by King, R. L.
Harrison considered that. From a small table next to his chair, he picked up a pair of gleaming blue casino dice and began moving them gracefully between the fingers of his right hand. “Yes,” he said after a moment. “That much hasn’t escaped my notice. In fact, it is a significant part of the reason why I’ve invited you here.”
“Invited.” Jason snorted. “You people around here sure have funny ways of issuing invitations.”
“Do you know who they are?” Stone asked, ignoring Jason. “Do you know why they’re after us?”
Jason wished Verity had mastered the art of controlling her Forgotten power so she could evict the Evil from hosts when she didn’t feel directly threatened. Right now, this guy was his top candidate for Las Vegas’s number-one Evil overlord. Which meant that if he was right, they were in a lot of trouble right now.
“I know who they are,” Harrison said. “I don’t know why they are trying to kill you.” His gaze, which had been intense before, became laserlike as it locked on Stone. “I know something else, however. I know who you are, Dr. Stone, and what you can do. And I suspect strongly that those seeking you know as well.”
“What do you mean, you know who I am?” Stone, whom Jason had never seen back down from a staring contest, looked decidedly uncomfortable under Harrison’s silent scrutiny. “It’s hardly a secret: I’m a university professor from Palo Alto.”
“And a highly accomplished practitioner of the magical arts,” Harrison said.
All three of them stared at Harrison in shock, unable to hide their reactions.
Stone recovered first, and quickly. “Come now, Mr. Harrison. That’s absurd. I can’t even make a rabbit come out of a hat.”
Harrison shook his head, that brief look of disappointment passing across his mask again. “Dr. Stone, we will arrive at mutually agreeable conclusions much more quickly if you don’t deny the truth. You are a mage—and one of the strongest talents in this country.” He glanced at Verity. “This young woman is your apprentice.”
Stone sighed. “Fine, then. And what if you’re right? Your sources must be very good indeed: I don’t exactly take out adverts about it. That can lead to inconvenient encounters. Such as this one, for example.”
One side of Harrison’s thin lips quirked up in the tiniest of predatory smiles. “My sources are the best, Dr. Stone.” A pause, and then: “Does your presence in Las Vegas have something to do with your magical activities?”
“I can’t tell you that, Mr. Harrison,” Stone said, shaking his head. “It’s one of those things you either know or you don’t, and there’s no easy way to explain it.”
Harrison considered. He rose, went over to a small bar, and poured something golden into a gleaming glass. “Are you sure you won’t have something to drink?”
“We’re good,” Jason said. He was out of his element, and all things considered, a stiff belt of the kind of liquor somebody who wore suits like that could afford would be just what the doctor ordered. For the moment, though, he’d just keep quiet and let Stone handle this. Word battles with guys like this were way above his pay grade.
Harrison brought his drink over and sat back down. He regarded them all in silence for several seconds, then fixed his gaze back on Stone. “Dr. Stone—I will have my answers, one way or another. Chances are good that I have no issues with you, and you can simply go on your way. But I don’t often hear of mages of your caliber in town, and when I do, I want to know what they’re doing here.”
“What difference does it make?” Stone asked, glaring back at him. “Why do you care?” He looked around them, and indicated the luxurious room with a sweep of his hand. “Let’s see...let me take a guess. You’re head of security at whatever casino we’re currently sitting in, and you’re afraid that Ms. Thayer and I will use our magic to cheat your gaming tables. If that’s it, Mr. Harrison, you’ve nothing to worry about. If your spies have been watching us, I’m sure they’ll report back that the only gambling we’ve done since we arrived here is dropping a few dollars in a couple of slot machines to kill time. Jason here won $200. I doubt that would threaten anyone’s cash flow enough to send someone like you after us.”
Harrison raised an eyebrow. “It has happened, Dr. Stone, I assure you. But no. That isn’t it.”
“What, then? How do you even know about mages, and why are you so interested in them?”
“Professional curiosity.”
That clearly wasn’t the answer Stone had been expecting. Actually, he looked like he hadn’t been expecting one at all, but certainly not that one. “I—beg your pardon?”
Harrison’s gaze didn’t waver, and he didn’t respond.
Verity spoke up for the first time. “Wait a minute,” she said slowly. “You mean, you’re a—”
He inclined his head.
Jason stared at him. If his original assessment was correct, and Harrison was directing the area’s Evil, then his estimation of how much trouble they were currently in had just taken a serious leap.
“Indeed,” Stone said, voice even. “You’ll forgive me for saying so, Mr. Harrison, but I find it odd that if you are actually a mage, I’ve never heard of you. I’m at least passingly familiar with most of the mages in this part of the country—by name, if nothing else. And someone like you—well, let’s just say I suspect it would be hard for you to fly under anyone’s radar for long.”
“Perhaps not as hard as you might think,” Harrison said. “But at the moment, I am asking the questions. After you’ve satisfied my curiosity, then I will consider satisfying yours.” He held up a hand and a sheaf of papers flew to it. Glancing down at them, he nodded. “From what I understand here, you spent some time in northern West Virginia recently. That seems an odd place for you to be, given that I can’t find any records of any of the three of you having connections there.”
Jason leaned forward. “You’ve been tracking us?” he demanded. “What are you, some kind of stalker?”
“Information is power, Mr. Thayer.” He looked back at Stone. “And that isn’t all. My associates have found some rather interesting items in the trunk of your car.”
“You’ve been in my car?” Stone couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice. “What gives you the right to—”
Harrison shrugged. “Please, Dr. Stone. There’s no point in posturing or threatening. You can’t threaten me. It’s simply not possible. Believe it or not, I have a great deal of respect for you. But when I’m trying to answer a question, I use the methods at my disposal. All of the methods.”
He held up his hand and this time a familiar cardboard box sailed up from behind another chair and settled silently on the table next to him, alongside his drink and the blue dice. He reached inside and pulled out one of Daphne’s research notebooks. “Very interesting indeed.” He glanced up. “Naturally I haven’t had time to study them at length, but on first glance they appear to be related to the design and construction of teleportation portals. Am I correct?”
Stone took a deep breath. “I want those back, Mr. Harrison,” he said evenly.
“And you shall have them. After you explain to me what you’re doing with them here in Las Vegas.” He put the notebook back in the box. “Are you planning to construct a portal here, Dr. Stone? Because I assure you, that would not be a wise decision.”
“What if I am?” Stone asked, glaring at him. “What difference does it make to you?”
Harrison shrugged. “To me, none. To others in this town—perhaps more than you would want to oppose.” He shook his head. “But I don’t think you’re planning to construct a portal. Not unless you have significant financial backing that my people weren’t able to uncover. And they are very good at uncovering such things.”
Stone’s anger was growing. “You bloody well ought to know what I’m planning to do, Harrison,” he snapped. “The thing I can’t sort out is why you haven’t just killed us
all instead of inviting us to tea and trying to convince us to tell you what we’re up to. You know there’s no point in trying to possess us—your friends have proven that on numerous occasions. Why the cat-and-mouse game? Is this just another way for you to get your psychic jollies before you drop us down a mine shaft in the desert or something?”
Apparently the surprises weren’t finished for the evening. Stone’s words could have affected Harrison in several ways: he could have refused to respond or react, brushed them off, or become defensive. He did none of these things. In fact, for the first time since they had begun their meeting, an identifiable expression flashed across his face. It was still masked again in less than a second, but this time it was there long enough that none of the three of them could miss it.
It was confusion.
He recovered so quickly that if they hadn’t been looking right at him, none of them would have noticed. “I’m afraid you have me at a loss, Dr. Stone. Perhaps you’d consider enlightening me.”
Stone fixed him with a very credible imitation of his own laserlike gaze. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
“No.” Harrison leaned forward. “As I said, please enlighten me.” His tone was soft as ever, but it carried the unmistakable feel of a command. “I begin to suspect that there is far more to your presence here than I originally thought.”
“And I,” Stone said, speaking slowly as he worked things out, “begin to suspect that you aren’t what I feared you are.”
Raised eyebrow. “What did you fear I was, Dr. Stone?”
“Evil.”
Jason and Verity turned to him, shocked. “Al—” Jason began, but Stone waved him off, never taking his eyes off Harrison.
“Evil.” Harrison repeated the word with no inflection.
Stone nodded. “And you still don’t know what I mean by that, do you?”
Harrison’s eyes narrowed just a bit. “Clearly we’re speaking at cross purposes, and just as clearly you aren’t accusing me of ignorance as to the nature of evil. I can only assume, then, that you are using the word in a more specific way.” He indicated the box of notebooks. “Is all of this in some way related to these notebooks, and to the box of magical paraphernalia in your car?”
“Yes.” Stone paused. After a moment, he broke off his gaze and turned to Jason and Verity. “I don’t think he’s involved, amazing as it might sound,” he said, making no attempt to hide his words from Harrison.
“Yeah,” Jason said, “But—”
“He’s not going to let us go until we tell him why we’re here,” Stone said. “If he’s not involved—”
“But how do you know?” Verity asked, glancing over at Harrison. He sat in his chair watching them, still as a statue.
“I don’t know,” Stone said. “But at this point I’d stake quite a lot of money on my guess, if given the opportunity.” He made a barely perceptible nod in Harrison’s direction. “Does he seem to you like the sort who’d let himself be possessed by anything?”
“He said he likes power,” Jason said stubbornly.
“I think he’s got quite enough of that of his own,” Stone pointed out. Turning back to Harrison, he said, “Sorry about that. I know it’s rude to talk about you as if you weren’t here, but I doubt you’d let us go off and have a conference on our own.” Pause, and then: “Brace yourself, Mr. Harrison. I think you’re about to find out that there’s actually quite a lot going on in your town that you don’t know about. And I hope after we let you in on the fun, you might consider helping us—or at the very least, staying out of our way while we do what we need to do.”
Harrison leaned back, regarding him over steepled fingers with his eerie unwavering gaze. “I am listening.”
Stone took a deep breath. “Let’s start with the easy part, shall we? You are aware of the Underground, right?”
“The flood control system,” Harrison said. It wasn’t a question. “Of course.”
“And you know that quite a lot of unfortunates make their homes down there.”
He nodded.
“You also are aware, I am sure, that Las Vegas boasts an impressive number of rather horrific crimes that somehow never get reported in the press, except perhaps for a line or two buried in the back of the local paper.”
Once more, Harrison nodded. “Yes.”
“Have you ever asked yourself why this is so? Have you ever taken the trouble to find out why whoever is committing these crimes is getting away with it?”
He shrugged. “Not particularly. As long as it doesn’t affect me, I see no reason to become involved.” He raised a hand and indicated the neon panorama behind him. “Las Vegas is controlled by some very powerful individuals, Dr. Stone, each one with his own sphere of influence. There are alliances, of course, but everyone primarily looks out for his or her own interests.”
“And you’re one of these powerful individuals,” Stone said. “Obviously. So essentially, you leave them alone and they leave you alone, that’s what you’re saying?”
“Essentially.”
“So you don’t give a damn that people are slicing each other up, shooting each other, and getting away with it?” Jason demanded, unable to keep quiet any longer.
Harrison’s perfectly tailored right shoulder rose in a tiny shrug. “It isn’t my concern, Mr. Thayer. I am not a policeman, nor am I an altruist.”
Jason let out a loud sigh and subsided. It would have been clear to a blind man that he neither liked nor trusted Harrison, but he was willing to follow Stone’s lead for the moment.
“Did you ever consider for a moment, Mr. Harrison,” Stone continued as if Jason hadn’t spoken, “that there might be something more organized than you thought behind these incidents?”
“Something?” Harrison said, emphasizing the last part of the word.
“Are there a lot of mages in Las Vegas?” Stone asked abruptly. “Other than you, I mean.”
Harrison shook his head. “Not many. Most of them work for me in some capacity. And as I said before, mages do come through occasionally. I am aware of a few others who live here—lesser talents, mostly. Harmless. But as I am sure you’re aware, we—especially those of us at higher ability levels—are a rare breed these days.”
“And you’re perhaps an even rarer breed than most of us,” Stone said.
“Oh?” Harrison’s elegant eyebrow rose again.
“We’ll get back to that,” Stone said, waving him off. “Not relevant at the moment. In any case—yes, something. Let me tell you a story, Mr. Harrison. Once upon a time there was another dimension—”
He told Harrison everything—about the Evil, their connection with the Overworld, the Forgotten, the portals, everything. At some point he seemed to forget that the rest of them were there: he got up and began pacing the room, looking very much like he had the day when Jason and Verity had sneaked into his classroom at Stanford to watch him teach.
Harrison, to his credit, neither moved nor changed expression through the entire explanation, even when Stone ranged around behind him. Jason and Verity remained silent as well, both of them hoping Stone was doing the right thing. It appeared that he was experiencing the same strange catharsis that Verity had when she had unburdened herself to Madame Huan—his words came faster as he went along, as if they were fighting to get out.
Several minutes later, Stone finished the story. He dropped back down onto his spot on the couch and looked right at Harrison, leaning forward in obvious challenge. “So, there you have it, Mr. Harrison. That’s why we’re in Vegas. And now’s the time for you to tell me I’m stark raving mad and call security to have us all hauled away.”
“I believe you,” Harrison said.
Stone blinked. “You—do?”
He nodded. He looked neither surprised nor disturbed by what Stone had told him. “I do. Your story explains a gre
at deal, actually.”
“It does?” Jason asked.
Harrison picked up the blue dice again and idly manipulated them. “I have long suspected that something is going on in this town beyond the usual machinations of the powerful, but as yet my sources have been unable to prove it, or even to find any credible evidence of it. Since it hasn’t directly affected me or my interests, I haven’t made it a priority for in-depth investigation. But if what you say is true, then it indicates that an organized conspiracy exists that extends far past the squabblings of the various criminal factions and other organizations that control most of what occurs here.” He took a deep breath. “Do you have any idea how many of these…Evil…exist in Las Vegas, Dr. Stone?”
Stone shook his head. “That’s the insidious part. We don’t know. But given that we’re certain that the last portal they’re coming through is somewhere in this area, and given also the nature of Las Vegas and its nearly perfect ability to provide them with what they crave, it’s a safe guess that the number is quite large.”
“And they can be essentially anywhere.”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “So far all we’ve determined mostly for certain is that they can’t possess the Forgotten, and they can’t possess mages—at least ones at a decent power level—without their consent. And,” he added, shrugging, “They have a pretty hard time possessing me. We figure it’s got something to do with my mother being a mage. I didn’t get the powers, but I guess I got that much.” Stone hadn’t mentioned anything to Harrison about Jason’s unique mana-battery power, and Jason himself didn’t change that.
“And you can’t detect the fact that they’re possessing someone.”
“That’s not completely true,” Stone said. “There are Forgotten who have the ability to sense when the Evil are in the vicinity, and I’ve built magical devices in the past that can detect their presence. But I don’t think my devices would help here, even if I had any at the moment. It would be like trying to detect a particular radioactive spot at Chernobyl. It’s so much a part of the ambient level of magical energy here that individual readings would get lost in the background noise.”