LONDON CALLING

"Any help you can give with straightening up or making sure we don't leave anything that they can use to track us with would be great. We'll take our trash with us and dispose of it along the way. Michael, try to use foam cups so we can just toss them when we go."

"Understood," Michael said. "I'll strip the beds and the bathrooms and toss the sheets and towels in one of the housekeeper's dirty laundry carts on another floor so that they can't use those either. Jessie, if you want, once I get all the beds stripped, you could maybe help me find a housekeeper's dirty laundry cart that isn't on this floor to put our linens in, but for heaven's sake, don't let anyone see you since we don't know what they'll try to look like now."

Michael brought the maps and itinerary to Angus, who set in to study it, and then he made four cups of coffee in styrofoam cups.

"Boy, when you two don't leave them anything to use, you don't leave a single thing, do you?" Angus said, amazed by the extreme measures Michael was using to make sure the moles couldn't track them.

"Part of the job, Lad," Michael said, taking a cup of coffee to him and then one to Jessie. "Here. Have a cup of fuel."

"Best looking fuel I've seen since the espresso I had last night," Angus said.

"Well done. Thank you," Michael said. "How are you doing, Angus?"

"Mapping it out, I've got it to eleven short hops, but it should get us all the way to the foot of the mountains. I'm hoping we can find one of my contacts there and reassess how much more we could apparate up into the mountains themselves from there."

"Eleven hops sounds manageable. How many miles does that take us?"

"422 miles," Angus said.

"422 miles, and likely in an hour or so," Michael said. "That sheers off hours and hours. Well done."

"Regardless, after all that traveling, you're going to want to sit and rest and eat," Brian told Angus, setting his bag and Angus's near Jessie's. He flicked his wand at Angus's bag and his own bag to convert them to backpacks now rather than rolling carry-on bags. "We'll get your bag for you. I do not want you adding any strain to your heart or lungs today. You can shoulder it tomorrow if you want, but not today."

"I appreciate that. I'm just glad to still be here today. So, do you want to see the new itinerary?"

"Yes,' Michael said. He and Brian sat down to see what Angus had done to change their route. He took them from Budapest through eleven small towns and villages, sometimes going southeast, sometimes northeast, but always in an easterly direction, finally ending up right at a small village at the foot of the Carpathian mountains. It avoided all the big cities that were on the last itinerary. If the shapeshifters wanted to find them, they wouldn't do it at least this morning, Angus was figuring.

"I think that looks like it should work. And there is no hop bigger than about 50 miles at the most. That keeps us under the radar and reduces our use of magic. So we will have less chance of it going bonkers at least til we get to the mountains," Brian said.

"What do you think, Michael and Jessie?" Angus asked. "Is it worth a try?"

"That's basically it, yeah," Angus said. "The first five hops takes us across Hungary. The last six takes us across Romania."

"Let's give it a go and see how far we get," Michael said. Angus shrank the map and the new itinerary and put them in his shirt pocket. Michael picked up his bag, and Brian picked up his bag and Angus's. "Grab hold, and let's go." Brian took hold of Angus, and Michael took hold of Brian. Angus motioned to Jessie.

"I'll do the apparating for awhile. Where are we going to first?" Michael asked. And with that they were off. Since apparating was such a quick method of travel, they were able to make it within just a few seconds. It went smoothly. Michael found a trash container and deposited the trash from the hotel so they didn't have to drag it across the country. One by one, they apparated all the way across Hungary.

It had barely been fifteen minutes, and they had managed five hops. Michael looked at Angus.

"So, if we go the other six hops, that puts us within reach of your contacts?"

"Yes. And since it isn't yet quite six am, another fifteen or twenty minutes, and we could be there well in time for breakfast before we go and wake her up.""

"Her?" Brian asked.

"She's an old friend. Purely platonic--and I've known her for over ten years. Well before I knew Ruby. We were an item for a year or two, but that was long, long ago. That's been over for nigh onto 7 or 8 years. She married a vampire hunter a year or two after we broke up. They have three kids now. She does some guide work occasionally for a select few people, and when she's gone, her husband's sister takes care of the kids, as I understand it."

"Does this vampire hunter husband know about you?"

"I would hope. I introduced them. I thought they would make a good couple, and it seems they have. They've always said they owed me. Well, maybe they can pay some of it back."

"What's her name?"

"Ana Dalca. Her husband's name is Sergio. They're both lightworkers. Good people. I think you'll like them."

"Does she know we're coming?"

"Not yet," Angus said. "

Angus hadn't missed the suspicious look on Jessie's face the minute he mentioned Ana was a woman. Jessie was pretty transparent sometimes. It seemed that no matter what Angus did and no matter where he went, he was never going to be good enough. He was always going to be judged instantly, and people were going to kneejerk to think the worst of him. He focused in on the mission. He was never going to be able to prove himself, so he made a firm decision. He wasn't going to try to prove his worth anymore. Sod it. Either people liked him or they didn't. They trusted him or they didn't. The choice was on them, and if everyone else abandoned him like his family had, then he would manage somehow. He wasn't going to try to meet anyone else's expectations anymore, period, full stop.

"Me. I'm your plan A and your plan B," Angus said simply. "That's why Robert sent me instead of just sending you all with a map. If she can't help, then it's on me. We'll be fine. So, do we move on ahead through the next six?"

"Yes. Maybe we can reach the mine this afternoon," Brian said. "We can brace the miners for what could be coming."

"That was my hope," Angus said.

"Then let's move on," Brian replied. He reached into his bag and handed Jessie a small, travel sized potion bottle. "Drink that. Its for motion sickness. It'll settle your stomach."

"So does our next stop take us into Romania?" Michael asked.

"It does," Angus said. When everyone was ready, Michael ported them through the next six stops until they finally reached the town that had been on their itinerary to stop at, at the foot of the Carpathian mountains. This little village had been here for hundreds of years, and not much had changed. It looked like it had been frozen in time.

"It's just up that hill. See that house up there? That's it," Angus said. He was definitely tiring now. "It's not a far walk."

"No. Not straight away. Is there a place to eat?"

"Yeah. Of course. Sorry. I forgot entirely," Angus said. "This way." He walked them about a block away to a whitewashed building, and he opened the door. The aroma of breakfast rolled out at them when he opened the door. He walked in and he chose a table for the four of them and sat down. A moment later, a serving girl came over and asked, in Romanian, if they wanted coffee, and she laid down for menus written in Romanian.

"She wants to know if we want coffee. Just so you know, Romanian coffee is some of the finest coffee you'll find on the continent."

"I'm in," Brian said.

"Me too. Definitely," Michael said.

"The food has always been good here," Angus said. "Well, I'm glad you learn fast, Jessie, because this line of work often depends on it."

"So what is the general gist of breakfast here?" Brian asked.

"Similar to breakfast at home. Eggs, some incredible fresh made bread, homestyle jams, fresh local butter, a fry of whatever fresh vegetables are in season, sometimes polenta, and some of the best coffee on the planet," Angus replied.

"I'll have that. Sound perfect," Michael said.

"Make it two," Brian said. "Can you add some sort of juice to that?"

"I'll make it three," Angus said. He ordered for Michael and Brian and himself, and the server disappeared to the kitchen. "They have fresh apple juice today, so I ordered the three of us some. Should be good."

"So how are you holding up?" Brian asked.

"Okay. Just tired," Angus said, downplaying it for the moment. He hadn't felt like he had done much of anything, and he was tired, hurting in places he didn't remember he had, and breathing was an effort again. As hard and unyielding as these wooden chairs were, he was glad for it at the moment.