Chapter 5

The following new characters appears in this chapter and others:

Jeffery Henderson, the Third

Chief Investigator for the Government of Addison III, 5’-11’’ tall, 170 pounds, about 45 years old with receding brown hair and blue eyes

James McHenry

Conspirator, a short heavy set man with dark hair, egotistical

Inside in the first bay there was now a small table with several comfortable chairs on one side, and in front of it a chair where the prisoner was seated. He was secured to it with Kevlar cuffs by his wrists and his ankles while the chair was secured to the floor.

“I need medical care, that monster bit me,” he demanded on seeing us and the Chief Investigator.

“You wouldn’t need it if you had let go of that sniper rifle, but you wanted to play the bad-ass, and held on to it. That’s why Susie bit your arm,” I told him loudly to get the facts on the record.

“The Tiger bit him?” the Chief Investigator asked.

“Susie followed Bob out of our position, and while Bob dealt with the man by the car, Susie detected the second sniper and took him out. She was sitting on him, but he refused to release the sniper rifle for whatever reason. Susie doesn’t like guns, especially when they are pointed at her. Since she doesn’t have hands, she used what she had, her mouth, to prevent him from using the rifle again,” I told the Investigator.

“Her grip is that powerful?” he asked in a questioning voice.

“It is powerful enough to break the spine of a deer or an elk with just the toss of her head,” I told him.

“Really?” he asked, surprised. “We don’t have a local predator the size of your Partners, so it is a bit difficult for us to realize just how powerful they are,” he told me.

“You two haven’t officially met yet have you?” Trish asked, eyeing us.

“Cleve, this is Chief Investigator Jeffery Henderson, the Third. He is the Chief Investigator for the Addison III Government,” she told me, as I reached out to shake his hand. The Chief Investigator was a tall thin man at about 5’-11’’ tall, and maybe 170 pounds with blue eyes, and a receding brown hair line. He appeared to be about 45 years old.

“Chief Investigator, this is Master Sergeant Cleveland Jensen, Commander of Team Tiger,” Trish finished as we shook.

“Good to meet you, sir,” I told him.

“The same,” he replied before turning to look at the prisoner.

“How will you be questioning him?” he asked following that.

“This is Sergeant First Class Lucy Miranda, sir,” I told him, as Miranda came forward. “She handles the Magic for the Team. and will be doing the interrogation.” The Chief Investigator seemed surprised that Miranda was such a beautiful woman.

“How do you do, Sergeant,” he said in a suave voice while shaking her hand. Miranda only smiled, having read his thoughts during the handshake.

“I’ll be using the standard Special Operations truth spell for the interrogation. It is similar to your approved civilian one, so both it and I are admissible as evidence in a court of law,” she told him getting right down to business. The prisoner appeared to be extremely upset on hearing this, but Miranda had been monitoring him with her Magic the entire time that he had been sitting there and needed only a word to calm him down.

She is an excellent interrogator and after casting the truth spell, she began asking simple questions that the spell compelled him to answer. It didn’t take long to determine that while he was a loyal and dedicated follower of the insurgency, he had no real knowledge of who or where the higher-ups were or what their plans were. He also only knew a few in his local cell and not much more than that. Basically, he was just a hired gun and a bully.

We were just finishing with the interrogation when there was a commotion in the parking area, and Bob and Susie were both instantly on their feet and out of the cage.

“Smell blood,” Susie sent, as the Tigers crouched on either side of the roll up door ready to spring at whoever came through it. The two Navy Corpsmen staggered through the doorway a few seconds later. They were both bleeding, and the one was holding up the other. We all leaped up instantly to assist them and determine what had gone wrong. I could feel Miranda cast a ward around the building again.

“What happened? Were you ambushed?” I immediately asked, as I reached them and helped the more injured man to one of the chairs that Trish was dragging over to us. Before they could answer, we eased them into the chairs while I sent orders to my Partners.

“Susie, watch the prisoner.”

“Bob keep guard on the parking area. Let me know if anyone enters it.”

“Where are your medical bags?” Trish was asking them at the same time.

“In the ambulance. The attendants attacked us as we neared the hospital. They were trying to rescue the prisoner. They opened fire after opening the doors when we stopped, but we had already realized that we weren’t at the hospital yet and had moved our first aid bags in front of us to protect ourselves. They are made of bullet proof material, but only cover part of us. We also had pistols stored in them. The bastards’ weapons were set to fire on automatic, and they winged both of us in addition to killing the prisoner with their wild fire. We managed to shoot both of them, and then I drove us back here, as we don’t trust any of the locals presently,” the junior Corpsman told us. They were both bleeding from gunshot wounds and it would take more than we had in our first aid bags to fix them up more than temporarily.

“We are going to need those aid bags and any supplies on the ambulance to fix them up. Let me check if it’s safe to go out into the parking area,” I told the others.

“Bob, is anyone in the parking area?” I sent.

“Inside fence no, but smell men near fence,” he sent.

“Great, we have company,” I told the others.

“I’ll extend the wards to the parking area,” Miranda told me, and closed her eyes to work on her wards.

“Okay Top, it’s warded to about half way across the parking area,” she told me shortly.

“Right,” I told her, and then sent to Bob, “Let’s go. If anyone is inside the ward but us, take him or them out.” We eased out the bay door and moved toward the ambulance sitting near it. It was dark by now, but the lights around the parking area were on and light flooded out of the open door to bay 2.

The back of the ambulance was a mess with bullet holes everywhere and blood all over. The now dead prisoner was still strapped down to the stretcher and the gurney which was secured to the floor of the vehicle. I grabbed the two medical bags, which did have bullet holes on one side and carried them back inside before returning to see what else useful I could find in the ambulance, that wasn’t filled with holes. I was rummaging around in the broken bottles, fluids and other medicines when there was a scream and then a Tiger roar. It appeared that Bob had found someone. I used a box with a couple of bullet holes in it to gather up the still usable supplies, after emptying the mess that was in it. There were also a couple of oxygen cylinders and breathing apparatus that didn’t have holes in them that I added to the load.

Outside the ambulance, I found Bob sitting on the man named Charles. He didn’t look so dapper now. I frisked him when Bob released him, and took his pistol and a knife, but that was all that he had on him.

“Bring him along, Bob,” I told him, and Bob grabbed one of his arms with his mouth and started for the bay door. Charles moved along very quickly. Inside, the Chief Investigator was shocked to see his assistant being brought in by Bob. I handed the bags and the rest to the junior Corpsman to take care of his partner.

“What are you doing here, Charles? You should be leading and coordinating the investigation of the various sites involved in this incident,” Chief Investigator Henderson asked his assistant while I was busy.

“I ... I... ?” the younger man stammered.

“SIT DOWN!” Miranda ordered using a compulsion spell directed at Charles, but all of us felt its effect and were ready to sit down except for the lack of chairs now, as the two Navy Corpsmen were occupying two of them, and the first prisoner another one. Charles sank into the remaining chair, just before Miranda cast the truth spell on him.

“What are you doing?” Henderson demanded a few seconds later on recovering.

“Removing all doubt,” Miranda answered coolly before turning to begin questioning Charles.

“Are you connected to the insurgents?” she demanded in a sharp voice. Charles began to sweat under the truth spell, as he resisted answering the question, but the truth spell is compulsive, and the harder he resisted telling the truth the stronger the compulsion to answer it became. Finally after more than two minutes, a now sweat covered Charles answered.

“Yes, damn you!” he finally breathed before slumping in the chair from all of the energy he had expended resisting the spell.

“Who are the leaders here in the capital?” Miranda demanded, and again Charles resisted answering but eventually succumbed.

“James McHenry and John Cox,” he finally answered in a strained voice. The Chief Investigator looked shocked in the extreme on hearing the two names.

“But ... but that’s... ?” he said in confusion.

“You know who they are then?” I demanded.

“Of course, they are some of our most important citizens, and staunch supporters of the government,” he answered in a still confused voice.

Miranda, however, wasn’t finished quite yet.

“Who else is in this with you?” she demanded.

“Wilson and Brown,” Charles answered through clenched teeth, but only a little more quickly than previously. Again the Chief Investigator appeared to be shocked.

“Where are Wilson and Brown now?” Miranda demanded next.

“They have probably left the city by now to save their own necks. They were outside the fence when you moved the ward and trapped me inside it,” he replied after a short pause. The Chief Investigator was on his communicator speaking with someone immediately following hearing that.

“Who did you call?” I asked when he had finished.

“The police to have them apprehend Wilson and Brown,” he told me.

“Are you sure that you can trust the police?” I asked, unsure at this point just who could be trusted.

“I can trust the ones that I called. Their leader is my Nephew,” he told me.

“Do you know where McHenry and Cox live?” I asked.

“Of course, I’ve been to their homes many times for social engagements and meetings,” he told me in a voice still not believing what he had heard.

“We need to round those two up before they leave the city, are shot by their own people, or kill themselves,” I told him to a look of surprise.

“I’ll drive,” Trish immediately volunteered, as I looked around to determine who to take with me. My eyes fell on Luther.

“Luther, you stay here in charge. You’ll have the Marines to help you. I’ll take Miranda and Trish plus my Partners and the Chief Investigator. It’s too dark for the Eagles to work presently,” I told him.

“What about the prisoners and the Corpsmen?” Luther asked.

“Put the prisoners in Bob and Susie’s cage for now. We’ll figure out something else when we return. Give the Corpsmen a hand getting cleaned up and treated,” I told him, before considering something else.

“Trish, call the hospital and see if those two Medics that came in with us are free yet, and if we can get them moved here,” I asked her. She went into the office and made the call.

“How will they get in if I’m not here to lower the wards,” Miranda asked and that really stopped me.

“Damn!” I said, as I really needed her with us, but she couldn’t be in two places at once.

“I don’t know,” I told her, looking over at the two Corpsmen.

“How are you guys doing?” I asked them.

“Not too bad, Chief,” the junior man answered. “We’ll be okay for a while. I’ve got the bleeding stopped, but will need some help finishing things up. We can wait for a little while to do that though,” he told me.