by T S Paul
“I checked with them. Damn fools. They assumed that I was taking control of the building and thought to help out. It is my understanding that they are in the wrong. I am issuing orders to allow her into her lab and to shut down the guard station. Do you want the fence removed too?”
“I haven’t seen it yet. How about I get back to you on that?”
“That’s affirmative. I will notify those gate guards myself it will save time.” He hung up on her.
Director Mills picked the cell phone back up. “Agatha, the guards should be receiving a call any minute. Do you want the fence to remain?”
“Sure. Thank you Director.”
“We really do need you Agatha. We just don’t know how to interact with magic users who are actually on our side.”
~~~~~
I hung up the phone and smiled at my two friends in the front seat. “Did you get all that?” Why explain what was going on? They have freaky Were hearing after all.
“Of course we did, girlfriend.” They both laughed at my expression. Chuck pointed at the guard shack. The officer inside was at attention and on the phone. We all laughed at the expression on his face as he talked to the General. The guard that was watching us went inside and stood at attention too.
“I think it’s about time to go inside.” I stuck my head out the window and yelled at the guards. They were off the phone and were packing up all their stuff. “I’m going to my lab now.”
I raised my hand and muttered a word. “Skera.”
The lock on the gates severed into two pieces and the gates opened all by themselves. “Go ahead Chuck. Make sure you stop just inside the gates.” I waved at the guards as we drove through.
The car stopped, and I waved at the gate again. It closed by itself. I turned toward my lab and made a few hand motions and muttered a phrase. Mentally I deactivated one of Grams’ presents. “It’s safe now Chuck.”
“Agatha what happens if someone gets past your defenses and gets inside the lab?”
“I wouldn’t want to be them. Grams gave me a few toys that would make life unpleasant for them. Most will get caught in the amber field out here. Speaking of which. Look over there.” I pointed to a frozen group of soldiers. They were standing next to a Military Humvee. In their hands was some sort of electronic device.
Chuck stopped the car next to the frozen men. I stepped out of the car and peered at them. Their equipment gave off the glow of being magical in nature. I pried one of the glowing objects out of a Marine’s hand. “Chuck, stash this somewhere. I need to look at it later.”
Pulling out my phone I called the Director back. “Director Mills? Sorry to bother you again. I have five frozen Marines here. They were trying to get in using some sort of electronic gizmo. Do you want me to hold on to them for you?”
She told me to leave them frozen and to turn them over to a FBI security team.
“Come on Chuck, let's go inside. Cat, can you watch for the security team?”
“Sure. Go on and get the stuff you need for tomorrow. I want to check out their equipment, anyway.” We went inside and got to work. I glanced at Cat as we went inside. She was climbing around on the Humvee like a kid at the park.
“Chuck I have a photocopier in my office over there.” I pointed to a door on the left. I stepped into the greenhouse and set a sleeping Fergus on his favorite hay field. I poked at him. “Fergus! Wake up.”
“It was the horn, I swear! I had no idea she was your wife!” Fergus woke up yelling. He looked around and began jumping up and down. “Hay!”
“Bad dream?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” He was talking as he ate but I could still understand him.
“We are only here for a short while so no hay orgy like last time!”
“Would I do something like that?”
“You bet you would. Cat and Chuck are here with me so behave.” He pranced off and began rolling in the fresh green hay. Unicorns.
I stepped into my office and sat at the desk. My laptop had most of what I would need. I quickly put together a handout that gave the basics of what Witchcraft was about and what we could or could not do. For the most part. Grams always told me that everything was possible with the correct spell and meditation. Chuck just laughed at the expression on my face. He had a large handful of paper in his hands already.
“You finished those copies fast!”
“That is a nice machine. It’s an old one, but it still works well.”
I glanced at the old NCR copier it was older than I was but it did work. “That and the desk were the only things in this place when I got here.”
Chuck nodded and cocked his head to one side.
“What’s wrong?”
“Cat says the security team is here. They need those guys unfrozen.”
“Sure.” I dropped into a short trance and waved my hands around. “There, they should wake up now.”
“Cat says thanks. She says the security team is freaked out, but they have the marines and their equipment.”
“You two freak me out when you do that. Could you do that before?”
“Before we were a pack?”
I nodded yes to him.
“I don’t think so. We have really good hearing, but even with Pack bonds some of what we do isn’t normal. I will study it and let you know. Thanks Agatha. I needed a new project to work on.” I had to shake my head. I was so glad I had met Chuck and Cat.
“Hey do you have that gizmo handy?” Chuck reached into his cargo pants and pulled the shiny controller out. He tossed it to me.
“I will look at this thing another time. For now it goes into the vault.” Behind my desk was what looked like a filing cabinet. I said a word, and the illusion faded away. It was a short house safe. Spinning the dial I opened it up and laid it inside. Several lumpy shapes already sat inside. I ignored those for now. The illusion spell was reactivated, and I piled a stack of old files on top of it.
“Forget you saw that.”
“Saw what?”
“Exactly. Thanks.”
I gathered up all my papers and my small laptop. I might not need it but you never know. I thought for the first class I would just go over the bare basics so I shouldn’t need any supplies. I stuck my head into the greenhouse to call to my Unicorn. Fergus was standing in front of my small fish tank talking to them.
“Are they talking back?” The little Unicorn jumped then turned and glared at me. It was his version of giving me the finger.
“No, but I have hopes for them to, one day! Is it time to go?”
“It is.” I held out my hand, and he jumped on.
“Why can’t we have hay at home? You could grow this in the dorm.” I considered for a moment.
“I could… However you would eat so much you’d look like a rubber ball with feet.” He didn’t answer me as I stuck him in my pocket.
I closed up the lab and mentally tripped the locks. We all climbed into the car and drove to the edge of the parking lot. I mumbled the activation spell and could see in my mind when the defenses triggered. Grams had come up with a very effective system. Her wards plus a self-destruction artifact coupled with a few spells I added in. If the Military couldn’t get in I was golden. The Witches’ Council could probably breach my defenses, but I had nothing they wanted.
We ate dinner, mostly in silence, at the cafeteria. Cat cuddled up next to me and gave me a big hug. “I finally see what you’ve been saying. Every time you turn around they are watching you or trying to search out your secrets.”
“It’s getting a bit better with Director Mills, but yeah.” I gazed up at the ceiling for a moment. I could see the small camera looking down at me. I shook my head and made a hand motion. There was a loud pop that had all the Weres looking up suddenly. Small pieces of plastic and circuit boards fell to the floor between the tables. “Sorry.” Many of the diners looked in my direction and laughed.
“There are a few problems still. I’m starting to get irri
tated about my laboratory. I had hoped that by giving the Director that tour I might slow them down a bit.”
“Aggy, talk to the Director. She likes you. See if she can do anything.”
“She’s most likely going to be sitting in on my class so I will. Thanks. Let’s get going. I have some law enforcement studying to do before it puts me to sleep.” My table mates and half the cafeteria laughed at me.
True to my words I lay in bed later reading the extremely dry and boring textbook. I know that learning this stuff is required but does it have to be so boring? It’s definitely the Budge version of Law Enforcement.
The next morning I had the same classes in the morning as the previous day. I was starting to envy those that had martial arts early instead of Law enforcement. I was dragging by the time my martial arts class began. Fortunately it was a day of introductions to different forms. Our instructor Thor had a very interesting audio-visual display for us. A movie would play and he would make comments and show various strikes on a dummy. It was actually very revealing as to what skills we were required to know and to practice. At least I didn’t fall asleep in it. Cat and Chuck found me in the cafeteria nose deep in my notes for my history class. While I was intimately familiar with the material, it was always good to review it.
“Hey! Quit stressing out over this class. You know your stuff. It will be fine.” Cat sat down next to me and pried the computer from my hands.
“Agatha, you said yourself that you liked history. I seem to remember you telling us this wasn’t your first time schooling the FBI about it.”
I looked over at Chuck as he sat across from me. “That’s true. But I had Grams to help me with it.”
“You’ll be fine. Won’t the Director be there? She will keep the others in line.”
I put my hands over my face and sighed. “I guess you’re right. They scare me sometimes.” I removed my hands and looked up. There were three camera up there now focused down on ‘our’ table. “Seriously?” I waved my hand and snapped my fingers. Three loud pops came from overhead. This time the Weres barely looked up. I actually heard a few claps.
“That is exactly the attitude you need! Don’t screw with the Witch!”
I couldn’t help myself and started laughing. How much are cameras like that, anyway? Gathering up my notes I headed back to the dorm. I had about a couple of hours to change and prepare before class time.
Chapter 8
I felt as if my heart was in my throat as I walked to the Administration building. Every time I stepped foot inside I felt as though it might be my last. This place scared me. It bothered me enough to dig out the amulet that Grams gave me last year. It could only be used three times but when activated all projectiles would bounce off me. I had been saving it for when I graduated and became an active agent, but I was worried enough to use it today.
The building loomed ahead of me. I carefully climbed the steps and entered the doors. In front of the reception desk was a sign announcing the class and an arrow. Nodding to the blond behind the desk I followed the signs. No guns were drawn on me yet but I did get some looks. It might have something to do with the box floating behind me. All those flyers and handouts were heavy. When you added my computer it was a bit much. I’m a witch, why not use magic? The signs led me to the large auditorium that I remembered sitting in last year for orientation. Several dozen people were milling around a table set up in front of the doors. A sign in front read Registration. Director Mills spotted me and came over.
“Agatha! Good, you’re a bit early. Let me show you how to get down to the stage area.”
Stage? “Director, how many people are here for this?”
She wrung her hands in front of her and smiled at me. “When I initially announced the lecture series only a few dozen signed up. But word got out about what happened the other day at your lab and then more wanted to come. Recent events in the Capital brought in even more. I had to open up the auditorium for your use after that.”
I was a bit shocked! There might be hundreds of people in that room. I felt myself start to hyperventilate and forced my body to slow down. “I only brought enough handouts for fifty people. Can someone make me some more?”
“I can have one of the admins take care of that for you. What are you going to discuss?”
Stopping, I reached into my box and pulled out the top sheet of paper and handed it to her. “I thought we should go over the basics. History. The world war and exposure followed by the Demon war. I’m only going to gloss over the major details of that. Much is still a secret both for the military and council. The meat of the issues will be post-war and why the paranormals don’t trust governments very much. I can talk about the Russian mercenaries too if you like. I practiced it. Without questions it should take about two hours or so. My computer is with me so I can do a small visual display too.”
“This looks really good Agatha. Thank you for doing this. I should warn you, some of the Military will be in there too.”
“It’s OK. I figured that. Can you do me a favor and tell Security to stop watching my friends and I eat? All those cameras must be getting expensive. I’ve destroyed at least four so far.” The Director made a funny face, and I giggled. “I guess you didn’t know.”
“No, I did not. Old habits die hard for some people. I will speak to them. Come along, let me show you the podium.” We got on an elevator that took us down two floors. It opened up on a hallway with a door at the end. Inside was a small dressing room, bathrooms, and what looked like a kitchenette. “Sometimes our guest lectures go on for a long time.”
The kitchenette area had some table space that I used to lay out my papers. I gave a copy of everything to Director Mills and she promised to have enough copies made. The door to the auditorium loomed over to the right. We had peeked through the door before she left. It was filling up.
I ran my fingers through my hair. Could I really do this? I sat on one of the chairs and dropped into a quick meditation to clear my head. As I came out of it I gave the room a hard look. I spotted more of those sneaky cameras on every wall. Someone was determined to watch my every move. I shook my head and made a hand motion. I heard over twenty pops inside the waiting room. Out in the auditorium they could tape all they liked. I felt the need for wards. Even with the reassurances of the Director, I still had a niggling feeling of insecurity.
“Fergus, should I ward the room? I’m still scared of this place.” I pulled him out of my pocket and set him on the table.
“Agatha do you think they will try to hurt you again?”
“They might? I just have this feeling that something bad might happen here. I tested poorly for foresight but Grams says I have just a trace of it.”
“Something bad is going to happen, and you brought me here?” He started jumping around peering left and right.
“I brought the shield that Grams made for me. You should be fine. So should I do it?”
“Anything that protects me is a good thing. Go for it. How about I stay in here while you go out there? Just so I feel safe too.”
I shook my head at him while I dug into my pockets for my kit. “Are you sure you don’t want to be a pink chicken? You have the chicken part down good.”
In my pockets are always several zippered pouches. I like to carry a variety of herbs and other materials with me to use for spells or whatever. I pulled out blessed salt, protection herbs, and a small ankh. The Egyptian Goddess Bast would be appropriate for this venue. She is both a protector and a fighter. I carefully cleared my mind and called upon the four elements to ward and protect this place and me. Using Bast’s name I sanctified the room and sealed it with my mental projection. Grandmother told me once that much of what we do could be done without calling upon the ancients and the Gods, but it would not be as effective. Ritual and spiritual gifts are what powered my family's magic. It is what we have believed for centuries. I sprinkled salt and herbs in the four corners of the room. Meditating and saying the names of the Gods I ble
ssed the room and then released the elements. The ward would protect me if attacked and prevent those with ill will from entering; anything else and I would need to deal with it on my own.
I heard a knock at the door and turned. This would be the first real test of the ward. “Come in.”
The door to the auditorium opened and Director Mills stepped inside. Behind her were two identical young women and a man I didn’t recognize.
“Is it time to start?”
“Almost. I brought the girls for you to meet. This is Beatrice and Betsy. We call them the B’s. They work as administrative assistants to me and do much of the unrewarded work around here. They volunteered to pass out your handouts for you.”