Chapter nine
We spent the next few days watching the Sea-people march through the gateway back to their land. I had been right about the air conditioning being their route of transit. Hattu had apparently died of old age and the servants in his employ had left leaving the gateway unguarded.
Shelley and I explored the huge complex, we were careful to stay together and kept a wary eye on the men who had not yet left.
We soon found Hattu’s secret library and the workshop where he wrote his spells, using his paraphernalia we were able to concoct a spell which transported the ships and their cargo through the gateway.
It was five days until the last of the men had left, when he crossed the threshold I used magic to seal the gateway for good.
Shelley and I then activated a new air conditioning spell we had made using our knowledge of modern mechanical systems, one that didn’t need a gateway to the cool air of the northern hemisphere.
We had decided to wait out our time here in the past in Hattu’s complex, it was quite comfortable and there was no danger of its owner returning.
Shelley and I also found out the reason my magic items had been turning up in this area, Hattu had apparently been a collector of items from ancient sorcerers. We found a very large room with thousands of items on display much like a museum.
There was also a very large open area were the Sobek’s Teeth must have been permanently docked.
“Do you think we could visit the Magic City?” Shelley asked me one morning, “We have over a week left before we return.”
“I don’t think that would be safe, Circe said it was run by Utopians now.”
“Ya... damn those Utopians.”
“We still have to prepare for our battle with that Clyver fellow, we will return only seconds after we left, he will still be there.”
“Yes, if only I had my handgun,” Shelley said with a strange faraway look in her eyes.
I had never understood her fascination with small firearms, I had first assumed it was just a strange personality quirk unique to her. It was only after talking to numerous people in the neighborhood that we had lived in that I realized this fascination infected most people of this era.
I recalled a conversation I had had with her asking what benefit it would be to have a gun if the criminal you were trying to protect yourself from had one too.
“Yes but I practise my quick draw in the mirror, I would be faster,” she said.
I understood then why there was a large bullet hole in her mirror.
“But what if the criminal has practised too?” I asked.
She looked at me with an expression of such smugness I could scarcely believe she was the same person.
“Criminals are too stupid to practise their quick draw, that’s why they’re criminals,” she had said.
Our first order of business was to try and recreate the clothing that we were wearing before we were transported into the past. Our original clothes having been destroyed.
Neither one of us was even a passable seamstress so we ventured to a large town on a nearby island and had a tailors shop make adequate facsimiles. The owner of the shop was quite curious and asked a lot of questions about the odd designs.
“We are actors, it is for a play about a strange land,” I had told him.
I bought two pairs of sturdy leather sandals as well.
We then spent many hours in the complex’s workshop until we had devised a plan to foil our enemy. We created our spell and tested it many times to make sure it was flawless.
The last thing I did was to create a wooden replica of a pistol. I enchanted it so that when the trigger was pulled a metal ball would fly out the barrel accompanied by a sound similar to a gunshot. It was not of a velocity that would penetrate someone’s skin but that along with the large bang sound should convince anyone they were in danger of being shot.
I presented the pseudo gun to Shelley.
“This is plan B,” I said to her.
Shelley immediately pocketed it, stood still for a second and then drew it as quickly as possible shooting a projectile.
She turned and looked at me with wild eyes,” yes this will do just fine.”
“It’s not lethal,” I said.
Shelley’s face fell, “oh... ok” she said.
“Well...maybe if you hit someone in the eye.”
This seemed to cheer her up.
When we were finished we had two days left, I used the time to create a spell that would make Hattu’s complex disappear after we had left. I knew the damage the Sea-people had done would forever be part of our past, but the people in this reality would not have to suffer them anymore.
On our last day, we sat together at Hattu’s enormous dining table and played cards with a makeshift deck. We did not know the exact time we would be transported back to the present so we had to stay together.
I had incorporated our spells into a wooden bracelet I wore on my wrist, having been used to practising magic in this way I thought that this would enable me to react in the quickest way possible.
Shelley had put a warning bell in her spell that sounded five seconds before the spell activated. I now heard the faint ringing. We both closed our eyes, Shelley had also told me she used a bright white flash to cover up any of the spells mechanics that might be showing.
A bright flash was not something that a well-constructed spell should need but it was a tool I used as well just out to be safe. One never knew what secret might be revealed when a spell is viewed from a different perspective.
We were back at the bar, I turned and saw Clyver staring at us, his strange weapon was now pointed at the floor as his arm was hanging straight down. He looked at us with a confused expression on his face.
I felt my hand move reflexively to the small bracelet on my other wrist, I activated the spell and Clyver disappeared.
He hadn’t actually disappeared, the spell was simply two large screens, the one that faced us was a picture of the area in front of us only from ten minutes in the past, the screen that faced him was a picture of the bar ten minutes in the past.
The result of the spell was that in Clyvers eyes we had disappeared but Maggie was still at the bar, and to Maggie’s perspective Clyver had disappeared but we were still there. I had rigged another spell that worked as a sort of a small periscope so that I could monitor Clyver’s actions. I saw Shelley’s hand clasp the prop gun in her pocket.
Clyver stared at the spot we had been, he had a suspicious look on his face, and I could see fear and indecision also. Finally after about fifteen seconds he pocketed his weapon grabbed his trench coat and left. I waited for another thirty seconds and then discontinued the spell.
I turned and looked at Maggie, she was rubbing her eyes.
“Geez... what the hell was that?” she said.
“I think we got our picture taken, probably part of the investigation,” I said.
“What investigation?”
“Oh I hurt my back, and I’m trying to get an insurance claim, that guy is following me and taking pictures. I think he wants to catch me lifting something.”
“Well he should get a flash that isn’t nuclear powered, that was blinding.”
Shelley and I moved down to the far end of the bar so we wouldn’t be visible from the buildings front window and could watch the entrance easily.
Maggie stared at us both, with a strange expression.
“Is something wrong?” Shelley asked.
“I could have sworn you were wearing a pink shirt not red,” She shook her head,”gotta lay off the booze.”
“I would like the biggest greasiest burger you have, and a large order of French fries,” I said.
“Ya me too, and two glasses of wine,” said Shelley.
Maggie poured two large glasses of wine for us after ordering our food, I took a sip and felt an immense sense of relief. I no longer had to worry about the plague or barbarians attacking us.
“We now have simpl
e problems, like how to find stuff in our library,” Shelley said.
Maggie was wiping down the bar near us, “can’t find anything huh?”
“Oh ya... we got so many books.”
“Don’t know if it’ll help but I know a little bit about searching for things.”
“Really?” I said.
“You know that search site STRUDEL?”
“Of course everybody uses it now,” Shelley said.
“Well last year one of the company’s founders was in here, it was the day of the company IPO, I think he had just become a billionaire.”
“So did he tell you the secret of his program,” Shelley said jokingly.
“Funny you should ask, it’s a long story if you want to hear it?”
We were both instantly curious, “yes,” we said in chorus.
“Well for starters I don’t think he drinks normally, you can always tell because when teetotalers do drink they get super bombed, and he could barely walk. Anyway he staggers up to the bar and slams down a hundred dollar bill.”
“Gimme a beer and a shot of whiskey,” he said.
“I think you’ve had enough,” I said.
He slammed down another hundred, “do I look thirsty enough now?”
“Sadly my rent was due so I couldn’t afford the scrupulous morals I usually have, so I gave him his booze.”
He drank his shot then said, “I’m a goddam billionaire... Jesus... I really am...” he had a strange look of disbelief on his face.
“I have heard everything being a bartender and I normally don’t pay much attention to drunks, but it was slow and he obviously had money, how’d you make it? I asked him.”
“You know... they’re always talking about supercomputers... supercomputer this... petaflop that... you know they’ve been trying for thirty years to get a computer to tell the difference between a cat and a dog.”
“That’s an important problem?”
“Um... no... but a two year old kid can do it.”
“So what does that mean?”
“It means the real supercomputers are sitting between peoples ears.”
“So how did that make you rich?”
“He started giggling uncontrollably.”
“All this internet shit... all of it... it’s just a big network hooking all the real supercomputers together... once you realize that...”
“Ya but how did that make your money?”
“My search site... it’s the people using it doing the searches... there ain’t no goddam algorithm... everybody thinks there is but there ain’t.”
“Huh?”
“The old search sites they just ranked pages by how many times the keyword showed up and how many hits the page had... useless... you’d always get a page about crap you didn’t want. What you do is watch the searchers.”
“How can you watch the searchers?”
“Think of a library... you’re a librarian... somebody finds a book he wants... so you ask him, where he found it, why he wants it... where he’s from, whatever. Then you write the info down.
Then someone else comes in... and he’s asking about a book with the same name... well you check you’re database and voila now you know where it is... or if the same guy comes back and wants the book again.”
“So your search page just keeps a database of people’s searches?”
“That’s the big secret... you let the suckers find everything... then you keep track of it and cross reference it with location and user addresses... so if someone is looking for the flaming donuts... in Seattle it might be a band... in New York a restaurant... and guess what else, all the shit nobody is looking for doesn’t clutter up your database.
And you know the greatest thing... once everybody uses my page no other page can ever be as good... cause my page will have the biggest database of searches, so it will work the best... so everybody will use it... so the database will get bigger... so everybody will use it...”
“He started laughing manically then and yelled... Absinthe! I need Absinthe... I want the visions...”
“So you gave it to him?” Shelley asked.
“God no... I have some green food coloring for St Paddy’s day so I gave him a shot of green water.
Anyway he downs the shot and his eyes went all crazy like,” Maggie put her fingers next to her eye’s and wiggled them,” and then he says... there are powerful being’s walking among us... I’ve seen their searches... and then he passed out. His entourage showed up five minutes later and took him away.”
“Powerful beings, now that’s crazy talk,” Shelley said with a nervous laugh.
Maggie looked at her suspiciously.
“Hmm... so we need a librarian, a computer, and then we let the general public search our library,” I said changing the subject.
“I could put an ad on the internet... meticulous nosy busybody needed, must have good computer skills and a degree in library sciences,” Shelley replied.
“It might actually work... we could hire a security guard to make sure no one takes anything,” I said.
“Geez... how many books you got?” Maggie said.
Our food arrived then, I grabbed the large greasy burger and downed it like a jackal feeding on carrion. It was the first meal I had had in a month that I didn’t worry about getting a disease.
We spent the rest of the night at the pub drinking wine and keeping our eyes peeled for Clyver, we wanted to make sure he was not waiting outside.
A small band showed up and played folk songs with acoustic instruments, it attracted a small crowd of bohemians dressed in what looked like drab hand me downs. They all smoked cigarettes furiously and drank large glasses of expensive imported beer.
One of them came over to talk to us, he was tall, skinny and his hair was jelled into a random series of spikes.
“So what brings you two fair maidens here tonight?” He asked.
Shelley looked at me and rolled her eyes.
“We’re hiding from a powerful enemy,” I replied.
“Really?” he said.
“Yes we have avoided battle this time... but we shall have to face him eventually,” I took a dramatic gulp of wine.
“And why would he want to do battle with you?” I could see a slight smirk in his expression.
“Because we have the orb of power...”
Maggie had gone on a break and the bar was empty except for us. I touched the magic bracelet on my wrist and a glowing multicolored orb manifested itself about three inches above my upturned palm.
He stared at the orb his eyes wide in amazement, the orb then transformed into a tiny black dragon complete with flapping wings and fiery breath and then it disappeared in a flash of light.
“How’d you do that?” he asked breathless.
“You must not talk about what you saw here tonight, or the dark riders will be after your soul too,” I said menacingly.
He looked at us with a stunned expression then turned and walked away without uttering a word.
Shelley looked at me like I was crazy, “What the hell...”
I smiled at her, “like I said magic and wine are a bad combination.”