by Geof Johnson
“Who did they sell this stuff too?” Bryce asked.
“The highest bidders. It could have been paramilitary groups in central Africa or Philippine rebels or Chechen separatists. Anybody with the money.”
“That’s when he bought and outfitted his three bases of operation in Eastern Europe.” Terry pressed the remote again and a map of Romania appeared on the TV. “The biggest one, a former monastery, is here in the mountains,” — she pointed to a spot on the screen near the border of Serbia — “there’s a smaller one on the coast, and another is just inside Hungary. All are heavily fortified and easy to defend, and he has a sizable detail of security guards at each of them. He rotates among these three bases but has no regular schedule or pattern that we know of.”
“He’s too smart for that,” Eric said.
“How is he getting to and from his assignments, Eric?” Larry asked.
“He has his own helicopter and private plane, with an airstrip he had built on a ridge by the old monastery in the mountains.”
“Have you tried to send anyone to get him?”
“A Seal team went to the monastery three months ago, but their mission was unsuccessful.”
“What do you mean by unsuccessful?”
“Well, they don’t exactly post details on a Facebook page, but from what we’ve been able to gather, we think they suffered heavy casualties, and the survivors had to be extracted by a second team. It was almost as if Cage knew they were coming. That’s not the first time something like that has happened. A few months ago we had a tip that he was going to make a hit on an American diplomat in Rome, and we sent some of our best agents to protect him, but Cage somehow got to the diplomat and then slipped away.”
“Did Cage kill him?” Carl asked.
“We think so, indirectly. The diplomat jumped off the roof of his hotel during a reception in front of dozens of witnesses, though he had no history of mental illness.” Eric waited for a moment before asking, “Is there some witch’s magic that would make him do that?”
“A compulsion spell might,” Fred said, her green eyes hard as gemstones.
“If he’s working with a witch,” Terry said, “do you suppose she’s like Sammi, able to overhear people from long distances, and that’s how he knows what’s coming?”
“A Shadow Witch? I don’t know. They’re pretty rare.” Fred turned to Momma Sue, who was sitting behind her with Mrs. Malley. “What do you think?”
“I doubt it,” Momma Sue said. “Shadow Witches are as rare as they come. Sammi’s the only one I know of, and I know a lot of witches, or know about them. If there was another one somewhere, I’d hear about her.”
“Even if she was on another continent?”
“Too hard to keep that a secret, unless she’s kept locked away somewhere.”
“Like a fortified monastery?” Eric asked.
“If she’s been there all of her life, maybe.”
“There could be other ways to divine intent from great distances,” Mrs. Malley said. “Though they would require sophisticated witchcraft. Sue and I might be able to work out a spell together, but it would be difficult even for us, and I do not know how reliable it would be.”
“Do European witches have different magic from us, Momma Sue?” Fred said.
“I never thought so before, but maybe they do.”
“One more thing that might be helpful,” Eric said. “Cage is calling himself a warlock now.”
“A warlock?” Jamie said. “That’s ridiculous. I’d know if he were doing magic. I’d feel it.”
“From all the way over in Eastern Europe or Asia?”
“If it was strong enough to matter.”
“What if it’s a different kind of magic than what you’re familiar with?”
“There’s only one kind of sorcerer’s magic. He may call himself a warlock, but if a man is doing it, it’s sorcery.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Mrs. Malley said. “Just because you have Eddan’s memories doesn’t mean that you know everything about magic.”
“That’s true, I guess. But maybe he’s using witch’s magic and taking the credit for it.”
“Well,” Terry said, “Cage has a significant edge of some kind now, and we need to know exactly what it is so that we can develop counter measures.”
“Do you think it’s possible for me to make a doorway to one of his strongholds so that you could sneak a team in and nab him?” Jamie said.
“Not if Cage can see us coming,” Eric said. “We could walk right into a trap, like that Seal team did. Plus, the monastery is a maze of corridors and rooms. It’s a dangerous place to go into, even if you know your way around, which we don’t.”
“Let’s make something clear right now,” Larry said. “Under no circumstances is my daughter going on a raid to some fortress in Romania. I don’t care if you need her magic or not.”
“That goes for you, too, Rollie,” Garrett said.
Rollie looked over his shoulder at his father and shrugged. “Relax. I’ve already been chased through the mountains by a demon. Nothing could be as bad as that.”
Terry narrowed her eyes and stared at Rollie. “One of these days you’re going to have to explain to me how you found the guts to do that.”
“It wasn’t hard.” Rollie shrugged again. “I just took a crazy pill before we went.”
“Is there such a thing? A crazy pill?”
“No,” Fred said. “Rollie’s crazy enough without one.”
“No he’s not!” Nova sat up straight in her chair. “Rollie’s naturally brave. That’s how he did it.”
“Whatever.” Fred flipped her hand and turned away. “We’re all crazy for getting involved with this.”
“Do you want to back out now?” Terry fixed Fred with a challenging stare. “Because Eric and I will keep going until we get this guy. He has to be stopped. He’s dangerous.”
“I’m still in,” Fred sighed. “But it bothers me that Cage seems to know what’s coming. We thought that was our special advantage, with Sammi and all.”
“Has she overheard anything lately that we need to know about?” Terry asked.
“Not really. A word or two, here and there. The time difference is probably why.”
“I still think I can make a doorway and we can go in there fast and overwhelm him,” Jamie said. “We’ve got more magic in this room than anybody, probably, and you CIA guys will probably bring a bunch of heavily armed agents and do the dirty work, right?”
“Jamie.” Carl shook his head. “Don’t go assuming that your magic can win out in every situation. Don’t forget what happened with Sammi. Gundy had you stymied just by positioning himself advantageously and calling our bluff with a knife.”
“That’s different. I couldn’t risk him stabbing her.”
“Stabbing?” Terry’s eyebrows fell sharply. “What happened to Sammi?”
“We’ll tell you later,” Fred said.
Eric cast a curious glance at Terry, then he continued, “So you can see how difficult it can be to apprehend Mr. Cage. And the disastrous raid by the Seals was not the first time he’s responded as if he’d been forewarned.”
“I hate to suggest it,” Carl said, “but could you have a mole at the CIA who’s tipping him off?”
“We considered that, but so far we haven’t found even a hint that we have one. Cage’s responses are freakishly fast and devious, like maybe there’s a supernatural component.”
“If it’s a witch that’s helping him,” Momma Sue said, “we’re going to find out, one way or the other. It might take a bit a’ doin’, but we will. We don’t tolerate witches doin’ things like that, unh unh.”
“Do you have anything else to go on about how he’s doing whatever he’s doing,” Larry said, “besides guesses?”
“Yes.” Eric reached into his pocket and pulled out a clear plastic vial about the size of his finger. It had a small amount of gray powder inside it. “We think Cage struck again this week. A
Vietnamese-American businessman named Dai Nguyen was found in a Hong Kong hotel lobby this Thursday night with a serious case of amnesia, similar to what we’ve seen in some other victims. Mr. Nguyen was there to finalize an agreement with a Japanese firm to move an electronics production facility to Vietnam, and someone obviously wanted to thwart that.”
“Who would want to do that?” Garrett asked.
“Several countries might, if they had hopes of luring that company themselves.”
“How is Mr. Nguyen now?” Fred said.
“Dazed and confused. He doesn’t remember his name or where he lives or why he was in Hong Kong.”
“Are the effects permanent?”
“We don’t know, if it’s witchcraft we’re dealing with. We’re hoping you can tell us.” He held up the vial for all of them to see. “We managed to get a team into his hotel room before anybody else, and we found a mysterious powder lightly strewn around. We were able to get this much from the table top and dresser and a few other surfaces.”
“What is it?” John Paul asked.
“We’re not sure. It’s definitely not a known poison. Our lab analyzed it and said it consists of non-toxic organic substances, like goldenrod pollen and a few other things.”
“Let me see that.” Momma Sue gestured for him to bring it to her, and he carried it past Fred and Rollie and handed it over.
Momma Sue held the vial near her face and examined it closely, then wrapped her fingers around it, closed her eyes and hummed a low note while everyone watched. After several seconds, she said, “There’s magic in it.”
“May I?” Mrs. Malley held her hand out and Momma Sue passed it to her. Mrs. Malley removed the cap and peered inside, then brought it near her nose and sniffed lightly. Jamie worried that the old witch might suffer the same fate as the Vietnamese businessman, but she seemed to know what she was doing. After a moment, she snapped the vial shut and her face hardened. “It is a forget spell, a powerful one. It was either made by a very strong witch or a triad.”
“A triad? What’s that?” Terry said.
“Three witches linked by a blood bond,” Fred answered quickly. “That’s what Rita and Cassandra wanted me for when they kidnapped me. The other witch in their triad died and they needed me to take her place.”
“So that’s what happened. I never knew.”
“They tortured me to try to get me to do the bond.”
“Tortured you?” Terry stared at Fred, but she wouldn’t explain further.
“Does a triad make their magic stronger?” Eric asked.
“Much,” Momma Sue said. “’Specially if each witch isn’t all that strong on her own. They do the blood bond and it combines all their power when they make a spell.”
“So Cage either has one very powerful witch working for him or three working together,” Melanie said.
“Which helps explain why he’s been able to pull off the things he’s been doing,” Terry said. “We were right, Eric. He’s using witchcraft.” She smiled at him and he gave a satisfied nod in response.
“Eric, how did he get the powder into Mr. Nguyen’s room?” Carl asked.
“From the room next to his. Our team found a small hole drilled in the sheetrock.”
“Probably blew the powder through a long soda straw,” Fred said. “Very low tech. You’re lucky your team wasn’t affected when they collected it.”
“They wore masks,” Eric said.
“Does anyone else know about the powder?” Jamie asked. “Besides the CIA?”
“No. And nobody at headquarters has any idea what it is.”
“What are you going to tell them?”
“I need to tell them the truth, as much of it as I can.”
Jamie shook his head firmly. “You can’t mention any of us. The oath won’t let you, and it would be devastating to us if you did.”
“Can we tell them we found another witch who knows about this stuff?”
“Say it was your mom, Nova,” Melanie said. “She thinks she’s a witch.”
“No way. She’d be so full of herself, she’d be unbearable.”
“I thought you said she already is.”
“This would make it worse.”
“We shouldn’t use her mom,” Terry said. “It would be too close to Nova for comfort. And I think you said she lives in Hampstead. That’s on the other side of the state from where Eric and I are working right now. Do you know of anybody closer to Cullowhee?”
Nova slowly worked her mouth from side to side. “One of my mom’s crazy friends lives in Sylva and she does the same stuff, Tarot Cards and fortune tellin’ and everything. Mom’s been tryin’ to get me to visit her, but I keep tellin’ her I can’t get there. No car.”
“You can borrow mine.” Fred grinned.
“No thanks.”
“Sylva’s close,” Carl said. “Less than ten miles from Cullowhee, I think.”
“Good.” Terry nodded. “We’ll contact her in person, but we won’t give this lady too many details. We’ll just ask her some general questions about witchcraft to make it look good, then we’ll tell our boss that she identified the powder.”
“That’s convenient for our cover, too,” Eric said. “Terry, you can maintain your ruse as a student so you can keep in close contact with Jamie and his friends without raising suspicion. That way, it’ll be easy to meet with you guys whenever we need help with the magic issues we’re dealing with. But that means you have to make a bigger show of starting a friendship. You should hang out more.”
Jamie looked at Fred and saw her eyes narrow and her nostrils flare for a moment. She’s not going to like that, he thought.
Nova pinched up her face at Eric and teased, “We gotta hang out with you? You’re not exactly my type.”
“Not me, just Terry. I’ll stay in the background and man the equipment. We rented a house near the campus that we use as our base.”
“Eric, if you’re going to tell your superiors at the CIA about the witch’s magic,” Jamie said, “you’re going to have to be extra careful not to point anything our way. You need to have a solid story that keeps us out of limelight.”
“I’ll tell them that this lady in Sylva identified the powder as European witch’s magic, and our boss might believe that, since that’s where Cage is basing out of. It’s even better that he’s in Romania, since that’s where Transylvania is, with the Dracula legend and whatever. That myth will lend a bit of credence to our story, I think.”
“Make your story believable,” Jamie said, “for our sake.”
Eric crossed his arms at his waist and cocked his head slightly to one side. “While I was home over the weekend, I went into the office and did a little surreptitious research, just to see if I could get any hits on data linked to any of you, but I came up empty, except for Fred’s kidnapping by the two women in Louisiana. If you were making bombs in your homes and texting each other about it, there would be red flags all over your names. But magic?” He shrugged. “That’s the kind of thing that still elicits snickers from the American intelligence services. Fortunately.”
“They may not think it’s a joke if you convince them that the powder in that vial is magic,” Fred said.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you stay invisible. Terry and I will take care of that, and we’ll maintain our covers.”
“If I have to stay in school,” Terry said to Jamie, “then I really am going to need help studying for Enviro Science. I’m struggling badly in there.”
Oh, boy. Jamie glanced at Fred again and saw that she had clamped her jaw like a vise. What am I going to say?
“That’s probably a good idea,” Carl said. “Jamie, you don’t mind helping her, do you?”
“Um…no.” He swallowed hard. But Fred does.
* * *
Fred and Jamie had a tense discussion about him studying with Terry, but after he suggested that they do it in Fred’s dorm room, she agreed.
Terry came over after dinner on Tuesday n
ight, and she and Jamie pulled the two chairs over to Fred’s desk, while Fred sat on her bed, propped up against the corner, her back supported by two pillows. Melanie played it smart and retreated to the library to study with Bryce.
Fred pretended to text on her cell phone while Jamie and Terry studied, but mostly she watched them to make sure Terry didn’t try anything with him. Fred was determined not to like her, even though Terry had made it clear that her intentions were purely professional. But Fred had seen Terry flirting with him that day in front of the classroom building, and she couldn’t get that scene out of her mind, CIA cover or not.
It reminded Fred of how she used to feel about Melanie. Boy, I hated her, she remembered. Fred had seen her kiss Jamie, on the lips, at Bryce’s party over a year ago, which was the worst transgression imaginable. Never mind that Fred was there with another boy. I didn’t want to be.
So Melanie had found Jamie nearly alone and kissed him, and Fred had witnessed it. A few hours later, Jamie had finally admitted to Fred that he loved her. And eventually, she and Melanie had become best friends. Strange how that worked out.
Now Fred was sitting on her bed and watching another girl who’d flirted with Jamie. Woman, actually, Fred reminded herself. She’s nine years older than us, and she’s a mom. Fred was looking for any little sign — a batted eyelash, a demure smile, a light touch on Jamie’s arm — that would justify Fred’s distrust of the CIA agent, but she gave none. Her body language was completely neutral.
Terry seemed sincere about wanting to learn the material, too. What for? Fred wondered as she looked over the top of her phone. She’s already got a college degree. Why is she worrying about a grade in a class that’s meaningless to her?
Jamie was earnestly trying to help Terry. There were no hints that he was attracted to her, but Fred could tell he was totally engaged with the subject matter. That’s because he loves to talk about science.