“Sean is the MacGuffin,” Cassie said around her mouthful of dinner. We were having something I called Everything Bagel Shrimp Gumbo, made of all the stuff I could find, catch or steal from Gary.

The distant radio was playing more Cab Calloway: Everybody eats when they come to my house…

I passed Cassie a little dish of reddish beans. “Try this stuff, I made it for Gardeners, but if we could all eat the same kinds of food it’ll save me some steps. What’s a MacGuffin?”

Cassie, Schmendrick and I were at the new wooden picnic table at the top of the little hill that let us see out over the forest. The sun was going down and the Gardener’s lights were coming on. Strings of rainbow beads, like Christmas lights, traced their way along the treetops, all the way down to the edge of the water.

“You’re damn ig-nant,” Cassie said. She took a forkful of rice for herself, then fed Schmendrick a grilled shrimp with the same fork. “Alfred Hitchcock, the movie guy, right? He said the MacGuffin is what everyone in the movie fights over. Sean is a ghost one of those.”

“Have you talked to him yet?”

“No, sounds like a roofie dispensary, if I may be so bold.”

I smiled around the alien rice. “Yeah, that was him. He’s different now, usually. Spacier. Full of regret. No actual body.”

“Good for him.” She was looking a lot better; being one of the Hunt agreed with her. She fed her friend another shrimp from her own fork. Schmendrick was into this; she’d sit there motionless with her mouth open, waiting patiently for a hit of the gumbo, and gobbling it down when it arrived.

Cassie watched with satisfaction. “This kicks ass, Owen. The food here is incredible.”

“It’s all Gary’s thugs and their crops, and Schmendrick’s gangsters catching stuff.”

“I don’t like it,” said Schmendrick. “Burned meat. But it makes Cassie happy and fatter.” She opened her mouth for another shrimp.

“You do too like it,” Cassie scolded. She patted the furry round side of Schmendrick. “Eating for three, after all.” She shot me a side-eye. “Ever cook for Mandy?”

“She doesn’t eat. Her bodies are war machines, or karate heroes, or teeny little kaijus. Food isn’t a thing she does.” I didn’t want to get serious; it was great she was in a good mood. However: “Sean mentioned something in Harrigan’s camp called the pipe. Know anything about it?”

“No.” Her brow furrowed. “The pipe. Did he say it was important?”

“I think I might have died trying to wreck it. Or I got close to it without knowing, and…” I made an explosive gesture with both hands.

“I don’t think I’ve heard of him talking about any pipe. And he talked to me before I left.” She frowned. “Great man besieged by fate stuff, like Vincent Price but irritating.”

“Who's Vincent Price–”

“Owen, see Cassie.” Schmendrick’s voice had the snap of command she used in her lessons. Then she held her mouth open again until I put one of my shrimp in there. “Do it, please,” she said with her mouth full.

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But I’m on the case, chasin’ down clues, solvin’ the crime…but she was the Yoda to my Luke. I obeyed.

I was getting better at seeing the connections between souls. There they were, leading like intricate sunbursts from Schmendrick where she lay in loaf shape on the table, from me, even a tiny, faint one into the unsouled Cassie’s Quantum Resonance Tag deep in her heart.

It wasn’t easy. It was a little like “Magic Eye,” those old gimmick pictures where you have to cross your eyes to see a three-dimensional image slowly emerging from static. But I was getting better. I couldn’t form limbs or brain cells like Schmendrick, but she’d said she was proud of me for how far along I was, and that made me feel okay.

“Cassie, she’s teaching me magic, a little. It means right now that I can see how we connect. You and I, we’re cool. But I see another thing, a stronger sort of spiderweb, between you and Schmendrick. You’re friends, so you gotta give her your shrimp.”

“Right away. I want to learn magic, Schmendrick.”

“Later. First Owen needs to be sad. What else do you see?”

Sad? What did I see…looking deeper. Looking…

I saw a thread from her heart (here I realized I was staring at her chest) stretching across the ocean. It was strong, stronger than the thread binding her to Schmendrick. It glowed and flickered with non-light.

“Armand,” I said.

She sat bolt upright, almost knocking the beans over. “He’s alive? He’s okay?”

“I assume it’s him. Schmendrick?”

“He’s Husband Cassie? Yes, I see. He’s alive over there in that place, if you can see the web.” She opened her mouth again, I gave her a shrimp.

Cassie sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “Oh god. Doc showed me videos…” She straightened. “I want to get Armand out of there.” She looked at me, then Schmendrick. “I don’t know what to do. I barely made it out myself.”

Her earlier cheerfulness was gone, if it had been genuine at all. “Tell us,” I said. “Do you want to?”

Cassie nodded resolutely and continued feeding Schmendrick; nothing for herself. “If I didn’t…go over here and…you know… Doc said he would restart everyone. He showed me what that looked like. He said he’d leave everyone unfinished. All except me, and I’d have to … I’d care for them.”

“Unfinished,” I said.

Her mouth firmed up. She gave Schmendrick a bit of onion, and Schmendrick spat it out.

I swallowed. “You’re one tough hombre, Cassie.”

“He’s still there!” Her eyes were wild. Absurdly she waved the fork around in a sad gesture, ignoring Schmendrick’s open mouth. “What if we can’t get them away after all?”

“We will,” I said, and I knew it was true. One way or another, Doctor Harrigan wouldn’t have those people any longer.

Schmendrick shut her mouth, her eyes widened, her ears went up. She was looking out to sea. Without turning, she said: “Owen. I’m sorry. See Mandy. Now, it’s time.”

“What? Why?” Mandy had left after the war council, off to punch Godzilla in the kidneys or karate-chop Cthulhu, one assumed.

“Do it please. I’m sorry.” She ignored the offered forkful of Cassie’s gumbo, watching me. “I love you, please do it.”

So I did it again, the Bonus Content Vision, and saw the connections leading from my soul, my heart, to the other people I knew.

There. The single strong, bright thread leading to the most smokin’ hottest girl in the world. The one who’d gone to the worst place I’d ever been and tried to get me out.

The thread intensified, became more solid. I tried to touch it with my regular old non-magical hands. No dice, it was like trying to grab at a laser pointer.

“What's he doing,” asked Cassie.

“Learning sad things. Be quiet, I love you.”

Sad things?

A burst of pain seared the back of my neck. I yelped and grabbed it with both hands.

Terrible grinding aches jumped from my left thigh.

The pain didn't stop. It kept throbbing with someone else's pulse, not mine. Impossible to think. All-consuming.

“Holy crap Schmendrick what is this?”

“Mandy. You see her.”