He shook his head. “Told you to take off whatever shoes you might be wearing and put on walking shoes.”
“You know, I like you. But if I weren’t crazy, I’d be demanding that you turn this — this hot rod of yours around immediately.”
“And yet you are not.”
“No. And you haven’t told me anything. Not anything beyond the less than charming fact that I may have to hike for miles barefoot.”
“I will try to tell you whatever you want to learn,” Gideon said, “provided I know the answers myself. Ask a question.”
“How will you make me a star?”
“Ah!” He turned his head and looked at her so long that she felt a thrill of terror.
“Drive! Please drive! If we hit something at this speed...”
“We won’t.” Gideon looked ahead again. “There’s some slight danger, though, that we might buzz right through the checkpoint. It must be close.”
“We’ll have to stop? Thank God!”
“It’s to be hoped that God won’t keep us long. We’ve very little time. You were slow coming to that ice cream shop, which made me think I might have misjudged you.”
“I’m glad you said that. Now I know what my next question will be, if you ever answer my first one.”
“How I’ll make you a star? It’s almost easier to do than it is to explain. Every human being contains a whole grab bag of qualities. Some are inactive, others active. You have the quality that makes stars, but it is latent. The old mesmerists called it personal magnetism. We who think ourselves so much wiser have no better term for it.”
He sipped more coffee and handed her the cup. “One of my own qualities is the ability to manipulate qualities in others. With difficulty, and only to a limited degree, but I can do it. Tonight I’ll try to awaken your star quality. To change it from a latent quality to an active one. As active as I can make it. My mind will reach into yours, find that quality there, and drag it into the light.”
After that Cassie was quiet for a good three minutes. At last she said, “Why do I believe you?”
“Because you sense my honesty. Honesty is a powerful force.”
“You mean that.”
Gideon nodded. “With all my heart.”
“All right. I’d walk barefoot all night and all day if it would make me a star. If there’s a ghost of a chance that it will.”
“There’s an excellent chance,” he told her, “and it’s not a terribly high mountain. A couple of hours should be more than sufficient.”
“We’ll drive up as far as we can?”
“Correct.” He braked, seeing the lights of the checkpoint ahead.
THE MAGIC MOUNTAINAND BEYOND
Gideon Chase got out of the car. Cassie Casey watched him talking to somebody who might have been a Mounty and to somebody else who might have been a customs officer. After speaking with Gideon for a minute or two, the Mounty came to her window and tapped on the glass. She lowered it, admitting night air that held a spring chill.
“Are you a U.S. citizen, ma’am?”
She nodded.
“Talk out loud, ma’am. I need to hear your voice.”
“I’m not,” she told him. “My position is a great deal higher. I’ll have you know I’m an undocumented national of indefinite residential status. Our government cherishes me, so if you mess with me you’d better look out.”
“Mexican?”
“Russian.”
“You don’t sound Russian.” The Mounty himself sounded impatient.
“I ’aff lied.” Cassie’s eyes were cast down demurely. “I am uf Byeloruss. Een my own country vimen such as I are calt belles. Here you tsay dingdongs.”
The Mounty heaved a sigh. “Let’s see some ID.”
“I haf a tattoo.” Looking up at him, she licked her lips. “Ees var’ preety. Tzum private place, da?”
The Mounty reached into the car and grabbed her purse.
“That’s twice tonight I’ve had my purse snatched,” she told him. “It was an American cop the first time.”
The Mounty nodded. “He has my sympathy.” After glancing at her driver’s license, he returned her purse.
Smiling, Gideon slid back into his seat and shut the door. As their car glided silently away from the checkpoint he said, “Any questions I haven’t answered?”
“Five or six hundred. Will bringing out my star quality make me a star?”
“Yes.”
Cassie felt a sudden pang of sympathy for the Mounty. “Enlarge on that a bit, will you?”
“If you were...” Gideon waved his hand vaguely. “A factory worker. In that case it wouldn’t, and I’d have to bring you to the attention of the right people. I could do it, but it might take a week. As it is, I don’t have to. You’re an actress already. That will be sufficient.”
“My show is closing — what time is it?”
“Two fifteen.”
“Ummm... You didn’t look at your wrist. Or at the clock in front of me, either. I see it now.”
Gideon said nothing.
“All right, I’ll let that alone. Our show is closing tonight. Just a tiny bit under twenty-four hours from now I’ll be unemployed.”
“You will be my partner in a difficult and dangerous enterprise that will make us rich.”
“I haven’t said yes yet.”
He shrugged.
“I see. It doesn’t matter. Are we going to Toronto?”
He shook his head.
“Well, that’s what the sign said.”
“We’ll turn off. Another five miles or so.”
“There was a question I was going to ask you before we stopped. Only I know the answer now. I’m going to ask it anyway, to see how honest you really are. Why did the cop who brought me to this car say ultra-natural ash rose would put me to sleep?”
“I can’t say. When you were talking to your friend Sharon you mentioned lipstick, then you said your news would wake her up. I suppose the implication was that lipstick was dull and so induced sleep.”
“You heard us, too. You must have planted a bug in my apartment.”
He shook his head.
“I heard you leave, Dr. Chase.”
“You did not. You heard your door open and close, and assumed I had gone.”
“You were in there all the time.”
“If you mean all the time that you yourself were, yes. I was. I came in before you did and left after you had gone.”
“Taking nothing. Right?”
“Wrong. I took away knowledge I didn’t have when I arrived. I know you’re wearing a gun on your right thigh, for example.”
Cassie stared. “You — you watched me dress...”
“I did not. I can explain later.”
“You can explain now!”
“As you like. Before you came home, I had found your gun in the night-stand. Under it was what’s called an ankle holster. The straps on those things have to be long enough to circle the calf of a powerfully built man, so they would presumably circle your thigh. When you left, your gun and holster left with you.”
“I could have had it in my purse.”
“You could have, but it didn’t seem likely since you had taken the ankle holster, too. It was much more likely that your gun was strapped to your leg. To your calf if you were wearing slacks. When I joined you in this car, I saw that you were wearing a skirt. Besides, that Canadian officer poked through your purse. If your gun had been in there he would have found it.”
“The cop you had pick me up looked in my purse, too.”
“Did he?” Gideon’s shoulders rose and fell. “I don’t suppose he found anything.”
“No, but he’d tapped my phone. He knew about Sharon naming lipsticks to get to sleep.”
“Or he had tapped Sharon’s.” Gideon sounded bored. “Or your talk was broadcast at some point. If the number you called was that of a cell phone, it had to be. Or he spoke to Sharon afterward. I could go on.”
“You want me to go partners with you. If I do, you’ll have to trust me.”