by Simon Archer
“Are the girls partying it up tonight, too?” I asked him.
“Nah,” he replied. “They are sipping champagne at the spa for the night.”
“You can stay overnight at a spa?” I thought they were daytime activities.
“You sure can, especially if you rent the entire place out,” Jack laughed. I nodded my head slowly.
“She’s learning!” It took Lottie forever to get used to having millions of dollars at her disposal. “It’s great to see she’s finally utilizing it properly!” I replied. It made me truly happy to know she was comfortable with the money we had. For a time, she had been shy about spending anything on herself. It had taken quite a while to get her away from the ‘it’s your money’ mindset and convince her it was there for her too.
“Careful, now,” Asher joked. “Women can get too good at using it on occasion!” I rolled my eyes at him. He’d been married three times and divorced three times.
“Don’t listen to Asher,” Sven piped up. “He’s just jealous because someone is getting married who isn’t him!” The entire circle of us laughed at that. The dancers brought another bottle around and continued pouring. My glass wasn’t lower than two fingers the entire night.
By the time we broke up the party and rolled back to the house, it was three in the morning. One of the dancers drove us because we’d ended up getting Glen hammered while quizzing him about the details of his new establishment. She dropped Sven and Asher off at their hotel, and Jack and I at the house. We snuck in the house and up to our respective bedrooms.
It wasn’t until I was falling into bed that I realized I hadn’t needed to sneak in because the girls weren’t there.
23
The next morning was one of the roughest I’d had in a long time. The last time I remembered being hungover was the day after I’d gotten our last AI program working, and that was a while ago. My head pounded before I even opened my eyes. It took a full five minutes to sit up and let my stomach settle before hobbling to the shower. When I finished with my shower, I was torn between whether I should get back into bed and try to sleep off the headache or go for a cup of coffee and push through. My stomach rumbling made up my mind for me, so I headed downstairs to the kitchen. Jack was dragging himself in just as I put a pot of coffee on to brew.
“You look like shit.” I chuckled, but my head started pounding so hard when I did that I stopped as quickly as I started.
“You aren’t in any better shape, by the looks of you,” Jack replied with a grunt.
“Where is Vila’s hangover-be-gone when we need it?” I whined as I watched the coffee drip into the pot at an irritatingly slow pace.
“It might be right here, actually,” Jack said. I looked up, and he was holding a plate. There were two miniature blueberry muffins on the plate, each one with a tag on a toothpick. One said ‘Bennett,’ and the other said ‘Jack.’
“There’s no way they could be that certain we were going to get torn up last night,” I replied, taking my muffin off the plate.
“What if we eat them and turn into tiny people, or rabbits, or something?” Jack muttered. He put his head in his hand and took a deep breath. I wasn’t sure who was in more pain, him or me.
“I think you are getting your Alice in Wonderland references all fucked up,” I said, again making the mistake of trying to laugh.
“Whatever,” he replied. “Right now, anything would be better than this shit!” He popped the muffin in his mouth and started to chew. I followed suit and instantly wished I would’ve waited until the coffee finished brewing. My mouth was dry and trying to swallow the muffin nearly made me vomit.
By the time the two of us ate, it felt like we’d ran a marathon. On the plus side, the coffee finished brewing, and I poured each of us a cup. We drank like we’d been abandoned in the Sahara Desert for a month. I poured us each another cup and sat down. Jack picked his head up off his hand and looked at me.
“Am I crazy, or do I feel a little better?” he asked, looking around like he was searching for something. I took a moment and realized the pounding in my head had decreased significantly.
“I swear, if she left us magic muffins, I’m going to throw that girl her own party when she gets home,” I told Jack. This time, when I chuckled, it didn’t hurt. By the time the two of us finished our second cup of coffee, we felt as though it was any other regular morning.
“So, when is this party?” Jack asked, shaking his head. “She’s a miracle worker!” The nausea, headache, and fatigue had all disappeared.
“Who is a miracle worker?” Vila asked as she walked into the kitchen. Andi, Lottie, and Lorraine were right behind her. Neither Jack nor I had heard them come in. I stood up and ran over to her, throwing my arms around her and picking her up.
“You are! The miracle muffin maker!” I yelled, spinning her around in circles.
Lottie started laughing. “I agree with Bennett, Vila. Your hangover cures are the stuff miracles are made of, there’s no doubt about that!”
“I’m happy you all enjoy them.” Vila laughed as I set her down. “I had a feeling you may be needing them this morning.”
“I would surprise you just how right you were if you’d have walked in ten minutes ago!” Jack laughed. “How was your girls’ evening?” Lorraine sat beside him and kissed him on the cheek.
“It was heaven!” she gushed. “Can we buy ourselves a spa?”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not, and neither could Jack.
“Question for another day, perhaps?” he said, trying to avoid the possibility that she was serious.
“Oh, fine,” Lorraine pouted dramatically before breaking into giggles.
“I don’t know what you all did while you were there, but you smell amazing,” I complimented them. I was used to Andi and Vila smelling like orchids and Lottie smelling of one of a few high-priced perfumes she wore, but that morning was different.
“It was a black tea bath with honey and eucalyptus,” Andi informed us. I opened my mouth to remind her that honey was supposed to be off the spa menu, but she continued before I could get a word out. “It wasn’t a honey wrap. The honey was just in the water, so it wasn’t all sticky.”
“Let’s bottle that, it’s amazing,” I told her.
“No arguments here,” Andi replied. She turned on her heel and started walking out of the room. I hadn’t noticed that she was holding an armful of bags. In fact, all the girls save Vila were loaded down with bags.
“Did you ladies buy a mall?” I joked, and Lorraine instantly smiled at Jack mischievously.
“Shhh, Anders! Don’t give them any ideas!” Jack laughed.
The girls disappeared to go through their purchases while Jack and I sat, drinking the rest of our coffee.
“You really should consider moving down here, Jack,” I said. “You and Lorraine both love it, and we can run the company from anywhere.”
“We’ve considered it,” he replied. “Last time we—"
A faint buzzing sound interrupted Jack mid-sentence, and both our ears perked up. The buzzing was coming from the weather monitor in my office. I jolted up out of my chair, and Jack did the same. We ran to the hallway and up the stairs. What would be an irritating noise to anyone else had the two of us excited beyond measure.
“Predictions?” Jack yelled over the buzzing as I looked at a data set being populated on my computer screen.
“Not sure,” I yelled back.
“Event readings?” he asked,
“Not sure,” I repeated. He didn’t say another word until the buzzing turned itself off. He was just as anxious as I was to find out what results were being shown, so I hurried to find what I was looking for. When the data rolled down my screen, I nearly jumped for joy.
“BOTH!” I yelled at Jack. He shot up into the air like something bit him.
“Yes!” he hollered. By the time he made it back to the ground, the two of us had already shifted back to work-mode. We sat down in two of the o
ffice chairs I had, and I started scrolling through information.
“It was a tornado cluster in Kansas last night,” I told him. “There were seven tornados. Our system predicted four of them, but got readings on all seven.”
“Was there any sign of prediction for the remaining three?” Jack asked, sounding slightly confused.
“It doesn’t look like it,” I replied. “Give me a minute.” I pored over the preliminary data as it rolled in. It was strange. It looked as though the program had no idea there were even tornadoes occurring with the three it did not predict. The measurements it had gotten off them were last minute, and two sets were incomplete. I sat back in my chair and put my arms behind my head.
“I know that look,” Jack said. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing that I can explain, really,” I replied. “There is something off, though. How could our program completely miss three tornados while at the same time predict four in the same area?”
“Could there be an upper limit on data analyzation within the program that we weren’t aware of?” Jack suggested.
“That’s a good idea. Let me check.” I mentally crossed my fingers that somehow I’d set a maximum activity ability within the program, even though I was certain I had not. It turned out I had not.
“Okay, so that’s not it,” I told him. “No limits, selective predictions…” I was at a loss. Jack and I continued to stare at the computer screen as data rolled in.
“Hey, what was that?” Jack hopped up out of his chair and pointed at the screen. “Go up.” I scrolled up through the data and waited for Jack to show me what he’d seen. “Stop there. Isn’t that the unknown energy reading for tornado number five?” I looked where he was pointing.
“If it wasn’t so high, I’d say yes,” I replied. The amount of the mystery energy recorded for tornado number five was higher than any we’d ever seen. “It’s a larger funnel. It shouldn’t be that high.”
“Any chance your hypothesis about the smaller funnels having higher surges is wrong?” Jack asked, not concerned with tact.
“Not according to any of the data I’ve seen up to this point,” I answered. I scrolled down through the data and compared tornados one through four. “See, all of these have power surges in accordance with my predictions.”
The two of us sat back again and continued to stare at the screen. The data for tornado six and seven started rolling in. Jack and I shot up when the energy surge numbers scrolled down the screen.
“They are the same as five,” Jack whispered in disbelief. “Are there two different types of tornadoes that we aren’t aware of? I’m calling the weather station.”
“Don’t bother,” I stopped him. “I can tell you right now that there are two different kinds of tornadoes: natural and unnatural.”
Jack’s head whipped in my direction as I slowly stood up. “What exactly do you mean by ‘unnatural’?” he asked cautiously.
I slowly walked to the door and out into the hallway, Jack following.
“Remember that grouping of tornados that we donated disaster relief for last year?” I asked him, glancing over my shoulder as I walked. He nodded his acknowledgment. “Those were unnatural. They were magical.”
“That was the storm that gave you the idea for this program, wasn’t it?” Jack asked for confirmation.
“Yes,” I replied, “and I’d bet you anything that if we had a way to pull data from those tornadoes, they would look exactly like last night’s five, six, and seven.” The unknown energy showing in the three unpredicted tornados was so high that it seemed this energy completely powered them.
“Are you saying the unknown energy is associated with magic somehow?” Jack stopped in the middle of the hallway and took hold of my arm. I turned around and looked him square in the eyes.
“I’m saying the unknown energy IS magic.”
“Okay,” he responded after a long moment to process my words. “What next?”
My mouth dropped to the floor. “That’s it? Just, ‘okay’?” I asked, shocked that he didn’t have more to say.
Jack smiled slowly. “Forget who you’re talking to?”
When Jack had discovered Andi and Vila were magical, his reaction had been pretty much the same. How he could be so incredibly nonchalant about curveballs to the natural order of the universe, I would never understand.
“I suppose I did,” I laughed with him.
“So, where are we going exactly?” Jack looked around us. We were half-way to the end of the corridor.
“I have a feeling I’ve been underestimating someone,” I answered. I didn’t want to voice my suspicion just yet for fear of jinxing myself. I stopped at the theater door and opened it. Jack and I went inside, and I headed straight for the projector booth. Once inside, I went directly to the spot I’d hidden the spellbook, between two film reels, and felt for it.
“What are you feeling around for?” Jack asked, tired of waiting for information.
“Something that is not here… The spellbook,” I answered, standing to face him. “Damn it!”
“Where the hell did it go? And what does it have to do with the tornados? You are going to have to catch me up, Anders,” Jack instructed demandingly.
“Come with me. We need the girls for this.” I ran out of the theater, Jack in tow. Halfway down the stairs, I started calling out for Andi, Vila, and Lottie. All three, plus Lorraine, ran out of the kitchen and met us in the middle of the foyer.
“Are you two okay?” Lottie asked, looking us over like she was expecting us to have injuries.
“For now,” I rushed. I turned to the girls. “I have some bad news.” They stared at me, straight-faced. I was mulling over where to start in my mind when Andi put a hand on her hip and started tapping her foot impatiently.
“Are you waiting for coffee and scones before you tell us this bad news?” she asked sarcastically.
“There were seven tornados in Kansas last night,” I started. “Three of them weren’t picked up by our program. And the reason we didn’t detect them is that they were made almost entirely of that strange energy I’ve been trying to figure out.” Their faces didn’t change.
“Strange tornados, got it,” Vila said, rotating her hand in a circle like she was trying to speed up my story.
“I think the tornados were just like the ones we saw last year when Dave was practicing magic,” I told them. Finally, their expressions changed slightly. Each had an eyebrow shoot up.
“So, there were three tornados last night, and because they had a lot of some unusual energy you can’t explain, you believe they are magical?” Andi asked. I wasn’t sure if she was mocking me or seriously asking for clarification.
“Yes,” I answered. “I’m positive about it.”
“What makes you so sure? Random, weird energy isn’t a lot to go on,” Lottie chimed in. I averted my eyes from her and looked at Vila. I had told Lottie I would get a safe for the book and had neglected to do so. While I didn’t believe a safe would’ve made a bit of difference, I still had a guilty conscience about it.
“Well?” Vila restated Lottie’s question in not so many words.
“I think the weird energy is magic. Plus, I’m sure it was magic because Dave was practicing using the spellbook when he made his tornados,” I started. “And now, here are more magical tornados, and the spellbook is nowhere to be found.” I closed my eyes and heard three simultaneous gasps from Lottie, Andi, and Vila.
“Well, I don't know much about spell books, but that doesn’t sound like something you should be misplacing,” Lorraine piped up, unexpectedly. As unwelcome as her comment was, I was thankful for it because it removed the girls’ attention from me for a split second. That split second ended really quickly, though.
“Tell me something,” Lottie asked, disturbingly calm. “How did we lose the spellbook?”
“I believe Tobin has it,” I replied.
“When was Tobin in here?” Lottie practically yelled, no longer calm.
>
“He wasn’t,” I tried to reassure her. “When he was sniping at us at the museum the other day, he said that good magic wasn’t the only kind that could find similar magic. I think he used bad magic to call the book to himself.”
“If he told you that he could—”
Snap!
I watched as Lottie and Lorraine fell to the ground. Andi zipped over to catch Lottie. Vila pulled her hand down out of the air and rushed to catch Lorraine. They each laid them gently on the floor.
“What the hell—?”
“Don’t worry,” Vila cut me off. “They are fine.” Vila looked at Jack to make sure he wasn’t going to get hysterical about his wife being magically knocked out.
“We don’t have time for you two to have a lover’s quarrel about how we should have handled the book,” Andi said.
“Nor do we have time to explain every damn thing that we need to do,” Vila added. “Jack, you’ve been able to keep up so far. That’s why you are still standing.”
Jack smiled at her and saluted.
“What can I do to help?” he asked, jovially. I couldn’t help but grin at his enthusiasm during such a situation.
“We have to find Tobin,” Vila rushed. “It’s pretty early. Maybe he’ll be at the station.” As the words rolled off her tongue, a huge crack of thunder sounded outside. Andi, Vila, Jack, and I all looked up through the foyer ceiling. The sky was blue, and the only clouds visible were a few tiny, wispy ones floating lazily. I brought my head back down to look at the girls and was suddenly flashing through scenes in my mind.
The first flash was of the vision I’d gotten from the cave about the spellbook getting more powerful with each soul it captured. The second was the wall being built with the book inside the cave. The third was the book disintegrating and spreading through the ground. The fourth flash was the most curious, however. I saw a snippet of the conversation I’d had with Vila after she’d seen Gisele. She was relaying Gisele’s message about looking into an energy like the sun to learn about the mysterious energy I was dealing with, and also that magic was neutral. When I blinked again, I was sitting on the floor, the girls and Jack staring at me.
