Free As if by Magic by Kerry Wilkinson

holding it, it looked like there were buttons on the front.
    Jessica wanted Dave to keep on moving but he wasn’t looking at her, instead transfixed by the man on the throne.
    ‘I know why you can’t hand those goods over as well,’ Jessica continued, although Balthazar didn’t seem to be listening.
    ‘Do you know how many times I was on primetime television?’ he asked. Jessica didn’t reply, instead looking towards Dave and urging him with her eyes to get on with it but he still didn’t turn around. ‘Sixty two,’ Balthazar said.
    ‘It will be a lot easier if you come quietly,’ Jessica said gently. ‘People will understand what you did. It’s only money, no-one died.’
    Balthazar snorted. ‘Only money? This is my life.’
    ‘There will be people you can talk to. You don’t have to make it any harder.’
    Out of the corner of her eye, Jessica saw Dave take another step forward, then a flash of movement above her as a thick red curtain dropped from the ceiling. Overhead was a selection of rails she hadn’t noticed on her first visit. Some had lights attached, while she could also see a fan connected to one. She didn’t have time to move or speak before the material caught on some sort of device which had been fixed into the walls on either side of the room. Balthazar hadn’t flinched as the drape rested in place, blocking their view of him from the neck down.
    ‘What are you doing, Ian?’ Jessica asked, unmoving. Dave continued to edge towards the stage, looking to Jessica for guidance.
    ‘I may be old,’ Balthazar said, looking Jessica in the eye and winking at her. ‘But I have a few tricks left up my sleeve.’
    Jessica began to run to towards the stage as she saw Balthazar press another button on the device. There was a large popping sound as smoke burst up from a metal canister that was on the floor in front of the stage. Everything happened in a fraction of a second, Jessica first looking sideways to see what the noise was and then fixing her eyes back to the spot where Balthazar had been sitting on the throne. As the smoke started to clear, there was a faint hissing sound coming from the canister, Jessica found herself blinking rapidly to confirm she hadn’t missed something.
    ‘Dave...?’ she said, switching her attention to her colleague.
    The look on his face was half-confusion, half-panic as he climbed over the curtain and approached the now-empty stage.
    The smoke had blocked her view for barely a second or two but, in that time, Balthazar had vanished.

EIGHT
    Jessica and Dave unhooked the curtain which had initially obscured part of their view. The red velvety material was thick and heavy and Jessica found herself smoothing her hand along it, just in case it was that which was somehow responsible.
    ‘Where did he go?’ Dave asked.
    The throne was on a platform raised from the main stage and had a circular shape, as if someone had dropped the letter “D” on the ground, arch-side up. There were three steps on either side and a hole running through the centre that meant she could see straight through. Jessica dashed to it and grabbed the polished, golden-coloured wood of the throne, hoping there was an obvious explanation.
    Jessica crouched and reached through the gap underneath the platform the throne was on, waving her hand around the empty space to prove to herself that Balthazar wasn’t hiding in front of them somehow. She then walked around to the back, bending over to make sure she could still see through from one side to the other. Above them was nothing except the white open space of the ceiling.
    Jessica sat on the throne, thinking about the positions they had all been in.
    ‘What did you see?’ Jessica asked.
    Dave was walking around the elevated platform. ‘I don’t know. He was there and then he wasn’t.’
    ‘The view was only blocked for a couple of seconds, where could he be?’
    ‘We could get Hugo?’
    Jessica thought for a moment as the final wisps of