Chapter 13: Unearthing Trouble in Cairo

The agents landed smoothly in a large open living space of a two-bedroom hotel suite in Cairo. James stepped back and glanced out the window. "Cairo. Magical transport is amazing."

"Glad you think so, 007," Q said dryly, the tone coming through loud and clear on his ear piece. "Please see that 002's earpiece is in and functioning normally, will you?"

"002, Q wants me to make sure you know how to use the earpiece," James related.

Severus popped it into his ear. "Can you hear me, Q?" he asked.

"Loud and clear. Gentlemen, your vehicle is in the parking lot south of the hotel. I'm texting you the plate number, 007. Keys in the usual spot; swipe your phone over the box."

"Copy, Q."

The men left the suite, headed downstairs, and found the parking lot. James pulled his phone, looked at his texts, and found the right vehicle, then used the Bluetooth function to pop open the box on the underside of the rear axle that contained the keys. He unlocked it, then got behind the wheel, Severus taking his place on the passenger side.

"En route, Q." James tapped his phone again for the map, memorized it, and set it down.

"Excellent. I've got eyes in the vehicle and on it."

"No chance I could get 002 to tell me stories of your misspent childhood while we're driving, then, I take it?"

"Only the relevant ones, 007. He promised."

Severus snorted. "I did."

"Anything relevant so far?" James asked.

"Unless you count my utter astonishment that Q is not actually in the back seat. He seemed to have spent most of his time on adventures in school."

Q's voice sounded exasperated. "I keep telling people I didn't go looking for trouble."

"That may be true, but trouble had an uncanny way of finding you," Severus acknowledged.

"A good portion of that was Dumbledore trying to 'train' me in his own unique way, 002, as you've no doubt discovered or guessed. At least, I have," Q said.

"Train you?" James queried.

"Child of prophecy, remember?" Q said. "He expected me to die. So he instilled a singular distrust in adults and presented me with scenarios in which I was literally the only one who could or would do anything to solve the problem, save lives, whatever."

Severus shook his head. "I can't say he was completely wrong in his approach, because in the end, you did what you needed to do, Q, and survived it, but I had a hell of a time trying to keep you alive to adulthood without letting you know that I was doing so."

"It was what it was," Q repeated from his earlier conversation with James.

James shook his head. "He moulded you to be a child soldier, essentially."

"Did his best, yes," Q agreed. "You're coming up on the warehouse, 007. 002, a Notice-me-not would be a good idea."

Severus drew his wand and circled it, obscuring the vehicle and its passengers. "Done." He looked at James. "Obscures us from view of all. Handy charm."

James nodded. "How long does it last?"

"Indefinitely unless broken," Severus answered. "It's a very basic privacy ward, however. If someone magical catches on that there might be something in the vicinity worth looking at, the jig is up."

"Not on that vehicle," Q said. "Your casting of the notice-me-not set off a stronger ward I placed in the rune work on the keybox. No one will see the vehicle but the pair of you."

"Clever, Q," Severus said. "Is this the kind of thing you do often for your agents?"

"I've been working on it. Stealth is a primary function of our job descriptions, after all," Q responded. "However, this kind of stealth is tough to set off without a magical, and I've yet to develop something that doesn't require at least a spell trigger. Tech has not yet caught up for a cloaking device, though I still think there are possibilities there. On the off, 007, best to park a bit away. We don't want to risk the chance of a curse-breaker nearby."

"Acknowledged," James said, and pulled the vehicle up in the shade of an outbuilding.

"Disillusionment, 002?"

"Yes, Q." Severus tapped James head with his wand, watching the man shudder at the egg-yolk feeling, and then tapped his own. The pair stepped out of the vehicle, invisible. James pulled his Walther; Severus kept his wand out, and they moved on quiet feet to the back of the central warehouse from which the agent had procured the magical bomb.

"Can you see us, Q?" James asked quietly.

"Not on camera, no. But I have your phone trackers available and on screen. I know where you are. Intel from our agent suggests standard warehouse, with an office to the back, opposite where you're standing. There shouldn't be anyone there at this time of day, but with apparation, and the strong probability of magical influence, be prepared for anything."

"Acknowledged."

James slipped over to a locked back door and pulled lock picks out of his inner suit pocket. Thirty seconds later, the pair were the building, quietly making their way past a few stockpiles toward the warehouse offices. Severus paused for a moment at the threshold of the offices, which appeared to be locked and quiet. "Hominum revelio," he whispered. Noting no pingback, he said out loud, "Q, no humans were detected in the offices."

"Proceed with caution."

James picked the locks on the doors again, and kept his grip on his Walther as they cautiously moved into what looked like an oversized conference room, spread with paperwork. A glass door to the back revealed more paper. "I don't see any computers, Q," James reported.

"The old-fashioned way, then, 007. Cameras on your phones. Or duplicating and shrinking charms; dealer's choice, gentlemen."

"007, if you keep an eye on the door, I can make quick work of copying all these boxes," Severus said quietly.

James nodded, and stepped back to the door.

Severus quickly copied the materials, then shrunk them for storage in his potions pouch, which had an expansion charm on it. He then stepped to the glass door, opened it, and repeated the work in the interior office before coming back to James. "Done."

"Check to see if there are other offices or other sources of intel available, 007, then take a look at those weapon caches."

With a nod to Severus, James stepped out, Walther in hand, mentally "clearing" the hallways with Severus in his wake. There were no cameras, anywhere, in the building. There were few electronics, in general. "Q, can you see us at all?"

"No, 007. Just your heat signatures in the building from the satellite I've tapped. As far as I can see, there's no one else there."

"No cameras. No computers. Reams of paper."

Severus added, "And some parchment, Q."

"Definitely magicals, then," Q mused.

The agents searched the rest of the meager offices and found nothing more in the way of paperwork, and James recorded video the entire way. Then they double-backed toward the weapons caches, trusting Q to tell them if another heat signature registered.

Severus pulled one of the weapons, a model similar to the one brought in by the original agent. "Do you want a sample, Q?" he asked.

"Yes, please," came the reply. "Dampen first."

Severus attached a dampener to the weapon and put it in his pouch with the rest of the haul. James peered around. Other than the cache Severus was investigating, four caches rested against a side wall, in large crates, and the rest of the floor remained clear. He proceeded cautiously to the crates and popped a lid. James gave a low whistle, and snapped a picture, texting it to Q.

"Oh, 007. Is it my birthday?" Q purred. "Gimme."

James grinned, then lifted the modified machine gun free of its casing and gestured to Severus. "Magical, 002?"

"Appears to be so," Severus said, looking it over. "Not loaded, I think, though I'm not familiar with non-magical weapons."

James nodded, then broke down the rifle himself to determine that it was unloaded, and handed the pieces to Severus for his pouch. They popped the next crate to find enchanted bullets, and the next two contained more of the same.

James took samples of everything.

"What do you think, agents? Severus, is it safe to blow these up?"

"Yes," Severus said, looking over the contents of each crate. "And if you want these samples, and you want this location to remain a source of intel, you should make it look like an accident."

"007?"

"Got it, Q." James set charges from a central crate that would destroy all five caches, aiming the blast outwards. It would be contained within the warehouse, but enough pieces would be left behind to make it look like something had gone wrong with the tech. Severus pulled out a potion vial.

"What's that?" James asked.

Severus gestured. "It'll add a magical signature to the blast, so it will look like something magical overloaded and combusted."

"Brilliant, 002. That will force them to investigate the problem and may delay their action," Q praised, before a pause. "Gentlemen, we have a heat signature approaching from what appears to be an apparation point 10 meters south. Detonate and exit north, then circle around to your vehicle. Do not engage, if possible."

"Acknowledged, Q." The pair set up the explosion, with James setting a five second trigger before they ran for the north door. James counted it off as they stepped around the exterior, and just got a glance of a head of silver-blond hair entering the building as the explosion went off.

"Oh, pretty," Q commented. "Your visitor has been knocked out by the blast, but appears to be breathing, still, judging by the infrared."

Severus glanced in the door to judge whether the "visitor" needed medical attention, and took a picture of the man, shaking his head as he did so.

"What?" James said.

"That man will have a lot of questions to answer," Severus said. "But he'll live."

"Get out of there now, agents," Q hissed. "There are others popping in at the apparation point."

Severus renewed the Disillusionment charms and they silently headed for their vehicle, James recorded the whole way as magicals popped into existence and stared at the colored smoke wafting from the building's ventilation system. Severus got into the Range Rover and took over the recording while James climbed into the driver's side.

"Can I cast a silencing charm on the engine, Q?" Severus asked.

"Direct it at the steering column, and yes," Q replied. "I'm watching. About a dozen bodies have shown up so far. The person in the building is moving now, crawling out the door. He's going to catch some heat, no pun intended. Oh, and look at that. How nice of them to look up at that smoke. Say cheese, people."

"Q?" Severus asked.

"Got 'em on a satellite photo," Q said gleefully. "This is is brill."

"Glad you're happy, Q," James said, grinning.

"You can drive away, slowly, now," Q said. "I've got imagery, and they're distracted by the fire. They shouldn't notice your dust as you rumble off, and your Notice-Me-Not is still up. Proceed with caution back to the hotel."

"Acknowledged, Q."

Severus watched the wizards in his side mirror as James drove them away. "Q, this is a serious problem for us," he observed.

"What did you see, 002?" Q asked.

"I don't know if you caught the identities of those magicals yet, but I should point out that at least three of them should be rotting in Azkaban, including our first visitor," Severus said.

"Who?"

"Well, I spotted Nott Senior and Rabastan Lestrange outside," he replied, thinking slowly.

"And our visitor?"

Severus glanced at James, who quirked an eyebrow at Severus' hesitance. Severus took a deep breath.

"Lucius Malfoy."

Q hissed a breath.

James broke in. "Problem, I take it?"

"Oh, yes," Q said. "Three of Voldemort's inner circle, all of whom should be in cells right now. No breakouts have been reported that I'm aware of, so I need to notify Kingsley immediately."

"Do so," Severus said. "We're clear to the hotel at this point. No one is following us."

"I'll make the call," Q affirmed. "Comm silent."

Severus looked down at his pouch, thinking.

"What, 002?" James asked.

"At one point, the re-emergence of these people would have been Q's worst nightmare," Severus said thoughtfully. "I wonder if that's still the case?"

James shrugged. "Guess we'll find out."