Demon of the Dispensary

DEA Agent Elizabeth Derring strode carefully through the dispensary, seeing everything through the sights of her Glock 19. Her team had timed the raid perfectly; there were only a couple of employees in the building. The raid had gone well until about five minutes ago, when she had lost contact with the other three members of her team. She had tried to retreat but had gotten lost.

There may be some issues, but there is incredible statuary here. She passed the fourth human statue, each a very detailed nude in various meditative poses. Nice place considering the THC levels of its product.

Three weeks ago, the San Francisco office of the Drug Enforcement Agency received a few cannabis buds in a pouch with an address. At 55% content, the buds were practically THC wrapped up in fibers. While there is no legal limit to THC in a plant, the curiosity of the special agent in charge was piqued. After an informal investigation of the dispensary, including a check of its paperwork, it was quickly discovered that the dispensary was operating illegally as well as writing illegal prescriptions. Local drug networks were looked at as well, with the Apothecary of Ceto in the center of a number of them.

This led to a deeper investigation, and that led to today’s little exercise. Agent Derring had entered with three other agents to arrest a “Stheno Phorcyscore”. The raid should have gone down easily with only one person on the premises, but that was obviously not the case. She only hoped to get out before whatever had happened to her fellow agents happened to her. She saw the last door and moved towards it.

Then the acrid smell of cannabis smoke hit her, at levels she had not seen since that sorority raid a year ago. She thanked her stars that she had brought a small gas mask; she quickly put it on. When the mask was she turned back to the door. She shook her head to clear her sight; she suddenly worried that the smoke carried with it hallucinogenic properties.

Before her stood a tall, muscular woman in naught but a toga, a large ax in her right hand. However, her skin was the color of a green olive with lighter green over her belly. On top of her head were what appeared to be red snakes and her eyes were glowing green. Angrily taking a breath, her eyes stopped glowing and she charged me. She reached for my gun but not before a taloned hand grabbed for her mask.

She pulled off Agent Derring’s mask and her eyes glowed green again. As Agent Derring fell, her eyes returned to their normal dark and she caught the agent before she hit the floor.

* * * * *

For the next couple of hours, Agent Derring and the gorgon Stheno giggled like schoolgirls as they sipped from huge goblets of wine. Two of the male agents were sprawled on the nearby couch and the third munched on pizza while playing Pacman. Stheno motioned for Elizabeth to follow her, and Elizabeth followed, feeling like she was about to raid the principal’s office. Stheno led her through a door to another office, and then glanced at Elizabeth.

Her eyes glowed red for a moment.

Elizabeth shook her head and glanced at the goblet she was carrying. She glared at Stheno, unsure of what to do. She was confused and angry about what she had been doing while both mad at Stheno for doing it to her while not sure what to do.

Stheno motioned for her to sit and she sat next to a laptop. Stheno talked in a thick Greek accent. “And what is the reason you invaded my business this morning?”

Agent Derring reached into her jacket and pulled out a piece of paper, which she then handed to Stheno. “You are operating without a license and illicit substances are possibly being sold through here.” The paper was shaking.

Stheno grabbed the paper and looked at it. She cocked her head, then rolled her eyes. “One moment.” She got up and looked at her framed license. She compared the two papers. Her eyes became slits. She let a string of syllables that Agent Derring couldn’t follow but were dark and full of venom. She finally paused a moment to collect her breath before sitting back down and turning on the laptop. “Yes, you should have arrested me. My erinys cousins would judge in your favor, so must I.” She punched in an address on the computer and showed the agent the picture. “This is the address on THAT license. The paperwork was filed incorrectly.

She hit a few keys and showed her some pictures from the camera. “The first statue is the remains of the person you were looking for.” Agent Derring paled; the image was one of the statues she had passed on the way in. “I should not have acted impetuously, but selling drugs here is an affront to my beliefs.”

Agent Derring exhaled. Deeply. “If you have evidence, then that clears one problem.”

Sthenos nodded. “I recorded his final moments on my phone.” Agent Derring nodded. “But what do I about the other problem? The person responsible is unavailable.” She showed the agent an image of a different statue.

Agent Derring sat back. “A termination policy should not be…so final.” Sthenos moved to protest; the agent held up a hand. “But if a legitimate error was made, then we can do something about that.” She smiled. “I can make some calls and deal with it. This is not as big a problem as it looks like, and my supervisor will support it considering it saves us from going after another local woman-owned business.”

Sthenos smiled. “Then we are good?”

Elizbeth glared at her. “Heck no!” She moved closer to the gorgon. “I think you owe me at least two bottles of that wine, at least another hour of your ‘special attention’, and I want some mythological gossip.” She held Sthenos chin, forcing it up. “And one more thing: When did you gain the ability to make people drugged?”

She smiled. “I’ve always had the ability. Why do you think petrification and drug use are both called ‘being stoned’?”