Alistaire checked the back seat in the rear-view mirror. Both Tabitha and Kurt were asleep.
Poor girl… He thought looking back. If she were human she might be in jail, but she wouldn't have been stranded there like that. It's a thankless job, evolution.
He sighed. And Kurt… I thought his heart would break when he saw her in the sun. He shook his head. And she is awfully thin. He smiled, imagining that soon she would be full of shark and watching the ocean from the upper deck of the lighthouse.
He looked back at Kurt. He was asleep and his mouth was hanging open as his head bounced in time with the road.
He has a healing effect on people. I'm living proof. He thought. She'll do well to be near him for a while.
And Alistaire sighed. He glanced at the chart on the seat next to him. I'm sure there's something I'm missing here…
He kept one eye on the road the other jumping between the book in his lap and the chart on the seat; both of which he had fished out of his briefcase when Kurt and Tabitha had fallen asleep.
Why would anyone… And then he realized. That must why it's written like this!
He glanced back to the book. The articles are numbered but then, after the articles are copies of that article that have been rewritten – alternate versions for use in different circumstances…
And I've already seen that Kurt has discretion for rewriting the rules of his organization – but these rewrites here in the book… They take almost harmless articles and turn them in to wide range proclamations that grant Kurt and his organization almost military powers over Britain.
He looked at the oncoming road and swallowed. Search and seizure, indefinite detention privileges… He gasped. He could declare Martial Law and take over if he wanted. He glanced back at Kurt who was sleeping with his mouth open in the back seat. Almost in reply to his glance, Kurt snored loudly.
Alistaire looked away. Thank God the papers are wrong and he's not a Nazi… Or even the mutant equivalent of one…
He took several deep breaths
But… That's what's happening to us. They're not after Kurt, they're after his job.
And then Britain!
And then The World!
Well, maybe not the world. He conceded. But definitely Britain!
… I think…
Then he shrugged. It's hard to say really. I've never thwarted a coup before…
The he glanced down at his suit. I wish I'd have known. I could have dressed for it or … something.
Back at Emma's office the boy sat quietly in his wheelchair.
Emma smiled at him. "Oh, come on now… It's not so bad. Your sister will save you." She said with a wink.
He swung his head slightly to the side; it was as close as he could come to turning away.
Emma laughed. "Brave until the end, aren't you?"
He blinked slowly but failed to manage to look away.
"What if I told you I know who did it to you?" Emma smiled. "If the only reason your doctors cant find anything wrong is because there is no explanation for your condition?" She smiled sweetly in a mockery now that she had his attention.
"What if I told you this was all political? That people wanted to tear apart your parents corporation and sell off the parts, and that the only way to get it was to make sure you couldn't take over as chairman of the board?"
She nodded twice. "You know it's true." She smiled. "And I know how it was done." She leaned in close, almost forcing him to look down her top as she spoke. "It was magic."
"Ma…" Was all he could manage to hoarsely utter before the strength left him.
"Magic." She whispered. "Real magic."
He tried to hide his shock, but she could tell that he believed her.
"And it would take a magician of extraordinary ability to rival the spell you're under. The odds on you ever finding one…" She smiled. "Well, lets just say you've a better chance of one finding you." She nudged his chair.
He sighed and looked down at his arms. They didn't even bother to handcuff him. He sighed dejectedly.
He looked at her, his face drawn and pale. "Wh-wh-wh…" He began to cough. "Oo-o-o…?" He managed.
"Who?' Emma's eyes twinkled. "Who did this to you?" She grinned. "You know him." She laughed. "He worked for you until he destroyed you. And now he manages most of your parent's old assets. His name was Brice." She smiled. "He paid a good bit to have this curse put on you." She licked her lips. "But it was worth it."
He moaned.
"You and your sister always were street trash at the ball, weren't you?" She continued.
The boy in the chair tried not to look at her and tried not to listen.
"No style or class… But, oh, you were there… I remember you. Naively cluttering up society's landscape. New money scum like you are all the same." She spit, suddenly finding him disfigured and disgusting.
She sneered. "I can't wait until your sister comes back." She smiled. "I'm going to enjoy seeing her begging at my feet to have you back."
And she turned harshly and walked out of the room.
The stealthy young girl with the sword had taken her motorcycle out to do a little reconnaissance. She soon found herself up a distant tree, watching the lighthouse in the distance.
She had a good set of binoculars and she could see the place quite clearly.
It looks like there's three people there… I hope she comes out to the observation deck again. That will make this pretty easy.
She shivered and then sighed. What am I thinking… Easy? To kill an innocent girl?
She pulled out the folder. It detailed Kitty's powers and abilities.
She would be useful. She decided. But …
She eyed the lighthouse. "Well, anyway… No time like the present." And she jumped down and began on a run to the lighthouse, intent on scaling the outside wall towards the observation deck.
The lid of the box was hastily torn open and two men dumped him out on to the ground.
"Stab him. Stab him!" One said, and he felt two heavy metal needles (at the end of long metal poles as it turns out) stabbed in to him, one in the leg and the other through the lower back.
And as the poison spread he found he couldn't move.
"Quickly, quickly!" Someone intoned from behind him.
They cut the chains and then the straps of the straitjacket, and then ran for the truck. The driver threw it in to gear and it leapt away from the unconscious psycho.
"Go, go, go!" One of them called out as the truck sped away.
As the truck pulled away from where they had left him he lay twitching but awake. And there – framed against the horizon behind him – was a lone and secluded lighthouse.
