Science and Sorcery

by Christopher Nuttall

  “They always do that when someone visits for the first time,” Tomlinson said. “And you’ll have to give your USB stick to the agents before entering the conference room. The whole building is completely isolated from the internet.”

  Caitlyn was still mulling that over as they were escorted down a flight of stairs and into a secure room that, according to the printed signs, was TEMPEST-level secure. Her cell phone, handbag and USB stick were confiscated at the door, the agent in charge promising to copy her files into the room’s computer once they’d been scanned for viruses, spyware or other unpleasant surprises. That, at least, made a great deal of sense. The FBI had tracked Chinese attempts to infiltrate secure computer systems with a great deal of alarm, knowing that eliminating all of the spyware was likely to be completely impossible. Keeping a system isolated completely was the only realistic defence. Chances were that her USB stick would be destroyed after it had been copied, just in case.

  The interior of the room was surprisingly understated. A long table, surrounded by chairs; a single computer system and a drinks cabinet that, she noted, didn't serve anything that was actually alcoholic. Tomlinson smirked at her as he poured them both coffee, an odd courtesy that only bothered her more. He’d warned her that she would be reporting to the President himself, as well as most of his Cabinet. She still couldn't decide if it would be good for her career or completely disastrous – or if someone more senior intended to push her out of command of the task force. And she’d just managed to get the first part of the task force up and running.

  She took one of the seats reserved for visitors and watched as the room slowly filled up. The current President wasn't known for tolerating lateness, at least unless there was a very good excuse, and most of the Cabinet arrived fairly quickly. Tomlinson chatted to them, building relationships with his ultimate superiors, but Caitlyn felt too nervous to talk. A single word from any of them could probably wreck her career beyond repair...and she had to convince them that magic was real. And to think that Matt was exploring Washington, safely isolated from the political storm gathering in the White House...lucky bastard. She took the time to familiarise herself with the computer system as her files appeared on it, waiting for her to use them. And then the door opened one final time.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen,” a voice said, “the President of the United States.”

  Caitlyn rose as the President strode into the room. Up close, the President looked like just another man, even though he was the most powerful person in the world. He looked tired and stressed, nothing like he looked on television – but then, the camera always lied. Caitlyn, who had spent time studying footage from CCTV cameras, knew that better than most. It was easy to make a man look brilliant in front of a camera.

  “Be seated,” the President said, shortly. His voice sounded different too. Every President who went into the White House had their hair turn grey before they left. “Director Tomlinson?”

  “I formed a task force as soon as the first reports came in,” Tomlinson said. Caitlyn kept her face blank with an effort. Her boss certainly knew how to try to grab the credit. “Special Agent Lyle has the full briefing.”

  Caitlyn braced herself as Tomlinson nodded to her, and then rose to her feet. This was just another briefing, she told herself firmly. She could handle it.

  “Seven days ago, there was a rash of sightings of wolf-like creatures all around the world,” she said, once she’d introduced herself. “Several of these resulted in deaths that, at least at first, were attributed to wild animals. However, in New York, a policeman shot one of the animals, which transformed back into a human girl. Once the information was put together, it was impossible to avoid the conclusion that the girl and the animal were one and the same.

  “Later research revealed a number of other oddities,” she continued. “Various police stations reported discovering people outside their homes, wearing absolutely nothing at all. When the police asked questions, the naked people were unable to explain what they were doing outside, let alone without wearing any clothes. With only a couple of exceptions, the general consensus, reached individually by separate police departments, was that they’d been drinking enough to blot out their memories. No one put it together until I looked at the overall picture. We have to assume that the naked people were – are - werewolves.

  “In fact, the werewolves were hardly the first supernatural event to be noticed. I did a review of various paranormal researchers and all of them claim that there has been a major increase in sightings of ghosts, UFOs and strange lights over the last several months. This was largely ignored by the media and it drew no attention from the government until the first werewolves made their presence known. Events have clearly started to pick up speed in the last seven days.”

  She took a breath. “Apart from the werewolves, and the reported vampire, there have been other strange transformations. A young girl went into the bath one morning and discovered, to her horror, that her legs had melded together and become a fishy tail. Another girl has discovered the power to heal people. Ritual magic like Voodoo seems to be producing actual results. Several different lottery systems are reporting record numbers of winners, so many that each individual winner may not take home more than a small fraction of the jackpot. And I have a very strong feeling that we are barely scratching the surface of the events that are changing our world. This may be just the beginning.”

  “This sounds absurd,” the Secretary of State said. She fixed Caitlyn with a stare that would have made a soldier wince. “How can this be real?”

  “The mermaid girl has been transferred to a research hospital and studied intensively,” Caitlyn said. “I have a copy of the report here, if you want it, but the basic version is that her legs seem to have effectively vanished. Her bones have merged into a single structure that allows her to swish her tail effectively; the skin of her lower body has been replaced by scales that seem to regenerate themselves very quickly. And, worst of all, we’ve discovered that she grows ill if she spends more than a few hours out of the water. Right now, the hospital is keeping her in the swimming pool.”

  There were some chuckles at that. “The changes are more than cosmetic,” Caitlyn added. “Physically, she’s stronger than the average teenage girl and she can swim like a fish. The doctors convinced a Navy SEAL to challenge her to a swimming race and she left him in the dust. The doctors aren't sure how she extracts oxygen from the water, but she’s been recorded as spending hours swimming underwater, without coming up for air.

  “We only have three werewolves to study, but their biology raises a number of other mysteries. All three of them have strange substances in their blood; the two who were born werewolves, for want of a better term, had no trouble eating human flesh – and seem reluctant to eat anything, but meat. In human form, they’re stronger and healthier than the average human; cuts and bruises heal with astonishing speed. Even the dead werewolf, the one shot in New York, was remarkably healthy.”

  The President held up a hand before anyone else could say anything. “And you're convinced that this is real?”

  “Yes, Mr. President,” Caitlyn said. “The data may seem frankly unbelievable, but there is too much of it to simply dismiss.”

  The President studied her for a long moment. Caitlyn knew that politicians preferred to keep their options open as long as possible, to avoid backing themselves into a corner, but this was something that might be impossible to control without immediate action. And yet she also knew that immediate action was necessary. The mood of barely-constrained hysteria sweeping the nation was proof of that.

  “Very well,” he said, finally. “I assume that you have a plan to handle the situation?”

  Caitlyn blinked in surprise, and then gathered herself. “There are several different problems that have to be handled, one after the other,” she said. “We must assume that there will be other mermaids and suchlike and they will have to be helped. Their changes are survivable, but we have to inform t
he nation so that they get the help they need.”

  “Or before someone tries something stupid, like dumping them into the sea,” a man she didn't recognise, clad in military uniform, said. “Or burning them alive as witches.”

  “Quite,” Caitlyn agreed. “The second problem concerns the werewolves, and perhaps vampires, if the reports are accurate. One of the werewolves currently in protective custody was bitten by another werewolf and apparently infected with Lycanthropy. He hasn't yet changed into a werewolf, but he is showing all the other werewolf traits; his body is healthier than the average person, he prefers to eat meat and he heals with astonishing speed. It is quite possible that the other victims will also be infected themselves. Not all of the people attacked seven days ago died.”

  “Hell,” the Secretary of State said. “We could have an entire plague on our hands.”

  She’d changed her tune, Caitlyn thought, now that the Secretary realised that the President believed Caitlyn’s report. “It’s possible,” she admitted reluctantly. “We are working to track down and isolate all of the victims, but we may not round them all up before the next full moon. We’re also working on a test that will allow us to determine the presence of Lycanthropy. However, this raises another legal issue: can werewolves be held legally accountable for their actions during the full moon?”

  The President grimaced. Caitlyn had hesitated to even mention the legal issue, but she'd known that she’d need an example to show how quickly the issue would become complicated. Everyone seemed to have their own personal lawyer these days and, if someone was bitten by a werewolf, that person would definitely try to sue. Which, of course, raised the issue of responsibility. Exactly when could a werewolf be sued for biting someone and creating another werewolf?

  “That isn't the only legal issue,” she added. “The Healer we discovered and tested was an EMT, licenced to practice medicine. What happens if we discover a Healer who wasn't in the medical profession when they learned about their powers? Should we charge them with practicing medicine without a licence? Or should we insist that they take medical classes before they can use their gift...”

  “God help us when the religious fundamentalists get hold of that,” someone muttered. “Laying on of hands and all that...”

  The President tapped the table. “Can werewolves be held legally accountable for their actions?”

  Caitlyn – and Matt – had given the question some thought. “The interviews we conducted with the born werewolves were inconclusive,” she said. “One of them stated that he’d been angry all day before the moon rose, for no apparent reason; the other remembered nothing until the bloodlust began to rise. Afterwards, neither of them remembered why they were covered in blood. One was picked up by the police on suspicion of murder; the other actually called the police, convinced that something terrible had happened.

  “Looking at it, it seems that they lost control completely to the bloodlust,” she continued. “As such, they might not be legally liable for what they do, but they could be committed to an asylum because they present a danger to everyone else when they lose control. But...we make knowingly infecting someone else with AIDS a crime. We could criminalise spreading Lycanthropy the same way. Someone who knew they were a werewolf could be held accountable if they didn't take reasonable precautions to ensure that they posed no risk to others.”

  “And what constitutes reasonable precautions?” The National Security Advisor said. “Should we advise them to go to jail for the night? Or chain themselves to the floor? Or simply lock the door in a manner that paws can't undo?”

  “We don't know,” Caitlyn admitted. “We’re hoping to get better data from the next full moon, when the werewolves in custody will change again. But I’m afraid that there will be problems if we don’t try to round up the werewolves before it’s too late.”

  “The civil rights groups will love that,” the Secretary of Defence said. “They’re the ones who bitched about keeping terrorist suspects under surveillance – and all of those suspects did something that attracted our attention. Werewolves didn't do anything to become werewolves, did they?”

  “Not as far as we know,” Caitlyn admitted. “It’s a mystery.”

  The whole issue of just what was changing the world remained an unanswered question. One of the internet posters she’d read had ranted and raved about junk DNA in the human body suddenly activating, but he hadn't sounded like a very knowledgeable man. He still thought that the appendix was useless, which would have been considered true ten years ago. Doctors now knew that the appendix operated as a safe house for bacteria, among other things. It was vaguely possible that the genes to turn someone into a werewolf still existed in the human body, but that raised the question of just where they’d come from in the first place. And, for that matter, how they forced a body to warp into a giant wolf.

  “It’s a public health issue,” the Attorney General said. “We do have emergency protocols in place that we could use to round them up and hold them, purely for their own safety.”

  “Which were meant for a biological warfare attack,” the unnamed officer pointed out. “We’re not considering quarantining a city or locking down the entire country, but individuals; individuals who have done nothing to deserve bad treatment.”

  Caitlyn relaxed slightly as the debate wore on, even though the politicians were more worried about the political impact of the crisis than the scientific or practical concerns it raised. Or, for that matter, the philosophical questions. Kaleen could heal the sick. Did that mean that she had been touched by God?

  “This matter must be discussed at length,” the President said, finally. Caitlyn kept her face expressionless with some difficulty. The matter had already been discussed for nearly an hour already. “Agent Lyle, you can go relax in the side room, if you wish. We’ve kept you on your feet long enough.”

  “Thank you, Mr. President,” Caitlyn said.

  It didn't take an idiot to know that they wanted her out of the room, probably so they could discuss her future. She stepped outside and, unsurprisingly, encountered a Secret Service agent who escorted her into the side room, where she went to the toilet and wiped her forehead. She’d been sweating hard enough to ruin her make-up, but she hadn’t even noticed.

  There was no internet connection in the side room, so she picked up a notepad and started writing notes to herself, considering the future. She’d told the President that she’d seen the big picture, but she was sure that she was still only seeing a tiny fraction of the reality. Nine deaths had been reported in Britain at Stonehenge, just before she entered the White House. Were they just another outbreak of whatever craziness was sweeping the world, or were they completely unrelated to everything else? She was thinking – after reading reports of strange lights and stranger sightings near places of ancient power – of recommending that whoever took command of the task force ordered them isolated. Too many people had died already with no clear explanation.

  Surprisingly, it was Tomlinson who came to call her, nearly an hour after she’d entered the side room to wait. The second surprise was that most of the people who had attended the meeting had left, leaving only the President and a single uniformed officer in the room. Caitlyn hesitated, unsure of where to go, until the President nodded to a chair sitting near him. Tomlinson took one further down the table.

  “I will be addressing the nation tomorrow,” the President said, “concerning the crisis. I will appeal for potential werewolves – and others with supernatural talents – to come forward and identify themselves to the government, where we can help them explore their new abilities in a safe location.”

  “And exploit them, if possible,” Tomlinson said. “If werewolves could learn to tame themselves, just think of the soldiers they’d make.”

  “However, I have also decided that we must avoid the shambles that normally results when several different governmental agencies start trying to fight over who takes the lead,” the President added. “I will not
have another 9/11 on my hands. The infighting back then was quite bad enough. For the moment, you will serve as the Director of an inter-agency task force that will take the lead. You have the clearance to handle the situation, reporting directly to me. Should someone try to start squabbling anyway, feel free to slap them down.”

  Caitlyn swallowed. She’d never really considered that she would be placed in command, even though she had to admit that it was logical. And she was expendable, as far as the FBI’s leadership was concerned. No doubt there had been some political horse-trading while she’d been out of the room. It wouldn't be the first time some poor sap had been pushed into the line of fire to cover a superior ass or two.

  “Thank you, Mr. President,” she said, finally. “I won’t let you down.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Washington DC, USA

  Day 8

  “I really don’t understand how this works.”