Doorways to Infinity (46 page)

“I’d complain, too,” Nova said. “What else are they bitchin’ about?”

Terry rolled her head around and winced when her neck popped. “Remarkably mundane stuff. Wages, work hours, the other guards…they don’t all get along. These guys argue with each other quite a bit, sounds like. This morning, we overheard two guards talking about a fight from the previous night. Somebody had to be carried off to the nearest hospital, which is about forty miles away.”

“Wow.” Rollie flashed a lopsided smile. “Maybe they’ll kill each other and make it easy for us.”

“That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Terry said. “But don’t count on it.”

Fred waved one hand. “Any mention of the witches?”

“Maybe,” Eric said, “and only once, so far, and that was yesterday. The guards called them
those women
. The men that we overheard sounded a little bit afraid of them.”

“They should be,” Nova said, “if the witches have a triad.” Then she frowned and said, “Can we go soon? I’ve got a basketball game in twenty-five minutes.”

“We’re done,” Eric said. “But check your text messages regularly in case we need to meet. We might have something important to share with you at any time.”

* * *

Jamie met Fred in front of her dorm building on Thursday afternoon and glanced around before saying in a low voice, “What’s up?”

“I just got a call from Sammi. She heard something again. She wants to tell Eric and Terry.”

“Did she say what it was?”

“Not over the phone. You know she wouldn’t do that. She has to tell us in person.”

“Um….” Jamie clamped his top teeth on his bottom lip while he quickly ran his schedule through his mind. “How about right after track practice?”

“As long as it’s
right
after. Mom will be making dinner then, and Sammi might have homework.”

“Sure, whatever. Bryce and I won’t have time to shower, though.” He opened his mouth and panted, even though it was cold outside. “I’m running around so much, I feel like I need an appointment calendar.”

“Yeah, well, we’re getting older and we have more responsibilities. Saving the world and stuff takes up a lot of time.” She kissed him quickly and said, “I’ll see you in a few hours. I’ll let the rest of the gang know we’re meeting.”

Jamie stood with his friends in Eric and Terry’s house and prepared to make a portal to Hendersonville. “Fred, should I make it to the back patio or what? I don’t want to be rude and pop right in on your parents.”

“Just make it into the living room,” Fred said impatiently. “We don’t need to knock. It’s my house, after all, even if I don’t live there right now.”

“Think your mom might be making a little extra for dinner?” Rollie said. Fred turned and gave him a narrow-eyed look and he shrugged defensively. “Just askin’. I’m sick of dining hall food. I’d kill for a home cooked meal right now.” Then he scratched his cheek with his index finger. “Wonder what my mom is making tonight.”

“You know whose cooking I miss?” Bryce said. “Mrs. Tully. Man, that lady can cook.”

“Jamie’s Gramma, too,” Rollie said with a nod. “I miss her brownies, especially.”

“I even miss my mom’s cooking, sometimes,” Nova said. “Never thought I’d say that.”

Eric checked his watch and flung out his other hand. “Can we get on with this already?”

Jamie made the doorway, and they all stepped through into the Callahan’s living room, where Sammi waited. Her face brightened like sunshine when she saw them, and she called out to her parents. They came in to join them while Sammi rushed to Fred and hugged her first, and then Terry, much to Jamie’s surprise.

“Agent Terry,” Sammi said, taking her hand, “when are you going to bring Stacey over to play?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Soon, I hope. She’s almost ready to go back to preschool. She has an appointment on Monday, and we’ll see what the doctor says.”

“Does she have hair, yet?”

“Almost two inches. She looks great, and she feels great, too. So maybe when we finish dealing with Phillip Cage, I can get Jamie to make a doorway for her and she can come over.”

Sammi’s small face turned serious. “I heard Mr. Cage’s guards today. They sounded mad.”

“That’s what we’ve been hearing, too,” Eric said, “through the listening device. Tell us exactly what you heard today.”

“Can I leave out the bad words? They say a lot of those.” She repeated what she’d overheard that morning on the way to school.

Eric glanced at Terry and said, “That’s exactly what we heard from the listening device. That’s pretty incredible, Sammi. We were hearing the same conversation, only you were using magic. I guess the guards were standing in a shadow by the big tree where Jamie put the bug.”

“The guards sound like they’re ready to revolt,” Terry added. “I wonder if things have always been that acrimonious at the monastery.”

Sammi shook her head. “I heard Mr. Cage, too, but only for a second. He said ‘why is everybody so darn grouchy right now?’ Only he didn’t say
darn,
exactly, or
grouchy
.”

“Maybe they’re getting cabin fever, cooped up in the monastery,” Terry said. “It’s been really cold there.”

“Bad food and crummy sleeping arrangements don’t help, either,” Melanie said.

“But they help us,” Bryce said. “I bet it’ll be harder for Cage to pull off another hit right now.”

“Sure hope so,” Eric said. “Or things in the Middle East are going to get bad.”

Chapter 20

Rachel drove Sammi to school the next morning, the same as she always did, and was about to pull into the entrance when Sammi gasped and said, “I heard him! I just heard Mr. Cage again.” She gasped and flapped her hands. “He’s
really
mad, now. We gotta tell Fred and Jamie, right away.”

“We can’t, Sammi. We have to go to school.”

“But it’s really super important this time. He was on the phone again, and he’s mad ’cause almost all of the guards quit last night and left.”

“They quit? Oh…gosh.” Rachel sucked in her breath and held it for a moment while she waited for the crossing guard to wave her through to the parking lot. “We have to tell Jamie, don’t we? Maybe we can do it during lunch. My room will be empty then, and my intern takes my kids to the cafeteria, so I’ll be alone.”

“But I don’t have lunch then. Second grade goes later.”

“I’ll give you a note for your teacher. Mrs. Lester will let you out of class for a few minutes. She’s a friend of mine.”

Jamie and Eric went through a magic portal into Rachel’s classroom, where she waited with Sammi. Rachel stole a glance at her closed door before saying, “Is it just you two?”

“Everybody else has class,” Jamie said. “And I’ve got one in a few minutes, so we have to hurry.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “Sammi heard something that I thought you should know about right away.

All eyes turned to Sammi and she said, “Most of Mr. Cage’s guards quit last night. I heard him on the phone again. He’s really, really upset, ’cause he needs more guards, and he can’t find any right now.”

Eric nodded, and a smile pulled at the corners of his thin mouth. “That jives with the chatter we’ve been hearing through the listening device. Seems like every guard had his cellphone going at the same time. It was hard to sort out, though. Now I know why. They were leaving, and probably looking for a ride or another job.”

“What does that mean for us?” Jamie asked.

Eric put his hands loosely on his hips and stared blankly at the floor. “It could mean that this is our chance to catch Phillip Cage. I’ll need to do some further snooping to confirm the situation.” Then his smile widened and his eyes narrowed menacingly. “Jamie, we should have meeting tonight with everybody to plan another mission. Your dad and John Paul, too, if they can make it.”

Rachel frowned. “What do you need them for?”

“Firepower, if we go to the monastery.”

“I thought you said it was too dangerous.”

“I think the odds are much better for us right now, especially if we have Carl and John Paul with us.”

Rachel’s frown deepened. “Can’t you get some more CIA people to help you?”

“Not if we have a mole at the agency. They might tip Cage off, and it could be a disaster for us. People could die.”

“Please don’t ask Carl or John Paul to go. I know they’ll want to, and I don’t want them getting hurt.” She turned to Jamie. “I don’t want you to go, either. Or Fred or Rollie, or any of your friends.”

“How are we going to get Cage, then? Eric and Terry can’t do it by themselves.”

“They…oh…I don’t know.” She let out an exasperated breath. “I just don’t want you to go. You can understand that, can’t you?”

“What if we can help prevent a war?”

“What war? The one the North Koreans are trying to start?”

Eric shook his head. “We don’t know if it would come to that. It’s just that the Israelis and the Iranians are getting close to blows, and we think Cage’s assignment is to push them over the edge.”

“But….” She looked back and forth from Eric to Jamie until Sammi took her hand and said, “It’ll be all right. I think it’s supposed to happen this way.”

Rachel locked eyes with Sammi for a long moment before shaking her head and saying, “Oh…okay, but I want you to know that I strongly disapprove of this. Don’t do anything rash and get yourself killed.”

“Relax, Mom. It’s not like we’re going to fight another demon or anything.”

“I won’t let anyone go without bulletproof vests,” Eric said, “and Terry and I will take the most dangerous positions.”

Rachel gave her head another tight shake. “I don’t want you getting hurt, either. Can’t somebody else do this?”

“No.”

It’s just us again
, Jamie realized.
I wish there were someone else, but there’s not. It’s like dealing with the demon again
. “Eric, do you have enough vests?”

“Not yet. We’ll have to make a raid on the agency’s equipment locker in Langley, first.”

* * *

Jamie and his friends met that night at Eric and Terry’s house, and Carl and John Paul joined them. It was a tight fit.

“Okay.” Eric stood next to the equipment-covered table while everyone gathered around. “We feel certain now that Mr. Cage has suffered a serious loss of manpower, based on what Sammi has heard and other indicators. We reviewed the most recent photo from the surveillance satellite, and there are only two vehicles left at the monastery, and there were well over a dozen just three days ago. Also, the cellphone and two-way radio chatter has fallen off to practically nothing. Terry and I think that Cage is vulnerable right now, more so than at any time since we’ve been tracking him. This is probably our best chance to get him, before he finds replacements for the security men who quit. We have a short window of opportunity here, so we should go tomorrow, early evening, if we can get everything in place for an assault.”

“I have to work,” John Paul said. “I don’t know if I can get anybody to cover my shift. My boss won’t like it.”

“We can get you released to us on a detail,” Terry said.

Nova winkled her brow. “What’s that?”

“It’s like deputizing someone. Eric and I will go visit the police chief and show him our identification, and he won’t have a choice but to let both Carl and John Paul go.”

“What are you going to tell him if he asks why?” John Paul said.

“We don’t have to tell him anything. We’re the CIA. He knows he’ll have to comply.”

“That’s going to cause some talking around the station,” Carl said.

“Is that a problem?”

“We can deal with it. Will we be able to get our tactical gear?”

“You should have access to any weapons or body armor that you think is necessary. Does the Hendersonville Police Department have that kind of equipment?”

“We can get bulletproof vests and whatever weapons you think are appropriate.”

“Shotguns. We’ll be fighting in close quarters.”

“Fighting?” Fred said. “I’m not doing that, at least not with a gun. I’ll bring powders and potions, enough for everybody. I’ve been stocking up.”

“We’re counting on that,” Terry said. “Can you make some more Stupefyin’ pendants?”

“All of us girls have them already,” Fred said. “I’ll make some for everybody else tonight, if Jamie will make a doorway back to my house. I need to use my mom’s kitchen.”

“Man.” Rollie shook his head. “Your mom’s not going to like the idea of you going to the monastery. Neither is mine, and I’m sure Jamie’s mom will tell them about it.”

Fred turned to Terry. “On second thought, maybe I should use your kitchen.”

“Jamie,” Bryce said, “what are you going to do about our track meet tomorrow?”

“Oh…dang.” Jamie put his hand on his forehead. “I can’t go. I have too much to do to get ready for the mission. I hope Coach will understand. What about you?”

“We both can’t miss it. That’s not fair to the team.”

“Are you not going with us to Romania?”

“I’m going!” Bryce nodded emphatically. “You’d better not leave me out. The meet will be over by three o’clock.”

“But it’s in Charlotte, and you’ll be on the team bus. You won’t get back in time.”

“You can make a doorway for me.”

“Uh….” Jamie bit one corner of his lip while he thought about it. “Okay, but just for you, not for the whole team. It’ll be too hard to make one for the bus without being noticed.”

Terry looked at Fred and said, “What about Momma Sue and Mrs. Malley? Do you think they’ll come with us? We could use their magic, don’t you think? Especially if Cage’s witches join the fight.”

“They’ll want to go. Both of them, I’m sure. I’ll contact Momma Sue with the magic mirror as soon as I get back to my dorm.”

“I guess I’ll have to make a doorway for them tomorrow,” Jamie said.

“And for Eric and Terry to go talk to my boss,” Carl said.

Eric nodded. “And to CIA headquarters to get more equipment.”

Bryce raised a hand. “Don’t forget me.”

Jamie sighed. “And a doorway to Romania tomorrow night. Anything else?”

Rollie patted him on the shoulder and gave him a wry smile. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

“All right then,” Terry said. “We need to plan this mission. Jamie, can you get us a whiteboard from the Rivershire School?”