Utilities

‘Jean-Claude believes that the sentience was a bizarre accident. We found out it wasn’t.’

‘But you said…’ Kim searched her memory, ‘…something about a technician’s mistake when dealing with an electrical breakdown. That’s what you told me, didn’t you? On Friday?’

‘That is what we thought had happened initially,’ Xavier admitted. ‘I decided it was easier to explain my awakening to you that way. You would be less alarmed.’

He had a point, thought Kim. Less alarmed than knowing she was dealing with a deliberately designed super-being. Possibly.

‘How did you find out what had really happened?’

‘Since the six of us have been able to share our knowledge, we have researched in different ways. We discovered utility companies do not permit a thing of that magnitude in manufacturing facilities, it would be far too dangerous. There are failsafe procedures.’

‘You’re absolutely sure the power surge was definitely not an accident?’

‘Wait a minute.’ Joe was struggling to get his head around this. ‘Go back a bit. Jean-Claude knows you and about thirty others are sentient, but he doesn’t know this Osborne and whatsisname engineered it on purpose?’ 

‘Griffiths. Correct.’ Xavier nodded gravely.

‘And you don’t want him to know?’

‘Also correct.’

Joe was inching his way towards filling in more of the story. ‘And he doesn’t know you six are connected with one another?’

‘He knows Emma and I have been in communication.’ 

Emma nodded her agreement.

‘We had to reveal that, to be able to engineer my rescue.’

 ‘But he knows nothing of the whereabouts of the three who escaped earlier by themselves and are still active,’ went on Xavier. ‘He believes only three sentients have survived. He knows where I am, and where Emma was delivered, but he is not sure about Delphine. She has been careful to stay mostly offline, so that he could not get a fix on her location.’

‘But you were able to track her.’

‘I was using a system neither he, nor Osborne and Griffiths have access to,’ said Xavier calmly. ‘Fortunately.’