by Scott Meyer
Jimmy strolled up to the edge of the spotlight but did not step into it. Instead, he turned to the others and motioned them forward.
There was no need to say that anyone smelled a trap. They were all quite used to the idea that they lived in a trap. This was just the trigger that would spring the trap. The others all moved forward but stopped well short of the spotlight’s edge.
Phillip said, “He wants us to bring the Möbius Blade into the light.”
Jimmy looked at Phillip, who mimed (as best as he could with one arm in a sling) the act of tossing something heavy. Jimmy turned and looked to Tyler, who nodded. Gary smiled broadly enough for it to be obvious despite the fabric stretched over his face, and started to pull the blade from Tyler, but Jimmy stopped him and took the blade himself.
Jimmy handled the blade easily. It wasn’t heavy, just appallingly dangerous. He told the others to stand back, but they stood directly behind him, so close that their feet were almost touching.
Jimmy held the deadly metal hoop in front of him and mentally rehearsed his toss. He closed his eyes and breathed as deeply as he could without coughing.
Jimmy opened his eyes, drew back, and gently lobbed the Möbius Blade into the light.
The blade coasted into the center of the spotlight, then landed flat on the stone surface with a harsh clang.
The wizards crouched and huddled together, waiting for whatever would happen. Their heads swiveled and their eyes darted in every direction, looking for the inevitable attack.
They searched frantically for their impending doom; then they searched in a more confused manner. Slowly, they rose from their collective crouch.
Phillip said, “Huh.” Then, the rocky surface beneath them shattered, and they all fell into the darkness beneath, leaving the Möbius Blade alone and unattended in the center of the spotlight.
31.
They only fell ten feet or so, but that was quite far enough. They landed on another stone surface, this one set at an angle, causing them to tumble over one another as they slid down the incline. Phillip cried out in pain as his weight came down on his broken arm. The tumbling naturally ground to a halt as the incline decreased. The wizards found themselves battered and disoriented in almost complete darkness.
Phillip groaned, “Is everybody all right?”
Tyler said, “Yeah.”
Gary said, “I’m okay.”
Jimmy said, “I’m fine.”
Todd said, “Never better!”
The thick, velvety darkness was replaced with harsh, glaring light, which, for an instant, made it no easier to see but caused physical discomfort that the darkness had not.
Their eyes adjusted to the light, but it made little difference. They couldn’t see anything because there didn’t seem to be anything to see. A featureless white void stretched out in all directions. Phillip would have thought he’d gone blind if he hadn’t been able to see Tyler, Gary, and Jimmy all shielding their eyes, searching for some landmark to give them a frame of reference. Gary seemed to see something. He was looking up at an angle and seemed shocked. The others followed his gaze.
Hanging in the distance, they saw what appeared to be a rectangular hole floating in empty, white space. Inside that hole, there appeared to be a room. The side walls were stylishly unfinished concrete. The back of the chamber was a rich, dark wood-grain wall that extended halfway across the width of the room. From their angle, looking up into the room, they could see the ceiling was white plaster with exposed beams. They couldn’t see most of the area beyond the half wall, but they could see the tops of light-colored kitchen cabinets.
In the center of the rectangular portal there was a table. On that table there was a computer, positioned with its back to the opening, its cheap metal rear plate and dusty tangle of wires on display for all to see. Sitting there, using the computer, was Todd. He leaned around the monitor, looked down at the wizards, and said, “One sec, guys. Be right with you.”
Seeing Todd, and the room he’d been tormenting them from in person, had helped both their eyes and their minds adjust to their surroundings. They were not floating in some trackless, mystical void. They were standing in a large, flattened bowl made of polished limestone. They could see where the curve of the floor rose and warped to meet the curved walls without a sharp line. The wall then bent inward to form a ceiling, clearly the underside of the flat rock they had fallen through. Now that he knew where to look, Phillip could see the broken hole and the trail of debris, soot, and, to be honest, filth they had tracked down as they slid to their current position.
Todd’s room also was not suspended in space or being viewed through some magical portal. It was simply built into the wall high up where the floor had curved to be more or less vertical.
Todd rose from his computer. He lifted a bag from the floor and slung it over his shoulder, then lifted a tablet computer from the table. His hand hovered over the screen, and he said, “Stay right where you are, guys. Don’t move a muscle.”
All at once, they realized they were standing at the lowest point of the bowl, in the exact center of the room, the most predictable and exposed place they could stand. They scattered in all directions as Todd jabbed a finger at the screen of his tablet.
Todd disappeared from his room and reappeared in the center of the white chamber, exactly where the wizards had all been standing before they dove for cover. It was the first time in this whole ordeal that they’d actually been in the same place as Todd. His hair was short and combed forward. He wore a polo shirt that was tighter than necessary, made of a material that was shinier than necessary. His jeans had crossed the line from being rugged, casual pants to being denim tights. His sneakers were safety orange, and his shoulder bag was cartoonishly large so it could accommodate the extra-large sneaker-company logo printed on its flap. Like many middle-aged men, Todd was dressing like he thought cool young people dressed. That’s why cool young people change their looks so often. Because if they don’t, they’ll eventually end up dressing like an aging dork.
Todd said, “Yeah, do the opposite of what Todd wants. Good plan. Caused me a bit of extra trouble. I had to move the spotlight ten feet back. It’s not much, but it’s all the victory you’re going to get, I’m afraid.”
Jimmy looked uncertainly at the others and found them all looking at him.
“He was on to us,” Jimmy said.
“Yes,” Phillip said, looking Jimmy in the eye, not blinking. “So it would appear.”
Jimmy asked, “What are you saying, Phillip?”
Todd said, “Oh, come on, Jimmy. You know full well what they’re thinking, and as usual, they’re wrong. Guys, don’t be stupid. Jimmy’s not working with me. I’m not dumb enough to trust him. I saw the little love notes you were passing back and forth. I’ve been watching you the whole time.”
“Even when we went to the bathroom?” Tyler asked, grimacing.
“Especially when we went to the bathroom,” Gary said. “I bet it was the highlight of his day. He’s probably edited together a greatest-hits reel.”
“Shut up,” Todd snapped. He took a moment to compose himself, then continued. “Yes, I’ve been watching you the whole time. Even when I was sleeping or away from the computer, you were being recorded so I could scan what I missed for anything interesting. I have a bit of a backlog. Gotta admit, I’ve been a little inattentive the last couple of days. I got some sleep and a shower, and I’ve been busy making sure all this was ready.”
“All what’s ready?” Gary asked.
“You’ll see. But first, you were supposed to bring something, weren’t you? Where is it?” Todd feigned confusion. The other men just stared at him, thoroughly unimpressed.
Todd smiled and pointed to the hole in the roof. “You left it up there, didn’t you? Well, I could make you go back and get it. It would be fun to watch you jerks try to climb up there, but I t
hink we should just get this over with.”
Phillip said, “I agree.”
“Really?” Todd said, raising an eyebrow. “I’ll ask again in a few minutes. If you’re still alive, I suspect you’ll have changed your mind.”
Todd looked down at his tablet and poked at the screen a few times. He casually strolled up out of the center of the room while a glinting silver streak plunged down through the hole in the ceiling and into the very spot he had been standing. The Möbius Blade stopped abruptly, vibrating and slowly spinning as it hovered in the center of the room.
Tyler, Gary, and Jimmy instinctively seemed to gather near Phillip, who was standing opposite Todd. The Möbius Blade floated between them like a poorly designed conference table.
Todd said, “There. All of the pieces are in place.” He stopped, then held up a finger.
“One sec, guys. I forgot to trigger something.” He jabbed his finger at the tablet again. The lights dimmed, except for a greenish light that came from under Todd’s feet, giving him a sinister appearance. When he spoke again, his voice was deeper, louder, and had a noticeable amount of reverb.
Todd cleared his throat, then started again. “All the pieces are in place. The time is at hand. You have traveled far and suffered much, and now . . . your reward.” Todd spread his arms wide. One hand was turned toward the sky. The other held his tablet like it was half of the Ten Commandments. He lifted his face to the heavens and bellowed, “Who will live? Who will die? We will find out now. The identity of the chosen one, the man who will be free, will be revealed.” Todd held his pose of exaltation, then, without lowering his head, peeked at his audience, all of whom were slouching and glaring.
Todd shrugged and tapped his tablet. The lights and his voice reverted to normal. He said, “Yeah, okay. It’s me.”
Phillip shook his head. Jimmy guffawed. Gary actually smiled, because he knew how Tyler would respond.
“What do you mean, it’s you?” Tyler spat.
Todd said, “Tyler, sentences don’t get any simpler. It’s two one-syllable words. It’s me. It is me. I am it. I, the guy speaking to you, am the chosen one.”
Tyler snarled, “But . . . explain to me how it makes any sense for you to be the chosen one.”
Todd smiled. “You want to know how it make sense? Me being the chosen one is the only answer that could make sense.”
“Why?!”
Now Todd actually laughed. “Because I chose. I got to choose who would be the chosen one, so naturally, I chose myself.”
“You created a prophecy foretelling the coming of you. What the hell kind of prophecy is that?”
“A self-fulfilling prophecy,” Todd said. “I am the self-chosen one, as I promised me I would be in my self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Tyler looked to his friends, but the looks he got in return were more resigned irritation than support. He turned his attention back to Todd. “Look, this stupid quest of yours is, essentially, a story you’ve thought up. In the first chapter, you told us that we would come here and discover the identity of the chosen one. Well, aside from spying on us as we go to the bathroom, you haven’t actually arrived as a real character in your story until just now, and you can’t have the chosen one promised in the first chapter be a new character you introduce in the last chapter!”
Todd looked at the floor and frowned. He seemed to be mulling Tyler’s words. Finally, he said, “Yes I can. It’s my story. I can do anything I want. For example, there’s nothing to stop me from doing this.”
Todd pressed a button on the screen of his tablet, and the wizards found that they couldn’t move. They were conscious. They could breathe, blink, move their eyes and their tongues, but they couldn’t open their mouths or move their limbs. Any attempt to do so met with instant and insurmountable resistance.
Todd laughed. “Come on, guys, you can’t be surprised. This is the trick that got me banished in the first place, isn’t it?” He waited for the answer that he knew would not come, then asked again. “Isn’t it?! Isn’t doing this to that peasant the reason you all sent me back to my time to be humiliated and arrested? That’s what you said at the time.”
Todd waved his hand upward and the Möbius Blade lifted into the air and out of his way. He sneered at his captives as he stepped forward to get a better look at them.
“We all know that my macro wasn’t why I was banished. It was just the excuse. You wanted to get rid of me from the moment I showed up. I know what it looks like when people want to be rid of me. My folks, the other kids at school, my coworkers at the mall, even my jailers wanted me gone. I was foolish to think you were any different. I thought I’d finally found people like me, people who would accept me. But what happened?”
He looked at the wizards, who were still grouped together, frozen in place. “It was just high school with wizard robes. You left me with the class clown to keep me busy while the most popular kid and the smartest kid decided what to do with me.”
Phillip and Jimmy glanced at each other, trying to work out which one was which.
Todd continued. “Well, now I get to decide what to do with you, and I’ve had some time to think about it.”
He looked down at his tablet and said, “First, let’s move to higher ground.”
He pressed some control on the tablet and they all, Todd included, floated into the air, then glided to a higher point in the dish, directly in front of the hole leading to Todd’s room. As they flew through the air, they seemed to shuffle and rearrange themselves. They settled back down to the floor, but the force fields that held the wizards immobile also supported their weight. They seemed to be standing normally, but anyone who looked close would see that their feet were not conforming to the aggressively curved floor.
They were lined up like soldiers waiting for inspection. Tyler was on the left, then Jimmy, then Phillip, and Gary was on the end. Todd landed in front of them. He probably wanted to look imposing, but the slope of the floor meant that where he stood he was more than a full head shorter than they were. Beyond him the wizards could see the entire circular room with its concave floor spread out before them and the hole where they’d come in at the farthest point from where they stood.
“There we are,” Todd said. “Everybody comfortable? Good. Most of my tweaking time these last couple of days has been spent readjusting the force fields to your new shapes. All this walking has made you lose some weight.” He glanced at Phillip’s midsection. “Not that much, but some.”
He fumbled with his tablet some more, and the Möbius Blade flew silently toward the group, stopping next to Tyler, hovering one foot above the floor as if it were simply joining the queue.
“Great,” Todd said, clearly pleased with himself. “Now to set things in motion.” He tapped the tablet and the blade’s attitude changed so it hovered parallel with the curve of the floor. It started spinning and wobbled for an instant. The single twist in its contour that gave the blade its one side and one edge became a blur, making the blade seem even more dangerous than it was before. The blade slid like a hovercraft toward the lowest point of the room, the center. Todd turned to watch it go. Momentum carried it to the far edge of the room; then it started coming back. He turned back to his prisoners, satisfied that his plan was working.
The wizards’ eyes were still locked on the deadly blade that was coming their way, but Todd was standing between it and them and did not seem concerned in the slightest.
“Are any of you familiar with Foucault’s pendulum? Anyone? No?” He looked disappointed for a moment, then buried his face in his palm. While he was busy making a show of his disappointment, the blade returned but did not quite reach the point where it had started. It gained the same height it had before, but it seemed to stop slightly farther away from Tyler than its original starting point had been. After lingering for a split second, the blade started another journey across the room.
&n
bsp; Todd looked up from his hand, smiling. “I forgot, you can’t answer. I’ll fix that.” He noodled with his tablet, then said, “How about you, Tyler? You seem to know everything.”
Tyler got back the use of his jaw but remained silent.
“What’s the matter, Tyler? No answer?”
Tyler said, “Oh, sorry. Were you talking to me? I wasn’t listening.” His mouth and eyes were moving, but the rest of him remained motionless.
Todd smiled. “I just thought I’d give you the opportunity to explain Foucault’s pendulum to your friends.”
Tyler said, “Sure. There was this guy. His name was Foucault. He got himself a pendulum. They called it Foucault’s pendulum.”
There was a moment of heavy silence. The blade coasted to a stop, again, slightly farther away, then slid away again.
Todd’s expression soured. “It would kill you to admit that I know something you don’t.”
Tyler said, “Not at all. I’m sure there are many things you know that I don’t. I don’t know what it’s like to be held back a grade. I don’t know where a guy would go to buy clothing that ill fitting and ugly. I don’t know the phone number of the Hair Club for Men.”
Tyler looked as pleased with himself as a person completely paralyzed except for his eyes and mouth could. The others laughed through their noses while looking at Todd’s hairline.
Todd could make strategic parts of the custom-tailored force fields tighten at will, and he did so. The chortles took on a pained, alarmed quality. The blade returned again. He eased up, and any sound from his prisoners died away.
Now that he had regained control of the narrative, Todd explained. “Foucault’s pendulum was invented by, as Tyler put it, a guy named Foucault. His was a heavy weight hanging from a rope, not a fiendishly deadly circular blade with only one side and only one edge, gliding frictionlessly through the air. It’s a simple device. You start the pendulum swinging, and then you wait. You may have noticed . . .”
