Realizing this was true, they immediately snatched their hands apart.
“We’re staying in character,” Daniel said. “Now, this conversation will end in thirty seconds. Do you know what you’re doing, V-2?”
“Suitcases. Headquarters.” Veronica saluted. “It’s an honor to serve!”
“Yes.” Daniel reached for the door handle.
“One day I hope to be as reputable an agent as yourselves!”
“Uh huh.” He turned the handle.
“Really, I cannot believe I got to meet the greatest—”
“Goodbye, V-2.” Opening the door, Daniel stepped aside to let Alice precede him, then closed it on the sound of Veronica’s voice extolling their virtues. Glancing in each direction to ensure the corridor was unoccupied, he led Alice toward the back stairs.
“I’ll collect Snodgrass. You prepare the cottage for takeoff.”
“Shouldn’t you do that instead?” Alice asked. “You know I’m not capable of the flight enchantment.”
“No,” Daniel said. He wanted her out of this building, away from the pirates. A night spent in her arms, discovering all that she was, had roused every protective instinct in him, and he was determined she not be caught by the Wisteria Society. Just thinking of the damage she would inflict upon them with her terrifying combat skills sent a chill up his spine.
Besides, the pirates would certainly demand a ransom for her from the Home Office, and that would raise awkward questions—i.e.,When you say you work for the government, which one exactly do you mean?In that case, Daniel would probably be assigned to assassinate her, so as to protect the secret of A.U.N.T.’s downstairs existence. He was reluctant to do that, especially since he intended to find some way to spend the rest of his life with her.
“Pick us up some food for breakfast,” Alice told him, entering the stairwell. “I’ll see you in ten minutes.”
“See you,” Daniel answered, turning away.
Alas, if only he had read a penny-dreadful novel or two, he would have been alerted to danger by this casual farewell. But it was with an overly erudite innocence that he headed for Snodgrass’s bedroom, not even glancing back.
Alice left the castle through a ground-floor window (a perfectly reasonable door stood unlocked nearby, but old habits are hard to break), and running across the frosty grass, she reached the A.U.N.T. cottage without being noticed. Upon arrival, however, she recollected Daniel had the key.
“Bother,” she muttered, leaning wearily against the door.
It swung open with a creak.
Alice’s instincts immediately leaped into action. Pressing her back against the wall beside the door, she listened carefully through the slight opening.
A muttering sounded from inside. Then something wenttwang, and the voice rose briefly with a curse. Alice nudged the door open wider and slipped through.
The hinges creaked, and a figure at the wheel turned with analarmed cry. Alice did not pause to enter into conversation with them. Rolling head over heels to present a confusing target, she aimed for the sofa at the center of the room. Then crouching behind it, she reached to where an emergency gun was taped to its underside. As the weapon came free, tape still adhering to it, she shifted her stance and took aim over the sofa’s arm at the intruder.
“Don’t move! Put your hands up!”
“I say!” came the tremulous, high-pitched reply. “Which one?!”
Sighing, Alice pulled back the gun. “Dr. Snodgrass,” she said with exasperation, rising to her feet. “What are you doing here?”
“I-I-I came to check on—on things,” he explained, his marshy eyes widening as he watched her peel the tape from the gun’s barrel. “What are you doing here?”
“The mission has been aborted,” Alice informed him. The tape was now sticking to her fingers, and she shook her hand in an effort to dislodge it. “Agent B is searching the castle for you.”
“Jolly good!” Snodgrass said—then, when Alice cast him a confused frown: “I mean awful! Terrible! You should return at once to let him know I’m here.”
Alice smacked her hand against the sofa’s arm, causing Snodgrass to jolt, but the piece of tape clung stubbornly to her fingers. Snodgrass murmured something beneath his breath. Glancing at him, Alice took in his blanched countenance and the fervent manner in which he clutched the wheel. She smiled reassuringly, which only made him grow more pale.
“Do not worry, Doctor,” she said. “No doubt Agent B will realize you are missing and should arrive here any moment.”
Snodgrass’s high-pitched laugh in response jangled her nerves, which had been coiling themselves tight again after Daniel had so assiduously loosened them. Alice ignored them, for she had far moreimportant matters to contend with than her dislike of the scientist. With an irritable sigh, she tossed the gun onto the sofa cushion and applied herself fully to getting the dratted tape off her fingers.
