Our convoy has arrived at its destination. I am getting wierd vibes. Wizards and their escorts have visually distinct equipment and clothing, escorts and wizards quite similar but not identical. People in the security services, who surround us in a base, know who or rather what we are.

  P: Something is wrong

  T: I am getting vibes of fear and revulsion.

  U: Can you sense what we are feeling?

  Thomas delivers a preliminary answer by hesitation.

  T: I am getting kind of trepidation from you.

  Silence. Should we lie to them? No, you cannot do that.

  --

  ? The federal government has again affirmed that they expect the crisis to end within a month

  ? On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi the dead are rising.

  ? Following immediately a catastrophic intrusion zone hitting the metropolis of Makassar

  ? resolved by a broad international effort under the leadership of the Australian

  ? superhero Jason Asano another catastrophe has befallen that nation

  ? governments around the world and the GDN have refused to confirm that monsters

  ? have caused this calamity

  ? the federal government has called claims by the opposition that wizards are turning

  ? the dead into a weapon to frighten the people into accepting wizard overlordship

  ? ludicrous and baseless, bordering on outright insanity

  T: And so it begins

  U: Has a wizard done this?

  T: How am I supposed to know? I have no powers in that regard. Somebody else may have.

  D: Do you think a government has done this?

  P: What for? With all due respect for Sulawesi, it is not worth crossing that border.

  U: Are you thinking that this is an … accident?

  P: Actually yes. Whoever did this will now be hunted. You’d have to be stupid to risk that for a weapons test.

  T: We will be associated with this anyway.

  D: That is likely.

  T: I mean as a group. And we will need to react.

  P: We have all seen X-Men. I like Magneto.

  U: So I thought.

  P: What do you mean by that?

  D: You are predictable

  P: Great minds think alike. Therefore they are predictable.

  D. That was predictable.

  T: People, seriously. People have a good reason to wish to control us. And we have a logical reason to avoid that.

  P: But you cannot look at somebody and tell that they are a wizard.

  D: Rademacher did look kind of strange.

  U: He looked oldfashioned.

  P: Not just that. Did you notice that he had absolutely clear skin?

  D: You are disturbingly good at remembering physical details of men.

  U: Darling!

  T: So you can confirm it?

  D: I repeat myself virtually.

  P: Do you want me to probe you again?

  Dejan is ostentatiously looking at the ceiliing