Chapter 13

The following characters reappear from previous stories or are mentioned in this chapter:

Kennith Sweeney

Ley Line Wizard, male Dragon, Maddy’s husband, 6’-0’’ tall, 175 pounds, 50 years old, brown hair and dark eyes, still very handsome, he is a Red Dragon

Jorani

Female Dragon, Craig’s wife, 5’-2’’ tall, 107 pounds, 34C-22-34, 29 years old, long black hair, brown eyes, still very good looking, she is a Turquoise Dragon

Craig Sweeney

Male Dragon, Maddy and Ken’s son, 5’-11’’ tall, 175 pounds, 31 years old, brown hair, violet eyes, very handsome, he is a Red Dragon

Alva

Kennith’s Familiar, A large female cat, gray with black and white stripes, has a long tail

Si-Sawat

Jorani’s Familiar, a Korat Cat, 16 inches long, a blue/gray color, about 16 pounds, a long tail

Bill

Craig’s Familiar, a very large Manx cat, black with several white spots, a stumpy one inch long tail

Deirdre Kavanagh

Maddy’s youngest daughter, 4’-10’’ tall, 95 pounds, 10 years old, long, lustrous black hair, violet eyes, alabaster skin, some freckles

The following new character appears in this chapter:

Crystal

Deirdre’s Familiar, a young white Manx cat, about ten pounds with a short one inch long stubby tail

Even as Nick, Sara, and the Kavanaghs were leaving for Atlanta, several very tired members of the Charleston and North Charleston Police had been meeting with the equally tired members of the local FBI office and other government personnel at their joint command center some distance from Nick’s house.

“What in God’s own name set off that debacle last night?” Detective Kowalski asked in a tired voice.

“We don’t know,” the FBI chief told him in just as tired a voice. They had all been up most of the night and didn’t know when they would get a break.

“With the remains of the weapons that were found here, this was a military operation and not a gang hit. This leaves us pretty much out of the picture,” the lead detective from the local Gang Task-force told them to get out of the meeting, and get his people off the case. There were enough gang related crimes that his people didn’t need to be tied up in this major mess.

“Yes, military type weapons. So far we have found assault rifles, grenade launchers, and RPG type launchers. From interviews with those in the neighborhood, we are pretty sure that it started with a bomb being dropped by a drone. The burned remains of a large drone have been found some distance from the crime scene,” one of the other FBI agents at the meeting told them.

“Yes, that is how it appears to have started, and was followed by an assault by a military type of force of unknown size against the house and property that both we are and they have been unable to access or penetrate due to some kind of force field or Magic ward,” the chief FBI agent stated.

“Is there any estimate of the size of the assault force?” Detective Freeman asked.

“There are some bodies and parts of bodies that have been recovered. None of them have been identified yet. They had no IDs on them. We may eventually be able to match the DNA of some of them to that in the national database. However, the number of bodies and remains are not an indication of the size of the assault force.

“The number and size of the destroyed vehicles would indicate a much larger force had started the attack. There were no remains found in the destroyed and partially melted vehicles. The fires were hot enough to cremate everything in them. There were also apparently no prisoners taken,” the representative of the coroner’s office reported in a dry voice.

“Yes, the fires,” the chief FBI agent said in a tired voice and exhaled heavily. “And that gentlemen brings us to how the assault was stopped, and the assailants were neutralized,” he continued.

“The Dragons!” Kowalski said.

“Yes, the Dragons. What the hell are they doing in the Charleston area?” the FBI chief asked in frustration.

“We’ve never had any indication of Dragons in this area before,” Freeman told them.

“And that goes back over a hundred years,” Kowalski added, pointedly.

“So where did they come from?” one of the others attending the meeting asked.

“Atlanta,” several voices said.

“We don’t know that, but it is a good guess. If they didn’t come from Atlanta, the Dragon Queen may still know who they are, and where they came from. The problem is SHE isn’t all that friendly with any of the government’s agencies. Don’t count on her telling us anything,” the number two agent told them.

“Where does that leave us then?” several others asked.

“We will need to tell the press something soon,” Freeman reminded them.

“That leaves us with just the owner of the house and property. What do we know about him or them?” the FBI chief asked.

“The house and property are registered to one Nicolae Maier. Occupation unknown. He bought it for cash. There is no mortgage. He has owned it for twenty-five years. Has never been late on his property taxes, but other than that, his life is a blank,” the representative of the local government informed them looking up from his laptop.

“What about banking information, insurance on the house and a car, vehicle registration, voter registration and any other form of identification,” the FBI chief demanded.

“None,” was the answer.

“Surely he has a driver’s license and vehicle insurance,” someone suggested.

“Yes, he has both, but has always paid the bills with postal money orders. We’ve checked,” the representative of the local government told them.

“What about utility bills: gas, electric, phone, water, internet and others?” was suggested.

“Again, all of those were paid with postal money orders,” was the answer.

“How can anyone be so unknown in this age of computers and cell phones? Did he have a cell phone?” Kowalski asked looking for a lead.

“If he did, it wasn’t under his name or address. It’s just possible that he used a repeater to transfer the signal, but it’s like this man is invisible,” the local government representative told them. The two senior FBI agents looked at each other but didn’t say anything, at least not then.

“Has there been any information from the National Identification Center or the IRS on him?” the FBI chief asked.

“Not anything from either of them yet,” an assistant told him.

“So, what can we tell the press? This thing has been and continues to be a hot story. It was a military assault on a civilian house. It isn’t going away,” the member of the public relations department of the police asked.

“All we can tell them is what we know,” the FBI chief told them before laying out what they knew:

“First, an unknown number of military type personnel assaulted the house with no success. We have no idea what organization or unit they belonged to, or who paid for the operation.

“Second, after a time, the assault was answered by the arrival of an unknown number of Dragons in the air and on the ground.

“Third, the assault force of unknown size was wiped out and their vehicles were reduced by fire to wreckage and melted parts.

“Fourth, we have no idea who the Dragons are or where they came from or returned to, as no one can enter the property that was assaulted. They could all still be inside that ward or force field for all we know.

“Fifth and last, we have no idea what the reason for the assault was. That is all that we currently know,” he finished as the meeting broke up due to a lack of clues and information.

The press conference later that day did not go well as the reporters were not satisfied with the information provided and demanded more, but that was all that was known at the time. It was made clear to them that there was still a lot of work to do.

Later that afternoon following the press conference, the chief FBI agent and his assistant were alone in their office to talk.

“Who do we know that can keep their people invisible, like ghosts?” the FBI chief asked his assistant who smiled.

“Who else beside the CIA you mean?” the assistant asked.

“Yeah, the CIA. This thing has their fingerprints all over it. Who else has the money to hire a military type unit to do an assassination for them? You have to wonder what this guy did to piss them off that much?” the chief asked.

“I’m pretty sure they didn’t know that he was a Dragon,” the assistant said. “Maybe they knew he was a Wizard, a powerful Wizard though, which would account for all of the heavy weapons,” he continued before what he had said occurred to both of them.

“Powerful Wizard ... the Hankel case! It all fits now,” they both said in amazement.

“Yeah, some of his neighbors who were interviewed did mention that he had been exercising with a young woman lately,” the assistant mentioned.

“I’m willing to bet that there are some nervous people in Langley right now. Dragons don’t forgive or forget, or so I’ve been told by those who know,” the chief told him. They both smiled at the thought.

“Do you think the Charleston PD will make the connection to the CIA?” the assistant asked.

“Not really. They don’t get involved with the CIA,” the chief answered.

Later that night in Miami, Agent Ray tapped into a hotel’s land line and called Bob in a nearby town. It was not the phone line of the hotel where he was staying. The phone rang three times before it was answered.

“This had better be good for you to call me here,” Bob told him in a grouchy voice.

“You’ve seen the story in the news?” Ray asked.

“Of course,” Bob answered but went no further.

“That was our boy. It appears that he got an offer that he couldn’t refuse,” Ray told him.

“Yeah, but Dragons!” Bob said. “Is that for real or is it just a cover story?” he added.

“As far as we can tell, it’s the real thing. There was one person from the unit that was hired who reported in late this morning to their contact. They claim the Dragons are real,” Ray told him.

“And the rest of it?” Bob asked, not believing there wasn’t more.

“The contact called me before calling Langley. He owed me a favor. It seems the Dragon is upset with those in the Company and has taken exception to their actions,” Ray told him.

“Forget you know me and this number. Do Not contact me again,” Bob told him in an upset voice and hung up before Ray could finish.

The next day Ray took a flight to Minneapolis. Again that night, he tapped into a hotel’s land line and called George in another city. The phone rang five times before George answered it in an angry voice.

“What the hell are you calling me on this line for?” George demanded in an angry voice.

“You know who this is. Have you seen the story?” Ray demanded.

“Yes, half of the country, at least, has seen the bloody story. It’s been on all of the news programs. They still don’t know shit,” George told him.

“That was our boy. Those the Company hired blew it, and he is upset with those running the Company. Upset enough to threaten to come up there and deal with them. I just wanted you to know. I won’t be contacting you or Bob either anymore. My resignation from the Company had already been written, and I submitted it this afternoon. It is effective tomorrow. I plan on disappearing,” Ray told him before hanging up and disconnecting his equipment. He disappeared that night.

The trip to Atlanta went rather well. It covered about 360 miles and took six and a half hours. This included stops for fuel and eating. We changed off drivers several times to avoid getting tired. Sara and I had music in our car. I’m not sure what the Kavanaghs listened to or what they did on the trip. We did keep in touch by phone to coordinate stops.

Dallas in her vehicle took the lead when we neared the Atlanta area, as they had grown up there and were familiar with the roads while Sara and I weren’t. Things went very well until we neared the Queen’s residence. We were on a two-lane road when the phone rang again.

“Nick, we’ll be approaching our houses soon. We’ll slow down and turn across traffic to a parking area at the end of our Mother’s property. We’ll be leaving the cars there, and we ladies will move all of you guys through the Nesting Ward. If Sara is pregnant, she may be able to move you through the ward. If not, Doreen and I will move you two through it, as well as our Husbands. From there, we’ll transfer you to the house. I’ve called ahead, and Mother is expecting us,” Dallas told me a few minutes before slowing down and turning left to pull into a small parking area. It was just large enough to park four vehicles. From its condition, the parking area had been there for some time.

On exiting the car, I could sense the ward around the property. It was a variation of the Spherical Defensive Ward. I could also sense the Nesting Ward when it snapped into existence when the two Husbands and I neared the property ward. Dallas and Doreen moved through it easily, but it was evident that Steve, Keith, and I were not going to get through it on our own.

Sara moved up to it hesitantly but moved through it easily at Dallas’ urging. This suggested to me that she was indeed pregnant. The women all returned to lead us poor males through the ward. It was obvious that the Dragon Queen had very good security. No Wizard would be able to get through the Defensive Ward, and no male Dragon was going to get through the Nesting Ward alone.