PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
10 NOV 2011, 16:39 MST
“General Shepard, thank you for seeing me.”
The steel-haired four-star general nodded to the wiry man who had just entered his office. “Agent Brown. What can I do for the FBI? You were very mysterious about this meeting.”
“It is... difficult to explain without taking certain steps first. The important one is to find the envelope in your safe marked ‘Ardent Guardian’. Bring that, and we’ll head across the hall to my office.”
“I remember seeing that one. Padded envelope, fairly thick. Said ‘to be opened as directed by the FBI agent in charge’, which struck me as odd.”
General Shepard strode to his office safe, opened it while blocking Agent Brown’s line of sight with his body, and returned to his guest with envelope in hand. Agent Brown was already heading for the door, and across the hall to a smaller office, one he’d taken some pains to get access to.
“Why here?”
“I needed the eastern facing, should this ever come up.” Agent Brown opened the door to his office. Sitting on the windowsill was a large ceramic pot, big enough to hold a small tree. All that it was holding at present was dirt.
“This is most peculiar.”
“Open the envelope, and follow the instructions.”
The general’s expression grew even more dubious when doing so revealed a brief note, a small packet, and another envelope. “Plant the seeds. That’s it?”
Agent Brown gestured to the pot. The General rolled his eyes, but carefully poked three holes in the soil, deposited an apple seed in each one, and patted the soil back over them. “Now... what the hell?”
Where each seed had been planted, green shoots were sprouting up. They rose swiftly higher, twining together to form the base of a small tree that rapidly thickened and grew. When it got to about five feet tall, the branches puffed out abruptly in foliage. Flowers followed a moment later, followed by the swelling of three large, red apples.
The general plucked one off the tree, hefting it in his hand. “What sorcery is this?”
“Exactly. Magic is real.”
“Then why have I never heard about it before now?”
“Because you can’t talk about it to people who haven’t already seen it in action. Now we don’t have a lot of time, and we have a lot of ground to cover.”
The general picked up the envelope he’d set beside the pot, depositing the apple in its place. He skimmed through the second letter. “I am to defer to your advice in matters of magic. That’s it?”
“It’ll have to do. As you may have noticed, the command structure is having issues.”
General Shepard snorted derisively. “There are some very dangerous rumors circulating. Do you actually believe them?”
“The FBI just lost their headquarters in DC, and a fair number of our agents have been arrested by military police.”
“But not you.”
“I’ve been a liaison here for some time. That’s the official story. My actual role here has been to try to keep on top of the mind control spells here, and I’ve made some slight adjustments to the more critical ones.”
The general frowned. “Mind control spells?”
Agent Brown nodded sharply. “Lots of organizations use them to keep their people in line. You haven’t been affected because you’ve got a chunk of silver lodged in your shoulder.”
“Childhood accident. At least, Dad always claimed it was when I asked about that scar.”
“Interesting. But not the point right now. The main point is that most of the staff here are suborned by one faction or another, and most of those spells have been modified further by other factions. We need to go ‘inspect’ the Mountain.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t trust nearly enough of the staff here, and I’ve arranged for a hand-picked crew down there tonight.”
The general frowned at Agent Brown. “You arranged? You’re not in the TO.”
Agent Brown wiggled his fingers. “I mentioned mind control magic, right? I’m very good at subtle influence. Of course, the way things are going, that might not be so useful shortly.”
“Why? What’s happening?”
“The full Moon is rising. You know how things usually go crazy on the full Moon?”
The general shrugged. “That’s just a superstition.”
“Tonight... not so much.”
“Fine. I haven’t seen the inside of the Mountain yet, and I suppose now is as good as any time.”
“Better than most.”
Agent Brown led the way out of the office block. A car from the motor pool was waiting to whisk them away.
*** *** ***
US CUSTOMS PORT OF ENTRY
SAN YSIDRO, CA
10 NOV 2011, 16:45 PST
The moment the Moon rose, Duncan stood and the silver-laced handcuffs fell away from his wrists as if falling through air. A moment after that, the wall behind Director Spence vanished.
Barely a fraction of a second after that, the Director pulled the trigger on his sidearm. It made a loud flatulent noise, triggering a nervous chuckle from Agent Carson.
“If you pull that trigger again your gun will ex...” was as far as Duncan got before the Director did just that.
The gun shattered as the chambered round exploded, shredding his hand and lacerating his chest with shrapnel. He cursed, then yelled, “FIRE!”
Two of the guards did so, and their M4 carbines detonated to much more devastating effect, leaving them bleeding copiously. The other two raised their hands and backed away.
“Cowards!” grated the Director, shortly before the shock wore off and he started to feel the pain from his ruined hand.
Duncan stepped out through the wall, and surveyed the forces arrayed against him with a smirk. More men than he could count quickly. (Dia faced no such constraint, and counted 277 men, with insignia from two different units.)
Two sharp cracks rang out as the sniper teams took their shot. The two bullets were deflected by inches on curved slivers of air, and flicked past Duncan’s shoulders. A moment’s silence followed. As the snipers took aim again, bolts of lunar power smashed their guns to pieces.
“I just want to ask one question, then I’ll be off,” called Duncan.
His response was a hail of bullets as many of the guardsmen opened fire. They penetrated the wall of air by about a foot, came to a standstill, then all dropped to the ground.
Duncan started to walk toward the rearmost Humvee, one with more antennas than the rest. At that point, the handful of Humvees with anti-tank missiles opened up. Calculating their trajectory, Duncan saw that if he deflected them, they’d end up destroying the building behind him and likely killing Agent Cooper.
That’s when Donna snapped. With Dia’s assistance she reconfigured the air shield to turn weapons back on themselves, and returned the missiles to their senders. In a moment, three Humvees were flaming wrecks, and the impact of returning javelins wiped out several infantry squads.
To their surprise, the attack continued, with the riflemen opening up again. This time, the results were drastically different, as the reflecting wall worked just as well on bullets as on missiles. Duncan felt Donna’s anger flare hotter, and watched helplessly as rifle after rifle exploded in the hands of their users.
The fire stopped, replaced by groaning and calls for medics.
Donna lept into the air, and landed beside the command Humvee. She tore the door off and flung it aside. “What the hell are you doing?”
A man with multiple stars on his lapels stared at the thing that had casually annihilated his command. “What are you?”
“I ask the questions.”
“Lieutenant Colonel Walter of the California National Guard. That’s all you’ll get from me.”
“Oh really?” Donna reached into his mind and tore away the binding spell. “WHO SENT YOU?”
LTC Walter gasped for air, eyes bulging and starting to bleed. “Orders... came from...”
The sound of the pistol was loud in the cabin, and whatever secrets were buried in LTC Walter's brain were abruptly scattered against the windshield.
Donna’s head snapped to face the offending soldier. Bands of force slammed him against the side of the vehicle. Bones creaked, but she got nothing from him, and a moment later his mind sputtered and died, ripped away by a spell buried in his brainstem. “God DAMN it. What happened here?”
The remaining man inside the Humvee raised his hands. “He was our political officer. I don’t know why he shot the LTC.”
“Someone’s going way too damn far to keep their secrets,” growled Donna. “Tend to your men, and tell whoever you report to to leave me the hell alone.”
Donna dashed into the sky and headed Northwest. Nothing would come between her and her prey, not now.
Not even the flight of fighters that scrambled into her path.