Chapter 3

By Carycomic

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE BASE,

SAALFELD, WEST GERMANY

(JUNE 6, 1967)

Colonel George Durston, A-2, had just entered his sound-proofed office when he heard the sound of someone- -quite literally- -popping in behind him.* He therefore spun about, his magic wand already drawn and at the ready! To his credit, however, he managed to stop himself, just in time, upon seeing who it was and observing the physical state they were in.

"Great Scott! What happened to you two?"

The Potter Brothers, Damon and Pythias, were identical twins who had first seen action in the trenches of World War I Europe. True, they had been teenage Boy Scouts at the time! Yet, they had not been normal teenagers. They were, in fact, American-born wizarding folk descended from British-born immigrant wizard Abraham Potter. With the latter's great-great-grandson- -the twins' father, Charlus Potter- -having continued the family tradition of home-tutoring his children in the old ways of Hermetic wizardry.

Including how to whip up a batch of polymorphic juice wherever and whenever the occasion demanded it. Despite any first-hand scarcity of ingredients!

It was this magic potion that had allowed them to successfully pass themselves off as grown-ups when they enlisted in the Foreign Legion, via the French embassy in Washington, DC, in 1914. A seemingly rash action that they had been inspired to take, after learning of a speech that had been given by their father's distant cousin, Fleapont Potter, before the British Wizengamot. To their credit, however, they only served as medical corpsmen. Thereby using their magic, not to kill enemy soldiers, but, rather, to heal wounded Allied ones.

Yet, all that changed after World War II broke out.

While Pythias served in the U.S. Army, as a full-fledged medical officer, Damon became a double-agent for the O.S.S. Using polyjuice potion to impersonate (incredible as it might seem) a _Japanese_ spy!

So, naturally, Pythias was aghast when Damon ultimately told him about the devastation that had been wrought, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in August of 1945.

"Every wizarding community in the world, acting together, couldn't have shielded those cities from what was done to them! So, I'm telling you, Py, there's no way our people wouldn't become collateral damage in the event of an atomic world war. The only way to keep that from ever happening is if wizarding folk, like us, lent our skills to the espionage game."

Pythias had agreed. So began their twenty-two years of clandestine service with the Defense Research Initiative. Serving, at first, under James Rufus Albright (Gen./USAF Reserve). And, then, after he retired, under his successor, Colonel Durston. The latter being a somewhat younger man than the Potter Brothers. Yet, secretly, also a wizard, no less brave or talented than them. Especially given the baptism of fire he had undergone, during the Korean War, when he had taken aerial reconnaissance photos, behind enemy lines, from one mile up, using nothing more than a WWII-surplus Graflex K-20 camera...

...and a Garand M-1 rifle transfigured into a flying broomstick.

"Help me get him on to the couch!" Pythias now demanded.

Durston did not stand on military protocol in following that emotionally-given order. He simply repeated his first question, a little more gently.

"There was a trap waiting," gasped Damon. "Just like we figured. But, now, we know for sure. That warehouse- - -in West Berlin- - -is just one- - -big- - -portkey! The nomaj workers fill it to capacity, then leave. After which, the caretaker comes in... and sends everything to the other side of the Wall."

"He's wizard-folk, too?" asked the colonel.

Pythias nodded. "Which means he's working for Eberstadt, which proves that Eberstadt is collaborating with the East Germans."

Durston shook his head. "Correction! Not proof. Just a strong implication."

"Strong enough to get some action out of House Tytalus?" asked Damon.

"Maybe."

NEW YORK HOUSE

(1 WEEK EARLIER)

"Clyde!" asked Usher. "What exactly happened at the rendezvous?"

The younger man shrugged. "Everything was going pretty smoothly; making me think that he'd been right. Audaciously handing over those photos in front of the East German embassy was the last thing anybody would expect. But, evidently, someone had thought just like him. Because, the next thing I knew, he was looking over my shoulder, getting this panic-stricken look on his face, and then whirling us around one hundred eighty degrees. Followed by someone shouting 'Avada Kedavra!' and Martin lying flat on his back. Dead!"

"When I looked back up, I saw what appeared to be a local beat cop, half a block down, starting to point his billy club at me. Reacting instinctively, I drew my wand, pointed it at him, and shouted 'Stupefy!' Then, I ran for it. I spent the rest of that morning dodging what looked like plainclothes aurors."

"But, whose aurors?" grumbled John Summers. "That's what I'd like to know."

"Eberstadt's, most likely," replied Usher. "He employs a good number of retired ones as private security for his bank."

"We have to find out for sure," countered John. "I'm portkeying back to my house to contact the Initiative."

SAALFELD AIR BASE

(1 WEEK LATER)

"So, what happened, exactly?" demanded Col. Durston.

"It was quitting time," explained Damon. "And, the moment the last of the nomaj workers left, I apparated to the roof of the warehouse to do some peeping through one of the skylights. I wasn't disappointed. The caretaker came in; he locked all the doors; then he took out a piece of paper with his right hand while touching the wall behind him with his left. A second later, the warehouse was emptier than a re-elected Republican's campaign promises!"

"The next thing I know, I'm surrounded by a half a dozen plainclothes aurors pointing their wands at me."

"Luckily, for him," added Pythias. "I apparated in behind them all and stupefied them on the spot!"

"But, that seemed to automatically summon a whole lot more," countered Damon. "Because, we had to spend all of last night, apparating all over West Germany, trying to lose them!"

"Every single one of them using a modified electric cattle prod as a wand," finished his twin. "So they could electrically transmit crucio-curses!"

"That settles it," declared the colonel. "I'm notifying House Quaesitor!"

tbc

GLOSSARY

*A-2: obsolescent nickname for U.S. Air Force Intelligence (similar to G-2 for Army Intelligence).

Potter Brothers: the titular protagonists of a six-part serial about two globe-trotting Boy Scouts originally published by Saalfield Publishing Group (copyright circa 1914) under the in-house pen name "Col. George Durston." I just threw in "Damon and Pythias" for my own amusement and convenience!

James Rufus Albright: an in-joke reference to the WWI flying ace-turned-Golden Age crime-fighter "Captain Midnight" (nee Jim Albright aka "Red"). Like the more-famous Shadow, a star of Depression-era radio, movies, pulp magazines, and comic books.

Nomaj: American wizarding slang term for non-magical humans. Equivalent to British term "muggle".