The Four Queens
Copyright© 2026 by Uncle Jim
Chapter 14
The following character appears in this chapter:
Agent Maizell
ATF agent from the west side of the lake, 5’-9’’ tall (175 cm), 165 pounds (75 kg), 35 years old, light brown hair, blue eyes
Maly still has the Narrative
By the time we finished searching the resort’s facilities, everyone was worn out. Agent Pruitt of the ATF was still with us, however. Agent Mitchell from the FBI had given up getting any information from Mother hours ago and had left.
“Now about those Claymore type devices...,” Pruitt started as we prepared to leave.
“Not tonight,” Mother said interrupting him.
“You know where we live,” she continued before the agent interrupted her.
“You have them at your houses!?” he demanded in shock. Mother gave him a look that said he was an idiot.
“Of course not,” she said indignantly. “We wouldn’t keep anything like that in our homes. As I was saying, you know where we live. Meet us there tomorrow around noontime. You can accompany us to where WE will dispose of the explosives. Bring hearing protectors and a camera if you need evidence that we disposed of them,” she told him before we all vanished.
“What does that man think we are?” she continued in an annoyed voice after we had all appeared in the large parlor of our house.
“He has probably dealt with a lot of crazy people who have kept things like that at their houses,” Dad said to calm her down. “You did an excellent job getting everything done, sweetie,” he told her before giving her a long passionate kiss. Botum arrived while they were still kissing.
“Did I miss something?” she asked on seeing them.
“No, it’s just Mom and Dad swapping spit,” Daeva told her in a tired voice. Our parents soon broke the kiss and turned to us. They were surprised to see Botum, so they must have been really busy to have missed her arrival.
“Is everything alright on Maddy’s side of the lake?” Mom asked.
“Yes, we finished a while ago. The guy from the ATF was pestering grandmother about the explosives. I thought she might send him to the Timeless Zone for a while, but she eventually just told him to see us tomorrow, but no earlier than noon,” Botum told us. Mom sighed.
“I guess that means that we will have two of them to deal with tomorrow or rather later today,” she said and exhaled again.
“We should all get some sleep so we can deal with them later today, as it is well past midnight already,” Dad told us.
“Yes, sleep but after I eat. The food from the restaurant was alright, but it’s been a while since we had that,” Daeva told us. We all had something to eat then before showering and getting some much needed sleep.
Agent Pruitt of the ATF arrived the next day at noon. He parked in the small area near Grandmother’s house. He had another agent with him. Agent Maizell had been the ATF agent working on the west side of the lake with Grandmother. She must have given him her cell number, as shortly after their arrival, Mother’s phone rang.
“We are all to meet at Maddy’s house in fifteen minutes or so. Dress to go to the Demon-lands and bring some kind of hearing protection,” Mom told us after disconnecting. We had all been up for an hour by that time and were prepared to leave having already eaten. We did need to change some of our clothes for the Demon-lands, if we were going in our human form.
Everyone in the clan answered the Queen’s call, so her house would have been very crowded. Instead, we all appeared in her front yard. There are a lot of us now, however not all of us would be going to the Demon-lands.
Carry and Casey plus Eilean and Evelyn, our Aunt Dallas and Doreen’s daughters, had been there to help but they hadn’t been involved with the explosives or removing the terrorists and were excused. Brien and Henry, our Aunts’ sons, had remained at Dragon Security to keep it running, as had our grandfather, Kennith Sweeney, so they were also excused. Chu Hua, Franklin, and Stewart hadn’t been involved with the explosives either and were also excused.
This left the two Queens, who had been in charge of the operation, Dallas and Doreen, Keith and Steve, their husbands, and Deirdre. Of our family, there was our Dad, Craig Sweeney, and my Sisters, Botum, Daeva, and me, Maly to go to the Demon-lands with the two ATF agents for the disposal of the explosives. The two agents appeared to be relieved to see many of our relatives and friends, who had answered the call, leave, and they just stared at those of us remaining for a time
“Do you have everything that you will need with you to verify the disposal of the explosives?” the Queen of the West asked them, while looking at the equipment they had brought with them.
“Yes, we have everything that we will need to see to the safe disposal of the explosives,” the other agent, Maizell, told her.
“Good,” Grandmother said. “Everyone, form a circle around the two agents and their equipment and join hands. Then we will leave for the disposal area,” she added. The two agents appeared to be a bit confused by this.
“Where are the explosives?” Agent Maizell demanded.
“They are in the Timeless Zone, where they have been since we acquired them,” the Queen answered.
“Is that where we are going?” he demanded.
“Heavens no. We couldn’t do anything in the Timeless Zone. WE are going to the Demon-lands, where we will call the explosives to us,” she told him. The rest of us were already in position by this time and joined hands. Grandmother cast the Transfer spell before the agents could raise anymore objections.
A second later, we appeared in the Demon-lands in the area where young Dragons had learned to fly, but not up on the plateau. Instead, we appeared in the lowlands below the cliffs. The two ATF agents looked around them in shocked dismay. There were the cliffs behind them and the stony flat lands that stretched out to the horizon on three sides of them. The sun was a deep red and the constant wind blew the dust around, dimming the sunlight even more. The flat lands were dry, very dry and the humidity was very low.
“Where in God’s name are we?” the agents asked very quietly.
“We are in the ‘Demon-lands’ near where young Dragons learned to fly,” the Queen told them.
“Learned to fly?” they asked confused.
“Yes, by jumping off the cliffs,” she replied, and they turned and looked up and up to eventually see the tops of the cliffs.
“But that’s ... that’s...!” they muttered.
“Three hundred feet (97 meters or so) to the top of the cliffs,” Dad told them.
“Are we ready to proceed?” the Queen asked in a somewhat perturbed voice. “We don’t have all day to spend here. There are other things to be done yet today,” she added.
“Are we far enough from the cliff, as the explosions will disturb the ground?” Doreen asked. Everyone looked around at the area gauging our distance from the cliff.
“Perhaps not. Let’s move further out from the cliff face,” the Queen told us. We all moved further out but eventually stopped and looked around. We were about five hundred feet from the cliff (150+ meters).
“This should be far enough unless you are going to set off all of the explosives at once,” Agent Pruitt told us.
“Good,” the Queen replied before addressing the rest of us. “When you are told to, each of you will call your explosive devices to you one at a time and will transfer them out to a line one hundred feet or so in front of us (30 meters) and ten feet apart (3 meters). We will start with Doreen’s team. Proceed, Doreen when you are ready,” she told us.
Doreen started calling the devices she had removed. Then Daeva did, and Mother did, and finally I did. Dallas’s team followed us and eventually there were 21 devices in a row out in front of us. Both ATF agents went forward very carefully to inspect them. They had already set up their video camera while we were recalling the devices.
“They are all M18A1 Claymore mines. Where the hell did those people get that many?” the ATF agents wanted to know, but we had no idea ... yet.
“Are you satisfied that they are all the real thing?” the Queen demanded when they had finished.
“Oh yes, they are definitely the real thing,” Agent Pruitt admitted with a shake of his head.
“Then as soon as everyone is ready, we will detonate them one at a time,” the Queen told them.
“And just how are you going to do that? Did you bring a lot of detcord, or are you going to use some other way to do that?” Agent Maizell demanded in a snotty voice.
“Allow us to worry about that. Do whatever you need to prepare yourself for the explosions,” she told him to a frown from him, The two agents donned the gear they had brought with them, and we all cast our strongest wards around us and added a Reverse Silence spell to them. Both Queens also cast wards around the ATF agents. Aunt Doreen went forward to check one final time to ensure that all of the Claymore mines were pointed away from our position before any of them were set off.
“All of them are ready,” she said on returning.
“All of you line up, but leave room in the middle of the line for the ATF agents and their camera,” Maddy, as the Queen of the West, told us. “We will fire the mines alternately from the right and left sides of the line, starting on the right side. Each person on line will fire a device in turn starting with Doreen on the right side and Dallas on the left. Is everyone ready?” she finished. Everyone acknowledged being ready, even the two ATF agents.
Doreen started by firing a blast of Magic at the Claymore on the right end of the line. It exploded with what I was sure was a loud bang, but all I heard was a rather anemic little bang. Dallas was next on the left end of the line. I waited ten seconds after her device exploded before I fired a blast of Magic from the middle finger of my right hand and hit the next Claymore in line on the right side. The firing continued alternating between the right and left ends of the line until all of the devices had been detonated. I was sure that the two ATF agents were surprised by how easily we were able to set off the explosive devices in a controlled manner.
At this point we, that is the Kavanaghs and the Sweeneys, thought that we were finished. The two ATF agents thought otherwise.
“What about the suicide vests that the terrorists were wearing?” Agent Maizell asked. “Where are they?” he added.
“They are still on the terrorists. We didn’t remove them before we sent them to the Timeless Zone,” the Queen told him.
“They could have set them off by now. They could all be dead,” Maizell shouted in an upset voice.
“Not in the Timeless Zone,” the Queen told him forcefully. “There is NO time there. What goes in, comes out exactly the same as it was when it went in. If it was hot, it comes out at the same temperature. The same thing for cold or any other condition,” she added. Maizell looked confused on hearing this.
“That’s not possible!” he told her.
“Of course it is. It’s Magic,” she answered with a smile.
“What are you going to do with them?” Agent Pruitt asked
“By them, do you mean the vests or the terrorists?” the Queen asked.
“Both,” the ATF agents retorted.
“WE will interrogate the terrorists after removing their vests, and then return the vests to the Timeless Zone for safe keeping. We’ll need to see what we learn from the terrorists before we decide what is to be done with them,” she told the agents, who weren’t happy on hearing that.
“Those men should be turned over to the government, to the FBI and the Justice Department to be tried,” both ATF agents insisted.
“WE will see,” was all the Queen told them before adding, “Let’s return home. We’ve finished here for now.” We all surrounded the two agents and their equipment, joined hands, and the Queen cast the Transfer spell. A second later, we appeared in the front yard of her house. On arriving home, Grandmother was quick to send the two ATF agents on their way.
“WE thank the ATF for their assistance in the removal of the booby-traps and aiding us in the proper disposal of the explosive devices. We will keep you informed of when we have removed the suicide vests from the terrorists and their final disposition,” the Queen told them before seeing them passed through the perimeter wards.
Naturally, this was the point when the media made their appearance, just as she was passing them through the perimeter wards. Their vehicles screeched to a sudden halt and the reporters and their camera men jumped out before the ATF agents could even reach their vehicle.
“Your Majesty, we’d like to get a statement from you on the events of yesterday,” the lead reporter shouted, as he and the others approached the perimeter wards. They had left their vehicles blocking not only the road, but also the entry to the small parking area where the ATF agents had their vehicle parked.
We were all wondering how they knew when to be here to intercept the Queen just as the ATF agents were leaving. It occurred to me, and later to several others, that someone at the agents’ office had alerted the media to when we would be disposing of the explosives devices to get some favorable publicity for their department. The media being sneaky, had obviously been watching us.
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