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“The person in C10, please stand,” Brent said as a woman stood up shyly “Would you reach under your seat and see if anything is there?”

The woman folded up her seat and retrieved a white envelope from the bottom of it

“Would you bring it to me, please?” Brent coaxed

She brought it to the stage, where Brent took it, thanked her, and asked her to return to her seat Brent ripped an end completely off and asked this volunteer to hold out his hands He hit the envelope, and a card fell into the audience member’s open palned card up for all to see as the audience ild

“Thank you You may keep that as a souvenir,” Brent said as the man returned to his seat “I have one more effect I want to share with you—”

There was a pop like a small explosion, and Pro found her hand went to her service weapon One of the lights in the illu frohts flickered She relaxed and took her hand out of her jacket

Brent looked back to the crowd “Nothing important, folks, just a—”

He stopped as the audience was “oohing” and “aahing” He turned back to the sign as a line began to appear over the logo in what looked like fresh blood Then, suddenly, the lines linked together to foran to drip onto the floor as it flowed out of the sign

Brent went as pale as a sheet He looked at the audience and then walked off-stage The curtain closed quickly, and the lights shifted

Shaut pushed his way through the front curtain “Hey, hey, sorry, folks, but one of the tricks went off early That was an effect for later in the show, and we’ll have to cut it now”

He looked over the croith a stuck-on s that this explanation was a lie She looked around the audience to see if she could find Max once again

“He ain’t telling the truth, is he?” Luther murmured to Pro

“That’s what my instincts tell me,” she answered as she continued to observe the room

Shaut went on to perform a trick directly in front of the curtain He had the audience raise their hands up, and selected a e and Shaut did a trick with two brightly colored balls e The ball disappeared frorip of the volunteer

When the subject went to return to his seat, Shaut insisted he wanted to give the man a present He then offered the man a watch, and the volunteer looked at his wrist to find that the watch was his own