-tickling-sensation sort of way frombefore.
“So, what. . . my magic is breaking things?” she huffed. “What a greatpower.”
“It is, actually.” Wayne’s words gave her pause as Jo hovered at the entrance. Dank air wafted up from the open darkness beneath her. “The Society was in dire need of someone with your skills, I’d say. The ability to crack any code, break through any lock, digital and non-digital. Eslar was right. Sounds like an asset tome.”
