“If that were the case, I wouldn’t have caught you at all.”

“You say that, but there could be plenty of reasons. Those people they sent to interfere, they didn’t seem to stop you. That might just be cover. They were afraid mine and Belinda’s plan might actually work, or maybe that we’d get caught carrying it out. So they send you to catch me and still keep me out of Lamprey’s hands.”

He smiled.

“That makes sense,” he said, “assuming that anything I’ve told you is true. Lamprey may not be involved at all. There may be no mysterious figure from the Island, masterminding events. We may not have your friend upstairs and this might not even be Jory’s clinic. Have you been inside since the renovations? This could all be a game I’m playing. The man with lascivious intentions could be me.”

“Then why bother with all this?”

“Who knows? Maybe I need you to go along with my plot due to some nuance of local laws that would put you in my power. Maybe I’m just a twisted maniac who likes to play with his food. I told you in the beginning that you aren’t in control of what happens next.”

“I’m starting to think you’re twisted, whatever the truth is,” she told him.

He chuckled.

“Quite probably,” he said, and stood up. “I'll go get your friend. You can talk things over.”

He opened the door and left, then it opened again immediately and he stuck his head back in.

“Please don’t try to break out.”

106. Something Shady

106

Something Shady

Jory’s kitchen table was covered in magical diagrams, with Belinda taking Clive through how they worked.

“Obviously, the lock is impervious to ordinary intrusion,” she explained. “I re-sequenced the magical bursts into an irregular pattern. It doesn’t throw-off any individual element, but—”

“—it accumulates small errors that cause the whole thing to break down,” Clive finished. “That brilliant. How did you come up with that?”

“I was working on something a while back. I was stuck using low-quality sequencing rods and I didn’t realise what was happening until the misalignment crashed the whole rig. I came up with this while troubleshooting.”

“Brilliant,” Clive said. “Adversity driving innovation.”

Jory’s assistant, Janice, knocked on the door as she came in.

“Mr Asano says she’s awake. You can go and see your friend now.”

They all went back downstairs, Janice heading back to reception while Clive and Belinda went to the treatment room where Sophie was locked up. Jason was outside, leaning against the wall. He was watching an image being projected onto the opposite wall by a small crystal.

“How is she?” Belinda asked.

“She’s trying to pick the lock right now,” Jason said, “so I’m guessing fine.”