Free Illusion Town by Jayne Castle Page B

can’t be remedied. Just a bit of paperwork to file.”
    â€œWhich we won’t have time to file until we get my team out of the ruins and find out who chased us into the Shadow Zone last night.”
    â€œNo,” she agreed.
    He startled her with a quick, wicked grin. “Looks like we’re going on an interesting honeymoon.”

Chapter 7

    He knew he had made a mistake the moment the words were out of his mouth. Hannah’s jaw tightened and everything about her seemed to withdraw to some secret place where he could not follow.
    She turned away and made a show of searching the bizarre carnival.
    â€œVirgil?” she called. “Where are you? Time to leave.”
    This time there was no answering chortle. Hannah started toward the Scargill Cove scene. “Virgil? This is no time for games.”
    Unable to think of anything else to do, Elias went after her.
    â€œSorry,” he said. “The crack about the honeymoon was just a bad attempt to lighten the situation.”
    â€œNo problem,” she said briskly.
“Virgil?”
    Muffled thuds and banging sounded from one of the arcade booths.
    â€œThat’s not good,” Hannah said.
    Elias listened to the noises. “Over there.”
    He led the way past another attraction. The entrance was sealed with a psi-gate. The sign read LUCINDA BROMLEY’S PSYCHIC GARDEN .
    â€œDo you know who Lucinda Bromley was?” he asked.
    â€œShe married Caleb Jones. Back in the nineteenth century, the two of them cofounded Jones and Jones.”
    â€œYou know, this place makes me realize that my family needs to hire someone to get the Coppersmith archives organized. Right now they’re just sitting in a big vault on the island.”
    â€œWhat island?”
    â€œCopper Beach. Family compound.”
    â€œOh, I see.”
    Once again he wished he’d kept his mouth shut. There was no need to remind her of her status as an orphan. On Harmony, family was everything. The First Generation founders had used every tool available—legal and cultural—to shore up the institutions of marriage and the family. The experts among them had concluded that those two institutions were the cornerstones of a strong society and the best hope for ensuring the survival of the stranded colonists.
    The system worked well for the most part, but no social system was perfect. Babies still got orphaned and people still wound up alone in the world.
    The thuds and bangs got louder.
    Elias followed Hannah past an ominous-looking attraction labeled HEADQUARTERS OF NIGHTSHADE. BEWARE THE DRUG.
    Once again his curiosity was aroused. He was about to ask Hannah to explain the Nightshade reference but he stopped short when he saw that she had stopped in front of a glass-walled arcade booth.
    The interior of the booth was filled with action figures, toys, and stuffed animals. There was a miniature cranelike apparatus equipped with a claw device that could be activated from outside the booth. The sign read PICK A PIECE OF ARCANE HISTORY.
    In addition to the toys, there was also an outraged dust bunny inside the booth. Virgil was literally bouncing off the walls in a furious attempt to extricate himself and one of the action figures. All four of his eyes were open and there was a great deal of growling.
    â€œGood grief,” Hannah said. She came to a halt and stared at the arcade game. “How did he get inside?”
    â€œProbably squeezed in through the prize chute,” Elias said. “The problem is that it’s not big enough for Virgil to get himself and the toy out at the same time.”
    Virgil continued to lunge around inside the booth, scattering toys and stuffed animals.
    â€œHe’s not going to leave his prize behind,” Hannah said.
    â€œI like a guy who has his priorities straight,” Elias said.
    He went around to the back of the machine and took out his tool case again. He selected a tool that lookedlike it