"Everything goes just as planned until it doesn't. it's one of the laws." – Kurt during an after-action review.

Jay was standing next to Kurt on the catwalk, watching as the support squads ran through the exercise again. "Those bracelets are rather effective." He commented while watching as the team seemed to flicker back and forth while peaking around a corner.

"Yup, and it only took a few hours to get over the nausea." Kurt said.

"I am surprised that Holtat continues to get sick though."

Kurt felt bad for the dwarf as she seemed to be not only training hard but also restricting her eating until after they were done training. "Gotta give her credit though, she hasn't given up and other than needing the mop bucket handy, she is one of the better ones."

"Apparently she took part in some rather fierce tunnel fighting in the last clan war on her home world." Jay commented in his overly mellow tone. "How much for all those, by the way?"

Shrugging, Kurt gave his best estimate. "Closest I can guess is they would sell for something around twenty thousand each."

Jay watched as the team below burst into a room and quickly penetrated deep into it while hosing the targets in gunfire. "I would probably say closer to twenty-eight or thirty if you were to sell it at one of the guild outlets."

Kurt looked over at the man who was still focused on the team below. "So, what, call it twenty-five and split the difference?"

"For those ones? Sure. But we also need to talk about the ones you gave the other agents." Jay smirked as the exercise ended and all the people below cleared their weapons. "Those ones would likely be fifty or sixty thousand, not counting the other two enchantments which bring it closer to a hundred each."

"Are you going to make them Order equipment?" Kurt asked. He didn't care one way or the other but wanted to know what his boss was thinking.

He shrugged. "I don't think so."

"Well then let them pay for them. If you want to subsidize the purchase, then that's between you and them but I would say do it for cost."

"And what is that cost?" Jay smirked.

Having a feeling the demon was fishing for something, Kurt proceeded with caution. "Well, each one is about two ounces of gold so five grand each for that. Then the inlay material is probably another grand, add in another thousand for the crystals brings us to around five thousand in materials."

"And what is your hourly rate for these?"

This one was a hard one for him to answer. Because he was selling his time when making these, he had to be conscious of that or he would never turn a profit. "What would you suggest?"

Jay smiled in a rather friendly way that unnerved Kurt. It was like he was a certain clown fish meeting a group of 'friendly' sharks. "Well, do you want to bill by the hour of by the result? I would say the result because you are selling your expertise and use of specialty equipment. If you bill by the hour, you will have people always badgering you about how long something takes and how their nephew's, cousin's, roommate can do it in half the time."

"Personal experience?" Kurt quipped.

"The early two thousands was a very trying time for me when I first tried to figure out computers." Jay said, being a little defensive. "But back to the topic at hand, how to charge people."

Kurt considered the advice and watched as piper over committed into a short room at a high velocity, bouncing off the bookshelf that was along the wall before recovering. "I would say result. That way I can plug away at it as I have time and not have to track everything."

"Fair enough. So, let's call it two thousand in labor for each, then. That assumes you spread the development and actual labor across all eight of them-" Jay began again before Kurt cut him off.

"Seven. Don't count mine."

Squinting at him slightly before the meaning of the words dawned on him, Jay continued. "Across the seven then. That brings us to seven thousand each. But I say we throw in an extra thousand for a rush order job."

"You just wanted to make it an even fifty thousand." Kurt pointed out.

"Well yes." Jay admitted without a bit of shame. Kurt snorted in amusement before the demon continued. "Also, I will personally be fronting the purchase of that little defensive charm you figured out for Sam. Twenty-five thousand seem fair?"

Turning to look at him after the Tacoma team finished laughing at their team leader, Kurt had to disagree. "No, that's way too much and Sam already agreed to trade me some other resources for it."

Jay waved his hand. "Yeah, resources that you have no idea what you want and will likely forget about and just turn into a friendly exchange of favors and small gifts over the next several decades while the reason slips away into annals of history."

"That seems a little too personal." Kurt felt like he was being accused of something but couldn't figure out what.

"That's because it is." Jay said. "I also have a vested interest in my agent's survival and comfort. That's why I am spending so much on so few teams. You are all working harder than the normal field offices and the cost to performance ratio is already better than them."

Kurt sighed heavily, swiping a hand over his face. "Fine, twenty-five sounds fine."

"Then we have the wands." Jay said, pointing to the group who was practicing with them mounted to their guns. Kurt had been both surprised and amused by the antics that went on with them. He had only made twenty of them, but the teams took to the practice with a will.

They had found a way to have fun after testing and getting to know the hard limits of the wands. Over on the side of the large room there was now several large, padded mats that had been laid out. The support troops had taken turns trying to run from one side to the other while their fellows tried to paralyze them with the wands. It was honestly rather amusing as they sometimes bounced or rolled after the spell took effect.

Jay watched for a moment before continuing. "Something like those would sell for fifteen grand a pop on the open market."

"Call it ten each?" Kurt said. "Assuming you will be keeping them."

"No, let's do fifteen each with a commission for another thirty at ten each. That way we are sticking to five full squads' worth like with the bracelets. Putting that on the invoice will make it look like I got a killer deal." The demon replied to a moment later.

Kurt thought about it for a few seconds. "Fine by me. I can't deliver on those until after we get back however." It was true, he had been absolutely tapped out on enchanting. The bracelets had been one thing but that amulet for Sam had taken a lot of mental energy to figure out and he felt a break was needed.

"Great, so that brings us up to a total of One point nine-two-four million." Jay grinned as they turned to walk off the catwalk and rejoin the teams in the rest area. "Into your cash account again?"

Almost about to agree out of habit, Kurt paused and quickly changed his answer. "Can I actually get a million and a half in gold and silver bullion and wire of a few different gauges? The rest can be in the account."

Jay looked a little taken aback. "Why gold and silver?"

With a wry smile, Kurt tapped the bracelet he was wearing. "I ran down my supply and need to restock." He had put a serious dent in his supplies this time and was in desperate need to refill sooner than later.

Rolling his eyes, Jay agreed and promised to bring it over at some point. They continued on to where the teams were chatting amongst themselves. The support teams, who had previously stayed away from the agents, were now intermixed and seemed to be getting along like a house on fire.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Kurt got their attention and called a close to the training day. He then told them that they would be holding a briefing two days later, before they stepped off for the assault. He wanted to give them one full day of rest and recovery before the operation. He also thought they earned it after five days of nearly nonstop training.

Naturally all the eyes turned to Jay who nodded in support. "Listen to Kurt, he was given command of this mission and the training. And since no good deed goes unpunished…" He smiled and turned to Kurt. "I think he will also be the tactical commander for this raid. I will retain operations command and leave the rest to him."

"You're a dick." Kurt grumbled quietly while the gathered teams and agents gave him encouraging smiles and a few quiet claps.

"And still your boss. Let's see how you get on with this and we can talk about future rewards and responsibilities." Jay said back, causing Kurt to sigh in defeat. Jay was hoping that with a little more pushing, he could not only get Kurt to take on a little more work but also take a fair cut for his labors.

*****

A couple days later, Kurt stepped through a portal and quickly moved out of the way. He had experienced firsthand what happens when someone doesn't clear a path quick enough and running into someone while falling through a portal sucked.

"And here we are in lovely… where are we again?" Val said as she materialized from the Order portal.

"Currently? Fayetteville North Carolina. As for where the actual coven house is, that is a drive over to Greenville South Carolina." Kurt told her. Kristi joined them a few moments later and they watched the rest of the agents and support teams flow through and assemble off in the waiting areas.

Just as they had begun to appear, an elf in on of the Order's monogramed polo shirt came trotting over. "I assume y'all are here on orders?" He drawled in a thick southern accent.

"Yeah, talk to that dwarf over there." Kurt said, pointing to where Jeffery had moved off to with his team. "He can help get everything moving until the boss shows."

After a brief and confused look as to why the boss wasn't there already, the elf just moved off to go harass the handler for the Tacoma team. A few minutes later, Jay and Penny popped into existence then moved off to the desk on the far side of the area where a few local officials were handling things.

Kurt and his team followed after, wanting to be near by since he was the tactical commander for this operation. They arrived just after the two people at the desk began talking. The duo looked human, but Kurt's nose told him they were both some form of beast kin, but he couldn't tell what other than 'cat'.

"…Can begin to ferry you out there within the hour. We have a few tour busses on hand to move everyone unless you would prefer vans." Said one of them.

"Let's stick to busses for now with three vans in support. Then we can move with two of them rather than nearly a dozen vans." Jay responded in his usually smooth tone.

"Very good. Can I have the intel folks ride with you? Then they can brief you on the latest as you drive." The same one responded, clearly the official spokes' person of the duo.

"Fine by me." Jay said with a wave of his hand. "Point us toward the busses and we can begin to load people up." He looked to Kurt. "Can you round up the agents and two of the teams to one buss while the rest can head to the second bus."

Kurt moved off and had everyone loading up within minutes of being pointed at the garage area. When he boarded the bus with the girls in tow, it was to see the front half made into a pseudo conference space with bench seating and a screen hanging from the ceiling.

Shortly after they sat down, the two from Jay's support team climbed up, Michael and Surath who both took their places at the front of the bus. Jay and the driver boarded a moment later and within a few seconds, they were moving.

Jay signaled for the two support personnel to begin, Surath going first. "The threads have been convoluted and tangled for every divination I have tried. This leads me to believe that there is some interference caused by anti-scry formations or similar."

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Kristi asked. Her tone was clipped as she focused on the displayed map on the screen.

"Because I can scry and divine in the surrounding area at the time of the event. That leads me to the only other option, which is that they are creating interference." The goblin answered smoothly, her eyes locking on Kristi from the unintended challenge.

Michael spoke up next. "They have not been so successful at hiding their other, more electronic, means of communication, however." He then clicked to a slide on the screen and showed a map. "We have video surveillance around the property from several web cams that point in the right direction."

The map now showed a series of dots around the town. "I also have an Order satellite on station above that is providing a real time feed of the property." Michael clicked to a slide with a series of images. "We can see here that they have seen a large increase in personal vehicle traffic over the last several days. I have cross referenced the ride share sites and the count of vehicles parked on the property to get a count of roughly forty to fifty mages, not counting support staff."

"That's a lot of relatively high-power magic users." Sam said.

A frown crossed Michaels face at that. "It gets worse. They have hired some security." He highlighted an image then clicked to show a series of red blobs on the surprisingly high-resolution image. Then he played an audio recording.

"Golf one, this is Papa." A voice came over a radio transmission. The signal was distorted but the voices were clear enough, along with the little clicks and pops that signified radio chatter.

"Golf one."

"Be advised, Lima is advising of four more arriving this afternoon via Uber."

"Roger, Papa. Is that one vic or multiple?"

"Wait one." The radio chatter went silent for a minute until the voice came back with a heavy sigh. "Golf, you can expect two vic's one pax and three pax." The voice sounded strained, like it was annoyed at something.

"Roger, two vic one pax and three pax."

"Good copy, Golf." The voice known as 'Papa' confirmed. "OP North, radio check…"

They listened as the voices ran through a series of radio checks and confirmations. They confirmed that there was some sort of observation point at each wall of the compound and even a few within the walls.

"Do we have any positions for these mercenaries?" Kurt asked and watched as the little red parts of the image grew a little brighter and labels appeared.

"Yes, but we don't have any for inside the buildings, if there are any." Michael answered. "We think these are hired help for the conclave and are normal humans that may or may not be in the know."

"They are in the know." Kurt said. "You can't have that many magic users in one place and not have something slip out. Also, I would expect them to be hired based on a recommendation, which comes with its own implications."

"What's with the names?" Jay asked.

"Call signs for positions." Kurt answered then scribbled on a pad of paper. "Things like OP are Out Post, Golf is probably Gate and Lima is likely Leader or Leak. I assume Papa is a short version of a P word they use or a position."

"Ok, go on." Jay said as the tech took back over.

Michael launched back into his findings and gave estimates on troop numbers and disposition for the hired mercenaries. Unfortunately, they used a rotating relief schedule so they couldn't pin down any set guard rotations, needing to guess at an hour-long window for the four shifts. They did manage to pinpoint the three observation points and the gate along with what seemed to be a posting on a section of flat rooftop.

Sometime later, they arrived at their layup point for the raid. For some reason, Jay had selected a cheap hotel, renting out nearly all of it to accommodate the more than sixty people that were along for the mission.

While he walked past the front desk, Kurt thought he heard Kevin telling the young man at the counter that they were traveling for a conference. He said that the company had decided busses were better than several dozen plane tickets. Apparently, the little lie worked because the man instantly lost interest as Kevin began talking about how they were really excited to see the new developments in 'hydrophobic bathroom tile'.

After getting into their room, Kurt and the girls met in Jay's room to go over final plans for the raid along with the other agents. They had gone over so many walk throughs that they were about sick of trying to poke holes in the same plan, but it was the nature of the beast.

*****

Later that night, Kurt encountered something that he never thought he would be impressed by. A spell or ritual that controls the weather. It was simple, devious and highly effective.

He had been rather concerned about the initial assault and being so exposed while approaching the grounds. In fact, he wasn't the only one, as many of the other leaders had also expressed concern until Jay reminded them that they had their handlers to act as support in situations like these.

Penny, Jeffery and Radis had all banded together, forming a rough triangle around the compound. They had picked locations that had line of sight to each other, which complicated things in the slightly hilly terrain. That line of sight, despite the great distance, had allowed them to make a widespread ritual to bring in heavy fog over the area.

"Feels like cheating." Kurt muttered into his mic as he watched their van disappear into the fog.

"So, it's cheating to utilize all your tools?" Piper asked as she slid up next to him. "If that is the case, I hate to know what you think about the rings and bracelets."

"Gate has two on it." Sam said into the radio before Kurt could respond. "They have one small guard shack with both sitting inside."

She had been tasked with conducting a recon of the gate area since her vampiric mist blended surprisingly well in the foggy night. Their original plan had been to have her do a full lap, but it wasn't needed as the satellite had confirmed the other walls had their guards pulled in with the dense fog.

"Roger. Can you push in?"

"Yes, gate isn't warded against vampires."

"Then go." Kurt said and quickly followed up with his other team leaders.

They had three of the five support teams acting as a cordon force to deny any support or escape, with one of the teams currently in a ditch just off the road. Kurt and his team were waiting a little closer, under cover of Val's illusions. Piper was also with them, planning on going in with them when the guards went down.

Rupert was doing his own thing that night. His specialty was a form of conjuration, and he was going to be assisting the last support team on getting over the ten-foot-tall walls. Apparently, he was planning on making a sort of ramp and they were just going to be able to run right up. They also had the job of trying to get in through the patio on the far side of the main house. Every team was going to have its hands full just from the sheer size of the estate and how much was walled in.

A few moments later, Kurt heard a triple click on his radio. No words were spoken since the vampiric changeling was now waiting to strike and didn't want to alert her victims. At her signal, the remaining forces all began to report in with their readiness.

Kurt began a final count down once he had run through the mental checklist of all his assets that were in play. "All teams, begin assault on my mark. Three…Two…One…Ma-"

"Golf one this is Papa. Radio check."

"-rk." Kurt finished realizing a moment later that they had poorly timed it so perfectly that there must be some sort of divine interference. A second later, the radio chatter began coming in and he was left with no choice but to commit to the plan. It just happened to be plan C in this case.

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