Chapter 39: Accusations

"I've known about Master PC since its inception," Lord Greenwood said. "I was one of the many Mind Magi recruited to help get it up and running."

"If you've known all this time..." started Sally.

Lord Greenwood snapped around to glare at her.

"Let him talk, Sally. He may be facing Banishment, " I thought to Sally. To Lord Greenwood I said, "Please, continue."

"As I said, I was involved in the program's creation. Sandra McMillan recruited many Mind Magi, not only for our abilities but our everyday skills as well."

Imagining the complexity of the software alone was reason enough to hire programmers. On top of that was the need to be able to implement the software on a wide variety of platforms. However, that was all well before most of the current operating systems were even dreamed up.

"I would love to know all the details of how Sandra orchestrated the creation of the software. That would make a good training program for how things might go wrong if the Mind Magi should meddle in the mundane affairs of the world. However, I'm more interested in more recent events. For instance: if the Mind Magi were involved in the creation of the program, why the need to investigate it years later?"

"Well, part of the history of the program was that it was never released as intended," Lord Greenwood said. "Not long after Sandra's death, the Mind Magi Council decided to pull the plug on the project and essentially bury it."

"If that was the case, who dug it back up?"

He shook his head. "I don't know."

"I'm more interested in how you know everything about Ral?" Sally said.

Lord Greenwood turned and looked at her. "I don't recognize you. What House are you a member of?"

"Sally is bound to me," I answered. "However, she has a good point. Why would I be so important to you to find out everything on?"

Lord Greenwood turned back to me with a bit of a sneer. "As you are aware of, you were born of two Mind Magi; something that was not permitted by our laws at that time."

"I became a House Lord only two years after your parents' deaths," he continued. "The other House Leaders felt no need to pursue you once your parents had died. They felt you posed no threat."

"Yet, due to the influence of the prophecy, you felt I was a threat," I said.

He nodded. "Though the prophecy mentions only your birth, I feared you would be far more detrimental in the rest of the prophecy. And so far, I've been correct."

I glanced at Michael. He looked about as confused as I felt. "And what threat do I present?"

Lord Greenwood pointed toward the door. "The world knows of your existence. They have electronically recorded you using your powers. Since those damned cameras are now a viable source of proof beyond doubt, and that particular bit of footage was broadcast on the air, there must exist more than just you."

"That would never have happened," I said in return, "if the Mind Magi Council and the rest of our society had been warned of the potential dangers of Master PC. If there had been someone to dismantle the computer and counter the imbued objects, none of this would have happened."

"I am not clairvoyant," said Lord Greenwood. "How was I supposed to know these kidnappings would happen, or that the program would be the tool for which it was possible?"

"You said it yourself Greenwood. You were investigating Master PC usage for the last few years. What's more, you knew about the server. You knew that if you shut it down then the occurrences would stop. Why didn't you shut down the server?"

Lord Greenwood glared back at me for a second. "Because the server had been moved."

"So you don't know where it is," I said.

"That's right. To say I've done nothing is quite incorrect. I've tried to warn the other House Leaders. The only one who gave it any thought was Lord Lasarge, but he let the others convince him that nothing could come of it that we couldn't counter."

"How many of the current House Leaders knew of the Master PC project from so many years ago?"

"Only one, other than myself."

"Lord Lasarge?"

Lord Greenwood shook his head. "No, Lord Morehouse."

"If he knew about the original project, why didn't he assist with the investigations?"

"Because he was too stubborn to listen," said Lord Greenwood. "He didn't want to believe that someone had resurrected the project, or distributed it, for that matter."