Convergence - The Last Science #2.2 - Heroes and Villains

B2: Chapter 21 - A Return to Form - I

  "Our half-sister, the governor," Maddie explained, as Rachel continued to stare blankly.

  "You're related to the governor?"

  Jeremy shrugged. "You didn't know?" He was used to Rachel knowing seemingly everything already.

  "I never made the connection..." She trailed off. "That might be an approach we can use."

  "...Fuck no," Jeremy sighed.

  "You want to go through our sister?" asked Maddie dubiously.

  "Well, I don't really want to be on TV..." Rachel said, frowning. "But if we want to have some kind of influence on where this is heading, we need to connect with the actual people in power."

  "Ah, so you want the lobbyists," said Jeremy sagely. Maddie punched him in the arm.

  "Offer to work for her," said Will. They all looked over at him, sitting up in the hospital bed. A laptop floated over to him and landed neatly beside him. The keys started tapping away slowly on their own. They waited while he worked up to another sentence. "They'll need a way to find criminal magic users. I can do that."

  "...Are you sure?" Rachel asked. "You still can't walk."

  "I know." He winced. "It'll still be through you. Same as before."

  "Before what?" asked Jeremy.

  Rachel took a breath before answering. "He means when I was on the Council. No one else knew about Will's affinity, or even that he was awakened. Whenever someone wanted an affinity reading or help locating magical activity, I'd act as a buffer." Rachel looked at him with a mixture of concern and admiration. "You really want to go through all that again?"

  "This is important," he said, clearly holding back a cough. "You need something to offer."

  "He's not wrong," said Maddie. "Without a card on the table, you're just a recently dead girl. No real connections or authority to back you up. You gotta bring the big guns."

  "I am an awakened," Rachel pointed out. "That's still an extreme rarity in the world—one in seventy-six million, and most of us are in hiding. There's twenty times more billionaires than there are awakened."

  "Yeah, but that doesn't just get you a voice in the government. It's all about who you know, or how much money you've got. Nothing else." Maddie shook her head. "You know me, but that's about it. We can take it the slow way, where I start introducing you and bringing you into the right circles, but if you can bring a card like that to the table—" She nodded at Will. "—you're gonna have real power, real fast."

  "Hang on," said Jeremy. "No offense, but he's stuck in that bed, right?"

  "Mostly," Will replied, coughing again.

  "This doesn't feel right."

  "I don't have to be there—" Will said, before getting cut off again by another coughing fit.

  "He can use the spell from quite a ways away," explained Rachel, pouring Will a glass of water. "Far further now than he used to, since he doesn't have much else to do stuck in bed all day. He's had a lot of practice."

  "So you'll just be sitting up here in Vancouver, totally alone?" Jeremy shook his head. "If they can find two guys in the middle of the fuckin' woods, they'll find you here sooner or later."

  "He won't be alone," said Rachel.

  "Your parents are real nice folks, Rachel, but I—"

  "I didn't mean my parents." She nodded to the doorway.

  Three people were standing there—high school ages, perhaps a year or two older. Jeremy couldn't be sure. One short-ish girl, with long blonde dreadlocks and a huge birthmark on her pale face, flanked on either side by identical twin men with short-cropped black hair and equally bored expressions.

  "Sorry it took so long," said the girl.

  "That's fine. Thanks for coming."

  "Who the hell are you?" asked Jeremy, standing up. He was shocked they'd managed to enter the room without him noticing. I'm fucking slipping...

  "Are you that FBI guy?" asked Dreadlock-girl.

  "Yeah, he is," chimed in the left twin.

  "Definitely the guy," agreed the right twin.

  "She's Solveig, and the twins are Landon and Logan," explained Rachel, sitting back down in her chair next to Will. "They work for me."

  "Whatever she needs," agreed Solveig.

  "Yeah, we're Rachel's Rangers," added the left twin.

  His brother glanced at him. "Thought we agreed that name was stupid, Landon."

  "It's growing on me."

  "Are they..." Maddie started.

  Solveig grinned. She held up a hand and snapped her fingers. An empty glass on the bedside table shattered.

  Jeremy and Maddie both leapt to their feet, started. The dreadlocked girl's smile only got wider, as she snapped her fingers again. The shards on the table gathered back up and reformed, merging back into a single glass again.

  "They are," answered Rachel unnecessarily. "I'm helping pay for their college."

  "We'd do it anyway," said Solveig. "I'm taking the year off to do magic."

  "Online classes," added Logan, and Landon nodded in agreement.

  "Your education comes first," said Rachel pointedly.

  "Nuh-uh. Your safety, Will's safety, then our education," said Solveig.

  "Also her parents, our families," added Logan.

  "The city, the country," continued Landon.

  "Ourselves."

  "We got it, guys," said Maddie testily.

  Solveig smiled. "They'll all be totally fine while you're gone. Wherever you're going."

  "Seattle," Rachel replied.

  "Olympia, actually," corrected Maddie.

  "We'll need to stop in Seattle first. I have to meet with someone on the way."

  "How long will you be gone?" asked Solveig.

  "As long as it takes," Rachel replied, with a touch of melancholy. She leaned down and kissed Will on the forehead. He lifted a hand awkwardly to pat her on the back. "I need to go pack."