Chapter 5
“I don’t understand why you’re so upset,” Ian said as he and Maggie hung back, bringing up the rear as Jane and Darcy led the way to Erik’s lab. He’d introduced himself once Jane and Darcy had started arguing about Jane trusting Maggie since she was involved with Loki. In a way, she was grateful as it was easier to call him Ian rather than book-reading-guy.
Maggie rolled her eyes, something she’d done more than once that afternoon since she’d set foot in Dr. Barstad’s office, “Oh, I don’t know, let me see…I found out that not only was I the subject of a science experiment, I’ve discovered that the experiment was a success: the creation of a pocket dimension…a place that’s real, and the person whom I had thought I’d created in the dimension has turned out to be a Norse god…who happens to be real and not legend. This god may be intent on keeping me in the pocket dimension.” Ian opened his mouth to say something, but she kept on talking, “I meet someone else who’s been involved with yet another Norse god, who also happens to be real and not legend and turns out to be the brother of my Norse god…this other person wants to go into my pocket dimension to use it as a bridge to get to her Norse god but doesn’t want to meet my Norse god, who may or may not be waiting for me in the pocket dimension as we speak!” She threw up her hands, “I have no idea why on earth I would be upset.”
Once she’d run down, Ian said, “Midgard.”
Maggie frowned at him. “What?”
“You said earth…you should have said Midgard,” he corrected.
Maggie’s mouth worked but no sound came out. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides as she imagined them closing around his throat, a more pleasant thought than it should have been.
“Jane? You’re not serious?” the man’s voice broke through her murderous thoughts. Maggie turned to see an older, almost fatherly looking man staring down at Jane in shock.
“I’m completely serious, Erik,” Jane assured him. “Even if I called for Heimdall, he wouldn’t open the bifrost for me, a mortal. I need to get to Asgard.”
“Jane, you can’t trust her,” he said urgently, “she’s had a god in her head…she’s had Loki in her head, for heaven’s sake!”
Maggie smirked. If you only knew, she thought.
“So did you, and I trust you,” Jane pointed out, not privy to Maggie’s thoughts. When Erik made to continue his protest, she overrode him, “You know I need to do this.”
He raked both hands through his white hair then gripped the ends. When he brought his hands down, his hair stood in wild spiky disarray. He was the very picture of frustration. “Fine, but let’s test her first; make sure it’s even possible.”
Jane looked uncomfortable. “That’s really not a good idea. We need to just try.”
“Why? It makes more sense to test…”
“Because she doesn’t know if it’s going to work. Neither of us do,” Maggie interjected, ignoring the quelling look that Jane shot her. “If he’s going to help, he should know as much as possible, don’t you think?”
Erik looked at her, surprised, and then turned back to Jane. “She’s the last one I’d expect to be talking sense considering her affiliations, but she has a point.”
Maggie glared at him. “Thanks.”
Jane sighed. “We don’t know for sure if it will work with me or even if a way to Asgard can be created, so it’s a one shot kind of deal.”
“I don’t like it, Jane. It just doesn’t…”
“That’s not all,” Maggie interjected, and Erik’s head swiveled to her. Jane glared at Maggie behind Erik’s back. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Darcy had joined Ian just s few feet from her.
“What else is there?” Erik demanded.
“Loki may be waiting there…for me,” Maggie said,
“Wonderful, just wonderful,” Erik muttered.
“Wait for it,” Darcy said, rocking back and forth on her feet.
“And he may follow me here,” Maggie continued.
It was Erik’s turn to stand there with his mouth working and no sound coming out. He looked from Maggie to Jane and back again. “Here?” he asked, pointing to his lab in general. Maggie nodded. He turned back to Jane. “Absolutely not…this is a mistake!”
“And there it is,” Darcy said, grinning.
“Are you forbidding us to use your lab?” Jane asked, hands on hips.
He glared down at her. “Yes!”
Jane nodded once. “Then we’ll find another place.” She turned to Maggie. “I’m sure Selena will let us use her office, don’t you think?”
Maggie opened her mouth, but Erik interrupted, “Selena?”
“Barstad,” Maggie replied to Erik then turned to Jane, “Possibly, but I believe all of her observations were after the fact. She’d given me ideas of how to construct the Library, but was never an observer.” Her lips twisted in distaste. “I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to watch and do some kind of testing.”
“Doctor Selena Barstad?” Erik asked Jane as if Maggie had never spoken. Maggie rolled her eyes.
“Yes, that’s the one,” Jane said, her voice triumphant. “I’m sure she’ll…”
“She’s behind all this? What library?” Erik wanted to know.
Maggie pinched the bridge of her nose and counted to ten…twice.
Jane began explaining, but Maggie tuned it out. She walked further into the lab, ignoring Darcy’s then Ian’s warnings. Admittedly, she wasn’t much into science, and never had been much interested “why” things happened, only that they did. But she had picked up a thing or two, and two words captured her attention: gamma radiation.
She frowned, trying to remember why those two words made her nervous. Something about an…experiment…
Her eyes widened. “Oh, hell,” she groaned, remembering the news a few years back before her personal life had changed irrevocably. Dr. Bruce Banner had experimented with gamma radiation, and a monster had been created which killed him.
“Hey, don’t mess with that!” Darcy cried, appearing at Maggie’s elbow and giving her a not-so-gentle shove away from the table.
“He’s experimenting with gamma radiation?” Maggie asked, ignoring the shove.
“He is?” Darcy asked, glancing at the piles of papers and drawings on the desk before turning back to Maggie. She folded her arms over her chest. “So?”
“So?!?!” Maggie asked, brows nearly to her hairline. “I know next to nothing about most of this, but even I’ve heard of problems with gamma radiation...deadly problems.”
“What are you doing over here?” Erik asked, joining them, situating himself between Maggie and the papers.
“You’re working with gamma radiation?” Maggie asked him.
“You’re working with gamma radiation?” Jane asked, catching up with them. “When did you start that?”
“S.H.I.E.L.D. had me working with the tesseract for months, and I picked up a thing or two about gamma radiation. I’ve even reconfigured one of the particle detectors to detect the gamma signature that is emitted by the tesseract…”
“But Thor said they brought it to Asgard after…what happened in New York,” Jane interrupted, casting a cautious glance at Maggie.
After Loki brought his army to New York, you mean, Maggie thought.
“I know, I know,” Erik said, “but you don’t understand.” He swept through the pile of papers, and found a tablet buried beneath them. He tapped a few times on the screen before showing it to Jane. “We have the exact frequency the gamma rays of the tesseract resonate at.”
Jane took the table from him, studied it a moment then looked up at him. Her face was shining. “Oh. My. God.”
“Can someone clue me in?” Darcy grumbled. “What’s the big deal about the readings if it’s in Asgard?”
Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “You’re going to monitor us while we’re in the library,” Maggie said, “and use those detectors to see if the tesseract is involved?”
“If Loki is involved, it’s entirely possible for her…the tesseract’s energy to be involved,” Erik replied.
Maggie let them ignore the fact that she’d created the library in the first place without the benefit of this tesseract. “What if Loki isn’t in Asgard?”
That had them stymied. “Hasn’t he told you where he is?” Jane asked.
Maggie laughed softly, shaking her head. “No, he’s never mentioned where he is.”
“Didn’t you ask?” Erik asked her.
Maggie looked at him. “I had always assumed he was a figment of my imagination…just another part of my library.”
“I say we try it anyway,” Jane said excitedly. “What have we got to lose?”