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We stayed in contact with Luke via his cell phone. They had made good progress on bicycles they ‘borrowed’. Their owners wouldn’t be currently using them anyway. Luke ran ahead for the next miles and checked whether the coast was clear of Virus Control Patrol cars. If it was, he’d return to Samantha and Gregory who’d then ride that passage. It took so long because they had to make a big detour around all the bunkers but if all continued so well, they’d be here by the next evening.
I sat in the living room with a map of the northern part of the US east coast on my lap. In the background we had the TV running with the depressing death and execution announcements. Everything was night flu related.
“What if we ask all the Sirens we know to come here and then we send a message to Dr. Palmer that we have magical powers and don’t agree with what he is doing? He’d have to react on that and surely come here.” I said to Melissa.
“I don’t think they’d come here themselves,” Melissa replied. She was looking up hospitals in the area which had a good reputation according to Dr. Palmer’s website. “They will send an army of dedicated people in the VCP who will attack us with their arms. That will only lead to a fight which we won’t win because we are not enough.”
“Right, if they sense a threat, they won’t come.” I put my forehead into my hand to perhaps pull out a better thought how to get Monica’s personal attention.
“We could also go through a hospital and publish that we have found a working remedy against the flu. Then, perhaps Monica would want to meet us, and we wouldn’t have to endanger the people in the shelter. The closest hospital which—” Melissa stopped dead in her sentence and looked at the TV. I automatically turned my head toward the screen as well and instantly felt I was getting light headed. It was one of those breaking news reports and it showed how my boyfriend was vigorously waving his arms toward an audience of people. I grabbed the remote control so that the map fell off my knees with a rustle and turned up the volume.
...in Massachusetts a young man has turned insane. He is publicly calling people to destroy all our efforts for which we have worked so hard in the past months. A reporter was saying. Then they showed the video in full screen and with sound. We heard how Alex asked the people listening to him whether they really believed bad magic existed. Whether Alternatives were actually cursing the world. The people in his audience didn’t really know how to respond and exchanged a few insecure glances. Alex continued that in that case, he’d disarm their biggest fear now. He waved and circled his arms while chanting that he’d curse them all with the night flu. ‘Can you feel anything already?’ He demanded to know and lowered his arms. Then, three armed guys approached him. One of them told him to stop and Alex asked why, because they couldn’t in their right minds believe he was able to curse someone. That anyone was able to curse someone. Of course, Alex couldn’t shut up then but had to ask whether he was endangering anybody by showing them in what kinds of lies they believed in.
I dug my fingers into my knees, already knowing this wouldn’t turn out well for him.
Alex continued and asked whether they didn’t see how ridiculous it was that so many people let themselves be imprisoned in a bunker because they were suddenly afraid of being cursed with a flu.
The guy from the VCP had enough and gave Alex’s head a good hit with the back of his gun so that Alex sunk to the ground.
I flinched and fought against squeezing my eyes shut.
He calls it ridiculous that over thirty thousand people have already died because of the night flu. The reporter was twisting his words around. The critical danger of it is that we have no idea who we are up against and therefore the best way to guarantee people’s security is a radical one. We can’t downplay the magic aspect now that we have made such progress. Numbers of deaths are going down daily, and you can rest assured we will stay on it.
“The numbers of dying people are going down because there are less magical creatures which they can kill,” Melissa muttered under her breath.
This fellow from the shelter in Orleans, Massachusetts..., they showed a still frame of Alex with ‘Alex T.’ faded in below the screen, ...will have to answer to treason and endangering of society at his execution next Tuesday at 5 o’clock eastern time.
I pulled down my cheeks that my eyes formed a grimace but other than that was unable to move. Paralyzed by fear what would happen to him if we couldn’t get him out before Tuesday. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Melissa’s mouth was moving but my brain couldn’t decode her words. The unbelievable part about it was that Alex was intelligent and most likely even knew what he was doing. But why did he go off on his own?
I got up and went to the door. “We have to get him out of there.”
Melissa was next to me instantly. “Wait. We can’t just storm the shelter now.”
My shoulders sagged. “Okay, maybe not right now. But we could sneak into a truck and let ourselves be transported inside the shelter, get him out and disappear again.” I wouldn’t idly sit in the house anymore and practice singing now that Alex’s life was directly endangered.
Melissa grabbed my shoulders and made me look into her eyes. “We can’t just storm the shelter. They take their security controls seriously and watch every person who comes and leaves. It would be far more difficult than sneaking into a congress. Plus,” Melissa swallowed, “perhaps Alex did us a favor. His act was important enough that they showed it on TV. How can we make it even more notable, so Monica and Dr. Palmer find his execution important enough that they come watch it?”
“You mean, we use Alex as our bait?” I ran my fingers through my hair. I didn’t like that idea one bit.
The TV program had turned back to the tribute show of the flu deaths and I rewound until I could see the picture of Alex. At least he was wearing the magical whistle on a black shoelace around his neck.
“Well, Claire has said that Dr. Palmer is on an execution tour at the moment”, Melissa tried again. “Perhaps with this news they will extend the tour to Cape Cod.”
I took a breath and contained myself. The worst was that from how I knew Alex, creating this kind of commotion might have been precisely what he wanted. But what was part two of his plan in case we didn’t save him? I rubbed my eyes, too tired to really think. “Do you believe this little news video will be sufficient to make his execution important enough for Dr. Palmer himself to attend?”
“I don’t know what they are basing their choices on, but we should give them some more reasons to come.”
“We have to go through Themba. He is closest to them.” I kneaded my fingers. “Of course, Roisin is even closer. If she sees the video, she will recognize Alex. I strongly hope it will bring some sense back into her.”
Melissa frowned, walked back to the couch and sank down. “We can’t count on her. But Themba could spread the message within PaNacea that Dr. Palmer needs to attend that execution. And maybe we could hang up some banners on the fence of the shelter in Orleans, saying that the night flu is only an invention of PaNacea. If PaNacea realizes an anarchy is building here, Dr. Palmer will come and make a statement.”
I grid my teeth. “Or they will blow up the whole shelter and that will be their statement.”
Melissa pressed her lips into a flat line, knowing I was right.
“My priority is to get Alex out alive.” I had already lost my family. Alex was the best thing about my present and without him, my future seemed pointless.
Melissa nodded. “Okay, Themba can support us but we need more help from the inside. Monica needs to feel like she made the decision herself to come here. Perhaps, Claire could hypnotize some of the other security guards since apparently this isn’t a form of detectable magic.”
I slowly exhaled feverishly trying to come up with a better idea. I hated that we’d have to ask Themba and Claire another favor. Unfortunately, spreading the word from the inside of PaNacea made the most sense. It would be least suspicious. I sighed. “I’ll call Claire.”
Claire picked up and I told her about Alex and what we had in mind. She still hadn’t had another chance to meet Themba, as the TV reports showed they were currently in France for an execution. Claire said that in that case, she’d go there and try to connect to Themba and she’d see what she could do about hypnotizing some security guards. Hopefully, they’d then travel from France directly to the US to come to Alex’s execution.
After we disconnected the call I felt churned up. I looked at Melissa gloomily. “What am I supposed to do now? I feel like I should help Claire or at least be her rear cover and at the same time I definitely should be close to Alex.”
Melissa took my right hand into hers and gently squeezed it. “You try singing some more now. I will join Claire and once the wizards are here, you call me and let me know what your plan is.”
I didn’t want her to leave me in this dark house alone. It was selfish, but it was nice to have some company. Otherwise, the silence would be so oppressing that I wouldn’t be able to push away the fear of losing Alex. “Okay,” I heard myself say as if someone else was speaking. Surprising myself, I threw my arms around Melissa’s neck and pressed my face into her thick brown curls. “Promise me you’ll stay safe,” I whispered. Even though I had often given her a difficult time. I couldn’t accept that she was my closest person to a mother here – nobody could replace my mom. But now, my heart convulsed in pain. I needed her. Her kind words and her willingness to guide me and be there for me no matter how mean I had sometimes been to her.
Melissa returned my hug and softly rubbed my back. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll take care. It’s more important that you stay focused and save us all. You can do it.”
She smelled nice. Peachy, like a summer breeze. I wanted to hide in her hair forever and accepted her agreeable backrub a little longer. However, it was time to face reality.
“Thank you,” I said and drew my head back. For the back rub, her words of encouragement, but also for everything else she had done for me and I hope she realized that. “We will let you know about our plan.”
Melissa nodded, squeezed my shoulder one more time and then went to pack a few things to bring to France. I accompanied her to the door and gave her another hug before she left. After I closed the door behind her, I dragged my feet back into the empty living room. As I passed the small mirror on the wall and saw my face, I gave myself a fright. My skin was as white as a blank sheet of paper and my eyes shown a little darker than normal. Great, as one could see, I was handling pressure very well. Once more I thought the Orbiters had put their faith into the wrong one.
Looking for some guidance, I filled up a bucket of water in the stream behind our house and regarded the water surface. “Come on, Orbiters, tell me how to get out of this mess.” I waited for images to appear on the water. Water surfaces were their usual method of communication with us if they did not summon us into the black fog. However, I did not receive a Puddle and the water stayed clear. With a sigh, I dumped the bucket out. I felt the strong urge to run to the shelter and find Alex. However, now that Melissa, Claire, and Themba were endangering themselves again, I had to fulfill my side of the bargain as well. I positioned myself to practice in the living room. Like a robot, I switched between focusing on my energy flow and starting to sing. It was a crumb of comfort that it worked better every time. After about my eighth try, I noticed two quick heartbeats in the area. I had to be vigilant for it could have been the VPC and therefore went to check who it was. Luckily, I found Luke jogging through the woods with the two wizards in tow. I returned to the house and set out two glasses of water and crackers for them. After all, they’d had a long journey.
Luke opened the door and I was instantly glad that the dark house filled with life again.
“Thank you so much for coming.” I nodded at the couple. “You must be hungry or thirsty.”
“Thank you.” Samantha accepted the glass of water and sat on the bar stool. Her height reached up to my nose which made her about 5’6”. She was wearing a long green spring coat and black tights with black boots. I’d have guessed her to be a secretary at a bank. Her short red hair was neatly combed down to the side and she had small but sparkling ear piercings. Gregory grabbed a cracker first. He was wearing black plaid pants and a leather jacket with a long and thin striped scarf. A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face from his black hair behind the holder of the thin, round glasses.
“So, you know why you took this journey upon yourself?” I asked.
“I heard Dr. Palmer is not actually the big brain behind this. Which is a fascinating idea.” Gregory rubbed his hands to wipe off a few crumbs.
“And the two of you will use magic when it comes down to it? Despite the ban?” I wanted to make sure.
“Of course.” Samantha nodded. “The ban is just for the safety of the wizards since magic triggers PaNacea’s alarms. When we use magic against Monica directly, she will notice it anyway. So, the ministry gave me and Professor Turnesol an exception.” She looked at Gregory. “Our powers won’t automatically disappear when we use them. If afterward, everything goes back to normal, everyone will be allowed to use magic again.”
“Good. So, you probably haven’t seen it yet, but we might have a window to attack Monica next Tuesday.”
Luke made big eyes and the others were listening intently. I swallowed. “My boyfriend got himself into trouble and therefore will be executed.” I clenched my jaw.
“Um, what?” Luke asked.
“See for yourself.” I showed them the recording of the news flash.
“Oh, damn, Alex has nerves,” Luke said.
“Why did he do that?” Samantha furrowed her brows and Gregory had an incredulous look on his face.
I shook my head. “I think he wanted to help us. I’m just not sure what exactly he thought would come of it. However, because of that, I must be at the shelter next Tuesday and Dr. Palmer hopefully as well. Melissa, Claire and Themba are working on convincing Dr. Palmer to come here.”
“Oh, they will come. They will react against this act of rebellion.” Samantha said. “So far, they have been brutal with any kind of uprising.” She turned her gaze to the ground. “So many wizards have lost their lives since the VCP gained popularity.”
I realized there was as much at stake for them as it was for me. We all had the same goal; to finish Monica and return to normality.
“However, even if they don’t react, I will go to the shelter before Tuesday. If it comes down to the shooting, I have to help Alex.”
“Of course, we have to help Alex, but it wouldn’t be smart to let you go there if Monica isn’t,” Luke said. “We’d still need you to weaken her with your singing.”
I threw him an evil glance.
“I’ll go in there and get him out if they are not at the execution.” Luke tried to soothe me. “You know that I wouldn’t let anything happen to him.”
“Yes, but there are so many humans. You might get distracted. No offense. But I must do everything within my power to help him. I couldn’t forgive myself if he died but it would be even worse if I hadn’t even tried.” I took a deep breath and Luke remained quiet.
“So, if I understand correctly, you will magically interact whether this Monica is here or not. Either, we get her this time, or it will become slightly more difficult again afterward.” Gregory summed up.
I pressed my lips together which was answer enough. Then, I hit my fist on the table so that the others flinched. “They have to come. Monica wouldn’t expect a magical attack.”
“Unfortunately, this is not a wish-granting hat,” Gregory said.
“Can you re-hypnotize Dr. Palmer from outside the shelter or would you have to be in there as well?” Luke asked.
“To take over, he has to look me in the eyes. Afterward, it doesn’t matter so much.”
“So, you have to be in there no matter what, in case they show up, so you can get to him when Nathalie is singing.”
“Right,” he frowned.
“It’s alright. If you are using magic anyway, we might as well break you out afterward.” Samantha said and then looked at Luke. “You need to go back to The Library and get some teleporters on standby. People who are able to beam themselves with other people in tow,” Samantha explained upon my questioning glance. “This way we can be transported to wherever Monica is after the execution, in case she isn’t there. We can’t worry about potential losses anymore and have to go all in.” I didn’t expect such a straightforward statement out of such a short woman. She was clearly used to giving orders to people. “Try to find Paul Matthews”, she added.
“Okay,” Luke said.
I exhaled. “So, Gregory and I will join the shelter tomorrow. We can pretend to be hungry because we haven’t found food in ages.” I said. I was kind of curious to know how life in the shelter would be.
“That’s the first step,” Samantha said. “Now we should work on potential scenarios to get Alex out and to stop Monica.”
I got some sheets of paper and a few pens. Luke got on his way back to The Library to find a few teleporters and we immersed in different scenarios. The wizards were clearly tired since they had this long journey behind them. Yet, they didn’t show any sign of wanting to sleep and so we forged out plans all night.