Chapter 1: Settling In

Some sympathetic clerk at the New England Bureau of Investigation Washington Headquarters had cut orders for both Sarah and me to report to the Quantico Training Academy on the same day, Wednesday. I think I know who it was and made myself a mental note to thank her.

Sarah is Sarah Bullock, whom I rescued when I investigated the disappearance of her step-brother, Sir Oliver Plumb. After the help she gave me in that investigation, Sarah has become my apprentice and something more.

I'm Robert Macleod, a Supervisory Special Investigator of the New England Bureau of Investigation. I've just finished an appointment as the Personal Investigator for the Governor-General of New England, Baron Clinton.

The Academy is located at Quantico, in a corner of the Royal Marine base. However the Academy is some six miles from the railroad station, requiring a ride in a hansom cab. After a pleasant drive through the woods of Virginia, we arrived at the reception building.

We reported in and found that Sarah was booked into a women s' dormitory, while I was booked into staff quarters. We canceled the dormitory booking, and proceeded to the quarters.

There are three streams of Investigators in the Bureau: those trained in magic, those trained in the law and those trained in the ways of the police. My job would be with the first stream. I would be training them in the use of magic as applied to forensics and what was more important; when not to use magic.

For some subjects, all three steams would be taught together. All students are taught firearms proficiency, together with an understanding in each other's basics. The current intake of thirty-four comprised nine in the Thaumaturgical branch, twice that number in the legal branch with the remaining seven originating with the police forces.

The morning after our arrival, the whole intake was gathered to be welcomed by the Head of Training who then introduced the seven members of staff who would undertaking their training The class was then led off to draw among other things, their Investigators' badges, Trainees' cards their hand guns and the clothing required during the course. The issue of ammunition is restricted to the range where the guns were to be fired.

After the issue of their equipment, the students were assigned lockers and told to change into their PE outfits. The PE instructor took them out for a run around the Campus showing them where all the relevant locations were.

This was followed by lunch where the class members were somewhat subdued from the exertions of their run.

By the time my nine students reached the classroom after lunch, they were beginning to bounce back a bit. I had read and absorbed the notes on the students. Most had a thorough basic grounding in thaumaturgy.

To test how well they had absorbed this grounding, I had devised a number of exercises. I had split them up into three groups. The problems were taken from real life. They described the situation that faced an Investigator, giving the students all the information that was available to the Investigator. Some of these problems I had taken from the annals of NEBI, while another came from the memoirs of Lord Darcy.

The students were told to consider the facts and to suggest what happened next. One of the problems was a trick problem. It was soluble only if you didn't use magic. Although the students were to work together on their problem, they were to submit their reports individually.

The next morning, PE was an hour of strenuous exercises, followed by a five mile run. Returning from the run they were told to shower and change and then to report to the range with their hand guns.

I had joined them on the range, partly to see how they shot and partly because I expected there might be a bit of fun to be had! I know there had been when I was a student and I was sure that this happened on most courses.

Their first targets were for them to get warmed up. The target was the figure of a man running towards the student; a drawn face with a black body and a faint 10-ring around the heart area.

Most of the students were obviously aiming at the center of the body with varying degrees of success. The target was reeled in after each student's five shots and replaced.

The best so far was the penultimate student, red-headed lass who had got one in the 10-ring, another three on the body and one miss.

Sarah stepped up to fire. She loaded her gun, then paused for a moment and fired her five shots rapidly. The PE instructor who was also the range master suddenly started to laugh, When he had calmed down and reeled in the target, we could all see the reason for his outburst. Sarah had shot out both the target's eyes, put one shot in his crotch and the remaining two shots near the center of the 10-ring.

There was a moments silence as the class took in the sight before them and then the red-head screeched, "Magic! She must have been using Magic!"