The intercom on Dee’s desk buzzed softly. “Ms. Dare has returned, sir.”

“Send her in.” Dr. John Dee swung his leather chair away from the view of the streets of San Francisco. A slender red-haired male secretary held the door open and allowed Virginia Dare, laden down with bags, to stride into the enormous glass and chrome office, boot heels clicking on the marble floor.

“I love shopping,” she announced.

Dee looked at the secretary. “Thank you, Edward, that will be all. You can go now, and thank you for staying late.”

The man nodded. “Will you be in tomorrow? There are some papers that need signing.”

“I’m not sure at the moment. And if anyone is looking for me, I am still away.”

“Yes. I issued a press release earlier saying that you were in Hong Kong,” the man said, backing from the room and closing the door.

“You look stunning,” the doctor said, turning his attention back to Virginia. He sat forward, carefully placing his burnt hands on the desk. Although he’d coated them in aloe vera and a numbing cream, they were still stinging, and blisters were starting to form.

“Why, thank you,” Virginia said with a smile. “I want you to know that you paid for everything, and it was all very expensive.”

“You always did have expensive tastes,” Dee said.

Beneath a heavily fringed waist-length black boar-suede coat, Virginia was wearing powder blue jeans, a red Western-style shirt and a black lizard-skin belt that matched her black cowboy boots. Sinking into a chair facing the English Magician, she propped her boots up on the edge of his desk and stared at him across the slab of black marble. “I had forgotten what great boutiques there are in San Francisco.”

“When was the last time you were here?” he asked.

“Not too long ago,” she said vaguely, “but you know I do not like to spend much time in the Americas-there are too many sad memories for me here.”

Dee nodded. He avoided England for the same reason.

“How are your hands?” she asked, changing the subject.

“Sore,” Dee said, holding them up. “What’s frustrating me is that if I could use my aura for just a single instant, I could heal them.”

“Yes, and alert everything in this city to your presence.”

The Magician nodded. “Exactly.”

“I presume you have a plan?” Dare asked.

Dee sat back in his chair and swiveled around to look out across the city again. “I always have a plan,” he said. “I was just thinking about it when you came in. Almost everything is in place.” He pointed into the night. “Alcatraz is out there. My company owns the island now, and access is restricted. All the cells are filled with monsters and there is a sphinx wandering free.”

Virginia Dare shuddered. “I hate those creatures.”

“They are useful. We thought it would be able to control Perenelle Flamel. We were wrong.”

“We?”