LONDON CALLING

Jack watched as Brian was impaled agaenst a wall. He wanted to go help but stood where he was glancing at the floor Jessie was about to move but Jack's arm stopped him " don't...move" he said pointing to the floor infront of them. Kneeling down he showed them a trap then stood up. Jessie paused and moved around it as they began to move again.

" Its not me" Ruby said as did Jack and Jessie. Jess shook her head "we're all fine...for now" Jack told Robert as Jessie stood next to him.

They walked further, and as they did, they passed a slit in the wall. Brian jerked Robert back, and Robert heard a whooshing sound.

"What was that?" Robert frowned.

"Flipping oversized halbert!" Brian pointed at a huge blade that was now lying on the floor.

"You do realize my clueing Gelding to the ceiling was not nearly dastardly enough," Robert scowled. "He just threw down the gauntlet with taking Khaat and now booby trapping this place. He isn't nearly as deadly as I can be, and he's about to find out."

"Temper," Brian said. "Khaat and Marcus first. Throttling Gelding later."

"And there's more blood," Robert said, and as they reached the first intersection, they both looked around.

"There's blood going down every corridor," Brian said.

"Someone's hurt, and they're looking for a way out, I bet," Robert said.

"They keep bleeding at this rate, and they'll bleed out before we can find them," Brian said. And then they heard a call for help. Brian scowled deeply.

"His tricks never stop. You do realize what that was, right? That was your voice that was calling for help. Someone has not only ghosts of us but they've got our voices too. This just gets better and better."

"This is designed to keep us from finding something or someone. This is all being done for us, not for anyone else. He either knows we're here, or he knew someday we would be," Robert said.

"So we're not going to be able to trust what we see or what we hear, either one. Piece of cake," Angus sighed sarcastically.

Ruby followed down the corridor and stopped whrn they did " I still think tying us together would prove we are all here?" she said softly as they walked. She saw teh blood and heard the voice. " that man is the worst, how have you put up with him for so long." she asked " I agree with Brian, we all need to just stay calm." well she hoped she came across as calm becuse inside she was shaking like a teee in a hurricane.

Jack looked around and took a deep breath in, he smelt nothing but dist and dirt. " its fake" he said " theres no copper scent" he told Robert. " I can small blood, it has a coppery smell to it, this dosn't" he pointed to what lay on the ground. " its to throw us off the scent..no pun intended." Jessie did the same but tutned to Brian.

"yeah I smell it on you but no where else." he paused hearing the voice and shook his head " residual echo?" he asked

Ruby sighed and looked at Robert " why can't we use Defodio to get the eff out of there. " she asked still holding her wand.

"Well, the rope would keep us together, but I don't have a rope, first of all. And we could use a Defodio spell," Robert said. "We could just port home, but that doesn't tell us if Khaat and Marcus are being held here. Let's not lose focus."

"Robert!' a voice called. It seemed to echo through the place. "I can make things a lot worse, you know. You haven't even gotten started. Or--I could just give you what you want."

"Where are you, Tom?" Robert called angrily.

"Perhaps, we can make a trade. You know, its you I really want. You surrender, and I'll release your daughter...."

Brian clutched tight to Robert. "No way!" Brian hissed quickly at Robert. "Don't even consider it. Remember the deal he made with James. he has no intention of giving her back. If you surrender, he'll just have you both. No, we stick to the plan, and we find them and get the hell out of this hellhole."

"Forget it!" Robert shouted.

"Look up," The voice taunted. A light clicked on straight ahead and above them where there seemed to be some sort of balcony that was surrounded in iron bars. And on the balcony were Khaat and Marcus. Marcus had hold of Khaat, and she was more or less lying against him limply. They both looked thoroughly battered.

"Marcus!" Robert called.

"We're alright," Marcus called back, "Both of us."

"How long they stay that way is entirely up to you," Gelding's voice taunted. Robert was tempted to try any number of spells to reach them, but he also knew that Gelding was hoping on their impulsiveness to tempt them to forget all the obstacles and go rushing to Khaat and Marcus and do themselves in.

"Steady. Keep your heads, Everyone," Brian said. "No quick movements of any kind."

Jack and Jess were angry but Ruby studied the area and the moving walls trying to find a pattern to their movements. Finally she found it but staid beside Robert and Brian. Tapping Brians arm she spoke softly " theres a pattern, if you watch they repeat, four moves then revert to a three, then back to the four. " she said hoping he'd see it too.

Jessie looked at the floor noticing that moss covered only certain stones he chuckled and looked to Robert. " we can do this, slow and steady." he said " the stones with moss don't stand on them, waters settled in the mechanisums making the moss grow where as the normal stone is sealed." he pointed out and smiled at Ruby.

"Good work, both of you," Robert said. "Steady on. He doesn't expect that, and the closer we get to Khaat and Marcus, the more he'll throw at us, unless I miss my guess." He looked up at Marcus. "Do you know your way around at all?"

"Somewhat," Marcus said. "It shifts up here more than down there, and faster. Try not to come up here if you can help it. Let me see if we can get to you. If you keep going, you might find a battered old hall table with a bowl of fruit. Don't eat the fruit. It's poison. If you find that table, wait there, but keep your eyes open." He seemed to gather Khaat close to him and walk her away from the balcony. Robert and Brian both were thinking she must be hurt somehow but they couldn't focus on that right now.

"Straight on, then," Robert suggested to the others, hoping Marcus could find a way to meet them partway.

Jessie realized that was exactly what gelding wanted them to do and he paused listening to Robert and Marcu " of course, another trick of his" he said " alright, straight it is" he said Ruby nodded at his side. Jack positioned himself behind Ruby so to keep them with in eye sight as they moved. Finally they came across the table " FOUND IT" he called out and lent against it.

" God I want to string that man up by his..." Ruby paused looking at all the men around her " well you know what." she blushed pointing down. " hes such a narcsisist." she brushed off cobwebs off her trousers " blech I hate spiders." she said bumping into Angus " opps sorry." she said

"He doesn't deserve treatment that good, Ruby," Angus said quietly. He was as angry as the rest of them. Robert examined the fruit in the bowl and then put it back, understanding its significance.

"I'm quite sure that anyone kept here was not given food or water, so when they found this bowl of fruit, if they were desperate enough, they ended up poisoning themselves. This may be one of the most dangerous places we've ever been," he told them. "It's clear to me that this building was designed so that you could just walk into but you couldn't walk out of.

"I think it's designed like a spider's web," he explained. "It invites you to go deeper and deeper, but the deeper you go, the more impossible it gets to get out because, I think we're going to find that the magic reverses itself upon you and, like a spider in a web, it fully intends for it's victims to never get out. Our night might have just begun, I'm afraid. We may well find some of our spells are disabled here. We might not just be walking out, and we might not be just apparating home either."

He had every intention of destroying this building with or without the help of the French Ministry of Magic. He was going to tell them about this place and get either their help or permission to shut it down for good. It wouldn't put Gelding out of business but it certainly would bite heavily into Gelding's operations.  His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of stone grating against stone. Something was moving. He was looking for moving walls or moving floors, but instead, coming around a corner was Marcus, and he had Khaat with him.

"Oh, thank god," Robert said, and he and Brian went to them immediately. Both Khaat and Marcus were in sorry shape. Khaat was clinging on to Marcus as best she could and her face was pressed into his chest. They were both filthy dirty, heavily bruised and bleeding. Robert knew without examining them closely that these were marks of some sort of torture. Khaat was only semiconscious, and that was highly concerning to him. "What happened?"

"Later," Marcus told him. Marcus didn't actually want to tell Robert what the two of them had been through. Some things were best left unsaid. "She's been filled with muggle drugs. I'm not sure she's aware of much of anything anymore except that she's with me. She knows I would not leave her, and she's hung onto that. The best thing for her is going to be to sleep it off when we get into a safe place."

"When I get my hands on that sonofa..." Brian seethed. It was all he could do to hold in his rage.

"Oh, we're going to get him," Robert looked at Brian, committed like never before to get Thomas Gelding. "Have no doubt. We will get him, and he's going to pay for every bruise and every mark he's put on them and on every person he's ever held here. I want him in Azkaban for the rest of eternity. For the rest of his life isn't good enough. I want his bones to turn into dust there so that generations will grind him into the floor."

"Do you know how to get out, Marcus?" Edward asked. "Do we just turn around and go out the way we came?"

"No. that's when the illusions really begin," Marcus said. "You can come in this way with no trouble, but you can't get out that way. The only way is to go deeper in, right to the very heart of the building. I heard someone talking at one point. Must have been a guard. The only way out is in. There's some sort of a secret exit at the dead center of the maze. Sounded like it was perhaps some sort of tunnel, but I can't be sure about that. That's the way out, though, because that's where they were headed."

"Do you want me to take her from you?" Robert asked.

"I mean to keep my word to her," Marcus said. "I promised her I'd get her out, and I will. I can manage her if you lot can fight off whatever comes at us from here on in."

"Nothing's going to touch the two of you," Brian promised him. It was more than apparent to Brian that Marcus was barely on his feet and not up to a huge skirmish unless his life depended on it, so taking Khaat from him seemed a poor idea. Much as he wanted to be the one to pick her up and carry her, Brian knew that if he took Khaat himself, he would take from the team one healthy, experienced fighter and reduce the strength of the team. If he left Khaat in Marcus's care, Marcus was yet able to manage that, leaving them yet with the full strength of the team. Brian looked at the others. "We need to put Marcus and Khaat at the center of us so the rest of us can surround them because they aren't able to handle any full sized attack. We can. If Gelding thinks he's going to keep her for James, he'll have to get past the rest of us to do it. We got this far, and we can get out--all of us."  

Edward went over to Marcus and drew a huge 10 oz flask from inside his jacket. "Water," he said, opening the flask and passing it to Marcus.

"Bless you," Marcus said, deeply grateful for such a simple thing. He softly coached Khaat into waking as best she could and he fed her a few sips of water before she fell back into a half doze on his chest. Then he took a few sips himself. He handed the flask back to Edward who capped it and put it back in his jacket.

"I've got my flask too," Angus said, "so we're not without water."

"Well, and as long as we're sharing the secrets of our pockets, Kate made some homemade granola bars with nuts and dried fruit, and she was wrapping them up individually when I got your alarm. She shrank the whole pan of them and chucked them in my pocket. So we're not without food either. Do you think she could manage one?" Brian asked.

"Not yet," Robert said. "She's too heavily drugged. If she wakes enough, then we certainly will give her one. But I certainly will need to take Kate to dinner at the very least for thinking of those granola bars. You look like you could use one, though, Marcus."

"Later. When we're at a safer point," Marcus said. "This is part of the building isn't safe. I'm sure you've run into the booby traps. Those don't seem to last forever, but I think we will run into some again before we get out," Marcus said. Brian nodded but stuffed a couple of the granola bars in Marcus's breast pocket anyway.

"We'll make it together through anything Gelding thinks he can throw at us," Robert said, confident in this team to work it through.

Jack and Jessie watched around them looking where the sound was coming from but relaxed seing Marcus and Khaat come around the courner. Ruby sighed and nodded to Angus.

"Agreed" she said turning to see two people heading in their direction she paused and watched Robert offer his water as they spoke. Jack looekd at them both,

"Jessie and I are okay we can go days with out food or water, guess a benefit of being a wearwolf." he said Jessie nodded but Ruby took out her water bottle as she saw Marcus place some granola bars in his pocket.

"Here," she said slipping the bottle into his pocket with the bars " I brought a spare." she said " Im Ruby Jessies sister but intros later lets get out of here." she said looking around. " so we go deeper."

"Nice meeting you, Ruby," Marcus said.

"Marcus is an expert in personal protection, and he was the personal private bodyguard for the Minister of Magic for Romania," Robert said. "I hired him away from Romania to guard Khaat when James first presented a threat to her, and he's been almost exclusively with us ever since. He has more than proven his worth to her. I have to say I am more than a little relieved you were with her when she was taken, Marcus."

"Me too," Marcus said. "I do think we have to go deeper to go out though. You're right, Ruby. I haven't found the way out exactly, but in certain places here, the voices echo, and I've heard them talking about the work it takes to get to the center to get out. Evidently, even if you work here, its tricky business to get out. So I think we need to try to do the same."

"Agreed," Brian said. Marcus put a couple pieces of the poisoned fruit in his pocket, though Robert didn't understand why. Edward and Brian and Angus tried to space themselves to surround Khaat and Marcus, and Robert knew that Jack and jessie and Ruby would find their spots as well. Marcus was able to point out some of the booby traps he had found earlier as he and Khaat had tried to make their way out.

As they walked, Robert thought he heard the sound of water, and Marcus began looking to see where it was coming from.

"Here," Robert said, seeing water running down the wall on his left. He reached out to touch it, and Marcus grasped his wrist tightly, yanking it back.

"Sorry. Don't touch it," Marcus said. He took out one of the pieces of fruit and held one end of it under the water that was running down the wall, and the fruit hissed and dissolved. "An acid waterfall," Marcus said. "Look on the floor. It's running across our path. If we can't levitate over it, we'll have to try to jump it. Apparating and porting spells don't work in here. Khaat and I have tried."