Season of the Witch

by David L. Golemon

  Randall led the group of seven guests down the long haul which afforded Jack a chance at gaining some information.

  “How long have you been with Miss Barlow?” he asked.

  The large man glanced at Collins as if he had expected to be grilled. He smiled. “I came to the estate at the age of thirteen. I was a runaway from an abusive home, and I made the mistake of trying to steal food from a pantry for the poor of which Granny supports.” Randall slowed and then faced Jack and the others. “Needless to say, she tracked me down and made me see the error of my ways.”

  “How did she do that?” Ryan asked.

  “She used her powers and sent me flying to the top of the Green Monster at Fenway. Left me there for five hours balanced on two legs of a chair. Let’s just say I made an effort to listen to her rebuke about stealing. Then she took me home and fed me and gave me a place to live. After my days at Princeton, which was paid for by the foundation’s scholarship, I stayed on to help with the estate and prepare.”

  “Prepare for what?” Jack pursued.

  Randall didn’t answer, he continued to the stairs.

  “Is everyone here an orphan?” Mendenhall asked.

  “For the most part. A few were criminals in another time of their lives. I would want to know how Granny changed them.”

  “Let’s get down to the real question, shall we?” Ryan said as they started down the stairs. “How many of you nuts think you’re actually witches?”

  “We don’t think Mister Ryan. Thinking sometimes gets in the way.”

  “Why do you call Miss Barlow Granny?” Charlie asked.

  “What should we call her?”

  The Group exchanged looks and it was Henri who asked the next question.

  “How old is Granny?”

  Randall laughed as he made the bottom riser of the stairs. “If you want to be turned into a frog or something else that crawls you ask. I’m not.”

  As they moved from the foyer and into the dining room, they were amazed to see the long table filled with fine china and food piled so high it was hard to count the number of men and women at the table. Then it was jack who noticed many children dressed just as fine as the adults. At the head of the table Elsbeth Barlow stood. She was assisted to her feet by the pilot Millicent Krensky who was dressed in a formal gown.

  “Gentlemen, thank you for joining us. Sorry for the formality but this dinner has been planned for quite some time. Please, sit and make your introductions.” She smiled as the former military pilot helped her back into her chair. “None here bite—at least in their present form.”

  Jack and the others were amazed when this comment elicited laughter from all around the large table.

  “Colonel Collins, please, sit next to me.”

  Jack looked at Will, Jason, Charlie, Tram and Farbeaux and nodded that they should disburse and get to know the so-called coven. Collins himself took Matchstick by the hand and led him to the far end of the long table. Until he knew what was happening, he wanted Matchstick to stay as close to him as possible. He knew whatever was going on here the small alien was an important key. He excepted the offered chair and placed Matchstick in a chair next to him as an assistant placed a child’s booster chair down. Matchstick’s almost non-existent nose wrinkled at the plate of salad in front of him and looked up at Jack as if to ask, ‘what am I supposed to do with this?’

  “Colonel, before we begin with your interrogation regarding our actions and eventual intent, may I say I am so sorry for the loss of your friends and associates in Nevada.” Elsbeth looked down the table until she spied Henri, Ryan, Mendenhall, and Tram. “To you gentlemen also. I never expected you to get so close. I’m afraid I was taken by surprise.” It seems your Group is even more inventive than even I knew.”

  “It was our French friend who got us so close in New Orleans,” Everett volunteered.

  “Ah, Colonel Farbeaux. A most ingenious man of opportunity.”

  “Excuse me, but have we ever met before?” Henri asked as he accepted a glass of wine from one of Barlow’s attendants.

  “I can’t know much about our friends in government service like the Event Group and not know about a man known as their greatest nemesis, who it now seems to be turning over a new leaf. An amazing turn of fortune.” She looked at Jack and smirked almost knowingly. The look made Collins very uncomfortable.

  “Thank you for your condolences about our friends. But that doesn’t mean we believe anything you and your…, your—”

  “Cult, coven, whatever you wish to call it,” Elsbeth said as the forty men, women and children all laughed.

  “It doesn’t mean we believe a word you’ve said, and it doesn’t clear you of responsibility in regard to the murder of our people.” Jack opened a napkin and placed it in his lap. “You should know when we find out this will not be handled through a court of law.” He looked at the silent faces of his hosts. Then held his glass up for the red wine offered. His eyes returned to the old woman.

  “Your friends here,” Elsbeth nodded toward Ryan, Will, Tram and Henri down the long table. “They saw the being responsible. Asmodius was prophesied thousands of years ago to return. He has.” Elsbeth reached out and removed Matchstick’s plate of salad and handed to an assistant and then the salad was replaced with a plate of frozen Hot Pockets. “That is why we need Mr. Stick.”

  “How did you know Matchstick was still alive?” Charlie Ellenshaw asked as he stood from his chair and placed a linen napkin in Matchstick’s shirt.

  “He told me of course.”

  “And how did he do that, Western Union?” Ryan asked with an angry look.

  “Millicent said because of your naval aviator status you would be the short tempered one Mr. Ryan.”

  “Is that right?” Ryan asked as he took in the blonde woman who had found the Event Group Complex.

  “She’s the same way. Arrogant,” Elsbeth said but took the woman’s hand. “But we love her anyway.”

  Millicent smirked at Ryan and actually looked like she wanted to stick out her tongue. He returned the look with a silent snarl.

  “In answer to your question Slim,” she said looking down the table at Ellenshaw, “I have always had what you would call a mental connection with Mr. Stick and his kind.” Elsbeth smiled at a chewing Matchstick. “They taught us most of what we know. That was before the Grey bastards turned on them of course and enslaved them. In essence Slim, Matchstick called me. Have you noticed that Matchstick has been a little…well…off?”

  “Yes,” Charlie said. “This is why it was a bad mistake to not allow our Group to check him out physically and mentally, but you took him before we could.”

  “Well, we here can help your Group with that. He doesn’t seem right to you because part of him is still in the id.”

  “The id?” Jack asked.

  “The plane between life and death. The Green’s and Grey’s are almost the same species. As you know both have two hearts and their brains are not unlike ours. They are compartmentalized.”

  “Thank you, Randall. Randall here is a brilliant astrophysicist that dabbles in alien biology as a hobby.”

  The guests looked at the giant of a man who managed to actually look embarrassed at the praise.

  “Continue Randall,” Elsbeth said proudly.

  “When injured, Matchstick went into a state we refer to as self-induced coma-like reproduction. He has the ability to repair himself. An amazing species.”

  “We would have informed you, but even I have trouble penetrating your complex security at times.”

  Farbeaux raised his glass in Collins’ direction when Elsbeth praised his security.

  “Excuse me, but your cell phone will ring in two seconds Colonel. Someone on the other end will inform you that more assistance to our cause is in route I believe.”

  The house guests looked at Elsbeth, unbelieving, just as Jack’s phone started buzzing. He removed it from his sports coat and answered.

  “Did he hurt anyo
ne?” Jack’s eyes went to Carl. “Xavier too?”

  “Damn it, who’s dead now?” Mendenhall said as he angrily tossed his napkin on his plate full of untouched salad.

  “Inform Agent Wilkerson we’ll handle it if they make it this far.” Jack closed the cell phone and looked at Everett. “Doctor Morales and Anya assisted Master Chief Jenks in escaping custody of the FBI and they’re pretty sure they’re on their way here.”

  “What?” was all Carl could say.

  “Oh, I would so love to meet your computer man.” Elsbeth leaned over and spoke in a conspirator’s tone to Jack. “I think your Doctor Morales has a rather healthy love affair with someone named Europa.”

  Will Mendenhall leaned over toward Ryan. “Told you.”

  “Okay, enough of the mysterious school of witchcraft. What is this Asmodius?” Jack asked.

  “He’s a Grey that was sent here a very long time ago. He was one of many plans to place this world into submission without a major fight. Needless to say, Asmodius eventually ended up betraying his own kind. Asmodius is what we refer to as a necromancer. A Warlock. One of a kind Grey. Ancients ways produce ancient evil. Asmodius knows the science of witchcraft.”

  “Science?” Farbeaux asked.

  “Yes, a science as real as Randall’s astrophysics. A science of manipulation of an environment and nature through sound and motion. Magic. It was real once. Asmodius was imprisoned with the help of Matchstick’s kind and with some assistance from us. We were once followers of the Grey known as Asmodius Modai. They we learned he wasn’t as he seemed. It convinced not only itself, but it’s followers that he was the fallen angel mentioned in early scripture. This brought on the age of good and evil. We revolted and Asmodius has never forgotten.” Elsbeth used the napkin and wiped Matchstick’s chin frost from one of his Hot Pockets. “I need him. It was his ancestors that gave me the horrid gift of long life.

  “How is that?” Jack asked.

  “The way we defeated Asmodius,” Elsbeth said. “The Green’s had the knowledge but not the physical strength to stop a very much larger species in the Grey. They needed one of us to act as a conductor of sorts. Through me the Greens used their science and we doubled the power needed to capture and restrain Asmodius. We need Matchstick to remember through the centuries past what his ancestors know.”

  “How do you plan on doing that?” Everett asked.

  “I don’t know. Randal and a few others thing we can do this through some form of hypnosis. If Matchstick had not of been murdered, he would have the information about the ancient science readily available in his collective memory with his ancestors. But since he has been in stasis for so long, his memory is not functioning the way it should.”

  “You mean to say that you can mind-meld with Matchstick to double your power of witchcraft like Mr. Spock?” Ryan scoffed.

  The children around the table laughed at Ryan’s small and brutal insult.

  “I mean exactly that. And we have very little time. Asmodius has help and I believe it may be connected to a group of evil men you may already be aware of.”

  “Are these men Russian by chance?” Everett asked.

  “Not by chance Mister Everett, but by design.”

  “When is this Grey son of a bitch coming?” Mendenhall asked.

  “I am having a hard time getting a fix on him through mental insight. But he draws close.”

  “Is it just him?” Jack asked.

  “For seven thousand years me and mine have been keeping his followers at bay. A war has raged for many millennia right under the noses of regular society. But make no mistake Colonel, Asmodius is a coward deep down. He will bring that army with him.”

  That means he can’t fly, and he can’t travel any conventional way with that many,” Farbeaux added.

  “Ship?” Charlie ventured.

  “From New Orleans to Massachusetts by sea? Too long I would think. Too much could go wrong if he’s transporting a lot of strange people,” Henri corrected Charlie while eyeing the opposite side of strange around the table.

  “If what they say is true, I will not underestimate a being that killed my friends from a thousand miles away.”

  Carl nodded at Jack’s logic. “Now, as you say Miss Barlow, you fought him off before with your army of witches. Where is this arm now?”

  Elsbeth smiled. She stood with the hep of Millicent. She spread her arms wide indicating the men, women and children sitting and eating dinner.

  “My army.” She cackled in her irritating way. “Small, but formidable.”

  * * *

  Desert Springs Hospital,

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  Niles Compton stood at the window and watched as Sarah kept up a constant conversation with Alice Hamilton whose condition had not changed for the better in over five days. Niles had never professed to anyone concerning his religious leanings, but since the events on Flamingo Road he had caught himself being drawn back to his childhood and Sunday’s at church with his parents. Scientifically speaking, Niles was fully aware that power of prayer was a form of a generated confidence made almost factual by the human condition. Niles had been praying off and on for five days.

  “You two were pretty close?”

  Niles turned and saw the Surgeon General standing behind him. He turned back and faced the I.C.U.

  “The last time I received a phone call in the middle of the night from the President it was because of you.”

  Niles turned back, confused as to what the older man was saying.

  “After the attack on you, the other world leaders, and the President at Camp David, the first thing he wanted to know after he awakened from his coma was the condition of you. Nothing else. Then I get a call from him concerning Mrs. Hamilton and for the first time in my life I was actually ordered to save a life. Evidently he favors that lady as much as you.”

  “Someday the world may find out just who Alice Hamilton was in American history.” Niles tried to smile, but the attempt died a quick death. “Someday maybe.”

  The Surgeon General placed a hand on Compton’s shoulder. “We’re doing our best.”

  Niles could only nod his head.

  “I’ve got to check in with my offices back in D.C., it seems we have a small problem with a hurricane that seemed to have developed out of nowhere. One that’s acting stranger than the experts say could be possible.”

  Niles turned back with a question itching to be asked.

  “Oh, sorry, forgot you’ve been out of the loop for a while. It seems a small storm from the Gulf intensified and actually rounded the Florida Key’s and gained strength. Storms just don’t do that. It went from a tropical storm to a category three hurricane within two days. I have to make sure my people contact all of the emergency services people in the appropriate cities.”

  “What are the cities you’re concerned with?” Niles asked.

  “Well, right now it looks like it could come ashore anywhere from Richmond to Main.” The Surgeon General looked at his notes on a clipboard. “It seems more than likely it’s going to strike Boston head on.” The Doctor nodded at Niles and then turned and left.

  Niles didn’t like the coincidental fact that the targeted Boston area was exactly where Jack and his team were. With one last look at Sarah and Alice, he turned away to start making calls.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Cambridge Massachusetts

  While Ryan, Mendenhall, Tram and Randall toured the property looking over a possible defense, it was Ryan who stated the obvious when he placed a hand on the elbow of Randall and stopped him.

  “If we know they’re coming, why don’t we just get the Massachusetts State Police or a Marine Combat team out here and wait for them?”

  “Granny has contacted the appropriate authorities and without attracting much attention like your Marine combat team would do, the State Police can secure the roads enough around the estate. I also imagine Granny thinks the police and even your Marines have better things to do than die.
Besides, with the weather we have rolling in the authorities will be having their hands full.”

  “Besides buddy, I don’t think the world’s quite ready to hear the Grey’s are back in action.” Mendenhall frowned at Ryan.

  “Will Miss Barlow be able to get Matchstick’s memory flowing again?” Ryan asked, making Will shy away with his glare.

  “Gentlemen, it’s not Matchstick’s memory that needs to be recovered. As you’ve seen yourself, he has no problem remembering you and your friends. It’s his collective memory we need to recover. It’s the moments from the past of his ancestors he carries that will provide the power inside of Granny that will defeat Asmodius. She can’t do it alone.”

  “Are you going to live a long life like Miss Barlow?” Will asked as lightning flared across the treetops and rain started to pour in earnest.

  “Thank goodness no. You see gentlemen, Granny may have been born on this world, but she hasn’t been one of us for eons. She met her first Green when she was a just a child back in Babylonia. They trusted her. They trained her. They, in their own way, even loved her.”

  “We understand that part of it. When we lost Matchstick, it tore our guts out,” Mendenhall added, and Ryan nodded his head in agreement.

  “Well, we’ll see in the next few hours if your small green friend can assist Granny or not. Right now, it doesn’t look good.”

  “There’s no way she can fight this asshole on her own?” Ryan asked as Randall produced two umbrellas.

  “None.”

  “Then we just have to pump his Grey ass full of bullets,” Ryan countered.

  Randall laughed as he deployed the umbrella. “I wish we could just place your small sniper friend there into a tree and blow his brains out. However, Asmodius is a coward. He won’t be anywhere near anything can mortally wound him. His coven will try and take down our people with the skills he handed down through their ancestors thousands of years ago while the coward hides in a safe place.”