by T S Paul
“Rob, ignore my bitter assistant over there,” said Madeline. “You can ask Betsy, here. She rigged the system to come back on once we were gone, and aimed the cameras at the note we left in Nadya’s room. Amber’s spell will only last so long. She’ll either get out or what’s left of Arcane will save her.”
Rob nodded his head, “I just… she was part of our team for so long is all.”
“Sleeper agents suck. It’s why Arcane used to screen so diligently. At least in our day. It’s usually the bad guys, anyway. The other agencies out there usually side with us. They infiltrate R & D more than the teams,” Betsy explained. “Beatrice and I were part of Army counterintelligence once upon a time, so we’re pretty familiar.”
“Was any of her story even real?” Rob asked them.
Beatrice joined the conversation. “Maybe? The best way to hide a lie is to make part of it the truth. She may very well have been recruited at eighteen, but somewhere along the line, they turned her. Either Commander Best or someone else high in the system retrained her. She was good to string you along this long. “Forget about her. Her handlers won’t be happy with her at all. She lost both you and us.”
“Madeline, do you think they’ll come after us?” Rob asked.
“Sure they will.” Madeline waved at the whole group. “We represent a serious threat to whatever plans they might have. They don’t know where we went, though, and that will slow them down considerably.”
Both B’s started giggling like schoolgirls.
Madeline looked at her companions with a frown. “What did you do?”
Betsy held up a finger as she tried to stop laughing, but couldn’t stop. Flicking her head toward her sister, she passed the buck.
Smiling, Beatrice shook her head. “What chuckles here is trying to say is we left a few clues for the cleaner to find that should confuse and confound them. With luck, they will go on a nasty wild goose chase.”
“Again, what did you do?” Madeline asked sweetly.
“They might think we’re on our way to Skidoo, California. We didn’t erase the history on the computers, and may have left a map and notes in the trash can for them to find,” Beatrice responded, and pointed at the other team. “It’s lame, but they won’t know for sure if it was us or them that left it.”
“Skidoo? Where in the hell is that?” Amber had a map book out and was searching.
“Death Valley. Fort Irwin is right on the edge of valley, but Skidoo is actually part of the Park now. Way, way back in the 1930s, the Army conducted experiments on Paranormals there. It’s where they air dropped the Trolls. It’s still on the books as a fallback position, but the facility there is hidden and infested,” Beatrice explained with a chuckle. “They did other testing there as well, and made the mistake of bringing in a small troop of Brownies. Instead of becoming experiments, the little brats took over the base! It was actually cheaper to move to Indian Springs than exterminate the little buggers.”
“So when they enter the base…” Alex asked.
“Brownie mix everywhere! Definitely a day breaker,” Betsy laughed.
“What would I do without you two, that’s what I want to know?” Madeline asked.
“Get lost. We’re never leaving you,” Betsy explained. “You’re the leader of our little rebellion here.”
“True,” Madeline murmured.
“Rebellion? That sounds like something I could grow to like. Do we get to kill the English?” Alex asked.
“Wrong century and movie. This is not Bannockburn, to say the least. I won’t speak of this until we see Marcella. She can secure a room like you’ve never seen before. It’s not that I don’t trust you all, but talking about this anywhere that’s unsecured scares me,” Madeline replied.
“How much longer do we have?” Alex asked.
Madeline checked her watch. “It was supposed to be about a fifty-hour drive, but the way Amber is driving, we should get there early. So maybe ten hours.”
“We’re going that fast? Wow, babe!” Rob exclaimed.
Beatrice shook her head. “She’s cheating. If you watch carefully, you’ll see her Magick the cops and slide any slowpoke car right off the road.”
“It’s still way cool! She’s showing ingenuity,” Rob responded.
“I have to warn you about Briarwood. It may be full of Witches, but it’s about the most boring place on Earth. But we’ll be safe,” Madeline explained. “It has that small-town charm, but there is almost nothing to do except pick vegetables all the time.”
“Good. We can all use the rest,” Amber replied. There was a truck stop just up ahead. “Who needs a bathroom break? Last stop on the road to paradise.”
Marcella looked up from the book she was reading in her office. The wards around the house flared as they registered a large group of people that hadn’t been there before. Pushing her chair backwards, she practically ran toward the kitchen. “Minerva, they’re here!”
Her cook, maid, and best friend was already standing on the porch when Marcella got there. Two cohorts of Legionnaires were staggering out of the Garden and into the yard. Minerva looked over at her and spoke, “I think the war is upon us.”
“It’s time then,” Marcella replied. “Can you mobilize the Coven and call Cappy? I need to speak with whoever’s in command down there and get our defenses up. I wasn’t expecting them so soon. It must be really bad in Otherwhere. I hope our friends survived.”
Minerva hugged her friend and said, “Fight now. We can worry later.”
Nodding her agreement, Marcella murmured, “Thanks.” The screen door on the porch slammed open with a screech as she practically ran down the steps.
“Butch! Where’s Mack?” Marcella yelled as she spotted one of the Legion’s centurions.
Centurion Parker, otherwise known on Earth as Butch Cassidy, slid his helmet off and smiled at the approaching Witch. “Hello Marcella. Mack and Owl chose to barricade themselves in the library. They’ve got at least a cohort of our wounded with them for protection, so don’t worry about them.”
“But I do, sweetie, I do. How many did you bring?” Marcella asked. Her eyes were scanning the group for men she’d met or loved.
“Just shy of two cohorts. They attacked full on for almost a week and in the end sent at least one adult Dragon at us. We didn’t have anything to throw at them. Swords and shields don’t hold up well to fire and brimstone. I hope you can arm us,” Butch said.
Marcella brushed tears from her eyes and stood up straighter. “We can. Minerva is alerting the valley now. Come on, I’ll show you to the estate’s armory. Did Sundance make it?”
Butch snorted, “He’s around here somewhere. Getting into trouble, most likely. Owl and Legatus Payne sent you the best of us. Use us well.”
Across the valley, on the highest point, Cappy sat outside one of the last functioning civil defense sites in Maine. Built during the height of the Demon War to alert the valley in case of attack, it was supposed to have been shut down during the 1960s. But Briarwood and the valley it resided in wasn’t on the State’s radar very much. Politics and Magick didn’t work well together. If it wasn’t Agnes Pickleberry zapping the highway department for disturbing her sleep, it was the Coven making the Governor and the Legislature change the laws to help them. The threat of invasion had always hung over the heads of the valley residents.
When Verity Blackmore founded the town, she informed the early settlers of the potential threat. Those who lived near Gates were always under one threat or another. The Garden was no exception. The Velociraptor incursion of 1959 was such an example. Fortunately, the Coven and the FBI handled that one.
Cappy had been waiting for the call for years. He’d held on as police chief, following the will of the people, but he was getting too old for the job. Newer rules for a new generation. That was how the new guy had framed it to the city council. Against better judgement, they’d listened and hired the very first non-local for the job. How Jenkins was going to handle this cr
isis would be telling. Maybe they’d listen this time. Cappy doubted it, though. Regular humans just didn’t get Paranormal society all that well. He stood up, unlocked the building, and stepped inside.
The space was once filled with very old-fashioned equipment, but the Coven had upgraded everything in the 1980s. Now all he had to do was punch in a code and hit go. He hoped the Coven and Militia were ready.
Weeeeeeeeeet. Weeeeet. Weeeeet.
The town’s civil defense klaxon began sounding across the entire valley the very moment Cappy hit the button. Older folks, militia members, and Paranormals alike froze in place at the sound. Almost as one, they dropped whatever they were doing and reached for their guns.
Police Chief Jenkins stood in the middle of his station, staring up at the ceiling. Loudspeakers both in and outside of the building were repeating the general sound. “What the hell is going on?”
Most of the older officers had either been let go or had left with Cappy. Only the receptionist, Sarah, knew the answer. “Civil defense alert. It means invasion imminent. Check the Coven net.”
“There’s a Coven Net? Since when?” Jenkins asked her.
“Have you ignored everything that Cappy told you about, or are you just that stupid?” Pulling out her keys, Sarah unlocked her bottom desk drawer and pulled out a canvas bag. She slipped on an old-fashioned army vest and battle gear. “Kids these days. You think you know it all. Get your head in the game. Things are about to get nasty.” Picking up her purse, she stepped around him and headed for the door.
Jenkins blinked a couple of times then turned to yell at her, “If you leave, you’re fired!”
“I work for the city and not you, so no. Talk to Cappy, Chief.” Sarah continued out the door and walked to her car. She, like many others in the militia, kept her guns in the trunk.
“Do any of the rest of you know how to shut this off?” Jenkins yelled at the deputies. Storming into his office, he started tossing things onto the floor. After the official change of office, Cappy had tried to explain how things were in town, but Jenkins had tuned him out. Briarwood was easy; he had grown up here, after all. Jenkins’ stint as an officer with the state police had taught him the basics. He did remember Cappy saying something about a book…
All over town, people were in action. The militia had rally points inside the Garden in the general work areas. Coven elders were to meet up at the Blackmore estate. Maine was an open carry state and today you could really see it here. Just about everyone in sight was armed to the teeth.
Digging down to the bottom of his desk, Jenkins finally found the book Cappy had given him. Briarwood Town Management and Contingencies. The very large three ring binder was larger than a phone book and weighed twice as much. He’d gotten it and the keys to the building on the day he took over, and what a day that was, looking back.
“I guess this is it, then. Congratulations on your new job, Chief Jenkins.” Cappy held out his hand to the much younger man. “I’ve left the keys to the station as well as a book you’d best read on the town and things done in the past.”
Jenkins ignored the outstretched hand. “Time for a change, is how I see it. The old ways of doing things are over. Nepotism is dead. Briarwood needs to stop living in the past and move forward. This is just the first step. I can take it from here, Cappy.”
Brushing off the old man might not have been the wisest thing he had done, but if the town was to change, they needed to get rid of the dead weight. That’s what his cousin on the city council said, at least. Both of them had a goal to bring the town into the real world.
Flipping the book open, he scanned the intro page for something related to the klaxon and what Sarah had said. He found it under chapter twelve, sub paragraph six: Invasion. “...in case of invasion through the existing Garden Gate, all militia is to organize at the pre-existing collection points. Coven leadership will place each group at points of entry and egress in order to…”
Jenkins looked up from the book muttering to himself, “The hell? Garden Gate, what garden gate?”
Flipping more pages, he found passages that said things like, “...potential monsters such as Dragons, Demons, and Demi-Gods. Each monster is listed in the index as a specific sub-group of entity. Special ammunition for each type can be requisitioned from…”
He’d grown up in Briarwood after his parents moved here from Bangor. Everyone in town knew about the Coven and the Blackmore family. They were both major tourist draws, as were the purple squirrels. Rumor had it that Agatha Blackmore had created them. The same Agatha that was an FBI Agent now. But that was the only real magic he’d seen. Humans and Paranormals didn’t really mix all that much here. For the most part, the humans ran the town, making all the big decisions. Other than in passing, he’d never even officially met Marcella Blackmore. As he turned each page, his brain began to overload.
Who knew there was this much of an undertone in town? The town charter, the original town charter, not the one the tourists see, had a codicil ceding control of the town to the Coven during any and all invasions or catastrophic events. Although he’d never been in the military, he knew the term False Flag. Going into left field, Jenkins wondered if this could be a hoax as a way to eliminate the humans. And if so, should he grab some guns and just start arresting people? Maybe he should call Rick, his cousin.
Chief Jenkins was still flipping through the book when Cappy barged into his office.
“What are you all still doing in here? Didn’t you hear the sirens? We’ve got a full-on invasion coming. We need to get the roadblocks in place and close off the valley!” Cappy started to explain. He spotted the book in Jenkins’ hands and shook his head. “Are you just now reading it? Foolish boy. They will eat you alive out there.”
Slamming the book closed, Jenkins jumped up, confronting the former police chief. “This is my office now, old man. How dare you just barge right in.”
Holding up his hands, Cappy backed up. “Fine. Whatever. You can deal with Marcella when and if this is over. Trouble is coming, and it seems you’re not prepared for it. Forget I said anything. The Militia will do your job for you. I’ll inform the Coven, as well. You’d best find a deep hole to hide in.”
Cappy turned and left the office as quickly as he had entered it. He stopped at the doorway and looked back at the remaining officers. “You boys need to pick a side and do it quickly. Pick or hide, there is no other choice here.” Without another look back, he left the building. There was so much to do and so little time to do it in.
“Uh oh.” That was the first thing that came to mind when I heard the klaxon. We were sunning ourselves up the hill from the mansion and had missed the arrival of the Legion.
Grandmother trained me to run the Coven in her absence when I was seven. At least she started the training. Jump ahead six years and I thought I knew it all. The history, structure, and Sabbats were the easy parts. What the group did and why were the harder questions. Some, if not all the parts about cross time and many universe theories went right over my head. Which is why in later years I didn’t really get that The Garden contained a Gate to other places, namely Otherworld.
Cat’s head jerked up. “Trouble?”
“Remember that conversation we had about the enemy and how they might come through the Gate? Guess what that means,” I pointed skyward.
“They really are coming, then. And I was just starting to get comfortable here. So much for working on my tan,” Cat jived.
“If you work on your tan any more, Chuck over there is going to have a coronary.” I pointed to Chuck, who was pretending to sleep several feet away.
Cat pulled on a t-shirt over her very skimpy bikini and glared at me. “We are not a couple. He’s just a friend.”
“Sure, and Fergus is just a Unicorn. You two need to figure something out before either of you gets hurt. But now is not the time for it. The Coven has a grand plan for things like this, and I bet Minerva has a spot picked out just for us already,” I explained to h
er, knowing Chuck could hear us.
“Where is the little monster, anyway?” Cat gathered up her things and began following me to the car.
I shrugged. “Fergus claimed he wanted to rest and reclaim his youth. He and Chuck had a good scare yesterday playing with the mice in the Garden. I think he’s been homesick. As crazy as he can get, who really knows.”
“Are you up for whatever this is?” Cat asked me.
Looking over at her, I shrugged again. It was a bit of a cop-out, but to be truthful, I was getting tired. First it was evil Witches, then Demons, then Camilla, and now possibly Dragons. In barely a year. Crazy for someone my age. I knew most of my family history. Only Verity had it worse than me. “What will be will be. I’ve at least had time to recharge a little.”
“Does your Grandmother have weapons for us? The FBI sort of cleaned out the stash on the bus. I have my handgun but the rest...no idea,” Chuck remarked. He was following us like an overprotective bodyguard, his head swiveling in all directions.
I chuckled, “Wait until you see the armory. It will blow your mind. My family likes to hoard stuff. Weapons included.”
The house was extremely busy when we got there. Several dozen Legionnaires stood at all corners in protective mode. Women I assumed were Coven members were running every which way, dressed like mall cops in black tactical gear. Either that, or someone got a little crazy with a police gear catalog. After the second soldier nodded to me, my friends wanted the lowdown.
Grabbing my elbow, Cat pulled me closer to her. “Those guys the Romans you told us about?”
“Some of them. Owl pulled them in from all different time periods, so you might recognize a few names here and there. Hollywood has made a few of the guys famous. If they’re here we don’t have much time,” I explained.
“Thank the Gods, I was just about to send out a search party for you. Agatha, your grandmother needs you,” Minerva cried out as we came into her view. “I’ll take your friends down to the armory and get them geared up. We’re not sure of the time… hours to minutes.”
