Chapter 11 – Towards the End Game

Jack said “He just got unlucky; no-one can predict a lightning strike.” I let it hang for a moment and then said “Do you really think that he was just ‘unlucky’ to lose his two houses and get his offices in Whitehall trashed by a power surge. If you believe that then you would believe anything.”

“Well” he said “what else could it be?” I looked at him and said “Now Jack, you have your nice car parked outside your house and your long-suffering wife is inside eating her lonely sandwich. Why don’t you call her up and ask her to look out the window and to tell you what she sees. Put it on speaker so we can all hear.” He dialled his home number and when his wife answered he asked her to look out the window and tell him if his car is all right. We heard some shuffling and grumbling and then a shriek “Jack” she yelled “there’s a bloody big ball of blue light sitting just over it. What’s going on?” I said, quietly “Jack, this is when you find out that luck had nothing to do with it.” I dropped the ball of energy and we heard his wife screaming “Jack, Jack, your car is on fire! Oh God, I am ringing emergency, now!” The phone went dead and, in the silence I said “Now, you lot. I can do the same with your houses and your cars. I know where you all live. This is not a threat, it is a promise” and I created a small ball of energy in front of each of them. “Go now, get out of here, live quietly and you will live a lot longer. Jack and I are going to have a little chat, now.”

I allowed them back to earth and stood back as his mates all left the alcove with fear in their eyes. I combined the small balls of energy into one and dropped it on Jacks’ phone which spluttered and went dark with a whiff of smoke. I said “How about you move to the bench, Jack, and then I can take the other side – now!” He got out of his seat and slid onto the end of the bench. I took my place on the other side and looked across the still-smoking phone at him. “Jack” I said “I could have easily dropped a ball of energy in your house but I think you may have already got the message. All I ask is that you contact Melehan just the once on Saturday morning and tell him that you and your mates have had enough. I expect that today was a get-together to send out the messages on social media and don’t think you would have got round to it yet. Am I right?”

He nodded sullenly and then said “The next march was to be a riot and we were to tell the marchers to attack Kensington Palace as it is the easiest to get to. He had told me where I could pick up Molotov Cocktails on the way. I was already thinking that he was over the top. Some of us could have been shot doing that but when I asked him about that he said that he would be pulling the guards away to somewhere else. The guy is really mad, you know, but he does not scare me the way you do.” I smiled at him, saying “Jack, I am no trouble for you as long as you follow a better path in future. My aim is to stop Melehan before he plunges the country into civil war. It would be one-sided because, by the time he moves, he would control the military forces and a bunch of rebels would have no chance. I expect that he already has plans to have you killed.”

He looked startled at that and then the true nature of Melehan came to him and he nodded again. “What about my car?” he asked. “Don’t worry about that for the moment” I said “how about you write the address down where these fire bombs are to be picked up and then I will reimburse you for your troubles.” He went and grabbed a pad and pencil from the bar and came back to write down the address. He gave it to me and I put it in my bag. “The riot; I suppose that would have been for this Saturday?” I asked and he nodded. “Thank you Jack, I will get out of your life for now.” I took a pound coin out of my bag and slid it across the table to him. “You have been a good boy, Jack, for once in your life. If you take this across to that pokie machine there, I think that you may win enough to pay for your phone and get another car.” He took the coin and I sat there, concentrating on the machines electrics. I made sure that it hit the jackpot and left the pub while he was whooping and jumping up and down.

I got back in my car and found the address he had written down. It was a secluded building in an industrial estate near Aylesbury and on his way to London. Saturday morning I was at home when I materialised a power ball inside it, wondering if my powers were good enough. The lunch-time news on the radio reported a huge explosion in the industrial park so I guess I was good enough, after all. That afternoon I got in the Volvo and went to pick up Merilyn from the college.

She was bubbly and jumping when I saw her and I hugged her like there was no tomorrow. She whispered “I have been looking at the papers, Mummy; you really have been a naughty girl, haven’t you?” We sat in an office with the two teachers I had spoken to before, as well as a couple of other women. The upshot of the month was that Merilyn was now up to speed to miss much of primary school and it was noted that she was the most gifted student they had ever met. The arrangements were made for her to start at the college at the beginning of the next term as a live-in student. She was happy with that because she said that it was a wonderful place to be and that she was learning so much every day as well as having brainy children around her.

That left us three weeks to tidy up the bigger problem if she was to be part of the end game. We went home via her favourite fast-food outlet and that evening I brought her up to speed on what I had done and the new powers that I had discovered. As a trial run we both concentrated on the lake on Bodmin Moor, materialising large power balls in our minds and having them play chasee for a short time before spiralling up into the sky. We looked out of the window towards the Moor, and were rewarded with the sight of a blue glow on the horizon. I said “Three, Two, One, Out” and the glow immediately disappeared. She looked at me in a very serious way and said “That, Mummy is a very strong power. I could never have thought that either of us could have done that. Didn’t some people say that you were the most dangerous person in the country? Now, I think, we may be the most dangerous people on earth and we will have to be very careful not to get angry.”

Sunday we dressed nicely and went to Jamaica Inn for lunch. They were already selling plush aliens in the shop alongside the Du Maurier novels. The newspaper stand had the Sunday paper with the report of the bright lights of last night with one person saying that they were like ‘playful children’ and that she ‘wished she could meet the aliens because they would certainly be friendly’. The people who lived on the nearby farm reported that the lights were very bright and that everyone had their hairs bristle. I knew we had gone a bit overboard but I was sure that we were a long way from the house. They must have been a bit bigger than planned. My next step will have to be on Monday morning – the end game is coming and we had to plan it carefully, as usual.

My first part of my plan was to get Sir Lionel back into the game. I rang his office on the Monday morning and asked if there was anyone of his security team around as I had some information for them. Percival was in the office and when he came on the line I said “Percival, this is Morgan. I would like to have a meeting with Sir Lionel tonight at the last place you and I saw each other. Gwen will tell you what is needed.” In the afternoon I packed Merilyn into her booster seat and we drove towards the Forest of Dean, stopping on the way for a snack. When I got to Camelot the gates were opened and Gareth waved us through. The five years that had passed had been good for the house. Any damage had been repaired and I could see security beams running over all of the lawn areas. Merilyn said “Look, Mummy, lovely lines of light.” Halfway along the driveway I slowed down and said “Sweetheart, those are lines of laser beams. We may come across someone using one to put a sight onto us from a rifle. Actually, there is one that I can see.” She said “Yes, I can see it, there is someone up in the right-hand attic window.” “Just remember this, darling. If we ever see someone pointing a laser at us in future we need to take action” I said ”Because someone did that to me a couple of weeks ago before I burned his hide-away to the ground.”

Gwen was at the front door to welcome me and said “Sir Lionel is so much looking forward to this visit. He is like a grandfather waiting to meet his grand-daughter.” She bent down and gave Merilyn a hug and said “It is so good to see you again, poppet, I believe that you have been playing with spaceships on the Moor again.” Merilyn grinned and said “That was just Mummy and me having fun on a Saturday night.” Just then Sir Lionel strode into the hallway with his arms open so I allowed him to wrap them around me. “Hello again, Sir Lionel, may I introduce my daughter, Merilyn. She is just about to start school at a special college. The one thing none of us could have predicted is her prodigious and precocious brainpower.”

I had to smile because as soon as he looked into those green eyes he was smitten with her cuteness. He knelt down and said “Give an old but happy man a hug, precious one. We have waited far too long to meet. Your mother spent many months here while she was carrying you and I have been on tenterhooks to meet you.” Of course, she gave him a kiss on the cheek and said “Are you really a Lord, Uncle Lionel? This house is just like a castle.” He nodded and stood, holding his hand out. Merilyn took it and we proceeded to the drawing room where Lance and Hector waited for us. Sir Lionel said “We have upgraded the security around the house since you were here before, Morgan, Gareth and Geraint will set it to automatic and will join us. Now, drinks anyone?”

Marianne G © 2021