Chapter 7
Reports

The oak desk was filled with piles of papers and coffee stains now, far different from what it had been just eleven days ago. Eleven days ago magic had been something to ridicule, he had been in good control of everything, there had been some forecasts for improving relations with the USSR. But that was then, now was now, Richard thought. He had just been awake for one and half a day talking with the Russians about the Norway incident. Five days ago the Soviets claimed Norwegian soldiers, terrorists, whatever, had tried to blow up a nuclear power plant on the Kola Peninsula. They lied of course, the CIA had verified that, and the Norwegian government had protested greatly against what the USSR claimed of them. It seemed all so clear, but the media, he though. The so-called liberal media wanted to believe that the Soviet government was great; they wanted to believe that the US government was evil and oppressive. Then there was the conservative media, they said things like "These Soviets are liars and murders, which have killed millions and will do anything to do what they want. And they want war with Norway, and with us. They are the evil empire on Earth and must be destroyed". A collision course for war was what was happening. War, did they really want that? They had to know what it might end with if it came to that, didn't they? Well, that was five days ago. Yesterday a Soviet outpost near the border to Norway had been hit by artillery fire. The Soviets had gotten in rage over that, and threatened with war. It was quite strange too, but a week ago it had been announced that a huge scale military exercises was to take place right by the Norwegian border. And the media seemed to have missed this fact completely.

Richard almost lied down in his chair, drinking a bit of cold coffee. He then put the cup down on the table, leaving yet another coffee stain on some important paper. Well, the Norway incident was important, but this was important too. The USCG. Ten days ago people around the world had started casting magic. Now he was about to get a report from general Callaghan and senator Sumpner, on how the first week of recruiting and training had gone. That was all he had time to think before a knock on the door told him they were already here.

"Send them in," he said over the intercom to his secretary. Strange, but she hadn't announced them coming over it, well, nothing important about that, he though. As Callaghan and Sumpner stepped in, he noticed that the secretary desk was empty. I need to worry less about my staff; there are more important issues to take care of. "So, give me the general info on how things are going? And record this conversation, I think I feel a bit groggy."

"Groggy, sir? Oh, well you do seem a bit tired. I don't have a recorder on me though, maybe Callaghan has one?" Sumpner replied in a strangely friendly tone. Usually the man was either speaking like a superior or a like an ass kisser. When he talked to crowds he talked nothing, twisting words to pointless sentences that sounded like a smart man was talking, but never friendly and like to an equal.

"No, I don't have one, but I think Mr. "Don't fuck with the pres. or I am going to kill you" behind me here has already told them over his microphone to get here one. We don't have to wait long for one to..." was all Callaghan could say before a servant stepped in trough a door with a recorder. Pressing the record button and leaving it on the desk he stepped out of the room.

"I think I'm going to begin. Well, as you know, eight days ago you told us to start the USCG agency. We spent one day planning, and then we have started a great drafting campaign, using nationwide TV, radio- and newspaper -ads. Also with the aid of senator Sumpners contacts here, we have gotten the right to use military forces to create recruitment locations in practically every city, town and village in the country. And we are looking forward starting the same kind of drafting in Canada in the next few days. Well, anyway we got about one thousand the first day, two thousand five hundred the second, three thousand the fourth day, then dropping with about five hundred per day. But right now we have about thirteen thousand five hundred magicians registered. Compared to the other major countries, the EU has two thousand, though they started just yesterday, the USSR has, according to our best estimates maybe fifty thousand. India has about fifteen thousand and China has more or less one hundred thousand magicians, divided into four camps of which all are more or less the same size." Callaghan said in a casual voice.

"One hundred thousand! My god, with those numbers they could, yes, that is a good question, what can they do?" Richard shouted, though his voice lessened at the end.

General Callaghan was just about to say something, but was cut off by Sumpners commanding voice "Well, as for what the magicians can do, so far it has mostly been simple things, like creating flames, winds and that sort of simple stuff. We have been able to discover, from what they are telling us of course, that they use four kinds of powers, or at least they could use, so they tell us. They use only one of the sources at once when casting, sometimes two, but never more. It gets more difficult along the way."

"Could you please explain more? I am a little, no more than little, at a loss here." Richard stated, and then taking up the coffee mug from the table, using his left hand to pull of the piece of paper, which had stuck to the coffee mug.

"Well, think that you are weaving a mat. You have four colors that you can use, say red, blue, yellow and black. The more colors you use the more beautiful it gets, and usually harder to make too, but that wouldn't mean that if you just used one color, the mat would have to look the same way as another mat with only the same color, or that it would be easier to make than one using three or more other colors. Also it seems to us that females cast in a different way than males, though what the result is we haven't been able to figure fully out yet." Sumpner said as explaining it to a baby. Damn I hate that, Richard though, but there is nothing I can do about it now anymore. How did that man ever rise so high up?

"And may I point out that the other nations are also at the same level as us, but..." Callaghan was about to say when Richard interrupted him.

"I am sure this is very interesting, but right now I need to get some sleep. Just write a formal report, I'll read it when I get up, in an year or two. Now go." he said. The two men calmly walked out, though Callaghan had a disappointed look on his face Richard though.

The next morning Callaghan woke up and just as he was about to take a shower senator Sumpner kicked in his, or would have if it had been made out of wood, but the look on his face actually scared Callaghan a little, before he managed to pull himself together again and respond with an equally aggressive look.

"What the hell? You know that I have a small button outside the door that gives a pling sou..."

"Where the hell have you been? If you hadn't gotten drunk after your little chat with the president and gone to sleep at 3 o'clock, you would have been working the whole night, like some other people here. Have you any idea what is going on, huh?" an angry Timothy shouted in a surprised Callaghan's face, while waving a clipboard in his hand.

"Well, you got precisely 28 minutes to get to the conference room, and be sure to have read the entire report by then. Or else not even god himself is going to save your sorry little ass from the government!" Timothy continued while fixing his tie.

"What report are you talking about? What the hell is wrong?"

"This report" the senator said while slamming the clipboard into Callaghan's chest. Before Callaghan could react Timothy Sumpner had already left the room and closed the metal door behind him.

"What in the name of god is up with that man? I have never seen him like that before. Oh well, I getter bet dressed then. By what he acted like this is important… very important." and a few minutes later he was already studying the report too intensely to notice the clock ticking away.

At approx. 0100/09/25/2001, Friday, every single person with said trait "casting" went into seizures and passing out, in symptoms resembling that of a high degree fever. The symptoms went out after a few hours, leaving all off the in a weakened state (no permanent damage, weakness mostly psychological). No common symptoms are any that could be directly compared to magical abilities, and though some have told about strange dreams (which they do not wish to tell more about), these can be accounted for the normal kind of strange dreams that are happen when having extreme fever.

The incidents were reported live trough the western world and several third world countries still in working shape (as these have often failed to create any kind of organization for magicians fast, they were just walking the streets or sleeping as normal when it happened). Soviets report that none of their magicians (Note: The Soviets use the term channelers, which importance and origin of decision is unknown) were having any kind of seizures, CIA agents and informants report that this is not true, and a special meeting by the politburo is being arranged at 18.00 Moscow time (10.00 EST). The Chinese have reported some events among magicians there, though that nothing dangerous happened and that the "Superb medical personnel of the peoples republic of China" made sure that no one was injured, hurt or in any way damaged (Note: Even without medical help most of the symptoms went away after a three hours at max, leaving no external physical damage, and little other problems than the fact that they didn't feel to well)

Preliminary studies show of no cause for these seizures, and while testing having magicians cast anything at all while connected to medical equipment to check for any incoming virus or bacteria, none was found.

Course of action to taken by the USCG to be chosen at 06.30.

"6.30, isn't that pretty soon?" Callaghan though as he read the last part. "Strange though. I would have expected for the report to hold more, maybe this was just the preliminary version..." and more he didn't have time to think before the clock in his room ringed half 7, and he was out the door running towards the conference room for all he was worth.

It took a few minutes for him to reach the conference room, bumping into one magician on the way there, but otherwise the round underground-corridors were very empty.

As he stepped trough the door towards his chair in the conference room in the main USCG command office just northwest of Dallas/Texas, everyone else was already sitting in their chairs, glaring at him as if he was interrupting something very important.

"Well, good of you to show up only 5 minutes late. Now, I assume you have read the report I gave you, and we don't need to brief you. Now, our intelligence sources report that this can impossibly be a foreign power, the size, effectively and timing of it is way too wide to be possible, and even if it was possible, neither the Soviets or Chinese could possibly have advanced in magic this fast for them to be the cause of this. Now with it being 5 hours since it happened, and there being no reports of new events, I assume that this was a post-casting reaction with a definite time-interval. As to whether it's recurring and if the time between the seizures and the casting event is diminishing or increasing, remains to be seen. Now, do you have anything to add General?" Senator Sumpner said while looking at General Callaghan with his head slight bent forward. Even before he managed to end his last line he already got his reply.

"Well, with all due respect to our intelligence, I remember hearing of a very accurate report that stated that the Soviet Union wouldn't survive the 90's. And look now; those panzers are still in Berlin pointing at ours. But I don't need the CIA to tell me that they aren't the cause of this. Also, since we are exploring something new, I want those so-called 'fever dreams' examined, who knows what they might be. I want us to keep monitoring this, but with the under-manning we have compared to the commies, we need to keep on going even harden than before in training and research. Is that understood?"

Sumpner seemed very disturbed by being cut off in the middle of a line, but nodded angrily after Callaghan had finished. "Well, if you say so we will examine these dreams, but may I point out that we have little money to begin with, our organization wasn't planned for this years budget, and we must spend each penny wisely. Also, unless you have been too 'distracted' to notice, the civil-rights movement has been opposing our recruitment of these mages, saying that we force them to work for militaristic efforts and so on. And when these news break out in large scale this morning, as they already have done in the eastern states, and magic-potentials will flock to us in large scale for some kind of protection, there will be uproar in the political left, especially if you start to do large-scale examinations of the mages. We might not even get any funding next year."

After Sumpners speech, Callaghan took a sip from the coffee mug that was on the table before him, stood up and started to walk away from the room. Before exiting, he turned around and said, "Well, you care about politics and so on, I care about what works, and what does not. And it will not work unless we try to study, find out and examine every aspect of these mages, and in what way they are alike. Now, if you excuse me, I have got a job to do, as I am sure you got too." and then continued to walk out the door and into the corridor.

"Damn that man" he thought "We need to work this the right way, not the political way. Didn't they learn in Vietnam what happens when you try to fight a war when your soldiers have their hands tied to political strings? Somehow I suspect that not even the Soviets are this tied up by political threads. Threads, that's what some off the mages call their different powers that they cast. Fitting, it would seem."

When he finally reached his office he called out to his personal aide "Marie, get a hold of Barker and Gerard. Tell Barker to employ as many psychiatrics he needs to evaluate all these "fever dreams" that the casters just experienced, military psychiatrics or not, and tell Gerard to make sure Barker has the money he needs, whatever way he can get that money. And try to make it fast. Also, get hold off all the leaders in the different departments and bases of casters; I want a meeting with all of them, in person, today at 1600 hours. Thank you." he said, and then turned off the intercom. After that he continued to look trough all the reports that had been coming in to get a grasp of the situation, especially the international.

It didn't say so in the reports, but in one week up to half of the nations in the world had collapsed, and the information gathering business had all but vanished too in Africa save some states such as South Africa, which still had a working media system, but probably not for long. From the few scraps of information he got from the reports about Africa he got the impression that the continent was in a massive religious war. The "pagans" had more or less embraced the new mages. As a matter of fact several of the mages had seized control of their tribe, or not, or they might act as gray eminences. The only thing that was certain was that several groups wielding magic and AK-47's had attacked larger towns all over Africa. But those were not the only ones involved. The Christians had started witch-hunts it seemed like, and were a white cloak, some rope and a cross could be found, the Inquisition was active. No info on what this Inquisition was though, individual events or a co-coordinated organization. The Muslims had also started to hunt the mages, but information on what they did was even thinner that on the Christians. And on top of that armed conflict between Christians and Muslims was the new norm, with various rumors of mages fighting for either or both sides. Of course all the governments had lost all their power, the UN building in New York currently held most of the African leaders and highly ranking military personnel.

"Right, so Africa is in the toilet. What else is new? South America seems to be next in line on these reports," he said to himself before he started to read. Central America seemed to actually be in rather good shape. Some of the nations had even started official mage-organizations. There was a side note about that it might be possible that Cuba was working together with the SU. In the South American countryside there were rumors about mage-guerillas, and about something known as the Inquisition. All the various guerrilla factions seemed to exploit the general disarray though. In several nations were in a small-scale civil war, but for now the major cities hadn't had any fighting in them. Two major points were that apparently the president of Chile, Loganus Servaz could channel, and the fighting around the border of Surinam and French Guyana seemed to indicate that it was more than just some random fighting. There were rumors that the cities of Cottica and Moengo had the French flag flying over them. Another report claimed the EU had troops there, and some newspaper in Russia had written that the American flag had been seen flying over some cities in Surinam. There was no press allowed there, and apparently the major communication channels out of Surinam were offline.

Australia and New Zealand had started Mages Unions after the EU model, which would equal unorganized, overbureocratic and inefficient in his opinion. It needed a European to create something both unorganized and overbureocratic it would seem, but apparently the Aussies managed it too. The Islamic countries in Asia didn't have Mages unions, but quite a few death squads hunting them. There were lots of mages applying for refugee status in the US and EU. But the bureaucracy was slow on that point, and apparently the SU welcomed all mages to "the workers and channelers paradise", which was their new slogan. No reliable intel had been received from the SU and PRC on their mage, or channelers as they called them, programs, other that they were drafting each and every single channeler that could be found, and apparently had large institutions for them to do whatever they do in.

And last but not least he though with a sigh after looking at the pile of papers was Europe. Here the CIA had drowned in info. It held press-statements, videos, official numbers and so on. Apparently there were official mage-organizations. Actually each nation seemed to have at least two official organizations plus the army units. And on top of that the official EU organization that had started yesterday. And there were an indefinable number of private organizations.

"Yeah, we have got 'an indefinable number or private organizations' too." He said quietly after reading all the reports. One worrying aspect was the lack of info about the SU and PRC. The report at the meeting this morning had implied that the CIA was at least moderately informed, but these stated that they didn't know jack shit about anything.

As the day went on he went to the hospital areas of the compound. It was filled with channelers, and although talk softened as he walked by he still heard that they complained about having to be in the hospital. And they all really seemed fine, he though as he entered the door into the office of the head-doctor.

"So doc, in short, can you explain to me what happened to them, and can we let them get back to training and research?" Callaghan asked the head-doctor while taking a seat in front of his desk.

"Well, the actual reason is yet unknown, but it has quite definitely something to do with their magic ability. The sickness seemed to strike all of them at the same time, and I highly doubt that internal chemical reaction is to blame; we should have noticed at least some difference in the starting time of the sickness. You should really ask them about it. I am unsure if it was a one-of-a-time occurrence or something that happens all the time. We'll find out in the end about that though. Now, about the soldiers in the corridor, I had planned to keep them here for observation, but if you order it they can get back to training."

"Right. I'll allow them to back to studying. And you find out every gad damn thing about this event that you can. Scientific data, rumors, loony theories, anything. If a mage says he talked to god, then I want that written up. And send it free form by E-Mail. " he said, after which he walked out of the room. Soon thereafter allot of content mages walked out of the hospital areas, trying out new weaves as they walked. Callaghan was also rather content as he walked out of the hospital, far more content than he would have been if he had known what the quiet talk in the barracks was usually about. Many of the mages believed that having to ability to channel, as they called it, made them into better people those normals. And from that there was also some discontentment that they were being ruled by people who could not, or in other words, people of a lower status.