2: The Little Golden Key

Many of the magicians who attended the announcement had decided to get rooms at the hotel. The line to check in was getting long.

Just then, a big group of reporters came shuffling across the lobby. The reporters were moving in a tight group. They were shouting questions.

“I think they have Brack,” said Ty.

The group of reporters moved right at the boys. Soon it engulfed them.

“What tricks will you do?” one reporter shouted.

“Oh,” said Brack when he saw Charlie and Ty. Brack was in his elevator-operator uniform again. His face showed the stress his announcement had created. “Hello, you two,” he said.

“Why have you been in hiding?” another reporter said.

Where have you been hiding?” one more asked. Ty rolled his eyes.

“What’s going on?” Charlie asked Brack. He had to shout to be heard over the gaggle of reporters. He struggled to shuffle along inside the ambling crowd.

“Why are you retiring from magic, after being gone all these years?” said another reporter.

“Follow my lead,” Brack said to Charlie and Ty. He shuffled one way, and the crowd followed. Ty and Charlie shuffled along with him.

“He’s heading for the elevator,” Ty muttered to Charlie.

Ty was right. When they got very close to the elevator bank, Brack put a hand on the boys’ collars, stepped backward into the open elevator, and then quickly closed the door. The reporters were stuck on the other side.

“Whew,” Brack said, taking off his hat. “I knew this would cause a ruckus, but I wasn’t prepared for so much attention.” He shook his head slowly.

He pulled keys from his pocket — he had a lot of keys — and flipped through them until he found a very small golden one. Then he raised the keys to a tiny door on the elevator control panel.

Illustration of Brack unlocking elevator with little golden key

“I never noticed that before,” Ty said.

On the little door was a keyhole. Brack used his little golden key, turned it to the right, and the elevator started going up.

“A secret floor,” said Ty in a hushed, sacred voice.

He looked over at Charlie and narrowed his eyes. “Did you know about this?” he asked.

Charlie glanced at Brack, who had a twinkle in his eye.

“Uh, yeah,” Charlie said.

“I can’t believe it, Hitch,” Ty said. “I can’t believe it!”

For a second, Charlie saw a glimmer of the old Ty — the biggest bully in school, not his friend.

But then Brack said, calmly, “I asked Master Hitchcock to not say anything to you, Master Yu. I wanted to tell you myself, you see. The problem was, time ran out. I’m very sorry.”

“Oh, that’s okay, Brack,” Ty said. “I get it.” He narrowed his eyes at Charlie again, but the angry look was gone.

The elevator climbed and climbed. The dial above the door swung slowly, higher and higher. It went past the top floor and kept going.

Ty looked at Brack quizzically, but he just smiled and watched the dial climb.

Finally, the elevator stopped. A bell dinged. The doors slid open.

“Whoa,” said Ty. He stood there, dumbfounded, as Brack stepped out.

Before them was Brack’s house on the roof. “Pretty cool, huh?” Charlie whispered.

“Uh, yeah,” Ty said. “I can’t believe I never knew this was here.”

“Welcome to my home,” Brack said. He walked up the front path toward the big wooden doors of the mansion. “Please, follow me.”

Inside, Brack headed straight to the kitchen, a sunny room at the back of the house.

“Have a seat, you two,” Brack said. “We’ve a lot to discuss.”

“What’s on your mind, Brack?” Ty asked. He flipped around a chair and sat down. “Should we call you Abracadabra now?”

Brack laughed. “Don’t be silly,” he said. “Why, if anyone calls me Abracadabra, I’ll know to keep my guard up.”

“What do you mean?” Charlie asked as he sat down at the table.

Brack sighed and sipped his tea. “For a long time,” he said, “I was the most famous magician in the city, maybe in the country.”

“Pff,” said Ty. “You were the biggest magician in the world, probably ever.”

“Perhaps,” said Brack. “When I founded this hotel, though, I became quite an attraction. That much is certain. For many years, young magicians from all over the world wanted to share the stage with me.”

“Sure,” Charlie said. “Who wouldn’t?”

Brack nodded. “At first, I was honored,” he said. “But then it became clear: most of these young magicians were just looking to grab their own piece of fame. They didn’t respect me. They didn’t care about me at all.”

“Harsh,” said Ty.

“Indeed, it wasn’t long before a new breed of magician began showing up, right here at the hotel,” said Brack. “These were true cutthroats. If it would help their careers to take me down a notch, or eliminate me entirely, all the better. They’d stop at nothing to achieve their greedy goals.”

“At first I tried to help,” Brack went on. “Soon it became too hard. When many tried to take advantage of me, or even try to put me down or set me up for failure, I realized I could so easily just disappear.”

“Poof!” Ty said. He snapped his fingers.

Brack chuckled. “Not quite like that,” he said. “That’s how I would have done it in a magic show, of course: in a grand puff of smoke, like at this morning’s press conference. But I had something different in mind.”

“So you became Brack,” Charlie said. “The mild-mannered elevator operator.”

“Precisely,” Brack said. He frowned. “Now that I’m back, those fame-hungry magicians will begin hounding me at any moment. This time, I’m ready for them.” He lifted a card from the table and passed it to Ty.

“I sent these out yesterday,” Brack said. “Every magician in the country will be getting his or her invitation today.”

Illustration of invite

Ty looked at Brack, his eyes wide. “You’re inviting them?” he asked. “I thought you didn’t want to see these people!”

“Oh, I can’t stop them from showing up,” Brack said. “But this way, I will have the upper hand in two ways.”

“Which ways?” Charlie asked.

“One, they will all be here at once,” Brack said. “They’ll spend all their time trying to impress each other and knock each other down. They won’t pester me.”

“And two?” Charlie said.

“Ah,” said Brack, smiling. “That’s where you boys come in.”

Ty and Charlie leaned forward.

“The party is tomorrow night,” Brack said. “And you’re both very important parts of it.”

“Us?” said Charlie. “We’re not magicians.”

“Indeed,” said Brack. He stood up and brought his teacup to the sink. “That’s why I know I can count on you two to keep an eye on everyone else.”