Morgaine used her time in San Francisco well. She made a lot of calls throughout the Washington area and put her plans into motion. She had a feeling that her cell phone was compromised, so she used the hotel’s phone while making contact with these subjects. On her way out, she swapped phones with the desk clerk. After all, why risk spoiling the surprise?

After checking out, she walked to the curb.

“Your ticket ma’am?” the valet asked.

Morgaine pulled her ticket and handed it to the young man.

“You know? That Trans Am…” Morgaine began while holding onto the ticket, not allowing the man to pull it away yet.

“... I’m just not really feeling that anymore. Tell me, do you have something a little more modern? Something with some attitude.” she said as she reached into the valet’s mind.

He looked confused at first, then he saw a flash of all of the cars he had parked today in his mind. The blur stopped on a 2015 Chevrolet Camaro, emerald green. The woman before him smiled.

“Oh yes. That’ll do nicely. Go fetch boy,” she said with a cat’s grin and a slap on his shoulder.

The valet grabbed the radio and instructed that the car be brought up.

When the vehicle pulled up before Morgaine, she grabbed hold of the mind of the other attendant.

“That Trans Am, I need you to go get it’s keys as well. When you do, I want you to take that car, fill up the tank, drive the speed limit and no faster to Washington. To Seattle Washington. I want you to then call a taxi and make your way back here.”

The man nodded blankly and returned to the garage while Morgaine was busy adjusting the seat of her new car. As the man walked into the building he heard her peel out amid a flurry of shouts from onlookers.

Bay Area traffic is a bear. It’s a monster that consumes the patience and sanity of anyone who dares enter it, anyone but a telepath with very little regard for human beings.

In the event that you are in a vehicle with a powerful telepath, you would be in for a treat. Suddenly traffic becomes a non-issue. Cars that were jockeying for position and cutting one another off a moment before were suddenly of the mind that they should all get into this lane or that in order to allow the emerald green Camaro to pass. Police that were stalking about a traffic light with heavy traffic suddenly decided to turn on their rotators and siren to escourt that same green Camaro beyond the city streets, directly to the freeway.

Morgaine wasn’t worried about tipping her hand, too many things have been put into motion to stop her now. She wasn’t going to hand Keung her location, but she wasn’t going to deal with these shaven apes any more than she had to either. Sitting in traffic for hours was far more than she had to endure. That was a bridge too far in her mind.

Once on the freeway, she was cruising at a hundred and thirteen miles an hour straight at Olympia Washington. If she didn’t have much trouble, she should be there within six hours. The smile that crossed her lips at the thought of getting her hands on Keung, was near Cheshire Cat wide.

Olympia Washington; That Same Day

All around the town last night, phones were ringing. Men and women picked up their cells and were given instructions to follow. Morgaine’s instructions were thorough. If there was a possibility of one element going wrong, she would assign three failsafes. If there was a possibility of two elements going wrong, six failsafes would be added. She had called all around the city that night. Nothing was going to be allowed to go wrong.

That morning in Olympia these men, women, and a select number of children begin their day with a new set of tasks. None of them would have agreed to these tasks, but none of them had a choice either. Such was the way of telepaths.

Some of these people were doing their jobs as normal, others were taking days off so they could sit and watch a building. That structure was the one Robert had informed Morgaine of. All of them had roles to play when the woman arrived.

Completely unaware of these people, Keung, Robert, and HAL began their day. This meant going back over the plans in the event that Morgaine arrived today, for Keung. This was unlikely from what HAL has been tracking, she was likely days away. Or so they thought.

For Robert, it was a time to research as much as he could about who was coming to attack them. Morgaine. King Arthur’s half sister. That was about as far as he has been able to get. Even HAL has been unable to bring up much more information. She was in her twenties and she was obviously psychotic.

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“HAL.” Robert asked aloud.

There was no response.

“HAL?” Robert asked again.

“Keung. Is HAL down?” Robert shouted from his apartment down into the warehouse.

“HAL?” Keung asked.

“Yeah. HAL. Is he down?” Robert asked again.

“Hello. How can I be of assistance?” HAL responded.

“Nevermind! He’s working.” Robert shouted.

“Okay.” Keung shouted back.

“Hey HAL. Keung said that recall can take decades right?”

“Yes sir. Full recall without outside assistance usually takes at least two decades, and from Keung’s experience, it can take up to three and a half decades.”

“You mean me?”

“Yes, you were late, and you had to be assisted.”

“Thanks for the confidence boost. If Morgaine is in her twenties, and theoretically has full recall, what would account for this?”

“Several theories:

* Morgaine is in possession of an Essence Recall and Enhancer.

* The biology of Morgaine’s current host body is familiar enough that she was able to fully recall her past with greater ease.

* She could have been exposed accidentally to the proper elements to unlock full recall.

* She might have had a force related cognitive realignment.”

“Force related… You mean she might have been hit in the head?”

“Yes.”

“That can happen?”

“Theoretically, yes.”

Robert shook his head. “Unbelievable,” he muttered.

“The force needed would likely be considerable,” HAL continued.

“That’s okay HAL, I doubt…”

“So much so that her head would likely show visible signs of such…”

“That’s enough HAL.”

“I was just attempting to make it clear that…”

“Yeah. I get it HAL. So from what you are saying…”

“Trying to say, yes. But you keep interrupting.”

“So essentially she’s fully realized, but you aren’t sure why. Got it.”

“Yes.”

There was a loud clang outside. Then Robert could hear the voices of children coming toward the warehouse.

“HAL. What was that?”

HAL could not hear Robert at all. HAL, a being that existed throughout computer systems, was currently walled off from the warehouse and the systems therein. He was also frantically attempting to figure out why and how to get back.

“HAL?” Robert asked again.

There was a knocking at the front door.

“HAL. Who is at the door?” Keung asked.

“Hello? Is there someone in there?” One of the voices called from outside.

“HAL?” Kueng asked again.

“I think he’s offline.” Robert shouted from upstairs.

Keung looked through the peephole on the door and saw four young children, one with a bat, and three with mitts.

“Hello? I think we hit your dish with our ball. Is anyone there?” One of the children continued.

Keung opened the door with a sigh.

“Hi. What’s going on?” he asked.

The children looked a little taken aback when they saw Keung, the sixteen year old boy, answer the door.

“Umm. I think we knocked into your satellite dish man. We are awful sorry.” The one with the bat said.

Keung huffed a bit and then started out the door to go and check himself.

“Who is it?” Robert asked as he walked into the main room.

“They hit the dish. Probably knocked out the net,” Keung said as he continued out the door.

“Probably why HAL is out,” Robert mumbled.

Outside, Keung walked around the warehouse to where the dish was set up. The boy could see the damage done to the dish, it was hardly even hanging onto the roof, it was barely dangling by the wires.

“Yeah. I think you all did a bit of damage. What are you doing playing baseball around here?” Keung asked.

“We always play in the clearing over there.” One of the catchers said pointing in a direction.

Keung sighed again. His head was full of frustration, the stress of dealing with Morgaine, dealing with Robert, now HAL likely offline. He turned to the boys.

“Okay. It’s fine. I’ll take care of it, but can you please not play so close to the warehouse in the future?” Keung said and started walking away.

While the boys agreed and began off toward the clearing they mentioned, Keung was locked in the crosshairs of a scope.

The man aiming a rifle at him was about half a mile away on the rooftop of a tall building looking down at the warehouse through some minor tree cover. Keung did not see him, in fact he didn’t even think to look. Had he taken more time to check, he might have seen one of the six people now taking aim at his warehouse.

Nearby, there was a woman that normally maintains the cell towers in the district. At the same time as three other workmen, she powered down the cell tower without notice. Moments after, men and women in buildings across the nation began calling the four workers or their crews, but the signal was down and all calls went directly to voicemail.

HAL struggled in the digital to get back to the warehouse, he dashed from the satellite connection to Keung’s cell, to Robert’s. He was completely blind for nearly a mile around the warehouse. HAL was blind, which meant that Keung and Robert were vulnerable. HAL was blind and Morgaine was smiling.