"You'll Find Wonder"

25. Interrogator & Interrogated

They had bound his hands and feet before tossing him into Anro's cage. He didn't know when they'd brought it back from the backstage tent, and the way the broken lock had to be reinforced he could guess the cage's previous occupant had not been let out so much as he'd busted out.

"Well this is nice," he looked around, dragging himself as best he could back into a seated position. "Fancy a… pillow," he frowned, still searching for a good spot. "So, now, I apologize for running… stage fright… It was my first time, after all…"

"Shut up," Toni commanded.

"Yes, I'll do that. It's terrible, I never do know when to shut up. It's a family trait." Peter and Bennett stood forward, revealing pistols. "Shutting up, starting now."

"Why did you run?" Toni asked. His instinct was to play on the fact they had just told him to shut up, but it would have been unwise… which didn't always stop him, but this time it did. Either way, he did know that the best way to get them talking was if he kept cooperating.

"I told you, stage fright. Has no one here had… first night jitters?" he asked. They didn't answer.

"You're not going to start howling day and night like Roar, are you?" Bennett frowned. "It's just one small performance and then the day's done." For a moment he almost sounded friendly, and maybe he was… Compared to Toni, the two men didn't look nearly as threatening.

"Yes, I will do that, I will take it into consideration, thank you, I… Oh!" The realization came to him, pieces falling into place, and he couldn't believe he hadn't figured it out before… The howl, the damned howl he'd been hearing on and off… It was a distress call, a signal… It wasn't for pain that he howled, it was his people. That was what had led him here in the first place, must have been… And if they heard him, if they came… then it was just one more piece of trouble hanging over their heads.

"Don't get fooled," Toni looked to the pair behind her. "He just comes along this morning, offers himself for capture, pokes his nose where it doesn't belong, then on his first night creates a riot," she came up to the cage.

"A riot?" He might have wanted to look less intrigued and amused by this. A moment later she had yanked at the chain that bound his feet and he slid forward, his head thudding on the soft earth.

"What was that we saw before?" she asked.

"What was what?" the Doctor asked back.

"The flash. There was a man there, we saw it. Did you do something to him? Did you vaporize him?"

"Vaporize?" the Doctor frowned. "What, no, why would… how would…"

"Who knows what it is you do, your kind… You don't even look different is what makes it worse," she observed him.

"Is that right…" he sat himself back up, now wiser and more keenly aware of the chain. "Would you rather I had a giant horn at the back of my head?"

"What did you do? What were you planning to do? Tell us, and everything will become much easier for you, I guarantee."

"Now why don't I believe you?" he spoke to himself.

"Will I be seeing the man in charge? Or perhaps his wife? Charming people, I must say, although haven't you noticed that thing there…"

"The thing?" Peter asked.

"Yes, the thing, you know…" he led on, his limbs unfortunately restrained out of use from him.

"Do you mean the arm?" Bennett asked, which got him a glare from Toni, but bonus points from the Doctor. He could see it in his mind, all wrapped and ominous, and it all came together to the point where he was convinced it had to be some sort of prosthetic, very likely robotic and most definitely not of this time… His suspicions of the woman only became more pronounced with time.

"No, not her, him," he redirected, so now to get information on Magnus.

The men looked to one another as though fishing for something it could have been, and their dumfounded loss for answer told the Doctor there was nothing remarkable about the ringmaster, so unless he was the greatest of deception artists and had them fooled, which he doubted, then Magnus was a harmless lamb.

"Alright, I think that's all I w… I mean, what else do you need to know," he sat up prone and ready to get this over with. He had things to do, places to be, people to save…

X

Dorothy Wellesley knew when to pack up and call it a day, and they'd reached that point here. She knew full well after tonight her cover story would fall beneath her. She had to get out and quick. But there were… loose ends to tie up.

She had been here for years now, and this wasn't something she could ignore. She had settled in her ways, and no matter how determined she was to keep a line firmly drawn in between her true self and Magnus, damn the man if she didn't really fall for him. Leaving him would actually be the hardest thing she had ever done.

She was making a hasty job of packing now that the Doctor had been apprehended, some of her worries could be removed, but all it allowed her was time to pack. She made no allusions to the possibility this could be swept under the rug. It was happening, the dominos were falling.

"Dorothy? Are you here?" she heard Magnus and hurried to snap her suitcase shut before slipping out from behind the partition between their room and the main of their tent. Her husband looked frazzled, as she imagined he would be at a time like this. "Thank goodness you're alright!" he gasped, moving to hold her. She welcomed it. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm alright," she assured. "But what about you?" she asked him.

"I'll be fine," he assured back.

"What's happening?" her voice trembled.

"I don't know what happened, the show started, the Temptress did her dance… I think," he frowned with the same confusion he always did after having endured the light in Anni's eyes. "The Doctor came and… maybe if I had worked his act with him, or waited a few more days…" he shook his head, pacing about.

It really was just too easy in doing all this. Magnus just wanted to believe in people, in the wonder of the world… He could believe that people like 'Red' or Annidae could have been born to this world, human beings with such talents… It was almost too sweet how gullible he could be, because despite everything, it was one of the things that had made her fall in love with him.

"I'm sure you did everything you could," she told him, her arms around him. He smiled and nodded and she kissed him. "It's why I love you," she told him. "Now go on…"

She loved him so, but he was a liability, and she wasn't who she had been by leaving liabilities. Her love for him had afforded Magnus the gift that she had waited until he had his back turned before she let the wrap fall from her arm and placed the flexible metal fingers on his head, looking every bit like any hand but for the effect it had, to zap the life right out of him.

He fell back and she caught him, laid him down still cradling him in her arms. He would never know her betrayal, and it might have made her a coward, but she was one who'd been in love, so what difference did it make?

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)