Maris picked at the remains of the fish taco, one of her assorted acquisitions from the marina boardwalk, as she strolled aimlessly. She was surrounded by tourists, most of them exuberantly happy, making the most of Cabo’s nightlife. Ordinarily she’d be right there with them...if they were cute, or buying...but she couldn’t shake her stubborn funk.
“Want to come on an adventure?” Miles had asked. She’d agreed without hesitation, without really asking for details...her impulsive nature was something she’d long ago come to terms with. Plus, he’d said “come”, so it wasn’t just going to be her in some new creatively violent magical effect. Even after he’d vaguely explained, it sounded amazing. Travel to an alternate universe? Getting sawn in half was one thing, but wow, that was some serious magic!
He’d failed to mention that it was a universe without magic, or at least without incantations...after arriving, it was clear they had retained their large collections of imprinted effects, but every attempt to do new magic here had simply failed, as if the words had no power at all. Which actually pleased Miles...he’d also failed to mention that he’d known about that part, and had come here deliberately to dodge a Demon he’d somehow gotten tangled up with. You could always trust Miles to run from his problems whenever possible...
Even then, it seemed interesting at first...the only true Mystics in a universe of purely smoke and mirrors...and no concerns about the Grand Farce, they could get as famous as they wanted! But Miles insisted on remaining low-profile, just in case he was wrong and the demon could somehow follow him here. At least “for a few years”, he’d said. A few years.
On top of that, she hadn’t realized how much she missed shop-talk with other Mystics, comparing small differences in their Imprints, debating the finer points of some ancient language, trading horror stories of botched effects. She’d tried it with ordinary magicians’ assistants here, but it just wasn’t the same, she’d laughed politely at stories about getting stuck in a “base load”, whatever that was, while thinking about the time she’d made the mistake of going on stage drunk and had somehow misplaced her left foot for nearly a week.
“Go have some fun, this place is lousy with clubs,” Miles had urged guiltily, hoping to break her out of her increasingly dark moods. So she’d headed out, barely making an effort...her currently-green hair in a simple ponytail, and a not-particularly-daring glittery black halter dress. She’d perked up a bit when she heard there was a genuinely creepy sideshow-type attraction somewhere on the boardwalk, but it seemed to have closed.
She was preparing to head back to their hotel and finally have a screaming match with Miles or maybe just cry into her pillow, she hadn’t decided, when the distinctive cadences of a very old language caught her attention.
Across the boardwalk, she saw a young woman trying to get the attention of passers-by. She was quite pretty, carefully straight-cut black hair framing her olive complexion, the visible square of her face filled with a weary despair Maris immediately identified with. The drab jumpsuit and slip-on shoes she wore didn’t quite fit, in size or appearance...they were standard police-issue, the sort they gave you if they needed to take your clothes for evidence, or if you were taken in for indecent exposure. Maris’d had experience with both, though those were total misunderstandings.
A few of the people the girl stopped seemed sympathetic, even gave her some money, but none lingered, shrugging helplessly as they left. It was no wonder, because while Maris couldn’t be certain, all her linguistic study suggested she was speaking Archaic Egyptian, a language that she suspected...at least in this world...only Miles and perhaps three or four academics fully understood. Maris quickly crossed over to her, mentally reviewing what little she knew, which was well short of fluency, let alone precise enough for incantations.
“Good encounter….uh...name Maris. Exist name, woman?” Maris winced, knowing even as she spoke that her effort at the ancient language was horribly ungrammatical even if she was getting the pronunciation right, which she was by no means sure of. But the girl’s expression became pitifully hopeful, and she began to jabber at Maris eagerly, clutching one of her arms and waving her free hand as she spoke.
“...name...Rana...vessel...Isis...stolen...Demon…harm… magic...torture...release… soldiers...foreign…magic...lost...” was about all she could make out. Before Maris could even try to figure out how to say “slow down”, the girl had trailed off and she’d started weeping.
Maris hugged her close and just held her while all of Rana’s obvious fear and frustration came out in wracking sobs against her shoulder. When she’d quieted to occasional sniffles, the Mystic held her at arm’s length, then tugged curiously at the ragged piece of paper she’d felt pressing against her back in the girl’s hand during the embrace. It was a flyer, cheaply-photocopied, with garishly-inked illustrations of a mummy and other, less-identifiable curiosities, and titled “Spectacle Infernus”.
This was the sideshow Maris had been trying to find...but the crude street map scrawled at the bottom proved unhelpful, the location marked had definitely been unoccupied when Maris had passed there earlier.
“Vessel...Rana…?” she asked, pointing at the mummy. The girl nodded and began to cry again, hugging her own arms tightly. Maris hoped she wasn’t right, but given the language, it seemed possible the girl had been magically molested for a very, very long time. But she didn’t seem tainted… This was beyond her experience, but that wasn’t going to stop her. Maris looked into Rana’s eyes with determination. “Magic person...two magic person...help Rana,” she said firmly. If she had understood correctly and this girl had tangled with a demon as well, it didn’t sound like the one Miles was running from. But if one could get here, another could...and that meant the whole thing had been pointless. Except...even if they were trapped here forever...maybe at least they could do some good?
She called Miles.
---
Laurel poked her head through the door to the office in the back of the small Bay Area theater. “You two watching another cat video on YouTube?”
Hitomi waved her over without turning around, “It’s security footage from the workshop. We’re trying to find out who this woman is; she stopped by the back door five times in the last two days.”
Laurel stepped in to watch the video. “Wow, we take a weekend off and end up with a stalker. Oh, she’s looking right at the camera now.”
The Magician leaned forward. “My name’s Amy,” he said, reading her lips from the hi-def footage as she started speaking. “Please, I need your help. Please talk to me. Just for a moment. Please!”
They watched the woman with long dark-blonde hair stare at the camera a little longer, then walk away.
“She doesn’t seem like our typical stalker,” the Magician mused in his smooth baritone. Laurel frowned.
“I think I know who she is,” she said. Hitomi and the Magician turned. “I think it’s Azure_Amy- she recently popped up on at least three of the forums I post on- including your fan club’s board, boss.”
Hitomi leaned her head, looking toward the Magician, and said, flatly. “Stalker.”
“No, I don’t think so,” said Laurel. “She’s looking for information on a... ringmaster? No, carnival barker. Says he kidnapped her friend then vanished.”
“The police won’t help?” The Magician asked. “Wouldn’t be hard to track a carnival.”
“No, I’m misremembering- hang on, I’ve got a PM from her here,” Laurel pulled out her iPhone and scrolled through some windows. “Here- she said it was a big travelling sideshow of some sort, bunch of exhibits. He was running it solo; called it the ‘Spectacle Infernatus.’”
“Hitomi- look that up, see if you can find any references online.” The Magician rubbed his goatee. “Something’s not adding up; a carnie wouldn’t work like that; can’t watch more than one exhibit at a time. Can I read that PM, Laurel?”
Laurel offered the phone. He read quickly, without taking it.
“May I see a few of her posts, please?”
Laurel swiped to a different window, scrolled down, and handed him her phone. “I’ve got a few of them in open windows… If you don’t mind flipping through the fifteen or so other forums, sorry. Want me to get a hold of her? She’s online now, I can send a text.”
“Not yet,” he said, swiping and speed-reading. “She might still be a nutcase. Let’s see if Hitomi can corroborate some of her story, first.”
“I might have already, boss,” Hitomi said, mildly. “Our Azure_Amy seems to be the only one looking for a Spectacle Infernatus, but there’s a bunch of people looking for info on a Spectacle Infernus... No, it’s probably only one or two people. The usernames are all variations on either ‘TricksRForKids’ or ‘BirdGirl69’... Oh. They both started posting a few days after Amy’s posts began.”
“Where are they located?”
“Let’s see- IP address is out of Cabo San Lucas.”
The Magician nodded, glancing back at the iPhone. “That’s where Amy lost her friend. Laurel, go ahead and text her. I want to ask her a few more questions. Hitomi, can you track down either of those two people in Cabo?”
“On it, boss,” Hitomi said, determined.
“You think they know where Amy’s friend is?” Laurel asked him.
“Oh, I think they know something. But somehow I doubt it’s going to be as simple as that…”
---
Amanda woke up from another nightmare, throwing the blanket off her as if it trapped her in place. In the darkened green room, she felt as alone and helpless as the night she’d lost Cassie. She looked at the clock- 4:30 am. She wasn’t going to sleep anymore tonight, though- she needed to be around people. She got out of the cot, pulled on the loaned bathrobe, and wandered out into the hallway towards the workshop.
The Magician had converted his workshop into a war room, of sorts, within a day of her talking to him. She glanced at several large monitors that had been mounted to the walls. One showed a map of the globe, with red dots in various shades from dark to light. Amy knew Cabo San Lucas was one of the darker ones- Spectacle Infernus hadn’t been there for weeks. The brightest dot- the last known location- was in Fort Lauderdale. Hitomi had switched it from green to red four days ago; the door had been there for three days already by the time they spotted it, and vanished only hours later. Amanda briefly watched Laurel and Hitomi working, scouring the net for references. Over the last two weeks they’d tracked the Spectacle Infernus to points all over the world; places it had popped up long before Cabo- and even under a few different names. She hoped they’d place another green dot on the map soon.
Amy wandered over to the corner of the large room that had been converted into a lounge and research area. Chairs, a sofa, even a large beanbag surrounded a low table stacked with reports, laptops, a tablet or two, and some old pizza boxes. A woman was currently sprawled over two thirds of the sofa, feet on the armrest, a bolero draped over her head to provide cover from the light. Amanda plopped herself down on the unoccupied portion, sinking low in the cushions. An old, black, one-eyed tomcat slunk out from under the table and jumped up into her lap, meowing and brushing his head against her hand as she raised it to cover a yawn.
“Sorry, Houdini, I don’t have any food,” she said, scratching him behind the ears. “How about a cuddle instead?” The cat curled up in her lap and purred. She quietly patted him on the back, content to just be near people.
After a while, she heard Laurel say “Nice one,” softly from across the room, and turned around to watch the assistant give Hitomi a high five. Hitomi typed a bit on her keyboard, and a new dot appeared on the map. Dark red- a month old at least- followed by a question mark indicating very incomplete data. Laurel looked at Amy and nodded. “I’m amazed she got anything out of China at all, really.”
“Ugh. What time is it?” said a closer voice. Amanda turned, looking at Maris as she pulled the jacket off her face, sat up, and rubbed her eyes. Her hair was bright red now. She blinked, squinting at the display on a laptop. “You guys are nuts. Even Rana isn’t up yet. Hello, kitty…” She reached towards the tom cat, which looked up to hiss a warning, then curled back up on Amy’s lap.
“Give it up, Maris, and scooch over,” Laurel said, walking over to the table to plug her iPhone into a charging cord. “Amy’s part of an exclusive club- that old furball likes three people. Everyone else, he merely tolerates.”
Maris moved away to give the cat some distance, and Laurel sat down between her and Amy.
“When did you two get in last night, anyway?” the blonde assistant asked Maris.
The blanket covering the bean bag moved, and an arm reached out to toss a pillow at Laurel, who caught it and placed it behind her head. “Thank you, Miss Devi.”
The figure under the blanket moved, muttering something incoherent.
Hitomi called over as she headed to the green room. “Laurel, let her sleep. Our two Mar’s have been enjoying the nightlife, and didn’t get back till after two. Oh, I’m going to go sleep, too- give me four hours, unless it’s important.”
Robyn entered as Hitomi left. Her auburn hair was pulled up in a bun, and Amy was happy to see her carrying a tray with coffee cups and a large french press. Beneath it was a box of pizza. “Breakfast of champions,” she said quietly and smiled, setting the load down on a clear part of the table. She wandered over to Amy, placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Good morning, Amanda. You’re up early. More nightmares?” Robyn asked softly.
Amy started to shake her head. “No, I’m- …” She sighed. “Yeah, actually. I can’t stop worrying. Thanks for asking.”
Robyn squeezed gently. “We’ll find her, it’ll be okay.” She pressed the plunger on the coffee pot, poured two cups, and handed one to Amy before taking a seat on her right. “If what Rana said about the show is right, Cassie’s certainly still alive.”
Rana passed through the room at that point, gracefully walking towards the staircase to the roof.
Robyn waved at her. “Hello, Rana! We’ll save you some pizza for breakfast!”
The Egyptian priestess turned and smiled, gave an exaggerated thumbs up, and said, “Pizza. Yum!” before continuing on her way.
“The Ritual of the Sunrise again- she’s always up at exactly the same time before dawn, no matter where or when that is,” muttered Maris. “Late night or no, I’m still exhausted from jet lag- I wish I could sleep like that.”
“I just wish I could sleep! You’re all too loud!” Marisol drew back the blanket and glared at them through her mussed up dark tresses from the hollow in the bean bag. “I thought you were all compiling reports anyway- isn’t that supposed to be quiet work?”
“Says the party animal,” Laurel scowled, then smiled. “Where are your reports?”
Marisol waved an arm at one of the stacks of papers on the table. “Finished. Boss told me to take Maris out, anyway. I think he’s playing matchmaker, but he’s bad at it- she’s not biting.”
“Your boss asked me to observe the differences between our two worlds,” Maris sighed. “And since actually seeing them is easier than trying to spot them by reading, he had you show me around the town.”
“I know that, I’m teasing.”
“Marisol always teases,” Laurel smiled.
“So I noticed…” Maris said.
“What did you notice,” asked Robyn. “About the two worlds, I mean?”
“Men are pigs in both of them,” Maris shrugged.
“Oh, come on- that buff guy with the ear gauge was sweet,” Marisol smiled. “He liked you.”
“No, he liked the idea of the three-some you were trying to set up!”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t like the attention-”
Amy watched the two banter back and forth like they were old friends already as Robyn leaned in. “What the Boss really wants to do is to pick Maris’ brain and see if he can work out exactly why magic doesn’t seem to work over here,” the assistant confided, quietly. “Miles is being very recalcitrant on the specifics of how it works in their world.”
Amy shrugged, “I don’t know how it works in either one. I’m still trying to figure out what the two of them were doing when we all were in the theater the other night. It all looked like magic to me.”
Laurel smirked, “Being boys- showing off, establishing dominance. They were having a dick waving contest.”
Robyn blushed. “Lu, that was crass.”
“Sorry, Robyn, but you know how it is- put two magicians together and they’ll always try to outdo each other. It’s been a while since the boss had a decent challenger.”
Marisol turned to Laurel, Robyn and Amy. “Oh, yeah, that show was fun! I thought it was hilarious when Miles tried to impress the Magician by pulling flowers out of Maris’s- wait, no. The look on Miles’ face when the Boss shrugged and did the exact same thing to me. That was even better!” She laughed. “Maris- you have got to show us more magic! Please?”
Laurel chuckled. “Mari, we all know you just want to see Maris tied up again.”
“No! I like seeing new magic! And that vivisection was real! I mean here, the boss just uses- oops!” Marisol turned to Amy, “Sorry, almost forgot you weren’t an assistant!” She turned back to the rest of the group. “Okay, I’ll admit it. Thinking about Maris on that board there, all strapped down and helpless, and Miles with that sword- Dammit. Now I’m too horny to go back to sleep.”
“Tee-Em-Eye, Mari,” Robyn chided. “Anyhow, I’m glad the boss stopped when he did. Things were starting to get out of hand.” She glanced at Amy and smiled. “Hey, maybe we’ll hear some good news for you soon. Laurel, how’s the tracking going?”
Laurel spoke happily. “Oh! Hitomi just found a new location manually- China, from a month ago. I added it to the web crawler- now we just sit back and wait and see if we get any new hits.”
“Web crawler?” asked Amy.
“It tracks down certain key words and images across a bunch of social media sites and blogs. The boss uses it to enforce his non-disclosure agreements, but we repurposed it to help find Cass.”
“Wow, that’s amazing- did he get it from Google?”
“No. Actually, they bought the algorithm from me,” said the Magician. Amy spun. She hadn’t even noticed him approach. Houdini hopped out of her lap and began to rub against his leg. The Magician reached down and scratched behind the tom cat’s ears as it purred. “Hello, old boy! Good morning ladies. Nobody thought to invite me to the party?”
The Magician picked up one of the reports from the top of the stack and skimmed through it. Amy spotted the title- Theoretical Applications of M-Brane Manifolds in Eleven-Dimensional Gravity- and remembered why she’d stopped helping with research.
“Well. I guess our carnie isn’t hiding a blue police box anywhere in that sideshow, which means that I apparently owe Miles quite a bit of money. Robyn, I’ve got one more research project, for now. I want you to review it personally.” He scribbled some notes on the back of the report and tossed it into her lap. “Oh- Maris, could you please let me know when Miles wakes up? I know I already apologized about the other night, but I’m afraid he’s still holding a grudge, and I really want to find some way to make it up to you both. I don’t want interpersonal conflicts to get in the way here.”
Maris nodded.
The Magician had just reached the door to his office when three phones started buzzing at once. Laurel looked down at hers, and swiped the screen. “Boss- the crawler got a hit.”
“Thanks, Laur, tell me specifics.” He walked back towards the group as Laurel pulled up one of the laptops and started typing.
“A picture of a flier- one of the most recent designs- popped up on Tumblr. User says he’s checking it out tomorrow. Timestamp is seven last night. Oh- you’re not going to believe this!” Laurel typed a little more, and a green dot popped up on the map. “Location tracking puts it on the Santa Cruz boardwalk!”
The Magician smiled. “Well, Amy, it looks like we’re in luck- two weeks of trying to find a pattern to the appearances, and he pops up right in our backyard. Santa Cruz is an hour and a half away.” He clapped his hands together. “This is a hot one- he should be there for another two or three days, so we’ve got a day to plan, then we’ll get Cass tomorrow. Amy, bring Rana into my office when she comes downstairs- I want to review what you both remember about the layout of the place.”
He looked at Maris. “Change of plans. Can you wake Miles now? I’m going to need his expertise. I’ll talk with you both over breakfast, then I’d like you to check with Laurel and get some clothes in your size- you and Marisol get to have a fun day on the beach!”
“Boss?” Marisol asked.
“Reconnaissance, Mari. Do what you do best and talk to people. Find out where the entrance and exit is, see if anyone can tell you about the show. Use Maris’ knowledge to spot things unusual. Get information, but don’t let the carnie see you. Assume everything Miles says is true and we’re dealing with something incredibly dangerous. Don’t go inside. Don’t do anything stupid. Got it?”
“Got it.” She hopped out of the bean bag, and bounced away in her loose, short T-shirt and black thong. “I’m taking a long, hot shower. Anyone want to join me? Maris, Amy?” she winked. “Boss?”
“Marisol,” the Magician cautioned. “Now is not the time.”
“Just checking!” she chirped, and blew him a kiss.
With her hope renewed, Amy found herself laughing at the silliness of it all.
(To be continued...)