Mother of Magic

The Two

The porch covered boardwalks on both sides of the street near the Sheriff's office were lit by electric street lamps. In addition to the street lighting, all the shops along that road had porch lighting for their doors and shop windows. Most of those remained on until midnight. A city like Collins did not roll up the sidewalks at 7 p.m. Too many people worked until sundown, and their only time to come into town was after work. Add to that a healthy bar scene for relaxation, and you had a city that remained alive until well into the night.

The deputy locked up the sheriff's office at 9 p.m. Unless things were going on in town that required it to be opened. Usually, that was a drunk and disorderly person or persons, and therefore a night in jail sort of situation. Protocol when there is a prisoner or prisoners in the single jail cell is there is someone inside to keep an eye on the situation. The overnight duty rotated among the town's officers. Usually, the night staff job was merely watching people sleep off too much drink. Giving the newly hungover people some coffee in the morning and sending them on their way. Usually to someplace like Miriam's that served breakfast, though in some cases food was not something that could be faced first thing in cases of acute alcohol poisoning. Repeat offenders soon found they would not be served at any bar in town. Collins was not a big place, and word got around.

What was new to the protocol of overnight staffing of the jail was the ability to watch the office from across the street. Yet the observer of the jail was around the corner and down the street. Given Silena's sighting earlier in the day of two members of The Six at the Baseball stadium, the plan to deal with the assassins was in motion. Vivian had people from her staff watching the brand new, fiber optic fed, observation screen in her dark office.

"I am hoping the fact that the office is on a relatively quiet street will give these perps some courage." The Sheriff told Vivian as he took an observation turn in her office. He still marveled at the way the observation window worked. Even though the system was invented rapidly, Le took the time to show the Sheriff the prototypes in his workshops. How he and Silena could move objects around. Change what the object lens pointed at. The audience would see on the viewer's end whatever they pointed the lens at. The view changed as they changed it. It always reflected reality. Le swore up and down to the Sheriff that this was science.

In a world without television, it was still magical.

Vivian was invisible in the dark. Her voice appearing as if from thin air. Le had been very clear with them that no light could be in the observation room or the objective lens would glow and be noticeable. He told the pair when he and Silena were installing the invention that fiber optics was not a 'light diode'. This meant absolutely nothing to them. "That would be good." Vivian replied to her equally invisible companion. "I'm kind of tired of this duty already. What did they call this? A stakeout?"

"Good thing we have food, drink, and a bathroom right here then." Sheriff Rhodes laughed.

"What's that?" Vivian asked.

The Sheriff did not have to be told she meant something was happening on the screen. Her tone of voice told him.

As they watched, two figures crept up the boards of the walk in front of the office. One carefully peered inside through the window. Well: they tried to. The shutters were closed and latched. Well built and tight. No cracks allowed them to see around them to the interior of the office.

"Two. Wonder if the others are near." Vivian mused.

"If I were them, I'd have lookouts posted." Rhodes commented.

One figure reached out and tried the door knob. It was locked. The substantial closure mechanism did not even wiggle. The intruders backed away and had a silent conversation. Silent to Vivian and Rhodes but presumably also very quiet where they were on the porch up the road as well.