The Ambitious Card (An Eli Marks Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page A

me what this is, now then .”
    Grey did his best to cover a sigh. “It’s a ring.”
    Nova quickly rattled off her next request. “I’d like you to tell me what it is made of.”
    “Gold.”
    The woman smiled and nodded to the crowd, to let them know that Grey had been correct. The crowd applauded, some of their lost enthusiasm returning. Nova handed the ring to the woman and moved away, searching for another candidate.
    “Grey, next we have a man—”
    He cut her off brusquely. “For our next exercise, we will continue to strengthen my connection with the other side. For this demonstration, my assistant will pass out several recent magazines and books.”
    Nova looked surprised at the sudden shift in plan, but obeyed and headed back toward the stage. As she moved around the back row of seats, she passed an audio speaker resting on a stand. As soon as she moved in front of the speaker, there was a tremendous shriek of feedback. Nova held her free hand up to cover her ear. She clicked the off switch on the microphone, silencing the feedback and then she scampered toward the stage. There she picked up a silver tray that held a stack of magazines and books.
    As new age music played through the sound system, Nova moved smoothly through the crowd, distributing the periodicals and books. By the time she reached me, the tray was empty. She shrugged impishly and turned back toward the stage, putting the tray under her arm while she flipped her microphone back on.
    “Grey.”
    “Yes, Nova,” he answered, still seated stiffly on the stage, his eyes covered by the black fabric.
    “Distribution is complete,” she said.
    Grey then instructed those audience members who had received a book or magazine to page through it and find a single page, and then to concentrate with all their energy on that page. As I looked around the cavern I could see that people, God love ’em, were attacking the assignment with relish. Those who hadn’t been lucky enough to receive one of the books or periodicals appeared to be wasting no time in assisting their neighbor in finding just the right page.
    The first person selected from the audience was a heavy-set man in a blue denim work shirt and suspenders. He was holding a magazine. He held the cover up to Nova and then turned the magazine toward her to reveal his chosen page number.
    “What is your name?” she asked.
    “Scott,” he said, leaning awkwardly toward her microphone.
    “Grey,” she said, turning back toward the stage, “your first reading is with Scott. Scott has this week’s Time magazine and he is looking at page thirty-one.”
    “ Time magazine,” Grey repeated. “Page thirty-one. Look at that page and concentrate, Scott. Think of nothing else.”
    He held a hand up to his forehead dramatically, and then lowered it. “Scott, I’m having trouble seeing page thirty-one, because I’m seeing an advertisement for a ladies’ razor, which consists primarily of a photo of a woman in a bathtub, shaving her legs. She appears to be completely naked, although I hasten to point out that the advertisement is in fine taste. However, there is no number on that page. Is that the page directly across from thirty-one?”
    Nova held the microphone up to Scott, who shrugged his shoulders sheepishly. “Yes, it is. That’s an ad.”
    Grey chuckled. “That was your first choice, wasn’t it, Scott? But you didn’t want to admit that to us, did you?”
    “That’s right,” Scott mumbled into the microphone as the audience laughed.
    “Thank you, Scott. You may sit down.”
    He sat amidst the good-natured teasing of several pals around him. Nova moved across the aisle to an elderly woman who was holding a paperback book. “What is your name, ma’am?” Nova asked.
    “Bernice,” the white-haired woman said softly. Nova looked at the book the woman was holding and the page she had the book opened to.
    “Grey, Bernice is looking at page seventy-four of Shakespeare’s Macbeth