by T S Paul
"It was China, wasn't it?" Ana looked me in the eye.
"How did you guess?"
"I was made an Ambassador to the Japanese nests right at the turn of the twentieth century. There were rumors about Vampires and the supernatural that reached across the East China Sea. I was sent to investigate and had to contact the nest in Hong Kong. When I arrived, they were all up in arms over an outrage performed by the Wizard Council. No one would explain it to me. Not even the ruler of the nest."
I nodded my head. "That makes sense actually. A dark Wizard raised a small army in a northern province in 1900. Scores of missionaries and other foreigners were massacred to feed his army of the undead. Grandmother told me that the entire area was purged of all life and unlife by the Council to eliminate the threat. I'm not sure if that included Vampires."
"And the last one?"
"I'm surprised you haven't guessed that one. California was the last one. The year was 1906, and a Chinese Necromancer struck in Chinatown."
"Over 3000 dead," Anastasia remembered her history.
"Right. The Council caught this one in time. The earthquake was the cover story. Well, that and burning Chinatown down along with those in it. The Witches Council is very serious about some things."
"Did they catch the Wizard?"
"They say they did. There is no written record of them doing so, however. My Grandmother thinks he or she may have escaped. Again."
"So, when I mentioned Zombies..." Ana gave me a look.
"Pretty much. They are the boogie men of the Magickal world. Nobody wants to have actual zombies in their area. Especially since last time. So nothing on the body to help the case?"
"No. Anyway can't you ask the kid's body or ghost or something?"
I blinked at her. "Gods no! Didn't I just explain about Necromancers? That sort of thing is a red flag for the Council. Even if I knew the spell to do that, which I don't, I wouldn't take the risk. So not only no. But Hell No!"
"Just checking." She smiled at me and my reactions.
"There are some alternative religious groups such as Santeria and Voodoo that are able to skirt the rules. But associating with them is a black mark on your record. Sorry."
"I'll take your word for it. How did your end of the investigation work out?
That part of our conversation took about an hour.
~~~~~~~
"Tuck, this is ridiculous! She costs me too much money to live. If they stop my only source of extra money, it will make all of our work over the past few years pointless!" Daniel Jaeger raged at his lawyer.
Making a show of covering his ears, Tuck frowned at his client. "Dan please! Let's not discuss that sort of thing so openly. I don't have to testify to things told in private. This is a bit too public with Tod and Bob here."
The Alpha looked at the Weres in question. The two beefy men might as well be furniture as much as he looked at them. "They won't say anything. Stop worrying about it."
"Not the point at all, Dan. Fine. Whatever. What is your plan?"
"My plan? I don't have one of those. You, yourself, told me to never write something down or say exactly what I mean. The boys here have a few fun trinkets they picked up somewhere and want to try them out, that's all."
Tuck looked at his client and smiled. Maybe he was actually starting to listen to what he said.
"Bob, how far away do you have to be to get her?"
And then again, maybe not, Tuck thought to himself.
Bob considered the question and looked at his brother. "Optimal range is 2000 meters. I should be able to hit at 4000 meters or so. It depends on wind and elevation. The highest point in that area is the fire tower."
"How powerful is that thing?"
Tod looked at Bob who nodded to him. "It uses a special .50 caliber machine-gun shell called a SLAP."
"Slap? I want you to kill her, not slap her!"
"Sorry. Sir. You misunderstand. SLAP stands for Saboted Light Armor Penetrator. The ammunition that we recovered is of the tracer variety. It should penetrate the target's vehicle and vaporize what it hits." Bob looked down at the floor.
"Good. Take your brother and get into position. If you see an opportunity, take it. Her team is a target of opportunity too." Daniel waved the big man away.
"Best money I ever spent on those two. Too bad Daddy didn't live to see them. He would have killed for troops as obedient as them."
Tuck kept his mouth shut. Darius Jaeger was one of the smartest men he had ever known.
"I told that old boy to make me some more just like them."
"Isn't that a bit risky? You said yourself that they sometimes remember where they came from." Tuck looked at Daniel.
"It's not much of one. Look at those two. They can barely speak. They take orders well, though. That is what I need if I'm to rid us of Stephan and his mongrels."
"Dan, Sir. Isn't open warfare a bit risky with the FBI in the area?"
"That's why I sent the twins after them. Once they're gone, we can get back to business as usual." He leaned back in his chair smiling.
"The FBI will tear this county apart if one of theirs dies! Dang it Dan, you're throwing it all away!"
"You misunderstand me, Tuck. I have it all covered. The Fish Camp is way over in the next county. Bob's the shooter, but Tod is along to take care of him for me. They'll find the body with the gun, and everything will be over. We might have a short bump in business but who cares about that? Getting back in the game is all that matters."
"Not to sound confrontational but why would Tod kill Bob?"
"Drugs."
"Drugs? From where? All the cookers and growers left years ago. Ever since Stephan lost his nephew, he's been chasing or killing them for years." Tuck shook his head. "It won't work."
"Sure it will. There were almost thirty pounds of prime product in the evidence room along with Bob's new toy. Tod is to plant some of it in one of those fancy RVs. The State Police will think it's a drug deal gone south and close the case."
"That might work with tourists, but this is the FBI!" Tuck regretted it as soon as he said it.
Slap! Daniel backhanded Tuck out of his chair and onto the floor. Hair started to sprout from Daniel's arms as his shift started. His face began to elongate, and claws burst through his shoes.
Crap! Tuck scrambled to his feet and ran to the steel cages across the room. He, himself, paid to put them in when he first started working for Darius. As the disease progressed, it made the older Weres a bit crazy. To have safety in a house filled with wolves was worth any price.
He tried to ignore the ripping and roaring sounds behind him. Daniel changed infrequently, but when he did, he was an uncontrollable monster! Unlike Darius, Daniel couldn't control his beast.
Reaching the cages, Tuck pulled the lock off. Or at least he tried to! Someone had replaced the old-more-reliable key lock with a combination one. Frantic, he tried the two others in the row. Only the last one would open, but the lock was completely gone. He rushed inside anyway and slammed the door closed. He removed his shirt and tied it around the door as quickly as possible. Arwwwooooo! The wolf howl chilled Tuck to the bone. He pressed his body against the far wall and tried to look non-threatening.
'Please don't eat me.' Those words kept repeating like a mantra inside Tuck's head. He kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see his doom. On his third or fourth repetition of the phrase, he felt a hot breath on his cheek. Opening his right eye, he looked into the slavering jaws of death!
~~~~~~
Bob and Tod, oblivious to the events back at Daniel's house continued their mission. They were taken as children by a slavering from their family in Fort Smith. They made the mistake of walking the long way home. Little did they know someone had been watching. Neither remembered their past beyond flashing images and smells. The reconditioning process was harsh and filled with pain. Tod, despite being a Were, still bore scars from it.
"How far is the target?" Tod asked his brother.
"Fou
r thousand five hundred and forty meters. The SLAP-T round should add extra velocity to hit the target." Bob set up the Barrett rifle on top of the fire tower.
The two had climbed the tower and eliminated the fire service volunteer by tossing him off the tower. Better to make it look like an accident. Making sure, Tod planted some of the drugs around the small living space.
"Am I to be sacrificed?"
Tod looked at the back of his brother's head in surprise. Original thought had been beaten out of both of them years ago. Any thought or action outside of the mission parameters was punished.
"You are. Orders."
Bob focused his weapon and sighted in on the enemies' vehicles. He would have one shot at her. With luck, the others would open up the vehicles and allow him to hit them too. He set out extra rounds and his shot computer. "I'm glad it's you."
Tod stared off into space for a moment. His orders were too strict. After the target and any collaterals had been eliminated, he was to set the scene and take care of Bob. Disobeying was too painful a thought to consider.
Bob spoke. "Target acquired."
Reaching up without thinking Bob adjusted the windage knob. He leaned into the weapon and firmly held onto the rear grip. A single stroke of the trigger and the Barrett fired. A hot, .50 caliber shell casing shot out of the right side, narrowly missing Tod. Bob took aim a second time and fired again.
~~~~~~
Computer records don't usually lie. Especially those related to FBI cases. Tax records showed that half of Arbor was indeed owned by the Jaeger family and the other fifty percent the Petrov family. So far everything Sheriff Geri had told us checked out. At least the verifiable parts did. The county records showed many of the children that according to him were taken, shown as runaways or as families moving away. Even the DFS records said it.
"Cat, how is it possible to have identical records within DFS and the Tax collector?"
"What do you mean identical?" Cat rolled out of the bunk bed and came up behind me. She looked down at the computer records I was reading.
"Right here. This record says that Justin Sloan was reported as a runaway by his parents on February 29, 1997. Over here in the Department of Family Services record, it says the exact same thing. Even the punctuation is the same."
Cat pulled out her phone and was typing frantically. "That's not all Agatha. The date is wrong."
"No that is the same. See, right here." I pointed at the two dates.
"The actual date is wrong. February 1997 wasn't a leap year. There was no 29th of February that year!"
I stared at the screen and back at Cat. Only one solution. "Leak or inside job?"
"Inside job. It has to be it. But is that person still with DFS and the Tax Department? That we need to find out. Nice work Cat!" I congratulated my friend.
"How do we find out if it's the same person?"
"We need to requisition the records and investigate directly if we are able. Bill is our facilitator. It's time he does his job." I smiled at my best friend.
My bracelet gave me a tingle again as I got up and walked to the table. I looked down at it. Somehow, we needed to come to some sort of arrangement when it came to communication. Flicking a switch over the table, I sat down and stared at the gold cuff.
An unexpected tiny gust of wind is what ultimately saved me. It interfered with the windage setting on Bob's scope just enough to make the shell move down a quarter of an inch.
A voice sounded in my head. "Look out!" My private shields came up so fast they shocked even me! One minute I was sitting at the table, the next I was flying backward in slow motion. The wall of the RV exploded as a projectile shattered the window sill and came straight at my head!
Time stopped. I could see the fragments of the wall and shattered glass like dust-on-the-wind inside the RV. Reaching out I touched one of the fragments, and it moved in a different direction than the momentum was causing it to go. "Is this your doing?" I stroked the cuff and got an instant response.
"Yes."
"You can talk." I stared down at the cuff.
"Yes."
"Can you say more than yes?"
"Yes."
I groaned and rubbed my head. "Am I in danger?"
"Yes."
Time unfroze suddenly, but it was moving so slowly that I could see the glowing streak from the tracer round that had been fired at me. A second streak was approaching.
I could see that the tracer came from the nearby fire tower. The fire tower was almost half a mile away. Trusting my Magick, I cast a freeze spell.
Chapter 12
My entire body was shaking. I could see a second bullet about to hit me. The tracer glowed as it hung in the air. I reached up and grabbed it. And then immediately dropped it. Bullets are hot!
I thought a moment and released just the area of the RVs from the grip of the time spell.
"What was that?" Cat rushed inside as soon as time started back up.
"Time spell."
"I thought you said those were dangerous and impossible to do?" She looked at my trembling body.
"They are. It wasn't me that cast it. Or rather it wasn't my Magick. I'm not entirely sure right now."
"Agatha, what the hell does that mean? You aren't making any sense." Cat put her arm around me.
I tried to be calm. "My bracelet triggered the shield spell as soon as the bullet touched the side of the RV. I was thrown backward, and I felt a spell being cast using MY magic. Time spells are possible but very, very tricky. Even Grandmother doesn't use them. I've never even read one before."
"How did you cast one then?" Cat looked up at my face.
"I don't know. I suspect the bracelet did it for me and just drew on my power." I felt a faint shimmer. "Something else, it spoke to me."
"The bracelet spoke to you?"
"I know it sounds crazy, but yes it did."
"Agatha, honey, I've known you for almost four years and all of this?" She spread her arms wide to indicate the shattered glass and the hole in the RV. "This is normal life. If you said an inanimate object had a conversation with you, then it happened." Cat gave me a big hug.
We stepped outside of the RV. We still needed to find the shooters. I did not know how long the Time spell would hold, but I could still feel its pull on my magic.
"Hey! You two having a party without us?" Chuck popped out from between the two RVs.
Cat smiled and pointed behind him. "Not exactly."
The side of my rig had a huge hole in it. The bullet had pierced the window frame ballooning out to spray the interior with shrapnel. Only my shield and the time spell prevented our deaths. The second shot was meant to finish off either Cat or myself.
"Holy crap! What caused this?" Chuck stuck his finger into the hole. Men.
"Someone tried to kill Aggy!" Cat dragged him around to the interior of the RV to show him.
"Did I hear right? Someone shot at you?" Anastasia stood off to one side of her rig staring at me.
"They did. My protections kept me safe."
"What did they fire at you?" Anastasia moved closer but stayed out of range and sight.
Chuck reappeared holding one of the rounds I caught. "It looks like either a .40 caliber or .50 caliber shell. The Barrett that was stolen used .50 caliber. I wonder if it's from that?"
"Should either of you be standing out in the open like that? They could still be out there. A bullet that powerful can shoot from half a mile away, and you wouldn't know it until it killed you." Ana's words came from behind the RV. She had moved yet again.
Chuck realized he might be a target and hit the ground with a thump. His muffled cry of "get down Agatha!" made me laugh.
"If they were able to fire they would have before now. Get up, Chuck." I looked down at him. He was pressing himself flat but still looked like a large mound of potatoes.
"I want to stay down here. Weres aren't bulletproof!"
I looked up at Cat and shook my head. Go team! "I cast a freeze spell
in that direction over there after my shield triggered. It may have caught our shooters. Want to find out?"
"Find out what?"
Looking behind me I saw Bill. He stood at the rear of Ana's RV, a cup of coffee in one hand and a sandwich in the other. "Why is Chuck on the ground?"
Anastasia peered at him from under the RV. She had moved yet again. Vampires. Trust self-preservation to rule their world.