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“It’s the Book of Doors,” the woman said. “My name is Cassie. We’ve come from a few months in the future to save your life.”
Azaki blinked, absorbing that, and then looked at Lund again.
“You’re from the future?”
Lund nodded, and then said, “Like I said, you need to listen to her. Because some serious shit is going to go down in the next few months.”
“You need to go to New York,” the woman said. “The Bookseller is going to call you at some point over the next few days and tell you to go there anyway.”
“Why?” Azaki asked.
The woman bobbed her head. “It’s a bit difficult to explain. Because I asked her to. In the past. It doesn’t matter.”
Azaki smiled, because it was ridiculous.
“Stop smiling,” the woman said. “This is serious. I’m trying to save your life here.”
“Why?” he asked. “Why do you want to save my life in the future?”
“Because we need your help,” Cassie said. “To stop the woman.”
Azaki stopped smiling, because it didn’t seem so ridiculous anymore, and he listened as Cassie told him about his future, and about the plan she had in mind.
“Is it possible?” she asked.
Azaki considered the question for a moment. “It’s possible,” he said. “Hard, but possible. I’ll need some time to practice.”
New York, several days later
When Azaki answered the door, he had one hand in his pocket holding the Book of Illusion, and he created the illusion that he and Lund were six inches to the right of where they actually were.
Hugo Barbary was there, just as Cassie and the other Lund had told him, but Azaki was still surprised at the truth of what he had been told. He was staring straight down the barrel of Barbary’s gun. Or he would have been if he had been six inches to the right.
Barbary fired and Azaki dropped to the floor, keeping his hand in his pocket and creating the illusion that he was dead as he lay facedown, a bloody wound to his head. Barbary fired again and Lund dropped, just as Azaki had been told he would.
He lay still for a while, listening to Barbary torture Cassie’s friend Izzy in the other room. If he hadn’t already known that she was fine, he might have tried to intervene. Or maybe he would have quietly gotten up and left, he didn’t know. He didn’t think he was any sort of hero, but hehad never really been required to test himself in that way. As his father had once told him as a child: “The best defense to any punch is to not be there. Run away, boy. There is no shame in surviving.”
He heard Lund getting up after a few minutes. The big man came over and checked on Azaki but saw only a corpse, bleeding out on the floor. Azaki heard him sigh, as if he was sad that Azaki was dead, and in truth that made him a little happy. Then Lund stood up again, surprisingly quiet, and a few moments later Azaki heard Barbary hit the floor when the big man smacked him, and he cheered inwardly. Then he heard Lund talking, and Izzy passed him in the hall to enter one of the rooms, gathering a bag of clothes. While she was doing that Lund came back to Azaki, and this was the bit that was risky. Or it would have been, if Azaki hadn’t already been told by future Lund that the big man hadn’t noticed anything when he’d taken the Book of Illusion from Azaki’s pocket. Azaki had taken his hand out of his pocket and pushed it under his body, leaving his pocket open. Lund already believed Azaki was dead, and he was rushing, and he didn’t notice that the side of Azaki’s head had miraculously healed.
Then Lund and Izzy left, hurrying from the flat before Barbary awoke.
Azaki waited a minute or two, ensuring they wouldn’t return, even though Lund had been very clear on that point, and then stood up and brushed himself down.
He felt strange without the Book of Illusion in his pocket. It had been with him for over twenty years. It was his most precious possession. Already he was impatient to get it back.
He took a few steps along the hall and looked into the living area. Barbary was there, lying in a mess against the far wall. Lund had hit him hard.
“You fucking deserved it,” Azaki muttered. “You’re such an asshole.”
He left the apartment as it was, knowing he had to be gone before Cassie arrived with the Librarian. He was clear on the chronology.
Now he had to wait.
Tonight there would be an auction, and the woman would appear and cause mayhem.
Lund and Cassie’s friend would flee, taking the Book of Illusion with them. They would travel south with the book and hide it along the way.
Azaki knew where they would hide it. He had been told, back in the bar in Antofagasta. He would be there to collect it as soon as they left.
