Mark Hadron stood in the desert of southern Israel. He looked at the crater he had dug
with his device. Ishmael Levram stood at his side. They both held devices to check
the surrounding area.
“No bodies,” said Levram. “No radiation from the blast. So we had a partial success
here.”
“The turbulence is high,” said Hadron. “There might be an influx of spirits and other
things coming into the area after how I stirred everything up. I guess we’ll have to
check it periodically. Milt will make the arrangements when we’re sure that’s what
we want to do.”
“That was a good demonstration of what could go wrong with the equipment,” said
Levram.
“Our real throwers would not have blown up like that,” said Hadron. “Unless we
meant for them to do that.”
“However you look at it, you ruined whatever Amenophis had planned to do,” said
Levram. “If we had his body, I would be happy to declare him dead. Since we don’t,
I am going to say he escaped somehow.”
“He’ll probably want to pay us back for what happened,” said Hadron. “Just one more
thing to look out for in the future.”
“Pay me back is more likely,” said Ishmael. He smiled. “I would like to talk to him
about the plan he hoped to enact. Then I would like to shoot him in the face.”
“He probably hoped to get control of the ley lines running out here and use that to
boost up to what he really wanted,” said Hadron. “There’s no telling if the geomancer
would have kept the boosted power, or not. I’m going to say not.”
“So this turbulence,” said Ishmael. “How bad do you think it will be?”
“No telling at the moment,” said Hadron. He put away his scanner. “We’ll figure out
a list of things you should look out for until things calm down. High on the list will
be animal mutilations of any sort.”
“Why animal mutilations?,” asked Ishmael.
“The spirits will be hungry, but they won’t eat a whole carcass of anything they kill,”
said the Lamplighter. “So you have to be aware of any report that shows animals are
missing body parts and the rest is discarded.”
“Understood,” said Levram. “And if such a thing is going on?”
“It will get worse before it gets better,” said Hadron.
“Al-a-Din suggested that he might be able to keep an eye on things,” said Ishmael.
“That’s fine, but he isn’t going to pay us to sooth over any problems,” said Hadron.
“Is money everything?,” asked Ishmael.
“It is if you’re poor,” said Hadron. “Is the woman going to help you? You seem to
need it.”
“I haven’t asked her,” said Ishmael. “I don’t quite understand what she did. I don’t
know if having someone with an unknown potential on staff would be good for the
department.”
“You only have you,” said Hadron. “You have to be kidding me.”
“I will need approval to hire her,” said Ishmael. “Do you think that I should?”
“I think you need some type of magician-slash-superhuman on staff other than Al-a-
Din who might drop dead at any second from the looks of him,” said Hadron. “Hire
her, but pay our bill first.”
“All right,” said Ishmael. “I will be glad to see what she has to say.”
“She might want the government to back her up if she wants to take on Amenophis
after this,” said Hadron.
“What does it look like, Mark?,” asked Harry. He shuffled his cards in his hands, his
hat on the back of his head. “Janie says Milt and Dyson are still having problems with
their case.”
“We might have to set up a lookout with Ishmael to make sure nothing bad happens,”
said Hadron. He frowned at the group in front of him. “There could be a spirit jump
here that might flatten out in the next few years.”
“Mister Hadron,” said Ishmael. “Suggests that I should hire you, Al-a-Din and Miss
Rosenbaum, to assist me if an emergency happens.”
“You want to hire us?,” asked Rachel. “What makes you think we want to work for
you?”
“Because he will need someone who knows what they are doing,” said Hadron. “We
can’t hold his hand forever. He needs experts who can deal with things on the ground
instead of waiting for us to fly in from the States to save the day.”
“And Mark hates the desert,” said Harry. He hid his smile from his friend.
“That was going to be my next point,” said Hadron. “Thanks for jumping in with
that.”
“You’re welcome,” said Harry.
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“The Scouts will gladly help out,” said Morgan. “But we have the same problem as
the Lamplighters. We’re based in Cali, and the flight time is crazy. Plus we might be
anywhere doing anything against anyone at any time.”
“Barry likes us to look into things when we can,” said Ren.
“So you’re going to pay the old man and me to solve mysteries and save the day?,”
said Rachel. She frowned at the bearded bureaucrat.
“Yes,” said Ishmael. “I know Al-a-Din has spent a long time protecting the region so
this is basically just asking him to do what he is already doing for money, but I will
need help if Mister Hadron is right.”
“I can’t bind myself to working for a government,” said the old man. “So many have
come and gone here that I no longer have an interest in listening to nationalists.”
“And he is made grumpy dealing with bureaucrats,” said Hakim.
“I think I will be the only one you will be working with, and I will be in the field with
the both of you,” said Ishmael.
“And what will your head say to this?,” asked Rachel.
“I do not know what the ministry will say, but since I am the head of the department,
I think I can hire the both of you as contractors and turn you loose on any problem
that comes under my purview,” said Ishmael. “I have not been audited, but all of my
records are up to date and I will be able to go into my budget review with a clear
conscience.”
“I think you two should look into it,” said Morgan. He smiled. “You don’t want to get
into trouble and not have someone to call to get you out. The Israelis might be able
to give you a look out into bigger problems in the region.”
“And you can’t fix anything wrong if you are on the outside looking in,” said Hadron.
“Harry and I have to go, Ishmael. We’ll send you a report with our bill. We’ll also put
you on as a priority customer if the turbulence starts bringing things out here. Harry
and I have to get our stuff and head back to the Big Apple.”
“We’ll give you a lift, Mark,” said Morgan. “We’re heading that way ourselves. I
have to call Barry to tell him that I did all the hard work of dispersing that major
menace of a cloud. And I blew up Amenophis with my mad skills.”
“That’s exactly what I want to hear,” said Hadron. “We’ll put the work contract in
with the rest of the paperwork, Ishmael. It was good to meet you, and everything.”
“The future looks good for you, Ish,” said Harry. “Thanks for having us visit.”
“I will be glad to call you the next time I need some out of country help,” said
Ishmael. “Thanks for your help, Mister Morgan.”
“De nada,” said Morgan. “Barry will call if he has questions we can’t answer.”
“I will be ready with anything I can say,” said Ishmael. “The ministry might not want
me to share anything I might have discovered with your help.”
“I think Barry has some kind of dispensation,” said Morgan. “I will ask when we get
home.”
“How did he get that?,” asked Ishmael.
Morgan shrugged.
Barry Nicklaus had been around for a long time before he had been captured by
Watson Security. There was no telling which governments owed him for what was
done. Marty had run across old friends in some places where there should not be
people.
There was no telling what he had done for Israel and what he was owed by the
government.
“Thanks for the ride home, Marty,” said Hadron. “I don’t know what would have
happened if you guys hadn’t shown up. We might have lost Israel without you.”
“No problem,” said Morgan. “It means getting back to my kids that much sooner.”
“We’ll have to load up,” said Hadron. “Good luck, Ishmael.”
“We have to report our rental as being destroyed,” said Ren. “The rental agency won’t
like that.”
“I forgot about that,” said Marty. “Let’s take care of that while Mark and Harry get
their stuff from their hotel.”
Daisy lifted her head as the men approached. She stared at Marty. How could he
expect her to carry all this weight when an emergency had not been declared? She
wanted to laze in the sun more than flying.
“We’re heading home,” said Morgan. “Don’t make me talk to the wife.”
Daisy grumbled but readied to jump into the air. She put up with the four men
climbing on her. She flapped her wings and took to the air.
Ishmael watched them go. He looked back at the hole in the ground. He decided that
he would leave the scar in the ground. The desert would reclaim that soon enough.
“How many people are in your department, Mister Levram?,” asked Rachel.
“Just me,” said Ishmael. “I gather information and investigate things. Some things I
can deal with easily, and some things I have to get help to solve the problem.”
“Just you?,” said Rachel. “Where is the rest of your government?”
“My department is a last ditch thing,” said Ishmael. “Unless I do something that is
newsworthy, they don’t know I exist except at the funding hearings.”
“I would like to consider working with you,” said Rachel. “I have been doing things
on my own. I am not sure if I have been successful in my efforts. Maybe I need
someone objective to tell me what happened after I was done.”
“I would appreciate it,” said Ishmael. “I’m afraid the job comes with a lot of
paperwork. I will have a ream to fill out over this.”
“Then you have hired me at the right time,” said Rachel. “I have never seen a form
I have not been able to not fill out.”
“Hakim thinks I should form more connections,” said Al-a-Din. “Perhaps working
with younger people will give me a better perspective.”
“Really?,” asked Ishmael.
“No,” said the old man. “He just thinks that the two of you will blow up the countries
around us doing something you should not be doing.”
“All right,” said Ishmael. “I haven’t really considered that, but maybe you’re right.”
“I think I will walk into town to get a drink,” said the old man. “Is there something
you want from me before I go?”
“This is a phone,” said Ishmael. “I will call when I am able to get you clearance. You
will have to fill out forms for your identification.”
Al-a-Din gestured for Hakim to take the device. The butler slid it inside his jacket.
“Come along, Hakim,” said the Old Man. “Let’s see what adventure we can find.”
“Yes, sir,” said the servant, shaking his head.
“You’re going to spend some time bailing them out of trouble,” said Rachel.
“That is a concern for the future,” said Ishmael. He handed her a phone. “This is your
phone. The agency number and my phone number are already programmed in. I will
expedite your paperwork when you have it filled out so you can start receiving pay
while I write my report on this. Amenophis will probably try to do something in
retaliation. If you see anything strange, call me and I will do what I can.”
“Have you run into many strange things?,” asked Rachel. She put the phone in her
pocket.
“I have seen some things,” said Ishmael. “You can go through the files when you
come onboard.”
“That seems like a lot of work,” said Rachel.
“I have to justify what I do,” said Ishmael. “As my assistant, you will have to come
up to speed and show me things I can do better than what we did already.”
“All right,” said Rachel. “What’s next?”
“I have to fill out the reports, get you and Al-a-Din your work clearances, set up a
post here in case Hadron is right, and warn the ministry that the area might be tainted
for a bit until it straightens out,” said Ishmael. “You have to come in and fill out the
packet for new hires.”
“Let me get cleaned up,” said Rachel. “Then we’ll see about all this.”