xp_communication | Email to Moira

To: [farawayfiancee]
From: [morose in westchester]
Subject: so, good news, bad news...

Good news would be that, barring weather impossible for the helicopter to fly through, your quiet little island ought to be deluged with mercenaries sometime tomorrow morning. David's got what's needed to update your security system, Garrison will have a look at the computers, Theo's going to give Billie a hand, and Mina apparently has plans to fuss over you. They're planning to stick around for a day or two and get Billie over the worst of the reconstruction work, once the high-priority stuff is looked after. I told them you'd probably make them sleep on the beach. They claimed they'd bring tents. Don't you feel loved?

Bad news is... well, one thing at a time. Pete's father passed away, so he's heading over to England on Monday. I was down at the pub with him for a while last night after he got the news. It was pretty unexpected, I guess. I'm glad now that he took it into his head to go visit his dad over Christmas, and take Amanda with him.

Other piece of bad news is that we had some arson here. (Yes, arson.) Turns out that the Friends of Humanity apparently have their version of the Hitler Youth, who took it into their heads to torch the coffeehouse where HeliX meets. Before you start panicking, no one's hurt - at all. They drugged and dumped the staff in an alley, and then set the place on fire as our kids arrived, after a bit of speechifying. Trying to make a point, I suppose.

This has all come as a nasty shock to the kids, of course. The air was abuzz with indignant thoughts last night, and that would be the understatement of the year. I'm very glad no one was hurt, but part of me is a bit perplexed that any of them are actually surprised. I mean, most of them are American, and know how insane this country is about mutants in general. I guess this was probably a lot more personal than some of them had experienced before. Or maybe I'm just jaded. I am sorry to see the impact this is having on HeliX, though...

So. Tomorrow. I'm trying very hard not to think about it. It's not really working. I haven't really been sleeping, and I can hardly bear to turn on the news, or look at a newspaper. Call me a coward, but I just can't.

Love you... miss you. Call you in the morning, maybe?

Nathan