Jarbidge to the Oregon Trail

Upstairs, Mrs. Collins fainted. The security guard, who had his gun drawn, expecting to find a room full of hooligans, slowly dropped the weapon, and stared at the mice. A cheer went up from all the mice in the room, but what strange mice they were: half of them were dressed in tiny little clothes! And more of them poured in through a hole in the wall behind the governor’s desk. The governor sat behind that desk, a strip of packing tape across his mouth and his eyes bulging, whether in fury or fear, the guard didn’t know.
“I’m getting back up,” the guard muttered, backing slowly out of the room.
Mike ran forward top embrace his brother who was leaning heavily on Kyle’s shoulder. “Are you Okay?”
“Yeah. Kyle’s my hero.”
“He’s got a bad lump on his head. Probably a concussion.” Kyle handed Tito over to Mike, but not before Mike hugged him.
“You’re my hero, too,” Mike said.
Miss Sophy signaled her group, “Come on, now. Phase Two is about to begin. We need to be in the hallway.”
They scarcely made it to the hallway before they turned into themselves, again. The last one through shut the door to Mrs. Collins’ office.

Ella felt herself change. She looked around at all of her friends, and Richard. “I guess we have to explain it to him, now.”
Billie stepped forward and removed the packing tape. “Be careful what you say, I still have the whole roll.
“My magic pills,” he muttered. “The ones Fred gave me…”
“You mean these?“ Richard held up the bottle. “We saw the Yokai putting them in your desk. They are poison pills, and he expected you to die in two days.”
Mrs. Collins sat up and stared at the room full of teenagers. She managed to say, “Where is Fred Gist?”
They pointed at the dead fox.
Mrs. Collins held fast to the door frame. “I need to call the police…” She backed out of the room and hurried to her desk. The lights on the phone console were out, and her computer screen was blank. She tapped buttons, and tried to get anything to work. Madison followed her.
“It won’t work. We disabled all communications, and we’ve secured the Capitol. You might as well have another cup of coffee.”
Mrs. Collins slowly lowered her head onto her hands. This wasn’t happening…
The governor shook his head. “What just happened here?”
Ella came forward. “That Yokai – the fox on the floor there that almost ate me – he killed Fred. He‘s been putting poison in your pills. He most likely stole your family mirror.”
“He stole my -” The governor frowned. “Young lady, I will have you know that my mirror is right there. It has never been missing.”
The teenagers looked at each other. “But what family heirloom did get stolen, if it wasn’t your other mirror?”
He sighed. “It was a sapphire crystal paperweight that my great grandmother handed down through the family. It gave me the ability to look into the mirror and to perform a little bit of magic. Then someone came in and stole it. The only way it could be removed was by someone using the Dark Arts. It didn’t take a genius to know one of your kind took it, and I want it back. Just because you think you saved me… Why am I telling this to a room full of children?”
“Yes, why are you? I believe you have a one o’clock press conference where you can explain the truth of all this,” Dish said.
Ella took a seat in the chair most recently vacated by the false Fred Gist. “I would like to know more about a ‘family heirloom’ that allows a non-wizard the ability to ‘use a little magic’.”
“Especially a non-wizard who was so ready to imprison the entire wizarding community,” Gran growled.
“I don’t even know the truth of it,” he grumbled. “But one of you stole my heirloom!”
“The one that allows you to do dark magic?”
He glowered at Ella, “It required Dark Magic to remove it. I have imprisoned those who use…”
Ella pulled a burner phone out of her pocket, wrapped inside of a clear plastic bag. “Let me tell you what I think, and you can nod or shake your head. See, when we were getting ready for this, I found this burner phone in your desk. Yes, in the locked drawer.”
The governor squirmed in anger. “The phone isn’t mine! Never seen it before.”
Ella shrugged. “It was password protected, ‘was’ being the key word here. See, I may have been a fool about my own ability – and other’s – to actually perform magic, I am a pretty good nerd, and I figured out the password. There’s photos and texts on this phone, and they tell me that the Yokai isn’t the only one in this room who was planning a major coup.”
“Proves nothing,” the governor spat out, again. “Not my phone. And my heirloom is still missing! You kids will pay as soon as the police get here.”
Billie muffled him with tape, again. She spoke softly into his ear, “They won’t be coming any time soon. Communications are disabled there as well as here. El’s not the only cyber-geek in the mouse world.” She winked.
“I’m guessing this photo of a blue amethyst crystal wouldn’t be one of the missing ‘family heirloom’? Is that it?” Ella was looking at the notes on her lap and held up a rough sketch.
He nodded, looking furious.
She returned to her notes. “There’s text on this phone that confirms it was stolen, but it also says that you suspect someone high up in the wizarding community has gotten drift of your plan to establish the Dark Arts? And that you think that person may have stolen the item and hidden it somewhere in town.”
He shook his head.
“I know, I know. The phone is not yours, you just had it in your locked personal drawer, along with some other interesting items, like a wand.”
Dish held up the wand in question. “Don’t worry, Miss Sophy made it, and she neutralized it last night. World class wand maker.”
“Anyway, let me go on. You don’t sign your texts, but the person texting you back signs his. Sheriff Blake. And he calls you, ‘Gov’.”
Mrs. Collins entered the room slowly. Her jaw was slightly agape. “No wonder he’s been so buddy-buddy with you, calling on your direct line…”
Richard held his hand up to the bewildered secretary. “I think we should hear Ella out.”
“Thank you.” she scanned through the notes. “Some of the texts are encrypted, but it’ll be easy enough to figure out how to de-encrpyt them. The ones that are not encrypted are damning enough:
‘Fred has agreed to contact Team C. He’s not happy 2 have 2 talk 2 ny1 magic. Told him 2 send msg by crow 2 vennie.’” She looked up to see how she was doing.
“It gets better: ‘vennie confirmd DOA. Natural causes.’”
The governor’s eyes were bulging, and he struggled against the zip ties as his face turned beet red.
Aric said, “Gee, El, he looks like someone I met.”
She nodded. “A bit – toady?”
Aric nodded. “Can’t be certain without Deke here, but… yes. Very toady.”
Ella nodded. “Here’s another text, from someone else. Different number. I did a reverse directory search and it came from a Senator Flax. Want to hear it? I thought you did.
“’Confirm nomination. Just get rid of Peabody & crew. Find those kids, Gov. They must have crystal.’”
The governor sat back in his chair, still red-face, but no longer struggling.
“The only thing is, we don’t have the crystal. Yokai, dressed as Fred Gist, must have taken it. He killed the real Fred, you know. One of us found Fred’s wand, and the inscription on it says that if Fred was dead, the power in the wand would go to the one who found it, as long as he was not a practitioner of Dark Magic.”
“Do we have enough to call the authorities and release our parents?”
The governor nodded.
“Do we have enough for a proper news conference at one?” Ella asked.
The governor nodded.
“Oh, one last thing. I found a business card in your business card holder. My uncle, who works for the FBI. I sent him screen shots of these texts last night, anonymously. Did you know they didn’t know about the martial law you imposed here? I’d love to hear how you pulled that off.”

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