Everyone seemed exasperated. “Then why did you bring us here?” demanded Wheeler.

“Because this is where the emergency escape gate is,” said Pat. “What I tell you about, I want to say in front of Danny’s friend in DC. Stone.”

“Why?” asked Hal. “We don’t even know him.”

“But Danny does. And Stone knows about magery. He can tell us what to do, and what not to do.”

“About what?” demanded Sin. “You’re being so bossy and creepy.”

“About Danny,” said Pat.

She couldn’t watch everyone at once, but it seemed to her that all the other girls flinched or stiffened or looked away when she spoke of doing something about Danny.

Pat rose to her feet and walked to the tree that held the small gate leading to DC. She touched the spot under the tree limb and just like that, with no physical sensation but the change of air, she was in a dark attic room.

By the light slanting through the shutters of the east-facing cupola window, she saw the low table with a stack of pennies on it. They were the arsenal Danny had created; each penny had gates on either side. If they arrived with an enemy in pursuit, they were to handle the pennies by the edge only, and throw them at the pursuer. The gate would hurtle their enemy to some far-off, awkward location, almost all of them with police or military close by.

But her pursuers this time were her friends, and she stepped away from the gate so they could come through without bumping her out of the way. Danny had told them about a time when he gated himself into a space occupied by Coach Lieder’s hand, shattering the bones of his fingers into slivers inside little bags of flesh. Pat didn’t want that to happen to her whole body.

She glanced over only long enough to see that it was Laurette who had come right after her. “Move out of the way of the gate,” said Pat, “and keep the others up here. I’m going to find Stone.”

“Can I turn on a light?” asked Laurette.

Pat was already out the door and heading down the stairs.

She found Stone in the kitchen, talking earnestly with two men in suits. For a moment Pat thought: We’re betrayed, he’s talking to the enemy. But then she realized that whatever enemy she was thinking of was not all that likely to be wearing suits, and there were a thousand perfectly honorable reasons Stone might be having such a conversation.

“Good to see you,” said Stone cheerfully. He turned to the men. “I’m so sorry, but I do believe our time is up. I have to deal with some of my guests.”

“What are you running here, a hotel?” asked one of the men, pretending it was a joke.

“A hospitable home,” said Stone with a smile. “You’ll see, someday.”