Episode II – Diluvium Eventus
Cataclysm Aftermath
It is said that on 11 September 2001 the world changed forever. It was the first time America had been attacked on its home soil by foreign terrorists. (Well actually the second as the bomb at the World Trade centre some years previous must count). People became more conscious of security and New Yorkers developed an underlying fear that persists to this day.
What is not so widely mentioned, as it is an appalling thought to most in the western world, that in some parts of the world, people celebrated as the twin towers came down, and cheered as people died. Palestinians in the occupied territories held parties, celebrating the attack on the Great Satan, the source of all evil and backer of an even worse country in their eyes, Israel.
How can people support such atrocities? Desperation, hopelessness? Possibly. But when we see eight year old children being used as bombers, where the bomb is detonated by remote control. When we see people with downs syndrome being used to bomb a crowded market in Baghdad it seems that there is some guiding force of evil using who ever they can to achieve their aims.
Was it really just those nineteen hijackers that day? Was there not a controlling mind, in the shadows, plotting? What about the Seven – Seven bombers on the London underground, was it only that team or was there someone higher up a chain of command pulling the strings?
Nine eleven was such a shock, as it brought home to people, that such plotters existed. Cold and calculating, striking when we are not aware.
The Seven – Seven bombings were a shock as well, as the bombers were British born Muslims, ordinary people who had been living ordinary lives before they carried out their mission. How could we know who they were?
Now another shock has occurred, at the secret UK centre where they monitor the crossing between Earth and those from the alternate universe and dimension of the Mystical Realms and other related issues. This secret base in North London, known to those in the know as “The Facility”, has been levelled by a lorry bomb, while by good fortune, the special operations team were elsewhere on other duties and now must pick up the pieces as it were, even worse they could be potential targets for whoever has perpetrated this latest atrocity
Rochester, New Hampshire
United States of America
Matthew Sands checked his watch as he went to answer the front door, it was five thirty in the afternoon, and he had just been home for ten minutes. Matthew had been about to take his son Frank to the baseball ground for practice, while Susan his wife helped his daughter Rebecca with her homework from school, (Originally she was his niece, his dead sister’s daughter, but he and his wife had legally adopted her as their own daughter).
Matthew opened the door to see two men in business suits, dark glasses and one of them had an ear piece in his ear.
“Who are you?” Matthew asked, slightly unnerved
“We are here for Miss Rebecca Sands” said one of the men.
Matthew was incensed, and he could tell a federal agent when he saw one, as in his job as a lawyer he had dealt with them. In one sense he was relieved that it was he who had answered the door and not Rebecca, (who had shown herself to be a very good, loving and helpful daughter). If she had opened it, it would have reopened nightmares for her, when she was seemingly being persecuted by the NYPD for a crime she had not done in Miami, a state she had never been to. Matthew also remembered the time when, as they were trying to leave for the airport they had been approached apparently by two NYPD detectives, although later they tunred out to be from internal affairs, and the shock
had put Rebecca in the hospital with a severe panic reaction.
“What do you want with my daughter?” Matthew demanded, and then went on “She was cleared by the New York Police Departments own internal affairs bureau. My legal firm also got her cleared by the police in Miami. In fact we are due to have a meeting to finalise the settlement the NYPD are paying her because of the malfeasance of some of their own officers”
The other man in a suit slowly shook his head, and then he and the other man pulled out their badges, “We are not here to arrest your daughter, we are part of her protection detail”
“What!” exclaimed Matthew, and then he looked at the badges.
They were from the
United States Secret Service
“Why?” Matthew asked in disbelief, “I thought you only protected presidents and their families”
“This is a special assignment” replied the first secret service agent.
“You two take watch outside and I will call you in later” came a female Irish sounding voice from behind Matthew; worryingly this one was inside the house
The two secret service agents replied “Yes Mam” and turned and headed back to their car
Matthew turned around to see a familiar face, he had first seen her in a hospital in New York, when Rebecca was under sedation and then when he had shared a dream experience with Rebecca.
It was a female leprechaun by the name of Rosie O’Brien
Matthew was speechless
The leprechaun pulled from a pocket a small crystal amulet on a silver chain and handed it to Matthew
“Get Rebecca to wear this” Rosie ordered, “under her clothes if she has to”
“What is it?” Matthew asked
“It is an amulet of protection” explained Rosie, “It protects against spells and deflects distance attack weapons”
Matthew looked at the amulet in his hands. Something was up, especially if the Department of Homeland Security saw fit to send a protection detail and now a mythical and magical creature normally found only in the pages of books of fairy stories to protect her. “What’s going on?” he demanded.
“Remember that your niece was a minor spirit of virtue” Rosie questioned
“Yeah, she was the Spirit of Kindness” Matthew replied, “But she gave that up, she has a human soul, and my wife and I adopted her so she is
our daughter now”
Matthew so liked emphasising the that she was now their child
“And it was jolly decent of you two to do that” Rosie countered, “but I was referring to the place where she became fully human”
“Why? It is someplace in London , England. What about it?”
“It was bombed today” Rosie answered, “We believe by a lorry bomb”
“You’re kidding” Matthew said with a touch of unbelief in his voice
“I only wish I were Mr Sands” Rosie said forcefully, “A lot of good people died today”
“But why?”
“We don’t know, all we know is that when the management of the place was changed, there were a few individuals who disagreed with the change in policy, and we have not yet accounted for them”
“Are you saying Rebecca’s life is in danger?”
“Mr Sands, we would not be here if that were not a possibility.” Rosie explained, “Some of those individuals believed in killing anything that was not fully human. They would kill Rebecca with not a moment’s hesitation and claim it was for national security. Now go and give that amulet to Rebecca, and I will do the talking”
Meekly Matthew followed Rosie into the living room, this was something Rebecca did not need especially after all the troubles that had befallen her when she first touched American soil, and even here in New Hampshire, when she was by luck saved from two men, by her grandfather, after some interfering old woman had turned her away from the safety of a church building, just because her biological parents were never married.
Susan his wife was sitting at the table with a protective arm on Rebecca’s shoulder. Rebecca looked up.
“Rosie” Rebecca squealed with delight
“Who’s that love?” Susan asked
“It’s Rosie O’Brien” Rebecca quickly explained, “She was nice to me”
“Those were better times” Rosie replied, “But Rebecca, I have something important to tell you, and it is not going to be pleasant…”
***
Colonel Samuel Peters sat down on a seat in the Midfield concourse C to put his shoes back on after he had cleared security to go airside while he awaited his United Airlines flight back to London.
[img=600x400]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bc/Inside_Concourse_C.jpg[/img]
The heightened security since the bombing in London that took out the Facility meant he did not have his carry on luggage. Even his keys and his watch had had to go in the hold.
Whether he would see them at Heathrow would be anyone’s guess
While he was doing up his laces, he became aware of a person behind him, standing over him.
He stood up and turned around; it appeared to be a young woman in a grey hooded cloak. The hood was up and on her forehead was a strange tattoo, looking like the letter M and the letter T merged into one character.
“Can I help you?” He asked the woman
“You are Colonel Samuel Peters of the Inter Dimensional Entity Control” she replied in a strange accent, the colonel was not familiar with.
“I’m sorry Mam, you must have mistaken me for someone else” The colonel coolly said, trying his hardest to conceal the alarm he felt that someone knew who he was.
“Don’t try that with me” the woman replied and from nowhere pulled a large knife made of crystal glass. The colonel also noticed it was hollow with some green liquid inside. “You are an enemy of our lord the Magnus Timor” she exclaimed as she brought the glass dagger down on the colonel.
The woman was obviously some amateur as Samuel was easily able to block her first lunge, pin her to the ground and wrest the glass dagger from her hand.
Suddenly the woman muttered a short incantation, and the colonel was sent flying across the concourse.
This woman was using magic!!
As the colonel lay on the floor he saw the woman stand up, and the hood fall from her head and then he noticed the shape of her ears.
She was a female elf
The female elf walked towards the colonel on the floor as he tried to crawl on his back to get away.
All the while she was chanting an incantation.
Then lightning started to arc around her body.
The colonel realised he still had her glass dagger in his hand. He had no choice. He threw the dagger at the female elf and struck her in the lower abdomen. Suddenly the lightning stopped as the female elf sank to her knees. Wisps of smoke started to appear as she started to smoulder, then suddenly she erupted into flames, and in seconds she was ash.
“What the hell was that?” shouted a security guard who had seen the confrontation.
“That was someone trying to kill me” Samuel replied.
Several police officers arrived and Samuel was ordered to stay on the ground while he was handcuffed and pulled to his feet, protesting that it had been him that had been attacked.
The airport security was having none of it, one of them had witnessed him killing a woman in a fight, well it seemed like a woman, even though there was a small pile of fine ash instead of a body
+
The colonel was in a cell for about forty five minutes when the door was opened and an elderly man came in.
“Who are you?” Samuel asked
“All in good time Colonel” the elderly man replied.
The colonel recognised the voice; it had been the man who had sat on the chairman’s right when she had called him to appear before The Committee.
“So what’s The Committee doing listening to police broadcasts from the airport” Samuel asked
“You are good colonel” The elderly man started, “I must grant you that, but you must see now why some considered the Mystical Realms a threat”
“Did you set that up?” Samuel demanded
The elderly man shook his head, “no Colonel, we are as confused as you are” Then he added, “By the way did you see what type of I-D-E it was?”
“It was an elf”
The elderly man went hmm, then asked “I thought the elves were in the service of the trolls and therefore working for us”
“You mean our partners” Samuel corrected
The elderly man grinned, “If you like to put it that way” then he thought a bit. “Are you sure it was not a drow?”
Samuel shook his head, “Drow are darker skinned, this was definitely an elf, and she had some kind of tat on her forehead”
“That is odd colonel, isn’t it” the elderly man commented.
“Yeah” retorted the colonel, “but I need to get back to see how much of a team I have left”
“Indeed, and you are booked on the next flight. I have dealt with the LEO’s and we have obtained all footage that was caught on the CCTV”
“That’s much appreciated sir” Samuel replied with a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“Colonel” the elderly man continued, “We may have been on opposite sides, indeed I was in on the Facility when the Brits were in charge and I was terribly disappointed at the way Mr Blue let the side down, but we both have one aim in common”
“And what would that be?”
“We do not want entities from the Mystical Realms threatening the national security of this country”
“Or our allies” Samuel chipped in.
“As you wish colonel or their existence becoming known to the wider public”
“From my understanding sir, the leadership in the Mystical Realms want the same thing, the prevention of their people from interfering with our world and staying hidden”
“So they say Colonel, so they say”
“Is that all sir?”
“For the moment colonel” elderly man conceded, “But between you and me, I have to say, the involvement of an IDE in attacking you suggests it might not have been Al Qaeda who attacked the Facility in London. But that is what we will be leading the British police to believe”
With that, the elderly man pulled from his pocket a small carton of orange juice and pierced the small silver dot with the straw and started drinking and then left.
A minute later another security guard came and released him, and he was sent on his way to catch his flight, which for some reason had been delayed, although Samuel suspected the elderly gentleman from the Committee had had a hand in it.
***
Slowly Hogan came round.
He was lying on a couch, in what looked like the private apartment of the Troll Clan chief of the Manjura, with the Clan Chief of the Manjura sitting by the stone fireplace, resting his eyes.
“What happened?” Hogan mumbled and then sat up.
The last thing he recalled was following Captain Strang into the wormhole to go to the Realm of Mortals, or Earth as the humans called it, and then he was waking up here.
Then he noticed his clothes were blood stained. On a small table was an empty vial of the total healing potion that the trolls carried, but had got loyal elven apothecaries to make up.
He had obviously been administered it while he was unconscious.
“Sire?” Hogan said quietly
No response – the troll had obviously dropped off to sleep in his chair
“Sire?” Hogan repeated, a bit more loudly.
The troll clan chief started to stir. Opened his eyes and then shook his head. Next he rubbed his eyes and yawned.
“Sorry Leprechaun” The clan chief mumbled, then corrected himself, “I mean sorry, Mr Hogan O’Brian. I must have dozed off”
“What happened sire?”
The clan chief blinked a few times as he completed waking up.
“Sire?”
The clan chief looked wistfully at Hogan, “I’m so glad you have recovered”
“What do you mean, recovered sire, what happened?”
“Hogan what is the last thing you remember before waking up here” the troll clan chief asked
Hogan tried to wrack his brain, then said “Strang and I were going back to Earth through the crossing tunnels to speak with the humans at their place called the Facility”
“That’s all?”
“Yes sire, I can only remember, we had created the wormhole as the humans call them, and Strang went through first, I followed on because I forgot the artefact that we wanted to show the humans and had to retrieve it from the table. Otherwise I would have been at Strang’s side”
“You were most fortunate Hogan for that lapse of memory” The Clan Chief of the Manjura sighed
“Why? What happened”
The clan chief of the Manjura stood up and went to look at the window, and gazed out at the rest of the citadel. Then he turned back to Hogan, and Hogan noticed a big tear in the clan chief’s eye.
“Strang’s dead” The Clan Chief of the Manjura said bluntly,
“How?” Hogan asked, clearly shocked at this news
The Clan chief of the Manjura then explained. “There was some kind of explosion that came through from the world of the humans. Strang took the full blast of it, which was why you survived. We were able to pull you both out before the crossing collapsed because of the explosion, but Strang was killed outright, you were just barely alive”, then the troll whispered, “I never got to say goodbye to him” and stifled a sob
Hogan was silent for a moment. “You loved him, didn’t you?” Hogan ventured
The troll clan chief just nodded, unable to speak for the moment.
“And nobody ever found out” Hogan asked
“No, because we were careful, so please don’t say anything, I do not want Strang’s memory sullied by citadel gossip”
“I understand sire, it is like that with some of the humans I have encountered, but some are more what they call progressive, but any how Sire. How could this happen, crossing is so routine nowadays”
The Clan Chief of the Manjura thought for a moment, “It came from their side, the humans that is”
Hogan thought for a moment, then asked, “You’re not saying it was a deliberate attack on us”
“I don’t know what to think, Mr Hogan O’Brian. Nothing in what you and Strang have ever said has indicated that the humans have gone back to there way they were under the Spirit of Malice”
“That would be Set, the entity that took over the human known as Mr Blue?” Hogan asked
“Yes” the troll answered, “But we have him imprisoned and I know that the Colonel is an honourable man, he would never have done this to us”
“Assuming there has not been another, change of policy” Hogan ventured.
“Is that possible?” The toll looked alarmed, “Could there have been an overthrow at their Facility place”
“I don’t know, I would have to try my G2 contacts in Ireland”
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
“Enter” yelled the Clan Chief of the Manjura
The door creaked open, and in walked another leprechaun.
[img=200x300]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Leprechaun_ill_artlibre_jnl.png[/img]
“Shamus McTuckle?” Hogan said in surprise, “What brings you away from Ireland to Karam Tag Chou”
“I bring grave news from the realm of humans” Shamus said in a hushed tone
“So the humans have turned against us once more?” The Clan Chief of the Manjura jumped in with.
Shamus was suddenly very irritated with the troll, “Absolutely not, don’t be a fool”
Hogan’s jaw dropped, he would never dare address a troll clan chief as a fool, but the troll took it in his stride.
“Sorry Mr McTuckle” the troll apologised, “I lost my best captain today when Hogan and Captain Strang tried to gate into that place called the facility. We wondered if it had been some kind of weapon tested against the dimension jump devices we use to make crossings”
Shamus shook his head, “No Clan Chief”
”A bit more respectable form of address” Hogan thought
Shamus went on, “Persons or entities unknown drove what the humans call a lorry bomb into the underground part where they park their wheeled devices known as cars. It was a fearsome weapon and it destroyed not only the whole building of the Facility, but a few other buildings around the area sustained damage. We still do not know if there were any survivors, and over a hundred humans and five leprechauns were working there at the time”
“What!” Hogan exclaimed
“Indeed” Shamus continued “And from what we can work out, is that the weapon used against the Facility, was there for a while as it was disguised to look like some kind of lorry they would be expecting, some kind of army transport. The moment you gated in, it was triggered”
“Coincidence of timing?” the troll asked
“Indeed not Clan Chief”, Shamus replied, “A leprechaun who was out to lunch at the time, picked up the tell tale sign of a locator of dimension jump orbs”
“What are you saying?” Hogan asked.
“The device was set to trigger as soon as someone gated in. Probably to as they say on Earth, kill two birds with one stone” Shamus explained.
The troll shook his head in disbelief, “The building they gated from here was almost destroyed, it was just lucky that the work of the stone giants just about withstood the blast that came from the crossing, plus the fact that Captain Strang caught the brunt of it” then the clan chief thumped his fist on a nearby table, “How has someone got hold of a Mystical Realms device and taken it to the Realm of Mortals?”
“Clan Chief” Shamus then asked, “Could this have been a rival troll clan, or indeed one from your ranks wishing to usurp your authority”
There was an awkward silence as the Clan Chief of the Manjura eyed Shamus McTuckle.
“My clan is fiercely loyal to me and my family, I know of no troll who has even uttered mumblings against my leadership” the Clan Chief of the Manjura snarled and then he added, “And as for those loyal to my dead father the Lord Low Troll, they were either killed when the Arch Orc took power with the help of the Spirit of Lust or they swore their allegiance to me”
“Never the less my dear clan chief” insisted Shamus, “It has to be asked. If you had died, who would take your place? You have no wife or concubine and no heir”
This is not getting us anywhere” Hogan chipped in.
“Indeed it is not” Shamus added, “So what about rival clans”
“They have no access to the known orbs” The troll answered in a flustered manner, “Even the Rachtal trolls who garrison this citadel do not have access and nor do they want it. They only wish to rub the collective noses of the clan of the Delethon in the fact that they are now the custodians of Karam Tag Chou and the Delethon are not”
“A ha” Shamus uttered, “What about the clan of the Delethon, surely during their tenure they could have obtained an orb on the Q T”
“Q T?” queried the troll, then realised what he had meant from his own time with the humans before his father had had his head severed and placed on a pike, “Oh you mean quiet. Well for your information, the Rachtal insisted we do an audit of the orbs, which I did personally and none were missing”
“So it is not the Delethon” Shamus replied, slightly backing down.
Hogan then interrupted, “Sire, Excellency, could it have been the Sect?”
“Who?” Shamus remarked, and then asked, “Who is this sect?”
***
Colonel Samuel Peters walked through the front door of
Paddington Green Police Station
To say Samuel was not a happy person would have been a gross understatement. He walked up to the front counter and flashed his ID badge at a middle aged woman at the front desk.
“I’m Colonel Samuel Peters of the United Stated fifty third Marine Corps, on secondment to your homeland security, and I want to see the bozo that has arrested what is left of my people”
The female clerk at the desk looked up at the badge, “Do you know the name of the arresting officer sir?”
“If I did that I would be asking for him by name” Samuel retorted
“I do have to ask this sir” the clerk persisted; I’m afraid you have to ring and make an appointment?”
“Look I have just got off of a plane from Washington DC after hearing that a lot of people under my command have been murdered by terrorists you Brits allowed through, to be met by a member of our embassy instead of my second in command, because an officer here arrested him and another member of my team when they showed up at the crime scene”
“You still need to ring in and make an appointment, it’s the new policy” the clerk insisted, then the clerk picked up a card, “here is the number of our customer service call centre”
The colonel took the card in total disbelief, “No wonder you needed our help in World War two” he retorted. Then the colonel insisted “I want to see your supervisor”
“If you ring the number you can make an appointment to see him too” the clerk responded without batting an eyelid.
She was the gate keeper and it was a matter of pride that nobody would get passed her without an appointment booked well in advance, no matter who they were
It seemed clear to the colonel, that even his gift for pushing things through had met its match in this woman at the police station. This was one of the things he hated about the UK, this obsessive insistence on pre-arranged appointments. He turned and left, the police station, he would have to go to the embassy, like the official who had met him at Heathrow had said, and put himself at the mercy of the diplomats. He was confident that Commander Mark Johnston, who he served with in Iraq, would not crack under police interrogation, but Jenny Green he was not so sure. She had never been a Special Forces agent, and indeed before she was recruited, she had just been a manager of a coffee shop in north east England.
Samuel had to walk well away from the police station before he could hail a taxi, as traffic around the police station had been banned in the wake of the bombing of The Facility. London had not seen this level of security since the seven-seven attacks back in 2005.
Samuel got into the taxi and asked to be taken to the American embassy or as near as he could get to it. He had to go there anyway as he had got the embassy official to take his luggage from the plane there, while he tried his luck with the police station, unsuccessfully as it had now transpired.
The taxi drove along Marylebone Road until Regent’s Park and then turned right onto Park Crescent and then onto Portland place. Then left onto Mortimer Street and then right onto to Great Titchfield Street, finally turning onto Little Portland Street to arrive at the American Embassy.
All along the journey, the taxi driver was talking about the bombing in North London and how the security clampdown had been swift. There had been raids on a number of mosques as the assumption it was an Al Qaeda operation. Samuel kept his counsel on that one. It could have been Al Qaeda attacking a government target, after the Mr Blue debacle it did for a time operate as a forensic laboratory working on the conventional war against terrorism, but that was a cover story for the rest of the intelligence and law enforcement community, to the rest of the public the Facility was just another data processing centre. The building had been chosen because it was non-descript.
The attack by the elf at Dulles international airport, like the unnamed member of The Committee had said, suggested there was an element from The Mystical Realms. The real puzzle was who on the Mystical Realms had the capability of travelling between the two worlds. The only groups with that capability were the trolls, who were now their allies and the special unit in G2, the Irish intelligence service unit employing the leprechaun agents. All the other orbs that allowed travel had been collected. Not even the humans had been granted the capability to move between the two worlds and to Samuel’s knowledge it had not been officially sought, apart from that black ops project started under the previous administration of the Facility, which had now been cancelled after the last person working on it had gone rouge and had been sent to an unknown dimension when he tried to escape.
Samuel got out of the taxi, walked up to the special entrance reserved for staff and showed his ID.
He was let in and saluted by the marine on duty. Samuel saluted back and then asked, “Is
Robert in?”
“I believe so sir” the marine answered, then asked “do you need me to summon someone to escort you sir?”
“That won’t be necessary son” Samuel replied, “I know where his office is” he added and then headed off to find the ambassador.
***
The Reflecting pool outside the Lincoln Memorial
Washington DC
(Midnight)
An elderly man sat looking out over the reflecting pool, sipping on a carton of orange juice.
A younger man in his thirties approached and sat down beside the elderly man
“I got your call sir” the younger man replied, “That was a dreadful business in London sir; I heard we lost over a hundred people”
“Exaggeration by the press, a lot of them work in the field or from home, most likely the death toll will be about seventy” the elderly man replied
“That’s still a lot sir” the younger man replied, “We have not lost that many people in one go to an
IED since
Beirut in eighty three”
“Oh we lost a lot more than that in eighty three” the elderly man answered, and then asked “So has Skyguard been re-activated”
“Yes sir” the man replied, then hesitated and then asked, “Do the rest of the committee know about this”
“I might brief them at our next meeting” The elderly man replied, “after all, all we are doing is trying to track down those who took out the Facility in London. I’m sure other members would have done the same if they were able”
“Have you told the colonel?” the younger man asked, “After all he was in command when it happened”
The elderly man drained the last of his orange juice and then replied “Davies, my dear boy, the colonel may be a fine marine, and he certainly helped take out those irritating drug lords in Columbia, but he does have a tendency to go, as the British say, native”
“What do you mean sir?”
“Well this trusting of those from IDW01, this alliance with the trolls”
“But I heard that was working quite well sir”
The elderly man sighed, “Really, so why did an entity from there try and kill the Colonel at Dulles? For all we know, it was an entity from that world that destroyed the Facility”
“No idea sir, may be a rival faction of trolls?” the younger man ventured
“Hardly likely from the colonel’s latest report, assuming they are telling him the truth”
“Why not sir?” the younger man asked, “After all before Mr Andrews was taken there and made their token emperor, they were at each other’s throats. From what I read sir, they were still at it when they had supposedly united behind the new emperor”
“If they are to be believed, only one faction has the capability to travel here and back, and they have another faction making sure that remains the case” the elderly man explained
“You’re forgetting the Irish” the younger man chipped in
“And why would they want to bomb a UK mainland facility?” the elderly man replied, “Sometimes Davies, you do fail to make sense”
“Sorry sir, I was just saying that it is not just the trolls who have that capability”
“Davies my dear boy, did you ever hear of a person called Timothy Zachary?” the elderly man then asked
“Wasn’t he the lab technicians who brought in those doppelganger assassins?” the younger man replied.
“The very same” The elderly man responded “I believe he was working on an artificial means to travel to IDW01 and other dimensions”
“Yes sir, and after he was sent to some unknown dimension while trying to escape, the trolls requested any machines and designs to be destroyed”
“Which Davies my boy, our beloved colonel acquiesced to”
“But I managed to find a copy of his notes sir” the younger man grinned, “I got one of the technicians in South London to build another device”
“So I found out, my boy” the elderly man replied.
The younger man’s jaw dropped
“There is not much that get’s passed me and the committee, Davies my boy, and there would be some on The Committee who would have had you done for insubordination for going against the wishes of a signed up ally of the United States”
“But sir, I thought we should still have the capability” the younger man responded, “Like you said sir, can we really trust the trolls”
“Don’t fret so, Davies my boy” the elderly man reassured him, then he turned and smiled at the younger man, “I admire your initiative and your thinking on this. I agree it only makes sense that if they can intrude into our world, we should be able to do the same, so I managed to persuade certain members that it would be in their best personal interests, not to oppose this or cause any trouble for you”
“Thank you sir” the younger man replied, looking quite pale.
“And Sue-Lim was an excellent choice” The elderly man then ventured.
“You know of her?”
“Yes Davies my boy, I read her psychological profile when I found out she was assigned your little task, she has no desire for riches and power like Mr Zachary, and is only interested in getting things to work. I heard that her progress was most encouraging. And should she be able to recreate Mr Zachary’s work, we will be able to take the war back to IDW01 if they indeed have betrayed us and struck the blow in London in the first place”
“The colonel is not going to be happy when he finds out sir, about the project, perhaps we should…” the younger man started
The elderly man interrupted, “Let
me deal with the Colonel if that becomes necessary, in my way” the elderly man replied and then stood up, walked over to a litter bin and placed his empty orange juice carton in it.
“But sir, if as you say he has gone native, perhaps it is time we”
“I said let me handle it Davies my boy, anyway I believe the Colonel has other problems at the moment, from what I heard from our man in London” the Elderly man then said, before he walked away leaving the younger man to ponder how his secret plans were not as secret as he thought.
As soon as the elderly man appeared to be out of sight, the younger man fished out his cell phone and hit a speed dial button.
The phone was answered, so the younger man spoke into it, “Kelly, sorry to wake you, I need the first flight to London you can get. And also arrange for a IDE clean up squad commander to meet me there” he said into the phone
Then in answer to a question by person on the other end of the phone said, “No, don’t inform him at all, or him this is a surprise inspection so we do not want them being tipped off to my visit”
***
Colonel Samuel Peters was dropped off by the official embassy car back at the Paddington Green police station.
This time a uniformed officer took him through to an interview room where he was left, so he sat down on the sole chair left in the room.
After five minutes he still had not seen anyone, it seemed obvious the British police detectives were stalling and he still had no idea if Jenny Green and Commander Mark Johnston had broken under police interrogation overnight, not that they would be believed if they did. The idea of an alternate universe upon which all the creatures from folklore and fairy tales had a real existence seemed hard to believe himself, and he had visited there!
“Hello” Samuel yelled, “I believe you were ordered to render all co-operation”
A brown haired man in his fifties and wearing a grey business suit, white shirt and black tie sauntered in.
“I’m detective chief inspector Stewart Hayes” the man introduced himself.
“And I’m” Samuel started, but was interrupted
“I know who you are” Stewart responded in an irritated tone, “And I don’t appreciate some Yank going above my head because he failed to brow beat our receptionist and thought he did not need to book a proper appointment like everyone else. I have a major terrorist attack to investigate and I can do with out this”
“And I don’t appreciate it when you have my people arrested” Samuel replied
“They were obstructing justice and withholding information from the police” Stewart countered.
“How were they obstructing justice” Samuel asked, showing equal irritation
“We need to know what exactly went on in that building” answered
“That’s classified” Samuel batted back
“Oh really, so secret that you can not tell us, when we are geared up to dealing with terrorists and are covered by the official secrets act ourselves” Stewart countered
“It’s very highly classified” Samuel insisted, “You do not have high enough clearance”
“And a former manager of a coffee shop has then?” Stewart snapped back.
“There are extenuating circumstances with Miss Green” Samuel said quietly
“Which are?” Stewart pressed
“Classified” Samuel responded.
“They would be!”
The detective chief inspector sighed, then tried a different tack, “Your people were conveniently in Ireland when your place was bombed. that seems more than a coincidence.”
This time Samuel had anger in his voice, “They were on official business which was why they were in Ireland. I sanctioned it myself. And guess what, I was in the US attending a courts marshal hearing for another one of my people who has been railroaded and then I was called before an oversight committee in Washington when this happened, are you going to say that that’s a more than a coincidence too?”
“Last year Mr Peters” Stewart said, dropping his voice this time, “I have visited a number of Home office forensic laboratories in the course of my duties, and last year I attended at the scene of an arson attack on another home office forensic laboratory, and what I saw in the remains of your building was nothing like what I saw then. Now I have a forensic team waiting to go in when the fire service give the all clear, so we need to know if there are any nasties, so
My team can take the right precautions”
Samuel shook his head “That’s not gonna happen detective” the site is classified, “We have our own team flying in from Langley”
“We are not yet another state of America” Stewart retorted, then added “I can keep Mr Johnston and Miss Green for up to forty two days on suspicion of terrorism if I don’t get answers”
Before Samuel had a chance to respond, Stewart continued “We have testimony from a survivor who was leaving the building at the time of the explosion, that he saw Miss Green stripped half naked being caressed by Mr Johnston in your firing practice range”
“And this witness volunteered this piece of innuendo up?” Samuel questioned,
He had some kind of inkling what Jenny Green may have been up to as he remembered how she was dressed when she had helped take down a doppelganger assassin that had been let loose in The Facility, but he had promised her she would not have to dress like that again, it wasn’t necessary to go for what was euphemistically called the Amazon look
“No” Stewart explained, “he was barely coherent due to shock, but when we asked if there was anyone who was absent he mentioned this incident after saying that they had gone off together, I suppose he thought they had departed to take things to the next level”
“Post Traumatic Stress is a funny thing detective” Samuel said confidently, “I have seen it make men imagine all kinds of strange things. I have my full faith in the professionalism of Marine Commander Mark Johnston since he was my right hand man in Iraq”
“And Miss Green?” Stewart asked
“Absolutely, she saved the life of the commander one time and proved herself in an unexpected combat situation. I would not have recruited her if I did not believe I could trust her with my life”
There was a knock on the door
“I’m busy” Yelled Stewart
“I’m sorry sir” said a young male constable with what appeared to the colonel to be a letter, “But the deputy chief constable has received release orders for the two people you took into custody”
“Who from?” Stewart demanded to know
“Orders direct from the Home Secretary’s office sir” the young constable replied, then added, “and the investigation has been handed over to the MOD police until a specialist team arrive”
At this, Samuel stood up, “Looks like we’re done here” he said to the detective chief inspector
“This is not over” Stewart replied, “I intend to put in a complaint that this is usurping the authority of the Met in London policing”
“File what ever protest you like” Samuel replied, “It won’t get anywhere”
With that Samuel walked out to the front desk, leaving the detective chief inspector to fume.
At the front desk he met with Commander Mark Johnston and Jenny Green, both standing with police officers and both in handcuffs. Mark looked fine, as he was used to such scrapes, but Jenny looked gaunt and shell shocked, just like the time when he first saw her when a retrieval team had left her naked, blindfolded and trussed up with cable ties on a cold interrogation floor all those months ago. Jenny could barely lift her head
“I want those off of my people” the colonel ordered
“And you are?” asked one of the police officers
“Colonel Samuel Peters” the colonel replied, “Head of the laboratory that was blown up” he added showing his id
The young police officer who had delivered the message came through and informed the officers that the two were being released without charge on orders of the home secretary.
“We don’t carry the keys for these” said the other police officer, “we are waiting for the custody sergeant”
“THEN GET HIM” The colonel ordered
“He’s busy processing other prisoners” the first officer replied.
The colonel gave him a look of disdain
It was about ten minutes before the custody sergeant showed up with the keys to the handcuffs, it was almost as if the officers were being deliberately obstinate since the DCI in charge of investigating the bombing had been overridden and pulled from the worst lorry bombing in London since
Bishopsgate in 1993.
As they were released from the handcuffs, Jenny could not bring herself to look at the Colonel and Mark; she had almost let them down. She had been about to tell all about the Facility when her gruelling interrogation was halted. They had kept her up for forty eight hours, working in teams to try and break her as she was seen as the weakest link. They had even told her that if she had been in America she would be on her way to Egypt or some other country on
Extraordinary Rendition. They seemed convinced that she and Mark had been responsible for the murder of the majority of the colleagues she had grown to know and like. She was not trained to resist interrogation techniques like the colonel and the commander and so she was almost on the point of admitting to planting the bomb herself.
“Come on” Samuel told the two of them, but Jenny was still in a daze.
“Jenny?” Mark said as he took her by the hand and lead Jenny out of the police station.
Hand in hand Mark lead Jenny as they followed Samuel to the official car, Jenny just kept quiet and just looked at the pavement, she thought she was stronger than this, but maybe she was not cut out for this life after all. She should never have agreed to give up being a coffee shop manager, as she had not mucked that up.
The colonel came to a stop at the edge of the pavement, and called someone on his cell phone, Jenny could not make out who it was, probably the driver of the car that was coming to pick them up.
Samuel put the phone away and turned to Jenny and Mark, “Mark, did you ask Jenny to adopt the Amazon look on the firing range?”
Jenny went red with embarrassment and whispered, “No Sam, Sorry sir”
“No Sam” Mark replied, “Someone issued Jenny with a handgun with a misaligned site, which meant she was not hitting the target. She didn’t realise this and..”
Samuel was able to guess the rest, “thought she would have better luck if she went Amazon as she was like that last time when she had a better hit rate”
“I was so frustrated Sam” Jenny whimpered, and tears started streaming down her face, “I suppose you want my resignation Sam”.
Samuel looked her in the eye, she was in for it now she thought, but then the colonel told her, “I don’t want your resignation, I want your focus, I have lost too many good people to that bomb two days ago, I don’t want to loose anyone else
Then Mark held her in his arms and kissed her on the forehead, “I don’t want you to leave either” he whispered.
Just then a light blue Vauxhall Cavalier pulled up
The colonel got in the front passenger seat, while Mark opened the rear car door on the right hand side for Jenny to get in. Jenny got in and did her seat belt up and laid her head against the car’s head rest. Mark closed the car door and then went round the back and got in beside her in the back and did his seat belt. Unconsciously Jenny moved her hand across to Mark, hoping he would hold it, she was not really thinking straight.
Then her luck was in as for a brief moment Mark clasped her hand, and she wished that she was his.
Fighting her fatigue, she looked forward as the car pulled out into the traffic but could only make out that the driver was another woman of about her age.
“Long time no see” Mark said to the mysterious woman driver.
“Well they kept me busy with the files down at the Annexe” replied the woman, with a touch of an oriental accent, “which was really lucky given what happened at The Facility”
“I take it we are going straight there Sue-Lim” Samuel interrupted.
“Yes Colonel” she replied
“Sue-Lim” Mark then said, “This is Jenny Green”
“Hi Jenny” Sue-Lim then responded, “I heard about you, they say you managed to take out a doppelganger assassin”
“Which one?” Jenny asked
“The one that attacked you, that was some move with a barbeque fork” Sue-Lim answered.
“Oh” was all that Jenny could say, and then she asked, “What’s the Annexe?”
Mark turned round and looked into her tired eyes, “It is usually just an offsite file storage depot for The Facility, with just one lab from it’s previous incarnation as a public health laboratory”
“How far is it Mark?” Jenny asked quietly,
she so wanted to kiss Mark, but was that the tiredness talking
“It’s about fourteen miles away in South London, near the London Borough of Bromley” Mark replied, then added, “It will be just under an hour or so, so I suggest you try and get some sleep”
“Yes Mark” Jenny replied, then rested her head against the head rest and was soon out like a light.
+-+-+
Jenny slowly woke up and rubbed her sore neck and looked around. The car was in a more rural setting than where the Facility had been before it had been attacked. She was still quite groggy, so Mark helped her get out of the car, and then the two hugged each other briefly, or to be more accurate, Mark helped steady Jenny on her feet.
She wanted to say how much she had feelings for Mark, but yet again she could not find the words, so he let him lead her by the hand as they followed the colonel and Sue-Lim, who as they walked in front were quite clearly not a couple.
Sue-Lim unlocked the front door of the old building they just called the Annexe. Compared with the Facility this was very much low key.
“Jason and Pete are out purchasing a new server” Sue-Lim said to the colonel, “we need one since we have lost the one at The Facility”
“So it’s just you” Samuel asked, as Sue-Lim opened the door and switched off the burglar alarm
“Yes Colonel, but the visit from a representative of the Committee will be dropping by sometime today”
Samuel looked visibly shocked, “That’s news to me, why was I not informed?” he asked
“I don’t know Colonel, I thought you knew” Sue-Lim replied, “I only heard about it myself this morning after Jason and Pete left to pick the server up”
Jenny and Mark followed Samuel and Sue-Lim into the building, and Sue-Lim beckoned them to come to what seemed like a very poky kitchen, again very low key, but for three people, it was all they needed.
Sue-Lim went to a cupboard on the wall and took out a small bottle of tablets, and gave it to Mark, “You two look like you need one of these”
Mark took one without hesitation, but Jenny asked what they were.
“They’re wake up pills” Sue-Lim replied, “a present from the trolls and their elven apothecaries”
Nervously Jenny popped one in her mouth and swallowed it. Within a minute she felt like she had had a good night’s sleep and all trace of tiredness left her.
“Jason tends to use them when he pulls an all-nighter doing the monthly back up run” Sue-Lim volunteered.
“This way” Samuel then told the three of them, and Jenny followed Mark and Sue-Lim as they went through a maze of old corridors until they found what seemed like a conference room with a large table in the centre.
The four of them sat down, with the Colonel at the head of the table, and Jenny sitting next to Mark.
“We need to get hold of our troll allies as soon as we can” Samuel stated
Mark then replied, “Sam, Strang and Hogan were supposed to report back from some business in the Mystical Realms the day the Facility was attacked, since we were arrested when we arrived at the scene of the explosion, we have not heard from either of them”
“Excuse me colonel” Sue-Lim, “I think I have something that might help in the lab”
“And what would that be?” Samuel asked
Again Jenny could see a puzzled expression on Sue-Lim’s face
“It’s Project Tango-Zulu” Sue-Lim explained, “I thought you knew about that as well”
“Obviously someone has been keeping me out of the loop deliberately” Samuel replied, “Who have you been getting orders from, because I thought you were under my command”
Sue-Lim looked flustered, “The orders came from the Committee” then she qualified her reply, “Or at least Mr Davies the aide to the committee”
“So what’s Project Tango-Zulu?” Mark asked
“I think it would be best if I went and got the experimental prototype” Sue-Lim replied and quickly scurried out of the conference room.
“Sam what’s going on?” Mark asked after Sue-Lim had gone
“I have no idea” the colonel replied, “All I know is that I was dragged from that Sham of a courts marshal that hung Tania out to dry to DC because the new chairman wanted a get to know you session”
“We heard” Jenny interrupted, “That was so unfair, Tania didn’t do anything wrong”
“Unfortunately Jenny” Mark cut in, “she was visibly in uniform when she was arrested and for some appearances matter more than justice”
“But we are not here to discuss Corporal McCaskey” Samuel broke in, “We need to work out why The Facility was targeted and by who”
“Could it have been a straight forward terrorist attack?” Jenny asked, “After all our cover story was that it was a specialised forensic laboratory working on counter terrorism”
“I would have thought that might be a possibility Jenny, if it weren’t for a female elven assassin with magical powers and a strange tattoo on her forehead who tried to kill me at Dulles Airport”
“Looks like we need to get in touch with that troll that heads up the Manjura clan in the Mystical Realms” Mark suggested
“How do we contact him?” Jenny asked, “We gave him all the details of that Timothy Zachary’s device”
Suddenly Colonel Samuel Peters had a moment of realisation, “My G_d” he whispered, and “I think I know what Sue-Lim was working on”
At that point a breathless Sue-Lim returned to the conference room carrying what to Jenny looked chillingly familiar, it was a device that looked like a Geiger counter but was in fact an artificial way of creating dimension doors or wormholes to the Mystical Realms.
It was a similar device that the psychotic lab technician Timothy Zachary had used to bring to Earth two doppelganger assassins, one of which had attacked her to trick the staff at the Facility into bringing one back into the Facility while it disguised itself as a member of the retrieval team that had originally abducted Jenny.
“So” Samuel said, “Project Tango Zulu is another wormhole generator first devised by Timothy Zachary”
“So you did know about it after all” Sue-Lim panted
“No, but the initials for Tango and Zulu are the same as Timothy Zachary” The colonel replied
“Sue-Lim” Mark then spoke, “We gave whatever details of the original device to the trolls as part of our cooperation agreement we have with them”
“So why have you built a duplicate, and how have you been able to build a duplicate”
Sue-Lim was confused, “Like I said Colonel, Mr Davies ordered me to. We found detailed plans in the archive back up tapes and we have been working on it down here at the Annexe ever since we were asked to recreate it”
“Why did you not tell me” Samuel pressed
“Like I said Colonel, the orders came from Mr Davies aide to the committee so I thought you knew, and he said it was ultra secret”
“Does it work?” Jenny asked.
“We have done preliminary testing, but yes it does” Sue-Lim replied
“Don’t blame Sue Lim Colonel” came another American voice from the corridor and then in walked a man in his thirties wearing a grey suit, “She was following my instructions”
“Mr Davies I presume” Samuel growled
“The one and the same Colonel” Mr Davies replied, “I took the liberty of ordering a replica device, because we too need the means to cross between our two dimensions”
Nervously Sue-Lim set the wormhole generator on the table and sat down and whispered “Sorry Colonel I honestly thought you had been told”
“What are you doing here Mr Davies” Samuel asked, glowering at the man
“I am here to investigate for the committee why a multi million dollar secret base was totalled, among other things”
“Other things?” queried the colonel
Before Mr Davies could answer a sudden breeze developed in the conference room, and two mini bolts of lightning arched from the wall.
A wormhole from the Mystical Realms was arriving
“I got a message through via our Irish allies we would be meeting here” Samuel explained above the noise of the vortex
Out of the wormhole came Hogan O’Brien the leprechaun, alone.
Then the wormhole dissipated.
“No Captain Strang?” Samuel asked
“I’m afraid not Colonel” Hogan replied, “The blast that took out The Facility killed Captain Strang as we tried to gate in at the same time”
There were looks of shock on Mark, Jenny and Samuel’s faces. Captain Strang had been part of their special operations team, a part of their family, and now he was gone?.
Hogan then continued, “From the special Irish intelligence unit of Leprechauns we established that it the bomb was set to trigger as soon as our wormhole connected with Earth”
“So er Mr O’Brien” Mr Davies interrupted, “Was this trigger an Earth invention sort of like the defunct Skyguard detection system”
“I sorry to say, Sir, it looks like a device from our world” Hogan replied, slightly confused at who the new individual was, “We believe it may be connected with a new sect in the Mystical Realms that has been agitating against dealings with the world of humans”
Mr Davies interrupted again, “That’s all I need to hear”, and then he pulled out a gun like object and fired it at Hogan.
Jenny recognised it; it was a taser, like the one they had used on her when she had been abducted from her shower all those months ago.
Hogan collapsed as Mr Davies fired the voltage through him with glee
“What the Heck are you doing” Shouted Samuel, “Hogan is an ally and a member of the Irish secret intelligence service”
“Colonel, this Mr Hogan is an IDE, and as he has admitted that an IDE was responsible for the attack, then we have no choice but to neutralise all IDE’s. And I did not want him telepathically warning all his co-conspirators”
Suddenly in walked six armed men in black balaclavas with assault rifles.
“As of this moment Colonel I am terminating this so called alliance, since it is clear it has been a ruse to attack us all along and we are interning all IDE’s” then Mr Davies grinned, “And all the human IDE hybrids we can find, from New Hampshire to New York.”
Colour drained from Samuel’s face as he realised what this Mr Davies was planning, “You’re going after Rebecca Sands and Mazy Schneider,”
“Indeed Colonel, we can not take the risk with national security, they could be dangerous fifth columnists”
“But they are just children, they are fully human now as they gave up their special powers willingly and they have never even been to the Mystical Realms and they want nothing to do with it”
“Colonel, you are too trusting, you only have the words of the IDE’s that that is the case, I’m sorry but we just can not take the risk. As for the ones in Ireland we will be requesting that they be handed over, along with the Andrews family, but if they are reluctant then we will be setting up a special Delta Force team to neutralise those threats as well, permanently”
“Mr Davies” Sue-Lim interjected, “Why are these men here?” she asked pointing to the armed men, “This is a civilian base not a military one”
“Oh sorry, I forgot to mention” Mr Davies replied, “In light of the attack by a the IDE’s on the Colonel’s watch, I am hereby relieving Colonel Samuel Peters of command and placing him under arrest on suspicion of gross negligence and gross misconduct. I am also relieving Commander Mark Johnston of command and placing him too under arrest on exactly the same charges.”
To be continued