Chapter 10

“So what are we going to do tonight?” Allen asked as we drove out of Boston.

“We are going to find a nice quiet hotel that will take cash and ask no questions. Then we are going to get a good night’s sleep before going back to check out those minor Talents who showed up today. I want to see just how strong they are, and who they work for. We need to know who we are up against, and what they are trying to do,” I told him.

North of Boston proper, and well north of the old Irish gang territory around Somerville, we located a nice quiet no-tell-motel that Grandfather had told me about when I was old enough to know such things. We checked in and paid cash for the room. The clerk didn’t question the obviously false names that we used.

“The room costs the same if you use it for an hour or all night,” she had told us before we paid.

We were soon in bed but only to sleep tonight, as I wanted to be up early in the morning. We needed to arrive near the FBI building early enough for our Magic signature to dissipate before those three minor Talents arrived there.

In the morning, we were up earlier than usual and checked out of the motel, before driving back to Somerville where we parked in a lot near an Irish tavern. I used an obfuscation spell, similar to that used by Witches, to keep the car from being discovered but didn’t cast a ward around it, as it would have required more Magic.

“No ward?” Allen asked as I finished.

“We need to use as little Magic as possible to keep our Magic signature to a minimum,” I told him before casting the transfer spell to take us to a small diner a couple of blocks from the FBI building, where we had breakfast.

It was still very early in the morning when we finished breakfast, and I was sure that this far from the FBI’s building that our Magic signature would have faded to the point that it was undetectable by the government Wizards when they eventually arrived there that morning.

“What are we going to do today?” Allen asked during our meal.

“We are going to stakeout the FBI building and check out those government Wizards today, so there will be very little if any Magic used by us in this area, as they could detect it. I want to learn more about what they are doing here, and where they are staying, also who sent them and why,” I told him.

Following breakfast, we walked to the Double Tree Chelsea on Everett Ave, right across the street from the FBI building. There was a hotel van parked in their parking lot facing the FBI building, and Allen managed to open the locked doors without the use of any Magic. We settled into it to observe the arrival area of the compound and the main entrance of the building. I had again used a minor obfuscation spell to keep anyone from looking in the van and noticing us.

“Are we going to spend all day here?” Allen asked once we were settled and had opened the windows of the van.

“We will be here for part of the morning at least, and then I want to follow them to wherever they are staying when they leave later today. I want to interrogate at least one of them to learn why they are here,” I told him.

“We should have brought coffee. Stakeouts are boring,” he told me in a knowing voice.

“Have you been on a lot of stakeouts?” I asked.

“Yes, when I first joined the FBI as a new agent,” he told me.

“We may be able to get coffee at this hotel, or at the one where we still have a room. We could even spend some time in the room if it gets too hot in the van. We can also go back to the diner for lunch,” I told him, as we settled down to watch the building across the street. It was close enough that we didn’t need binoculars.

Allen had already gone for coffee before the Wizards arrived, and I was only using my Magic senses to detect them. I hadn’t sent them out, only opening them up to detect any other Magic users in the area.

It was just after 9:00 AM when the Wizards arrived in a government vehicle and parked in a VIP parking spot near the front entrance of the building. I had detected them a good two blocks before they reached the security gates of the compound, and we watched them arrive and park from behind the thermal sunshade that covered the front windshield of the van.

While Maureen and Allen had spent a quiet night asleep at their motel the previous night, those asleep in the FBI’s building had a much different experience.

Not all of those in the building that night had been there to try to apprehend Agent Parks. There were a number of people who worked nights at various jobs there from personnel, to data entry, to custodians in addition to those assigned to the Emergency Response Center, the security personnel, and those manning the Operations Center. The sleep spell affected all of them as well as the agents and the snipers there to catch Agent Parks if he returned for his vehicle.

While the sleep spell had put all of them to sleep in a minute or so after being cast, its effects did not wear off on everyone at the same time. Based on a number of factors, such as weight, body size, and their location in the building, there were a number of people who awoke before those around them. These early awakeners were startled to find that they had been asleep and that others still were. Their efforts to rouse those with them met with little success, as the spell needed to run its course in each person. This led to a certain amount of panic and calls for medical assistance, as they had no idea what had happened.

Soon cooler heads prevailed as leaders came out of the spell plus the Emergency Response Center and the Operations section became functional again and organized their response to being knocked out. It was quickly discovered that Agent Park’s car had vanished, and the Agent in Charge, Agent Drum, was soon notified of the problem. He in turn called in a number of agents to assist in determining what had happened.

Everyone in the compound was interviewed that night to determine what had happened. All of the agents on the capture team and the snipers were also interviewed, but they knew little of what had happened. Those who checked the computer system soon had a better idea of when everyone had fallen asleep, as they could determine when each terminal went off line from disuse, and they knew that ten minutes had elapsed since its last use. They placed the time of the event at just before 9:00 that evening. Those who awoke first did so a bit after 10:00 that evening.

Those in security checked the records of the various cameras that covered the area, and soon found footage where those at the entry gate had fallen asleep. Additionally, they’d had cameras focused on Agent Park’s vehicle, and saw when Parks and Maureen appeared next to it, removed the equipment intended to keep it from moving, and then saw it vanish, only to reappear on the street outside of the parking lot and drive off. The AIC was shocked when shown the recordings.

“How the hell can they do that?” he demanded after viewing the recordings several times.

“We have no idea,” was the only answer that he got.

“Have you identified the woman with him?” he asked next.

“No sir, the images of her on the recordings are not very good, although Parks is easily identified,” they told him. Agent Drum also dreaded calling his boss, Director Stone, with the news of what had happened. He was there most of the night and slept in his office rather than spend the time going home.

Just after 9:00 the next morning, the three Wizards were shocked on arriving to discover that the wards that they had cast around the ground level of the building yesterday were no longer in existence.

“What happened here last night?” demanded their leader when they reached the AIC’s office.

“We were hit last night,” a very tired AIC told them.

“Hit?”

“All of our people on duty here were put to sleep for over an hour, and Parks and some woman retrieved his car,” the AIC told them.

“Yes, and someone canceled the wards that we had cast around the ground floor of this building. Why weren’t we notified about that last night?” their leader demanded in a belligerent voice.

“Because we had no way to detect the ward,” the AIC answered in just as belligerent a voice.

“Don’t you have one of the signature recognizing machines?” he was asked.

“We had one, but it was blown up when we tried to arrest a Magic user at the airport,” the AIC told them.

“Blown up?” came the amazed reply.

“She had left something in her Magic signature that the machine set off, destroying it,” the AIC admitted, before showing them the recording of the car being removed. The three Wizards were shocked in the extreme on seeing that.

“Could the three of you cast a sleep spell to put everyone in the building to sleep?” the AIC asked them following that.

“I know a rudimentary sleep spell, but the others don’t,” their leader told the AIC. “With their help, we could cast the spell and possible put two or three men to sleep in a small room. It’s not possible to cast a sleep spell that would cover everyone in a building this size,” their leader told him.

“Why?”

“It requires a lot of Magic to cast a sleep spell. No one has enough Magic to cast a sleep spell that would cover this entire building,” the lead Wizard told him.

“Well, someone has enough Magic, as they cast a sleep spell that put everyone in the building asleep for over an hour last night,” the AIC shouted at them in an upset voice.

“If that’s true, you have a more serious problem than we thought,” the lead Wizard told the AIC. They recast their ward around the ground floor of the building, after calling their superiors to inform them of what had happened.

We saw the three Wizards emerge from the building at around 11:00 that morning. As we watched, the three of them joined hands and started to cast a ward around a part of it, to keep Paranormals out of the building. It was necessary for them to cast the ward three times on each side of the building and once on each end. Opening my Magic senses, I could tell that the ward only covered the first or ground floor of the eight story building.

“Good grief!” I finally said to Allen, as they finished working on the wards. “Even Uncle Thad and his Sons are stronger than those three together. If they are a representative sample of the Magic users working for the government, then we have very little to worry about.”

“It looks like they are leaving,” he said, as the three of them headed for their government vehicle on finishing.

“We need to follow them to see where they are staying,” I told him, but Allen was way ahead of me and already had the van started.

“How did you do that?” I asked, as he backed out of the parking spot, while I removed the sunshade from the front windshield of the van.

“I hot-wired the van. It’s one of the things they teach you at the FBI training school,” he told me.

“Isn’t that just dandy?” I said in a sarcastic voice.

“Sometimes it’s necessary to be able to follow a suspect, as now,” he told me as he turned onto Everett Ave. to follow the Wizards vehicle to their hotel, we hoped.

The Wizards went south on Everett which eventually turned into Meridian St. As they approached the harbor, they turned right onto Maverick St. before making their way up Cottage St. to Porter St. where the Embassy Suites by Hilton Boston at Logan Airport was located. Since we were in a Double Tree Chelsea van, which hotel was also owned by Hilton, they didn’t find it suspicious that we had followed them for some two and a quarter miles from the FBI building.

“I know where they are going,” Allen said when we had turned on to Cottage St.

“Where?”

“They’re going to the Embassy Suites. We have had other visitors stay there, but they were always high ranking visitors, not low level Wizards,” he told me, as he drove up to the employee’s entrance to the parking area so we could gain access to the building. I used a very minor spell which used only a tiny amount of Magic to raise the arm at the entrance to the parking structure.

On entering the building, Allen used his badge to clear the way to the registration desk, and I again used a small spell to gain the cooperation of one of the desk clerks there to look up what rooms the Wizards were in. Of course, we didn’t call them Wizards, but visiting government employees.