Chapter 26

My Sisters had an interesting experience on New Year's Eve. They had started delivering the rations to the remaining prisoners after Christmas, and always went just in pairs, as Sean and I had been doing all of this time. One pair would deliver the morning ration and the other pair would deliver the evening meal. Of course, both pairs are nearly identical. So identical that it takes great familiarity with them to be able to tell any of them apart.

Tara and Muriel delivered the evening meal on Saturday, the 31st - New Year's Eve. Arriving with the cart that carried the boxes of rations, they found a man lying on the floor, apparently unconscious.

"What's wrong with him?" they asked those there.

"Rob punched him out," someone told them.

"Move back so we can check on his condition," Tara told those standing around near him. She and Muriel then moved closer to examine the man on the floor. As Tara bent closer to examine the man, he reached up and grabbed her while one of the others tried to grab Muriel. That was when they got their first big surprise.

Tara's hand shot out and delivered a vicious chop to the man's throat cutting off his air supply so that he had more to worry about than her. Muriel kicked the man trying to grab her in the crotch hard enough to double him over before he collapsed on the floor.

Tara's and Muriel's Bata sticks appeared in their hands, and their twin Sisters, Edana and Gale also appeared directly behind them with their Bata sticks. The four of them waded into the men gathered to watch the attack and began beating them mercilessly with the sticks. They didn't stop until all of the men present were lying on the floor.

"That will teach you bastards to block our college classes!" Tara said, as the four of them turned, dropped the ration boxes on the floor, and departed back through the wards with the cart. Those who hadn't participated in the attack came out from hiding after that and just stared at their fellow prisoners for a while.

We had seen the entire thing in the Security Center. I called Sean, and we went over there with some first aid kits to take care of the injured.

"It doesn't pay to piss off our Sisters," I warned those still on their feet when we delivered the first aid kits. No one was seriously injured, but there were a lot of bumps and bruises along with some blood. They definitely wouldn't try that again with any of our women, that was for sure.

"Do you think that they planned that?" Sean asked, as we returned to the Security Center.

"What? Our sweet Sisters plan an attack on a bunch of men that they didn't like!" I asked trying to hold back my grin. "Hell yes!! I'm pretty sure that they planted the idea in the prisoners' heads by the way that they delivered the rations."

Our New Year's Eve celebration consisted of two glasses of O'Connell's Ale each, some snacks, and watching others celebrate on television. Dad did admonish our Sisters for their behavior.

"You mustn't abuse the prisoners!" he told them sharply.

"US - abuse the prisoners!?" Tara asked in shock.

"We were attacked! We only defended ourselves!" Muriel protested vehemently.

"Let's not have any more occasions where you are required to defend yourselves. From now on all four of you will deliver the rations together," Dad informed them, and that settled things. Our Moms were laughing behind their hands while trying to maintain straight faces. We all went to bed just after midnight and wishing each other a 'Happy New Year'.

Congress returned on Wednesday, the 4th of January 2034, and the Joint Judiciary Committee held more closed door hearings on that Thursday and Friday. The fireworks started on Monday, the 9th of January. That was when the Committee held a press conference to reveal the findings of their investigation.

It seems that many on the Committee's staff and their aides had worked over the holidays and had come to some startling conclusions. The entire Joint Committee had heard those conclusions in the closed door hearings when they had returned the previous week, and they were now ready to release them after consulting with the White House over the weekend. The press conference was held at the White House. The President opened the televised press conference with a few words before turning it over to the Senator, who was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"When we started this investigation, I promised that we would get to the bottom of the problem and resolve things quickly. I must apologize to the American people for taking this long to reach our conclusions. However, the fault was not entirely ours. Once we got into the details of the story, it turned out to be much more complex and complicated than we originally believed. I'm sure that you will agree with that if you were able to watch any of the hearings that were televised. Also having two of the major holiday periods of the year during our investigation did little to speed things along.

"If you were able to watch the televised hearings from the field, where we spoke directly with the people involved, you will have seen the huge volume of evidence presented to the Committee at those hearings. Our staff and the Committee's lawyers spent much of their holidays going over that evidence and authenticating it. They also kept us updated on their findings, and presented those findings to the entire Committee last week on our return.

"Let me assure you that the Committee was thoroughly shocked at their findings and their conclusions. Over the weekend, we conferred with the President and his advisers on our findings, and with his concurrence, we are now ready to release them," the Senator paused here for effect.

"We find that the Federal Bureau of Paranormal Investigation (FBPI), on their own and without any authorization from either the Congress or the President, did bother, harass, and imprison those who used Magic for lawful purposes. We also find that they were aided and abetted in this by persons in the Department of Justice and were additionally aided in their conspiracy by some members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)!

"We have therefore called for the arrest of numerous personnel from the FBPI, the Justice Department and the FBI by U.S. Marshals. Warrants have been issued by the Attorney General and signed by the President. Those arrests are ongoing at present.

"The President has also issued orders that the Department of Justice will immediately release and drop charges against all of those arrested for practicing Magic without just cause as soon as they are able to gain access to their facilities," The Senator stopped there and turned the press conference back over to the President who addressed those present and the television audience.

"We call on the O'Connell's and the other leaders of the Magic Community to allow the U.S. Marshals access to those that they hold prisoner, so that those on the list may be arrested, and to release any others that they may be holding. Also to release the buildings that they have taken charge of.

"I have also directed the Attorney General and Officials of the Department of Justice this morning to cancel any and all charges that they may have drawn up against any of the people who participated in these takeover events, and that they would all be free to leave.

"However, I have also been advised that there are certain agencies that are anxious to speak to those involved about just how they achieved what they have done, and I request that they speak to them in the interest of National Security," the President concluded. There were many questions from the reporters present and the news conference continued for sometime after that.

To say that this was a shocker would be an understatement. We sat there in front of the television in the cafeteria for some minutes in shock, not knowing what to say. The entire press conference was replayed numerous times that day and for several days afterward, so we had plenty of time later to watch it again and consider its implications.

Right then we didn't have that time, as the U.S. Marshals arrived at our defensive shell almost immediately after the press conference asking for admittance, while we were still in shock at the announcements. Who would have thought that things would turn out like this? We had achieved one of our goals, but what about the other one. It hadn't even been mentioned, and that was worrisome. Plus what was this about Agencies wanting to talk to us?

Dad and Master O'Hennessy were the first to recover and quickly snapped the rest of us out of our daze.

"We need to greet these Marshals and see about allowing them in. Annie and Gus, you come with Master O'Hennessy and me. Sean and Sara check on the prisoners and make sure that they are up and dressed," Dad told us as we all began to move. Annie and I joined hands and we transferred out to the parking lot at the defensive shell. There was a Suburban and a large prison bus parked there, plus six men in black Kevlar vests.

"Are you Mr. Mark O'Connell?" the leading Marshal asked when we all appeared.

"Yes, what can I do for you, Marshal?" Dad answered.

"I have warrants for the arrest of some of the people that you are holding," the Marshal, an older man, told us.

"May I see the list?" Dad asked.

"Yes, but how... ??" the Marshal asked confused.

"We'll lower the wards in this area," Dad told him, and Annie and I relaxed the wards so the six of them could enter. The Marshal presented the list to Dad who scanned through it and smiled.

"If you gentlemen will move a little closer together, please, we'll take you to the prisoners," Dad told them. Annie and I joined hands with Dad and Master O'Hennessy, and transferred everyone to the Director's offices. The Marshals were somewhat shocked to suddenly appear inside the building.

"Whoa, that was a real trip!" one of them said on looking around.

"Yes!" the Chief Marshal said. "You could make a fortune using this in prisons." Sean and Sara had the prisoners standing in ranks, and the Marshals got right down to business.

"Step forward when your name is called," the Chief Marshal told those assembled, and started reading off names. He read them off in groups of five. The men called forward were then compared to the picture of them on the warrant, handcuffed, and read their rights before the next group of names was called. Dad interrupted the Marshal after the first group of names.

"Can we transport them for you, Marshal?" Dad asked.

"Ah ... yes, I guess so! Deliver them to the prison bus. There are guards there that will take charge of them," the surprised Marshal told Dad. We moved each group as it finished being taken into custody. When the Marshals were finished two of our prisoners remained.

"Can you take these two with you also?" Dad asked the Marshal.

"Yes, but we don't have orders to hold them," the Marshal explained.

"That's all right. We'll be leaving here shortly and don't want to leave anyone inside," Dad explained before we transferred the Marshals and the last of our prisoners out to the bus and the Suburban.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Marshal," Dad told him with a smile as we re-closed the defensive shell and the wards. We watched the Suburban and the bus drive off a few minutes later.

About ninety minutes after that another Government vehicle pulled into the now mostly empty and abandoned parking lot and two young men in work clothes got out.

"We need to speak to Mr. Mark O'Connell," one of them told our microphone. We transferred out there, again.

"Are you Mr. O'Connell?" one asked when we appeared.

"Yes, I'm Mark O'Connell. What can I do for you?" Dad answered.

"We're from the Washington Facilities Maintenance Branch, sir, and we need to know when the facilities that you hold will be released. We need to get people in there to guard the facilities and clean them up," the young man told us.

"Would tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning be satisfactory?" Dad asked.

"We need to clean them up first," the young man said.

"They will be clean and ready to operate at 8:00 tomorrow morning," Dad assured him.

"Okay, we can deal with that, sir!" he told us with a smile before they departed. Before we could transfer back to the cafeteria, two Humvees pulled into the parking area. These were administrative vehicles though and not combat vehicles. These were washed and waxed to a T. Two Generals, their aids and some Senior NCOs exited the vehicles.

"Mr. O'Connell?" they asked approaching the defensive shell at a quick pace, but not running. That would have been undignified in a General.

"Yes, I'm Mark O'Connell," Dad answered again.

"Mr. O'Connell, we're from the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. We would like to speak to you about interviewing your Sons and their Wives. We need to find out how you disabled our equipment, and how to create these defenses that you have used," the General from the Army told us.