Book 5: Marcus Montefiore and The Crown of Horns

Chapter 9: The HMS Scrapmetal

"Everyone has a purpose. Sometimes it's as fertilizer."


"Good morning." said Dumbledore to the staff gathered in the Briefing room. All of the Monitors behind him were on. Cell worldwide were listening in. "As of yesterday, January 4th, The United Nations declared that there was a total break down in worldwide diplomacy. Every single country is engaged in a state of war. Many of the countries involved no longer have a working chain of command."

"In addition to the international conflict, the MacBoons and McCliverts of different countries are taking advantage of the preoccupation of law enforcement to settle old scores leading to a lot of violence and rioting in civilian areas. National division has also become an issue. For example, in America, the South has risen again. Several states have seceded from the Union to form a new country following a disagreement with the President about sending troops to Brazil. Several African nations are devolving into conflict between the different tribes. For those of you familiar with the Rwandan Genocide, we can expect to see more of that. A lot more.

"Without fear of contradiction, I can say we are now involved in World War III."

"Do we know," asked the Spanish Delegate, "If it was Dark Wizards that started the initial battle? The one on the Chinese-Russian border."

"We don't know if any Dark Wizards were involved in the actual battle." said Li Fae, from the Chinese Cell. "But there's no question that they were involved in everything leading up to the war. They created an international environment of poverty and fear."

"The Germans are attacking our borders." said the woman from the French Cell.

"Sorry." said the German Cell.

"If the encroaching army stumbles upon our operation..." the French woman trailed off.

"If anyone encroaches on anything," said Diego, "they must be dealt with harshly."

"Diego!" said Dumbledore shocked.

"It's not their fault there's a war going on," said Diego resolutely, "but we've worked to hard to be stopped by some trigger happy jarhead."

"That jarhead is a person." said Dumbledore. "A person with loved ones."

"That person has a very short life expectancy if we don't finish the plan." said Diego. "Voldemort and his followers are decimating the world population and depleting their armaments so they can take over easily in the aftermath. It's the same gambit Grindelwald used in his rise to power. He controlled the Nazi regime and used them to start the last world war. You, Dumbledore, stopped him, and the war ended later that month. If we take Voldemort and the Death Eaters down no one else has to die."

"We cannot begin killing people who get in our way." said Dumbledore. "That's a line we do not cross."

"There are other options before that." Kingsley cut in. "Muggle repelling charms, obliviation, transfiguration."

"Yes, we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it." said Dumbledore. "The issue facing us now is how we proceed in the construction process. The draft is being called up. We have no construction workers. Materials are being rationed to build tanks and bombers and the like. We won't have anything to build with."

"That's not an issue on our end." said the Egyptian Cell. "We were just instructed to gather raw materials and we have enough scrap metal to repurpose. There's an abandoned airfield near our base."

"We are going to have some issues." said the woman of the Japanese Cell. "The machines we were instructed to build require precious metals as conductors."

"Muggle governments keep a copious supply of gold, silver, palladium, platinum and other elements." said the American. "We could easily break in to our Federal Reserve and get you all the material you need."

"Good, good." said Dumbledore. "Many hands make light work."

"The stadium isn't complete." said Fred. "We're going to need tons more steel, and that's just for starters."

"I think I have a solution." said McGonagall getting up. "A few months ago, Colin was prattling on to me about the mothball fleet off the coast of Scotland."

"A what?" asked Arthur.

"A mothball fleet." said McGonagall. "When the last war ended, Her Majesty had more warships than she need so many of them were anchored off the coast of Scotland and left sealed up and abandoned."

"Won't they be using them again, now that we're at war?" asked Tonks.

"No." said McGonagall. "No one has done maintenance on them in fifty years, their rusting through and through. Even if they were working perfectly, the technology their using is archaic. They'd be sitting ducks if you tried to use them in a battle."

"So, if we were to use these battleships as spare parts then no one would notice." said Diego.

"Not at first anyway." said McGonagall. "When they all disappear, then people might get suspicious."

"A good idea." said Dumbledore. "We can carve out the pieces we need and haul them to the Stadium in the Silvana."

"Actually," said McGonagall, rubbing her hands together. "I have an idea that might save us some time."

~o!o~

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Marcus asked for the tenth time that day. He was standing in a dinghy in the Atlantic ocean, staring at a rusting battleship. There were dozens of dinghies circling the battleship, each carrying a witch or wizard.

"Of course it's going to work." said McGonagall's voice in his ear. "It's a basic switching spell."

"A basic big switching spell." added George Weasley's voice. They were all communicating via console, hands free feature.

"Two teams," McGonagall recapitulated her plan, "One in the stadium and one by the ship. Both teams perform a switching spell. The ocean team sends the ship to the stadium. The stadium team pulls it in from the ocean. It should get here without a hitch."

"You're sure?" asked Marcus.

"Yes, Montefiore." said McGonagall. "I once saw the same method used to transport an Elephant to the other side of Mt. Kilamanjaro. The bulk of the wizards working together more than makes up for the extra volume."

"But we all have to work in unison." said Dumbledore. "That means everyone casts the switching spell at exactly the same time."

"On the count of three." said McGonagall. "One...Two..."

"Are you sure this is going to work?" asked Marcus.

"CAST THE DAMN SPELL!"

"Alcatacla!" Marcus incanted.

~o!o~

Marcus stood between Fred and George. They were all back at the construction site, making an appraisal of the battleship. Marcus cocked his head to one side. Then the other.

"No matter how I look at it," said Marcus, "I can't see a ship."

"At least all of it got here." said George. "We only needed it for the metal anyway."

"It looks like it got here by passing through the Sun." said Fred.

"I wonder what happened to the elephant." said Marcus.

"I hope it didn't suffer." said George.

They saw Mundungus slashing at the hull with his wand. Chunks came off and were carried away by others to the unfinished parts of the stadium.

Marcus and the twins went up to the ship to pitch in. Marcus started by carving square chunks out of the mass, but got bored and moved on to star shapes and octagons. As each piece fell off, someone would run up to grab it.

"We didn't get all of it, you know." said Marcus.

"What do you mean?" asked Fred.

"Most of the ship vanished when we cast the switching spells, but parts of it stayed behind and sunk under the ocean." said Marcus. "Not all of the parts that disappeared made the trip. A gun turret dropped on a house in Burwick-upon-Tweed."

"Ouch." said George. "Was anyone hurt?"

"No," said Marcus, "and the house has a new chimney."

"Colin!" they heard McGonagall shout. "We do not carve those into anything!"

~o!o~

Cynthia's footsteps echoed around the huge chamber. It was a hanger; the hanger all the hangars dreamed about being some day; one you cold fly an airplane inside. The floor was covered in dozens of rows of huge, seemingly identical, structures, each covered by a tarpaulin. Cynthia looked down the row and couldn't even see where it ended.

She stepped up to one of the structures and and swept the tarpaulin off. She revealed what looked like a white capsule pill the size of a city bus. She walked along the capsule, running her fingers along the outer shell. Midway through, she came across a section where the outer panel was missing. The interior was like looking into a dissection.

It was full of boxes of black plastic, like mini PCs, held in place by the titanium framework that honeycombed the structure. Cynthia could just make out the corner of a circuit board through the whole made by a ventilation fan. There were wires running between different boxes, connecting them. Hoses filled with blue, green, and red liquids snaked their way around the components. The machine hand bones, organs, nerves, and veins, like a real living thing.

Other footsteps were echoing around the cavernous hanger. A group of men in white jumpsuits came around one of the still covered machines. They were led by Satoshi Tajiri, head of the Japanese Cell.

"Chairwoman Montefiore." he said, giving a bow. "We did not know you where here."

"I'm here on other business." said Cynthia, not turning away from the machine. "How are they coming?"

"We're producing them much faster now." said Tajiri. "We've been making individual, simpler modules and linking them together until we get the processing power we need. They are all up to your specifications."

"Do you need any more materials?" asked Cynthia.

"No." said Tajiri. "The American Cell provides us with all the precious metals we need."

"How are they performing on the simulations?" asked Cynthia.

"Each one performs perfectly or we rebuild it." said Tajiri. "Most of them are ready to install the operating system."

"I'll have the Indian Cell send it along directly." said Cynthia.

"When they're ready," said Tajiri, "They'll be the most powerful supercomputers in the world, and the only ones to use Magic Tech."

"Yes, you've done good work." said Cynthia. "You should all be very proud."

They all shifted uncomfortably. One of them nudged Tajiri.

"What is it you're planning on using them for?" Tajiri asked. "It has no end of applications, certainly, but I don't see how it could bring down the Dark Wizards."

"Alone, it can't" said Cynthia. She walked along until she reached the far end of the capsule where there was a huge port built into the shell, meant for some kind of giant cable. "It can think for something that can."

She looked down the row at the endless march of identical capsules. "Lots of things that can."