Editor's note: though not classified as Illustrated, this story contains images.

Author's note -- Please read from chapter 1 to best comprehend all that's going on here. It's a complicated tale, and sexy-times happen as the story calls for them. Given everything else that's going on for Ray and company, they don't happen all that frequently. That may or may not change- we'll have to wait and see!

All characters described as taking part in sexual activities are 18 or older.

Chapter 35

Shortly after that, Ray took over the show. "OK, folks -- For those who've had this discussion before, I apologize, but I feel a need to go over all this again. Jessica -- we're good with NDAs?"

Jessica gave Ray a big thumbs-up.

"Wonderful. Anyone here have any active links to anyone who hasn't signed an NDA yet? They'll get cut off shortly -- check with those who sat in the intro meeting for your company if you don't believe me. I'll give you five minutes."

Five minutes later, Ray spoke up from the front of the room again. "OK, so no links going out in thirty seconds, final warning! All right, that's thirty -- links are down." Ray brought up another Cone of Silence, including everyone who'd signed the NDAs plus Tauriz, himself, and Mac. "Welcome to the background brief.

"Short and dirty summary. Magic exists, genies exist, lots of weird creatures exist, and very few humans recognize this. Your leadership here has seen proof of this, but here's some more." Ray snapped his fingers and destroyed a small amount of air over his head. The vacuum imploded with a loud BANG. "Magic can create and destroy mass with obvious secondary effects, such as that small shockwave. These shockwaves and other effects can get MUCH larger. Such as," and here Ray summoned a twelve-foot long brass staff from the ring Tauriz's knife had shifted into, "solid brass staves," he changed it into a large two-handed mace made of brass, "maces, or most anything else one could imagine." He shifted the ring into a brass dinner fork, then returned the weapon to the ring shape on his left hand.

"Humans aren't the only sentient species on the face of the planet, and recorded history goes back before Pangaea split up. That's a long, long time ago for those of you who don't remember your earth science. Dinosaurs and humanoids were fighting kinds of scenarios.

"I don't know what the maximum range of human magic is, but we have shown we can reach at least geosynchronous orbit. We know of an event in the historical record where angelics -- another class of intelligent beings -- reached out almost to Jupiter. Yes, the asteroid belt used to be a planet, and they destroyed it. Then again, angelics are generally considered to be a level beyond most any mortal power.

"A quick taxonomy of the major mortal sentient species. In order of age, oldest species first: Hinn. Mostly dead, the survivors enslaved by the Jinn. Binn, Mostly dead if not enslaved by the Jinn. Timm, mostly dead if not enslaved by the Jinn. Rimm, mostly dead if not enslaved by the Jinn. Jann, currently fighting themselves and the Jinn. Then the Jinn. Finally, humanity. There's another species or perhaps genus of sentient species called the angelics. These angelics created each of the other species, but they are not purely mortal. They don't die unless great effort is expended, and are thus considered 'non-mortal.' There's a hypothetical "immortal" category, as well. True immortals cannot die.

"Each species, save humanity, is effectively 'built' around a different archetypal mystic force. The three we'll mostly be talking about are the Hinn, the Jann, and the Jinn for reasons that should soon become clear. The Hinn are built around what's known as samum, which translates as something like 'the scorching fire.' Samum is primarily a destructive force, but it can be used to create. Think of a forge or a kiln, along those lines.

"Jann are built around qalb al'qamar, roughly translated as 'heart of the moon.' They're ever-changing, but they're also relentless -- the moon is always changing but also always returns to full in its own time. We've been in contact with Jann recently, actually within about a hundred yards from here.

"Jinn are built around manij min mar, aka the "smokeless flame." This can be considered similar to the candlelight you carry that blinds you to the movement in the darkness around you. It has tremendous potential with deception, but not much direct destructive ability. A team of a dozen Jinn attacked us without provocation last night. One was allowed to leave with a message back to its leader.

"Humanity's lack of a fundamental force is both a blessing and a curse. This lack makes them all-rounders in the magical world. Others have areas of strength and weakness and have to take care not to fall into a weak area in a conflict. The weakness of humans is the lack of a specialty and also the inability to offset the costs of magic with a fundamental force. This latter bit means that human magic comes directly from human health. The more magic a human does, the weaker they get. Too much magic used and -- death. Ends up looking a lot like death from exposure, fatigue, or starvation, often all of them.

"So for your private information, Tauriz is genie, created from Hinn. Genie -- singular and plural both, same word - are creatures enslaved by others and forced into eternal servitude. Genie do not die natural deaths, making them non-mortal by the prior guideline. For reasons we don't know, someone shipped me what's known as her 'sheathe'. Genie are bound to a physical object or prison. This object is the basis of the myth of the genie's bottle -- it just doesn't have to be a bottle. In Tauriz' case, it's a small brass statue.

"It's called a sheathe because Hinn are not well designed for the primary purpose of most genie -- sex. Most -- something like eighty to ninety percent, perhaps more -- of all genie are created as sex slaves. Roughly three-quarters of the remainder are like Tauriz -- they're enslaved to be living weapons. The remaining segment is mostly composed of crafters, cleaners, porters, or other physical labor skill types, plus various oddities.

"Yes, Tauriz is enslaved. Technically I am her Master as I was the one who released her from her sheathe. One of my goals is to free her from this slavery. I don't think of her as my slave. She's my partner, my better half. My girlfriend, if you prefer.

"Due to many odd and unusual circumstances, I am now also Hinn, bound to samum. Causing this kind of transformation cannot be accomplished accidentally, it's a pretty impressive magical feat to make this work and not kill the transformed being. I am not genie, however. As far as we can tell, I'm the first Hinn who's not genie since well before the birth of humanity.

"We have been contacted by one other Hinn. This Hinn claims to have been altered somehow from being a genie. It also claims it's inside NSA headquarters to the best of our understanding. It's our goal to release this Hinn and to assist them. They are not willing participants in whatever has happened to them.

"Speaking of the NSA -- several of you saw and heard someone stopping by claiming to be a Deputy Undersecretary for National Exotic Defense. I can't help but notice the position sounds rather intriguingly vague. Question -- anyone know anything about that branch of the NSA, or a Jordan Shapiro who claimed to fill that position? Anyone?

No one seemed to have anything to say about it. "Anyone care to volunteer to ask contacts about said position and person?"

Wu Emily spoke up, "We can request the Taiwanese military attaché to ask some questions. Generally, that's a slower method but usually turns up good information. Won't help by one, however."

Holger Ingulfsen said, "If I can use my cell, I might be able to find some more out."

Breaking the cone for Holger alone, Ray nodded. "You're public, not private -- let me know when you wish to go private again."

Holger nodded and stepped back to have a quiet conversation with someone in his contact list.

"So, barring that, we'll get to questions in a bit. The next item is deciding on a new facility to host this motley crew. Amber has a list of four properties. I understand Boch and Children have some facilities available as well?"

Paul Boch nodded, waving Jennifer forward. She said, "We've got an option on a facility that'll comfortably house Ray and Tauriz, as well as several squads of Skepsi's troops plus the Tongxin, Boch, and Jessica's team. It's an old manufacturing business that's fallen on hard times, been reconditioned for small scale in-house manufacturing while housing a team over three floors. It also happens to have three basement levels.

"I've got floorplans here, Ray -- can we project them for everyone to see?"

Ray created an illusionary copy of the plans on the wall at a scale large enough to be legible from the back of the room.

Instead of using samum, Ray tried limiting himself to human-style magic. It felt like he was putting on leaden mittens before trying to thread a forest of needles. Samum turned out to be a significant enhancement to his use of magic. Tauriz expended a little samum and burned away Ray's exhaustion, refilling the molecular fuel Ray had just exhausted and removing waste byproducts. Ray made a note of the technique she used, with that he could help a human adjust reality at near Hinn levels of power, if not precision. That might be a great gift to offer people at the Asatru convention if there became an appropriate situation.

Jennifer continued her description, "So the first floor can be easily reconfigured into an ops and logistics center, but it currently looks like this --

We designed the second and third floors for living quarters --

We've even started working on the first basement floor, with the intent to turn this into a regional hub. As such, we ended up with a layout like this --

As you can guess, we emphasize physical fitness for our personnel, to the point that most of our employees eventually gain a black belt in one or more styles. At this point, the other basements have the same elevator in the northeast and the restroom in the southeast. The bottom floor holds a small but effective pump house that handles the underground liquid and gas exchanges. The rest of the space is open. Basement walls, floor, and ceiling are rebar-reinforced poured concrete, a foot thick."

"Questions, ladies and gentlemen?"

"What's the local infrastructure look like?"

"It's in a small industrial park, about a mile off the main state route by road and roughly twelve miles from the university. Its nearest neighbors are two day-use warehouses, a parking lot and garage for a car rental chain, and an empty lot. Streetlights are up, city water & sewage, and surprisingly good data connectivity.

"Given the situation, Boch is willing to sell the property as-is for six million, once we move our gear out. It could be move-in ready tomorrow."

"Amber, do you have anything equivalent?" asked Ray.

"Monica and I don't have anything this close to meeting our needs, nor anything this close to closing."

"Anyone have objections from what we know currently?"

The room's silence spoke loudly.

"OK, Jennifer - let's plan on some of us visiting it sometime today after, say two PM. I suspect our meeting with this deputy undersecretary is going to last an hour, but an hour should be enough to make things clear."

Holger walked back to Ray and waved. "Private mode, Holger?" Ray asked, and Holger nodded.

Drawing the cone around Holger again, Ray informed him, "You're private again."

"Quick dump, there is a Department of Homeland Exotic Defense, but it's in Homeland Security, not NSA. My contacts know very little about them -- they seem to have a pretty hefty budget for no clearly defined job. They have a National Center in DC and Regional Centers in Cleveland, Ohio, Anchorage, Alaska, Hilo, Hawaii, Austin, Texas, and southern Oregon near Klamath Falls. There is some indication they may have other facilities as well, but it's not clear.

"They apparently have been credited with stopping some terror threats in closed-door testimony in Congress, but details are surprisingly scarce. They seem to have some military force on call, think Delta -- highly trained, well equipped, led by some of the best they can find, but with limited scope. They'd do exceptionally well against a singleton or small group, but large groups or multiple simultaneous engagements might be problematic for them.

"Finally, no one seems to have any people directly associated with the group, and a couple of my contacts were very interested in finally having a name to investigate. Mr.Shapiro's under quite a bit of scrutiny right now. I'll get a heads-up if someone finds something, but that's all I have right now."

"A lot more than we had before, Holger -- thank you."

Paul Boch spoke up. "Ray, if it's the facility I'm thinking, Boch had a hand in its creation. It's a very strange building north of Klamath Falls, finished about six or seven years ago. It sat on the edge of the Winema National Forest in a fairly hardened facility, and it was itself extremely heavily built. Our engineers were surprised at the requirements for the buildings. They designed some rooms with yard-thick hardened concrete walls with no metals permitted in their construction. Others were shielded in iron or brass sheeting often with a wood infrastructure -- rooms, in other words -- seated completely inside the sheeting. When we're done here, we'll get on the line with some of the staff doing the work and see what else we can get about it."

"We'll be curious to hear what you folks can tell us, Paul -- thank you."