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tasseled cap with bells.
    The magician paused every few sentences to allow a Chinese translator to give a more or less accurate account in the local dialect.
    Indy shouldered his way into the crowd.
    The magician pointed to the right. There was a bang, followed by a red scarf that floated out of a puff of smoke. Indy ducked involuntarily at the report. The magician pointed to the left. Another bang, and a green scarf floated down.
    "Have you liked our show so far?" the magician asked.
    The translator asked the crowd.
    There was scattered applause and the beating of walking sticks on the ground.
    "Well, the best is yet to come!" she promised. "Please show your appreciation by whatever you can spare—a bit of change, some food, a good wish if necessary. While my assistant, Mystery, passes the basket for donations, let me tell you something about our family."
    She paused to allow the translator to catch up.
    Indy noticed that more Japanese soldiers were beginning to arrive around the square. He worked his way deeper into the crowd, toward the stage.
    "My name is Faye Maskelyne, and we are members of the world's first family of magic. Those of you who have visited fair London certainly know of our reputation, and those of you who have not had the pleasure will tonight see some of our finest illusions. But why, you might ask, are a mistress of magic and her able assistant touring for pennies in far-off venues when they could be earning a fortune and adulation undying from the comfort of their ancestral home?"
    The translator had a bit of trouble with this last.
    "I'll tell you," Faye continued. "The answer lies in the photograph that Mystery carries with her basket. Take a good look at it, friends, and tell her if you've seen this man. He is the object of our search. His name is Kaspar Maskelyne, and he is Mystery's father. He is also, of course, my husband."
    The Japanese had now surrounded the square. Lieutenant Musashi scrambled onto the hood of a truck for a better view. Her hair was still unbound, and she was directing the search with Sokai's unsheathed sword.
    "Kaspar Maskelyne came to the mysterious East four years ago, searching for a book of secret knowledge told of by the ancient Arab scholar, Ibn Battuta." Faye snapped her fingers and a book danced high over the heads of the crowd. "This book—the legendary Omega Book—contains a complete record of the lives of every soul who will ever live on this earth, and all of the secrets of nature. Every religion refers to it. There are different names for it, but it is the same book. And it can only be found with the aid of the Staff of Aaron."
    Faye snapped her fingers again, and the book disappeared. At the same time, a staff appeared from a cloud of smoke on the stage. Slithering around the staff was a snake.
    "The same staff that Moses turned into a serpent before the pharaoh's magicians, that brought down the plagues upon Egypt, and that parted the Red Sea. The original magician's wand!"
    Faye clapped her hands. The snake disappeared and a flowering almond tree took its place. The translator was having a difficult time keeping up, and the crowd seemed lost.
    "You all know about Moses, right?" Faye asked. "The staff turning into an almond tree in the desert? Okay, let's move on. You've all heard of the rope trick, right? Announce the rope trick, for God's sake."
    The translator did so, and the crowd made appreciative sounds.
    Mystery placed the offerings basket and photograph at the feet of the translator and returned to the stage.
    "Our old friend Ibn Battuta called himself the traveler," Faye said. "And for good reason, because in 1355 he went so far as to visit the court of the Great Khan, and it is there that Battuta first recorded an account of what has become the most famous conjuration in magic—the Rope Trick."
    Mystery dragged an oversized trunk onto the stage. She opened it, retrieved a small spear from it, and reached into the trunk for the end of a coiled