ler’s Mask
By Ronald Brandenburg
Copyright 2015 Ronald Brandenburg
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The city was coming alive, Kayla could feel it. For one month every year, the capitol city of Pheros celebrated what the locals affectionately called carnival. Kayla vaguely remembered that the original reason for carnival was a religious celebration, but she and the vast majority of people on Pheros were not religious. They celebrated carnival to revel in the debauchery.
All of that, of course, was good for her business. Kayla Covington was a huntress, a private eye, a bounty hunter and there were always people looking for lost things during and after carnival. Jewelry, cars, and people had a habit of disappearing during the hectic events of carnival. Some people just couldn’t handle it; Kayla abstained from the celebration in order to keep her wits about her.
The first public event was only days away, leaving Kayla little time to prepare, but since she didn’t have a case at the moment, there was little to do. Not wanting to be idle, Kayla left her tiny apartment and headed to the local watering hole where she was a regular. The life of a private detective was not glamorous, but it fit Kayla perfectly. There was no way that she would have fit into the cookie cutter mold of an office drone working half the day away, only to repeat the process for days, month, and years. Sure, there was no such thing as a steady pay check in her business, but she learned long ago that if you don’t owe much, then you don’t need much.
The sky overhead was overcast, but warmer than it had been in months. That was probably why carnival was always held at this time of the year, people were just sick of being stuck inside their homes while the weather was brutally cold. Kayla always walked with her head held up, watching those around her as they hurried to and fro on their errands. People walking like that always missed the world around them, Kayla thought to herself. However, today nothing interesting presented itself to her as she made her way to The Well, the local beerhall.
The door chimed as she walked through them. The bar was nearly empty, but it was just shortly after mid-day.
“Hey Kayla, your usual?” The bartender asked.
“Yeah” was the only response from her as she picked a high seat at the bar where she could watch the door.
“Anything going on in here?” she said when her mixed drink was sat in front of her.
“What you see is what you get, pretty dead in here.”
Kayla could tell that Mike was bored and in a talkative mood to pass the time.
“Anybody come in here looking for something?”
“You’re looking for more work, aren’t you?”
“I’m always looking for work.”
“Well, you’re in luck. Nobody came in here, but I heard from another patron that a shipment of tires has vanished.”
“Really? I’m not going to track down a truck full of tires for a mega-corporation that hasn’t noticed them missing yet. What else you got?”
“That is all I’ve heard lately, but carnival is almost here. You know as well as I do that people lose a lot of stuff that they want back.”
“Then I guess that I will have to wait for people to lose it before they can hire me.”
Kayla and Mike continued talking with each other for the rest of the afternoon, only other drinkers ordering their beverages interrupted their conversation. Kayla really liked this aspect of her job, she didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything. By the time she decided to head home, she realized that she had a good buzz going. Kayla cursed herself for imbibing so much in those drinks. She paid her tab and wobbled out the door.
The walk from The Well to her apartment wasn’t long, but it seemed to take even longer tonight. To be fair though, Kayla had to keep a hand on a building or a lamp post to keep herself upright. It must have been her inebriated state that kept her from realizing that she was being followed. Before she knew it, there was a bag over her head and a sharp pain in her neck as her abductors drugged her. Blackness overcame all of her senses as her body was gently placed in the back of a nearby, inconspicuous van.
The drug that her abductors used made her dream vividly. Even though she couldn’t remember the dreams for very long, there did seem to be a theme to them. She was always moving, but from where and to where was a mystery. Voices coming from all around her, men and women, but she couldn’t catch what they were saying. Kayla didn’t come round to consciousness until the bag was removed from her head.
Her captors had a bright light aimed in her eyes so that she couldn’t see who they were. Kayla was still very disoriented and her usual sharp observation skills had completely deserted her.
“Miss Covington, we have a job for you.”
Well, this was strange; usually Kayla talked to her clients at the bar, over the phone, or in her apartment. Why had these people bothered to snatch her off of the street?
“What kind of job? And why did you kidnap me?”
“Because for this job, it has to seem like you are doing it against your will.”
Kayla’s interest was piqued now.
“So why don’t you turn the light off and tell me about it?”
“Because I don’t want you to see my face, and I don’t like wearing a mask. I can put your bag back on though.”
“No thanks, I’ll just close my eyes and listen to you.”
“As you wish, I need you to retrieve something for me, something that was stolen from me years ago and hidden away.”
“That is what I specialize in.” Kayla was getting ill with the whole cloak and dagger bit that her soon-to-be employer was putting on.
“Just tell me what you want and where to find it.”
“It is not that easy.”
“Of course it’s not, what is going on here?”
“The mask that the Head Reveler from the Order of Time wears was stolen from my family. It is now being underutilized in their pathetic carnival. I must have it back, but the Order of Time cannot know that it has been reclaimed until I am ready for them.”
“I’ve seen that mask. So you want me to swipe the mask and leave a good fake, is that it?”
“In essence, we cannot provide you with a replacement, because they may have altered the mask. So you need to infiltrate the Order of Time, smuggle the mask out, replicate it, and place the new mask on the dais where the original one is being held.”
“And do all this without them knowing that their precious mask is gone?”
“Correct, and it must be completed before their parade and ball. The thought of them parading our revered artifact around cannot be allowed to continue.”
“I understand wanting to reclaim your mask, but why wait until now?”
“They keep it hidden during the year and only bring it out of secured storage at the beginning of carnival.”
“So, why choose me to get it back?”
“We heard you were looking for work.”
“Fair enough, so where do I bring it, once I have it in my possession? And how are you going to pay me?”
“Don’t worry about that, we will be watching you, anything you need just send a note to this address.”
“Creepy, can I go home now?”
“Yes, but I am afraid that we will have to drug you again.”
Before Kayla could complain, a needle
struck her neck again, just above her hairline. Within seconds, she was back in her dream land.
Kayla awoke, rubbing her neck where the needle had stuck her. She came out of her drug induced unconsciousness faster than before and realized that she was in her own apartment on her own bed.
“This is getting out of control; they broke into my house with me in tow.” Kayla said to the empty rooms.
Afternoon light was streaming in through her windows; she had been unconscious for nearly an entire day. She felt her pockets and found a business card with an inconspicuous online address.
“Well, carnival is only a couple days away and I’ve got work to do.”
Her phone didn’t have any missed calls or messages on it, another side effect of living alone with no significant other. Kayla brought her data slate online and started researching the Order of Time. A quick query brought her to their main page where they had thousands of pictures from previous years, including pictures of the Head Reveler, who apparently changed every year. The fact page told Kayla that the Order of Time was amongst the oldest carnival organizations on Pheros, going back almost two hundred years.
Suddenly curious about who would have a complaint against an organization that self-funded a parade that gave away party favors, Kayla continued her research, looking for any past news articles that might mention a lawsuit. Sadly, nothing turned up. She had to put that train of thought aside and start coming up with a plan to infiltrate the Order of Time and retrieve the