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All eyes turned to Cassie as everyone in the room absorbed what they had heard. Even Okoro turned away from Lund and gave Cassie a calculating look.
“Did you hear me?” Barbary said. “Give me the fucking books.”
But then his face changed. It crumpled somehow, collapsing in on itself in a storm of emotions and doubt. His free hand went to his head, and he grunted.
“What did you do to me?” he demanded of Lottie, staring through pained eyes at her.
He gathered himself, recommitted to the threat, and pointed the gun again.
Lottie saw Lund glance in the man’s direction, then back at Okoro in front of him, and she realized that he was trying to work out where the greatest danger was. Or maybe he was trying to work out who to protect, Lottie or Izzy.
“I took your pain away,” Lottie said. “Or most of it. Before we were interrupted.”
Barbary grunted again but watched through narrowed eyes as Cassie walked a wide circle around him, moving toward Izzy.
“I will kill her!” he shouted, but it sounded to Lottie that he was trying to convince himself. And it looked to Lottie that there were tearsin the old man’s eyes. She wondered if in trying to fix him she might have broken him.
“Just put the gun down,” Lottie said, her voice honey.
Okoro took one step to the side and Lund took one step to match him, maintaining his position between the man and Lottie.
“What did you do to me?” Barbary asked again, this time more of a plea than a demand. “Why don’t I want to...?”
He couldn’t finish the sentence. There was a blur of movement that Lottie noticed too late, and Diego was dashing toward her, taking the opportunity of her distraction to aim for the Book of Pain. He didn’t reach her. Before he was within six feet he was yanked up into the air as if pulled by the collar of his expensive suit jacket and thrown backward against the wall by the ballroom door. Another mirror shattered, and Lottie looked to see Drummond dropping his hand and staggering backward as if shocked at what he had just done, as if surprised at how easy it had been to kill a man by throwing him across the room.
Lottie expected Barbary to respond, but the man seemed lost in his own thoughts, trapped in a puzzle in his own mind, his gun arm limp by his side now.
“Cassie?” Izzy’s voice came from behind Lottie, uncertain.
Lottie saw that Cassie’s attention was on the center of the room, where Okoro and Lund were still facing off, and Barbary had dropped to his knees. Drummond was watching the other people who were still milling around on the fringes of the room, waiting to see what would happen, waiting for the auction to restart.
Lottie was contemplating that: Maybe the worst was over. Maybe she could still make a sale. Or maybe two, with the Book of Doors now also present.
“What am I?” Barbary asked, lifting his eyes from the floor. “What was I?”
He looked around in confusion, but then certainty returned to his eyes, and he lifted the gun again.
“Drummond!” Cassie shouted. She darted back to the door they had come through moments earlier and pulled it open. Drummond moved his hand again and Barbary was lifted off his feet, the gunfalling from his grip and tap-dancing on the wooden floor. “Go back to the past, you fuck!” Cassie shouted, as Drummond jerked him across the room and through the doorway. Lottie could see another, different place beyond the doorway, a sunny street, and then Cassie swung the door again and it slammed shut. The room seemed to exhale as one, the threat gone.
“Mr. Okoro,” Lottie barked. “Do you want to continue posturing, or shall we get back to the auction, now that our interruption has been dealt with?”
Okoro didn’t react.
“Most of the other bidders are incapacitated or worse,” Lottie said. His eyes flicked to hers, understanding the subtext:You’ll probably win.
Okoro looked like he really wanted to fight Lund. Like he had something to prove.
Men are so childish when you get down to it, Lottie thought, some of them at least.
“Fine,” he said, pulling his shirtsleeves out from the cuffs of his suit jacket. “Let us continue.”
The crowd rearranged itself around the room, people eyeing each other nervously, as Lottie stepped back up on the platform. Drummond Fox stood off to one side, near the door he and Cassie had come through, and Cassie had crossed the room to embrace Izzy. The two women stood together against the other wall, speaking in low voices. Lund stood a little way in front of Lottie’s podium, like he had taken on the role of her security team. As she watched he kicked the gun that Barbary had been using off to the side of the room, out of the way.
“Let us recommence. The last bid was with the Spanish gentleman.” Lottie gestured to Diego, unconscious or dead, in the corner of the room. “Who seems unable to continue. So we will revert to the preceding bid, which was twenty-six to the man from Belarus.”
A series of quick bids followed, as if people were keen now to be done with the whole thing. The twins from Shanghai bid twenty-seven, and then Okoro raised it to thirty. The Belarusian bid thirty-one and Okoro counterbid at thirty-two.
It was warming up nicely for Lottie. As the bids continued, she debated with herself whether it was the right time to also auction the Bookof Doors. It would mean she could be done with the whole thing once and for all, take all of her money and get out of the world of special books before it was too late. But she also wondered whether conditions were right to get the optimal price for the Book of Doors. Many of the richest bidders were either no longer alive or able to bid. Perhaps a separate auction, in a week or two, would draw more interest and a bigger crowd.
