The television show "Charmed," including the characters of Piper Halliwell, Phoebe Halliwell, Paige Matthews, Leo Wyatt, and Cole Turner, is copyrighted by Spelling Television, Inc., a subsidiary of Spelling Entertainment Group, Inc. The character of Dr. Charles Eppes is copyrighted by someone who owns the television show "Numb3rs," which I would know if the networks didn't mutilate the closing credits of television shows.
The talk must have ended just a short time ago: There were still people in pairs and small groups standing around in animated discussion. But hotel employees were already beginning to take away the chairs, and the dais and podium were empty.
"All right, walk around and see if he's any of these people, or if they know where he went," Piper said. "I'll go out front and see if he's trying to get a cab. We'll meet in the middle of the lobby."
When they did, their expressions were blank.
"Let's think about it," Piper said. "He could be staying with a friend in town. He could be staying here. He could be in the men's room. He could be – "
" – in the bar," Paige said, looking over Piper's shoulder.
Piper turned. The bar was dark, but a candle in an amber glass holder flickered in the middle of each table. The glow somewhat illumined the faces of everyone at a table by the wall, but it happened that Professor Charles Eppes was sitting with his back to the wall, and they saw him full face.
He was smiling at something that someone had just said, a smile that enhanced his youthful face and warm eyes. But his shoulders seemed pinched, as though, without realizing it, he were pulling a little away from everyone. He rubbed his eyes and drained the last of a glass of beer.
Piper sighed in relief. "Another five minutes, he'd have been gone. And once he's by himself – "
"Oh, if the idea is to make sure he's not alone all night – " Paige began.
Piper quelled her with a look, albeit an amused one. "OK, he's tired, he's been talking all night. What could possibly convince him to do anything but fall asleep at the first opportunity?"
Paige put on a pretty pout. "Hi, I'm a math groupie," she said with a little wave. "Wanna go back in the bar with all the nice people and buy me a drink?"
"Certainly, miss," Piper said. "And what field of mathematics most interests you?"
"Oh. Multiplication?"
Piper laughed, sobering fast when she saw that Eppes was on his feet and obviously saying his goodnights. "Think, think – "
He was walking out of the bar, and now he saw both women looking at him. Still sober, Piper greeted him. "Professor Eppes?"
"Yes?"
And finally, an idea. She lowered her voice and spoke in a monotone. "We're with hotel security. Could we speak to you for a moment?"
Eppes looked at her, amused. "Security?"
She couldn't blame him. She herself was wearing a snug-fitting sweater and blue jeans; Paige had chosen to fight demons decked out in a ruffled black skirt and low-cut black camisole that revealed the whiteness of her shoulders and décolletage. Not only did they not look like hotel security, they probably looked like the sort of women that hotel security gets paid to whisk out of the lobby.
Paige, however, came in on cue in an indignant undertone. "Oh, yeah, fortunately nobody's ever had that reaction before!"
"Obviously, Professor, the hotel calls us for special matters," Piper said. "We need to speak to you about a threat."
"What kind of threat?"
"We'd rather not discuss it here, sir. Once we're at the safe house, we can give you the details."
A blank expression settled on Eppes' face, although his eyes, moving back and forth between them, were quick. "The hotel has a safe house."
"Did you think you were our only prominent guest?" Paige asked.
"Easy," Piper said. "We're supposed to protect the guest, not alienate him. We apologize for the inconvenience, sir, but we are concerned about a real possibility of danger to you and we'd like to clear you out of here."
"Have the police been called?"
"Um, yes, they have been. They're aware of, they urged us to get you someplace safe." Piper took his arm and tried to start for the door. "Time is of the essence, sir, so – "
Eppes wasn't budging. He had planted his feet.
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do." He spoke as quietly as they. "I'm going to assume this is a joke, and laugh. You're going to take your hand off me and laugh too. Then you're going to leave. That way there won't be any need for me to call that gentleman over there – " indicating the security guy in the lobby – "and ask if he recognizes you as members of the staff."
He laughed, an even quiet laugh. Piper, having no choice, dropped her hand and chuckled. Paige stole a glance at the security guy; he was watching them, but at least he wasn't coming over.
The elevator dinged, and a male tourist who'd been waiting for it started to get in. "Please hold the elevator," Eppes asked cheerfully, and walked rapidly away.
"Now what?" Piper said, still smiling.
A siren screamed by in the street outside, and the security guy looked out the tall glass panels of the hotel's façade. Paige grabbed Piper's hand and pulled her into the staircase next to the elevators.
"Now we orb up to the hall in front of the elevator on each floor until we see where he gets off," Paige said.
"What if there are people in the hall?"
"Then we skip that one and go to the next one up. If he's around other people, he's OK. If we get to the top of the building without seeing him, we'll figure out what to do next. Ready?"
They vanished in tiny spheres of glittering blue-white light.
Charlie Eppes was rattled, and felt stupid for feeling rattled. To be that shaken by a public encounter with two (apparently) unarmed women! Probably just a joke, which is why he'd given them that out. No, probably some scheme to get his wallet. But when, besides your day job, you also do consulting for the FBI and classified cryptography work for the NSA, and a pair of complete strangers tries to get you to go somewhere with them, you start remembering bad stories.
The elevator stopped on the fifth floor. The tourist said, "Have a good night," and got off. Eppes pushed the Door Close button, scanning the hallway in front of the elevator until the doors moved smoothly in front of him.
When he got back to his room, he decided, he'd page his brother Don, who would call back immediately unless he was in the middle of a shoot-out, or something. Don was an FBI special agent, and in his investigative career had probably dealt with everything from drunken groupies to con artists to terrorist kidnappers. He'd ask Don whether he thought this required action, or just going to bed and forgetting it.
He was feeling better just at the thought of the call when the elevator doors opened on the 12th floor. He already had his key-card in his hand, and his room was just a few doors down from the elevator. As he opened the door he was trying to remember where he'd put his phone when he unpacked. Then he stopped dead without making a sound.
A woman was waiting for him in his room, and this one he recognized. Long red robe, single dangling earring, quite striking, even with the large bandage on her face. She'd slipped into the meeting room toward the end of the question period and had kept her eyes fixed on him every minute. He'd thought it was a little odd; if she was that fascinated in the subject, why come so late?
"Professor Eppes," she said now in a tone that just missed warmth. "It's so good to see you."
If he hadn't already been rattled, he'd have probably stayed in the doorway saying things like, "Who are you? Who let you in?" But something about her put his already jangled nerves on red alert, and he did what they demanded: He slammed the door and ran down the hall toward the staircase by the elevators.
Then something hit him in the back. It felt like a battering ram with an electric shock, and it lifted him off his feet, slamming him into the wall. He collapsed, gasping, trying to get his bearings. The woman in the red robe was standing in front of him, looking up and down the hall. Then she said to him reprovingly, "Please don't panic. I need your brain in full working order." She bent, reaching out a hand to him.
Then she exploded into what looked like a thousand hornets, swarming silently in a column behind which he saw the two women from the lobby.
"What was in that beer?" he demanded.
The one in the sexy black top knelt beside him, taking hold of his arm. The one wearing a small gold crucifix over a soft tan sweater knelt on the other side of the first woman, taking her arm.
"Sorry, Professor," said the one in black, sounding genuinely apologetic. "Really sorry."
Then things blurred. Then there was nothing. It wasn't like he was blind and numb, it was like he had no eyes or body at all. But he was conscious, and conscious of movement.
Then things blurred again, and now he was sitting on a sofa in a dim room with a fierce source of light. He looked toward it as the woman in black said, "Easy! Easy! It's us!"
She was talking to a tall man with black hair. He wasn't wearing a shirt, which revealed both his muscularity and the fact that he had war paint, or something, smeared on his chest and arm. He was holding a dagger in one hand and what looked like a ball of fire in the other.
"Don't scare him to death," the woman in black continued. "He doesn't even know we're the good guys yet."
The man closed his fist around the fireball, somehow extinguishing it without screaming in pain, and smiled down sardonically at Charlie. "Hi," he said. "We're the good guys."
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Paige volunteered to explain things to Eppes while the others talked over the next step. She figured that a genius would rather know all of the facts than an edited version calculated to reassure him, so she explained completely. She took him into the kitchen and got him a cup of chamomile tea first, leaning closely enough to him as she put it in front of him that he could catch of whiff of the perfume she had hastily refreshed on their arrival.
He listened silently throughout, stopping her only once. "If your sister – blew up – this – Seer, why is the rest of this – necessary?"
So Paige explained that the most powerful upper-level demons didn't stay blown up; that the whirling flecks he had seen would pull back together into the Seer, and probably had just seconds after they had left. He nodded with a strange smile, and didn't speak after that.
Meantime, there was first a debate and then agreement in the living room. The debate was about what to do with Eppes. Cole, who had never seen Magic School before he had been there that night, thought it was the perfect place to stash the innocent. Leo disagreed. As heavily cloaked and safe as Magic School was, its major protection was that it wasn't widely known, training kids quietly under the demonic radar. If it started becoming known as the Charmed Ones' safe house, demons would start focusing more on how to get at it, endangering the students.
Leo won, and everyone decided that Cole would make a round trip, shimmering Charlie and Leo to a sports bar that was popular and open until 2:00 a.m. The Seer would stay her hand as long as Charlie was among a lot of people; Charlie might feel a little more comfortable sitting in a normal setting with a non-magical guy; and there would be no need to tell him that Leo would be wearing a jacket concealing an athame and vials of potions that could disable and explode demons.
Then came the agreement. Phoebe had written a spell to summon the Seer while Piper and Paige had been at the Amberleigh. As soon as Cole got back from taking Charlie and Leo to the bar, they would summon the Seer, trap her in a crystal cage (they had plenty of crystals in the attic), and then use the spell Piper had written to send her back. If she disappeared without exploding or splitting in half or destroying the time-space continuum, they would promptly use the same spell to send Cole back.
Piper tried not to notice that throughout most of the discussion, Phoebe's hand was resting lightly on Cole's arm; nor that, when they discussed sending Cole back, he couldn't stop himself from looking at Phoebe and putting his hand on hers. Piper was also trying not to show how nervous she was at the possible consequences of opening a dimensional portal with her spell. Suddenly she stood.
"Sounds good," she said. "How about a few minutes' down time first? Clear our minds, do whatever we need to do to get ready. OK with everyone?"
"I'll get my jacket and the weapons," Leo said, heading for the hall.
"I'm just going to sit quietly for a few minutes," Phoebe said.
Cole didn't say anything, and didn't move from her side.