Federal Agents of Magic Boxed Set

by T. R. Cameron

  He grinned. “I’m sure you had her.”

  “Without question.”

  “Any second, right?”

  Diana sighed. “An instant later, and she’d have been down.”

  He laughed. “Totally, boss.”

  She glared at him, but the way her mouth turned up at the corners probably ruined the look. “Shut up and search the place. Cara, call the PD to collect the trash.”

  The hasty ten-minute search before the cops arrived yielded many a positive result. They found several items that looked like they could be magical in nature and pocketed them. Also, they located the woman’s cell phone and removed the gag long enough to let it recognize her face and unlock. Diana spun through the text messages and read one that gave a street address along with a date and time. She held it up to her glasses, and a map appeared, overlaid on her vision.

  That’s a block away from the Cube. Three days from now, eight PM. Not good.

  She pocketed the device and stood. “Cara, meet me in the back. We have to get to the base. Tony, take care of the PD.” She reached the landing, then remembered. “Hey, make sure they don’t use the rear stairs and bring the bomb squad and a wizard in here to defuse those things.” She made it safely down to ground level and met Cara, who looked sweaty and energized. She held the phone out and waited while she repeated the process of investigating the address.

  The former army officer’s face became an emotionless mask. “The Cube.”

  Diana nodded. “Yep.”

  Cara sighed. “Shit.”

  I couldn’t have summed it up better myself.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Diana raised her eyes from a display in the core as the door from the garage tunnel released and swung open. Max barked at her feet, and Rath jumped up on the table to see who it was. The first object to enter the room was a giant black case, the kind a band would take on tour for their wardrobe. Hidden behind it was the slim, blonde form of Kayleigh Dornan.

  All three ran across to welcome the tech. Diana assisted in wrestling the huge box into the equipping area. Kayleigh knelt to pet Max, who immediately rolled on his back for belly rubs. Rath didn’t quite do the same, but he stood close to her and grinned like a fool. The agent imagined that her own expression was similar. She’d missed the woman most among her old friends at ARES DC branch.

  The tech caught her study of her boots and she answered the unspoken question behind it with an amused smirk. “No, these are still the old pair. I’ve been busy.”

  Both laughed. “It’s so good to see you here,” Diana said. “We’ll take you out on the town tonight and show you around.”

  Kayleigh nodded and gave the Borzoi a final pet. “So, dogs are allowed up here?”

  “Sometimes it’s nice to be the boss.” Diana grinned. “Besides, this is an office day. You know, though, if we simply got Max some armor, he’d probably make a great agent.”

  The tech laughed and shook her head. “That’s not part of this shipment, I’m afraid. But would you like to see what is?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Rath echoed, “Never.”

  Kayleigh pressed her hand to the palm reader on top of her case and typed in a code while standing on a bench to get the correct angle. The latches disengaged and she jumped down to swing the case open. A series of vests hung on the right above a block of horizontal storage. Rows of rectangular compartments covered the left side. Diana raised an eyebrow. “That’s very efficient packing you have there.”

  The other woman grinned. “We pride ourselves on efficiency above all things. Well, okay, that’s not true. Creative and destructive are both higher on the list.”

  “In that order?”

  “It depends on which of us you’re asking and what mood we’re in that day.”

  Diana smiled and looked at Rath, who bounced excitedly on the balls of his feet. “It’s about the same around here.”

  Kayleigh started on the top left and opened a flap to retrieve a cardboard box. A foam insert held fifty anti-magic bullets for either model of rifle they used. Diana whistled, and the tech answered with a nod. “And three more like it for a total of two hundred. That should give you each two magazines full.”

  “Do I want to know how much those cost?”

  “You don’t. Not only did we have to pay a premium because of the shortage, but we also had to transport them ourselves from the source to make sure the shipment wasn’t intercepted on the way.”

  She frowned. “Is that what’s been going on?”

  The tech’s expression matched hers. “Yep. Someone’s been messing with our pipeline, although there is stress on the availability because of the folks on the West Coast. AET and the Brownstone Agency have a super-heavy demand for this over there.”

  “Are they dealing with the same group we are?”

  “Nothing suggests that. Logically, there’s sure to be more than one set of scumbags to go around.”

  Diana chucked. “Well, there’s enough for everyone, really.”

  Kayleigh pulled out the box at the start of the second row and opened it to reveal more anti-magic bullets. These were sized for their revolvers. Again, the container held fifty.

  “I am truly impressed now.” She frowned. “Should I be worried that someone’s after my team?”

  The woman shrugged again. “Probably. It’s clear that someone out there doesn’t like us, and you all are the only us in this town. Speaking of which, how’s the Kilomea?”

  Diana rewarded her friend with a scowl and shook her head. Kayleigh laughed and let the subject drop. The next box she removed was triple the width of the others and most closely resembled a shallow briefcase without a handle. She set the container on the bench and flipped it open. The agent whistled, and Rath immediately did a short run and somersault to the top of the rolling case to peer at the smaller one.

  Several lines of clear gems stood on end in a protective foam casing. The rows were staggered for spatial efficiency, and her eyes widened. She’d never even imagined seeing so many magic deflector crystals at once before. “Where the hell did you get these?”

  Kayleigh grinned. “ARES DC found a black-market dealer’s warehouse. We raided it and apprehended him. These are only part of the stash of goodies we discovered inside.”

  She shook her head, momentarily overcome with a desire to surround herself with items of magical power.

  I can see why the bad guys are so into the idea.

  “How’d you find them?”

  “We received a tip, actually.” Kayleigh shrugged. “Someone Bryant knows put us onto the place.”

  “Okay,” she said slowly.

  I’ll have to ask him about that. He’s keeping secrets.

  The tech had moved to the large boxes in the bottom row. She opened one to reveal grenade canisters with small chili peppers engraved on the handle. Diana grinned. “Production, then?”

  Kayleigh smiled proudly. “Yep, these are standard issue now. Half the price of a sonic, and more effective when dealing with either a single target or a group of targets spread out.”

  “You’re really good at your job. In fact, some might call you great. I happen to know of a field office that needs—”

  The woman raised a hand to stop her and spoke loudly. “But you’ll love these.” She turned to the other side of the crate, where the vests waited. “We’ve improved the electrical absorption and added capacitors to store the charge before it can reach the resistors. The weight adjustment is negligible.” She pointed to the areas inside the vest where the energy-collecting devices were clustered.

  “If one of those takes a bullet, will it hurt us? I mean, extra?”

  Kayleigh shook her head. “It’s lined with nonconductive material. They’ll simply short out forward. Worst case, they blow more resistors.”

  Diana nodded. “Cool, but why? Innovation for fun?”

  “It started that way, but I noticed that your team tends to bra
wl more than most.”

  “Whatever it takes, right?”

  “I’m not judging. Your effectiveness speaks for itself.” She reached into the lower portion of the case. “But we realized we could give you an edge.” She held out a glove. It appeared almost identical to the standard versions that paired with the rifles and prohibited others from using them, but each knuckle had a rounded stud on top. Diana looked up and met Kayleigh’s grin with one of her own. “Silver knuckles. The better to punch you with?”

  The tech retrieved a cord and connected it to the vest, then to the top of the glove. “You charge the vest before you head out. It will add a shock to several punches before depleting. If you take an electrical blast that charges the capacitors, the glove can draw power from them again. They have their own internal capacitor, but it only stores enough additional energy for one punch. The thing was too heavy when we tried to add more in there.”

  “Nice,” Diana whispered. She examined the cord and pictured a variety of scenarios she couldn’t wait to make a reality. “You know, at some point, we’ll have to wear bodysuits under the armor if you need to constantly connect things together.”

  Kayleigh grinned. “Don’t tempt me. I’ve watched Iron Man something like one hundred and thirty-seven times.”

  The agent laughed, and Rath said, “I am Iron Troll.”

  The visitor turned to him. “We didn’t forget about you, buddy. You get one of the new vests in your size as well, but yours powers these.” She extracted a pair of batons and flicked them open. “They should have half again the number of charges as before, and that’s assuming you aren’t hit with something that charges up the capacitors.”

  Rath accepted them reverently and spun them once in his hands. “Is good. Is very good.”

  The women both grinned. Diana asked, “Is there anything for his biggest form?”

  Kayleigh shook her head. “Ems and I have researched that angle for weeks, but the weight trade-off is too difficult. You’d have to carry the stuff for him, and there’s no way that makes sense. We’re looking into using carbon fiber, but so far, we haven’t managed to find a tight enough weave to avoid reducing the damage of the batons. The armor might be doable. The team is working on it.”

  “This is quite a haul, regardless.”

  “And last, but not least, the best thing of all.” The tech grinned and spread her empty hands wide.

  It took Diana a moment to realize what she meant, and excitement filled her reply. “Really?”

  She nodded. “Yep, I’m staying for a while. It’s a temporary assignment till y’all get your act together up here.”

  The smile that stretched Diana’s face was almost painful. “You said that wrong. I’ll fix it for you. Permanent reassignment to get our act together for us.”

  The other woman shook her head, but Diana saw the truth.

  One of us, my pretty.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  She was tired from the late night out showing Kayleigh the sights of the city. When Bryant had called at six AM to say he was inbound, she'd forced herself to get to the office by seven. Two duplicate versions of the coffeemaker and espresso machine from the fifth floor had been set up on the bottom level, and they both dispensed the life-giving fluid. She already had a tumbler in her hand, as always, with the logo of the Coworking space on it. "It's still a stupid name for the company," she grumbled to the empty room.

  Bryant arrived at eight, and the rest of the team stumbled in shortly after. He stood near the display table and flicked idly through reports from the local stations’ websites. The smarmy lawyer's face appeared on many of them, with graphics heralding the "Ultramax threat." Kayleigh waved as she passed on her way to the improvised workspace on the floor above. Once they were all gathered, he said, "I have new data for you. The regional PDA has run surveillance on this prick, and some useful information has come up."

  Tony lowered his mug long enough to ask, "Legally?"

  Their boss sipped his coffee before responding. "Yep. There are a few judges who give us a little leeway, but never for anything that outright crosses the line."

  The investigator nodded in satisfaction.

  "We piggybacked their feed and copied the raw data as it came in,” Bryant continued. “Our folks managed to dig some useful nuggets out of it. There's no sign that PDA has done the same, but that's okay because this is squarely in our area of interest."

  He pressed a few buttons and images of nonsensical emails popped onto the screen. "These are very heavily encrypted and required a magic computer tech to decode. They indicate that the lawyer will call for a major protest at the Cube tomorrow night, and they already have cells recruiting people to join them."

  Diana shook her head. "Well, that's concerning."

  "Very. Given what you found, it seems likely that this could be another cover action for the Remembrance. So, we need to figure out what they intend to do and how they'll do it." Bryant called up an aerial view of the city streets around the prison for several blocks, and they spent thirty minutes planning potential scenarios, including where they would gather and deploy to create maximum trouble for the enemy. When they finished, he checked his watch. "The warden's expecting a call from us."

  Diana stepped forward and activated the controls for the side displays to bring them online. A few moments later, she booted up the ARES custom video communication program. After a few minutes of negotiation, the Cube's leader finally appeared on the screen.

  Bryant greeted her with his usual smile. "Hello, Warden Murphy."

  She waved grimly. "Good to see you all."

  It didn’t take long to fill her in on the details they had acquired of the possible attack and potential counter scenarios they had devised. "We're ready,” she assured them. “This is a contingency we've planned for."

  "What's the response?" Diana hoped her unease wasn't obvious.

  The warden looked to the side, most likely to consult her notes or a handbook of some sort. "At the first sign of a crowd, we will abandon the upper levels and move underground. If it happens in the evening, like we expect, there won't be that many people in the building above, anyway."

  Cara asked, "Won't that leave your data vulnerable? They could simply make off with the computers."

  Murphy shook her head. "All the machines in the office are dummy terminals. Actually, that's all we use throughout the whole facility. They're all connected to a server or something down here. I don't understand it, and when they tried to explain, my life started to flash before my eyes so I made them stop. What I do know is that there's a physical switch we can throw that pulls two strips of connectors away from each other to physically disconnect the upstairs computers from the system."

  "Handy," the ex-marshal said, and the rest nodded their agreement.

  "The prison itself has independent everything and is strong enough to handle the biggest earthquake that's ever hit this area, so long as we're not at the epicenter."

  Tony shook his head. "Imagine if there were a magical who could cause earthquakes. That would suck hard."

  It was a sobering thought, and the warden resumed her explanation with a frown. "Anyway, we'll have all our drones out, but if there truly are civilians involved, we won't be able to risk using the weapons."

  "How can we assist?" Diana asked.

  Murphy shrugged. "Our plan is to turtle up. There’s no way they'll get in here, so we're good. But anything that gets the job finished quickly is worth doing."

  They said their goodbyes, and Diana exhaled slowly. "This could get really ugly."

  Tony nodded. "The Police Department and SWAT will be on scene or nearby. They'll call everyone in once the announcement goes out, so they don't bust our insider knowledge. But since the lawyer will claim it's a peaceful protest, they can't do much beyond basic crowd control. If something does break out, they face the same problem as the Cube's drones."

  Cara asked, "So, what's our role in all of this?"

  Diana
checked with Bryant, but he deferred to her. "We'll be there in case the real bad guys show up. We'll hole up in the office building and try to surprise them if they come inside. Even though there's only one entrance, it probably makes sense to split up." Everyone nodded agreement. "So, I'll stick with Rath. Tony and Cara will pair together, and Bryant can be a free agent."

  He managed a half-smile. "Why is it that nobody wants to work with me?"

  "You're funny looking," she answered promptly,

  Cara added, "You have taco breath entirely too often."

  "Your raw attractiveness makes me look ugly by comparison," Tony finished.

  They all turned to stare at him, and he shrugged. "What? I'm sensitive."

  The stress diminished in a round of laughter. Once they recovered, Diana said, "We have an advantage. We know where they'll be, and we know when they'll be there. Between now and then, we get some rest, run some scenarios at the agency, and see if we can figure out what they might be going for." She tapped a fist into the opposite palm. "After that, we'll lie in wait. If all goes well, we can surprise these bastards and show them how we deal with assholes who make trouble in our town."

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Four PM

  The rally was at eight, and for safety’s sake, they added a substantial cushion. The equipping area at the ARES facility was quiet as the teammates focused on internal preparations. Even Rath was abnormally subdued as he donned his equipment. They had each retrieved their gear from the cabinets before they retreated to their own places on the bench to get ready. Bryant was near Diana and hauled his gear from a tall rolling case.

  She sat to don her own items. Kayleigh’s boots weren’t practical for the evening’s activities, so she abandoned them in favor of lace-up combat boots that rose to mid-shin. Tactical pants and a black high-collared shirt completed the base layer. She strapped on a set of shin guards, tightened them over her pant leg and boot, then did the same with the Kevlar thigh protection.