In her apartment, Rosie sat with Tyler. Sherrington and Ram were still there, the former reading a book of his own and Ram reviewing some notes he had taken over the years. It may not have been how she expected to be spending her Thursday, but it was certainly a change.
Out of curiosity she asked: "How exactly do Cagliostro's gadgets work, his radio death ray and television burglary device? How do you know of them anyway?"
"Cagliostro has had a few other henchmen over the years." Replied Sherrington, not looking up from his book. "Adamu may be his constant henchmen, but it is from the additional ones he has that we have been able to learn about his devices. He and Adamu may be able to escape, but his other henchmen are never so lucky."
"Like Lee Harvey Oswald." Commented Tyler.
Ram nodded. "And Jack Ruby, whom Cagliostro had employed to tie up and lose ends. Then he abandoned Ruby to the authorities and so the man who shot the man who shot J. F. Kennedy died in prison."
"I always heard that he had been distraught by Kennedy's assassination." Commented Rosie, fidgeting with a lock of her hair. "That he wanted to spare Mrs. Kennedy the discomfort of coming back to Oswald's trial."
"That was his official claim." Stated Sherrington. "We were able to convince him that we knew about Cagliostro and that we would stop him. After that, he laughed and said the typical 'even if that is true, I'll never talk.' Nevertheless, we did manage to get it out of him."
"How?" asked Tyler, curious as to how they managed to get Jack Ruby to talk.
Smiling, Ram answered: "With a technique I picked up from—"
"Monks in Tibet?" asked Rosie.
Not the least bit bothered by being interrupted, Ram simply answered: "No, Jesuit priests in Nova Scotia."
Tyler raised an eyebrow. There was the mention of Jesuit priests in Nova Scotia again. What made them so important? He supposed that Tibetan monks were somewhat cliché, but still he never would have thought of Nova Scotian Jesuit priests as an alternative.
"So, what did he tell you?" Rosie asked. "Did he tell you how the radio death ray and the televisions burglary device worked?"
"To the best of his ability, Rosie." Replied Sherrington, putting his book down to have a sip of tea. After having his sip of tea, then explained: "Jack Ruby was a nightclub owner and so he was not as scientifically minded as Cagliostro is, so he could not explain how they worked as well as Cagliostro would have been able to."
"Why would Cagliostro have told him how they worked?" inquired Tyler. He could not understand why Cagliostro would let someone as expendable as Jack Ruby know how his gadgets worked.
"As a warning." Stated Ram. "He had told Ruby that if he ever double-crossed him then he'd use the TBD to steal his most prized possession and then the RDR to kill him! Ruby explained to us that even after the warning, he didn't believe they could actually do what Cagliostro could claim they could."
"Leading to Cagliostro's explanation of how they worked!" exclaimed Rosie.
"What did Ruby tell the two of you?" inquired Tyler, eager to know more.
"He mentioned that Cagliostro had worked with a 'Guglielmo Tesla', obviously meaning either Guglielmo Marconi or Nikola Tesla at one point, both men who had claimed to have invented death rays." Explained Sherrington. "My theory is that he may not have created the death ray itself, but stole the one invented either by Marconi or Tesla and has been updating it throughout the years, the same with his television burglary device."
"Well, of course…" commented Tyler. "Television has changed a lot in the years since… Whenever it was that he made the burglary device."
"Of course, if it was stolen from Tesla, the RDR may not work at all." Uttered Ram, once more looking over his notes. "He may just be keeping it as something to bluff with."
"That actually makes sense." Acknowledged Rosie. "Tesla's death ray was one of his post-1914 inventions, most of which didn't work."
"Well, that makes me feel better." Running a hand through his hair, Tyler then commented: "I know he said he wouldn't be using the death ray on us, but still, something like that sounds scary."
"If the death ray potentially doesn't work then I guess there is no need to explain how it works." Mused Rosie.
"I am glad you think so, Rosie." Commented Sherrington. "As much as Ruby explained to the best of his abilities, his explanation was confusing and headache inducing."
"What about the burglary device?" asked Tyler.
"It sounds more magic-based." Replied Ram. "Cagliostro merely needs to turn it on while thinking of the object he wants to steal and it will appear in the screen, while Cagliostro can then remove from the screen itself."
One device that potentially did not even work and another that only a magician could have made. That only begged the question of why Cagliostro did not try using his magic to get the death ray to work, though it was entirely possible that even a magician could not create a working death ray and that Cagliostro did not need one to work to be successful. All he needed was a good enough success rate to make people believe the radio death ray worked. Of course, that just begged the question of how many people actually believed in a working death ray? Admittedly, it was the stuff of science fiction, but millennia-old magicians were also supposed to be the stuff of fantasy, so supposedly a working death ray could be feasible, though that didn't change the fact that if had originally been built by Nikola Tesla, then it might not have worked at all and if it did, it may not have worked well. If it did work, but not well, it was possibly something with a time limit, possibly a very short one, and it was also possible that it was not even powerful enough to kill anyone, render someone unconscious or comatose possibly, but being able to kill someone could have been unlikely.
Standing up, Rosie said: "Well, if that is the case, I think I might go use the building's swimming pool. With Cagliostro having made it clear he wouldn't be using his death ray on any of us, I don't think we have to worry, nor do we have to worry about him using magic, he did consider us harmless after all. Besides, what is he going to do? Try to murder me in broad daylight? And I hardly think that television burglary device would work on a living person."
"Rosie, Cagliostro abducted my mother and her body was discovered a week later." Stated Ram. "Obviously, he is intelligent enough to not try and murder someone in broad daylight."
"Well then, he is probably intelligent enough to not try and abduct someone in broad daylight as well." Commented Rosie, as she walked into her room and closed the door behind her.
All this Cagliostro watched in his crystal plate. The girl was becoming overconfident that she was safe. Man, woman, overconfidence was such a good thing for his victims to have.