The woman was standing with a group of other people, all of them dressed in what looked like black leather uniforms. Several of them had their hands raised, and they looked like they were holding glowing blue stones. At the top of the poster was written CIRQUE DES ÉTOILES PRESENTS: BATTLE FOR EARTH.
Six had no idea what this was. She scanned the poster, looking for more clues, but there were none. Now she was even more confused. If she wasn’t in some kind of Mog facility, where the hell was she?
“Are you here for a fitting?”
Six whirled, the weapon in her hand held at her side and out of sight, at least for the moment. Looking at her was a young, slight woman with blond hair pulled into a ponytail. She was holding a clipboard. She didn’t seem at all shocked or worried to see Six running loose in the hallway.
“Sorry about the lights,” the girl said. “Something went wrong with the electricity. But it’s back on now.” She laughed. “Obviously. Anyway, you’re probably looking for the costuming room, right?” The girl’s gaze moved past Six to the poster, and she laughed again. “You look a lot like Camilla,” she said. “Are you her understudy? They said a new girl was coming in. I can’t believe Lara left right before we open, but a lead on Broadway doesn’t happen every day, right? Anyway, she’d probably never get a chance to go on. Camilla is never out.” She put her hand to her mouth. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I mean, maybe she’ll let you play a matinee once the initial excitement wears off and the crowds slow down. Which will probably be never once people see how amazing this show is. I mean, wait until you see the monsters.”
“Monsters?” Six said. She was getting more confused by the moment. She’d expected to encounter Eleni, some other Mogs or even humans who were working for them. But nobody seemed to find her presence there at all alarming.
The girl shook her head. “They’re flipping fantastic. Bigger than anything we’ve ever had. People are going to lose their minds.”
Nothing the girl said made any sense to Six. “Who are you?” she asked.
“Oh, sorry. I’m Allison, the assistant to the assistant to the assistant costuming coordinator.”
“Okay,” Six said, even though she still had no idea what the girl was talking about. “Well, Allison, I need to make a call. Do you have a phone I could use?”
Allison shook her head. “We don’t get reception down here. But there’s a phone in the lobby.”
“Lobby,” Six repeated. “Now we’re getting somewhere. If you could just show me how to get there, that would be great.”
“Um, you had to walk through it to get down here,” Allison said. “You just take the elevator back up.”
“Thanks,” Six said, and started to walk away.
“What about the fitting?” Allison asked.
Six was going to ignore the question. But then she thought about it. She still had no idea where, exactly, she was. It obviously wasn’t a Mog base, but there had to be some reason why she and Sam had been brought here instead of to a more secure facility. She needed to call Nine and find Sam, but she didn’t know where Sam might be and she had nothing to actually tell Nine at the moment. While she was anxious to be taking action, it might help if she took a few minutes to see what she could find out. Reluctantly, she turned around.
“Right,” she said. “The fitting.”
Allison beamed. “Come with me, and I’ll get you set up.”
Six followed Allison down the hallway.
“What other Cirque des Étoiles shows have you been in?” Allison asked.
“None,” Six answered.
Allison looked shocked. “Wow. You must be really good. They usually only let people understudy the principal roles if they’ve done at least a couple of the touring shows. What’s your primary skill set? No. Wait. Let me guess. If you’re understudying for Camilla, it’s probably aerial.”
Six didn’t know what that meant, but she nodded.
“Yes,” Allison said. “I’m getting really good at guessing just by looking at people. I mean, some of them are obvious. Like, if you’re under five feet tall, chances are you’re a tumbler. And the clowns are always easy to spot, usually because they look sad. You’re graceful and obviously really fit, so aerial makes sense.”
They came to a door, which Allison opened. “Welcome to Wonderland,” she said as they walked into a room bursting with color.
Everywhere Six looked there were costumes. And not ordinary costumes. These were covered in feathers and sequins, jewels and ribbons. Several people were trying on various things, while a team of people with scissors and tape measures swirled around them, pinning things and making alterations. Things were getting stranger and stranger, and making less and less sense.
Allison led Six over to where a group of three people were examining the bluish-purple scales on a bodysuit worn by a muscular man.
“He still looks too much like a dragon,” one of the men said with a sigh. “We need less dragon and more terrifying space lizard. Or whatever. Just make it work.”
“Devin,” Allison said. “This is . . .” She looked at Six.
“Jess,” Six said, pulling a name out of thin air.
“Jess is understudying Camilla,” Allison said.
Devin turned, gave Six a sweeping glance from head to toe and back again and said, “Did you fall in a mud puddle?”
Six looked down at herself. She’d been through a lot over the past couple of days, and did look pretty awful. But that was the last thing on her mind at the moment.
“I, uh, kind of got caught in the rain,” she fumbled.
Devin arched an eyebrow. “In Vegas?” he said. “It hasn’t rained here in like three months. You look like you not only fell into the fountain at the Bellagio, but then rolled in the street afterwards.”
“It’s been a long couple of days,” Six snapped.
“I’ll just leave you two to get to know each other,” Allison said briskly. “Good luck,” she whispered as she passed by Six.
Devin walked around Six, making vague noises. When he came back to stand in front of her, he said, “You look more like her than Camilla does. She’s not going to like that. And you have a better body. She really isn’t going to like that.”
“More like who?” said Six.
“Number Six,” Devin said. “You know, the role you’re understudying for? I know we don’t call her that, but everyone knows that’s who she’s supposed to be.”
“Six,” said Six. What the hell was going on? she wondered. Then she remembered the poster in the hallway. “Right. Battle for Earth and all of that.”
“Mmm,” Devin murmured as he walked over to a rack of clothes. He selected some things and returned. “Here,” he said, thrusting a pair of hangers at Six. “Try these on. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Six looked around. “Right here?” she said.
Devin rolled his eyes. “Dressing rooms are for stars,” he said as he walked away.
Six moved to a corner of the room with fewer people in it, and undressed as quickly as she could. She pulled on the clothing that Devin had given her, which consisted of a pair of leather pants and a leather jacket. They fit Six almost perfectly. The pants also had a convenient pocket for stowing her homemade knife. She looked at herself in the mirror and was surprised to see that she looked great despite everything she’d been through.