Missy's Operation Lily Pad (Missy the Werecat Book 6)

by P. G. Allison

  “Well, Sandy is growing up and I’m beginning to see how women are also capable of running some things. Look what Alice has done with that Roseanne Fund. Even though she’s still going to college full time. What is she? A junior up there? And, look at everything Missy has accomplished.” Sal paused and then shook his head. “We know she has those witch powers and abilities but even so. They’re not writing all those magazine articles about her because she’s a witch and the Army didn’t pin those medals on her because of that either.”

  Ben thought he knew where this was going. “You’re thinking of making your businesses more and more legitimate so Sandy won’t have to deal with pimps, whores, bookies, drug pushers, loan sharks or any of our various illegal activities, aren’t you?” He grinned as he sat back and waited for Sal to react.

  Sal stared at him for several seconds and it was obvious that had been exactly what he’d been thinking. Finally, he smiled and said, “Maybe we’ve just grown so big now we don’t need those activities so much anymore. Look at this Lexington Street property we just bought. We’re gonna make millions with that, right? We’ve been using our real estate investments, casinos, restaurants, entertainment businesses and so forth to launder our money. But, if I understand what our accountant is telling us, we hardly need to do that anymore. We can go completely legit during the next couple of years and our profits will still be greater than right now.”

  Ben was nodding his head. He said, “It all depends on our having smart people to manage things for us, doesn’t it? Ones we can trust. I know you’ve always been counting on your son but maybe you can also count on Sandy as well.”

  -----

  When Kelsey arrived and took her seat at the large round table in Cullum Hall, a small cheer went out from everyone and the KK@KK sign was pulled out and prominently displayed. She laughed and looked around. Sure enough, all the cadet students from their Khan’s class in Farsi and Pashto were there. She said, “Sorry I’m late but with tomorrow being the last day for our exams, you know how crazy things have been.”

  Kelly said, “Hey, don’t apologize! As usual, you’ve done a great job. Angel says she thinks she actually passed today’s exam in Political Science and it’s all due to your help.” Kelly had bonded with Angel Meriwether back during Beast Training and they’d remained close ever since. Angel was a natural leader with a strong, outgoing personality and a bawdy sense of humor; she was well liked by her classmates but she really struggled scholastically to keep up. Thanks to all the tutoring she’d received in Kelsey’s Korner, both last year and now this year, it looked like she was no longer at risk for washing out.

  “Well, I may have organized things somewhat,” said Kelsey, “but it’s because everyone here and many others have volunteered to help as assistants so much.” Kelsey was always modest about what she’d started and was quick to credit others. “But, tonight was our last night. I know I’ll start things back up by middle of next semester but for now?” She sighed with a huge smile. “Kelsey Korner is kay-ell-ooh-ess-eee-dee, Klosed!” Everyone laughed.

  Gary said, “While we’re handing out congratulations for jobs well done, how about that win by our Dynamic Duo here at last night’s basketball game? Sharon beat the buzzer with her come-from-behind three-pointer after Missy stole the ball and fed her yet another miracle pass.” Everyone cheered and both Sharon and Missy stood to take quick bows.

  The celebratory mood was contagious and they continued by praising Mitch for the gazillionth time for beating Navy in their now epic football game. Then they started cracking jokes in Pashto. For some reason, the guys all thought off color jokes were okay as long as they were using a different language. Of course, when the girls would then correct their pronunciation for some of the raunchiest words, that cracked them up even more.

  Excitement about getting away on Saturday was another topic. They already knew, from previous sessions like this, what everyone was planning for Christmas break. Even so, there was plenty of bantering about who would be visiting whom and, since they all knew it would be Sally’s first time meeting Troy’s mother, there was plenty of speculation as to how that might go. Sally was a Jersey girl with lots of attitude and both Missy and Tracy, who had already met Angelina Dangelmeyer, were voicing some dire predictions.

  Finally, Marcus stood up and announced, “Hey, we all still have one last exam tomorrow so we’d better break this up and go do some last minute studying.” While that was met with audible groans, they all acknowledged that was best and soon everyone was trudging off to the barracks.

  When Missy and Tracy were alone in their room, Missy said, “I’m all set for my Statistics exam but I do need to pack my bag for you to bring back.” She went over to her closet and began sorting through her things.

  They’d discussed earlier how Robert wanted her to join him up in the helicopter as soon as she was available Friday afternoon. She’d be returning to their room and then teleporting directly into the helo, leaving it for Tracy to bring her clothes and personal items. John would be down to get Tracy on Saturday at the normal release time for her and the other cadets to start their vacations.

  Tracy asked, “Someone called the Supe to clear your early departure, right?” Once again, Missy would not be signing out but merely disappearing.

  “Oh, yes! And Captain Bonomo will be covering for me here as well.”

  “Well, I probably won’t see you before the wedding but John and I will be getting constant updates from Les and Marsha on anything we need to know. Will you have any time with Mike or will this ghost mission of yours be keeping you too busy?”

  Missy laughed. “I should be able to thoroughly search whatever places they want me to check out, do some spying on our suspects and then join Mike at his apartment sometime Saturday. We can then leave it for the BAT surveillance teams to keep track of all these guys after that. I’m just getting info on whatever it is this Boston cell might be planning and trying to understand why they have all these drones they’ve been practicing with every day.”

  “Yeah, but poor Mike. You’ll probably have him relaying all your observations for hours and hours. I realize you may not need any food or rest while you’re doing things in your spirit form, since you can drain energy from your surroundings as you go, but he’s only human.” Tracy giggled. “By the time you arrive at his place, he’ll be all worn out and too exhausted to do anything but sleep. No nookie for you!”

  “Ha, ha! We’ll have to see who is more exhausted on Sunday, Mike or John.”

  Tracy giggled and said, “Hmmmm! Are you suggesting your brother …”

  Missy quickly interrupted saying, “I’m saying he needs to be in top form for my sister’s wedding, so no nookie for you!” They both had a good laugh after that.

  Chapter Thirty

  Dec 20, 2019

  Robert was standing by at Hanscom AFB with Major Schermerhorn, Ed Collinsworth, Millicent Pratt and Desiree Yerger, ready and waiting to go. They would be going up with him, along with the two FBI pilots, Wes and Chris, in their Black Hawk helicopter on loan from the National Guard. Ed was now a new member of “P” Branch, cleared and fully briefed about supernatural activities and how Robert’s psychics were actually witches.

  The pilots were also members of “P” Branch and had been telling Ed their stories about Missy, what she had done before and how today’s operation would be similar, only hopefully without any big explosions. Ed was still trying to fully grasp what everyone kept telling him about Missy.

  “So, she can make herself invisible, teleport from West Point right into our helo in an instant, and then communicate through her boyfriend who will be on the phone and radio with us. Am I right so far?” Ed looked around for confirmation and noted everyone was nodding their head to indicate all this was true. “She can find us okay, ‘cuz she knows us already, but we need to point out all the places we want her to go check out since those are all new to her.” Looking at Robert, he said, “And when you told Dale your psychics
could maybe tell us what’s inside that warehouse without any risks? It was because it’ll be Missy down there and no one will ever even see her or know she was there. Wow.”

  They were making somewhat of a production out of this so-called reconnaissance trip, making it known how their two psychics would be riding in the helicopter, hoping to “sense” something more concerning the Zahir Transportation Services in Dorchester which the BAT surveillance teams were now closely watching. Of course, whatever Robert would end up providing in his report would be what Missy would be telling them.

  Major Schermerhorn said, “What our finder witches are able to accomplish, albeit pretending they’re psychics, is amazing enough. Most folks can accept some paranormal activities even though not understanding them. But there’s no way to explain what Missy can do. We can merely let her results speak for themselves, claiming it’s all from our psychics while keeping her activities completely secret. We do, of course, give full briefings to those in our government who’ve been cleared to know about supernaturals. And, yes … that’s on a need-to-know basis only.”

  Just then Mike called and announced Missy was finishing up with her last exam and would soon be heading back to the barracks. That gave them about a half hours’ notice since it would take Missy that long to return to her room, remove her clothes and put away her things; she then would teleport up to wherever they might be.

  Wes and Chris immediately went out to get their aircraft ready. Robert and the others followed shortly afterward and twenty minutes later, they were in the air and headed towards Dorchester. They planned on circling the area without getting too close, to avoid alarming any of the suspected terrorists.

  Communication was established with “P” Branch, who not only linked them with Mike but also let them hear reports coming in from all the BAT Team members doing surveillance on various Zahir Transportation Services members and associates. None of the BAT Team members could hear anything from Mike or from those in the aircraft, however.

  Millie and Desiree sensed when Missy arrived amongst their midst and moments later, Mike announced, “One large cat will now be joining you!” Everyone experienced her typical burst of energy, and then she appeared, materializing in the center of the aircraft; she moved forward and sat on her haunches near the pilots where she had a nice view through the windshield and could see things clearly down below.

  Chris glanced back with a huge grin and said, “We were kinda hoping for a naked female with naughty girly bits instead of this ferocious furry feline.” Missy bopped him on his helmet with a flick of her tail and growl-purred, after which he hurried to say, “Hi Missy! Welcome aboard!”

  Mike told them, “Missy says ‘Hi’ to everyone, welcomes new member Ed and warns Chris to focus on flying. She figures it’s easier for everyone up there to talk to her and point things out if she’s visible.”

  Ed was truly mesmerized but since the others were all treating this as normal, he tried to do the same. As Robert and Millie talked about the Zahir Transportation Services warehouse, property boundaries and vehicles which could be seen below, it soon was obvious from the intelligent expression in Missy’s yellow-green eyes that she fully understood them. Mike’s voice began voicing questions to them which only she could be asking since he wasn’t up there seeing anything.

  Then, when she disappeared in a shimmer of light, Ed stared at the empty spot where she’d been sitting and tried to accept everything he’d just seen as being real rather than it merely having been his imagination.

  Mike’s voice began describing everything Missy was able to see, hear and smell as she began her search, starting with the perimeter and then checking each vehicle. They had agreed she should do the warehouse last. She explained none of the trucks and vans parked outside contained anything suspicious and all seemed typical for a transportation company. This was based on her doing a simple first pass but she promised she’d go back and do a thorough check later, if it seemed worthwhile.

  Missy took her time, in spite of this only being a quick pass through; as was her custom when dealing with suspects, she committed each individual’s scent which she encountered during her search to memory; these scents were all filed away in one of her mental compartments. She would later recognize whenever meeting anyone in person or even if merely noticing their scent somewhere.

  She had just started to work her way around the warehouse itself, having finished all the vehicles, when a van drove into the yard. One of the garage type doors began rising up and, once the van entered inside the warehouse, the door closed back down. The warehouse was huge, with several such doors along one side. Missy decided this was as good a place as any to start and quickly went inside to see what she could find out. She knew all the vehicles were being watched by BAT Teams and asked Mike, Any report on what this van which just drove up back here has been doing today?

  Yeah, answered Mike, communicating that with his emotions which Missy could experience. He’d been hearing reports about this vehicle while it had been returning.

  Since Mike could only clearly communicate yes or no, Missy asked, Is this one of the vans with a drone and was it out near that zoo today?

  Again, he indicated yes.

  Mike knew there were three more vans now returning from the Franklin Park Zoo area as well, all with drones. Reports were these drones had been doing quite a bit of flying around and obviously the operators had been practicing for something. As Missy kept asking him questions with yes or no answers, he eventually managed to communicate all of this to her.

  Missy noted there were three men in the van: a driver up front in the cab and two others in back where they couldn’t be seen, due to a partition at the back of the cab. The van was inside a huge bay which could hold several vehicles. There were three men waiting near where this van was, standing just ahead of it. She noticed two similar but empty vans were parked over on the opposite side from where this one had pulled in.

  The driver got out and joined the three men. Then, one of the rear doors of the van opened up and the two men inside climbed down. They joined the others and all six headed further inside the building. There were short greetings called out back and forth but no real conversations. The two who’d been inside the van both spoke in Pashto and Missy was pleased she could understand what they were saying.

  She worked her way through the van, just to register scents, and then quickly followed after the men. She planned to return to examine each of these vans later; she wanted to learn as much as possible about the drones.

  She found the six men had passed by a number of offices and had joined a dozen others who were all gathered together in a large conference room. Two men were up front, speaking to them in both English and Pashto and it didn’t take her long to determine the man doing most of the talking was Abdullah Zahir and the man next to him was being addressed as Yuri. She knew Zahir was the owner of the company. Mike? Abdullah Zahir is here.

  She waited several moments and then asked, Isn’t there a Yuri Qabani on the BAT watch list? She’d noted Yuri also seemed to be someone in authority, besides Abdullah, and she thought she remembered his name from what Drew had provided.

  Yes!

  Drew Martinson had briefed her over the phone the other day and had then emailed her with info which “P” Branch had quickly pulled together concerning Zahir and his known associates. While she was mind-speaking with Mike, she was checking out each individual there and memorizing their scents. She was also sensing their personal energy so anytime in the future, if she wished, she could instantly teleport to wherever they might be, provided that was within her apparent boundary limitation of five hundred miles.

  There was a large monitor on one wall and it provided views of several entrances. The door to the bay which the first van had entered was opening again and, while she watched, more vans were arriving. She immediately teleported herself right back into the bay since she wanted to check each of the individuals while still in their respective vehicle. Just a
s with the first van, each of the three additional vans which pulled in had a driver up front and two additional men inside, back in the rear. Also like the first van, the cabs had partitions which blocked any view into the interiors.

  Once she’d scented each person and noted which van they’d been in, she returned to the conference room where Abdullah was waiting for the nine recent arrivals to make their way back there. Clearly, something had been scheduled and she was right on time. Mike, it looks like there’s a meeting about to start. You’ll need to relay everything I tell you. She knew everything he would say would get recorded.

  In addition to the nine who had just driven up in the three vans, several more individuals now came in from various offices and other places within the warehouse. The conference room soon filled up completely and the last few to enter needed to stand since all the seats were taken. There was definitely an air of expectation and excitement building amongst them.

  Missy continued to register each person’s scent and was grateful she could do this in her spirit form. Her three senses while a spirit were even more enhanced. She was experiencing a world of sights, smells and sounds through which she could move instantly, going from place to place and person to person with merely her intent to do so. Although she had no sense of taste or touch, she didn’t need them.

  Abdullah began speaking in Pashto and everyone settled down and gave him their full attention. He quickly got to the purpose of their all being there. “Yuri and I are satisfied with all of the training. Everyone has done well and all our preparations are complete. We are now ready and in nine days we will show the infidel Americans what our WIJO leaders think of them. We will avenge our fellow members who have been captured or killed and by striking here in the U.S., we will cause all Americans to live in fear from now on.” He paused to allow the excited responses by his audience to ripple throughout the room.