Chapter 25

Our Sisters and their Husbands had spent the morning catching up on some of their college classes using the government's computer. After lunch they switched to reading some of the many documents in the files of the Intelligence Section. The four of us did some catching up on our school work before lunch also.

Dad spent some time that morning reading the file that they had on our family and approached Sean and me just before lunch.

"The government has your Grandmother's and Uncle Dan's addresses. I'm worried about them and think that we should pay them a quick visit to check on things," Dad told us.

"Okay, we can do that," Sean said, as he grabbed Sara's hand. "It will be a good time for Grandmother Kent to learn about our marriage also," he added.

"Are you sure that you want to reveal that to your grandparents and relatives now?" Dad asked.

"Yes, why not? They will need to know about it sooner or later," I told Dad, as I took Annie's hand. We linked hands and used the transfer spell to move the five of us to Grandmother Kent's house. We appeared in the front parlor there, and scared the daylights out of Grandmother Gale, who was on her way to answer the front door.

"Oh my! How long have you been here, Mark!?" Grandmother asked in shock.

"We just arrived, Mom," Dad told her.

"Let us answer the door, Grandmother!" I requested, as Sean and I moved toward the front door at the end of the hallway. There was an insistent knocking on the door as we approached it, and through the sidelights we could see two black Suburbans parked in the driveway. Sean and I both used the sign and word to trigger the wards that we had previously set up around this house and Uncle Dan's.

The one knocking on the door got a nasty surprise and some burned knuckles at the next knock when the wards burned him. He and his partner retreated from the porch.

"This is the FBI! Come out of there immediately with your hands up," the agents demanded over a bullhorn from the cover of their Suburbans a minute or so later.

"Sorry, but we don't recognize your authority to order us to do that," Sean shouted back.

"You have five minutes to comply with our demands, or you will be forced out of the house," the agents stated next over the bullhorn. On looking out the side lights by the front door again, we could see that all of the agents had retreated behind their SUVs, and they were now pointing assault rifles at the house.

"Should we take care of this by ourselves, or should we allow our Wives in on the fun?" Sean was asking when we were joined there in the hallway by our Wives, our Dad, and our Grandmother.

"Wives! What wives!?" Grandmother Kent demanded looking at the four of us.

"We're married to Annie and Sara," I told her.

"Married!!?" she asked in shock. "At such a young age?"

"Yes, Grandmother Kent," Annie explained. "We were married earlier this year, a week after Easter in fact."

"You ... you aren't... ?" Grandmother asked haltingly, looking at our Wives.

"Pregnant ... no, we aren't! We promised not to get pregnant while we were in school," Sara assured her.

"I believe we need to get rid of these people before we discuss this further," Dad told us, just as several shots were heard and a tear gas canister thudded against the wards.

We all called up our Sun Swords and Dad called Fragarach before we stepped forward and cast a wind spell that blew the tear gas right back at the agents behind their Suburbans. Grandmother was shocked at the sight of our swords, but Dad told her not to worry. Calling up our personal wards, we all passed through the now open front door and the house wards, and stepped out onto the front porch.

"I am Mark Kent O'Connell, and you have one minute to depart before we take action against you," Dad told the agents. Annie and Sara had already started chanting the spell that would inactivate their weapons. The agents were quite surprised when their weapons didn't function when they tried firing on us, but still refused to leave, trying their radios instead. It was then that Sean came up with another idea.

"I just noticed that we know another transfer spell," Sean said in surprise. "One that doesn't require us to move with it." I too was surprised when the spell popped into my mind at his mention of it.

"Where should we send them?" Sean asked with a grin on his face.

"Oh ... Oh ... the Rocky Mountains!" Sara said joining him in his grin. "The northern part. It's snowing there already."

"But without their vehicles," Dad added, listening to their conversation.

"Yes!" Annie agreed with a mischievous grin. We joined hands and cast the new transfer spell, as Sean and I made the glyph for it in the air. The agents instantly disappeared, leaving the Suburbans in the driveway.

"I had better check on Uncle Dan also," Dad told us.

"We'll go with you," Sean volunteered.

"We'll stay here with Grandmother Kent," Annie told us, as she and Sara returned to the house. The three of us transferred to Uncle Dan's house. The wards around his house and shop had also been activated when we activated the wards around Grandmother Kent's house.

"What's going on?" Uncle Dan asked when we appeared in his house.

""The FBI was at Mom's house," Dad told him. "We sent them away."

"Far away?" he asked, inquisitively.

"Yes, the Rocky Mountains - the northern part where it's already snowing," Sean told him with a big grin. "But we left their Suburbans in Grandmother's driveway." Uncle Dan was tickled on hearing that.

"Can you transfer to her house by yourself?" Dad asked him.

"Yes, I've managed to improve my knowledge of what is possible after reading a number of your Magic books," Uncle Dan told us.

"I'll leave the portal to our house in Statesboro open so you can use it if needed," Dad told him. "Oh, and you may need to drop the wards to allow Dad back inside this afternoon after work," he added.

"I'll go over there later this afternoon," Uncle Dan assured us before we returned to Grandmother's house. Our Wives had been chatting with her, and she seemed much more accepting of our marriage and our Wives now. After a short stay, we all returned to the FBPI complex in Virginia.

Following a delayed lunch, we all watched the news on the big screen cable TV in one of the break rooms. The reporters on several of the channels had certainly twisted the facts to make it appear that we were to blame for everything that happened that morning, and not the government. Two other channels gave a much more balanced report of what actually happened.

"Well, now we know which reporters we can trust with our story," Dad said after watching the various presentations.

"We need to do something about the FBI, too," Sean said.

"They do seem to have their fingers in everything, don't they?" Dad commented.

"We'll do something tonight," Sean told him, and he and I went to use one of the working computer terminals. It was easy to look up the addresses of the FBI's offices in the Washington area on the Government's computer, and even to get a map of their locations.

That night the four of us transferred to downtown Washington and visited each of the FBI's facilities to lay wards around them. We activated all of the wards when we were finished just before midnight. The FBI's employees were quite surprised when they arrived for work the next morning, 2 November, to discover that they couldn't get into their buildings. Those inside could exit the buildings but could not return, as we had made the wards one way. On the news programs that day there was great consternation on the part of FBI officials at being locked out of all of their buildings in the D.C. area.

That afternoon several people in expensive suits appeared at the parking area outside our defensive shell to speak to us, or rather to threaten us. They were lawyers from the Justice Department, and they had a long list of the supposed crimes that they were accusing us of. They had no desire to discuss our grievances or complaints, however. Their superior, we know everything attitude left us cold. Sean and I went to check on where the offices of the Department of Justice were located, and the four of us paid them a visit that night to cast wards around their buildings.

On the morning of 3 November, the employees of the Department of Justice found that they, like their colleagues in the FBI, couldn't enter their buildings to work. They couldn't access their computers or phones either as we had cut those connections to the outside, just as we had with the FBI. The angst, anger, bitterness, disbelief, and outright hatred displayed by those representing the Department of Justice were amazing to see on the news that day. Their attitude appeared to be 'how dare we do this to them'. Didn't we know that they were LAWYERS, and were not to be treated like that? Weren't we aware that they represented the LAW and were above such treatment? We could have cared less about how they felt, or how indignant they were.

This was the point, however, where the politicians decided to become involved. The Department of Homeland Security was threatening to get involved in a major way, and they didn't want that Department closed down also. That afternoon the Chairman of both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees held a joint news conference to announce the formation of a Joint Panel to hold hearings and promised a quick resolution to the problem. They, naturally, neglected to mention exactly what the problem (Magic) was, of course.

Knowing Congressional committees, we didn't expect anything would happen swiftly. Sean and I began to wonder if we would need to erect wards around the Capitol and lock Congress out to get anything done. To our surprise the next day, Friday the 4th of November, C-SPAN broadcast the opening of hearings by the Joint Judiciary Committee. The hearings continued on Monday, the 7th, and Tuesday, the 8th, with no results, as was predictable. There were many Government officials from various Departments called to testify. It was a real political circus with politicians and bureaucrats doing their best to cover their asses, and not to be held responsible for anything, but it did nothing to address or even to define the problem.

Mid-morning on Wednesday the 9th, a number of limousines, preceded and followed by a police escort, pulled up in the parking area that had been established outside the defensive shell. Several minor Congressmen and Senators with their aids exited the limousines, and approached the defensive shell to speak to us. We had long since established a video and voice setup inside the defensive shell to pick up new arrivals and hear their demands.

"We wish to speak to one Mark Kent O'Connell, and the other leaders here," an older man in an expensive suit who seemed to be the one in charge said in the direction of our microphone. It took only a few minutes for Dad, Master O'Hennessy, Oneida Toups, Conrad, and us four to transfer to the area of the defensive shell near the road.

'I'm Mark Kent O'Connell. What do you want?" Dad asked the startled Congregational representatives after we appeared out of thin air.

"Hmm ... yes! I'm Senator Snort (not his real name) and we are from the Joint Judiciary Committee that is conducting hearings into the problems presented by you Magic people. You have been requested to appear before the Committee," the one who appeared to be in charge told us, officiously.

"In the Capitol! Where you control everything?" Master O'Hennessy demanded with a snort. "Not hardly!"

"Do you take us for fools!?" Oneida demanded, incredulously.

"Who are you!?" the Senator demanded in surprise at being addressed like that.

"Pardon me," Dad said with a smile. "Allow me to introduce my associates. This gentleman is Senior Master O'Hennessy of the Boston Council. The lady is Oneida Toups, the representative of the New Orleans Council, and the last gentleman is Conrad from the Plains Council."

"And those four young people ... the ones causing all of the trouble?" the Senator demanded contemptuously.

"Those are my Sons and their Wives. I really wouldn't speak ill of them. It's been a long time since Annie and Sara turned anyone into a frog, but I'm sure that they haven't forgotten the spell!" Dad finished with a huge grin. The people with the Senator had backed up several steps on hearing this, as if that would have done them any good.

"But ... but!!" the Senator bleated.

"Here is MY compromise instead," Dad said next, rather forcefully. "The Joint Judiciary Committee can come out here if they want to talk to us. We'll be glad to talk to them here, where everyone can hear what is said and see what is going on." The entire group from Congress looked like they had been slapped; they were so shocked by the idea.

"You ... you want the Committee to come out ... HERE!?" the Senator squealed in shock, looking around in a panic at all of the police, and the crowds of spectators that gathered each day to see what would happen and watched when we gave interviews to reporters. Plus there were the large number of Satellite TV trucks from the many news agencies covering the happenings here, and that didn't reassure him either.

"Yes!" Dad answered. "Of course, we could erect wards around the Capitol if that would help convince you."

"I'll have to speak to the Chairman of both Committees about your proposal," the Senator blustered. "It would be unusual ... highly unusual!" the Senator continued after noticing all of the cameras focused on our discussion already.

"We'll be here," Dad assured him before we all disappeared and returned to the cafeteria. Later, we watched on a large television screen in the cafeteria, as the visitors got back in their limousines and departed with their police escort. The entire meeting had been caught on video and was played in its entirety on the evening news by several news agencies. There was considerable comment about it by the talking heads over the next several days. They had all caught Dad's comment about warding the Capitol and putting Congress out of session. Some of them even liked the idea.