Moonlight Masquerade (Edilean 8)

“We’ll go when I say we can,” the new voice said. “Here, put these on.”

Sophie heard something hit a wooden surface, as though boxes had fallen.

“What the hell are these?” the skinny man asked. By now Sophie knew the voices of the first two men.

“Can’t you see that they’re Halloween costumes?” the second man said.

“So now we’re gonna go out and steal candy? From the kids? I like that idea.”

“Shut up!” the new man said. He sounded more intelligent than the other two. “We’re going to a party.”

“What?” the two men said in unison.

“I understand your lack of social graces and that’s why you’ll have on full-head masks.”

“I don’t want to go to no party. I want to get out of this two-bit backwater place.”

“You will do what I tell you to!” the new man said. “This town is rich! The women here have jewelry dating back hundreds of years. And for this Halloween party they pull it all out of their safe-deposit boxes and put it on. It’s the world’s most snobbish party, as you have to be a blood relative to get in. They don’t trust anybody else—and I know. I’ve lived here for years and I’ve never been invited to—” He broke off, sounding as though he couldn’t go on with that line of thought. When he continued, his voice was calmer. “I’ve fixed it so there will be three empty places tonight and we’re going to say we’re cousins—there are hundreds of them. While we’re there we’re going to be quiet and talk little. We’ll just wander around and eat, but talk to no one. Got it?”

Sophie thought the men probably nodded, but she could see nothing, and with the radio no longer covering every sound, she was afraid to move.

“At ten tonight there’s going to be an emergency,” the new man said. “And I—”

“What kind of emergency?”

“A fire in town. I’ve set a device to go off. One of their precious old buildings is going to burst into flame, and the lot of them will run off to fight the fire, us included.”

“With the jewels?” one of the men asked.

“No, you moron! The men will go fight the fire. This town is like some storybook. The women will stay behind to start cooking to feed the men.”

There was silence in the room, as though the two men didn’t understand what they were hearing.

“We’ll double back and we’ll get the jewels. We’ll wave some guns around and we’ll make the women take their sparklers off, dump them in a bag, then we’ll leave. They’ll have no idea who we are. On Monday I’ll go back to work and I’ll be as horrified as everybody else at what happened.”

“What do we do then?”

“After the heist I’ll g

ive you a map of where someone is to meet you. He’ll take care of everything. Any more questions?”

For a few moments there was silence, then the first two men began to speak at once and the man answered. One man said he didn’t like his costume because the fur was itchy. “It’ll cover your ugly mug.” The other man said he couldn’t see out of his. “You don’t need to see. Just point the gun straight ahead. That’s all you’ll have to do.”

Sophie turned her back to the door and leaned against it. This was serious. And this was horrible. A fire was to be started in beautiful downtown Edilean. A robbery of ancestral jewels. Guns waved about by men who couldn’t even see what they were doing.

She had to get out, had to warn people. But how could she do that without being seen?

And even if she did get out, how could she identify the man who was the mastermind? She knew he lived in Edilean and he planned to go back to work and act as though nothing had happened. How did they find someone with just that description?

Sophie looked up at the top of the door. There was a transom with a foggy glass insert. It let in some light, but even if she piled up old clothes to make a ladder, she wouldn’t be able to see anything.

When she heard footsteps coming toward her, she drew in her breath. Would one of the men open the door and see her?

But he stopped. “Get that table cleared off,” the new man said. “I have a floor plan of the Town Hall.”

“Why do we need that?”

“It’s where the party is. One of you will go upstairs just before ten and wait for the explosion. I don’t want any women or kids upstairs lurking about. You herd them down to me, get it?”