Chapter 44
The next afternoon, I felt something off as I walked back to Arcane from class. From Arcane. From outside Arcane. Slowing down, I was careful as I came to the bend in the sidewalk that would reveal the school building.
“Craig, beware,” Omega said in my ear.
I instantly moved sideways to the corner of the last building before Arcane and peered around the corner with just one eye.
Three black SUVs were lined up outside the main entry and six guys in tactical gear with rifles and body armor were staring down every student that approached the building.
“Omega, what’s all that?”
“Immigration and Customs agents, Craig. Looking for you.”
“Uh-oh. Either my student visa is effed up or somebody wants to eff with me,” I said.
“Your visa is perfect, so I think it’s the latter theory.”
“Does Gina or Toni know?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm. So, walking on up to the front door is a bad idea.”
“It may be the best idea. Have the confrontation right now and find out what they’re about.”
“But does Vesta know?”
“She is just inside the entry with Gina and Mr. Jenks.”
I opened my senses, specifically our bond. I felt her instantly. She was angry—really, really angry. Hair-trigger angry. And she knew I was near.
“This going to work or is there going to be a bloodbath?” I asked.
“I estimate that will be determined by your abilities. Anything you can do to de-escalate will be important.”
Moving forward, I watched the feds with both eyes and Intent. They recognized me immediately and all six started forward, spreading out to cut off my angles of escape.
The lead man was at least six-four and heavily built, with crew cut blond hair and ice blue eyes. He was focused on me as he unlimbered a set of thick green metallic cuffs. Jenks had shown survival class a pair just like them. Nullifiers, spelled to cut off a witch from magic.
I flexed my left hand, which hung down by my leg, and felt a tiny orb of metal pop into my palm. Without looking at it, I knew it was green.
“Craig Blackmore, you are under arrest for illegal entry to the United States of America,” the blond guy said.
“I entered through the Plattsburgh portal, and my entry was approved by Customs,” I said.
“Your student visa is improper and void. You are to be deported,” he said with a malicious smile.
His intent was clear. He was here to provoke a response…
but he thought it would come from Vesta.
He also had great faith in the anti-magic cuffs and the shield amulets he and his men wore.
They were powerful and would protect against almost any witch.
But not all. Vesta wouldn’t even notice them if she unleashed a spell.
“They’re set up to fail,” I said quietly to Omega.
“So it would appear,” he said, and then, he, in fact, appeared directly between me and the team.
“This individual’s visa is valid and correct. Your actions are without merit and intentionally provocative.”
The team had frozen at the sight of Omega and as one, they turned to their boss for direction.
“That is for a court to decide,” the team leader said. He was close enough for me to read his name tag as Q. Taggert. “We have a warrant.”
The school’s doors burst open and Vesta came out—but she wasn’t alone. At least twenty-five other students came out behind her, including Cora and Wulf, along with Gina, Toni, and Mr. Jenks.
A softball-sized orb appeared so fast, it was almost as if I had apported it in front of his face. A blue beam of laser light lit up the front pouch on his plate carrier where a folded paper was stored against the plastic of a rifle mag.
“This is an administrative warrant signed by your superior, Agent Clark Rogers,” Omega said.
“It indicates erroneous documentation, which is incorrect, as the visa was filed by Attorney Jennifer Donner on Golf Alpha One-One-Seven, approved and accepted by Director Gina Velasquez of Arcane, stamped on entry by Customs Agent Clark Bradley at Plattsburgh Portal Command,” Omega said.
“The warrant references documents that were never present in the application or approval.”
“That’s not up to me,” Taggart said, glancing at the werewolves and witches now arrayed around his team. His eyes stopped on Vesta, and I saw the moment he spotted Cora and Wulf.
“Also, those trinkets around your neck won’t slow me down,” Vesta said with a tight smile.
“Threatening a federal agent is a felony,” Taggert said, turning toward Vesta, his intent shifting to anticipatory and a feeling of impending victory. He put his hand on his sidearm—or at least tried. The pistol was gone, along with almost the whole kydex holster.
He looked down in surprise, then looked up at Vesta before whirling around to look at his men.
His mouth opened to issue a command, but he looked at his closest guy and saw that his sidearm was gone too.
All of their pistols were gone, and they all noticed when he did.
The five with rifles instantly lifted their weapons, then immediately noticed the circular gaps in the sides of the rifle breeches.
“Who took our guns?” Taggert yelled, turning in a circle. He stopped when he spotted the mound of pistols and pieces of rifles piled in the snowbank to my left.
“You’re supposed to keep better control of your weapons, I believe,” I said. I flexed both hands and Vesta was suddenly holding one of the shield amulets, studying it carefully.
“Nice work, Agent,” she said, holding it up for Cora and Wulf to see. Wulf took it to examine it, but Cora was already back to watching Agent Taggert.
“You are…” Taggert began but was interrupted by a pair of black SUVs that rushed into the driveway almost silently.
Special Agent Caeco Jensen was first out of the lead vehicle, her sharp black eyes taking in everything in an instant. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she demanded of Taggert.
“My job. Who the fuck are you?”
“Senior Agent In Charge Jensen, Special Threat Response Team.”
“Agent Quint Taggert, Immigration and Customs, Felon Containment.”
“Well, you’re at the wrong address, Taggert. No felons here.”
“Call your boss, Jensen, and have him call his. This is from the top.”
His mind was solid with confidence. He was certain he would win any confrontation with a senior FBI agent in this case because he knew who ordered this action.
“The top?” I asked, breaking into the battle for jurisdiction. “The top of your agency or the top of the government?”
Taggert smiled an evil smile.
“You are saying this comes from the White House?” I asked, already certain of the answer based on his solid certainty.
“You should listen to the kid, SAC,” Taggert said to Jensen. Caeco looked from me to the ICE agent and then turned to her team. “Nobody touches Blackmore until I clear this up.”
“Omega?” I asked silently.
“It appears this originates with the president.”
“Why would the president of the United States deport me?”
“You have come to the attention of the world. You and Vesta.”
“And done what? Helped a town? Killed a monster?”
“Some leaders are very jealous of attention. The current president is such a person.”
Vesta reached my side, her blue eyes cold with fury. “They can’t.”
“They can. I’m not a citizen of the US. Britain and Korea by birth, but not here.”
She was silent for a moment before asking, “Omega, can how long can I stay in Britain or South Korea?”
“I am confident that we can arrange permanent resident status in either or both countries,” Omega said from next to us.
“I still don’t understand the why? This feels too much, way too much,” I said.
“It is perhaps an overreaction,” Omega mused.
Caeco’s face had gone both pale and blank as she listened to the phone call she initiated.
“The answer is grim,” Omega said. “I am initiating contact with both the British and the South Koreans.”
“We will self-deport,” Vesta vowed. “No deportment center for you.”
“I was kinda hoping you might feel that way,” I said.
“Enough waiting!” Taggert said. “Seize him.”
“No,” Omega said back as the sun dimmed. A Megalodon-class battle drone descended upon the school and everyone looked up.
The largest of Omega’s war drones, the Meg was almost bigger than the school. A single Meg could obliterate all of Washington DC in like a half hour.
“Craig Blackmore will self-deport, accompanied by Vesta Maeve Reynolds-O’Carroll, and neither you nor anyone in any government on Earth has any say over her,” Omega said.
“Senior Agent In Charge Jensen, can you affirm Agent Taggert’s orders to deport Craig Blackmore despite the previous approval of his documentation? ”
“Yes, Omega, but…”
“Thank you, Senior Agent. As the US government has broken faith and breached its own documentation process, I will consider my arrangements for power, weapons, communications, command, control, and vehicles to be of similar fidelity and value.”
The quiet hum of power from the five government SUVs all ceased at the same time.
Taggert’s smirk had disappeared at the sight of the Meg, but now his jaw dropped. Caeco’s face flashed through dismay directly to a sharp and deadly anger. She lifted her arm to speak through the bracelet on it, but nothing happened. “Oh shit,” she said.
“We need to pack,” Vesta said.
“And I need my cat,” I agreed.