Chapter 17

The yard was a mess. Paper plates, cans, bottles, and assorted trash were scattered everywhere. The caterers were packing up their equipment, the rental agencies were picking up the tables and chairs, and the security guards were watching the activities. John’s plans had been very complete with no complaints from the guests. The only thing that he had overlooked was the cleanup the next day. He should have realized that a thousand guests would leave a lot of trash behind. He wondered what he would do about it, five acres of land to pick up was quite a lot.

The animals were relaxing after a hard day of work. Shadow, recovered from his encounter with the intruder, was full of energy. The animals had knocked over one of the trashcans and were batting it around the yard in play. The bear would bat it a long distance and the cats would chase after it. The wolf would run around it. In a way, it was odd to watch the animals play without making noise. There were no barks, growls, or roars.

The camp where the other medallion wearers were staying was coming to life in the early morning. John watched with amusement as half of the medallion wearers exited their tents naked. He smiled at the realization that there had been a lot of tent hopping last night as people exited from tents that were not theirs. Some of the people exiting the tents weren’t Druids. Clearly, John was not exceptional in being a randy pagan and being a pagan wasn’t required to be randy.

John watched as Jerry Smith spotted him. Jerry called out something that John could not hear, but a half dozen of the others joined him. Together, they walked over to where John was standing. Since most of them were naked, their passage caused more than a little excitement among the caterers. John walked towards them so that they met halfway. A woman caterer blushed and ran away from the area. The group watched her leave in amusement.

Jerry Smith broke the silence, “I understand that somebody tried to kill you yesterday.”

“True. We had a rather complete security program in place. They never got close.”

One of the others asked, “This wasn’t the first attempt, was it?”

“No. There was another attempt no too long ago.”

Jerry said, “We that serve the God intend to help you end the threat.”

John nodded as he said, “We have a sting operation that is getting put into place. The idea is to entice the person behind this out of Mexico and into the States where we can arrest him.”

Jerry looked out across the field. Doing it John’s way could take a year and he wanted it over quicker than that. He turned to John and asked, “Who is it?”

“Alberto Rodriguez,” replied John. “He’s in Mexico City.”

At the urging of others, John filled them in on all of the details about Alberto Rodriguez that he had unearthed. He covered some of the known relationships of abducted individuals with powerful people. Several were well connected to South American people of significant influence, many of them were criminals.

Jerry turned to look at the others that had walked over with him. One by one, each nodded. He turned back to face John and said, “You won’t need to worry about him.”

John asked, “Are you going to assassinate him?”

Jerry shot John a nasty look and said, “Of course not. We advise certain people that he represents a threat to them, and then suddenly he is no longer a threat. If necessary, we shall tell them how to deal with him. Druids only fight in self-defense. Other than that, we are advisers.”

One of the other men suggested, “You should learn that lesson a little better, John. Maybe you will stop getting killed.”

John nodded. He had not thought about that. As a rescuer, he had to be intimately involved. Perhaps using his strength meant directing others rather than requiring him to muscle his way through. He answered, “You are right.”

Jerry asked, “Who do the assassins work for?”

John answered, “They are Russian. It looks like they belong to the Russian Mafia.”

Jerry turned back to the others. Most of them shook their heads. Two nodded. Jerry asked one of the ones that nodded, “Why?”

“We have to teach them that you don’t fuck with a Druid,” replied the man. He added, “They are stronger than us. We have to find a way to use that strength against them.”

Jerry nodded and said, “I agree with you Sean.”

John interrupted, “Allow me to handle them. I have the FBI that I can call upon.”

Jerry nodded and said, “We’ll hit them from all sides. You use the Feds while we use other criminal elements.”

Sean asked, “Can I give them the word that we are coming after them?”

Jerry smiled. He suspected there was a little bad blood there. “Sure, and make sure that you tell them why!”

John nodded and said, “Good, then we act. The sooner the better.”

Jerry laughed and said, “When we are done, no one will ever accept a hit on a Druid again.”

Sean said, “Okay. I’ll head over to the jail and talk to the prisoners. Find out the particular Russian group for whom they work. Then I’ll head up to little Russia in New York.”

Jerry nodded and said, “I’ll head down to Mexico City. Give me about three days to get things set up there.”

A couple of others nodded their heads in agreement. Then, as a group, all of them left but Jerry. Jerry looked at John and said, “John, you’ve done some good work. You need to let us know when you need help. I know that you serve the God and the Goddess, but that doesn’t mean you have to do everything alone.”

John answered, “I guess. Saving people for the Goddess was a solitary activity.”

Jerry countered, “No it wasn’t. Didn’t you assemble a team to help with the earthquake?”

“Yes, I did. I didn’t think about that.”

Jerry said, “There is one thing that you have to remember. We serve the Gods and Goddesses. In their service, we serve humanity. When someone kills one of us, then humanity is harmed. We must protect ourselves for the sake of the people we would save.”

John thought about that. If he had been killed then who would have saved the people that were victims of the white slavery ring. They were still tracking down some of the people who had been sold from previous abductions. While fifty victims saved from a life of sexual slavery may not sound like much, it was important to them. They had found four people that had purchased slaves and killed them in the course of using them. Many sick people had been locked away because of his efforts.

John said, “I’m not that important, but I will call upon you when I’m in trouble.”

Jerry laughed at the statement. He said, “Not that important? Don’t you know that you are the nominal head of the Druids?”

John stepped back in horror. He asked, “What do you mean?”

“You serve a God and a Goddess. No one else has achieved that distinction. You are the head of both groups. Only two Druids are not required to treat you as a brother. The first is Harry and the other is Ed. They serve the Two-side One.”

“Oh.”

Jerry studied John for a moment. He asked, “You really didn’t know that?”

“No.”

Jerry laughed and then said, “You have displayed excellent leadership skills, already.”

“What did I do?”

“Nothing,” replied Jerry. He laughed as he added, “In my book, that makes an excellent leader.”

John smiled at the joke. “Wait until I start thinking up things for you to do.”

Jerry turned and walked away. He shouted over his shoulder, “That’s my cue to get out of here. Mom Smith didn’t raise a fool!”

John returned to the house. He figured that everyone would be awake by now and it would be time for breakfast. He would use that time to get an opinion as to how to get the yard cleaned up. The three cats joined him as he walked. He glanced at Shadow, pleased to see the cat up and about so well this morning.

At the house, he entered the back door. He stopped and looked at the atrium with its plants, stream, and water fountain. In a few days time, they would add fish and frogs to the stream. Several small paths threaded though the plants, all ending at a bench in the center. He wondered if he should add lizards and other animals to the area.

He mentally counted heads and came up with eighteen people to feed. He reached the large kitchen and looked around. The chef hired to stock the kitchen had done a very good job. He decided that a simple breakfast would have to do. He would create a buffet breakfast using the food warmers that he found on the shelf.

He started by making pancakes once he found a griddle large enough to make eighteen small pancakes at a time. He quickly filled a food warmer with enough pancakes to feed most people there. He then made scrambled eggs. He had never tried to scramble three dozen eggs before. It took a lot more time than he thought it would.

Mrs. Hayes entered the kitchen wearing an exercise outfit. She looked at what John was doing and volunteered to make set out the plates and silverware. John told her that she would have to find it herself, because he had no idea where they were kept in this kitchen. They were joined by Mrs. South and Mr. Jensen, who volunteered to make toast and get out the juice.

Beth entered the kitchen and started brewing the coffee in the monster coffee maker she found in one of the cabinets. Her mother finished putting out the plates and silverware. She carried the food warmer with the pancakes out of the kitchen after giving a brief good morning to her daughter. Ed stumbled into the room in his normal morning haze. He looked around and grumbled, “Oh my, I’m surrounded by morning people.”

John laughed and said, “Go wake up Kelly.”

Ed stumbled out of the room. His departure was the subject of laughter. Those that knew Ed well expected nothing less. Beth’s mother raised an eyebrow in Beth’s direction. Beth shrugged and said, “You should see him at night!”

The eggs were finally scrambled and John put them in another food warmer. Beth’s mother quickly carried it out. John went to the refrigerator. He took out several sticks of butter, placing them on small plates. Then he set out an open jar of salsa, and maple syrup. He went to the pantry where he found various jams, honey, and powdered sugar. He pulled all of them out and carried them into the dining room. The coffee was soon ready and the pot was carried out to the dining room.

He stepped back and looked at the breakfast. There was something missing. He realized he had forgotten to cook bacon and sausage. He went back into the kitchen only to find Kelly’s father cooking the bacon and sausage at a different stove. The breakfast was soon ready.

Everyone went into the dining room and formed a line in front of the food. John was the last in line. He loaded his plate with pancakes, eggs, and sausage. After putting salsa on the eggs and fixing the pancakes with butter and powdered sugar, he joined every one else at the table. He had hardly sat down before he realized he had forgotten to get coffee. It took him half a minute to get a cup and return to the table. By the time he had settled himself, the conversation was flowing easily around the room.

John watched with interest as more people came down to the dining room and piled plates full of food. He kept an eye on the quantities of food in case he had to cook more. His attention was immediately grabbed with the arrival of Davie. Of course, the older Davie wanted to be called David. “Hello, David. Did you have a good time yesterday?”

David smiled and said, “I sure did. I met a real nice girl yesterday. Mom and Dad are going to take me to the hotel so we can swim in the pool there.”

“Who’s the lucky lady?”

“Her name is Karla. She’s an artist.”

John knew Karla very well. She was about a year older than David. John thought to warn him and said, “You know that Karla was burned as a kid, don’t you?”