Conjuring Quantico (The Federal Witch Book 1) (18 page)

“Everyone looks so tired. They needed a break. Cat and I have been sitting outside at a table since you guys got here. They wouldn’t let us help. We are still students, remember?”

“That’s right, I forgot about that. Technically, I’m the one in charge around here but I rarely pull rank. I just suggest things and they do it. Agent Mu gave us explicit orders to work this case, so we got lost in it. We haven’t been introduced, have we? Agent Anastasia Moondragon.” She held out her hand to me and I took it. Her hand was very cool to the touch. I glanced at her face and looked closer. It could have been the light but her skin was very pale and washed out looking.

I smiled at her and took a chance. “Vampire?”

“Very good Miss Blackmore. Not many get it on the first try. Yes I am a Vampire. One of very few in the FBI these days. You might say the Forensic Department is my domain since I rarely leave the truck.”

“I’m so sorry I just charged in and started giving you orders! I just want to find the kids.”

Anastasia started to laugh. “I want to find them too. That’s why I let you. Besides, you breathed a bit of fresh air into the room. We get stuffy and focus on the wrong things sometimes.” She turned her attention toward Cat. “I can tell what you are but not the species.”

“WereCat. Catherine Moore, nice to meet you.” Cat held out her hand.

“I would say you are an Alpha too. Not all that many female Alphas running wild out in the world. Welcome to the FBI.” Cat could only stare.

“Don’t look so shocked. I’ve been around for a while. Never worked with a Witch before, or at least not a sanctioned Witch. The Russians don’t count. They don’t care for me or I them. Too much history there.”

“Anastasia, were you alive during the Demon War?”

“Well, not alive. But yes, I was around then. I joined the FBI during the summer of love in 1969 on a whim. This is not the first time since then that we have come across demon influences, but it appears to be the most organized. I’ve got the system searching for a manufacturer or supplier for those things. They look like they may be mass produced. If so, we can trace the shipments.”

“Have you tried local artists? Maybe it was done locally.”

“That’s a good idea... I will add it to the search.” She typed on her computer for a bit then looked up at us. “Anything else?”

“I don’t think so. Do you mind if we go check out what Agent Lawson is working on?”

“Ladies you don’t have to ask me, you aren’t one of my charges. Good work by the way. I’ll let you know if we find anything.”

I grabbed Cat by the arm and we exited the lab. “Did you know she was a vampire?” I couldn’t believe I had just met one!

“She smelled like damp earth and Cinnamon. I’ve never smelled a combination like that on a human before so I knew she was something else. But I’ve never met a vampire before either. Chuck is going to be big-time jealous! Imagine an FBI tech on the job for over forty years? She must have an incredible amount of knowledge.”

The command vehicle was directly behind the massive forensics lab. The truck was more than half the size. I knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.

“Yes?” The Agent that answered the door was a large man with grey hair and deep-set eyes. What surprised both Cat, and I was that he was wearing shorts.

He saw us laugh, and he smiled. “It gets hot in here. What can I do for you ladies?”

“Is Agent Lowery inside?”

He checked our badges to make sure we were who we said we were and let us in. The area inside was tight with computer stations lining the walls. The center of the room was set up with a video conferencing station and a map plot complete with whiteboards and research areas. Despite three air conditioning units the place was very warm.

Nita was hunched over a computer station with another Agent reviewing information on the screen. “Nita?”

“Hello ladies, how was forensics? Anastasia didn’t give you too hard of a time did she?”

“No, Ma’am she didn’t. We came to see if you found anything about a Bune cult or whatever.”

“Well, no cults as far as we can tell. It’s not illegal to worship demons so we don’t track religious groups. Only those that have caused problems or have been arrested before. Records show that Bune worshipers have popped up on our radar once before. In the early 1990’s the FBI stopped a rogue Bune group from influencing a presidential campaign. Once we shut them down the candidate stopped making sense to the public and was defeated fairly easily. The gift of eloquence is real. We have been searching the backgrounds of our Senators and the Mayor looking for some sort of commonality that links the four. So far we have nothing. All government officials are scanned very carefully for demonic influences these days. We learned our lessons from both the 1960s and the 1990s incursions. Demons cannot be allowed to influence politics or government.”

“So nothing links them at all?”

“They all belong to some of the same charity groups and two of them are in the same Masonic lodge. Masons are different. They follow a specific creed and are bound in fellowship. We have investigated lodges before and found them to be benign.”

I nodded. “Grandmother once told me that Masons were building the temple in the next life. We should be ashamed for suspecting them. But everyone is suspect when the life of a child is involved, much less four. What about the wives?”

“We checked them too. No links that we could find. They all went to different colleges. Each came from a different part of the country. Most were married right out of college and are the perfect politician's wives.”

“Stepfords?” Nita gave Cat a sharp look.

“Fictional movies and books aside there has only been one case of real so-called Stepfords and that was in France of all places. The reports that we have are they used flamethrowers against them and the entire cult was destroyed before they could do any more damage. No, this is something else entirely. But good guess!”

I stared at the screens and then glanced at the whiteboards. My new wristband twitched. I had an idea that the whatever-it-was bracelet agreed with.

“What about the mothers of the children? How do they match up with their parents? What do they have in common other than being family? I might be saying this wrong.”

Nita made a face and began typing. “How the mothers and fathers relate to the parents? What they have in common? Is that what you mean?”

“I was studying the whiteboard information and something rang a bell. Because the children live with politicians, we have assumed the kidnappings were political. But what if they aren’t? Have we checked out the mothers? Or maybe how the mothers relate to their parents?”

Nita looked around the room. “OK everybody I want two teams. Half of you start researching the grandmothers, the other half the mothers. I want links between the two up on the board, let's move people.”

I stepped closer to the agent. “Nita, why take us so seriously? We aren’t even agents yet.”

“You found something that veteran agents missed more than once. None of us saw what was right in front of us. You both have fresh eyes and powers we don’t understand. Maybe, just maybe, you have some insight we can use.”

That made sense. I stepped over to the boards and began adding the information as it came in. Nothing matched up. The mothers went to different schools, grew up in different states, and even belonged to different charity organizations. Three of the mothers went to different colleges than their parents, but the one that did was the one with the medical condition. Whatever the link, it wasn’t something obvious. It was very frustrating.

Then Nita got a call from forensics and we had our first break in the case.

“Anastasia traced the maker of those statues! It’s a local manufacturing plant here in Alexandria. Want to come along?”

~~~~

Warrants were acquired in a hurry. Possible Demonic activity was a guaranteed way to get them. Two tactical teams hit the plant just as they closed down their operations for the day. A team of agents served the warrants to the front of the building while tactical came in the rear and from the side. Many of those inside thought it was an immigration raid, and all exited as fast as possible. Fortunately the building itself was surrounded by a ten -foot chain-link fence with one gate in or out. Those that tried to climb to get away were easily apprehended.

Cat and I went in last along with Agent Lowrey to interrogate the owner and manager who happened to be the same person.

“… I had no idea that many of my workers were illegal! As far as I knew they were OK; I mean, they had proper documentation. I don’t understand this, INS was just here last week.”

“Mr. Dawn this has nothing to do with INS. We will be informing that agency about the results of this raid, but we have nothing to do with any of that. What we require is any information about these.” Nita laid four pictures in front of the man of the dragon statues.

He studied the statues for just a moment and looked up. “The hydras? Those were a special order for a new customer. I would need to check my records but we did those about a month ago. Short run, guy said they were for a fantasy group I think.”

“Do you remember what he looked like or anything about the man?”

“Like I said I would need to check my records. I just remember the dragons. We make lots of stuff like that.” Nita looked at the milling agents. “Someone take Herman here and pull the records for that order. Get everything.”

Two of the larger agents took the man in tow and went to his office. Nita looked over at me. “Agatha would you do that diagnostic spell of yours and check the warehouse and offices? See if there is anything out of order around this place. Cat, tag along with her and check for unusual smells as well.”

As we headed into the warehouse proper Cat mentioned that she didn’t want us to be Team “Scratch and Sniff.”

I sank into my meditation and cast the diagnostic spell again. This time small spikes of magic lit up around the small factory. With Cat in tow we poked and prodded the machinery and molding systems. I found small traces of magic and what might be called a whiff of a psychic trail that I followed back to the owner's office.

Nita and some of the forensic techs were there along with Mr. Dawn.

“So you don’t remember anything about the man that ordered these?” Nita waved the pictures at the Herman again.

“Well, no. He was only here three times. The first to place the order and later to pick it up. He came by when we first started to press the molds. It was a quality control check is what he said.”

“So three times and you can’t describe him? Is that what you are saying, Herman?”

Herman shook his head and repeated his answer.

“What about the cameras? Did they get a picture of him?” I was looking at the hidden camera inside the picture on the wall.

“Cameras? What cameras?” Nita looked at Cat and I.

“Behind you, in the picture.” One of the techs lifted the picture of an older woman off the wall. Embedded in the frame was a small multi-angle camera lens.

Nita looked at us and smiled. “Thank you Agents.”

She called us Agents which made my day. The whole experience back at the Academy had made me hypersensitive when it comes to cameras. I looked for them everywhere.

“Where’s the receiver and memory storage, Herman?”

The man sighed and pointed at the potted plant next to the door. “Look under the plant.”

“Herman, Herman, Herman we were just looking for the statues, but now we need to see what else you have cooking around here. Naughty naughty.”

That reminded me. “Agent Lowrey, we found spell traces in the warehouse but most of them are small equipment tweaks and repairs that are benign at best. I followed a magical trail that had a familiar psychic scent into this office.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not sure. It started at the molding machines and runs back to this room. I need to run another spell.”

“Do we need to clear the room?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve gotten better at the spell.” I slipped back into my trance and triggered the spell. I was starting to run out of salt, it's a good thing I’d brought almost fifty pounds of it with me.

“There are traces of whatever it is in the room but the strongest is coming from under his desk. I think there is a floor safe or a hidey hole of some kind under there.”

The desk was moved and carpet ripped up. Set into the floor was a small metal door with a digital lock embedded into it.

“OK Herman. Give us the combination.”

He shook his head and replied. “No more help.”

The techs told Nita they could drill the lock but the best way would be to remove the whole safe. That would take anywhere from hours to days to get inside.

“Cat, can you give it a try?”

We all watched as my roommate, this little slip of a girl, walk over to the safe grab the handle and give it a jerk. The door of the safe came off in her hands with a loud clang. She handed it to one of the techs who had taken a huge step back from her.

“Thank you. Agent Moore.” Cat gave Nita the cutest smile.

The forensic techs began to reach into the safe when I caught a whiff of what they were removing. “Freeze! Agent Lowrey, I have demonic traces just like the statues in there!”