CHAPTER ELEVEN: the aftermath

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BOTH MAXWELL AND JACK HAD GOTTEN SOAKED FROM THE MELTING SNOWMAN. Max has removed his jacket, throwing it at Callum, who dropped it on the ground. Max brought towels for both himself and Jack.

The members of M.O.R.A had came to the scene, wearing hazmat suits, they had picked up the carrot nose with metal tongs.

"She iced the broker," Callum tells Zoe.

Max rubbed the towel against his pants, trying to dry them so they wouldn't stick to his legs, making it feel uncomfortable.

"She really wanted to shut him up," Zoe replied to Callum.

"You don't say?" Max sarcastically muttered, dunking his head to rub at his hair.

Jack watched, opening his mouth to speak to Max, when someone in a hazmat suit walked by then. Jack extended his arm and stopped the person. "Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait."

"What are you doing?" Max asked, flicking his head back, and dropping the towel onto a chair, he pushed his hair back, which was no longer wet, and more damp than it was dry.

"Here," Jack took a hold of Max's hand. And the taller one ignored the feeling, of what felt like electricity between the two. He ignored the thought to turn Jack's hand so that he could slip his fingers between Jack's.

Jack had placed the lighter onto Max's hand.

"My guys scanned all the surveillance footage from the Pole last night," Zoe speaks. "Look at this."

"Come on," Max sighed, using the excuse of Jack's distraction to grab his hand and pull him towards the screen.

The screen zoomed into a figure, female, wearing a large white, winter coat. There was a tan, fur lining on the hood.

"That her?" Jack asked.

"Sort of," Callum answered. "She's a shape-shifter. She's actually a nine-hundred-old ogre with thirteen sons who kill on command."

"Huh," Jack hummed.

Zoe sighed. "Tracking shape-shifters is a nightmare."

"She said that she was going punish them all, every level." Callum informed Zoe.

"I'd be more worked about what she didn't say," Jack says.

"She's wasn't negotiating," Zoe speaks.

"It's a kidnapping with no demands. Don't usually end well."

"Unfortunately, our only lead is now an ice cube." Callum says. "Not pointing any fingers." He says as he looks at Jack and Max.

"Cal, not helpful," Zoe says.

"Good, because I am, if someone had known from the beginning about removing the carrot noses-"

"Not helpful," Jack shakes his head.

"I didn't know until after, when I was actually fighting a snowman."

"look I just discovered about mythical creatures existed entirely, like six hours ago!" Max argued.

Callum walked off. Zoe stood in front of the two. "So, what do you normally do?"

Jack chucked. "I mean,  normally, I'd be tuning credit cards, checking pings off cell phone towers,  trying to build a footprint-her, her associates. Never tracked a witch before. Dated a few. Right, Cal?"

"I've dated several witches. What's your point?"

"Would she have any footprint that I wouldn't now about," Jack says. "because I'm, like, a regular human being?"

"Have you run a check on recent UDMs?" Callum asked Zoe.

"I'm so confused," Max sighed, running a hand through his hair. "What's that? The UDM?"

"Unauthorized deployments of magic," Callum answered.

"Oh, just that?" He sarcastically muttered, kicking the ground.
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Max stood next to Jack, as a woman typed on a laptop, searching for any UDM's.  "Lot of hits. Pretty typical stuff. Couple of arbitrations in Nairobi. Handful of divinations in Santiago and New Orleans."

"No, she's a conjurer," Callum answered.

"Got a pair of conjurations eight days ago, few hours apart. Picked up the echo off the resonator in Germany."

"The brother," Zoe whispered.

"The brother," Max stage whispered, mockingly.

Jack laughed. "Whose brother?"

"The witch?"

"No. Nick's," Callum answered.

"Santa has a brother? Since when?" Max asked.

"Adopted, yes," Zoe answered. "For hundreds of years."

"She's working with the brother," Callum muttered.

"We don't know that," Zoe tells him

"Guess we have to go see the brother," Max sighed.

"No, but can you think of a better place to hold Nick?" Callum ignored Max.  "Think about it.

"Another world, if that's  how this works," Max  crossed his arms.

"It's under a concealment dome, and MORA had no jurisdiction because of the treaty. He doesn't leave, and we don't visit."

"That's the deal. We bust in and Nick's not there-" Zoe began.

"That's he's not keeping him there," Max says, more to Jack than to Callum or Zoe. But that the ladder of the two would even listen to him.

"MORA's not going. We're going," Callum says. Which caught both Jack and Max off guard. "And he's never gonna know we're there."

"Cal."

"T Minus seventeen hours, Director."

Zoe sighed, as she looked behind her, at the crew. Then back over to Cal. "Keep me in the loop every step. In two hours, I brief the presidents and prime ministers and kinds and queens of everywhere so they can prepare."

"Prepare for what?" Callum asked.

"The possibility of no Christmas," Zoe says.
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