Worldweavers: Cybermage Read Online Free PDF

Bureau,” he said. “Why?”
    “Have you tried taking it back to the professor’s house? The house, too, was Tesla’s doing. Maybe something in there could help unlock the cube.”
    “That is not a bad idea at all,” Humphrey said. “I simply stopped at the professor—it never occurred to me that the house might be helpful.” He pulled a silver-gray cell phone from a pouch at his waist. “No good,” he muttered, staring at the phone screen, “no signal in this underground bunker. Thea, can you get us out of here? I need to make a phone call. Terry, I’m really sorry about screwing up your hologram, but if you can make anything of those scanned pages, I’d appreciate knowing about it. If I missed the obvious clue in slate , who knows what else I might have passed over.”
    “Will do, sir,” Terry said, sounding mystified.
    Humphrey glanced over at Thea. She nodded imperceptibly, and in the next moment they were back in the drizzly woods of the school grounds.
    Humphrey immediately punched a speed-dial key on his cell phone and stood tapping his foot impatiently.
    “Rafe?” he said abruptly. “No time to explain now, but get Slate and ’port immediately to Professor de los Reyes’s house…. Yes, in San Francisco…. Yes , I know the professor is still in the hospital. Just do what I say, quietly . I have access to the house; everything is cleared at the highest level. If anyonedoes try to stop you, tell them you’re acting on my authority—but avoid attention if you can, and most particularly try not to trip any of Luana’s wires. Certainly if I were Slate I would think twice about manifesting with her waiting to pin me out on an examination board like a rare butterfly. Yes, now , Rafe. I know it’s late. I’ll meet you there.”
    He flipped the phone closed and turned back to Thea.
    “What are you going to do?” Thea asked.
    “I don’t have a clue,” Humphrey said frankly. “I don’t think we’re dealing with anything remotely familiar here. I might have to go back into the archives and read up on things that nobody’s needed to know in decades. I need to get to the professor’s house myself, in a hurry.”
    “Can I help?”
    “I’ve a car here; I can drive down to the nearest public ’port and I can—” He broke off as Thea lifted her wrist, her new gadget still strapped to it, and gave him an innocent smile.
    “I can get you there faster,” she said.
    “And then we’ll both get into trouble,” Humphrey said, chuckling. “I’ve no wish to add kidnapping to my list of sins.”
    “But it wouldn’t be kidnapping , not really. You said that you had an idea about what I can do.”
    Humphrey hesitated, but only briefly, then flipped his phone open again, and punched in another number.
    “John?…It’s Humphrey May. Listen, something’s come up. I need to borrow young Thea for a couple of hours. Yes, off-campus.” He listened for a moment, and then sighed. “All right, sure. I can take Mrs. Chen with us. I’ll swing by the residence hall now. Could you alert her?…It’s on FBM authority. I can have a letter to you by the morning. Thanks, John. Good night.”
    Thea grimaced at him as he put the phone away. “Mrs. Chen?”
    “Well, I didn’t think he was going to let me just whisk you out of here on my say-so. There’s a limit to how far FBM’s writ runs, and he’s responsible to your father. Now come on, we need to get going.”
    “No, we don’t,” Thea said, grinning. “If you’re worried about getting there in time to meet Rafe—who’s Rafe, anyway?—I can get us there at whatever time you want, remember?”
    “Raphael Wynn. One of my assistants. He’s an intern at the FBM. You’ll like him. Let’s go.”
    “Um…” Thea said, hanging back.
    Humphrey, who had already taken a few long strides, paused to turn and look at her. “What’s up?”
    Thea lifted her wrist again. “Do you want anyone else to know about this thing?”
    “Point,” Humphrey