“How were the young victims saved?”
“Omega provided help guiding them to a suitable boat and then directing rescuers to their exact position.”
I left Cobble Hill slightly ahead of schedule, as the Aunties had seen the dark at the end of the tunnel very quickly and we had a rough deal worked out for the house that benefited both parties. So I was understandably still excited as I returned to Hilda and prepared to pay a local witches’ circle a call. Not all that excited about that visit, as I don’t have much use for witches other than Declan and his aunt. Luckily if you’re only going to have two witches for friends and allies against the rest, it really helps if they’re both exceedingly powerful. My Declan-made protective amulet was really pretty badass.
My phone rang before I could touch Hilda’s starter. “You’re needed back here,” Lisle said. “Some Department of Energy agents are here and there’s also been a phone call from some law firm alleging a class action lawsuit against almost everyone.”
“Super. What do the DOE guys want?”
“Something about illegal experimentation with radiation and particle accelerators.”
“All right. I’m headed back now,” I said. “Contact Darion and have him touch base with the law firm on whatever bug is buzzing up their ass.” Modern slang was so much more fun than what I had grown up with.
Then I sighed as I considered the two problems. It seemed like half my job these days was dealing with legal attempts to infringe, influence, or shut down Demidova operations. We were by far Darion Cornell’s law firm’s biggest customer and spending more money on insane lawsuits every day. And a good chunk of the rest of my nights was spent dealing with government attempts to regain control of its missing authority.
“Omega, what’s the deal with these DOE dudes?”
“One is an agent of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which has responsibility for the security of nuclear weapons, and the other is from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which polices commercial radiation usage.”
“We don’t have any radioactive stuff, do we?”
“Just Father and Chris.”
“What?”
“Both of them utilize quantum particles when they exercise their powers. Also, the twins can be included in that as well.”
“Oh. Somebody’s been thinking out of the box,” I mused.
“It is likely to be a unique approach. I am digging into both agents, their backgrounds, and their mission tonight. If you wear an earpiece like Father, I will update you.”
“Sounds good.”
I made it back to the Tower in unusually fast time, but the fact that all my signal lights turned green as I approached them gave me a good idea of why the trip was so fast.
The short trip had given me time to consider my approach, so I paused to change out of my leather riding jacket, replacing it with a casual red blazer. I kept my jeansbut switched my ass-kicking boots for black flats that looked more like an executive assistant would wear.
Both agents were in one of our meeting rooms, one sitting and the other examining the pictures on the walls.
“In case no one mentioned it, those are Demidova offices around the world,” I said.
The standing agent, who had salt and pepper hair cut very short, turned dark brown eyes my way. The one who was leaning back in the end chair at the conference table was likely in his thirties, with curly blond hair and blue eyes so light that they were almost gray.
“Well it’s about time. You are?” the older agent asked.
“I’m Lydia Chapman and you are Agent Mall of the NRC and you”—I turned to blondie—“are Agent Keese of the NNSA, and you both showed up without an appointment, so your wait is on your poor planning. Now, what can I do for you?”
“Let me guess… your computer told you who we are?” Agent Mall asked.
“Of course. Let’s cut to chase. You’re both here to present some extraordinarily questionable arguments that some of our personnel represent some kind of radiation threat. You”—I turned to Mall—“think they are unlicensed particle accelerators, and you”—I turned to Keese—“have a ridiculous claim that they are equivalent to nuclear weapons and therefore fall under your jurisdiction.”
Neither answered but both were taking me very seriously all of a sudden.
“Licensable devices are defined as containing some form of radioactive material,” I said to Mall. “No one in this building has radioactive material inside them, with the exception of Gary Nokes in accounting who had a cardio PET scan yesterday and still has a minute amount of radioactive tracer in his system.” Then I turned to Keese. “I don’t even want to guess what line of crap you’re about to spew, but go ahead.”
He just looked at me for a second before exchanging a glance with Mall. Then he turned back. “Declan O’Carroll and Christian Gordon have both emitted extreme levels of accelerated particles on multiple occasions that have been detected by numerous devices.”
“So what?” I asked.
“No one else does that… at least at the level of deadly weapons,” he said, a glint in his eye as if he was about to say checkmate.
“And what exactly are you going to do? Arrest them? Attempt to contain them? How?”
The two agents exchanged another glance and them simultaneously reached under their jackets and brought out handcuffs.
Keese’s were made of depleted uranium, or at least plated with it. Mall’s set were steel and copper with symbols etched all over them.
I snorted. Indelicate and it would have given my mother fits to hear it, but it’s one of my responses to absurdity.
“Either your bosses hate your guts or neither of you have a clue what you’re doing here,” I said.
They both looked offended.
“I’m curious. How do you see this going down… in your own minds?” I asked.
“The individuals will present themselves and we will take them into
