MISC: The Girl Who Saved the World Part 30

[George Phillies]

“What if I try inserting some of the instructions from one of your model 
ships…”  Janie’s voice trailed off. She looked distantly into space for 
half a minute.

“Jane Caroline,”  her father finally announced, “We know you are a 
telepath, and so are some of your friends, but having them interrupt 
dinner is as rude as answering the Bell phone while we are eating.” 
Patrick Augustus Wells never raised his voice, but his tone was 
completely clear to all three children.

“Daddy, that wasn’t a friend,” Janie answered. Her father raised his 
eyebrows.  “Well, she’s friendly. And she has friends with her. That was 
Krystal North, herself. You know, Krystal North, the lead of the 
American Elite Persona League. She was here two years ago. That was when 
Trisha and I got kidnapped.  She wants me to forward a mentalic call to 
you, Daddy. The Speaker wanted to talk.  Privately. I had to get across: 
We’re having dinner.  He has to wait.  She said they are in D.C. I said 
back we are in Massachusetts, and that’s better. Massachusetts created 
America. She was a bit stubborn. But I was more stubborn.”

“Speaker?” Patrick asked.

“Speaker of the House,” Janie said. “Speaker Ming.  The top guy in 
Congress. He was very polite about asking if he could interrupt.  He 
said it was very important.  I said I’d have to ask,” Janie answered. 
She decided not to mention that Krystal North was still listening. Her 
parents already had those looks on their faces.

“What is going on?”  Janie’s mother asked fearfully.  Abigail Wells 
wished her children had been less involved in persona events, even if 
none of them had been their fault. “Have you been doing the persona 
thing again? Blowing up more robots? And not telling us?”

“No!” Janie realized that she was at the edge of getting into really 
deep trouble, for something that was not her fault. “No, Mommy. And the 
robots last December were trying to kill Brian and me and our whole 
class.  I didn’t do anything. Speaker Ming wants to ask me about City of 
Steel, and needs your and Daddy’s permission to talk to me.”

“I suppose you should be honored,” Patrick Wells said.  “I didn’t even 
know the Speaker plays City.”

“I think he doesn’t,” Janie answered.  “He didn’t sound like he did. 
That’s his private business. I shouldn’t’ve said.  It’s one particular 
move.  The one Eclipse used to win. It’s the move I pulled on Kurchatov, 
only better.  I was saving that variant for the National, and… Now 
Eclipse used it first!” Janie pounded a delicate fist on the kitchen 
table. “No one knew about that move. No one.”  She pounded her fist 
again, then looked momentarily thoughtful.

“Dear, dinner or not, the Speaker is a very busy man,” Patrick said. 
Hopefully, he thought, my daughter did not insult him too much. “Perhaps 
you should forward what he has to say, to all five of us.  And you two 
bite your tongues.” Patrick looked meaningfully at his other two children.

“GR,” Janie said. Suddenly the other four members of the Wells family 
saw, standing directly in front of each of them, a tall woman wearing 
white garb with copper-green trim. Her  black hair had a witch’s peak 
matching Janie’s. Standing to her right was an elderly gentleman, 
balding, silver-haired, smiling, eyes sparkling, dressed in the scarlet 
gown and cape assigned by law to the Speaker of the House. “My 
apologies,” Speaker Ming said, “for having intruded, and I hope that 
young Janie here is not in any trouble as a result of my intrusion, but 
the hour seemed late enough to be after dinner, though I see I was 
mistaken, and the urgency of my interruption is indeed great. In any 
event, the issue is that the Bearer of the Namestone played City of 
Steel against the Lesser Maze and used a novel move, rather a move that 
was novel until it was traced back to Miss Wells here. I gather that the 
Bearer actually played a variation on Miss Wells’ original move. There 
is great interest in what light Miss Wells can shed on the move. My own 
position, which I have been heard to say repeatedly by the press, is 
that the Bearer took the Namestone fair and square, so she now owns it.”