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Post by Jordanna on Nov 21, 2007 22:53:38 GMT -5
Vance frowned. "Well, it's going to be serious--only I don't know exactly when it's going to get that way. I'll explain it all when everybody's here... Hello, Henry," he added, as Henry Casselton came down the basement steps.
"I saw Sid and Miriam and their contingent coming up the walk from the other direction," Henry remarked. "They should be coming in at any moment."
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Post by skybright on Nov 21, 2007 23:15:17 GMT -5
Daws glanced around the basement room. "Looks like most everyone else is already here -- Sid and the rest of 'em should make a full house."
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Post by Jordanna on Nov 21, 2007 23:32:58 GMT -5
A few minutes later, Sid came lumbering down the steps, with Alex, Miriam, and Grace in his wake.
"Looks like we're kinda late," Sid noted. "Sorry--ya just caught Foxy an' me before we headed to the Club, an' we picked up Gracie along the way. What's up?"
"Tell you in a minute, once everybody's settled," Vance murmured. "Take a seat."
The room filled with a shuffling of chairs, and gradually the congregation seated themselves. Vance gave Daws a glance, then moved to the front of the room.
"You all know, I think, that Mayor Cole is a mutant who's--marginally working with us," he began. "You may not know that he has a sister who's a more obvious mutant, and who he's been keeping under wraps.
"In a recent meeting with Nick Tiernan, Cole had the dumb idea to make a supposedly accidental slip to the Bat, hinting that he has mutant powers--hoping that would misdirect Tiernan from poking into his family." Vance sighed and shook his head at the stupidity of that tactic. "Well, obviously this only made Tiernan more curious. I've learned the contacts of Miss Dawson here were just in time to prevent him from uncovering Cole's own medical records... but as we all know, obstacles don't slow Tiernan down. They just make him meaner and more determined. And at the moment, Tiernan is just consumed with curiosity about what our boy hero the mayor is really capable of."
He spread his hands. "According to my mole at Tiernan Enterprises, the Bat's suspicious enough that he's decided to collect Cole's sister--as leverage in another little heart-to-heart with him."
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Post by skybright on Nov 21, 2007 23:42:15 GMT -5
Daws let out a frustrated growl. "Well, obviously we can't let that happen. Looks like it's up to us to fix Cole's mistake . . . for a change."
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Post by Jordanna on Nov 21, 2007 23:47:55 GMT -5
"The problem is, we don't know when Tiernan's going to make his move on Miss Cole," Vance replied. "It could be tonight--or a week from now, or a month."
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Post by skybright on Nov 21, 2007 23:52:46 GMT -5
Father Rick frowned. "Sounds like the sort of risk we can't take."
"Especially since if Tiernan does get ahold of her, all our bets are off." Daws replied. "Cole will turn traitor on us fast enough to make your head spin if he thinks there's any chance of his sister getting hurt -- and he won't think twice about it, either."
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Post by Jordanna on Nov 22, 2007 0:03:38 GMT -5
"That's definitely on my mind," Vance replied grimly.
He spread his hands. "So it's up to us to come up with a plan for how to head off Tiernan and his goons. My first impulse is to take Miss Cole out of circulation for her own good--but that leaves the question of how to deal with her, and her brother, once we have her."
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Post by skybright on Nov 22, 2007 0:16:17 GMT -5
"I've got some ideas for dealin' with Cole." Ana Cordova spoke up from her spot in the back row.
"You and me both, Ana, but they'll have to wait until we get this crisis dealt with." Daws said.
She leaned forward with a thoughtful frown. "I only met Cole's sister the once. She seemed like the shrinking-violet type -- I don't think she'd give us too much trouble once we explained what was going on."
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Post by Jordanna on Nov 22, 2007 0:23:50 GMT -5
"So we take her away," Henry murmured. "And then what would we do with her? Send her out of the country with a new identity, like Miriam's parents and the Major's ex-wife? Surely we can't keep doing that--and it would only inflame Tiernan's curiosity even more. He'd look even harder for some way to find out the truth about Cole."
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Post by skybright on Nov 22, 2007 0:31:31 GMT -5
Daws rubbed the back of her neck with a worried expression. "I'm not sure she'd be able to survive on her own in a foreign country -- not if she's as used to Cole's coddling as I think she is. I'm not sure she ever leaves that house. And Henry's right -- Tiernan's only going to get more suspicious if she just vanishes."
"But we can't allow Tiernan to have her, can we?" Father Rick said quietly, "We know what he is capable of."
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Post by Jordanna on Nov 22, 2007 0:45:43 GMT -5
"Yeah," Vance murmured. "I know as well as anybody. But I don't see any other answers for this.
"I don't think Tiernan is interested in the sister herself--at least as long as he thinks he doesn't need to put pressure on Cole to keep him in line. The only reason he wants to apply that pressure now is to prove or disprove what he suspects about Cole." The Major sighed. "But after the way Cole shot off his mouth, how can we convince Tiernan there's nothing interesting to know about him after all?"
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Post by skybright on Nov 22, 2007 0:52:26 GMT -5
Daws shook her head. "Short of forging an X-Gene test or something? I don't know -- and we know how well we've done with faking out Tiernan in the past."
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Post by Jordanna on Nov 22, 2007 21:05:29 GMT -5
Miriam frowned. "If we couldn't convince Tiernan that Cole isn't a mutant... I wonder if there's some way to make him believe Cole only has some kind of small, useless power."
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Post by skybright on Nov 23, 2007 0:20:36 GMT -5
Daws glanced up thoughtfully. "You might be on to something there, Doc." She ran her fingers through her hair. "If we could come up with something that wouldn't turn up on one of Tiernan's tests . . ."
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Post by Jordanna on Nov 23, 2007 0:26:47 GMT -5
"Hmm... As I recall, Proteus told you he has a very limited ability to mimic certain powers of other mutants," Vance mused. Then he frowned. "But we already know Tiernan's tests can tell shapeshifters from other mutants--so it probably wouldn't be such a hot idea to ask Proteus to play decoy."
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Post by skybright on Nov 23, 2007 0:35:57 GMT -5
Daws shook her head. "No . . . I think it's gotta be Cole himself, much as I hate the thought of risking his playing along."
Father Rick rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Suppose we just had him do what he does already -- only not do it quite so well?"
Daws frowned. "Not sure I follow, Padre. Tiernan'd never let Cole live if he knew he was a telepath."
The priest spread his hands. "Then what about having him pass himself off as an empath -- someone who can read moods, not minds?"
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Post by Jordanna on Nov 23, 2007 0:44:01 GMT -5
"Would Tiernan believe his power only goes that far?" Henry queried.
"I guess that would depend on how well Cole sold the idea." Vance smirked. "He's an actor, after all--not to mention a politician. Deception oughta be right up his alley."
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Post by skybright on Nov 23, 2007 0:58:36 GMT -5
Daws flexed her claws thoughtfully. "Yeah . . . it could work, if only Cole is smart enough to play along with it. An empath isn't the same kind of threat that a telepath is."
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Post by Jordanna on Nov 23, 2007 23:21:38 GMT -5
"Knowing his sister's safety is as stake oughta be a pretty good incentive for him," Vance murmured. "That's why he blew his own cover in the first place. If he doesn't like having to follow through with it, he'll only have himself to blame."
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Post by skybright on Nov 23, 2007 23:30:49 GMT -5
Daws nodded. "All right then. How do we go about doing this without spooking Cole into doing something stupid?"
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