'Take a look at this.' Hughes called over. 'I think we have an... unregistrated... magician.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFEFfJJbrWb
The members of Floor Twelve Minus looked over at the computer screen.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDXzKN2G0DQ
...And on the eight o clock news, we have a shocking case involving Eclipse Equipment where a harness used for highrise cleaning broke. The man involved, Winston Jones, was not injured, but is filing a lawsuit against the company. Eyewitness accounts say he was extremely lucky to have landed in the crane, saying that it was as if he was launched upward to safety...581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeOWxsBdJYK
'I don't know how I survived. It must have been a miracle.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlRimZENNkh
'You don't think that - '581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo9in5pn5mb
'I do think.' Hughes rested his chin on a curled hand.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVduOvgl8Ub
'But telekinesis on a human? At that height? Magic is hardly possible just three floors up, and this must have happened higher than that.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj0zsZpfDzC
'You're right. It's quite an amazing feat. For a normal magician, that is.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkMqoUgo8L
'You mean...?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdBjGbJGET8
'That's right.' Hughes rose from his chair and clapped his hands. 'I think we found our lost High Priestess.'
Christine sunk back into the sofa. What did this all mean?581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6lTBo1zZbn
She could do magic, that much was certain. She could make fire, she could move things without touching them.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIiOUdNw3T2
But how? Why her?581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUXZAJjpSJ2
rrring, rrring, rrring... She picked up the phone. 'Hello?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3AmnkQq6hH
'We'd like to speak to you.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ9wFOwZWzF
'I'm sorry, who is this?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWFK5JEkwE
'Floor Twelve Minus. We want to ask you about what happened yesterday.' Was this some kind of joke?581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEjXLm2SJVb
'Look, I don't really have the time right now...' She hung up.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtn1veQ7ASF
'We said, we wanted to talk to you.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0OT2YV4FDV
Christine shrieked and turned around. A middle-aged, roughly shaven man was standing in her living room. He held out his hand.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoh0JWKnmve
'My name is Hughes.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi7POlR1vVD
'How did you get in here?' Christine thought through the possibilities. She didn't have anything to arm herself with, apart from...581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRmJaXgfGj8
'I unlocked the front door.' He smiled.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlxUX09uOLC
'...How did you get my house keys?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB6vMnCXQuy
Hughes laughed, a barking roar. 'Who said anything about needing keys?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Ay9V7t5sW
'HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?' Christine yelled, backing into the kitchen.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMb38Fx3dUs
'I don't know, Christine. Magic?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7XEpJAHPeg
Her face went white. She had lost the only advantage - no doubt this man was more skilled at her at - at whatever it was they could do.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQfAOe3DdoJ
'So you know about your abilities, then?' He asked, mildly surprised.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPLkiJcOYN6
'I don't know what you're talking about.' She was trapped in the corner of the room by the sinks. Desperately, she opened the cupboard on the other side of the room with her telekinesis and flung a saucepan at the man.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlF0HOnEKWF
He deflected it easily. 'You obviously do.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTfT8psecJ4
The steel pan came flinging back at Christine, and, unprepared, she was knocked unconscious.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1DbdI53UAC
581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnNwt3az1Ex
'She doesn't understand the extent of her abilities.' Hughes knew that they couldn't keep Christine captive for long. Whether she knew it or not, she was more powerful than all of Floor Twelve Minus combined. And now that she was physically confined, she would be experimenting with her powers even more.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbcFpTJjRTa
'The pressing question is, of course, who her parents are. If there's another family of magicians out there...'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS7QT9fHyW2
Hughes turned on the intercom, and watched Christine through the camera in the antechamber. 'I see you're awake now.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt1epabRmhA
'Where am I? Why are you doing this to me? Let me out! Let me out!' She screamed, but her voice cracked at Hughes' laughter.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTMZ58wPhqp
'Christine, we don't want to hurt you. We just need to keep you restrained until you calm down - because we don't want you to hurt us, either.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡugwEdKDPUR
'Who are you?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoEa8Q0qv7a
'I already told you. My name is Hughes. I work for an institution called Floor Twelve Minus. We'd like to recruit you. You'd be in a very respectable position.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh5eY19UwRa
'Yeah? Is this what you do? Kidnap people and tie them up in metal cables?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl8F0eLqPEg
'Please. We didn't want you burning your way out, and the fiber circuit is complex enough that you shouldn't be able to undo it. It's temporary, just to keep everyone safe while you consider our proposal.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuVy7CIk8be
'...So what. You guys are the magic experts or something?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCIsAblw3Sf
'You could call us that, yes. In fact, we thought we were the only people gifted with such abilities until we found out about you. Which brings me to an important question: who are your parents?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1CRddzldqS
'Why do you want to know?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR8apfEqePV
'Just cooperate, please. We don't want to make you any more uncomfortable than you are now. Who are they?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ZDzKqASVC
'They died in a fire when I was young.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBC59sQqRjf
'By your hands? Interesting. But that doesn't answer my question.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwBuD33mpRO
'Brian. Brian and Rebecca.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP8zwHEdtqJ
'Rebecca?' Hughes turned off the intercom for a moment. Rebecca? But he had taken their child. He had taken the child, the one he called Xavier. What was it that she said again? You have a child. He had a child. But what if she had more? Surely magic couldn't be passed down that way...581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhQjQZjHZdR
He turned the intercom back on. 'How old are you, Christine?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0c5207Igj3
'I turned 27 yesterday. Or the day before, I don't know how long you've kept me down here.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLui8GOq8B6
Shit, Hughes thinks. She really is Xavier's twin... how does that even work?581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfMU49U9g4u
'That's enough. Let's get down to business now. We, Floor Twelve Minus, are interested in people like you... that have abilities. And we perform jobs for people - highly paid jobs, I might add.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXJznlnXknJ
'What kind of jobs?' Christine closed her eyes. She could feel herself getting smaller, fingers prying through the individual metal cables surrounding her body, twisting and untwisting, responding to the feedback in the tautness of her confinement. She just needed a few more minutes.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTzNqQn3i5
'Mostly corporate things. Helping out businesses, taking down others. That's where the market is.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5LT8zeAUCE
Come on... The fiber system in the cables was far too complex. She couldn't unravel it. 'Espionage?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRxyUhTvRwl
'That's right. Our next target was actually going to be the very building you work in. Lucky that we found you before we burnt it down.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtFEUaBs9To
'WestGo? What's wrong with them?' She isolated a single metal fiber. A tiny, tiny flame, with highly concentrated heat, formed inside the cable, every ounce of energy focused on that fiber.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsBkIgecwsl
'Nothing. They're a fabulous company. Which is why they need to go, for Knight Finances to be successful.'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXuuNEtDFTf
'Okay, I get it. How high is the pay?' A weak point in the fiber melted, breaking the circuit, and she smothered the fire with the rest of the cable. Now it was just a knot - she had made two loose ends. All she needed to do was tug and it would start to unravel.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaFBT5n9QhJ
'A hundredfold of your job at WestGo.' Hughes paused for the effect. 'Are you in?'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZglXyPFpj9
'No.' Christine said. 'I'm out of here.' At a shocking speed, she navigated the system in the fiber cables and unraveled the metal rope. Feeling it loosen upon her chest, she shook it off and rose from the chair.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSnqofxdoKq
'Shit, shit, SHIT!' Hughes yelled, as the rest of Floor Twelve Minus sprung into action. 'Don't let her escape!'581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo36wuIYHcK
Christine blew the fuse in the camera with a quick flame, then focused on the lock on the steel door. She could sense the lock cylinders gyrating, trying to feel the position that would let the locking pin slide away - click.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3kMgo8tUOa
Despite it all, she smiled. I'm powerful. They're scared.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmHtMrKzTjB
The door flung open to the hall of Floor Twelve Minus, where the magicians scrambled around in a panic, setting things on fire and throwing burning objects around the room.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRnK7wxTLH9
There's the elevator. My way out.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvzXoD1s9hY
Christine ran across the room, deflecting any flames, chairs, or tables thrown her way.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdRtuLZEhWp
She felt her feet land on the metal floor of the lift, and she closed the doors with a swipe of her hands, before sending the elevation cables into a spinning frenzy. The sheer velocity of the elevator made her dizzy, but Christine didn't care - she just wanted to get out.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWU5Z5npl2h
With a jolt, the elevator stopped at the ground floor of a small, unassuming arts and crafts store. The cashier, fully aware of what was going on, flung the glass doors of the shop shut with a glance.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡazffmzq7As
Christine sent the disguised magician flying to the back of the store, and shattered the panes of glass to run out onto the street.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgtUOA2EvSu
I've got to alert people to these madmen.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHhhCM16fyq
The nearest police station was only a few streets away.
