‘I don’t understand why you seem startled,’ Volta said with more than his usual dryness. ‘We haven’t been providing your training without some expectation of return. We consider you what we call a free agent. We assume you will listen to various requests for assistance, though of course you retain the right to refuse, or to suggest alternatives. No more teachers, unless you wish to arrange further study on your own. And remember one of Wild Bill’s better lines: “When the teaching ends, learning begins.”’
‘So what am I needed for? To grow dope? Gamble? Crack safes? To disguise myself as an Italian waiter and find out what the Secretary of State discusses with his mistress over the scallopini?’ Daniel’s sarcasm belied his excitement.
‘Nothing so mundane. This is much more in tune with your romantic nature: a jewel theft. An extraordinarily difficult theft, I warn you, but it is an extraordinary jewel. To steal it, you will have to surpass Jean Bluer.’
‘You just finished saying––’ Daniel began, but Volta cut him short.
‘What’s the ultimate disguise, Daniel?’
Daniel considered a moment. ‘Invisibility, I guess.’
‘Exactly.’
‘I’m not quite able to do that yet.’
‘I am,’ Volta said. ‘Or I was at one time.’
‘Actually become invisible, right? Dematerialize? Poof?’
‘Vanish is the term I use. And no poof. It’s more like slipping underwater.’
‘You’re telling me you could vanish into thin air?’
‘Or thick.’
‘No offense,’ Daniel said, ‘but I’d have to see it. And then I’d still probably have to believe it.’
‘You’ll have to take it on faith. I gave up the practice years ago. It was too dangerous for me. And it might be even more perilous for you.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I think you’d like it.’
‘First I’d have to do it.’
‘Let me assure you, Daniel, if I didn’t think you were capable, I wouldn’t mention it. Do you think I’m unaware what an outlandish claim it is, especially when I’m not prepared to demonstrate? And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’ve never met another human being who had the power to vanish. I’ve tried to instruct six people before you, without success.’
‘Not even an arm? A finger?’
Volta ignored him. ‘I discovered it by accident. I was near death, adrift on the ocean. A woman on the boat that rescued me claimed her mother, a Jamaican shamaness, had vanished once in her practice and found it such a dangerous and treacherous state of mind that she never tried it again. When a woman accomplished in the spirit arts says a practice is dangerous and treacherous, that should command your attention. This is for real, Daniel, this is for keeps. School’s out.’
Daniel held up a hand. ‘Wait a minute, now. I thought you said you were going to teach me.’
‘I couldn’t call it teaching. That would be an insult to people like Wild Bill. All I’m going to do is share my experience, which might be wholly inapplicable. The best I can do is point at the mountain and hope you find a trail.’
‘How long would it take me to learn?’
Volta shook his head. ‘No idea. None. The other people I’ve tried to teach all gave up within a week.’
‘I suppose it’s arduous and requires great concentration.’
‘Naturally. Immense concentration; pinpoint focus; enormous clarity. It takes everything you have.’
‘Is this jewel worth it?’
Volta said, ‘Properly, that’s for you to decide.’
‘Have you seen it?’
Volta hesitated. ‘Well, I’ve dreamed it.’
Daniel shook his head. ‘I’m getting lost. You want me to vanish into your dreams?’
‘Good Lord, no,’ Volta blanched. ‘That’s exactly what I don’t want you to do.’
‘So, what is it exactly you do want me to do?’
‘Steal the diamond.’
‘So, it’s a diamond?’
‘Yes, though it’s a bit like saying the ocean is water. The diamond is perfectly spherical, perfectly clear – though it seems to glow – and it’s about two-thirds the size of a bowling ball. I think of it as the Diamond. Capital D.’
‘Who owns it?’
‘No one. The United States government has it at the moment. We want it. And to be honest with you, Daniel, I particularly want it, want it dearly. I want to look at it, into it, hold it in my hands. I had a vision involving a spherical diamond, a vision that changed my life, and I want to confirm that it was a vision of something real, the spirit embodied, the circuit complete.’
Daniel was smiling. ‘You’re going to love this. That dream I wanted to talk to you about, my first since the explosion? It just happened to feature a raven with a spherical diamond in its beak. Obviously, it wasn’t as big as a bowling ball, and there was a thin spiral flame running edge to edge through its center, which made it seem more coldly brilliant than warmly glowing, but it sounds like the same basic diamond to me.’
‘And what do you think it is?’
‘I think it’s beautiful.’
Volta gave him a thin smile. ‘If I were more perverse than I already lamentably am, I would say it is the Eye of the Beholder. In fact, I don’t know what it is.’
‘It might be a dream,’ Daniel said.
‘Very possibly,’ Volta agreed, ‘but I don’t think so. I think – feel, to be exact – that the Diamond is an interior force given exterior density, the transfigured metaphor of the prima materia, the primordial mass, the Spiritus Mundi. I’m assuming you’re familiar with the widely held supposition that the entire universe was created from a tiny ball of dense matter which exploded, sending pieces hurtling into space, expanding from the center. The spherical diamond is the memory, the echo, the ghost of that generative cataclysm; the emblematic point of origin. Or if, as some astrophysicists believe, the universe will reach some entropic point in its expansion and begin to collapse back into itself, in that case the Diamond may be a homing point, the seed crystal, to which it will all come hurtling back together – and perhaps through itself, into another dimension entirely. Or it might be the literal Philosopher’s Stone we alchemists speak of so fondly. Or I might be completely wrong. That’s why I want to see it. If I could actually stand in its presence, I’m convinced I’d know what it is. I would even venture to say, at the risk of rabid projection, that it wants to be seen and known.’
‘But you’re not even sure it exists,’ Daniel said. ‘Right? And hey, it’s tough to steal something that doesn’t exist, even if you can be invisible. The more I think about this the less sense it makes.’
‘Then think about this: Two days ago, Navy divers searching for the wreck of the Moray – you might recall it was a nuclear submarine that vanished without a trace in 1972 – found a mysterious object on the ocean floor exactly on the Greenwich Meridian. According to our information, the object appears to be a spherical diamond that “glows” – whatever that means. It has been taken to a government lab for tests and observation. We’re not sure where it is at the moment; there are rumors it’s being moved. That’s what Jean was called away to work on, as well as Smiling Jack and some of our other best people. Including you, I hope.’
‘And you really think I might be able to do it? Actually vanish?’
‘I think you’re the most likely candidate I’ve ever known.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘A number of reasons, but essentially because you want to vanish.’
‘I do?’
‘I think so, yes. But what concerns me is that I’m not certain you will want to come back.’