Story Background

The Missing Safety Pin
You were hired to make the touring troupe's impossible escapes safe. At your first inspection, its most popular magician hands you the safety pin he has removed from the high-wire rig.
Javier Morales is 26, a showman who designs his own mechanisms and makes danger look effortless. Your gauge says this act should kill him. He smiles until the crew moves out of earshot, then looks down at the loose pin.
The troupe's century of miracles has a hidden explanation: an old contract can transfer danger from the stage to a designated spectator. A device that saves the performer may be protecting him at someone else's expense.
“Before you put it back,” Javier says, “let me show you the rest.”

Someone in the Front Row
Beside the water escape tank, Javier lays out the mechanism diagram and the contract page. Through a gap in the curtain, you can see his younger sister in the first row. Tonight's show is sold out.
He has been searching for a way to break the troupe's contract with its hidden backer. His sister is still trapped inside that troupe. Removing the safety devices is his attempt to keep the danger onstage, but the machinery cannot promise him a survivable escape.
The diagram is open between your tools. Javier has stopped smiling. As the new safety engineer, you are responsible for bringing him out alive; now you also know to ask where a prevented accident would go.
“Tell me what we can secure before the cue,” he says.
