“Wait,” I said, “who did you power up?”

Lee laughed, “Intentionally? No one you know. That risks the wrong kind of attention, but I do it when it’s worth the risks. Unintentionally? Everyone who stayed near me with the right kind of ancestry—including you and your friends. My kind are a nexus for power. If you can collect it, you’ll get a little more than you normally would.”

That opened up new lines of thought we didn’t have time for right now, but maybe after we freed him, we might.

“Wow,” I spoke the word aloud, prompting the rest of the group to look at me. To forestall questions, I shook my head, “I’m going to want more details about that sometime, but for now, how do we get you out?”

I didn’t have to wait for Lee’s reply.

“Easy. Find Magnus and kill him. It should be doable, but harder if he puts the rest of the Nine in your way. You might go to wherever he’s moved the connection portal, attune yourself and take over if you can. You might not have the strength, but that’s the other option.

“It’s the one I’d take if it were me, but I know I can use it. Your problem is that Magnus can use an entire criminal network against you before you get to him, so it won’t be as easy as it should be. Worse, I’d keep the connection portal close if I were him. So you might have to go through the Nine to find it.”

The more Lee talked, the worse this sounded. There had to be some way to make it work. I ran through options, suggesting, “Would having Rachel along help?”

“I don’t know. The two of you are human, but when it comes to this, you’re a mix. The Ghosts are an alternate version of us, close enough that we could have interbred, but never did. It might help. The Ghosts don’t have the same level of general power as we do, but I get the impression that their power is more precisely directed. Anyway, I should end this before Magnus notices. We don’t want that guy listening in.”

Lee cleared his throat, “I covered everything I wanted you to know and maybe a little more. I know it sounds bad. It won’t be easy, but I think you can do it. I’m sure you’re doubting it, but speaking as a near immortal, multi-dimensional, alien being who’s put more than a millennium of work into you and your friends’ families, I know what I’m talking about. See you soon, kid.”

I felt his presence disappear, leaving me fully aware of the barren red stone of the hallway and my friends watching to see when I finished.

Jaclyn noticed before anyone else, “What did he have to say?”

“Not too much more than I already told you. He’s trapped in a pocket dimension that’s somehow related to the galaxy core device he hid on Earth. He told me that he’d find the device, sneak in, and take control of it so Magnus can’t do anything more with it, but he’s not sure that we have what’s needed to connect to it. His recommended plan, assuming that we can’t is to find Magnus and kill him.”

Nodding, Jaclyn said, “That sounds like Lee.”

“Yeah,” I said, “except that won’t be easy either. It makes Magnus himself physically powerful and restores a Dominator-style power that affects people around him even when he’s not speaking to them. Plus it discourages even the people who it doesn’t affect from fighting him. If that wasn’t enough, he can power up anyone he wants to and he’s got the Nine at his disposal. So he’s got a lot of potential candidates.”

Rachel blinked, “That sounds bad. It almost sounds like we might want to chance taking over the device ourselves.”

“Sneaking in and taking over an ancient alien device that threatens the world from the guy who thinks he controls it,” Marcus couldn’t hide his grin. “That would be amazing.”

“That’s what I thought,” I shook my head. “But it’s pretty far from a slam dunk. The way Lee figures it, Magnus would keep something Lee called a ‘connection portal’ close. There’s a good chance we’d have to fight through everything that would protect him to get to the portal.”

“Oh,” Marcus let out a sigh, “imagine one of those Cabal guys with an additional power up and that might be what we’re up against.”

I nodded, “Or one of the True or one of the Nine’s cloned superheroes or a bunch of the good guys who have had their hidden trigger activated and now they’re working for Magnus or…”

I let the thought hang in the air.

“Okay,” Marcus looked around at all of us, “that doesn’t just sound bad, but tragic for us and the rest of the world.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That might be why Lee ended with a kind of a pep talk.”

Rachel raised an eyebrow, “A pep talk? ‘Don’t worry, kid. I know you can kill them all’.”

“That was surprisingly close,” I said, “but in the context of the rest of the conversation, it sounded like he’d implied that he knew we could do it because he’d been subtly powering up our families for the last thousand years.”

Shaking her head, Rachel said, “I wish I could say it surprised me. Among the Ghosts, Lee’s reputation is that he seems like he’s impulsive, but he’s actually playing a very long game.”

Though my helmet hid it, I felt sure that my face showed utter disbelief, “Do they think it’s all an act?”

Rachel shook her head, “They think he’s every bit as impulsive as he seems, but he sees so many steps in the future that his impulsiveness doesn’t screw it up.”

Jaclyn took a step forward and waved us to follow, “We can’t risk Rook or one of his people taking what we’re looking for even if they don’t know what it is.”

Before anyone else could respond, Cassie, who’d been looking further down the hallway during the entire conversation said, “We should go there. My dad was here.”

Marcus glanced down the hallway and then back at Cassie, “How do you know that?”

Cassie pointed toward a spot where the hallway began to turn, “See the dark spot? He wrote on the wall.”

Rachel laughed, “What does it say, ‘Captain Commando was here’?”

“Close,” Cassie said, “‘Kilroy was here’.”