The dark figure lifted his arms triumphantly, coat hanging like wings, as if he were some great black bat-thing perched there. Then, with a joyful shriek and a shuddering creak, he leapt.

Alex flattened against the car as the tall man landed with a mechanical hiss in the road, ten feet away. His boots were huge. The complex spring apparatus around the heels glinted cold. His black coat moved strangely, as though things were seething beneath. Between upturned collar and tugged-down hat, Alex caught a glimpse of dark glasses.

The man raised his right hand and whooped again as he considered what he held there. Something sharp. Sharp and dripping. Dripping something that looked blackish under the streetlamps but which Alex feared was really deep red.

Alex tightened his hand around the toy robot in his pocket, tried forcing his mind out to it. Nothing. His grandfather had told him to honk the car’s horn if anyone went into the building. What was he supposed to do if anyone came out? See which way they went, so they could follow. That was the plan. If only he could persuade his legs to move.

The looming figure abruptly crouched and jumped again, vanishing high into the night. He dropped dimly down some distance away, by the river walkway. Another leap, and he was gone. Alex stood shakily, pulse pounding his temples. How were they supposed to follow that? His eyes went from the black spatter on the ground to the open window above.

Grandad.

He sprinted for Harry’s office. He was inside and climbing stairs before he realized neither the security gate nor the doors had been locked. Alex threw himself on up to the third floor.

Harry’s door had been recently replaced and still bore only a bare gray undercoat of paint. It stood slightly open. Pale splinters of wood showed where the lock had been ripped out. Trying to quiet his breathing, Alex had a sense of eyes on him and looked up to meet the harsh glare of Marvastro, the fortune-telling automaton still standing guard in his glass cabinet outside Harry’s office.

The machine had once promised him power, and power had come. But where had it gone? The penetrating stare gave nothing away. Alex swallowed and crept through the door.

Inside, silence. His eyes adjusted to the meager light leaking in from outside. The room was large, with a high ceiling. Midway along the right-hand wall, the tall central window hung open. A stir of a breeze touched him.