Ch 33

Sonya and Mark worked late on the boat. Joe left the back door of the garage unlocked for them in case they needed something. They got the wheels and operating gear up and in and lined up. Mark tested them. Sonya watched below. The wheels went up together, turning 45 degrees to lay flat against the bottom as they should. He lowered them and they came down in to point forward as they were suppose to do.

Yes! A major part of the boat was done! Finished for the day, they went down to the bar for a drink. Seeing Mark was looking tired, Sonya let him have one, then coaxed him home. Just after dark, red and blue lights still flashed down the road to the lake, so she just stayed with Mark for the night. That was fine with him.

.

Joan was excited about the first day of school. Their bus stop was at the end of the driveway, at 7:15 AM. She got up a little early and took the two four pound defrosted hams down to the fence in the front yard. Having done this the previous few days, the alligator was waiting for her. Still he banged on the fence to alert it she was here. The alligator lifted it's head up and opened it's mouth. She tossed the first ham chunk in it's mouth.

SNAP

Once it swallowed and opened it's mouth again, she tossed the second chunk in.

"Have a nice day, I'm going to school," she told it and waved. She went back inside and got herself ready for school and had breakfast. Breakfast, clean up, then she was out the door with JJ, Jackie and Louise. They got to the top of the driveway at 7:10. Five minutes later, a small bus came up the road. The bus stopped and the driver thew the doors open. "Get on quick! There's an alligator behind you!"

JJ, Louise and Jackie did. Joan turned around. The alligator stood ten feet behind her. "NO! You can't go to school with us!" she said firmly and got on the bus. The alligator watched the bus leave, then ambled back towards the house.

JJ grinned, "Is there a school for alligators?" he asked.

The bus driver asked, "Miss Connor, weren't you afraid? It was right behind you!"

"He does that," Joan said with a sigh. "I go swimming in the lake and he follows me around too unless I swim fast."

"Face it Joan, it's your alligator," Jackie said.

"It' not my alligator!" Joan replied.

JJ giggled. "Yes it is."

.

They picked up Allison, who took a seat in front of Joan. Jackie let her know Joan's alligator wanted to come too. Allison laughed.

Next they picked up Bob, who took his seat beside Joan, then the bus headed for town. The bus stopped at the primary school first to let JJ, Louise and Jackie off, then continued on to the high school.

.

Going inside, JJ saw there were six rooms on the first floor. Each one was a grade. In front of the rooms were teachers, each holding a list. He led their small pack to the 6th grade room. Each one told the teacher their name, she checked it off and had them go in and take a seat. There was only a scattering of students inside the room. Cindy, sitting towards the front jumped up out of her seat and waved an arm. "Jackie, Louise! Come sit up here with us!" she cried.

Cindy was sitting beside a strawberry blonde girl in pigtails. The girl smiled widely and asked, "Are they the mermaids?"

"Yes!" Cindy beamed. Pointing, she said "This is Jackie, that's Louise. That's their brother, John Junior."

Jackie sat down behind Cindy, Louise sat down behind the pig tailed girl who introduced herself as Betty. JJ said down behind Louise as the all turned to each other to chatter about being mermaids in the small lake.

JJ looked around. There was a pair of boys by the window, and on the other side of the chatter group, a dark haired girl in a ponytail and glasses sat reading what looked like a comic book. Two more kids came in, the boy and the girl looked very similar, both had pale blonde all but white, hair. They sat down in the middle together.

This was it?

The teacher came in and closed the door. "Good morning everyone!" she said brightly. "I am Miss Winters, did y'all have a fun summer?"

"I did!" Cindy said and shot her hand in the air. "I got to watch mermaids swim and even saw Joan's alligator!"

"Mermaids? You mean girls with mermaid tails on?"

"Yes, and Jackie and Louise are two of them. They swim really great! It was fun to watch, and Jackie gave me her old tail so I'm learning how to swim like a mermaid too! Uncle Mark an Dad got video of them. The big tall lady, Sonya, was the only one who came to the big lake to swim."

Miss Winters eyed Jackie and Louise. "I would think it would be dangerous to swim in that small lake. It's known to be infested with alligators."

"Naw," Jackie said. "The gators don't bother us, well, except for Joan's. They mostly stay near the shore, and at the shoreline. Don't go near the shores and it's fine. we head out towards the middle and swim."

"Joan is our older sister," JJ explained, "She and Louise fed an alligator, now it won't go away."

"I only did it once, and I got grounded for it." Louise reminded him. "Joan is the one who kept feeding it."

"At least we can keep it out of the yard now," Jackie added.

JJ chuckled, "And it doesn't try to get in the house any more."

Miss Winters frowned at them. "This alligator concerns me."

"Don't worry about him," Jackie said. "Joan yelled at him this morning, he didn't try to get on the bus."

"Miss Winters, can I show you the video I took when we went to the small lake?" Cindy asked.

JJ, Jackie, Betty and Louise all wanted to see it.

The pigtailed brunette looked over at them. "I don't think that would be very exciting, girls who try to swim like fish are slow and it doesn't look natural."

The pair of boys laughed.

"I'd like to see it," the pale haired girl said. Her brother nodded.

"After lunch break," Miss Winters said. "First I will hand out your books, and we will go over the daily routines."

.

Joan, Allison and Bob were used to a high school where you started in home room, then went to each class the individual teachers were. They were surprised to see the '8th grade' classroom. Twelve kids, that was the entire 8th grade here. This was their classroom. Going in a large, well built man sat behind his desk at the front of the class. Seeing them come in, he intoned, "Seating is in alphabetical order, your name is on your desk."

Joan perked up. She recognized the digital vs analog sound of his words. Seeing his name card, she asked, "Mr. Nader, you're a cyborg too?"

Mr. Nader focused on her. He tipped his head slightly to the side. "What is your name?"

"I'm Joan Connor, Cameron Connor is my Mommy One, John Connor is my Dad."

"I am familiar with them. You were born?"

"I was! I'm one point one. My brother John Junior is One point two, My sister Jackie is Two point One," Joan explained.

"Very interesting, I had not thought that was possible."

"Do you know John Henry?" Joan asked eagerly.

"Yes, John Henry and Catherine Weaver have taught me much. Please take your seat now, Joan Connor."

"Yes, Sir. It's good to see another one of us around," Joan beamed and found her seat.

There were three rows of five desks each. Since it was alphabetical seating, Joan was close to either Allison or Bob. Harold, Bob's friend sat behind her. A wider girl sat in front of her. Joan heard the chair creak when she settled in place. She whispered to the girl across from them, "We got Mr. Personality, great."

"His name is Mr. Nader," Joan said.

The girl in front of her turned to say, "Yes, Tommy Nader. What? You want to be a teacher's pet or something?"

"I'm no one's pet," Joan stated.

"I got a rabbit," the girl across from Joan said.

In front of her the wide girl said, "My cat would eat your rabbit."

For some reason Joan wasn't liking this girl. "Franny, My alligator would eat your cat. In one bite."

"How do you know my name?" the girl asked turning around.

"Our names are on our desks, oh intelligent one," Joan replied flatly.

Some giggling arose. Franny frowned at her.

"Watch yourself!" Franny growled.

Joan pointed to the front, "You might want to turn around and listen."

Mr. Nader had pulled the projector screen down. On it was their weekly class schedule. He handed out schedules as he explained what they were going to be doing, day by day. He also encouraged them to participate in a sport. The selection wasn't much, track, Soccer and baseball.

Mr. Nader then began passing out their books.

.

In the huddle around the TV, the pony tailed brunette sat watching Cindy's video with wide eyes and an open mouth. The boys were clapping at Jackie and Delilah's stunts and Joan and Jackie's tail walking on the water. Miss Winters was impressed by it also.

"Wow, those were some impressive stunts," Miss Winters said.

The brunette looked at Jackie. "You really ARE mermaids! No one could do the things you guys did!"

Jackie held up a finger and sang, "Our Mommies are Thing Two and Thing One, we can do anything, anything, anything, under the sun!"

JJ and Louise laughed. The pale haired boy asked, "Are you from Other home?"

Louise asked, "Where's that?"

The pale haired girl elbowed her brother and quickly said, "That's where we used to live."

"We came from Palmdale in California," JJ offered. "I'm John Junior."

"Peggy Littleton, this is my brother, Eddie."

"Hi, and this is my sister Jackie, and my gator feeding sister, Louise," JJ beamed.

Louise scowled at him. "I only did that once. It's Joan's fault he's still hanging around!"

"Maybe Mommy One's too." Jackie said. "She did kick that pig right at him."

"Yeah, I think Mommy One likes him too, but won't admit it."

"She kicked a pig at an alligator?" one boy asked, all grins.

"A wild pig she'd just kicked into the yard. Mommy One gave it a good wallop with her foot and it squealed loud until the Alligator had it in it's jaws. Then it was only a crunching sound." Louise explained.

Eddie and the other boys laughed.

JJ asked the two boys who sat by each other, "Who are you two?"

The taller dark haired boy said, "I'm Jerry, this is my neighbor Ben."

"Hi, Ben and Jerry,"Jackie said and waved.

Peggy noticed something. "Mommy One?" she asked.

JJ nodded. "Yes, Cameron is Mommy One, Delilah is Mommy Two."

"So, which is your mother?" she asked JJ.

"Both."

Peggy looked at Jackie. Jackie nodded. She looked at Louise. Louise shrugged and said, "We don't have a normal family."

"Your mothers are married?" Peggy guessed.

"Yes, to Dad," Jackie said.

'oh,' Peggy replied softly.

"Peggy? Have you been in town long?" Louise asked. "We just got here this last summer."

"We've been here a year and a half," Peggy told her.

"We have and it's been nice," Eddie agreed.

"We think so too," Jackie agreed.

"I'm Cynthia," the pony tailed brunette said. "Hey, maybe we could go bike riding together sometime?"

"That sounds like fun," JJ agreed. "Me and Louise got a neat bike."

"Yes, lets," Peggy added.

The 'get to know each other' time Miss Winters had planned on doing, the kids were doing by themselves.

.

After the 'homeroom' class was over, The next class was science, again with Mr. Nader. The first thing he did was put up a large picture of the solar system. He pointed to the sun and asked, "Does anyone know why the sun shines?"

Joan, Bob and Allison raised their hands, as did another boy.

"Miss Young?"

"The sun is a very large mass, which gives it a very high gravity. This huge gravitational pull crushed the high amount of hydrogen in it to make a constant nuclear reaction in the core, which heats up the entire mass making it shine."

"Very good, Miss Young. That is correct. Who can tell me what happens when the sun uses up it's hydrogen fuel?"

"OH! I saw a show on that!" Bob said, waving his hand.

"Then tell us, Mr. Tanner."

"When the sun burns, it is making the hydrogen fuse into heavier elements. First is helium. The immense gravity of the sun will allow it to burn anything, so after the hydrogen is used up, millions of years from now, helium becomes it's fuel. In the core this keeps happening, more and more heavier elements are made, and due to this the interior reactions become stronger than the gravity, the sun will expand. We're talking it will take up a good portion of the rest of the solar system. Eventually, it will collapse because the gravity will be come stronger than the weakening reactions and it will turn into a red star, and shrink down into a white dwarf, or possibly go Super-nova and blow itself apart. In the end, it will be what's called a neutron star, or if there is enough mass, it may collapse into a black hole. Our sun isn't real big, compared to other stars, so it probably won't be a black hole."

"That is correct, Mr. Tanner." Mr. Nader told him. "There is a giant red star called Betelgeuse that is, scientists think, is nearing the end if it's life cycle. It is 600 light years away, so possibly it has already collapsed and gone super-nova, but we will not see it until the light from that exploding star gets to us here on Earth." he explained. "Until that happens, who can name off the planets?"

Harold raised his hand.

"Mr. Towner?"

"Mercury is the first, then Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter... Saturn ... Uranus, Neptune?"

"You have it, Mr. Towner," Mr. Nader said. "Now, these are all planets that have been found by telescopes and other observations. Is there any planets that the scientists are sure are there, but they can't find?"

Joan shot her hand up. "There is" she said without thinking.

"If they can't see it, or find it, how would they know it's there?" Mr. Nader asked.

"By observing the small objects outside of Neptune's influence." Joan said. "Many are tilted at an angle to our solar system when everything should be in a flat disk. Besides what the scientists have found, the ancient Sumerians wrote of a planet that has a very oblong orbit and is waaaay out there. If it's out of the normal solar system we know of, then it can't be seen. Not enough light from the sun reflects off it."

"I see," Mr. Nader said. "We believe scientists, why believe the Sumerians?"

"Because everything else we know of, science had proven them right," Joan stated. "They knew Pluto was there 6,000 years ago, but we just found it in 1934! They knew Neptune and Uranus were there, and even knew they were 'watery blue' looking planets. We didn't find that out until we sent a probe out to look at them."

"I have another question," Mr. Nader said. "Miss Connor, you said this orbit is oblong? This planet goes far out, then comes back in to swing around the sun, then head back out again. What is the farthest point from the sun a object can get called?"

"ahhh," Joan froze.

"Take your time. Anyone?"

"Perihelion?" Allison asked.

"That is the closest point of an orbiting object, Miss Young, but good try," Mr. Nader told her.

No one else spoke, so Mr. Nader put in on the blackboard. "Aphelion," he said. Even Earth's orbit around the sun is not perfectly circular. We too, have a perihelion, a point closes to the sun, and an aphelion, our point that is farthest away from the sun. That is one of the things that most greatly controls our weather, as are a couple more important movements. The closer we are to the sun, the warmer the Earth. We move farther away, and we become cooler."

Mr. Nader then got a globe out. "Another important item that affects our weather is what's called precession. The Earth spins, giving us night and day. Like our orbit around the sun, this spin is not perfect. The Earth wobbles," he demonstrated by slowly wiggling the globe. "When north America here, is pointed more at the sun in the winter at Perihelion, we generally have warmer winters. Due to precession, we tip the globe up a bit, so North America is not so directly pointed at the sun and move out to Aphelion, then we have colder winters. The best weather for us is when we have winter at Perihelion with a precession that turns North America towards the sun as much as possible, and Summer at aphelion. That makes for milder winters and longer, cooler summers." He paused then added, "The opposite is true. If we have winter at Aphelion and summer at Perihelion, we have long cold winters and short hot summers." He put the globe down.

"Now class, can anyone tell me the third variable that most effects our weather?" he asked. No one raised a hand, so he prodded, "It's been in the news, some people are very worried about it."

"I know!"a girl said shooting her hand in the air.

Mr. Nader pointed to her. "Go ahead."

"CO2 in the atmosphere!"

"Very good, Miss Rogers. So, how does CO2 affect our weather?"

"It makes the planet hotter," she said.

Mr. Nader replied, "Yes, it can. It can also make the planet colder. During the age of Dinosaurs, There was no ice caps, even Antarctica was a tropical paradise. the fossilized bones of warm weather animals have been found in Alaska and Canada. The carbon content during these times was 1500 ppm, Parts per million. Currently it's 440 ppm. The Earth was warmer then. After the asteroid impact that wiped out most living things on the planet, the carbon lever dropped dramatically. We began having ice ages. That happened because not only does carbon increase the temperature of the planet, it also helps distribute that heat. Back before that event, plants and animals grew to gigantic proportions. The CO2 was great for plant life, and plants turned that CO2 into oxygen, which is great for animals. When the comet that killed the dinosaurs struck and turned the world into what we call a nuclear winter for many years, most plants and animals died. That is where we get our coal and oil from, now."

Joan raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Connor?"

"So we aren't killing the planet by burning coal and oil?"

"We are putting back what used to be there," Mr. Nader said. "What I think is doing the most harm is removing the plant life. Plants make oxygen. No one today knows how else to replace all the oxygen we use without plant life."

Franny raised her hand.

"Miss Balon?"

"I heard scientists claim we're destroying our planet by burning fossil fuels."

Mr. Nader told her, "The loss of plant life is a bigger threat. Yes, by adding CO2 to the atmosphere, we are slowly changing Earth's weather patterns, but for four billion years, the Earth has been constantly changing. It's not going to stop any time soon. Yes, glaciers will melt, ocean levels will rise. Also, the frozen tundras of Siberia, Alaska and Canada will warm up and make more land that is tillable to grow more food. I don't see how that is a bad thing."

"What about the people who live on the coasts?" Franny asked.

"They will have to move." Mr. Nader stated. "At the end of the last ice age, the coasts were 150 feet lower. When all that ice melted, those people had to move."

"They will lose their homes!"

"They will need to build new ones. No one ever said change is comfortable," Mr. Nader replied.

Franny frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.

Joan snorted out a giggle. She liked having a T-800 for a teacher.

.

Apparently Franny wasn't happy with Joan. Their next class was with Mrs. Hughes for Health. When Mrs. Hughes ( a slim but healthy looking woman with light brown hair) asked what to do to maintain your best health, Joan brought up that being overweight caused problems later in life like bad hip and knees joints, back problems and possible diabetes. Franny turned briefly to scowl at Joan. Joan just stuck her tongue out at her.

Their next class was Phys-Ed in the gym. This was an introductory class, where they sat and filled out forms for their uniforms and a questionnaire on this sports they would like to play. Soccer was a Fall sport, Baseball was the Spring sport. Joan talked with Allison, they decided to do both. Track was spring also, but just running around the track sounded boring.

Leaving the gym, Joan felt something push her into the edge of the door.

"Hey!" Allison snapped.

Franny went by and said, "Hey nothing, I didn't see her."

Joan frowned at Franny. Recovering she hooked her foot behind Franny's and pulled up. Franny let out a yelp and fell face first on the floor.

"Sorry, didn't see you. Are you OK?" Joan asked.

Franny got up red faced, glaring at Joan.

"Is there a problem here?" Miss Hughes asked in a hard tone as Franny a head taller, glared down on Joan. Joan stared blankly back at her.

"I said I was sorry," Joan stated flatly. "How about you for knocking me into the edge of the door?"

"All right enough," Miss Hughes said, "Both of you, on your way!"

Franny turned and stomped off.

Allison hooked Joan's arm. "Come on, forget it." she said quietly.

Mrs. Hughes watched them walk away.

Heading back to the classroom Franny had sat down first. Joan watcher Franny's feet as she walked by. One didn't come out to trip her.

"I'm going to get you," Franny growled quietly.

"No, you'll just get yourself hurt," Joan replied in the same tone.

The rest of the classes, Franny stayed quiet, but Joan noted her elevated temperature. Joan also got a note passed to her. : be careful, she's a bully.

Joan grinned and tore the note up.

Mr. Nader came back in for the end of the day homeroom. He had everyone show him their books and made sure they had any homework. He asked if there was anything today in any class that they didn't understand.

Joan raised her hand. "Mr. Nader, why don't we have a football team?"

"The school can't afford the gear, and we do not have enough students to field a team." he replied. He then asked, "Did you play football at your other school?"

"We did! Allison, Bob and I," Joan said. "I got to be quarterback for a few games. That was really fun."

"I was Joan's running back," Allison said. "Each quarter we got three or four touchdowns."

"Peewee league?" Franny asked in a snort.

"Varsity squad," Joan replied. "Our school never lost a game we played in."

"That is quite the accomplishment." Mr. Nader said.

"You lie," Franny grumbled.

"Your school was Palmdale High, correct?" Mr. Nader asked.

"It was."

"I shall ask for copies of the recordings of the games you played in, Miss Connor."

"You're gonna get caught in a lie," Franny sang quietly.

"Don't think so." Joan said flatly.

The bell rang, Franny walked quickly out. Joan waited for Allison and Bob to join her. They walked out together to their bus. Halfway there, a senior boy stepped in front of them. "Which one of you is Connor?" he asked in a hard tone.

"Me, what do you want?" Joan asked.

"You leave my sister alone, or I will hurt you," he growled.

"Very brave, trying to beat up a small girl, aren't you?" Allison asked.

"It was your sister harassing Joan," Bob stated. "Put a leash on her!"

"Why you," the boy growled and stepped towards him.

Joan got in front of the boy and shoved him in the chest to fly back and land six feet from her. "You touch me or any of my friends, and you will find out what pain is," she said flatly, staring down on him.

He got up. "I'm going to kick your ass!" he stated.

"Jump, froggy," Joan replied flatly, watching him.

"Tod! What the fuck man?" another senior boy asked as he ran over to him. "You picking a fight with a little girl? What's wrong with you?"

The boy grabbed Tod's arm and steered him away.

"She was harassing my sister!"

"Tod, you sister's a bitch, get over it."

Allison laughed, which made Tod turn back around. Joan watched him with a hard eye.

The other boy turned Tod back around. Quieter he said, "That one girl looks like she's ready to tear you a new asshole, stop screwing with them."

.

Mr. Nader contacted Palmdale and talked to the coach, explaining Joan Connor wanted to play ball, and they wanted to see how she did on the field. The videos of the games she was in was sent to him. He view these then had Mrs. Hughes look at them. She scrutinized the videos and smiled.

.

Two days later, Mr. Nader brought in a projector. Once everyone was sitting down, he said, "I have some footage here of Miss Connor playing football on Palmdale's varsity team."

The class watched Joan plow though lines of seniors, throw the ball fast far downfield and in one play, two players from the other team were taken off field on stretchers after she ran into them. The very next play one hefty looking player tried to stop her by grabbing the chin guard on her helmet. They winced as he flew behind her, jerking her head to the side. Joan spun and threw him off as well as her helmet. He fell, holding his arm. She ran to the goal to throw the ball down, which bounced up high in the air. Stomping back, fists balled, it was shown she was bleeding. A coach from the other team put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She grabbed his wrist, pulled his arm off her and jerked down. He fell screaming and holding his shoulder as she walked on. Refs and coaches intercepted her to block her away from the now injured boy who'd torn her helmet off. she tried to walk around them to get to the boy, who saw her coming and ran.

The scene shifted to show cheerleaders doing a cheer.

"Joan's TNT, she's dynamite!

TNT, and she'll win the fight!

TNT, she's a power load!

TNT, watch her explode!"

The boys in the class and many of the girls (Except Franny) cheered.

When the video was over, Mr. Nader said, "I would recommend not picking on Joan Connor."

Franny became very quiet after that.

.

Saturday, the bike riding group gathered at the junction where the town main road met the road out to the small lake. Joan, Bob, and Allison met the group as they formed. Sitting on their two person car-bike, JJ asked, "Joan you guys are coming too?"

"We can join, can't we?" Joan asked.

JJ looked back behind then and asked, "Where's your alligator?"

"He doesn't have a bike, silly," Jackie said.

Bob offered, "Yeah, Joan's alligator was chasing people on a bicycle, so she had to take his bicycle away."

The group laughed. Joan grinned and stuck her tongue out at him.

When Peggy and Eddie showed up, the whole 6th grade class was there.

"So where do we go?" Cindy asked.

"How about a ride around town first?" Louise asked.

They all agreed. Betty piped up, "I'll lead!"

"Keep a watch out for cars!" Allison called.

After everyone went to work, there was little street traffic in Driftwood. The group rode easy, chatting as they road down a side street. The town was small, soon they rode across the main street and down the other side street. Coming to the back of Joe's Garage, they stopped to see Sonya putting a fancy wooden wheel with spokes on it on a pedestal towards the back. The base platform was light blue, rail uprights were a light purple and the rails were a dark wood finish. The overhead canvas on aluminum poles. was pulled back and gathered at the back.

"Hi Sonya, what ya doing?" JJ called.

Sonya looked up. "Hi kids! This is a helm, it's how the boat is steered."

"Wow, that's a nice boat!" Cindy said. "It's bigger than ours."

"We have a bigger family," Sonya told her.

"Is it almost done?" Jackie asked.

"A few more minor things, but yes, it should be finished by next weekend."

Cindy asked, "Are you going to take it to the big lake?"

"Not for a while, we need to test it first, make sure everything works right," Sonya told her. Sonya then turned the wheel as she watched over the back. Both rudders moved together, and in the right direction. The kids clapped. Sonya smiled.

.

In a high rise apartment in NYC, The old man sat gazing out at the city view. One of his men came in and said, "Sir we are having major problems. We've lost people and communications with our supporter have been sabotaged."

The old man frowned, making the lines on his old face seem bottomless. "Is the government involved? Have we been discovered?"

"It doesn't appear so sir. A clandestine operation has been taking out our people in Texas. Completely black, sir. Every attempt to discover who is responsible had vanished."

"The government is not stupid enough to do that. Still, make sure the papers report that they are behind it. How many people are we talking about, losses in a couple groups?"

"Four hundred ten have disappeared, Sir, including three group leaders. They are not in jail or any holding we can find. We must assume they are all dead."

The old man looked at him in surprise. "Someone has declared war on us."

"They have, sir, and all we have is the area they disappeared in. East of Austin Texas."

"A rough group?" the old man asked.

"It appears so, sir. None of our agents can find any information on who this group is. Obviously they are para-military and know how to conceal themselves."

The old man became agitated, his gravelly voice rose. "How does one kill so many people ... with all the tracking and monitoring there is today, and remain completely hidden? Isn't there forensic evidence? at least ONE witness as to what happened?"

"There are two sites that bodies were found at. One, is on a back road, an entire bus full of activists was torched and shot along with the news van following them. There was no recording equipment found. ten miles away, just recently, one of our group leaders and two sub leaders and the entire team of 46 were killed in a large traffic accident. We do have informants in the State Police there. So far, they have yet to find what the cause of that accident was."

"That was no accident!" The old man raged, pounding a fist on the arm of his easy chair.

"I agree sir, but our people's own explosives turned the accident into an inferno. There is no proof anyone or anything else was involved."

The old man scowled and shook his finger at the man. "Use your common sense! So close to the bus disaster, whoever this is, is in that area! We cannot let ANYONE stand in our way!"

"Sir, if I may suggest, whoever is there is well entrenched. If we send in more people, they will surely suffer the same fate. For the moment, much of our intel and support is gone. We have suffered staggering losses in that area. I firmly suggest we stay away from there. Move on and we can get to that place at a later date. Names and addresses of the group in that big accident are being looked at by the FBI and Homeland Security. If our efforts are discovered, that will be very bad news. We do not want a trail leading to us."

The old man grumbled and frowned. "What's to stop these ... vigilantes from coming after ME? After our source of support? They may well move to where they could do us much more permanent damage."

Calmly, the man said, "We isolate the area, watch who comes and goes from there. I am having movements in and out of that area checked for the last year. Everyone who has bought, sold or inherited and real estate. Please sir, let me finish my research before we send anyone else there."

The old man grumbled, then nodded. "Very well, find me those responsible."

I will, sir, and I will ensure they never bother us again."