Chapter 6
The Many Ways to Die While Opening a Briefcase
Rose glared at Terry. He looked thoroughly surprised that he was being arrested. Well at least the disguise worked.
"But...I was trying to..." protested Terry.
"Does. Not. Matter," said Rose as she tightened the cuffs," you have the right to remain silent. Save the explanations for the interrogation."
"But...how do you even have the authority to do that?" asked Terry. Harry produced his badge and flashed it in Terry's face.
"I assume you can read, Mr. Clarke," he said, almost bashing Terry in the nose with it.
"But what are the charges?" Terry asked, struggling against the cuffs.
"Are you really that stupid or are you trying to stall?" asked Rose. The man went silent.
"I'll tell you one reason," said Harry, putting a finger right on Terry's chest," you attacked one of our agents. That's more than enough."
"But that was in...," began Terry but was cut off by an uppercut to the chin. He dropped like a sack of potatoes. Rose looked at him quizzically.
“He wasn’t going to stop talking,” he explained.
"You could have used a sleep spell?” asked Rose.
"He hurt you," he said simply," he had that coming.”
“Okayy...so now we call for extraction?” she suggested.
"Yaa...probably the best thing to do. Anyway...how's your cut? Do you think you need the potion?"
"I’m fine, just a little stiff from this thing," she said, absently scratching at her bandage. Urgh...I have to wear it for another entire day. She proceeded to prop up the unconscious Terry while Harry dialed headquarters.
"Wings here. Hit by scrambler.Target in custody. Requesting immediate extraction," he said into the communicator.
"Acknowledged Wings. Sending team now. ETA - 2 minutes," came the usual robotic monotone. The call cut off.
"So...about that case?" Harry asked.
"Guess we'll go back and find out. Eagle was pretty lax about the whole thing when he ordered us on this mission. Weird move there, changing his mind so fast."
"He probably has a good reason," he pointed out.
"Which he probably won't ever tell us," she added.
"Unfortunately, that's true most of the time," he agreed.
"Let's hope that they got the other case opened. Maybe that had something to do with this."
"Maybe."
"So.." began Rose before stopping as a flash of yellow light indicated the arrival of the extraction team.
"Morning, Orange, Apricot," greeted Harry.
"Wings, Prickle," Orange replied, nodding to them in turn," I was told we have a prisoner." Apricot simply gave them a bow.
"That we do. Take this one to a holding cell. He’s a bit powerful. Take some extra precautions," Rose said, pointing at the limp form of Terry.
Orange grabbed the man roughly, nodded to them, and vanished in a flash of light.
"So...you know the drill. Grab a shoulder,” said Apricot, stepping forward.
Harry and Rose walked up to her and put a hand on each shoulder. The three of them appeared in the operations division. Apricot stumbled a little, winded from teleporting the three of them.
“You okay, Bethany,” asked Harry, removing his hand from her shoulder.
“I’m still getting used to teleporting three people at once, but, otherwise I'm okay,” she replied, giving them a smile,” I was just sitting here the whole day. What about the two of you? You're the ones on the main mission going on these days.”
"A little tired and sporting a couple of bruises but okay," replied Harry.
"Likewise," added Rose.
'Uh huh...the usual then," she observed,” see you around then. I have to go.”
The two of them nodded in reply and the woman left the room. Rose took a moment to look around. They had landed in the operations lounge, one of the smaller rooms in the agency.
“I guess we go meet Johnson now,” suggested Rose.
“Yep,” said Harry,” I’m just trying to figure out exactly what that guy said.”
“Wait, did I miss something?”
“Yaa while you were fighting the concrete things, he mentioned a couple of things. Maybe Johnson will know more. Come on, I’ll tell you on the way.”
“Okay.” Well this got even more interesting.
The two of them headed out onto the corridor. They headed for Johnson’s office, which was right at the very end of the Operations division.
"So what was it that guy mentioned?" she began.
"Some order of Wessy something. Horribly unpronounceable name. Something about the case belonging to them or some nonsense like that."
"Well I've never heard of any Wessy anything," she answered, brow furrowed in thought.
"Whatever it was it made the woman pale quite a bit."
"Well that's interesting. Maybe Johnson knows?"
"Hopefully. We can probably know a whole lot more if we can open that damn case," he said.
"Definitely," Rose replied," it should happen soon." This gets even more convoluted. What on Earth is in that damn case?
They walked in silence till they were in front of the familiar name plate. Rose knocked on the door.
“Come in!”
They walked inside and stood in front of the desk.
“I see you didn’t get the case,” he began,” but they did inform me that Interrogation Room 6 is now occupied by one Terry Clarke. I think that means we caught ourselves a dirt king?”
“Indeed we did, sir. Although he wasn’t the only familiar face we ran into,” said Harry.
“The woman?” asked Johnson, raising his eyebrows.
“Unfortunately yes,” Harry replied,” not to mention she got the case.”
“Did she now?”
“Yes, she vanished with it as soon as she acquire it and left her henchmen to keep us occupied,” said Rose.
“And there were some very interesting things mentioned by our friend on that rooftop, things that I could see were making the woman very uncomfortable if not straight up terrified,” added Harry.
“Such as?”
“The Order of Wesemonesas,” said Harry,” whatever that means.”
“The Order you say...well I have heard of them….but they were disbanded many years ago. Most of its members were killed off and some were….scattered.”
“But this Clarke was talking about it as if they still existed,” said Harry.
“The Order of old exists no more. No living being wears that mantle,” he said," of that I can assure you." Rose frowned at that. Great...so what is this order? Maybe opening that case will give us some answers. Or Clarke.
“Okay...I’ll take your word for it,” said Harry. The tone wasn’t very convincing to Rose. He definitely didn’t believe that. Hmm...at least Johnson seems to have bought the lie.
“So...the Cursed Objects team reported back. I believe I believe the diagnostic enchantments were finished and they are ready to open it,” said Johnson after a moment of awkward silence.
“Is it open?” asked Harry, now looking excited.
“No...I told them that you two would probably like to be there for that.”
“You got that right,” agreed Harry.
“So where is it? Can we go?” Rose asked. Time to see what’s in the damned thing.
“It’s currently being kept in Recon 1. It's one of the high security containment units and the team is on standby. They’ve been waiting for the past fifteen minutes or so. You two can head over there right away.”
“Okay, aren’t you joining us?” asked Rose.
“No, I have other matters to deal with. I’ll come to see the contents once it has been opened.”
“Okay, sir. We’ll go then. Come on Rose. Let’s go see what’s inside that thing,” said Harry and rushed out. Rose nodded to Johnson and rushed out after him.
The two of them made the quick trek to the door marked Recon 1, which was only a few doors down the hallway from Johnson’s office. Harry burst through the door like a five year old bursting into a candy store. Such a lovable idiot sometimes. Rose spent a few seconds smiling at the memories that the thought dredged up. Then she remembered the case. She shook her head. Focus Rose.
It was very different from most of the other Recon rooms. This one was dedicated for studying dangerous objects that they either had to acquire or were accidentally retrieved while on missions. The lime green walls had seen better days. Several scars of previous curse breaking operations littered the walls; Scorch marks, random sections of plaster (where acid had melted the walls) and even the occasional hole left particularly powerful cursed projectiles that managed to punch through the five layers of wards. Large containment fields were placed in cordoned off areas. Currently only one of them were in use.Standing around perimeter, the curse breaker team stood: Agent Janet, Agent Jessica and Agent Krats. The three of them were looking quite impatient. Harry was already calling out to them, gesturing at the briefcase, no doubt asking about the enchantments. Rose hurried to catch up.
Jessica was explaining the locks. “There are three actual locks according to the mechanical analysis…”
“And four magical layers on top of that. Quite the combo they have,” added Janet.
“It’s a very well done piece of magic,” said Krats,” there's a sequence these locks have to be unlocked in. Or else…”
“Things go BOOM,” finished Harry.
“How did you..,’ began Jessica.
“First hand experience,” explained Rose, jumping in.
“I’m not even going to ask,” said Janet,” shall we get to opening this thing then?” She gestured at the unassuming black briefcase sitting in the center. It looked about as unremarkable as a case could possibly get.
Harry nodded vigorously. Rose stared at the case. They’d done a lot of hard work getting that case. About damn time we know what’s inside. She nodded her own confirmation.
Jessica beamed. “Time to crack this thing open.”
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