THE PRINCE OF HOUSE VLADD
CHAPTER 12
BOOK 2
BY ARTHUR
Sorry for the long delay in posting this chapter, unfortunately I had a total computer crash and it took time to rectify it but hopefully all is good now so, on with the story.
Peter sat before his computer screen and looked at the date, the North had only four days left before the ultimatum ran out and there would be a continuation of the disasters, the date of the end of the cessation made Peter smile, it would be the perfect time to start his next part of reopening the North to the rest of the world, even with all the problems, it was still his home and he wanted nothing to do with the bigotry and hate that had built up.
So far the reports from the North had indicated that the President was in trouble from within, there were now a number of people that thought of themselves as contenders for his job, least of all but, more importantly, the Director of the CIA had shown his hand and, at this stage appeared to be the front runner as one, then another of the other contenders found they were not really interested in taking over, it was now down to only three men.
As yet there had been no formal notification of intent for the President to resign but the rumours were running rife within the Whitehouse, the President had not been seen for 24 hours and all appointments and meetings had been cancelled, it appeared that only the Director of the CIA could get any entrance into the hallowed sanctum of the Oval Office.
On the fourth day, the announcement was made to the public, President Carabine had tendered his resignation from the Presidency due to failing health, the interim President would be the ex Director of the CIA, Jameson Simmons, the change over would be effective immediately.
At this disclosure, Peter went into maximum alert, the one person not wanted in the top position was the very man who now held all the power, of the remaining two applicants, one had somehow had a fatal accident when his limousine was totalled by a heavy truck in the heart of Washington, it was said to be one of those wrong place, wrong time accidents, only Jameson Simmons knew the real story, the other applicant had decided, at the very last minute of selection, to retire from the race, he never cited the reason but, again Simmons knew the reason, his files were full of information he could use on anyone vying for anything he himself wanted.
At the revelation of the replacement Presidents name, Peter began to make phone calls, for the next two hours his phone ran hot, Swiftwing could only sit and watch as the beginning of Peters plan was put into effect. From the far South where most of the folk had gone for safety, a large number of planes suddenly were chartered and began fights to the North, landing, finally in Mexico, the vast majority of flights landed in the depths of the night.
Returning across the border was going to be easier than the first time when they had all made their escapes, this time they had the perfect cover for, tomorrow night was Halloween, a time when everyone expected to see monsters and ghouls abroad in the dark of night only, this time they were going to be a little more real than most of the North were expecting.
The surviving Vaga houses were now on full alert, every hidden escape door was oiled and ready, the outer buildings that had been renovated for the Vaga now looked empty and abandoned but, deep in the underground cellars, the multitude of boys and the few Avian girls were preparing for the coming night.
On the afternoon of Halloween, Jameson Simmons was sworn in as the new interim President of the United States, as he had stated in his acceptance speech.
"It was time for a change and this day of Halloween was as fitting as any to sweep away the ghosts of the past and open the country for a new beginning."
Even with all the planning that he had done for this occasion would not even begin to hint at what was to come that night, Jameson now held the full power of the most powerful country in the world, it was time to now use that power, even if it meant his own ends were going to have to wait a little longer, he had not given up on the idea of using the weird folk for his own ends, one day he would have them in his hands and the scientists could begin their work again.
Early that night, just after the sun had sunk below the horizon, fast moving figures began to move across the border, they were going over in a number of places, the high wire fences were no barrier to folk who could clear them with no more effort than they would use to lift a fork, others took to the air and were well into the North before those on the ground had dried themselves from the swift passage across the Rio Grand, in the desert areas there was no hint of a breach except for strange shimmering ghosts that most of the people that saw them, thought were changes in the wind like small dust devils.
Within an hour of sundown, while small children were beginning to knock on doors for their candy gifts and the lights of thousands of carved pumpkins lit up the streets and stood in windows throughout the country, shadows began to move and form into darker shadows, the shadows had a new slant on trick or treat.
With the addition of the Vaga kids, there were now more than five thousand unknown new additions to the populace, they moved in on their dedicated targets, the plan had been set and each and everyone of them knew what they had to do, in the homes of the powerful and the wealthy, the full meaning of Halloween was about to be visited on them.
Unknown to Jameson Simmons, as he sat back behind the desk of the President of the United States, his feet planted firmly up on the leather covered top and his large frame resting fully back into the well padded chair, that this night was about to turn into a turmoil, even his own office was not going to be immune from the effects of Halloween.
The first sign that all was not well, came from Houston, the President could not believe his eyes as he read the first of what was going to be an avalanche of reports from all over the country, two young boys and a small girl had knocked on the door of the Governor and then, when told that the Governor did not participate in childish games, the children yelled out that it was trick time.
The butler had no chance to stop the three little kids, dressed appropriately as devils, from pushing past him and begin to destroy everything in sight, the butler, from his place on the floor where he had been pushed with no effort by the young girl, could only look on and watch as the three little devils went to work on the mansion, as soon as the five guards appeared, they were taken out so fast none of them had time to react.
With all the noise going on downstairs, the Governor soon put in an appearance at the top of the long staircase, before he could react to the destruction going on below him, he found himself somehow suspended over the balcony and being held by the wrists as a young looking teen boy peered at him over the balustrade, holding him with little or no effort, the Governor looked down at the solid stone floor below him, if the boy let go he would survive but would also have no use for his legs for a long time.
At this sudden realisation, the body of the overweight Governor suddenly began to smell of urine as a wet spot grew larger at his groin and the smell of fear permeated around his fat body, the young boy looked down at him with little pity as he casually let go of one wrist and held the Governor only by one, at this turn of events, the Governor began to splutter and then yell as he saw what was in store for him, the boy smiled on as he watched the head of the Houston Destiny Church and leader of the state begin to tremble, in the air the smell of the urine became heavier as the boy opened his other hand and the Governor dropped to the stone floor below.
The sickening sound of breaking bones echoed through the now silent hall and then, the scream of utter pain filled the hall, and still the butler could not move as he watched his boss writhing on the floor in agony, the three young teens watched for a moment before the oldest of the three told the butler what was to be done.
"Tell the slug to resign by tomorrow night or we'll be back to finish the job, the Destiny Church is to close its doors and the people are to be allowed to re-elect a new Governor, he has one day to put this into effect or the next time it will go worse for him and everyone associated with him and his Church."
The butler watched as the three little devils walked calmly out the large wooden doors and into the night, the butler called the emergency services for his boss and then thought he had better go and change his own pants as the wetness was becoming uncomfortable and his image would be lessened if he was seen in such a state.
Jameson re-read the report and, just as he finished, another was put on his desk, this time from as far North as Seattle, this one was similar but the three perpetrators were mid teen girls, they appeared to have been dressed in some sort of bird costume, when the door of the Governors mansion was opened, the three teen girls had forced their way inside and begun an assault on the fittings and furnishings of the mansion until the Governor and his wife had put in an appearance.
The governor had not been as lucky as the one in Houston, he, unfortunately, landed on his head from fifty feet in the air where he had been taken by two of the bird girls, his wife was left distraught and sobbing as she looked down on another leader of the state and the Destiny church, the same warning was left with the wife.
President Simmons read one file after another, all were of a similar vein, all the attackers were young teens, all looked like devils, werewolf's, birds and young vampires, while the general population thought they were just Halloween fancy dress, Jameson Simmons knew better, it was now very obvious that the devil spawn had made its move, the problem for the newly sworn in President was how to handle such an invasion when everyone only saw the youngsters as Halloween pranks.
The main theme of the attacks seemed to be against the Destiny church and its leaders who, mostly, were also appointed leaders of the various states, it had been a part of President Carbine's plan that the church also controlled the states.
The attack reports continued to flood in, some churches were invaded and mostly destroyed, nothing was sacrosanct, the folk had no love of the make believe god and its beliefs of the Destiny Church, to the folk it was one of the most evil of all evils and they saw it as another means to subjugate the general population and keep them in line, working to that end was also the previous undying belief in the power of their god by the common man, they were now seeing, for the first time, that their infallible god, had little or no power over the events going on that night, their beliefs were now being sorely tested and they were losing the battle hands down.
Reports were now coming in of the church buildings being raised to the ground all over the country, senior ministers and wardens were left bruised and bloodied on the ground as they could only look on in disbelief as their grandiose temples were left in piles of ashes, the perpetrators just stood back silently and watched the buildings collapse in on themselves as the fires rampaged through them.
Had the people of the North been able to watch from space, they would have seen a dark night interspersed with hundreds of bright red fires all over their once proud country, their one saving grace had now been turned into piles of smouldering ashes, they now realised that even their infallible new President had no power over this night, murmurs of the apocalypse began to circulate through the terrified people as one after another of their most sacred places fell to the ground.
President Simmons lowered his head as he realised that nearly every church, every church leader and every state leader had been hit hard in only three hours, everything had happened so fast he had not had time to react and, now he knew the time was past, there was no way that he would be able to bring any of the folk to task over this disastrous night, all he had left now was to try to plot his revenge on the devil spawn, but first he had to find them.
He was well aware that the stone city in the South had something to do with the folk and that most likely it was the centre of the planning of this disastrous raid on his country, he had tried to destroy the city without success, what could he do now to rid the earth of these folk, so far nothing he could think of had worked but, deep down he was convinced he could finish them once and for all.
Simmons decided then and there that he had to form a committee to investigate everything about these devil folk and find out how they could be destroyed, he would have every book, film and story investigated for a means to destroy them, somewhere in all those fables was the answer to their destruction, all he had to do was find it.
In the stone city, Peter also watched the reports come in, while he was not overjoyed about the deaths that occurred, he was also not worried about it, it was part of the war they had now entered into with the North, there were going to be broken eggs in any attack, the one effect the attack had was not seen until the next day but, by then all his folk had returned to the South and were again safe in the city.
Peter now only had to wait and see what the fall out was going to be and what action the new President was going to try, for this reason he had his two computer geniuses on full alert, every system of communications was now kept under full supervision for the slightest reference to the folk and their attacks, with the type of retaliation he expected from the man, he could take no chances on missing anything of significance.
The last report he read was of the cataclysms that had started all the trouble, most volcanoes were still active, earthquake areas were still having numerous aftershocks but the sole event that was good for the North was the receding of the waters that had inundated New York, now there was only a covering of about one metre of water throughout the city, however it was still at a standstill, no commerce or business was being conducted, the side effect of this was that the once mighty stock exchange had totally crashed, banks had followed soon after and the last to fall were the finance institutions, the once proud and rich United States was now in the first throws of another, and bigger, depression but, this time there was no one outside to help them, they had cut off their ties with other countries and were now alone.
The country opened its eyes on the morning after Halloween to find it's self penniless, the unemployed bankers and stock brokers could only look at the rising sun with trepidation, all their paper wealth was now worthless, their lifestyles were going to change very rapidly, that first morning after Halloween saw the first "Jumper" he was to be followed by others as their world around them continued to collapse into dust.
It took another week before the full implications of the New York collapse took full effect, in their greed, the money men had pushed for globalisation until now, all the top financial institutions were owned by only a dozen corporations, as New York fell to the waters, the effect dominoed across the country to every branch, it was 1929 all over again but only bigger and far worse, at first it appeared the only people who were going to survive the crash were the government employees, after all, they were now mainly members of the Destiny Church and they felt their income was safe from any fall in the public sector.
Over the following week, Peter watched the collapse of the financial system of the North, he knew that the people would be starting to suffer but his main concern was what the government would do next, he knew deep down that the fight had just begun and that any retaliation was going to be vicious and that no quarter was going to be given when the final showdown came, his folk were now in a fight for their very survival and every decision he made would effect the eventual outcome.
Peter began to make contact with all branches of the folk world, he even went as far as asking for additional advice from the old world where all of the original members of the Council Committee had retired to, the only advice they all gave was to follow his own instincts, their kind had survived for thousands of years and they had no doubts he would make the correct decisions, that and the fact he had two special boys now with him.
Over the next month, Peter saw small incursions into the South by members of the Northern military, all were allowed to go about their work without interference, there was nothing they could learn and any who tried to get too close to the city of stone were soon dissuaded or sent in the wrong direction, it was a continual game of cat and mouse with the mice winning all rounds, the cats of the North were well and truly outnumbered, not only by the folk but, also by the normal humans that had always been protected by them.
The more the strangers asked questions, the more the people lost their memories, even though the truth was more or less known that the city of stone was there and was now occupied, no one would give any indications that they knew anything about the place, the Northerners kept running into stone walls, they had certain information but they could not find anyone to take them closer to the city, if they tried, they never came back.
The newly sworn in President now had as much information about the city as he had before, nothing, only what they could pick up with their satellites and that always seemed to be nothing more than a few old natives wandering around the newly cleaned buildings, during the night they could see nothing, it was as though the city had been prepared for tourists and that was all, although Simmons was well aware of the traps that could be sprung from the hidden depths of the city, he still had no idea of how to attack it.
Any thoughts of open attack by what was left of his Air force was out of the question, their ability to repulse any attack from overseas was now almost nil due to the cataclysms, even he knew that any attempt at open war with the city would bring the rest of the world into the fray and he would be outnumbered, all he had left was subterfuge but first, he had to get more intelligence on the city, everything he had so far had only led to the disasters of the previous President.
Of the secret scientific work that had been going on under his direct orders, Simmons now found he had less than four scientists left to continue with the work, he was still positive that they could find a way to use the weirdo's to make new and stronger soldiers, all they had to do was find a way, the hardest part was getting hold of some of the devil spawn to start their experiments, this had to be the first priority, they had to find and hold some of the boys to begin experiments on, to this end, the President set his men to work to try and capture some of the weirdo's.
As the time passed and more of his men disappeared as they searched for candidates for the experiments, Simmons became more and more frustrated, just when they thought they had captured one of the weird boys, it turned out he was only a normal human boy but, it was a pity that the boy usually died in the process of finding out that he was normal and was only on the streets at night because he was homeless and had no where else to go, of the Vaga, he knew nothing, Simmons also did not know he and his men were under observation by the very boys he was trying to capture.
The first indication that something was not quite right became clearer when some of his men began to disappear as they searched for the candidates, over the com units, Simmons would hear the report of another boy seen in the darkness of an alley and that his men, sometimes as many as three together, were going after the young boy or teen, all Simmons then heard was some shouting and orders from one man to the other as they surrounded the young boy or teen and prepared to capture him, the next Simmons heard was the death screams of the men involved, their broken and shattered bodies were found in the light of day, it was not a pretty sight for the men who found the remains.
As his frustration grew at the inability to capture a single subject, Simmons began to put more and more pressure on his committee to find a weakness in the fabled devil folk, films were studied, hundreds of books were gone over and over looking for a way to capture the folk, old legends were traced as far back as they could be and still, there was nothing much more than they already knew.
The men ordered to hunt for the weird boys were armed with all sorts of weird and strange things that had been prepared by the scientists, silver weapons, garlic powders and liquids, wolksbane, sanctified crosses, holy water, weird scripts from a long ago age, wooden stakes and even sanctified salt, nothing seemed to work, when they thought they had one of the weird boys cornered, he would turn out to be nothing more than a normal street kid, those odd ones that they thought were different, appeared to just disappear into the night as though they were ghosts or mirages.
Slowly the tension grew as the search for the weird folk ran into one difficulty after another and still not a single devil boy had been caught and only the torn remains of the hunters were ever found to confirm that the folk did exist but their capture was still out of range, Simmons poured more resources into the night time hunts and still ended up with the same results, he was becoming not only frustrated but also single minded almost to the stage of fanaticism, he had to find a way to get hold of a subject.
Finally, out of sheer desire to see his twisted ideas come to fruition, Simmons sent out new orders, the area where men had disappeared or been found dead, were to be vigorously supervised by satellite and ground forces, every technological device was to be used to detect any of the boys they were looking for, no one was to move in on any suspects, they were to be observed only until they could be guaranteed of being picked up alive.
It had now become a waiting game for the President and his men, they had to gather as much info as they could before attempting any more captures, during the daylight hours, the areas suspected of begin haunts of the folk were to be kept sealed off and all traffic had to be checked, no one was to be allowed in or out of the areas.
Simmons never did find out he had closed off the wrong districts, nor did he ever suspect the three gardeners that kept the grounds of the White House so neat and tidy and also had passes to come and go as they deemed fit to carry out the ground maintenance needed each day to keep the place looking good, besides, they all knew they were looking for young teen boys not and large man in his thirties or his two assistant gardeners who were in their early twenties, they had been doing the gardens for a number of years so why suspect them.
Jake looked up from the edges he was trimming, his hearing and sense of smell was, like always, on full alert, he glanced over at two of his cubs, the boys were good workers and knew to keep their eyes and ears open as well as their noses into the wind at all times, the comings and goings around the large grounds of the White House were a never ending source of information, most times the security guards would talk and chat amongst them selves about everything going on, totally ignoring the three gardeners, they were only employees and low on the ladder for that matter, they were of no importance, there were many plans hatched or discussed within the hearing of the three wolves although, even if the men were a hundred yards away and thought they could not be overheard, the wolf's hearing soon detected it.
Each night as they drove home, the two cubs would report to Jake what they had heard, each day was planned by Jake so that each of them would be well spread out so they could cover nearly all of the large grounds, there was nothing that got passed their hearing or sight, Jake would collate all of the days information and then send it on to where Peter sat waiting in the depths of the pyramid.
All communications were tracked and followed, nothing was left to chance, every Vaga house had been warned about what was going on and took all the necessary precautions, most even turned it into a game with the Presidents men, teasing them and then disappearing into the night, President Simmons would never be aware of how close they really were.
The first strike against the folk came three months after the cataclysm, the waters in and around New York had now receded and the clean up was almost done, Wall Street was looking forward to restarting the basic principle of its inception, Money, although there were gong to be many long meetings and calls for assistance from the government to get back on the original path of making wealth for the lucky few.
President Simmons had been busy with his scientists and they now had the basis of a plan to capture some of the folk for experiments, while Simmons liked to project his beliefs in the Destiny Church as his way of life, in truth, like all professional government employees, all he wanted was the power and, as he saw it, the true power lay in the abilities of the strange folk who had been hidden for so long, he was about to change all that with his new plan.
The antics of some of the street urchins had not gone unnoticed by Simmons or his men, slowly they had tracked down where the occasional meetings or sightings had been and now knew approximately the central areas of concentration, the plan was put into effect, the idea was to capture as many of the young teen folk as could be caught.
In the city of Detroit, the force had gathered in the early afternoon near an old abandoned factory, there had been reports of young street kids using it as a place to sleep, what had awoken the powers that be to the place was the fact that the teens never showed before dark they were then often seen roaming the back streets and alley's of the city looking for god knew what.
That first evening of many started with the surrounding of a number of alley's and streets, the agents were well hidden and carried only side arms along with the newly issued tranquiliser rifles loaded with enough juice to stop an elephant, Simmons was sure it would take that much if they were really the boys he was looking for, if a few died in the process, well, that was just collateral damage, they would soon know when the first boy was hit, if some of the boys were totally human then at least they would die quickly with the over dose, as the President reasoned, you had to break a few eggs in the search for power.
As the darkness closed in on one particular street, three youths appeared as if by magic and began to stroll casually down the dark alley, the youth on the left was small for his apparent age of about fourteen, he had a very short buzz cut for his blonde hair and on the side of his neck was a small tattoo of a black panther, he wore a tight fitting tee shirt that barely covered his smooth stomach, his bright red boxer top showed about 2 inches above his very low slung saggy jeans, on his narrow hips the jeans looked as though they would drop to the ground in seconds as they were now hanging onto his small butt precariously.
The second youth was of a larger build, long shaggy hair hung down past his wide shoulders, his walk was more of a swagger and his broad shoulders rolled with a hidden power, he wore a plain, small checked, short sleeved shirt and tan cargo pants that clung to his body as if they were a size to small.
The third youth was built somewhere in between the other two, he had a shock of bright red hair hidden under a base ball cap turned backwards, he moved with a smooth grace as he ambled alongside the other two youths, his upper body was lean and lithe and was covered with a white tee shirt under an open long sleeved blue shirt, his blue jeans were almost tight enough to have been painted onto his young body, all three appeared to be totally unconcerned as they walked towards the end of the alley leading to the main street.
While all three looked at ease and unconcerned, they were, never the less, on full alert, their senses told them they had a number of humans hidden in the darkness of the alley and more were positioned further along the main street, while they were well aware of the men, they felt no fear, they had become used to the knowledge that the humans liked to watch and try to capture them, they also enjoyed the game, it made for a fun night out.
Slowly, as though they did not know the men were hidden all around them, the youths started to separate as they walked, their communication was kept to whispers that only they could hear, to the waiting and watching agents they were silent and just seemed to be taking a night time stroll.
Even though the three youths knew the men to be there, the attack, when it came, was a total surprise, even with their highly advanced abilities, they were unprepared for what happened, as they spied two humans turn into the alley and walk towards them, they almost missed the soft hissing sounds from the rooftops above them, when it did register, it was already too late, all three felt the sharp sting at the same time and had no chance to re-act, the tranquiliser took effect so quickly, the youths were on the ground and unconscious before they could transform into their alter-ego's.
Fifteen agents ran from their hiding places and looked down at the youths lying on the alley tarmac, only the smallest of the youths looked as though he was having trouble breathing from the large injection of tranque, within a minute there was the sound of a fast arriving black SUV, the three youths were lifted quickly into the back and the SUV drove off at speed, the remaining agents were fast to leave the area, they were well satisfied that they had completed their objective.
In the back of the specially built SUV a doctor began to take note of the vital signs of the youths, the smaller one was having trouble breathing and so he administered a small antidote to take away some of the effects of the heavy dose the youth had received, the other two boys seemed to be comfortable but he kept an eye on them all the same, to think that the three youths had been hit with enough tranquiliser to drop an elephant and still be breathing was beyond his understanding, it was very evident that they had captured the right ones, a normal human boy would have died at the first contact with the level of a dose.
After thirty minutes, the SUV turned into a private helicopter pad, in the centre of the pad sat a large heavy duty black helicopter, the youths were quickly transferred into the metal barred cages tied to the floor of the helicopter as the rotors began to wind up to full take off speed, the three youths were still out cold and the four men and single doctor now felt safer that the youths were being held in steel cages, if even half of what they had been told was true, they didn't want the youths to be free when they woke up.
When the helicopter had taken to the air, the doctor carefully reached into each cage one after the other and, with long practice, fed a small plastic tube down each boys throat, the tube was attached to individual oxygen bottles, after all the planning they didn't want the youths to die before they got to run all the tests they had planned, President Simmons would not be happy after all this time to lose the subjects they had hunted so long for.
The doctor kept a close vigil on the three youths as the helicopter headed far out into the wilds, the new laboratory was well hidden deep into the high mountains and it would be close to two hours before they would touch down and deliver their cargo, it had been estimated that the tranquiliser would keep the boys out for a lot longer than the two hours needed but they were not going to take any chances, no one really knew what the youths constitution was capable of.
Below the helicopter, two hours later, in the darkness of the mountains, a bright lit cross of small lights suddenly flared up, they had made it to their base without the youths waking, it took only a few minutes more for the helicopter to land and the three youths taken out and rushed inside a large steel door in the mountain side, five minutes later and the three youths were stripped naked and placed on the beds of their individual cells.
The cells were made of solid steel and measured 12 feet by 8 feet; in one corner was a small platform with a thin mattress and blankets, opposite was a narrow shelf at waist height with a small block set into the floor as a seat, all items were welded into the steel walls so they could not be moved, in the other corner was a basic toilet and a tap fitted tightly into the wall above it, the front of the cell was wide open to the rest of the laboratory but fronted with titanium steel bars which then had armoured glass on the outside sealing the cells from the open room, the glass cover could be raised when wanted for conversations with the captees.
The doctor and the reaming four senior scientists set about waiting and watching the three naked youths as they slept on the solid beds, the breathing of the smallest youth had settled after the administration of a little antidote, the five men began to discuss which of the youths would awaken first, none of them knew how long they would have to wait but, wait they would.
When the first thoughts of using tranquiliser was discussed, it had been felt they should go for more rather than less, the amount the youths had been injected with should keep them out for at least ten hours, but no one knew for sure, it could be days or minutes, it was all a matter of conjecture at this point, one thing the senior scientists knew for sure was, that the youths had to be treated differently from the last time this experiment had been tried, they would have to start from the beginning with all the tests as all of the data had been lost in the original destruction of the old Laboratory.
While they waited, the doctor decided he had better call in the results of the nights work directly to the President as he had been instructed to do, to this end he left the other four to watch the youths and found his way to the small office set aside for him, in minutes he was in contact with the President and relating the success of their mission and the fact they were now waiting for the youths to awaken, President Simmons was over the moon with the report, they had done it, they now had what he had been hoping for, now the real work could begin and they could find a way to produce soldiers of an equal to the weird folk, it would not be long before they could match them for power and speed, he would win this battle then he could begin to think about his special soldiers helping to take back the position of the united states in world affairs.
At the pyramid of the stone city, the scientists report was duly noted and sent to Peter, reading quickly he reached for his cell phone and contacted House Vaga in Detroit, he was quickly told of the missing three boys and his mind went into overdrive, why would Simmons only take three boys when the likelihood of taking a whole House Vaga full of boys was possible, all he could come up with was the possibility that Simmons was going to try to continue his experiments, even though all his files had been destroyed, Peter went on full alert as the implications grew in his mind, he had no option, he had to re-act to this new threat.
Mean while, President Simmons was looking over the latest figures of dead and missing in the previous months, the figures were not encouraging, seventy million people had been deported as unfit for residence in the country, of those remaining five and a half million had been killed or were missing in the cataclysm and another twelve million people were now out of work and on the bread line, his once proud country was now again in the throws of total depression, he had to get the banks and Wall Street working again, even if it meant that only the wealthy could survive until he had his super soldiers.
President Simmons leaned back and sighed deeply, every channel in the government would now be put to work on the super soldier problem, all financial assistance would be given over to the investigation by his hand picked scientists, he had to have his soldiers if he wanted his country to retake its position on the world stage and, as far as he was concerned, any price was worth paying for that one target.
The President looked down at the four folders still left to read, each had its own colour to denote which department it came from, he decided to open the green one, it held all the daily facts about food production, even as he read the first page he began to have doubts about a resurgence of his nation, the cataclysm had left the farming states shattered, crops that should have been ready for harvesting were now just burnt or dried stalks, grasslands for the beef production were also now burnt stubble and the once large herds of cattle were being decimated by thirst and hunger and the abattoirs were being inundated by farmers trying to sell stock before it died, it was now cheaper to buy beef than rice or wheat, there seemed to be no end to the bad news as he read on, if this kept up his country would be reduced to starvation level much like the 1929 depression, on the last page he saw something that took him by surprise, something he just did not want to see. The reference was to read the blue folder.
President Simmons closed the folder and reached for the blue one, across the front it read, "Department of Native Affairs" this was all he needed, didn't the Indians understand they were no longer a nation, they had been put squarely in their place over a hundred years ago, they were lucky the government even let them continue to hold their reservations, Simmons almost threw it aside but, at the last second he decided to glance through it.
After reading the first introduction he was hooked, carefully he read on, something was going on and he wanted to know more, for some reason, the borders of the many reservations were unpassable, no one could get in unless they had a blood tie to the people living there, anyone else was unable to cross the line of the reservation border.
Simmons read on, somehow, as far as the Department could tell, every Buffalo cow had dropped twin calves, the once small herds were suddenly tripled in number almost overnight, sheep and goats held on the reservation had the same experience, every ewe or nanny dropped twins, their cattle all began to drop calves and their herds increased rapidly, gardens that once struggled to even grow corn were now green and growing vigorously, vegetable gardens bloomed all sprouted and began to produce vegetables in huge quantities the likes they had never seen before.
In a strange move, those addicted to alcohol or drugs suddenly seemed to find a new reason to change their lives as their once poor and infertile lands became green and productive, with a new assertiveness the drugs and alcohol were set aside and the word had gone out for a major Powwow to be held, all the chiefs and medicine elders were asked to attend, it was time to put aside tribal distrust and join as one nation, the five senior Medicine Elders were charged with finding the person who would take "The People" forward.
Simmons reread the pages, he felt as though he was sitting at a desk in the 18 hundreds all over again, were they in for another Indian uprising, how was it that only their small lands were still so fertile when all of the rest of the country had nothing but drought and destruction, Simmons shook his head, if this kept up he would have to order that the last of the Indian lands be taken back by the government, after all, they had been generous enough to give them the land in the first place, if it was going to be the only arable land then they were entitled to take it back, it was a simple thing to tear up a treaty with them, the Indians just didn't have the organisation or the numbers to do anything about it, just as they couldn't stop the advancement of a superior race a hundred years ago, Simmons threw the report aside and went on to more important things, he lifted and opened the black folder, it was marked "Department of External Affairs".
Back at the Pyramid, Peter was talking with his small group, Swiftwing sat next to him with the two boys across the desk, the twins were lounging on a nearby sofa and his three remaining body guards were sitting around in chairs, the discussion was about the three missing boys and what it could mean if Simmons was trying to restart his experiments again, most of the discussion was, at this stage, mainly conjecture but Peter felt deep inside that Simmons was doing just that.
As all the folk well knew, there was no way that the man could replicate their special abilities, they could only be passed on by one of the folk in the old way but, without trying to close down the mans operation, they could put a large number of the folk and the Vaga at risk of a long and painful death for no reason other than the desires of the man to have a super soldier, they had to act, and act soon, but first they had to find the new facility, it was decided to send out the word to start a search, both physically and electronically.
TBC
Artcart65@vodafone.co.nz