A-Cup Angst Ch. 05

Everyone looked to each other in confusion and alarm. Sandra gasped and her eyes shot open again. "Phew," she said, "that was disturbing. Let me up!" She waved off everyone's questions and insisted she was fine now and that they should let her up, already.

When she was vertical, she looked at Jamie and said, "I saw the warlock's face. It's only one guy that's abducting these women. I know what he looks like. I can make a sketch of him." Jamie nodded and ordered them all to go back to the hotel suite.

While they were walking to their cars, Rose peppered Sandra with questions of how did being possessed fell like. "It was nothing like when Jamie possesses us to store power in his rings," she told her. "This spirit just felt different."

"Different," asked Rose. "How so?"

Sandra stood by the Subaru and looked in the distance, reliving and ordering the memories she just acquired. "Incomplete," she finally responded. Jamie had felt something akin to that when he intervened. It seemed to him like they were trying to get a clean slice of solid cheese, only for it to keep coming up Swiss. The woman's spirit had seemed to him like it was full of holes where holes should not be.

"What do you mean incomplete," asked a bewildered Rose. "Are you sure you got the right one?"

"Yeah, Jamie sent her into me and she tried to communicate with me," said Sandra. "It was like she couldn't speak or understand me, and she had no eyes and no ears and no ability to move at all. It was such a horrible feeling. She was made of nothing but memories that she couldn't even interpret for herself. I'm," she faltered for words. "I don't know how to explain what it felt like. It was torment of the most horrible kind. There was no pain, but..."

Jamie gave her a gentle hug and a kiss on the forehead. "All that matters is that you saw the face and that we're going to end this woman's torment as soon as we find this warlock," he whispered in her ear. "Come on, focus on the image of this punk's face and scry for him. Section can't find the women, but maybe this dipshit hasn't thought of covering his own ass." Sandra tried her best, but came up with no result, despite having a clear image to focus on. She let out a roar of frustration as they parked at the hotel.

"It's okay, sweetie," Jamie consoled her. "It was just a long shot to cover all the bases. you can still get him and set these women free. All you have to do is draw us a picture so we can run it through some computers."

Back in the suite, Sandra immediately sat down at the table and started Photoshop. She went online and a picture of a man's face took up most of the screen. "That's Kiefer Sutherland," exclaimed Helena, seeing the face. "That's a young Kiefer from that movie he did with Julia Roberts, ages ago! Are you telling me that Kiefer Sutherland is going around abducting young women!?"

"No," Sandra rolled her eyes at Helena. "The warlock just kind of looks like him. The nose and the eyes and the chin are a little different. I just loaded this photo to have something to start with. Now, if you'll excuse me," Sandra smiled wild-eyed at Helena, "I'm going to make a photo of our assailant."

Helena raised her hands in surrender and moved away from Sandra. Sonya, who had taken a nap after Jamie fucked her, came out of the bedroom, looking for round two. Jamie dismissed her offer with a shake of his head and retreated to the other bedroom. He lay down on the bed and crossed his hands under his head. He needed to do some serious thinking.

About five minutes into his heavy thinking, Helena slipped into the room and closed the door behind herself. "Jamie, baby," she asked, "what's troubling you? Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not particularly," he sighed. "I'm just lying here, thinking on whether or not I'm evil."

"Now that's crazy talk, Jamie," Helena said. "People are what they do. What evil deeds have you done?"

"I took slaves and attacked a score of law enforcement officials, for a start," he replied.

"That was done in self-defense and the defense of your family," Helena said. "There's legal precedent that says private persons are allowed to defend themselves against agents of the State in a case of necessity. As for the taking of slaves, please explain to me how you did that when you had no magical power to take them with?"

"You know how I did it," he grumbled.

"That's right," Helena insisted, "you turned their own dangerous ritual against them, in a clear cut act of self defense. If acting in self defense makes you evil, well, then half the people on this planet are evil."

Jamie's brow scrunched up. "What's with all this legal-sounding talk," he asked her.

"Well," she drawled, "you said you wanted me to take pre-law and become a lawyer some day, so I thought I'd better start boning up on stuff. Speaking of boning..." Her thin lips curled into a sexy smile as she sat on the bed next to him and started stroking his thigh. "how about you let me suckle on a bone, right now?"

"I'm beat," he replied, "Sonya drained me dry."

Helena lay next to him and pressed herself against his form. "I happen to know, for a fact, you can undo all that with your magic and a single thought."

"Thank you for the offer, Helena," he said politely, but firmly, "but I'm going to have to decline. Tell Sandra to send the picture to Moran and Cyrus as soon as she's done with it. Then have her and Rose come in here, we need to restore power spirit number ten, before bed."

She knew better than to argue with him so she gave him a quick, tender kiss on the lips and got off the bed. At the door, she turned around and said, "If you're going to do the whole, capital "e" evil thing, the girls and I are with you, one hundred percent. As a matter of fact, I feel that I should point out some of the things you already did wrong. You sent three rapists to jail and arranged for Rosenberg to get a retrial. Things like those might make people think you're not evil." Jamie kept staring at the ceiling in response.

She went through the door and then popped her head back in. "Oh, and I've heard his sister, Liv, might quit home schooling and actually attend high school with the other kids, this fall. Something about the guilty being punished restoring her faith in the world, or some such. But I guess that could be considered an evil deed." She adopted a tone of voice normally employed by people who bitched about the long hours in the salt mine. "Making a young girl have to get up each morning, trudge her way to a school, still half-asleep, to get taught by underpaid teachers and hang out with her peers. Sounds awful. Just awful." Once she closed the door behind herself, she huffed in annoyance. She loved Jamie to pieces, but he could be such a whiny, little bitch at times.

In the federal building, in a small office with the Department of Homeland Security seal on it, sat Dana Moran and rubbed his tired eyes. A new email notification sounded from his computer. After coming across the fearsome five at lunch today, he decided to finish off all of his workload so he would be free to devote all his time to them, if they called on him. It simply would not do to get a shot at the big leagues and then get undermined for not fulfilling his daily duties. He shook his head in frustration. All he did in this office was shuffle papers around, like a mindless drone. And his supervisor kept emailing him with complaints about tiny, insignificant details.

He raised his eyes and looked at the empty desks and offices he could see from his desk. Office hours were long gone. The sight of empty seats served to remind him that he was the one that was winning. He was the one that was still there, still at it. He was the one that was working towards the rewards to come. Still, he toyed with the idea of blowing off the most recent round of petty, e-mailed complaints until Monday. There would be some others by then, anyway. He was sure of it.

His cell rang and he reached in his pocket. The number was unknown to him. "Moran," he answered, tiredly.

"Agent Moran, this is Sandra Grant," she identified herself. "Did I call at a bad time?"

Dana sat up straight and perked up. His heart beat wildly. He swallowed and forced a genial tone of voice to say, "No, not at all, Ms. Grant. What can I do for you?"

"I've just sent you an email with a composite drawing of Section's most wanted suspect," she said. "I wanted to know you received it alright." Dana clicked and saw the email. It contained a Section case code and an attached picture. He opened the attachment. "We'd appreciate it if you would run the photograph through some facial recognition software and various national databases. If you could give us a list of names of people who look most like that picture, we'd be able to find the perpetrator."

"Yes, of course," responded Dana. "I've received your email and I'll get right on it! Can I reach you at this number and email address with the results?"

"Yes," answered Sandra. "Thank you."

"No, no," insisted Dana, with an audible smile, "thank you, Ms. Grant!" She hung up and he loaded the case code onto Section's network. His jaw dropped when he saw the case in question was The Case of the Decade. The Suit itself was shitting bricks over this matter and the whole organization was scrambling over it, but getting nowhere. These five kids just called him up, out of the blue, and gave him the first real break in the investigation. He found himself suddenly believing the improbable story of their attack on The Suit's headquarters.

This was his big break. Helping bring this matter to a successful and discrete close, was a career making move. He thanked Providence and his lucky stars for a brief moment, before jumping into action. "When an opportunity presents itself, use it, don't just praise it," he reminded himself. He consulted the duty roster and saw who was overseeing the data network for the night. He pulled out his own notes on the likes and dislikes of people he already met in the building and found that he hadn't yet learned anything about the person in question. He looked to his badge and smiled. "Oh, well, it's not like I haven't got any authority around here."

The mainframes ran the facial recognition software the whole night long, coming up with hundreds of possible matches. Dana diligently ran all the names down, using every resource and shortcut at his, and Section's, disposal. Around four a.m., he found that one young man's cell phone had been in the area of all the disappearances at the appropriate times. He giggled in glee. This must be the perp.

A thorough background check revealed that his parents were junkies that were killed in front of his eyes when he was a little kid and that he spent his youth in the foster care system and bouncing in and out of juvenile detention facilities. His file read like a textbook progression of a serial killer's psyche until he reached age fifteen. Then he became a little angel, practically over night. Dana had seen this type of anomaly in Section files before. It meant the little shit managed to start using his powers at that age and began to cover his tracks.

Tearing through his home town police force's case files, Dana found that two young women, who had regular contact with the perp, had also gone missing, years ago. Section didn't pick up on their cases, because the modus operandi employed was different than the one consistently used in the last ten disappearances. Dana's Quantico training enabled him to see the progression and refinement of the perp's m.o. during these first two abductions.

He set a wiretap on the perp's phone and listened in on the sound of snoring. He triangulated it and found out that the man was sleeping in an abandoned farmhouse well outside of town, in the middle of nowhere. He sent all the information up Section's food chain and to the email Sandra Grant used to send him the original photo. He made sure to share equal credit for the find with them. He stretched his arms and yawned. Outside, dawn was breaking. If he didn't get some sleep himself, he'd be of no use to anyone today. He went back to his office and chugged four highly caffeinated energy drinks. He lay on his couch and set his cell phone to sound an alarm in forty-five minutes.

The device let out its annoying, little sounds and Dana jumped up, fully awake and alert. He ran to check on his work. The perp was still snoring in the same place, and Section had sent him an email ordering him to greet and guide a full strike and intervention team that will arrive at the local airport around three in the afternoon. He smiled. That was his ticket to the top being validated. The next email was from Grant and it simply read: "Thanks."

His eyes narrowed at the single word. It was sent just minutes ago. He thought to himself that there's no way these kids would know where to find the perp. There was no way they'd haul off and get the perp on their own. He ordered a triangulation of the cell phone Sandra had called him from, earlier. His hopes floundered as he saw that the device was on the move. It was weaving its way through the city streets, heading in the general direction of the farmhouse. "Shit," he swore aloud and ran headlong towards the stairs to the vehicle pool. His promotion was in no way guaranteed. He needed to be an integral part of the team that took down this criminal. It didn't matter if it was official Section enforcement or a bunch of freelancers. All that mattered was that he hurried. His flashing lights and siren cleared the way of traffic and he was soon out on the open road, eating up the distance to the farmhouse.

He turned the lights and siren off, miles from the place, and quietly drove up to where the fearsome five had parked. The farm itself was separated from the paved road by means of a drainage canal, and only a brief bridge, with a gate on its end, allowed vehicles to enter it from the road. Jamie stepped forward and greeted Dana with, "What are you doing here, Moran?"

"I'm here to thank you for your part in apprehending this criminal," he responded. "I've already filed the necessary paperwork and you'll receive the bounty posted for information on this perp."

"Perp needs to get taken down," Jamie said.

Dana nodded, saying, "A full strike and intervention team has been assembled and will be here, this afternoon, to take down the criminal."

Jamie made a thin, sour grin at hearing that. There was exactly no chance that he was going to stand there and twiddle his thumbs while Arlene and the other women were being held in the barn. "Too bad," he sighed. "The perp is getting taken down right now, so this team Section is sending will just have to be late."

Dana was taken aback by the steel in the boy's eyes. The girls also looked just about ready to explode. He could tell that he wasn't going to be able to dissuade them, so he didn't even bother trying, lest he lose their good will. "In that case," he said, nodding, "I'm coming with you."

"No, you're not," said Jamie.

"It's my job, Mr. Jacobs," Dana responded. "More than that, it's my duty. And if I don't verify your efforts here, today, then Section will not pay you any funds."

Jaime rolled his eyes, looked heavenward in frustration and then wordlessly consulted with his girls. Money didn't matter to him, he just wanted to do the right thing here. At last, he cleared his throat and said, "My op, my team, my call. You stay out of this."

"I am a trained and experienced law enforcement professional that-" Dana was cut off by Jamie's raised hand.

"You're not part of my team."

"I have breached more than-"

"My team is highly trained and integrated. We do things our way, we communicate without speaking, and we can't have an outsider trampling underfoot."

Dana bit back his frustration at being ordered around by a teenager and forced a smile on his face. "Sir," he nearly threw up at calling the kid that, "I am perfectly capable of taking orders."

Jamie's brow raised at that. "You are," he inquired.

"Yes, sir," Dana stated, emphatically.

"Ok, then," said Jamie. It would be much better all around if they had a Section witness to tell the tale of their takedown. Still, the man wasn't going anywhere near the action. He might spot Sonya and Helena's lack of magic in the melee. "You can participate. Stay here and guard the perimeter."

"Sir," asked a confused Dana.

"You'll stay here and guard the perimeter," Jamie instructed. "Make certain no civilians encroach into the field of operation." Dana glanced around in disbelief. There was obviously no one around for miles. The road was clear in both directions for as far as the eye could see. "Or you can stay here, asleep at the wheel, and we'll come wake you when it's all over."

Dana suffered through the condescending tone of this child and grinned before nodding yes. "Yes, sir," he said, formally, "I'll guard the perimeter."

"Good man," Jamie nodded. They got into their cars and took off, breaking down the gate and rushing up the long drive to the barn that was barely visible in the distance. Dana opened the trunk of his vehicle and took out the body armor, shotgun, ammo and a pair of binoculars. He donned the armor, loaded the shotgun and watched through his binoculars as the cars got to the barn.

When the cars got about a hundred feet from the barn, eight women ran out of it and charged headlong at them. The gang faltered and stared, uncertain what to make of the sight that greeted them.

When Jamie and the girls read someone's aura, it was most akin to watching a foreign TV show without subtitles or dubbing. You didn't know the specifics, but you could tell what it was about. When he looked at someone's warded aura, it was like static on TV. No signal, but an operating device. Looking at these women, it was like he had turned on the TV, only for the stand-by light to go out and nothing else happen. His stored spirits told him they were absolutely immune to magic and he just gaped in mute confusion.

Helena and Sonya, who were behind the wheels, swerved to avoid hitting the women. The women reached for the passing cars with inhuman speed and agility. One actually grasped the door handle of their lead car, Sonya's Subaru, and held on as Sonya drove a short distance and executed a perfect handbrake turn. Rose locked the door as soon as she saw what they were dealing with. The woman planted her feet against the side of the car and tugged at the locked door. She ripped it open and tried to reach in to grab a freaked out Rose from the passenger seat. Sonya turned sharply and the woman lost her one armed grip to go sailing through the air and crashing through the main farmhouse's walls.

Jamie sensed an opening and one of his stored spirits dashed towards the hole in the wall. The car's wards, that should have prevented this from happening in the first place, restored the door to its original, pristine condition. Jamie's mind was assailed by strange concepts, coming from the expended spirit's spell. It had managed to sneak into the woman, who went through the wall, through a big gash in the skin of her shin. Their skin was making them impervious to magic. Jamie's confusion doubled. No one could live inside a skin impervious to magic, yet these women were very lively.

The BMW just whizzed past the Subaru, chased by four women. Jamie idly noted Arlene Hartford among them. Three more descended upon the Subaru and began kicking massive dents in its body and huge holes through its windows. Rose and Sandra shrieked in terror. The windows were enchanted to be immune to damage done from the outside in. Sonya desperately tried to shake them loose, without running them over.

Finally, a clear picture of the women came to Jamie's mind. They were robots. The knowledge of how to put them into stand-by mode came to him from the expended spirit's spell and he snapped his fingers, releasing a pulse of the appropriate kind of electromagnetic energy. All the women froze and then toppled over, their limbs locked in place. The Subaru's windows reassembled as soon as the women that smashed them fell out of the way. The car's body restored itself to its former glory.