TEMPERANCE | jack wilder

xiv. the final act

(note: some of the dialogue may be inaccurate. the audio wasn't the best so I wasn't able to make out some of the words)

They were now lounging around at the back of the magic shop retracing their steps. "No, I had the stick, the actual stick. I swear. It was in my hand. In the lab and I put it in the little case thing then I gave it to Atlas."

"Right," he agreed with Lula. "Which I then gave to Dylan. Is there any chance that you could've possibly misplaced it at any point?"

"No," Dylan denied. "I took it from you and then slipped it back in your coat pocket and pushed you out."

"Either way, we're left holding a whole sack full of, nada." 

"Yeah but they're gonna come after us as if we do have something."

"No, okay? I agree that somebody got the better of us. I don't agree that we have a sack full of nada because we're all here, that's a sack full of something. Listen, we all know that Walter is not going to stop until he gets that chip. And we're the only ones that even know that he's alive. We can't just walk away. That's not what the Horsemen do," Lula lectured

"There's a quote, it's actually by the magician that made me wanna do this in the first place. It's, um, 'A magician's greatest power lies forever shrouded in his empty fist-' "

" '-and the very idea that he can convince the world that he is, in fact, carrying the thin paper.' "

"Lionel Shrike," Daniel told him.

"Right," Dylan said nodding.

"So what are you saying? That we should pretend that we have something they don't?"

"That's it," Evelynn whispered. 

"What?" Lula asked.

"That's it! We're the only ones that know that Walter's alive. They're gonna come after us as if we did have something and they aren't going to stop." Evelynn looked at Dylan, expectantly.

"What's Walter's greatest fear?" Dylan questioned.

"To be seen," Merritt answered. 

"And what can the stick, do?" 

"The stick can unencode anything. it can open up a back door into any computer on the planet," Lula answered.

"Including his," Jack said.

"Right. We not only make them think that they have it, but that we're going to use it to expose and destroy him," Daniel informed them.

"We need a plan," Dylan said. "Bu we don't have time."

"We have each other and there are six of us."

"We also need supplies, and resources, and probably more than six people," Lula told them.

Suddenly, a voice could be heard from the shadows. "Do you really think that you don't have help?" The old lady from the shop came into view, Bu Bu, was her name.

"Oh, she speaks English," Daniel muttered. "Of course, yes. Evelynn giggled at him. 

Bu Bu showed them a tarot card that had a picture of the fool on it. "Do you know why the Fool is the most powerful card in the tarot? Not because the person who draws him is a fool. He's a fool because he's a clean slate and, therefore, can become anything. You were chosen, all of you."