MISC: The Girl Who Saved the World Part 36

[George Phillies]

The Continentals continues excellently.  I have the impression that the 
young lady is the more effective half of the pair, but perhaps we have 
just seen circumstances in which her skills were more evident.

The Legion of Net Heroes is as I remember it from many years ago.
I am currently writing a book that must be done instantly, a major 
scientific review article, and then may have this as a primary project, 
so progress on The Girl Who Saved the World is a bit slow.

And now, The Girl Who Saved The World

“Afterward on that?” Morgana said. “GR, there is a rule here, which is 
why you need a champion, Janie. Joe is clearly not Eclipse.  Wrong 
height. Wrong hair color.  And he’s a boy. And you’re not sure you ever 
played the new move against him.”

“We talked about my move,” Janie said.  “I was really proud of it. We 
talked about some other variations. And why they were not as good. 
Well, that’s what I thought th en. We might have talked about the 
special move. But it was a bunch of friends doing things.  Or him and me 
playing City of Steel.”

“May I confirm, mind-to-mind, that each of you does not know where Joe 
lives or any of his contact addresses?” Heads nodded. “Just focus on 
that statement.  Good.  He has protected the line between his public and 
private personae. That’s an absolute legal wall, like someone asking me, 
Professor Lafayette, who my public persona is, not that it’s much of a 
secret at this point.”

“Everything is good?” Abigail asked.

“We can talk afterward,” Morgana said. “However, the clock is 
approaching eight.The simplest approach is that you open the garage 
door, I’ll be framed in the light, and Janie will be right next to me. 
And you two also, Abigail and Patrick. A few feet behind us. Then we 
come upstairs.  Are people good with that, it being your house?”

“Unless we want to use the front door?” Patrick asked.

“Big snowdrift, dad,” Trisha said. “I think I can get it in time, but 
it’s more snow than the whole driveway.”

“Skip the front door,” Patrick answered.

“We’d better get our coats on,” Abigail said. “That includes you, 
Patrick.  Do you want to borrow a coat, Morgana? We may be standing 
there for a while.”

“That’s very kind of you.  I’m quite weatherproof, thanks. Actually, I’m 
going to leave my sweater here. I may need to move quickly,” she 
answered.  Her sweater went across the back of a chair.  She wore 
underneath a white cotton blouse.   Her intricately-worked gold necklace 
centered a single large blood-red stone on her chest.

Coats were donned. The Wells family stood in the family garage. “Three 
of eight,” Abigail said, “Time to open the door.” Panels creaked and 
groaned as the door rotated up and in. Snow and bitterly freezing air 
rushed in from the street.

Precisely at eight in the evening, Krystal North and her four companions 
appeared in the driveway. Janie waved to Grandmaster Kurchatov, who 
waved back. Morgana Lafayette pressed her hands together and bowed 
slightly to Krystal North. North looked in and recoiled a half-step.

“For the purpose of this conversation,” Morgana announced coldly, “ I am 
Professor Morgana Cysgodol Lafayette, Rogers’ Technological Institution. 
  I am the Wells family’s persona champion. I am here to ensure that 
Miss Wells, confronted with a persona, is not placed at a disadvantage 
during a valid lawful process, and that there is adherence to the 
privacy codes. That goes for your remote watchers, too, Gamesman Kamensky.”

“I am Krystal North, Commandant of the American Persona League,” a 
shaken North said to Lafayette. “I am here as the American persona 
champion, to validate the conversation, subject to the privacy codes. 
You will recognize Speaker Ming.  I believe Janie knows Grand Masters 
Kurchatov and Hornpiper, and may recognize Supreme Gamesman Kamensky. 
Given our balmy New England weather, perhaps we might move inside?”

 

Chapter Five
The Wells Residence
Arbalest Street
Medford, Massachusetts
Late Evening
January 12 , 2018

The Wells family sat around their dinner table, Morgana between Janie 
and her mother.

“You were really great, Janie,” Brian said. “You went through all the 
bad variations, and sort of skipped the good ones, except Eclipse’s. And 
the three Grandmasters just stood there nodding.”

“And Speaker Ming stayed awake,” Patrick said, “An art in itself.”

“He plays,” Janie said. “Whenever he asked about the board, he asked the 
right things.”

“He is a gentleman,” Patrick said, “so of course he plays the Five Games.”

“You two were very thoughtful,” Morgana said to Brian and Trisha, “to 
prepare tea for everyone.  In nothing flat. I assume the caramel-frosted 
hazelnut cookies were Brian’s again?”

Brian nodded. “I made them last Sunday and was saving them,” he 
answered. “Well, I was saving the ones Janie and I hadn’t eaten yet. 
Trisha, I told you that you were perfectly welcome to have more of them. 
Especially after you did all that shoveling. That’s why I made so many 
of them.”

“Professor Lafayette,” Janie asked, “You were hiding it really well, but 
you looked nervous.”