Arthur made a face. “Eventually?” he hedged. “I am...having some difficulty with it.”
Rory swallowed, a horrible thought occurring to him. “You leaving me?”
Arthur actually sputtered. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said severely.
Rory broke into a smile. “All right, then. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out, okay? Together.”
Arthur watched him for a long moment. He opened his mouth—
And then closed it as the others appeared on the sidewalk. “Bonjour,” Jade said, taking one of the empty chairs as Zhang spoke to the waiter.
Rory pursed his lips. Their friends had the worst timing, but then, it wasn’t like he’d forget something was bugging Arthur.
Ellis pulled out Gwen’s chair for her, then snagged an extra chair from another table for himself. “No word from Sebastian,” he said, as he lit up a cigarette.
Rory frowned.
“He’s tough as nails,” Ellis added, with faith. “As long as he doesn’t get too close to Zeppler’s lackey with the blood magic, the Puppeteer, he’ll make it.”
As the waiter brought more coffees, Gwen reached into her bag and set something on the table in front of Rory and Arthur. “This is where our seller wants to meet.”
She’d brought a flyer, with a picture of a hot air balloon and the wordsspectacle de magie. “A magic show?” Rory guessed.
Arthur raised an eyebrow. “No one could possibly be that unsubtle, could they?”
“He’s actually picked a perfect cover,” Jade said, as Ellis blew a stream of smoke away from the table. “The seller can hide in plain sight. And if anyone notices anything odd, they can claim it was part of the show.”
Three more tables were filling up around them, fashionably dressed couples and a woman with a fluffy white dog on a leash. A new waiter arrived, carrying a tray with a china cup of tea for Gwen and more pastries for everyone. Jade spoke with him in French for a moment, looking and sounding very at home on the pretty Paris street.
Rory helped himself to another croissant as Gwen tapped the flyer, her eyes on Arthur. “The show is black tie, limited seating.” She picked up her tea. “You’ll need tickets for the seller’s private box.”
“I can arrange that,” said Arthur. “How many?”
“Just you,” Gwen said, looking like she disapproved. “The seller agreed to make the trade at the show itself. He’ll hand the siphon over to Arthur if the meeting goes satisfactorily. But he insists you come alone or he’ll dismiss your bid.”
Arthur furrowed his brow and looked over at Jade. “I don’t care for this plan either,” she said grimly. “But if we don’t buy the siphon, someone else will. And we haven’t found any other leads to get the pomander out of action.”
Rory didn’t like it at all. “But how do we keep Ace safe?”
“I can follow him on the astral plane,” Zhang offered. “The magic show is in a performance hall near the exhibitions, an area full of pavilions and tents. If Arthur is willing, I can be his shadow while he runs distraction, giving the rest of you a chance to search and see if you can find the siphon before the seller takes most of Arthur’s trust fund.”
“I will gladly part with all of my money to make the world a better, safer place,” Arthur said. “You don’t have to steal the siphon when I can buy it outright.”
“We’re not stealing anything, we’re recovering stolen goods.” Ellis ground out the cigarette in the table’s ashtray. “Someone stole it from Sebastian’s family first. This dick’s a thief and that siphon isn’t his to sell.”
Rory had to agree with that. But there were still a lot of flaws in the plan. “You can’t really think everyone at the world’s fair is just gonna let us in wherever we want so we can look around. Maybe Zhang’ll be all right on the astral plane, but for the rest of us, everyone’ll just tell us to mind our business and scram.”
Gwen and Ellis exchanged a look. “Well, we have had an idea,” said Gwen. “But you probably aren’t going to like it.”
Rory folded his arms.
“We were thinking,” Gwen said patiently, “that you’re right—they’re not going to let us in to search wherever we like. So perhaps we don’t go in asus, per se.”
Rory scrunched his nose. “What’s that mean?”
“It means we’re not going to walk around like tourists, we’re going to pose as a magic act,” said Ellis. “Because tourists are supposed to stick to tourist areas, but performers are in the background, in and out of the tent.”
Zhang furrowed his brow. “A magic act,” he repeated dubiously. “Even though we’re all paranormals.”
