Chapter 3

Agent Parks has the Narrative:

The following new character appears in this chapter and later chapters:

Stephen B. (Steve)

Angus and Calisa’s son, 5’-6’’ tall, 135 pounds, almost 15 years old, brown hair, blue eyes, A very strong Talent that is still developing

Tuesday the first of April, April fool’s day, had not been a particularly productive day. We had finally located Maureen O’Farrell’s birth certificate. It had taken much longer than it should have, those in Southie being more than a little careless with keeping records. The birth certificate hadn’t been very helpful. The Mother’s name had been listed, but the Father had been listed as deceased. The address given no longer existed, as the building had been demolished years ago to make way for a new larger office building.

The Grandfather was senile, and we had gotten little from him. We were still trying to locate the Mother, one Kathleen O’Farrell, but with little success. We had been told, by those at the school the child had attended, that the Mother had married, but no one remembered what the new husband’s name was, or where they had moved to. The case was going nowhere fast.

Consequently, it was late when I arrived at my apartment following an extended meeting at headquarters and then dinner. I was tired and somewhat dejected on approaching my apartment. The hall lights appeared to be brighter than usual, and I needed to find which pocket I had put my keys in. This was why I noticed the light seeping under the door to my apartment when my shadow fell across it.

“Why are the lights on in the apartment?” I asked myself, as I never left them on. The answer that immediately came to mind was that someone was in there and had a light on.

Switching the keys to my left hand, I drew my service weapon, used the keys to unlock the door, and pushed it open to stand there in the doorway for a number of seconds looking into the apartment. There was one person in there sitting on the sofa by the end table with the lamp on. She had a closed book in her hands.

“Good evening, Agent Parks,” she said in a quiet voice.

It was Maureen O’Farrell! Several things flashed through my mind in the next few seconds. How did she know where I lived, how had she gotten past the buildings sophisticated security system, and into my apartment?” I wondered. The next thing that came to my mind was that she was a wanted criminal.

“You’re under arrest,” I said.

“And how will you do that?” she asked with a breathtaking smile, as she was still a very beautiful woman with that long red hair and those green eyes.

“Your pistol won’t work. I’ve cast the ammunition spell to prevent it from firing. Will you tackle me and handcuff me before calling the police or the FBI?” she continued. I swallowed hard and then remembered to breath. She seemed very confident in what she was saying, and it wouldn’t be good to fire my weapon here in the apartment building to see if it worked, but what other options did I have? I tensed to move against her, but she wasn’t finished speaking yet.

“Do you think you could make it to the sofa before I could hit you with the freeze spell that I have already cast?” she continued. I had no charms or amulets here in the apartment to stop the use of spells, and I wasn’t sure if they would work against Magic anyway, as they are Witch items.

“You seem to have me at a disadvantage,” I said before adding, “What do you want? Why are you here and how did you get through the security system?”

“I only want to talk to you, and didn’t consider where you work to be an appropriate place,” she told me, ignoring my question about the security system.

“Come in and close the door. Also you can put that useless weapon away,” she told me. I holstered the pistol and closed the door. Why did she want to talk to me, I wondered?

“Come sit on the sofa,” she said next in an inviting voice, before adding, “You can remove your coat also. It’s too warm in here to be wearing one.” I hung the coat in the closet near the door before moving toward the sofa. Perhaps I could grab her when I was nearer the sofa.

As I approached the sofa, she smiled at me again.

“Sit near me. There is no reason that we can’t behave like civilized people while together,” she said. As I moved closer to her, I tensed my muscles, and her smile only increased. I was nearly on top of her when I had the funniest feeling. I stopped and looked carefully at her but could see nothing unusual.

“It won’t work,” she said smiling up at me. “I have a ward around myself, and you would be quite unable to penetrate it, and that’s what I want to talk to you about,” she continued.

“About a ward?” I asked confused. I knew enough about Magic from our briefings to know that it was some kind of protective spell.

“Yes, you should have been able to sense the ward and also that I was in the apartment. You obviously sensed something, as you had your weapon drawn to face an intruder,” she told me, but without that smile that lit up the room.

“I didn’t sense you or anyone. It was the light leaking under the door that alerted me to someone in the apartment,” I told her, as I moved past her to sit on the sofa a good foot and a-half from her.

“So, it was observation, and you didn’t sense anything at all?” she asked in a questioning voice.

“What was I supposed to have sensed?” I asked not understanding.

“You really aren’t aware that you possess the Talent, are you?” she continued.

“Talent, what Talent?”

“Why the Talent to do Magic, of course.”

“No, I can’t do any Magic. I’ve never been able to do any Magic or any Witch spells, or any of those things. That’s why they assigned me to the Paranormal Branch, because I wasn’t ‘contaminated’ as they called it,” I told her. She was smiling again. She seemed to do that a lot.

“And they had no way to test that you have a Talent, because it’s an inactive one. That is what I am here to talk about ... your inactive Talent. That and to find out why your Talent is inactive,” she told me and stopped to stare at me for over a minute.

“That’s curious,” she finally said. “I can sense your Talent, but can’t determine why it’s not functioning,” she continued and was then silent for another minute or so.

“I will need to touch you, Agent Parks,” she finally said.

“Touch me? Where? Why?”

“I need to place my fingers on your forehead for a minute or so to examine your Talent closer, so I can determine why it is inactive,” she told me, and that stopped me for a minute or so, as I moved a bit further away from her.

“I assure you that you won’t feel anything abnormal,” she told me, on seeing my reluctance.

“All right,” I finally agreed on further consideration. She moved over closer to me, reached out and placed the fingers of both hands on my forehead. I didn’t feel anything but her warm fingers.

“This is my chance to capture her,” I thought quietly, as she continued to press her fingers against my forehead, and I quickly reached up to grab her wrists.

Immediately there was a horrendous pain in my mind, and I fell back away from her and against the arm of the sofa. I lay there and panted for a time trying to regain my senses. My head still hurt, but not as much as initially.

“What did you do to me?” I finally managed to ask, but it came out as a croak.

“When you grabbed my wrists, you pulled my senses into the area that I was exploring the perimeter of. It’s something that I have never seen before. I’ll need to consult my teacher about that, but something is definitely preventing your Talent from functioning,” she told me before leaning in to kiss me. She was very warm and soft, and her lips seemed to draw the pain out of my head. She stopped when it was nearly gone. I could feel that she was very soft and warm this close to me, but I was in no condition to do anything about that.

“I’m sorry for causing you pain, but you shouldn’t have grabbed my wrists,” she told me before rising from the sofa.

“Oh yes, I noticed that your building is woefully unprepared for a Paranormal attack, when I was there very early this morning,” she told me.

“I’ll see you later. I need to determine what is affecting your Talent. It may require some extensive research,” she finished and vanished before I could say anything. I remained on the sofa until the remaining pain was gone and then prepared for bed.

The next morning, I awoke feeling just fine with no trace of last night’s pain. After getting up, shaving, dressing, and having breakfast, I had decided just what I would report to my boss when I went into work this morning. I definitely wasn’t going to mention anything about me having this Talent that she seemed so certain that I had. I left for work in a good mood.

My mood changed as soon as I got to the entry to the headquarters compound where our building is located. When I pulled up to the vehicle gate and showed the guard my badge and ID card, one of them had a message for me.

“The AIC wants to see you as soon as you get in,” he told me.

“I’ll see him as soon as I park,” I assured him.

Once inside the building, two more people gave me the same message, as I headed for the boss’s office. As soon as I entered, he was up from behind his desk.

“Did you have any problems last night?” he demanded.

“Only one, why?” I asked.

“The computer security people reported that someone broke into the system early yesterday morning, and looked up your personnel records,” he told me.

“Yes, I know. When I reached home last night, Maureen O’Farrell was waiting for me in my apartment,” I told him.

“That’s not funny, Parks. This isn’t the time for April Fool’s jokes,” the AIC told me in an upset voice.

“That isn’t a joke, sir. She actually was in my apartment when I reached there last night. She wanted to talk,” I told him.

“Why didn’t you arrest her then?”

“Because she told me, that she had cast an ammunition spell so my pistol wouldn’t work, and that she had a freeze spell ready if I tried to take her by force. She also had a ward around herself. She wound up giving me a terrible headache, when I grabbed her wrists, but before she left, she mentioned that when she had been here earlier that morning, and that she noticed that the building is woefully unprepared for a Paranormal attack,” I told him.

“How the hell could she get in here? The entire area is protected,” he demanded.

“How did she get into my apartment past the security system there?” I demanded back. Neither of us had any idea how she had done those things.

“If she could do it, it’s possible that others could also,” I reminded him.

“We’ll need to do something about security. I’ll have to talk to the Assistant Director,” the AIC said before remembering what he wanted to ask me.

“What did she want to talk to you about?” he finally remembered to ask.