Chapter 47

It was in 1991, three years after Apprentice Seer Abigail became a journeywoman Seer, that Morgana decided that the extra training given to the various Bureaus had reached its peak and the time had arrived to take the fight to the Coalition on its own territory. Plans had been made and laid to move our teams in, using the specialised Seer driven portals which the Coalition could not detect, to protect the various members of the Supreme Soviet and other vital adjuncts to the Soviet Union in order to prevent the senior Coalition members from setting off Armageddon or indeed getting the mundanes to order us hunted down. The specialist squads, made up from those Bureau members who had been rotated through the Enforcement Office, were tasked with hunting down the Coalition members and bringing them to bay. The plans were complex and had been practiced to a certain extent by the various Bureaus to the point where everyone knew what they had to do and the limitations of the use of our powers. The previous years had been spent getting the eastern European offices, set up under Mage Ludmilla via Mage Roxanne working in the various Baltic States, active in preventing Coalition interference in those areas. Whilst Mage Tara’s people had moved into the Caucasus and Western ‘republics’ to prevent the fledgling democracies there from being overwhelmed, not that the Coalition had taken much notice as far as we were aware.

I, along with Róisín, had been tasked with the journeyman squad to protect the office of Boris Yeltsin and a few of the other deputies, without them actually being aware that they were being protected. Also I had been given Abigail as our portal assist and she was so excited at going ‘into battle’ with us that she was almost bouncing off the walls. Word had naturally reached us of a budding coup to supposedly put the Coalition’s people back into power, even though there was scant evidence that the Coalition actually had any hand in it. Much of what they did was obscure to us, although they swiftly countered any incursions by the Council that they detected. Of their High Mages there was little sign, merely rumblings that suggested that their differences were being resolved in the traditional way by eliminating the competition. That’s not to say we had word of any killings (an alert High Mage is very difficult to kill) simply that there was a lot of cat and mouse ambushing going on and they weren’t really watching what else was going on around them, which was why Morgana felt free to act.

We portalled in on August the 18th, the day before the coup was destined to take place. Along with various other groups we moved carefully into position, scanning non-intrusively to make sure that the warded Coalition strongpoints were not aware of our placement. There was no evidence from our admittedly limited passive scans that any of the other teams that we knew were in the area to take down the strongpoints had been detected either. We all simply waited for events to unfold so that we could strike whilst there was mass unrest to confuse the Coalition higher up’s in a similar manner that the mass demonstrations in Argentina during the Falkland’s conflict had made scanning difficult due to the mass emotions pervading our senses.

On the 19th the coup began, Mikhael Gorbachev was arrested and being kept in confinement in the Crimea whilst his vice president Gennady Yanayev, Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov, Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov, KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov and other senior officials acted under the orders of the Coalition to bring the country back to heel and Coalition control. What they didn’t realise was that we were more than ready for them and had their targets under our protection as well as having the resources in place to act against the Coalition and prevent their escape. It was when the coup leaders issued an emergency decree suspending political activity and banning most newspapers that our plan swung into action. In various cities of the Soviet Union massive teleport and telepathy barriers came down and the Coalition realised that they were in a great deal of trouble. Naturally at this point it all started to unravel for us.

My team were busy making sure that Boris Yeltsin was being kept safe from both Coalition interference and that of the actions of the Coup leaders. Not an easy task as the madman had taken it upon himself to talk to the mass crowds who had come spilling out onto the streets of Moscow to defend the Parliament building whilst he made speeches from on top of a tank.

It was during this time when we were monitoring a Spetsnaz sniper team who had Yeltsin under observation that we were interrupted by Mage Indira and two other male Mages of the Interrogation Office who blatantly ported in and told us to stand down. That they actually survived a porting in with the Coalition on high alert immediately told me that something had gone very wrong.

“You will stand down immediately until a Council investigation into the treacherous actions of Mage Morgana is conducted!” she snarled to the startled journeymen and women.

“You are not in my chain of command, Mage Indira,” I replied respectfully. “It is not for you to give orders to my squad.”

“You will however obey a Council summons to answer for your crimes,” she said, exultantly handing me a warrant signed by Mage Hermes.

“Mage Hermes is not in my chain of command either,” I answered.

“You’ll note that it has the full seal of Simon Magus attached and that gives me the right to command that you return to your Bureaus and you, journeyman John, and you, journeywoman Róisín, to return with me to Kurukshetra for interrogation,” she crowed exultantly.

The seal of Simon was indeed upon the warrant and regretfully I ordered my squad to stand down and I could feel the other wards and shields collapsing as various other squads presumably did the same. I also felt a mass teleport out by the Coalition as no doubt they couldn’t believe their luck. Finally once I’d made sure that all were safe under Abigail’s care, I nodded to the smirking Mage Indira and Róisín and I were cuffed and teleported to Kurukshetra and into the custody of Mage Vera.

“They are to be secured separately until I can begin an interrogation of these miscreants,” Indira demanded imperiously of Mage Vera.

“Of course, Mage Indira,” replied a very unhappy looking Mage Vera.

“In fact I’ll begin with the interrogation of journeyman Mage John immediately as he’s more than likely to know about Morgana’s treacherous behaviour,” she crowed.

I was led off by the two Mages into a small cell and strapped into a seat; with the cuffs on my ability to do any magic was simply impossible, though I knew that magic could be used upon me, though not to read my mind. Within a minute Mage Indira strolled into the room with a smirk upon her face and immediately used some form of neural stimulus upon me to make it feel like my whole skin was on fire. Yes, I screamed, I’m no superman and pain is pain and I believe I must have blacked out for a while.

“You will tell me what I want to know about the traitor Morgana and her plans to align with the Coalition and take over the Council,” Indira said quietly once I’d been aroused by the use of water thrown in my face. “That’s all you have to do to make the pain go away.”

“My Mage is no traitor!” I gasped out.

This time I felt my arm bend and the bone shatter and protrude from my arm as again I screamed in agony.

“If you think this is bad, you should see what we’re going to do with your Irish tart, I’m sure she’d appreciate a real man taking care of her,” one of the Male Mages rumbled.

“Do you honestly think you can run far enough and fast enough from me or Mage Arch if you so much as lay a finger upon her?” I replied mushily as I’d managed to bite through my lip in my pain.

The pain and torture resumed as my fingernails were literally ripped out by Indira as she took out her hate and spite upon me.

“Trust me, you will tell us what we want to know and this is not the worst of it, merely the preliminaries!” she hissed, sticking her face right in front of me only to fall back with a scream as I head butted her, hopefully breaking her nose. The response from the other Mages was immediate and blows rained down on me before Indira, looking wild and uncontrolled in her rage, forced my lungs to fill with water and I lost consciousness again.

I awoke still strapped to the chair as I felt healing flow into my body whilst an angry looking Mage Vera faced down Indira and her henchmen.

“You have no authority here, Mage Vera. This animal was turned over to me for interrogation and I decide how it is to be done!” Indira snarled.

“I’m afraid I cannot allow you to continue, they have been summoned as witnesses before the Council,” Mage Vera replied calmly. “There appears to be some sort of question as to the use by the Interrogation Office of the warrant to stop the actions of the Enforcement Office and the use of Simon’s seal which it also appears he knew nothing about.”

“The document was handed to me seal already attached,” Indira replied no longer looking so sure of herself, indeed now both she and the two Mages looked distinctly nervous.

“Nevertheless I have my orders and these two are no longer subject to your authority, Mage Indira. I also have orders to you from Mage Hermes to return to the Council to answer for your actions as Mage Morgana is most put out, to put it mildly, in your arrest of her and Mage Arch’s charges,” Vera added.

“I will of course go at once, Mage Vera, and leave these two with you until they are summoned,” a scared looking Indira stated before teleporting out with her helpers.

“Jumped up cow,” muttered Mage Vera before turning to us as Róisín was brought into the room.

“Thank you, Mage Vera,” I moaned, still feeling the effects of the torture while the healing began.

“You’re welcome, although there has been a proper hornet’s nest stirred up over this breach of the Council’s authority,” she replied with a grimace. “I’m only sorry it took so long to get through to Simon and have this stopped. Nor can I believe what she did. Physical torture has not been used for centuries and I rather expect that she is in deep trouble with Mage Hermes over it.”

“Not just Hermes, Mage Morgana and Mage Arch will not be terribly happy either I’d expect. I rather believe that somewhere or other, someone on Mage Hermes’ staff has seriously overstepped their bounds,” I replied frankly.

“More than likely, although using Mage Simon’s seal without his permission is unheard of and I rather think that’s what the real fuss is about sadly, not the fact that another Office stepped in to prevent a blow to the Coalition and tortured a journeyman,” she answered. “Now you’d better go, Mage Morgana is waiting for you in her Council chambers.”

Both Róisín and I ported into Morgana’s office to face Morgana and Arch who immediately stepped forward to support me as I was nowhere near fully healed.

“I will have her head for this!” Morgana said with deadly intent.

“Assuming I do not get there first, my Mage,” I replied.

“Join the queue John and trust me it’s a fucking long one! Pardon my French,” Arch stated.

“Indeed, count me in it too,” added Róisín as she moved to hold me.

“Later, we now face our accusers in the Council chamber and demand an accounting from them too!” Morgana said bitterly.

For once the chamber was in complete silence as we walked it. I was still having to lean on Róisín a little despite the healing pouring into me. Morgana later told me that it took longer due to the damage Indira did to my nervous system and she’d had to grow parts of it back for me. I glanced over to see a haughty looking Mage Hermes surrounded by his staff including a pale faced and very worried looking Mage Indira.

“We are gathered to look into accusations that Mage Morgana has betrayed this Council and seek an accommodation with the Coalition with regard to removing us and taking our place.” Simon spoke quietly yet his voice carried to all in the room. “Mage Hermes, you have the floor.”

“For nearly a decade now the Interrogation Office has been investigating rumours that the reckless actions of Morgana and her supporters was nothing but a ruse to gain power and access to this Council with regard to destroying it from within.” Hermes began. “After all, how else could her Department and indeed her journeyman take down so many far more powerful Mages save only to enhance her power, if it were not for the help we now know she was receiving from the highest echelons of the Coalition itself?”

“Other than the fact that her journeyman is far better at magic than most journeymen and a lot of Mages and that it was the reorganisation of her Department after the activities of your friend Heinrich that set the standard for the other Bureaus?” asked a cynical Arch rhetorically.