by T S Paul
He placed his hand on the scanner. There was a clanking sound as the door slowly opened enough to allow us to enter. Craven scanned his hand again to close the apparently heavy door.
"We keep high-value subjects and our surveillance team in here." We went through a high-security door into what looked like a typical office building. A few armed guards stood about. All of them were staring up at the ceiling.
"In here." He opened the door to hell.
A multi-display of flat screen monitors covered three walls. Technicians ran back and forth. Many people just stared in shock at the screens while others shouted into phones or radios. Craven took control immediately. "Freeze! Get control people!" He yelled at the top of his lungs shocking most of those in the room out of their panic.
I looked up at the screens and could totally understand their panic. The door looked like someone stuck a hot poker in cardboard and burned a hole through the entrance to the garage. It was now a charred, blackened hole. The US Marshal's put up a desperate fight, but their opponents were too powerful. Bodies of the dead lay scattered on several of the lower level floors. Near the elevator doors was a large figure in a black cloak. Balls of fire appeared in his hands as he tossed them repeatedly at the floor.
"Do you have an exterior shot?" I pointed at the screens.
"Yes." Craven reached over one of the techs and hit a switch. The screens on the left side came to life showing all three buildings. The gatehouse looked as if a bomb hit it, and several black cars surrounded the central warehouse. Old school type mobsters with submachine guns stood alongside each vehicle.
Looking away from the screens I looked at the lead Marshal. "Is there another way out of here?"
"Several. But Loman is our responsibility!"
"You have a responsibility to the other people in here too. Tell me I'm wrong. You have other witnesses here to protect?" We all looked up as the room shook.
"All available units! We have a breach in Sector Three." The technicians were even more frantic.
Craven sat down and waved his hand as he spoke. "Fine. Yes. Yes. There are several dozen witnesses here. Damn you! And damn the FBI!" Craven stood and marched past the swirling madness that the command room was becoming.
We chased after him. "Cat! You and Chuck do what I told you to do if attacked. Don't fight, change and run for it. I don't know what we're dealing with right now."
Craven ran from the room and jerked open the door across the hallway. I looked left then right. Both guards from before were still there, but now their guns were drawn. As I stepped toward the door, I could hear them.
"Get up! Time to go Marvin." Craven said.
"Hey, I was watching that. When can I go home?" Loman complained.
"You can't. We told you that. You're someone else's problem now." I heard Craven say.
"I want to go home! I have something waiting for me there." Loman whined to the men.
"Tough. Come one." There was a loud crash followed by a dragging sound.
Craven reappeared dragging a smaller man behind him. "Here. Take him." Craven dug into his pocket pulling out a set of keys. "Go down to the end of the hall. The door with the guard. He will show you to an elevator. These are to the black Humvee. Take it and go."
I passed them off to Cat who ran for the door. Chuck and Bill grabbed the witness. "Do you want my help fighting whatever that is?" There were the sounds of explosions and weapons fire echoing through the walls.
Craven swung around to me. He was so close I could feel his breath on my face. "Stop following me! I can fight my own battles here. We are not without resources of our own."
As if it was planned, the other armed guard opened the door letting three men out into the hall. They stumbled to a stop when they saw me standing there. All three took one look at me, jabbered to the guard and ran back inside.
"Oops. Good luck Craven. With those three you're going to need it." I turned and headed for the exit.
"What the hell was that! Get them back out here!" I could hear him screaming at his hired help as I left.
Chuck, Loman, and Bill were already in the elevator. Cat held the doors for me. "What took so long?"
"Sorry. Sorry." I pushed past her into the elevator.
"What's going on Agatha?" Cat asked.
I grimaced. "Later. Let's get out of this disaster first."
"Do you think they'll chase us?" Bill said as he firmly gripped the arm of our new charge.
"Count on it. Why else go to this much trouble to kill him?" I pointed to the small man the two men carried. The elevator dinged, and we exited to a much smaller warehouse building. Several cars were lined up along the walls. In the middle sat what looked to be a military-grade Humvee.
"Cool, a HUMVEE." Chuck dropped the witness and ran to the big black vehicle. He peered into the back knocking on the sides, a frown on his face.
"Something wrong?" I glanced at Chuck as I helped Bill drag Marvin to the car.
"Yep. This is the first generation." He tapped on the underside, his head cocked to one side.
"Is that bad?" I grunted as we tossed Marvin into the rear of the large jeep-like vehicle.
"Yes and no. It's faster than the newer ones but doesn't have any armor. We'd be safer in the RVs if someone is shooting at us." Chuck helped Cat into the vehicle and received a glare for it.
Cat growled. "What am I an invalid?"
"It's all we have. We'll switch to our own vehicles back at the meeting place. Do we have a way to open the door?" The large rolling door was still down as we approached it.
"Maybe this?" Bill held up what looked like a garage opener.
"Try it." He hit the button, and the door rolled up. We could see the backside of the warehouse area and a chain-link fence with a chained and locked gate.
"Go for the gate. I'll open the way." Chuck hit the gas, and the HUMVEE surged forward quickly gaining speed. I muttered a spell under my breath, and the gate flew open just as we were about to hit it. We could hear shots being fired as well as the screeching of tires. We were spotted.
"Bill? Have you figured out where the hell we are?" I braced myself against the console. The center console was a large boxy-looking radio system complete with a computer screen. This was definitely not designed for the civilian market. No padding at all on the doors.
"GPS isn't working on my phone. It may be the result of the base getting attacked. Some agencies can shut the cell grid down. Doesn't Ana have one of the earbuds?" Bill shook his phone in disgust.
"Good idea." Tapping my ear, I triggered the communication system. My spell should override any electronic blocking attempts. "Ana, can you hear me?"
~~~~~~
There were drawbacks to pretending you had to sleep during the day. Only Agatha knew she was an Elder Vampire. Because of that, Ana had no choice, but to pretend to be asleep when Chuck or Cat was in her RV. Which seemed was all the damn time now! Stupid WereCat hearing. When Agatha filled her in on the new assignment a small part of her rejoiced. Finally! A way to get rid of the Witch. It was hard, so very hard to push that part of her down. It would be nice to have the anonymity she once enjoyed. But killing her would be counterproductive. Agatha was her best chance to survive in this computerized world. Soon Ana wouldn't be able to hide anymore.
"~~~~~~
What do you think?" Agatha looked into Ana's eyes.
We sat there all still sweating from our narrow escape. It had taken us an hour of dodging traffic, switching directions, parking next to trucks, and hiding in alleys to shake loose of our pursuers. We ended up ditching the SUV then walking a half-mile to where we had parked our RVs. Bringing Ana up to speed only took a few minutes, not even enough time to let our overheated bodies cool down.
"That you're insane! Even Edgar never tried to take on the Strega. He told me once that they could doom the FBI." Anastasia laughed at the expression on Agatha's face.
"What? Did you actually believe that the FBI was ignorant of the Magickal Mafia?
Please. J Edgar Hoover was one of the most brilliant men I have ever known. And trust me when I say I have known a great many of them. He had a few secrets that doomed his political career, but for more than fifty years he kept this country safe from people like us. You would have liked him, and he was a great friend. The Strega were a major problem for the FBI in the 1950s. What the regular FBI like to call organized crime, made a great many inroads to the legitimate side of business during that time. Too much damage was done as a result of the Demon War. They set up casinos and other cash cow businesses all over the place. Edgar buried the Magickal Mafia's existence in his personal files while cracking down on the obvious wise guys."
"What happened to those files? The instructors at the Academy said they were either a modern legend or never actually existed." Agatha looked at Anastasia in shock.
Ana snorted. "They existed all right. Do they still? No idea. He was a very secretive man. Splitting forces against those women is a bad idea, but I do see your side of it. Will the rest of your Scooby crew be able to handle the investigation alone?"
"They have the amulets I made for them as well as an understanding of what to do against a Magick user. It will be a test for all of us. I did make you something similar." Agatha held out a shiny necklace to her.
"Hmm. I will think about it. Do I have your permission to contact some of my... Call them informants if you like?" Ana took the necklace and stared at it in the dim light.
"What sort of informants are they?" Agatha watched Ana's eyes as she examined the amulet.
"Just contacts and a few underworld folk I have met here and there. Most won't talk to me when I mention the Strega, but a few might give us a lead or two. Doesn't hurt to try at least."
"OK. Your secrets are your secrets. I made you a promise and will keep it. Try to keep the others out of trouble if you can. Thank you, Ana." Agatha turned and left Ana's personal quarters.
Anastasia watched her leave and triggered the white noise generator she installed. Neither of the Were's was inside the RV at the moment, but they could hear through walls.
Picking up a burner phone she kept on her at all times she dialed a number from memory. It only rang once before being answered.
"Ivan? I have a task for you."
Chapter 6
"Left, left, left, Chuck! Take the left exit. Ana says we should be out of the blocked zone in a mile or two." The black Humvee tore through the industrial edge of Washington, DC, like it had the devil on its tail. In some ways, it did.
"Sorry, Agatha," Chuck yelled as he jerked the wheel to the left cutting off a semi-truck in a loud squealing of air brakes. The smoke from the burning rubber of its tires filled the air as well as the generous use of the horn. But the Humvee wasn't there anymore.
Silently, I muttered a prayer to the Gods. If we killed the witness, it would look sort of bad.
"Are they still back there?" I looked in the side mirror trying to see.
"One of them hit the truck." Cat's eyes were a bit wide.
"Yes! We have phones again. Chuck, we're about ten miles from the rigs. Take the next right, then the immediate left. We have a chance to lose them." Bill held his phone in one hand as he leaned toward the driver's side.
The Humvee swerved around the right-hand curve on two wheels. I could feel the five thousand pound vehicle lift up as we flew around the corner. The next left was the entrance to a parking garage. I quickly looked back at Bill. "Are you sure about this?"
"I know where we are. The Bureau uses this place for meetings with CI's and other off-the-books stuff. Trust me. Chuck, go down to the end of the row, take a left and floor it. At the end take the first left." Bill waved his hand pointing.
Trust your team floated through my head, but I readied a spell just in case.
The garage was dimly lit, but the first level was filled up with cars. Many of them were covered in dust and dirt. From what I could see none had license plates. Looking back, I could see our pursuers headlights as they entered the garage. Chuck didn't turn ours on. Were's had no problem seeing in the dark.
We quickly hit the end of the row and drifted around it before the other car had a chance to see where we went. The left turn took us down a ramp and out onto another road.
"Great. Chuck take the first right and get on the westbound highway. Slow it down and blend in with the traffic." Bill settled back in his seat.
I could see the on-ramp and overpass ahead, but scant traffic. "Bill, where are we?"
"We're east of the center part of town. That's I-95, but only a small piece of it. When construction began on this highway, it was supposed to link all the suburbs to the major road system letting folks access the 495, 395, and 295 loops around the city. But politics got in the way of common sense, and the people revolted. Many realized they were about to have highway interchanges built right on top of schools, churches, and their homes. They told their representatives no by voting them out. So we're left with strange little chunks of highway they completed but never linked completely to the main system. This isn't all that bad. You should see the mess in Boston. Chuck, this highway stretch ends abruptly. Take the 295 loop when you see the sign."
Chuck merged us onto the loop, and suddenly we were surrounded by other cars.
"Can I go home now?" The voice from the back surprised us, and we all turned toward our new charge.
"No. Sorry but we were asked to keep you safe. Your name is Marvin, right?" I held out my hand to the man who up until a moment ago had been a lump of quivering flesh.
Marvin only looked at my hand. "I want to go home. Just tell Peter I'm sorry I didn't do as he asked."
I glanced at Bill mouthing the name 'Peter' to him. He just shrugged back at me.
"Marvin? Who's Peter?" I asked.
"My boss. He told me not to look in the box, but the scary people told me to. How was I to know that those numbers weren't real? They sure looked real." Marvin fiddled with the zipper on his coat.
"What was wrong about the numbers? I thought you were able to decipher them?" The file I was given said he read the whole thing and showed them to the Strega.
"They're just numbers. Any idiot can tell you what they are. It takes a good accountant to tell you why they are. Those Marshal people told me the numbers lied that they couldn't possibly be real. But I know better. Math has always been my friend. It was right there in black and white. I told those court people the same thing. Even that kind Judge Bean." Marvin explained.
"What did you tell them, Marvin?" Cat turned in her seat to stare at the suddenly vocal man.
"That his name was in there too. They were records of payments made to people. A big list of names with dollar amounts next to them. Transferring large amount of currency and trying to hide it is hard unless you have an understanding of the way the banking system works. Various accounts were used, and I needed to show them how it was done and which person paid which person. I have to admit it was a genius system. It must have taken the firm weeks to get it all set up that way." Marvin tapped his finger to his lips.
With his eyes, very wide Bill turned toward Marvin. "The Judge was on the list?"
"Oh yes. So was that really annoying TV guy. He does all those car part commercials asking people to vote or something. He and his brother were in there which I thought was pretty funny. Who names their child Goober?" Marvin continued to fiddle with his zipper.
"Senator Lugs Harvey? Is that the guy you mean?" Bill nearly dropped his phone he turned so fast.
"Lugs. That was his name. Is he a Senator?" Marvin smiled.
"Who is Lugs?" I looked at Cat who shook her head at me.
"He's on the appropriations committee. His vote paid for things like the formation of this unit. No wonder they are after him. This guy is hotter than the sun!" Bill pointed at Marvin.
"We stick to the plan. I'll try to draw them off. You start investigating them. Use what he can remember from the list."
"Agatha are you sure you want to do this? Where
will you go?" Cat pleaded with me.
I shook my head. "No Cat. Don't do this. I have some resources, and the Director suggested a few others. I'm going to go dark for a while to keep him safe."
Chuck roared into the parking lot our RV's were in, and we all hopped out. I grabbed Marvin and put him in my Suburban. Cat would take the RV. It had part of our lab as well as sleeping arraignments for half the team.
"Chuck, stash that thing down the street. Bill, can you watch him while I get Fergus and my stuff?" I gave orders even as I climbed into the RV,
I heard Marvin ask Bill who Fergus was just as I stepped inside.
