The alarm indicating a perimeter breach went off in Helen Magnus' chambers at the new sanctuary scarcely two hours after she had gotten to sleep. She sat up quickly, her head spinning with absolute exhaustion, and dressed with the speed and practicality of an established veteran. She only paused a moment to take a gulp of the half drunk cold cup of Earl Grey on her nightstand, and ran out the door and down to the Praxis Pod hatch. Will was already there.
"Any ideas?" Will punched in the code to the locked pod hatch and pulled out two stunners.
"I haven't the foggiest. However, the code entered was one from the original sanctuary, which were all flagged." Magnus took Will's proffered weapon.
"So the intruder…"
"The systems will to automatically lock them in the antechamber."
"Small mercies." Will didn't look as if he believed it.
"Indeed."
They had moved into the new sanctuary two weeks ago, but this was the first attempted break in. The defenses were theoretically better than the old sanctuary, but they were untested against real intruders. Helen had learned a long time ago that impregnable defenses were like unsinkable ships, and that overconfidence never panned out. To make matters worse, Henry had left Old City a week ago to spend some much needed vacation time with Erika.
They reached the antechamber, and Will looked in through the one way glass. He cursed and immediately unlocked the door.
"What –?" Helen didn't need to finish the question, because at that instant, Nikola Tesla strode in through the entryway.
"Nikola, I gave you a proper code for a reason!" Helen features had morphed from worry into anger instantly."
"Yes, yes sorry to disrupt your beauty sleep, but I had to get your attention, and this was the fastest way. You should be grateful that I waited until I was here to wake you. You look lovely as ever, by the way." He smiled as Helen narrowed her eyes.
"Tesla, it is three in the morning." Will's eyes were already drooping.
"Nikola, why are you here?" Helen felt that the conversation was quickly going to veer off course if something wasn't done about it.
"Yes. Of course. We have a problem." His face was instantly serious.
"What kind of problem?"
"It's Adam Worth."