Part 19 (2/2)

Hugo Rune's mouth was also open. And, for possibly the first time in all his life, he was speechless.

'You might have handled that a mite better,' said Tuppe.

He and Cornelius had now reached the end of the drive and stood in the bright sunlight, facing an open road. 'Asked him for some bus fares, or some-thing.'

'The man is a stone bonker.' Cornelius stuck his hands in his trouser pockets and idly kicked stones about.

Tuppe shrugged. 'So what are we going to do now?'

'Thumb a lift?' Cornelius squinted along the country road.

'To where?' Tuppe followed his squint.

'Who cares?'

'Who cares? Whatever do you mean?'

'I mean I've had enough. I quit.'

'But you can't quit. You're the Stuff of Epics.'

'I'm having a bit of a problem with that right now.'

'Rune really got under your skin, didn't he?'

'And then some. Kidnap the Queen. What sort of plan is that?'

'An epic one?'

'No.' Cornelius shuffled his feet. 'It's madness.'

'So what about them?'

'What about them?'

'Well, we have to wipe them out, don't we?'

'Wipe them out? Think what you're saying, Tuppe. If they are some parallel race, good, bad or indifferent, do you really think genocide is a healthy option? I'll agree that Kobold needs wiping out. But what if he's got a wife and kids? Wipe them out? Get real.'

'Get real? Oh that's very good. We're talking about wiping out wicked fairies, and you tell me to get real.'

Cornelius shrugged.

'So you're just going to forget it then? Forget how they screw up mankind's progress. How they decide what's good for us to know and what isn't.'

'Well there's always someone doing that. Perhaps they do the job as well as any.'

'I can't believe I'm hearing this. ”Livestock”, Kobold called us, ”Vermin.”'

'Listen, Tuppe, when Rune was ranting on back there about retribution, it all came to me in the proverbial flash. We can't expose them. It would be disastrous. Think what they might have in there.

Kobold said that mankind would have blown itself up long ago, if it hadn't been for him and his kind.

Maybe they've got plans for superbombs? What? Imagine stuff like that all suddenly falling into govern-ment hands. And what about the people? When the people find out that their actions have been governed by some secret society in their very midst fingers will be pointed. Folk will say, ”That's why so-and-so got so successful, he must have been in league with them.” Society, as we know it, will grindto a halt.'

Tuppe screwed up his face. 'What you are saying is, when it comes right down to it, they are best left alone.

'Something like that.'

'It all seems to have become very complicated,' said Tuppe. 'And not a lot of laughs. All right.

Maybe it would be a bad idea to expose Kobold's mob to society. But they should still be stopped.

Think of all the good stuff they must have stolen. What about Rune's car? A thing like that could make the world a better place.'

'It could if it really worked.'

'But it does work. You've driven it.'

'I thought you said you were awake during our journey here from Brentford.'

'I might have nodded off once or twice.'

'Me too. But I woke up on two occasions. When he stopped to fill up with Four Star.

'The scoundrel. The man is a fraud.'

'The car is a fraud. That's for certain.'

'And what about the magic table? I saw that, with the little us in it.'

'Yeah. I saw it too. But whether I believe it. That's another matter.'

'Well, well, well.' Tuppe made with the bright and breeziness. 'That seems to be it all sorted. Rune is a stone bonker intent on genocide. His car is a fraud.

We don't know about the table, but we think James Randi could rubbish it, given a couple of minutes. The lads in the Forbidden Zones are not altogether to be wished, but they're probably the better of two evils, so leave them to get on with it. It's all so simple really, I don't know why I didn't think of it.'

'I expect you would have, eventually.'

'And so we just forget all about it, thumb a lift and seek our fortunes elsewhere?'

'You have a better idea?'

'Quite a few, as it happens. We should go back to the house, tell all this to Rune. He may be a stone bonker, but he's also a powerful magician, you saw what he did to my mouth. You have to reason with him, Cornelius.'

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