"Sometimes intel gets it wrong. Happens to everyone, even the multi-realm entities that have been operating for centuries." – Penny trying to mollify her team

Kurt was once again wondering how he managed to get tied up in this organization's schemes and plots to counter other schemes and plots. The fact that it was not only cold but also starting to rain made him reconsider his involvement in the entire operation.

"Oh, what the fuck is this now?" Val muttered into her radio. She was observing the entrance to the industrial building from the safety of one of her illusions that made her appear to be a section of wall.

"What do you see?" Kurt asked. He was currently on a roof that overlooked the side of the target building while Kirsti was on the far corner under a semi-trailer. She had the job of covering the large hangar style doors in case there was anyone fleeing from them. He also noted that it kept her out of the constant drizzle that fell on them.

"It's a fucking weld shop." Val said. "They opened the big garage door on this side to let a welding rig drive in and the entire place is just stacks of metal and machines. I can see the flash of welders and hear grinders."

"Watcher, did you get that?" Kurt said into his radio, calling to Penny who was pulling ritual duty.

"Roger, one. Pull out and let's take this back to intel." She said. "I will bring the van along side to the alley you used to infiltrate."

Kurt sighed and watched as Kristi began to slide out from where she was observing from between the tires of a low-boy. She kept low and along one wall, making sure to stay in shadow as she retreated. Val was much less cautious but that was likely because nobody could actually see her behind the illusion, and she just walked along the wall.

Glancing over the edge of the roof when he heard footsteps, Kurt saw Kristi signal to him that the coast was clear. He shoved backward, sliding off the roof to land in a crouch right next to her just before Val came into the alley and dropped her illusion. They all walked back to the waiting panel van and climbed in the back as Penny drove away.

"We came all the way out here for nothing." Groaned Val as she pitched her sodden beanie against the floor. She then grumbled under her breath as she picked it back up and wiped it off before storing it in her ring. She then slumped against the bench seat along the wall.

"Feel better?" Kurt asked.

"No." Val said, sulking in the corner where their seat met a half wall that divided the space within the van.

"I just wonder how we got it so wrong." Kristi said. "Wasn't it supposed to be another coven or something?"

Penny chimed in from the driver's seat. "Yeah, but the place was also supposed to be abandoned and not a metal fabrication business." She fished around on the passenger seat and handed back a folder without taking her eyes off the road.

Kurt took the folder and opened it to find a report on 'suspicious activity' that was described as possible weapons manufacturing for a cult. The file then went on to explain that they had tracked purchases of various metals and 'equipment' in a sudden increase of spending.

"Penny, oh dear handler, great friend, shockingly sweet and pretty Penny?" Kurt said after passing the files to Kristi to read.

"Umm…yes?" She answered from the front seat while shrinking into it, her eyes flicking up to the rear-view mirror.

"Who compiles these reports?"

"Our central intelligence division." She answered with a questioning tone.

"Uh huh. And this central intelligence division, are they from the US or even Earth?" Kurt was trying to gently guide her to the answer.

"I-I don't think so?"

"So, they wouldn't have any idea of say, oh I don't know, the purchasing habits of a small business or startup company?" Kurt asked then added a few more things. "Or what weapons on earth are made of, or the tools and materials needed for them?"

"No?" She squeaked.

Kurt sighed and scrubbed his hand over his face. "Ha, just in the future run these things through us before we declare another emergency and we get woken up in the middle of the night to come skulk around in an industrial park to spy on the new shop in town."

"Couldn't you just recruit some Earthlings to the intel division so they can act as a check for them?" Kristi offered before shuffling to put the folder back in the front passenger seat. The movement allowing Kurt to appreciate her backside through her black combat pants.

Penny seemed relieved that they weren't angry with her and promised to bring it up to Jay. They had a bit of a drive back to the nearest Order facility to return the van and make their way back home through the Order portals.

This sudden field trip had come at the completely reasonable time of four in the morning. It had taken a long time to get up and moving for them to then go through the hub. They had gone from Penny's office, through the Order to the field operations division, right next door in terms of the Order. Then through another portal that took them to Olympia Washington where they got in a van and drove up to the south side of Seattle.

They had arrived at their target location at five in the morning local time and watched to make sure they could enter the building. That was until Val had gotten a good look at what was inside, and they called off the operation.

The team that was supposed to be in charge of that region was apparently dealing with a rift and they didn't want to pull them from that. Penny later confided that the other team was one of the newer ones that Jay had started up and that they were still adjusting to the job.

Kurt felt both relieved that him and his team were excelling but also worried that there was something going on that he didn't know about. While he had no interest in company politics, he was afraid that company politics might take an interest in him.

"Hit up a drive through on the way back. I am starving." Kurt said as Penny merged onto I-5 and made her way back south. "You mentioned earlier that you had a task for us?"

Penny didn't respond until she had merged into the awful rush hour traffic and secured her spot in a lane. "Yeah, Jay wants you to get in touch with your police friend."

"Wouldn't call us friends." Kurt murmured, remembering how the man had wanted to be done with Kurt as soon as possible last time they worked together. "What am I supposed to do with him?"

"Follow up on the missing persons cases after the wendigo incident." Penny responded. "We didn't account for all the missing persons between that monster and the coven you took down."

The comment about the coven house caused Kristi to flinch and he placed a hand on hers, giving a squeeze and catching her eye. They shared a look before Kurt returned to his conversation. He didn't let go of her hand and he felt her grip tighten a little as the conversation went on.

*****

"There is something different about you." Chief Henry said as he gestured Kurt and the girls into his office and closed the door. "It's very strange and I don't know whether or not I like it."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Care to elaborate?" Kurt asked after taking a seat on the leather couch that looked and smelled like it came from a cigar lounge that had once been a woodworking shop with poor ventilation.

Henry stood behind his desk and looked that the trio for a few minutes before responding. "I still don't like you, I feel compelled to distrust you and not want to be around you but now I feel conflicted, like we are… familiar? It's like my wolf side wants to be near you." He took a deep inhale, scenting all of them and looking to Kristi. "Who's your friend?"

"Henry, this is Kristi, new team member. Kristi, as you can probably guess by the brass name plate on the door, this is Henry, the police chief for TC." Kurt made introductions and glossed over the chief's earlier comment.

He had felt something immediately when he laid eyes on the man. There was a sort of recognition in his mind, a nudge from his instincts. It was telling him that Henry was a natural born wolf and not bitten, which made sense since the man had made reference to it before. There was also a sense of that familiarity that Henry had mentioned and a subtle push to cooperate. There was more there but before he could explore the feeling any further, he was interrupted. His thoughts snapped back to focus on the conversation when Val spoke.

"We have some information about the missing persons that you had asked us to help with." Val said and handed a folder over to the chief. He took it and opened it as she continued.

"We conducted an Order sanctioned operation and eliminated a coven's entire inner circle under suspicion that they were working prescribed magics and had been accomplice to breaking the veil." That got the chief's attention and his eyes snapped to Val.

"You killed the entire leadership of a coven under suspicion?" His voice sounded incredulous. "That's rather extreme and also, you are admitting that to a sworn LEO." He pronounced the acronym like a name.

"No, we didn't kill them all, but they will be disposed of after we extract everything useful from them." Val said. "If you turn to page three of the second document you will understand after seeing what we found."

Henry flipped the first stapled set of pages over to open the second. His eyes widened and his hands shook a little before he flipped the page shut and sat down heavily in his chair, burying his face in his palms. He stayed like that for a very long moment.

Eventually he looked up and swiped his hand over his orange stubble of a beard. "Do… ah, do you have the remains?"

"Yes, we have retained them in stasis." Val said, giving him a concerned look. "The Order wanted to preserve them so they could be reunited with their families for proper burial."

"Any reason you waited this long?" He then asked with a little edge in his tone. "That report is a couple weeks old."

Kurt stepped in, immediately not liking the implication. "Because we don't know what they did to those people, the Order wanted to ensure that there weren't any fail safes placed on them or that they hadn't corrupted the remains in one of their rituals." His own growl made Henry wilt and he leaned back in his chair.

"W-well we ap-appreciate that." He said, taking a moment to catch his breath from the sudden pressure he felt over his chest. "S-sorry Val, I didn't mean to imply anything."

Val ignored the stutter and shrugged. "It's understandable, but apology accepted. The other reason we are here is because we still have missing people if our count isn't off. Between the wendigo and the coven, we are still missing a lot of folks."

Henry nodded and turned to his computer, logging in and navigating to something. "We found a couple of them. Some campers had just moved on and not notified anyone. They were college kids, and I am pretty sure they were high for most of the summer so they couldn't be bothered."

He kept clicking till he found whatever he was looking for. "Then we have one that was an apparent suicide, found a note with him. There was an accidental death that looked to be an accident on a dirt bike on some of the trails and then two more that were already found and sent home safe and sound after getting lost."

Kurt was trying to do the math in his head, but Kristi was apparently faster. "That still leaves twenty-one people missing from your file. Have you found any leads besides the area they went missing from?"

Shaking his head, Henry turned back to them. "No but they all went missing around mid-spring so they should have turned up by now if it was an accident or something. I think it's more foul play or trafficking. There might be some gang involvement in a few cases."

"Got any of their personal effects?" Val asked and when they all looked to her, she explained. "We can try to get a diviner to see if they can find anything with them. It probably won't give us anything specific but might narrow it down."

Drumming his fingers on his desk, Henry considered the idea. "Hmm. I can't give you evidence to take from the building but is there any way you can send them here? There are a few empty rooms in the basement for them to use."

"I will ask and see what we can work out." Val said. "Can I pass your contact information along to our handler?"

Henry raised his bushy orange eyebrows at that. "You have a handler?" his voice was an octave higher in normal from the surprise. "Like a person that tells you what to do and when?"

Kurt waggled his hand. "Eh, more like a manager for our business within the Order and she does rituals for when we hit a target. We don't need people hearing or noticing our business if we can help it. The Order is big on not attracting more attention to para's."

"Our actual boss is very hands off, pretty much just doing the political work for us and managing assets when needed." Kristi clarified, commenting on Jay.

"Are they hiring?"

Kurt laughed but then noticed the look on the other man's face and quickly straightened out. "For you?"

"No, we had to cut our funding and several of our people have been notified of the layoffs. It's mostly our digital forensic team and a detective who was forced into early retirement." Henry explained. "The state has decided to centralize a lot of its digital crimes investigations in Lansing so that led to some hard conversations with good people."

Val and Kurt shared a glance. "Are they para?"

The chief shook his head. "No but they are decent folks and younger, so it might not be a big issue like it is for the detective."

"No promises." Kurt said. "I will ask around, but we might be able to come up with something and I will send you the details."

The chief thanked them for the follow-up and the promise to look into the jobs and the other missing person cases. He walked them out to the lobby, likely making sure they left the building and didn't wander to somewhere they shouldn't.

When they made it back to the car, they had a quick debate about dinner before deciding to head back to Petoskey before making any calls on food. They talked about the cases and how Henry seemed to notice a difference in Kurt when they first entered the office.

"Yeah, I think there is something there." He began to say. "Like those instincts were guiding me again. I don't quite know what they were saying, but it was an odd feeling."

"Can you try to describe it?" Kristi asked.

"It almost felt like I was looking at someone in my family. Like I knew more about him than I should." Kurt saw the look on Val's face in the rear-view mirror and quickly clarified. "Not like a 'I know what you are thinking' sort of way but more of a I know your intentions or maybe personality. Honestly it was weird."

Kristi reached over and patted his arm. "We can figure it out together. Maybe when you have another dream it will enlighten you?"

Val growled, a cute higher pitched growl than Kurt and Kristi made, before reining it back in and speaking up. "I don't like that you have no choice in the matter. This whole lucid dream thing and how you act when in it just makes my skin crawl."

Kurt felt bad for her, she had been very sympathetic and was worrying herself sick with the thought that something bad was happening. "I know. How about next time you don't wake me up and we see if anything happens? We know that you can shake me awake if needed so unless I am in danger, just let me ride it out."

"I don't like that." Val said, digging in her heels at the suggestion. "Kurt, it's like someone is tormenting you from our perspective. You look like you are in a lot of pain, all your muscles tensing and you twitching at random."

"It's very unpleasant for us to watch and be completely helpless." Kristi agreed and turned to sit sideways in her seat. "But Kurt needs to push the envelope. I have a feeling that, if we keep interrupting the process, then it will take longer to complete."

Val began to protest until Kristi held up her hand. "Just hang on. Maybe next time we just let it play out and if Kurt wakes up feeling pain or whatever, then we can intervene in future events. Only because time doesn't seem to really be a thing in those dreams from what you told us."

"I-still-don't-like-it." Val said, rushing the words so Kristi wouldn't interrupt again.

"You don't have to, but there is a lot we don't know that we unfortunately have to experiment with." Kristi said. "Again, I am not saying we force it but maybe try it since it seems that he doesn't have bad reactions."

Kurt was just content to let them argue this out and focused on driving. He was tentatively on Kristi's side but understood where Val was coming from. If the tables were reversed, he would likely have the same perspective as her.

They pulled in the driveway but stopped so Kurt could hop out and get the mail. He came back with a stack of letters and passed them to Kristi before he continued up the drive. They parked and went inside, Val still grumpy and Kristi seeming to be feeling sorry about having to take a stand.

"How about some smash burgers?" Kurt said, trying to break the tension. He had found that food was usually a good place to start. "Or we can do some brats on the grill."

Val's ears perked up. "Oh, brats please, with that tangy sour kraut."

Kristi made a face, dropping the mail on the counter. "I will pass on the kraut since it didn't sit well with me last time." She began idly leafing through the stack of envelopes.

"Ok, brats, some chips and beer." Kurt said, suddenly feeling nostalgic for summer. "Anything else that you want?" He had already begun rummaging in the pantry and fridge when Kristi made an odd noise.

"Hep! Kurt!" she said and pointed to one of the sealed envelopes.

Kurt came over and looked a the one she was pointing to. It was a very high-quality envelope with his name and address handwritten on the front. In the corner, where the return address went, was simply written 'Terminus Agency'.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.