Agents, Agreements and Aggravations: In Her Paranormal Majesty’s Secret Service™ Book Three

by Anderle, Michael

He winked at Jennie as he took a sip. “How many of these until you and me finally end up in the sack?”

  Jennie scratched her chin. “You’re really still trying to go there?”

  He grinned. “So, sue me.”

  Jennie sighed and leaned forward. His eyes trailed to her chest. “Hey, eyes up here. Good. That’s better. I’m only going to say this once more, and you know me—I’m a woman of my word. The next time you try to come on to me, I’m going to take one of these corkscrews and find a way to uncork that little bean bag you’ve got dangling between your legs. I’ll probably start while you’re asleep. In case you haven’t been informed yet, I can turn spectral and approach you when you least expect it.”

  The color drained from Lionus’ face.

  “Good,” Jennie continued. “Now, tuck that little prick between your legs and sit down. Pray to God that I haven’t poisoned your drink, too.”

  Lionus turned without a word and sat on one of the couches. Jennie clapped twice. “Order up! I’m not kidding. We need to be loose and limber for these discussions. Sturgeon, that means you, too. You never used to be this much of a prude in London. I remember you once drinking so much wine that you ended up snogging the deer head mounted on the wall of the White Lion. Just because you have a station now, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself.”

  Sturgeon glanced at Tiptry and Clark as if for permission. Clark, still bitter about losing his position as Queen Victoria’s primary mortal agent and living life as a specter, shrugged. “It’s up to you.”

  Sturgeon’s shoulders softened. She rose and took her drink. After that, every mortal in the room followed suit.

  Some of them drank faster than others. Jennie was glad to have Ruby and Jack in the room with her. Although they were currently employed by the SIA, she hoped it wouldn’t be all that long before they joined her team in King’s Court. Still, politics were a turbulent game, and she needed the SIA on her side. She didn’t want to steal all of their best staff too quickly.

  “You’re a true alchemist,” Lyla, one of the previously possessed women, commented as she drained half her drink in one.

  Jennie hadn’t met Lyla or Krissie until just then. She studied them both. They could not look more out of place in their yoga pants amongst the ranks of specters, secret agents, and studious mortals.

  “Thanks,” Jennie replied. “Really, Hendrick is the true alchemist, I just dabble in liquor.”

  Hendrick’s ancient face wrinkled. “It’s still a science.” He raised his glass. “Thank you.”

  Lupe sat behind him and raised his glass, too.

  “To the matter at hand,” Sturgeon stated once more, trying to bring them to the present. “Rogue, I’m guessing you haven’t brought us all here to break bread and get wobbly with alcohol, so can we get to the point, please? I still have men and women stationed out in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and you’re telling us that the threat has moved?”

  Jennie raised her eyebrows. “Drink up, Sturgeon. Clearly, your cares haven’t abated enough yet. I can feel your tension from here.”

  Sturgeon grumbled.

  Baxter laughed and raised his eyebrows at Jennie.

  “Fine!” Jennie resigned. “Firstly, I’m not saying that the threat has moved. The reason that I’ve gathered you all here is that in trying to bring ourselves together to address our problem, we have only gone and fractured ourselves further.

  “Sturgeon, I want to thank you and your team once again for coming to our aid in our time of need. Your agents and specters are a welcome addition to this operation. I believe we need to keep our eyes locked on the sites where the detonations have happened. We also need to round up the remaining Seven who are scattered and in hiding in order to end this.”

  “How many have we lost?” Jimmy Dean, a rotund specter with inflated cheeks asked. When Jennie had moved her attention to Washington to meet the SIA, it had been Jimmy who had stood in as a leader in their stead. “You said ‘the remaining.’”

  “There are only four mortals remaining,” Jennie replied. “Tommy Vincenzo, Bobby Dalton, Craig Cowley, and Sammy Garcia. Ruben McAffey is now a specter and we’ve lost sight of him. Zhao is gone and destroyed.”

  Jennie’s hand unconsciously moved to her temples, recalling how Zhao had implanted himself into her mind and memories and manipulated her on her wild goose chase of New York.

  “What about the last one?” Clark exclaimed. “You mentioned six.”

  Jennie pointed their attention toward a blonde woman on the couch beside Ashton, their helicopter pilot. She raised a hand and waved. “That would be me. Cassie Ferriss.”

  As a wave of mumbling rippled through the room, she added, “Please, I assure you I’m on your side. I never wanted to be a part of this. My father was the villain, I’m just another casualty in the collateral of his life. The sooner we rid the world of the Seven…well, the Six—”

  “Actually, it’s the Five, now,” Carolyn interjected.

  “The Five,” Cassie continued. “The sooner I can be free to live a normal life.”

  Ruby let out a small laugh. Cassie turned to her.

  “Oh, please,” Ruby declared. “Nothing will be normal for you anymore. Nothing will be normal for any of us again, will it?”

  “Depends what you mean by normal,” Lupe replied.

  Jennie waved her hands. “Let’s not devolve into a philosophical debate, okay? Here’s what needs to happen. Sturgeon, Jimmy, Lionus, I need to borrow some of your agents and specters to station at Richmond. I realize that we’re all stretching our forces rather thin by trying to cover all the key cities that have been affected, but it’s just what we need to do, okay? Times are tough, and they’re about to get a whole lot tougher.”

  “Why should we?” Lionus replied. He had grown sulky since the news of Rogers’ return had reached his ears. Who knew how long he’d have before Rogers revoked the powers Daggro had given him? “You’ve stolen some of our agents already. If we give you more, how do we know we’ll get them back?”

  Sturgeon sat up straighter, her ears pricking up.

  Jennie rubbed a hand down her face. She pinched the bridge of her nose, nudging her glasses up for a second. “This isn’t the time for getting petty, Lionus. I know you’re yet to reach puberty with this kinda stuff, but understand that this is serious. Already we have a handful of terrorists out there causing havoc, and now we’re introduced to a goddamn demon specter who’s possessing this town? Not only that, but the latest in our line of Dragon suspects has taken off, and it’s highly likely that she’s gunning to find him. Put your ego aside and let’s work on this together. This is bigger than all of us.”

  Sturgeon nodded her head slowly. “You’re right. When I took this position, I didn’t just vow to help Queen and Country. I vowed to protect the world from spectral disturbances and to let justice reign. We’re with you, Jennie.”

  Tiptry let out a sudden, barking laugh. “Wait until the queen hears about this.”

  Sturgeon glared at him. He wilted into the sofa, vanishing from sight.

  “Fine,” Lionus added, lips barely moving.

  Jennie turned to Julia and signaled to her with a nod. Julia leaned over the back of the couch and brought a folder into view. Inside was a series of neatly printed documents.

  “What’s this?” Sturgeon asked.

  “A contract,” Jennie replied. “Well, more of an agreement, really. If there’s one thing I’ve learned working with you guys, it’s that paper speaks louder than words. I’d like us all to sign on the dotted line before we break and get to work. You’ll find my signature is already on there. We work as a team. A large team. For all intents and purposes, I’ll act as commander-in-chief. That doesn’t make me a dictator, that makes me a single point of contact for this operation. If you’re with me, sign on the dotted line. If you’re not, then my liquor clearly hasn’t done the trick, and you should drink some more.”

  Jennie flashed a friendly smile to the group. “Come
on, if we can’t play nicely together, what’s the point in calling us the good guys?”

  Sturgeon’s face broke into a smile. “She’s got a point.” She stepped forward and signed on the line.

  Clark shook his head. “The queen is going to lose her shit when she hears about this.”

  “By then we’ll be victorious,” Sturgeon replied, letting Jimmy and Lionus step up to add their signatures. “Times are changing, guys. I trust Jennie. I’ve known her for years. Just because you couldn’t check your egos at the door, doesn’t mean I’m going to let the world suffer. Not on my watch.”

  Jennie beamed. For once, she had found a decent human being working for the paranormal court. Over a hundred years of service, and finally it had happened.

  When everyone had signed and returned to their seats, Jennie closed the folder and handed it back to Julia. She poured herself another glass of her cocktail and raised it to the room. “Okay then, chaps. Shall we get to strategizing?”

  Chapter Fifty

  Richmond, Virginia, USA

  As the sun set in the west and the fleet of helicopters took off into the skies once again, Jennie stood on the manor’s back lawn and watched them fade into the horizon.

  She smiled. The weight that had been resting on her chest had lessened, and things were moving into action. Sturgeon had returned to Pennsylvania and would send a troop of agents to Richmond, and Lionus had followed. Within the next few hours, they might have enough of a mini-army to withstand the coming battle.

  If there is a battle to be had, Jennie thought.

  At this point, there were no guarantees. Hopefully, Jennie and her team could quell the coming flames before things really started to heat up. The worst-case scenario was that Jiao would be out there somewhere with the Dreadnought, but until that was confirmed, she’d remain optimistic.

  What other explanation is there?

  Jennie shook away the thoughts and ushered the rest of her team toward her. She assigned everyone their tasks and rolled out onto the street out front, piling her operative crew into a minibus she had managed to hire out on short notice from a local garage.

  She only allowed her best and brightest on board, those who had training and combat experience. Carolyn, Feng Mian, Baxter, and Sandra represented the specters, while Jennie selected Triton, Roman, Ashton, and Rhone to join them. She was pleased to see that Ruby and Jack had been donated by Lionus as a gesture of goodwill. The only trained conduit to remain behind was Ula, given that Jennie was aware that they were leaving Cassie under the house’s protection, and they would need someone to tackle any issues that arose in her absence.

  They waved their goodbyes and sped into the city. Stars began to twinkle, and a haze of clouds left dark patches on the sky. The city had grown quieter since the incident at the marketplace, for which Jennie was thankful, and soon they left the houses and buildings behind them as the quarry came into view.

  Roman leaned toward the window and looked out at the dark pit. Compared to the previous night when lights had been left on around the dig site, everything there was dark. The starlight did little to illuminate any activity down below.

  “Are you sure they’re going to be there?” Jennie asked Roman and Triton.

  “No,” Roman replied dryly.

  Jack arched an eyebrow. “Then why are we going there?”

  “That’s not what he means,” Triton clarified. “He means we’ll have no idea what we’ll find when we’re there.”

  They fell into quiet as Ashton pulled the bus toward the pit’s entrance.

  They could make out no activity below. Each prepared with their weapons before them, they aimed into the darkness. The construction vehicles had all moved on, and now the quarry appeared even larger than before.

  Jennie led the way, with Baxter only a step behind. They navigated their way toward the yawning mouth of the cave and paused before it. “You know, I had a dream about a tunnel like this…”

  “And a train?” Baxter added.

  A smile made its way onto the others’ faces.

  “Come on,” Jennie instructed, passing into the tunnel without fear.

  The darkness consumed them. After a dozen meters or so, Ruby, Jack, and Triton switched on the flashlights on their cell phones. It was just enough to make out a few feet before them. Every step echoed around them, giving the impression that an army was approaching, but other than the noise, Jennie could detect nothing of the specters who were possessing the mortals.

  After some time, they reached the back of the cave. The room where Roman, Triton, and Ula had been waylaid and charged at was even smaller than they remembered.

  Jennie searched in the dark. “Where is it?”

  “What?” Baxter asked.

  “The sarcophagus,” Jennie replied. “It’s not here. Look.”

  Where the sarcophagus had been, was nothing more than an empty space. A rectangular mark on the floor was the only sign that the tomb had once stood there.

  “Well, that confirms it,” Jennie muttered. “The sarcophagus is the key to this specter’s undoing.”

  Carolyn appeared beside her. “Any idea what we’re dealing with?”

  Jennie was silent for a long time, buried in her own thoughts. Eventually, she took a deep breath and sighed. “There’s a tenet of Ancient Egyptian religion known as akh. ‘Akh’ represents the deceased, I have taken it to mean that a deceased person will become transfigured, that their spectral powers will reflect their deeds in life. At one point in history, Egyptians used to unlock the tombs of their forebears to insert the bodies of the recent dead within that bloodline. They were being economical with space and sparing resources.”

  “What does that have to do with our situation?” Carolyn asked.

  Jennie shrugged. “When a specter is unsettled, no matter what its background it’s going to look for a way to satisfy itself. I won’t know without experiencing this specter myself, but my feeling is that akh is playing a big hand here. The ancient dead has an unfinished purpose, noble in its own beliefs, and until that purpose is settled, it will continue to wreak havoc.”

  Carolyn exhaled. “Damn. It’s strong, then?”

  Jennie nodded. “I’d say so. Given what we already know, we should prepare ourselves for the worst. Imagine the Mendlesons manifested into a single body, able to roam the city at will.”

  Baxter shuddered.

  “Who are the Mendlesons?” Rhone asked.

  “Irrelevant,” Jennie replied. “All we need to focus on is where the hell this specter has gone. You said he has an army? Well, where are they all?”

  Triton adjusted his rifle in his hands. “They do have an army. I’ve seen them. We were there. Must be at least a hundred of them now, at a minimum. What with the yoga studio, the marketplace, and that gun-happy woman, they should be easy to spot. How could they hide?”

  Ruby tore her eyes away from where the sarcophagus had been. “Hiding in plain sight?”

  “What do you mean?” Baxter asked.

  “Same as Jiao,” Ruby continued. “If all of those who had been possessed were just everyday citizens, then the best place to hide them would be in their normal, everyday lives, right? No uniforms, no markings, only that strange vacant stare you spoke about to distinguish them, it would be the perfect hiding place.”

  Jennie nodded, impressed. “You’ve got a good point there.”

  “We can’t rule it out as a possibility,” Roman agreed.

  Jack grinned at Ruby. It was cute, there was almost something like sibling love between the pair. “So, where do we go from here?”

  “On the hunt,” Jennie replied. “We need to scour every inch of the city. Maybe we’ll find Jiao, maybe we’ll find the possessed army, we might even find the Dreadnought. Whatever we do, we have to prepare for the worst, keep our eyes open, and get ready to attack at any time.”

  “What about the missing sarcophagus?” Ruby asked.

  Jennie turned back to the empty space. “I have a
feeling that’s going to be key to unlocking the Dreadnought’s demise. From the tomb they rise, to the tomb they fall. Some specters, like the wraiths and the poltergeists, bind themselves to certain locales or trophies. The sarcophagus may just be this one’s Achilles heel.”

  Empty-handed, they about-faced and retraced their footsteps through the tunnel. Halfway back to the fresh air, Jennie paused and held out an arm. “Someone’s here.”

  “You can feel them?” Baxter asked.

  Jennie didn’t answer, instead choosing to move ahead with a slower pace.

  The feeling grew stronger within her, the sense that nearby a specter was lurking. She replayed the incident with Rico in her head, remembering his final cry as he was exorcized and cast into the void. He couldn’t be back. The signal didn’t feel right. It felt…tainted.

  They rounded a corner and the mouth of the cave came into sight. So did a figure standing in a floor-length cloak.

  Jennie stopped the others. For a moment, they stood in silence.

  “Move aside,” Jennie finally instructed. “Whoever you are and whatever you want, we can deal with this peacefully. Move aside and let us talk like rational human beings.”

  The figure remained silent.

  Jennie homed in on her signals, trying to determine what it was she was sensing. The being wasn’t entirely spectral, that much was clear. That meant he or she was mortal and possessed.

  Jennie took a step forward. “I can help you. You don’t have to live like this.”

  The figure shuddered. A feminine gasp came from a mouth they couldn’t see.

  Jennie took another few steps. “We’re on your side. Trust me. I can clear this demon from you.”

  When Jennie took her next step, the figure whirled on their heels and ran for the mouth of the cave. They didn’t spare a glance at the small device they left on the tunnel’s floor. A blinking LED light indicated that something was about to happen.

  And Jennie knew exactly what it was.

  “Get down!” she cried, throwing herself farther into the tunnel. High-pitched beeping came from the device, increasing in pace until it was a relentless shriek. They ran back into the darkness of the tunnel.