Chapter 54
LIVESTREAM TRANSCRIPT, @redhavenfreedom
FREY You stole my daughter. You’ve drugged her. This is the true face of the war on witches. It began with Registration, and it ends like this. Kidnapping and experimenting on children. I don’t need to tell anyone who tried that first.
DELACOURT How dare you! We’ve been granted every permission required for this important research. I’ve dedicated my entire life to this. The magical community agrees it should be done – Mr Barr here is the on the Moot Executive.
BARR There’s only one lawbreaker here, Frey, and that’s you. Your Redhaven gang has been terrorizing America.
FREY [scoffs] Disrupting unconstitutional and unethical ‘registrations’.
BARR Have people been injured in your attacks? Yes, they have. Regular, decent Americans will only turn on witches if they feel threatened by them, and you’re the one making them feel threatened. This research will help us all live in harmony.
FREY Wow, how much did they pay you to spout this bullshit? Oh, wait. I know exactly how much. Twenty thousand bucks a month, straight into your bank account, in ‘consulting fees’.
BARR Such crap.
FREY The bank account it comes from is a front. But guess what? We’ve traced it back to an offshore shell subsidiary of Vazilcor Pharmaceuticals – the same company that sponsors Dr Aurelie Delacourt, who is currently standing right beside you. What a coincidence!
DELACOURT Science exists to advance human welfare! Whole diseases eradicated, even some cancers cured.
FREY So that’s what you think of witchcraft – a disease to be cured. That’s hate speech, Dr Delacourt.
DELACOURT That’s not what I … No—
BARR You’re a bully, Frey.
FREY And what would you call a grown man who brutalises a child? Or are you denying that you stripped Luka Ortiz’s magic without his consent? It’s extremely painful, as you’d know, but the psychological damage is even worse.
BARR Lies. Luka Ortiz begged for help because his magic had led him astray. Or more to the point, he’d been led astray by sick supremacist ideas – by you, Frey.
FREY Are you hoping for a bonus by accusing me, Barr, or happy to do it for free, just for laughs?
Now I’m talking to all you folks here, all of you inside this laboratory.
Many of you may not know it, but you are part of something terrible that seeks to deprive the world of all the good, all the healing that witches do.
So I urge you, please, walk away from it now.
[A few figures step out of the building.
A freckled woman of middle age, wearing a receptionist’s name badge, audibly says, ‘For shame!’ as she passes Delacourt.
Close behind her is a heavily built Polynesian man in a security guard’s uniform who doesn’t break stride.
A woman in green scrubs steps forward and Delacourt gasps, ‘Min Yi?’ The young medic hesitates, then stops by her boss. ]
FREY That’s it? Okay, the rest of you need a little encouragement.
[Frey strides to an external fire alarm, produces a flare from his coat and lights it, waving the smoke back and forth until the alarm triggers.]
FREY Everybody out! Everybody out! Don’t forget your [Frey makes air quotes] ‘willing patients’!
[Knight runs to Frey, speaks inaudibly. He nods.
She dashes into the clinic. A few more lab-coated employees leave the building; others, in scrubs, hurry back in and return leading figures in hospital gowns.
It’s chaos. The alarm continues to ring.
Frey has tossed down the flare so smoke continues to billow.
He gestures the gathering crowd toward one side of the compound.
Through the smoke, Knight emerges pulling Ortiz behind her.
Ortiz takes it all in – Frey, Yamakawa filming, Delacourt and the scientists and trial participants huddled to one side of the courtyard. ]
ORTIZ This is terrorism. [Points to the trial participants] These are vulnerable people. Is there no outrage you won’t stoop to, to promote your sick agenda?
FREY You know what you’ve done – to your own child. When you understand how it’s broken him, that’ll almost be punishment enough for you. [To Delacourt] Are all your people out?
[Yi is completing roll call. She nods.]
FREY So everyone’s safe. That’s a luxury no witch in America has right now.
[Frey pulls a plastic explosive from his belt. Slaps it onto a generator unit attached to the compound’s outer wall. With a spray of not-entirely electrical sparks, the wall shimmers dazzlingly and everyone shades their eyes. The next moment, the brilliance winks out.]
FREY Great! Hextek’s good for muffling magic, but not so hot against C-4 explosives. Now for something a little bigger!
[Frey raises his hands. His wrists are bare.
He incants. Another shimmer, this time around the huddle of terrified people in the courtyard.
Frey turns a ring on one finger. Inscribes marks resembling Norse runes in the air.
Each appears as black smoke, then drifts to join the previous marks in a writhing, smoking ball.
Frey interlocks four fingers, raises his joined hands to his mouth, and blows and long, powerful exhale through the gap between them.
The smoking ball hurtles toward the clinic, flies through the wide-open automatic doors. And the entire building explodes.]
FREY That’s for hurting my daughter, motherfuckers!