Mr. VAINIO: Space exploration. Commercial trade and transportation. We could use Gateway to take samples from the Earth’s core or drive a rover directly onto Uranus. If we’re able to go large scale, we’d drastically reduce fossil fuel consumption.

The CHAIRMAN: Have you thought through the potential abuses of such technology? The privacy concerns? What’s to stop one of you libriomancers from opening a portal into Fort Knox?

Mr. VAINIO: If I want gold, I can just pull it out of a book.

Mr. HOFFMAN: The point remains, this raises serious questions.

Mr. VAINIO: All of which are being considered by New Millennium, as well as the Department of Homeland Security oversight process. But you’re right. Any new technology carries the potential for harm, and magic is no different. Does that mean we turn our back on progress?

Chapter 15

“What was the mission of the Porters?”

“What is this, pop quiz time with Professor Gutenberg?”

“Indulge me.”

“You made us each swear an oath to preserve the secrecy of magic, protect the world from magical threats, and to expand our knowledge of magic’s power and potential.”

“I created the Porters. That made them—you—my responsibility. Part of that responsibility meant being prepared in case the Porters themselves ever became a threat.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you helped create New Millennium.”

“DO YOU TRUST DEB on her own?” asked Lena.

“Do we have a choice?” Of the three of us, she was likeliest to have been captured on camera at the Virginia prison. I’d spent most of that mission more or less invisible, and Lena had looked more like a walking tree than a woman. I’d never seen her so heavily armored, and neither had anyone else.

We’d sent Deb back to Michigan with instructions to check in with Jason Latona and fill him in on what was coming next. If necessary, she could help break Nidhi out of whatever holding pen the FBI had tossed her into. “Granach ordered her to strike back. Right now, you and I are her best hope of doing that.”

Lena rolled down the window and leaned into the desert sun. “I don’t trust her either.”

I listened to the rattle of my pickup as we crested the next hill, bringing the New Millennium complex into view. Talulah had confirmed there were no public warrants for me or Lena. Depending on how much was known about the attacks on the Kagan and Mecklenburg prison, Babs might suspect what we’d been up to. But if she was an unwilling accomplice in all this, maybe she’d keep those suspicions to herself. All I needed was a few hours.

The other possibility was that everyone knew damn well what we’d done, and were simply waiting for us to walk into their trap.

I pulled up to the security booth and rolled down my window. “Morning, Marion!”