The Lamia

7-2

The next morning, Dema packed her things and drove to the Seattle DEA office. Fox Underwood gave her the message about her new assignment, along with her airline ticket, and told her they'd have more details for her back in Chicago.

"We'd love to keep you, Dema," he said. "You've turned the drug trade upside down around here. We get more reports from police and Homeland Security details every day that wouldn't have happened except for the shake-up you caused."

"Most of the credit goes to Captain Shaunessy," she said. "None of this would have happened if it hadn't been for him, and I couldn't have done what I did without his help. You'd better take good care of him."

"We will, believe me. We consider him part of the family. His name would be in all the papers if we weren't being careful not to blow his cover. If he needs us again, we'll be there."

"Thanks, Fox," she said. She gave her old partner Jeff Straus a hug as she left, and then she was on her way to Chicago.

On the plane she read over the message from Washington. So Chaos had gone to Mexico. She went over in her mind what she knew about Veracruz, which wasn't much. About all she knew was that it was on the Gulf coast, in the south, about as far from where Juan lived in Nogales as you could get.

She took a taxi home from O'Hare, and went in to see her grandmother Sedna. It was late afternoon, so she called the office to tell them she'd see them in the morning, and started unpacking her bags.

Before long her mother Naga and sister Kore arrived. After she greeted them they all sat down to dinner and started catching up. This was the first time she'd been able to tell them about the selkie side of her adventures.

"So you've added a sea lion to your repertoire! What's next?" Naga exclaimed.

"No telling what will happen in Veracruz," said Dema.

"Seems a shame to run off and leave Ryan after you two hit it off so well," said Kore.

Dema got a wistful look, and said, "Yeah, I'll miss him. But it's probably for the best. He needs a girl who's a little more normal."

"I'll be interested in what you learn about Veracruz," said Naga. "I've had patients who went there for treatments. Most of them came back with very good reports."

"Apparently it's some of those 'treatments' that I'm being asked to assess. And Chaos is there."

"Chaos? The woman who wanted to cut my heart out?" said Kore.

"The very one."

"More likely she's in Catemaco," said Sedna. "That's where the brujos are."

"Brujos?"

"Black sorcerers. They think of themselves as the devil's apprentices."

"Do you think that's where she learned her tricks?"

"Seems likely. There's a long tradition of sorcery in Mexico, going all the way back to the Olmecs."

"That's thousands of years!"

"Like I said, a long tradition."

"Almost as long as ours, then."

"Possibly longer. But nobody really knows where any of it started."

"I don't think it started anywhere. I think the story is more about it stopping."

"Or simply changing, evolving," put in Naga. "Some good, some bad."

"In any case, you be careful down there."

"I will, Grandma."

At the DEA office the next morning, Captain O'Mally gave her the details of her new assignment.

"Confidentially, Culver, this is really annoying," he said. "We need you here, and this time we don't even get you back before you get sent off again."

She smiled at him. "I'll try not to make a habit of it, Captain."

"Anyway, good job in Seattle. You do us proud wherever they send you."

"Thanks, Cap."

Because this was an official international mission (unlike her adventure in Nogales) she was to liaise with the U.S. consulate in Veracruz, and they would in turn set up a liaison with the Mexican Federales, who would provide her what information they could. So with only a few days to turn around, just enough to make sure her passport was up to date and her visa was in order, she was off to Mexico.

Another long flight, and again she thought of Juan. She wondered if she should have tried to get in touch with him. He was, after all, a sorcerer in the old tradition, and he might know things about the brujos of Catemaco that would be helpful. But it was not like he carried a cell phone around with him. About the only way to get in touch with Juan was to show up on his doorstep, out in the wilds of the Yaqui Indian nation, somewhere among the barren mesas and arroyos. But she thought about him deeply just the same, remembering how he had known she was coming to Nogales before she got there, how he had met her on the road, almost as if he had summoned her.