Then, backing away with his two men, Mendoza quickly made his way to one of the cars parked nearby. They climbed into the car and, since it had a driver already sitting there, waiting, the car immediately pulled away and drove off. There was no sign of the snipers who had taken out Jiang’s men but, no doubt they also were now gone.
Frank cursed but after looking at the bodies lying on the ground and at Jiang, he asked, “Do we just leave them there?”
Jiang said, “Yes. We take whatever weapons they have. They no have any ID’s.” After checking two of his guys and grabbing their guns and knives, he looked over at Clay. “Wait!” Clay had wasted no time and was getting the weapons from the other two men. “Not dead!”
As it turned out, all four men had merely been downed by tranquilizer rounds.
When Clay and Frank told Ricardo what had happened, he immediately called Hands. By the end of the day, they learned there indeed had been similar attacks on all the other operations where Zhu-Gung had infiltrated. An impossibly large army of men had conducted a well-coordinated assault and been very thorough. Tranquilizer rounds had been used to knock everyone out with not a single person actually being killed.
Jiang learned this as well when he reported back to Wagner and Antony. While he had been spared, there were several other Zhu-Gung members who had not. They had been knocked out along with their mercenary guards. It had been a very bad day. Things like this had never happened to any of their operations in China or Taiwan.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Sunday, Apr 19, 2020
The aftermath of all the Saturday attacks on Zhu-Gung people, with their loss of large quantities of drugs, was almost as bad as the attacks themselves. The crime families were not able to deliver and thus had customers climbing the walls. Those customers quickly turned to dealers in the D’Amato and Morelli families. Since it was obvious the South American cartels had been behind things, the crime families wanted to avoid being caught between those cartels and Zhu-Gung. There was no evidence anyone from the D’Amato or Morelli families had been involved.
Sal and Ben were especially pleased. They had followed Missy’s plan, as outlined by Rafe Santiago, and … using their combined forces with those from the cartels … that plan had worked out perfectly. Making surprise attacks all at once didn’t give the Zhu-Gung witches any opportunity to use any of their supernatural abilities. And, since no one was actually killed, it could all be viewed as merely a warning. Of course, the cost of the drugs confiscated made that warning a very costly one.
The FBI had provided a great deal of valuable information, largely due to Ed Collinsworth, and of course they too were greatly surprised. There had been no innocent victims, no collateral damage, and no negative publicity. It had all gone down quietly and efficiently, executed by soldiers from the crime families and cartels, but without starting any war.
Of course, it now remained to be seen what Zhu-Gung might do.
Robert had called his team together in a special meeting. They had not realized what Missy had asked her criminal friends to do until it was all over and done with. They’d asked Mike to call into the meeting since Missy wasn’t available. Once everyone had either gathered around the conference table at Hanscom or called in, Robert opened things up for discussion.
“Glenn Paxton is going crazy down here,” exclaimed Ed. “The word coming in from all his informants is this whole thing couldn’t really have happened. Nobody got shot. Nobody got arrested. The crime families aren’t gonna blame the cartels. I mean … they’ve been buying from the cartels for years. We’re hearing everyone is pissed at Zhu-Gung for creating this mess in the first place.”
Dale Hewson asked, “Mike? How much did you know about this?”
Mike answered, “Well, Missy told me she’d given Rafe Santiago some instructions and wanted him to talk to Ben Marchitto. But I didn’t hear anything for several days. Then, there was the raid where the Chinese girls were rescued. I’m not sure she had actually included that in her plan. That did work out to be a big help, however.”
“Somehow, this is now a case of our giving her forgiveness for what we never would have given any permission for,” said Dale. “Too much could have gone wrong. And, we never would have trusted criminals to pull this off. What a crazy stunt!”
Robert chuckled and said, “Yeah, but very effective. What we need to all focus on now is watching Zhu-Gung. They’re definitely going to try to gain back what, in one fell swoop, has been taken away from them. They still have a huge number of mercenaries with them. And, there’s no limit on what supernatural things they might now unleash. We need to figure out what their likely targets might be and establish surveillance of those as well.”
“Excellent point,” said Lieutenant Colonel Schermerhorn. “We better give Troy and Angelina a head’s up, too. Zhu-Gung might be blaming her coven. Do we know whether Rafe and Esteban will be keeping their people up here? Or, will most be returning to South America. I doubt Zhu-Gung will try chasing after them down there.”
“There’s little to be gained by keeping them up here,” said Ed. “They can’t really protect themselves against witches. We need to get word to Esteban that whomever he has stay behind will be at great risk. I’m sure he’ll still have his regular people doing business as usual, making deliveries, etc. Unfortunately, I can’t really ask Glenn to have his FBI teams protecting those people. I mean … they’re criminals!”
Lisa said, “Marie and I think we have some Chinese versions of our Missy virus. And, we’ve put together some instructions we think Missy can understand. If she can manage accessing their computers or phones …?”
Mike said, “She can. Email her those instructions. She’s able to visit them now anytime she wants and not be noticed. Of course, since she’s busy during the day at the academy, she’ll be doing that at night.”
“Right. Nighttime is best anyway since then everyone is asleep,” acknowledged Robert. “But … wait! She mentioned in our last phone call that she could do that now … visit them without being noticed … but said she’d explain later. How does she manage things so they don’t sense her presence?”
“She doesn’t Shift when her spirit form goes out and makes the visit,” said Mike with a chuckle. “She leaves her body instead. Since her body stays in her bed back at the academy while she teleports around, that seems to prevent them from noticing when she’s right there with them.”
Dale looked around the room. He could see everyone was as flabbergasted as he was. “Mike … let me get this straight. She leaves her body behind? How is that possible?”
“Well … the way she describes it … she experienced being in her spirit form so much over the last six months that she got used to existing in that state and being comfortable with it. So, rather than pausing in the middle of a Shift for that to happen, she now can merely focus on existing that way and separate from her body. She leaves it behind. Look. None of what she does is really possible, when you think about it. But, she’s a supernatural, and has managed to do all those things, regardless.”
Dale shivered and said, “I’m not even going to think about that too much. I mean … her spirit flying around, doing all the crazy things she can do, while her body is lying quietly there … asleep, or whatever state that might be. Wheh! Too much to contemplate.” He paused a moment and then asked, “She still able to do all those crazy things she does, even when …?”
“Yeah, she sure can,” said Mike. “She’s tested that out and, if anything, her abilities just keep increasing. She thinks it’s because she’s always using those abilities. It’s just like with her athletic ones. The more she trains, the more she can do and the greater the ability becomes.”
Desiree Yerger was there and now spoke up. She was a senior witch from the Salem coven and one of the finder witches who had joined Robert’s team. “I can’t say how much her werecat nature helps … probably a lot … but being mated to Mike, her soulmate, and being so young? She’s not even twen
ty yet. Well, under the right circumstances … and those circumstances have definitely been the right ones as far as Missy is concerned. My point is …witches typically can keep getting stronger and more powerful as they mature, continuing until around age twenty-five. Missy is exceptional, of course. So, who knows where she’ll end up?”
“Well, thanks Desiree for that fun fact … that fun witchy fact,” said Marie. “But, getting back to what my soulmate Lisa was saying … if Missy can manage getting us access to any Zhu-Gung computers or phones, we can hopefully stay one or two steps ahead of them. We have some translators lined up and can probably decipher whatever message traffic we can get.”
Robert said, “Excellent. And, for those here who don’t know this yet. Marie has come up with an app which gets installed on any Missy virus infected phone. It can send back recordings of whatever conversations might take place. For both parties on the call. So, we’ll be keeping those translators pretty busy once Missy infects those phones.”
“We’ve been getting a lot of great Intel from WIJO because of Marie’s new app,” explained Lisa. “It does drain a smart phone’s battery life somewhat, but everyone is used to having crappy battery life anyway.”
Marie said, “I’ve also had success with getting infected computers to help. Since I have access to any computer with the Missy virus on it, I’ve been sending my new program. That program then senses any phones in the immediate area which have Bluetooth turned on. It then connects to those phones and infects them with my new app.”
“Wow! Just wow,” said Dale. “I’m sure glad we have you two girls working on our team. I hope you are writing programs we can put on our computers and phones which will keep them from getting infected with any viruses like that. Wow.”
Lisa laughed and said, “Don’t worry. We’ve got a program which is checking there aren’t any spurious transmissions leaking in or out, whether from phones or computers. You people are all safe.” This got several sighs of relief from around the room.
“All right then. We have a go forward plan,” said Lieutenant Colonel Schermerhorn. “Hopefully, between all the surveillance we have now and the Intel we might soon be getting once Missy succeeds and Lisa and Marie do their thing, that will enable us to anticipate and deal with Zhu-Gung.”
One of the CIA members in the meeting said, “We finally seem to have WIJO contained, based on all the message traffic they’re giving us. I just wish we were doing as well in Iran and North Korea.”
Robert said, “When I agreed to head up this FBI Psychic Division so our finder witches could become allied with our government agencies, I have to admit the scope of what that involved was not worldwide. Thanks to our supernaturals, we have been able to stop terrorist attacks here in the U.S. However, growing our task force to deal with terrorists overseas? We might need my FBI Division to take more of a role in supporting some new government agency for that.”
“I think you’re right, Robert,” said Dale. “We need to ask the Defense Secretary to consider reorganizing our group here and maybe creating a special Supernatural Operations Division to take the lead on international threats. Meanwhile, we’ll keep working to rid ourselves of all the nasty supernaturals who are trying to operate right here in America.”
-----
When Missy got Marie’s email, which included mention that Mike had called into the meeting, she called him right away and got his take on everything. Then she said, “I should be able to visit Zhu-Gung tonight and get our virus installed on at least some of their devices. That will definitely help so we can interfere with whatever they’re planning next.” After a brief pause, she asked, “How are you doing? I know all this activity must be interfering with your schoolwork.”
“Yeah, it is but it’s okay,” said Mike. “I’m able to work around it well enough. My professors have all been pretty understanding, letting me make up classes and exams and everything. After that call to the dean from the Secretary of Defense last year, I get plenty of latitude. All my grades are good.”
“Well, don’t hesitate to complain if all this gets to be too much. I can go full tilt, day and night, pulling in lots of energy to sustain myself but you can’t do that.”
Mike laughed and said, “No, I can’t. But, I do have you, Missy. That sustains me. We’re still good for next weekend? You’re taking a weekend pass so we can be together? As long as you show up for your two softball games at Gaelic Park on Saturday …” Army was playing the Manhattan College Jaspers at their home field in the Bronx.
“Absolutely! I’ve asked that I be allowed to leave Friday night after classes. Captain Bonomo told me when he explained how I would be actually signing out then and signing in on Sunday, Colonel Dzierzeski was thrilled.” She giggled. “I think I’m beginning to grow on him.”
“Fantastic!” exclaimed Mike. “That means we’ll have two nights together. I’ll be down there with John. I assume Tracy is also able to get away?”
“Of course! Who do you think came up with the idea?”
“We’ll paint the town red, then!” said Mike with a laugh. “Let’s hope Zhu-Gung doesn’t get in our way. Of course, with Tracy along, they’ll have no idea who they’re messing with.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Sunday, Apr 19, 2020
Wagner and Antony had sent everyone else out. The day had been one of regrouping, after hearing what each of their teams had to say for themselves. Since these teams had been successful in infiltrating into the three crime family organizations, with no apparent issues or concerns raised by D’Amato or Morelli, they’d assumed their plan was well underway. None of the witches had been out on any of their teams, since that had not seemed necessary. Now, of course, they realized their mistake.
“I think we need to confront Sal D’Amato,” said Antony. “I don’t think Ray Morelli would have done this on his own, without Sal’s approval. Of course, he’ll deny any involvement but we’ll bring Barnabas Ho along.” Barnabas was a water witch and would know if D’Amato was lying.
Wagner nodded and said, “We underestimated D’Amato. We have no proof his men were helping the cartels but, just as Morelli wouldn’t have acted on his own, I doubt the cartels would either. In order for so many of their people to come up here from South America, these cartels would have needed his assistance. And manpower.”
“Shiu-Yuen Chong will probably tell us to kill D’Amato. We could probably do that easily enough with Barnabas along. But, I worry that might only make our goal of operating in New York more difficult. All five families might then unite against us.”
“That is true and we need to caution Shiu-Yuen,” agreed Wagner. “We should give D’Amato a warning. Let’s bring some videos showing his son and his daughter. They are both away at different schools. Once he is convinced we can hurt them anytime, regardless of whatever protection he is giving them, he will understand.”
“Good idea. We can make those videos tomorrow or the next day, no problem.” Antony was getting enthused about doing something. “We should have enough drugs here by then to cover most of what was stolen. And, we have that shipment of girls coming in as well. We will explain to D’Amato that any future interference with our deliveries, no matter who actually interferes, will result in tragic accidents for his children. Accidents which he will not be able to blame us for, as he will have no proof to present to the other families here.”
Wagner asked, “Should we go after some of those cartel people? I believe Esteban Aparicio is the one they report to.” He shrugged. “I worry that might bring us into a war with the cartels. They’ve clearly given us a warning. I think we need to sit down and meet with Aparicio first. Maybe give him a warning similar to what we’re giving D’Amato.”
“Okay. Gaining control of operations here is our goal, not fighting a war. We will explain this to Shiu-Yuen.”
“Yes. For the same reason, we must not go against Angelina Dangelmeyer and her coven. We will ask D’Amato if he is getting help from any witches. B
arnabas will know if his answer is true or not. If he is getting help from them, we can deal with that problem in good time. For now, we need to regain our position with the three families while making D’Amato and Aparicio understand the consequences of any interference.”
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Later … much, much later, just before midnight … Missy arrived in her spirit form. She visited with each of the Zhu-Gung members she could identify. And, she waited for opportunities to access their devices, following Marie’s instructions on how to then log into the website from which their virus could be downloaded. It was a long, tedious night, but by early dawn she had managed infecting several computers and phones.
No, she didn’t get any sleep at all that night. But, as she’d told Mike, she could draw all the energy she needed to sustain herself. She did notice, however, that being separated from her body was different from when she existed in spirit form because of pausing in one of her Shifts.
As the hours dragged by, she began experiencing things she’d never sensed before. Twice, she blinked back to her room at West Point to check on her body. It was okay, only … there still was something going on. Something she could sense. She suspected there was some sort of time limitation on how long she could remain separated before either her body, or perhaps her entity, her spirit form, would have difficulty. She realized she was doing things no one else had done. Or, if they had, there was no documentation. She paid attention to the unique things she was sensing and proceeded with caution. She was not anxious to experience whatever the difficulty might be.
When she finally re-entered her comatose body, it took her several moments to fully return and “feel” whole again. She had been “away” for just over six hours. Until she could safely test what might happen should she wait longer to return, she determined she’d consider six hours to be her limit.
Missy Goes to Hong Kong (Missy the Werecat Book 8) Page 23
