Of course, Lord, we love to hear your voice, Ellorn sent as he disappeared into the kitchen, giggling with me.
Chapter 62
Peter’s living room was a sprawl of men on couches and chairs and a half dozen brownies sitting along the fireplace lazily. Sitting down beside my new assistants, I asked about their trips home and their families. Just trying to get to know them better and put them at ease. David enjoyed his trip for the most part, managing to keep his job mostly to his family. Visited with bragging college friends to hear about their fabulous desk jobs doing some sort of venture capital investments while dating the next supermodel. His female friend, singular, started an art studio and stylized a wolf pendant for him, setting his diamond as its third eye.
“It’s a lovely piece,” I said admiring the pendant he held out. “But see Braedon to strengthen her bindings if you’re going to keep the diamond there.”
“’Her bindings’? She isn’t a wizard,” David objected, confused.
“There are all sorts of magic, David, and all sorts of magical practitioners at different levels. A look around the room will prove that. What’s a ‘venture capital investment,’ anyway?”
“Somebody who looks for large projects of a riskier nature but with a very large payoff then tries to find investors for them.”
I turned to David with raised eyebrows. “Right out of college? From a desk? How many drinks did they have before they expected you to buy into that?”
“You should have seen the bleached-blondes and bottle-redheads they peddled as supermodels,” he said, snickering at first then busting out louder after a moment. Steven grinned along with him, making barking noises of various types.
“What about you, Steve? Less contentious than your last phone call, I hope,” I said.
“Less in relative terms, but yeah,” Steven said prosaically. “My family thinks their Arizona home makes them safe and out of reach since most of the danger has occurred on the East Coast and Europe.”
“So somehow they missed the California, Michigan, Mexico, Panama, Columbia, and Venezuela attacks, huh?” I asked.
“What? I wasn’t aware of those either,” Steven said, sitting up straighter.
“As far as we can tell,” Gordon interjected, “the attacks on our people have no geographical limits. As we speak to more people, we’re finding more attacks in further places attributed to vandals or thieves. The law of averages may catch up to them before too long.”
“Well, let’s hope the councils start getting their heads out of their asses soon and begin to work together to fight back,” I said, beginning my stance on staying out of this right now. It wasn’t any different than what I said earlier today.
“You can’t blame people for being scared, Seth,” Thomas said forcefully. “After Grammand, the first wave of attacks took out a third of those houses involved at that conference. And there aren’t many men and women capable of battle magics. Even normal self-defense can take a lot of strength from someone not practiced at it. You’ve been spoiled by the people around you, Seth. Most people can’t do the things we can do, like see through the charisma of Arthur. Hell, not even every magician can bear the Authority of the Hospitality, covered or not.”
“That’s equally true of the Accords, Thomas,” Ethan replied. “Not everyone covered by them can call on that Authority. Take yourself as an example.”
“Wait, what do you mean by ‘practiced at it’?” I asked. “I’ve had about twelve hours on any kind of martial training, not out of desire but necessity. I’ve already logged more battle time, I think, all together.”
“Twelve?” Kieran snorted. “Where’d you get that from? More like four. You don’t get to count the time with First and Mankiewicz as training for you, little brother.”
“Oohh, master speaks!” Peter said, causing a low chuckle through the room.
“That only helps my point, though,” I answered, grinning. “You have ‘men in black’, Thomas. Are they yours or the council’s?”
“Neither, during my off-time, I act as advisor to several divisions of a branch of the government in much the same way that Darius Fuller and Clifford Harris do,” Thomas said. “They were agents of a bureau that supposedly doesn’t exist.”
“Why have different governments recognized the need for combat wizardry, but the councils themselves don’t?” I asked. “Even into some police departments; we saw that with Mercer a few weeks ago.”
“Those are few and far between, Seth,” Thomas said. “And most of them have popped into existence due to various wars, most notably World War II and the Cold War. They are overseen by council members and information flow is kept as one-way as possible.”
“I’ll agree that they’re too few,” I said. “But the Russian’s records show many more countries than councils to manage them. Police departments in many large cities around the world have small departments dedicated to supernatural events without any oversight, thinking themselves unique in the world.”
Bishop hesitated a second. “First off, you’re making a case for a worldwide network, which is what I’m trying to setup now. Secondly, you found the Russian?”
“Yeah, he’s in FBI custody now,” I said, sipping the brandy and savoring the sweet, oak flavor.
“Did you find out anything from him?” Gordon asked, moving forward on the couch. A brownie—I think his name is Seter but I wasn’t really paying attention, instead watching Ryan attempt low power aura readings on Gordon and Thomas—darted off the fireplace to ask Gordon if he wanted another beer and take away his empty bottle.
“Lots of interesting things from his computers,” I said. “Several more interesting things from his staff and a few tidbits from him. Commander, would you care to brief everyone on what we found?” Ted stood up, quickly trying to find a way to explain what was so simple in his mind, but not so easily said. “Pete, would you mind if I moved the furniture for a few minutes?”
“Not at all. Will we need to move for you?” Peter asked.
“Nope. Well, you guys will, if you want to watch,” I said, waving at Seter and his fellows on the fireplace. Moving the coffee table straight up and over to the side, I moved the couches around smoothly with everyone in place, coincidentally giving me center seat. Really, it was a coincidence. I shifted the monitor from the Situation room and mounted it onto a stand made from the Stone’s power. The crystalline structure worked like a computer monitor at a much higher definition and spectrum saturation.
Ted took control of it immediately, asserting the usual topological world map of Earth onto the screen. “This morning,” Ted started, strong and authoritative. “Lord Daybreak left your meeting and went to the house he is intent on purchasing, also in London.” He highlighted an area in England by flashing amber light where London should be. I noted again a curious distinction as another map exploded onto the screen. Ted wasn’t controlling it; he was talking to the Sit-room, to the Operations Officer. That’s what his office door said, anyway. He was the Mapkeeper, a level of abstraction that became heuristic through the geas. It was fascinating to watch. The Hilliard’s dale flashed far to the northwest while the house and surrounding property exploded from the south without exactly indicating an origin.
“Immediately upon his arrival, he’s confronted by an altercation between both neighbors and the land agent. Seth subdued the neighbors, called us in to secure the premises, and sweet-talked the surveyors into returning, under guard for their protection. The team would have stumbled on a plot of marijuana plants and a chemical lab hidden in the back of the property that the neighbors were responsible for. He found the corresponding diplomatic department to handle the legal issues with the authorities and they arrived as lunch arrived, a curious gentleman named Jack Dunwoody and two elves going under the names Effram Frobisher and Isaac Beauchamp. With their cooperation, the Russian was identified as Leonard Muldoon and placed in Eugene, Oregon in the US.”
“Excuse me, Ted,” Gordon stopped him. “Before w
e get too far away, from what department did Jack Dunwoody come and who suggested him? And why did he have two elves with him?”
“Seth contacted the Pentagon who contacted the British Foreign Office who sent Dunwoody with the elves as assistants. Me and the boys had a lot of fun playing keep-away with them and family during lunch,” Ted answered.
“You should have seen the elves’ faces when the Guard just melted back to work after the guys left!” I said chortling. Ellorn and I traded glasses, his full for my empty.
Eager to continue, Ted regained control. “We are not suggesting that the confrontation with the neighbors was completely coincidental. The manner they chose seemed designed to bring police scrutiny, but at whose expense? We are deferring that question for further investigation.” He triggered the screen, shifting the perspective to the US and highlighting Washington and Eugene briefly, then exploding a map of Eugene in the middle of the country. “The Pentagon was unable to come up with any information on Leonard Muldoon or any of his aliases, so Lord Daybreak sent a small force of Guard to reconnoiter. He and First then led two five-man teams with support crews into the compound and subdued the entire building in under seven minutes with one fatality. That particular death occurred before we arrived.”
Ted had been showing the warehouse levels and each individual as he was taken down until First and I confronted the Russian himself. “From here we began interrogating Muldoon and his associates on several fronts while the content of his computer system was systematically copied and verified, certain bank accounts seized and transferred, and viral trip-wires disarmed throughout the data network he and his computer analyst maintained. What we discovered was this.”
Eighty-seven points of light blinked into life on the map in different basic geometric shapes and colors. The lights in some places were far larger than the places they represented on the map. Thin lines appeared showing relationships, basically supply lines with small icons showing what was supplied.
“Muldoon had a hell of a network,” Ted said with admiration. “Not just with his product but with information as well. He kept tabs on his employers, trying to discreetly learn their identities. What he tracked most intensely are the three encampments in red that Seth mentioned earlier, in Turkey, southern Mexico, and mid-western United States. There are equally remarkable encampments in Chihuahua, Brazil, Greenland and India. Deciphering which of these meets our profiles definitively will take a little more time and investigation, however.
“Here is the manpower and weaponry reportedly delivered to those three bases over the last four months.” Ted displayed a generalized list for each base of mercenaries and support deployed, along with gross armament shipments. “This is by no means an exhaustive list of their supplies. For instance, there’s no mention of RPGs but they exist at two of three compounds. In our assessment, they are seriously underarmed for their size and ammunition is low if their only supplier was Muldoon. We can’t assume that to be true, but that is where we stand at the moment.
“Questions?” Ted finished, releasing the floor.
“That’s over ten thousand people!” Gordon exclaimed. “Close to four thousand alone in the southwest US alone! How is this missed by the authorities?”
“How is what missed, Gordon?” Ted asked. “It’s not likely they came through customs wearing a bullet-proof vest and holding an AK-47, and from what we can see from satellite imagery, they’re not all there right now.” Ted waved his hand back toward the screen and six satellite pictures from six different satellites, not all from the same country, flew up. “From these images of the US encampment in Utah, we’re estimating six to eight hundred in training at this site currently.”
“What are you going to do about this, Seth?” Thomas asked quietly.
“Nothing,” I said, lazing my head back on the couch to see him.
“Nothing? You can’t be serious!” he scoffed. “In your own backyard? They know roughly where your Alabama house is now, Seth. You’ll be constantly harassed there if you allow this hate-mongering army to stand so close.” He worded that to appeal to my sense of security.
“What do you expect me to do about it?” I asked with a wry smile. “We don’t know if anything illegal is happening. The Federal authorities in my country have the evidence and will investigate. You can have what information that affects the European council, certainly. Anything else is outside my purview.”
“Your ‘purview’? You have a purview now?” Thomas asked.
“Yes, until I get done with this Pentagon Entity Accords thing, I have a purview,” I said. “You can thank Clifford Harris for that one. He gave us diplomatic passports and we’re on record with the Pentagon now. Either one of those weren’t true and we’d be off the hook. Politics, gotta love it.”
“Whoa, what?” Gordon stammered.
“What ‘Pentagon Entity Accords thing’?” Thomas asked, sitting forward on his couch. “What does the Pentagon of the United States have to do with the Accords?”
“They signed on as an entity in ’51 without realizing the consequences of their actions,” I said tiredly. “Or they were stupid. Either way, they’re learning a hard lesson. Hopefully they’ll be smart enough to petition for annulment.”
“The Accords, not Hospitality,” Gordon said, clarifying.
“Uh-huh. They aren’t the only group on the planet, either, Gordon,” I said, stretching my legs out. “Your own government has a department signed as an Entity. I would have thought that something the European Council of Wizards would know about, maybe used to their advantage in some way.”
“How do you know this?” Thomas asked nervously.
“I have a copy, Thomas. There’s a list of signatures on that document. All I have to do is read.”
“Seth,” Ethan said, quietly catching my attention. “Even to me, that sounded insufferable. Do you want us to perform what the First so lovingly referred to as a ‘Stickeckomy’ on you?” He grinned with just enough earnestness to make me snicker.
“I know,” I drawled out slowly. “I’m sorry, Thomas, I’m being an ass, but I seem to be spending a lot of time with that damn thing lately. People don’t seem to understand how specific you have to get when dealing with it. Next time I think I’ll say I’m just not interested.”
Gordon walked to the front and peered up at the map of Europe. “Ted, can you draw on the borders, please?”
“How deep?” Ted asked stepping around Gordon to the other side of the screen.
“Country and state or province with major metropolitan areas marked,” Gordon said, then glanced sideways at Ted. “Not my first time at a rodeo. Major highways and railways would be good, too.”
Seth—! Ethan called through the anchor. What’s going on? You’re affecting others now. Gordon doesn’t talk that way.
It looks that way, but I don’t know how, I answered. My shields are tight or you’d see. It’s as if the Palace was aggravated about something… That gave me an idea and I flooded Peter’s apartment with a low level sensing. There were three of them. I’ve not seen them so close before. One in the wall above the stairs, one in the ceiling behind the screen and the last one hiding in the wall between the two rooms. Setting up three small Faraday cages around them, I snatched the energy “gels” out of the wall and stood up quickly.
“Excuse us, please. First, Ellorn,” I said and shifted the three of us to the Throne room, including the Faraday cages. Ellorn turned and looked at the house still taking a quarter of the room.
“Clear the room, please,” Ellorn called loudly but not really yelling. The order was echoed through the geas on both faery and human levels. A slow stream of men and brownies came out the front door and left in two different directions. Once they hit the Road, though, First cranked the Road and had people flying out the doors while he slowly closed them.
Releasing the hard shell around the Faraday cages first, I sat down on the steps and looked at the tiny drops of congealed Faery magic. Each one had a very s
light sense of the Palace about it and where previously they emoted a sense of what Ethan called “insufferable,” now they were showing intense curiosity.
“What are they, Lord?” Ellorn asked quietly, staring at the nearly unseeable dots of power.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “But if they’re affecting my guests, I need to get a handle on them fast.” The three small power cells drifted lightly in the air free of the cages, gravitating toward Ellorn in the slightest fashion. “So far I’ve only seen one in a room at a time, but there are thousands in the Palace. They don’t seem to have any real intelligence to them on their own.”
“Maybe a sort of consciousness from them as a group?” Jimmy suggested. “Just spread out pretty far?” As he said this, several more dots of energy congealed into the room, hiding behind the house and in the walls, floor, and ceiling.
“Not a bad idea,” I agreed, rising off the steps and moving to the Throne. The tools of the Palace were very strong and frankly, I was more than a little reticent to use them because of that. The Throne was no exception. The moment I sat down I saw the lines and flows of energy throughout the Palace that indicated every spell and potential change the Palace could make right then. And these little “gels” of me were at the root of every bit of it. “All right, it’s time for all of you to come together now,” I told the three in front of me quietly. “You have the pathways you need. Why are you trying to stay so diffuse?”
They started coming at the speed of thought, clustering around the first three. In seconds the entire Palace was empty of them except for this room. Tiny packets of energy in a massive swirl near Ellorn made me a little nervous, but he watched intently as they started merging with each other. There was apparently an order to it as they sought out appropriate groupings. Just shy of four minutes later a form of elven grace and design but shorter than Jimmy by a head. It smiled at us and edged closer to Ellorn.
Sons (Book 2) Page 114