Part Six

The Long Spoon



"Manhattan, my boy?"

Remy nodded as he took another long swig from the plastic bottle. The driver, Dick, was not a drinker, so he could only offer him lemon tea. "Manhattan, mon ami. Dis is good." He lifted the bottle appreciatively.

"Rita works wonders with tea," Dick replied sheepishly and glanced at a photo of a woman slipped between the sunshades. Quite a good-looking one, Remy thought.

Just as soon as the highway loomed in the distance Remy had jumped off the highway truck and had hailed another lorry. It took him a while until Dick pulled over and here they were.

Thank God Dick was not one of those talkative souls. He focused more on his driving in order to keep his schedule. "Those clients will raise hell if I'm late even a minute, so I gotta beat the traffic," he told him once.

Remy's mind was elsewhere. Not too far, but not too close either.



"She's waking up."

Hank monitored her pulse and vital signs while Logan, Ray, Xavier and Elisabeth watched silently and impatiently. Just then Jubilee's eyes fluttered open. "Uhnn... where...?"

"Welcome back, kiddo," Logan said, openly relieved.

"Uhnn... where's Remy?" That thought seemed to galvanize her being and she sat up violently, trying to get off the bed. "Where is he? Where is Remy?"

Ray and Logan restrained her arms. "He bailed on us, Jubes. He ran away," Ray said.

"No - "

"Yes, Jubilee. Which makes it harder for us to determine whether he really did send that ad." Hank said. Holding up an empty syringe he shook his head. "He used this on you, my dear, to make a clean getaway. I supposed during that fight in the dining room he somehow extracted this from my pockets. I took precautions, you all see, in case he might fight back and thought this could save us some energy."

Elisabeth frowned. "Hank, you should have told us. You could have given it to someone faster than you. Me, for instance."

Logan shook his head, disgusted. "Doc, you coulda tell me yer plans. I'd be happy to stick that needle on that Cajun's butt. No charge needed."

Xavier moved toward Jubilee who had ceased her struggles but that restless look still hung about her. "Jubilee, you went through so much. Try to get some sleep."

"No," she said softly. "I'm not going to lay low on this. You all don't understand. It's not him, not Remy, but Louis! Louis did this all! Somehow he did, and this all is happening according to his plan! He calculated our moves, Professor, so that he can get to Remy all alone and - "

Suddenly the ECG gave out a high-pitched beep. Hank turned to it while the rest saw Jubilee suddenly tilted her head upwards and her mouth was wide open. Painful gasps escaped her mouth as her face began to turn pale and then she collapsed back on the bed, shaking all over. Just as then blood began to flow out of her nose and ears.

"Jubilee! Jubilee, are you all right?" Logan shook her as he called out to Hank, "Doc, what the hell happened?!"

Xavier quickly tried to establish a psi-link to Jubilee's mind, but even as he tried to reach her mind, he sensed something else pulled him along downward... and Elisabeth's mild mind dagger managed to cut the frightening link off. Elisabeth took hold of him as he staggered on his wheelchair.

"Hank, do something!" Ray shouted.

"Everybody get out! Elisabeth, prepare the life support machine and the shock treatment!"

"Doc, what in the seven Hells is wrong!?" Logan practically screamed.

"Get out!" Hank repeated, his anger equaled the intensity in Logan's voice.

"I ain't leavin' till I get answers!"

"She's slipping into coma, and you're not helping!"



Remy became aware of the present when he sensed something trickled out of his nose. His hand went automatically there and when it came to view it was covered with blood.

"Gimme somet'in' to wipe wit'," Remy said nervously. Dick passed him some tissue papers and gingerly he wiped his nose. He waited for more, but it seemed to have stopped just as sudden it had begun.

Just as then, as the buildings of Manhattan came into view, Remy sensed -- felt -- someone called his name. It left a creeping cold tingling down his spine.



Ten minutes later Hank walked out of his lab and angrily tossed aside his operating mask.

Logan suddenly came forward and grabbed him by the collars. "I don't like that, doc. Tell me somethin' I like to hear."

"I can do nothing, okay?! I don't even know what happened!" Hank angrily barked back. "I tried everything, Logan, and none seemed to do much help! What do you want me to do now, lie to you?"

Xavier's voice was a calming respite in the heated underground chamber. "What happened, Hank? What do you mean you don't understand what happened?"

Logan released Hank's collars with an angry stare and retreated to the shadowed corner. Hank watched him warily as he said, "It seems Jubilee had a sudden spell of arrhythmia." Gazes of disbelief bounced back to Hank and he nodded. "I know that sounds unlikely, but I made sure of it and the symptoms were similar to that of an arrhythmic patient; irregular heartbeats that exceeds to 300 beats per minute. What happened to Jubilee was no ordinary case. Her heartbeat just now exceeded 400 bpm."

Elisabeth silently added, "A normal heart cannot withstand such massive beats. This resulted a blood vessel rupture in her brain. We don't know yet how serious this can be - "

Logan cut from the darkened corner. "Cut the medical jargon Betsy an' get ta point. Is she gonna make it or not?"

"She's in coma, Logan," Hank detachedly told him. "Anything can happen."

"Betsy?" Logan's voice was so strained Ray wondered whether he was holding for tears.

Betsy swallowed before she went on, "It's a very delicate situation, Logan. Of course, anything can happen - "

"Ye're bunch of lyin' doctors," Logan bellowed as he headed out of the chamber and banged the door shut.

"Logan..." Xavier called out but he was already gone. His recent experience with Jubilee somehow drained his energy and even a slight effort to exert his psychic powers pained him. He looked helplessly around and settled on Elisabeth.

Elisabeth burst into tears while Ray pleadingly looked at Hank who shook his head slowly. Then he knew Logan was right.



Louis du Boudreaults' eyes flew open. He smiled at his own reflection at the glass panel. The face that smiled back at him was of a wealthy Texan who incidentally became his tenth victim yesterday. Now Louis could almost speak the Texan drawl almost flawlessly. He found it rather refreshing from Jack's British accent. Although Jack was an important piece in him, Louis could easily discard his personality aside and put up the Texan's personality.

Now a new piece was added in him, but not for him. It would need a bit of time for the new piece to get used to the inside, but like all the rest, she would get used to it. She had to.

Louis nodded to himself. Now that there was a sliver in the meat, it would make everything much more easier than before. Before sunset, another would join them, and another before sunrise. Only then all the wheels would start turning, getting ready to crush that damnable Cajun, his bane in his former life. Now the tables were turned.

Fortune rota volvitur;
Descendo minoratus;
Alter in altum tollitur;
Nimis exaltatus
Rex sedet in vertice
Caveat ruinam!
Nam sub axe legimus
Hecubam reginam.

The wheel of Fortune turns;
I go down, demeaned
Another is raised up;
far too high up
Sits the king at the summit -
Let him fear Ruin!
For under the axis is written
Queen Hecuba.

"I absolutely love those defrocked monks who wrote Cantata Vulgaris," Louis whispered to himself, and nodded toward a wispy figure sitting in front of him in the stylish French restaurant overlooking the Central Park. No one else saw the figure, but if they did, they would have ran away screaming. "They write about real life with such jest and reality, unlike their holier contemporaries who only wrote about the ever-merciful, ever-forgiving grace of God. I think those holier contemporaries rarely get what they were promised of. Don't you, Penny?"

An almost infinitesimal nod was all Louis got.

To be continued...