Chapter 15

The following character appears in this chapter:

George

Night managers at Dragon Security, 5’-11’’ tall, 190 pounds, 41 years old, brown hair, hazel eyes, strong Talent

My Mother, the Dragon Queen of the West, returned in a few minutes. She still appeared to be in as serious a mood as when she had left.

“There is some history, Kavanagh History, that you all need to know. It concerns my Grandmother and your Great Grandmother,” was how she started.

“When I was pregnant with the twins, Doctor Graham told me about my Grandmother, ‘Your Grandmother was more than a great Witch. She was a wise and intelligent woman, and she could read the future,’ she told me.

“She also told me how she knew not only my Grandmother, but also my Great Grandmother. You girls know how she knew them, so I won’t repeat it now. She also told me, ‘She turned down the chance to be a Dragon. She said that the time wasn’t right for that yet, but she was sure that you would try. Unfortunately, she could never see if you succeeded. It was her greatest regret,’ Doctor Graham told me,” she continued. (see Dragon Wytch chapter 12 for the details)

“After I was changed by the Ley Lines, I needed to learn to use the new Magic that I had and went in search of books. I knew of a used bookstore and went there, but they had no books on Ley Line Magic on the shelves.

“There was an old man there named Rupert. He stopped me as I was leaving and asked my name. When I told him it was Madailein Kavanagh, he said, ‘Yes, she would have looked like you when she was younger.’ I had no idea who he was talking about at the time. ‘Come with me,’ he told me and led me to the back where the really expensive books were kept. He opened a locked case and removed six Books of Ley Line Magic and gave them to me.

“‘Your Grandmother was here in the very late 50s. She was an exceptional woman. She left these books with me to hold for her Granddaughter. She said that she could see the future and knew that you would be here looking for books on Ley Line Magic,’ he told me. I was stunned.”

“When I asked what I owed him for keeping them for so long, he said, ‘You don’t owe me anything. Your Grandmother gave me a list of stocks. It told me when to buy them, how long to hold them, and when to sell them. Her list was never wrong, and I am quite wealthy now,’ he finished”. (See Broken Witch, chapter 2 for the details)

“The same thing happened when I went to check on my Trust fund shortly after your Father and I were married. There was two hundred and forty-one million dollars in it. My Grandmother had again left a list of stocks and other investments that the Fund was to make with the same specifications as the list from the bookstore. Again, we were told that the list was very accurate and had never been wrong. We eventually changed the Trust fund to take care of Dallas and Doreen. We have never really needed to draw on it, and I have no idea what it is presently worth. We should change it to take care of the newer members of the Clan in the future,” she finished as if glad to get all of this out in the open.

“You are probably wondering why I have brought up all of this at this time,” she said following a short pause.

“Deirdre is the reason. All of you saw how she behaved earlier. She is seldom fussy, but I am convinced that she KNEW that something was going to happen, and it made her uncomfortable. When I handed her to Eve, she realized what it was, as she didn’t recognize her and let us know how afraid she was.

“I believe that Deirdre may have inherited some of my Grandmother’s abilities. They were never very strong in me, but I would occasionally see parts of things. Those abilities may have resurfaced more strongly in her. I want all of you to help me by keeping an eye on Deirdre to see if she is able to predict or see things that may occur in the future. It could be very important if she can. She may be able to see something in the future that could save all of the Dragons and their offspring. It could be that important,” Mom finished and stood there shivering for a short time. I had to wonder what, if anything, she had possibly seen.

“I believe that she will be the one to succeed me as Dragon Queen of the West,” she said in a trembling voice a few seconds later to everyone’s surprise, especially, my older Sisters. I was sure then that she had seen something, but I didn’t want to know what. Dallas and Doreen also seemed to have noticed but didn’t say anything either.

Dad returned from the Dragon Security building a short time after that. He had seen David De Tocqueville’s interview about the demonstrators on the late night news, and had it on his cell phone. He played the entire interview twice for us to listen to, as the picture on the phone was too small for all of us to watch it. We were all surprised by not only what he said but by the way he had said it.

“I am reasonably sure that David believes that we are the ones who cast the freeze spells on the demonstrators, so why is he so circumspect in what he said?” Mom asked.

“He has certainly never been one to beat around the bush about what he thought or suspected,” Dad agreed.

“So, what does he know or suspect, and what does he intend to do with it?” Dallas asked.

“And how will it affect us?” Doreen added.

“Yes, that old Wizard is up to something. We will need to keep an eye on him,” Mom agreed. “However,” she continued, “we have more pressing business to attend to.”

Following that, we went over what we had learned from the three bureaucrats who were still up in the Audience Chamber under freeze spells. After considerable discussion, we agreed on the course of action that we would take concerning all of those involved. In the morning, the ladies would take the bureaucrats out to call their offices and make excuses as to why they wouldn’t be in for work that day. We males would check on where we needed to go in D.C. in the morning before heading up there. For now, all of us retired for the night, or as much of it as our most recent additions allowed us to.

We were up reasonably early the next morning. We four guys left for Dragon Security after eating a quick breakfast, while our wives were still busy with the children. Dad had those on duty overnight working on the locations that we intended to quarantine in D.C. They had a lot of data for us when we arrived. This time, we were not going to use the broad-brush approach that we had used the first time to get their attention. Since there were only a couple of targets this time, we would cover them more carefully.

“The first site of interest is the Department of the Interior. You have the names of two high ranking leaders of that Department who were involved in this. The Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building, as it is presently called, is located between ‘C’ Street and ‘E’ Street in the south-north direction and between 18th and 19th Streets in the east-west direction. It covers the entire area between those streets. It has eight floors including the penthouse, and covers five acres according to the information that we have learned from the internet,” George, the night manager, told us.

“There is an additional space between the 5th and 6th floors where the mechanical equipment is located including the electrical panels for the building. The executive offices are located on the 5th and 6th floors,” he continued before Dad took over.

“We intend to quarantine the entire building in one of Doreen’s special wards,” he started before holding up a printout of the area around the building that had a circle drawn around it. “It will need to be some 750 feet in diameter. We will quarantine the 5th and the 6th floors plus the mechanical space separately from the rest of the building. I’m sure that we can find a secure conference room to interrogate our two suspects in before quarantining the entire building,” Dad finished.

“The second site, the offices of the EPA, is a much larger and a more difficult location to deal with, as it consists of five buildings. At first it had appeared to be a fairly simple site to deal with. We thought that you could just quarantine each of the buildings separately. A closer inspection proved this wasn’t practical. The first building, the Ronald Reagan, is huge with eight stories and some three million, one hundred thousand square feet of space. The EPA has offices located on the ground floor of the building on the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Plaza. There are other government agencies in the building along with a large number of civilian businesses, as it is also the International Trade Center,” George pointed out.

“We could still just quarantine the portion of the building where the EPA has its offices and cut off their power. It shouldn’t be a problem,” Dad pointed out.

“The other buildings on the site have been renamed the W. J. Clinton Buildings, North, South, East, and West, leading one to believe that there are four buildings. This is NOT correct it turns out. In fact, there are only two buildings. The building that fronts on 12th Street was originally built as ‘The Post Office Building’. Its name was later changed to ‘The Ariel Rios Building’ before being changed again to the W. J. Clinton Buildings North and South. It is still just one building,” George continued.

“The building that fronts on Constitution Avenue has been renamed the W. J. Clinton Buildings East and West. They are also only one building with an Auditorium between the two halves. Both buildings have been built with large courtyards and are seven to eight stories each. The area they are in between 12th Street and 14th Street east to west and between Pennsylvania Avenue and Constitution Avenue north to south covers some thirty acres and includes the John Wilson Building which holds the office of the Mayor of D.C. in one corner of that area,” George concluded. He had held up a printout of an aerial view of the area showing the various buildings, their courtyards, and some parking areas. All of this would present a number of challenges that would require decisions.

“These buildings have a number of other occupants,” Keith quickly pointed out, having looked at the list of occupants.

“Too bad,” I said. “They will just have to suffer along with the EPA people. The real question concerns these courtyards. Do we just ward the outer surfaces of the buildings, or do we include the surfaces around the courtyards?” I added.

“I would say that we cut off all of the power to the Clinton Buildings, but leave the courtyards unwarded. Before leaving, we will also enclose the entire complex in one of Doreen’s special wards just like the Interior Building. That will cut off all access to the outside,” Steve told us.

“What about the remainder of the Reagan Building?” Dad asked.

“After we quarantine the EPA’s part and cut off their power, the rest of the building can be left alone. Those there will just have to be content to be there for...? How many days are we going to quarantine them for?” I asked.

“Five days this time. Maddy did tell the President that the next time it would be for longer,” Dad reminded us.

“How large will Doreen’s ward need to be to enclose the entire area?” Keith asked.

George had several printouts of the area, and we used a compass to scribe several circles of various sizes around the area to determine the smallest size for a ward that would enclose the area. It turned out that the spell would need to be fifteen hundred feet in diameter to cover the buildings that we were quarantining. Unfortunately, since the ward was a sphere, it would extend beyond the area that the EPA’s offices occupied. It would block both 12th and 14th Streets and would include parts of the buildings on the far side of both streets. It would also block part of Constitution Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue as well.

“Those in D.C. will just have to deal with the inconvenience this will create,” I told the others once we had determined the size of the ward, and what it would cover.

“That will really get their attention more than just the quarantining of the EPA would. People are going to be really pissed about the road blockages,” Franklin said on seeing what we had planned after joining us.

“Perhaps this will convince them to get more ethical leaders both elected, appointed, and hired,” I told him. Stewart had also just joined us. He had a huge smile on his face.

“Eve is just the greatest ... everything!” he told us in amazement. We all smiled back at him.

“You don’t believe me!” he said in shocked voice. We just continued to smile at him, but I answered him.

“Stewart, we all know exactly what you are feeling. We all felt exactly the same when we met our perfect mates. It’s not something that you can really describe, but it IS the most amazing feeling in the world. We are all very happy for you,” I told him still with a huge smile on my face.

“Perfect! Yeah, that’s a good description of her,” Stewart admitted with another huge smile.

“How are we going to handle this?” Franklin asked to get us back on track, as he looked at all of the information and drawings there on the desk. He hadn’t been here for all of the briefing.

“I had considered using the same teams and approaches that we had used yesterday,” Dad started, “but ... these locations will be more difficult than the ones yesterday. Therefore, I propose that we proceed as follows: We will go to the first site together. Craig and Stewart will proceed to the mechanical area and deal with the electricity for the entire building. They will also ward the mechanical level. Keith and Fredrick will take the fifth floor and ward all of it. Steve and I will take the sixth floor and ward all of it before we look up the Head of the Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance plus his or her chief assistant.

“While warding the building, everyone keep a look out for a small conference room that we can move the prisoners to and interrogate them. We’ll ward that room today and leave them in there under a Freeze spell. The remainder of the wards are to be cast on standby. Tomorrow, we’ll need to return and cast Doreen’s Ward around both facilities at the same time. We’ll need to be there to observe when the ward is large enough to cover the intended area at each site,” Dad told us.