The Nameless Ones

Chapter 2

I'm last in line as our brooms descend on a barren plain in the deep desert of central Egypt. Our acting Team Lead, Polly Bellway, lands first and nearly falls on her face before falling to her knees to laugh. Landing a broom after a long flight can be tricky. Second in line, Mary Axton, along with our summer intern Samantha Walcott, do better but still stagger before catching themselves and then joining Polly in her laughter. I watch the ground approach, then make a running landing to absorb my kinetic energy; I almost misjudge my speed, then catch myself before falling. I own a thirty-year-old freight broom that corners like a pig on ice and flies like a brick. Me dad didn't pay much for it, and it's better than riding tandem with someone else.

Before unloading any kit, I look around at one of the most desolate spots I've ever seen. There are ridges a kilometer North, but nothing larger than a pebble between us and them.

Polly and I have been coworkers for nine months and will be again after our new Team Lead reports, and she goes back to being a regular sort like the rest of us. Our old Lead, John Digby, was recalled to London three weeks ago after completing two years in the field. Almost everyone who works for the Ministry of Magic needs a year or more of fieldwork to advance their careers, and everyone but me is here for that reason.

Before coming out, Polly worked in the office of The Pest Advisory Board for four years before they offered her this opportunity. I was lucky; Director Sythtye hired me for the position from the start.

The work has been interesting, and I know we're doing things genuinely needed by the muggles. Our little group works for Director Benjamin Sythtye, Deputy Assistant Director of The Department, fort he control of Major Magical Entities, a subagency under The Pest Advisory Board. We travel the developing and third world, recharging or building new containments. Most Muggles don't know it, but the world has thousands and thousands of creatures and entities too powerful for anyone to control. I don't mean cute and cuddly things like angry giants and dragons. Our job is to contain old gods and other less agreeable things.

The English Ministry of Magic constituted our team over forty years ago when The International Confederation of Wizards agreed to help people where the locals have stamped out the practice of magic. The people in those countries suffering the depredations of Magical Creatures had no way to protect themselves. Also, the European powers wanted to enforce The International Statute of Secrecy. Creatures killing people and wrecking things was in the muggle news nearly every day somewhere in the world, so they decided to stop the worst of it.

Each European country and The Americans agreed to form and maintain one or more teams. Our team works between the Pillars of Hercules across North Africa and into South East Asia. The other English team works in South America; however, the Americans have taken over most of the South American continent pushing the European teams out.

The Wizarding World has used magic to contain Creatures for hundreds of years. Anything too strong or aggressive to leave alone gets contained. Unfortunately, when practicing magic was stamped out, maintaining containments was also abandoned, and the Creatures they contained got out and caused trouble for the people living nearby.

Our work involves reinstalling long failed containments or, more often, building new ones. A Containment is like a giant transparent bubble that only air and light can pass through, which is inaccurate. Anything can pass through a Containment field; you just have to press on it without moving for a few months or long enough to fall through. For practical purposes, we say nothing can get through one. It makes everyone feel safer in their beds.

Older containments never had the longevity the newer ones have. Some needed refreshing every few years before failing; others could last ten or twenty years. We expect to get around one hundred years with the newer spells before someone needs to go out and refresh them.