The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

The Game

Previously: "Purchasing Peace of Mind" 

You hang up on Caleb and call Patterson, though you're not sure if you want him to pick up or not. As it happens, he does.

"Hi, this is Will. Prescott? I want to get together and ... talk to you about this ... team idea."

"Okay," he says softly. "Just you? Or are you gonna bring a friend?"

You shift awkwardly on the bed. "Just me, for now. But maybe I'd bring a friend along later?"

He snickers. "Yeah, maybe. For now, meet me at my place in an hour. You know where I live?" When you demur, he gives the address.

* * * * *

It's a modest house in one of the more modest parts of Saratoga Falls. Patterson's expression is amused when he nods at you in the living room, and with a jerk of his head invites you to the back yard. As you pass through the garage, he picks up a baseball.

"So you wanna be on the team, huh?" he says as you stand under the fading evening light. He tosses the ball in his hand lightly. "What kind of team you think it is?"

Your stomach quivers. "I assume it's gonna have something to do with the ... the masks."

"Uh huh. And what were you gonna do with them?"

"You know what Caleb and me were thinking about doing."

"Well, tell me again. Pretend I'm an ignorant motherfucker." He tosses the ball at you--a throw that's swift but not hard.

You lick your lips; the words seem to catch in your throat. "We were ... uh, we were gonna use them to ... to make copies of people so we could ..." You toss the ball back instead of finishing the sentence.

He has to reach a long arm out to the side to catch your wild pitch. "Come on, Prescott, spit it out. Give me your ideas."

"We were gonna copy people so we could ... get close to girls."

"Whatsa matter, can't you get close to girls on your own?" He throws the ball back at you.

"Ones we couldn't get close to on our own. You know, like ... the Garner twins." You swallow. "Cindy Vredenburg."

"Chelsea Cooper?" He grins and holds his hand up. "Come on, throw it back. Loosen up."

You toss the ball back--a better pitch, which he catches easily. "Getting close to Chelsea woulda been hard, you know," you say.

"Yeah," he laughs. He throws the ball again, and this time it stings as it hits your hand. "It'd be easier, though, if you and me were on the same team."

"Are you gonna try to get close to Chelsea?" You throw the ball, harder this time. Your heart skips, for you suddenly fear what the ugly accusation could provoke.

But he just laughs. "That's the spirit, Prescott. Think big. Think nasty." Again, he makes a hard pitch, so hard the ball bounces out of your fingers, and humiliatingly you have to fetch it. "Think about who you could take advantage of."

I'd like to take advantage of you, you fucker, you think to yourself. You throw the ball back, hard and wild.

"What about your friend, Caleb?" Patterson asks after he's picked the ball up off the grass. "Would you use him to get close to a girl?"

"Caleb can't," you retort. "That's why-- That's why we were gonna work together."

"Yeah, but would you use his face if it could get you that?" His return pitch is softer this time, and you catch it easily. "Suppose I told you there was a cheerleader, a sexy cheerleader, who was sweet on him. If I got him out of the way, kept him from interfering, would you use his face to get close to her? A girl he was actually sweet on?" He catches your toss.

"Maybe I could use the trick to set them up together," you reply. This time you have to duck, as he's hurled the ball right at your face. "Asshole!" The word escapes before you can stop it, and you hunch defensively, and watch him over your shoulder as you scuttle backwards toward the ball.

"Don't fool yourself by thinking you'd just be playing matchmaker," Patterson says. "If you're not willing to fuck over Caleb behind his back, what makes you think I'd fuck over Gordon?" You pick up the ball, and it feels very heavy in your hand. "If you're not willing to fuck over your best friend, there's no place for you on my team."

You run your fingers over the ball's rough surface. You can't betray Caleb. Except-- "Well, it really wouldn't be fucking him over, would it? I mean, pretending to be him when he doesn't know it, to ... to get to a girl he doesn't know likes him."

Patterson's mouth curls sourly. "Yeah, you're a real pair of winners, aren't you? Maybe I should go find Caleb, give him that mask of you, tell him to go fuck Lisa Yarborough with it. I bet he would."

This time your aim is true, but he snatches the ball handily before it hits him in the face. He grins, and his voice turns soft and nasty. "Or maybe I should get a mask of Geoff Mansfield, and tell you to go fuck Lisa with it."

You stare, your eyes nearing popping from your head.

Patterson tosses the ball up in the air and bounces it off his bicep. "Here's the point. You gotta know what you're getting into. You have these masks, and you're gonna use them to fuck with people. But who? Enemies? Friends? It's the same. Your friend is someone's enemy, and your enemy is someone's friend. If you fuck with one you gotta be willing to fuck with the other. Because there ain't no difference."

"Are you saying you'd fuck with Gordon?"

"Now you're loosened up," he smiles. He leans back and raises a leg, and you crouch, expecting a hard pitch. But it's an easy one that plops lightly into your hand. "You want Chelsea? I can get you Chelsea. But you gotta prove you're a team player first." He gestures at you, and you return the ball.

"Like how?"

"I'd have to think about it," he says, winding up and delivering another slow pitch. "But it would probably involve Caleb." His smile is sharp.

"You made a mask of him."

"Figured that out, huh? I knew you would, figured that's how come you came scuttling over here. Does Caleb know?" You hesitate, then nod. "Then we'll have to find another test for you." He lowers his head and regards you shrewdly. Then with another jerk of his head he gestures you back toward the house. "I'll meet you back at your car."

He's gone only a few minutes, and when he saunters up to your truck he has a mask. "First thing," he says, "is I want you to polish this up for me." You take it from him. "I'll have another job for you when you're done with that."

"Am I on the team?"

"You have to try out for it first."

"What about Caleb?"

"I don't give a fuck about him." He turns abruptly and heads back into the house. You swallow, and slowly get into your truck.

* * * * *

Back home you lock yourself in your bedroom and take stock of what you know.

First, there's Patterson, and all the stuff he took off you: the book, all the ingredients you and Caleb had gathered, and all the toys you'd made. He's even added some of his own: in addition to the masks of Eva and Jeremy, he has masks of you and Caleb and himself.

He can use the masks of you and Caleb to imitate you or your friend, assuming he can get you out of the way temporarily, the way he locked you in the clubhouse, and you're pretty sure he can find a way of doing that if he really wants to. Probably you and Caleb should come up with some passwords to use with each other, to prevent incidents like today's.

He also has two golems: the first one you made, and the golemized form of Jeremy Richards. He's certainly got Jeremy's mask in play--almost certainly on Jeremy himself--because Richards can't just disappear. It's a comfort to reflect that Jeremy's golem is under your control, and you can use it in a pinch. He could also use the Eva mask to spread confusion by donning it himself. He can also put his own mask on the other golem when he wants to disguise himself without disappearing. That's another comfort--there may be times when you can use the fake Patterson against the real one.

Unless he's found some way of counteracting your control. Your heart skips a beat. He has the book, and the next spell--which you've not seen--has been unlocked. What does it do?

That dismaying thought leads to another: He had a fake Caleb at the clubhouse with him. How did he get it to follow his lead? Does he have another, secret ally? Gordon Black or Jason Lynch or another of his friends? It seems hard to imagine either of them willingly pretending to be Caleb. On the other hand, the fake Caleb acted just like the real one. Maybe it was one of your golems, and it just acted like Caleb. Maybe Patterson bullied it into working for him.

Wearily, you walk over and over this complex of airless, interlocking puzzles, and no clear course of action commends itself. You look down, finally, to find that you've been absent-mindedly polishing that mask he gave you, so that there is now a small spot, the size of quarter, that is shining clearly. Fuck, he's even making new masks.

What's the old expression: Keep your friends close but your enemies closer? With a sinking feeling, you know you're going to have to work with him--for him--at least for a little while. He said he doesn't want Caleb along, but you've the strong urge to bring him in too. That's another old expression you remember from a book: It's always friendlier with two.

Next: "The Lady or the Alley Cat" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 3)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)"