Doorways to Infinity

by Geof Johnson

  “They told me to contact them immediately if we learn anything important, and this is important. Cage must be planning to go do a hit somewhere.”

  “How are you going to contact them if you can’t use your cell phone or email?” Larry said.

  “Eric and I worked something out. It’s a spot on the outskirts of Langley where I can call them from a payphone, and one of them can meet me. A local call won’t be noticed. All I have to do is make a doorway there, and I already got it in my magic sense of space.”

  “You should at least wait until after lunch,” Fred said. “Just to be nice.”

  A few hours later, Jamie stepped through a portal back into Fred’s living room, where Fred waited on the couch, watching Disney’s Snow White with Sammi.

  Fred picked up the DVD remote from the coffee table and pressed pause. “Did you get hold of either of them?”

  “Just Terry. She met me at this dumpy little laundromat that has a payphone outside, and I repeated what Sammi told me. Terry said that they’ve been expecting Cage to start repairs, but the weather’s been really bad in that part of Romania, and there’s been too much snow for anybody to work on his runway or his road.”

  “Do they know who Cage’s next target is?”

  “Still working on that.”

  “At least Terry and Eric got to spend Christmas with their families. Did you get a chance to ask her about her daughter?”

  “Of course not.”

  Sammi’s eyebrows shot up. “What about her daughter?”

  “Nothing, Sammi.” Fred patted her gently on the arm.

  “It’s not nothing, it’s something. I can tell.”

  Fred took her time considering what to say. “It’s…Terry doesn’t like to talk about her, which is odd, because all moms like to talk about their kids. So something’s going on, and we want to know what it is.”

  “What do you mean, we?” Jamie said. “I don’t. It’s none of my business.”

  “Well, me and Melanie and Nova do. We care about Terry.”

  “What? You wanted to throttle her at one time, as I recall.”

  Sammi’s mouth formed an alarmed oh, and Fred quickly said, “That’s just an expression, Sammi. I didn’t really want to do that. I was just jealous because I thought she was flirting with Jamie, but she wasn’t. It was just a misunderstanding. I like Terry now. That’s why I’m concerned about her and her daughter.”

  Sammi seemed to believe her and said, “Do you want me to ask her next time I see her? She might tell me.”

  Fred patted her on the arm again and smiled. “I’m sure she will, Sammi. She won’t be able to help herself.”

  * * *

  Friday morning, Sammi came over to stay with Rachel for the day, since everyone at Fred’s house had to go to work. Sammi’s two neighborhood friends, Ariana and Britney, showed up about an hour later, then all three girls went to play in the clubhouse in the yard.

  Rachel was carrying a load of dirty clothes to the laundry room when Ariana flung open the back door and said, “Mrs. Sikes, come quick! Sammi’s having one of her vision thingies.”

  Rachel dropped the clothes on the floor and rushed outside, with Ariana right behind her. Rachel found Sammi sitting on one of the swings, limp and unmoving, her lips parted and her eyes vacant. Even though Rachel knew what was happening, it still worried her whenever she saw her like that. Britney stood several feet away, her small hand over her mouth and her brow drawn down low.

  “How long has this been going on?” Rachel asked when she reached the playset.

  “A long time,” Ariana said.

  Rachel checked Sammi carefully before saying, “You girls know it’s okay, right? Sammi is just using her talent.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Britney said unconvincingly.

  I’m glad these girls already know about the magic. I’d hate to have to explain this right now. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. She’ll come out of it soon.”

  They waited for several minutes, and Rachel began to shiver, wishing she had put on a coat. The air was chilly, and the sky was overcast. The winter wind prickled her skin. She clutched her arms across her chest and watched Sammi. Rachel’s teeth chattered. Sammi was deathly still.

  Finally, Sammi shook her head and her eyes refocused, and she moaned while Rachel knelt and wrapped her arms around her. “What was it?” Rachel asked.

  “I don’t know,” Sammi said in a quivering voice. “I didn’t understand the words.”

  “Was it another language?”

  Sammi nodded. “It was two men, and they talked for a long time.”

  Rachel stood. “Well,” she said, “we can’t do anything about it right now because Jamie’s at work. I’ll send him a text and tell him we need to talk, and maybe he’ll come home on his lunch break.” She turned to the other two girls, who stood nearby, visibly unnerved. “It’s a little too cold to be outside right now. Let’s go inside and make cookies.”

  Jamie returned right after Ariana and Britney had gone home for lunch. He listened attentively while Sammi repeated the extended conversation she’d overheard with her magic.

  “Boy, that’s a long one.” He checked his watch when she finished. “Almost fourteen minutes. Sounds like an Asian language, but I have no idea which one.”

  “What are you going to do about it?” Rachel asked.

  Jamie puffed out his cheeks and stared at the floor for a moment. “I think I should go up to Langley and call Eric and Terry. This may be related to Cage.”

  “Don’t you think you should get Sammi to repeat it and record it with your phone or your magic spell? They’ll need to hear it, won’t they?”

  “I think they should hear it directly from Sammi, and they may have some questions for her.”

  Jamie’s family room was crowded late that afternoon after the two CIA agents arrived to talk with Sammi. Jamie’s parents were there, and so were Fred’s. Terry sat on the couch next to an anxious-looking Sammi and squeezed her knee with one hand. “I’m going to help you with this. You’re not nervous, are you?”

  Sammi frowned and pointed at the silver, candy-bar sized electronic device that Eric placed on the coffee table in front of her. “What’s that?”

  “It’s just a recorder, a good one. We’ll use it to copy what you tell us and then we’ll take it to a translator, once we figure out what language it is.”

  Sammi’s frown deepened as Eric adjusted the controls on the small gadget, his expression intense.

  Fred frowned, too. “What are you going to tell the translator if they ask where you got the recording?”

  Eric spoke without looking up, still bent over the coffee table, eyes on the device. “I’ll tell them we got it from a wiretap, and that it’s of a girl reading a transcript. They probably won’t ask, anyway. Those translators get recordings all the time. They’re too busy to care.” Eric glanced at Sammi. “Okay, it’s set. Whenever you’re ready, just start talking and repeat it exactly as you heard it. You can do that, can’t you?”

  “I remember every single word. I don’t know what they mean, though.”

  “Doesn’t matter, as long as you say them right.”

  Terry gave her a reassuring smile. “I think this is so cool that you can do this. You are an amazing kid. I’m a little jealous.” Her smile broadened to a grin.

  Sammi’s anxiety seemed to fade a little as she looked at Terry, and she managed a fragile smile in return.

  “I’ll sit with you, too.” Rachel joined them, settling on Sammi’s other side.

  Eric tapped a button on the recorder and gestured for Sammi to start. The room fell silent as Sammi closed her eyes, then began repeating the long conversation that she’d overheard that morning, every word harsh and unfamiliar to Jamie.

  She is amazing, he thought as she spoke. I bet she’s even got the accents right.

  When she finished, Eric picked up the recorder and shut it off. “I think it’s Korean, and I heard her say Phillip Cage once. Anybo
dy else catch that?”

  Jamie nodded. “I didn’t hear it the first time Sammi repeated it to me, but I did just now. Guess that means it’s important.”

  “Of course it’s important,” Fred said. “She wouldn’t have heard it, otherwise.”

  All heads turned when the doorbell rang. “Now what?” Jamie said.

  Carl walked toward the front door. “I’ll see who it is.” Everyone waited quietly until he returned a couple of minutes later with a grave look in his eyes. “It’s a couple of FBI agents. They want to talk to Jamie.”

  Jamie felt the blood drain from his face. “What should I do?”

  “Go see what they want. They wouldn’t tell me.”

  “What about us?” Terry said. “Should we leave?”

  Carl motioned toward the basement door. “Not yet. Hide down there until they go. We may want to talk to you about this afterward.”

  “I don’t want them to see us.” Larry stood and offered his hand to Lisa. “I think we’ll go with them. You, too, Sammi.”

  Sammi got up from the couch and followed her parents, Rachel, and the two CIA agents downstairs, the carpeted treads muffling their footfalls as they disappeared into the basement. Eric paused at the entrance and said, “I’ll wait up here on the top step so I can listen,” then he pulled the door most of the way closed behind him, leaving it ajar, barely.

  Jamie opened up his hands wide, his pulse rising and his mouth suddenly dry. “Uh…now what, Dad?”

  “Invite them in. I want to hear what they have to say.”

  “Will they let you? I mean, they’re with the FBI.”

  “It’s my house, Jamie. I can do that. I’m a cop, too. Remember?”

  Jamie paused while he regarded his father, who seemed remarkably cool, especially considering how Jamie felt at the moment. Carl pointed with his thumb down the hall behind him. “I think you can let them in now.”

  Jamie opened the front door to find two men in identical dark suits, one of them holding a black briefcase. They were the same height, slightly taller than Jamie, and trim, with identical expressions — tight-jawed and narrow-eyed. Like Eric, Jamie thought. They both wore their hair short, one man’s was dark blond and the other’s brown.

  “I’m Jamie Sikes. What can I do for you?”

  The brown-haired man flashed his badge. “Greg Savern, FBI, and my partner is Will Nash.” He spoke using the minimum number of facial muscles, moving only his lips. “Can we have a word with you?”

  “Uh…sure. You want to come in?” Jamie held the door wide for them and they stepped into the front hall, then followed him into the family room, where Carl waited, standing at the table by the kitchen. Carl nodded at them and introduced himself, then offered them each a chair.

  As they took their seats, Jamie on one side and the FBI men on the other, Agent Nash said to Carl, “We’d like to talk to Jamie alone, if you don’t mind.”

  Carl sat anyway, at the head of the table. “I do mind. I’m a detective, so I’m well aware of our rights. If he’s going to be charged with a crime, we’ll demand a lawyer before we start.”

  “You don’t need a lawyer.” Agents Nash’s eyes narrowed even further once he realized Carl wasn’t going to leave. He turned and looked directly at Jamie. “Okay, then. Let’s get right to the point. What do you know about magic?”

  Jamie’s stomach tightened immediately, as if a giant hand were squeezing his insides. Do they know about me? Then he remembered his first meeting with Eric and Terry, and he took a deep breath. Maybe it’s the same situation. He glanced at his father before answering with a small shrug. “I’m a pretty decent amateur magician, if that’s what you mean. I can do the basic tricks, like coin palming and stuff, but I can’t do the fancier things, like levitation.”

  But he could levitate everything in the room if he wanted to. That knowledge gave him confidence, somehow. An edge, a small one. He held it close and nurtured it, hoping it would be enough to get him through.

  “Not tricks,” Agent Savern said with a shake of his head, “real magic. What do you know about that?”

  “There’s no such thing.”

  “We think there might be, and we’re not the only ones.” The brown-haired man lifted his briefcase onto the table and opened it with a click of each latch. Then he pulled out a photo and slid it across to Jamie. It was a black-and-white picture of Terry, talking to Jamie, Fred, and Nova, in front of the building where Jamie had his Environmental Science class. “Do you know this woman?”

  Jamie clamped his jaws together, trying to decide what to say. He fought to keep his expression neutral while every nerve in his body began to vibrate and his guts felt like they were about to flip over. Keep cool, he reminded himself, but it was difficult at the moment.

  His grandmother had told him once that any fool could perform when things were going perfectly, but a real entertainer, a Performer, could do it when things were going wrong. They often did. Jamie sometimes forgot to bring an important magic prop for his act. The wind might blow the playing cards around if he and his friends were doing a show outside. The PA system sometimes wouldn’t work properly.

  He was performing now. He was maintaining a poker face even though he wanted to run and hide in a closet like a little boy. He gritted his teeth tighter and clenched his stomach muscles. He would not let the two agents see that he was frightened. It was too important not to.

  He finally nodded. “That’s…Ashley, I think.” He gave a slight nod. “Yeah, that’s her name.” He decided to use her alias, the one she’d given him when they first met. “She was in one of my classes.”

  “You know her better than that. We’ve seen you with her several times.”

  “I helped her study. She’s been out of school for a while and she was struggling with the subject matter, so I told her I’d help her.”

  “Jamie does really well in science,” Carl said.

  The agents ignored Carl and fixed Jamie with accusing stares.

  “My girlfriend knows her better than I do,” Jamie added. “They hang out sometimes.”

  “Grace Mary Callahan,” Agent Nash said flatly. “She lives across the street.”

  Jamie was irritated that they knew so much already. “Everybody calls her Fred, and yeah, she lives across the street. What of it? Did we break some law?”

  “The woman you know as Ashley is really named Terry Voss. She’s a CIA agent.”

  Jamie feigned surprise as best he could, widening his eyes and catching his breath. Performing. “No way! She seems like an ordinary person to me.”

  “She has a partner named Eric Stenner, and they work in a special unit that deals with supernatural and paranormal cases. We know that they are working on a difficult international case that may involve magic, and we think that’s why she contacted you, and that it’s possible you know something that’s useful to us.”

  “Terry and I only talked about my magic act a little bit, and I did a couple of little tricks for her. As far as I can tell, she really is a student. I mean, she was trying pretty hard in that class we shared.”

  Both of the agents looked at him wordlessly for several seconds, until Agent Nash said, “We’re looking for help, too. Have you heard of the Pentagram Killer?”

  Huh? Jamie nearly sighed with relief. Maybe they don’t know about my magic.

  Jamie answered them with a tight shake of his head, but Carl said, “I have. There’s been a string of murders in Baltimore where the killer has carved a pentagram on the foreheads of his victims. Pretty gruesome stuff, I hear. I think there was a similar case, years ago.”

  Agent Nash nodded. “The M.O. is a little different this time.”

  Agent Savern picked up the photo and dropped it back into the briefcase. “There have been other signs of magic rituals left behind at the crime scenes besides the pentagrams, but nothing that’s led us to the killer. We’re stumped.” He sagged slightly in his chair and he seemed vulnerable, all of a sudden.

  “W
e hired a guy,” Agent Nash said, “who calls himself a magic consultant, but he’s not been very effective. We think he might be a fraud.”

  That’s because he is. Jamie tried not to smile.

  “So we’re trying to find someone else who can help us,” Agent Nash said. “Someone who can sense it when another person has been using magic.”

  “Jamie, maybe you should get Fred over here,” Carl said. “She knows Terry better than you do. Maybe Terry has found someone who knows about magic and told Fred about it.”

  Jamie was about to protest but caught himself when he realized what his father was hinting at: Bring Fred over here and let her use a potion on these agents to get them off our backs. “Um…sure, I’ll call Fred.”

  “The phone’s in the basement,” Carl said and gave Jamie a subtle look, barely a twitch of his eyebrows. “I took it down there a while ago to make a work call.”

  Jamie knew the phone was still in the kitchen. He’d seen it there earlier, sitting on its cradle by the toaster oven. “I’ll go call her,” Jamie said.

  He opened the basement door to find Eric and Terry standing near the top step. Eric put his index finger to his lips and motioned for Jamie to go down, and they followed him.

  Everyone else was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, bursting with questions. Jamie whispered, “I don’t have time to talk. They’re asking about magic. Fred, do you have a potion already made that we can give them?”

  “Like a forget potion?”

  He shook his head. “Do you have the reverse truth potion, the one that’ll make them believe anything we say?”

  “I have some in my bedroom. Momma Sue and Mrs. Malley have been urging me to stock up on spells for when we finally go after Phillip Cage.”

  “I’ll make a portal to your house. Grab the potion and let yourself in our front door when you come back. And hurry.”

  He quickly drew the glowing outlines, and as he pushed it open, Lisa grabbed Sammi by the hand. “I think we should go home, too.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Rachel said, and left with Larry, Lisa, and Sammi.

  Jamie turned to Eric. “Are you and Terry staying?”