Correspondence and Desperate Entreaties
Kate whistled softly as she opened her mailbox. Please no more bills! She silently screamed. In anticipation of the horrors that might come from her seemingly harmless mailbox she shut her eyes and clenched her teeth. She reached in and to her great relief felt only the rough texture of old paper, not a stack of bills. She was able to breathe again, so she withdrew the one and only letter. It certainly was an old envelope, she thought to herself. Her curiosity piqued, she could hardly wait to find out what was inside. There was no return address, but whoever wrote it had a beautiful fluid writing style. She turned it over, the yellowed paper crumbling a bit in her hands. Oddly enough on the back the letter had a scarlet seal with a very curious stamping. It portrayed a flying bird, a falcon it seemed, holding a book in its beak. She also noticed to her amusement that it had a bucket over its head, was wearing spectacles, and had a raincoat folded over one wing. Goodness, it certainly was a strange letter, and she wondered who in the world had sent it to her.
She dashed inside her small yellow house, forgetting to close the mailbox in her haste. She stood in silence for a moment, hesitating in the hallway before she popped the seal. Neatly folded inside were a practically antique newspaper, a map, and a few folded pages of a letter with the same symbol stamped on the bottom in ink. She walked to her study, as she called it, sat in her overstuffed leather chair and read.
Dear Kate,
I trust that my letter finds you in good health; it has been much too long since we last saw each other informally. I am deeply sorry if my sending this letter brings back tragic memories of our last encounter, but I had to write you. For a long time I have been aware of suspicious activities going on involving Mr. Curtain. As we all know, he is still under lock and key at the Stonetown Harbor Institution, and has not left or been in contact with anyone other than Mr. Benedict, Constance, Number 2, Rhonda, Milligan, Sticky, You, certain trusted government officials, and I. All were above suspicion until only recently. On July the 9 of last year I found out from a well placed spy in the institution that Mr. Curtain was secretly exchanging letters with one of the highly trusted government officials. I immediately gave orders with Mr. Benedict's assent that no one was to interrupt or let on that they knew that this was occurring, but instead to see if they could, as secretively as possible, find out where and who the letters were coming and going from. Two weeks ago I received word that they had pinpointed the source and the sender. As soon as I knew this, I ordered my operatives to try to lay hold of all incoming and outgoing mail. Twelve days passed and we finally caught them in the act of exchanging letters during a routine visit. The official was immediately placed under Milligan's care and was interrogated during the night but revealed no major evidence. The letters, whoever, were a different story.
When I received word that the letters had been captured and the traitorous blackguard was arrested I rushed to capture the sender, but found the headquarters completely abandoned to my utter dismay. I was disheartened by this turn of events, but when I saw the two letters my mood changed. No longer was I depressed. I was horrified. The incoming letter was from a Dr. Adhita Naagesh, and it held truly terrible news. It seems that Mr. Curtain had previously been studying the possibility of a brainwave distorter. Simply put, it can mute brainwaves or change their meaning and function to whatever the controller wishes. Thankfully, silencing brainwaves is an extraordinarily complicated process and when Mr. Curtain was apprehended at Third Island Prison he had not yet finished his research. Unthankfully, there was someone else who did. The Indian Neurophysicist Dr. Adhita Naagesh, a close colleague of Mr. Curtain, took up the research were Mr. Curtain left off. The production of the highly sensitive machine took longer than it would have if Mr. Curtain had been overseeing the project and it has now been Sixteen years since Dr. Adhita took over. The machine is now fully operational.
The outgoing letter was Mr. Curtains elated response and his detailed instructions about how to proceed. Mr. Curtain planned to be broken out of confinement by a new group of Ten Man led by none other than McCracken. But that's not all. Mr. Curtain doesn't want to spend the rest of his life working to rebuild his precious Whisperer, he is growing old and needs another option. His only option was Constance. Constance had visited numerous times over the years and through these visits he had learned of her mental faculties. As she grew older his monstrous plans grew with her intelligence and brain power. He planned to kidnap Constance yet again and use her mind to send brainwaves of his choice into the mind of every human being on Earth, and she would be powerless to stop it. He may still be in jail but I am absolutely certain that Constance is in grave danger. Kate, enclosed with this letter are the directions to our rendezvous point, it is not safe to meet at Mr. Benedict's house. You positively MUST come. We need you urgently!
Forever yours,
Reynard Muldoon
Kate's head spun as she rested it on the back of the chair. She stared again at the name signed gracefully at the bottom of the page. She sighed, it certainly did bring up bad memories but she knew she would go. How could she desert all of her former friends? How could she desert Constance? It was unthinkable on her part, and for that matter she didn't remember why she left in the first place.
She sighed and walked to her bedroom to pack. She threw in a few clothing items and toiletries and was about to walk out the door when she realized she hadn't even looked over the directions! Kate dashed back to her study where she had left the letter and everything else in her carelessness. She grabbed up the map and saw to her displeasure that it was not going to be easy to find out where she was going as there was no destination plotted on it, and there were no directions on the back. She really hoped that Reynie wasn't trying to do one of his annoying brain teasers; she remembered he had started doing those quite frequently right before she left. Oh well, I can handle it, she thought confidently. Kate picked up the newspaper and caught her breath when she saw the date. She quickly flipped to the Advertisements, and her eyes welled with tears as she saw the familiar words, "Are you a Gifted Child Looking for Special Opportunities?" It was THE newspaper, and suddenly her mind was filled with wonderful memories of days spent learning Morse code in the shade with friends, discovering clues and deciphering riddles, and feeling like she had a purpose.
After a moment of wiping tears from her eyes and face she looked again at the newspaper. She flipped back to the beginning and scanned the first page. Kate noticed nothing out of the ordinary so she looked at the next. Halfway down the page circled in black ink in a column discussing the Emergency was her first clue. It was the word "Where". She wrote it down on a piece of crumpled up paper nearby. She enthusiastically raced through the paper, writing down all the circled words and punctuation she found. A few minutes later she sat gazing at the message before her. God, he wasn't going to make this easy.
~To Be Continued~
Next Chapter:
Perilous Crossroads and Crazy Drivers