Chapter 17

Inside the building, pandemonium prevailed, as the tame Magic users could feel the spells being cast by Max and Jill, but were unable to do anything to stop them through their own wards.

“Doctor Boudinot, someone is casting a spell outside the building,” the man from the operations section shouted as he approached Boudinot’s room again.

“What are you doing about it?” he demanded.

“Nothing, our wards are still in effect,” the man told him realizing how foolish he must have sounded.

“Drop the wards and shoot at them. What do you have those guns for anyway? Must I do all of the thinking around here?” he grumbled at his assistant, and the man hurried off to do as he was told.

He was hurrying toward where the others were watching the two outside when he ran right into the invisible wall of the second shell, where it passed through the building, nearly knocking himself out. It required a number of seconds for him to recover his wits, but he finally shouted to those on the other side of the two shell walls.

“Drop our wards and shoot at them!” he screamed. The others stared at him for several more seconds, before they dropped their wards, and one of them opened a window. He was just a bit too late, as Max and Jill had completed the shells and their wards before he could act. The sound of the shot that he fired did attract the attention of the base police department however.

“Shall we return to the motel?” Max asked Jill now outside the shells. “That shot will be heard for quite some distance in the dark, and the offices of the police and the fire departments aren’t far from here,” he added before they joined hands, and he cast the transfer spell taking them back to their motel room.

While Max and Jill had a good night’s sleep in their king size bed at the motel, things were a bit more hectic and confused both inside and outside the building of the Military Psychiatry Branch. The Ft. Detrick Police soon arrived along with the Fire Department and Emergency Medical personnel looking for where the shot had originated. The vehicle of the first response team ran right into the wall of the first shell, it being invisible, and wrecking the vehicle. Those following it were more careful, even though they couldn’t see the shells, or access the building. Those inside were reluctant to be seen or to say anything.

Dr. Boudinot, however, was furious about what had happened and realized that he was trapped. He berated his followers, but it did him no good.

“Why haven’t you broken those wards?” he demanded of the two men trapped in the second shell with him.

“We’ve tried. Those trapped on the other side of the building have tried also, but those are the strongest wards we’ve ever seen. On top of that they are attached to whatever is surrounding the building. It’s like attacking the armor of a tank with just your fingernails,” the senior man told him.

“What can we do, we’re trapped like rats in here?” the second man moaned.

“Can we dig our way out?” Boudinot demanded.

“The basement walls are concrete, and we have no shovels or sledgehammers to work with,” the senior man told him.

“How long can those spells last? Can we wait them out?” Boudinot asked in a worried voice.

“It required a huge amount of Magic to cast them, but they will last until well after we have all starved to death,” the senior man told him in dread.

“Get out of here and get to work figuring out how to get us out of here,” Boudinot demanded, and both men left, but had little hope of figuring out how to get out of the trap they were in.

Those outside the building were in the same predicament, as they had no way to get inside, despite their best efforts, as nothing they tried had any effect on the shells. It was a long cold night for all of them, and a perplexing one for those that they notified about the problem.

We awoke just before 0930 on Monday morning having had a good eight hours or so of sleep. While we had a lot to do today, most of it did not involve those at Ft. Detrick. Following a good breakfast at the Francis Scott Key Mall, we transferred to Boston to check on Paddy and his Daughter. Boston was frigid and still had plenty of snow. While the main streets had been cleared and some traffic was moving, it was the subway, the MBTA, which was moving most of those going to work. Paddy and Kathleen were both well.

Next we transferred to Angus’s house outside of Union City to find the house closed and no one at home.

“They may have gone to Calisa’s house because of all of the snow and the cold,” Jill surmised as we prepared to leave. We transferred to Nick’s house in Sneedville from there. It was cold there with some snow, but the Kanes were glad to see us.

“Angus was here a week or so ago. They went to Calisa’s house to get away from the cold,” Nick told us after a warm welcome. We only remained long enough to learn how they were doing and if they had any problems, before we transferred to Calisa’s house in North Charleston. We were greeted by Angus and Calisa shortly after we arrived inside the shell around her house.

“Have you been to my house?” Angus asked after the greetings and hugs had been completed.

“Yes, we have, and to Nick’s also,” Jill told them. Charleston was a lot warmer than the other places we had visited, being already in the mid-50s this morning.

“We moved down here more than a week ago,” Calisa told us.

“Is there a problem?” Angus asked following that.

“Not a problem, but something that I need to discuss with you,” I told him, and explained about Maureen hearing us having sex.

“You’re sure that this privacy spell and the noise suppression spell were in full effect at the time?” he asked on hearing me out.

“Yes, we checked both spells the next morning after I learned what Maureen had heard, and what Lilly had told her,” Jill assured him.

“What is this privacy spell?” Calisa asked. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“You’ve never used it?” Jill asked in surprise.

“No!”

“It prevents other Magic users from knowing what you are doing when you have sex,” Jill told her with a blush.

“It also prevents your need from affecting them,” I told her. It was Calisa’s turn to blush.

“Did Maureen know what you were doing through the privacy spell?” Angus asked to be sure of just what had happened.

“No, it was the noise suppression spell that was the problem,” Jill told him with only a small blush.

“And this has always been effective?” Angus asked.

“Yes, I’ve used it many time and not just for sex, but to keep all kinds of noise from being heard,” I told him.

“I don’t remember reading anything like this in any of the books I’ve studied. We’ll need to have another chat with this young lady. She seems to have a number of unusual abilities. When will you be free to do that?” Angus asked.

“We’ll be another day or two finishing up with those who caused my Sons’ deaths. We should be free in three or four days,” I told him.

“Will Friday, the 19th, give you enough time to finish up?” he asked.

“That should work. If there are any problems, we’ll let you know as soon as possible,” I agreed.

“At Thad’s farm or here?” he asked.

“I think that Thad’s farm would be best. She’s reasonably comfortable there now,” Jill told him. We left shortly after that, and transferred to Jill’s house up the street.

“We should warm up my house and bring some food and other essentials here. We’ll need to return here to have sex until we learn how Maureen manages to hear us through an active spell,” Jill told me. We turned the heat on in the house, and made trips to several local stores to stock up on essentials for when we used her house.

It was mid-afternoon by the time we had the house ready to be occupied again and had everything put away. We had also stopped for lunch. We still had one more stop to make today. We arrived in the field in front of Thad’s farmhouse, just after 1500, as we believed the children would be out of school by then. It was nearly as warm there as it had been in Charleston when we left.

Maureen was the first one out the front door of the house after we appeared. Thad followed her more than a minute later.

“I’m so glad you’re back! Have you finished? Can you stay?” she asked joyfully, as she hugged Jill and then me. I picked up the bouncing young girl, and we walked toward the porch where Thad and several others were waiting for us.

“Have you finished?” Thad also asked. “We have been following what happened in Washington over the weekend,” he added.

“We have one more to confront ... the leader. We trapped him and his remaining followers in a pair of shells last night at Ft. Detrick. We intend to return tonight to finish things,” I told him.

“Will all of this be finished then?” he asked.

“I’m not sure that we’ll ever be finished. We’ll still need to watch over the people who we know can do Magic to ensure that the government doesn’t attack them, or some other group of fanatics don’t go after them,” I told him, realizing that we would have to keep watch for those who would come after us because of our abilities, be they from the government or some private group.

“Can you stay for a while?” Thad asked after a short silence.

“We can stay for supper, but we’ll need to leave after that,” Jill told him, as we all entered the house.

Jill and I went to Maureen’s room with her to hear all about what she was doing in school and here on the farm after school. She also told us about what Uncle Thad was teaching her. Jill stayed with her following that, while I went to talk to Thad and get his impression of how her training was going. Later there was supper with those currently staying at the house. We returned to our room at the motel near Ft. Detrick at about 1900. Supper at Thad’s had been very good, and we had eaten a lot to prepare us for what we had to do tonight to finish things up here.

From the field in front of Thad’s house, I transfer us to the mall near our hotel to pick up four large burgers, two large orders of fries, and a six pack of cola to have when we finished our work tonight, before transferring to our motel room.

We had been on the go since this morning, so we took a short nap to recharge our batteries. We were up, dressed, and ready to go by 2300. We were wearing all of our extra clothes under our recon clothes, as it was supposed to be down in the low 20s tonight. I transferred us to the point at Miller Dr. on Ft. Detrick where we had crossed the grassy field last night. There was a lot more light tonight than there had been last night, and it was coming from flood lights set up by the Ft. Detrick Police Department along Doughten Dr. to illuminate the front of the building housing the Military Psychiatry Branch. From where we were, we could see that the ends of the building were less well illuminated, and the back not at all.

While these conditions would dictate our approach to the building, they presented little problem to us in our black recon clothing.

“Let’s move to that first building, the one indicated as # 578 on our printout,” I told Jill. We moved out carefully while I sent my Magic senses out to check the building for anyone in there, but found no trace of anyone there. As we moved into the shadow of the building, I whispered to Jill.

“I’m going to cast the invisibility spell and move up to the next building and check things out. If it looks okay, I’ll return to get you,” I told her before casting the spell and moving forward along the front side of the building to the next building, #567. This was a much larger building, and I checked it with my Magic senses, but found it to also be empty. Moving along the front of this second building, I soon reached the back of the Psychiatry building, and the shells and wards we had left around it last night. On checking all of the spells, I found that they were all still 100% effective. Moving along the back of the building, inside the shells, I checked the ends of the building, and looked around at what was in front of the building from both ends.

Transferring back to where Jill was, I startled her somewhat by appearing while still using the invisibility spell. I quickly canceled it, and filled her in on what I had learned.

“The shells and wards are still at full strength,” I began. “I also checked what is in front of the building from both ends. There are lights set up along the road in front of the building illuminating it. There is also a police vehicle parked to block the road at each end of the building. With all of the lights on the front of the building, those in the vehicles won’t be able to see anything in the shadows. I didn’t notice any cameras covering the back of the building, which only has a couple of lights on inside it.

“I’ll recast the invisibility spell on both of us before we move up to the back of the building outside the shells. We can pass through the shells while invisible. Once inside the first shell, I’ll cancel the invisibility spell, and transfer us into the building,” I told her, laying out our actions for the next few minutes.

“With all of the Magic we are using, those inside the building will be sure to know that we are here,” she reminded me.

“That can’t be helped. Before we transfer inside, I’ll cast the ammunition spell and check our wards,” I told her, casting the invisibility spell on both of us, before we moved out toward the building.

Inside the building, there was panic as soon as they felt Max using Magic. The one on guard in the first shell quickly woke the other two.

“Get up, they’re back,” he told the others, shaking them until they were awake, if still groggy. They had been on a two hours on and four hours off schedule since last night.

“What should we do?” one of the others demanded as he came awake.

“We need to alert the Doctor, and then remain in this room together. Have your guns ready, and if anyone comes in here, we’ll shoot the bastards,” the first man replied before selecting the silent one to alert those on the other side of the building in the second shell. Those on the other side of the building had also felt the use of Magic, and one of them was in the hall at the wall of the shells separating them. Neither man needed to say anything before returning to those with them.

Jill and I transferred into the Psychiatric building appearing in a room on the back side of the building. Even if there were cameras watching the back of the building, they would have seen little when I canceled the invisibility spell, because I immediately cast the transfer spell, and we instantly disappeared. I had already cast the ammunition spell while still invisible. On appearing inside the room, we checked our wards to ensure that they were still at full strength.

Following that, I sent my Magic senses out to this side of the building and soon located three minor talents in a room on the front side of the building.

“There are three of them a couple of rooms down from us on the front side of the building,” I told Jill. “Let’s pay them a visit,” I continued, before checking that the ammunition spell was in full effect. Jill opened the door to the central hall, and I headed down the hall for the room where the three men waited with the door open and a single light bulb burning. They had been waiting for us, and all three had their rifles raised when I appeared in the doorway of the room.

Without speaking a word, all three of them pulled the trigger of their weapons, but nothing happened. They frantically pulled back the bolts of their rifles to eject the old round and chamber a new one, only to have the same thing happen again. They then stared at me in panic for a few seconds, before rising as one to rush forward and use their nonfunctional weapons as clubs. I threw the freeze spell that I had cast coming down the hall at them, instantly freezing them in place.

“They were ready, but it didn’t do them any good,” Jill said from behind me, as I looked over the three of them and selected the middle man to question. Moving him away from the other two, I changed his freeze spell to a partial one so that he could talk, but locked the spell to myself so he couldn’t try to cancel it. He snapped awake as the spell changed.

“Hardtrick,” he breathed and tried to cast a spell, but he couldn’t move his hands to trace its sign or glyph.

“How do you know me?” I demanded.

“Fuck you, I’m not saying anything,” was all that I got in answer. I cast the truth spell and waited a minute or so while it took effect.

“How do you know me?” I demanded again. He sweated and groaned for a time but finally answered.

“We were new here when Boudinot brought you here to work on you,” he finally answered, but he was still trying to cast a minor spell.

“And did any of you have anything to do with the deaths of my Sons’?” I demanded. This time he answered quickly and seemed to relish what he was saying.

“Yes, we were the ones who carved the little bastards up. They both had the Talent, but had no idea of what it was for. They screamed and cried before they died,” he said in an arrogant voice.

“You have sealed your fate with those words,” I told him, and changed his freeze spell and that of the others to a full body one so that though they couldn’t move, they would feel everything that was happening to them.

After moving them close together, I cast a small shell around them before casting the noise suppression spell in the walls, floor, and the ceiling of the room. When all was ready, I cast a fire spell inside the shell. It set all three of them on fire, but this was a slow burning fire. They screamed in agony as they slowly burned to death. Their screams could be heard in the room but not by those in the other shell or outside in front of the building. I watched as their clothes were consumed, and then their skin charred. They screamed in agony for a number of minutes, before I changed the fire spell to a more vigorous one that consumed their bodies in a minute or so, leaving only some ash, before I canceled the fire spell and then the shell that had surrounded them, leaving just a burned area on the floor to show where they died.

“Do you feel any better now?” Jill asked looking at me.

“No, but it is satisfying to know that those bastards suffered as much, or more, than my Sons did,” I told her, before changing the subject. “We still have those in the other shell to deal with. There is no one left in this shell,” I finished, having checked.

Leaving the room, we walked down the hall, passed through both shells and their wards to be confronted by two more men with small Talents. Theirs were a bit stronger than those of the previous three had been, but not overly strong, and certainly not strong enough to challenge either of us. One had a rifle and the other one held a lit propane torch.

“Out fire,” I said in Gaelic, and the fire from the torch went out, startling the man holding it. While he tried to relight it in vain, the other man fired his weapon, which didn’t work though he cleared it and tried to fire it three more times before giving up, and charged me swinging the weapon. Having cast another freeze spell on the way here, I threw it at both of them, freezing them in place.

“What are you going to do with them?” Jill asked when I hadn’t moved, or said anything after a number of seconds.

“I’m debating what to do with them,” I told her, and just stood there thinking for a time.

“Did I really want to know what terrible things these men had done? Was it really necessary? Would it help anyone? They were all guilty by association with their boss. It would be enough that all of them would die when I finished with Boudinot,” I finally decided.

“We’ll just leave them here for now, while I deal with their boss,” I told Jill, before adding, “He’s on the second floor in a room at the end of the building. There isn’t anyone else in this building.”

We moved down the hall following that to the stairs leading to the second floor. There were lights on in the hall up here, but I didn’t need light to locate the one I was after. The hall ended at a door. The room beyond it apparently was the width of the building, making it quite large. The door was a heavy wooden one with a steel plate covering the front of it. Using my Magic senses, I could tell that it was locked and barred on the inside, but this presented no impediment to Jill or me. I simply cast the transfer spell, and we appeared several feet inside the room behind the door.

The room that we appeared in was large and lit by subdued lighting. The floor was covered by deep pile rugs, and the walls were papered above an expensive looking real wood wainscot. There were fancy crown moldings just below the plaster ceiling all around the room, and heavy drapes hung at all of the windows. The furniture was real mahogany and walnut antiques of the best quality.

Boudinot was located in the back corner of the room near what appeared to be an escape hatch. There was a rope ladder on the floor below it, but the hatch hadn’t opened because the shell was tight against the building this high above the ground.

“Don’t come any closer!” he demanded in a hysterical voice while waving a large automatic pistol at us.

“Or what?” I asked with a smile.

“I’ll shoot ... I don’t know why the others haven’t shot you by now, the traitors,” he shouted at us.

“Oh, they tried, but their weapons didn’t work, just as yours won’t,” I told him, which brought a shocked look to his face, and a reaction from his hand as he steadied the powerful pistol with both hands, aimed it and pulled the trigger.

As expected, nothing happened, but panic appeared on his face, as he pulled the bolt back on the large semi-automatic pistol to eject the cartridge and chamber a new one, still with his finger on the trigger. The pistol would have fired and shot him in the foot, if not for the ammunition spell being in effect. He finally brought the pistol back up with both hands holding it and pulled the trigger again, but the firing pin had already been released as he reloaded the weapon and nothing happened again.

“What have you done?” Boudinot demanded in a hysterical voice, throwing the useless pistol at us; not understanding why it didn’t even click the last time. The heavy 44 Magnum Desert Eagle pistol didn’t even reach where we were standing before hitting the floor but not sliding on the thick rug.

“Just a little spell that we developed in Ashcanastan to give us an advantage,” I told him with a smile.

“I should have killed you when I had you here before, but those idiots from the Pentagon wouldn’t allow it, and sent people here to watch what I did. Damn them all to hell and you too,” he screamed at us.

“Why do you hate Magic users so, and why have you done all of those terrible things?” Jill asked, speaking for the first time since we had entered the room.

“Yes, I hate all of you. I even hated that fool Coley, even though he hated you also,” he answered.

“But why?” Jill prompted.

“Because I should be the one with the power that you have. I should be the one in charge of things, not these other fools, but I was cheated out of my birthright by my Parents. I learned that there had been Witches and Wizards for many generations in our Family, but the biologists in France checked my DNA when I was at the University there, and told me that I only had half of the genes needed to do Magic, and that I would never be able to do any myself.

“They suggested that if I married someone with the other half of the genes, that my Son or Daughter could do Magic, but I wouldn’t settle for that. If I couldn’t do Magic, then no one should be able to do it. I had my Parents murdered for cheating me out of my rightful inheritance before moving here to do my best to wipe out the use of Magic in this country and then in the rest of the world,” he shouted at us in a frenzied voice. Jill turned to me with a look of shock on her face on hearing this.

“My God, Max, the man is totally insane,” she told me. Boudinot had heard her.

“NO! ... no, I’m the only sane one here. It’s the rest of you who are insane,” Boudinot insisted, as he charged toward us with a large knife he had drawn. I hit him with the freeze spell that I had been holding since entering the room, and he froze in mid-step near where the heavy pistol had landed.

“Yes, the misguided dreams of a mad man are the cause of all of the trouble, and all of the deaths of Special Operations people and their Families, plus other Magic users. It will be a service to humanity to rid the world of him and his followers. Let us hope there are no more of them,” I said.

“What are you going to do with him and the others?” Jill asked, and I stood there for many seconds while considering what to do with him and the other two. I eventually turned to look at Jill.

“There is no punishment strong enough to compensate for what they have done, and I will not leave them for others to deal with. I believe the best solution is to remove them totally and also part of this building. Let those in charge wonder what happened to them and the building,” I told her.

“How will you remove them?” she asked.

“The same way that I removed the other three,” I told her.

“And the building?”

“I will blow up this half inside the shell to keep the damage to a minimum,” I told her.

“How can I help?” she asked with a smile.

“Go to all of the rooms on the second floor in this shell, and start the water running so it spills over onto the floor,” I told her. “I’ll deal with the three here and then start on the rooms on the first floor. Meet me on the first floor when you are finished,” I told her.

“All right,” she agreed, before looking around at the furniture and the decor of the room.

“It will be such a waste, but I wouldn’t want anything that he had touched to survive, it might be contaminated with his madness,” she said before moving to start the water running in here. I transferred to the first floor with Boudinot.

On appearing there, I moved him and the other two close together after removing the rifle and its fired shells but leaving the torch with them. Following that, I cast a small shell around them before canceling the freeze spells on them.

“Because you have caused others so much suffering, it is only right that you should suffer before you die,” I told them before casting the spell for slow Magic fire and throwing it into the shell. They all screamed as it began to consume them, their clothes, hair, skin, and every bit of them. The torch also caught fire adding actual fire to consume even their ashes. I hadn’t cast the noise suppression spell this time, as I didn’t care if the police outside heard them or not. While they burned, I started the water in each room that had it running, and made sure that it overflowed onto the floor. I didn’t stay to watch them be consumed. Jill joined me shortly.

“Not all of the rooms had water, but I have it running in all of the ones that did,” she told me.

“That’s fine,” I told her, and we returned to the shell that had the Magic fire still burning in it. There weren’t even any ashes remaining in it when I canceled the Magic fire and then the shell.

“Are you ready to leave?” I asked her.

“Yes.”

“I will cast the water separation spell before we leave, but we will need to give it time to work. Don’t worry, it won’t take long,” I assured her before casting the water separation spell, and then transferring us out of the building. We appeared behind building #578.

We stood there behind the building for about five minutes before I started canceling the markers and the other spells in the area that we had used to move around. The last one that I canceled was the ammunition spell. I know that the three rifles and the expended ammunition in the first shell fired when I canceled the spell, but they were inconsequential compared to the explosion set off by the weapons and rounds in the second shell which set off the hydrogen and oxygen that had been created by the water separation spell.

The entire explosion was contained by the second shell, but the light generated by it was blinding, and the noise deafening. The force involved was such that it reduced the materials of the building to little more than gravel and sand. What could be burned did until it ran out of oxygen. That was when I canceled the wards and both shells around the building. The fire burst out anew on the exploded part of the building, and scorched part of the remaining half of the building. After watching it for a few more seconds, I transferred us back to our motel room, while fire and police personnel rushed to the scene to control the disaster.

We were sitting on the bed in our room a short time later, when Jill had a question for me.

“Do you feel any better now that you are finished and have had your revenge?” she asked.

“Finished ... I hope so, but feeling better ... no. No, I don’t feel better. I had hoped that finishing would allow me to return to a normal life, but that isn’t possible now. It’s hard to believe that all of this was caused by the delusional dreams of a mad man. Someone who believed that he should be the one to have all of the power that a powerful Talent and Magic can provide ... but for what? It’s no panacea. It won’t solve the world’s problems. It can make some things simpler, or easier, but it’s more of a burden than a cure all,” I finished.