Chương 192: 182. Dwayne

"You can't be serious," Dwayne protested, throwing his arms out to the sides as he looked between the other two people in the room.

"I can," the older man sitting behind the large desk answered, his voice calm and even.

"And I am."

"But—" Dwayne tried to protest, but an outstretched hand stopped the outburst. He considered pressing on, but the metal plaque bearing the words Executive Assistant Director Arim Lesner stopped him in his tracks. The title made his own measly Assistant Director in Charge seem unimportant.

"The case will be transferred to the Supernatural Investigation Division, and that is final."

"But we've been on this from the beginning. You saw what they did to Vaugler. You know what transferring cases does to an investigation. If you don't want to start from the beginning, at least let us stay on the case and let us borrow the paranormal units—""Supernatural Investigation Division. SID, for short," the third person cut in. Dwayne gave him a sidelong look. He was an older man with short white hair that stood out against his dark skin.

He wore a classic, elegant suit, like everyone else in the room, with one exception—a bone earring hanging from his left ear.

"The SID doesn't know the case," Dwayne continued.

"And if the killer strikes again—""We know who the killer is," the SID director cut in.

"What?" Dwayne choked.

"We know who did it, or at least who ordered the kill."

"So you don't know who the actual killer was," Dwayne pressed.

"Dwayne," Arim cut in.

"I appreciate what you do. I really do. But this time around, it's not about politics. We know who ordered the hit, and we can't leave this case to you for a career boost. Not to mention, you did take over the crime scenes from other states, didn't you?"

"It was my case—""It was actually OUR case," the SID director cut in.

"You only had it because it was listed as a normal serial killer in the system. Anything flagging it as our case was conveniently left out," the man finished, giving Dwayne a nasty look.

"Oh, please. Did you want me to say that the killer was a mage? Stopping bullets with his mind or something?"

"We wanted you to report the case as it was. And if you did, we might have had leverage when talking with the mage's envoy," the man continued.

"Mage's? Are you serious?" Dwayne asked.

"Is he serious?" he repeated, turning toward Arim.

"He is. And so am I. This is connected to something bigger. You're off the case. You are to transfer all related documents to the SID and… all the documents you have on Filip and his associates." The two men expected another outburst, but this time Dwayne stayed silent, looking at Arim, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Filip's psychic little apprentice—is that who you're after?" he asked slowly.

"You recruiting? I wonder how motivated he would be if he found out about his father's—""Watch it, Dwayne. I like your work, but you're stepping on dangerous ground." Tense silence fell over the room.

"Look," Dwayne broke it.

"My team worked the case. I have everything documented, from our profile to Filip's work."

"Filip worked on his own time," Arim cut in.

"Oh, please. I've known the man for years. You think I was born yesterday?" Dwayne chuckled.

"Bring me in on the case, Mr…" Dwayne paused, looking at the SID man with a frown. The man chuckled at the supposed confusion, even though they had been introduced to one another just a few minutes ago.

"Elias."

"Elias, yes," Dwayne snapped his fingers.

"He can lead, but I want in on the SID's investigation."

"Mr. Arim, we can't work well if—""Fine," Arim agreed.

"What?" Elias spat, clearly surprised.

"We expect the SID to grow in the near future. You are still in charge, Elias, but I do expect other divisions to come under SID. And in light of the recent breach, I believe bringing in a new perspective is warranted." Elias smiled lightly at the speech, as he wondered if introducing someone from outside the SID was always the plan for this meeting.

"Fine," he agreed. The next day, after finishing the formalities, Elias met with Dwayne at the SID's headquarters in New York.

"Not very impressive," Dwayne commented, getting out of his car as his eyes stopped at the repurposed school building.

"Well, it's much more impressive inside, I assure you," Elias said in a cold greeting.

"I'm sure. So what do you do here? Summon ghosts? Talk with psychics?" he asked as they walked into the building.

"None of those, and all of them at the same time."

"I'm not sure you got the memo," Dwayne said, looking at a Greek statue near the entrance with a light frown.

"But you're supposed to get me involved. So some explanation would be appreciated." Elias gave him a short laugh as he led the man into an industrial elevator clearly built into the place later, not fitting the building at all. Dwayne got in and looked on, curious, as Elias approached a small gargoyle placed in the corner as a rather strange decoration.

"Elias," the man said, and the creature suddenly looked at Dwayne. The man jumped back as a strong pressure enveloped his body.

"With one guest," Elias added in a calm voice. At those words, the pressure disappeared, and the statue moved aside, revealing a second set of buttons behind its back. The SID chief approached them and pressed one, closing the elevator door. Dwayne stood there with his mouth half open, staring at the statue, which now returned to stillness, making him feel on edge. He finally turned to the other man, confusion and a bit of accusation clear in his eyes.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Elias smiled genuinely for the first time.

"Are you going to ask me if it was a trick? A robot, maybe? Please do. I'll then let you look for the mechanism or the joints in the stone, and once you find none, we can talk honestly. So, can we skip that part and move to the bit where you start believing me, and I can give you a proper explanation?" he asked calmly. Dwayne shot a glance at the gargoyle, then nodded.

"Good. As you should have been aware, or at least should have strongly suspected, magic is real. It's a force in this world, although scarce and invisible to all but a chosen few. But it is there, I assure you." As he spoke, the elevator slowly descended.

"Our organization was formed in 1917, with the U. S. involvement in the First World War, though our roots can be traced much further back. For some of our members, they can even be traced to the Illuminati and the New Masons. The real ones, mind you," he added with a smile at Dwayne's growing frown.

"Our work was rather limited, and so were our involvement and funding. Magic, as you'll find, is—or was—rather scarce and hard to grasp. Most governments throughout history were aware of the supernatural, but none really did much with it. We were kept as a precaution, in case a supernatural threat showed up or mages threatened the state. Most presidents didn't care and cut our funding, but there were people like Warren G. Harding, whose belief in some part of the occult kept us alive and funded."

Dwayne kept listening, his eyes still sometimes sliding toward the gargoyle, but as he did, he noticed that they had been talking for quite a while by now. The elevator was slow, painfully slow, but still, they should be at least a few stories underground by now.

"During the Second World War, we almost disappeared as the funding all went to the army."

"Magic isn't a reliable weapon?" Dwayne asked, only half joking.

"It's a weapon that takes a lot of training, knowledge, and, even worse—talent—to wield. And its purely destructive power can be easily matched with a bomb. So, after our weaponization project didn't produce the supersoldiers the government wanted, we were almost shut down." Elias paused, taking a deep breath as he looked at Dwayne.

"But that soon changed," he continued.

"At the start of the Cold War, bombs were no longer the main threat. No, it was the enemy within. As espionage became the main issue, financing flowed. Possessions, contacting demons, divination, and finally mind reading and control." The elevator finally came to a stop, but Elias didn't move to open the door yet.

"So the USA tried horoscopes and witchcraft to fight the Soviets?"

"Oh yes. MKUltra, Operation Midnight Climax, Montauk Project, SAO, and the Dulles Plan. All ours. Well, while we were under CIA control. Later, we were moved to the FBI."

"Your greatest works are failures that the conspiracy theorists talk about when they're bored?" Elias put on a smile.

"Failures?" he asked. A tense silence lingered as Elias smiled wider.

"Some of them. Some of them not so much. We had enough successes to keep the money flowing." As he spoke, he finally opened the door, revealing a large room. The ceiling and walls were concrete, reminiscent of the insides of a bunker with cold hospital lighting. But the decorations were old. The reception desk was made out of hardwood, and so were the shelves and tables. Portraits of previous bureau heads lined the right wall.

Behind the reception desk, a beautiful woman sat with—Dwayne had to do a double take to make sure he was seeing it right. She had a bow and arrow lying on the desk in front of her. Elias nodded at the woman, who nodded back and went back to reading a sizable book, ignoring Dwayne.

"This whole complex was built during the Cold War. We don't have the personnel to man most of it now, but that is changing rapidly," the man continued, leading Dwayne inside.

"However, our past projects proved two things. One—no matter how powerful, magic was scarce and, most of all, unreliable. We simply lacked the expertise to control it and the resources to acquire it. It was like… reverse engineering a car without fuel to see how the engine works. Add to that the knowledge of combustion being available only from old stories and ancient books, and we had our work cut out for us."

Elias led Dwayne down a corridor, but instead of taking the main door, he turned to one of the side rooms, placing his card against an electric lock. The metal door opened with a hiss, and they entered a computer room where an IT man, clearly expecting them, sat.

"And the second thing… the second thing, Mr. Dwayne, might be hard to believe, but I want you to keep an open mind."

"Well, that must be good, because you've had me stunned for some time now." Elias smiled a knowing smile before dropping the bomb on him.

"Most of our world history has been falsified. We aren't sure why or exactly how, but we believe a good portion of it is a lie. Most of the texts we managed to uncover, and the mages we contacted who were willing to talk, spoke of a Great War. They told of gods and massive ancient cities our history omits."

"Like Atlantis?" Dwayne asked, doubtful.

"Among them, yes," Elias answered without a shred of humor.

"Moreover, the secret society of mages still functions. We aren't sure how big or small. We don't know their power, but they are there, centered around the church. Previously, they would throw obstacles in our path. Texts and books we wanted would disappear. Any historical documents we suspected were falsified would burn." Dwayne looked on with a growing frown as Elias continued his explanation.

"Recently, however, something changed. They became much more active, and some of our agents who trace their lineage to some—let's call it an occult origin—began to sense magic. Something is happening." Elias said, nodding toward the man by the computer, who pulled up a video on the screen.

"A few months ago, something picked up on our radar. A series of murders that ended with the death of some idiot ghost hunter. It was flagged because of the sudden closure of the case and the phrase 'ghost hunting' being flagged by our systems. But then one of the survivors began asking uncomfortable questions. His search engine history was rather telling, and the case was flagged once again. Then another involved person showed the same search pattern.

After the third flag, we sent someone to look into the case, and he found… a man with three hands."

"What? Like, alien?" Dwayne asked, taken aback.

"More of a mutated human. Usually, people like that end up under the magical society's observation, but thankfully, that group has one weakness. They seem to be blindsided by technology. We secretly contacted the man in question for the full story and sent one of our undercover agents. After months of slow progress, he finally managed to recover an old handheld camera from a river near the site. The footage, as well as the device, was almost destroyed, but our technicians managed to save parts of it."

The man by the PC played the video. It was full of artifacts, and the sound was horrible, but Dwayne could see bits and pieces. The first part looked to be a simple vlog made by a young woman documenting the ghost hunters' adventures. The man operating the PC sped through that part until the video cut to footage of a strange creature charging through the forest at the person holding the camera.

Then the man moved the footage frame by frame until two people appeared in it before the camera was flung off a small cliff. One in a police uniform and the other in what looked like a robe. The footage was grainy, and the faces couldn't be seen, but he recognized them from earlier in the video.

"That's Filip's new cop friend," Dwayne said, looking at the screen with a frown.

"Yes, but the one we are after is this," Elias said, pointing to the other person.

"We aren't sure who that is. His civilian documents are unremarkable. His electronic trace is almost nonexistent for a person his age, but… we suspect he is connected to the mage clans."

"You want an in with a mage?" Elias nodded in confirmation.

"We only got the footage recently. The mages have many more spies than we assume, and we are not entirely sure how they find things out. You have to be extremely cautious around them. The initial plan was to gradually push Rey toward one of our cases and recruit through it. We half succeeded by using his commander to put him on one case with Filip and our other target for recruitment."

"The psychic kid," Dwayne said absentmindedly.

"That's right. The initial idea was to observe and move once we were sure we could get around the other side's surveillance, but then we were informed that the case you stole was much closer to our field and much more serious. Vaugler's murder finally tipped the scales. But what we didn't expect was him." Elias pointed his head at the robed silhouette still visible on the screen.

"Samuel Alhazred, the very man we wanted to reach through Rey, popping up at one of the crime scenes." Elias turned his gaze from the screen back to the still-confused Dwayne.

"We already started off on the wrong foot after we ignored the plea to stop Vaugler. The mages, or, to be exact, the church, will return to the negotiating table, but the talks might not be pleasant. We need someone in that society. Our other field offices have two more cases involving people we suspect are part of mage clans, and this is the third. That is all we have." Dwayne nodded, still not entirely convinced, as he looked at the footage.

"Why tell me all that? You could have just thrown the case file at me and told me to read it."

"Because, Mr. Dwayne, I need you to know this is not just internal politics. This is real. This might decide the future of our agency, and some… some even suggest we might have to prepare for a new Cold War—this one, technology versus magic. And I need to know you are with me on this one."

"Okay," Dwayne sighed, still not entirely convinced.

"I'll bring in my team." His eyes fell on the two men on the screen.

"And those two."