Missy did not learn anything further but was pleased to learn Mullah Ahmed Kahtar was apparently the one in charge of the terrorist activity in Germany and was receiving messages from the team there. She shared all this with Mike so her team could focus on Kahtar. Then, she teleported to Kahtar’s location so she could focus more on him as well. She began staying with him for extended periods and, when she did leave him, it was only for brief visits to others before she returned.
Her persistence was rewarded late that evening when she heard him make a call to Shahid Omar Aziz right after receiving an email. The email was encrypted and she could not determine who it was from, but she learned from his conversation with Aziz that it had been sent by someone in Germany. Since the Missy virus software had been on Kahtar’s computer for months, hopefully Lisa and Marie would manage deciphering it and identifying whoever had sent it.
Not surprisingly, Kahtar’s phone calls were also encrypted, secure from being intercepted and listened to by any high-tech equipment. Of course, that didn’t prevent an invisible spy who understood Pashto and could hear both sides of the conversation with her supernatural hearing ability from listening in. Missy was thrilled that Oliver and Candace’s Germany trip was triggering such phone calls.
After Kahtar and Aziz finished the typical Afghan greetings, Kahtar quickly got to the reason for his call. “I have received news from Germany. Candace Axtell visited the nightclub in Munich which was bombed and then gave a speech which is getting much publicity. It is being shown on television and many videos are on the internet. She then made visits to all who were injured. She has already started a movement, demanding justice.”
Aziz asked, “Was Oliver Bessom with her?”
“Of course. She introduces that demon as her fiancé. He is always at her side, along with many military guards. The report I received says they will be going to the American Embassy again tomorrow for a full tour. I’m sure there will be further speeches and more publicity.”
“Have you discussed this situation with Askar-Samar Karimi?” asked Aziz.
“When I called him last night about this, he told me to pull everyone out. He claims these demons will locate my team, just as what happened in the U.K. to Abdullah Jawara and his men. Or, worse.”
The conversation continued for several minutes but no further decisions were made. It was obvious Kahtar was still skeptical about there being any significant risk, provided his team did not attempt anything. He had instructed them to stay away from Candace and Oliver, which was good for Missy to hear. Even better was that no further attacks would be made until he approved them.
Kahtar did make more calls to other WIJO leaders but they were all in agreement. They wanted to wait and see. Of course, that meant there would be further reports from Germany. And, it was clear Mullah Ahmed Kahtar was the one who would be getting those.
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Lieutenant Colonel Schermerhorn had the task force working diligently on all the information Missy was providing. In particular, he had Lisa and Marie reviewing all emails and messages on Kahtar’s computer. Many of those were encrypted but, knowing the most recent one had been from Germany, they quickly identified which one it was. Then, after reviewing prior messages, they located a few more from the same sender along with some going from Kahtar back to that sender.
“It’s good we now have these messages but … it’s too bad they’re all encrypted,” commented Dale Hewson.
Ed Collinsworth said, “While these are encrypted, just knowing they are messages back and forth from Germany is a solid lead. There should be enough information in the file properties to get the header data with IP addresses. So, while we’ll have one team of experts trying to decode the messages, we’ll have another team working to trace where those IP addresses are located.”
“I know, I know. But it takes time for our experts to do all that,” said Dale Hewson. “I just wish we didn’t have to wait. Besides … it’s likely those IP addresses will only provide us with a general location. Will merely knowing which German city the message came from be enough?”
Lieutenant Colonel Schermerhorn said, “Hopefully, either Missy will hear a name mentioned or perhaps someone will be identified in these messages. That, combined with whichever city or town in Germany we identify, might then be enough. The good news is the WIJO leaders are talking about all this and, at least for now, they are holding up with any further attacks.”
Charles Winword was on the line and said, “It’s interesting that Kahtar is the one directing activities in Germany. It was Aziz doing that in the U.K. and here in the U.S. Mohammad Nabir seems to be their overall leader, while Kahtar and Aziz are the ones in charge of the various attack campaigns.”
“It sounds like all three of them are not yet convinced they need to stop all their terrorist activities,” said Hewson. “We talked about this before. If Missy is looking to punish anyone for not heeding the warning she gave Karimi, they’re the ones she needs to confront and deal with.”
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Wednesday, Mar 18, 2020
Missy managed getting the virus software installed on several additional computers and phones during the night while their owners were asleep but only those which did not require passwords to boot up and then connect to the internet. Since they were at home, many of these leaders did not consider such passwords to be needed. However, there were others who did, and she needed to be present when they accessed their computers in order to get their passwords.
As the day wore on, she noticed a couple of additional names were added to Colonel Chory’s list. She guessed those individuals might have been identified due to whatever message traffic Lisa and Marie had obtained from the computers she had just infected. She was pleased that her help with infecting all these computers was providing the task force with so much information they now could process.
General Blake and the Secretary of Defense had been increasing the resources as needed by their task force, conveniently hidden as part of Robert Ulrey’s team. The results certainly justified the expense. They hoped to stop WIJO from succeeding with any further terrorist attacks, anywhere, and gaining all this Intel would definitely help with that.
So, Missy continued with her visits, spying on all these leaders and reporting on any activities or information which might be relevant, adding to what the task force needed to process. There were military intelligence experts who would pull together reports which General Blake and Colonel Chory could then put to good use to defeat WIJO, both near term and in the long term as well. Of course, what she hoped for most was getting some more information about Germany.
Chapter Thirteen
Mar 18, 2020
It had been a week since Wagner Shen and Antony Ying had met with Angelina Dangelmeyer. While their initial reaction to her refusal to cooperate had been to follow up with a clear message, demonstrating their threats had not been anything she should ignore, there was one comment she’d made that was giving them pause. She’d indicated the other eleven covens in the U.S. would support her in any confrontation with the Zhu-Gung coven. And, after obtaining further research, they’d learned she indeed might have the support of those covens.
Simon Yang, the head of the law firm which was assisting them, was presenting his summary of that research. “We’ve been able to identify and then reach out to each coven, using a variety of methods, to get a sense of how they value the New York coven. The closest one is in Salem, Massachusetts near Boston. The other ten are also located near major cities: Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., New Orleans, Seattle, St. Louis and Las Vegas.”
“And, you’re saying all of these U.S. covens acknowledge this Angelina to be someone they will listen to?” asked Antony. “No enemies?” In the other countries where Zhu-Gung operated, there was very little unity amongst covens. Of course, they had endured centuries of strife during the many feudal systems which had governed while in America that had not been the case. Even during the Civil
War, the covens had managed to avoid much of the hostilities, being more focused on staying hidden since it had typically been the government that witches needed to fear persecution from.
“Yes, her leadership has been consistent and conservative, and her coven has proven itself to be a strong supporter to other covens over the years,” explained Simon. “Whatever actions you decide to take against her need to be done with great care. For example, directly harming any of her witches … like her son Troy, whom we have discussed … that poses tremendous risks. We cannot succeed against the five crime families here in New York if we are also in conflict with all the covens around the country.”
Wagner said, “On the other hand, there does not appear to be much loyalty to any crime families by these covens, so if we avoid conflicts with them, I don’t foresee any interference with our establishing ourselves here at the expense of these crime families.”
“What about the rumors you heard when you were reaching out to these covens?” asked Antony. “About some invisible rogue witch with great powers and abilities?”
Simon nodded and said, “Yes, that is the other good news. We may not need Angelina to identify the witch you are looking for. There have been some amazing stories in recent months about a witch who does not belong to any coven. She … according to various reports, this witch is a female … she has been helping the U.S. government deal with terrorist attacks. There has not been much publicity about this since those attacks have not been successful. But there were several arrests made at some NFL stadiums around Christmas time. And, earlier … on Thanksgiving … there was a bus containing alleged terrorists which exploded in Pennsylvania.”
“And, she can make herself appear invisible?” asked Wagner. “If so, that would explain why we only managed to sense her presence when she interfered with our operations here last month.”
“Well, these are all rumors and from various different sources.” Simon went on to say, “There’s quite a lot of conflicting information. Some say she’s not even a witch but another type of supernatural altogether. She can Shift into an animal form, she can move objects around, she can teleport from place to place … and, get this. She’s a cadet at West Point. That, of course, would put her in proximity to what happened here.”
“It would also explain why she’s working with U.S. government agencies,” agreed Wagner. “Have you been able to identify who she is yet?”
Simon shook his head in the negative. “No, but that shouldn’t be difficult. We’ve been careful with all our interviews so far. Just give us a little more time.”
“Okay. But I’m going to have one of my men follow Angelina’s son Troy,” said Wagner. “Since he’s also a witch, it won’t be any of the witches we brought with us. He’d be able to sense another witch and I’m sure Angelina would consider that a threat. We do still want to cause some trouble for her but I don’t think we want to do that until we’ve established ourselves here and dealt further with those crime families.”
Antony nodded in understanding and said, “We also want to get Peter and the others out of prison. What progress have you made on doing that?”
Simon said, “They’re all being held without bail due to their being an obvious flight risk. And, by the way Peter is being handled, it’s obvious someone in charge must know he’s a water witch. They always have at least two guards watching, ready with tranquilizer darts. If he were to start using his ability on anyone, he’d be put down right away before he could cause any real problems.”
Wagner said, “Well, we’ll keep planning ways to break them out but, as with this invisible witch and Angelina, that can all wait. How are we doing with getting our drugs introduced here?” Although the arrangements with Ray Morelli had been severed, including his purchasing drugs from Zhu-Gung rather than South America, and Sal D’Amato had rebuffed their attempt at any similar arrangement, the organizations for the other three families had shown interest in obtaining quality drugs at lower prices. The strategy for these other families was to only offer them drugs without arranging any other activities. Once they controlled the drug supply, then various other actions could be taken.
Simon stood up and said, “I’ll leave and let you two discuss that.” He picked up all his folders, stowed them into his briefcase and left the room.
Antony said, “With regard to our drugs, we’ve been having more and more success with that. As you know, I had our guys approach a few dealers who were not that high up in their organizations, promising they’d see higher profits they could share with their bosses. That seems to be working and we’ve got several orders now, with delivery starting this week. We should be gaining some happy customers when they see we make good on our promises.”
“Great! That should lead to confidence in dealing with us and we’ll be able to expand, getting more and more orders. Then, when some of these dealers get into trouble and we offer to help out with their operations, the bosses of these lower level guys will want to fall in line so they can continue reaping those higher profits. We can satisfy their demand and once they see we can handle things for them, those organizations will gradually become ours.”
Antony agreed with everything Wagner was saying. But he’d known Wagner a long time and knew there was something he wasn’t saying. And he had a pretty good idea what that might be. He said, “You’re worried about that West Point witch and Salvatore D’Amato being connected somehow, right?” They had both sensed a strong reaction from D’Amato when Wagner had asked if he believed in the supernatural. And, unlikely as it seemed, they also suspected he had played some role in getting the FBI to show up at that nightclub of his when Peter and the others had been arrested.
Wagner grinned and switching from Chinese to English, he said, “To quote the famous William Shakespeare … ‘there are more things in heaven and earth’ … yada, yada, yada. However, Zhu-Gung will handle whatever those things might be.” Then he chuckled and Antony laughed with him.
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Sal D’Amato was in his upstairs office at home when Ben Marchitto came in with some news. They had been hearing rumors and Ben had called Russ Simonetti who was Ray Morelli’s number two, just as Ben was Sal’s number two. Ben announced, “I’ve heard back from Russ. A couple of Ray’s guys were able to confirm those rumors we’ve been hearing. That Hong Kong organization is back in town and selling drugs at a lower price than anything from South America, Afghanistan or anywhere else.”
“Are you saying Ray’s organization is back doing business with …?”
“No, no! Nobody in Ray’s organization will have anything to do with those Zhu-Gung people who were screwing with us last month before some of them got arrested and that agreement they had with Morelli was dissolved. But, after I asked Russ to check into things, he had his guys investigate. Sure enough, several capos they know in other organizations have been bragging how they’ll now be making higher profits.”
Sal nodded and asked, “They have a new source for their drugs, huh?”
“Yeah, the rumors were true. I reminded Russ how we let Ray keep all his territories for selling drugs and whatever else he had going in exchange for those legitimate businesses and properties he turned over to us. Then I reminded him how it was Ray’s poor judgement getting in bed with that Hong Kong organization which led to all that. He assured me they would have nothing to do with Zhu-Gung and would find out if the other families were maybe doing some business with them.”
Sal smiled at Ben and said, “Glad Ray has finally seen the error of his ways. Those two-timing Chinese bastards were willing to sell him out in exchange for our business. He’s lucky we decided we’d rather keep him around rather than let that Zhu-Gung organization get a foothold over here.”
“Well, maybe this latest deal is about them still trying to get a toehold or something. So far, it’s only about selling drugs at cheaper prices. None of the other families are doing any agreements for anything else … yet.” Ben had insisted that Russ put some pressure on a
ll his sources to make sure of that. “Even so, while offering their product over here might sound like it’s merely being competitive, Russ agrees with us. Zhu-Gung is still working to become more than just a supplier. They must be up to something more. They’ll soon be competing against all our organizations rather than simply helping them earn higher profits.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Sal, nodding in agreement. “I’m sure you’re right.” After a brief pause, he asked, “Remember what you told me last month, Ben? After Robert Ulrey proved he was a man of his word?”
“What was that, Sal?”
“About me and the government and my witch Missy? How we were all getting to be good friends because they’re enemies of my enemy? Well, I’m thinking we might want to ask what our friends are gonna do about this. After all, Robert told us some of those Zhu-Gung folks were witches with supernatural abilities and that his organization was able to deal with them.”
“Are you suggesting I contact Robert Ulrey?”
“Nah. It’s not appropriate for my organization to be contacting the FBI. No, I’m wondering if maybe we might contact our good friend at West Point. I mean, we did donate millions to them in her behalf, right?” Sal chuckled.
“Yes, I see,” agreed Ben with a smile. “And nobody’s gonna complain about my talking to Missy McCrea after you did that. I’ll have to wait until next week, though. She’s on spring break this week and all our sergeant over there at the academy can tell me is she’s probably gone back to Afghanistan. He’s buddy-buddy now with another sergeant who hinted he might be going over there with her.”
“Spring break. Yeah, I know. My Sandy has been spending time this week with Missy’s little brother. I had Rico assign a couple more guys to help Santos and Remy keep an eye on her.” Rico Bellone was his head of security and Santos and Remy were his daughter’s permanent bodyguards.
Missy Goes to Hong Kong (Missy the Werecat Book 8) Page 9
