Missy Makes Mayhem (Missy the Werecat Book 5) (28 page)

Nov 21, 2019

Robert and Major Schermerhorn were pleased.  Things were progressing very well.  The Afghanistan items they’d brought -- their Chicago objects -- had indeed provided some directional signals, once Millie and Oliver had placed them in their circle; less than half had been discarded as having no value.  They’d been able to begin their search in the borrowed Black Hawk about two hours after their arrival at O’Hare Airport.

And, once again, they had isolated where they believed the strongest signals were coming from to a single building.  This time, it was a barn rather than a warehouse.  It was located on a small farm about twenty miles outside the city limits and, conveniently, there were also a number of small outbuildings plus a large farmhouse.  They wanted to have Missy confirm things for them, of course, but it was very likely this farm was housing most of the terrorist cell members.  That’s what they were sensing from their Chicago objects.

They had returned to where they’d established a temporary headquarters, right at O’Hare, and had once again made some calls.  As before, the FBI, Homeland Security, local police and fire departments, hospitals and other agencies as appropriate were all brought on board.  They even alerted the local National Guard units to be on standby.  Drew, Les and Marsha from “P” Branch were helping with this effort, as was Winword from the CIA and some of General Blake’s staff members whom Major Schermerhorn had called.  Now, they were merely waiting for all their many resources to either get into position or else be prepared for further developments.

Wes and Chris said they could fly back out there at night, since the National Guard unit had managed to provide them with night vision goggles.  And, Mike had explained how, once Missy was able to visually see the farm, she then could teleport herself right in there, as she’d done for the warehouse in Philadelphia.  They shouldn’t have any need for the helicopter after that but it would be good to keep it available on standby.  Just in case.

Meanwhile, they learned Team Twenty-Two had successfully hit the training camp near Herat and, as before, there was now a C-17 transport plane containing all the items they’d confiscated heading back to the U.S.  It would be arriving sometime the next day at New Jersey’s Newark Airport, since that had a military hanger which they could use for whatever New York City operations they’d need to conduct.

Thanksgiving was still a week away and, if their good luck continued, they’d be able to quietly and safely contain all the members from these three terrorist cells, avoiding any possible attacks or bombings.

It had been an hour since finishing the evening meals they’d had brought in and they’d just gotten word there were enough task force members now out watching the farm and ready to go wherever needed.  Cameras capable of providing clear images, even though at night, were in place.  Using this equipment, a couple of individuals at the farm had already been identified as having recently entered the U.S. using a phony work visa, just like those fifteen others in Philadelphia.

Ownership of the farm property was still being checked; apparently, there was some sort of shell corporation involved, similar to how the Philadelphia warehouse was owned.  It would take some time to unravel just what group really owned these places but, based on the complexity of all the paperwork they were seeing, it was anticipated they’d find the money had all come from overseas.

Robert looked at the major and said, “I think it’s time for our invisible supnat to go pay a visit out at this farm, just like she did in Philly.  She’s the only one who can confirm whether we’ll have everyone accounted for.”

“Because she can identify everybody by their scent, right?  Those who are there right now and those who might not be there but who we’ll need to go find?”  The major was still amazed Missy could do this.  No wonder General Blake thought so highly of her.

“Yeah, her naming everyone who might be involved, so we can get them all under surveillance, provides some assurance there won’t be anyone showing up wearing any vest to one of our parades.  Our Philly office tells me they’re now tracking several more people known to have associated with that guy Parvis.  Hopefully, that new group will include those four names she gave us who we haven’t ID’d yet.”

“Dumbo, Felix, Goofy and Pluto?”  Major Schermerhorn chuckled.  “When I first heard Mike rattling off all the silly names she came up with?  For people she had merely scented?  I couldn’t understand why she was doing that instead of rushing to tell us who was in there and what they were doing.  But, once I realized she really could come back later and give us a positive ID, it all made sense.”

“Exactly.  If she went rushing around, she might not remember each scent the way she does.  It’s not just her ability to
notice
each unique scent but her ability to memorize them all so she can recognize them later.”  Robert had once heard Missy describe how her mind had all these compartments where she stored things.  She’d been trying to explain how she’d melded her two natures, why she could endure pain so well and how various other special gifts and abilities enabled her to do what she could do.  All he’d really understood from all of that was how she really was only partly human.

Since Missy could teleport to wherever Millie or Oliver were, it was decided to leave Mike back at the headquarters they’d set up, ready to go with his microphone and all the other telecommunications equipment they’d brought.  Mike handed Millie the nice bathrobe he’d gotten for Missy to wear when she materialized; he’d purchased it from their hotel in Philly when he’d checked out that morning.  He told Millie he’d call the helicopter when Missy was ready to make her appearance.

Robert, Major Schermerhorn, Millie and Oliver then followed their pilots Wes and Chris back out to the aircraft and, a short while after that, they were airborne again and headed back out towards the farm.

-----

Missy had not been able to sense how things in Chicago were going, since she’d lost her connection with Mike; she definitely had been experiencing a huge inner void which only her mate could fill.  So, when Drew finally called her, she was greatly relieved.  She’d been busy all day at the academy and was just finishing her Khan’s Klass.  She told Drew she’d call him right back in five minutes.  Then she and Tracy said their goodbyes to the others and hastened back to their room.

After returning Drew’s call and getting a full debrief about all the task force activities in Philly and Chicago, as well as hearing about the flight heading to Newark with items which should help with finding the third cell in New York, she filled Tracy in.  She quickly undressed while she talked and then, ready to go, she said, “Hopefully, I’ll be back here again by morning.  But, if they need you to cover for me again, someone will call and let you know.”

Tracy nodded and said, “Go get ‘em, Missy!”  She stared as her friend gave her a smile, eyes sparkling with gold specs, and then suddenly just vanished in a shimmer of light.  Moments later, she sensed Missy was no longer present, her spirit having teleported away.

Missy completed her Change, high in the mountains, and immediately felt the dual joy from physically being in her cat form plus having that inner void of hers once again being erased. 
Mike!  Let them know in that helicopter that I’ll be there shortly!
  She paused, sensing his response which, as always, satisfied her soul; she was no longer alone and was connected to Mike once again.  Although it had been brief, not even twelve hours, the separation of their souls had been a stark reminder of how much she now needed and depended on Mike.

Then, before leaving, she took full advantage of being in the mountains and began drawing in energy from all around.  As an earth witch, she had learned how she could fill herself with an overabundance, greatly magnifying all her powers and abilities.  She now amped herself up to the max, seeking extremes she’d only experienced a few times before but, having done so then, she was fully capable of doing all that once again.  When she felt as though ready to burst, she Shifted into her spirit form.

This process where she could exist as a spirit was only possible by pausing in the middle of her Changes.  Thus, she would need to complete each Change in order to materialize again.  Since she was now in her cat form, when she next appeared she’d be in her human form.  Was it possible to go from spirit form back to whichever form she’d started with, rather than actually Changing?  She really didn’t know and was not about to experiment; at least, not yet.  When dealing with the unknown, it was best to proceed with great caution.

She teleported into the helicopter with Millie as her focus, but she could have focused on any one of them.  She could see Millie was holding that bathrobe she’d asked Mike to get for her.  Had that really only been that morning?

Millie and Oliver both sensed her presence and Millie spoke into the headset she was using in the aircraft, advising the others by saying, “Eyes front, everyone!  We’re about to get invaded back here by a naked female!”  As expected, that got some laughs.  But, the men all behaved and did as she instructed.

Moments later, her “invasion” complete with everyone surviving the extra powerful energy pulse she’d sent out, due to how amped up she now was, Missy pulled on her bathrobe and said, “Hi, everyone!”  They all took that as permission to glance back at her and she could see the smiles they all were giving her.

Oliver had witnessed Missy during one of her amped up periods, the night she’d danced in those Cancun nightclubs, and he could sense how she was now.  “Hey, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were wearing your silver jewelry again!”  The other men now looked at Oliver, wearing confused faces at his comment.

Millie said, “It’s an inside joke, people!  It’s a witch thing.”  She was well aware Missy had given Mike the silver earrings and belly ring which she’d worn that night in Cancun.  Mike was keeping them safely tucked away.  Each of these had dangled a silver dollar and it was Tracy who had arranged for Missy to wear them.  She had known when an earth witch was pierced in three places with silver, the amount of energy which could be drawn from all around would be greatly amplified.  Missy had been unaware of this effect until afterwards and still hadn’t forgiven Tracy, complaining how she’d almost OD’d that night from all the energy she’d taken in.

Wanting to get everyone focused back on their mission rather than speculating about Missy’s jewelry, Millie went on to ask, “Now, how close are we to that farm?”

As it turned out, they were only minutes away.  Soon, they were making a slow circle around the farm, trying not to appear too obvious should anyone be looking up from below.  Thanks to her super hearing, Missy had no need of any headset while listening to what Millie and Oliver said as they pointed out the barn and the various other buildings.  Then she asked Mike to give them all her thanks and goodbyes, since they could hear him in their headsets.

When her shimmer of light faded away, Missy was gone and her bathrobe was lying in a crumpled heap on the cabin floor.

Chris said, “Damn!  I’ll
never
get used to her doing that!”  He and Wes then headed their aircraft back to O’Hare.

Nov 21, 2019

Leonard Garman was definitely worried.  Ever since Pritchard had gotten them all riled up that morning, the task force members had been working hard to accumulate evidence against what was obviously a definite terrorist cell.  The combined efforts of so many top investigators had indeed produced results and a clear picture was forming, showing Parvis to be leading a group of Muslims whose beliefs were anti-American, radical and extremist.  And, these newcomers who had recently joined him were obviously there for some suspicious purpose.  Everyone on the task force was now quite certain the effort they were making to watch these guys was very appropriate and necessary.

What worried Garman was not whether they’d find the evidence they needed.  They had actually had success in tracking several shipments which most likely had contained explosive materials.  He was confident they’d find the C-4 packets and suicide vests inside that warehouse, just as their Intel had stated.  No, his concern now was there had been so much activity pulling out all the stops in order to get this evidence so quickly that somewhere along the way, one or more of their actions may have tipped off someone in Parvis’s organization.

He wasn’t in charge of the task force but he could pull in whoever might be available from his own FBI team.  So, he’d made the call to everyone not tied up just then on surveillance.  He wanted to review where they were at and where they were going, and quickly, before this all blew up and they’d be forced to start making arrests prematurely, just to avoid having these terrorists all scattering and coming back again later, somewhere else.  As he headed down to the conference room where some of his team were now gathered and where others who could do so were calling in, he hoped it wasn’t already too late.

There were five men and three women waiting when he walked in.  And, after everyone on the phone had identified themselves, he had an additional eight men and five women.  He quickly explained his concerns to them and asked if anyone had seen any behavior suggesting somebody out there might be getting suspicious.  Did they know of any leaks?  What were their thoughts?

One of the women in the room said, “Joe and I have been taking turns watching that cab driver guy Abdul-Washeed from ten this morning until maybe an hour ago.  The guy has no clue.  But, he wasn’t picking up fares today.  It looked like he was maybe running some errands.”  Looking at the speaker phone sitting on the conference room table, she called out, “Jen?  Kyle?  What’s Abdul-Washeed up to now?”

Kyle’s voice answered, saying, “It looks like he’s heading back out to that warehouse.  We’re almost there.  Probably just routine but we’re on it.”  He and Jen were now the ones watching the cab driver.

Garman listened as each member gave him a quick summary of what they’d noticed, whom they’d monitored, where they’d been, etc.  Then he heard from those who had been tasked with background checks and following up on various leads, rather than doing any surveillance.  So far, so good; they’d all been careful.

Collinsworth said, “Some of Pritchard’s Home Security guys might have rocked the boat.  I heard them earlier … they were checking out that mosque, you know?  From a couple of the comments they made, I got the impression they may have upset some people during their interviews.”

“What do you mean?” asked Garman.

“Well, they were being pushy, throwing their weight around.  Making demands …”

Kyle’s voice suddenly interrupted.  “Shit!  We just got orders to move in.  It’s going down
now
, folks!  Gotta go!”

Other voices came over the speaker phone, all saying the same thing.  They’d been directed to arrest everyone and were signing out to go do that.  Garman tried getting more info but for several minutes, nobody would answer him.  There were a couple of phones which did remain connected to the conference room, however, and from the background noises on these, it was obvious pandemonium had broken out, apparently out at the warehouse site.

Then, Garman got a call from Pritchard himself, advising him they were to grab everyone else and make a clean sweep, bringing in all suspects.  Garmen asked, “What the hell is going on?”

Pritchard explained, “We found them getting ready to move all their explosives.  Parvis must have asked them to do that.  They have a big truck which our teams watched get loaded up out there at that warehouse and it was getting ready to leave.  No way could we allow that, so I gave the word to arrest them.  We don’t need any warrants for this since we’ve got them all red-handed.  That truck has enough C-4 on it to blow up half the city.”

Two hours later, everyone who’d been put under surveillance had either been arrested or brought in for questioning.  All seventeen of the individuals whom Robert’s team had initially identified, along with a dozen more people known to have associated with either Parvis or Abdul-Washeed, had quickly been apprehended.  There hadn’t been any resistance.  The element of surprise combined with the quick actions by such a large task force made all the difference.

The task force indeed had an airtight case due to catching them with the explosive materials and vests.  Pritchard was already getting kudos for having done such a great job.

Of course, calls had gone out immediately, right while all of these arrests had been happening.  Calls to both Chicago and New York.

-----

Missy had been feeding Mike with her descriptions and comments for a couple of hours.  Just like at the warehouse in Philadelphia, she’d named all the persons whose scents she’d encountered.  Then, as she later would find the actual persons themselves, she’d been able to match them up and provide detailed physical descriptions to correspond with these names.

Millie and Oliver had done well, once again leading them to a large group of terrorists, many recently arrived from the Mid-East, along with a huge supply of explosives.  She located the C-4 packets with a cache of steel ball bearings plus detonating devices in one of the smaller outbuildings but the suicide vests were all inside the large barn.  These were all very similar to what she’d noted in Philly.

Then it happened.  She sensed there was a commotion of some sort back out in the barn.

She had made her way into the large farmhouse which, not surprisingly, turned out to be housing more than twenty individuals, mostly new arrivals.  When she quickly blinked herself back out to the barn to learn whatever might have happened, she found there was quite a scramble going on and it was obvious they were getting ready to evacuate.  Equipment was being gathered and some vehicles were being brought up.  She was able to understand enough of the comments being yelled back and forth to know an alarm of some sort had been raised.

Mike?  Does anyone back there understand why everyone out here would suddenly be preparing to leave?
  When she got his affirmative answer, she teleported herself directly to where he was.

She could see both Robert and Major Schermerhorn were on the phone. 
Mike!  I’m right here with you now.  Talk to me.  Tell me what’s going on.

Mike waved to the others in the room, beckoning them to join him and when they approached, he said, “Missy’s right here.  We need to explain what we’ve just learned … she says they’re suddenly getting ready to leave out there at the farm.”

“They must have heard about Philly,” said Oliver.  Since he couldn’t see where Missy was, he stared at Mike.

Drew’s voice came from the speaker phone.  “Is Missy there?  Good.  We’re only now hearing about this.  Apparently, the task force in Philadelphia is arresting everyone.  Something must have alarmed the terrorists back there because they were getting ready to empty out that warehouse.”

Mike, tell them I understand now.  That would explain things here as well.  They obviously just received word, either the same alarm or else they learned about the arrests which are going on back there.  In any case, they are now packing up and preparing to move from this farm to someplace else.

Mike repeated Missy’s words to the others just as Robert walked up.

Robert said, “Missy, I just got off the phone with the FBI Director.”  He looked around at the others and then at Mike.  “His orders are for our team to move in here if there’s any sign our suspects might be trying to go anywhere, especially if they try to move their explosives.  This is coming from Homeland Security.  He’s not happy we may need to take this step but at least we already have a large enough force already in position and we can do this.”

“Okay, we’re hearing the same thing over here at “P” Branch as well,” announced Drew.  “Hopefully, your task force can avoid repeating any of the FBI’s more disastrous assault incidents like those which occurred years ago.  We don’t want any headlines about this.”

Mike, tell them I understand.  I’m going back out there but, from what I saw, that’s exactly what’s going on.  They were preparing to evacuate.  I’ll go check on the explosives out there and let you know.
  Missy then teleported herself back to the farm.

She’d only been away for perhaps ten minutes but in that time, someone had already pulled a truck up in front of where the explosives were being stored. 
Mike!  It’s happening here.  These guys are packing up and moving out.  The sooner the task force moves in, the better.

Not long after that things got rather exciting as task force vehicles suddenly drove up and crashed right through the gate at the entrance.  Soon there were armed law enforcement people from several agencies swarming all over the place, working together to make the arrests.  This sudden arrival by such a superior force caught the terrorists at the farm by surprise and, with minimal resistance, all suspects were quickly captured and placed into custody.

Once the explosives and suicide vests were then located, assuring this bust was equally as good as the one in Philly, things began to settle down.  However, it wasn’t until several hours later before Missy was finally able to confirm that, indeed, everyone whose scent she had identified upon first entering and examining the farm was present and accounted for.  The investigation would continue, of course, and anyone who might have associated in the past with those now being arrested would also be watched.  However, there didn’t appear to be any “missing” terrorists they’d need to worry about for Chicago.