Chapter 8

The following characters reappear from previous stories:

Madailein Kavanagh (Maddy)

Former Earth Witch, Dragon Queen, Irish, 5’-6’’ tall, 135 pounds, 38DD-25-37, 57 years old, alabaster skin, long, lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, beautiful, Magic user

Al

Maddy’s Familiar, a large Manx cat, 16 inches long, white with large black spots, stumpy one inch tail, weighs about 16 pounds

The following new character appears in this chapter:

Al Junior

Al and Alva’s son, large part Manx cat, 18 inches long, White with medium brown spots, long 12 inch tail, weighs about 17 pounds

Over the next three weeks plus, Sara spent much of her free time studying Magic. Her Talent, always strong, became stronger with use, and her ability to learn and use Magic increased exponentially. Of course, studying wasn’t all that she and we did.

Over our first week together, I slowly eased her into my lifestyle. The first event was on Friday of that week when I took her shopping with me in my car. Her appearance was a shock to those the CIA had watching me.

“Hey, look at this!” Harris said in a loud, surprised voice while checking the camera feeds that Friday morning.

“Look at what?” Joe answered in a bored monotone.

“He’s got a broad with him,” Harris told him.

“A broad? You’re kidding!” Joe said in surprise, as he got up from the report that he had been preparing.

“Not at all, and she’s a rather good-looking young woman,” Harris assured him, as Joe joined him at the monitor. His surprise turned to amazement on seeing the young woman on the monitor.

“That’s Sara Hankel!” Joe said in surprise.

“You mean the broad who was stabbed and disappeared?” Harris asked in surprise.

“Yeah, the same,” he replied.

“What the hell is he doing with her?” Harris asked.

“Don’t know, but the Charleston police and the local FBI office have both put her on a watch-for list. However the two of them got together, those in Langley are going to want to know about it. I’ll need to send in an immediate report on this and will need to add it to our weekly report,” Joe told him.

“Should we follow them with a drone?” Harris asked. “It is Friday, and his normal shopping day,” he added.

“Definitely,” Joe told him. “Use the one that’s fully charged. He could be doing more than his usual shopping today, and we need to be prepared for that. I’ll check on the status of the other drones and increase their charge rate if necessary. We don’t want to miss any of this. It’s the most interesting thing that’s happened as long as I’ve been here,” Joe told him as they both swung into action.

We shopped for food at the store that I usually visited and then stopped at a store that sold shoes to get Sara a good pair of walking / running shoes as well as some exercise clothing. We were gone much longer than I usually was, but it required more food to feed the two of us, plus Sara wanted to look at the clothes.

Saturday, I took her out walking with me in her new exercise clothes and shoes. She was already in pretty good condition, but she wasn’t used to walking as fast as I normally do on my walks or as far. Sunday, I allowed her to sleep in while I went for a five-mile run. We had already had a discussion about church on Saturday night. She was hesitant about attending church and religion in general.

“Why do you want me to go to church with you?” she had asked after I had suggested it.

“Religion is an essential part of being human. Animals don’t have a sense of having a soul, or that there could be a supreme being who created all of this,” I told her pointing to everything around us. “Even primitive people believed in there being someone or something greater than they were.

“Where I grew up, there were several different types of beliefs. We in our village eventually had a Christian monk settle there. He built a church, a small one, and he ministered to several other villages in the area as well as ours. It was near a Christian monastery where the band of raiders who had attacked our village were ambushed. I have always been a church goer, if not always the most attentive one,” I told her. She finally agreed to go with me the next day and see what it was like. Apparently, she and her mother were not very religious people.

“He’s going to church and taking the woman with him,” Harris told Joe the next morning as Nick and Sara left the house, got in his car and drove off.

“Send the drone after them,” Joe told him before starting another flash report and adding the incident to his weekly report, just as he had done on Saturday.

Monday, I took Sara walking again. On Tuesday, I took her for a run, but a shorter one than I usually take and a bit slower. She would need to work up to faster and longer runs. She’ll have plenty of time to do that I was sure.

“Do you do this walking and running all of the time?” she had asked on recovering her breath after the run.

“Yes, it’s very important to stay in shape,” I assured her.

“But you have your Magic. Isn’t that enough?” she asked.

“Not always, especially when there are a lot of other people around, and you don’t want to reveal that you are a Magic user,” I told her. I also took her to Martial Arts practice that day.

“Why do I need to learn this? I’ll have my Magic, won’t I?” she asked.

“I don’t expect you to become a master of the Martial Arts. However, a few classes will help you develop smooth movements and precise delivery of your Magic spells. It’s the moves and the discipline that you need to practice,” I told her. She was doubtful at first but went along anyway. After a few classes, she felt differently.

“You were right, Nick. These beginner’s classes are marvelous. I feel more confident already,” she told me.

Over the several following weeks, the various reports accumulated at the CIA’s headquarters in Langley. It was three weeks after Sara had moved out of her apartment when Ray called another clandestine meeting of the three known agents who had worked with Nick.

“Is this meeting really necessary?” George asked when they assembled in the same room, and it had been secured.

“I believe that it is,” Ray answered. “Things have been coming together over the past three weeks or so,” he continued.

“Just what has been coming together?” Bob asked. “I haven’t been able to learn anything new from my sources,” he complained.

“I’ve been the same,” George agreed.

“No, and you won’t,” Ray told both of them with a grin. “This has been a strictly hush-hush, very high level, and seriously classified operation. The only reason that I know anything about it, is because I was the last one to work with him, and those running the Company wanted to know if the information they had gotten fitted in with what I knew about him and how he operated,” Ray told them.

“So, just what is SO important?” George demanded through clenched teeth.

“Nick is apparently a Magic user, and a very powerful one,” Ray told two very surprised retired agents.

“You’re shitting me!” Bob said in shock after a few seconds.

“Not a bit,” Ray assured them with a grin.

“Then that explains a lot about what he did in Nam. How he disappeared and reappeared without being seen. How he was able to bring his Team back with so few casualties and wounded,” Bob told them.

“Yes, the same thing in Bosnia and before that Desert Storm,” George said exhaling heavily.

“And we never knew or suspected that,” he added after a few seconds.

“No, none of us ever thought about the use of Magic. It just wasn’t a part of our thought processes at the time,” Ray agreed. “And it wasn’t until the President pissed off the Dragons,” he finished.

“So the Company has had a way to keep tabs on what he is doing, and they are able to reach him when they need his unique services?” Bob asked, having missed the point of Ray’s last comment.

“They have had a Team watching him for the last couple of months. Apparently, they were initially worried that he might be hired by one or more of the parties involved in the latest round of revolutions and insurgencies,” Ray told them.

“And the Company hasn’t told either of the agencies that are looking for him and the woman that they know where they are and who he is, have they?” George asked.

“You know the Company better than that. He’s their asset, and they aren’t about to do anything that would jeopardize that relationship, or allow others to possibly make use of him or to remove him,” Ray reminded them.

“So, is he really the same guy that all three of us worked with?” a very defiant George asked.

“From what I have been able to learn, he is not only the same guy that all three of us worked with, he is also the same guy who worked for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in France during World War Two, and who also worked for the fledgling Company in Korea during the war there. This guy has been around for a very long time, and yes, he is very dangerous,” Ray told a couple of very surprised former agents. Ray then brought out a recent digital picture of Nick and Sara together to show them.

“Damn!” Bob said on seeing it. “It doesn’t look like he has aged even a month from the way he looked in Nam some sixty years ago or more,” he added.

“Yeah,” a somewhat cooled George agreed. “He looks the same as he did in Bosnia. How the hell does he do it?” he demanded.

“According to those who will speak to me on the subject, who are rather few, he has looked the same since he worked for the OSS in France,” Ray told them.

“Good God! That was nearly a hundred years ago,” George exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, it was,” Ray agreed. “And that gentlemen is one of the reasons that he is so dangerous,” he finished.

“So, what is he doing with the woman?” Bob asked remembering his involvement with the local woman in Nam that he had been seeing, and what that led to.

“Obviously, he’s playing house,” George said with a wicked grin.

“We don’t know what the two of them are doing,” Ray told them. “Those watching them have had trouble getting clear pictures of the immediate area around the house and property since the woman moved in. Those in charge suspect that he is using his Magic to partially hide whatever it is that they are up to,” Ray continued.

“Or they don’t want us watching them playhouse with all of the benefits,” George said in a lascivious voice still with a wicked grin. The other two ignored this, as they knew his proclivity for younger females.

“One can only suppose, but at his age, I have to wonder how?” Bob told them before the meeting broke up and each one slipped away at a different time taking everything that they had brought to the meeting with them.

A few days prior to that, Bob the Demon had appeared in Maddy’s kitchen uninvited or summoned. Al’s son, Al Jr., had immediately jumped up to hiss at him on his appearance, but Maddy had calmed him down.