Stone Junction

call AMO a voluntary alliance if one wasn’t free to withdraw.’

‘I want to stay. It was an addled act. Jean gone, you here telling me what to do … it was too much at once.’

‘I’m truly glad to hear that, Daniel, because right now we need your help.’

‘My help?’

‘I don’t understand why you seem startled,’ Volta said with more than his usual dryness. ‘We haven’t been providing your training without some expectation of return. We consider you what we call a free agent. We assume you will listen to various requests for assistance, though of course you retain the right to refuse, or to suggest alternatives. No more teachers, unless you wish to arrange further study on your own. And remember one of Wild Bill’s better lines: “When the teaching ends, learning begins.”’

‘So what am I needed for? To grow dope? Gamble? Crack safes? To disguise myself as an Italian waiter and find out what the Secretary of State discusses with his mistress over the scallopini?’ Daniel’s sarcasm belied his excitement.

‘Nothing so mundane. This is much more in tune with your romantic nature: a jewel theft. An extraordinarily difficult theft, I warn you, but it is an extraordinary jewel. To steal it, you will have to surpass Jean Bluer.’

‘You just finished saying––’ Daniel began, but Volta cut him short.

‘What’s the ultimate disguise, Daniel?’

Daniel considered a moment. ‘Invisibility, I guess.’

‘Exactly.’

‘I’m not quite able to do that yet.’

‘I am,’ Volta said. ‘Or I was at one time.’

‘Actually become invisible, right? Dematerialize? Poof?’

‘Vanish is the term I use. And no poof. It’s more like slipping underwater.’

‘You’re telling me you could vanish into thin air?’

‘Or thick.’

‘No offense,’ Daniel said, ‘but I’d have to see it. And then I’d still probably have to believe it.’

‘You’ll have to take it on faith. I gave up the practice years ago. It was too dangerous for me. And it might be even more perilous for you.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I think you’d like it.’

‘First I’d have to do it.’

‘Let me assure you, Daniel, if I didn’t think you were capable, I wouldn’t mention it. Do you think I’m unaware what an outlandish claim it is, especially when I’m not prepared to demonstrate? And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’ve never met another human being who had the power to vanish. I’ve tried to instruct six people before you, without success.’

‘Not even an arm? A finger?’

Volta ignored him. ‘I discovered it by accident. I was near death, adrift on the ocean. A woman on the boat that rescued me claimed her mother, a Jamaican shamaness, had vanished once in her practice and found it such a dangerous and treacherous state of mind that she never tried it again. When a woman accomplished in the spirit arts says a practice is dangerous and treacherous, that should command your attention. This is for real, Daniel, this is for keeps. School’s out.’

Daniel held up a hand. ‘Wait a minute, now. I thought you said you were going to teach me.’

‘I couldn’t call it teaching. That would be an insult to people like Wild Bill. All I’m going to do is share my experience, which might be wholly inapplicable. The best I can do is point at the mountain and hope you find a trail.’

‘How long would it take me to learn?’

Volta shook his head. ‘No idea. None. The other people I’ve tried to teach all gave up within a week.’

‘I suppose it’s arduous and requires great concentration.’

‘Naturally. Immense concentration; pinpoint focus; enormous clarity. It takes everything you have.’

‘Is this jewel worth it?’

Volta said, ‘Properly, that’s for you to decide.’

‘Have you seen it?’

Volta hesitated. ‘Well, I’ve dreamed it.’

Daniel shook his head. ‘I’m getting lost. You want me to vanish into your dreams?’

‘Good Lord, no,’ Volta blanched. ‘That’s exactly what I don’t want you to do.’

‘So, what is it exactly you do want me to do?’

‘Steal the diamond.’

‘So, it’s a diamond?’