mask.
Looking back at the pictures, Kayla could tell that it did change year to year, even though the pictures didn’t have a time stamp on them, she could tell by the wearer. It seemed that each year, the mask was repainted in a slightly different fashion. The only constant, as far as Kayla could tell, was the underlying mask and a huge blue sapphire that was fixed in the forehead of the mask.
“That is going to be difficult to replicate.”
Pulling up the Order of Time’s public calendar, she saw that their parade and ball was eight days away.
“Not a lot of time to plan this one.”
Fortunately, Kayla was very good at finding things. That was what brought her into the profession in the first place. Looking at the mask, she began to formulate an idea. What she needed was more research. The online site for the Order of Time was proving to be a treasure trove of information as Kayla found their address. On a big banner on the site’s homepage, was an ad for an open house that night to kick off the carnival season. Kayla thought that it looked like a recruiting ploy, but she would use it to her advantage if it would get her a good look at the mask. Quickly, she deleted her history and powered off the data slate. She only had a couple hours to get ready and over to the Order of Times headquarters.
Kayla opted to take the luxury of a taxi to the Order of Times open house, she reasoned it looked better than walking up alone. She was wearing one of the few cocktail dresses that she owned. Kayla deplored dresses under normal circumstances, but in situations like these, she knew that she could rely on stereotypes to avoid too much scrutiny. The taxi stopped in front of their building while a valet opened the door for her.
“Thank you”
“Welcome to the Order of Time. I assume that you’re here for the open house?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Right this way, ma’am.”
Kayla followed the valet as he led her up to and through the front doors into the lobby of the Order of Time. There he left her as he went back to tending his lot. But a couple was sitting behind a table with a stack of pamphlets spread out in front of them.
“Welcome to the Order of Time, it’s almost that time of year again! If you are here for the open house, then we would like for you to wear a name badge so that our members can help answer any questions that you might have.”
“Oh, thank you very much. My name is Sarah Edwards.”
“Thank you” said the woman of the welcome committee as her male counterpart quickly wrote her name on a badge.
“Here you go, have a fun time. If you have any questions and can’t find someone to answer them, then you can come back here and we will help you. And here, take a pamphlet.” The woman was being overly nice in Kayla’s opinion, as she took the literature in her outstretched hand.
“Thank you very much.”
Kayla entered the ballroom, where the Order of Time held their annual formal. Right now though, it was full of displays and people chatting in small groups. It wasn’t long before Kayla was approached by a young man with no name tag.
“Ahh, let’s see, Sarah. How are you today?”
“Excited, carnival is just around the corner.”
“I know; it is the best time of year, especially if you are a member of a carnival order. My name is Seth Evans, I’ve been a member for six years.”
“I’ve always been in the crowd during the parades, but I want to see the view from the floats.”
“Well, to do that, you have to be a member. Luckily for you, we have openings available in our order. You can get that view you want in only eight days.”
“Oh really? That sounds grand.” Kayla was laying on her naïve girl act pretty thick, but if these people can keep up the overjoyed act, then she could too.
“How do I join?”
“Oh, it’s easy, we do a quick background check, you pay a small fee, we have a short vote, and you’re in.”
“That sounds pretty detailed for membership into a parade.”
“Oh, we’re not just a parade and ball. We are a year round social group.”
“I had no idea. I have only heard about the parade.”
“To be sure, carnival is our most active time of year, but we have meetings year-round to organize, repair floats, and build new floats, and recruit new members.”
Kayla realized that this young man was subtly steering her through the exhibits, when she saw the mask out of the corner of her eye. With a schoolgirl-like squeal, she broke the conversation and walked over to the display case holding the mask.
“I’ve seen this on your website!”
“Yes, that is the Head Reveler’s mask. We choose a new Head Reveler every year, and he or she wears the mask during the parade and following ball.”
“Why does the Head Reveler wear a mask?”
“Well, the Order of Time is a secret organization. I can’t just go telling you our ancient secrets, can I?”
The man was flirting with her, Kayla realized.
“Fine, be mysterious like that.” She could flirt right back.
“What is the fee to join?”
“Well, there is an upfront fee to join, then a smaller yearly fee after that. The fee to join is five thousand Joules.”
Kayla’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head, but she kept herself in check. In truth, she had never seen five thousand Joules at any one time in her life. She could get that from the assholes who kidnapped her to give her this job, that would be a small form of payback for their actions.
“I will have to move some funds; I don’t keep that much in my daily expense account.”
“Of course, now if you will come over here, then we can get your information and start the check.”
Kayla smiled to herself internally, her cover was pretty good. Sarah Edwards was a real person, with a real address on the other side of the planet. Kayla had managed to reroute all mail to flow through her before it went on to the real Sarah Edwards. Kayla had been using Sarah’s identification for so long, that she had memorized the address and pertinent identification numbers. Entering her information for the background check was very easy.
“We can vote on you membership as soon as your funds clear. In the unlikely event that you don’t get a majority vote the funds will be returned to your account, but don’t worry, the only person that we rejected in recent memory had a criminal background.”
“You wouldn’t want that would you?”
“No, well, don’t dawdle on the transfer; we need to get you in the Order before you can ride in the parade.”
“Alright, I will transfer the funds this evening. Can I return tomorrow to write you a check?”
“Sure, all of these displays will have been taken down, but I will be here.”
“I will see you tomorrow then.”
“Goodnight Miss Edwards”
“Goodnight Mr. Evans”
Kayla left the Order of Time’s building as quickly as she thought was polite and hailed a taxi. Inside her brain was a mad scramble of fresh information. She could see why her unnamed employer would want the mask back, it was absolutely stunning and probably worth a fortune. She made a note to contact him and have him transfer funds to her Sarah Edwards account; it wouldn’t do for the money to come from an account linked to her real name.
Kayla made it home in a reasonable time, she made sure to get a receipt from the taxi. Kayla was going to make sure that she got reimbursed for every expense and then paid handsomely. Once she was inside her apartment, she fired up her data slate. Finding the business card again, she sent her mysterious employer a short message, explaining what she had done and what she needed.
Within moments, she had double what she asked for in her account.
“Wow, these people are serious about getting their mask back.”
Now that she had the funds to enter the Order of Time, she had to start thinking about how to make a believable replica that would fool the Order. It would be impo
ssible to find a natural sapphire to replace the one on the mask; however, it was possible to grow one in a lab with the right equipment. Fortunately, Kayla had a contact with a local lab that grew precious stones for jewelry. She had helped him out when his lab had been broken into; she had found the burglars and recovered most of the stones.
A refined search did not yield what the mask itself was made of, so Kayla was going to have to use a spectrum analyzer to figure out the composition. That was a bit tricky, she was sure that the local university would have one somewhere. She just had to position herself so that she could use it.
The plan that was slowly evolving in her head was to grow the sapphire ahead of time. Then, swipe the mask and analyze it, then scan it. To replicate it, she was going to use a high definition three dimensional printer to make a new one, attach the grown sapphire, and return the new one to the Order of Time before they had any idea that it was gone.
Nothing else came to mind, so Kayla decided that was the plan. Since her friend at the lab was probably asleep, she decided that it would be a good time for her to catch a few Zzz’s as well. Making sure that all of her windows were locked and the door deadbolt was latched, she curled up in her bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.
“Why do you want a sapphire that big?”
“It is a present for a close friend who loves sapphires.”
“That sounds fishy, but I suppose I can do it. It is going to take a few days.”
“That is fine, but my friend is in the Order of Time and I would like to give it to her before their ball.”
“When is that?”
“Seven days, and I need to polish the sapphire and implant it in the scepter that I’m making for her.”
“I wish I was your friend, you seem to give great gifts.”
“Well, she is very close; I probably owe her my life.”
“I see, I will have your sapphire in four days.”
“Thank you Miguel”
“No problem Kayla”
Kayla went from Miguel’s stone lab back to the Order of Time headquarters. Upon exiting the taxi, there was no valet to open the door for her. She had to knock on the door and wait for several long minutes before Seth opened it for her.
“Ahh, you’ve returned. I was afraid that we scared you away with the talk of the background report and entrance fee. You wouldn’t be the first to politely back out after hearing that, which I think is a shame.”
“No, no, I’m very excited.” Kayla fell back into her schoolgirl mentality, trying to get Seth to get comfortable around her, maybe even try to show off for her. If he started doing that, then she would steer him towards the mask.
Seth had brought her inside the ballroom, where it did look very different from the night before. There was no furniture at all in the room now, and it made the ballroom look tremendously larger. You could easily fit five hundred people in there.
“So you’ve been a member of the Order for six years?”
“Yes, and my parents have been in for forty, they are pretty senior members. Father was nominated for the Head Reveler last year, even though he didn’t get it. My grandfather was in it for years before he was forced to resign.”
“So, your whole family is in?”
“I have a couple siblings that weren’t interested in joining, but it is their loss in my opinion.”
“Is there anything that you can show me now? Or is it all a secret?” Kayla dialed up her flirting effort.
“I can show you the hallway where the previous Head Reveler’s portraits hang, but it is not very exciting.”
“Oh, I would like to see that!”
“Well, come this way then.”
Seth offered Kayla his arm as he guided her to a hallway that led off of the main ballroom. The oldest portraits were closest to the ballroom.
“The order was founded one hundred and ninety years ago and we have had a Head Reveler every year.”
Kayla noticed that the first portraits didn’t have the mask that they had today. Then it showed up about twenty portraits down for a while, and then disappeared again.
“What is the deal with the mask? I saw this mask last night and it is in some portraits but not others.”
“I can’t tell you. After you join and get sworn in, then that will be revealed. But it is one of our secrets.”
“Ahh, secrets again, well, I hope that I get sworn in before the parade.”
“Do you want to come to the ball? It is an invite only formal affair, but you can be my date even if you don’t join in time.”
Kayla forced a squeal again, “That would be wonderful, but I do hope to be a member.”
“Naturally”
Kayla bit her lip, trying to foster more warm feelings from Seth.
“Is the mask here? I would like to see it again.”
“It is here, the Reveler’s mask is in its cleaning room, but nobody is in there right now if you would like to see it.”
“Yes, please”
Seth grabbed Kayla’s hand as he looked about himself. She could immediately picture him as a schoolboy about to do something that the headmaster expressly forbid.
“This way, and keep quiet.”
Kayla followed Seth down the hallway and into a non-descript door that looked just like all of the others that they had passed. Seth stealthily opened the door and stuck his head in, looking for any other Order member. Seeing that the coast was clear, he motioned for Kayla to follow him in and closed the door after her.
It took Kayla a moment for her eyes to adjust to the semi darkness, but there in front of her was the mask. It wasn’t even in a display case this time. Kayla started at it and started to walk around it in a closing spiral while Seth stood and watched her. She could tell that he was proud of the Reveler’s mask and was approving of the reaction that she had. She had to keep the ruse up; she had already memorized the directions to this room so that she could get back to it by herself later. It wouldn’t do to have him get suspicious of her and alert others, which would make her job much more difficult.
Eventually, she stopped out of arm’s length from the mask on the opposite side of the room from Seth. She inspected the mask and committed its decorations to memory.
“It is different that the mask from last year’s portrait.”
“It is the same mask, but we update it in accordance with our traditions.”
“So you’ve already updated it for this year?”
“It has been painted, but it is curing now.”
“It will be ready for the parade?”
“Oh yes, that is its most important night of the year.”
“But you can’t tell me why because it is a secret?”
“You’re catching on quick”
“Well, I guess I had better go.”
“Really, would you care to join me for dinner?”
“That would be great!”
Kayla realized that she was going to have to spend the entire evening with this aristocratic fop, but if she got a decent meal and a couple drinks out of it, then she could keep up the charade. Hell, maybe she could coax some information out of him. It was not as if she had other plans, or even given thought to what she would eat later.
Dinner turned out to be a bad idea. Kayla tried not to get close to her clients, and it was hard to fake to this man who was being nice to her. The whole time at dinner, she couldn’t get the thought that she was trying to steal from this guy and his club from her mind. She wasn’t wrong about his upbringing though, as far as she could tell, his family was loaded and had been for generations. He wasn’t a member of an old family like the Confederates or New Order, but he didn’t want for anything. Guessing from the lack of flaws, Kayla thought that Seth could be one of those genetically selected embryos that didn’t have any diseases or malformations; everything from his teeth to his wavy golden hair was perfect.
Behind it all, he didn’t act like a princeling, he had a real job.
Sure, his parents probably paid for his Order of Time membership, but he did work. Kayla had to push these thought out of her head while still being civil with Seth. She didn’t get to choose her jobs. At the end of the date, Seth was giving her all the signs of wanting to make out, but Kayla didn’t feel like she could take the deception that far, so she cut the moment short and bade him good night.
It was two days before she heard from Seth again, she mentally gave him kudos for giving her longer than twenty four hours, it didn’t make him seem clingy.
“Hey Sarah, I just wanted to let you know that the Order held a vote last night on new members and you made the cut, congratulations and welcome to the Order of Time! We need you to come to headquarters tonight so that we can initiate you, see you around six o’clock?”
“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Kayla hung up the phone, pleased with herself and the progress that she had made. Once again, an uneasy feeling arose that she was cheating good people, but she fought it off and continued on.
Then she had to get ready for her initiation. For once, she was truly excited. The rumor mills always spoke of mystical ceremonies in these secret societies. Nobody told her what to wear, so she chose another dress that was a little more elegant than the one she wore to the open house. It took her considerably longer to get ready this time too, as she pulled out all the stops to look her best. The afternoon flew by and before she felt completely ready, she was out of time and had to leave.
The taxi dropped her off in front of the Order of Time headquarters, this time all the lights were off inside the building. She let herself out of the car and walked timidly up the steps. At the first knock, the door opened, but nobody was behind it so Kayla let herself in. The interior of the lobby was completely dark, eerie.
“Hello?”
No answer.
“Is anybody there?”
Without any warning, Kayla lost consciousness. Once again she was in a dream heavy unconscious state. She had the same sensation of movement as before, and heard snippets of voices.
When she awoke, there was a light in her eyes. This was feeling like an exact reenactment from the first time she was abducted.
“Do you know why you have been brought here?”
Kayla decided to continue to play dumb and act like she was still Sarah.
“To be inducted into the Order of Time?”
A laughing voice responded, “Oh ho, so you think you are good enough to be in the Order, do you?”
“I was already informed by Seth Evans that I had been voted in.”
“Ah, that was to get you here, you have passed the first obstacles, but we must be sure that our secrets will be safe with you.”
Kayla stayed quiet, not sure how a ditsy girl would respond to that. The booming voice continued.
“The Order of Time is an ancient brotherhood, in its current reincarnation we have been here almost two hundred years. But this is simply the latest in an unending cycle; our organization can be traced back to ancient Earth.”
Kayla’s ears perked up at that, Earth was not invoked on a daily basis anymore.
“I thought that you guys did parades and masquerades.”
“We do that and much more; we have our fingers in every little pie on this planet and across the inhabited