Angel locked the car and followed everyone into the house, bipping the alarm to set it.
As she walked into the living room Angel saw Strune was standing, and at a similar height to herself smiled and made his usual joke, "Finally a normal sized person." As Peggy his wife was the same height as Kat. "We got your message on the answer phone, what do you have to tell us that requires all 3 of you to be here?" He asked. "Not that it should take big news for you to visit."
Claire pulled all 3 communicatiors from 3 different pockets and stacked them on the coffee table, she took a deep breath. "Have you seen the news today? The international news. " She asked.
The couple shook their heads, Peggy answered, "We were hiking in the hills, we've not even looked at our cell phones since we set off, why?"
"Well we're kind of back in business as the Rainbow Sparkle Power Friends. And we destroyed this really old school near Windsor Castle this morning. There's also a video of me in Scotland." Claire finished.
"And?" Peggy asked
"We'd gone to fix a point and that point turned into a portal, 2 portals actually, that we closed."
Angel carried on, "As we closed the second portal we saw an imprint of a blue body trying to push through. A little bit later Morven's voice came over the communicators, we spoke to her briefly. She's alive."
Strune and Peggy both looked stunned by the news, sitting looking at each open mouthed." What did she say?" Strune asked. Claire related the conversation they'd had, finishing with a smile with," And she asked to watch The Lord Of The Rings." Claire took a breath and visibly braced herself. "So we've formed a plan, it's stupid and probably doomed to fail but we are going to try it. There is another portal forming in Southern Mexico, when it goes we're going down there ourselves. I'm going to cross over and try to find Morven as both Angel and Kat have kids so can't really go and leave them behind on what could be a one way mission."
" What about you, what happens if you can't get back?" Peggy asked the question that the 3 of then still didn't have an answer to.
Claire looked away, "The plan is we hold off from healing the portal until Morven and her travelling companion reach the location in the Umbral realm and we hold the door open for them, I'll go through, if we can get the Knights of Sâl Arwydd to join us we can have 7 experienced fighters at our side."
"You're still talking about only the 3 of you, 7 guys and at least 2 people over there fighting an army. And who are these Knights of Sâl Arwydd?"
"A British version of us that are using King Arthur's Knights arms and armour."
Both the older people blinked several times, "Getting back to that later, but carry on." Struan said.
"We fight our through what's on this side, if any of the Knights want to join me going through they can go over, we fight our way through the things on the other side, link up with Morven and cross back over. Once back we heal the rift and go back to the person that started this all those years ago for a debrief then come back here. If everything goes as planned."
Strune stated the unspoken fact," That's a big if, especially when you are still fighting in those short outfits. "
" We aren't The Warden upgraded our gear. " Kat replied
" The Warden? "
" The Intelligence from Before The Time, turns out she's a prisoner" Kat carried on, Claire pulled up the video on her you tube of her in her armour, turned the TV on and brought up the TV app and cast the video over and pressed play.
The voice of the confused Scottish woman came over the speaker, Claire hit mute. "So we asked for something a bit more armoured and we got better weapons, and we still have to say the attack names. And there's still a mountain of glitter when we change." Kat finished.
The 3 of them brought Morven's parents up to date with all the latest information they'd learned about ancient history and who they were all descended from. Kat promised that she'd bring her kids over to meet Peggy and Struan as soon as possible, and with them being retired now they promised to be available to pick kids up from schools as an option if it was ever needed.
Claire picked up her communicator, and opened it. "I was going to try and reach her again so you can talk to her", her gaze hadn't shifted from the device, "she did say she'd get in touch when she'd sorted out transport to where they need to be."
Struan and Peggy looked at each other, "Try it, please." Peggy replied.
Claire touched the crystal and held it close to her face. "Morven are you there? Can you hear us?"
Far away sneaking into a camp of unfriendlies Morven's communicator chirped, Beatrice looked from the tree line, Morven looked down at her belt, she rushed at the Destriers tethered near her, slashing the rope holding them, Beatrice was already running towards the saddles, she grabbed 2 and the rest of tack, not really caring if it matched, a head popped out of a tent a bleary eyed occupiant looking out for the source of the noise, blinked and focused on her leg, then up and up some more taking in the saddles and tack, she kicked him hard in the head, once, then again. He slumped down unconscious, and she used her hoof to push his body back into the tent, she hurried across the camp trying to to be as quiet as possible, Morven had moved the giant horse out of the pen and was leading them into the woods, passed the body of the guard shed killed. Once out of sight of the camp Moven opened the device. "Yes?",she said a little snippily, Beatrice was saddling the largest horse for herself, Morven grabbed a bridal and put it over a smaller horse head. "kind of the middle of something here." She hissed
Claire sounded confused, "We're with your parents we thought you'd like to talk to them?"
"I would yes, but right now we're stealing some big horses and need to make a hastey exit, Bea, can you saddle this one as well?" she called quietly over. Beatrice finished hers and moved to finish Morven's horse, while Morven roped the remaining horses together and talked." Put them on. " She said, voice full of tension.
Her parents voices came over the communicator," Morven, hunny why are you stealing horses?"
"Because we need to get somewhere faster than walking speed if we're to get to the next Rift, we found a roaming Knight band and so we taking their horses to facilitate and expidate our travel."
Beatrice snorted, "You must be stressed, using big words again."
Morven smiled and breathed, "It is great to hear your voices, I hope to see you soon, but really we have to go,"
Beatrice ears flicked around, "I hear them, they're following the trail. We have to go, now."
Morven looked at communicator, "I'm sorry I can't stop and talk, we have to go as about," she quickly counted the horses, "at least 10 guys,"
"I knocked one out and you killed the sentry" Beatrice pointed out
"Okay 8 guys are coming this way, and moving is better than fighting. I'm sorry this just wasn't a good time to call"
"It's just good to know your alive Morven, the crime and killing we don't understand, but we love you and hope your home soon." Struan said, Morven clicked her communicator shut, put it back in her pouch. She looked around, grabbed the rope for the rest of the horses, jumped onto hers and started to ride through the woods.
Beatrice came up beside her, crouching low over her horse's head to avoid low hanging branches, "We might even make a profit if we can sell the horses" she said as they rode into the night.
The evening ended with Peggy in the car coming back to Kat's house to meet Thea and Amy, which was kind of wierd for them as besides Kat's aunt and seeing Grandma and Grandad at the funeral, they'd never met anyone from their mum's past before a week ago. They seemed to get on well and Peggy promised to come round at the weekend and take the girls shopping at the new Mall while Kat and Claire went to Mexico to do some reconnaissance of the area the next Rift was forming at.
Struan arrived to pick his wife up not long after, and knocked on the door, before he left he looked at Kat and asked her. "I heard a story from a friend at JPL about you and Elon Musk, what happened there?"
Kat smiled, "Short or long version?" she asked
"Long version."
"Sit down then, drink? Cos I'm going to need one" Struan nodded, Thea went and got the drivers juice, Kat fixed herself and Peggy a glass of wine," I had a phone call from my lawyers telling me Musk's legal team had approached them asking to buy my Uncles rocket engine patent, reading the fine print I saw he wanted to remove Bray's name from the patent. I said that was unacceptable. He added 2 zeros to the offer, but kept the stipulation that he'd be credited with the engine. I said no via the legal team. His team asked for a face to face meeting with another zero and we could discuss the the name issue. I agreed to the meeting." Kat took a drink and smiled at the memory,"I put on my best suit, walked into the office of his legal team with my senior lawyer who had the instructions all typed up. We sat at our side of the table, they sat at their's with Musk in the middle. He launched into a long winded... Monologue I think is the best word, a tale about the future and vision, my lawyer pushed the paperwork across the table, they read it and passed it around while Elon waffled on. I stopped him and told him my only condition for the sale was my Uncle's name was to the be the solo inventor of the engine, he could not claim any rights of invention on the engine, if he couldn't agree to that it didn't matter how much he offered me up to full ownership of SpaceX. I don't want to say his ego couldn't handle it, but he walked out of the room. I also raised the percentage on how much his company pays for each engine they use." She finished.
Struan smiled proudly," I heard most of that, as well as he was going to try and smear your name but it was pointed out who you are, he was then going to drag up your Uncle being a North Korean defector but it was again pointed out that he defected to America precisely because he had the design for the engine that would have put Washington in range of North Korean nuclear warheads and didn't want it to belong to Kim Joung Unn."
"I thought he would come for me, I didn't think he'd go for Uncle Bray." Kat looks ruefully into her drink. " Oh well I'm guessing he must be nursing that one for a later date."
Everyone hugged, and went home, Kat had Angel's brothers number so she could arrange for him to have a look at her Focus to see what he could do with it.
Homework was done and an explanation of who Struan and Peggy were and what had happened in England was given to Amy and Thea, photographs were shown and bed time was late for a week day.
Friday morning was the "hair, teeth, shoes" ritual, and out the door for the school bus.
Kat breathed out finished her coffee and poured herself another cup and sat on the deck and thought about her day and the coming weekend with it's trip to Mexico and back to Cornwall on Monday, she'd already had to refuse a request to let both kids have the day off school to join her and Angel in Cornwall. The morning was spent sat by the phone as duty translator, helping 2 different stations with Korean custody suspects.
Kat had a light lunch and made a start on the lasagna for tea that evening and got enough Bulgogi marinating for 5 for Saturday night, thought about it for a moment then made it for 6 as Claire would be with her all day in Cancun and probably hungry when they got back, as well as getting plenty of dough ready to make oodles of noddles tomorrow. Kat then went upstairs to check her wardrobe for something that would work on the beach,settling on pair of red shorts, a tankini top and a large rattan bag She texted Claire suggesting she bring some beach appropriate clothing ready for the next day, and drove to the drug store to pick up some factor 50 sun screen and some new shades, and changed some cash for Pesos, feeling really rich with her 2000 peso. Claire messaged back whole she was out with a photo of a large sun hat, a yellow vest top and a pair of red shorts
Saturday morning was slightly more hectic than normal, not helped by Claire turning up to get ready as well. Peggy arrived and took Amy and Thea to the Mall. Kat and Claire went out into the garden
Feeling very summer ready they looked at the image of the lagoon and beach lined with hotels on Google Earth on the pad, and took some screen shots, Kat put the pad in her bag, locked up the house, dropped her keys in the bag as well and they both concentrated on the beach and hit the crystal to transition and rode the lightning. They flew the length of Mexico, coming in over the lagoon behind the beach front hotels, landing on the very corner of the beach.
On the beach the pair took their bearings, checked the screen shots Kat had taken and they linked arms and walked down the beach, looking at the hotels on one side and the Atlantic ocean on the other.
"I wonder if that bar is open?" Kat asked pointing over to a pool side hut that had a had a man in a polo shirt standing in front of bottles.
Claire checked her watch which was still showing San Dimas time, "Isn't it a bit early for a drink?"
Kat looked at her and smiled, "Oh hunny we are on holiday, relax," she replied making a bee line for the entrance, they made sure they could get drinks first as they weren't guests, Kat ordered a Long Island Iced Tea and Claire ordered a Mojito, they took their plastic glasses and went back onto the beach, drinking through the straws, Kats leaned in and rested her head on her friends shoulder.
"You've not done that for a long time." Claire smiled, leaning her head on the top of Kat's, "You'd been kicked out by your parents"
"That hardly narrows it down." Kat replied as they drank and walked.
"We were 17? Not long before the Bowdle Beach Incident on the Missouri River." Claire reminded her.
"I remember" Kat said, eyeing up the hotels. They finished their drinks Kat looked for a bin and the next bar, and spotted some sun loungers on the beach. "Let's have a sit down, top up the factor 50, and see if I can feel how close we are to the nexus."
"Okay I'll go over there and get drinks," Claire said pointing at another pool side bar, "You do what you need to. I'll not be long. Same again?" She asked about to walk off.
Kat handed her the bag, "Please," she said, waving for the bag and grabbing the sun screen and topping herself up. Before sprawling on the lounger in the shade and relaxing and entering a trance. When she was under she found the blocked up stream, this one was purple with throbing reddy purple vein like structures, shot through with gold in it. This one didn't feel the same as London, it didn't have the same tensions, and the colours were obviously different. Kat couldn't think what was different, so moved closer. She could feel it, the lust, the jealousy, the pride, the wrath, the gluttony and the envy and there was something else she could feel, around her watching were 4 green points, moving slowly around the beach, like they were patrolling a perimeter. One was approaching her, accompanying a diamond shard. Kat shook herself out of the trance, blinded by the bright light briefly, and she looked around and saw Claire approaching, accompanied by a waiter who was carrying the 2 drinks and 3 bottles of water.
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