Federal Agents of Magic Boxed Set

by T. R. Cameron

  Diana shifted her aim to their feet, but the two closest managed to bring the furniture down hastily to deflect. Bryant tried firing across at those nearest her, but the one near him interposed his shield to protect them. They were both forced to evade when the advance guard hurled the pitted chunks of desk at them. Bryant ducked back into an office, while she rolled into the center. True, it made her an easier target, but she didn’t want them too close to Rath.

  She thrust up from her roll and fired into the kneecap of the lead Kilomea on her side, but the second one was on her almost immediately. Normal-sized beings flooded through the entrance behind the brutes, some with rifles and others without.

  “Watch the door,” she shouted as she ducked a horizontal slash from a giant sword the brute had drawn from over his shoulder. He chopped it down at her, and she spun away. She flicked his leg with her telekinesis like she’d done to Rath in practice, but the Kilomea didn’t budge. A force blast provided a follow-up to her attack and spun the blade from his grasp to fling it across the room and embed it into the wall.

  Rath careened into view and landed on the Kilomea’s shoulders to stab at the beast’s neck with both his batons. They sizzled, and he held them there until the monster dropped to his knees. The hulking brute’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell onto his face as the troll pushed clear.

  Diana dove, too, as a direct line of sight to her opened for a rifleman and he sprayed bullets at her. She finished her roll and brought up her own weapon to return fire, but her target was now blocked by another Kilomea, this one with long knives in each hand. Long long knives. She’d barely registered his presence when his giant foot delivered a kick that launched her through the open doorway of the next office to land on the desk. The Kevlar at her back took the brunt of the impact, but she sighed inwardly as she thought of the bruises that waited in her future and staggered to her feet.

  Bryant drew his pistol and fired anti-magic rounds at the wizard and witch on his side of the room as a Kilomea closed. He holstered the weapon as the giant kicked at him, stepped nimbly aside, and ducked to avoid the follow-up jab. The agent grabbed its outstretched arm and delivered an uppercut to its elbow. The silver studs on his glove crackled on impact. The Kilomea looked confused as his limb numbed, and Bryant used the moment of distraction to draw his Glock again and deliver two shots into the creature’s face at close range.

  The body collapsed, but the man was now the focal point of three rifles. He hissed, “Scield,” and his shield materialized. The bullets and magic failed to penetrate it, and he grinned as he counted down the remaining time. He repositioned, grabbed a sonic grenade, and primed it. His protection dropped as he hurled it and he raised his rifle. When it detonated, one rifleman went down, but the other two reacted in almost the worst way possible. Their fingers tightened on their triggers to spray the room on full auto.

  Bryant fell to his stomach and sighted along the floor to fire his M4 at the aggressors. Two collapsed with wounded legs, and the third staggered into a nearby office. A shimmer surrounded the witch and wizard, and his bullets bounced off. He scampered for cover as a wash of flame filled his half of the room.

  The sprinklers activated, and he had to grin as Diana shouted, “Again? Damn these people!” He ejected his rifle magazine and slapped in one loaded with anti-magic rounds.

  Cautiously, he crawled forward and aimed at a wizard’s torso. The mage grunted and staggered back, then straightened and released a focused cone of fire at him, which forced him to duck into the cover of an office. He triggered his mic. “Some of them are wearing Kevlar.”

  Curses filled the channel. Diana grumbled. “We need to find dumber enemies.”

  When he stuck his head out to review the situation, he had to agree. The force now advanced in an inverted V, with the riflemen in front on the outside, the wizard and witch a couple of steps back toward the middle, and a giant Kilomea in the center. The massive creature had retrieved a desk from one of the offices and carried it before him like a riot shield. Bryant wasn’t sure if he intended to block with it or use it as a projectile, but both options were troubling. His eyes widened when he saw more reinforcements enter the room behind them. “Kayleigh, have they abandoned trying to break into the Cube?”

  Kayleigh was slow to answer. “Affirmative.”

  “That’s bad.”

  Diana had to agree with Bryant’s assessment. It was time to get serious about delaying the bastards. She tripped her mic. “Five seconds, Bryant. I’ll distract them while you retreat to the stairwell. You too, Rath.” The troll had hidden in the office nearest the stairs after his first attack since a direct charge against the enemy wasn’t a viable option. She raced from her hiding place, summoned a force shield before her, and flicked the right-hand wizard’s wand away with her telekinesis. The rifles tracked her, but their fire couldn’t penetrate her shield.

  So this is how that feels. No wonder they like it.

  She swerved to the right and felt the presence of her comrade fleeing behind her. The angles were perfect. She dropped her shield and directed a wave of force forward in a semicircle. The wizard closest to her managed to call his own shield to insulate against the attack. Beside him, the rifleman was thrown into a nearby wall that separated the room from the lobby. The other three were hurled through the windows to land in the streets outside. Panicked screams echoed as a flaming bottle sailed in to burst on the floor. She rolled into cover, away from the remaining enemy, and shoved a wet strand of hair out of her face after the sprinklers activated for a second time. “Kayleigh, trigger lockdown.”

  “On it,” the tech replied. An instant later, heavy metal covers descended over the windows, and a massive door slammed down to block the lobby off. Heavy fists battered against the barrier with no success. The wizard hid in an office now that the odds were no longer in his favor. Diana and Bryant took the opportunity to relocate and she raced up the staircase to bypass the second level and climb to the third.

  She took the moment of reprieve for the short respite it offered and breathed heavily. “Status outside?”

  “It’s a little rough out there,” Kayleigh reported. “More stuff is being thrown at the building, some fistfights, and general pushing and shoving. The local PD has set an airspace perimeter. They’re afraid any helicopters might cause panic. I think they’re mainly scared of the TV ones riling the crowd. Your chopper is hovering just outside it, two minutes, plus or minus fifteen seconds, away.”

  “We can work with that.” Bryant pounded up the stairs with a grin.

  “Where were you?” Diana asked suspiciously.

  He shrugged. “I left them a present.” The nature of the gift became clear when an explosion roared from the bottom of the stairwell. He shook his head. “It’s like rule number one. Gotta watch for traps, right?”

  “Okay,” Kayleigh said, “I have a large group of signatures heading onto the second floor—about two-thirds of the entire group. The rest are coming to you.”

  Diana sighed. Break time was over. “I guess we all get to play, then.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Cara inched her eyes the side of the cubicle she hid in, enough to see the stairwell through which trouble would come.

  The second floor of the office building was full of squat, gray interlocking cubicles and only four actual offices, one at each corner. They had decided that the enemy would most likely expect them to take position in the small rooms, so they crouched in the central area, instead. It felt terribly exposed.

  A series of explosions had rebounded from the stairs a short time before, and Cara’s fingers itched for action. The metal support splint that encircled her forearm irritated her, and she tapped it absently against the desk. Finally, the time had come for action. The enemy crept in from the staircase—a mixture of humans, wizards, witches, and two giant Kilomea. That was all she was able to identify before she ducked to avoid detection.

  She whispered into her comm, “There’s a b
unch of them, Tony.”

  “The plan’s still good.”

  They’d agreed to wait until their opposition exited the stairwell, then would aim the rifles over the barriers and spray on full auto. It was a sound strategy for an opening salvo. Several more seconds passed before he said, “In three, two, one.”

  She extended her rifle over the cubicle wall with the trigger depressed and swept it from left and right as the magazine emptied, prompting roars of outrage and pain from the invaders. She popped the mag and replaced it with anti-magic rounds to deal with those who’d blocked her first salvo. Somewhere across the room, she knew Tony would be doing the same.

  Cara remained low but repositioned and moved to a cubicle several back from where she had been. Several shouts indicated that the enemy had spread out in search of them.

  This is about to get seriously messy.

  She stood, assessed the scene, and targeted the witch nearest her. A triple burst dropped the woman, but the ex-marshal was forced to duck and scramble away from the electrical blast discharged by the wizard beside the fallen opponent. She leaned out and fired low, but the wall of the cubicle between them somehow interposed itself and it's metal frame deflected the bullets. The entire section of cubicles tilted and skewed, and she raced around to the far side. She crouched and caught her breath for a moment and grinned at an angry shout from near the stairwell. “There’s nothing here, boss. No computers. Nothing worth taking.”

  A deep male voice answered, “All right. Half of you stay with me. The rest head up to the next floor. We’ll terminate these people and join you shortly.”

  Cara risked a look and saw the Kilomea and several others advancing on the staircase. A tall man dressed in black gestured to organize the remaining enemies in a search pattern.

  Not good.

  “They’ll find us, Tony. Time to move to Plan B.”

  That involved doing something unexpected—charging the enemy. He responded with a grim, “Affirmative. On your lead.”

  She took a deep breath and bolted into the corridor between the cubicles and the shuttered windows on her side of the room. Without slowing, she raised her carbine and squeezed off two rounds at the person in front of her to catch him in the shoulder. His rifle barked at the same time that hers did, and three bullets burrowed into her Kevlar vest like a heavy punch. The force unbalanced her, and a wizard appeared behind the rifleman with his hands already in motion. She stumbled into a dive around the back of the cubicles as lightning seared toward her. Unfortunately, she didn’t make it all the way, and one of her deflectors popped with a loud bang.

  Dammit.

  Tony thrust from hiding at the first sound of gunfire from across the room. A wizard directly ahead was escorted by a man with a rifle. The investigator raised his carbine, but before he could fire, a cone of flame emerged like a beam and intercepted the gun. Tony panicked, pushed the magazine release, and threw the weapon away before it could explode. He drew his pistol in a move long engrained through training in the MPs and as a patrol officer. A furious burst delivered its entire load of anti-magic bullets. The wizard ducked behind a cubicle wall, and the rifleman apparently thought it was his lucky day. He pulled his own trigger rather than make any attempt to evade. The rounds struck the enemy in the chest, three dead center, and he fell with a gasp.

  Ahead, a pair of portals appeared, and a flood of the simian creatures Diana and Cara had described from the museum barreled into the area, already running. He slotted a normal magazine into the pistol and drew the Ruger with his left hand. A little calmer than he’d been before, he measured his shots carefully, one for each of the approaching monkeys as he walked slowly backward. In the MPs, offhand shooting had been a contest and he’d kept up the practice as a way to preserve the memory of that time in his life.

  It served him well now, as each weapon tracked and dispatched the small creatures. After his weapon ran out of bullets and he’d reached the back wall, he cut to his right as Cara dodged in front of him and raised her rifle to finish the monkeys with precise double taps.

  Tony quipped, “It’s like discount-bad-guy warehouse in here.” He paused to stow his Ruger and switched magazines on his Glock, as he’d opted for the anti-magic rounds again.

  His partner growled her disdain as she replaced the magazine in her carbine. “The two wizards on the left are yours. That punk from the museum is here. He’s mine.”

  Cara fired a stream of bullets at the second-in-command she’d seen at the museum. He smirked when he recognized her and shouted, “The bitch is mine. Get the other one,” and returned fire. She ducked into the corner office and went to ground until the hail of metal stopped. Tentatively, she stuck her head around to see him sling the weapon over his back. He grinned as he drew a pair of long knives and advanced. “How’s the arm? It looks like my buddy hurt it in your last skirmish. Maybe I can finish the job for him.”

  She drew her pistol and stepped out, and he scampered away to hide amongst the wreckage of the cubicles in the center of the room. “Why don’t you come out and play? Afraid?” she called as she stalked forward, leading with her weapon as she cleared each pile one by one.

  He surprised her with a leap over a cubicle divider and used his momentum to hurl her into the steel window on the opposite wall. Her gun clattered across the floor, but she paid it no mind as she threw a kick at his knee. He flicked his left knife low in a counteraction, and she intercepted it and allowed her shin guard to take the impact without a problem. She struck with a backfist that caught his cheek. His head snapped back, but he managed to evade enough that the silver contacts didn’t touch him.

  Cara pursued and threw punches at his chest, but they were thwarted by the Kevlar. Her gloves sparked but failed to affect him.

  Okay, nonconductive fabric. That makes sense.

  The blade in his right hand licked at her and sliced a thin line along her left ear. A stray piece of her hair drifted slowly downward. She snarled and kicked at his groin, forcing him to block low, then launched a better punch at his face. This one connected cleanly, and a satisfying snap echoed as the shock gloves did their work. He staggered back and seemed dazed, and she thrust into a kick. Her adversary did the only thing he could and stepped in to catch her mid-leap, then used her own momentum to redirect her into the wall.

  Cara impacted hard but landed with her balance still intact. She kicked him in the side of his knee. It buckled, and she hammered another fist at his face. He rolled away, and metal glinted as he dropped the knife and drew a backup gun that looked more homespun than factory grade. The holdout pistol fired two rounds before it jammed and burned his hand with a small explosion on the next trigger pull.

  Seriously? A big, bad professional wizard like you relies on crap-cobbled shit as backup?

  The first round battered her vest hard enough to shock her, and the other furrowed the flesh on the upper portion of her right arm. She steeled herself against the pain and finished her attack, stamping down on the limb that had held the pistol. The bone cracked, and the burned hand flopped limply.

  “Serves you right, jerk,” Cara said. She pressed the silver studs on her glove into the side of his neck. He spasmed, and his eyes rolled back in his head. She forced herself to her feet and did her best to ignore the pain in her arm. There was no time for recovery. She had to find her partner.

  Tony launched himself into the aisle on Cara’s signal and eliminated one of the wizards with his first triple burst.

  You’d think they’d have realized that the shield thing isn’t reliable by now.

  The other struck him with a force bolt that knocked him against the wall. The agent had barely enough presence of mind to drop and roll to evade the one that followed. Plastic, microchips, and ink spattered the air as the blow pulverized the computer monitor in the office behind him. One device in the whole damn place, and it was turned into a weapon of destruction.

  He climbed to his feet, took two steps forward, and threw himself to the
side to avoid the next blast.

  The idiot thinks he’s fancy with the extra flourishes before he shoots. All he’s doing is telegraphing.

  Tony wove to dodge the attacks, but his progress was slow. He snatched up a picture frame from a desk nearby. Deftly, he flicked it like a Frisbee at the wizard, who hesitated in a moment of shock before he knocked it away with a swing of his wand. The agent holstered his pistol, then stole two more projectiles from the desk and hurled them at the mage. The enemy redirected them with a contemptuous grin.

  Idiot.

  While the chucklehead was distracted playing tennis, Tony had made it one cubicle closer.

  He swept his arm across the next desk to capture the things strewn there and threw them in series. All the while, the gap shrank more and more. His adversary finally seemed to realize what was happening and allowed a pencil cup to hit him in the head while he thrust his wand forward, his eyes wide.

  The agent dropped and rolled again to avoid the force beam that disintegrated the cubicle behind him. This time, he was close enough to be able to act. He rocketed at the mage, hoping the man wasn't fast enough to track him with the wand.

  When he collided with the wizard’s legs and looked up into that grinning face, he smiled in response. He punched the wizard’s thigh. It wasn’t nearly hard enough to disable him, but the shock studs on the glove made the bastard dance as the impulses triggered his nerves. The man fell and Tony snagged his wand. Without that, his opponent seemed powerless. He added an extra kick to the side of the man’s head to be safe, then resumed his search for Cara.