CHAPTER 7
David and Burgess just stood at the doorway momentarily stunned. David, for his part was combing his memory for the name Dumbledore because it sounded awfully familiar, and not just because of the ironic resemblance to Sir Albert's name.
Then he had it.
"You are the Headmaster of the wizard school?" David stated, while throwing a glare in Sir Albert's direction. David felt betrayed. He had just spent 4 months of his life, at the behest of Sir Albert, developing a means to combat magic and here was, according to the intel brief provided by Smith, one of the most powerful wizards in the UK, if not the world, standing and having a gab-fest with Sir Albert IN HIS OFFICE!
"Indeed I am," Dumbledore replied politely. "A pleasure to meet you Captain Manteit, Professor Burgess."
Sir Albert uncomfortably stood up, holding out his palm towards his Physicist and Engineer. "Gentlemen, there is no doubt need for an explanation before you stage a mutiny, so if I may?"
David remained standing in his spot, he glanced at Burgess, who looked at him and nodded slightly. David looked back at Sir Albert.
"Very well sir"
'It had better be bloody good.' He thought but not dare say.
"As you should know from the latest Intelligence update, there has been something of an upheaval in the wizarding world, seems that Voldemort wasn't actually dead and now, he and his Death-Eaters are starting to resurface."
"Yes sir, we know, that has made our work all the more critical." Burgess stated somewhat impatiently.
"What we didn't know," Sir Albert continued, "Was that Albus here ran something of a counter-insurgency against Voldemort in the 1980's and with his re-emergence has reformed his old group."
"The Order of the Phoenix." Dumbledore added.
"Yes," Sir Albert continued, not wanting to lose his momentum. "They covertly faced off with these Death Eaters when the Ministry of Magic did nothing."
David then butted in. "That's very noble Sir Albert, still doesn't explain why he is here."
It was then that Dumbledore spoke.
"When I reformed the Order of the Phoenix, I had intended to approach Edward here if he would join in the place of his cousin Frank, but perplexingly, I couldn't find him."
"Because he spends most of his time here." Burgess offered, a little calmer now.
"Precisely. I found it rather confusing that I couldn't track him down and had almost given up when I stumbled across him in Diagon Alley, speaking with one of your agents. Rather than openly approach Edward, I just observed him. My curiosity was peaked when I witnessed Edward hand your man several papers, including a copy of The Daily Prophet. Highly irregular."
It was Edward that now spoke.
"It breaks the wizarding laws of keeping our world secret from you."
"Indeed, not something I would have thought Mr Longbottom capable of. When Edward left the meeting, I followed your man, my curiosity aroused, following him all the way to Westminster before losing him in the elevator. I watched the comings and goings for a few more days, I even tried to apparate into your facility and failed."
Sir Albert chimed in, "The closest description is like beaming in Star Trek, disappear from one place to appear in another."
"But you have to know where you are going for it to work." Edward added. "Not even Dumbledore could have guessed what was here."
"Yes, kept ending up in a janitor's closet on the second floor."
Sir Albert, Dumbledore and Edward shared a chuckle between themselves. David was not amused.
"Sir Albert," David interrupted, barely controlling his anger, "With respect, why is there a wizard that is not Edward here in your office?"
"Apologies, Captain." It was Dumbledore that spoke. "I will spare the details but suffice to say I played a hunch and followed Sir Albert one day and approached him while he was having lunch with Edward in a café."
David and Burgess eyed Sir Albert. "As easy as that?"
Sir Albert blushed a little under the gaze of his subordinates, but quickly regained his composure and reasserted his authority.
"Gentlemen, the extraordinary nature of our endeavour was, is, our greatest security measure. Neither ordinary British subject nor wizard would even entertain the idea of our existence. Put simply, no one would find us because no one would bother to look."
Sir Albert went on. "I'll come to the point shall I? Professor Dumbledore has offered us the services of the Order of the Phoenix to help us put our equipment through their final paces before deployment. His reputation has proceeded him and Edward has vouched for him."
"Plus, you didn't have much of a choice if you wanted to maintain anonymity with the Ministry of Magic." Albus concluded for him.
"Am I to assume you are no longer in their good graces?" Burgess asked Dumbledore.
"Indeed, I have even been absent from Hogwarts on my own mission for the Order against Voldemort. But rest assured that I have come to the conclusion that your endeavours here may prove vital in the events to come."
David had one final question for Dumbledore.
"I presume you know what we have been doing here?" Dumbledore nodded.
"How can you be comfortable with that?
"Honestly my boy I wondered what took you so long. I have never agreed with the Ministry's attitude towards you all and given the progress your society has made with…"
Dumbledore turned to Edward, "Technology?" He asked Edward to confirm he said the word correctly, "It was only a matter of time before you took the steps you have."
David wasn't happy, but he realized there was little he could do about it. Logically, the existence of MoDAM was going to become known sooner or later. Not the way David would have chosen, but cest la vie.
At that moment, the intercom on Sir Albert's desk buzzed.
"Are they ready Hannah?"
"Yes Sir Albert."
"Send them in."
Sir Albert turned to Dumbledore. "Behold the fruits of our endeavours."
The door opened and the three SAS troopers strode in. While Lee was still in his uniform, Jamieson and Corporal Tanner was wearing the equipment that was ready for testing.
Dumbledore looked them up and down
"This should prove very interesting indeed."
CHAPTER 8
Two days later, on an abandoned Oil Rig in the North Sea.
David stood on a gangway that overlooked the Oil Rig's Helicopter Pad. He was in his DPMs and cold weather gear, despite it being the onset of summer. They were closer to the North Pole than the tropics, so "summer" was a relative term here. With him stood Burgess, and Lee on his left, with Sir Albert, Dumbledore and Edward on his right.
On the Helicopter pad below them, 4 SAS troopers and 3 Wizards waited for the signal to begin. The SAS troopers were standing in pairs, one standing just in front of the other. All four were dressed head to toe in body armour, which was the colour of glossy gun-metal and full faced helmets that resembled Grand Prix racing helmets with gold tinted visors. The man standing behind had one hand on his partner's shoulder, while in the other he held a gun. The man in front held a riot shield the same colour as the armour.
Standing opposite them, were three wizards, who Dumbledore and Edward seemed to trust implicitly, that volunteered to help MoDAM test their gear. An older red headed man named Arthur and his son Charlie. The third was a witch David heard Edward call Hestia.
Sir Albert took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Here was the culmination of the last 16 years of his life and he was about to learn whether his work and time, and that of countless others had truly been worth it.
"Shall we begin?" he said to all the men gathered. He was met with silence, taking that as his cue, Sir Albert raised a whistle to his lips and blew one long shrill blast.
The SAS troopers, tensed and began moving in tandem, tracking the wizards as they began to circle them. As the troopers moved, they slowly began to close the gap between the two pairs.
Without any apparent warning, the wizard named Charlie stepped forward and flourished his wand as he exclaimed "Expeliarmus!"
David saw the energy explode from the wand towards the SAS troopers. The lead trooper lifted the shield and met the blast square on. The spell dissipated over the shield, and seemed to cascade over the troopers like water cascading over a statue. The troopers, held their ground, keeping firm hold on their weapons.
The wizards and witch were visibly surprised, clearly not expecting the shield and armour to work. The witch recovered first and pointed her wand at the second pair
"Stupify!" The result was the same. The three magic users started working together, trying to target the second man standing behind the trooper with the shield. One would try and distract him, while the other wizard aimed at the trooper behind. The troopers on their part cottoned on to this tactic pretty quickly and the two pairs defended each other as the wizards tried in vain to breach their defences. A few times in the melee, the trooper holding the gun was hit with a magical blast, which caused him to step back, but he recovered quickly, placing his hand back on his partner's shoulder.
This went on for a few more minutes, with wizards proving unable to knock down or disarm the troopers, all their spells cascading harmlessly off their shields and armour.
"Astounding." Was the only word any of them could mutter. It was Dumbledore. For the first time in a long time he was utterly bewildered and more than a little perturbed. He glanced at the muggles standing around him. They each had a grin from ear to ear and they all seemed to stand taller with pride. Deservedly so, Dumbledore had to admit.
"Shall we move to phase two?" Sir Albert asked Dumbledore.
"By all means." Replied Dumbledore. At that Sir Albert raised his whistle to his lips again and this time blew two short shrill bursts.
On hearing the whistle blasts, the eldest wizard stopped and waved his hand frantically to stop the proceedings.
"Albus are you sure? The Ministry..?"
"It's quite alright Arthur," Dumbledore shouted back, "We are far enough off shore that the ministry will never detect us. Are you still able to continue?"
Arthur shrugged his shoulders. "Yes Albus if you are sure, must admit I am curious, if not comfortable about this."
"I know Arthur, do your best."
Arthur looked at the left hand pair of troopers and pointed at them. "Ready?"
The two troopers settled themselves, the lead trooper raising his shield.
Arthur raised his wand, "Crucio!"
A powerful, steady blast shot out from his wand and again hit the shield square on, the soldiers buckled slightly, but then step by step started closing the gap between themselves and Arthur. Arthur seemed to push back, but the soldiers kept slowly coming.
Up on the gangway Lee Bainbridge watched the dispositions of the wizards and his men. The younger wizard and the witch moved closer to Arthur, their wands still raised but their eyes wide with shock. Giving Sir Albert a quick side glance and getting a nod in reply, Lee spoke into his comm gear. "Alpha 1. Now."
At that order one of the troopers in the second pair through out a disc the size of a tea plate, which landed just in front of the magic users. A second later, a loud "Crack!" emanated from the device and a shimmering wave washed over the Helicopter pad. The curse issuing from Arthur's wand suddenly disappeared and all three of the magic users seemed to lose their balance and stumble back. The witch Hestia seemed to recover first and raised her wand shouting, "Expeliarmus!"
And nothing happened.
Lee spoke into his throat mike again. "Finish it."
The two troopers with the guns raised their weapons and fired.
In quick succession, three paint balls exploded on Arthur's, Charlie's and Hestia's chest.
CHAPTER 9.
Twenty minutes later, all the participants sat in the dining hall of the Oil Rig. At the front of the room sat the observation party, to their left was the SAS, with the magic users sitting dejectedly on their right. The troopers kept their helmets on, preferring to maintain the Regiment's policy of anonymity but they quietly chatted amongst themselves, comparing notes on what each had seen and experienced during the test.
Arthur, Charlie and Hestia were speaking with Dumbledore and Edward, seemingly swapping notes themselves. This conversation was much more tense, with the three combatants occasionally giving Edward a foul look as they spoke. Dumbledore for his part, was trying to keep the conversation between them calm, but it was proving to be a losing battle.
Sir Albert finally stood and cleared his throat.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, if we can come together now please? I would again like to extend my gratitude to Albus and his people for agreeing to help us today. Rest assured your contributions were invaluable, as well as your insights will be now."
Hestia spoke before Dumbledore could give the formal reply.
"If we had known what would happen to us, we would never have agreed to this test."
Edward turned his head towards her. "We told you who the muggles were and what they wanted to do, you still volunteered."
Hestia's voice cracked as she shouted, "I DIDN'T AGREE TO LOSING ALL OF MY MAGIC!"
David looked at her, he managed to supress a grin and as he spoke, he even managed to contain his smugness, but his eyes still conveyed how he really felt.
"It wasn't permanent, the effects of the EMP disc wore off a few minutes ago."
David thought that Hestia was going to zap him there and then, but Arthur reached out and put a calming hand on her shoulder before standing to address the group.
"You can clearly see your devices work. And you can probably see how scary it is for us to be on the receiving end of it." Arthur then allowed himself a little chuckle. "I would pay anything to watch you use it on Lucius M.." Dumbledore stopped him there with an interruption.
"I think we would all like to know how you achieved this." He said as he directed his gaze towards David and Burgess. All other eyes in the room turned in their direction as well and David was suddenly very uncomfortable. The old conundrum of how to explain the science started in his head again. As he was searching for the words, Edward, unexpectantly saved him.
"It's basically their version of a shield charm, they copied it using technology."
Arthur spoke up, "Do you mean you used…" he bowed his head as he searched for the word, "Science?"
"Suffice to say it would take us a while to explain the details, but essentially yes." Burgess replied.
"But you withstood the cruciatus curse." Arthur said. "There is only a handful of wizards in the world that can pull that off. And none of them can do what you did."
"What is it supposed to do?" This from one of the SAS troopers. David recognised it was Jamieson.
Charlie turned to face their direction, unsure which one actually spoke. "It's meant to cause excruciating pain. If you are struck by it, you can't move or think for the pain."
"Huh," Jamieson exclaimed. "We did feel something, it was more of a dull ache though, like you feel after a heavy workout."
Charlie could scarcely believe what he just heard. "And you were able to just ignore it?"
David could easily picture Jamieson's grin beneath his helmet.
"That's what we do."
Arthur eyed them wearily. "Who are you anyway?"
The SAS troopers looked at each other and then to their officer, Lee Bainbridge who took it as his cue. In the next few minutes Lee explained to the magic users who the SAS were and what they did. All the witches and wizards were visibly surprised. David surmised that there was no one like them in the Wizarding world. He looked at the wizards and Hestia in particular to try and read their mood.
He could see that they were visibly shaken. And David empathised with them. They had just learned that "Muggles" now had the ability to stand up to their magic, not just stand up to it, but take it away. And to now know that ability was in the hands of men like the SAS, sobering doesn't begin to cover it. It was terrifying. In the space of an hour these people had undergone a massive shift in their paradigm, the scales had shifted very much against them. David offered them an olive branch.
"I know you may not believe me, but our goal is not to harm the wizarding world, but to protect ourselves." They all looked at him like he had just told them the moon was made of cheese.
'I can't blame them, I wouldn't have believed me either.' David thought to himself.
It was then that Dumbledore turned to face the group.
"It is true that none of us," Dumbledore turned and gestured towards his friends, "believed your technology would be as effective as it was. And given the affect it had on us, I can only imagine it will be even more potent against Voldemort's Death Eaters."
Arthur, Charlie, Edward and Hestia all nodded their agreement, Arthur again allowed himself a smile at the thought.
"And now that I have had time to contemplate what I have seen and learned, you will actually be of great help to us. Part of the Order's mandate is to protect you against the Death Eaters, now I see that you are now capable of doing that yourselves, it allows us to direct our efforts elsewhere."
Sir Albert spoke for them. "Thank you Albus, I'll take that as high praise indeed, but like you, we can't be everywhere. We will gladly accept any help you can give us."
"Of course Sir Albert." Dumbledore sat back down. Sir Albert turned to the group.
"We have had a successful day, but there is more to do. For now, our secret is still safe and we remain hidden from the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters, but that won't last forever."
He looked around the room before he continued.
"We are in an arms race lady and gentlemen and so far we have had the advantage, the other side has no idea we exist so we have a massive head start. But when we finally step from the shadows, the race will truly begin and you an believe Voldemort will not take our existence lightly."
A clap of thunder from an approaching North Sea storm punctuated Sir Albert's words.
"Storm coming." David said.
"Indeed, there is." Dumbledore said quietly.