Wizard War

by Sheryl Steines

  The books were all linked to a second book, one that remained on the table beside Ryan. He touched the leather-bound book, felt the cracking leather, and ran his fingers across the rough covering. When votes were entered into the book, the book glowed a bright light before diminishing to nothing. Ryan flicked open the book and began reading what the Wizard Council noted. He in turn counted their votes, noted several comments, and chuckled at a few.

  Within minutes, the policy change was approved.

  “Approved,” Ryan confirmed. Books scratched along the wooden tables that were placed to side as the council waited for the next meeting agenda.

  Mopping his face of sweat as the spotlights blinded him, Milo stared into the blackness that blanketed the audience. He shuffled more papers until he found the one he wanted, then said into the microphone, “As the chase continued, Anne Pearce and Spencer Ray followed the vampire to her former home, in Brieland, Amborix. Princess Amelie entered the castle unencumbered, where she was able to murder her mother, Queen Catriona. In an attempt to ensure that the means of her death were not revealed, we executed a memory modification spell over Amborix, per the request of the Amborix Witches Council. The good people of Amborix now believe the queen died from a genetic heart defect. As of now, the country of Amborix and the Witches Council all believe this story to be true. We hope this will resolve any further conflict between the United States and Amborix, both in the magical and nonmagical world. Are there any questions?”

  Annie waited as she heard another rustle of paper, the low murmurs, the shifting of the seats. There were no questions.

  “Is that all?” Ryan asked.

  Annie looked at Ryan and shook her head. He was unaware there was more.

  “Very well. Please continue,” he said as formally as he could, hiding the surprise in his voice.

  “While we were in France, there was high tension between us, and the French Wizard Guard. We stepped on toes. I don’t apologize for that; we had a job to do, and we are far better equipped, quite possibly even more arrogant than we think. As a resolution to this, a French wizard guard approached us with a solution to the problem. Marielle Beauchamp and her team suggested we put a memory modification over the wizard council in France.” Annie paused and waited for the gasps that didn’t come. This was the wizard council. They’d heard pretty much everything.

  “After careful debate over the course of the night and a little snooping, I discovered this,” Annie waved her hand toward the screen on the wall, which displayed a picture of the pin Annie had brought from France.

  “This pin is worn by every employee of the French Wizard Hall. I was intrigued because of the suggestion to modify their memories. Here in America, the decision to perform a memory modification requires Wizard Council approval. But in France, it’s done with some regularity. You don’t offer that as a solution so easily.”

  Annie flipped her wrist, starting a video on the large screen. With rapt attention, every pair of eyes watched the video of Annie’s hands as they scrolled through the magic housed in her crystal. “What you’re seeing in this video is the magic I found in this pin belonging to one of the security guards in the Wizard Hall.”

  A crystal glowed in the row of spectators. A voice called out in the darkness.

  “If I’m watching those spells carefully, they aren’t all memory modification spells.” The voice belonged to a wizard named Bertie Miranda, a 98-year-old witch who had sat on the Council since she was younger than Annie was right now.

  “You’re right, Ms. Miranda. I’ve been examining these spells. And they’re not all memory modification spells. I’m reading behavior modification spells as well. I can only guess that the French Wizard Guard is controlling the populous with the help of these pins.”

  The auditorium broke into surprised voices, growing louder at the news, concerned that a council would allow such a thing. Annie felt the buzz of emotions reach her on the floor. She hesitated before telling them what she did. Her stomach roiled as she looked into the crowd, even though she couldn’t see them with the overhead light bright in her eyes.

  “Before leaving France, I made the decision to go ahead and perform the memory modification spell to remove all memory of princess Amelie and our presence in France.” The din that followed wasn’t as loud or chaotic as she expected. “Originally, I wasn’t going to perform the spell on Marielle Beauchamp, but I discovered some things while I was there. I believe we need time in order to prove what the Wizard Guard and particularly Marielle Beauchamp are doing to the wizard council.”

  The din broke out across the auditorium one that Annie couldn’t control. All eyes watched the daughter of Jason Pearce stand before the crowd. She pulled on her heavy robes and searched for Cham in the crowd, but she couldn’t see him as she fanned herself.

  A crystal glowed. Annie pointed to the wizard with the glowing rock.

  “So France has no idea we were there? Video cameras, are they taken care of?”

  “Bucky Hart in telecommunications scrubbed their security tapes. There wasn’t much. The French Wizard Council doesn’t have the sophisticated systems we have. Bucky’s watching them for anything new.”

  A loud voice broke out in the dark, “You completely disregarded this Wizard Council’s procedures. If the magic goes wrong and dissipates and they find out what we did, what you did, this could lead to a wizard war. Did you think of that?” a short, balding wizard bellowed.

  Annie turned to Milo. He frowned as he spoke. “We have the very best in computer hackers in the world working for us. Bucky Hart trained his staff, and they can handle what we need them to handle. No one outside of this room knows what Annie did, and no one in this room will share this information with anyone. Not your bosses or spouses or children. We need to keep this out of the public and keep it with the smallest number of people as possible.” Milo, stern with resolve, didn’t back down as two hundred and fifty people watched him.

  “What if there is a problem?” the man asked.

  “There won’t be,” Milo warned strongly.

  Annie and Milo stared at Ryan. “What else?” Ryan asked.

  “I am formally advising the Wizard Council that I’m building a case against Marielle Beauchamp. We think Marielle was the wizard guard directing Amelie to murder the Van Alton family. I plan to prove these modification spells were used to hide several vampire killings across France.”

  Again, the room broke into a chaotic swell of voices. It wasn’t often that one Wizard Guard unit charged another with wrongful behavior. A crystal in Row 20 East lit up.

  Annie pointed.

  “I accept the premise that this wizard guard was in the wrong. If you are to pursue this, I assume you will follow international rules and laws to accomplish this?”

  “I’m working with the law department on this. I want to make sure that it’s handled with the proper care. But I think we have enough evidence to be concerned about the behavior. I think that the French Wizard Guard is doing this on multiple occasions, not just what Marielle is doing. This is a serious problem,” Annie advised.

  She glanced at Ryan who, through his exhaustion, offered her a well-deserved smile.

  “Anything else?” Ryan asked.

  “That’s all,” they answered in unison.

  “Meeting adjourned,” he said.

  Chapter 33

  “I took my oath this morning,” Cham announced as he entered Annie’s cubicle. After the short meeting last night, they went home and were both asleep by the time their heads touched the pillow.

  “It was supposed to be a big thing at your first meeting. I guess a possible wizard war pushed it aside,” Annie replied as she stacked her notes on Marielle into a folder.

  “It’s always that weird?” Cham asked, sitting in her comfortable chair across from her desk; better suited for home than work. He leaned against the pillow.

  “Just one item on the agenda and an update about an international incident. I expected more discuss
ion and debate. We acted on our own. We’re not supposed to do the memory modification without permission AND on another Wizard Guard unit. They accepted that too easily. It’s a little disturbing.”

  “What if Amborix wasn’t modified enough?” Cham asked. Annie sat in the second chair, pulled her legs under her body, and cuddled against the back.

  “We shouldn’t have done it.” Annie sighed.

  “Too late now,” Cham reminded her.

  Annie’s eyes fluttered open and closed again. She hadn’t slept well since before the Black Market was eviscerated, and chasing Amelie took much of her energy. Last night hadn’t been enough to cure her of her exhaustion.

  Footsteps shuffled across the carpeting. A hollow knock sounded against her cubicle wall. Annie jumped and opened her eyes. A man from the mail room, Malcolm McMahon, stood before them holding an envelope.

  “Hey Mal, what’s up?” she asked.

  “Sorry to interrupt. But this came for Ryan.” He held up the envelope with gloved hands: a letter addressed to Ryan Connelly and nothing else.

  From a mysterious sender. I bet I know who!

  Annie summoned a rubber glove and took the envelope from him. “Thanks, Mal. Did anything else suspicious come?”

  “Just that. We’re on alert for anything else odd. We’re scanning everything,” he promised.

  “No return envelope. No stamps. It didn’t go through the postal service,” Cham noted.

  “It came through the international mail chute, magically sent. We just can’t find the trace,” Mal said. “I figured it might have something to do with the princess. I didn’t think Ryan should get an unmarked package without having the Wizard Guard verify,” he added sheepishly.

  Annie gently patted the thick envelope, which was stuffed with padding. Pressing against the package, she felt a hard nodule inside the plastic bubbles.

  “Any idea what’s inside?” Mal asked while she perused her credenza drawer and pulled out a small kit.

  “Not sure.” Annie turned to the mailroom employee. “Be very careful handling the mail. I’m positive this is from the French Wizard Guard. I’m just not sure why.”

  “If you think so, that will help us find the trace. When we find something I’ll let you know.” He bowed slightly. “If there’s anything else?”

  “No. We have it from here.” She smiled wanly and watched him back out of her cubicle. She waited for his footsteps to fade into the large expanse of Wizard Hall.

  “I don’t like this,” Annie said as she pulled out a small brush and dark powder. After dipping the brush and shaking off the excess, she brushed the envelope. “There’s no fingerprints,” she said incredulously.

  “Be careful with that,” Cham warned as Annie ran a finger under the flap and opened the thick packing envelope.

  It’s empty, except…

  Annie turned the opening downwards and let the object fall in her palm.

  “What the hell?” she asked as she stared at the wizard pin from France. It was new and shiny; the light sparkled against her hand.

  “That’s ominous,” Cham remarked.

  “Marielle knows what we did. She must have faked passing out, knowing we were going to wipe her memory too. But I stuck one of these on the back of her shirt before we did,” Annie remarked.

  “A magical amulet. Something to block the magic,” Cham suggested.

  Annie slipped the new pin inside a plastic bag and marked it. She attached it to the envelope it came in.

  With the evidence safely processed, Annie summoned the pin she switched out from the security guard named Francois, at French Wizard Hall. “Good thing I kept this.” She summoned a second bag and dropped that one inside, with the label:

  FRENCH SECRET PIN FRANCOIS

  “I know the mailroom has this under control, but I’m taking this to Bucky. I want him to find the tape proving Marielle sent this.” She banged her hand against her desk, Cham jumped. “I knew this would happen. I can see the French Wizard Guard or their council blackmailing us. With all that animosity between our groups.”

  Annie bit her lip while she thought.

  I never should have done the spell.

  “At least Marielle doesn’t know we know about these,” Annie remarked as her fingers grazed the evidence bag with the pin inside.

  “Unless she saw the security tapes before Bucky erased them,” Cham suggested.

  “Thanks for that,” Annie said. “What are you doing today?”

  “Working with you. Spencer and Gibbs are out and about handling some demons that were seen along Damen Avenue. Ready?”

  *

  The telecommunications department was one of the many departments housed in the large expanse of the basement, much of which sprawled under the city of Chicago, with the nonmagical community unaware they existed. This particular room was a bit odd to those coming in for the first time. It had been designed as a joke of sorts, with the walls encased in thick stone and lined with several wall sconces lit with only thick waxy candles. The door had been created from thick oak and was carved with ancient runes and pictures of Viking ancestors. But the oddest of all were the rows and rows of tables that held computers, monitors, printers, fax machines, and photocopy machines. They buzzed and whirred, blinked and flashed.

  Though that seemed out of sorts, the farthest corner of the room contained a large thick tube. Every few minutes, an envelope or box slid down the tube and landed in a large pile of mail.

  Bucky was the best telecommunication specialist in the American Wizard Hall and, therefore, they all believed the best in the world. That stature made him always available to the Wizard Guard. Annie and Cham followed the path of the overhead fluorescent lamps toward Bucky’s cubicle, winding through the tables, machines, and people busy with their computers, phones, and other machines.

  His work area was covered with posters and artifacts from nonmagical television shows and movies; his favorites seemed to be someone named Buffy. Sticky notes papered his cubicle walls, and his printer continuously spat out pages of paper.

  Annie knocked on his wall.

  “Annie, Cham, what can I do for you?” He offered them a seat by removing several stacks of folders from the metal chairs along the wall. When he smiled, he exposed his gold tooth that sparkled in the light.

  “We’re not done with the French,” Annie whispered.

  Bucky held his hand against the cubicle wall, a white light flew around his cluttered walls, casting them under the muffle spell. As he held his arm out, his AC/DC shirt rose up, exposing his belly. When he was finished, he lowered it and glanced at them with a serious, drawn expression. “What happened?” He bent forward ready to listen.

  “Ryan received this,” Annie said and pulled out the envelope with the pin attached.

  “This is that famous pin,” Bucky said and took the package.

  “Yeah. Every employee who works at the French Wizard Hall is given one and they all wear it. From my first investigation, they’ve placed several memory modification spells on their own people using that pin,” Annie told him.

  “Someone knows what you did,” Bucky said. “Did you test this one?” He examined the pin under a magnifying glass.

  “Not yet. I’m assuming it’s one of the hundreds I found in Marielle’s desk.”

  “She runs the program,” Bucky said as if it were the truth.

  “That’s my guess. She probably sent this.”

  “And you need to know for sure,” Bucky said.

  Annie and Cham had worked with Bucky on almost every case that passed either of their desks for the last five years. He knew them well enough to know what they would want before they asked.

  “Yes. And only the Wizard Council knows we did a memory modification on the entire French Wizard Hall.”

  “What exactly do you need?” Bucky asked though he was already tapping on his keyboard, pulling up a window.

  Annie glanced at Cham. “I know you scrubbed the tapes. You also said you
have the originals. There are two things we need to know: Did she send this package, and does she wear an amulet? If so, does she take it off and when? I want to know if she’s protecting herself from the pin and how. It’s the distribution point for the spells.”

  Bucky was already in the security system of the French Wizard Hall and clicking on several windows. “I’ll pull tapes from the mailroom see if this was sent from there, and then I’ll check the tapes from the main hall. If her desk is anywhere on this tape, we can see what she’s done over the last twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”

  “How long do you think?” Cham asked as he intently watched the screen.

  “Give me a sec. It won’t take long.”

  His fingers grazed the keys, words scrolled down the screen. He clicked enter and the screen adjusted, all the tapes appeared.

  Finding the one he wanted, he clicked again and panned the room.

  “There.” Annie pointed to Marielle. “That’s her.”

  Bucky sped the tape up, watching Marielle’s movements. There were no envelopes.

  She left her desk. Bucky slowed down the tape. They watched her as her hips sashayed when she walked.

  “Around her neck,” Cham noted. Bucky tightened the shot on the screen until they could see the amulet hanging around her neck.

  “Yeah. I remember that. Can you print this?” Annie asked.

  Bucky blew up the necklace and drew a line around it. The printer whirled to life and spat out the picture. He handed it to Annie.

  “Standard amulet. Could protect her from the magic,” Cham said.

  “Let’s see more tapes, please,” Annie requested.

  “On it.” He was already pulling up the following hours, watching the Wizard Guard team as it went about it business, watching Annie and Spencer, Cham and Gibbs doing their jobs.

  Vampires were taken to the prison wing, and Brite was rushed to the hospital wing.

  “Here, Annie,” Bucky said. It was the night before the memory modification spell. Marielle, after they had gone to their room, placed a pin inside the envelope and sealed it before leaving. They followed the tape of Marielle on her way through Wizard Hall to the mailroom, where she sent the package to Ryan Connelly in America. Bucky copied this section of the tape to a flash drive.