“How do you know?”
“Because back when he was a person I killed him.”
“You know a lot of dead people.”
“What does Wells want?”
“Saint Nick, Mason Faim, whoever, won’t talk to him. He wants to talk to you.”
“I’ll be right there.”
I get a dry coat and a gun. I step through a shadow.
THEY HAVE MASON in a cell with walls thick enough to stop a meteor. They’re covered from end to end, top to bottom, in a hasty scrawl of protective wards and crosses. It’s like they let a gang of junior high taggers go at the cell with a copy of The Little Wizard’s Handbook of Scary-Looking Shit.
Inside, Mason is seated at a metal table bolted to the floor. The walls are covered in binding hexes. Mason is cuffed hand and foot with cold iron shackles and dressed in orange coveralls. The zipper on the front of his jailbird suit is pulled down low enough that everyone can see the sutures holding his chop-shop body together. All that and his mismatched eyes make him look like a garage-sale-love-doll-at-Hammer Studios Frankenstein movie.
There are guards outside, but the room is empty. Julie follows me in. I pull up a chair and sit down across from Mason.
“Where’s Candy?”
“It’s good to see you too, Jimmy.”
“Where’s Candy?”
He shrugs.
“You’re the one with the sweet tooth. I always preferred my snacks salty.”
“Don’t be cute. I can kill you before anyone here can stop me.”
Mason leans on the table.
“You already did, remember? That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You cheated.”
“I sure did.”
“You told me not to use magic and then you went ahead and used it yourself.”
“My game. My rules.”
“That’s exactly what I was going to say to you.”
“I’m not playing games with you. I’m going to ask questions and you’re going to answer them.”
He leans back in his chair, looking relaxed.
“And what if I don’t? You’ll kill me? How did that work out last time? You ended up stuck in Hell playing Lucifer. Badly. Your lover left you. Heaven, Hell, and L.A. suffered all sorts of calamities. And through it all, the Angra grew stronger. No, killing me just made things worse for everybody. Besides, you think I can’t find my way into a new body? You could fill a stadium with all the bodies my friends and I have created. And all I need is one. You can’t win playing your old games, Jimmy.”
“Where’s Candy?”
“In the cut-glass bowl on Grandma’s coffee table.”
Before he or Julie can move, I lean across the table and punch him. He shakes it off and looks at me.
“In a caravan to Timbuktu.”
I hit him again.
“On the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland.”
I start to hit him again when I hear Julie.
“Stark! Stop it.”
Mason spits blood on the floor.
“Tell you what, Jimbo. You like games. Play a game with me and I’ll tell you everything I know about your squeeze.”
“What kind of game?”
He turns to Julie.
“Do you have any playing cards around here?”
“We have a few games in the break room,” she says. “I’ll check.”
“Hurry back, darling.”
Mason turns back and raises an eyebrow at me. His chop-shop face is almost as scarred as mine.
“One of yours?” he says.
“You don’t need to know anything about her. Or anyone else here. I’m the only one you need to worry about.”
“How is it?”
“How’s what?”
He opens his hands, rattling the shackles.
“The Qomrama. Having fun with it? Teaching it to do tricks. Fetch? Roll over.”
“We’re doing great with it. The Shonin practically has it sussed.”
“The Shonin. I’ve heard about him.”
“From who?”
“A little demon told me.”
“Where’s Candy?”
Mason looks down at the table. Purses his lips.
“Every time you say something stupid or break a rule you lose a turn.”
“We aren’t playing yet.”
“Yes we are.”
The door opens and Julie comes back into the room. She sets a deck of cards on the table between us.
“What happens now?”
“Shuffle them,” Says Mason.
I shuffle them a couple of times. Set them back down between us.
Mason turns to Julie.
“Would you cut the cards for me, dear? I’m a bit encumbered.”
Julie glances at me. She comes over and cuts the cards. I look at Mason.
“What are we playing?”
“In my time in the dark I learned that there’s only one game worth playing and it takes many forms. One form is cards.”
“What’s the game?”
“Chaos. Entropy. Catastrophe. Infinity.”
“I don’t know how to play that.”
He sits up straight, his eyes on the cards.
“It’s your whole life, Jimmy. You’re an expert. You just don’t know it.”
I look at the time on my phone and then at Julie.
“Shouldn’t you be out looking for someone?”
“I have a team on it.”
“Ready?” says Mason.
“What are we playing?”
“Simple draw poker. You can handle that, can’t you?”
“You don’t have anything to bet.”
“We have the whole world to bet.”
“If I win you’ll tell me about Candy.”
“Everything. Deal.”
I deal out five cards, each facedown. I get two threes, a queen of diamonds, a ten of clubs, and an ace of hearts.
Mason nods at his cards to Julie.
“Would you hold my cards up for me, dear?”
“Don’t call me that again. I’m Marshal Sola.”
“Would you hold my cards for me, Marshal Sola?”
She does it.
“Higher, please.”
She raises the cards a little.
“Thank you.”
I set my cards down and pick up the deck.
“How many do you want?”
“Four,” he says.
“What’s wrong with you? That’s how a six-year-old plays.”
“I’d like four.”
I deal him out four facedown. He points to the card he wants to keep. Julie lays down the others and picks up the new cards.
“Dealer takes two.”
I get an ace of diamonds and a two of spades.
“We’re not betting, so I guess we just show our cards.”
“Yours first,” says Mason.
I lay down two pairs, threes, and aces.
Julie puts down Mason’s hand. He has a three, a six, a four, a ten, and a jack. None of the suits match.
Mason says, “Alphabet soup as dear old Dad used to say.”
“I win. You answer my question.”
“Of course.”
“Where’s Candy?”
“I honestly have no idea.”
“Stark,” says Julie, a warning tone in her voice. I don’t get up and I don’t try to hit Mason.
“You had something to do with her getting sick.”
“Me? No. Possibly some of my associates.”
“Why?”
Mason slams down his fists.
“Because fuck you, that’s why. Because you cheated, and putting a bullet in my head really hurt. And because in the Infinite Game there are no rules and there are infinite rules. That’s why it’s so fun.”
“If anything happens to her . . .”
“What? You’ll kill me? Stop it. We both know if you were going to kill me you’d have done it already. No. You’re still here because you want to play the game.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Because unlike that gabby mummy no doubt listening to us right now—hello, Mr. Shonin—I know exactly how the Qomrama works and I’ll teach you. But you have to play my games and, of course, you have to win.”
“The Vigil has all kinds of funny technology. I bet they have some kind of brain sucker around here. What’s to keep them from hooking you up and downloading you into a Tamagotchi?”
Mason’s face brightens.
“You have one of those? Neat. I’d love to see it.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”