Ron Goulart - The Curse of the Obelisk

THE CURSE OF THE OBELISK 47
"You get many patients here who've been tossed off trains?"
"Well, in fact, no. You are my first, but then I am only a full-fledged doctor six and one half
months."
"This hospital is . . . where?"
"You are in Kaltzonburg, as a guest of no less a personage than Prince Rudolph himself."
Using the elbow of his good arm, Harry worked into a sitting position in bed. "The train I was
on . . . did it get through okay?"
The young doctor coughed discreetly. "Everyone is being very secretive," he confided. "It is my
impression, though, that this particular train has vanished."
"What do you mean?"
"It never arrived at its destination. There is no trace of it," he replied. "At least, so I hear."
"But Jennie . . . everyone else on the damn train . . . what happened to them?"
"They apparently disappeared along with it," said Dr. Hauser. "Let us perhaps change the topic
of conversation, since you seem to be getting overly—"
"No, damn it. I have to find out what happened to Jennie." He attempted to get out of bed.
"That wasn't even the real obelisk."
"You must not try to—"
The room became all at once smaller and greyer and it closed in on Harry. He passed out.
Fully dressed and fairly wobbly, Harry eased out of his hospital room. He'd been waiting at a
crack in the door for the past five minutes, watching. The off-white corridor was empty now.
Unsteady on his feet, he started down the hallway. He'd noticed, while doing his reconnoitering,
a door labeled stairway to his right.
The day had ended and the gaslights along the hall were on. The single narrow window showed
him a rectangle of bright-lit public square ringed by shops and cafés far below.
Harry was three paces beyond the window when a hand caught hold of his left arm.
"If you must go for a twilight stroll, my boy, allow me to assist you."
"Lorenzo," said Harry. "How did you manage to sneak—"
"I never sneak," the portly magician reminded him. "Being highly esteemed in royal circles, I
have full access to the Kaltzonburg Memorial Hospital, which was founded by Prince Rudy's great
uncle. I was about to peek in on you when—"
"Listen, I have to get the hell out of here," Harry explained. "Jennie's in trouble . . . someplace."
"She and a squad of Paris' finest, plus an obelisk, are missing."
"That's not even the real obelisk."
The Great Lorenzo nodded as he opened the stairwell door. "Yes, I understand you and
Inspector Swann worked a variation of my famed Chinese Tomb illusion and switched obelisks."