Missy Makes Mayhem (Missy the Werecat Book 5) (29 page)

Nov 22, 2019

Tracy woke up when Missy once again returned, accompanied by a rather large energy pulse.  She sat up and checked the digital display on her alarm clock which read 4:29 a.m.  “Oh, goody!  You’re back.  What’s with all this energy?  Jeez, can’t you let a girl sleep?”

“Sorry, I got myself all ready, just in case, but then didn’t need to do all that much so I’m still pretty amped up.  I did manage to expend some of my excess energy up in the mountains before returning here but I guess … well …”  Tracy’s bed began to slowly rise and then floated a few feet above the floor with her still sitting in it.  Missy giggled at her friend’s reaction and then slowly lowered the bed back down.

“
Really
?”  Now fully awake, Tracy created three balls of light which she floated over Missy’s bed.  She then could see her roommate, who was pulling her favorite tee shirt down over her head.  “You couldn’t like run around out there a bit longer? Climb some trees?  Kill some animals?  Maybe use it all up?  Why must I be the one to suffer the brunt of your evil ways?”

“Very funny.  Had things gone as planned, I’d have spent the night with Mike, having my evil ways with him.”  Missy emitted a huge wistful sigh.  “Unfortunately, all hell broke loose instead and all I got to do was watch it happen.  For whatever reason, the terrorist cell in Philly decided they needed to empty out their warehouse and move their stuff somewhere else.  Homeland Security decided to grab everyone they possibly could and, as you can imagine, that made the people I was watching out at this farm near Chicago decide they’d better scatter.  So, the good news is we were already prepared to prevent anything like that from happening and managed to grab everyone out there as well.”

“Wow!  You’re saying lots of arrests were made?  Terrorists were apprehended?  This is all gonna be on the news, right?”

“Oh, definitely!  Nobody got killed or anything and all the explosives at both locations were safely confiscated.  Homeland Security is claiming this to be a huge win.  They’ll be sorting through everything for several months but it’s obvious they’ve stopped what could have been a big disaster.  The general public won’t learn what the CIA reported about the threat to our three parades, of course.  At least, not anytime soon.  But, with all the explosives which turned up, clearly there were terrorist acts being planned.”

Tracy said, “What about the third terrorist cell?”

“Yeah, that’s the bad news.  But, you won’t be hearing about that from the media.”

-----

The Secretary of Defense had once again assembled key officials from the military, Homeland Security, the FBI and CIA, both houses of Congress, and high ranking cabinet members from the White House.  Drew was there from “P” Branch, of course.  And, everyone had previously been cleared to know about supernaturals although not everyone was aware the U.S. government was actually now using them.

The discussion about the latest crisis had been going on for forty minutes.  Deputy Secretary of State Ted Hanson, as usual, was highly critical of everything that had happened.  Summing up, he said to the Secretary of Homeland Security, “So your man Pritchard couldn’t just have our task force
watch
everyone?  Instead, he had his investigators go out like bulls in a china shop and
interrogate
members of that mosque in Philly?  No doubt that’s why their cell leader Parvis wanted to clear out of that warehouse … he knew his operation had been compromised.”

The Homeland Security Secretary said, “We don’t know yet why they were moving all their explosives.  And, we couldn’t allow them to just drive off in that truck.  The risk was too great.  If they managed to evade our surveillance, not only would all the evidence proving these guys were terrorists be gone but they’d be using those explosives somewhere else.  Unacceptable.”

“But that’s exactly what those New York based terrorists will now be doing!” Hanson sputtered.  “When those “P” Branch witches go looking for them, all they’ll find will be an empty warehouse!”  He looked over at Drew who had already explained Robert Ulrey had his team heading to Newark Airport.  However, if indeed the search only turned up vacant facilities, Drew wasn’t optimistic they’d have any way of finding where the terrorists might have gone.  The objects from Afghanistan, when combined, might lead to where the terrorists had been.  However, they simply wouldn’t provide strong enough energy signals to track any individuals after that.

Congressman Barrows said, “I may have come to this party a little late.  Tell me again why we have witches finding terrorists?  I’ll concede it looks as though these witches may have been right, from all the evidence we now have obtained, but I can understand why Pritchard wanted more to go on.  I mean, until his guys saw that truck being loaded, there wasn’t any hard evidence at all.  I have every confidence in our police and FBI investigators.  They’ll find these terrorists using tried and true proven procedures.  I’d rather rely on them and all the high technology they’re using than hope we’ll get any more lucky guesses from the Land of Oz.”

“I disagree,” said Hanson.  “And, this was far from any lucky guesses.  The problem is we’re keeping everything about these witches much too secret.  Hell, half the people in this room still have no clue what miracles these supernaturals are capable of.”

Charles Winword from the CIA laughed.  “Ted, you’re the one always saying we can’t let the rest of the world know any details about our witches.  And, now you’re complaining about too much secrecy?”

“I’m not asking to share secrets with the rest of the world.  But, those of us gathered right here ought to know a lot more than what we’ve been told.”  Hanson looked over at Drew and asked, “For example, what’s your angel of death been doing in all this?  How come I haven’t heard anything about him yet?”

Drew looked around the room and grimaced.  “For those wondering who Ted is referring to, we have a special asset who not only rescued those three Germans from the Taliban back in January but this asset also managed to locate that new base they had over there.”

Hanson grumbled, “See what I mean?  Drew always calls his guy a special asset but never really explains how this witch manages to do what he does. We all realize that new base was subsequently destroyed during Campaign Angel’s Wing.  And this witch somehow helped with that, right?”  He looked around the room at the others to see how many were seeing his point.

Drew smiled at Hanson.  “Yes, our asset actively participated in the combat operations over there.  Her assistance made a huge difference and helped with the success of that campaign.  However, we’re not here to review any details of what she did then.  Or, to discuss her role in rescuing Candace Axtell, which some folks in this room are probably not aware of.”

“Wow!  Wait a minute!  Your guy is a
woman
?” Hanson blurted.  Then he laughed.  “Of course!  No wonder those Germans called her an
angel
.  Next you’ll be telling me she’s young and beautiful, right?”

The Defense Secretary looked at Drew and then looked around the room.  “I’ve met the young lady, actually.  And, I don’t see how we can keep having her help us without letting the others in this group know a bit more about her.  Maybe Ted is right about our keeping too many secrets from ourselves.  But, her identity as well as her abilities must continue being guarded.  This is about one of our Nation’s highest priority weapons systems.  Does everyone in this room understand that?”

Drew watched as the others all acknowledged what the Defense Secretary was getting at.  Then he said, “Getting back to Ted’s original question, our special asset was actually right there, at the scene in Chicago, when all the arrests were made.  She eventually confirmed every member of the Chicago cell has indeed been apprehended.”

“What about at Philly?  Was she there as well?”

“Yes, she was there earlier.  She’s the one who confirmed the explosives and suicide vests were in that warehouse.  Once Robert Ulrey’s finder witches succeeded in locating the warehouse, we had her go inside.  She described what was in there, who was in there and who was not in there.  There are four Philly cell members who were not there and were not placed under initial surveillance.  It’s yet to be determined whether or not they now might be in custody.  If we’re lucky, perhaps they’ll have joined the cell in New York City.”

Barrows said, “You’re going much too fast, Drew.  You need to explain some of these things.  You’re saying your angel witch was in there with the terrorists?  And, she can describe members who were
not
in there?”

The Homeland Security Secretary said, “I remember all that reconnaissance she did concerning that Taliban base.  She was inside there as well.  Can she somehow make herself
invisible
?”

Drew looked at the Defense Secretary and Charles Winword, who both had met Missy and had read her file.  But, he hadn’t had a chance yet to update them about her new ability.  “There are a great many supernatural powers and abilities which this special asset possesses, and yes … that’s one of them.  She can be invisible.  She also can recognize and identify every person’s unique scent.  That’s how she knows four members in Philly have not yet been accounted for.”

There were a few moments of complete silence as the others processed what Drew had just explained.  Then, several voices all spoke at once, most exclaiming shock and disbelief.  Someone asked, “Can’t you send her back to Philly so she can track down whoever is missing?”

“That’s one of the actions we have planned, yes.”  Drew then went on to outline what “P” Branch was hoping could be done.  “Robert Ulrey will use the New York objects sent back from Afghanistan to hopefully have his finder witches locate the facilities which the third terrorist cell has been using.  As Ted mentioned, we are expecting to find those facilities vacant.  However, they’ll have left their scents behind and our special asset can go in and identify those.  Think of this as though we were gathering fingerprints with our high tech devices.  She can later match up each person’s scent to the actual individual once we find them.

“If we get lucky, one or more of our missing terrorists from Philly might be with them.  If so, we’ll next have her visit and examine the home of every known associate for this Philly group.  Assuming the person now in New York did live in Philly and she finds their home?  We then can provide our finder witches with an object from there, owned by this individual, which they can use to track that person down in New York.

“Once that person is located, our special asset can determine if the other cell members are also nearby.  We believe this plan provides our best hope for containing this third cell.  These people are very knowledgeable about all the high tech methods which we have, due to what was recently leaked by the traitor from Homeland Security.  However, they won’t know about our witches.”

There was some more discussion and Drew was asked several questions about this plan which his agency had come up with.  Someone referred to it as a “
witch-tech
” plan rather than a high tech plan and many started calling it that afterwards.  When the meeting ended, everyone was well aware there were no guarantees but there was some optimism.  Maybe their witch-tech plan might yet save the day.

-----

Arvind Pancholi had insisted on meeting face to face with Felipe Benedict prior to depositing what amounted to half his entire life’s savings in the traitor’s bank account.  It had not been easy to convert all his various assets into cash, but -- having known he’d eventually want to do so at some point -- it hadn’t been all that difficult either.  He’d carefully made all his investments over the years so cashing them out, when the time came, would be manageable.

But he needed to be certain Benedict would be delivering everything he’d promised concerning this Cancun Cancan Girl and the FBI’s psychic.  His ability as a water witch to know when a person was telling the truth or lying could only be used when that person was actually in his presence.  Once he assured himself Benedict fully intended to provide everything they’d agreed upon, arrangements for payment would then be completed. 

“Your files on these two individuals are complete and accurate?  There can’t be any mix-up or mistaken identity … if this information turns out to be false, I guarantee you’ll regret it.”  Pancholi had never needed to carry out any of his threats but, had it been necessary, he’d always been fully prepared to do so.  Early in his career, he’d considered working as an assassin rather than as a spy.  His ability to control all the fluids inside anyone within a hundred feet gave him several ways to kill them.  Or, to torture them, should that be called for.

But, he’d left such acts of violence far behind when he’d left India.  Violence begat violence and he much preferred his chosen role, quietly manipulating from behind the scenes rather than exposing himself.  He was careful and his risks were minimal.  He was not one who thrived on the adrenalin rush associated with higher risk actions.  No, he was quite content to merely live as he’d been living, saving his money gradually for the future.  And, his future had now arrived.

Benedict said, “Your client will be more than satisfied with the dossiers I’ve put together.  Especially the one on the girl.  She has quite an amazing history but what she’s doing now is even more amazing.”

Pancholi nodded; if she was a supernatural, as he suspected, then indeed it was likely there would be some very incredible things in those files.  “My client is insisting on exclusivity.  If you should sell this information to anyone else?”