“A magician I hired can’t vanish the Opera House! Make him bring it back!” “But – but this is my event!” Maria says, flustered. Ages ago Copperfield did a trick where he made the Statue of Liberty vanish for a few minutes – I think this is O’Reilly trying to outdo him.” He must have abandoned his stage when you disappeared for real. His voice is strange, distorted, but you know it’s him. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the real show.” “Is this a camera trick?”Īs if answering her, a booming voice comes through the screens. No steps, no sails, just the darkness of the harbour beyond. The screens from the theatres have gone black, and on the outdoor ones… the Opera House has completely disappeared. Through the TV screens, you hear a loud, collective scream. You see five buttons, and one piece of paper. Hundreds of tourists are milling about the area. Some show footage from inside the theatres, some from the Opera House steps. There are buttons, machines, and TV screens on every wall. And behind it is a room the likes of which you’ve never seen. Why would O’Reilly have set up an elaborate passage from the stage to somewhere else? The mechanical skills to pull it off must be insane.įinally you reach another door, unlocked. Now that she’s out of danger, you’re feeling less nervous and more curious. “Now, where are we? Where does this tunnel go?” You’re interested in this secret you’ve found. He must have concealed you behind a secret panel or something, making you invisible to them when he re-opened the door. “And now – my new assistant has vanished!” The audience gasps. Moments later, you hear O’Reilly speaking to the audience. It’s dark, but you see something on the back wall of the box. “Step inside, assistant.” O’Reilly smirks. For the second time tonight, you walk onstage. You raise your hand, and as if he was watching your seat all along, O’Reilly points at you. That’s a perfect place to hide a kidnapping victim. Indeed, an empty, human-sized box is onstage with him. “Who among you,” he booms, “is brave enough to step into my disappearing box?” Intense music pounds through the sound system, vibrating along the floor. Your seat is right up front! And there’s O’Reilly, tall and imposing. You walk up to the usher manning the main theatre and proudly brandish your ticket. Oscar O’Reilly: The World’s Greatest Illusionist You aren’t sure how you’re going to show your wits to O’Reilly to prove to him you’re one of his accomplices, but you’ll have to try. Viola and Gregor are performing at small booths at opposite ends of the foyer, Elisio is in the Drama Theatre, and O’Reilly is of course centre stage in the Joan Sutherland Theatre. The crowd inside is swelling in four different directions, attention divided between the four magicians. You bite your lip and send a text to Maria. Illusionists specialise in making things disappear. Surely not Viola, Sage of Sleight – what help could card tricks have been in a kidnapping? Although someone good with their hands is most likely to be a thief… He'd know how to tie someone up, right? Or maybe Gregor the Mentalist used his psychic powers to do it. If you can convince the kidnapper you’re one of them, they might tell you everything. That torn paper in Maria’s photo mentioned unseen, witty accomplices. But if Maria, who works here, doesn’t know, what chance do you have? You venture up the escalator and through the foyers, wondering where they might have hidden her. Your friend’s just been kidnapped by one of the world’s greatest magicians because she stumbled upon a secret plot to steal something from the Opera House. This isn’t a big deal, you assure yourself. “I think one of the magicians has kidnapped me.” There’s a long pause before the next message: a single sentence followed by a photo. It’s dark, my left hand is tied to something so I can’t move, and my reception’s going in and out.” But then someone grabbed me from behind and everything went black! Now I don’t know where I am. I was going to throw it out, but when I read it… I’ll show you, I took a photo. “I was in the foyer alone, setting up, and I found a piece of paper on the floor. “Well, come out! The shows are starting and I need my ticket to get in.” You groan great, she’s late – let’s see her excuse. You’re dying to see his work in person – if you ever get in.Īs if on cue, your phone buzzes with a new text. Apparently once, in Budapest, he transported his entire two-hundred-person audience outside without them noticing, and not even other magicians know how he did it. Illusionists always have the flashiest stunts, and O’Reilly’s even better than most at keeping his tricks secret. Which one, you wonder, is going to put on the most spectacular performance? The most hyped has been Oscar O’Reilly.
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