Episode III –Someone to Watch over Me
Sometimes things happen that make you re-evaluate what is important or challenge your believes, a sudden heart attack, surviving a car crash, the loss of a loved one.
Then the trivia and pettiness in our lives which consumes each waking hour is revealed for what it is.
This must be how Fidelity O’Docherty, the former Spirit of Fidelity must feel, as she has seen her twin sister Caer, the former Spirit of Fancying, on a live webcam feed after her abduction. Fidelity has been forced to see her sister made to stand on a block of ice, with a noose around her neck, so when the ice melts away, she will be hanged. The only thing that will save her, is if Fidelity is bound and gagged and delivered to the abductors in exchange.
+ + +
Offices of G2 Special Section
Dublin
Fidelity looked back up at the now blank screen, “I have to go” she wept, “we have to do as they say, we have to save her”
“Your not going anywhere” Captain Gregory O’Doyle told her “We never give in to extortion”
“But that’s not your sister standing there about to die” Fidelity countered
“Captain” Colonel Samuel Peters cut in, “Fidelity has a point. The clock is ticking, and we need to find out who is supplying these dirt bags and what they are really after”
“But” Began Gregory, “We have leprechauns plus the rest of G2 and the
Garda”
“But like I said, not the time” Samuel insisted, “Plus they have got stolen devices from the IDEC developed for blocking any attempt at using magic to find their location as well as the technical ability to make sure we can not trace their communications. Oh and by the way, how did they even know about the G2 Special section?”
Gregory sighed, “That is a worry, and it does sound like your renegades have finally made it to Ireland”
“Do you think?” Samuel asked
“Please” Fidelity insisted, “My sister is going to die”
At this Samuel handed her a small capsule, “If we are going along with what these dirt bags want, you will need to swallow this, as it’s a tracker developed for CIA black ops”
Fidelity took it and went to swallow it
“Not now” Samuel told her, “When we get to the drop off point. I’ll take you there myself”
“No your not” Gregory insisted, “Your boss sent word that you are to return on the first flight out of here back to Washington”
“Not gonna happen” Samuel retorted and then added, “Just get your G2, Garda or whatever to run down every ice factory around Dublin. As far as I know we did not develop technology to make large blocks of ice they had to get it from somewhere” and then he pulled out his mobile phone, and taking Fidelity by the hand led her out of the office.
+ + +
An undisclosed location
Washington DC
United States of America
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It was late in the afternoon when Kathryn’s private phone rang on her desk. Not many people had that number, as all other calls when via Sophie.
“Kathryn” She said into the phone
“It’s me” Came the colonel’s voice, “What are you doing telling me to come home, I left a message saying that something has come up”
Kathryn felt put out by this tone. She was the chairman of the committee appointed by the executive to watch over the functions of the multi agency inter dimensional entity control and this was technically a subordinate talking back to her.
“Colonel Samuel Peters” she began, “The
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is expecting you to appear before them tomorrow, and you are going to be there”
“Stall them” Samuel replied over the phone
“You don’t understand, they are questioning our treaty with the troll government on IDW01”
“No Kathryn” Samuel replied, “You don’t understand, someone tried to kill me and it looks like we have renegade IDEC agents teaming up with a powerful IDE, and I suspect someone else higher up the food chain is pulling the strings”
“Colonel, then let G2 handle it, they are just as professional as we are and we already share with them all intelligence on the renegades and known HIDES” Jenny told him, “Now I’m ordering you back here, you have to appear before that committee”
“Then you’ll just have to have my resignation, I need to go and save young woman’s life” Samuel insisted, “Just tell those self righteous b******s in the senate to stick it, and don’t come running to us the next time Earth is threatened”
With that the colonel hung up
Kathryn was seething and being told off by a subordinate, although he did have a point, the senators had no understanding at how close the Earth came to being destroyed by the Magnus Timor and his plan to bring the world of the Mystical Realms in to this universe and collide the two worlds together. They also had no idea of the personal loss to the IDEC in the UK and the how the special operations team were virtually wiped out.
But then, the colonel had no understanding of the finer point of politics in Washington.
There was a knock on the door
“Come in” Kathryn yelled in an angry manner.
The door crept open as a nervous Pete Smith gently pushed it
“You wanted to see me Madame Chairman?” Pete asked, he had obviously heard how Charlene had been “chewed out”
Kathryn got up, walked around her desk and went right up to Pete and showed him a piece of paper on which she had written, “I understand one of your talents is counter-surveillance”
“Are you saying this place is bugged” Pete mouthed
Kathryn then wrote on the note, “Possibly, and your place as well”
At this, Pete felt a cold shiver down his back and a large sinking feeling. He took a pen and wrote, “I have just the thing to find out”
+ + +
Deep inside a lava tube
Inter Dimensional World 02
(According to the IDEC cataloguing convention)
Jenny could not believe what she had just heard, The Spirit of Lust denying involvement in the death of the Spirit of Friendship, when excepted wisdom was that she murdered him because he dealt with affairs of the human heart, and the Spirit of Lust, a major spirit of vice was jealous.
“I have no idea who could have killed him” The Spirit of Lust told Timothy Zachary
“You wouldn’t lie to me Lusty babe” Timothy pressed
The Spirit of Lust looked aghast at being so accused, “Absolutely not” she said with indignation.
From what Jenny had heard of these major spirits, they had the power to hurl fireballs at will and could easily have dispatched Timothy and all of them for such a remark. The Spirit of Lust had been notorious for her vanity; after all had she not precipitated the civil war on the Mystical Realms to cause a feedback to Earth to get people worshipping her once again?
It still seemed a mystery, that this low grade technician from the Facility could exert such a hold on this major spirit, even presumably when he was asleep.
“It was Captain Strang who told me you killed him” Jenny accused
“Captain Strang ay” The Spirit of Lust replied, “He was a junior officer under the Lord Low Troll if I remember, how is he? Is he still the Prince Low Troll’s lover?”
It was Mark who answered this time, slowly and deliberately, “Captain Strang was killed when he tried to gate into our London headquarters at the same moment the followers of Magnus Timor destroyed it by detonating a large lorry bomb.”
This time it was Timothy who was visibly shocked, “You mean someone actually took out the Facility?”
“Like you care” Mark retorted, “You were going to kill everyone in their offices with
phosgene gas”
“Oh I forgot about that” Timothy grinned, “Quite a lot of them were really up themselves, I mean they even thought I ought to wear a shirt and tie”
“A lot of those who died were friends of ours” Mark snapped back
“Did you ever analyse the gas in the canisters?” Timothy asked with a defensive tone of voice?
“No” Mark replied, we just removed them and sent them for toxic waste disposal
“I bet they had a surprise when they got them” Timothy commented
Mark was suddenly suspicious, “Why what was really in those canisters?”
“It was an experimental version of a knock out gas. Scran my doppelganger associate wanted me to kill everyone in the Facility, out of revenge for the one that was shot when he was captured, phosgene in those quantities would have generated too much interest, but as I was in R and D, access to the knock out gas was trivial”
“Yeah right!” Jenny cut in, “Pull the other one it’s got bells on”
Timothy put his hands up in the air, “That’s the God’s honest truth” he pleaded
“And what would Scran have said when he found out you had tricked him”
“I would have told him either the Phosgene failed, or that with that amount of slaughter we would have been hunted down”
“You would still have been hunted down anyway” Mark countered, “Your forgetting the other murders you and your associates committed and how you betrayed us”
“Hey Commander” Timothy responded, “Before you get on your high horse, wasn’t your country who lied about WMD’s that took us into an illegal war that claimed the life of my elder sister when one of your so called smart bombs hit a shelter where she was trying to do humanitarian work”
“Liar” Mark countered, “You never had a sister”
“That’s where you are wrong” Timothy replied, and to Jenny it seemed like he was genuinely becoming emotional, “We were separated when we were kids when we taken by social services in Brent Cross and put into separate foster homes before we were adopted out. I hacked into their system and found where she went a year or so before that incident with Mr Blue and we corresponded by E-mail as she was working for the UN”
“Oh Please” Mark replied, “Are you saying that you plotted to continue with black projects against orders and planned the murder of key members of the IDEC because your alleged sister was in the wrong place at the wrong time?”
“No, I probably would have done this anyway, but let’s just say, when you Americans took over, all I could think of, was how my sister died at the hands of their lousy war, and when the opportunity presented itself, I was more inclined to go for it.” Then Timothy was silent for a moment and then added, “Plus I really did think it was a waste killing off those shape-shifters and the other IDEs”
“This is getting us nowhere” The Spirit of Lust cut in
For a moment it seemed to Jenny that the Spirit of Lust was genuinely afraid of something,
so what was it hat Timothy had over this major spirit of vice
+ + +
An abandoned Warehouse
Outskirts of Dublin
Steve Swales sat on the camping chair looking up as Caer started to choke on the noose, as the ice block she was standing on continued to melt. If Steve had had his way, he would have kicked the ice block away as soon as the streaming transmission had stopped and let her hang until dead. After all, under Mr Blue, that was effectively what they did with these invaders from the other universe; kill them to make sure they were no longer a threat.
Now, the organisation he had joined to protect Earth had turned it back on him and his colleagues faithful service and had started collaborating with these monsters from another world.
“I really hope they don’t come for you, you miserable half breed” he taunted, “I want to see you die”
“I’m human” Caer could only just get out.
“LIAR” Steve screamed, “You are invader scum and I don’t care what kind of light show stunt you pulled at Shannon, you have no right to live on this planet”
Steve got up, “I’m fed up with this waiting” he said to Gerry Malone, another disaffected member from the
UFF, “I say we kick the ice block away watch her swing and say they took too long.. I mean we are going to kill them anyway aren’t we?”
“I think we should still wait for Johnny to get back” Gerry countered, “after all what the boss..”
“I DON’T CARE WHAT THE BOSS SAID” Steve interrupted angrily as he walked up to where Gerry was sitting, “I want this IDE dead” he told Gerry in an angry manner. “Look at it, how do we know it is harmless as some seem to think” he added, “If I had my way I would hunt down every last stinking half breed and exterminate the lot of them”
“The boss is calling the shots on this one” Gerry persisted, “And he said he would be the one to sanction any killing, so I still say we should let her down”
Steve shook his head, “She stays right there, and you and the boss are fools, if you don’t see the danger they represent. I mean it was a bomb that was triggered by a device from IDW01 that took out the Facility in London”
“Maybe” replied Gerry, “But the boss is the one in charge and financing this operation, so we play it his way for the time being”
“I really hope they are too late” Steve stated, “I want to see this one hang slowly, Iranian style” he said cruelly
“I read about that” Gerry replied, “They put the rope around their necks and lift them up with cranes, so you can see them kick their legs in the air before they throttle”
“Yeah” Steve replied, “I always thought our old way was too quick, make them drop so they broke their necks, this way is more of a punishment”
Caer was listening to this and watching the two men. She tried to stand on her toes to relieve the constriction of the noose around her neck, but she was terrified she would slip off of the melting ice block. She probably had ten minutes at most before she would be strangled to death.
Then she felt something warm running down her leg. In her terror at being hanged, her bladder had released its load, further hastening the melting of the ice block.
Steve walked over to a small camping table where a small device was humming away.
“Is that thing still working?” Gerry asked him
“Yeah” Steve replied
“How do those things work” Gerry asked
“Not sure” Steve replied, “All I know is that it blocks scrying and deflects inbound teleports and wormholes. Back in the good old days, Mr Blue ordered it’s construction as a means of defending the Facility. If they had had this a month or so back instead of trusting those IDE’s the Facility would never have been destroyed”
“They may have used a conventional detonator” Gerry suggested
“Yeah I suspect you are right” Steve seemed to agree, “Sometimes you can not beat conventional means” While he was doing this he slowly drew his old IDEC service issue nine millimetre handgun and removed the safety.
Slowly he turned around and pointed the gun at Gerry, “Ok Mr Malone” he told Gerry, “What’s it to be?”
“What are you doing?” Gerry asked.
“I don’t like it when others are pulling the strings” Steve replied.
“You heard Johnny” Gerry protested, “You do not go against the boss”
“I am a highly trained former intelligence officer and a former member of the IDEC ” Steve insisted, “What can he do to me”
“Aren’t you forgetting what he promised you?” Gerry asked
“You mean, and artificial wormhole generator and a number of tactical nuclear warheads from the former soviet union?”
“Aye” Gerry replied, “Then you can take your war to the enemy, just like we get to take ours back to those who sold us down the river too”
“I suspect the warheads that will be so old and unstable that there is no guarantee they will work?” Steve asked
“They will work Mr Swales” Gerry pleaded, “The boss is clever that way. I mean he got you that thing on the table didn’t he?”
“Yes you are right Mr Malone” Steve added, “He did get it, which makes me all the more suspicious about who’s side he’s really on”
BANG
Gerry heard the bullet sale past him.
Suddenly there was the sound of something erupting into flames behind him
“What the hell was that” Gerry swore
“A leprechaun agent I believe, IDEs always burst into flames when they die in our universe” Steve replied as he holstered his gun, “Those G2 guys are good, but I’m better”
“How did they find us so fast?” Gerry asked Steve with a hint of suspicion, “I thought you said we could not be traced”
“I’m not sure” Steve replied, “Maybe you should check to make sure there are no others around”
“And leave you alone with her?” Gerry asked
“Well if you want to explain to Mr Adair why we got captured, and explain that to the boss as you put it, sit there and go right ahead”
Gerry eyed Steve with even more suspicion, and then reluctantly got up to start looking for other potential intruders.
Steve made sure he was out of the way and walked up to the block of ice Caer was standing on and looked up at her. “It’s amazing what you can do with a bit of
White Phosphorus in a glass jar”
Then he put his boot on the block of ice, “Poor little EYE Dee EE” he then said in a cruel manner, “She just slipped off of the block of ice when she was all alone and hanged herself”
Then he gave a big shove with his boot, and pushed the block of ice away leaving Caer hanging by her neck asphyxiating to death and kicking he legs fruitlessly in mid air
+ + +
London – Over Looking the River Thames
Celeste sat in the corner of the office sipping from a can of Red Bull still wearing her boss’s spare overcoat, the trip by his secretary to a branch of Tescos to replace the clothes that she had disintegrated, was taking longer than expected.
Luckily her businessman boss was either not married or had a very understanding wife, as he worked away on his state of the art desktop, dealing with business interests in the far-east long into the evening.
Celeste had disintegrated her clothes when she offered to share her body with her boss for his sexual gratification to make up for messing up the assassination of Colonel Samuel Peters. To her surprise, he had turned her offer down and seemed to be very forgiving of her stupid mistake
Suddenly she had a strange feeling, the kind of feeling she got when it was time for her to carry out the duties her father the Spirit of Death would perform, were he not being held prisoner by her boss. She produced from thin air a small piece of parchment with gold lettering that normally gave the names of those who might be dead soon and who would need their soul ejecting from their mortal remains.
She read one of the names that sounded familiar and looked up at the businessman
“Sir” she asked, “Did you sanction anymore executions or assassinations at this time?”
The businessman looked up from his computer at Celeste, “Not just yet, I mean the colonel can wait a day, as I have everything in hand, why do you ask?”
+ + +
Phoenix Park
Dublin
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“Sorry about this” Samuel told fidelity has he secured the cable tie around her ankles, after he had done her hands.
“Hurry please” Fidelity pleaded
Samuel gently tied a tie around Fidelity’s head to make sure she was blindfolded, “Did you swallow the tracker” he asked her
Fidelity nodded her head
It was a long shot, since if renegade IDEC people were involved, they would easily be able to block a tracker.
Samuel stood up and waved a signal for the marked police cars to pull away as instructed. Even the leprechaun members of G2 had to stay away, in case they had means of detecting them. With ex members of the IDEC, they could not be too careful.
Samuel left Fidelity at the Wellington monument got into the black Ford he had been given, beside him sat the apparent teenager he had met in England.
“I wonder if these are the same people who took my sister” she said as he got in.
“I wouldn’t be surprised he said in a distracted manner and started the engine. He had to drive off as well.
Samuel pulled out a small black box and switched it on and handed it to the teenager, “Make sure that green dot is still there and let me know if it goes out” he told her, as he drove out to the entrance to the park.
At the entrance he stopped the car, took the black box back off of the young woman and got out of the car. Another man got in and buckled up.
The young woman went to undo her seatbelt
“You say in the car” Samuel instructed
“I want to help” the young woman pleaded
“Then stay in the car and go back to G2, we need to keep you safe” Samuel replied, then turned to the driver, “Take her back to G2” Samuel instructed, and then made sure he had got his service issue nine millimetre automatic. At least the Irish government had allowed him to carry a weapon.
As they drove off, the driver in order to make conversation asked the woman, “What’s your name miss?”
“Clotho” the woman replied
“And your surname?” the driver pressed
“I don’t have one sir” Clotho replied
Back in the park, Samuel headed back towards the monument on foot, It seemed crazy to try and follow like that, but when the abductors show up, at least he might be able to use the special night scope he had to get a look at the vehicle licence plate.
Stealthily he continued to creep back into the park, looking to make sure Fidelity was still there.
Then he noticed a dog walker with their pet German Shepherd dog.
The dog noticed Fidelity and headed off in her direction. Instinctively from his hidden position Samuel pulled his gun and trained it on the dog, to try and protect the vulnerable Fidelity from a dog attack.
Suddenly the dog stopped and started whining, and then it headed back in the other direction, passed its very annoyed owner.
But what could have spooked such a large animal
And then he saw it, in fact if he had not seen it, he would not have believed it.
By Fidelity a green light appeared in thin air and expanded into a green vortex
Samuel recognised this, and it chilled him when he realised what it was. It was an inter-dimensional wormhole, used to travel between Earth and the Mystical Realms, but one that was artificial and manmade. The official magic ones guarded by the Clan Chief of the Manjura troll clan were blue. The artificial ones were first developed as an illegal black ops project by Timothy Zachary, a rouge, and presumably now long dead, technician at the Facility, and then developed further by Sue-Lim on the orders of Mr Davies, the enigmatic Mr Vee’s former aide.
That technology was restricted to IDEC USA, and someone somehow was using one!
Samuel thought about running up to the vortex to see who was operating it, but that could be risky, with the lives of two young women in the balance.
Samuel pulled out his mobile, activated one of the speed dials as he watched the vortex grow to the size required before it could be used
“Hello” came a voice over the phone that he did not want to hear, “The chairman is not in right now”
“Sophie?” Samuel whispered
“Yes sir,” Sophie answered, and then she asked “Is that Colonel Samuel Peters?”
“Yes” Samuel responded
“Well Miss” Sophie began, only to be cut off by the colonel
“Sophie, we need Sky Guard 5 on now. That should be over this part of the Northern hemisphere”
“Sorry sir” Sophie replied, “Only the chairman has the authority” she tried to say
“Get the damn authority, those dirt bags are using an artificial wormhole generator right now and we need to track them”
“Sorry sir I can’t” Sophie insisted, “But I will leave a message for” she got as far as saying before Samuel hung up in disgust. There was a reason he hated official channels at times. He just had to hope that the tracker that Fidelity had swallowed would be sufficient, but he had his doubts. To be honest, it was more for Fidelity’s benefit, to make her think they were able to do something.
Samuel looked around to see if he could get any nearer, but then two men in combat fatigues and ski masks with Kalashnikovs on their backs emerged from the vortex and grabbed Fidelity, dragged her back into the green vortex, and then she was gone, as the vortex collapsed
Samuel walked out towards the monument shaking his head and swearing. Even though the vortex would have gone to the Mystical Realms, he was almost certain they would use it to return to where in the outskirts of Dublin they were hiding out. If only they had got the Sky guard satellite online they would have been able to track it to where they would almost certainly be re-emerging on Earth, but because of red tape and an obstinate by the book PA, the opportunity had just been lost.
Both Fidelity and Caer were now lost
“Did you see what happened?” came a voice from behind.
Samuel turned around, it was the dog walker, “What do you mean?” he asked
“Did you see what frightened my dog off, I have never seen her so terrified of something. Looks like I will be out here all night looking for her”
“Sorry sir” the colonel replied, “I didn’t see anything”
+ + +
An abandoned Warehouse
Outskirts of Dublin
It had been just under half a minute since Steve kicked the block of ice away and Steve grinned as he watched Caer choking to death at the end of the rope, soon it would be over. As her hands were tied behind her back, it would be quicker as she would not be able to try and struggle with the noose., he would just tell the others she managed to kick the ice block away, and if they did not believe him, then that was too bad. Earth was one less IDE and that was all that mattered
And then she stopped kicking, so she was obviously was dead at last, a lifeless corpse hanging there
“The only good IDE is a dead IDE” Steve smirked
Suddenly the rope broke and the body fell to the ground startling Steve completely, but somehow the way the body fell seemed odd. It did not seem to fall as fast as it ought, preventing Caer’s body from being injured by the fall.
Then Steve noticed the noose vanish from around Caer’s neck, but what did it matter the creature was dead.
So why was it not bursting into flames the way that all IDE’s did when they died in this universe.
Then Caer started breathing and gasping and coughing and sobbing. Somehow this stinking IDE was still alive
“What the hell were you doing you moron?” came a voice sounding like a young woman behind him.
Steve turned around and drew his nine millimetre automatic and found himself facing a teenager of about seventeen, completely naked. Near her feet was a black overcoat folded on the ground that was not there before. Steve went to pull the trigger, but the naked teenager waved her right hand and Steve felt his gun being wrenched from his grip as it was thrown across the warehouse.
“Another stinking IDE” Steve sneered
“Who also happens to work for the same boss that you are supposed to be working for” she spat back, “How else did I have the code to override that so I could teleport in here” she angrily stated pointing at the device on the camping table.
Steve shook his head, “No” he replied “He wouldn’t do that, he’s one of us, he’s a proper human” then noticing Caer was still lying on the ground sobbing, yelled “He’s not a stinking IDE like this thing” and went to give Caer, a massive kick to her head,
Steve found himself flat on his back looking up at this entity as she held him down with some kind of force field from her right hand, which she was pointing at him, preventing him from ridding the Earth of at least one more stinking IDE.
A phone in the coat sounded, and the woman, while still eyeing Steve, squatted down and fished it from the coat with her left hand, being careful to keep her right hand pointed in his direction.
Steve saw her flip the phone open and answer it.
“Yes sir” she said into the phone, “It was touch and go, she was just about die when I found her. Mr Swales here thought it would be a good idea to have her hanged”
Then after an inaudible response on the phone, the woman replied, “That’s right sir, she’s still alive, in spite of Mr Swales here and his stupid attempts to kill her”
The woman continued to listen to the person on the phone, and then said, “OK sir I’ll put him on” at which she chucked the phone at Steve and released him from the force field so he could catch the phone.
“Now if you don’t mind I need to put this on for a bit” the woman then said pointing down at the coat, “As this coat belongs to the boss I didn’t want to teleport in wearing it, otherwise he would not be able to have it back”
As Steve took the phone, he watched as the naked woman picked the coat up and put it on. Steve put the phone to his ear and ventured “hello”
It was his benefactor on the phone, well at least it sounded like him. “Mr Swales” the man on the phone asked.
“Yes” Steve replied slowly.
“Why were you trying to kill that young girl?”
“She’s and IDE, need I say any more”
“And so is my valued assistant Celeste who is with you” the man on the phone replied curtly
“But you can’t trust them” Steve protested, “two years ago two doppelgangers in London murdered two police officers and two civilians”
“Mr Swales” the man on the phone continued, “If we are to continue with this business arrangement, I will need you to follow my instructions to the letter. Now I instructed your associate Mr Adair not to harm the IDE half breed known as Caer.”
“Yes Mr, what-ever-your name is, but this was just one IDE” Steve tried to protest, “Remember what Napoleon said about omelettes and eggs” he added
“Yes Mr Swales” Replied his benefactor, “But I fail to see how that expression applied in this case and any way to make one omelette does not require you to break every egg in the box needlessly. Now I appreciate your concern about certain IDE’s but Mr Swales their existence is a reality we have to deal with, and if we continue to work together you will be provided with the means to ensure that the powers that be in that realm know better than to mess with us”
Steve was stunned into silence for a moment
“Mr Swales, are you still there?”
“Yes” Steve said bluntly
“I want you to follow the lead of my assistant and to follow my instructions to the letter. Is that clear Mr Swales?”
“Crystal” Steve replied
“Oh, and let my assistant know that her clothes have arrived” the man added before hanging up.
“Your clothes are ready” Steve reluctantly told Celeste and then he closed the phone up and slowly stood up. By this time the Celeste entity had walked over and had pulled Caer to her feet and was holding her arm so she could not run away. Steve also noticed that she had healed the bruising from where he had hit Caer around the face earlier.
Steve tossed the phone at Celeste, in a manner hoping to knock her off guard so he could rush her, but the phone just hung in the air and Celeste leisurely put it back into the coat pocket.
“I hope that clears that up” Celeste told him bluntly
“You poisoned his mind” Steve accused
“Get over yourself you moron” Celeste snapped back, “I mean if you kill her sister, now, what leverage, do we have over the other twin to get her to do what the boss needs done?”
At this Caer felt even more desperate, it seemed that the person who had saved her was also working for the criminal gang that had abducted her by mistake. Caer was normally the assertive of the two twins, and being in the state she was, was not like her, but she had never been this helpless and in a situation like this before. She had to try and regain some kind of assertiveness without angering her captors and making things worse.
“What do you want my sister to do” she said in a whiney voice, “She doesn’t have any powers any more. Neither of us do”
Celeste looked her straight in the eyes. Even though this entity had saved her life, healed her and even appeared to be about her age., Caer felt terrified of her.
“Spirit of Fancying” Celeste began then stopped, “Sorry I mean Caer, I forgot you two allowed yourselves to be stripped of your abilities”
“But we gained our human souls” Caer replied, trying to remember to be assertive, but not coming across as too aggressive, “We became fully human”
“Whatever” Celeste replied dismissively, “Your sister has valuable information for which special powers aren’t exactly required”
“But what could she know, she was kept most of her life before she came back to me under the thumb of that brute Yagel Penswift” Caer asked
“Are my dear Caer” Celeste intoned in sly manner, “that would be telling”
Celeste then sniffed, and then wagging her finger at Caer, “Shame on you, it smells like you wet your self didn’t you” then she turned to look back at Steve who was inching his arm to another reserve gun he concealed on his person.
With in seconds the reserve gun was in Celeste’s left hand, then speaking to Caer again, “Which given what this moron has been up to I’m not surprised”, then she said to Steve “Looking for this?” waving his gun in the air, before throwing it away in the opposite direction to where she had thrown his other gun
“What’s going on” came a familiar voice. It was Gerry Malone, “I didn’t see any leprechauns outside so I came back” he added.
“Well Mr Malone” Celeste replied, “It seems this moron here decided he knew better than the man who is paying you, and thought he would kill our hostage here”
“Who are you?” Gerry asked Celeste
“She’s another stinking IDE” Steve sneered
“Who as I said before, and you have had confirmed by the boss himself, also works for the person who is paying you” Celeste responded
“Miss?” Gerry asked
“Celeste” Celeste replied
“Well Miss Celeste”, Gerry replied, “I don’t have any problems with beings from other worlds like my associate here”
“Well I am so glad about that” Celeste responded with a hint of sarcasm
“We only have an issue with the way the British Government sold us out to Dublin and the IRA” Gerry added.
“Well Mr Malone, that’s not really my concern” Celeste answered, then she turned her attention back to Caer, “As for you” she told the terrified Caer, “I need to clean you up before I take you to the boss”
Celeste’s eyes went bright green and Caer felt the dampness where she had wet herself disappear. Even the smell of urine vanished. It was like it had never happened.
“Now Mr Malone” Celeste then said to Gerry, as she retrieved the mobile phone from the coat and tossed it to him, “I want you to take a picture on that of me and Miss Caer O’Docherty here”
Gerry caught the phone, opened it up, while Steve glowered at him for almost betraying the cause of all humanity, found the button to take the picture and took the picture of Celeste holding Caer tightly by the arm and saved it to the phone’s memory.
Gerry closed the phone and went to offer it back, but Celeste waved him away
“I won’t need it, you will” She said, “I’m taking Caer here to where we have the other prisoners where she will be kept safe. You show that picture to Fidelity when you go across to the Mystical Realms in a few minutes, to make sure she co-operates”
Celeste then turned back her attention to Steve, “As for you, since you so like to kill things, the boss has an extra special job for you”
+ + +
Mr Vee arrived at the airport in the taxi. Packing for his trip to England had been relatively swift, since he always had a packed suitcase in case he had to leave a place with in fifteen to twenty minutes, a hang over from his days in the intelligence services.
Mr Vee paid of the taxi driver and thanked him, and left the taxi. His next task was to get to the American Airlines check-in desk. His bag small enough to be classed as carry on luggage, to save time at London Heathrow.
Mr Vee found the check in queue and waited patiently,
exhibiting signs of stress would only attract unwelcome attention.
There was another player in the realm of relations with the Mystical Realms, but which side they were on was unclear. It could be they were on his nominal side, ever suspicious of all entities from that world and reluctant to trust any of them. Their one protégé in London had been Mr Blue, but it turned out he had become possessed by a hostile entity, called either The Spirit of Malice, or the ancient Egyptian god, Set.
His fall from grace over the affair concerning the minor spirit of virtue, the Spirit of Fidelity was unfortunate. They had forgotten how he had lead a team to capture a doppelganger assassin and kill it’s partner, which had between the two of them killed four people two years back, including two police officers.
But if this third force was like his group, sceptics, why had they not joined forces? Why did they not know about this third force? It was deeply unsettling.
They had gone after the other side; those who were almost in bed with the authorities of IDW01, but in the process had made the position of the sceptics more difficult. Maybe, just maybe, if this third force were sceptical of the pro-lobby, he could persuade them to join forces, that way unhelpful disclosures, like the one to the senate chairman could be minimised.
Mr Vee finally got to the front of the queue and handed the man at the check in a printout from his office computer giving the details of his E-Ticket and his passport.
The man check his ticket and asked him if he had any bags to check in
Mr Vee shook his head and explained that his case was carry on luggage, and that seemed to be satisfactory and handed back the passport and e-ticket. He then gave Mr Vee his boarding card and advised him which gate his plane was leaving.
Mr Vee thanked the man and left to find the gate
As soon as he was out of site, the man at the check in desk asked for a female colleague to cover as he needed to go to the bathroom.
As soon as he was out of site of his check in desk he found a quiet spot and got out his mobile phone and dialled an international number.
He waited for the call to connect.
“Sorry to disturb you” he apologised, “As I do realise how late it is over there in England”
The man at the other end accepted the apology and then asked him what he had, at which the check in desk attendant informed him that Mr Vee was coming to England and gave him the details of the flight. The man at the end of the line thanked him and told him he would handle it personally and then hung up.
The check in man closed his phone and headed of to the bathroom, to make sure he was not caught out in a lie.
+ + +
Residential area of the marine base at Quantico
Virginia, United States of America
Charlene and Sue-Lim stood together in the hallway with Kathryn whilst Pete used his trusty hand scanner to scan their kitchen.
Every one of them was absolutely silent apart from their breathing.
A green light lit on the scanner, and a needle flickered.
In silence Pete tracked around, looking if the needle was indicating a stronger or weaker reading, indicating how far he was from a listening device. Standard scanners would never pick up the devices used by the various intelligence agencies, but Pete had specially made his own scanner back in England, based on his inside knowledge of the high end of the surveillance industry.
He found it
Underneath the table
“Is that” Charlene began, but Pete immediately shushed her.
Pete removed the device and dropped it into a specially devised foil lined bag, designed to block the signal without destroying the device, so they could see who had planted it.
The green light was still indicating a remote transmitter coming from somewhere.
As he turned, it the flickering needle led him to the oven door, and then to the clock above the oven door.
Over the clock looked like the kind of film you get when purchasing a new appliance, put on to stop scratches. Pete carefully started peeling it off. The LCD display looked even brighter than he noticed, as the film had a very thin metal coating, with a barely perceptible layout of a circuit diagram. The film had a long line of film that seemed to be going into the clock assembly, obviously either a power lead or an aerial. He pulled at the film as near to the place where it went into the clock as possible, to get it off with as much of it intact as possible.
Charlene raised her hand, but the light on the scanner was still green, there was still a third surveillance device in their kitchen, and this one seemed to be come from the direction of up.
Pete pulled up a small stool to stand on, and examined the light fitting. Sure enough, there was a small micro camera. He pulled it, slipped it and the film device into the foil lined bag, and examined the scanner.
No signal
“That’s the kitchen done Miss Cooper” Pete said quietly, “Now we have to go and check the rest of the house”
Kathryn nodded in agreement, visibly shocked that someone had been spying on the British contingent brought over to Washington, why she could not imagine as Homeland Security had cleared them.
Maybe she thought it might have something to do with the fact that Sue-Lim’s deceased mother had been a Vietnamese refugee from when the communists finally captured Saigon in 1975. It was apparently Mr Vee who had got her out of the country after she gave vital information about the Viet Cong. It was rumoured that Sue-Lim’s mother may have been Viet Cong, but had defected, although that was never proved, even so at the time it was easier for her to be taken to the UK rather than the US.
Kathryn had suspected this parentage had caused unexpected problems for Sue-Lim when she had landed at Florida, as she had found herself detained by immigration, in a holding facility, as they said under some
United Nations charter concerning the rescue of astronauts Sue-Lim had to go straight back to Russia and from there apply for a visa to re-enter the US. It had been a week before Kathryn had been able to get the State Department and Homeland Security to release her and join the rest of the IDEC UK remnant who had been shipped to Washington DC.
It was an experience that Sue-Lim did not talk about
Carefully and methodically, Pete examined every other room in his and Sue-Lim’s quarters, finding device after device. Each one clever and each one high end. It took an hour to declare the quarters clean..
“We’ll have to do Charlene’s” Pete then said, “She could be bugged as well”
“Charlene can stay with me” Kathryn told him, “It’s getting late and I would not want you to miss anything”
“Then I will have to sweep your house as well” Pete told her, “They might have bugged you as well”
“Yes your right” Kathryn conceded, and then turned to Charlene, “I’m sorry I accused you of informing the senator” she told her, “I owe you a big apology”
“That’s ok Madame Chairman”, Charlene responded
“This is not ok” Kathryn insisted, “This is meant to be a secure Quantico base, there should not be listening devices planted on anyone”
“Madame Chairman” Sue-Lim ventured, “I know Pete and I are not yet married, but I could share a room with Pete and you and Charlene could stay here for the night.
“I appreciate the offer Sue-Lim” Kathryn replied, ”But it would not be appropriate, Charlene and I will stay at a motel we will pick at random, now that Pete has made sure my car is clean”
Pete looked in the bag at the listening devices he had collected, “I wonder?” he said to himself, and then went to box of items he had and took out another scanner.
“Miss Cooper” he told Kathryn, “This will give us the frequency these are transmitting on”
“And the range?” Kathryn asked.
“Possibly, but that might not help”
“Why?” Charlene asked
“I’ve seen this before” Pete explained, “The main weakness of this kind of surveillance operation is that these devices are by necessity only short range due to power issues, which means you have to have a van nearby to receive the transmissions, which could be suspicious”
“Especially this being a Quantico base” Kathryn added
“Exactly” Pete replied, “These operations will most likely have something tied into some telephone junction box, so it is independently powered and relays the signals in a manner a scanner will not pick up, sort of like the old style
infinity bug”
“So what will the frequency tell you?” Charlene asked
This time it was Sue-Lim who answered, “Who ever it is who planted it, Here in the US, the various law enforcement and security agencies are delegated certain frequencies. Those device supplied by private companies on the open market have other frequencies. Once we get the frequency we can cross check with a database and if it was supplied by a commercial company get a court order to see who they sold it to”
“You’ve done this before?” Charlene asked
“Yes” replied Sue-Lim, “But from the other side when the Facility was under the old management, the set up was something similar and we shared a frequency with MI5”
“Yeah, I remember those days,” Pete chipped in, then added, “they told us we were protecting the Earth back then, but the policy of exterminating captured IDEs did seem so “
“Over the top?” Sue-Lim suggested completing Pete’s sentence
“Yes” Pete agreed, “Sue-Lim, Jason and myself were essentially just filing clerks, but we kind of made a pact that we would never turn in any IDE we found if we thought they were harmless”
Then Pete stopped and said “Oops – perhaps I should not have mentioned that, I mean we never did come across any IDEs down at the Annexe”
“That’s ok” Kathryn reassured him, “Those were dark times under Mr Blue, I just hope we can prevent the IDEC from ever going down that dead end ever again”
Pete started scanning one of the devices and took a reading and then placed the device back in the bag and closed it up. Then he took the reading and took out a palm pilot from the box and plugged the scanner into it, to download the frequency.
After two minutes, the palm pilot spat out an answer
“Oh S***t!” Pete exclaimed
“What is it” Kathryn asked with alarm
Just look at who this frequency is assigned to” Pete replied and then showed the readout on the palm pilot to Sue-Lim and Kathryn
“You have got to be kidding?” Kathryn blurted out
Sue-Lim went white as a sheet and just started repeating the word “No” before rushing upstairs in tears. Pete put down the palm pilot and ran up after her.
“Who?” Charlene asked, slightly confused at the reaction of the others, and then picked up the palm pilot to see who had been spying on them. According to the database, the listening devices were working on a frequency assigned to the one organisation in the US that was considered by some even more secret than the CIA.
To be continued