The former Matrix character "Ghost" understands that Emmett and Jake are trying to keep their noses clean and be part of normal society in an environment more modern--and restrictive--than their native space-time coordinates. But Ghost, accustomed to urban-guerrilla existence, is not trying to be respectable, and so is under much less restraint. He sets out on a hunt without telling anyone else what he is up to. The hunt takes him to a city much larger than Horse-With-No-Name-Ville.
The Snow Queen has not felt too keenly the loss of her major magic powers--because, just as Jake said, she has been compensated by the media establishment treating her as if she can do no wrong, solely because she is beautiful and exciting and does not contradict any liberal dogma. So, with Aslan leaving her in peace for the present (maybe, she wonders, just satisfied that she can't make any more trouble?), she does not feel so vulnerable as she once would have expected to feel in the event of losing both her magic and her servants.
Rather, she HAS NOT felt vulnerable...until tonight.
Sleeping in a luxurious hotel suite, the celebrity called Queenie by some is awakened in a most unaccustomed fashion: by iron hands grabbing her with the speed of striking snakes, flipping her onto her belly as if she weighed nothing, forcing her arms behind her back, handcuffing them together, turning her face-up again, and pushing something into her mouth to block any outcries--all done faster than she can react to.
The unfamiliar voice of her captor hisses, "I am not here to harm you--which is doubtless quite different from YOUR customary treatment of those you captured. Yes, I know who you really are, though I have never had the displeasure of meeting you till now. I have come on my own account, not at anyone else's prompting; but I will tell you freely that I know the man about whom you spoke on that television broadcast.
"I am about to free your mouth to speak. Don't yell and force me to hurt you. Anyway, the security guard is unconscious for awhile--no permanent damage, but also no interference here." Removing the washcloth gag, he continues, "You said you wished to find Emmett. If you had spent more time in this dimension, which blends into the United States, you would know about his restaurant chain and could easily trace him by normal channels. But you don't come from any normal place, do you? So think of me as facilitating your search--or shall we say, screening it? What is it that you expect to gain from finding Emmett? I say 'gain,' because any suggestion that you intend to GIVE him anything good is laughably absurd. Speak up: what's your true agenda?"