Frost giants from another realm. They're working for Loki."
"Loki? God, trickster, unstable Loki?" he asked, his voice bordering on hysterical laughter. But, strangely enough, he'd hit the nail on the head even if his limited Loki education was courtesy of Hollywood.
"That's the one," I said dryly. "I'll fill you in later. Please open the box."
After a moment, the President grunted. "I can't open it." He seemed frozen in place, staring around at something behind me.
"Why not?" My voice rose and I had to control my urge to shout at him. Right now, we couldn't afford for him to resist our help. When he pointed, I swiveled around to face the set of drawers I'd been leaning on and stared at the base of the desk, at something set into the foot panel near the floor.
A bright red light blinked on and off, which I took to mean the box was up and functional. But right beside it, the green light was shattered, pieces of it lying on the carpet, red and green wires inside it bare and severed. The thin copper filaments inside seemed to laughed at me.
"Crap," I said, although another more foul word would have been appropriate. "They've sabotaged the shield."
The President cleared his throat. "I saw it when I went to launch the shield, but I went with safety first out of instinct. I guess I didn't think it through."
"You had no time to think it through. And it was the best call, Sir." The President turned his head, the gray hair at his temple sparkling.
A soft hissing caught my ear and I tilted my head to listen closer, to ascertain the origin of the noise. It sounded like air whooshing into the box and a quick glance up at the grate in the ceiling chilled my blood. I reached for Gungnir, allowing the spear to lengthen before clearing my throat. I spoke carefully. "Sir, I need to get you of here. Now. Hold onto me and I'll get us outside, maybe as far as the sidewalk across the street."
He stared at me, a slightly panicked look in his eyes as his gaze went from Gungnir to my face. "But how-"
"There's no time to explain. Sorry, Sir. I don't mean to be rude. We could go directly to the address you gave but I'd need to depend on your thoughts and there's a chance you're too stressed to do it right."
He nodded, as if he really understood what I meant, but he had no idea I'd be transporting us out of the room with merely a thought. Or that above us, a cloud of mean-looking green gas was slowly seeping into the box.
I reached out my hand. "Hold onto me. And whatever you do, don't let go. You may feel a little disoriented and possibly slightly nauseous but you'll be fine."
He frowned and opened his mouth. I held up my hand, feeling so bad for being disrespectful to such an important person. "Sorry Sir. No time to explain." He gave a reluctant nod but I felt only slightly relieved. "Ready?" I asked as he grabbed hold of my forearm.
When he nodded, I tightened my fingers around Gungnir, and tapped the spear three times on the carpet, thinking of the tree-line across the street from the White House.
Nothing happened.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I tried a second time, tapping again and concentrating harder. Again nothing change. We remained exactly where we were.
I glanced at the President who was now watching my face, his expression worried. "What's wrong?" he asked, frowning.
I shook my head, panicking now as the green fog closed in from above. Loki must have used some kind of magic to ensure we couldn't transport out of the emergency safe. I cleared my throat. "I'm not sure. It's not working." Around us, gunfire rattled as a second group of Jotunn swarmed into the room, ripping the Oval Office up with bullets. Carpet exploded, walls crunched, nothing in the room able to withstand the gunfire.
I reached into my pocket for the Icebreaker. And as I moved, the President glanced up at the ceiling and froze. Fear skittered across his expression as blood drained from his face, giving him a deathly pallor.
"Don't worry about that, Sir," I said, touching his arm. "We will get-"
"Don't worry?" he said, his voice raising to almost a shout. "There's poisonous gas a few feet from our heads and you're telling me not to worry?"
"Yes, Sir. Panic will get us nowhere. We need to remain calm and in