Roger Teaches Mitch How to Summon Ghosts
Jeff
"Hi Roger, it's Mitch? I dunno what they told you but we've got a little bit of a situation here. I was hoping I could tap your expertise, it's more your kind of thing than ... anybody else, I guess."
Bill
"Archie gave me kinda a version, but you may want to explain it in your own words. I didn't get from his version what exactly you're trying to do with, errr, Houdini."
Jeff
“Well, yeah, okay. So, there’s a Red King agent here. It seems like it’s the same kind as we thwarted in Oakland, which seems iffy straight off, you know? It says it’s been here since 1926 but who knows if it was here since 1926 last week, you know what I mean? Anyway instead of running amok and murdering everybody it doesn’t like, it’s trying to get us to do a thing.”
“Right, the thing with Houdini.”
“So what it told us is that back in the day Houdini learned a secret trick for moving through solid objects, which he incorporated into his act and did a bunch, fifty-three different places is what the demon claims.”
“And supposedly now that he’s dead ... part of the secret trick has resulted in his haunting the fifty-three places he did the trick. Like he’s spread out. And we have some evidence that there’s some kind of something in the site here at the hotel, but we haven’t had a chance to really search it because there’s a panel on radio station management going on.”
“Multiple panels, actually. It’s an all-day panel track.”
“Anyway the demon claimed that we needed to exorcise Houdini from the hotel auditorium. It implied that this would exorcise Houdini from the other fifty-two sites. The demon claims that if we don’t do this it will be bad in some unspecified way for History-A.”
“I think it’s lying about that part but we’re here and this seems like a mess to fix. Maybe we can ask Houdini about it, if we can get a hold of him.”
Bill
"Esse, we've seen some weird stuff, sure. But Houdini? Really? I mean, blows my mind."
Jeff
“So I guess we want to get a hold of Houdini and ask him if he thinks he should be exorcised. Because he’d know, right? Anyway we have a couple of old spiritualist ghost-breaker types who used to know Houdini socially but they’re not exactly action-ready and we haven’t told them about the demon angle at all. And we have a parts list for the show Houdini did here, most of which we can replicate or pull together.”
“I guess my question is, what?”
Bill
"What? Like, what parts do you need? You want to conjure Houdini's spirit, and talk to him? Heavy. Well, first thing first, you want to contact a spirit, you gotta have a connection. Place is a good one – their grave, where they died, lived intensely or for long. Sounds like you got a piece of that. But something they like is better. A loved one, a prized possession. And you also gotta be ready to feed them, their favorite, and have something to barter with. That's just how spirits are. Now Houdini, in specific, that's quite a big call. If it was me, I'd ask for help. This is what the Opener of the Way, he does. But I don't think I can get Papa Legba to work over a long distance call. Maybe, maybe not. You may have to ask him your own self. I guess I could put in a good word, first."
Jeff
“Is that Saint Peter, with the keys? Or is that someone else?”
Bill
"Yeah, yeah, exactly. You'll need something. I mean, this is Houdini. People try every Halloween to raise him in a séance. It's a whole thing. His beloved wife and partner from his acts, Bess – she tried every year for 10 years, and no dice, other than a one-time hoax. She kept a candle alive for him all that time while trying. You gotta have something she didn't if you want it to work. Heck, those friends of his you mentioned probably were in one of those seances, if they knew him that well. Or at least know what his favorite drink is. Probably not rum.”
Jeff
“Doesn’t sound promising. I grok why you’d say we need bigger guns.”
Bill
“I don’t know if you ran into the same SANDMAN people I did while having your ‘talents’ appraised, but they were a little in awe of Houdini from the water cooler stuff I heard. Maybe that’s a pointer that this ‘devil’ isn’t on the up and up. From the legends I heard, Houdini wanting to walk through walls sounds plausible, but to straight up use a major Annunaki power? I don’t know. Still. Esse! To talk to Houdini. That’d be solid. And maybe the reason the other seances didn't work is that they weren't in one of those right places ... ”