Vassily Petofi is dead, and those kidnapped have been rescued. They find now themselves responsible for a large amount of miniaturized people inside the magic egg, making them self-suficient, giving them a working self-government and preparing them to be assimilated into U.S. society.
THE OTHER ROXANNE
Chapter 1
"Back to normal life" Barnabas said, while going over the mail that Vicky had been taking care of. "I see that you sent money to all of these."
"I thought it best... I know that you like to contribute."
"You did well. And thanks for taking care of the cats after George and Urien were taken."
"It was not much..."
"It was all that you could do."
"I would like to apologize to Megan for the things I said.'"
"For what, helping her to maintain the illusion she set up for Petofi? No, she was grateful to you. And she will want to apologize later to Phillip for the way she manhandled him... She did not believe it was him. She thought it was an illusion of Petofi. She was shaken though, that he could trace her. "
"Well, she used a word that she had used often with him. She thought that she was safe using it because the only one who knew what it meant was dead... "
"In any case, now she knows what not to do the next time she wants to disappear."
"Will you want to disappear one day?"
"Not for a while, Vicky, I am very comfortable here. Moving out might be too much of a strain. Would have to start making new friends, creating a small community... I am not looking forward to leaving Collinsport." he looked at the letters that she had set aside for him to look. "I will want to contact these organizations that deal with refugees and asylum for illegal aliens. I do not know how much credit I have with them, but any way I can get help from the it will be useful.. As George said, I should cash all the chips I have with them to get resources for the people in the egg."
"Are they really there? All those people?"
"Yes. And the plan is to teach them to survive in the U.S. so that they can move out."
Vicky shook her head. "If they had told me in 1966 what would be waiting for me in Collinsport, I might not have taken the job at all."
"And never met any of us?"
"Some of you I would miss... Others, well."
"I hope that I am among those you would miss."
"How's Derek?", Julia asked Kenneth
"I can do little for his knee. I think that he will limp for the rest of his life. "
"At least they got him out before the whip could do more damage."
"Yes. It could have been much worse. Why were they going to execute him for?"
'He killed Sebastian Shaw."
"Sebastian, the psychic?"
"He had turned informer. He could have betrayed the plan that Howard and the others were hatching... Derek took matters in his own hands."
"If that is true, he saved them all."
"Yes. And they had not even let him in the secret... They did not trust his judgment."
"And he turned to be the hero, after all."
"Why didn't you let me know?' Megan asked Howard.
"You might have told the others."
"I would not!"
"Megan, I saw the man who testified against me. I saw his face, I saw what his memories did to him...I knew that he would do anything, anything to keep it from happening again. I know that feeling, that determination. And I wondered how much you know of what he was afraid of... If you could be as frightened as he was."
"I would never...:"
"Megan, Vassily Petofi was a sorcerer of the same stripe of those who enslaved vampires. He said as much to Barnabas, that vampires made troublesome slaves... And you know what Petofi did to him... You have every right to be afraid of being enslaved, and to protect yourself any way you could... Let's say I thought better not to tempt you."
"It was not fair to me."
"No, but you could survive it. I might not, if I gambled on you and lost."
"Did you know that you were going to escape when you were tried?"
"No. Barnabas thought it would be better that I did not know. In case it did not work... He took the risk for Julia's sake. For my part, all I wanted was for it to end quickly."
'How was it done?"
"You'll have to talk to Barnabas about it. He was the one who set it up. As for myself, when I looked straight at that crossbow, I was sure that it was the end."
"Was Angelique in on it?"
"Not that I knew."
But of course, Angelique was in on it. She was the one with the power and the knowledge to do it. And probably her price for it was for Richard not to contact her at all...
Angelique was still quite jealous still, though her methods were more benevolent now...
"My leg can't be fixed." Derek said matter-of-factly to George. "Dr. Anderson said that I will have to live with it."
"I am sorry."
"Don't be. I am alive. And I am going to be Secretary of Special Education. or whatever. You know, like the Lord High Executioner."
"Lord High Executioner?"
"You know the song?" he sang it, a bit out of tune. "Taken from the county jail/ by a set of curious chances/ liberated then on bail/' on my own recognizance/ lifted by a favorite gale/ as one sometimes is in trances/ to a height that few can scale/ save by long and weary dances/ Surely rarely has a male/ under such like circumstances/ so adventurous a tale/ which may rank with most romances."
George laughed with this. "Yes, you are right. I did not know that you liked Gilbert and Sullivan, though."
"I am full of surprises, am I not?'
"Seriously now, what do you think of the situation? About the egg being restored on a temporary basis?"
"Howard might want to make it permanent."
"I am aware of it. And why he would want it so."
"His intentions are good, but... but he needs someone to keep and eye on him and keep him honest."
"And you are volunteering for the job."
"Yes.. As your deputy... you know, Howard may be counting on the people outside to forget somehow. We must not allow that to happen. Those people deserve better than being guinea pigs for Howard's idealism, not matter how well meant."
Dr. Taft studied Angelique. He had to find a way to word it carefully, and still there was no telling how she might take it.
He had announced the pregnancy of many women, and most of them had been overjoyed. And the ones who had not been, still had been accepting and had come to love the growing child later. But Angelique... he doubted that a baby entered in her plans, and as to how she might react...
"Well, doctor?" she pressed him.
He decided to bite the bullet. "You are pregnant, Mrs. Rumsen."
"Pregnant?" Angelique shouted this "Are you sure of it?"
"Very, very sure."
"How could it happen?"
But she knew the answer to that. It was for this that Vassily Petofi had had her mated with George on a daily basis. Vassily Petofi was dead, but the deed was done, and she was now carrying George's baby.
"What am I going to do?"
"You could notify the father... and if you need help.." Taft sounded of skeptical of Angelique needing help.
"The father is George Brant."
"But Brant... he... he does not go for women."
"He did not go for getting whipped, either. In any case, the child is his."