Chapter 25

Objects in Motion

Faust hadn't wanted to take any foolish chances now that the Order of Illumination had the luxury of numbers, which was why the Draco now found itself in formation over Chicago with the Centaurus and the earlier Wind Class Cruiser Hurricane. The three ships carried twenty Combat Rangers between them. The commander had deemed it safe to temporarily divert both ships away from their patrols, due to the warning signals Citadel Command and Control received while Ron, Gaitan and Farouk had been discussing the situation with him.

Before the great vampire extermination, the sewer systems under Chicago—like all major cities with extensive sewer tunnels—had been among the more popular sites for vampires to gather, since it allowed them to move from place to place during daytime. That was why the Order of Illumination had taken great pains to secretly seed the network with detectors that spotted magical traffic in the sewers. Some Rangers had deemed it more appropriate to divert the Order's resources elsewhere, since most vampires had been wiped out, but Ironheart—who had still been in command at the time—turned out to be right after all. The detectors had registered nineteen undead signals in the company of one live human. It might have been the Auror, but Ron couldn't be sure. Perhaps it was a local wizard ally of theirs.

He could imagine several reasons why they had let the Auror live and dragged him with them to another continent. That they wanted a snack was a given. As for their reason to drag him to America, there was more space to hide a body and less chance of identification if the body was discovered. It was also common knowledge that the country's Magical Law Enforcement was reluctant to let outsiders into their jurisdiction, which was also in the vampires' advantage, given their newfound mobility.

Ron was thankful for this lucky turn of events, though the fact that Madam Isabelle had sensed at least twenty-five vampires meant that a minimum of six of them were still unaccounted for. He also appreciated Cirilo Roverano's quick analysis of the wand signature, thus pinpointing where it was made and likely stolen. The wand's core was a tail-hair of a magical fox-like creature from the Orient called a Kitsune, and the wood had come from a ginko tree, which was native to China.

Still, Ron didn't allow himself to relax. He wasn't ready to assume that the illegal Portkey maker operated in Asia, since it was possible that he or she took great pains to use wands stolen on the other side of the world, in order to throw off possible investigators. This wasn't likely, since supposedly no one knew that the Order of Illumination could track even the stealthy low-signature Portkeys, but his mind was trained to expect the unexpected and entertain unlikely scenarios. There could be a new magical artificer with Yamato's talent out there, remote as that chance was. However, the knowledge that the wand was made in Asia still offered perspective, since one of the Order's informants residing in China was in the business of trafficking stolen wands, among other things. He was under instructions to record all the stolen goods he bought and sold as well as the times and places of the purchases and sales, and if possible, the identities or at least general descriptions of the buyers and sellers. Yes, perhaps Wormtail would be of some use again.

"Ron?" he heard Rachel Esklove's voice call, and he glanced at the co-pilots' chair. "The team leaders of the Centaurus and Hurricane want to know if the Intel officer in charge has a plan."

"All right. Patch them through to my console," Ron said, and a moment later the mirror that had been showing data on the vampire' movements filled with the image of Caleb Mordecai and Patience Gedeon's heads side by side. Glancing at a secondary display, he saw that they were already in contact with each other. "Are you two getting the information from the detectors in the tunnels?"

Both heads nodded.

"All right, here's the plan. I know it would be easier to wait until the vampires reach their destination, but for all we know there's another Portkey waiting there to take them to a country where it's night. After all, we know that this particular group doesn't stay put very long. So I want to ambush them in a sewer tunnel where they have nowhere to run."

Mordecai frowned, and Ron read the reluctance in his expression. "Chasing them through the sewers won't be easy."

"I know, and I don't plan to chase them. We can deploy the trio of Sentinel Globes each Cruiser carries and use them to map out the tunnels. Then we use their information to pinpoint the co-ordinates of the best ambush spot and Portkey right into the tunnels, catching them between manholes."

"Not that they could use those to escape, since it's a sunny summer day," Patience pointed out gleefully.

Ron allowed himself a smile. "True. So, do you agree with the plan so far?"

"Looks good," Mordecai said.

Patience nodded. "It is sound."

"Then we'd better deploy the Sentinel Globes before it's too late to do so. Patience, tell the Hurricane's trio to place themselves a half mile north, north-east and east of the vampires. Caleb, have the Centaurus' trio scout south-east, south and south-west of their position. Two of the Draco's will scout west and north-west, and the remaining one will take up position directly above them. Each Sentinel Globe is to map the tunnels in its slice of the pie while keeping pace with the vampires. If our quarry keep going at their current speed, we can pick out an ambush spot about ten minutes after the Sentinel Globes reach their respective positions. I'll contact you when the time comes. Have your teams prepare their gear if they haven't done so already."

The two Rangers had nodded in acknowledgement, and then their heads faded from the mirror and were replaced by the previous data-stream.

"Sentinel Globes launched, Ron," Rachel said. She must have been listening in to his conversation with the other two Rangers attentively and anticipated the next move. "Can I sound the alert?"

Smirking indulgently, Ron nodded.

Rachel hit a communications button that led to the speakers on the lower deck. "Potter's Troubleshooters, prepare to be deployed in tight confines with low visibility. It's time for a final equipment check. Estimated time of deployment is about ten minutes from now, so be ready in five. Tactical briefing will occur shortly before deployment." She muted the transmission and turned around. "Did I forget something?"

Ron shook his head. "You pretty much covered it. And what was that about Potter's Troubleshooters?"

"That's what we call ourselves. It isn't official, but we've adopted the name when Harry became team leader."

"And he was all right with it?"

"Not at first," Rachel replied, confirming Ron's suspicions. "But he came to accept it."

Suddenly, Cirilo Roverano's face appeared on the mirror screen in front of Ron. "Good news, Ron. Citadel C&C ran the analysis of the signature imprint left at Crawley with the signature the Orbital Eyes picked up in Chicago. We have a partial match that's enough to narrow the list of possible Portkey makers down to one. It is theoretically possible that there's a new kid on the block and that we've got the wrong person, but the odds of that being the case are astronomically slim."

"Why are you using the com system?" Ron asked exasperatedly. "I'm less than twenty paces away from the laboratory cell."

"I'm supervising a brew. Now, do you want to hear this, or not?"

Ron relented. "Who is it?"

"That's the weirdest thing. She's supposed to be dead! Ling Woo, also known as Vicious Ling, was reported dead some twenty years ago. She's Yamato's contemporary, and there are some unconfirmed rumours that the two of them were romantically involved in the late nineteen fifties. But she was almost certainly a professional partner. Oh, and she also former Captain Yee's half-sister. Artificing talent's in her blood."

"Does Janos Gaal know her?"

"C&C is trying to contact him right now to ask him that."

Ron pondered this new information. Given Yamato's contempt for inferior minds, this witch must have been very talented for him to form even a temporary alliance with her. He returned his gaze to the mirror screen. "So she's exceptionally talented, and her location is unknown. Bad combination."

"Regarding the latter, C&C recommends taking the vampires alive if possible. They might yield some information."

"I doubt it. My gut tells me that she's very protective of her hideout. But I reckon C&C thinks we might get lucky. I think we're going to have to make our own luck."

"I agree with you there, amigo."

Ron nodded. "Thanks for the update, and whatever you're brewing had better be finished in five minutes, because Rachel is going to need your help."

Cirilo glanced away for a moment. "No worries. It's nearly done. I'll be right there." His face faded from the screen just as Vania Goumas appeared by Ron's side.

"Hey Ron, will I be needed down in the tunnels?"

It was a good question. He had decided to keep both artificers on every Cruiser, but he hadn't thought about the healers. Even eight Combat Rangers were more than a match for nineteen young vampires, and Ron had twenty Combat Rangers at his disposal. The odds of anyone getting hurt were very slim.

"I need to talk this over with Mordecai and Gedeon. Rachel, put me through, please."

"Done," Rachel said a few seconds later, and the faces of Caleb Mordecai and Patience Gedeon each filled one-half of the mirror once more.

"Problems?" Mordecai asked.

Ron shook his head. "Just a question. Who are your healers, and what is their fighting and healing proficiency level? I'd like to keep one of them on a Cruiser, just in case there are injuries that require more attention than can be given on the spot. The problem is that I don't know which criteria to wield. Do I send the best fighters down so the Combat Rangers don't have to worry about babysitting, or do I send the best healers in case anyone gets hurt? I'm inclined to choose the former, since vampires always go for the weakest in a herd and the healers are statistically likely to be injured first."

Patience Gedeon nodded briskly. "I agree."

"That makes three of us. Anyway, you know how good Evgenia is in a fight," Mordecai said, a broad grin lighting up his features. He was obviously referring to Ron's sound defeat at the hands of Evgenia, some two weeks ago. Still, Ron wasn't really embarrassed, since Evgenia Ivanova had been with the Order since before the dangerous days of Voldemort's second rise to power. Ron didn't know whether it was experience, talent, or a combination of both, but her proficiency rating was right up there with those of the Combat Rangers. In fact, it had become somewhat of a tradition among the Martial Division's new recruits to beat her mark as quickly as possible.

"Imelda Hauri is our healer," Gedeon said. "She nearly wasn't asked to join the Order because of her poor fighting skills. She has improved over the years, but most other Rangers are still better than she is."

"Imelda's a really good healer, Ron," Vania interjected. "I have five years of experience on her, but she's already better than I am. I think only Evgenia, Hermione, and the officers are better. If any of us is to stay behind to treat critical injuries, it should be her."

"You heard our healer's opinion on the matter," Ron said. "I agree."

"I will tell Imelda that she won't be coming with us," Gedeon said.

"Tell her to prepare to treat wounds commonly inflicted by vampires and set up her sickbay accordingly," Vania said quickly.

"Ditto for field surgery supplies, I assume?" Mordecai asked.

Vania blushed and nodded. "Right. Evgenia and I need to be prepared as well."

Ron fixed her with an urgent stare. "You'd better hurry, then."

Vania didn't even answer, going straight to the levitation surface that took her to the lower deck.

"You know, it wouldn't be a bad idea if some of us carried Curse Capsules infused with the Gremlin Hex," Mordecai suggested. "Remember how some vampires used firearms, before the great vampire purge?"

Ron grimaced. "All too well."

Mordecai continued. "And since we're dealing with young vampires—"

"The odds that they're packing heat is considerably larger," Ron finished, using a Muggle expression he had learned from Ethan Johnson, a Muggle-born Intelligence Field Operations' Ranger from the United States. "Rachel!"

"Heard it, boss-man!" Rachel called back, and immediately flicked a switch on her console. "Attention Wiz-Mart shoppers! Blue Light Special on Curse Capsules loaded with the Gremlin Hex. Your quarry might be bearing firearms, so we want the moving parts in those guns to jam up."

"I'll inform my team, too," Mordecai said.

"And I mine," Patience added.

"All right. Go grab your gear and Portkeys, and stand by for the final mission details."

"Wait, there's something they can do now!" Rachel said a fraction of a second before Ron's finger hit the transmission termination button.

"We're still here," Mordecai said. "Talk to us, Imma."

Ron didn't know what the word meant, but Rachel emitted an annoyed snort before answering. "Have your artificers set up a link between the communications' equipment and the Sentinel Globes. That'll allow the Rangers' personal communicators to function as name tags. There may only be one live body down there with the vampires, but a way to differentiate it from the Rangers wouldn't be a bad idea, right? And it'll also put a name to every Ranger dot on the mirror screen. It would make it easier to issue orders if some of the vampires manage to slip through our fingers."

It made sense. After all, the Rangers were going to have to deploy almost immediately after Ron picked out an ambush site. Despite their thorough training, it was possible that one or more of the vampires would slip by them. Ron gave Rachel an appreciative nod. "That's a great idea."

"I'm sure your sister will love to hear to hear that. She's the one who came up with it."

Patience Gedeon frowned. "I thought our identities would be immediately evident."

"We usually use Orbital Eyes or the Cruisers' own detectors. Now we'll be monitoring the action through Sentinel Globes, which weren't designed to automatically differentiate between the Rangers' aural signatures and rebroadcast their identities. We're working on a newer model that can, but it isn't available yet. On the other hand, the Cruisers' communications equipment was enchanted to flag any activated personal communicator by the name and number of its bearer. So by making the Sentinel Globes partial extensions of the three Cruisers' communications equipment and having them look for magical communication emissions, we achieve the same effect as if we'd be using telemetry from an Orbital Eye."

"Why can't we use the Orbital Eyes in this case?" Mordecai asked. "Actually, I already know the answer, but my crew is listening in too and I thought I'd be the shill in the audience."

Ron smirked. "Good to see that you're developing skills you can use in civilian life. I chose the Sentinel Globes because using an Orbital Eye to map underground tunnels is terribly inefficient. It can do so, but at the expense of its vigil over its designated area. If the vampires were to use a Portkey to transport themselves to a different location that still lay within the Orbital Eye's domain while it was busy mapping out the sewer tunnels, finding them again would be a lot more difficult."

"Another question, Ron. Where will you be?"

Ron's smirk was replaced by a frown. "In the tunnels with the rest of you. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, you know."

"I wasn't implying that. Actually, I was going to suggest that it would be better for you to stay in the Cruiser to monitor our movements and give tactical advice. Aceng told me you're very good at that."

"A portable mirror terminal receiving telemetry from the Cruisers and the Sentinel Globes will give me the same tactical overview and still allow me to be in the tunnels with the rest of you," Ron countered. "Trust me, being one of the pieces on the chessboard doesn't hamper my performance."

Mordecai nodded. "Very well. You've put my worries to rest, so I'll go along with it."

"I have no objections either," Patience said.

"Excellent. Then I'll sign off until the briefing." Ron terminated the communication, swivelled his seat around to face the door to the small laboratory and bellowed out. "Cirilo, get out here now! I don't care if your brew isn't finished yet."

"Thirty more seconds to clean up. Sheesh!" Cirilo yelled back.

Satisfied that Cirilo would return before it was time for the rest of them to deploy, Ron turned his attention back to the growing image of underground tunnels. Steadily, the blank spot in front of the vampire group shrank. Soon they'd cross into a space the Sentinel Globes had already mapped out, at which point Ron would choose an ambush site.

"What was the emergency?" Cirilo's voice sounded behind him.

Ron swivelled around and quickly relayed Rachel's plan about linking the Sentinel Globes with the Cruiser's communications equipment in order to identify individual Rangers by their communicators, and asked him to make sure that the link remained intact while keeping an eye on the tactical situation.

Cirilo scratched the back of his head. "You'd better let me pilot the Cruiser and let Rachel take care of the link. I theoretically know how to do it, but I never had the chance to actually do so, which makes Rachel more qualified to intervene if the link were to fail for some reason. She also has better tactical insight than I do."

Rachel laughed. "Such praise! My boyfriend would get jealous if he were here."

"Heaven forbid. The last thing I want is for He Who Must Not Be Named to think that I'm trying to seduce you."

"Won't these Voldemort jokes at my boyfriend's expense ever get old?"

"Not in the foreseeable future."

"I wager your grandkids will ask what the joke's about," Ron added mischievously.

"If I end up marrying him," Rachel said pointedly.

"Why? Is there trouble in paradise?"

"You're a worse gossip than your sister is, Ron."

"It's merely healthy curiosity," Ron countered, re-using the defence he had employed when Hermione had accused him of the same thing.

"Use it to monitor the vampires," Rachel grumbled, and knowing that he couldn't let his attention wander at the stage, Ron heeded her advice and turned his attention back to the mirror screen. The vampires were only minutes away from crossing into the mapped area.

He tensely kept his gaze glued to the mirror as the vampires moved closer and closer to the critical boundary. Once they crossed it, he'd have to pick a spot as close as possible to their current position. The sewer tunnels branched off and intersected with other main tunnels from time to time, so placing his people too far was likely to cause problems. While redeploying with the help of Portkeys was fairly simple, the miniature Portkeys held enough magic for only three uses. One would be expended going in, and another one going out, leaving only one extra charge. He didn't want to use that unless it was to cut off possible escapees or to close the trap completely by sending in a team behind the vampire group.

Seconds ticked by and turned into minutes, and just when the vampires were about to cross the boundary, they stopped moving forward and began to walk in circles.

Ron struggled to mask his frustration. "What in the bloody blazes of hell is going on?"

Rachel's voice brought the explanation to his attention. "They're going up. They're going into a building directly above the tunnel." An image of the outside of the building appeared on Ron's mirror screen. "I guess they're using a circular staircase."

An assault in a building complicated matters. With rooms to dart into or furniture to hide behind, Ron knew he could no longer use the turkey-shoot-like setup he'd been planning to use in the tunnels. The matters had just become more complicated. "Rachel, I want a complete scan of that building."

"A top to bottom scan will take time."

"More than the sewer tunnels?"

"Relatively, yes. That's the Ptolemy Palace hotel. It has five floors." Rachel shot him a wicked smirk. "I thought you'd recognise the logo immediately, in light of some past events."

Ron felt his face, ears, and neck heat up as he belatedly recognised the gilded logo on the building. The Chicago Ptolemy Palace was the smallest of three exclusive wizarding hotels where the richest wizards from around the world stayed when visiting the United States. Not too long ago, posing as husband and wife, he and Rachel's sister Sarah had stayed at the establishment in New York in an undercover operation geared towards unravelling an organisation that had been producing a very potent lust potion. Unfortunately for both Rangers, the organisation's leaders had decided to test a new variant of the potion on some random guests the very same day that Ron and Sarah Esklove had arrived, so there was no way they could have been forewarned. Both of them ingested the potion via the complementary chocolates.

Fortunately, Hermione's skills as a magical healer had allowed her to verify for herself that it would have taken inhuman self-restraint to resist the effects of the potion, so she quickly forgave him for his slip up. The fact that he had saved some of the chocolates, allowing her to experience the passion for herself in the privacy of their marital bed, had also probably contributed to his being forgiven so easily. In fact, she had told him that it had greatly relieved the post-partum depression she had been suffering from. Even so, the adventure had still spawned some negative consequences. They would probably laugh about it in a few years, but for now he felt awkward around Sarah, and he had a distinct impression that the feeling was mutual. It was really a shame, since he and Sarah had been a very good team before the potion had forced the irresistible foreign passion onto them.

Ron chose not to dignify Rachel's remark with an answer. Instead he proceeded with the task at hand and re-established the connection with the other two Cruisers. It was easy, since Rachel had left the connection on standby. Patience Gedeon's face was impassive, but Caleb Mordecai was clearly disgruntled.

"It looks like the vampires abandoned the sewers," the Israeli Ranger grumbled.

"Unless they Portkey out of the building, we still have a good chance of finishing this today," Ron said. "Patience, have your artificer pull the Sentinel Globe covering the north-east and redeploy it to map out the building's top floor. Caleb, reposition your Globes covering the south-east and south-west to map out the fourth and third floors. Our Globe covering the north-west will take care of the lobby and the first floor and the one following the vampires will continue to do so."

"It would be easier if control of their Sentinel Globes were transferred to us," Rachel said.

Mordecai and Patience must have heard her, because both of them briefly turned away relay the request to the unseen artificers on the other ships.

"Control is being transferred to you," Patience said.

"Our Globes are yours," Mordecai added.

"I've got them," Rachel confirmed. "The remaining four Sentinel Globes on the main points of the compass aren't enough to cover the area around us, though. We'll have to shrink the perimeter."

Ron nodded. "Do what you have to." Then he turned back to the mirror screen. "If it were up to me, I'd wait for the vampires to conclude whatever business they might have in the hotel. Of course there's a chance that the hotel is the final destination for now. With an underground tunnel leading up to the building, it isn't too farfetched to assume that it's a safe-house of sorts."

"It probably is," Rachel's voice interjected again. And Ron swivelled his chair around to face her.

"How so?"

"Well, you know who the Ptolemy Palace hotels belong to, right?"

Ron nodded. In preparation for the lust potion mission, he had taken it upon himself to discover as much as possible about the owners and the clientele of the hotels. "Gregory Donaldson. But we can't be sure that he has anything to do with it. He didn't know anything about the potion ring either."

Rachel shook her head. "Donaldson was a major contributor to the campaign fund for the current Minister for Magic in the United States. He might not be into anything really illegal, but to allow some of his guests to indulge some of their more questionable wants and needs, the local magical government has to turn a blind eye to some of the goings on in the hotel. The lust potion people capitalised on that, and these vampires might be doing the same."

Something clicked in Ron's mind. "They can't be working alone. They'd need a middleman. They couldn't have pulled this off without the help of some wizard allies. Most people are too wary to deal with vampires directly. This whole thing goes deeper than we thought." He turned back to the two faces sharing the screen in front of him. "You can lower the alert level. Tell your people to keep their gear close by, but they needn't be wearing it all the time."

"What if the vampires leave this place with a Portkey?" Mordecai asked.

Cirilo Roverano, who must have been listening in, answered for Ron. "Citadel C&C is keeping the Orbital Eyes on the lookout for stealthy Portkeys with Vicious Ling's signature. We'd find out where they went quickly enough."

"I know you want to go after these vampires. We could probably take them, but the odds of bystanders getting hurt is too big," Ron said.

Mordecai's eyebrows rose a notch. "Martial Division Rangers have very careful aims."

"I do not doubt the Combat Rangers' abilities. I'm more worried about the reactions of a bunch of panicky vampires." He paused to gather his thoughts and pondered how to formulate his intentions. "Since Yamato left for the Mirror Realm, things have been pretty quiet. So quiet, in fact, that some government officials have yet again begun to doubt the necessity of the Order of Illumination. Some of them are just dumb, but others want more power than they wield at the moment—power that can only be acquired through not quite legal means. This hotel is packed with influential people, and we can't allow any of them to get hurt by a fleeing vampire. It'll reflect badly on us."

"Would the discovery of a hive of vampires not reinforce the importance of the Order of Illumination's presence?" Patience Gedeon asked.

"The people who want us gone will twist that news in such a way that we'll look incompetent for having missed these vampires in the purge."

"But according to Madame Isabelle, most of them have been spawned after the purge."

"They'll conveniently forget to mention that," Ron said dryly. "Until they themselves have been victimised by it, people unfortunately tend to believe things rather quickly if the information comes from a popular media source, even if it's incorrect. Also, the Order of Illumination needs to be secretive, which tends to breed distrust among everyone who isn't let in on the secret. This is a recurring problem that the Order has had to deal with ever since its conception, and there's very little that we can do about it."

"The people who want us gone are all crooks right?" Rachel said. "Why not ferret out the skeletons in their closets and hold it over their heads like blackmail material?"

Ron shot her a rueful grin. "As tempting as that solution is, and as effective as it would probably be, we'd take the first step towards becoming what our fiercest opponents claim we already are. An elitist secret organisation bent on controlling the world. It might start out well-intentioned, but it wouldn't take much for us to start using them for less noble purposes." He returned his gaze to the Rangers on the mirror screen. "Let's wait and see what the scans reveal. If the vampires are all located in a part of the hotel that doesn't easily allow access to the other parts, I'll consider an assault. Anyway, the risk to the guests isn't the only reason why I'm not willing to attack just yet. If we wait a little longer, we might find out who the vampires' wizard allies are. We could use the extra information."

Mordecai nodded. "All right. I'll tell my boys that they can return to their card game. Keep me posted." His face disappeared from the screen, and Patience Gedeon's face expanded as more room became available.

"More questions?" Ron asked.

"I was wondering if you could release my team to the tunnels now. I would like to investigate the secret entrance to the hotel and plant additional beacons while I'm at it. I was among those who planted the other beacons, and I believe we had passed under the Ptolemy Palace while doing so. I assume that the passage is secret, so I will have to take one of my artificers with me."

"Can the other one handle the Sentinel Globes still under your control at the same time as piloting the ship?"

"No, but Imelda can take over the Cruiser's operation. Like your sister, Imelda was uncertain as to whether she ought to become a healer or an artificer. She has received some training in the Artificer Division, so she is a competent pilot."

"All right, go ahead. But if you find it, don't try to open it yet. I know that artificers see opening secret doors as a challenge, so try to rein yours in. It might betray your presence."

"Understood," she said before terminating the connection.

Ron turned back to Rachel. "Thanks for reminding me of Donaldson's political financing."

Rachel grinned broadly in a way that strongly reminded him of Sarah. Even though they weren't identical multiplets, their faces strongly resembled each other in certain expressions. It made him feel uncomfortable.

"I contribute whenever I can."

"I should have thought of it," Ron said morosely. "I'm trained to do so."

Rachel waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Maybe that wasn't the foremost Ptolemy Palace related thought on your mind."

"That's not funny, Rachel. Your sister was very lucky to be on extra-strong birth-control. I shudder to think what would've happened if I had got her pregnant."

"I'm sorry. You're right," Rachel apologised. Then she nodded to the ceiling, and Ron saw two large mirror screens sliding out of an aperture and tilt down at a slight angle. "I'm putting the building's scans on those screens. The one on the left will show where in the building the vampires are, and the one on the right will show images of the floors the Sentinel Globes are watching." She manipulated some controls on her master console, causing a panel in his console to slide open and allow a joystick to rise through it. It was smaller than the one the pilots used to steer the craft, and it had what looked like a large marble sitting on top. "You can use that joystick to control the Sentinel Globes. I'm going to explain what the buttons are for, so listen carefully."

The marble on top of the joystick turned out to be a trackball, which allowed the Sentinel Globes' controller to enlarge an image if need be by rolling it forward in its socket. Rachel also explained to him that it could be rolled from side to side and even diagonally, but that the Sentinel Globes' current task blocked out those functions. Then there were buttons that allowed him to toggle through images provided by different Globes, peel through the layers of walls and floor to see what lay beyond, and see things by the heat they exuded, or their magical auras.

Ron was about to test the functions himself, but Patience Gedeon's voice coming out of the speaker stopped him. "We have a problem."

"What is it?" Ron asked anxiously.

"There isn't a trace of a secret entrance, and with our tools we should have discovered one quickly. I see only one explanation. The entrance is part of a partial Fidelius Charm on the building."

Things were getting more complicated by the minute. "A partial Fidelius Charm like the one we've got on the Citadel of Illumination?" Ron asked, looking at Rachel in an attempt to seek clarification. The Order of Illumination's headquarters was also partially protected by the Fidelius Charm, but such partial castings of the charm were said to be extremely tricky, and very few wizards could pull it off.

"I am not an artificer," Patience's voice replied.

"I'm asking Rachel. Hold on."

"It's more difficult than a normal Fidelius Charm. I only learned to do it recently, and it was like the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests, squared! It took me four attempts to get it right," Rachel said.

"Why is it harder?" Ron asked. "You'd think that hiding part of a building is easier than hiding the whole thing. I know magic and logic don't go hand in hand, but—"

"Oh no, the Fidelius itself isn't any more difficult. It's just that you need to cast a lot of complimentary Confusion and Illusion Charms so that the people who know the building from the outside never start wondering about the reduced volume on the inside. It requires a lot of painstaking research to find out how to place them without having them conflict which each other."

"How many wizards and witches would you say are capable of it?"

Rachel tucked her lower lip under her front teeth, thinking it over before answering. "Not many. It's difficult to learn it, and once you do, the odds that you'll ever use it are slim. That's why most people don't bother. The only reason I learned it is because the Order requires it."

"So the vampires are well connected."

"Apparently they are."

"Patience, plant some tracers around your current position and get back to your ship," Ron said. "There won't be a fight today. We need to map out and analyse our quarry, otherwise the roots of this will remain even after we cut down its main body."

"We don't know if it is a cohesive organisation," Patience said.

"Maybe it isn't, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to catch them all, right?"

"Of course not. We shall work swiftly. Warn us if you see anyone coming down."

"Will do. Draco out," Ron said, and waited for the tell-tale warble from the speaker to signal that Patience had broken the connection. Then he turned to Rachel again. "If that entrance is covered by the Fidelius Charm, how come we were still able to see the vampires moving up a circular staircase?"

"I was wondering whether you'd ask that," Rachel said, grinning as she swaggered over to him and sat on the edge of his console. "That Sentinel Globe is calibrated to the detection of magical auras. You'll notice that the other Sentinel Globes have failed to produce a visual of the vampires."

Ron chided himself for forgetting about the telemetry from the Globes scanning the hotel. He hadn't noticed.

Rachel must have read his expression correctly, since her grin had broadened. "Relax, Ron. I've got your back."

"All right, so how is it possible?"

"First tell me everything you know about the Fidelius Charm."

"All right." Ron took a deep breath. "It locks information into someone's soul. Those to whom the information is revealed by the secret keeper can't even talk about it to anyone else, unless of course the people in question have also been included by the secret keeper. It suppresses the senses of all living things, and … oh!"

"The Sentinel Globes aren't living things." She held up her hand to forestall the question on Ron's lips. "The reason the Sentinel Globes haven't been able to map out the area protected by the Fidelius is because it still is very powerful magic. However, at the time of the charm's creation, the creators couldn't imagine something like a Sentinel Globe. It doesn't mask the magical aura of anyone inside."

"I follow you, but there are some magical eyes capable of seeing auras. How come—"

"They've never seen the aura of someone in a building protected by the Fidelius? Because, first of all, a Sentinel Globe is much more powerful than any magical eye. I don't know of any magical eyes that can both see auras and see through obstacles, and if there were, it would be impossible to make them powerful enough to see through several layers of obstacles as thick as walls. Second, what the magical eye sees goes straight to the brain, which is part of a living thing. In the Globe's case, it goes to a mirror screen."

Ron closed his eyes massaged his temples. The conversation was giving him a headache. He had been exposed to far too many revelations in too little time, and he was quickly going to have to sort it before working out a plan to submit to his superiors.

"Oh, is widew Wonnie getting a headache from aw the difficuwt awtificew tawk?" Rachel said, though her tone was more playful than mocking.

"You lot were as fresh as daisies when you got the emergency call. I went to bed late and got up early in Shamballah, and Shamballah Time is about on par with the lower Middle East and Eastern Africa. That's three hours ahead of Nomad Island."

"Hey, I didn't expect my time off to be cancelled, so Tom and I partied all night. I haven't slept much, either," Rachel countered indignantly.

"Then why do you seem to be bursting with energy?"

"Positive energy. I meditated during our stop at the Citadel. I know a technique that might transfer some to you."

"How long will it take?"

"I guess I can limit it to two positions. It'll take six to ten minutes, but you have to be open for it to work."

"I am open."

Rachel shook her head. "The mere fact that you asked me how long it would take means that you're not. You'll have to take your mind off the mission."

"Ah!" Ron knew that he was too stressed out to do that. "Then it'll have to wait. Another time."

"Sure," Rachel said brightly, before practically skipping back to her post. Ron envied her energy.

With a sigh of resignation, he began to establish a connection with the Citadel of Illumination. He needed to talk to his superiors about some additional resources in the form of Intel Division manpower.

hootild: No, Harry would be able to tell if Wolfe had been merely unconscious. As for the connection between Danny and Sissi, it is indeed significant, but I won't go into that in this story anymore. Since people kept reading the series despite it being A/U, I decided to add a fifth and final story to the series.

Lady of Masbolle: Action scenes take a lot of research and work, at least, for me. It certainly doesn't come naturally.

Saint Mike: I love that song.

DADAGinny: You reviewed again!!! The twins are like their dad and Uncle, be it a tad more vicious at times. And thanks for bringing that plot bunny to my attention. evil grin

Gogirl: Yes, I am evil.

StarWest45: It was supposed to be sad, so I guess I've accomplished what I set out to do.

Lyambren: Writer's block sucks big time. At this point the story is also nearly done. It won't be as long as Mind War. Thirty-one chapters tops, and I've sent chapter twenty-eight to the first beta.

Elric Magus: That makes it hurt so much more.

torifire126: Wolfe's 'parting gift' was actually an earlier gift that just keeps on giving. Because Harry was a Mind Reader, Ginny was spared the need to find a way to deliver the bad news.

Stix-the-Rebel: The first chapter of this the next fic will have a list of kids, their parents, and their ages at that point in time.

Fragarach: Running out of things to say, eh?

blah29: This story is far from over.

rdprice29: Thanks for reviewing Chapter 1.

Lipton: Depressing thought, eh?

AriannaRiddle: That was the point. ;-)