She was just about to go back inside and demand Maria get her brother to bring them back to St. Ann’s when it happened. Out of nowhere, two dark figures had appeared and held that towel against her nose before she could yell for help. When she woke up, nauseous and feeling as though hammers were pounding inside her head, she was here. Wherever the hell here was.
When they saw she was awake, two men came into her room. One of them had a video camera and they told her she’d better behave herself and smile nice for her daddy or they wouldn’t bring her any food. She quickly stopped being scared and let them know where they could stick their fucking food. But, they ignored her threats and filmed her anyway. Then, they left her alone. With no food.
Every time they came back, it had been the same. It didn’t matter how much she yelled and screamed at them, they simply stayed for a few minutes, filmed her with the camera and then left. Still no food.
She even yelled at them after they’d left but nothing changed. And, when she eventually fell asleep after her emotions ran down, the bastards came in and woke her up. They were relentless and screaming at them didn’t help at all. After maybe the fourth or fifth time, she merely sat there. She didn’t say a damn thing. After they left, however, the door opened a few minutes later and a tray was pushed inside and left on the floor. Food.
And, so it had gone on, day after day. They’d film her every few hours and nothing she would say or do mattered. She even found two surveillance cameras so she knew they were watching her all the time. There was a small bathroom where she didn’t think they had any cameras. That was the only place she had any privacy.
After two days, they provided a few pairs of sweat pants and sweat shirts she could change into and told her she could leave her clothes for them to wash. By the third day, she decided to take advantage of that, only she kept her panties and bra, washing them in her bathroom and letting them dry in there. No way was she letting the bastards have those. Ewww!
She continued wearing the sweats, even after they returned her clean clothes. She watched some TV. She napped. And, she waited for this to all be over so she could go home. What was taking so long?
Yeah, she was frustrated. But, there just wasn’t a damn thing she could do about that. Sure there was some guilt and remorse over having slipped away from her dad’s watchdogs at the academy; admittedly, that had been stupid. But now? Mostly she was simply frustrated. She knew her father had millions of dollars and an army out there. What was taking so long?
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“Sal, I got a call from Missy McCrea herself. She’s insisting on seeing you this Sunday afternoon and won’t take no for an answer. She said she’ll be here around one and we’d better be ready to explain what this stupid mob war is all about and why it hasn’t ended yet.” Ben watched as Sal grimaced and processed this information. “I’ve rearranged your schedule so you’re free. And, I’ve asked Billy Martin and Donny Delgato to be here.”
“Why bring them into this? I realize they know she’s a witch, but …”
Ben rushed to answer, saying, “She asked for them. She asked me who was protecting the Roseanne Fund people and when I told her, she laughed. She told me, and this is an exact quote: ‘Oh, goody … nothing like a couple of hit men to make everyone feel safe.’ Then she insisted I have them here also.”
Sal said, “I guess I’m okay with her showing up here if she’s determined to do that. Will she be driving up to the gate this time? Or, will she magically appear the way she did last time?” He and Ben had never figured out how she’d managed getting in or out during that last visit. She’d knocked out all his guards with tranquilizer darts and then had barged into his office. But, how she’d gotten inside his estate, surrounded with its double electrical fences twelve feet apart and each twenty feet high with barbed wire … that was still a mystery.
Ben smiled. “Her boyfriend Mike Ryan will be coming with her. She has a weekend pass and says she’s having him drive her here for this meeting before she returns to the academy. She suggests you put the word out this visit is routine business and that you’ve invited her here because you’re planning to give West Point a huge donation.”
“Does that sound plausible? Why would I invite some cadet, rather than an official from the academy?”
“Oh, it’s because you’re so impressed by all those magazine articles about her. Since those stories are just now hitting the stands, you can explain how those inspired you and how you wanted to meet her in person. Before making your five million dollar gift.”
“Five million?”
“The D’Amato Endowment will be for the advancement of other female cadets. Now that you’ve made such a wonderful name for yourself with your Roseanne Fund, she says this would be appropriate.” Ben didn’t add how Missy had mentioned she knew Sal’s crews had been grabbing millions in their raids on the other families in this war he had going.
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Sami Massallah had arranged for this secret meeting with Captain Grimes, now that he had returned to Kabul and settled back in with all his other duties. As the CIA’s key SOG operative, running a network of other CIA operatives and informants, taking care of that had taken a few days. But he’d also been tasked with working with Team Twenty-Two and becoming fully aware of both their missions and capabilities. Hence this meeting. Since paranormal and supernatural threats had never been anything he’d worried about before, he was still trying to fully understand what might be involved.
“So, you’ve actually seen her do this? Change into a mountain lion?” He’d seen all the photos of Missy McCrea, which of course he hadn’t been allowed to hold onto. He’d destroyed all the briefing materials from Winword after he’d had the chance to fully go through them. He had been discussing some of the things Captain Grimes had seen Missy and Tracy McGonagle do.
“Oh, yeah, sure have. She made me turn my back on her, just for a moment, during which she disrobed and Changed. There was a shimmer of light and a pulse of energy and when I turned back around, she was a huge cat. Great big scary fangs showing and a long tail. She purred at me while letting me examine her closely, making sure I could recognize her by all those scars she has on her shoulder. Then, she made this chuffing noise and off she went. She was gone a week.”
“Well, I can see how that would certainly come in handy. And the fireballs this Tracy was using? I checked and there was a report that came in about a village near Kushk which was badly damaged by fires. WIJO claims there was an attack out there by U.S. forces using high tech weapons but they aren’t sharing any specific details. And, there’s no admission that was where Candace Axtell was being held. I’ve asked my informants with WIJO to look into it. That whole incident was rather embarrassing for WIJO.”
Captain Grimes laughed. “I can guess why. Our guys never even went inside the village. Once Tracy had half the perimeter blazing away, the initial reaction in there was aimed at putting out fires. We knew which path Missy and Oliver were taking, bringing Candace out, and we merely needed to put down some suppressive covering fire with our weapons. Only then did the WIJO guards even realize they were being attacked.”
“No problem retreating back to where the helos were waiting?”
“Missy stayed behind. She had promised us there wouldn’t be anyone coming after us and nobody got past her. Once we lifted off she disappeared … Changed back into her cat form. She jokes about how she had to carry her boots, dangling around her neck, while trekking to her extraction point over ten miles away. They wouldn’t fit inside the little backpack she was wearing where she put the rest of her uniform.”
“A cougar wearing a pack on her back with combat boots hanging down … too bad we don’t have a photo of that.” Sami laughed. “I’d like to have seen that.”
Captain Grimes laughed also. “Yeah, but she was back wearing her uniform when the Black Hawk arrived to pick her up. I don’t think they’d have let her hop in their helicopter had she still been out there as a big, bad mountain lion.�
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“I guess I can understand why General Blake and the others are so worried. If the enemy has anyone half as bad as our witches …”
“You know they named Campaign Angel’s Wing after Missy, right?” Captain Grimes chuckled. “I was the one who debriefed the three Germans she rescued last January from that cave fortress. One of them described her as an angel. Only, he described her as an angel of death who could kill someone by just pointing at them. Back then, only those “P” Branch folks knew who or what she was.”
Sami said, “The file I read wasn’t very clear about exactly what she does, aside from Changing into a cat. Oh, and healing. I guess she saved a couple of your men as well as that Oliver.”
“All true. She saved herself as well. Those three bullets she took would probably have killed anyone else. Two in the shoulder, one in the gut. Lucky she didn’t bleed out but healing like that is just one of the things she does. She has all this energy she can use, both for regenerating and for destroying. General Blake told me she can probably crush the life out of an entire room full of people. So yeah, he’s right to worry whether the bad guys might have anyone like her. Or, like Tracy.”
“Winword tells me that’s why the general is bringing Oliver over here in a month, touring all of our Mid-East embassies. If he notices any supernaturals during his travels, he’ll point them out. Then the rest of us can try to figure out what we might need to do about them.” Sami shook his head. “I sure hope we won’t have to deal with any supernatural spies but, if we do, I guess that’s where your Team Twenty-Two will get a chance to prove themselves, all over again.”
Chapter Eleven
Oct 26, 2019
The New York coven consisted of twelve witches, one less than the maximum for a coven. There were many more who had who had stepped aside, making room for the newer members. Then, one of their elder witches, still active even though in his nineties, had recently passed away which was why there was now an opening. They were in no hurry to replace him, however. And, Emily’s grandmother Eloise had been talking about retiring sometime soon. Thus the shift of power and influence would continue from the older witches down to the younger ones, just as it had been doing for centuries in covens all around the world.
Millie’s friend Helen was another senior member who, like Eloise, was planning to retire. Leadership had already settled on Angelina Dangelmeyer, a very powerful earth witch. Her son Troy was considered the one most likely to replace her someday, in spite of his still being in college at the moment. They both had strong voices and it was rare to find any of the others opposing any agenda the Dangelmeyers might be pushing for.
Somehow, over the past two weeks, the importance and significance of the meeting now taking place had escalated. Unlike the meeting in Salem the week before, all witches were present. That was not, however, because they were any less worried about exposure to outsiders. No, if anything, they were far more concerned about non-witches knowing about them. It was generally believed, especially by the younger members, that in the event witches were revealed to the outside world, things would not go well. As had happened so many times over the centuries, witches then might be targeted and persecuted once again.
Desiree Yerger and five other witches had come down from the Salem coven, which was another reason for attending this meeting. While in theory, this was to meet with Robert Ulrey to discuss the FBI’s Psychic Division and how he hoped to recruit finder witches from around the country, there was a lot more going on. Robert was not a witch and neither was his ex-wife, who would also be there. Supposedly, they would soon be remarried but even so … they were outsiders. It was disconcerting to realize anyone not a witch might know about them and especially if one of those persons was a member of the FBI.
Their exposure to this FBI outsider was because of the other witches who would be at this meeting: Millie Pratt and Tracy McGonagle from the Texas coven, Oliver Bessom from the D.C. coven and Missy McCrea who was not a member of any coven and had only recently made herself known to other witches. Adding to the non-witches in attendance were three alleged witch soulmates: John McCrea, Candace Axtell and Mike Ryan. While soulmates were accepted, that didn’t necessarily mean they were fully trusted.
Members of the military were respected and many witches were related to those in the military. But, nonetheless, those in the military weren’t trusted at all. On the contrary, they were part of the military-industrial establishment, closely aligned with the government. They might be the very ones to persecute witches in the not so distant future, in the event it became known that witches indeed existed.
Scott and Emily Robinson had a mother who was the daughter of a witch. And, Scott was a witch. But their father had been a career Navy man and his father had served in the Army. When Scott had chosen to distance himself from the military, the coven had been pleased and happy. The military was not considered appropriate for witches due to all the risks involved. Then, when his sister Emily had made the decision to attend West Point, that had created quite a stir. While she was not a witch, she knew about them. Her twin was a witch. In spite of their trusting her, they were concerned their secrets might somehow leak out, exposing them.
They had placed a huge burden on Emily, making her feel responsible. Emily had shared with Missy how her determination to keep a low profile and never reveal any secrets had been a huge part of why she’d not wanted to complain about Cadet Melo.
The coven’s concerns about Emily had vaporized, however, once they’d learned about Missy and Tracy. Making matters worse, just that week there had been numerous magazine articles, all showing photos of Missy and General Blake and several other high ranking military and government officials. Yes, Missy McCrea was suddenly the poster girl for women going into combat. Not exactly a low profile.
So, the motivation behind many of the witches who had seated themselves for this meeting was the desire to confront these “rogue witches” at West Point. How dare they put the entire witch community at risk? What secrets had they revealed? What powers had they displayed? Why had they torn down all the protective walls which had carefully been put in place over the years and perhaps exposed witches once again to the threat of all those horrible evils from history?
Such was the climate and atmosphere which Helen had explained to Robert and the others during lunch. Robert needed to understand there wouldn’t be much discussion about his agenda until there first had been some very probing questions directed at Missy and Tracy. And, both girls needed to be prepared to face a hostile group. There would surely be some accusations made as well. The timing of those articles about Missy’s participation in Campaign Angel’s Wing could not have been worse.
John of course had quickly reacted, making comments about the coven which had not been helpful. Tracy had then made it very clear that if he dared open his big mouth and say one single word during the meeting, he’d definitely be regretting that for a long time afterward. He’d be spending some very lonely nights and would be so deep inside the dog house he might never stop barking. He opened his mouth to respond but her immediate “Arf, arf!” caused him to close it again; he hadn’t said a word since.
Helen had them arrive a few minutes late on purpose. She wanted to introduce Millie to everyone first and then let her introduce the others. Millie had earned a well-deserved reputation and was highly respected. She gave everyone a brief explanation of how Robert had brought her and Oliver to Mexico in search of Candace Axtell.
Robert had spent many years with the FBI’s Kidnapping Section and, because of Missy, he knew about witches. Missy and Tracy both had asked Millie to help Robert. She then had asked Oliver, since he lived in D.C. and could visit Candace’s home to obtain some item containing her energy, thus saving a lot of time. It had already been days when they joined the search team and time was of the essence if they were going to have any success.
Although everyone at this meeting had heard about WIJO’s threats to behead Candace, since that had been o
n national TV, not everyone had known she had actually been kidnapped while vacationing in Cancun.
Desiree Yerger, the finder witch from Salem, had heard all this from Millie the week before and had chatted with her about it since then. Although she now knew many of the details concerning the search in Mexico, leading up to the explosion at the house where Candace had been held, she now asked a question that hadn’t occurred to her earlier. “Millie, you said you agreed to help because of the close relationship you have with these West Point girls who asked you, but why did they get involved? That part isn’t clear. Did they know Candace?”
Millie said, “No, but Missy knew both Robert and General Blake. Robert was the one who searched for her during those two years she was missing, living as a cat in the mountains. I don’t think everyone here has heard her story yet. She and Robert have a special relationship and that’s why Robert knows about supernaturals. When the FBI was asked to investigate Candace’s disappearance, one thing led to another and Robert brought us down to Mexico as psychics.”
Angelina Dangelmeyer said, “The magazines are full of photos and stories about this Missy McCrea and General Blake. A number of us are very concerned. We don’t like the idea there are some high ranking military folks who might know about us. Why were these girls allowed to go to West Point, anyway?”
Millie laughed and said, “They’ll tell you why they’re at West Point, all in good time. But first, let me introduce Oliver Bessom and Candace Axtell.” All eyes turned to watch Oliver and Candace come out and join Millie. “I’ll let Candy tell her story. She and her uncle, General Blake, have indeed learned about us witches. But, as she’ll explain, they both can be trusted. We have nothing to fear from them and our secrets are safe.”
Missy Makes Mayhem (Missy the Werecat Book 5) Page 9
