Chapter 5

The following characters return from the previous Injustice stories:

Uncle Thaddeus (Thad)

Jill’s Uncle, Magic user, 5’-10’’ tall, 185 pounds, 78 years old, a full gray beard and gray hair, hazel eyes

Aunt Grania (Grace)

Uncle Thad’s Wife, Jill’s Mother’s older Sister, 5’-8’’ tall, 140 pounds, 34C-24-34, 75 years old gray hair, blue eyes

Arriving back in Parks’ apartment, we three looked around carefully, but could detect no changes since we had left. Well, nothing but Agent Parks himself. He was a lot more alert as the amulet began teaching him Magic and to use his Talent. It was therefore only a few minutes before he had a question.

“Those on the Magic Council said that someone from the FBI had been here today and installed audio and video eavesdropping devices. Where are they? I want to examine them,” he told us.

“The Council Members said that they had used a spell to render them inoperable. We should be able to locate the spell easily and find the equipment,” Angus told him, and he and I used our Magic senses to locate the active spells in the apartment. It was very easy for us to do.

“There are two in this room,” I told Allen, pointing to where the spells and the equipment were located. He and I moved over to them, and he carefully examined each piece of equipment. Angus had checked the other rooms of the apartment, and we followed him to where the other equipment was located. Allen examined the other equipment just as carefully as he had that in the living room. When he had finished, we returned to the living room. He was frowning.

“None of that is standard FBI equipment. I didn’t recognize any of it, but it is definitely not the type of equipment that we are using presently, and it appears to be an older generation of equipment than we use. It will also have a rather short range, so someone will have had to be nearby to listen to it and record what it sends,” he told us.

“What sort of range would it have?” I asked being unfamiliar with that kind of equipment.

“Something around a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet, I would guess,” he told me.

“So something near by. Do you believe they will still be listening?” Angus asked.

“I would tend to doubt it. Once they stopped receiving a signal, they would be suspicious that someone was aware of them. Also if they knew about the Demon coming here and still didn’t receive a signal, they would definitely have pulled up stakes,” he told us.

“You believe that the Witch and those who installed the surveillance equipment are working together then?” I asked.

“Put that way, I would have to change my mind, but that was what I had initially thought. Perhaps they weren’t working together, or even for the same people, but that would just double those that we are looking for,” he told us.

“There is no way to know just now. We will need to be very careful,” I told him.

“Since none of this is FBI equipment, I doubt they are involved in this, but who else could there be?” Allen asked.

“There are those who are opposed to the spread of Magic in this Reality, as the Council Members indicated. Could they have used someone in the FBI to install this equipment, as it appears to have been done professionally?” Angus asked.

“You mean a mole?” Allen asked in surprise.

“Very possibly,” Angus agreed.

“Then who was the Witch working for?” I asked to frowns.

“An excellent question,” Angus agreed. “There have to be at least two separate parties at work here, but are they working for the same organization or separate ones?” Angus asked.

“Again, there is no way to know presently,” I said, as we had come full circle in our debate.

“So if this wasn’t done by the FBI, the bosses won’t know about it, and I may still be able to go into work, and keep an eye on things, so we know what they at least are doing,” Allen told us.

“That could work,” both Angus and I told him.

“You will need to be very careful though. If they bring in any of the government Magic users, they will now be able to detect your Talent,” I warned him.

“Would they give me away?” he asked.

“Yes,” we both assured him.

“What should I do then?”

“Vanish, disappear, but don’t come here. They know where you live. You’ll need a new location to transfer to. Have you... ?” I started and stopped. “No, you haven’t had the amulet long enough yet to learn to transfer. You are going to have to be very careful. Can you sense the Talents of others yet?” I finished.

“I can feel both of yours,” he answered.

“That’s not surprising, ours are very strong. What about lesser Talents?” I asked before remembering that we didn’t have any lesser Talents here.

“There’s only one way to find out,” I told both men. “We’ll need to go where there are some lesser Talents ... the O’Donnell farm,” I told them.

“Will you need me for that?” Angus asked, and I could see that he was anxious to return home.

“No, that’s all right, Angus. I can handle this by myself. Go on home and thanks for coming with me,” I told him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Angus vanished right after that.

“Are you ready?” I asked Allen.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“We are going to visit some people that I know. Many of them have minor Talents. If you can detect them from a distance, you will be reasonably able to avoid those working for the government,” I told him.

“Okay,” he agreed, and joining hands, I cast the transfer spell to take us to the O’Donnell farm in North Carolina. We appeared in the field in front of Uncle Thad’s house. The lights on the porch came on, but there were no shots fired. Thad appeared on the porch right after that.

“Is that you, Maureen?” he called.

“Yes, it’s me Uncle Thad. I’ve brought a friend with me,” I called. Aunt Grania had appeared on the porch with her Husband. Allen and I headed for the porch.

“What brings you here this time of night, child?” she asked, as we gained the porch.

“This is Allen Parks. He has just gained control of his Talent. There had been a Witch spell hiding it for the last thirty years. I need to see if he can sense any of the minor Talents that some of your relatives have,” I told Uncle Thad.

“Just gained control of his Talent?” Thad asked in a concerned voice.

“Yes, it was hidden by the spell,” I told him not wanting to go into everything just now.

“But he has a huge Talent. How do you hide that?” Thad insisted. I shrugged, as it was obvious that a full explanation would be needed before he would be satisfied.

“Let’s go inside and I’ll explain,” I told the two of them, and we went inside to the small parlor.

I explained what we knew about Allen’s Talent and how it had been hidden. Uncle Thad looked less and less happy the more that he heard. The final straw was when I told them that Allen worked for the FBI.

“He works for the FBI and you brought him here?” Thad demanded in an upset voice.

“Uncle Thad, it was the Members of the Magic Council who restored his Talent after canceling the Black Magic Spell that the Witch had used to hide it,” I told a very shocked Thad O’Donnell.

“You managed to leave that part out before. What else did you leave out?” Aunt Grania demanded. That was when I told them about the fight with the Demon and killing the Witch. If they had been shocked before, they were flabbergasted now.

“Good God, girl, what have you gotten involved in?” Thad finally managed to ask.

“I’m not sure, Uncle Thad, but from what the Leader of the Magic Council said, they have been waiting for the two of us for a long time and have plans for us,” I told him.

“And what exactly is the reason that he needs to be able to detect minor Talents?” he asked.

“He still wants to go to work to try to learn what the FBI is up to,” I told him, “and he needs to be able to detect if any of the government’s Magic users arrive at their headquarters, so he can get away before they detect him,” I told Thad.

“Well, you’ve been here for a considerable time, young man, have you detected the Talents in this house?” Thad asked.

“Yes sir, there are besides you and your Wife, three girls or young women and two young boys in the house. There are also several cats out on the porch that are anxious to visit with Maureen,” Allen told Thad to a shocked expression from him.

“You can detect the cats?” Thad asked in shock again.

“Yes, they are most anxious to visit with Maureen,” Allen told him.

“Yes, and probably you also,” I told him with a smile. I had also checked the house and detected the same number of minor Talents as Allen. I also knew that the cats were on the front porch, as they had been very vocal in my mind, but it was time to leave, and let Thad and Grania get to bed, as they still got up rather early in the morning.

“We’ve imposed on you enough. We should be getting back to Allen’s apartment. We will also need to spend some time with the cats, but we can do that outside in the dark,” I told the O’Donnells.

“It is past our bedtime, but we don’t get up quite as early as we used to. My children have taken over most of the farming, and we just have a few acres for vegetables and things,” Aunt Grania told us with a bit of a smile, as she came over to give me a kiss before we left. Uncle Thad was shaking Allen’s hand, and his eyes grew large as he accessed Allen’s Talent directly.

“Good luck, young man,” he told Allen and patted my shoulder, as we headed for the front door.

On the front porch there were eight cats waiting for us, and they all had questions and wanted to be held for at least a time. We spent a good twenty minutes with them before we could get away. Out in the field, I cast the transfer spell to take us back to Allen’s apartment. The Members of the Magic Council were there waiting for us.

“How is your Uncle Thad?” the Leader of the Council asked when we appeared in the apartment startling us.

“You know where we went?” I asked in surprise.

“Of course, Maureen, we are able to track you and now Agent Parks easily with your level of Talent. You are both like bright lights to our Talents. Lesser Talents would have a very hard time detecting either of you unless you were very close,” he told us.

“We did discover something at the Witch’s house,” Member # 1 told us.

“Yes, it seems that she led a double life, and spent much of her time in this second identity. We found some of her papers for her second identity at the house,” Member # 2 informed us.

“That’s how they were keeping track of you, Agent Parks. You knew her as Agent Cook. It will be interesting to see how your leaders treat her disappearance,” Member # 3 told us with a smile. Allen had a shocked expression on his face on hearing this.