The Gossamer Syndicate

Chapter Two

As the evening moonlight reflected off the rooftops, I snuck down the lamplit alley, Tikki hovering by my side. The wooden door was down a short flight of steps. I walked down, careful to not make a sound, and put my ear to the door to listen.

"What do you hear?" Tikki whispered.

"I don't hear anything," I whispered back. "Check the window to see if they're still there."

Tikki flew over to the narrow window with metal bars, peered in, and flew back. "They've gotten up," she reported, "and they're heading down the hallway away from us. We should follow."

I tried the door handle. "It's locked."

"Good thing you have me, then." Tikki drew a deep breath and flew through the door, passing through the wood as if it were an illusion. I heard a faint click, and the door creaked open.

"Did they hear the door?" I whispered frantically to Tikki.

Tikki glanced at the hallway. "Doesn't look like it. Quick, let's follow them!"

I gingerly crept across the room, checking the floor before every footfall to avoid clutter or potentially creaky floorboards. The light in the room was off, but the light cast from the hallway illuminated the numerous boxes and miscellaneous contraptions that littered the entire area. It seemed as if this area functioned like a basement. To my right, I saw the table that Tikki had mentioned when she described where the three men had been sitting just a minute before.

The hallway was narrow, with white plastered walls. I hid next to the corner, and peered around just in time to see the third man turn the corner, his coattails trailing behind him.

"We're all clear," I whispered to Tikki, and I quickly tiptoed down the hallway. I winced as a floorboard creaked, but after half a minute of panicked waiting it seemed as if the three men hadn't noticed.

It was then that I heard a deep, commanding voice. "Still not willing to talk, are you?"

"Let me at her!" a slightly higher voice insisted. "I shall loosen the tongue of this foolish whippersnapper."

"Is that Mr. D'Argencourt?" I whispered incredulously to Tikki, who solemnly nodded.

"No!" the first voice ordered. "We will keep our methods civil. No harm must come to her."

"Look," a third voice said. "I admire your morals, but it's been three days and we still have had no luck whatsoever."

"If luck is what you wanted," a much higher voice interjected, "then you're definitely going about this the wrong way."

That was Marinette; I was sure of it. I couldn't resist any longer—I peeked around the far corner of the hallway.

The three men were standing in the center of an immense circular room, that a town house could have easily fit inside. The room was ringed by an industrial metal balcony, which the hallway opened onto, and a staircase led down from the balcony to the floor. And in the center of the room was a large iron cage, with the three men standing around it. And inside the cage was Marinette.

Something snapped inside me. They didn't get to do that to Marinette. I pushed aside everything that had held me back before.

"Tikki, spots on."

I heard my voice firmly saying the phrase, but I hadn't said it consciously. My vision began to fade and to flash red. I felt dizzy as a red and black costume materialized itself around me. As my vision returned to normal, I barely managed to catch myself against the wall to avoid collapsing on the floor.