Ch 16

Eddie (and venom) wanted to see this hotel for an over night stay there. Bob and Joan agreed, Eddie and Bill would be their very first guests!

Following the truck, Eddie and Bill looked at the town they were going through. Here and there, they saw a few people out, men working. "There's graves in just about every yard," Eddie noted.

"Yeah. All of them happened at once. Dealing with burying all of them had to be hard all by itself," Bill agreed.

"I think I see," Eddie said in a musing tone. "The PSR was ready to take over. They knew about this town and the people here. They had that bomb dropped to get rid of them so they couldn't interfere with the takeover. They thought a neutron bomb would wipe them out. It did kill many, but left the survivors very angry."

"I wouldn't want to face any of them that I've seen so far," Bill replied. "Seeing that thing in you, I'm surprised you weren't helping them."

"Just on the sly," Eddie said. "I still have a job reporting. Let's just say Venom ate good when those PSR were around."

Bill chuckled. "I hid whenever possible."

Going to the back of the grocery store, Bob pulled the truck up to the unload dock. Eddie parked nearby. Two men with butcher's aprons on came out onto the dock.

"The meat cooler is ready and down to 38 degrees," one said.

"Good, let's get'em hung up!" Joan said. She jumped up onto the dock then reached in the truck and pulled a large pig up and out. She handed that one to one of the men by it's back legs, then grabbed another to give to the other man. Bob was now on the dock, and took a third. The fourth Joan picked up and followed them.

"Those porkers gotta be 2-300 pounds. They all carry them like they are nothing, even Joan." Bill said in awe.

"They are very strong," Eddie agreed. "Come on, let's at least get them up on the dock."

Pulling and hauling, Eddie and Bill got two medium sized pigs up on the dock when the four returned.

One of the men in butcher's apron grabbed a leg each on the pigs, picked them up and carried them in. Joan got in the bed of the truck and gave two more to the other man, then a larger one to Bob. The next, she just got back out of the truck with.

Only smaller ones were left. Still heavy. Eddie and Bill did get them off the truck and onto the dock. Eddie also made a mental note that everyone he'd seen here so far, had no problem lifting 3-400 pounds all by themselves. Even the women.

After the pigs were out, Bob drove the pickup over by the corner to drive the front wheels up onto a ramp. Joan grabbed a hose and washed the bed of the truck out. then they were off again.

Following the truck up to a big sign hand made that read, 'Private property', Eddie followed the truck to the left. The road came to a lake and followed parallel to it. Bill glanced at something, then twisted back for a second look.

"Naw, it can't be," Bill whispered.

"What?" Eddie asked.

Pointing behind them, Bill said, "In that driveway back there with the collapsed garage, I swore I just saw a mermaid riding in a power chair."

Eddie chuckled. "In this place, I'd say maybe you did."

.

Getting to the hotel, Eddie parked and got out to look around. Nothing here looked damaged. In fact, lights were on in the hotel.

"Guys, come on in!" Joan waved as she and Bob went in.

Eddie and Bill followed them in. "This area wasn't affected by the bomb?' Eddie asked.

"It was." Bob said, opening the door for them. "It was outside the immediate blast area, but the neutron radiation still killed everyone around the lake. Some fish in the lake too that were shallow. We got a couple here that were diving in the lake at the time. They were down deep, so they survived."

"Scuba diving saved them," Eddie confirmed.

"It did. From what we've seen, here, if you were down about 20 feet or deeper, you were OK. In the small lake, directly under the blast, the radiation killed down to about 60 feet. Which meant just about everything in or around the lake died." Bob told them.

Eddie saw this was a very nice lobby, and recently cleaned. A woman came in wearing cleaning clothes and had a bag of garbage. She looked at Eddie and Bill. "Guests?" she asked hopefully.

"Our very first!" Joan beaned. "We got plenty of pork and ham coming too! We just dropped off a full truckload at the grocery store."

"Next week, we're having spare ribs!" Bob said happily.

"And prime rib and pork roast and hams," Joan added. She then turned to Eddie and Bill and said, "Watch your step! We got baby alligators running around. They have been staying by their pool, but they could be anywhere."

Eddie immediately checked the floor around hm. "You don't have an enclosure for them?" he asked.

"Just a tote and a pool in the corner of the dinning room. They are refugees from the small lake," Joan explained. "We haven't had time yet to make a place for them outside."

Eddie then saw a grey arm wave, a webbed hand at the end. "Apa! Umm Eee!" Whoever it was was in the far corner of the dinning room. Following Bob and Joan over, Eddie saw a gray skinned boy sitting on the floor by a small pool. In his lap a couple small, not even a foot long, alligators lay resting. The boy also didn't have feet, he had fins.

"Damn," Bill whispered.

Eddie glanced at him. "Maybe you did see a mermaid in a power chair, here's one sitting with alligators," Eddie said.

Joan turned to them. "Both the Mers, and those alligators are an endangered species," She explained. "There wasn't many of either to begin with. That bomb killed about half the Mers and all but these four alligators here."

As she talked one alligator scurried over and climbed up on her leg and opened it's mouth. She looked down at it. "Right, you're hungry."

"I'll go in and get it. Enough for all four?" Bob asked.

Joan nodded.

"I remember hearing about this," Eddie said. "That marine Biologist, I think her name was Dana Mc Gregor, found real living mermaids but refused to say where they were."

"Dana worked for my Dad," Joan told him. "She even did a TED talk on them, and these alligators. Right after that, she was killed. We think by someone who wanted badly to know where they were."

"They've been here, in Driftwood ... for how long?" Eddie asked.

"They inhabited the small lake," Joan said. "That is, until we got bombed. The ones down in their cave survived, any out fishing in the lake didn't make it. Mom, Delilah Connor, got them up out of their cave and brought them here. There's nothing left living in the small lake, hence, no food for them there. We think they've been in that lake since ocean covered Texas millions of years ago. When the seas retreated, they were trapped there."

"Dana claimed the mers are all but us," Eddie said, "do you think she was right?"

Joan frowned a bit and pointed to the mer boy. "Enel there is Bob's son."

Allison in a bikini and her mermaid tail over her shoulder came in from the beach side door. "Mers are happy, we got fish everywhere in the lake now!" she beamed. "Ellen even got two, she was going to bring one here for lunch." she then paused and waved to Eddie and Bill. "Hi guys. Visiting?"

Eddie waved. "Hi, I'm Eddie this is Bill. You were out swimming with the mermaids?"

Allison hefted her tail. "Yeah. Help corralling fish. We found a pack of walleye. Me and a few mers herded them towards a grassy area where a few spearmen waited. They got six fish. Ellen got a couple. It was a good hunt."

"How long were you under water and any one time?' Eddie asked.

Allison shrugged. "I didn't time it. ten, twelve minutes maybe? We weren't speeding along, just going fast enough to keep up with the fish trying to avoid us."

"Awwee!" Enel cried and waved.

"Hey Enel," Allison said, waving back. "Oh boy, he's gonna be a gator lover too," she said with a grin.

Eddie grinned. He asked Joan, "There's plenty of alligators around, why is saving these four so important?"

Joan explained, "They are a strain of smart alligators. They recognize individuals. Our marine Biologists got trail cam vids of them pack hunting together. That group surrounded, attacked and ate a large rat snake. Even when we were swimming in the small lake, it was usually two or three that would bite onto our hair and get a ride. At the house, if they saw someone who didn't live there, they would warn them away by snapping and hissing. They are territorial, and know who and what should be in their territory."

"They have a hard time with birthday cake though," Allison said and giggled.

Joan grinned. "Yeah, we got told not to do that any more. No more feeding alligators at the table."

Bob returned with a baggie of chopped meat. "You know, we shouldn't be explaining too much," he said to Joan.

Joan snorted. "Yeah, Dad and Moms are real strict about that. Then again, we've already had a nuke dropped on us, what in the hell can anyone possibly do to us that's worse than that?"

Bob huffed. "Good point." He squatted down by Enel and opened the bag. Enel picked out a chunk of meat. all four alligators scurried up to open their mouths.

Eddie watched Enel drop the meat into their mouths one by one. "Bob? Enel here is your son?" Eddie asked.

Bob only nodded.

"Oan, Ob!" came a call from the lobby. The Ellen came in riding her power chair and had a fish in her lap.

Going over to Patricia, Ellen gave her the fish. "Ook."

"Thanks, Ellen."

Eddie chuckled. "Bill, you did see a Mermaid in a power chair. I think we'll have an interesting stay here."

.

As head of the Police department, Sonya Connor had the San Jose and San Francisco police departments to run. She also dealt with the local Federal agencies. ATF, FBI, NSA, she talked with all of them to help coordination and cooperation. For Sonya, this was time consuming and easy to deal with, much of it being brain work in facts and figures getting the different departments what they needed. Spending all her time working problems and solutions, and in meetings was letting her not have to think about her dead husband and little boy.

A weapons effectiveness seminar and demonstration was being held in Sacramento. Sonya and her Police Chiefs in both cities were invited to attend, and asked to bring what they considered their most effective weapon. They decided to go. Both men brought their side arms. Sonya brought a long case with her.

The seminar was good, covering everything from Police Batons, guns, tazers, pepper spray, sonic crowd control devices, tear gas, personal and auto capture nets, road spikes, it covered everything currently used. It also covered the sources that supplied each. During the seminar, Sonya stood on the side listening. None of the seats were big enough of strong enough for her to sit down. She also noted she got plenty of stares. She did think this was a good presentation.

When the demonstration began, The Chief from Palmdale said his tazer was his most effective weapon, because it brought down suspects with out permanently injuring them. He also stressed using a tazer before resorting to your hand gun. Others also got up and praised the tazer but stressed the right weapon for the right situation. Then it was Sonya's turn.

Sonya picked up her long case and went to the front. She sat her case on the table and asked, "Anyone ever hear about a WW2 hero by the name of Mad Jack?"

She got a bunch of shrugs and heads shaking.

"Mad Jack Churchill, an English Officer who had many decorations for his bravery and victories. While everyone else had rifles and machine guns, Mad Jack went into battle with one of these." She said, then opened her case and pulled her thick broadsword sword out. "His didn't look like this, but he did capture many prisoners, at one point, a full platoon of Germans, with nothing but his sword and longbow. Everyone called him Mad Jack, because it's common knowledge that you don't bring a knife to a gun fight."

That earned her some chuckles.

"However, what he knew, and not many people realize, is intimidation works," Sonya stated. She twirled her sword around and said, "Myself and Bruce, just the two of us, took LA away from the PSR. I had a rifle too, but my biggest help was right here in my hand. Coming into the city, we were met by a couple hundred 'Protesters'. We'd had to fight our way through the picket around the city, so yeah, I had blood on me. A couple protesters decided to get in our faces. I knocked them aside. I also announced, "Move or die." Their eyes got a little big and they all backed up to the sidewalks and let us pass. Intimidation. I shot the PSR members behind them that were now exposed with my rifle, but no more of those protesters bothered us. By using intimidation, that was a couple hundred we didn't have to fight or injure."

Holding her sword out, she added, "This can kill, or take a limb off. Using the flat of the blade on someone it can also disable them of knock them out. It is prime for close quarters defense, or I can also throw it like a spear. It weighs 20.5 pounds and the best body armor will not stop the target from being knocked down, even if they are not impaled. Something like this does take skill to use, but the fact I'm sporting long, hard steel in someone's face does give them pause before they do anything. This is my most versatile weapon."

The FBI guy said, "I can see how intimidation works well for you. How tall are you?"

"Seven foot four inches. Yes, that does help."

That got a few more chuckles.

Sonya put her sword back in the case and pulled out a wide looking pistol. "This is a new Tazer made by Zeira. I got it from Catherine Weaver. The drawback of the single set of needles in a normal tazer is that once you shoot it, you've shot your load. If you're facing more than one belligerent, you may be in big trouble. This gives you three shots. The needles that are out will give another jolt every time you push the red button on the back, top, here. It also had a re-reeling trigger on the bottom of the handle so you can pull the needles you fired, back to you. You can shoot it again and again. Testing it out, I found out it's good for 14 solid jolts total before the batteries get weak. I am trying to get these for our officers."

"We could use those," The Sacramento Commissioner said.

"I'll give you the number to call after this." Sonya assured him. "Will you order for the cities also?"

He nodded and said, "State and local." Standing up, he added, "Everyone, give me the totals that you want, after you talk to your city councils."

You were in the California Guard?" a man toward the back asked.

"Texas Guard. We came to help the California Guard," she replied.

"I'm surprised PSR didn't shoot you." he said.

"They did. Never said I didn't have armor," Sonya told him.

It was a good meeting and the new tazers were a hit. Sonya was pleased things were going well.

.

After the meeting, the two NSA men who came wanted to speak with Sonya in private. She followed them to a separate room that looked like a plain sitting room. At least here there was a couch that looked sturdy enough for her to sit. She took her seat as the men took chairs in front of her. She waited for them to speak.

Both men looked to be mid-30's the one on her right said, "I am Major Dietrich, this is Major Rentell. First off, We have to know, are you still a special agent in the NSA?"

"Yes. Due to what I am, I will always be," Sonya told them. "The cities I am Police Commissioner for need help organizing their affairs after the PSR gutted their police force."

"I was told to inform you, you are now Captain Connor of the NSA," he said. He reached into his coat and handed her a badge. "Congratulations, Captain."

Sonya tool the badge with a, "Thank you, Sir. Have the remaining PSR loyalists been cleaned up?"

"That is in progress. There are two in your area we know of. One is a real estate tycoon by the name of Michel Stromberg."

The other man pulled out an envelope and gave it to Sonya. "This is his information, and a list of the people he swindled out of their homes. Mr. Stromberg threw away his PSR related clothing and shredded his paperwork, but his computer was successfully hacked and there is proof of his PSR involvement."

"The other one is Ted Benton. He is CEO of the local banking corporation, which owns most of the local banks. That corporation also holds the titles of the properties that were grabbed by Mr. Stromberg. Although the legal pursuit of these men is the best way to handle the situation. There is very strong evidence that if pressed, they will use all their legal maneuvering and cover up all they can to slow the process down while they flee."

"We do not want them to flee," Major Rentell said. "We talked to John Connor and he agreed they need to be remove. However you wish to do it. You have full support from John Connor and John Henry."

Sonya nodded. "I will look at the information you gave me and decide best how to handle them. I assume disappearing them is an option?"

"Handle them at your discretion, but ensure they will never be a problem ever again, and if it's not legal, don't get caught" Major Dietrich said.

Sonya grinned briefly. "I can do that."

.

Many of the properties seized by the banks were empty. Sonya found a nice one just outside the city of San Jose. It was a 5500 square foot two story house with a huge yard of 5 acres, pool in the back, and a three car garage. It had been foreclosed on a year ago when the owners fled. She got her things together and moved in. She got the electric restored, water sewer and garbage collection. She made it her address. The whole time she was waiting for someone to tell her she couldn't do that, that she was trespassing.

No one said a word. She opened a small account at the bank that owned the place, and still, no response whatsoever. After living there a few weeks, doing yard work and some fixing up, she thought for sure the bank would do something. It was like they didn't care. That didn't make and sense to her. She was blatantly living on their property cost free, she thought she would at least get a letter in the mail informing her she had to leave or make financial arrangements to stay there.

Sonya even told the Mayor of San Jose where she was living, thinking he would have something to say about what she was doing. His big response was to ask if she was going to have a housewarming party. Her response was to face plant.

"Your Honor, I am blatantly trespassing on the bank's property, trying to get some kind of response from them. Even just sending me a letter or something. There's someone I'm after, but I need evidence to go after them," Sonya told him. "To get that evidence, I need a contact, and to get that contact and have them not be aware of my true intentions. I'm squatting in a multi-million dollar house and it seems they just don't care. Doesn't that seem strange to you?"

He shrugged. "By California law, stay there three years and apply for the title, the house will be yours."

"I don't want the house, I want the bastard I'm after!" she said firmly.

"You'll have to go about it a different way," he replied. "Seeing how you're a city official, chances are the bank won't do anything. Also being who you are, I doubt anyone will question you being in that house. They will, as I do, feel you deserve it. Of course, after three years, then we can collect taxes on the place. You'll be helping the city out," he said.

OK, so that idea was a dismal failure. Termination was looking good to solve the problem.

From John Henry, Sonya got all Mr. Stromberg and Mr. Benton's accounts and assets. These guys were rich. They stretched what was legal to the breaking point, but always had paperwork to cover it up. One thing they both had done was to hack other accounts and make records to show people were behind, then charge extra interest but not reveal they did until the amount was too great to settle right away, then demand immediate payment.

Removing their accounts and transferring away their assets John Henry could easily do. The closest one to her was Benton. Sonya gave John Henry the date and time she wanted him to wipe all of Benton's wealth out. She then went to his beach house outside San Jose to arrive right after Benton's wealth disappeared.

Of course the Benton beach house was large and had two guards at the gate. Sonya parked and went up to them, showing her badge. "I need to talk to Ted Benton. You can take me to him, or go and get him." she stated.

One guard called on his phone and relayed the request. He then said, Follow me, Ma'am."

Sonya followed him through the house to a large pool patio. In a lounge chair Benton was gaping at his laptop and spitting curses. The naked, busty brunette beside him looked worried.

"Ted Benton?" Sonya asked.

He looked up at her then let out a sarcastic chuckle. "If it isn't Commissioner Connor herself." He tossed the laptop to the side. "I already know this isn't a social call. I got a feeling you know where all my money just went to."

"Are you Ted Benton?" Sonya asked again.

"Is it jail or just execution?" he asked. "You know I was involved with PSR, don't you?"

"Answer the question," Sonya said firmly. "Are you Ted Benton?"

He nodded and said the the brunette, "Babe, it's time."

The brunette cast Sonya a hard look and reached into a bag by her seat and pulled out a silenced pistol. She racked the slide and moved around behind Ted.

"You aren't going to kill me with that. Do yourself a favor, put it down, now," Sonya told her in a hard tone.

The brunette raised the gun up to the back of Ted Benton's head and pulled the trigger. His face disintegrated in a blast of blood, brain and bone. She then lifted it to point up under her own chin and blew the top of her own head off.

"Fuck!" the guard beside Sonya blurted out.

"Damn," Sonya grumbled. "Call an ambulance please, I'll call in the murder/suicide."

.

Since Mr. Stromberg was a CEO, Sonya had John Henry do a hostile takeover of his banking corporation vie computer hack, making Cameron the new CEO with 65% of the stock. Then John Henry took all his money away.

As luck would have it, there was a stockholders meeting due when Sonya came to the main office to see him. She arrived an hour and a half before the meeting started. By the time she was in the building, Mr. Stromberg was destitute.

The guard that tried to stop, her, she showed her badge too and went past him, then another set before the elevators up to his office. Of course the top floor was very nice with rich carpets, artwork and statues along the walls and a huge polished oak desk Mr. Stromberg was fuming behind.

Michael Stromberg pounded a fist down as he yelled into an intercom, "Find out what the hell happened, or you're FIRED!"

"Michael Stromberg?" Sonya asked as she approached his desk.

"Who the, what the hell are you? The freak show is in another building!" he spat.

Sonya showed her badge. "Sonya Connor, Police Commissioner. You seemed to have lost all your money, Mr. Stromberg."

"I've been robbed. I demand you tell me who did it!" he raged.

Sonya smiled. "If I do, then I'll have to kill you. Oh, by the way, you're no longer CEO either. Cameron now owns 65% of your corporation." she went over and opened the patio door to the roof.

He stared at her then said, "So this is a holdup, is it? Fine, what do you want to restore my rightful wealth and position."

Sonya pointed out the door. "Simple, walk out the door, then keep on walking."

"What around in circles? What kind of game are you playing?" he asked in a hard tone.

"No game," Sonya stated. "You can walk out and jump off the roof, or I'll throw you off the roof."

He glowered at her red faced and yelled, "I will have you ..."

His words were cut off as she punched him hard up under his ribs. Grabbing him by the back of the collar as he gasped trying to breathe, she walked him out and tossed him off the roof. No one had followed her up here, so she went back to the outer office and sat down, waiting to see him.

It had happened before. Some glitch had happened and Michael Stromberg's wealth had evaporated. Being suddenly penniless, he'd committed suicide.

.

After a long day of terminating, Sonya got back to her house to have Cameron call.

"Sonya."

"It's Cameron, why did our printer just print out 592 names with former and current addresses?"

"Already?' Sonya asked. "Those are the people who got swindled by the West CRNT Banking Corporation. You should have gotten a notification that now, you are the major stockholder in that company. PSR people used to run it. Now, it's yours."

"Mine?"

"I had to give it to someone. Just buy out the other stock holders then merge it with your Bank in Texas."

There was a pause, then, Cameron said, "Sonya, warn me next time. I take it John Henry knows about this?"

"Of course. It will be more income for Driftwood, won't it?"

"Thank you for that. Still warn me next time."

"Will do."

.

JJ had an idea. They couldn't sell their grape harvest to the local winery that right now, didn't have anyone to run it, but maybe if he sold them the wine to other wineries so they could market it as theirs, he could still get some money for his harvests. He just wouldn't make so much alcohol in the mix going to those wineries.

Calling the Dripping Springs winery, JJ proposed his idea. Since they were struggling for help also, they agree to take it and sell it as 'South Springs' wine. They would give him $10 a gallon. Upon calling Wood Creek to their south, He got an agreement for $10 a gallon and to rent out use of the Driftwood winery to get that back in operation. They would even take straight grape juice for that price. Again though, it would be bottled as their product. That was fine with JJ. At least it would be money coming in, and they had a lot of grapes to harvest.

JJ's life was becoming better as they went. The Tarotens were no Littletons. Once they recovered from 'Kaede- shock', they were all friendly and hard working. Harvesting began and everyone was busy. The first grape press was filled and squished out juice for the first alcohol batch. JJ had gone over in detail how to run the 'boiling' tank , then the fermenting tanks. Kalen managed these and made sure the proper temperatures were kept in each. The output from the grape presses was split with a valve to direct the juice to the alcohol tanks, or to load a tanker with juice. The Wood Creek guy said the winery in Driftwood would be up and running in 3 days, so after the first alcohol batch was brewing, he had one of their two tanker trucks filling with juice.

Beside work going well on the farm, he found he was truly falling in love with Kaede. Not only was she pretty, sexy and a hard worker, she was also funny at times, loved to cuddle when they were able to, and just plain fun to be with. She was also taking to all the Tarotens' kids. For a birthday party of three of them at once, She made a small stage. Her Laura and Darla made a script for a few of the jointed dolls the girls had. At the stage play, Kaede moved the dolls like they were walking and dancing while behind the stage, All four mothers did the voices. It was a big hit for all the kids.

In short, Kaede was just plain wonderful. He also was happy she was a fast and accurate grape picker. But the time the truck got back down the rows with the emptied wagon, she had the one JJ left already filled. With her, two of the mothers and Tobru picking, it went faster than JJ anticipated.

The first batch of alcohol was a test run to be sure the system worked right. It worked perfectly. They got 60 gallons of 185 proof alcohol out of it. Good enough for fuel. Again, JJ was expecting around 40, so it was a pleasant surprise. They were able to use their own alcohol, and for now, were able to store the extra.

Besides supplying juice to the Driftwood and Wood Creek wineries, JJ also got a couple tankers up to Dripping Springs. It wasn't a prime harvest as far as the money went, but it sure beat making nothing after all their hard work. Most of the harvest season, both grape presses were going constantly at full capacity. They stored 275 gallons of fuel grade alcohol, and sold 14 tankers of grape juice and another 6 of 'low' alcohol grape wine for Driftwood. The gardens had also produced well, some went to the grocery store to help them, and they got credit for 210 pounds of pork, ham and sausages.

It was time for a post-harvest party! Besides the 15 bottles of wine they kept and the 6 bottles of grape juice, JJ went down and got a few bottles of other drinks. He got a bottle each of Strawberry and blueberry brandy, Some Captain Morgan, Vodka, Scotch and Bourbon. He figured the adults would sample drinks and find out what they liked.

Using the outside grills, JJ and Hanson cooked up their meat, ham pork and sausages, while the women made salads, bowls of squash, potatoes and a big bowl of fruit salad. The table was long, three table put together and once the food was all done, they went to sit down and eat.

"Hold on!," 12 year old Ken said. "Sophie, do you have that translation you did to show Kaede?"

Sophie, who was also now 12, looked at Ken. "Be right back!" she cried and ran in the house. She emerged a moment later with a paper in her hand. "Kaede, we really liked that show you did for us on your birthday so that music box song you got, I found the whole song on the net on a music channel. It was sung in a different language! I had to figure out what the words were in English. I found it was latin that song was sung in so I found a translator, and most of it made sense. I kinda figured out the words I didn't know, but this song fits you so well!"

Sophie then winced. "I can't sing it though, all I can do is tell you the words."

"Well let's hear it" JJ prodded.

"OK, the first line reads, 'The mouth of the Just shall mediate wisdom. The second line says 'tongue but I think it was to rhyme the words so I replaced it with mind. It also read 'he', but this song is old, so I changed that too. " Sophie explained.

"Her mind will deliver justice. Blessed are the ones who, the closest I came was, 'endure torment. In that line."

"Hon, just read the words," Tobru said.

Sophie nodded.

"The mouth of the of the Just shall mediate wisdom,

her mind will deliver justice,

Blessed are those who endure torment,

for when are tried and passed through, they shall receive the crown of life

God, oh holy fire, have mercy

How holy, how serene, how beneficial, how beautiful is the lily of purity." She then added, "I'm thinking purity as in actions."

Kaede got up and said, "Come here, you." She gave Sophie a long hug. "Thank you, dear, I really appreciate what you did."

"That was very nice of you, Sophie," JJ added.

"It was" Danny announced, "So let's eat!"

.