Connie asked for the flight details and agreed she’d pick Mike up.
Wes then asked, “This guy Mike isn’t a supernatural, is he? Chris and I learned all about witches but … I gotta say … what we’re hearing now wasn’t in any of the briefings we got.” All the new pilots had learned a little about Shifters but most of their info about Supernaturals had been about witches.
Marsha then explained how Missy was able to send her thoughts directly into Mike’s brain, which he experienced just as though she were talking to him, as well as how she could experience his emotions. “The two of them have had quite a bit of practice and can really communicate back and forth rather well now, as long as they’re within five hundred miles of each other.”
Millie chuckled. “Like I said, I’ve never heard of anyone who could do the things Missy can do.”
“Soooo …” Winword paused. “She’ll be standing by up at West Point but will just blink herself down there once Mike asks her to? Pretty amazing.”
“Yes,” Drew agreed. “She had me call the Superintendent at the academy so he understands she won’t be signing out whenever she leaves or signing back in again later, once she returns.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Nov 20, 2019
Missy had stayed in her room and kept checking with Mike. She had explained things to Tracy, of course, who would be making excuses for her there at the academy. It was now mid-morning and she was anxious to get going.
Drew had called her earlier, advising it would be a while before she’d be needed as there was a lot going on down there. Coordination amongst the FBI, Homeland Security, Philadelphia police and fire departments, local hospitals and various other agencies which may or may not be needed, depending on how things evolved, would all take some time. She understood. Sure. Plan the work and then work the plan. They needed to be prepared.
Finally, Mike let her know they were ready. He was in the air, riding in their borrowed Black Hawk headed towards the warehouse district. They’d be able to show her which building was being used by the suspected terrorists. Once she had an actual visual identification of that building, she could then do her thing and go inside. She had explained how mere photos of a place were not enough; she needed to actually be there, seeing it, in order to teleport her spirit form into any location she’d never been to before and where there wasn’t some person inside whom she already knew.
She had already removed all jewelry and was only wearing Mike’s tee shirt. She removed that and put it away. Now she was ready to go to Mike. She Shifted into her spirit form and, a moment later, she was right there with him. In the helicopter. Mike, I’m here now. Go ahead and warn them. My cat is going to suddenly appear in the aisle right next to you, okay?
After Mike alerted the others inside the aircraft, she finished her Change. In spite of Mike’s head’s up, she could see how the two pilots along with Major Schermerhorn were still surprised. They’d never seen a Shifter before and, experiencing her energy pulse and sudden appearance as a large cougar was rather a shock for them. Robert, Millie and Oliver were also there but she went over to Mike immediately. Hey, lover! Give me a big hug!
Mike laughed and actually wrapped one arm around her shoulder, grinning at the others a bit sheepishly as he pulled her tight against him. Then he said, “Millie, go ahead and explain what you and Oliver think you’ve got down there.”
For the next several minutes, Missy listened and looked as the others pointed out the one warehouse which really interested them, based on all the many energy signatures, along with some of the other nearby buildings which might also be in use by one or more of the individuals who had been in that training camp over near Kabul. She asked a few questions, using Mike to voice the messages she sent him.
Finally, Missy sent Mike one final mental message. I’m all set now. I’ll let you know what I find down there. Stay tuned! Then, she vanished in a shimmer of light.
Wes turned to Chris and said, “Damn! That’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen!” Then he turned their aircraft and headed back towards the airfield. Their mission was done, now that Missy had blinked in -- as a huge cat -- gotten to see where they wanted her to go and then had blinked back out again. “Of course, other than these “P” Branch folks, there’s nobody we can talk to about this. But, since nobody would ever believe us anyway, that probably doesn’t really matter all that much.”
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Missy started outside, on the warehouse roof, letting her supernatural hearing and scenting abilities help her get oriented. Then, she slowly worked her way all around the building, still outside. And, finally, she entered and began her survey. Starting at the southernmost location, she gradually worked her way back and forth, east and west, and ultimately headed north. Since she was able to pass through walls, she wasn’t following any corridors or using any doorways. Instead, she was categorizing things as she went along and allowing her scent memory to keep track of what she was experiencing.
She began sending Mike a running commentary, mostly describing what she could see. The sounds and scents she was experiencing, while very meaningful to her, were not of much use to anyone else. Mike was speaking into a microphone, so the team at “P” Branch could listen to and record everything, similar to how they’d worked when she’d done that recon all through the Hindu Kush Mountains during her Christmas break.
There were several individuals in the place, all men. She took her time, giving Mike a detailed description of each person, assigning them names as she did so, which he could then use to distinguish one from another. Rather than using the names of former U.S. presidents, as she’d done when naming possible landing zones during that Afghanistan recon, she instead was assigning names from various cartoon characters.
Since she never forgot the scent of any person, she was very careful to sift and sort through all the scents she experienced. She assigned names to each one of them, provided they were recent, and ignored any which were more than a month or so old. She would later match these up with whatever individuals she found actually present. By doing this, she could identify not only the ones who were there but also those who were not. This was important since they would need to track down each person not present. Everyone needed to be accounted for, in case they indeed were part of this terrorist cell. While a tedious task, it was a necessary task, in order that the surveillance teams could watch everyone who potentially might become a suicide bomber during the parade.
She was pretty certain she’d find explosives. She’d been able to scent just a slight trace of them while up on the roof, right in the beginning. And, she was positive this was one of the three terrorist cells they had heard about. As she went about conducting her exhaustive survey, everything she found and everyone she encountered all seemed to confirm that. These men intended to kill Americans and that was very clear from the comments she heard them making amongst themselves.
While she was far from fluent in Farsi or Pashto, she now could recognize enough to know the gist of any conversations in those languages. However, many of these men were not Afghans but had come from various other countries to volunteer for this attack. They actually were speaking in English, more often than not. She found two men, however, who talked to each other in Farsi; they were older and obviously in charge. She guessed these were the leaders and were actually speaking in Farsi whenever they did not want the others to understand them.
She had named one of these Sylvester and the other Grumpy, back when she had first noticed their scents. Now, upon finding them actually there, in what appeared to be the main room, she quickly gave Mike her thoughts about each of them.
Sylvester is late thirties, five-ten, maybe one-eighty with a slight paunch, dark brown hair, brown eyes and wears glasses, some traces of grey in his full beard. No scars or tattoos, but he has a slight limp, favoring his right leg. She paused, giving Mike time to repeat her words into the mic. Next, she described how Sylvester was dressed in great detail so when he
left the warehouse, whoever was assigned this guy to watch could easily identify him. Again, she paused.
Then she continued. Everyone seems to be deferring to him as the one in charge, with Grumpy probably his second in command. He and Grumpy have been using this warehouse for a lot longer than a month and when they speak English, they are quite comfortable with that. I’d guess they’re the leaders for this cell, with the others all recent arrivals from that training camp near Kabul. She paused for a few moments.
Grumpy is early thirties, five-eight, also one-eighty but muscular and fit. He has sandy brown hair, hazel eyes without glasses, a neatly trimmed beard. No scars or tattoos, but he has some kind of dark red birthmark on his neck, left side, just above the collar. It looks sort of like a leaf, maybe an inch and a half long, half inch wide. She paused. I just heard Sylvester call him by name. Hiram. Does that help? She waited.
“P” Branch was connected to all the FBI and Homeland Security databases, plus a few others. When Missy’s description of this man, his birthmark and the name Hiram were entered, they got a hit for a man living just outside the city of Philadelphia. Hiram Abdul-Washeed, originally from Syria. He’d been in the U.S. for two years and drove a taxi in the city. His record was clean, so obviously he’d been staying below the radar and not drawing any attention to himself or whatever activities he may have been doing.
Missy was able to sense a positive response from Mike. Great! Here’s how he’s dressed today. She then described Grumpy-Hiram’s clothing so he could easily be identified by their team. Suddenly realizing it was cool weather outside and these men had probably worn coats which they’d be putting back on when they left, she went looking for them.
Just outside the main room, she found many of them hanging up on pegs along the wall. She was thankful these weren’t all hanging inside a closet and bunched together; she was able to describe them easily enough without needing to move them apart. She went up to each garment along with any scarf or hat, and after identifying who it belonged to by scent, she was able to give Mike a good description. Sure enough, Grumpy-Hiram’s coat was there, as was Sylvester’s.
Up until then, it hadn’t been obvious to her just why so many men were actually there. They’d been milling around in groups of two or three, making jokes and exchanging small talk. She had distinctly overheard comments from a few of them about killing Americans, however. What happened next eliminated any doubts as to what these men intended to do. Sylvester called them all into the room and had them sit down for a class.
Curious, Missy went back in and waited to learn what this might all be about. Twenty minutes later, she was able to explain things to Mike.
Sylvester is reviewing how their suicide vests need to be worn and how, if for some reason they find their vest hasn’t exploded when the time comes, they can self-detonate it. Wow! Unbelievable! These guys are supposed to get into position by a time yet to be announced. Then, if they should hear the others all going boom-boom, which of course would mean their vest had not activated, as planned, by remote? That’s when they’re supposed to trigger the damn thing themselves. It’s only as a backup, of course. Each vest is supposed to explode when the activation signal is received.
She waited until she sensed Mike had finished sharing this with “P” Branch. There’s a lot of rhetoric about how they’ll all be rewarded by Allah for doing such a wonderful job. Their sacrifice will be greatly valued and their heroism praised for years and years afterwards. The remote detonation is intended to make it easier for them. Like I said, what they’ve been shown today is merely a fail-safe, a backup. You know, so they won’t miss out on their big reward in case of any device failure. But, they do have the very best, high-tech detonation devices, so that shouldn’t happen.
Again, she waited until Mike had shared these comments of hers. I actually got to see one of these vests as well as how the triggering devices, one remote and one manual, are to be connected. They were using dummy explosives, however. I’m going to go search the rest of this warehouse now to see if I can find the real stuff. After that, I’ll finish identifying the guys I’ve not gotten around to describing for you as yet.
Missy moved on, continuing her thorough search of the warehouse. It didn’t take her long. Within five minutes, she found a locked storeroom which contained a huge supply of C-4 packets along with plenty of quarter inch diameter steel balls which would become the devastating shrapnel, once the blasts went off. How this terrorist cell had managed getting and storing these explosive materials was definitely worth investigating. Obviously, the U.S. government’s preventative measures for assuring this couldn’t happen were not working.
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When Missy finally joined Mike back in the conference room which the team was using, still in her spirit form, he was able to provide her with some clothes which Connie had purchased that day. These were in several bags which Missy made float through the air as she brought them with her into the nearby ladies’ room, where she finished Shifting. Once more a human, she got dressed and then joined the group again, back out there with Mike.
“Hey, you people have some food ready for me, right?” Missy giggled, knowing she’d warned Mike ahead of time to have at least three large steaks, done very rare, waiting for her. She had used a lot of energy that day and her metabolism now really needed the calories and the protein.
Everyone cheered her on for what a great job she’d done that day as Mike led her over to where her meal was waiting, at a small table which had been set up, special for her. On the way, she stopped to be introduced to Wes and Chris, who were both staring at her in obvious amazement.
“Hi, guys! And, yeah … that was me with you earlier. Nice to meet you now, only as a person rather than as a cat.” She chuckled.
She sat down and enjoyed her food, grateful the others all understood and were willing to wait a bit longer before they’d all be discussing the day’s accomplishments. Mike kept her company while the others remained seated back at the conference table. With her hearing, of course, she was able to tune into conversations and couldn’t help listening as Wes and Chris went on and on to each other about how fucking hot they thought she was, unaware she could hear them.
She smiled inwardly, thinking if only they could see her wearing the expensive and very sexy black lingerie which Connie had obviously just purchased at Victoria’s Secret. She hoped Mike would really appreciate seeing her in that, later on. The rest of her outfit was demure enough, which only made her outrageous underwear seem that much naughtier somehow.
By the time they were all gathered at the conference table, Robert had some reports back from the FBI. Each of the seventeen individuals Missy had identified was now being followed. There were four more she had assigned names to who had not been there that day. It was hoped that by following the ones they now had under surveillance, their associates would soon be identified. Missy could then return and confirm whether all four of the missing guys -- Dumbo, Felix, Goofy and Pluto -- had been identified.
In addition, using facial recognition software to analyze each of the men as they’d come out of the warehouse, they now had actual names for ten of them. Sylvester was actually Ahmad Sameer Parvis. He’d been in the U.S. for four years and, due to some of his Muslim activities and associations, he was on the Homeland Security watch list. However, there had not been any evidence until now to suggest he might be a terrorist.
Grumpy was confirmed as the taxi driver, Hiram Abdul-Washeed. The other eight men were recent immigrants, with valid work visas, only they’d all come in through Canada by train, on different days and through different cities, one or two at a time. The circumstances were still being investigated, since had these individuals attempted entrance by air, they never would have been granted a visa. The apparent loophole in security procedures which they’d taken advantage of had most likely been learned about by WIJO from info leaked by the Homeland Security traitor.
All eight had managed to disappear shortly after
entry, so there hadn’t been any known addresses for these individuals. Now, thanks to the surveillance, their whereabouts were once again known and an investigation into all their activities and associates at those locations was being conducted.
As for the seven men yet to be identified, it was assumed they also had recently entered the U.S., probably using yet other loopholes which that traitor had allowed WIJO to discover. Likewise, the explosives which Missy had described must have been obtained and transported using yet more data which the traitor had sold. Even the suicide vests -- Missy had located where they were all stashed in yet another locked storeroom -- could only have gotten there thanks to that traitor’s help.
Drew, Les and Marsha were once again on the phone. Drew said, “Now that we’ve got all these men under surveillance, we’re hoping to trace their phone calls. Perhaps we’ll obtain further leads from whatever that turns up.”
Major Schermerhorn asked, “Have you heard anything from Team Twenty-Two? Have they hit that training camp near Herat yet?”
Drew answered, “That’s planned for tonight and, with the time difference, it should actually be happening any time now. Meanwhile, is everyone there all set for going to Chicago in the morning? We can leave things in Philadelphia to the FBI and Homeland Security, for now. They don’t know how we’ve managed identifying all these individuals but they don’t need to know that. They’re very grateful we’ve done it for them and they’re getting all their resources fully engaged now, to monitor these guys.”
Robert said, “Missy will go back to the academy. The rest of us are booked for a seven a.m. flight to Chicago. We’ve managed to pack all the items selected by Millie and Oliver into four large trunks which we can take with us, no problem. Were you able to arrange for the National Guard there to provide us with an aircraft?”
Missy Makes Mayhem (Missy the Werecat Book 5) Page 24
