Hinn Ch. 36-38

"Think about it. We know they've got us under surveillance, for what little good that does them. We know they enjoy playing silly games, but I'll let them decide if they wish to keep playing or to act like grownups and try to find common ground.

"It's in their court, as far as I'm concerned." Ray finished off the last of his fries with the last of his dressing before sitting back, comfortably.

The rest finished their meals, and it was time to head back to the conference room.

The walk back was much quieter than the walk to lunch. Ray was smiling slightly, happy with the setup for the one o'clock.

An Aside

She didn't understand it, no one was actively casting, but her witchy sense was driving her absolutely nuts. Her lunch companions had some wicked wits. The conversation was amusing, even if it wasn't as fascinating as it had been in the meeting.

Tauriz was quiet but deeply insightful. The sisters were sweethearts, caring about everyone around them. The hug one had given her -- was it Monica or Amber? She couldn't remember -- when she'd blushed from Jimmy's innuendo was nice.

Why was she blushing so much? She never blushed this much, but she could feel the heat in her face even now. Jimmy was cute, but so very much not her type.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm down. If only she weren't itching this much -- it still felt like a grand circle was in progress. No one was even tapping a beat, to say nothing about the rest of the theatrics that'd be needed to draw everyone's imagination into the purpose of the ritual.

Chapter 38

The group returned to the auditorium, finding that the breakfast catering was gone and the room was empty. A few new bugs were found, which quickly failed under circumstances that were likely becoming less and less mysterious. People settled into new conversational patterns, something Ray was happy to see compared to the clearly defined company groupings that had been the case before lunch.

At five before one, the door opened as Mr. Shapiro appeared with his three minions. "Good afternoon, and welcome back. C'mon down, Mr. Shapiro -- Jimmy, can we get a couple chairs down here for us, please?"

Jimmy waved at a couple of Skepsi troopers who grabbed chairs from storage at the back of the room, bringing them down in front of all the desks. Ray thanked them and took a seat. "So, Mr. Shapiro, what would you like to say?"

"I'd frankly thought this would be a discussion between us, Dr. Helms," he replied.

"It is, these are just the folks who've signed up to assist me. Rather than repeating what you tell me, I thought it best to let them hear it from you."

"I see. Why do you think I'm here, Doctor?"

"That's one of the questions I'm hoping you answer, Mr. Shapiro."

"Not even a guess?"

Ray sighed. "If you want to play word games, you're wasting both our times. Please, just spit it out."

"I see. We're going to draft you, Dr. Helms, and we're going to put you in harm's way in defense of the nation."

"A couple of points if I may, Ray?"

"Of course, Jessica. She's my lawyer, Mr. Shapiro."

"Mr. Shapiro, you must have lawyers on your staff you consulted on this matter. In the first place, the USA is not in a time of war, so drafting people is not legal. Second, Dr. Helms is, obviously, outside the age group legally approved to get drafted. Third, NSA is not a part of the Department of Defense and cannot draft people itself. There are other objections we can bring up if need be, but I do believe those three pretty well squash your 'interesting' statement well enough to start."

"Nice summary, Ms. Smitts. Attorney General Jonas did say you were sharp. Unfortunately, each of those can be and was overridden by an Executive Order."

"No executive orders were published in the last couple weeks, sir. It's part of my job to track that," Amber spoke up. "Even if it were, executive orders cannot overrule legislation approved by both houses of Congress."

Shapiro reached into his suit coat and pulled out an ivory colored envelope and stepped over, offering it to Ray. Scanning it with jawhar quickly before accepting it, Ray noted the active jawhar embedded in the ink of the signature that would attempt to command obedience from anyone reading it.

Before touching the proffered envelope, Ray said, "Now, now, Mr. Shapiro. Mind controlling techniques do NOT make your case any stronger. In point of fact," Ray lit the envelope with a smidgen of samum, "it makes me desire to ignore the rest of the document completely."

Shapiro attempted to extinguish the flame, but Ray prevented him from succeeding for the few seconds it took until the envelope and all it contained were utterly transformed into ash and smoke, spoiling the technique embedded within. "What did you do?" Shapiro steamed.

"I didn't touch whatever that was -- you were the only one holding it, Mr. Shapiro. What did YOU do?" replied Ray.

"As if holding it makes a difference with you?"

"Yes, it does, Mr. Shapiro. Ask your personnel. Something you touch is a lot easier to affect than something you do not touch."

"Whatever. The point is, you're a federal resource now."

"Sir," Jessica interrupted, "we've just got your statement on that. Unless and until my client receives valid, legal documentation of such claims, he is not bound."

"Best effort delivery, Ms. Smitts."

"The courts are divided on that, sir, as you well know. It has been accepted in extreme criminal cases only, trying to extend it beyond that is, in my professional opinion, not applicable here, in a meeting set up at my client's request and your agreement. At the very least, it'd be a long battle up through the courts to make that extension stick. A nice, big, public battle, at that."

"That would be a mistake, don't you think, Ray? Becoming known as a warlock?"

"That would be an interesting case for the courts to adjudicate," Ray rebutted. "Of course we'd have to bring your use of magic into the case, as well. I wonder how they'd take mind-controlling magics -- shall we see, Mr. Shapiro?"

Shapiro stopped, took a deep breath, and said, "My apologies, Doctor. I didn't intend to turn this confrontational."

"Hard to see how you intended anything else thus far, Mr. Shapiro. A booby-trapped letter alone would tend to indicate you're operating in bad faith."

"I can easily see how that would appear from your point of view. Would you look at it from ours for a second? What would you do if someone was carrying a tank's power in their hip pocket?"

"Me? I'd try to avoid them, personally."

"From our point of view, both Ms. Aoud and yourself have at least that much destructive potential, Doctor. We believe we need to protect the nation from your actions."

"Which actions are those, Mr. Shapiro? I pay my taxes. I rarely even speed. What actions have I taken to make you so concerned?"

"You disabled a SWAT team's gear and withstood their efforts to bring you in under a valid warrant."

"Jessica, correct me here if I'm wrong, but they claimed they didn't have a warrant with them at that time, which means their attempt was illegal."

"You're correct, Ray," confirmed Jessica.

"But you do not deny you disabled a SWAT team."

"Are those officers injured in any way from their illegal attempt to force access to private property, or from their attempt to use lethal weapons against peaceful civilians?"

"They are not, as you know."

"Then I take offense at your bald-faced lie that I caused any damage to police."

"But their gear all failed simultaneously!"

"Are you claiming I have some ability to cause their gear to 'fail' somehow? And if so, I'll be very interested to learn how you intend to prove that beyond a 'reasonable doubt' in a court of law. Might I also point out that once again, you're leading this conversation into a confrontation? Might I suggest you apologize at this point, then simply tell us what you want done?"

"You're right -- it's not my intent to confront you at this point, Doc..."

"There you go again," Ray interrupted. "AT THIS POINT. At what point do you intend to attempt to confront me, Mr. Shapiro? Under what conditions?"

"A misstatement on my part, I assure you."

Ray sighed and pulled out his phone. "Nine one one? My name is Dr. Raymond Helms. I'm in Auditorium 201 in the University's Academic building. I have here someone who is claiming to be a federal official without any badge or other evidence to back his claim up. This person is attempting to claim that I, a history professor in my sixties, has been drafted if you can believe that. At the minimum, they're potentially a threat to themselves, if not others. Can you please send officers to confirm this?"

"You shouldn't have escalated things, Doctor."

Turning his phone away for a second, Ray replied, "You already did, Mr. Shapiro. Repeatedly."

Shapiro waved his minions out and started to leave himself. "Operator, this gentleman who gave his name as Mr. Jordan Shapiro is attempting to leave the room at this time. I am concerned he might flee... Yes, sir, I'm being VERY sure not to impede this individual, I'm not even close to being between him and the door... Yes, sir, I'll wait here on the line for the officers."

Shapiro just shook his head and walked out.

"I think that might have gone better somehow, Ray," Jessica opined. "I'm just not certain how that could have happened."

"Nor do I, Jessica. It's like they're self-sabotaging their alleged peaceful attempts.

"Anyways, we'll discuss more after the police are here and gone, so sit back and relax for a bit, please, folks. No, Operator, I'm here with a room of about thirty people, all of whom witnessed this Shapiro's actions. Yes, they're staying here until the police show as well."

Fifteen minutes later, a pair of city police officers came into the auditorium. "Excuse us, is there a Ray Helms here?"

"Down here, Officer. How can I help you?"

The two officers walked down the steps to the front of the room. "We're here about a potential disturbance, sir. Can you please tell me what happened?"

"A gentleman who gave his name as Jordan Shapiro and three other unnamed gentlemen intruded on a private meeting earlier today and wanted to join in as an observer. As the matter is sensitive and private, he wasn't allowed to do so. He claimed to be an undersecretary of some sort and implied that he'd cause problems if his orders weren't satisfied. I offered to meet with him later, at one today. He accepted.

"On arriving, Mr. Shapiro tried to hand me a flaming envelope -- literally, it was on fire -- containing what he claimed was an Executive Order. One of the meeting's participants is Ms. Amber Delain over there, who works for Ms. Smitts, my lawyer. Ms. Delain, as part of her job duties, regularly tracks Executive Order publications. None have been in the past while. The envelope and anything it contained burned completely while in Shapiro's hand.

"Mr. Shapiro then proceeded to make a series of frankly ridiculous claims. When he started to make threats of future confrontations, I called nine one one. This Shapiro character warned me that I, and I quote, "shouldn't have escalated things," unquote. He waved his three minions out of the room and followed them out. That was the last we've seen of them, Officer."

The older of the two officers said, "Can you describe this Shapiro and his people for us, please?" and Ray complied. Ray then asked Jessica to add her perspective as his lawyer and a trained observer, who then proceeded to add significant detail to Ray's verbal sketch.

"Thank you for your help, sir, ma'am. If you see this Shapiro character again, please do call nine one one before interacting with them if you can do so safely, or as soon after as you can. We'll make sure there's a record of this if you ever need to deal with them in the future."

"Thank you for your assistance, Officer," Ray said and shook their hands before they left.

"Everyone ready?" Ray asked after the door finished closing. Receiving nothing but nods, Ray reactivated the Cone of Silence. "OK, we're private again. Thoughts?"

"The nine one one call was a clever move, Ray. Hope they keep those records and don't let the feds just erase them."

"Let's hope not. Paul, any comments?"

"Not at this time."

"Holger? Antoine?"

"None here. Thank you for not physically acting against Shapiro, even though he did deserve a good thrashing."

Ray chuckled, "It would have felt nice, briefly. The long term effects, probably not so much. Emily?"

"Nothing to add, Ray."

"And Jessica?"

"We're working on it, but nothing to report quite yet."

"Good enough. So. Road trip to check out Boch's building sound about right?"

"We can do that," Holger said, "but I'd feel better if you let us station a team back at your condo. Feisty Feds tend to like to play dirty, and an unprotected condo might be too much of a temptation."

"That works for me. I'll call the security desk when we're done deciding, who will let your team into the condo when you get there. One rule of engagement change -- please do not enter the master suite. Oh, and my office here doesn't have anything too valuable in it at this point, and besides, it belongs to the University. I don't think we need to worry about that much at all."

Holger nodded his acceptance for his team.

Emily spoke up, "Ray, I think I've delayed enough. I need to get back home, trigger your cone of silence, and bring my bosses up to date. It'll be tomorrow early afternoon here by the time I get there, after midnight Taipei time. Then we'll see what happens. If there are any major changes, I'll call if appropriate. If calling isn't appropriate, we'll use private means to update Annya and have her fill you in face to face."

"Sounds like a plan, Emily. Safe flights!"

"Thanks, it's been eye-opening thus far, I hope I get a chance to learn more!"

"If you have the time, and we're not eyebrow deep in alligators, I'll be glad to discuss whatever is reasonable with you any time."

"I'll hold you to that, Ray!" she exclaimed, grinning on her way out the door. "Holger, I'll need that ride."

"They're waiting for you, Emily," Antoine told her.

Paul stood up and dusted his hands off. "So, let us show you what we recommend," he said as he led the way back to the cars.