LONDON CALLING

Ruby smiled as he took the cup she had prepared " agreed makes the run worth while." she replied then listened to Kate. She heard Angus say he was going and thought hard about if she should go. "All right time to kick butt" she said " unless you need me here?" she asked " becuse I realy want to see that man in Askaban or worse."

Jack looked at them all and shook his head " I'll stay here," he said Kaden looked at Jessie.

"Im going to stay put, some one needs to be here for Khaat or just incase." he said Jessie nodded and looked to Kate aswell.

"I'll come since Jacks staying here." he said making himself ready. Ruby looked at everyone and smiled as she looked to Kate.

"Alright," Kate said, "So where is this gate?"

"I've got it memorized," Angus said. He looked at Ruby. "No one is going to ask you to stay if you want to come along.

"Trust me, I don't think I'll ever forget where it is," Brian said, reaching for Kate's hand. "You can come with me. Keep both my girls safe, Jack. If there is even the slightest sign of trouble, you signal, got that? I'll be straight home."

"Let's go," Angus said to Ruby, drawing his wand. "Hold tight."

"We'll see you there," Brian said.

When he got there with Kate, Brian was surprised to see such a large number of people already there. Brian could easily pick out the French aurors who had assembled, as well as some of the supervising aurors. Robert was there, and there was some well dressed woman of importance there with him. He did not recognize her. And there were around half of the organization's staff there, wands at the ready, eager to get in and take on whatever hell Gelding's house of horrors could dish out.

"Good morning, Everyone, and thank you for your assistance," Robert said, wanting to prepare those who had not been through the maze. "This one man has brought more heartache to wizarding families in my lifetime than just about anyone else I have ever known. What you are about to walk into is unconscionable horror, so if you have a weak stomach, please remain behind. We have brought along enchanted breathing masks so what you smell will not be so difficult. Minister Sardou will be distributing them before we go in. Make sure you have one. I cannot impress this enough upon you. Keep your eyes ad your ears open. No excess conversation because some of the warning signs are very quiet. And, do not, at any time, go anywhere alone. Stay in groups of three or four if you can. Take your time, and think before you act. We cannot be sure that my team conquered all the obstacles last night, and some of the obstacles are absolutely deadly. We're looking for survivors, any artifacts that would help us identify the dead that are inside, any means to turn off the obstacles and the enchantments, or anything else that will help us shut down this madman once and for all.'

The well dressed woman was moving through the people gathered and was distributing enchanted breathing masks from a box that an aide had given her. So this was the French minister of magic. Robert had gone straight to the top for help and had managed to finally get it. That impressed Brian that it finally had happened after all the decades of trying.

"Very interesting, don't you think?" Angus said softly to Ruby, watching how Robert still was so respected that he was basically being allowed to command an international wizarding law enforcement raid. "I see this, and I am immediately reminded that he's not our minister anymore and that England is in the hands of a doofus."

Ruby looked at Angus and took hold of his hand in hers " after my little fopar before I tend to ask now first, and don't go rouge. " she said holding his hand tight " but try and stop me." she chuckled at his words and held tight to him as they ported back to paris. Appearing she could see a large group of people and Robert in the middle of them all. she watched him speack and glanced at Angus seeing how he admired him and his ability to command. When Angus spoke again she nodded.

"yeah he exzudes respect and athority with a respectful command, I still don't understand why they forced him out like they did, He ran it like clockwork, nothing was out of place and everything was done on time, now its just....well poop. " she said taking out the mask Angus had given her and put it on " I prefer tried, trusted and simple." she said chuckaling as she tied it around her face.

"I won't ever understand it either, but I think of all of us, he was probably the least upset by it. He has so many other things going on that not having the ministry to run was almost welcome to him. Sometimes I get the feeling he still has some sort of roll there, but I'm not sure about that. It isn't in what he says, its more in what he doesn't say sometimes. He's always said he sometimes is asked to consult, but he doesn't say what he consults about. Oh well, none of my business actually." He tucked his mask in his pocket for now.

He noticed they were breaking the group into two teams, one to go down into the dungeons and one to go through the lodge.

"Well, we might have a choice," he told her. "Posh and cushy lodge, or dark and creepy dungeon? What shall we pick? We might be more help for those who haven't been here by going back down in the creep zone, but I'm open to suggestions. What's your pick?"

Ruby chuckled and nodded in agreement. "Its possible, I have heard of them consulting too, but like you said we'll never know" she watched them split and then heard Angus's sugestion thinking for amoment she made her desishion "Dark and creepy it is" she said " how bad can it be in the light of day." she said alittle nervouse but happier they would be in a large group

Jessie moved over to Robert and took a mask from a woman. " so where are we headed?" he asked looking from Kate to Brian and back to Robert.

Ruby watched as Jessie moved to the others " should we join the others" she said heading over to where they all stood.

"Well," Angus said, "since I didn't see many windows once we were inside, I'm betting its creepy all the time. I'm always up for dark and creepy. Let's go." He walked over to where the others were, as Robert was introducing Brian and Kate to Minister Sardou.

"Brian Quinn," Minister Sardou said, "I have heard your name in our circles here. Finally, I can put a face with the name. I am glad to have you and your team here this morning. How is your wife today?"

"She's home resting and recovering," Brian said. "Thank you for asking."

"Robert says he does not think we will see our famed Mr. Gelding today. What do you think?"

"I think he's an idiot if he waits around for us to walk in and arrest him," Brian replied. She laughed.

"Well, I can't argue with logic, can I?" she said. She looked at Ruby and Angus. "More of your team, Mr. Quinn?"

"Yes, indeed," Brian said. "Ruby Whittemore and Angus Donohue. They were both with us last night."

"And you both feel brave enough to tackle it again? That says something for your entire team. Well, we're glad to have every one of you today. I think we should proceed."

Someone from the ministry was attempting to pick the lock on the gate, and they weren't having much success with it. Angus was frustrated, and after a moment, he gave up on being diplomatic and went through the crowd up to the gate.

"Allow me," he said quietly. He got out his own lockpick and had the old simple lock open in seconds, and for some odd reason, it earned him a little applause from a handful of people that had seen him do it. Not used to applause, he looked a trifle confused for a moment and then used Ruby's presence as a diversion for his own discomfort with the spotlight and motioned her through the gate with him.

"He's going to make a lousy minister someday if he can't handle a handful of applause," Robert said from behind him, deliberately baiting him.

"He loves making me uncomfortable at times," Angus said softly to Ruby, trying to ignore Robert's ribbing.

"Then I wonder if his boggart looks like a paparazzi," Brian teased.

"No," Angus glanced back at Brian, drawing his wand to ready himself to go back inside. "It does not." He looked at Ruby. "Remind me to leave him down there, would you?" They took their first steps back inside, and Angus could feel the tension from the French aurors. They were afraid, and Angus knew it was with good reason. Still, their own team had not taken it on, sight unseen, with nearly as much fear as he felt from the French.

"I think they're going to be glad we came," he told Ruby quietly. "Ready?"

Ruby stood and listened to them talking but watch around her. She too saw the man struggling with the lock. When her name was mentioned she just smiled and nodded at the person. Watching as Angus moved to the gate she followed him and saw how easy he unlocked the lock. " impressive, and pratical too" she said simply to him then chuckled at Angus's responce to Roberts gibbing. She took out her wand and sighed deeply " I wonder how many will last the full thing and how many we'll lose?" she asked then loked to Angus. "This time I am." she told him with her wand in one hand and his in her other so she would stay close to him.

Jessie walked beside Robert and Brian staying close to them. " so keep eyes out for triggers and ...traps?" he asked looking around as they moved.

"They'll last until we get to the cells," Angus said. "Then we'll lose the lot of them. Robert should have brought some of those muggle sickness bags from their airplanes. I think we'll need some. Hopefully the masks help deter some of that."

Jessie asked about triggers and traps, and Robert nodded.

"Here," he said passing some pieces of paper to Brian and Jessie and Angus and Ruby. "I got Marcus to do a rough floor plan as best as he can remember it. It has the places we saw last night and a few places we didn't see. By the looks of it, I think we were just bloody lucky that we got out as quickly as we did. And we still may need to split up in a couple of groups before we're out."

Angus studied the plan, and he saw a couple places on the map that he was exceptionally interested in.

"Here," Angus said to Ruby. "I want to find these two rooms. The others can cover the places we've already seen. These two rooms right here." He pointed to one marked G and one marked with a T. "I'll lay you odds the G stands for guard room, and the T is Marcus's abbreviation for torture chamber. He doesn't have exact passages to get into them, but i bet if we get close to where he thinks they are, we'll find a switch or a passage or something. Are you up for a bit of an explore?"

Ruby chuckled and nodded at him talking about the sick bags. "No I don't think we'll need any but I'd love to see how the other react." she said then glanced at the map Marcus had drawn noticing the G and T marking. She could see a twinckle in Angus eye and smiled "Always up for exploring, especialy if it could gain us some knowlage to where the twit is hiding." she told Angus " Gardroom and Torture room right?" she said softly to him as they moved. Glancing back she could already see several of the french group starting to fade. " wow looks like the ones with weak stomachs are falling first."

Jessie looked at the map and nodded " got it and I'll go with you or Brian." he said looking at the walls as they went one man infront of him went to touch a painting he moved and stopped him motioning to a small thin peice of string. " boobytrap" he said and the man ah'd and nodded putting his hand back in his pocket.

"That's how you have to approach it," Angus told Jessie. "Oh, and this is the one place you actually might meet yourself coming and going. Don't be surprised if you meet a ghost of yourself. And, yes, the walls and the floors all move. The whole bloody place moves. Remember everything you see here is designed to kill, no matter how harmless it looks."

As they walked, Angus saw Robert take some different moves than they made last night, and it became clear to him.

"He's on the same path we are," he told Ruby. "He knows something we don't--something Marcus must have told him, because he clearly is looking for a way to ditch the Minister and find the very rooms we're looking for." He kept studying the map. "Looks like a small square room here, just to our left, and it somehow connects with a room marked H. I wonder what that is." He felt long the wall to try to find a door. He believed there had to be a secret door but he couldn't find it. He lit a cigarette and held it up to the wall, moving it p and down and along the stones and then he saw the smoke being sucked through a crack in the stone.

"Bingo,' he said. "There's the door. Now all we have to do is find...Ah ha!" he found the latch and opened the door. The little square room turned out to be a hidden stairwell. "Rather like looking behind the curtain and finding the illusionist's tricks, isn't it? Let's see where it goes." He went downstairs, opened a door at the bottom and found they were in a row of holding cells. No dead bodies in these.

"Oh my god," Angus said quietly. "This is what he meant. H is for holding cells. This is where he and Khaat were held. What a completely filthy, miserable place." He walked the cell row and saw that one of the cells, the shackles had been changed to big, thick, heavy boat chain. He opened the unlocked cell door and went inside and began to search the room. On the floor over near where the shackles were anchored to the wall, he found a little fragment of floral fabric. "Ruby. Look. I have proof they were here." He picked up the little bit of fabric and handed it to her. "This is from the blouse Khaat was wearing. This proves they were here."