Rath would be way too into that.
Chapter Ten
The rental sedan was off-the-rack, unlike those they used at ARES. Its engine struggled and made the agent long for her Fastback. Next time we drive to DC, to hell with this nonsense. She took the turn onto the entry drive of Fort AP Hill and pulled into the lot outside HQ.
Cara was the first one out of the car and was clearly excited to be back on familiar territory. “You gotta love the military. Some things never change. I was here for specialized arms training at the same time as a Marine unit. We had some good competitions.”
Diana nodded absently in response and looked at the building, a well-maintained structure set on large flat land with a row of hopeful trees on each side of the walk that led to the main entrance. Cara had described it as the largest construction on the base, which made it somewhat underwhelming when viewed in person. They stepped into the lobby and stopped before an Army corporal at a security desk. He verified their IDs and appointment and summoned a private to lead them along the left of the two wings that stretched toward the rear of the building.
Diana had expected an office or a conference room and was surprised when they entered a large classroom. Giant whiteboards hung on three walls, with student desks set in the middle.
Cara yelled, “Scully!” and a red-headed woman in camouflage fatigues turned with a grin.
Her voice was higher than Diana would have guessed but had a cheerful lilt. “Chicory, how the hell are you?” They bumped chests, then switched to a solid hug.
Cara waved her boss over. “Diana Sheen, this is Captain Dana Smithton, US Army Third Infantry. Dana, Diana is with me at the FBI.” They had agreed to hide ARES under the auspices of the FBI with anyone not already read into the organization.
She nodded a greeting. “I get Scully. But why Chicory?” Cara looked at the floor and shook her head. The other woman laughed. She had a few freckles that went perfectly with her crimson mane, tamed into a professional bun, and was muscular and solid, taller than her—of course—and bigger overall than either of them. She’d be a formidable opponent on the mat.
Smithton grinned. “It’s because of her last name. Binot is a lot like beignet, and we had a clerk who was from New Orleans, where they usually put chicory in their coffee. It was as good a nickname as any. Although some people had the wrong impression of 'chic' and had to be set straight.”
Cara nodded at the other officer. “It has too many syllables for a callsign, though.” She gestured at the whiteboard the woman had been writing on. “What are you teaching?”
Smithton shrugged. “The basics. Ballistics in general, characteristics of different rounds.”
Diana examined the boards. The one at the front of the room held a drawing of a human figure. She pointed at it. “Do they learn something other than center mass these days?”
The captain shook her head. “No. That’s for quick and dirty first aid for wounds received, assuming a medic isn’t instantly at hand.”
The third board was covered with the data they had come to see. Intricate diagrams of various explosives had been painstakingly drawn for the class to take notes. The dark hair and thick eyebrows of the man in front of the work provided a vague clue that he might be their man. That, his civilian outfit, and the fact he held a dry erase marker in his hand. An array of small scars that peppered one side of his face confirmed it. Diana excused herself and crossed to him. “Anik Khan?”
He grinned. “In the flesh. You must be Agent Sheen. I was just finishing up some prep for later. In case you couldn’t tell, I teach these army youngsters how not to blow themselves up.”
She extended a hand and he shook it with a confident grip.“Thanks for making the time to talk to us. My second-in-command will come when she’s done reliving the past over there.”
Khan laughed deeply, throatily, and most importantly, warmly. Surprisingly enough, the man didn’t have an accent. “Once Army, always Army.”
A few minutes later, Cara joined them and introduced herself.
Anik set his marker down and looked at his watch. “I have an appointment with more advanced demolitions folks. Would you like to come along? We’ll have time to chat after.” Diana nodded, and they followed him out of the building. The ex-Marshall bumped her arm and gestured at the man’s waist. She clearly admired the way his tight tactical pants fit.
Diana rolled her eyes as her friend chuckled and mouthed, “Gotta live.”
He led them to an open-topped Jeep, and she claimed shotgun position. The teacher drove rapidly along the winding roads. Fortunately, there was no other traffic to be concerned about. A dense forest blurred past on their right. Cara explained how the base often used it for practical exercises and examinations. Khan pointed out the barracks, the mess hall, and other points of interest. After a few minutes, he steered the vehicle onto the grass behind a large roofless structure that reminded Diana of the gauntlet in DC.
The women followed him to a platform where he gestured them toward a table filled with gear. They selected helmets, glasses, and ear protectors as he waved the five soldiers lounging nearby into a circle with him at the center.
“All right, people. We have an OPFOR holed up inside and need to blow the obstacles. Each person will have a turn at a door. They’re locked and blocked differently, so you’ll have to evaluate the situation beforehand. I’ll have the last set of gear in case one of you screws up.” He grinned at them. “One mistake or less, we win, and you get a couple of hours of rest before lunch. Two mistakes or more, and you’ll run a few miles as penance.” A collective groan escaped the recruits’ lips. “So, don’t screw it up.”
They geared up with laser tag gear and demolition packs, plus helmets, glasses, ear protectors, and Kevlar vests, and stood in a line. Khan gave the go signal, and the first soldier crouched before the door. He peered through the gaps and decided the best move was to attack the hinges. The instructor nodded in approval of the choice. He set small blocks of explosives at the top and bottom and attached the trigger, which had a battery built in for power. At another nod from Khan, he squeezed. The barrier blew inward and careened into the mannequin that waited inside, positioned to shoot at those coming through.
Khan signaled for them to advance. Diana and Cara trailed the group and watched as the soldiers used various placements to deal with different doors under the man’s vigilant eye. The last was the most entertaining, as it was blocked with furniture. The team placed shaped charges all over it to blast through with a satisfying thump. When they finished, the instructor led them through a debrief and provided suggestions and refinements to each member. He gave them all pats on the shoulder or high-fives and sent them on their way.
The man grinned as he returned to the equipment table with his guests to dump their gear. “I love the smell of smoke and charred wood in the morning.” They laughed, and he led them back to the Jeep. This time, Diana took the rear, and he steered the vehicle to the small canteen that served the officers and experts at the base. They received a meal of burgers and fries with a dose of strong coffee and sat to chat in the mostly empty space. Anik had wisely chosen the corner farthest from the few others who took advantage of an early lunch.
He caught Cara staring and turned the pockmarked side of his face to them with a grin. “Admiring my good looks, eh?” She blushed, and he waved her embarrassment aside. “It’s not something I worry about. Honestly, it’s not much worse than a wicked case of acne would have left behind, and it’s definitely a better story.”
The woman managed a sheepish smile. “So, tell us.”
“All right. So, I was deployed in Afghanistan way back when. We were on a night raid into a bunker that was hidden under the floor of a house. I worked on setting the charges and had the positioned explosive on the corners and midpoints of each side, all wired to a single trigger that sat on the center. It was a little overkill, but we knew there was a metal door beneath the wooden one, so we needed to blast it hard.”
He shook his head. “Right after I set the last wire in place, but before I could get clear, they sprung an ambush, knocked our sentry back, and opened fire into the room. A couple of people caught bullets, but I managed not to. Simply good fortune, really.”
He shrugged. “My luck ran out when a bullet hit the trigger perfectly and detonated the charges. I was already moving away, but the wooden door disintegrated, and splinters exploded everywhere. If I hadn’t worn my glasses, they would have blinded me on that side. Fortunately, all they did was knock my supernatural good looks to standard human levels, luckily for the ladies.”
Both women choked as they laughed around their food or drink, and he leaned back with a satisfied grin.
Diana wiped the tears from her eyes. “How’d you get from there to here?”
“State police needed an expert. I needed a change of pace after too many days in the field. It’s worked out well. But, as you can see, I keep my hand in.”
“So, why the interest in changing again?”
He took his time over another bite of burger. “My goal in life is basically to cause trouble and blow stuff up. I spend most of my time now making things not blow up which, while exciting in its own way, isn’t as much fun as making them go boom. Plus, I’ve done this for a while. This feels like a good moment to shake up the status quo.”
She pushed her tray aside and leaned forward. “So, what questions do you have for us?”
“Tony covered most of the basics on the phone. But he wasn’t clear on why me or why now, so that’s what I want to know.”
Her grin was deliberately casual. “You might have heard about an office building exploding in Pittsburgh?”
He laughed. “It’d be hard to miss that story.”
“Well, that was my group. it would have been good to have someone who could have done something about the explosives. But, more than that, we face a higher level of opposition than we expected. Everyone on the team needs to be able to fight, so military or FBI are good sources. I’m confident there will be many opportunities to blow things up.”
Cara added, “Plus, you’ll get to collaborate with our tech on new and exciting ways to do it.” She paused, her expression teasing. “Blow things up, I mean.”
Her boss slapped her lightly on the arm. “Behave, or Kayleigh will have her revenge.”
Anik’s eyes widened. “Dornan? Kayleigh Dornan?” She nodded. “She did some work with the State Police a while back. It seems she had to put a person or two in their places, though, at the start.”
Cara laughed. “She’s fierce, no question. And easily underestimated.”
“So, where do we go from here? It sounds like a sweet gig.” He grinned.
Diana returned the smile. “It is a sweet gig, or at least we all think so. Standard procedure is that first, we talk about you behind your back.” He laughed. “Then, we do a short probationary period to make sure we’re a good fit for each other. We run down a few bounties, that sort of thing. Do you have any vacation time, or can you take leave for a while?”
“Either or both.” He nodded.
“Cool. If we decide you’re worthy of joining us for a tryout, someone will be in touch in the next few days.” She softened the statement with a smile. “Then you can come up, we’ll stash you in a hotel, and away we go.”
They rose as one and traded handshakes. He gave them a smug grin. “Well, then, I’ll see you soon.” He dropped the smugness and laughed as he spread his arms wide. “After all, who could resist this?”
On the way to the airport, the women agreed on three things. First, that Anik was hard to resist when he turned on the charm. Second, that he would be a great addition to the team. And finally, that maybe a good-looking demolition man would be the thing to keep Kayleigh in town for a while longer if only to disabuse him of the notion that he was as appealing as he thought.
Chapter Eleven
Diana guided the ARES SUV through the city streets on the north side of town. She and Cara were both worn out from the trip from Virginia via Reagan International in DC, but the opportunity she'd waited for had come. The warden of the Cube had agreed to let them interview the enemy they’d extracted from the exploding office building.
Arrival at the site was very different than before that particular adventure. The location of the former structure was now empty soil, quickly cleared by the army at the request of ARES’ oversight council. A blockhouse stood where the lobby had once been and extended over part of the leveled area beside it. After the fact, Warden Murphy had revealed that the building had been one more decoy. The facility’s elevators traveled sideways as well as down and moved away from the visible portion.
Secrets hiding other secrets, all the way to the bottom.
A twelve-foot fence with razor wire surrounded the boundary of the facility, and a pair of armed guards stood at the front of it. Diana pulled up and pressed her palm to the tablet the first man extended, and his partner opened the gate when the two were cleared. She eased to a stop beside the blockhouse and parked between two black sedans with extra antennas.
They hurried to the entrance and she beat Cara to the door by a step and tugged it open. The lobby was mostly the same, except for the additional armed guard on either side of the new counter. It wasn’t as heavy as the old desk, which she'd last seen in the hands of a Kilomea who used it as a shield. An invader wouldn’t be able to repeat the stunt a second time and escape unscathed.
They navigated the security procedure and reached the elevator lobby, then descended to the first underground level. Warden Murphy waited to greet them with a smile on her thin face and led them into the viewing portion of interview room three. The dark space was filled with a row of chairs that faced the one-way mirror to offer a perfect view of the interrogation area beyond. The heavy plastic chair was empty, which provided a clear view of the articulated sections that could be manipulated to make an occupant either more secure or deliberately uncomfortable. Metal circles had been incorporated throughout the design to deliver shocks as necessary.
Murphy gestured them to two chairs and took the one at the end of the row for herself. “So, has everyone recovered from our little adventure?”
Cara laughed. “That was the most fun I’ve had in months.”
Diana shook her head. “We’re all good. How did your defenses work out?”
The warden ran her hands through her shortish brown hair. “Adequately. They couldn’t break in, as predicted. Another pack of Kilomea tried a sneak attack from the opposite side after yours started trouble in the office building.” She grimaced. “Anyway, we were able to drive them away with drones.”
“Stun guns?” Cara asked.
“At first. But they didn’t work very well, so we had to bring out the real weapons. By that time, the crowd had been pushed back enough that we could do it safely. We swung them so any misses would hit the buildings.”
Diana straightened abruptly in her chair. “Did you have any fallout?”
Murphy shook her head. “No. If anyone noticed, they haven’t complained. It’s not something I did lightly and not something I’d like to do again. But desperate times…”
Call for desperate measures. I know very well, actually.
“Did you round up any of them afterward?”
“A couple more Kilomea to join your friend. None are as annoying as he is, though.”
“Is Crisnan behaving himself?”
“More or less. He’s asked about news from outside, according to the guards who watch the common area. That’s not unusual, but his questions seem to be focused on the Remembrance. If it weren’t so unlikely, I’d say he thinks a rescue is coming.”
Cara laughed. “Not in this place. It would take a bunker-buster simply to get inside.”
The woman smiled. “We like to think so, anyway.”
Diana thought about the Kilomea who’d dented her car and decided she was game for a third round with him if such an opportunity ever came up.
; Especially now that I have my magic mojo rising.
“What about the chucklehead we dropped off?”
The warden barked a laugh. “It’s funny. When they designed the place, having non-magicals as prisoners wasn’t actually considered. I guess they were so focused on the one thing that they forgot the other. Marcus is easy since he’s only human, but we’ll keep him out of the general population. That’s also easy since he’s been in the infirmary from the day of his arrival.” She looked at her watch. “Perfect timing.”
The door to the interrogation chamber opened and two burly guards escorted the man Cara had defeated in the office building into the room. He displayed a smug smile while they strapped him into the chair. His collar-length hair was disheveled and matted, and his face was strangely flat. It gave him character, and she wouldn’t find him unattractive under normal circumstances, although he was fairly skinny. It wasn’t until they were securing his right arm that Diana noticed they couldn't do the same with the left because it was no longer there. The limb ended at the shoulder, where a bulge in his baggy orange jumpsuit suggested bandaging beneath.
“What happened to his arm?”
Murphy shrugged. “By the time the raid was over, it was too far gone to save. We brought in the best team of surgeons from the nearest hospital, but they couldn’t do anything except remove the damaged parts. It was simply too late, even for a healing potion. The fight started it, and the explosion finished it, they said.”
Diana looked at Cara, whose expression of contempt for the man hadn’t changed.
Good. He chose his path. It’s not our fault it was a bad decision. But to make sure…
“Cara, are you up for this?”
Her second-in-command grinned and spoke without a hint of hesitation. “Completely. Let’s do it.”
Warden Murphy took them to the door and let them into the cell. The prisoner didn’t react when Diana stepped in but growled at the sight of the other agent. She gestured for Cara to take the lead since she was already under the man’s skin and leaned her back against the mirrored wall.
Federal Agents of Magic Boxed Set Page 51