Chapter 3

MONDAY 12:10 A. M. Office of Henry Donaldson, Chicago, IL

Thirty seconds before the door to Henry's outer office opened, Rick's voice sounded in Alice's head, 'Hi Dear. Sorry for the late arrival again, but it's just a zoo out there.'

'That's okay Love, I wasn't sure you'd make it at all with the insane traffic. By the way, I've a bit of news for you, ' Alice sent.

'Oh My God! Don't tell me you're waddling down the aisle in an altered wedding gown? Those were Trojans and the damn things were guaranteed! I'll sue the pants off those folks, ' came the humorous response.

'No, silly goose. It's about Henry and I'll see you in a sec'. Alice shot back, with a mental tongue sticking out thrown in for good measure.

As Rick walked through the door, he tossed back Alice's tongue before planting a soft kiss where it counted, along with a sigh of relief. "OK, so what's up gorgeous?"

"Looks like he's going to run," Alice stated, with an ear to ear smile bursting over her face.

"No Joke? Sweet. The Honorable Henry Donaldson sounds great honey. Has he told anyone besides you?" Asked Rick.

"Not that I know of. He was planning on filing the papers this afternoon and that's what I've been working on this morning." Alice said, while practically beaming now, "Oh, Love. Isn't it wonderful. We could actually have a Mayor we could be proud of for a change."

"Yeah, that sure would be nice? It's certainly been long enough since we've seen one of those," Rick sighed, then glancing at his watch, said, "Hey, we better scoot if we're going to get lunch in today. Matter of fact, how would you like to do lunch at Lake's Edge? We could really take our time then." As the semi-wicked grin began washing over his eyes, while his eyebrows went into caterpillar mode.

The responding look in his love's eyes, told him he had hit the mark dead center, as she grabbed her coat and hat. "Yummy," was the murmured response.

Walking down the hall toward the elevator bank, they spotted Joe Buckley's elevator door open and decided to use it.

As they stepped in Joe caroled, "Hi, Folks. Lobby level?"

Alice replied, "Yes, please Joe and thank you."

"Always a pleasure, Miss. Latham." Joe said, then asked, "Hey Detective Fields, any idea when that insanity out there will start letting up?"

"God alone knows Joe, and unfortunately, he isn't talking directly to me. Least not that I know of," Rick said, with a grin.

"Well, I sure hope it eases up soon. It took me an hour and a half to get in today," Joe responded.

"Tell me about it," Alice tossed in, then added, "Took me an hour to go six blocks and darn near made me late for the first time in nine years."

Shaking his head at that statement, Joe replied, "Who would ever have imagined Dragons in Chicago? How nuts it that?"

Alice grinned, and said, "Isn't that the truth? But, what the heck, it sure makes you wonder what else could be out there. Almost makes in seem exciting."

As Joe opened the car door to let them out, he said with an arched eyebrow, "Well, my idea of exciting is an express ride to the sixth floor anything beyond that is way up here." While holding his hand about a foot above his head. "You folks have a great lunch and watch the traffic."

Alice replied, "Why thank you Joe, that's just so sweet. You have a nice lunch hour too."

As they exited City Hall, one glance told Rick that they could spend their entire lunch hour battling through the traffic, or use option 'B'. When he whispered option 'B' in Alice's ear, he got the Plucky Lady look back and a single head nod.

Thinking, 'That's my girl.' Rick created a look the other way bubble about them and then strengthened it to full invisibility. After they had activated their personal shields, Rick picked up Alice in his arms and giving her a quick kiss, took a flying leap toward the portal in Grant Park. Fortunately, no one quite heard the trail of giggles flying overhead.

Asaki Kimoroto was still casting about for the perfect place to setup his prank when he spotted a bubble of arcane energy bouncing toward the Lake, 'What's this?!' came his startled thought. 'Are my cousins working over here also?' Trailing this bouncer, he finally saw it come to rest in a park like area just as a portal appeared and then instantly disappeared along with the bubble. 'Hum, ' he thought, 'more than one level to this place. Oh, this just gets better and better.' As the smile spread over his face.

He then place alarm sensors around the area and started scanning for similar energy readings. Much to his amazement, the place was loaded with arcane trace readings and in about five different flavors. The portal area was by no means the largest either. There - in plain sight, once you scanned the correct frequencies- was a dome shaped energy field covering an entire building top.