Rollie had missed Angie terribly on the set. He hadn’t realized how much she did on this set and he felt like he was lagging behind, trying to do her job as well as his. He worried about her back at the loft and had called her at lunch. She had reassured him that she was fine. She was working on his glasses that he would wear that night, making sure that the microphone and tiny camera were working properly.

Now, arriving at the parking lot, Rollie pulled up and parked. He turned around and smiled at Angie who was busily setting up the holographic imager for the projections into the crystal ball. They didn’t have to really talk, they just knew what to do- each complimenting the other’s tasks at hand and the final product yet to be undertaken that night.

Mira knocked on the door of the van, coming in with Francis and the cast from mid-town south who would participate in their little sham. Angie made notes on items that they gave her for significant comments that Rollie would make to them later. In essence, the entire show would be done to attract Czewt’s attention away from his own booth and then have Francis check out the other tent where the gypsy woman Eckvara had taken certain customers. Although Rollie had only seen her wiping something on their arms while he was in the tent the night before, Mira was adament that the drugs were in there somewhere.

Angie helped Rollie with the finishing touches of his mask. He looked about sixty-five now, wispy gray hair with age spots on his balding forehead. He put the glasses on and did a test spot for her as she adjusted the image on her screen. She bent over grabbing a transducer from the grab bag under the console and Mira smiled as she saw Rollie’s directional camera’s field projection come on Angie’s screen.

"Nice butt!"

Rollie scoffed at Mira as Angie saw her rear being displayed on computer.

"Great! That’s a nice test spot, my big …." Angie remarked.

"And a nice bum, it is…" the old man commented, winking at her as she bent over and kissed his rubbery mouth.

"Mira, you’re next!" Angie told her as they placed the mask on her, about four inches more of nose being added along with thirty more years of age.

"God, I am a witch!" Mira remarked, looking at the old crone in the mirror, "we’re quite a pair!"

Rollie looked over her shoulder in the mirror with her, smiling, "Hey Ange, you and me in our sixties…eh?"

"In an alternate universe," Angie said, under her breath as Mira giggled and scratched at her neck.

"Don’t scratch!" Angie warned her, "You’ll loosen the grip paste there."

"Ugh, this stuff is gross!" Mira said, making an even uglier image appear.

Francis shivered slightly; "with the way you two look, why do we need to use a magic crystal ball? Czewt will be so horrified with the way you look, he won’t be able to stay in the booth next to you."

"Are we ready to do this thing?" Rollie asked, loosening up, moving his head from side to side.

"Ready!" the old hag beside him echoed. The Mid-town South crew joined in as they left the van, streaming into the Garden to take their positions.

Angie felt the van dip to one side as Rollie climbed back in and came up to her, "I forgot to tell you something," he said, as Angie looked at the old man with Rollie’s brown eyes.

"Yeah, what’s that?" she asked, punching in a sequence set for her hologram image site.

"It was horrible without you today, on the set. I realized it within thirty seconds after arriving. I don’t think I have ever told you this Ange, but you really are the best! You’ve been saving my butt plenty and I just took it for granted."

Hearing him say "You’re the best!" brought back Loubar’s chilling line to her that night in the loft and she had to physically challenge herself not to pull herself back to that.

"Thanks, Rol…but you are the one and the only, Rollie Tyler! And everyone knows that! Now get out of here and fight crime in the big city!" Angie told him, shoving him away from her.

"Later, baby!" he said, doing a Burt Lancaster impression as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Go!"

He flew out the door and then adjusted his walk to his masked age once he hit the pavement. He caught up with Mira as Angie plugged in the camera projection to viewer mode.

"You guys watch yourselves!" she told them by remote.

"You bet!" Rollie responded and told Mira, "come on, Endora. We got to go look up Dr. Bombay and see what drugs he has for us!"

They set up their booth quickly with Mira waltzing around near Czewt’s tent, humming to herself as she noted his assistant, Eckvara pulling yet another customer into the next tent. Francis positioned himself near the back of that tent as Rollie sat down, the crystal in front of him, trying to get himself in proper form.

The mid-town south group had lined up by Czewt’s booth as planned, as if awaiting to get an audience with Czewt, when Rollie told Angie softly, "And away we go…"

Mira brought in Alex Joyner, a detective on the vice squad who sat down in front of Rollie, folding his arms across his chest in a defiant mode.

"I don’t believe in no fortune tellers!" he started, in a loud, boisterous voice.

"They believe in you, Alex! Why, your mother in Cleveland just called you last night about how lonely she was!" Rollie began, as he stroked the crystal slowly and the ball began to fill with cloudy vapor. A sudden image of Alex’s mother appeared in the center in holographic form.

Angie smiled as she saw the ball do its thing. She clicked on the next sequence, Joyner’s child, a boy of eight with brown hair and freckles.

"Your boy, he is not well, he has an illness- it is something having to do with bleeding…" Angie triggered the red, vaporous cloud sequence as Rollie mentioned this and Alex remarked loudly;

"He’s a hemophiliac! My God, you’re amazing!"

Several people that had been standing in Czewt’s crowd, suddenly migrated over to Rollie’s booth. There was a sudden unison of "ah’s" as Rollie predicted another startling detail as it projected from the crystal.

"You have won a free ticket in Lotto tonight!" Rollie waved his hand over the ball but no image appeared. He repeated it again, with a nervous break of sweat appearing on his forehead.

Angie had dropped the lotto ticket and was trying to scoop it up off the floor and put it under the holographic imager. Cursing, she finally had it set and sent the image to Rollie.

"Ah, the crystal wants you to know that playing games of chance can be risky to your wallet, sir!" Rollie remarked, sighing deeply as the image of the lotto ticket appeared and he relaxed.

"Hey, this guy is great!" Alex said loudly to the on-looking crowd.

Rollie took a few more customers, all mid-town south employees who all did well with their "oohs" and "ahs", loud enough to start pulling Czewt’s crowd over to Rollie. Mira was getting them all lined up and smiling, cackling softly as Frank waiting for her signal.

Nicholas Czewt looked over at the infidel. He grumbled under his breath as Eckavara appeared by his side, watching the scene at the next booth. Standing up finally, he walked over to the edge, studying Rollie’s technique.

Rollie had just amazed the crowd with another stunning feat of imaged psychic ability. Czewt saw red and finally, opened up his gate and walked over to the booth near Mira. Eckvara soon followed, her face betraying her skepticism as well. If Mira knew anything about this gypsy king, it was he didn’t like being upstaged.

Frank saw his opportunity and ducked into the tent.

"Hey Angie," he told her, checking his transmitter.

"Read you loud and clear, Frank!" she told him, touching her ear transmitter softly.

"I’m in and looking around."

"Okay, I’ll tell Rollie."

She punched back into Rollie’s transmitter and alerted him that Frank was inside, "Keep the gypsy king entertained, Rol!" she told him, grinning to herself.

Rollie was showing Deedee Hines, Captain Vanduran’s secretary, her dead brother’s whereabouts in the spiritual world. As Deedee feigned her wonderment and bereaved sense of startled amazement, at the sight of her brother’s image wavering inside the crystal, Czewt crept closer and frowned.

"We got a lot of little patches in here, Angie. Each one of them is in a little baggie, like jewelry baggies. They are like 2 inches by 2 inches each, uniform in size and," Frank paused, and Angie could hear him sniffing the patch, "hmmm, smell like hashish."

"Bingo!" Angie remarked, smiling.

"Yeah, must be thousands of these little patches in these baggies. Great! I got to get one of these tested and then, man- oh man, we got the dirt bag," Frank replied, laughing softly.

Suddenly Rollie said something into the transmitter to Angie that startled her back to the task at hand, "Oh, the forces of evil are returning to their old haunt."

"Frank," Angie hissed into the transmitter, returning to Frank’s transmitter, "Get out of there, they are coming back!"

"Outta here," he replied, just seconds before Eckvara flipped open the tent flap, her face displaying suspicion. She sniffed the air, hands on hips.

"Whoa," Angie commented back to Rollie, "That was close. Tell Mira that Frank got some action in there."

"And now, my lovely assistant, Endora- honey, I am so tired. How about telling the good people we will be back tomorrow night!" Rollie quickly announced as Mira took the hint.

"Okay, folks! That’s it for this evening. Come back tomorrow for a chat with my man." She waved them off but Czewt didn’t budge. He was leaning over the booth, looking at Rollie who was picking up the crystal ball and putting it back in its box as Mira picked up the rest of the gear.

"So, what are you really, my friend? A used car salesman or perhaps, a cemetery plot salesman, eh? Czewt asked Rollie, in a condescending voice.

Rollie looked up at him, frowning, "Why, just a old man with some ability to see into the crystal ball," he told him, his voice scratchy and high, portraying his elderly age.

"Hmmm, I see. Interesting type of ability. You see, I love a good fake. I enjoy them, actually. You aren’t even a good fake. You aren’t even a good liar. You make my profession and my heritage as a fortune-teller a mockery! Go back to your used cars, you ridiculous person!" He made a sign with his fingers at Rollie, then touched them to his lips as he backed away, never dropping his eyes from Rollie’s.

Rollie shivered. The man had something, he gave him that. His powerful presence commanded some sort of strange undertow. Rollie felt like he had seen right through him.

Mira and Rollie finished packing up and started to leave. Eckvara came out of the second tent and watched them leave with Czewt. She smiled at Czewt who caressed her cheek and smiled back.

Mira met up with Frank at the entrance, "Let me get this mask off and I’ll go with you to the lab. I want to bust this guy tonight!"

They all made it back to the van where Angie was busy on the internet, her face showing total concentration on a website.

"Well, don’t get up and welcome the conquering heroes, here," Rollie commented as he came in with Mira in tow and Frank.

"Huh? Oh- I was checking up on that hand thingy he did to you, Rol. I almost got it, now…" she said, eyeing him quickly, and back to her screen.

Mira shrugged her shoulders as Rollie assisted her with removing her mask. She was peeling off the excess paste from the edging when Angie jumped up suddenly from the console.

"Rollie!"

"Yeah? What is it?" he asked, in the process of removing his own mask and rubbing his face.

"That sign that the gypsy did to you with his fingers…I found out what it means!"