Page 112 of Iron Unicorn

Jessica clapped her hands over her mouth, and snorted laughs escaped.

“I don’t get it,” Princess Aanya admitted.

The queen gave up her attempts to mask her laughter, swooped in, picked the girl up, and settled the child on her hip. “Once upon a time, when Pat and I were much younger, I liked causing my RPS agents trouble, so they’d handcuff me to the furniture. Pat’s far better behaved, so the agents almost never handcuffed him. Older agents, like Terry, know about this. When our agents come to check on us, they’ll know Terry has made his hit and left Pat behind. Then Pat gets to play and stage a rescue, and we’ll have a great deal of fun. The RPS agents are going to be crying, but that’s their job. Today, we play.”

After I returned to New York, I’d send the Texans some suggestions on how to keep things lively for their monarchs without leaving the impression of curtailing what they could and couldn’t do. I considered the nearby wall, far enough away conventional slides wouldn’t work. However, I could fashion sleds into the sliding system on rolling bars to gain momentum, get over, and then create a decline to street level. Pedestrians wouldn’t like me, especially if they got shunted out of the way with my talent. I could, with a little extra work, create a bridge over the neighboring street, blockade where I wanted to go, and deposit us there in easy range of a cab pickup point.

“Hey, Jessica?” I asked without looking away from my target.

“What do you need?”

“Pick your favorite RPS agent, inform him he’s now a cab driver, and have him go get ready to pick us up across the street at the cab stand. I will call a cab if the agent doesn’t cooperate.”

“I love it when you play dirty, Terry. Yes, I can have an agent roleplay being a cab driver. Eddie should be around.”

I laughed at the thought of even more chaos in the RPS. “Is he on duty today?”

“Yep. He wanted to see the show.”

“Text him, give him the role, and have him take the hot seat SUV. It has better plating. Have him tell Carl he’s batting for the other team in an exterior position for security reasons.”

The queen did as told, and I went to work on the window, manifesting an icepick and pressing it through the bulletproof glass, maintaining the heat so I could carve the glass away from the frame. I checked below, determined no one was in the yard or bushes nearest the building, and left the top for last. “Holly, grab me a chair from the king’s office, please.”

She ran off to do as told.

“Eddie is getting the SUV. He says it’ll be about ten minutes, but Carl said it’s your win the instant you step off palace grounds, so they’ll pause the scenario if necessary for Eddie to get into position. Just tell me when to have them pause.”

“We’re going to be off palace grounds in the next two minutes.”

“And because they’re following protocol, we’ll be long gone before they check on us.”

“Pat, consider yourself gagged,” I stated, grinning at the king.

“Thank you for not actually gagging me.”

“You’re welcome.” I regarded the true target of the caper with a grin. “You can choose between being restrained or knocked out and carried like a damsel in distress.”

“That is mean, Terrance Oliver Pattens!”

I grinned wider. “Yes, it is. We have to put on a show for those Texans.”

“I bet I could toss Jessica over my shoulder and carry her.”

The queen laughed. “I bet you could, too. But let’s not. Someone will take a picture of it. Why don’t we kidnap Terry the instant we step foot off the palace grounds?”

Olivia’s eyes lit up, and I recognized when I lost control of the situation. Sighing, I shook my head and went back to work on getting the window out of its frame. Holly dragged over the chair and held it stable while I climbed up to handle the top of the frame.

“I’m sorry, Terry, but I’m going to have to change teams upon hearing that,” my accomplice stated.

Of course she would. “I’d call you traitors, but technically, I’m the traitor here. It would be unreasonable of me to expect two princesses and a queen to cooperate with me. I could have gotten you three appropriately restrained had I wanted to.”

“Well, with Holly’s help, you absolutely would have,” the queen conceded. “We’ll let you have it. How are you getting us out of here?”

“We will be making use of a slide system. You will get to ride on a nice little cart all the way to the sidewalk.”

“This is fun. Sure, you’re destroying my poor palace, but at least the repair bill will be worth it for a change.”

Satisfied I’d cut through enough of the glass to break it the rest of the way, I shoved.

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