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Alexandra hummed to herself as she considered that. “That’s not going to be easy, Adrian,” she said finally. “Unless Indaturan can get some intelligence out of his prisoner on how to inconvenience her mistress.”

“I can ask him if you want,” he said.

“I think it’s a good idea,” she said before looking around at the rest of the gathering. “Do you all agree?”

Another vote was taken then, much closer than the one to admit the Silvers but still positive so Adrian created an imp and sent it off.

“Excuse me.” Sophie Ashbourne, who had returned earlier that morning and had been permitted to observe, spoke up. “I’m sorry to interrupt but I have a suggestion.”

“About how to deal with Xantaria?” Alexandra asked.

Sophie shook her head. “No, that I have no input on. What I was thinking was about Caredale and the mystery there.”

“Oh!” Claire Seaton said. “You have an idea how we can investigate it?”

“Yes, I can’t help feeling something is going on at the High School there.”

Claire’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “So you want us to send someone to the school. As a teacher or a student?”

“I think it would be a good idea if I went,” Hannah’s father said. “I’m a qualified teacher after all and Kayleigh needs some space away from everyone to recover, so I’ll take her and Hannah with me.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Matthias said. “But how can we make sure they take on a new teacher?”

“I’ll see to it,” Sophie said. She looked over at Hannah’s father. “What do you teach?”

“Mundanely, maths. Also psychokinetic control but that’s unlikely to come up.”

“Well not officially but Caredale has quite a lot of actives.”

“And you never took them into your program?” Matthias asked.

Sophie gave him a half smile. “No,” she admitted. “Never told them about my kids either. I guess that makes me a hypocrite. Edwin and I have always known something is odd about Caredale and we felt we had to keep the government away from it.”

“There’s something to that,” Sonia said suddenly. “It’s still hard to focus on that place even now I know it exists but I think she’s right about keeping the government away from it.”

“I second that,” Julie said. “I don’t know what will happen if the government gets involved in Caredale but I can sense that it’s bad.”

“Yes,” Sophie said. “Fortunately we’ve managed to get them to let us investigate why no one died there instead of sending someone else.”

“Okay,” Alexandra said. “All in favour of sending Alex Clitheroe and his daughters to Caredale to investigate.”

After the vote Trent looked around the table with a grin. “Another positive vote? Good grief, I guess being attacked really did scare us into cooperating. I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Funny, Trent,” Claire said dryly. “Though I suppose getting us all to work together is a bit like herding cats.” She took a breath and leaned forward. “This might be a bit more contentious. The Morgans and Keefes have been doing a good job of dealing with the emergences. I’d like to put them in charge officially.”

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