Rich Boy: Growing Pains - 26. Chapter 26

"No," Worthington said flatly, although the corners of his lips threatened to break out into an uncontrolled grin. He was wearing the tight, dark gray Pirates t-shirt he’d bought the other day, with the skull on the left side and other black designs that he thought had looked cool. On his head sat a black ball cap that Kyle had ‘worked’ so that the edges of the hat’s bill curled inwards, and he had on a pair of brown cargo shorts with flip-flops.

"The picture is right there!" Kyle asserted, pointing at the computer screen in the booth right before the attraction’s gift store. Disney was so careful to put their merchandise opportunities just at the exit of these rides, and he was trying to resist the urge to go over and look at the plush bathrobes with the "Hollywood Hotel" logo on it. Well, it was better to look at that than the picture in front of him. "Pay the girl, so I have proof."

"No." Worthington asserted, and his gaze drifted to the picture. They were in the front row of the elevator cart, and there was Kyle looking at him with his red Disneyland 55 ball cap on, the brown Pirates shirt and beige cargo shorts clearly visible while Worthington had a look of pure surprise on his face, and was visibly giggling. "Sinclairs do not giggle."

"This one did." Kyle laughed as he elbowed Worthington in the ribs. "Now pay for the pictures. We want the complete set."

"I will not," Worthington answered firmly, but his resolve weakened when Kyle turned those puppy dog brown eyes on him, and his lower lip quivered.

"Please?" Kyle murmured softly while the cast member standing on the other side of the booth tried not to laugh at them. "It’s our last day here."

"Oh alright." Worthington sighed and pulled out his wallet, handing over the Platinum American Express. Thank god he had that card, because with all the things he’d bought this weekend he needed its high credit limit. Brandon was going to have a cow when he saw all these bills.

"Thanks!" Kyle said and actually gave him a peck on the cheek before looking around to see if anyone had noticed. Only the smiling cast member had, though, and he blushed slightly while she printed out the pictures, put them in cardstock frames and bagged them.

"You’re welcome." Worthington sighed. Kyle usually got what he wanted although the public kiss had been rather nice. They’d only kissed on the mouth once this entire weekend, and it had been just a peck, after last night’s dinner, but it had been very nice. They walked past the bathrobe on the way out, and Worthington was debating on getting two of them instead of just one. Would Kyle wear it at home?

"Look, there’s barely a line," Kyle said as they walked around the corner and back towards the rest of California Adventureland. The Tower of Tower had been the most interesting attraction so far with its unpredictable up and down motions. They had done away with the VIP guide after Thursday, feeling they knew the parks well enough to get around, and while Mark was still upset about the missing people, they had found no evidence of bad magic anywhere in the two parks. "C’mon; we can go again."

"We’ve gone on it twice now." Worthington sighed. "Isn’t that enough?"

"No," Kyle said with that puppy dog look. Damn him; he knew Worthington couldn’t resist that look. Maybe, when they were eighty, he might have learned to resist it, but here, now, it was impossible.

Now that was an odd thought. He’d never before imagined himself with a specific person that far into the future. Sure, there had been Jamie, but that had been different, and a nameless, faceless wife, but again, never had he imagined himself with a specific person like that. Somehow it was reassuring, comforting.

"Oh, alright," Worthington said, wanting to see the smile that bloomed on Kyle’s face under that curved baseball cap. It was a particularly bright one, and Kyle switched the bag to his left hand, grabbed Worthington’s hand and ran with him towards the attraction’s entrance. The two male cast members in their bellboy costumes smiled at them as they approached and went through the regular line.

They had permanent fastpasses that would allow them to use the quicker fastpass lines, but they’d stopped using them earlier that day after learning how much fun it was to just stand in line and actually talk with other people visiting the park. Their good looks and smiles seemed to draw people to them, and they’d had several conversations that day with people from all over the country, and even the world.

In fact, it seemed most of the visitors to the park that day were foreigners.

The Rod Serling Twilight Zone introduction to the attraction was as corny as ever, but this time Worthington spent more time just looking at all the ‘theming’ after the hotel lobby introduction. This place was done up like the back rooms of an old-style hotel, and he found some of the mock pipes and other paraphernalia interesting. People went around them as he looked, more anxious to get onto the actual ride part of the attraction, but Worthington took his time, enjoying all the work that had gone into the littlest of details.

That was one aspect of the Disney parks that he was coming to love. The designers and artists working on all the attractions had spent a great deal of time creating detail after little detail to make things so much more interesting. Mark, their VIP guide the first two days, had spent a lot of time explaining some of those details to them, and Worthington found he had a great deal of respect for the men and women who had made these things a reality.

After nearly ten minutes of soaking in all the little details that he could find, Worthington let Kyle drag him towards the line that had formed, and they waited for their turn to get in line at one of the three elevators that constituted the actual ride. There were actually six of the things, three on an upper level, and three down here. It wasn’t long before they were standing on the marked floor with several other people, waiting for those on the ride at the time to finish.

"What was that?" Kyle said with alarm as a massive surge of magical energy came from the other side of the doors they were facing.

"Fuck," Worthington said aloud as the people next to them looked at them like they were crazy. "Something’s happening."

"Well duh," Kyle said sarcastically. "How do we…"

"You," Worthington said to the handsome cast member in the dark red bellboy uniform that was just getting ready to open a side door. The cast member turned back to him and his eyes glazed over as Worthington’s mind surged into his with low magic.

"Would you two follow me please?" The young man, a teenager the same age as Kyle, said in a dull voice as Worthington instructed him what to do. They stepped through the doorway and found themselves in the narrow walkway between the actual ride and the entryway they had just left. As Worthington relaxed his control, the young cast member went about his normal routine at this part in the ride.

"What are we doing?" Kyle asked as his mind reached out, and Worthington drew him into a very light rapport. Their rapport deepened after a moment as Worthington decided it would be better to link, just in case. Kyle’s skills were just too new to be useful in a fight, but his power would be helpful.

"Just wait," Worthington said aloud as he quickly did his best to shield their combined power from being felt by others nearby. When the doorway to the ride opened, and the cast member gave his typical routine of instructing people how to leave the ride, Worthington and Kyle watched the tourists leave, sensing the residual magic on them and following the last two people at a safe distance. One last control set in the cast member caused him to hit the emergency button and start talking into the radio about a supposed problem with the ride. That would stop all the other elevators, and get people out of the building fairly quickly.

What the hell? Kyle thought as the people went down the stairs and turned right, not left towards the exit. To the right were doors marked "Cast Members Only," but the people had gone through them. Worthington sighed and followed with Kyle close on his heels.

The stun bolt hit his prepared shields and shattered in a blast of light that sent Kyle skittering for cover behind Worthington, his flip-flops slapping against the cool concrete as he moved. Two men stood in front of them, wearing Cast Member outfits like those of the bellboys that were common for this attraction, but Worthington wasn’t convinced they were real cast members. For one thing, the uniforms fit poorly.

A vise of power surrounded the shields he had covered both of them, and Kyle moved up closer to make it easier for Worthington to protect them. He broke the vise grip with a flex of power and sent a wave of pure power at the two men, both of whom looked to be in their late twenties. There were other visible signs they weren’t cast members the longer Worthington looked at them.

Their faces were grimy as if they had not bathed in days. No Disney cast member would be allowed in a public area looking like that. He knew enough about the park’s operations now to know that much. So, these mages were imposters, having stolen uniforms or taken them off of real cast members they had subdued with magic. Beyond the two men, he could see the last of the spelled tourists disappearing around another corner even as the two mages overcame his power wave and struck back with deadlier Levin bolts.

There was so much electricity around them, used to power the six elevators as they plunged and climbed up thirteen stories that it was easy to grab some of it and throw it down the hallway in a massive blast that tore through the shields of both mages and fried them to a crisp in seconds. Their bodies were still falling to the floor as Worthington moved past them, heading down the hallway and towards the turn where the tourists had disappeared. Kyle was right behind him, feeling nervous and slightly nauseous as he realized he’d helped kill these men, but he was holding up fairly well.

Shouldn’t we have kept them alive for questioning? Kyle asked with a trace of guilt in his mental voice.

No time. Worthington said as he skidded to a stop after rounding the corner. He barely had time to pour all their combined power into a shield before the hallway filled with flame. Kyle cried out in pain as the hairs on their arms and legs blackened from the heat, and the plastic bag with the pictures inside started to melt. Above them, the sprinklers went off, but the water inside did little to quell the raging mage firestorm.

Taking a breath of scorched air, Worthington called up their combined power and took away one part of the fire triangle. Even mage flames needed three things to exist, just like regular fires. They needed heat, oxygen, and fuel. Mage flames could use magic as the fuel as well as burnable materials, so that was a hard one to take away. Taking away oxygen would kill all living things in the area, not just the flames, so he took away heat, cooling the air around them rapidly with pure power alone.

Above them the water sprinklers froze with the cold he was pumping into the room, and the flames died just in time to reveal a group of twelve mages wrapping their arms around the spellbound tourists and hustling them towards a section of the concrete floor just a little ahead of them. Worthington threw up a shield between them, and the section of floor he suspected was a portal, and nearly died as two of the mages turned and threw bolts of power at him.

The two mages attacking him had released the people they were holding to concentrate on their attacks. Those two were both partially nude, wearing only underwear and socks. One of them was rather plump, which explained the ill-fitting uniform on the mage he’d just killed, but the other looked to be barely sixteen and in fairly good shape. They both just stood there, in a posture that implied they were firmly controlled.

Two more of the mages released their prisoners and joined in on the attacks against Worthington. All four of them were strong, as were the eight who were now attacking the shield blocking them from their escape route. It was all Worthington could do to keep them from breaking through either his personal shield or the shield keeping them from their destination. Either one dropping would be disastrous as far as he was concerned, and for one moment he wished Kyle was more experienced.

Behind him, he could feel Kyle drawing on his own power, which was rather limited since he was linked with Worthington. A ball of flame appeared in one of his hands, burning in white brilliance, and he wound up like he was pitching a baseball. The ball of flame flew from his hand and impacted on an unshielded mage whose chest burst in a shower of flame and the room filled with the stench of burnt flesh. The other three mages quickly threw up their own shields, and Kyle’s next pitch impacted a shield solidly but did not penetrate. The mage did take a step back though, from the force of the thrown ball.

My fastball’s been clocked at 93 miles per hour. Kyle’s mental voice was smug. You keep the rest of the power for defense; I’ll take these fuckers out. There’s more than enough for me to do this all day.

Thanks. Worthington sent with real emotion behind it. He remembered his dream from the first night, of them fighting demons side by side, and knew that this was what he wanted. Not a lover, not someone to dote on, or be doted on by, not someone like Jeremy who no matter how much he loved would never be able to do this, and not Jamie, who had his own life, his own dreams that didn’t necessarily include Worthington in every aspect. He wanted a partner, someone he could depend on, who had the strength, the maturity, and the power to stand side-by-side with him through everything. Kyle was all those things, and it would be worth the effort it would take to woo Kyle into being his partner, his equal.

Kyle kept ‘pitching’ balls of fire at the three mages, and managed to take another of them out before the eight mages massed their powers for a combined strike that took down Worthington’s shield. Even as he winced from the backlash of the broken magic, he was summoning more power but did not release it in time. Seven of the eight mages made it to the portal with their captives before he could use his power to raze the portal with enough magical power to unravel it completely. The three remaining mages recoiled from the now-boiling patch of dirt they’d dug up from the concrete floor and turned back to face Worthington even as three balls of fire flew towards them. Their concentration had flagged, and so had their shields, and the balls of fire hit them, killing them instantly.

The moment they died, so did their controls on the remaining four hostages, and Worthington quickly extended controls of his own to send all of them into a trance-like state. Four. That number depressed him as he realized that he had failed to save at least three times that number. He felt queasiness through his rapport with Kyle and turned just in time to rub his friend’s back as Kyle bent over and vomited out the contents of his stomach.

"Fuck." Kyle breathed as he finished vomiting and stood up, tears in his eyes.

"You okay?" Worthington asked him.

"Ah’m so sorry." Kyle murmured. "You need me and here Ah am puking and crying."

"Kyle, don’t," Worthington said calmly, pulling a hanky out of his back pocket and handing it to the brown-haired young man who looked years younger at the moment. There was a sick look in his eyes, a look of fear, and of embarrassment that Worthington knew should not be there. He sent confidence, and respect through the rapport with Kyle even as he picked his words carefully. "Kyle, it’s the first time you’ve done this."

"It’s not the first time Ah’ve killed someone with magic," Kyle said miserably as tears leaked down the sides of his face.

"It’s the first time you’ve done it consciously," Worthington said gently. "These were bad people. They were trying to kidnap innocent people, and very likely would eventually kill them. We stopped them, at least partially and now we know that Mark’s reason for trying to call me here was genuine."

"You think this has to do with demons?" Kyle asked.

"You feel that?" Worthington said gently, showing Kyle the feeling he was getting from the dead mages.

"Yes." Kyle frowned. "That’s demon spoor, is it?"

"Yes, you can feel it on people who’ve had contact with demons, at least for a while after that contact," Worthington said. "I didn’t recognize any of them as being among the government mages that were captured, but that doesn’t mean anything."

"Oh, crap," Kyle said as he looked further back down the hallway and saw the plastic bag lying ruined on the floor. "Those pictures are gone."

"Don’t worry; I’m sure we can get copies of them," Worthington said gently as the sound of voices could be heard along with heavily booted feet. "Damn, okay, we’re going to have to do several things here, and no offense, but I can’t be holding your hand."

"I’ll be okay," Kyle said weakly, but he stood up and squared his shoulders. "What do you need?"

"The easier part is going to be dealing with the emergency services people, and getting a hold of Mark," Worthington said quickly as he gently lifted Kyle’s mind out of his and let their rapport slide apart. The queasy feeling in his stomach went away, and Kyle suddenly looked less confident, but only for the barest of moment. "Taking control of so many minds at once isn’t going to be easy for you, I know, but you can do it. Just remember to be as gentle as possible. Don’t go after all of them at once, take them two or three at a time until you have all of them, and then keep them bottled up in the hallway. Let their own minds provide excuses, don’t try to force them into one or another, but let them come up with something on their own, just guide them that way. Then call Mark. He’s said he was going to meet us for the fireworks tonight, so he should be nearby and get his advice on what to do next."

"Ah can handle that," Kyle said with more confidence than he was probably feeling. Worthington nodded and turned back around, already reaching out with his magic for the shattered portal, trying to read what he could. It was only a few seconds before he gave up and started to scan the memories of the former hostages. He started with the pudgiest of the park employees, reading how he’d been on his way to his station along with the other cast member when two dirty-looking men had confronted them. The two cast members hadn’t stood a chance against the mages and were stripping out of their uniforms and following their orders within seconds.

The first step was to take two young children, still crying on the shoulders of their parents after being terrified on the ride. This had been hours ago. The children’s lives had been taken to create the portal after they’d ripped up the concrete with magic. Then the other mages had appeared in the hallway from wherever they had been waiting. There was no audible conversation, and several of the mages began to rape the two cast members repeatedly while they waited.

It was obvious what they were doing, collecting power from the pain and fear of the two cast members as they were raped, and Worthington felt himself growing angrier and angrier as he let the memories play out. Apparently the mages had felt Worthington and Kyle enter the building, and there was actual vocal debate about whether to abort their plan or not. One of the mages in the cast member uniform had watched Worthington and Kyle leave the gift shop and ran back to tell the others that the coast was clear.

They waited another fifteen, or maybe twenty minutes before setting their spells and getting ready. By this time the hallway was filled with nearly thirty mages, including a half-dozen that Worthington recognized as having worked for the government before being taken captive and controlled. None of them had sensed Worthington or Kyle as they cast their spells, and Worthington couldn’t understand how he hadn’t sensed them beginning their magic. He had to have been in the queue area on the other side, and that should have been close enough.

It was the emotions and the concrete he decided after thinking about the problem. There was so much strong emotion, excitement, fear, and a whole host of others that he’d long since clamped down his shields against them. The concrete also played a part. This whole structure was reinforced concrete, and that could block out some of the sensations. Those two factors together were enough to have blocked him out from sensing the magic until the last spell was cast right under his nose.

As he watched through Jim, the pudgy cast member’s memories, he saw the first load of ten people being brought to the portal and taken through. It was like an assembly line as nearly forty people were taken before the sounds of magical combat could be heard in the hallway. The mages had been shocked that Worthington had returned, and ill-prepared for a fight. Their assembly line efficiency broke down, giving Worthington time to save the bare handful that he now looked at with sorrow.

"I’m so sorry," Worthington said before starting to wipe all of their memories in turn. The tourists were the easiest. He just blanked their memories of everything after the ride and sent them down the corridor. A quick burst of thought to Kyle gave him the idea to have the ‘firemen’ Kyle had now grabbed control of take the small group of people outside. Two were children, something Worthington was grateful for seeing, and he sighed before using his controls to have the two nearly nude cast members stand against the wall. They would need more work, and more false memories before they were released. With a sigh, he dug his phone out of his pocket and sighed with relief that it was still getting a signal here, even if it was only one bar.

"Sinclair Prot…" Dakota’s voice came over the line after it had rung four times.

"This is Worthington." He said into the phone, cutting the guy off. "Get me Gerald Norman on the line, now."

"Is everything alright, sir?" Dakota asked in a worried tone.

"I’m okay, but there’s a situation out here," Worthington said sharply. "Get me Norman now."

"Give me a moment to find where he’s at," Dakota said in a slightly miffed tone that Worthington ignored as he began to pace in the hallway, five steps in one direction, turn around and five in the other. He did that three times before Gerald Norman’s voice came on the line.

"This better be good, Sinclair." Norman declared. "I was…"

"I’ve just had a little run-in with more than thirty demon-controlled mages," Worthington said sharply.

"You’re joking." Gerald Norman sounded stunned. "Oh god, I hope you’re kidding. You’re still in Disneyland, right? How many people saw the fight?"

"Just a handful, and one of the attractions here has been evacuated," Worthington said brusquely. "They got away with over forty tourists though, before I could stop them. There’s five dead bodies here, all mages, and I’ve already released a handful of the surviving tourists. Two cast members here have had too much happen to them for me to just wipe them and let them go. Kyle’s got a handle on the emergency response crews, and in a few moments, we should have a local mage who works here available to help us keep a lid on things. I’ll keep the scene secured, but I think you need to get a team out here as soon as possible."

"I’m not in Clairville," Norman said gruffly. "I’m actually in Chicago right now, and there’s a snowstorm outside. There’s no way I can leave until tomorrow at least."

"Damn, I was hoping you’d get here and take over," Worthington said.

"Do you expect me to believe that?" Gerald Normal laughed.

"Yes, it’s the truth," Worthington said. "Damn it, Norman, I’m not up to dealing with this type of situation. There’s so much shit to deal with, like the park staff, emergency services, state inspectors, and local responders that all come out after an event like this at a major attraction. Then it gets into the media, and has to be dealt with there…"

"Funny, Sinclair." Norman laughed. "Sounds like you’ve actually got a fair bit of knowledge on what needs to be done. I had no idea you knew so much about amusement parks."

"It’s the damn park guide that led us around the first two days," Worthington growled. "I swear, the guy never stopped talking."

"Well, it sounds like you’ve got a handle on things." Norman laughed. "Look, Lowenthal and Parker are both back at Clairville, along with three others. I’ll call and have them head out on the first available flight. They should be there in a few hours. Weatherby’s there with some of his troops too, so I’ll have them go along."

"Look, Norman, I don’t think you understand the enormity of this situation," Worthington said. "There are over forty tourists missing, and no obvious way for them to have gone missing. We got most people out before the fireworks started, but this hallway’s pretty torn up, and they set off the fire sprinklers during the fight. There’s a big hole in the concrete where they dug up ground for a portal, and I have no way to trace the portal’s destination. They did that last time, in Phoenix, and I was never able to track them down that way."

"Well find a way, god damn it!" Norman shouted angrily. "Okay, so you’re saying this is all real, and we’ve got forty missing tourists and signs of a big fight that can’t just be magicked away?"

"That’s what I’m saying," Worthington said in a deadly serious tone. "More than likely no matter what I do, we’re not going to get those forty people back – and I have to say this: If they’re grabbing that many people in one go, it means there’s another Demon Lord somewhere on this fucking planet trying to make a gateway. It’s probably Blasoc."

"How the fuck do you just walk into these things?" Norman demanded.

"I have no idea, and wish I knew so I wouldn’t." Worthington snapped, feeling the stress of the situation in that moment. He’d been having such a good time, and then this happened. Kyle came around the corner, looking ill at ease, and stopped when he got within arm’s reach. Worthington reached out with his free hand and put a comforting arm around him. Kyle leaned against him, put his head on Worthington’s shoulder and let out a sniff before sighing. "In far less time than it takes for Lowenthal and the others to get here, this place is going to be crawling with all types of local government people looking to explain what’s happened."

"Damn it; I really am stuck here in Chicago," Norman growled. "Okay, here’s what’s going to happen, Sinclair. You’re a government agent again, working for Homeland Security undercover. We had a tip that terrorists were scoping out the park for some type of operation, but you figured out an attack was about to happen. You contacted staff there at the park, and they were able to get people off the ride, but not before the terrorists struck, killing however many are missing. I’ll make phone calls to officials from here. Disney’s probably got standard terror protocols, so get to somebody in charge, use your magic to convince him of your credentials, and have them implement those protocols. Keep the scene secure until our teams get there. I’ll scrounge up a military flight for them, so they go there direct. As soon as this fucking snow storm clears up, I’ll be on the flight out there, but we’re dealing with the demons, and you’re the expert on them. Lowenthal’s senior to Parker, so he’ll be in charge on our end, but he’s going to answer to you. Keep in touch with me. I’ll give your people this number, and you can get it from them when you’ve got a pen handy."

"Okay," Worthington said with a sigh.

"Look, Sinclair, I don’t like you," Norman said in a slightly gentler tone. "You’re an arrogant, spoiled, little rich boy. The thing is, you’re good. You’ve got a natural flair for this stuff, and I’d rather have you there than half the mages on my team. Scratch that, you’re already better than most of them at handling these types of situations. Listen to your gut instincts, listen to Lowenthal and the others, and keep things under control until I can get out there. If you come up with a way to rescue those people, take it."

"Got it," Worthington said with a deep breath as Norman hung up the phone. At least the man was not a total asshole.

"Mark’s on his way," Kyle said with a sigh as he straightened up and stepped out of Worthington’s embrace. "The fire team took the people out, but they’ll be back any time now."

"Things here are under control at the moment," Worthington said and touched Kyle’s mind, asking him to drop into rapport. They slid into it easily, and he shared with Kyle everything he’d done in a much faster way than verbal communication would allow. The rapport ended as easily as it had begun and Kyle nodded.

"I’ll stay with these guys," Kyle said gently.

"I’ll handle whoever comes in next." Worthington smiled.

He only had to wait a few minutes before he saw Mark walking down the hallway with several men in different uniforms, mostly the white-shirted security people, and a few firefighters in their gear. They all looked at Worthington suspiciously as they approached, but he took out his wallet and flipped it open to pull out his driver’s license. He’d seen enough DHS badges by now to cast the illusion of one with his picture on it and hand it over to the man who looked to be in charge.

"Who are you?" The man demanded.

"Worthington Sinclair, with the Department of Homeland Security," Worthington said in an authoritative voice. The man examined his ‘badge’ before handing it back.

"A little young, aren’t you?" He asked.

"I get that a lot," Worthington said with a smile. "It makes it easier for these assignments that I look like a kid instead of my real age."

"What’s happened here?" The man demanded. "I’m Harold Palmer, Director of Security for the day."

"We’ve had a terrorist attack here," Worthington said, and when the man’s face showed his surprise, he reached out with his mind, making suggestions that fell into place right away. "DHS had rumors that a cell was doing reconnaissance here and I was sent to investigate. When I figured out an attack was underway, I identified myself to your cast members, who immediately began evacuating. There have been a lot of casualties, but your people have saved a lot of lives here today. It could have been far worse than it is."

"Yes, yes." The man frowned looking around at the scorch marks visible on the walls. The men around him were murmuring excitedly, and Worthington planted the same suggestion in their minds. Mark looked on with wide eyes. "We need to get the park evacuated immediately. Men, come with me!"

"What’s happened?" Mark asked in a frightened voice as the security chief turned, still issuing orders and walked away with his men behind him. Worthington sighed with relief and looked at the park employee who was dressed in a pair of very short shorts and a tight t-shirt that made him look very gay.

"Nice outfit," Worthington smirked, and then took sympathy on the man as Mark blanched when he finally noticed the bodies of the burnt mages. "Demon-controlled mages just got away with over forty tourists. We managed to save a bare handful, and two cast members, but that was it. A few of the mages were killed, but most got away. I’ve informed the appropriate government authorities, and government mages are on the way to help out, but it’ll be a few hours until they get here. I need your help."

"You mean the government really does know about us?" Mark asked in a worried tone.

"Yes, but it’s not that bad," Worthington assured him. "In fact, I’ve just been told by their leader that I’m in charge here until he arrives. Right now he’s snowed in at Chicago, so it’ll be at least a day before he shows up."

"Oh," Mark said weakly. "What do you need me for?"

"You know the park staff, and you have a fairly good handle on how it operates in a crisis, right?" Worthington asked.

"I know all the protocols, yes," Mark admitted.

"Good, then you’re going to advise me," Worthington said and filled him in on the basics of the plan.

"You know this is going to hurt the park’s business for a while." Mark frowned when he was done.

"Would you rather tell them the total truth, and reveal magic to them?" Worthington asked, and Mark shook his head immediately.

"That would be worse for everyone." Mark sighed. "It wouldn’t really help the park much either."

"That’s right, Mark," Worthington said. "We have to keep our eye on the ball here, and minimize the damage to everyone. Just remember, right now, there’s forty-odd people out there that are in the hands of demons, and they will die if we can’t find them, and rescue them in time. Worse, their deaths will go to establish a demon presence on this Earth. You see these scars on me? They’re a reminder of what happened the last time the demons got this close to doing that."

"O," Mark said with wide eyes. The scars were faded now, but this close he could easily see them.

"Now, let’s see what we can do to get things under control, okay?" Worthington said and smiled when Mark nodded.