Missy asked, “What’s happening?” She knew he must have been asked to help the task force with their search somehow.
“Millie and Oliver are getting some trace energy signals. Robert Ulrey had all the stuff which they’d noticed any energy from brought up there. You know … that stuff the Army sent back from Afghanistan.” Sally had learned how various items had been sent back after being confiscated during raids on WIJO training camps. She knew that’s how the terrorists arrested in Philly and Chicago had been located.
Tracy said, “Hey, that’s great news! I’m sure your Troy can help with following those signals.”
“The signals are very weak and it’ll be difficult to pinpoint any locations. But, with lots of you witches up there all working together? Maybe you can triangulate somehow, right?” Sally knew Missy and Tracy were not finder witches but she was including them in the group anyway. She realized there was a lot she didn’t know. The more she’d learned about the supernatural, the more she’d started feeling it was just way too much for her to ever fully understand. So much had happened in the two weeks since Troy had shared his secret, along with explaining about her friends Missy and Tracy.
“Well, we’ll be here if they need us,” said Tracy. “Of course, if Troy needs more power, we can see if the Supe will give you a special nookie pass for the weekend. You know … more nookie, more power and those terrorists won’t be able to hide.”
Missy laughed and said, “Very funny! Only, I don’t think anyone has explained to our Superintendent about any of that. Sally, please don’t get your hopes up.”
Sally actually did look somewhat disappointed. Then she said, “You two are teasing me now. No fair!”
Tracy said, “Oh, no. Not really. If Missy wanted to tease you, she’d be saying how your scent clearly proved Troy was already supercharged from all the nookie he got here last Sunday.” She pointed at Missy and added, “See? She’s not denying that. And, neither are you! So, obviously, it must be true!”
Sally said, “Ooooh, that’s it! I’m outta here!” She laughed and left them.
Missy said, “You’re in rare form tonight, Tracy!”
“Yeah, well … I’m glad somebody is getting laid if it can’t be me.”
Missy laughed. “When I think about how much you’ve changed in the last year …”
“Don’t you dare say it,” said Tracy. “A year ago …”
Missy interrupted quickly, saying, “A year ago you were still a virgin. But then, you wantonly seduced my poor innocent brother and it’s been nothing but talk about how much you enjoy the ‘high hard one’ ever since. And, that’s not a baseball reference.”
Tracy grinned. She loved bantering with Missy and knew Missy enjoyed it too. “I’ll tell John you said he was innocent. I’m sure he’ll get a kick out of that. Since you’ve now brought up some athletic references, can I ask how your weapons match went tonight? You obviously have already showered, which I’m very grateful for, since you’re not stinking up our room right now.”
“Well, we won. It wasn’t even close. You’ll be glad to know my protégé Emily has proven she has as much skill with her M9 pistol as she’s already demonstrated with her M4 rifle. I’m claiming most of the credit as her mentor and coach, of course.”
“Well, she may not be a supernatural but maybe her twin bond is helping. Like you, she’s still super human.” Although Emily’s brother Scott was a water witch, maybe some extra abilities were in her DNA and helping with her marksmanship nonetheless. Tracy then said, “Speaking of twins … what’s the latest with your sister Heather?”
Missy said, “She’s had it confirmed. She even posted the ultrasound photo showing her two babies on Facebook. It’s still too early to determine whether boy or girl but, so far, everything looks great.”
“When’s her actual due date?”
“Well, it would be mid-July but, with twins, they typically take them a bit early. Most likely, she’ll need a caesarian, depending on how big they get. I’m thinking July 4th would be nice. Every year, they’ll think the fireworks are for them.” Missy giggled.
“Any date yet for the wedding?” Tracy knew it would be during their Christmas break. She was already planning to spend that with John in Massachusetts. Of course, arranging things on such short notice was a real challenge and she hadn’t yet learned whether things had been firmed up.
“Yep. Sunday the twenty-second, the first full day after we leave here. That’s only eleven days from now but my mother is making it happen. I can’t make the bridal shower this weekend but, other than that, everything else is all coming together. Heather already has her dress and has picked out what she wants me to wear as Maid of Honor.”
“Where are they going for their honeymoon?”
Missy said, “Hawaii, for two weeks. They’ll be there during Christmas and New Year’s. Donald wants to make their time there as special as possible. Once the twins are born, he knows there won’t be much time for doing anything except taking care of the babies.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Dec 12, 2019
Colonel Chory waited until his call to General Blake went through. The connection was on a secure line and at first he only got the general’s aide. Finally, the general himself was on the line. “Good morning, sir. We intercepted a very interesting call, thanks to the increased surveillance we put on the WIJO offices over in Herat. This was the day before yesterday. When your niece was mentioned during the conversation, that naturally got some attention and the transcript was forwarded up the chain. I saw this yesterday but you weren’t available until now.”
“Well, if it concerns my niece, you should have insisted on getting through,” said the general. “Is she in any danger?”
“No, no, nothing like that. And, this could wait until this morning. There’s some talk about the people responsible for kidnapping your niece. But, there’s nothing about any current threat which might affect her. We’ve confirmed the caller was talking to Askar-Samar Karimi.”
“Send me the entire transcript right away. Does this caller identify himself?”
The colonel said, “No, and Karimi doesn’t identify him either. The incoming call could not be traced but they were speaking English and when our surveillance team heard your niece mentioned, they recorded the entire call. Karimi ended up agreeing to arrange payment for some files. Whoever this caller was said he needed to check with his source. We were wondering if he might be Arvind Pancholi and if his source might be Philip Arnold. But, Arnold had already fled prior to the date mentioned.”
“What information would be on those files? And, what date was mentioned?” asked the general.
“We’re not sure what’s in the files. But, there was some video which Karimi watched and that’s what convinced him to pay. Apparently, this video shows some guests at a meeting on September twenty-eighth. Near Bogota.”
“Shit. I was in Bogota that night!” exclaimed the general.
This was actually news to the colonel. “Okaaaay. Then, maybe you will understand more once you read the transcript, sir. I’ve just uploaded it to our secure server so you can access it.”
The general said, “Good. Hold on a minute.” He waved for his aide to come over and then had him connect up his electronic tablet to the secure network the Army was using in the Mid-East. Five minutes later, he had located the message waiting there from the colonel and downloaded it. After reading it twice, he said, “This has to be from Pancholi. He must have learned about the Cancun Cancan girl from Arnold and whatever he’s providing Karimi in those files is not good for us.”
“Who is this Cancun Cancan girl, sir?” asked the colonel.
The general laughed and said, “Missy McCrea, of course, the same girl who’s on that video in Bogota on the twenty-eighth. She forced Rodriguez to agree to his disappearance. We brought that bastard back with us after that night and he’s now confined by our friends over at “P” Branch.”
“Ahhh, now I see,” said
the colonel. “So, Karimi can tell his WIJO leaders some very interesting things about your West Point cadet.”
“If Arnold knew about her being in Cancun then he also knew about our FBI psychics down there, Millie and Oliver. And, it’s possible that Pancholi will have recognized them as finder witches. Who knows what else he’s been able to determine. Can you get Sami Massallah to find out what Karimi does with this info? He still has that operative of his sleeping with Karimi’s assistant, right?”
-----
Ray Morelli stared at his nephew and said, “Pauli, what the fuck you want from me? You wanna know about those guys from that Roseanne Fund? You do whatever they say, that’s what.” He looked over at Russ Simonetti, his second in command. His expression clearly showed how ridiculous he considered his nephew’s request.
Paul Morelli said, “But, Uncle Ray … I looked into that stupid organization. There’s only some college girl in charge, claiming all her Roseanne girls are protected. Alice Mathews, from up in Boston. Her phone number is right there on Google. I hear she hires some goons to go around and try …”
“You looked into it?” yelled Ray, exasperated. “Did Google tell you how she’s running that stupid organization for Sal D’Amato?”
Paul suddenly realized he’d made a huge mistake. “D’Amato? No. No, I had no idea.” He suddenly felt very uneasy, thinking about the threats he’d made. He’d even told that Gettmann bitch how he’d be paying a visit to the bitch in Boston. Alice. Fuck! “What’s the connection? I mean, she’s up in Boston …”
“Look, Sal set all that up just over a year ago. At first, we all thought he was crazy. The fund was paying to help some girls with their problems and paying for their education … whatever they needed. Just a charity tax write-off, right? Only whenever any girl needed some protection, D’Amato’s guys would show up. So, it was much more than a tax thing. And, we’re not talking about some hired goons, okay?” Ray looked at his nephew to be certain he was following everything.
Paul said, “They didn’t tell me they were in D’Amato’s organization.”
Ray laughed. “They knew who you were. You can be sure of that. I’m guessing they explained your girlfriend was now a Roseanne Fund girl, right? That should have been a clear enough warning. Since you’re in my organization, you should know what that means.”
“But, I still don’t get it,” said Paul. “You say the other families all thought Sal was crazy, doing this.”
“Sure, crazy like a fox. More and more young girls are suddenly untouchable. Sal’s guys only give one warning. If that’s not good enough, they get very creative with how they send their next message. After that, anyone doesn’t leave these girls alone? More permanent solutions are provided.”
“So, how does that help Sal?” asked Paul.
Ray smiled and said, “You know we have a lot of girls working in our organization, some with pimps but a lot of them all on their own. The ones on their own have been leaving us to go work for Sal. They want their little sister or maybe it’s their niece or best friend … they want them to maybe become a Roseanne girl, get it?”
“Oh.” Paul realized he was in way over his head. “So, he gets the tax write-off but then he gets increased revenue from all these other girls. So, maybe it’s not costing him all that much.” Yeah, he was getting it now. Sal was one smart bastard. And, he could see his uncle wasn’t going to help him. He was on his own.
Ten minutes later, right after Paul had left, Ray turned to Russ and said, “Kid gets more ass than a toilet seat but wants to have me interfere? Not gonna happen. You have someone keep an eye on him, okay? Make sure he stays away from this girl he wants. And he sure as hell better stay away from D’Amato’s girl Alice. We don’t want anything to mess up any of our plans and we sure as hell don’t need some of D’Amato’s guys getting interested in us right now. Jeez!”
Russ said, “I’ll take care of it, Ray, don’t worry.” But, he was not pleased. The last thing he needed, in addition to their upcoming move into some of Sal’s territory, was having to now play nursemaid to this college kid who couldn’t keep it in his pants.
-----
Robert Ulrey had managed getting Edward Collinsworth vetted, clearing him to be included in this operation. While not disclosing that his psychics were actually witches, he had explained some of the unique methods which they used to do their searching. In particular, Ed now understood how they could utilize the various equipment items from WIJO training camps to possibly locate individuals who had spent some time at those camps and therefore had established a connection to those items.
Ed had already met Millie and Oliver and was now introduced to the others all gathered around a large conference table. They were operating out of Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, rather than setting up shop in either Boston or Logan Airport. Their “P” Branch pilots were again using helicopters on loan from the local National Guard and this base provided a better location for a number of reasons. Although they were part of the BAT task force, it was preferred to keep their Psychic Division operations separate. In addition, Hanscom provided easier access for everyone versus trying to commute in and out of the city.
With Troy Dangelmeyer and Desiree Yerger, they now had someone for each of the cardinal directions: north, south, east and west. While the energy signals from the equipment were weak and the possible individuals who had some connections to the items were few, there definitely were two or three such individuals somewhere in the Boston area. Interestingly, they had all trained at the Herat training camp; no energy signals were noted for any of the items from the other training camp, near Kabul.
After getting briefed, Ed looked over at Major Schermerhorn and said, “So, if these items were all sent back by the Army, based on Intel which the CIA provided, can we find out from either the Army or the CIA what was going on out at that Herat training camp?” He’d already learned how the terrorists who had gone to the cell in New York City had all been at this Herat training camp.
The major said, “So far, not much about the actual training operations has been revealed. It was all very hush-hush, top secret, etc., etc. While informants knew the camp location as well as which barracks were used by the trainees, that’s all they could find out. That was enough to go on and our Team Twenty-Two participated with the Afghan military in the raids on those camps, but no additional Intel was obtained.”
“Your Team Twenty-Two?” asked Ed.
“Yeah, that’s the Special Forces unit which sent back all this stuff for us. They covered up the confiscation by setting fire to the barracks. WIJO didn’t have a clue as to how any of their guys were found over here in our U.S. cities. That may have just changed, however.” The major looked at Robert and asked, “Have you briefed the team on the latest Intel concerning Pancholi?”
Robert said, “Not yet, but I want to do that right now. Listen up everyone!” He waited until all the others stopped their side meeting conversations and were giving him their full attention. “We just learned this afternoon about a phone call which took place recently. Arvind Pancholi contacted one of the WIJO leaders and agreed to provide some information. By now, we believe they know about our FBI psychics Millie and Oliver helping with the search for Candace Axtell.”
Major Schermerhorn said, “Philip Arnold was probably his source for that info, since he was still with Homeland Security when that search was going on. But, General Blake thinks this Pancholi has provided WIJO with even more recent info. We can’t be sure, but they might also know how Millie and Oliver helped search for the terrorist cell in Philly.”
Troy asked, “Who was Philip Arnold?” He had already learned about Pancholi being a water witch from talking with Oliver.
“Who is Arvind Pancholi?” asked Ed.
Robert explained, “Pancholi worked for the CIA and the U.S. Embassy in Turkey but is suspected of being a double agent. He’s now on the run. We’re pretty certain he’s the middle man for Arnold, one of our former Homeland Secu
rity executives turned traitor who disappeared in September; he’s been selling our secrets to WIJO ever since.”
Millie asked, “Why does General Blake think they know about us helping in Philly?”
“Because of the more recent info discussed in that phone call.” Robert looked around at everyone and then looked at Ed. “Pancholi knows about one of our recent operations in Colombia which happened after Arnold defected. And, he probably knows about Oliver’s recent visit right there in Ankara. We think that’s why he’s now on the run.”
Major Schermerhorn said, “The general has arranged for some added security … when we leave here today and until further notice, there will be a protection detail for each of our four psychics. We’re dealing with terrorists so we’re not taking any chances.”
This news caused somewhat of a stir and it took a few minutes before everyone settled back down. Then, Robert got them all focused on their plans to search the local area. Based on what all four witches had agreed they could sense, they’d be doing this somewhere south of Boston. Oliver would work down from the north, Troy up from the south, Millie in from the East and Desiree in from the West.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dec 13, 2019
Askar-Samar Karimi and Kahliq Abdul Tabish returned from their meeting with the WIJO leaders and, once back in Karimi’s office with the door closed, they took their seats. Karimi was behind his desk with Tabish in his usual seat in one of the chairs. They were both frustrated but especially Karimi. The meeting had not gone well.
Karimi said, “They were not convinced! And, they only approve payment of ten million dollars. I must ask this Pancholi to earn the rest by getting us more information about these demons?” He stated this question in an incredulous tone.
“Well, they didn’t really believe you about them being demons.” Tabish was careful to say “believe you” rather than “believe us”, not wanting to be included. But, Karimi didn’t seem to notice this.
Missy's Operation Lily Pad (Missy the Werecat Book 6) Page 15
