Conjuring Quantico (The Federal Witch Book 1)

by T S Paul

  “Do we get guns this time?” It was an innocent question. Cat gave me a nudge.

  SAC Lowrey turned in her seat and looked at us. Agent Smith was driving. “Do you really need them? I know Agatha can zap someone in a heartbeat and you are faster than most everyone here. What do you think?”

  “That would be a no, then.” Cat tried to look innocent.

  “Good guess, Miss Moore. Don’t worry about it. Once you graduate, you will be assigned a weapon and given the proper training for it.”

  We were traveling much faster this time than before. Agent Smith had explained it to us. The Federal Judge that granted the warrants still had to follow procedure of his own. But he gave Nita time to serve them. Instead of sending them in electronically, he sent a courier to the court. It was allowed under the rules. The Senator’s watch dogs wouldn’t be notified until after we were in the house. But we had to hurry. We used the emergency lights to clear traffic.

  Arriving at the gates to the house we found them closed. We had to use the intercom. Whoever was on the other end of the speaker tried to stall and Nita had to use threats to get in.

  “Tell the Senator that if he does not open these gates, I will tell the armored vehicle in our group to crash through them. We are coming to the house!”

  There was a click, and the gates opened on their own. We sped toward the house. One of our units was already in place at the rear gate and the armored vehicle and tac-team would stay by this one.

  “Nita, I could have opened the gates fairly easily.”

  “Agatha you are our ‘ace in the hole’ here. He doesn’t know your strength, and it’s never a good idea to let the bad guys know all your capabilities.”

  “I can see that.” And I could. At the moment he still thought I was a merc.

  The Senator himself was waiting for us as we pulled up. Nita jumped out and handed him the warrant.

  “Now see here, Agent Lowrey, I protest this intrusion.” He grabbed the Warrant and began reading it.

  “Senator, we have both video and eyewitness proof that one of your staff, an Aalu Kovacic, commissioned and received the cursed statues that were used in all four kidnappings.”

  “Aalu? That is crazy! He has been a member of my staff for almost twenty-five years. Why would he do something like this? Who signed this?” The Senator whipped out his cell phone and immediately made a call.

  Nita waved us all inside; we had a job to do.

  When we were here last, I had scanned the lower levels and the entrance. Cat and I ran for the stairs and went up to the top. I dropped into my trance and began looking for magic traces.

  There were small traces everywhere. All the surfaces in the house were protected against damage and the elements. The first door we came to was the Senator’s office. The walls were of the ‘I love me’ variety and packed with pictures and awards. Cat began taking pictures of the walls. A forensics team came in behind us and started fingerprinting the room. The Senator had a number of active spells in the room. The desk was spelled to prevent scans of the man and deactivate listening devices. A few others revealed illusions, and some looked for hidden weapons. If he worked in here, he was well protected. On the desk were a few magical artifacts that had the look of souvenirs. Nothing showed red to me or set off the bracelet.

  There was another office across the hall. Mrs. Emery was a mover and a shaker in charity organizations. Her office walls were not as impressive as her husband's but were still covered with pictures and awards. A shrine of sorts was set-up on a side board. A small pyramid of containers with the words ‘Fabulous Face’ on the sides stood in the middle. All the pictures on this wall were related in some way to that company. My bracelet twinged when I leaned closer to the wall. I dropped back into my magical sight and blinked in shock. The entire room had a very faint glow all over it. It wasn’t a good glow either. I told Cat to photograph as much as she could.

  “Girls, we have to go.” Agent Smith stood in the doorway.

  “Agent we may have found something, this whole wall…”

  “It doesn’t matter. They revoked the warrant. We have to go right now! The Senator has called the local police to escort us if we won’t leave. Let’s go right now.”

  The Agent all but dragged us out of the office and down the stairs. Nita was arguing with a local LEO as we were loaded into the SUVs. Nita threw up her hands and nodded.

  “Well that was a freaking waste of time! Aalu Kovacic was not on the property today. He took a personal day or something. Not sure who the Senator called, but he got the warrant canceled faster than we thought he would.”

  “Nita, we found something in one of the offices.” She turned in her seat and stared at us. She made a motion with her hand.

  “The forensic techs said they didn’t find anything in his office, what are you talking about?”

  “The wife has her own office. The door was open, so we stepped inside. The whole room glowed. She had a sort of shrine set up to a company called Fabulous Face. There was a product display and a lot of pictures of the plant and of gatherings. Cat took lots of pictures.”

  “When you say it glowed, what do you mean?”

  “Magic gives off energy; that energy glows to those with magic sight. If your sight is tuned correctly, you can see the glow as colors. I didn’t get a chance to see more than the general glow of magic. Does she own a business?”

  “Get with Anastasia and dig into that when we get back.”

  I pulled out my cell phone and tablet and began to research Fabulous Face on my own.

  ~~~~~

  “Ma’am, we just got another message and download from the field team.”

  “Good, put it up on the main screen and start breaking it down.” Anastasia was very frustrated. So far three downloads had been sent and no new information on the Senator. She was starting to think he might not be the guy.

  “Have we gotten any information on the women? What about the Sororities?”

  “That is the only link we can find: Alpha nu Omega. Ma’am, do you find a bit strange that all its members are married to either politicians or men of power?”

  “What do you mean by that, Johnny?”

  Jon Carr had been a tech for over ten years, but Anastasia was the only one who called him Johnny. “Emily Payne went to the University of Georgia. They were able to send us records of the Sorority sisters in her year. If you look at the list, they all married men who became either politicians or elected officials.” He put the list up on the big screen.

  “The entire class?” Anastasia stared at the list.

  “All but two. One is in prison and the other died the year she became a sister. The locals ruled it an accident.”

  “See if you can get the records from that death and the one in prison. This is strange. How’s our research into Senator Emery’s wife progressing?”

  “She’s pretty normal. Gives to a variety of charities; the only one that raises any red flags is one of those Save the Orphans campaigns. It raises money for some of the Slavic or Balkan areas. Way too many rebels and anarchists come out of there. Her college degree was Business, and she runs a few non-profits and sits on the board of at least one cosmetics company. She has many business connections that her husband uses. She is definitely the power behind the throne.”

  “Agent Lowery and the teams are on their way back. Keep digging.”

  ~~~~~

  As soon as the cars pulled up Cat, and I jumped out. We rushed to the forensics truck so Cat could turn over her pictures.

  “Hey Anastasia? We have something for you.” I called out her name as soon as we stepped foot inside the lab. I could see the techs hard at work and the whiteboards were all full.

  “Hello you two, staying out of trouble this time?” She peered at up over her computer screen.

  “They didn’t give us too many opportunities to get into trouble. We did find something interesting though... The Senator’s office was clean. He had the usual protections and a fe
w magical things on his desk but they looked like souvenirs or gifts. His wife has an office and the whole thing glowed. I was just starting to investigate when they pulled the warrant and we had to leave.”

  “That does sound interesting. Wait… you said the wife? Senator Emery’s wife?”

  “Yes. Her whole office glowed of magic.”

  Anastasia looked at one of her techs. He nodded at her.

  “Ma’am, it might be her and not the husband. It’s the only thing that fits. They all belong to the same group.”

  The Vampire looked at the two of us with a gleam in her eyes. “What did you get besides a scan of that office?”

  “I took pictures of all the stuff on the walls and on that goofy altar she had.”

  “Altar? What Altar? You didn’t say anything about an Altar, Agatha!”

  Cat handed her a camera disc.

  Anastasia projected the images up on the main screen. Very carefully she scanned through the pictures. They were of Awards banquets and what looked like Charity events. The pictures transitioned to a cosmetics factory and cold cream production awards. The ‘Altar’ was a pile of cold cream jars and some Sorority items. It was interesting that the two were together.

  “I did some research on my phone in the car. Fabulous Face is a privately held company. Mrs Emery is listed as the President of the company. Her husband is shown as its legal representation.”

  “And there is the link to the husband... Dig into that company. I want to know everything you can find. Tear open the Sorority too: members, property, origins, the works. I want it all. Good work, Agatha and Cat.”

  We continued to stare at the pictures. The ones we could see now were of children and depressed looking villages.

  “Who’s the boy with Catherine Emery?”

  We all peered at the picture.

  “Good eyes Cat. Run facial recognition and add thirty years to it. She looks a lot younger in that picture.”

  “Ma’am, the computer says it’s a seventy-five percent match to Aalu Kovacic.”

  “There is the connection. We have been chasing the wrong Emery. It’s the wife not the husband.” Anastasia was typing as fast as she could.

  “But why? One of those girls is her own granddaughter. It doesn’t make sense.” I stared at the Vampire. Why would someone kidnap their own child?

  “I can tell you why.”

  We all swivelled to face him.

  “Mark, what do you have?”

  “I researched the Sorority as you asked. Alpha Nu Omega was founded before the Demon war in the 1930’s. At that time it was called a different name. They changed it in the late 1940’s. The original name was Beta Upsilon Epsilon. BUE: the Sorority is a Bune cult.”

  Chapter 16

  “How?”

  “How what? How did they get away with it for so long or how did they do it?” Anastasia had called Nita immediately and told her the good news.

  “More like how did we miss it, but those are good too. This is a political nightmare. Our own research shows that these women only marry politicians. They could be everywhere!”

  “Agent Lowrey, let’s worry about the group here and pass the report off to Washington. Can we do that?”

  “Don’t tell me how to do my job, Anastasia. But you’re right. We need to find the little girls. What do we know about Fabulous Face?”

  “It’s an American company. For the past five years they have been located in Alexandria, Virginia. According to tax records they employ over five hundred local people in one capacity or another. Everything from drivers to shipping agents. They mix, fill, and ship their product from that small complex of buildings.” Up on the screen was an overhead shot of the plant.

  I studied the picture of the plant. That was a lot of buildings to search. “Where was the plant located before it moved here?”

  “According to tax records they relocated from Meta, Missouri.”

  “Where the hell is that?”

  Nita grabbed a computer and started typing. “It’s near Jefferson City. Anastasia, see if they had any disappearances or kidnappings five or six years ago in that area.”

  “Nita, I will put my people on it. Do you want us to go farther back than that?”

  She nodded. “Yes, all the way back to the beginning if you can. Track the board of directors too.”

  The Vampire nodded her assent and continued to type.

  “Do any of the wives have contact with that cosmetics plant?” Nita looked at Jon.

  “We have been checking; other than women's makeup that they might have in the house we can say no to that question. There is nothing to connect them to the plant.”

  “Damn. OK, dig into their husbands accounts. If there is a connection, we need to find it and fast. We still have four lost children we have to find.” Nita pointed at me and motioned for me to step outside with her. Cat stayed in and helped Anastasia.

  “You told me when you got here that you were having nightmares about the kidnappings. Are you still?” My eyes widened. I barely remembered saying that to her.

  “Not last night. Those idiots on the roof prevented that.” I rubbed the new bracelet. Since I put it on, I’d been doing that a whole lot. “My foresight is not all that strong. I thought it was my weakest power. I might - might - be able to put together a spell to enhance it. It comes with a big warning though. My off-the-cuff spells have a fifty-fifty chance of going haywire. I could hurt someone by accident or turn some squirrels purple or something.”

  “How bad are we talking here?” She really looked interested.

  I looked off into the distance. I could see the flashing lights of the police units on our perimeter over the fence. I cut my eyes in her direction. “Last time I crossed a rabbit with a deer and made a Jackalope. Actually, I think I made a bunch of them.”

  Agent Lowrey started laughing. “Change as many rats as you like around here, but try not to get the weasels over there.” She pointed over the fence where the News vans still swarmed.

  “I’ll try it inside the warehouse. The worst that could happen is it burns down. Have Cat standing by to get me out if it goes sideways.” I pointed to the warehouse. “Let me get some things from my packs.” I headed back inside to get them.

  “Agatha, thanks. This might really help.”

  I nodded. She had no idea how bad this could be. My bracelet gave a little shimmer. It had never done that before.

  Once inside I dug into my packs including the one Cat was hauling around for me. I pulled out lavender, more of my special salt blend, chalk, and paraffin. These sort of spells were best done at night but the Gods really don’t care. It’s the thought that counts.

  “What’s up Agatha?” Cat sat down next to me as I dug around in the packs.

  “Nita wants me to try to enhance my foresight and see if I can get a read on the girls.”

  “Can you do that?”

  “I think I can but I have to cast a spell to enhance my vision. I could call Grams but she wants me to stand on my own. She told me that much last time. I’m going to make one up and give it a whirl.”

  “Did you warn them? I mean, last time you made some sort of creature.”

  “Yeah. I did tell Nita. Cat, I really need to do this. We have no idea where those kids are. I need to do something constructive.”

  Cat patted me on the back. “Just don’t make it destructive instead. How can I help?”

  I sent her off to Anastasia to find me a few things or some similar I could use. My pack full I stepped over to Nita.

  “I have most of what I need. Spells such as this are usually done at night, but I’m going to go for it, anyway. I need to do it outside: the warehouse won’t work after all. Can we pull the vehicles around so the news media can’t really see what I’m doing?”

  “Will you be safe?”

  “No idea. I have to call upon some very scary forces to give me what I need. Cat will be helping. I will try very hard not to kill us all.”

  “
Good safety tip there, kid. Don’t kill your co-workers. OK; approved. Use the SUV’s if you have to.”

  I stepped back outside and looked at the parking lot. It might be big enough for what I needed. Digging into my bag I pulled out my chalk. I’d bought several of those big buckets of chalk they sell for kids, which was appropriate. Pink and green would show up well out here. I made a mark in the middle of the lot and paced off my circle. It needed to be big. Anything that spilled over could hurt someone or something. I stopped for a moment and centered myself.