Chapter 41
The locks to the back door took less than five minutes to pick. No alarm sounded but Henning felt a distinct resistance to being able to step through the now open door. Ah, that implied magical warding. He took a walnut from his pocket. Why the hell Archimedes used a walnut for the charm baffled Henning but whatever suited that crazy dude’s purposes. Henning cupped the nut in his hand then smashed it against the doorframe. Voila, no more resistance.
He went inside and shut the door. It seemed likely that the cardboard box Edinger had been seen carrying was the container for the djinn. Wasn’t that a lame thing to imprison the djinn in? Henning began searching. He did the main floor first, a quick survey turned up nothing obvious. Upstairs, it took less than ten minutes to spy a box sitting on the dresser. He guessed Edinger wanted the djinn easy to get to.
Henning lifted the lid from the box, because if he arrived back at Archimedes office with the wrong box, there’d be hell to pay.