For those who came in late…Grace is still missing after the encounter at Central Park. An investigation of Harlem High School reveals a mysterious power at work in the halls linked to Angela Foxbury and her previous life as an operative for the American Government. Everything appears to revolve around the symbol of her broach and her apparent death years ago at her state wedding to President Carlos Esquera. The question is what to do next…

Watcher’s Notes –  15 June 2014

James attempts to make contact with Angela Foxbury or whatever other power within the High School. He drops his mental defences and asks Angela to ‘Do what ever is necessary to help him understand‘. There is a searing pain at the back of his neck and when he reaches round his fingers detect a metal shard. The group decide to visit the Nurses’ Office where, with Patrik’s assistance, James is luckily successful in removing the three inch long metallic device that was attached directly to the base of his spinal column. Patrik’s analysis reveals it to be some sort of electronic device – now inactive and wonders whether this has been influencing his or the others’ behaviour. James is weak but his mind seems clearer and free from a previously unrealised influence. His reactions to the other members of the group have also changed with him realising he was being manipulated into liking and working with them. After James has recovered somewhat, they decide to return to Central Park and look for Grace.

They arrive at the Park and review the scene. The transformed tree has been washed down by the Fire Department and the top of the Mad Hatter’s hat in the Wonderland Statue is still damaged but the device within has been ripped out and has disappeared. A bloody brick reveals an opportunistic attack and Patrik confirms traces of Grace’s blood. While the group debates the relevance of the new evidence, Wilson returns with the flag pin he had found and drops it unceremoniously on Patrik’s head. Retrieving it from the ground, Patrik recognises the seal of the Bolivian Embassy and the group quickly decides it as their next port of call.

Wilson arrives first and scouts out the area. The Embassy of the Consulate General is located at 211 East 43rd Street in a ten-story brownstone but it appears that only the bottom and top floors are occupied. It is late in the evening and James rides his scooter past the outside to the building to get an idea of what may lie within. Thomas drives Patrik’s limousine over and then abruptly leaves him to park the car while using his super-speed to race up the side of the building from a nearby alley. Wilson arrives at the roof where he sees five heavily-armed and armoured soldiers carrying automatic weapons and one with a sniper rifle. Parked on the top of the building is a helicopter bristling with a brace of chain-guns.

Inside the building, Grace awakens. Her head hurts and has been bandaged at her temple and on the back of her neck. She has been dressed in a silk nightgown and her clothing is nowhere to be found. A nearby vanity is embossed with twin swords bearing dual flags of the Bolivian Embassy. A phone on a nightstand near the bed leads directly to an operator who responds in Spanish and it takes Grace a moment to ask her whether or not she speaks any English. Once she does, she asks her if she can get an outside line and is told this is not possible. Similarly, when she asks to speak to someone, she is told that everything is in hand and to be patient, someone will be with her soon.

Grace uses her abilities to sweep the room. It is obvious that there are a series of electronic bugs and monitoring equipment surreptitiously hidden and monitoring her.  Outside the door she can see the shadows of the boots of someone on guard. Suddenly there is the sound of a key turning in a lock and the door is opened by a guardsman in a ceremonial outfit wearing a ceremonial sword and carrying a sidearm. He looks impassively at Grace while a small woman in a housekeepers outfit enters carrying a drycleaner’s bag holding Grace’s clothing. She seems genuinely pleasant and cordial and addresses Grace in Spanish but when Grace abruptly grabs her arm, becomes scared, struggles free and quickly leaves the room. The Guard steps in protectively as the maid leaves and uses his sidearm to motion towards the dry-cleaning.  Grace checks her clothing. All identification has been removed but no money or jewellery us missing. She enters the bathroom, locks the door, showers, changes back into her clothing, then returns to the now empty room.

She looks briefly out the thick curtains at the outside world and counts the number of flights she is up on an adjacent building – ten. She tests the doors to the balcony, but they are all locked as is the door to the entrance to the suite. Outside hovering in mid-air, an invisible Wilson briefly sees her face as she turns to the sound of the key in the door. He notes the arrival of a older gentleman into the room wearing a sash and bearing the arms of the sovereign state of Bolivia on his ornate coat. He has a pencil-thin moustache and beard and his accent when he speaks in perfect, albeit clipped English, identifies him to Grace as of German descent. He introduces himself as the Viceroy Viktor Braun and goes on to list what information he has about Grace – her name, age, place of work, of residence, and her job. He fixes her with a steely gaze and wants to know what she was doing in Central Park and who she is working for. Grace attempts to dissemble and receives the business end of a pistol jammed into her back. Viktor frog marches her out the door and Wilson is about to act when he spots Thomas running up the wall towards the roof.

Back at ground level, Patrik and James approach the Guards at the entrance. One Guard rings through to the switchboard to report on their arrival and they stand warily, concealed side-arms at the ready watching the two as they approach. Patrik introduces himself and asks to speak with someone in charge. A guard informs him in a heavy Spanish accent that the Embassy is closed and to return the next day during normal hours. James steps forward, smiles and says that he is representing Patrik and that it is imperative that they speak with the Consulate General as soon as possible in regards to the state visit by President Esquera. The guards remain unmoved and repeat their request for the two to return the following day.

Inside the Embassy, Grace finds herself walking down an ornate corridor towards a set of large double-doors. She attempts to respond to Viktor’s questions without giving anything away while at the same time trying to understand what has happened and where she might be. However Viktor’s patience quickly wears thin and he presents Grace with an ultimatum that he appears about to follow through on when suddenly the doors to the main ballroom swing open and standing before them is suave visage of President Carlos Esquera.

Esquera has aged noticeably and sports a monocle on his left eye and a barely percetable horizontal scar that leads back into his slick black widow’s peak hair. He is wearing a dark red smoking jacket and is holding a large pungent cigar in one hand and a glass of Madeira in the other. He smiles and bows deeply to Grace while passing the glass to Viktor and at the same time admonishing him for his behaviour. He takes Grace’s hand and leads her into the ballroom. There are ornate chandeliers hung from the ceiling and a string quartet is seated on a stage at the other end of the room. At a wave of the President’s hand, the quartet strikes up a Viennese waltz and he sweeps Grace into his arms and begins to waltz around the room. He is extremely charismatic and Grace finds it impossible to draw her gaze from him, noting only that Viktor is staring intently at her and smiling with his gun at the ready. On the interior wall above an enormous fireplace is a large portrait of Angela Foxbury resplendent in her wedding gown and tiara, on her breast is the broach, on her lips, a serene smile. Below it is a large ornate desk and chair behind which stand two flag poles. Grace is spinning and spinning as the waltz becomes faster and faster. Carlos asks her if she has come to kill him and she answers truthfully – no. He asks whether she is working for the American government, to which she lies and there is a sudden intensely painful wrenching feeling in her mind as Viktor’s eyes flash and the memory is pulled directly and permanently from her mind. The smoke from the cigar spirals around the dancers, another question, another lie, another memory is ripped from Grace’s mind by the smiling Viktor, she becomes desperate and attempts to pull away just as the music comes to its climax and Carlos spins her viciously around so she ends up clutching the desk and staring up into the eyes of the painting. ‘Do you have anything to do with the death of my wife?’ At which point, Grace’s mind rebels and she screams, unleashing a psionic blast that momentarily stuns everyone in the building.

Meanwhile on the roof, Thomas arrives to the bewilderment of the President’s guards, who immediately begin to fire on him. One man stationed in the helicopter switches on the controls for the chain guns and attempts to track Thomas as he races across the roof top, the bullets carom off the brownstone across the road, smashing windows and signalling screams of terrified occupants. Soon the sound of sirens can be heard approaching along with a Police helicopter. Thomas abruptly grabs one of the men and shunts him off the roof. At the moment of Grace’s scream, the guards suddenly clutch their heads, Wilson uses his telekinesis to save the falling guard and to sweep the others from the roof, depositing them roughly on a landing far below. In an adjacent alleyway, a black van, similar to the one from Central Park, activates and begins to climb the wall of the Embassy searching for the cause of the disturbance. Thomas wrenches the fuel tank from the helicopter and races down the side of the building towards the robot, eventually smashing the tank into its head resulting in an enormous explosion. The force destroys the head of the robot, part of the corner of the Embassy, which in turn destabilises the building, and Thomas is stunned and blown clear across the sky eventually landing in the East River. A full-blown diplomatic incident is now well and truly underway.

Taking advantage of the Grace’s distraction, James and Patrik force their way past the Guards at the door, incapacitating them and rushing into the ground floor. Taking a stairwell that leads up the interior of the building, Patrik flies up the centre while James runs up behind him, incapacitating various guards who were rushing up or down the building to respond to the attack. Within moments they reach the corridor that leads to the ballroom. The explosion of the robot has destroyed part of the ballroom. The players have fled leaving a bewildered Grace and Carlos while Viktor is brandishing his sidearm near a chasm that has opened in the floor. Seeing the approaching James, he readies to fire only to find himself flung down the broken floor and he disappears into the broken and burning building. Outside the flashing lights from police and emergency service vehicles can be seen and a helicopter uses a searchlight to assess the damage to the building.

Patrik and James move to assist Grace and confront Esquera. The President, meantime, has grabbed a device from off his desk and Patrik realises it is the same one from the Park. Carlos threatens to detonate it and Patrik knows this could mean death for everyone in the building. James attempts to talk the President down from his actions. He confirms his suspicion that Angela is alive and that although their instructions were to deliver him to the Park by a particular time that instead he would like to take him back to the High School. He is successful and Esquera relents, passing the device to Patrik, who quickly neutralises it. Using a secret elevator, they descend to the basement and take a back entrance out of the building and make their way via Patrik’s car back to the High School.

They arrive at the entrance and Carlos walks into the building. James thinks he sees the brief image of Angela standing at the far end of the corridor and then the couple vanish. The illusion of the school lifts to reveal an abandoned derelict building and the puzzled adventurers return to the car and to Patrik’s apartment to consider their next move.

A parcel is waiting on the doorstep to the apartment and Patrik opens it to reveal a series of death certificates in their names and dated from today’s date. Unclear as to what this means, the group enjoy an uneasy night’s sleep, except for Patrik whose insomnia keeps him awake and worrying about what the dawn may bring.

And scene – this series comes to a close.