by Marty Chan
“You are certain?”
Ehrich wanted to scream “no,” but he needed to find out what was in the book. He nodded.
“Very well,” Tesla said. He turned to the console and dialled up several knobs. The surrounding towers began to hum in a high-pitched whine, almost sounding like a swarm of bees buzzing in unison. Ehrich stiffened and stared at Tesla, daring the man to go through with his bluff.
“I’m ready,” Ehrich said.
Tesla cracked a smile and turned the dial. Lightning leapt from one of the Tesla coils and danced up and down Ehrich’s arm. He jumped back but stayed on the platform as electricity from another tower found his other arm. He watched the blue light dance up and down his flesh, but he didn’t feel any heat, just a tickle as his arm hair stood on end. The rest of the towers unleashed their impotent fury on Ehrich, and he stretched out his arms to catch the lightning, laughing as he watched the dancing storm. Then, one after the other, the towers powered down and the light show was done. All that remained was a beaming Ehrich.
Tesla tapped his chin three times. “You are quite determined to learn what is in this book.”
“I’m following the commander’s orders.”
“Ah yes, the commander and his vigilance against the evils that would invade our dimension. Let’s satisfy his curiosity.”
Ehrich stepped off the platform and joined Tesla at the table. The thin man examined the spine of the book, running his hands along the insignia, then over the lock mechanism.
“We tried to open the lock, but there was no keyhole,” Ehrich explained.
“Yes, I can see. The problem is the mechanism was designed to appear like a lock so you would not guess its true purpose.” He grasped the top and bottom edges of the lock and twisted. The brass casing didn’t budge. He turned it the other way. Finally, he lifted and twisted. The entire mechanism shifted one quarter to the right. The book responded with a low hum. Tesla turned the mechanism back to its original spot and the noise faded.
“I can tell you right now, it is not a book.”
“What is it?” Ehrich asked.
“I cannot even fathom a guess. This may take some time. Come back Friday morning at nine. Sharp. I will have need of your services, and I will have the answers you seek.”
With that, he took the book across the room, counting his steps in groups of three, and disappeared down the hall. Bemused by the scientist’s eccentricities, Ehrich couldn’t help but smile.
Parlour Tricks
Margaret rifled through Ehrich’s footlocker in the dorm while Gino kept watch at the doorway. On Ehrich’s bed, Wilhelm was flipping through a book—the autobiography of a French magician named Robert Houdin. Ehrich’s other books on stage magic were strewn across his bed.
“Get a look at this,” Margaret said as she held up a pair of handcuffs. “No keys to go with the cuffs.”
“Guess he thinks he’s a real magician,” Gino quipped. “I mean, look at the way he disappeared from work.”
Margaret laughed. “Yeah.”
Wilhelm raised his hand for silence. “Get this. His hero is Robert Houdin. The guy apparently works with automatons. Listen to this: ‘All thoughtful persons will understand the difficulty of making my automaton perform so many different movements, as when it stands on its legs and moves its head to the right and left. They will also see that this animal drinks, dabbles with its bill, quacks like the living duck.’ A mechanical duck. Talk about hogwash.”
Gino joked, “Well, you know what they say. If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it’s probably an automaton.”
Margaret held up the handcuff keys. “Found them.”
“Toss them both here,” Wilhelm said. She did.
He tested the shackles, snapping them open and closed.
Gino hissed, “He’s here.”
j
Ehrich strolled into the dorm but picked up the pace when he spotted his possessions splayed across the bed and floor. “What do you think you’re doing? Those are my personal things.”
Wilhelm smiled. “We thought since you left us with a mess to clean up, we would return the favour.”
Gino and Margaret laughed.
“Not funny,” Ehrich said.
“That is what I said when Charlie came back from Demon Gate and said you had taken off and left us to finish your work.” Wilhelm kicked a book off the bed.
“Charlie didn’t seem to mind.”
“He didn’t do the digging,” Margaret quipped.
Gino jumped in. “You know what, Air-ee,” he said, deliberately mispronouncing Ehrich’s name as he always did when he wanted to get under someone’s skin. “You hurt our feelings. When we’re on patrol, you’re the first to freelance and leave us to save your hide. I’m starting to think you don’t like us.”
Wilhelm swung his legs off the bed. “Easy, Gino. That’s too far. I’m sure Ehrich knows the squad comes first.”
“Just reminding him of that,” Gino muttered.
Ehrich picked up the books on the floor and started to put them back into his footlocker. Margaret didn’t bother moving out of his way.
Wilhelm handed Ehrich the Robert Houdin autobiography. “Hey, we’re just fooling around, Ehrich. I know you enjoy magic, but just don’t try to get all Houdin-y on us. No more parlour tricks.”
Gino guffawed. “Houdini! I like that. A good Italian name.”
Margaret nodded. “Why don’t you show us one of your feats of magic?”
“Maybe you can pull a rabbit out of a box,” Gino said. “I always wanted to know how they did it.”
“A magician doesn’t give away his secrets,” Ehrich said.
“Come on, Houdini,” Wilhelm said. “Amaze us.”
“Another time.”
Margaret cocked her head to one side, letting her long dark hair fall over her eye. “It’s the least you could do for us.”
“Forget the magic, Houdini,” Wilhelm said. “How about an escape trick? Let’s see you get out of the shackles.” He picked up the handcuffs from the bed.
“Yeah,” Gino chimed in. “Let’s watch an escape artist at work.”
Margaret agreed. “And when you escape, we’ll clean this up.”
“Fine, fine. Let’s do this.” Ehrich held out his hands for Wilhelm to cuff him. The German boy shook his head and motioned Ehrich to turn around. Ehrich did and Wilhelm cuffed him behind his back. He took his time, making the cuffs as tight as possible.
“What are you doing?” Ehrich asked.
“Hold on…just about…” he grunted, manipulating the shackles. The shackles clicked together; then the rasp of another sound, which Ehrich couldn’t quite make out. Wilhelm was up to something, but Ehrich didn’t know what. He was pretty sure he knew why.
“Tight enough for you, Houdini?”
“They’re fine,” Ehrich said, gritting his teeth to shut out the pain of the metal shackles cutting into his wrist.
Wilhelm stepped around and held up the handcuff key, but something was wrong. The end had been snapped off.
“What did you do, Wilhelm?” Ehrich demanded as he lurched forward.
“You might have a harder time getting out of the shackles than you did getting out of work.”
Gino and Margaret laughed as they all backed away from Ehrich, who struggled with the cuffs. He let the tension in his shoulders go slack as he curled into a ball on the floor and stepped through his shackled arms so that he could assess what had been done to the cuffs. Wilhelm had snapped the key off in the lock mechanism.
“Bravo!” Wilhelm mocked as he clapped.
“He’s not out yet,” Margaret said.
Ehrich ignored them as he slid under the covers of his cot. He had no intention of showing his secrets to Wilhelm. Under the blanket, Ehrich reached into his shoe and pulled out the lock-pick set he kept in his right heel. If he could loosen the key end from the mechanism, he might have a shot at getting free.
Gino laughed, “Oh look, he’s sudde
nly shy.”
“Guess he thought it was too easy,” Margaret said.
“Then let’s make it harder,” Wilhelm said. He lunged at Ehrich and grabbed the blanket. Gino jumped to the other side of the bed. The boys twisted the blanket and wrapped the makeshift flannel rope around Ehrich’s arms and body. They tied Ehrich to the bed frame while Margaret rolled up another blanket from the nearby cot. She tied the blanket around the foot of the bed and his legs so Ehrich couldn’t bring his feet to his hands. Once he was completely trussed up, the trio admired their handiwork. Ehrich squirmed against his bonds, but he couldn’t set himself free.
“This is boring,” Wilhelm said. “What do you say, Gino?”
“I concur.”
“Margaret?”
“I’m not impressed so far,” she said.
Wilhelm nodded. “Then we should get out of here.” They walked away.
“You can’t leave me here!” Ehrich called after them as he squirmed against the bonds, trying to loosen the blankets. A moment later, just as he had started to make progress, Charlie entered the dorm and saw his friend’s predicament. The squad leader rushed to the bed and untied the knotted blanket around Ehrich’s feet.
“What happened?”
“I was trying to show off an escape trick. Hit a snag.” Ehrich wasn’t about to get into any more trouble with Wilhelm.
Charlie untied Ehrich’s arms. “Good thing you have a job on Demon Watch because you’d starve if you tried to work as a dime-store magician.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“They left you here?”
Ehrich didn’t want to tell Charlie the real story, but he sensed his friend was fishing for more details. “Wilhelm saw my book and wanted me to show what I had learned.”
“They were pretty upset when you didn’t come back to finish digging the graves.”
“Wilhelm’s never liked me, so it’s hard to tell.”
“Good point. He was pretty close to Louis.”
“How is Louis?”
Charlie shook his head. “The doctor says he might not make it to the end of the week.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Big price to pay to bring in a demon,” Charlie said. “But we did our job as a team.”
Ehrich picked up the broken key and used the end to clear the jammed lock. He was careful not to damage the mechanism as he pushed.
“You know it was Wilhelm who spotted you in the Bowery. He was the one who alerted me. If not for him, you might be where Louis is.”
“I didn’t know.”
“He’s not one to brag—he’s more of a complainer. But at the end of the day, he knows no matter what he thinks of his teammates, the squad comes first. Whatever happens in here is your business, but out there, we’re a team. Our lives depend on this. You know what I’m talking about, Houdini?”
Ehrich’s eyes widened. Charlie had heard the exchange in the dorm and allowed the squad to continue. He was sending Ehrich a message.
“I can’t undo what happened to Louis,” Ehrich said. “I’m sorry I went freelance. I should have stuck with the squad.”
“You have a habit of forgetting we are a squad. Doesn’t hurt to let the others know you still remember. Listen, we have to dig more graves tomorrow. I was thinking of giving us all some downtime in the morning. Let the others sleep in. It’d be nice if someone got a head start on the graves, you know?”
Ehrich nodded. Charlie patted him on the leg and walked out. Alone, Ehrich was able to spring the lock on his shackles. Always when he was alone, he could do it—never under pressure. He picked up his things from the ground, feeling about as alone as he did when he first arrived in this dimension. While he might look like the others, he knew deep down he was not the same. The weight of this made him long for home.
Sabotage
The week had passed by slowly for Ehrich. For a couple of days, he reached a détente with Wilhelm by doing more than his share of the administrative punishments. They had moved from burial duty to loading food shipments for Demon Watch. The squad began to joke with each other. Ehrich even learned to embrace the nickname the others had bestowed on him.
“Houdini, want to wave your wand and levitate these crates so I don’t break my back lifting them?” Gino said.
“Houdini, make this week disappear so we can get back to our real jobs,” Charlie joked.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Houdini, the world’s worst escape artist,” Margaret said, “Can’t get out of handcuffs—can’t get out of burial duty”.
Ehrich took a bow and said, “Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week for your entertainment. If my sleeves start spitting feathers, don’t worry. Nothing up there, I swear.”
The others laughed. Even Wilhelm cracked a small smile.
Their mood all changed Thursday, when Louis died. That night, a dark cloud settled over the squad as they had lost one of their own. No one felt like joking or talking. Wilhelm’s temper turned black as he perched on the edge of his bed. He shrugged off Charlie’s attempt to console him. The raggedy man would have to answer for the slaying of a hunter now, and Wilhelm wanted to execute the punishment personally. Since he could not get his hands on the prisoner in Ninth Circle, he lashed out at the people around him.
“Houdini, do us all a favour and disappear,” Wilhelm said. “I don’t want to see your ugly face right now.”
“Easy, Wilhelm,” Margaret said. “We all know the risks of the job.” Of all the squad members, she was the most pragmatic. Sometimes, this came across as heartless.
“Shut up, Margaret. Louis was my friend and because of Houdini, he’s gone.”
Ehrich felt a hole in his stomach growing wider and sucking him into the abyss of guilt. He shouldered the blame for Louis’ death, just as he carried the burden of losing Dash.
Gino cut in. “Wilhelm, I was supposed to cover Louis. I’m as much to blame.”
Margaret shook her head. “We can’t blame anyone but Ole Lukoje. He’s the one who attacked Louis. He would have killed Ehrich too.”
Wilhelm’s face reddened. “Why didn’t you just let the freak go through the gateway? If you did, my best friend would be alive right now.”
Charlie raised his hands. “Enough! We lost Louis. I’m not about to lose my entire squad over this. Wilhelm, you need to find a way to get past this.”
“Or else what? Will you kick me off? You always side with him.” The German boy’s anger was too much to contain. He needed a release.
Ehrich put his hand on Charlie’s shoulder and pulled him back. “Wilhelm, you can blame me, but this won’t bring Louis back. Still, I can see you’re hurting and I’m the one who keeps opening the wound, so the best thing is for me to go away. Charlie, I’m taking a leave from the team. Tesla has work for me. I’m not saying I’m making a permanent move, but if Wilhelm and I are apart, maybe the squad can have some peace.”
Charlie started to protest, but Ehrich shook his head. Wilhelm needed to deal with his grief, and he couldn’t do that as long as Ehrich was around.
“The squad comes first,” Ehrich said. He reached out to shake Wilhelm’s hand. The German batted his hand away.
j
The next morning, Ehrich arrived at Tesla’s lab at nine sharp. Tesla was dressed in a neatly pressed three-piece suit. He conducted a tour for a group of well-groomed gentlemen who were smoking cigars and admiring the equipment. Ehrich stayed at the back of the room and observed as the Serb explained the workings of his invention.
“You see, gentlemen, what we have here is the next step which will steer us to the future. The AC transformer can generate enough power to light our city’s homes and businesses, but at a fraction of the cost of direct current.”
The men nodded, but not overly enthusiastically.
“Ah, the question is the one Mr. Edison has planted in your minds. Is AC power safe? I could tell you, but I believe that your eyes may be more receptive than your ears. Mr. Weisz, if y
ou would be so kind as to assist me.” Tesla beckoned Ehrich from the back of the room and motioned him to stand on the platform.
The men eyed him warily as he made his way on to the platform in between the towers. They inched back from him and gathered near Tesla by the console.
“What I am about to do is unleash 50,000 volts into this young man and you will see AC is the safest form of electricity on the market today.” He dialled up the console, charging up the Tesla coils. Their bee-songs hummed loudly as electricity leapt across the room and danced on Ehrich’s skin, lighting him up. The men gasped in horror, then murmured in amazement as Ehrich turned around and showed he was perfectly all right. The men applauded Tesla, thrilled at the demonstration.
The scientist dialled down the coils and invited Ehrich to get off the platform so that the men could examine him. Other than some dirt under his fingernails, Ehrich was none the worse for wear.
“Impressive, Mr. Tesla. It appears to be as safe as you claim,” a gentleman in an elegant suit pronounced.
A bearded man in a long waistcoat eyed the contraptions around the room. “I don’t know. I think Edison’s company has been in operation longer, and they would know what is safe and what is dangerous.”
“If you don’t believe your eyes, Mr. Gould, perhaps you’d like to try it yourself.”
The other potential investors backed off, but the bearded sceptic rose to the challenge. “Yes, but perhaps we ought to go with a smaller setting in case things go wrong.”
“I assure you, sir, the coils are perfectly safe.”
Mr. Gould climbed onto the platform. The bearded fellow slipped his hand in and out of his jacket pocket. Ehrich knew enough from his books on magic that amateur prestidigitators often checked their props at the worst moments. This man was up to something, but before Ehrich could warn Tesla, the coils fired up again.
Lightning branches flew from the coils and danced across Mr. Gould’s body. Then, suddenly, his jacket erupted into flame and he yelped. The other men shouted. Tesla dialled down the coils while Ehrich slipped off his duster and rushed to Mr. Gould, shoving him down on the platform and smothering the flames. While he did so, he reached into the bearded man’s pocket and retrieved a metal box. He palmed it as he helped the investor to his feet.
