Tanith grinned, but did as she was told, laying her sword on the ground. Gracious and Donegan surrendered their guns. The Cleavers swarmed, shackles at the ready, and a moment later the wailing ceased and the heavy doors opened. Vex held out his hands for a shiny set of shackles, but there was a scuffle across the room, and he glimpsed Tanith kicking someone. He looked at the Cleaver in front, the one with the shackles. At the last moment he shoved the Cleaver away from him and backed up, aware that Saracen and the others had done exactly the same thing. Now they stood in a tight pack, tense, watching the Cleavers and mages around them, everyone waiting for the spark that would ignite the battle.

“This is ridiculous!” Graves shouted. “You don’t stand a chance! None of you do!”

Vex could see Tanith now through the throng of Cleavers, grinning again.

“Tanith Low,” Graves said, his voice practically quivering with indignation, “you will allow the Cleaver to shackle you or I will give the order to—”

“Ask me how smart I am,” Tanith said.

“What?”

“Ask me,” she said. “Go on. I dare you.”

He glared at her. “Very well. Miss Low, how smart are you?”

“Very,” she told him. “I’ve always been a pretty smart cookie, even before the Remnant. I was no genius, mind you. But I was pretty smart. Smart enough to get by, you know? But the Remnant, well... the Remnant has been in some pretty sharp minds, let me tell you, not least of which was one Kenspeckle Grouse. You heard of him?”

“Yes,” Graves said, actually rolling his eyes. “The professor of science-magic. Died a few years ago.”

“That’s the one,” said Tanith. “So while I’m not technically as smart as he was, at the same time, I’ve lived in his head. I have all of his memories tucked away in mine. For instance, the memory of how to concoct a certain virus in gaseous form, place it into an itty-bitty glass sphere and dump it into the ventilation system of a certain building.”

No one was bothering with Vex and the others any more. Everyone was looking at Tanith.

“What... what kind of virus?” Graves asked.

“Ever see that movie 28 Days Later, with Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson? You know those rage-zombies that ran everywhere?”

Graves swallowed. “Yes?”

“Good movie, isn’t it? It was on TV there a few weeks ago. Gave me the idea. A rage virus in a gas, pumped through the ventilation ducts. That’s what I did.”