Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2011 13:26:19 +1300
From: Arthur <artcart65@vodafone.co.nz>
Subject: prince of house vladd bk2 chapter 12

			 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