

#### Morgana Foils the Duke's Plans

#### by David J. Wighton

#### 

#### Book #23 in the Wilizy Series

###

### Smashwords Edition

### Copyright 2020, David J. Wighton

###

### This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy.

### Although this e-book might be sold at no cost to the reader at times, I retain ownership of the copyright and may elect to charge a small amount for its purchase at times.

### Thank you for respecting my copyright.

# Acknowledgements

This book is dedicated to my wife, Dale, and to my other family members whose support made it possible.

Cover design by Rita Toews at E-Book Covers, East St. Paul, Manitoba.

Cover image by: Anatolir @ Can Stock Photo.

**Parent and Reader Advisory**

As a science-fiction novel, some events in this book take place in a fictional location named _Heaven_ where mythical creatures named _angels_ exist. Included as well are mythical _devils_ and _demon_ s existing in a fictional _Hell_.

The descriptions of the two fictional afterlives are intended as a satire, not as a commentary on your religious beliefs. As a satire, these two afterlives are described in somewhat ridiculous ways. Please do not take these depictions seriously or as an affront to your religious beliefs.

# Wilizy Family Members as of October 2091

• Doc and Granny, about 80 years old.

• Hank (about 49) and Yolanda (about 46).

• Wolf (26), Mac (26), Jock Jr. (7), Emily (5), Jock Sr. (56).

• William (25), Melissa (25), Will & Izzy (7), MayaLou (4).

• Yollie (25), TG (26), Liset (11), Yo-Yo (7), Hank (6), Ivanika (5).

• Wizard (23), Dreamer (21), Wanda (61).

• Lucas (20), Lylah and Lohla (20).

• Theo (19), Nary (20), Marie (about 81).

• Mathias (18), Kashmira (18).

• Reese (16), Winnie (15).

• Maddy (11)

• Stu McKenzie (51), Momaka (47), Petro (5).

• Cassie (the ghost).

• Cowboy (27), Bean (24).

**Main Afterlife Characters**

• Arthur, Paula, Lillian, Joe-Joe, Martha and Prudence.

• Lord Percy, the Duke of Earl, Larry, Moe, and Curly. Also, Huey, Dewey and Louie.

**Other Characters**

• Abina, Umkhonto, and Honto are all names for the same person. Kabili is Abina's mother. Inkosi is the head of the Zulu government and Unqobi is the head of the Zulu army and security forces.

This page is to help you if you get confused about who is who in the story. If that happens, click your way back to the Table of Contents and scroll back one page.

# Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Books in the Wilizy Series

About the Author: David J. Wighton

# Chapter 1

Reese awoke to the sound of static. In the deep background of that noise, he could hear two people talking. One had a high voice, the other had a deep voice.

"Is he unconscious?"

"His brain thinks that he's sleeping."

"Can he move?"

"No. His brain won't be sending any signals to his body until we want it to."

Reese tried to move but couldn't.

"Can he hear us?"

"No. The static from the scanner will mask our voices. Why are you so worried? We've scanned hundreds of earthlings before. Not one of them has woken up."

"How long can we keep the humanoid scanner?"

"We have more time than we'll need. Relax. Let the scanner do its job."

"It's just that we've never been discovered before. We have to find out why this human was able to identify us. Otherwise, we'll be ordered to return to the home planet."

"I wouldn't mind that. I hate these assignments. These earthlings will never be judged as acceptable. So many of them are not just dangerous to us, they're dangerous to their own people."

"Our planet was uncivilized once. We passed the test."

"This planet won't."

"How'd he find us?"

"According to the conversation he had with his sister, he can read auras and he discovered two of our scouts."

"What's a sister again?"

"Somebody that is linked genetically to him."

"How barbaric!"

"What so special about reading auras? All people in civilized planets can. That's why no criminals can exist in those planets."

"This planet is uncivilized, remember. Very few humans have evolved that far. This one has. Supposedly. He may have been lying to his sister about us."

"Humans lie?"

"All the time. They are unable to tell when others lie."

"I am continually amazed at how primitive these humans are. I thought we had found one who could detect lies."

"That's the sister. She's the one that I'm monitoring closely."

"What happens if he does have the skill to read auras?"

"We'll have to dispose of him if he's going to be a risk."

Reese found out that he still couldn't move.

"Why reduce him to atoms?"

"We must not be discovered. If humans learn that the galaxy is full of civilized planets, they'll try to find us. These people are extraordinary violent. We swore a blood oath to defend the Cosmos, remember."

"I thought the sister had already discovered our existence."

"Nah. She made that story up. She didn't believe it and nobody else with any intelligence did either."

"Other humans have been able to read auras before."

"Yes, but very poorly. This one has found records of previous readers and now he has a partially completed matrix."

"What happens if he completes it?"

"He won't. He is not looking for previous aura readers any longer. If he discovers that humans used to call these people circus freaks, he might find the two that he's missed. But that's unlikely. He'll have to find the one that's still living to complete his matrix."

"I thought that having this aura reading ability was a precursor to a planet reaching civilized status."

"It is."

"So why would we dispose of him if he truly has the ability? Shouldn't we be watching him? Shouldn't we be learning more about how aura readers in uncivilized planets acquire these skills?"

"We know where the other living reader is. She's no threat to us. She'll never believe in extraterrestrials. We'll learn all we need to know from her."

"Are we really going to atomize him?"

"If we have to. He's too much of a risk to disclose our existence. He'll confide in his sister. When he does, I'll hear that at the same time that she does."

"And her?"

"Rules are rules. She'll have to go too."

"The brain scan results are coming through now."

...

"So, it's definite. He's an aura reader. Return to the mother ship and notify Command Center that we have an imminent threat to the mission. They will order me to wait until I can confirm the danger he poses to us. I'll make sure he wakes up in his bed and will keep a close watch on his sister from now on."

_[Stop cameras. Print. Well done everybody.]_

### # # # # # # # #

_Narrator Interlude:_

_My readers will likely recall that at the end of the last book, Winnie was in a terrible quandary that she described to Paula. She wanted to have babies, but having them with Arthur seemed impossible. Angels couldn't have children. She wanted to continue to work in Heaven, but what was the point if she couldn't have babies? She should be out finding boyfriends somewhere else. Meanwhile Reese was on the verge of discovering that Heaven existed, and knowing Reese and how loose his mouth was, he'd be sure to blab. Lillian would wipe his memory and remove his aura reading abilities before he could reveal that Heaven existed. Winnie was waiting for inspiration to strike at the end of the last novel._

_My readers will be happy to learn that inspiration did indeed strike. In Winnie's "Operation Shut Up Reese" that just concluded above, Lillian and Joe-Joe were the actors. However, their participation came at a cost, as will be revealed in the mind message conversation below._

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie: _That should prevent Reese from telling anybody about strange beings that have no auras._

Lillian: _I agree. I won't wipe his memory or remove his aura reading skills, although I must say I was becoming concerned._

Winnie: _You've just steered Reese to the two aura readers that he hadn't found yet. That should help him complete his matrix. He'll start to feel better about himself._

Lillian: I _'ll make sure that he has a chance encounter with a living reader although you may be opening up a can of worms on the thirteen year old girl you selected. There was another with more maturity. Are you doing a little matchmaking?_

Winnie: _A bit. He needs a girl friend to distract him from discovering any more angels operating on Earth. He probably won't find a girl friend on his own. I'm giving him a chance to find one. I won't do anything else. He gave up on girls after you wiped Annika's memories._

Lillian: _That was necessary for the operation to succeed. Besides, she was absolutely the wrong girl for Reese._

Joe-Joe: _Are you sure about Arthur?_

Winnie: _I'm sure. I know that I can't have babies with Arthur and I like him. Staying with him will be very hard to do. On him and on me. And it could affect our operations. So, I don't want to do any more operations with Arthur._

Lillian: _Fine by me. I've always had doubts how the two of you could operate as a team. I'll find some other things to keep you busy and you can still travel to Earth when you want to see your family. Perhaps you'll find a mortal boyfriend who will marry you._

Joe-Joe: _Paula and Arthur can handle the operation without you._

Lillian: _Tell me again what Heaven will get from our deal._

Winnie: _I'll do what you say and I won't bitch and complain about it._

Lillian: _I've died and gone to Heaven!_

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 2

Her name was _Abina_ , but that wasn't the name that appeared on her birth certificate. The KwaZulu government didn't require breeding stock to have birth certificates. Males, yes. Females, no. Her mother, Kabili, still wanted her daughter to have a name. She called her _Abina_ because in Afrikaans, that meant _Born on Tuesday._ Since she had been born on Tuesday, it seemed like the right thing to name her. Kabili also had a daughter that was born on Wednesday and one on Friday and had named them as such. She had four days available for any future daughters. If one day were duplicated, she'd just pretend that the child was born on an available day. She didn't have this kind of problem with the boys. Her sons received real names, but women didn't have any say in that.

I should back up.

During _The Troubles,_ like all other regions in the world, the southern African country of KwaZulu _[Zulu Land in English]_ entered a period of lawlessness. The favorite target of the anarchists were women because women still had what men wanted and there was nobody to stop them from taking it. In time, some order was restored and the men who were trying to bring the country out of the land of sexual assaults determined that their first order of business would be to protect the women in their country. After all, if all the women were killed, their country would have no future. So, the military-based government where Abina lived installed certain laws to protect their women.

First, any man taking a wife had to protect her and supply her with living necessities. No other man could touch her, even with a fingernail. But the women had to wear black clothing that indicated that they already belonged to a man. This clothing covered their bodies from ankle to the top of the head. No skin could be revealed except for the hands and the area around the eyes. In their benevolence towards their breeding stock, as the women referred to themselves, the women were allowed to wear non-black undergarments made of light fabric. Everybody knew that women liked to dress up, so the government allowed them to do this so long as nobody but their husband could see. As a confirmation of their benevolence, of course.

The reason that they had to be covered head to toe was not based on religion. It was based on controlling women, pure and simple. The government deemed that any woman not covered in this modest form of clothing was effectively inviting men to sexually attack her. Maintenance of modesty was part of her marriage oath, which she swore on her wedding day. Women who broke the oath were taken out of private breeding stock and placed in the public breeding stock. In effect, if the women demonstrated that they wanted more than one man in their lives, they were welcome to do so. They were placed in houses open to any man who wanted a little dalliance. In this way, the government was showing benevolence to the wayward women in their country by giving them the choice to have many, and I do mean many, sexual partners if that's what they wanted. No children could be born from this immodest alliance because this part of the breeding stock was neutered.

Now, since the government was giving so much attention to the protection of the women, the men wanted something in return. So, the government listened and acted wisely.

The men's most frequent complaint was that women talked too much. They wouldn't shut up. Constant talking and arguing led to urges to assault them, which the government certainly didn't want. That went against their primary purpose of protecting all women. So, the government banned women and daughters from talking to their husbands, or indeed, to any male. With women prevented from talking, arguments would disappear.

Just because they were banned from talking, that didn't mean that the marriage would be blissful. Blissfully quiet, but not free of strife. So, the government also decreed that women must obey their master. No ifs, ands, or buts were allowed. A married life with no talking from the wife and no arguments with her. What could be better?

Of course, there were certain things that a husband could not order his breeding stock to do. (Yes, men could have multiple wives so long as he had the resources to care and protect them.) He couldn't order his wife to 'be friendly' with a buddy, for example. And he couldn't order his wife to dress immodestly.

Wives had certain duties. In Abina's village, they had to care for any daughters that burdened the family as well as the gift of any sons. Caring for their sons ended on their sixth birthday. At that point, the boys would enter compulsory military service.

Women were also required to care for the crops that provided income for their small village. This included preparing the soil, planting the seeds, weeding, harvesting, preparing the harvest for transport, and then transporting the crop to the village's small harbour for shipment. They were also responsible for preparing the communal meals, digging their houses and maintaining them, educating their daughters as desired, increasing the size of the village's commercial center, and keeping their husbands content. Families tended to be large since women had to obey their husbands and you know what men wanted most from their wives. These kinds of duties, in general, applied to women throughout the country.

Naturally, a few women had some mild consternation that followed these decrees when they were first announced. The government was moved to action. Consequences would be needed to bring any woman who was so deranged that she'd argue against the government's desire to protect their gender. Thus, a female (over the age of 2) that insisted on talking to any male would receive a simple, free operation that would leave her unable to talk. Also, any woman who disobeyed her husband was taken out of the private breeding stock and enrolled in a public breeding facility, which had proven to be an effective threat. These rules were welcomed by the women who never complained about them again after a few of them found out first hand what the consequences were.

Back to Abina.

Abina was born with the genetic curse of being prone to questioning. She kept on asking Kabili, _Why?_ These questions increased in frequency when she entered puberty.

Kabili explained that there was nothing women could do.

Abina asked _Why?_

It didn't matter how many ways that her mom explained how the men controlled the government who controlled the women, Abina would question everything. One day it was, "Why do you let yourself still be called Kabili?"

"It's what my father named me."

"It means _Possession_ , Mom!"

"I know. I can't change the name or how we live."

"Why do we have to put up with not talking and wearing these clothes?"

"Do you wish to be raped every half hour for the rest of your life in a public sex house?"

"How's that different from marriage," she asked.

"It's less frequent," Kabili replied. "Plus, I get to have you as a daughter."

That shut Abina up. But not for long.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 3

The last time that the Duke of Earl appeared in these pages, he was leading a line of hundreds of bunny-hopping mortals the length of a football field in front of an active hornacratic camera. He had also been forced to separate his three hench-devils from an intense one-on-one fight in which they were trying to gore each other while enclosed inside a mortal, non-horned body.

I should also remind you that the duke gave himself a short practice session with his foil by killing all of the former Tofino gray shoulder demons hiding in Ucluelet after they had slaughtered the Ucluelet shoulder demons. To give him credit, it probably was difficult to kill tiny balls of fluff with his foil, although they were sodden wet balls of fluff when he skewered them.

The Duke of Earl concluded that both of these violent interactions were proof positive that Hell's TAT guns worked, albeit on Hell's own sales force. We of course know that this internecine war between the forces of evil was stage managed by heavenly agents.

His dukeness decided that he wouldn't meet with Lord Percy who might want to see visible evidence that backed up the duke's conclusion. Lord Percy probably would completely misread the significant planning and ulterior motive that went into the duke's foray onto the football field to participate in the aforementioned chicken dance. That might lead to some uncomfortable questions. He'd just send him a memo. After all, he was in charge of the operation. He had the authority to make decisions. The duke sent the following memo from his laptop in Port Alberni the morning after leaving the battle zone.

### # # # # # # # #

To: Lord Percy, Vice President, SSS

From: The Duke of Earl, Project Manager, SSS

Re. TAT gun bombardments

Date: October 7, 2091

On Friday October 5, as per my orders, Hell's TAT guns began bombarding the town of Tofino BC with instructions to be sinful. My staff and I visited Tofino on Saturday October 6 to assess if the TAT guns had been successful or not.

When we arrived, we were able to determine that the Tofino shoulder demons had slaughtered each other the previous night. This surprised us. Our intention in our visit was to witness any mortal reactions to the TAT guns. We had not expected that shoulder demons would be affected.

We visited the control site, Ucluelet, which had received no TAT bombardment. We found Tofino's contingent of gray shoulder demons living there. Under questioning, we determined that they had left Tofino's war zone and fled to Ucluelet where they slaughtered the resident demons there with a surprise attack while they were sleeping. When we arrived, the Tofino grays were in control of the village, but were not doing anything whatsoever to increase mortal torment. They were bewildered by all the violence and could not explain their actions.

We returned to Tofino and wandered around the community. We sensed a mild impact from Heaven's subliminal thought messages but these did not affect our behaviour _to be good_ in any way. We did notice that the mortal population was impacted and were responding to the thought messages.

At 9 pm, Saturday night, my staff and I had an immediate and virtually uncontrollable reaction from the bombardment of TAT guns. My staff and I had violent thoughts about each other that could have been fatal for us had I not concluded that the TAT guns were the cause of our sudden aggression against each other. Once I gained control of my staff and explained why they were reacting as they were, they were able to control themselves. It is no wonder that Tofino's shoulder demons murdered each other. We had found Heaven's thought suggestion to be barely discernable; our own TAT guns were overpowering.

I will describe the impact of the TAT guns on mortals. When we arrived in Tofino, we found visible signs that citizens had destroyed public property, including the local police station and a food store. On Saturday night, as soon as the TAT guns began their bombardment in Tofino, we heard mortal screams of anguish and calls for help. I concluded again that the TAT guns had had an impact on mortal behaviour that was far superior to the impact of Heaven's thought suggestions.

I consider this pilot test of Hell's TAT guns to be successful and have ordered the devil in charge of our TAT artillery to begin nightly bombardments in the Tofino area.

This pilot test revealed that we must proceed carefully in rolling out TAT bombardments across the province of BC. In response to the gray shoulder demons' slaughter of Ucluelet's demonic forces, I executed them so that their mutiny against demons in authority over them could not become public knowledge.

Since Hell's TAT guns are far superior to anything demons could personally inflict on mortals, it is clear that we do not need demons on Earth when we activate the TAT guns in their zone. In fact, if there are any demons in a battle zone after we turn on the guns, they could become a serious risk to the security of our program because they themselves will become violent. We must presume that they will turn violent against each other and eventually, the news of that will spread to other localities from shoulder demons escaping the carnage; that news will then filter down to Hell. While the TAT offensive means that we no longer need demons in the field, we do have to retire them carefully. We can't return them to the torture pits where they will reveal what is happening in the field. We must remove any risk whatsoever of shoulder demons resisting the new and superior TAT technology with what I am calling an _Employee Relocation Benefits Plan_.

In order to reduce the risk of a security leak while we are reassessing our personnel needs, it would be best if a single, small force be charged with that responsibility. I already have such a force in place and am prepared to begin discussing our Employee Relocation Benefits Plan with each demon in BC, one community at a time on your approval.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 4

Abina lived in the town of No-Name, which was located on the new shoreline that was created on the Indian Ocean after the ice caps had disappeared. It didn't have a name because there was no need for one. If somebody said that they were going into town, there was only one town that their destination could be. That town was home to about sixty people.

No-Name used to be empty farmland, but it became a town when people retreated inland from the rising ocean. The three buildings in the commercial center were made from mud bricks that had been dried in the sun until they were hard. These buildings were built to withstand the area's windstorms, which were frequent. The town fathers had plans to add more brick buildings, but they were waiting until the women baked the bricks and constructed the buildings. Until then, all of the people lived in sod houses.

A sod house was easy to make. Dig a hole in the fertile soil, place a tin roof over the hole, cover the tin roof with sod, and move in. Depending on how energetic the women were in digging the hole, the sod house might be a glorified crawl space or a slightly more pleasant kneeling space. These houses were intended for sleeping, nothing more.

A major disadvantage of sod homes was that the sod roof leaked during heavy storms. That meant that the sod floor became mud. When that happened, most people relocated into the adjacent jungle where they slept in relative dryness under the trees. Carnivores that used to live in jungles were now all extinct, so there wasn't any concern about that. Had big carnivores still existed, the only weapons that the villagers owned were long fleshing knives they used on the fish that they caught. The village policeman had a bayonet attached to an ancient rifle that no longer worked. Had the people had access to saws or axes, they might have been able to use jungle wood for their homes, but tools with those kinds of cutting edges were very rare in this part of Africa.

Communal meals were cooked in the open air using wood debris from the jungle for their fuel. The village's diet consisted of fish and oatmeal gruel. For bathrooms, people used the ocean; one area was designated for men and another for women. A primitive aqueduct connecting the town to a nearby lake provided drinking water. For bathing, people stood outside during the daily rain shower. Of course, women could not undress in public, so they had the opportunity to bathe and wash their clothes at the same time.

The surrounding prairie land supported a farming industry. Rains were frequent and the soil was fertile. They had two crops, oats and barley, which the village exported. The barley was converted to beer first. This was done in the basement of the first brick building, which housed the village pub. The owner of this establishment had obtained the necessary equipment to build his stills from the submerged ruins of a city that had once been on the coastline. His main skill as a barman was that he could hold his breath for a very long time. His skill as a creator of the local craft beer was less impressive. _Still_ , (pun intended), his beer was the only liquor in town. That meant that he was the richest man in town and lived warm and dry in the second floor above the pub. The second brick building in the village was a storeroom for the beer and for the oatmeal. That storeroom also held the seed grain that would allow the women to plant the next crop (up to three crops per year).

No-Name's location on the ocean allowed for a brisk trade with other relocated towns along the coastline as part of their fishing industry. The fishing boats also served as freight carriers.

The village men had job responsibilities too. After they returned from their military service, they were responsible for protecting the town's main export, the beer. They did this by remaining in close proximity to the brick building where it was stored. They also ensured that the quality of the beer was up to export standards. At times during the growing season, the men also had responsibilities in the village's agricultural industry, namely deciding when the women would plow, seed, and harvest the crops.

The government assisted the villagers in a number of ways. When it was time to plant another crop, members of the military would bring two water buffalo and two wooden plows to the village. The functional part of the wooden plow was the iron blade which was in short supply and that is why the military was responsible for transporting it to all the agricultural villages in the country. In the case of this village, the military men guarded the two plows from their temporary military outpost that they set up in the town pub.

The military also provided a large wagon with four iron wheels that could be used to transport goods to and from the harbour. The tongue of the wagon was sufficiently long so that a dozen women could keep a heavy wagon moving.

### # # # # # # # #

Lillian walked down the long row of recently planted flowers until she was close to the figure sitting on the ground. "Hello, there. Would you like some help?"

The mortal brushed the straw hat that was shading her eyes from the brilliant sunshine. She had white hair and a deeply lined face – a face that would have been striking in her youth for its hard, sharp lines. She saw a slim woman dressed as she was in a straw hat, loose fitting clothes, and gardening gloves. She also saw a teenager. "Are you some of the other people with gardens here?" she asked.

"No, my name is Lillian. This is my student. Her name is Winnie. We were in the area and wanted to put our hands into some warm earth."

"I'm planting peonies," the mortal said. "I'd love some company. I never seem to be here at the same time as the other gardeners," she added wistfully.

Lillian and Winnie sat down opposite the mortal in the same cross-legged position, and started creating small holes in the rich soil. Her companion was already back to her gardening, humming tonelessly to herself.

_[Not to complain, but I hate gardening.]_

_[So do I. We're not here to garden.]_

### # # # # # # # #

"My, you must be very agile," Lillian commented a few minutes later. Her companion had risen effortlessly from her cross-legged position to get more composted soil.

"It's the gymnastics, dear. I've always been limber but you have to work at it. Tumbling exercises every day. That's the ticket. Do you do any?"

"Yes, every day, just like you."

"I used to teach gymnastics, you know."

"Really? Were you an instructor in a school?"

"We didn't have schools like you think of back then. But it was a school of a sort. A finishing school, you could say."

"And your students learned gymnastics?"

"Yes, to help them to become agile and graceful. And needlework. Lots of needlework."

_[Winnie, she means fencing.]_

"But only girls?"

"Oh yes. Back then, you couldn't have men in the same classes as women. They were out in the field learning to ride, swing a sword, and carry a lance. You know, the manly arts."

"What will you be planting tomorrow? Petunias, perhaps?"

"Oh, no, I only have this one row. Other gardeners plant the other rows. The one doing the pansies did a nice job. I like pansies. But, I have to be back at work tomorrow. What day is it, dear?"

"Monday."

"Tuesday morning is needlework. Do you do needlework, dear?"

"I'm busy tomorrow morning, but Winnie here would love to learn needle work. There's a small gymnasium at the horticultural center. Could you give her a brief lesson tomorrow?"

"I haven't taught for a long time."

"Needlework is a skill you never forget."

The mortal looked up to find herself at the end of her row. She rose effortlessly, gathered up her tools, and looked at the building off in the distance. "Gardening is easier in this mortal body, but I think I'll fly to the care center. Supper will be soon. Can you and your student fly, dear?"

"Yes, we can."

"My name is Martha. What are your names?"

### # # # # # # # #

"That was Martha, meaning the Martha who was your boss?"

"Yes. I try to visit her when I can."

"What happened to her?"

"She got old. She has trouble remembering things."

"Alzheimer's?"

"No. Angels aren't susceptible to that. Tomorrow when you come, she'll have forgotten about our conversation. You will bring two foils and put the foil with the diamond handle in her right hand. The foil with the pearls is for you. I'm hoping that the feel of her old foil will prompt some memories of fencing. Encourage her to go to the gym with you. She'll wander off after a while. You will stay in the gym and practice what she taught you for one hour in a mortal body. Then, you'll practice for an hour in an angel body. If your muscles aren't cramping up at the end of two hours, you're not working hard enough."

"I'm not complaining, but why fencing?"

"Foils can slip through the space between devil scales. Martha's instruction saved my life numerous times."

"Am I going back to Hell?"

"All in good time. Right now, you're going to a gymnastics gym where an instructor is waiting for you. Practice one hour in a mortal body and one hour in an angel body. After you know what to do, your instructor will work with you intermittently."

"Gymnastics will save my life?"

"Yes. You will have to become skilled in mortal combat. You can't rely on slings and lasers. Right now, your mortal body is mostly flab and you are unskilled in anything athletic. That means that your angelic body is the same. Your body will need sun to recover after each two hour period. You will find yourself able to practice for longer and longer stretches. That's one sign of success. I will test you from time to time. Don't break my old foil."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 5

It was a sultry day in the beginning of November _[South Africa's summer]_. Some military men had brought the villagers two ancient wooden plows and two water buffalo. At least two women were needed for each plow. One would stand on top of the structure holding the plow blade to keep it digging into the soil. The other woman would try to steer the water buffalo pulling the plow with its two wooden handles in a straight line.

Thirteen year old Abina, her mother Kabili, and her two sisters had just finished working eight hours on one of the plows while other families took shifts on the other plow. Kabili's family was able to do more than their share because they had Abina. Abina was way taller and stronger than the other women in the village and this allowed her to keep the plow moving in a straight line. Her mom and one sister stood on the wooden structure holding the blade to keep it deep in the soil. The second sister sat on the shoulders of the water buffalo and kept him pulling.

Tired, hot, and sweaty, Abina decided to give herself a treat. She walked into the brick building that served as the town's bar, held up a handwritten sign on a slate that said _Beer_ , and waited. The man tending the bar couldn't touch her, of course, but he could put a glass of beer on the bar several feet away and then back away from it. This kind of distant interaction was common practice for all of the town's commercial activities that required some form of man-woman communication. But he chose not to do this.

He had a simple reason to ignore Abina's sign. No woman had ever entered his bar, let alone had the temerity to ask for some beer. The pub was the men's domain. It was relatively cool inside the insulation of the brick walls, it was dry, and there was a connubial attitude from all the men in the bar talking and relaxing from their exertions in supervising the women. She had no right to be here. She should have been in the fields working.

While the law prevented women from talking to men, it was silent on whether men could talk to women. How could men direct women in their daily duties if they couldn't talk to them? So the bar owner let Abina know what he thought of her being in his bar. His buds in the bar were similarly free to add their opinions. They couldn't touch her, but they could harangue her out of the bar.

Abina was not only taller than any other woman in the village, she was also taller than any man. She was also stronger. That didn't take much. Most of the women in the village were stronger than the men because the men spent all of their time in the pub. But Abina had something that the other women didn't have. She had the daring to enter the bar and ask for a beer.

The bar man didn't care about Abina's height or strength. She didn't dare touch him because he'd accuse her of sexual assault. The men in the bar would corroborate any accusation he might make against her. Secure in the protection provided by the law of the land, he continued to harangue her. The men joined in. Most of this conversation was sexual in nature. Men can be quite talkative when the topic is sex; the rest of the time they generally communicate by guzzling, belching and grunting.

While women were banned from talking to men, _communicating_ with them was not. You've already seen that with the handwritten sign that Abina had held up. There are other ways for people to communicate without talking. They're called _non-verbal communications_. Abina turned and walked away from the bar. When she reached the door, she turned back to the bar, crouched down low to the floor, extended her left arm to its fullest, formed a fist, slapped her right hand onto her left bicep, and gave the bartender and his clientele _the fist._

My readers are probably aware of what a middle finger salute means. It's a sign that you might flash at a person who has offended you as you walk away from him. A going away gift, if you like. Giving somebody the fist is a warlike menace that a Maori warrior might flash to an enemy. This going away gift would not be appreciated. When delivered as Abina had, it was a promise that would be fulfilled later. Abina had had enough.

### # # # # # # # #

"I understand that Martha is getting better."

"She's meeting me in the gym now, but the staff have to remind her."

"Does she recognize you?"

"As somebody to teach, yes. But she calls me Prudence."

"I wonder where that came from."

"I don't care what she calls me. I'm focusing solely on staying alive. She can wield that foil like a scalpel."

"Do you end up bleeding?"

"Always. She just stands there and it doesn't matter what I do, she always gets me."

"Muscle memories don't fade the same as mental memories. I'm glad she's getting better. You won't be pricked as often when your wrist is stronger."

"How old is she?"

"Somewhere around fifteen hundred years."

"Do all angels live that long?"

"You wanted me to tell you when Arthur and Paula will be going on their operation. I've heard from Meghan. The Duke of Earl has upgraded his costume. We expect him to be in the field soon. I'll be briefing them tomorrow."

"Can I have the evening off?"

"Yes. Arthur's in his aerie."

### # # # # # # # #

"I know we have chemistry, Arthur. I feel it too. But that chemistry is only because Joe-Joe gave you a mortal body that operates from hormones. We wouldn't have chemistry without that. You're an angel and always will be. You could grow to be 1,500 years old. I'm a mortal. I might live until I'm 50. Before I die, I want to have a family of my own. You can't give me that family."

...

"Yes, having children is important to me. Having children is a very strong impulse that humans have. Especially women. That's how the species has survived. I'd feel that I had been cheated out of my destiny as a mother if I didn't have the chance to find a mortal boyfriend to be my husband. I can't find a mortal husband if I'm always with you."

...

"I know we kissed. I enjoyed it too. But the more we do that, the tougher it will be for us to break up. That has to happen sooner or later. We're two different species. Angels can't make babies. You know that."

....

"Yes, I'm breaking up with you. I asked Lillian not to pair me up with you on any operations. I'll be around Heaven, but Lillian has me doing different things right now."

...

"I don't think that's a good idea. This is hard enough for me to do without agreeing to see you on a 'just friends' basis. We need a clean split. Both of us need that."

...

"I'm sorry, Arthur. I really am."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 6

Lord Percy had kept the duke waiting for almost a month before he reluctantly signed off on the proposed Employee Relocation Benefits plan. "I'm concerned about leaks," he said. "Word of your activities must not get out! While your three associates are apparently loyal, they are also dumb stooges and you are not to trust them with sensitive information. Once you start on this, make sure that they do not return to Hell at any point where they could break security. You may need to think about going solo. Also, you have no apparent plans to handle random events. I'm logging my concerns in the project file. Make sure that you address them. Take care of the smallest centers on the west coast of Vancouver Island and then report back."

His dukednickity spent about five minutes considering Lord Percy's criticisms – angry that he would go so far as to log them officially. Lord Percy was obviously giving himself an out in case the mop-up failed. However, since the duke had never failed, he himself had no reason to be so grandmotherly. He wasn't going to consider going solo. His three stooges, as Lord Percy referred to them, were necessary accouterments. From now on, he'd call them Larry, Moe and Curly.

The duke decided that he'd start with Gold River, which was a very small community on the west coast of Vancouver Island as Lord Percy had wanted. It took about two and a half hours for them to arrive there by hummer from Port Alberni. Arthur and Paula took far less time.

The duke scouted the town and found an appropriate place to have a meeting – a place with doors and windows that could be guarded. Larry, Moe and Curly circulated around town, notifying all demons that an important devil was here to talk about their promotions. That news, plus their insistence that every demon had to hear the news at the same time, ensured that all the demons in the town were in the meeting room. The duke had the village's duty roster and checked them off as they arrived. He smiled ever so slightly when a demon's eyes widened in realization that he was signing his promotion papers with an actual pen _From the Desk of Satan_. This red-tape delayed the fun a bit, but the duke wanted to be able to soothe old Poopy-Pants that security was tight so he forced himself to sit nonchalantly at the front of the room until all demons in the village roster were accounted for and had signed their papers.

By the time the meeting started, the demons in the room were abuzz with the speculation whether all the important devils in Hell were dressed as strangely as this Duke of Earl. His Dukitiky would indeed appear quite strange for these demons – they had never seen a courtier before. Moreover, in honour of the importance of his new assignment, his dukeness had added scarlet cuff ruffles to go with the scarlet ruff around his neck.

The demons were overjoyed at receiving their promotions for _meritorious achievement within an isolated area_ and even happier when he handed them a folded parchment certificate with a needle stuck through the fold. That needle would serve double duty.

Since they'd be brand new devils when they arrived in Hell, it was important for their well being that they be able to defend themselves. The duke now, he preferred a foil for defending himself. The sharp tip was an effective threat of suddenly perforating an opponent's body. He gave a few examples of foil movements, including lunging and parrying. He also emphasized how important the footwork was so as to not expose any vulnerable parts of the body. It was only natural that he would give a brief lesson on the basics to the entire group.

After each new devil had become accustomed to lunging and parrying with their needles, it was only natural for them to have practice duels. At a nod from the Duke, Larry, Moe and Curly set the devils up in pairs to practice the lunges that would give them the necessary skills to avoid getting hurt by the other, more dangerous devils they might face in Hell.

The duke held himself back for as long as he could before giving the three stooges the nod. They retreated to the walls of the room where they leaned up against each possible escape route. Then came the duke's announcement. "The last four devils still standing will go to Hell. The others won't."

At this point, Arthur announced to Paula that he had seen this before and left.

Those who weren't quick of mind died first. Shoulder demon fluff is not much of a barrier to needles. Next to die were the ones who didn't realize that striking from behind was just as effective as striking from the front. Soon four panting devils were left, all standing apart from each other and watching each other closely.

His dukidickity strode into the middle of the floor, swishing his foil as he went. "For your second test, any devil who can touch my body with a needle will live."

"You said that..."

That perspicacious demon was the first of the four to die from a quick thrust. The other three followed almost immediately afterwards.

The duke's courtiers gathered around him, congratulating his Lordship, offering to clean his Lordship's foil, volunteering to wipe his Lordship's brow, and generally bowing, scraping, and fawning the way he had taught them. Their use of the words _Your Lordship_ was for private conversations only. For now.

### # # # # # # # #

The trip back to Port Alberni was long and there wasn't much to say about the day trip. Paula knew where they were they were going, so didn't ride along with the devils. Arthur was already in Port Alberni looking for an ice cream store. Perhaps it was a comment from one of his courtiers that inspired the duke. Moe had said that the four survivors of the first round had actually performed quite well. Or, perhaps it was the comment from Curly that his dukilickety was probably bored with the easy kills that resonated .The duke really had been bored. He found no pleasure whatsoever in this. Whatever the reason, the duke left his courtiers in Port Alberni and returned to Hell. He came back a week later with a different Employee Relocation Plan. Nobody knew where he had gone or what he had done while he was away.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 7

"Abina, Australia is reporting a big storm coming our way," Kabili said. "Take your sisters and spend the night in the library."

"Are you coming?"

"No, your dad wants me here."

Abina knew what that meant. He wanted sex. She didn't say anything as she bundled her younger sisters away.

Just because the people of No-Name lived in a small village didn't mean that they were ignorant. The village had a short wave radio powered by solar/wind energy that allowed them to receive weather forecasts from Australia. Yes, Australia was a long distance away, but there was nothing but water between Australia and South Africa and short wave radios were perfect for that kind of situation. The men also used the radio to communicate with boats that would be arriving for trade pick up and drop off. Part of that pick up and drop off included a regular exchange of books and magazines that were made of real paper. The people in this part of the world had not been included when the insertion of brain plugs had become a standard minor operation a few months after birth. They continued to learn the ancient way.

The third solid brick building held the town's current collection of books and other reading materials in its basement. The upper floors were dedicated to offices for the policeman, the nurse/vet, town council and the people who maintained the solar power equipment and the wind power equipment. Both power generators were fastened to the roof of the building and provided electricity to all three brick buildings.

While the boys were off at military school, the women taught their daughters basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills in the library. The power to the building was maintained from dawn through to one hour after sunset. The library served as a sort of community center for the women. Men were allowed to be in the library of course, but few were interested. They had their own community center in the local bar.

Abina was taking on more responsibility now that she was a woman and had her own little group of girls to instruct. The library was packed that night and they all read while the lights were on. They sang for another hour in the dark. This storm passed without doing any damage to the two generators on the roof. The women slept comfortably while the men got drunk and eventually they slept comfortably too.

Normal life resumed the next morning. Abina brought her sisters home and they prepared for another day working in the fields. Kabili was moving awkwardly, but she shook her head at Abina when she opened her mouth.

They managed to find a place to sit in the field alone to eat lunch.

"What did he do, Mom?"

"He beat me. But there are no marks. He never leaves marks."

"Why, this time?"

"I wasn't enthusiastic enough during sex."

"He's not allowed to beat you."

"Nobody would believe me. You know that."

### # # # # # # # #

No-Name did not have a supply of paper that women could use to communicate with the men. Instead, they used chalkboard slates from the school. Chalk could be mined nearby and the school did have ample slates. Abina had her own personal slate on permanent loan from the library.

Abina found her father who was relaxing in the sun. Kabili and her two sisters were helping to prepare the community dinner. Abina held up her slate board with this message.

DON'T BEAT MY MOM AGAIN!

Her father knew that he couldn't touch Abina who towered over him; he also knew that she couldn't do anything to stop him from disciplining his wife. He pulled the slate out of her hands, threw it on the ground, and peed on it. You may consider this as another form of non-verbal communication.

### # # # # # # # #

Two days later, Kabili was moving awkwardly again.

"He said I should blame you for this. What did you do, Abina?"

"I didn't touch him, Mom."

### # # # # # # # #

The weekend was when the village dropped their work tools and caught up on other matters. For example, the women would try to shore up the mud in their homes, while the men tried to ensure that beer didn't grow stale from remaining in a vat for too long. Abina usually spent each Saturday tending to her animal traps in the nearby jungle.

As a child, Abina had always been the one to volunteer for duties that might be daunting to other children. In this case, she had volunteered to go into the nearby jungle and set traps for small animals that could provide the community with animal skins that could be cured into leather. As a reward, she was allowed to eat the flesh of any small animal that she caught. She came into the library's secure storage room each Saturday morning and removed a fleshing knife from the community's collection. Normally, she returned it Saturday evening.

Today was Sunday. She approached her father as he was leaving to go into the village that morning.

"I found something buried in the jungle yesterday," she held up the slate.

"So?"

"It could be valuable." _[Again, she used the slate to write out her message. I won't describe this messaging process again.]_

"Why?"

"Very old Zulu weapon?"

"Huh."

"You could use it to trade."

"Show me."

"I hid it in the jungle."

"Take me to it."

### # # # # # # # #

Abina took the Zulu weapon out of its hiding spot and held it for her father to examine.

"This isn't a Zulu weapon," Abina's father said. "It's a cattle herding stick with a fleshing knife attached to its end with a leather strap."

"Are you sure?" Abina asked in a clear voice.

Her father was so startled at hearing his daughter's voice that he forgot about the stick and the fleshing knife.

"I told you not to beat my mother again."

He noticed that the knife was pointing directly at him but he didn't clue in that he might be at risk.

The next sound that her father heard was a solid thunk as the fleshing knife penetrated his body and lodged deep into the tree he was leaning against.

"I'll leave you here to die while I dig your grave."

He didn't hear anything after that.

Whenever the women had to dig anything, they used shells from the beaches. The community had no such thing as a shovel; they didn't even know that such tools existed. Shells were easy to find and five women in a family such as Kabili's could remove the mud from their sod house relatively quickly. A shell could also be used to dig out a grave. The shell that Abina used this Sunday would reappear on a beach later that evening. The fleshing knife would reappear in the library storage center that evening as well. It would be clean and dry.

That night, Abina changed her name to Umkhonto, which meant _Spear_. She shared why she had changed her name with her mother.

Kabili expressed a lot of concern about Abina/Umkhonto getting caught.

Umkhonto explained that she had read the laws very closely before acting. "There's nothing they can do if they catch me, Mom."

Somehow in their benevolent haste to protect the women of their country, the framers of the two pages of laws that formed the country's constitution had forgotten to write a law prohibiting a woman from killing a man. They probably were too focused on protecting women from getting sore throats from talking too much.

### # # # # # # # #

"You should go home this week-end," Lillian urged Winnie. "Visit your family. You won't find a mortal husband here."

"I won't find a mortal husband in the cadet camp."

"I thought you might say that. Here are instructions on how to find Tom who lives in Topeka, Kansas. He's looking for a wife who wants a large family. Why don't you check him out?"

"That's kind of forward, isn't it?"

"The man you want won't find you. You have to find him. Tell him that a friend of a friend told you that he wanted to have a large family. Tell him that you do too. Ask him for a 'speed dating' visit."

"What's that?"

"He has five minutes to tell you all you need to know about himself. You do the same. If there's a connection, you go out on a real date."

"I've never heard of that."

"It was popular back before climate change destroyed human societies. There were websites that tried to help men and women find the perfect mate."

"You're match making?"

"Just getting you started. I can't have you moping around Heaven all the time."

"I'm not moping."

"Sez the angel who spends all her free time looking at the colours in the grottos."

### # # # # # # # #

"Who did you say you were?"

"My name is Winnie. A friend of a friend told me that you wanted to have a large family. My friend suggested that I meet with you because I want a large family too. Would you like to have a speed dating meeting?"

"A what?"

....

"OK, so my name is Tom, I'm 19 years old, and I'm a farmer here in Topeka. My family has owned this farm for generations and I'm the designated heir of the farm. We've always had big families because that's the only way that farming can be economically feasible. With a big family, you don't have to hire a lot of workers. We plant mostly corn, barley and wheat."

"So, I would be a farmer's wife if we married. What would that mean for me?"

"Well, you'd tend the vegetable garden which is real close to the house. You'd be pregnant most of the time so you can't be in the fields lifting bales and doing that kind of work. My mom had ten kids and we all were born about a year apart."

"So, I'd be pregnant almost continuously for about twelve years and while I was waiting to give birth, I'd weed the garden."

"Oh, no. Your life wouldn't be that boring. There'd be all the cooking for the hands when we had them and for the children later. Laundry of course. Taking care of the infants. Cleaning the house. We wouldn't put the kids into the fields until they were 5 years old. You'd have to help with their education too. Plus you'd have to take care of my mom and dad who are now retired and are getting feeble-minded. They'll probably live for another fifteen or twenty years. Our family has healthy genes."

"You yourself were part of a large family?"

"Yes. I turned out alright."

"Where are your brothers and sisters? Why aren't they helping you with the family farm?"

"They left as soon as they could. I'm the youngest. I can't leave. What about you?"

"I'm a career criminal who preys on men who are desperate for a wife. I rob them blind and then move on. I see that you're a nice person. I won't take advantage of you."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 8

Umkhonto left No-Name a couple of days after her father had failed to return from a trip he had told her he would be making to the east coast. She told members of No-Name that she would try to find him. She wouldn't be trying very hard, for reasons that we all know about. What she was really doing was expanding her hunting ground.

Umkhonto knew that she'd never get away with spearing another man from the village. And frankly, as she looked at the men as they pretended to work, she'd did want to have vengeance on any of them. They weren't the leaders of the country who had made the laws. Nor were they the leaders of the military who enforced the laws. They were followers. Killing any more of them would be a waste of time and a risk she needn't take.

So, she packed up her animal traps, chalk, her slate, and other necessities into a large empty sack of flour that she could hang on her back. She slipped a fleshing knife into the waistband of the shorts that she wore under her woman's shroud, said her goodbyes, and headed east. As soon as she was out of sight, she slipped into the jungle and found five sturdy sticks. That night she scorched the ends of each stick that would become the tip of a spear. Burning the stick partially would allow her to form a sharp tip more easily.

As she walked eastward, she used the knife to sharpen each spear into a killing point. She didn't care about the balance of the spear; she wouldn't be throwing it. She wanted the tip to be strong enough to remain intact as it entered her victim's body. She hung the five sticks under her shroud and against her back with some leather thongs.

As she approached her first town, she once again slipped into the jungle and found a good hiding place for her spears. It was within walking distance of the village and the jungle was dense enough that they wouldn't be easily found. She left the spears there and continued on to the town.

A job was easy to find. She just flexed some muscles at the man supervising some women in a field and he hired her. She'd sleep in the barn with the other women and receive food as well. There'd be no other payment, but Umkhonto never expected that. She had been living from day to day for so long that the concept of storing money away for future use was unfathomable for her. In fact, the peasants living in the fields had no money whatsoever.

Each day after work, she'd walk into the town and stroll the streets looking for a man who deserved to die. It had to be an important man, so she lurked around the places where important men liked to gather. She found a suitable man on her second day. In the following evenings she learned his habits: where he like to spend his time, where he would go during the day, and most importantly, where he might go where he would be mostly unseen.

On Saturday morning, she was waiting alongside one of his customary routes, stepped into the street, and walked beside him. It was easy for her to hold out the slate so that he could read what she had written as they walked.

_Want sex? I won't tell my husband. Follow me._

She saw him digesting the offer, increased her stride and pulled away. Periodically, she glanced over her shoulder to find him following her at a discrete distance. Nobody would remember her strolling along, and nobody would think to put the two of them together.

The tryst in the jungle was quicker than he had expected. She motioned him to lean up against a tree on the edge of a trail, mimed that she would be taking off some clothes, and disappeared behind some bushes. She returned from the bushes still fully dressed but now carrying a walking a stick. "It's against the law for you to approach another man's wife and try to have sex with her," she accused him. "You deserve to die for other reasons too."

That was the end of the indictment part of the tryst. The judge had already made up her mind. All that remained was the execution of the sentence. One minute later, the walking stick had been revealed as a weapon. She left him dead, speared into the tree.

Umkhonto had decided not to bury her victim. For one thing, jungle soil is difficult to dig in. She could hide his body easily enough, but she actually wanted him to be found. That was why she had left him on a well-used trail.

### # # # # # # # #

"I put four test-couples into the field yesterday," Joe-Joe reported to Lillian. "They have the same new angelic powers as Arthur had but without any mortal hormones. If these advanced angelic bodies work as we expect, they'll serve as the prototypes for all of the guardian angel bodies we put into the field in the future."

"You're not expecting any memory leakage into their mortal past?"

"No. That weakness is confined to Arthur's body only. We know the reason why."

"How long a test are you planning?"

"A couple of weeks minimum. I've put them into challenging locations with instructions to provoke the demons as much as possible while solving the problems that the mortals in their case load have."

"Gender balance?"

"Two teams are male/female, one team is male/male, and the last is female/female. I'm not expecting any difficulties from gender. These angels have worked together in the past and they work well with each other. I don't expect that to change."

"If the prototypes work, we'll be able replace the Arthur/Winnie team and all of the issues that kind of team faces."

"How is Arthur doing?" Joe-Joe asked.

"He's gaining weight very well."

"Any news on the Duke of Earl?"

"Paula can't find him. Until he shows up, Arthur has nothing to do and so he fills his face."

"He'll get over Winnie soon enough," Joe-Joe said. "Once he has a challenge, he'll rebound. Arthur works best on his own. We'll put him in charge of neutralizing particularly difficult demons and devils. He'll flourish in that role. How is Winnie's training for her new role progressing?"

"Too soon to say. She's improved a lot in her physical abilities. I'm not sure if she has the temperament needed for this particular job."

"Her need for family?"

"I'm using prayer data to introduce her to potential mates. If she finds the right one, she can have the mortal life she appears to want and subcontract with us on the side for the position you want for her."

"Are your boards flashing green?"

"Mostly. I have a yellow light on the Duke of Earl. He's up to something that hasn't been predicted."

### # # # # # # # #

"Who did you say you were?"

"My name is Winnie. A friend of a friend told me that you wanted to have a large family. My friend suggested that I meet with you because I want a large family too. Would you like to have a speed dating meeting?"

"A what?"

....

"OK, so my name is Issac, I'm 20 years old, and I'm two years away from becoming a dentist. I will have a big enough revenue stream to be able to support a large family. I'd like my wife to be pregnant a lot."

"Why is that?"

"Well, that's what women want, right? A family. So, I'd like her to be happy with children on the way all the time. She can hire nannies, and maids, gardeners, and anybody she wants. She'll have a good life."

"And you? What do you get out of your wife having a lot of children?"

"Dentists are one of the pillars of society. People have to trust us. If there's a whiff of scandal, that could affect my business."

"Why would there be a whiff of scandal? In speed dating, you have to tell the truth, you know."

"I wouldn't mind making my wife pregnant, but at other times, well, .... I might have another interest."

"You'd cheat on your wife?"

"Not with other women."

"So, I would provide you with the image of a happy family, with a loving wife and lots of children, while you are ..."

"It's only one person. We're in love. We can't marry. There's still a lot of bigotry, you know. I wouldn't mind if you fooled around on the side so long as you were discrete."

"So my large family would be just a disguise for you."

"Like I said, I'll have a lot of money and I don't mind sharing. What about you?"

"My father is the head of a very conservative church that is violently opposed to alternate forms of marriage. The first time he met you, he'd know your secret. I can see that you're a very nice person and I wouldn't want him to ruin your life."

Back to the Table of Contents

#  Chapter 9

By the end of November, some people in KwaZulu were beginning to talk about the proliferation of dead men who had been speared into trees. Unfortunately for Umkhonto, the country employed those people as security personnel who were charged with the duty to maintain the status quo by whatever means were necessary. Yes, the peasants who found the dead men talked amongst themselves a bit. But if Umkhonto's strategy had been to get the common people riled up and willing to join her in a campaign to change the laws, she had failed miserably. If any peasant shared information about any of her ritualized executions, KwaZulu's security forces were well trained in keeping the population safe from any news that might cause them unnecessary consternation.

The security forces were confident that they would put an end to the killings soon and told their masters to lie low in the meantime. They were also confident that they were looking for a tall woman with a lot of strength who was killing these men Those spears had been buried deep into the trees. The angle of the spear told them how tall she would be. They knew it was a woman because no male peasant had the height or the strength to commit this kind of murder.

They also knew where to look. In her naiveté, Umkhonto was travelling down the coastline in a straight line. They knew where she would strike next. They marshaled as many security personnel as they could. Then, they hid them throughout that next town, focusing entirely on watching the homes of the powerful men, and trailing them unobtrusively whenever they left their homes.

I must ask my readers a question about your feelings towards Umkhonto. Do you care if she's caught? I mean, Umkhonto is killing men in cold blood. She is giving them no chance to defend themselves. She is choosing them apparently at random without any direct knowledge of what they might have done to warrant such an execution. When Bean was in the men-killing part of her life, at least she had a reason that could justify why she was acting as she did. She was preventing women from being victimized by the particular rapist she had caught. Umkhonto wasn't preventing women from being raped. There was no such thing as rape in her country. That possibility had been eliminated through the laws that the men had promulgated.

So in your mind, is Umkhonto a hero? Or is she a misguided, kill-hungry crazy person? Make up your mind soon. She'll be captured in the next chapter that I write about Umkhonto's life.

### # # # # # # # #

During November, Winnie had three more speed dates. She managed to resist the attractions of 22 year old Lawrence of Nashville who wanted to have a big family because that would keep his wife in the house where she belonged. She exchanged a few sharp words with Lawrence, none of which included the use of 'nice guy.'

Tony of Indianapolis, a 28 year old man who was temporarily unemployed and lived in his mother's basement, was also rebuffed. Tony wanted a big family so that he could move out of the basement and live in a big house full of kids where his mother would not want to live or even visit. Those plans involved marrying a woman who was independently wealthy and could provide the said house. Tony wasn't praised for being a nice guy either.

Francis of Peoria was an activist who spent his life fighting for causes both serious and ridiculous. If there were a march, or a rally, or a sit in, or a brick throw, he would be there railing against whatever or whomever the cause had targeted. He was not unpleasant to look at. At 20 years of age, he was currently fighting for women's right to bare their breasts in public. He survived to the second round based on his support for women's rights.

In the conversational exchange that followed the next day, Francis made the mistake of clarifying that it wasn't the right to breast feed in public that he was fighting for; it was the right for hot women to walk around half naked that he wanted. As to why he wanted a large family, that was so his lawyer could use his big family as a reason to shorten the jail sentences he always received. He never got close to the third test that Winnie had planned. That would be a kiss to check for chemistry.

### # # # # # # # #

"Has Paula learned what the Duke of Earl is up to yet?" Lillian asked Joe-Joe.

"No. He continues to work his way through the small villages of western Vancouver Island. The change that we saw in mid-November is still there. He's not killing all of the shoulder demons. He gives them needles, teaches them the raw basics of foil work, pairs them up, and watches as they practice dueling. At some point, he makes the duels lethal. Now, he's letting a certain number of survivors live."

"No certificates of promotion to sign?"

"No. He's not leaving that kind of evidence behind. He even burns the dead balls of fluff. That carefulness is worrisome."

"The demons that he spares?"

"Dumped into a backpack that is kept in the Hummer. He goes on to other villages and the process is repeated. He's filling a second backpack now. They're dark inside, so the demons remain healthy. Paula thinks that he's due to report to Lord Percy soon. He's visited all the small centers in BC."

"The backpacks are there to smuggle the shoulder demons into Hell?"

"That's my thinking right now. It's very doubtful that he's been authorized to spare any."

"Is that confirmed by Meghan's informants?"

"No, Lillian. There's nothing on paper anywhere. If there were and if it leaked, shoulder demons the world over would go ballistic. Should we leak it?"

"No. We wouldn't be able to control the chaos that followed. We'll stay with the original plan for now. How do shoulder demons normally travel across the border?"

"Shoulder demons are transported regularly from Hell to Earth via the PUS cars. Souls that are promoted out of the torture pits are converted into shoulder demons in Hell's Personnel Cavern and then travel by PUS to Earth. When shoulder demons are promoted to devils, they travel back to Hell in the same way and then go to the Personnel Cavern where they receive their devil body. You don't see the demons travelling in the PUS cars themselves because they could be accidentally stomped on. Each PUS train will have a miniature demon carriage on the top of the last car complete with windows, doors, seating and ladders that they can use to climb up and down."

"But, the duke can't use the miniature cars for his shoulder demons."

"No, he can't. There's not a huge amount of demonic traffic from Earth to Hell. They'd be too noticeable. He'll walk into a PUS car with the backpacks. He won't be noticed. And the border control booths will not sense any heavenly or mortal presence. The radiation cocktails at the border won't affect the demons either. Once he's past the border controls, the duke will take his shoulder demons somewhere."

"And Paula will follow. What about Arthur?"

"It will be difficult for him to pass through the border controls and he's not really needed for this."

"Is he functional yet?"

"No. Paula is doing most of the work. She's trying to talk to him, but he's not responding. We can put him back into his normal guardian angel body. That will fix everything. No male hormones means no sexual attraction to Winnie or to the memory of Winnie."

"Except that we may need to infiltrate him into Hell. We still have no idea what the duke is up to."

"I have more bad news."

"You've been looking grim lately."

"The prototype testing is going poorly."

"Are memory seals leaking? Do they have difficulty using the prototype commands?"

"No. The bodies are fine. The problem is that the angels aren't taking advantage of the body's capabilities. They may not be seeing demonic weaknesses that they can exploit. Or they may see the weakness, but are too stuck in their old ways to attack."

"Are there problems with the pairings?"

"No. The problem is with the personalities of the angels. They aren't aggressive enough. They didn't record a single demonic provocation."

"Could Arthur instruct them?"

"Arthur can't explain what he doesn't know. His pranks may be planned out in advance, but the genesis for the idea is spontaneous. He just gets them."

"Winnie?"

"Same thing. She gets ideas. She can't force them to come. She doesn't know where they come from."

"If the problem is one of lack of aggression, what if we were to add some mortal hormones to the bodies?"

"You know what happened when Arthur received his male hormones."

"We have to do something. Our entire plan about the fake mind messages was to create a safe period of time when we could bring angels back for retraining in their new bodies. These new angelic body prototypes are critical for Heaven. If we can't create better bodies, our guardian angels will be unable to cope with the growing number of demons in the field. We can't go on like this."

"I know, Lillian. The amount of evil this last century...."

"Add the hormones. Start small. Double the size of the field test."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 10

"This is ridiculous!" the man sitting across the table from Umkhonto exploded. "Officer, take the tablet and chalk away from her."

Umkhonto offered no resistance. Not that she could have resisted if she had wanted to.

"Do you understand that I am instructing you to speak to me and to answer any questions that I ask you? You are obligated to do that by law."

"You're not my father. You're not my employer. What right do you have to even talk to me? What right did your men have to approach me, touch me, bring me here under restraints, and keep me tied up like this?"

"I have the authority to act as your father in the event that I believe that you were engaged in a criminal activity."

"I wasn't doing anything. What law was I breaking?"

"We'll get to that. Officer, bring the man she approached on the street to this window. Leave him there briefly and then escort him out of the building. "

...

"Do you recognize this man?"

"Yes, he was a man that I passed as I was walking down one of your streets."

"He said that you showed him a tablet with some chalk writing on it. Is that true?"

"Yes."

"He said that you had written this message on your tablet: _Want sex? I won't tell my husband. Follow me._ Did you write that message on your tablet? _"_

"Yes."

"So you admit that you were offering to have sex with him. Were you going to charge him?"

"I was pretending to offer to have sex with him."

"Why?"

"I was curious to see if he would break the law. It's against the law for a man to even approach a married woman let alone talk to her."

"Are you married?"

"No. But he didn't know that. He was willing to break the law."

"So you lied about offering to have sex with him and you lied about being married."

"Yes. What crime did I commit?"

...

"We'll get to that. What were you planning to do if he followed you?"

"Your men assaulted me before I could do anything."

"What were you planning to do if they hadn't stepped in to stop a crime from being committed?"

"What crime would that be?"

"What were you planning to do?"

"I was planning on leaving town. I didn't particularly like it here. I felt that many men in the city were always watching me. That made me uncomfortable."

"Were you planning to walk into the jungle?"

"No."

"Were you planning to lure this man into the jungle with you and kill him with a spear?"

"I wasn't going to walk into the jungle. I don't have a spear. I was not planning to kill him."

"I say you were."

"How could you know what I was planning to do before I had done it? Can you read minds?"

"You've done this before with other men that you killed."

"What proof do you have of this?"

....

"The spears you used in other murders were buried deep into a tree. That takes a lot of strength."

"Do you think that I'm guilty of killing somebody because I'm strong?"

"You had a knife with you."

"I also had animal traps. I needed the knife to skin the animals, slice them up, cook them and eat them. Is that a crime?"

...

"So, what crime have I committed? Being in your town? Being curious to see if one of your men in town would break the law? Catching animals in a trap so that I could eat them? I broke none of your laws."

"This investigation is not over. We will visit the towns where you murdered the other men to see if any woman living there is strong enough or big enough to kill them. For your own safety, we will detain you in a secure environment where angry citizens from this town who have heard about you will not be able to hurt you. If at any time you feel threatened by other people who might be in this facility, tell one of the security men there that you want to confess to five murders."

"You're sending me to a prison, aren't you?"

"Not exactly. I'm sending you to a men's only prison."

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie's last and final speed date occurred on a Friday evening in Austin, Texas. Vern was the man who wanted a large family. Winnie approached the restaurant table where he was sitting and kept going. The profile Lillian had given her said he was an agricultural executive. Winnie's nose said that he wasn't that high up in the farming business. He was in the 'adding liquid pig-sourced fertilizer to the soil' part of farming. The absence of anybody in the restaurant sitting near him confirmed that.

She spent Saturday at home, as usual, being on her own. She felt no desire to shop, to visit with other people, or to actually stay in Montana. This Saturday, she went back to the Aboriginal Nation and spent the day in her old bedroom, lying on the bed, and remembering events of her childhood.

Her routine on Sundays was to visit Doc and Granny in the morning. If Doc wanted, she'd whittle with him. Sunday afternoon, she'd visit with her mom and dad. For supper, they'd meet up with the family at the camp dining room. Right now, it's Sunday afternoon and Winnie is sitting on their porch swing with Yolanda. Both were bundled up for November weather. Winnie was enjoying the cold. It never became cold and windy in Heaven. Naturally, she didn't mention that. She did start a non-weather conversation though.

"Why did you want to have ten children, Mom?"

"My goodness, where did that come from?"

"I was at our old home yesterday. My bedroom looks very small now."

"We were crowded, that's for sure."

"So, why ten?"

"I didn't want ten children. I wanted two boys and two girls. Neither Hank nor I had any brothers or sisters. We agreed that we missed out on that when we were growing up. So, we settled on four. We had a boy, then a girl, and then a boy. The next one was supposed to be a girl and then we would quit. Wizard was born instead. I got stubborn. I wanted a second girl. It took you a while to get here. Your premature birth scared us a lot, but I was going to quit anyway. We joked about wanting ten, just so that the boys that preceded you wouldn't feel unwanted. Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking that I would want a large family."

"I never would have expected that from you."

"Why not?"

"Children from tiny families generally want large families for themselves. They think they missed something. Children from large families want to have smaller families. They think they missed something."

"Like?"

"Privacy. Getting attention from a parent. Always having a teasing sibling around. Having to put up with wailing infants. Having to babysit. You'll notice that Wolf and Yollie both have small families. That's not an accident."

"What would you think about me having a large family?"

"Truth?"

"Yes."

"I think it would be a big mistake for you. You have a future outside of being a full-time mom. I didn't. The times weren't right and I had no skills other than my powers of perception, which didn't put any money on the table. You have skills that allow you to make a much bigger contribution to the world than I did. This security job that you're doing is helping to protect innocent people, isn't it?"

"Yes. That's why I'm doing it."

"You'll be doing something really valuable with your life. That's a reason for you to stay with this career. "

"You did something really valuable too."

"But I wasn't likely to become bored. You are built differently. You get bored with life if you aren't challenged. You know that about yourself, don't you?"

"I guess. Yesterday, I remembered sitting on the ground with Momaka talking about her inventing new plants while she was irrigating them. I was supposed to be helping her, but I was bored. Did you find weeding boring?"

"No, not at all. The action of pulling them out of the ground, yes. But I was providing food for my family. That's not boring."

...

"You're not with Arthur any longer, are you?"

"No."

"Do you miss him?"

"Yes."

"Do you miss him a lot?"

"Yes."

"Do you go places that remind you of him?"

"Yes."

"Can the relationship be fixed?"

"No."

"Even you can't find a solution?"

"No. You shouldn't worry about how we found this out Mom, but Arthur can't have children. Having children is very important for me, even if it's only a few."

"Have you heard of sperm banks?"

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 11

KwaZulu had one high security prison that had been constructed after _The Troubles_. As part of its security, it was built in dense jungle so that surrounding trees could form part of the prison's outer walls. From these trees, strands of barbed wire were strung at regular heights around the camp's living quarters that were built in a square formation. The barbed wire defenses were strung in multiple lines starting at the one foot high level and reaching up a foot at a time to ten feet high. Squeezing through one barrier would not set a prisoner free. He still had to squeeze through the second wall of barbed wire. The inside of the square was former jungle land that had been stripped bare and that is where they constructed all of the prison buildings.

A copter pad had been cleared a short distance from the jungle camp. Since the pad was surrounded by cleared jungle, it had to be regularly cleared to keep the pad safe enough to land on. The prisoners took care of that duty weekly. From the copter pad, incoming prisoners would be taken, under secure guard, down a well worn path that was constructed in an L-shape. The short part of the L would take the prisoner down a rutted path surrounded by dense jungle. The long part of the L would open into a wide trail that gave this new prisoner a good long look at where she would be living for some undetermined length of time. It also would give the inmates a long look at her.

Umkhonto was considered a high-risk prisoner due to height, strength and her passion for killing men. Her bare feet were manacled together by two metal sleeves around her ankles and connected together by a thick chain. Her hands were cuffed together in front of her by the standard prison handcuffs. Around her neck, they had fastened a noose of barbed wire that ended in a thick chain that bound her and her security guard together, albeit at a distance. One quick tug on the chain would cause the barbed wire noose to contract and dig into her neck. The security guard had his end of the chain wrapped around his body so that if she tried to flee, she'd be pulling a heavy man behind her while her exertions were causing the barbed wire to slice into her neck. This security guard also had control of all of the keys that were necessary to free her. Three other guards accompanied her with weapons at the ready as she hobbled through the short part the L. A fifth man walked in front of the guard detail. This man was the interrogator who had assigned her to this prison until she confessed.

As the security detail reached the join of the L and turned into the relatively clearer space, a huge roar of welcome resounded from the prison's outer wall. One might guess that somebody had leaked the gender of the prisoner who would be arriving. They would have seen the copter on its flight path towards the prison and the men had lined up four or five deep against the security barbwire fence to welcome her to their home away from home.

Just to clarify what Umkhonto was walking into. As you know, KwaZulu had a very limited set of laws that could be broken. The only thing that a man could do that would warrant incarceration in this prison was to break the country's cardinal law: _No man could touch another man's wife._ Thus, you may conclude that the men who were in this prison had been found guilty of touching another man's wife. I'll leave it to my readers to conclude what kind of touching had brought them to the only prison in KwaZulu.

Back to the huge roar of welcome. The interrogator stopped the procession. "Let's give them a look at what they're getting, shall we?" He grabbed the top of Umkhonto's head covering, ripped it off, and threw it aside. "Do you wish to confess?"

"I have broken no law."

...

The procession reached the half way mark when again, the interrogator stopped Umkhonto and said, "You have a pretty face. For now." He pulled out a knife and split her dress open from throat to bare feet. It fell, mostly unimpeded, to the ground. As you would expect, the men inside the prison expressed their full-throated appreciation for the sharpness of his knife and how deftly he had wielded it. Umkhonto stood there in shorts and t-shirt, unmoving.

"Do you wish to confess now?"

"I have broken no laws."

...

They were perhaps ten feet in front of the outer barbed wire fence when the interrogator stopped the procession. The men were chanting in unison their appreciation of their guest's arrival. They were also sharing some thoughts about how they would welcome Umkhonto with some non-verbal communications that I will not describe.

Again the knife touched her body, this time at the collar of her shirt. "The t-shirt is next. I have no reason to stop with that. Last chance before I take you through the gate. Care to confess?"

Umkhonto looked around. She saw nothing that would help her take her mind away from what awaited. "I have broken no laws, but say that I accidentally did, what would happen to me?"

"That would depend on why you accidentally broke some laws. Why did you kill those men?"

Again, Umkhonto looked around. All she saw was jungle around her plus a bunch of screaming apes in front of her. "I have broken no laws, but say that a number of men were accidental victims of an accidental minor violation on my part, what..."

At that point, the sound of something falling through surrounding trees and crashing to the ground drew everybody's attention to the back of the prison. All they could see was a cloud of dust rising into the air. A siren began to wail.

"The back fences are down," some prisoner yelled from the other side of the camp and the chanting apes became speeding cheetahs. _[I have now exhausted my jungle metaphors.]_

The interrogator took charge of the guard detail in front of the camp. "You," he said and pointed to the guard controlling the noose around Umkhonto's neck. "Keep her here. You three come with me," and he raced to the far side of the prison in a vain attempt to keep the prisoners inside.

It may be a good time right now to examine how a barbed wire noose works when it is intended to keep a potentially violent prisoner under control. Unquestionably, a violent prisoner would find it very difficult to escape by pulling the guard behind her. But, nobody had appeared to consider that when the prisoner was attached by a chain to a guard, that guard was also chained to the prisoner.

As he watched his fellow guards disappear into the jungle, the first thing that the noose wielding guard noticed that made him think he might be in trouble was the jolt of pain when Umkhonto yanked the chain towards herself and pulled his arm out of his shoulder socket. The next pain he felt was from Umkhonto's head butt. After that, he didn't feel anything at all.

It took scarcely a minute for Umkhonto to unfasten herself from the chains and cuffs. She began to jog back the way she had come, looking at the jungle where a tree had luckily happened to fall. She collected her split dress on the run and her head covering a few seconds later. Turning the L, she continued to jog, but now towards the copter. There, she put her head covering back on and covered herself up as best as she could with her dress. She didn't attempt to climb into the copter because she didn't have the foggiest idea how to operate it. Instead, she scanned the jungle.

There. In the distance, a figure was dodging through the trees. Male. Not a security guard. Not a prisoner. He ran up to the copter and stopped, breathing hard.

"Do you know how to fly this thing?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he said.

"Let's go."

### # # # # # # # #

Umkhonto was staring steadily at her rescuer's face as the copter flew into the sun. He was sneaking glances at her, while trying to stay just above the trees with sun glaring into the cockpit. He couldn't see much of her. He could see that she was uncomfortable about her legs showing in the gaps of her dress. He stopped looking at her after that revelation.

"I was expecting Mamlambo," she admitted to the pilot.

"Who is that?"

"Zulu goddess of rivers. If not her, then perhaps Inkosazana. She's the goddess of agriculture."

"I'm not them."

"I noticed that. Are you a sub-god? Your skin colour is not dark enough to be a regular god."

"I'm not a Zulu god."

"Too scrawny to be one, I guess."

"Big enough to rescue you."

"Yes. But, you were late. I had to grovel in order to keep my underclothes on. How did you cut the tree down?"

"I had some tools. Why did you say I was late?"

"Because you were."

"I was minding my own business when I saw the prisoners acting crazy. I saw the security guards undressing you. That didn't seem right. So I cut the tree down to distract them. Don't worry about your ripped clothes. I won't hurt you."

"I can see that. Where are we going?"

"I'll set you down in a clearing near a town."

"You can't do that. They'll just catch me again."

"Where would you like to go?"

"Where would **you** like to go? We have to go together. Men make the decisions in our country."

"Why do we have to go together?"

"Because I deliberately murdered some men so that they would catch me. They thought that I was stupid enough to kill them in a sequence that they could follow. I'm not stupid."

"If you're not stupid, why would you lead them directly to your next victim."

"So that they'd take me to that prison where you would rescue me. It's all part of a plan."

"Whose plan?"

"Did anybody tell you what you were supposed to do after you rescued me?"

"No. As I said, I was minding my own business. Who was supposed to tell me?"

"It has to be Mbaba Mwana Waresa. She's the most powerful goddess."

"And what's this plan supposed to do that the two of us have to follow?"

"I'm going to take over the government. A Zulu god or goddess was going to help me, but they sent you instead. You're too scrawny to wield a weapon. I'll have to find something else for you to do."

*************************************************

Later that same day. The pilot set the copter down in a clearing. Together, they pushed it into the jungle where it could not be seen.

"There will be a lot of security people looking for you but they won't be able to see the copter from the air," the pilot said. "Where do you want to sit?"

"In the copter."

"Is the jungle dangerous?"

"Not for me."

"Not for me either. I have weapons."

"You hide them well. What's your name?"

"Reese."

"What does your name mean?"

"I don't know. Nothing I suppose."

"What were you doing at the prison?"

"Uhm, just looking around."

"You don't lie very well."

"I know."

"Why didn't you say that you didn't want to tell me instead of lying?"

"OK, I don't want to tell you."

"How long were you there?"

"Two days."

"The gods sent you to rescue me."

"What's your name?"

"I used to be called Abina which means _Born on Tuesday._ I changed it to Umkhonto after I killed my father. My new name means _Spear_. I chose that name because I killed my father with a spear."

"He attacked you?"

"No. He deserved to die."

"Why don't you tell me why he deserved to die?"

"Have you seen any other part of KwaZulu other than the prison?"

"No."

"That's because the gods sent you to rescue me and they didn't know how long I would be interrogated. That's why they had you stay there for two days."

"Let's not argue about that. Would you tell me why you killed your father and the other men?"

"I'll tell you about the law that forces women to dress like this."

### # # # # # # # #

"So you're fidgeting with your split dress because you don't want me to see a part of a bare leg."

"Yes."

"But you want to change those laws about how you have to dress. Isn't that why you want to take over the government?"

"Partly, yes."

"So, you want to be able to dress differently, but not right now?"

"Yes. You're a man. I'm not even supposed to be alone with you let alone be wearing a split dress."

"You can trust me. I won't hurt you."

"I know. I need another dress. I can't continue to wear this. It's scandalous."

"You said the laws about clothes were only one reason you wanted to kill those men. What other reasons did you have other than getting arrested?"

"Do you know how women have to communicate with men in my country?"

### # # # # # # # #

"OK, I get it. We have people in my country who dress somewhat like you and they're comfortable dressing that way. But they do that by choice. But we don't have laws that stop them from talking to a man. If they do talk to a man, we don't have police who will cut off their tongue. We don't have laws that allow them to send you to a place where you're forced to have sex with a lot of men if you disobey a man. No other country that I know has those laws."

"Have you seen a lot of countries?"

"Yes. I've seen a lot."

"What do you do that allows you to travel so much?"

"I don't want to tell you."

"See. That wasn't so hard."

"There's something that I don't understand. You said that all of the men you killed deserved to die. But you killed them without warning and without a trial. In my country, that would be wrong."

"It's not wrong in KwaZulu. There is no law preventing a woman from killing a man. In our system of laws, killing a man is no worse than swatting a fly and killing it. So, I am only swatting flies."

"But surely there are lots of men in your country who don't deserve to die."

"That's true. I didn't kill any other men in my village."

"How do you know which ones to kill and which ones to leave alone?"

"The gods show me."

"But this is not right. Gods don't tell people who to kill and who not to kill."

"Are you angry at me?"

"Well, yes. You can't just take a person's life on a whim because you think that gods are talking to you."

"They don't talk to me. I don't hear voices in my head. That would make me a crazy person and I'm not crazy."

"Now you're mad at me."

"Yes, I am. Why don't you believe in the gods? It's obvious that they sent you to that prison."

"They did not. I went there because I wanted to. Nobody told me to go there. How can you say that the gods sent me?"

"Because they showed me what would happen at the prison in a dream. That's why I was waiting for the tree to fall down. I knew that would be a distraction that I could use to escape. I knew how to free myself from the chains. I knew that I could get to the copter and that you would come to the copter and fly me away. In my dream, I saw your face when you entered the copter. I knew I would be safe with you."

"You saw a dream and believed it."

"I saw the same dream several times. I believed what the gods showed me and the dreams came true. You are going to help me. The gods said so."

"How did you know that you'd be safe with me?"

"Because I saw your face."

"So what?"

"I saw the colours coming off your face and I've been looking closely at you ever since you climbed into the copter with me. I know that you become embarrassed easily with girls. I know that you would never use violence against a woman. I know that you think that you hurt a woman or a girl some time ago and you have never forgiven yourself for that. I know you are afraid of never finding some girl to be with. I know you like to be alone because you believe that your ability to see colours makes you weird and nobody would like you. Your colours tell me that you would never deliberately hurt me."

"You're the person who's still living," Reese said somewhat distractedly. _[Remember, he was referring to what the extraterrestrials had told him while he was their prisoner: there was another reader.]_

"I don't understand. Who is still living?"

"I became able to read face colours when I turned ten. I've been trying to learn how to read them properly ever since. I heard that there was another reader somewhere. I didn't think I'd be able to find you. I wasn't even looking."

"Did the gods tell you about me?"

"They weren't gods."

"What were they?"

"I don't want to talk about this. You'd never understand."

"Like you don't understand about my gods?"

"This doesn't make any sense. There's no way I could have found you."

"But you did. Here's what I know for sure. I can see black and dark red colours in the men who are running our country. Every month, somebody with dark colours comes to our village and visits with the men. They get drunk together and the next day the man leaves. The man comes in a KwaZulu copter and is always well dressed. Sometimes I'll see him again; sometimes, I'll see somebody else. Those men have something to do with the government. They need to die so that the women can escape their curse. Now I know why the gods sent you to me instead of coming themselves. You can help me read the colours. I'll do the killing."

"May I see your face?"

Umkhonto obliged.

...

"I'd expect you to have dark colours after murdering five men. You don't have any dark colours at all."

"I've been swatting flies, Reese."

"Killing men without a trial is still not right."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 12

Reese awoke the next morning at dawn to find Umkhonto sitting cross-legged on the ground, looking up at him in the copter. She had covered her legs with broken ferns.

"I thought we should get some supplies," Reese said as he got out and joined her on the ground. "Food, for example."

"They took all my traps and my knife. That's all I'll need."

"I can bring you a knife but I don't know what you'll need for traps. What do you normally eat if you're at home?"

"Fish and oatmeal."

"That's all?"

"What else would there be?"

"Fruit? Vegetables?"

"What are those?"

"What about peanut butter. Do you know about that?"

"No."

"I'll bring some different things back with me. If you don't like them, I'll help you hunt for game. Trapping can be slow work some times."

"You've hunted for game?"

"I learned how to use a bow and arrow when I was 4 years old."

"I don't know what that is."

"We'll need some survival gear if we stay in the jungle for long."

"What is survival gear?"

"I'll show you. We'll need water for example."

"Stand in the rain and open your mouth."

"You need clothes."

"Yes. I must be covered everywhere except my eyes."

"Would you stand beside me?"

....

"We're about the same height. Does it matter what the clothes are, so long as they keep you covered?"

"No. Are you a giant where you live?"

"No."

"I am. Where do you live?"

"That will take some explaining. Why don't we talk about those kinds of things later."

"Are you telling me not to ask you questions?"

"No. I'm suggesting that if I leave now, I will bring food that we can both eat before we get too hungry. We can talk later."

"OK. Are you going to take the copter?"

"No. I have my own type of copter near by. It won't attract any attention. This copter will."

"Will you return?"

"Yes."

"When?"

Reese had to pause to calculate the amount of time it would take him to sling to Australia and collect some emergency supplies. "Two or three hours."

"What are hours?"

"I'll be back when the sun is high in the sky."

"You should have said that first."

"Yes. We have to learn how to communicate together."

"Will we be hunting for men together?"

"I'm going to help you. I don't know how yet."

### # # # # # # # #

Reese returned with two stuffed backpacks. Inside Umkhonto's new pack, he had placed two sets of short/t-shirts combinations, a long-sleeved shirt, lightweight jacket, and lightweight pants - all in cammo green. Also, he gave her five different camping knives in various lengths.

"Try the clothes on in the jungle. They fit me so they should fit you. I brought the same gear for myself."

Umkhonto returned with a half empty pack in one hand and a hand full of well-worn clothes in the other. "Should we bury these?"

"I have a camp shovel," he brought it out and then demonstrated how it worked.

"Why did you do women's work? Did you think that I couldn't do that?"

"In my country, men and women share the work. You do some of the work, and I do some of the work."

"Aren't you going to watch me and tell me when I'm doing it wrong when I'm really doing it right?"

"No. I may show you how to do something if you don't know, like opening up this shovel. You might show me how to do something if I didn't know, like setting a trap."

"Huh."

Food came next. Reese had brought a variety of fruit and vegetables, along with bread and peanut butter. "All of this is new to you. You may have problems if you eat too much. Just try a few things."

"What problems?" Umkhonto eyed the food lying on the ground suspiciously.

Reese tried to pantomime a person vomiting.

"You look funny. What are you doing?"

"I'm pretending that my food is coming up out of my tummy."

"You're pretending to puke?"

"Yes."

"I did that once when I didn't cook my meat enough. Puking is not nice. May I remove my head covering to eat?"

"You don't have to ask. It's your head covering. Do what you want with it."

### # # # # # # # #

"How do you think we'll be able to kill all the men who have bad colours in your country?"

"We won't kill all of them. Just the men with the darkest colours in the military and the government."

"But how?"

"With my spear."

"They'll figure out what you're trying to do. They'll hide from you or they'll send security people to find you and kill you. Your spear can't stop that."

"The gods haven't told me how to solve that yet."

"After you kill the worst, others will take their place. They'll have the dark colours and will need killing too. Did you think about that?"

"No. That's why the gods sent you. You do the thinking, I'll do the killing."

...

"What made you believe that one person can change the way an entire country behaves."

"I know that two people can change a country."

"Same question."

"In my village, we have a library in the basement of one of our brick buildings. We receive books and magazines that come from other places on a fishing ship. Every month, we receive a new collection. I always read everything the ship captains give us."

"Real paper?"

"Yes. What else would there be? One day I read a newspaper that told the story of how one girl my age had solved a problem that a country had. That country had men who would form gangs and rape women. There were a lot of gangs doing this. The country couldn't or didn't want to stop them. This girl saw what was happening one time, stopped the men somehow, and put cement shorts around the men so that they could barely walk. They had to wear the cement underwear for weeks and everybody knew why. The women learned that if they banded together, they too could give men cement underwear if they tried to rape them. That started in one city in the country. My newspaper article says that women cement pad makers now exist all over the country. Men are afraid to attack women now because those cement shorts are very difficult to take off. Only women nurses can do that. They're afraid that a nurse could deliberately make a mistake."

"What country was that?"

"India. The women there wear clothing that identifies themselves as the protectors of other women."

"What clothing is that?"

"The newspaper said they wear pieces of green and white cloth. Everywhere in India, women will attach these colours to their clothes or hair as a sign that they wouldn't let men treat them that way. They'll stand up for each other. One girl plus an old lady with a limp did all of that. If a small girl can do that, so can I. After I read that article, I decided that I had had enough. I would change this country."

_Those are Wilizy colours. Winnie and Granny?_

### # # # # # # # #

"I will have to leave KwaZulu for a day, perhaps two days. I have to talk with members of my family about what you want me to do. I promise that I will come back."

Umkhonto said nothing and stared at his face.

"Why are you reading my face? You've seen my colours before."

"I'm looking to see if your colours have changed since yesterday."

"Colours don't change that quickly."

"No, but their location does."

"What do you mean their location?"

"If you had lied to me, that would have altered the colour for honesty because you are not as honest as you were yesterday."

"Yes, it would become darker but that would change only over time. Anything bad is dark; anything good is light."

"Yes. But the location of the honesty colour would have changed too as would the thickness of the streak. Your honesty colour would be lower in your face. It's not, so I know that you will remain as honest to me tomorrow as you were yesterday. I don't mind if you go."

"But... I've never heard of the colour locations moving. No other readers have left notes about that."

"You know what other readers have learned?"

"Yes. I've found their written journals. How do you know so much? How do you know about colours moving?"

"I don't know. I just do."

"How do you know what the colours represent?"

"I don't know. I just know. "

"Even the combination colours?"

"I haven't seen a lot of colours, Reese. But if I did see a colour combination that I hadn't seen before, I'd know what it was."

"How do you know that?"

"Because the gods do not give gifts that don't work."

"The gods gave you the gift of reading colours."

"Yes, of course. Just like they sent me the dream of you rescuing me. They sent you your gifts too."

"I received my gifts through genetics. A long ago member of my family could read colours."

"If you had an ancestor who could read, he received the gift from the gods. What's genetics?"

"It's a branch of science."

"What's science?"

"May I change the subject?"

"You don't know what science is?"

"Yes, I know, but I'd like to ask you another question that has nothing to do with gods and science."

"OK."

"I see that you are not wearing your head covering."

"Yes. I didn't think it was right for me to see your colours but you were not able to see mine. Colours tell everything you need to know about a person."

"Yes, we agree on that. You have very long hair. Have you have had it cut before?"

"My mom cut it off when I was ten. We needed it to make into string thongs. Why?"

"Would you lift your hair up so that I could see the back of your neck?"

...

"You're hesitating. Why? Have I offended you? I didn't mean to."

"You can see my face. Now you want to see the back of neck. What will you want me to bare next?"

"Have my colours changed? Have I become a threat to you?"

"No. Why do you want to see the skin on the back of neck?"

"I shouldn't have asked. In my country, the back of a woman's neck is not anything that needs to be covered. Let me do this. I'm going to raise my hair so that you can see the back of my neck."

_[Reese had been letting his hair grow in expectation of forming it into a braid like Wolf's.]_

"Do you see this thing on my neck?"

"What is that ugly thing? Are you sick? Is that why you have long hair?"

"No. This is a tool that I can use to help me think better. It's very common in the countries that I have visited before. Do you have one of these things on the back of your neck?"

"No."

"That's all I wanted to know. Will you be alright if I leave for a day?"

"There's food left from what you brought. I'll stay by the copter."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 13

As you probably guessed, Reese left Umkhonto alone so that he could sling to Montana and meet with the Wilizy executive. As luck would have it, they were meeting with William that afternoon. They'd squeeze Reese in before that.

You may now consider that Reese has been sufficiently squeezed and that Doc, Granny, Hank and Yolanda all know everything that you know. Reese ended his presentation with a request and then left. The executive is ready to discuss that request. Reese is in the camp's mess hall eating.

"The whole country is probably malnourished," Doc opened. "That's why the men and women are so short. This girl is average height, for our society at least, and that's because her diet was augmented. If we were do anything at all for this country, improving the diet would have to be one of our first goals."

"And we also have to address the treatment of the women," Granny jumped in with energy. "I don't care what anybody might say, that is not an internal matter for the country to solve. If we get involved, we have to change the law about not being able to talk in front of men. The clothing has nothing to do with religion apparently, so that law has to go too."

_[The Wilizy had had a previous operation where the Wilizy women and men disagreed about whether they had the right to force Scandinavia to change how they were treating their women. The Wilizy women had lost that argument. Book #11: Trial by Nick.]_

"I'm with Granny on that," Yolanda was quick to agree.

"I am too," Hank agreed. "But I see a larger picture here. The government is treating the women abysmally, but I don't understand why they are doing that. Why cut the women off from the men? There's no interaction now between the two genders at all. And, it's not only the women who are being hurt. The men are left to get drunk each night and all of the citizens have a very unhealthy diet. Is the country so poor that they can't grow vegetables and fruit? They have lots of agricultural capacity according to Reese. Lots of water; lots of fertile soil. They could easily cut back on how much barley they produce."

"I agree we need to act." Doc said. "The men will drink themselves to an early grave. They are reducing the country's work force by half when they let the men stay in the pubs and drink all day and night long. Why would they do that?"

_[I'm tired of adding verbs telling that somebody is talking, saying, speaking, recounting etc. I'm take some short cuts now.]_

"What about the boys?" (Yolanda).

"They're in compulsory military service." (Doc)

"Why? Again, they are removing the best part of their work force presumably. Who are their enemies?" (Hank)

"Reese didn't say anything about the boys," (Doc)

"That's something to check into then." (Granny)

"Interesting that Reese wants to run the operation if we approve it." (Yolanda)

"He's been floating through life. Perhaps that will change." (Hank)

"He's been totally consumed by his investigation into colours, which is a good thing. But he can contribute much more to the family than looking at people's faces for us." (Yolanda)

"I thought his matrix was complete." (Granny)

"He found two more aura readers a month or two ago and Wolf helped him access their journals, but I thought he was done too." (Hank)

"I asked him this morning before the meeting why he was in KwaZulu. He said that he was looking at their prison." (Yolanda)

"I guess that was good because he found another reader." (Doc)

"There can't be too many of them around. He's found something like five of them in the last century, I believe." (Granny)

"Something like that. He said it was blind luck that he met her." (Doc)

"Do we know anything about her?" (Granny)

"Nothing, other than he needs to park her here so that he can investigate. He can't use his sling or any other powers while she's with him. The government knows about her and is trying to imprison her, which is how he met her." (Hank)

"Reese and a girl?" (Granny)

"Could be Reese and an old woman. Akilah could help her fit in, I suppose." (Yolanda)

"Reese wants to run this operation. What do we tell him?" (Hank)

"Put him in charge of the research. We need to know what's really going on over there before we commit to anything. Something's not right." (Doc)

"Give him one of the planes to bring this woman here." (Granny)

"I wonder if we should know more about this person. She could be a young girl." (Yolanda)

"It must be a woman. I can't see Reese having much to do with a girl. I think he's sworn off them. She can stay in the women's dorm along with Valkyries." (Granny)

"William is due to arrive in ten minutes. I'll speak with Reese now." (Hank)

"Winnie usually visits about now. Should I message her not to come?" (Granny)

"William is simply giving us an update. She might enjoy becoming more involved in family business." (Yolanda)

"Everything OK with her?" (Granny)

"Can I get you anything, Doc? You look tired." (Yolanda)

"I'm fine," Doc mumbled.

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie had arrived and William was giving the executive an update on the scientific priorities that he was leading. The world's air temperature was dropping. Only marginally right now, but the needle had actually moved. Carbon capture was going well. They had massive supplies of diamonds now and barrels of them were stored away safely in Stanford and in the Zeballos Regional Prison that the Wilizy had set up for secure storage _[Book #4, Hoist the Jolly Lucas_ ].

"Mathias is graduating this January and he will be joining the scientific team. He's been studying climatic forces and he thinks he has discovered something that would allow us to bring rain to desert areas. Doc, you'll probably be interested in this. Mathias is going to work with Nary..."

William and everybody else turned their head to look back at Doc in his comfy recliner and William paused. Doc's chin was resting on his chest and his eyes, if they had been open, would have been gazing at his navel. His hands were open, resting next to his legs. His shoulders drooped. Heck, everything drooped. He was in danger of sliding out of the recliner feet first. Either that or falling out nose first if he leaned forward much more.

"He's just napping," Granny explained as she rose and adjusted the recliner so that the footrest was fully extended and the backrest was in full decline. She put a handy small pillow under his chin to push his head back into the seat cushion. Doc didn't notice.

"Should we move to another place," Yolanda asked?

"No," Granny replied. "He sleeps very soundly. We won't disturb him. I'm recording William's presentation. I know he'll be interested. Carry on, William."

"Umm, Mathias believes that Nary's ability to create breezes and small wind storms has a scientific base. It's not so much the voodoo words that she speaks that he's interested in but her hand movements as she speaks. If he can artificially create a self generating wind that could open up some possibilities of getting more rain to parched areas."

William's announcement of the voodoo-scientist duo didn't receive the reaction it deserved. The others were very much focused on Doc's limp body and his aged appearance.

"I'm glad to hear that Nary will help Mathias out. I know she's been at loose ends recently. William, you had an important announcement, so let's move on to that. Does anybody need a hot chocolate refill? No? Ok, William, let's hear why we're meeting. Everybody, Doc's fine."

Eyes turned back to William.

"This all started when Winnie told me about the US locations of their nuclear silos. One of those locations wasn't actually a silo. It was a huge underground cavern of stockpiled weapons up to and including nuclear weapons."

"Which location was that, William?" Winnie asked.

"Chicago. Everybody knows about the Chicago pellets that we have used to disable electronic devices. Melissa and I were on the receiving end of those. _[#2, The Get Even Bird.]_ The gang that attacked us was using the contents of electronic bombs that had crumbled open. These were on the upper floor of the weapon warehouse. A large number of missiles were on the bottom floor and it would have taken some exploring to get into that part of storehouse. We have been able to determine that some were nuclear tipped. Radiation levels were fine. There was no deterioration but we took the precaution of removing every lethal weapon from that storehouse and locking them all up in Zeballos. We took one nuclear weapon to Stanford to study closely."

"Are these big missiles, William?"

"No. I believe these weapons were the most advanced that the US had at the time and, as such, were the smallest that they could develop. They could be shot from submarines, ships, and airplanes. We don't know if the other countries had missile storage sites like this. What we've learned with these missiles is important because we now know how to open a missile and remove its fissionable materials. It's quite easy actually. The US military stored their maintenance manuals in the cavern. So, we followed their instructions. We've already de-nuclearized all of the missiles that we have in Zeballos prison. It took less than an afternoon."

"Did you use HazMat suits, William?"

"Yes, of course. We also Geigered the entire prison floor where we were working. If the missiles that were stored by other countries used the same basic design, we can remove the fissionable materials quite easily provided that we can get into the missile silo. That is now our next hurdle to solve."

"What have you done with the nuclear materials?" Hank asked.

"We're storing all of them for now in Stanford. I've created a large impervious container/box that will hold the materials and have subjected that container to multiple tests. It has a solid lead exterior. Inside the lead box, I have inserted another container built of titanium. Inside the titanium container, I have inserted another solid lead container and it is this inner container that holds the nuclear materials. We've tested it out thoroughly. The materials in that inner container cannot be detected by Geiger counter or by X-rays. Even gamma rays, which are most lethal of all rays, cannot penetrate into that container. If these rays can't penetrate in, what's in the containers can't leak out."

"What will you do with the fissionable materials when we're finished collecting them all?" Hank again with the question.

"If we can't find a way to use the materials for the good of mankind, we can fire the containers into the sun. We've been playing with the idea of building a space ship run off nuclear power. Starship Enterprise, and all that."

"I don't expect Winnie's _United Federation of Planets_ would approve of that," Granny frowned.

"Ve are vatching every move you make. Be very carevull!" _[In spite of his logical, scientific approach to life, William had a very good sense of humour.]_

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie stayed behind to help Granny clean up. As soon as that was done, she moved to Doc's recliner. Starting with his feet, she moved her hands slowly up his body. She even squeezed her hands underneath his body. Granny watched uncertain. Doc probably would not have allowed her to do that.

"Doc's feet are cold, Granny. When he naps, does he sleep with his feet on the floor, or on the foot rest?"

"Most of the time on the floor. He doesn't want me fussing around. I'm supposed to leave him alone."

"After he falls asleep, put him into full recline and put a blanket over his legs and feet. His feet are cold because the blood isn't actively circulating. Raising his feet will help. Didn't Akilah tell you about that?"

"He won't let Akilah examine him."

"Well, he can't stop you from making him more comfortable when he's sleeping. Do you have something else to do? I'll be a while."

Granny took the hint. When she was gone, Winnie unbuttoned Doc's shirt, opened it wide, and placed both hands on his heart. When he started to stir hours later, she buttoned him up again and poked her nose into the kitchen.

"He's better now. I can only visit on the weekends. I'll time my visits for when he's likely to fall asleep."

"He doesn't want to fall asleep when you're here."

"I'll read him some excerpts from my company's policy manuals. That'll put anybody to sleep."

"How's your boyfriend?"

"Gotta go, Granny. Thanks for the hot chocolate."

...

_That's too bad about your boy friend. I thought you and Arthur would be good together. Such a nice young fellow. I was surprised how easy it was to read him when we first met. Normally, I can't read young people. It was like he was my age._

### # # # # # # # #

_Joe-Joe, the Duke of Earl has just carried two bulging backpacks into Hell. He hid one of them at the end of the eastern PUS line and the other at the end of the western PUS line. Then he went into the SSS building, presumably to meet with Lord Percy and get permission to extend the retirement program to somewhere else in BC. I didn't follow him in. I'll pick him up again in Port Alberni where the three stooges are staying._

_Thanks, Paula._

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 14

Extract from Maddy's journal for Tuesday, December 11.

Mom dragged me along to the copter pad this morning. Reese was bringing a guest who would stay with us for a couple of weeks. Nobody was sure who the guest was other than her name and gender. Her name was Umkhonto. Akilah was there because Granny thought she would be wearing the Muslim kind of clothing that covered her entire body. Nary was also there because we knew she was black. I was there in case she was young. One of us would give her a guided tour of the camp. They weren't sure where she would stay.

So Reese flew in by plane, helped her out, said a few words to her, and then left. Grandma Yolanda took us over to where she was standing on the copter pad. She was wearing a cammo clothes from feet to her neck. Long sleeves covered her arms but not her hands, which were very black. Her face was completely covered with a very worn out cloth cowl with eye slits. Grandma Yolanda asked her how old she was and she said thirteen. She spoke English with an accent that I had never heard before. Grandma Yolanda introduced her to me and I started on the tour while the others disappeared.

We hadn't gone very far when she stopped and asked a question.

"Where's the ocean?" she asked.

"A long way away," I said.

"Do you have any woods nearby?"

"No. Montana only has wide open spaces," I said.

"Uhm..."

"What?"

"It was a long trip and I have to go," she said and sort of squatted so that I'd know what she meant.

So, that was fine. I took her into the women's dorm and showed her the washroom on the first floor. It had six cubicles and six sinks. "I'll wait outside," I said, thinking that she'd like a little privacy. I know I would.

"Uhm...."

"What?"

"What are these? Where do I go?"

_OMG_ , I thought. I remembered Grandma Yolanda saying that she came from a primitive country in Africa somewhere. Now I knew what _primitive_ meant. I couldn't leave her to figure things out on her own, so I had to show her everything she had to do. I was in my clothes of course but OMG, OMG, OMG. This was officially the most embarrassing five minutes I've ever had in my entire life.

When we resumed our tour, she explained that the women where she came from used the ocean. She'd go into the waves up to her waist, raise her skirt to her waist, and let fly. (She used a different word. Mom says I can't use that word yet. ) If she were working in the fields, she'd just go to the place where they were collecting human _ahem_ for use as fertilizer. She was talking about her little sit down just like you'd talk about the weather, except it wasn't a rain shower she was talking about. I couldn't believe that she talked to me that openly.

_[Narrator: I expect my readers are also experiencing a little OMG as well. To clarify. The ocean is often used by people who don't know about bathrooms. The ocean waves, the currents, and the tides are strong enough to disburse everything safely. Personally, I wouldn't want to be walking in that part of the ocean, but scientists claim that it's perfectly clean if you wait a while. The KwaZulu women would change locations every day. They had been doing that for centuries.]_

_[Way back before they became 'civilized', countries like England had solved the problem of what to do when you had to go. They didn't have bathrooms, nor did they have out-houses. Back then, most of the people were peasants, meaning they were farmers. The men, women and children deposited their ahem in a certain spot somewhere in the yard, collected it, and then used it for fertilizer. They didn't cover up or anything. They didn't think anything of it. And, they didn't get sick from this particular behaviour.]_

So, I finished the tour and met up with the others in the mess hall. Grandma wanted to supervise what Umkhonto had to eat as she was not used to our food. I learned that she had been living on fish and oatmeal her entire life. Umkhonto ate everything that Grandma put on her plate except for the broccoli, which I applauded secretly. I hate that stuff. We talked a bit but Umkhonto just listened. In a break in the conversation, she asked if she would be sleeping here, meaning the mess hall. So, I showed her the bedroom in the Valkyries building where she would be sleeping. She didn't know what the bed was for, or the covers, or the pillow, or the light switch, so I messaged Mom that I'd stay with Umkhonto overnight in the other bed to make sure she wouldn't be alone if she woke up in the middle of the night.

### # # # # # # # #

Tuesday, December 12. Maddy's words again.

Apparently, Umkhonto was used to waking up at dawn whether she could see the sun rise or not. I felt her eyes on me. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed staring at me.

"You have nice colours," she said as I squeezed one lid up. "Will we be working in the fields today. Where are your fields?"

I didn't catch the reference to colours; I was too busy looking at her body. I had thought that she was shy and couldn't expose her body to anybody. So, I had turned the lights off when we went to bed and I had undressed in the dark. I didn't have my jammies, so I slept in my underwear. She had done the same thing. There she was sitting on the bed. No head covering. No long skirt. Just shorts and a t-shirt, and a whole lot of muscles.

I asked if she felt uncomfortable being with me in our underclothes. Liset and I weren't shy about it, but I thought that she might be.

"I only cover my body up when men might see me. If they saw me like this, they could rape me and they wouldn't be punished."

She spoke very naturally about rape, which I knew about, but had never discussed with anybody except Mac who had given me my sex talk. I asked her why they wouldn't be punished. That's when I learned about the rules that she had to live under. I also learned that she had killed five men and how she had done that. I also learned that she planned to kill many more men once Reese figured out how to do that.

I didn't know what to say. I was horrified about the cutting off the tongue rule if she dared to speak to a man. I was even more horrified when she talked about the part where she would have many unwanted sexual partners if she disobeyed a man. Incidentally, she used the same four-letter word that we use to talk about men and women and what they do in the dark. I'm not allowed to use that word yet. I didn't know what to say. So, I said the first thing that came into my mind. "I'll help you kill them."

### # # # # # # # #

Saturday, December 15: Maddy's words again.

I woke at dawn as was now usual. Umkhonto was sitting on her bed in her cadet shorts and t-shirt that I had ordered from the storeroom yesterday. I had also requisitioned a pair of cadet boots. Umkhonto was now an official guest of the cadet corp and she was going to participate in all of our classes and drills. Up to now, she had been attending only our classes. She and I were assigned permanently to the room in the Valkyries' dorm. I had asked Mom if I could stay in the same room with her and help. Mom had agreed. This got me out of babysitting chores, which was a bonus.

"Are you sure no man will see me like this?" Umkhonto asked and pointed at her bare legs and arms. She had been attending classes in her blacks and her cowl.

"Nobody else in their right mind gets up this early."

"But you do."

"If you want to beat a man, you have to work harder than him." I had heard my mom tell me that whenever I got a little lazy on my running. I didn't mind passing it on. I was actually looking forward to have a running partner. I had gone to Mom a few months ago to complain that our PT runs weren't challenging enough. When would a cadet ever have to run around in a circle with an enemy? Shouldn't we be running on the type of terrain that we'd be expected to cover in real life?

Mom had brushed me off. "Take it up the normal channels. Don't complain to me."

So I talked with Major Vincent and he agreed that running in circles was not realistic. "How far do you think we should go, Cadet Maddy," he had asked. I was beating all the guys by now cause I trained over longer distances, so I said _thirty minutes_ which was twice as long as we were doing now.

"Done," he said. "Fifteen minutes out and fifteen minutes back. You pick out some different routes and that'll keep it interesting."

"If we get good at this, we could always run for forty minutes."

"Yes, I had thought the same."

So, I had picked out some routes. The guys didn't appreciate having to run longer and so faked trying. Major Vincent changed their minds. He went back to the three lap training but with one change. He gave me a Taser. I started twenty seconds after the boys but I could Taser anybody I passed. I got'em all on that first run. He asked the boys, "What if she had been an enemy and was carrying a gun or a knife?" We went back to the longer run and they didn't fake trying after that.

We were now running forty minutes out and back. So, I continued to run longer routes on the weekends so that I could keep beating them. I thought that we'd take it easy today so that Umkhonto would break into the training gradually. Her running was all wrong. She raised her knees way too high and that used up all of her energy. She said that she had never run before which surprised me until she told me what she was doing as a little kid. Driving a water buffalo plow and throwing hay bales around. I showed her how to run with a longer stride and lean into the hills. She was way taller than me so she needed to learn how to do that. She improved quickly.

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie's words: Saturday, December 15:

I stayed in Heaven today even though I had permanent permission to take the weekends off. My body was pretty beat up and I wanted to give the bruises a chance to fade. Lillian had changed my workouts on Monday. Gone were the fencing drills and gone were the gymnastic drills. I wasn't great at either of them yet, but I was holding my own with Martha for about twenty seconds. She recognized me now and was always waiting for me in the gym with a smile.

The gymnastics was coming along too. I had graduated to a trampoline where I had to contort my body into spins and rolls. I sucked big time in my human body, but I was better when I was in my feathers. I think that was because I could get more height off the tramp and have more time and space to complete the routine I was supposed to complete. That was last week.

This week I arrived to find that I would be using my foil while I was bouncing on the tramp. And waiting for me was Martha. Lillian was there too to show me what she expected. For the demo, Martha put on some padding and hovered in the air over the tramp. Lillian bounced high enough on the tramp to touch the ceiling and then attacked Martha on the way down. As she came down, she was twirling, spinning, and summersaulting until suddenly she struck at Martha and then spun away and landed safely on the gym floor.

"We didn't have tramps back then," Lillian said. "We practiced in the open field with dummy devil bodies that other girls in the class would hover in. We'll do open air drills later if you manage to survive this. Mis-time a roll or a spin and you will hit the floor hard. You're working on the tramp because your leg muscles are still far too weak to handle combat."

I already knew about my leg muscles. I looked down at floor and understood now why the gymnastic floor pads were all around the tramp. Lillian left and Martha hovered. I flailed away as I descended, barely coming near her on my way down. Summersaults were easier because I could stay on the same line of attack. But rolls took me off the line of attack, so I had to start in a different location and then control how tightly I had to spin in order to come near her. All of this was in an angelic body, by the way.

I could barely move that first night. I had to sail the ship into permanent sunlight and sleep in a hammock on the ship's deck to get enough healing to climb out of the hammock the next morning. There's nothing like pancaking face down on a gym mat to learn when you have to start a spin. Next week, I have to add cartwheels, which I barely know how to do. The following week, Martha will change location as I'm spiraling down. I'm loving this.

I stayed in Heaven this Saturday for another reason too. I knew Lillian had a camera hidden somewhere in Doc and Granny's house. It should be relatively easy to hack into Heaven's database and find it.

Hacking in wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. There must be somebody new on the paradise.net defense team. Still, I was able to set up a computer screen in the ship that'll give me a view of Doc's recliner 24 hours a day. I can browse quickly through that each night and calculate how much he's napping. I think I know what's wrong. So long as his naps don't get longer and longer, he should be OK.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 15

Monday, December 18: Maddy's words:

Reese mind-messaged me today to ask how Umkhonto was doing. I guess he had talked with Granny first and she had told him I was living in the dorms with her. I told him everything that had been happening. I also told him that Umkhonto had been asking about him. _When was Reese coming to camp to take her back home?_ _What colours had he found on the men?_

I couldn't answer the first question and I didn't understand the second. I told Reese that and he didn't say anything for a bit.

"You'll have to keep a big secret. Can you do that, Maddy?"

"Yeah, sure." I was pretty good at keeping secrets. I had one with Liset that was a real hoot.

So he told me about what he did for the Wilizy when we had operations and how he had been spending a lot of time trying to improve at it. I had always liked Reese ever since he had been my daddy back when I joined the family. _[#6: Bite Me!]_ But I had never seen him doing anything when we had operations. Now that I knew he had this super secret magical power, I was impressed. I asked a bunch of questions and he answered them all like I was an adult and not a kid.

Reese also told me that Umkhonto had the same powers to read people's colours and she was better at it than he was. Now I knew what she had meant when she told me I had nice colours. I was kinda jealous that both Reese and Umkhonto had magic powers, and I didn't. But my moms tell me that I have powers too but just don't know it yet. So, I wasn't all that jealous.

So, I told Umkhonto that Reese had found five men with very bad colours and he didn't know when he'd be coming back to Montana yet. I also told her that she shouldn't be talking about being able to read colours with other people and she agreed. Since we now had a sister-sister secret, she told me another secret. Her name meant that she was a spear wielding Zulu warrior. She would be killing the really bad men with her spear. She said that Reese hadn't liked the idea of her killing the men but she was going to ignore him and do it anyway. She said something about killing flies that I didn't understand. I told her that I liked her name but I thought that Honto would be easier to remember. She liked that name, so now I'll introduce her to the cadets as Honto.

### # # # # # # # #

Wednesday, December 20: Maddy's words

Honto was still covering herself up totally whenever we were outside the dorm. Inside the dorm, she walked around in her underwear if she felt like it. All the Valkyries did the same. It was not unusual to see one of them walking down the hall after a shower drying her hair with a towel and not wearing anything at all. I wasn't going to do that, and Honto wasn't either, but we all agreed that walking around without heavy boots and bulky winter clothing was a welcome relief.

I still did not understand why she would walk around semi-clothed in the dorm, but go to great lengths to cover every bit of skin that she could cover when we went outside. I know that she had been forced to cover up completely by her government, but she was in Montana now.

I pressed her on it. "Why do you have to cover every inch of your skin? You know these guys won't attack you."

"There's no harm in being modest in front of men," she said.

"Let's go to the practice gym and I'll show you some harm from being modest," I shot back.

The practice gym was where they guys received hand-to-hand combat training. Momaka trained me twice a week in hand-to-hand combat because I was too small to take on the guys right now. But I did learn some pretty good moves. I gave her a short Taekwondo stick and said, "Pretend this is your spear. I'm a guy. Kill me."

When she did her lunge, I brushed the stick aside, stepped inside it, closed quickly on her, and put her down on the mat with a back heel trip. I grabbed her loose clothing and heaved her off the mat two handed.

"Try that again," she said.

I did, but when I closed on her, I pulled her head covering off, grabbed her hair, pulled her to the mat, and put my knee on her throat. "You're dead. You can't give an enemy anything he can grab. Your hair and your clothes will get you killed."

The next day, Honto was dressed exactly as I was and never covered herself up again when she was in Montana. She had even gone to Sven, our barber, and he gave her a short hairdo exactly like mine. Except for the colour of our skin, and her teenage body, we were twins. From now on, Momaka will be teaching both of us martial arts twice a week.

### # # # # # # # #

Friday, December 22: Maddy's words

Doc will give Honto a brain plug tomorrow before the cadets go on our Christmas holiday trip. She knows what he is going to do and that it won't hurt much. But she didn't know why Doc was giving her one.

I showed her mine and told her that she'd be the only one in her whole country who would have a brain plug, so she brightened up at that. I promised to help her learn how to use it in the evenings.

Then I went to Doc and told him what I had said and he said that I was a good friend for offering to do that. I didn't tell him that we were sisters and not friends because he didn't need to know. People with secrets can use 'need to know' as an excuse to keep the secret a secret.

I really went to Doc to tell him that I was passing messages back and forth between Reese and Honto by pretending that he and I were talking by short wave radios, which are a kind of communication thing that the people in KwaZulu used. Reese told me that this was OK to do. I asked Doc if he could put something in Honto's brain plug so that she could talk with Reese. She's always asking about him and I don't know what to say other than he was finding more men with bad colours. Reese asks about her too and I tell him what's new but I thought they should ask each other their own questions. Doc said that he'd think about it.

### # # # # # # # #

Sunday, December 24: Winnie's words:

The camp was empty when I dropped in for my Sunday meeting with Doc and Granny. They had decided to stay home this Christmas and have a quiet celebration. She said that she found it tiring to be around all the cadets during Christmas, but I knew she was lying about that. She knew that I knew. Doc was there listening so I figured he put her up to it. He was the one who didn't want to go. I understand why. I'll learn how to make a nice Christmas meal, which is something I'll enjoy. Granny's Christmas dinners when we lived in the Aboriginal Nation were always great.

I'll stay with them until the cadets come back and the mess hall opens up again. I can help with the meals and give Doc some daily treatments. I know that Granny will pry into Arthur and me, but I don't mind. I've made up my mind about the size of the family that I want. Two boys and two girls sound good. I checked into the sperm bank that Mom talked about. Initially, I had thought it was something that bankers did to get more profits. The idea of them doing that almost made me hurl. But, bankers aren't involved. I don't want some guy I don't love helping me make babies even if it's done without having sex together. My kids would be half a stranger! I'm only fifteen. I have lots of time to find a husband.

I checked out Doc when he was napping today. He's stable. It was kind of awkward putting both hands inside his shirt while he was in the recliner, so I had to squat beside the chair to do that. He napped for a couple of hours and I just put my brain in neutral. Granny asked how I was able to squat motionless for so long without my legs crying out for mercy. I told her that I had been working out, but left it at that. I guess I'm making progress after all on my leg strength. This last week of flying attack workouts has been very depressing. I'm going to ask if I can have a smaller angel body. Joe-Joe gave me a regular sized angel body but I can't control it the way I should.

When we were preparing Christmas dinner, Granny told me that Doc had installed a brain plug into a 13-year girl named Honto that had never had one before. His hand was steady the whole time, but he had to sit. She only received a brain plug; she didn't get anything else on it. The executive will meet later and decide whether to give her some communications at least. Apparently, she wants to talk with Reese who was the one who discovered her.

Well that opened the topic up and Granny was quite willing to talk. I didn't pry although I did feel good that Honto was anxious to talk with Reese. I'm trying real hard to stay out of Reese's life.

### # # # # # # # #

"My daughters have invited me to be with them for their Christmas holidays. The cadets are going to Scotland and then to Switzerland. I said that I would meet them at the cadet camp tomorrow. You'll have to watch the devils while I'm away, Arthur."

"They probably won't do anything different, Paula."

"We can't be sure. You have to watch them, Arthur. No more lying around. It's time you contributed to the team."

...

"Aren't you going to say anything? I'm not putting up with you like this any longer. Do your job."

...

"Strong and silent doesn't work with me. Clean yourself up. You're an embarrassment."

...

"I know you were dumped. That happens. Get over it."

...

"Are you even listening to me?"

...

"Did you read the announcement from Lillian? She wants us to come to a briefing the first week of the 2092. She didn't say why. Details will follow."

"Probably about the duke."

"Meghan was invited too. She's not involved in that operation. It's gotta be something bigger."

...

"Nothing to say? Did you know that Winnie was invited too? Do you really want her to see you in this condition?"

...

"If she sees you like this, she'll know that she made the right decision. You'll have zero chance of her ever changing her mind."

"Did she say that she might change her mind?"

"I haven't had any communications with her at all."

...

"I'm fed up with you. Why don't you research the three stooges while I'm gone? Lose some weight. Bathe! Everywhere you go, you drop cheesie crumbs behind you."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 16

The Wilizy Christmas holiday followed the pattern of previous trips to foreign lands. This time, they spent two days and nights in Scotland and the final day back in Switzerland. This year, the Valkyries joined them and that could have made for some very big groups. But, they were left on their own to entertain themselves. Some went sightseeing either on their own or with the cadets, some went shopping, and all of them sampled the nightlife wherever they happened to be. The only stipulation was that they had to be on the jumbos when it was time to relocate.

For the cadets, they were based in Edinburgh for the two days, but did move around a lot. On the agenda were tours of several historic castles, an audio visual lecture by a historian on warfare in the 14th century, and two tours through wealthy estate homes and grounds that had been preserved as they had existed at the height of their opulence. They also visited a peasant village as it had existed before the industrial revolution. Accommodations at that time consisted of sod houses, which Honto found very interesting. "These are way better than what we have in KwaZulu," she commented to Maddy. Lohla, the chaperone for the two girls at the time, overheard the comment and asked a few questions. She learned that Honto had been very skilled in scraping out a shallow hole in the prairie with shells and sleeping in it with her family whenever it was dry enough.

The cadets also visited a historic building in Glasgow. This had been a tenement building that had been built to accommodate peasants who had been driven off their land by wealthy landowners (during _the Clearances_ ) so that they could convert their land to sheep farming. The cadets got to see how families of up to eight people would live in a two room apartment. They were all duly impressed with the bathroom facilities which consisted of an early porcelain toilet sitting out in the open on an exterior set of stairs that climbed up the building that people would pass by as they left or returned home. They all noted that there was no plumbing connecting the toilet to any other pipes. They thought that such pipes had been removed. One of the instructors delicately explained that there were no pipes back then which meant that you had to be very careful when you walked along Glasgow's streets and alleys.

Lylah would use these discoveries in science class later to talk about health back then and how the lack of sanitation had led to numerous epidemics and loss of life. She would underscore how farmers who had lived healthy lives on the farm where they collected their sewage had been forced to live in a city where they had to work in factories and dodge sewage as they walked home. Wealthy people, on the other hand, lived very well, thank you very much. This also would become a topic of discussion in social studies classes when Lylah would talk about the huge discrepancy between the wealthy and the common people in the early 21st century. That gap between the 1% and the 99% had ultimately led to riots and mass killings of the wealthy (such as bankers, politicians, lawyers) back in _The Troubles_. This excursion had been planned specifically so that the instructors could start to make the cadets aware that even now, everyday people could face injustice. Somebody should do something about that.

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie's words:

The cadets are back although they aren't in classes. They have free time, which right now means a lot of trampoline work. They've been told that if they behave, the instructors will bring out the jet packs, take them up to 1000 feet, and let them try to land on targets. They've been acting like little angels, and believe me, I know how angels act.

I was curious to see Honto so I timed my breakfast on December 28 to coincide with the cadets. She was easy to spot, being one of two girls sitting in cadet uniforms. She's very black, much like Nary, and very muscular too. Again, like Nary. Nary has a hidden panther; this girl looks to have something hidden inside of her too if Granny's information is right.

Maddy and Honto sat by themselves at a table and began conspiring. I assume they were planning something because their heads were together and they were giggling a lot. Reese came over and sat across from them and the giggling stopped, like instantly. Honto began talking with Reese and Reese was talking back. I saw Maddy looking at both of them and saying nothing. For lunch, she sat with the cadets. Honto sat alone for about thirty seconds and then Reese got up and shifted to her table and they stayed until lunch was over. The executive is having a meeting tomorrow and they'll decide what to do about her and the country she lives in. I'll have a little chat with Reese soon.

### # # # # # # # #

"Hey, Reese. Did you go on the cadet holiday?"

"No. I've been doing some research."

"About what?"

"A prison in a country called KwaZulu."

"Africa?"

"Yeah."

"Learn anything interesting?"

"I always learn something when I explore prisons."

"I've learned something too."

"What?"

"I've learned that you can't trust certain people even if they don't lie."

"Certain people?"

"Do you remember the guy that I was hanging around with? Arthur? I told my boss that I didn't want to be teamed with him any more."

"What happened?"

"He's a slob. I'm sort of a neat freak."

"No _sort of_ about that. You are a neat freak."

"Yeah, I am. Plus, he's a major disappointment."

"How so?"

"I slipped a few questions into a nothing conversation and asked him what he wanted to do in his life and whether or not he'd want a family. He doesn't want a family. He's a loner. Always has been and always will be. That's no future for me. I told you about what I wanted in a guy, right?"

"Yeah. Big family."

"Didn't you have worries about Arthur's colours? They were too pale or something? Anyway, I'm done with him. You were right. He wasn't the guy for me. I dumped him. I'm going to believe your colour analyses from now on."

"Actually, about those people that didn't have auras? I was wrong about that. I don't know what I was thinking. There's no such thing as people without an aura. I believe I was looking at them in the sunlight. The very light colours can disappear a bit if you do that."

"So, we don't have extraterrestrials circling the world?"

"Definitely not. That's crazy stupid stuff. You know how I loved Star Trek when I was little?"

"Yeah, all you guys did. You must have taken longer to see how unlikely that was."

"Yeah. I definitely don't believe in it now. No Sirree."

"Now that we've both regained our sanity, did that Zulu prison research help you at all?"

"I found somebody who can read auras. She's the girl who is chumming around with Maddy. We brought her back to camp where she'd be safe."

"We brought her back? She'd be safe?"

_[Once Reese starts talking.....]_

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# Chapter 17

The executive meeting started at 9:00 am Saturday morning. The suspicious minds among you may think that the early start was to accommodate Doc and his nap. You'd be right. Sensing that this operation, if it went ahead, would be complicated, Granny invited Melissa, Mac, Stu and Winnie to sit in.

With four new members now involved in this initial planning meeting, Reese started the meeting by bringing everybody up to speed on the KwaZulu's laws. He also told them about Umkhonto, including the fact that she could read colours and had used those colours to identify and kill five men with a spear. He also told them that she also knows how to tell if somebody is telling the truth because the location and composition of colours will change from one day to the next. You may assume that everybody in the meeting now knows what my readers have learned so far.

"I know there's something wrong here," Reese concluded. "Doc thinks so too. The government is acting very stupidly about how they use their natural resources."

"Natural resources like what?" Melissa asked.

"Like their land. They could be growing food that would bring higher revenue and would be healthier for their people. These people are dying from malnutrition, especially the men because they're drunk all the time. But the government doesn't care."

"What other resources are they misusing?" Stu pursued.

"Their people. The men could be doing a lot more but they aren't. The women are doing all the work and are exhausted all the time."

"What about the children?" Mac this time.

"The girls are getting an education in the evenings, but they don't have a chance to use it. Their work is all physical. The boys go into the army at about six years of age are discharged at about 30 years old which would mean about 25 years of service."

"I have found at least twelve men in KwaZulu who have very bad colours. These men are part of the government or the government's security/military system. They were rich in comparison to the people of KwaZulu, but I had found no exorbitant spending. They used governmental choppers. They lived in comfortable homes and had food that the government imported for the military and senior executives in government."

"I know that these dark coloured men visit the local towns and meet in the pubs with the men from the village. I saw nothing in the behaviour of the villager men or the visiting men that would suggest that these were anything other than friendly visits. They didn't visit the women because, of course, they were banned from doing that by the country's laws."

"After I had identified the worst men, I went looking for the country's army. I made this a priority because I couldn't see why KwaZulu would need an army to protect its people and land. The country has nothing that an invading army would want. They are struggling just to feed their own people. Why would another country want to conquer it?"

"I thought the search would be easy. I flew over the country at altitude looking for an installation of buildings that might house the soldiers. There aren't a lot of buildings in KwaZulu, especially away from the larger towns. I couldn't find the base. I thought they might be hidden in camouflaged buildings in the jungle. Heat scans showed nothing. I used a grid search at low altitude without success. That left the possibility of them being in a military outpost outside the country, which didn't make sense, but I knew there were hundreds of KwaZulu men and boys alive somewhere. I found them in a country called Lesotho that is about twenty miles southeast from them. The country is in a high altitude region. KwaZulu is flat land."

"They're guarding their country by living in another country?" Doc asked incredulously.

"No. They're working in a gold mine in Lesotho's mountains. The men and boys are miners. They are not army. They wouldn't know one end of a gun from another. They go deep into a mountain and they use shovels and picks to find gold. When they come out of the mine, they are searched. They live in a small camp and are free to drink beer each night."

"Who owns that mine?"

"I don't know. The mine is in Lesotho territory, so you'd think it would be owned by Lesotho. But I suspect that the Lesotho government doesn't know or care what's happening in its mountains. I saw a KwaZulu government official and a KwaZulu security official come into camp and meet with the mine people. They also had private conversations with each other. They spoke Zulu and I couldn't understand what they were saying. These people are among the same ones that I identified as having dark auras."

"I saw no signs that the KwaZulu men had been mistreated. They certainly were not guarded. There were some KwaZulu security men staying at the camp. They weren't there to imprison the miners. They all drank together in the evenings. I believe they may have been at the mine in case somebody from Lesotho stumbled on the camp. They would make periodic copter sweeps during the day."

"Somebody is making money off this," Granny said. "The KwaZulu government is corrupt. We need more research."

"Granny, I have more research but I can't understand it. I taped everything I heard, but it's all in Zulu. Honto can translate these tapes for me, but I didn't know if you wanted me to bring her into this operation."

"We can't send her back to KwaZulu," Winnie responded quickly. "That would be a death sentence for her."

"Honto is determined to kill as many of these dark aura men as possible. She says that the gods have put her here in this camp so that she can kill these men."

"Her direct words, Reese?"

"Yeah, Dad. I talked with her before coming to this meeting. Simply as part of my research," he added quickly.

"We learned about what's happening in KwaZulu because of her. She should be involved in whatever we do there," Winnie said.

"Killing people?" Stu asked.

"Right now, all we know is that we need more research. She should be involved in that," Granny said.

"And after that?" Winnie asked. "What if we don't get involved?"

"Let's find out what Stanley thinks about Honto. She's been training with the cadets, hasn't she?"

"I'll take care of that," Mac said.

Granny ended the meeting with these instructions. "Go ahead and have her translate your tapes, Reese. Winnie, you seem to be interested in her, so you should be part of that. We need to know more about this girl, so have a chat with her. Also Reese, we want Honto to record a description of her life in KwaZulu and what it was like. We may be able to use a document like that at some point. Let's meet again tomorrow, same time."

### # # # # # # # #

It was now tomorrow, same time and the same people were present.

Granny opened the meeting. "What do we know that we didn't know yesterday, Reese?"

"We know a lot more, Granny. Winnie and I have put together a picture, which we believe is accurate but we can't prove all the little details yet. Government security forces go around the country once a year and collect boys who are six years old or will be six years old that year. They are coptered to the mine. At the mine, they are told that they will have a great opportunity for a wonderful life if they agree to work in the gold mine for twenty years. After hearing the pitch, they all sign up. Essentially, they receive free food and beer while they are miners. But, it's the retirement bonuses that pull them in: no work for the rest of their lives; as much beer to drink as they want for the rest of their lives; as much sex as they want whenever they want it with a woman of their choice who will be their wife. The wife must obey him and she cannot talk in his presence. All of this is contingent on the men not revealing anything about the mining job."

"The women are forced into a marriage?" Granny asked.

"Yes. This is something that Honto did not know. Her mother never spoke of how she was married against her will."

"Those government laws were made deliberately to tempt the men into mining gold. Those laws make sense now," Doc said.

"Are there any legal formalities?" Stu asked.

"They sign a contract, but none of the boys can read. They put their X on a line on a piece of paper. The security man witnesses it. Unlike the women who are literate, the men of this country cannot read, write, or calculate."

"The contract is legal," Stu said. "Somebody went to the trouble to make it so."

"Any idea who is making money off this, Reese?"

"Yes, I do."

### # # # # # # # #

"Reese, Does Honto understand the implications of what she translated?"

"She doesn't really care why the evil people she has identified are evil, Granny. She just wants to kill them."

"But, we know what they're doing," Granny said.

"You'll never be able to use that information in a court," Stu cautioned. "The government and security officials are operating together under a legal agreement. The men are mining under a legal contract. The women live under KwaZulu laws that have been properly passed and put into force by the government and its legal security forces. We can't bring people to justice when they are operating legally within their justice system, such as it is."

### # # # # # # # #

The discussion that followed was becoming rancorous. Granny, Yolanda, Mac and Melissa remembered how they wanted to change how Scandinavia treated its Muslim population and were barred from doing so. _[#11: Trial by Nick]_ That debate had split along gender lines. Essentially, the Wilizy men didn't think that they should interfere with the domestic policies of the Scandinavian population, no matter how prejudicial they were to women. This debate about KwaZulu was heading in the same direction. Stu had stated clearly that anything that the Wilizy did in KwaZulu would be illegal. Hank backed him up and so did Doc. None of the men liked what the government was doing, but their actions were legal. Granny steered the discussion away.

"What did Stanley say about Honto, Mac?"

"She tries hard in whatever she does. She has limited academic skills right now and those are currently holding her back in the classroom. Stanley believes that Maddy is helping her after school. Stanley didn't know what her capacity to learn was. She might be able to catch up quickly; she might not. In terms of military skills, she'd be extremely dangerous in armed conflict because she is fearless and she has great strength. She has fit in well with the cadets and can carry her share of the load. In that regard, she is Maddy in a black body. The two of them would make a good team. Stanley said that he would take her into the cadet corp in a heart beat."

"Winnie, you've met with her. What do you think?"

"She tells the truth. She is very blunt in what she intends to do, and that is, go back to KwaZulu and kill all the men with black auras. She claims that the Zulu gods put her together with Reese and then brought her to Montana so that she'd be able to do that. She is being truthful when she makes that claim. She will do this on her own if we don't help and she is confident that she'll be successful. She changed her name to Umkhonto because she believes killing those men is her role in life."

"Umkhonto?" Melissa asked.

"Zulu for _Spear_ ," Reese explained. "She killed those other men I told you about with a spear."

"Maddy was the one who gave her the Honto nickname," Mac added. "It was also Maddy who got her away from wearing her tribal clothes."

"Why does she believe that she could be successful on her own?" Doc asked.

"I know that," Reese answered. "Winnie, did you and Granny do something in India with cement?"

"Yes. Why?"

Reese continued. "Honto read a news article that described how women were banding together to prevent gang rapes in India. They made the would-be rapists wear concrete underwear. Those women wore green and white colours to identify themselves and warn the men that they were watching. Apparently, gang rapes are disappearing in India now. She said that if one young girl could change a country, she could too."

_[There'll be a short pause in the action while the Wilizy react to this news.]_

_..._

Granny brought them back to the issue at hand.

"What should we do about the KwaZulu government/military and how they treat their women?"

"What should we do about the KwaZulu government/military and how they treat their citizens?" Doc corrected. "They're not doing their men any favours."

"I like that question better," Stu said.

"Mac and I have a way to answer that question," Melissa said.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 18

Monday, December 31, 2091: Winnie's words.

Lillian said that she would go easy on me, what with all the turkey I must have eaten over the holidays. I asked if Martha was all right and she looked sharply at me.

"Have you been snooping on her? I know that you hacked into a computer that you weren't supposed to be in."

"I needed to set up a live camera feed on Doc's recliner. He's not doing very well."

"It doesn't do the morale of the security services any good having you wandering around looking through locked camera files. They think that Hell is probing our electronic defenses."

"How is that a bad thing?"

"Martha is off-limits to you."

"OK. I was curious about why she wasn't here. Now, you put her off limits, so now I'm more curious."

"She's had a relapse."

"Anything I can do? I like Martha."

Lillian didn't answer right away.

"Perhaps. I'll have to check with the medical staff. Meantime, Joe-Joe is here to check on your progress."

A honking big devil appeared at that point. It was carrying a foil in its right hand and a wicked looking knife in its left hand. "Devils usually are right handed," she explained. "If they're going into battle, their other hand won't be empty. You will have a buckler shield to protect your flank. I'm also upgrading your hilt to give you hand protection from an attack designed to sever a finger. You will need to learn how to fight with either hand. Your opponent likely will change hands if he sees that one of your wrists is weaker than the other."

"Joe-Joe, you're looking quite handsome today."

"Thank you, I think."

"Both of you are carrying lethal weapons. Both of you will have electronic envelopes that will prevent serious injury, but you will feel a painful zap if he connects with your envelope."

"Joe-Joe will too, right?"

"Dreamer," he said.

"You will be working outside."

At that point, I noticed that we were standing outside on a grassy meadow.

"You will practice your _attack from altitude_ skills."

"I thought I had several more weeks with Martha starting to be a moving target next week."

"We've decided to accelerate your challenges with Martha unable to help now."

Joe-Joe added some advice. "Start with what you know. If your timing on a spin is off, the ground you land on will be spongy but you'll feel it. Don't even try your cartwheel. Lillian and I will give you a short demonstration of what you want to be doing soon."

### # # # # # # # #

"I have no idea what to do with my defensive hand, Lillian."

"Keep it in tight to your body in all your maneuvering as you attack. You will find that your hand holding the buckler will react instinctively."

"You switched hands as you were spinning."

"I did. That meant that my foil was going up against Joe-Joe's knife. He couldn't react fast enough. That's why you always keep your hands in tight to your body as you attack. It will help you spin and dive faster too."

"I gave you the smaller body that you were going to ask me for."

"Thank you, I think. A question, not a complaint. Why am I not learning how to use the new descaling weapons that you gave me? That would give me two attack lanes, one from high and the other from low."

Joe-Joe responded. "Those weapons are highly secret. We let you use them in a one-on-one battle with nobody there to witness what you had and the victim was not going to survive to talk. If you're in a public battle, you are not to use the descalers unless it's a life or death situation. Try and lure you opponent into a private battle instead. Then you may use the descalers provided that your opponent dies."

"I'll be in battles where my opponent dies?"

"Yes," Lillian responded." Assuming that you survive the training. Is that a problem for you? Just imagine that the devil is trying to kill a member of your family Doc, perhaps. Your mother."

"That would be an incentive."

"You mentioned that Doc wasn't doing well. What's the matter with him?"

"His heart is shot. I can't do anything other than help him relax. He knows he's dying. He sleeps a lot. Can we get back to Joe-Joe beating up on me? I don't want to talk about Doc."

### # # # # # # # #

Once again, I had the Wilizy/America flying in Heaven's high altitude Monday evening. Every pore on my body ached. Even my hair ached and that's quite a feat considering it has no pain receptacles. Joe-Joe was very nice about it, but he kept me going all day. I got the impression that he had no choice about that. Perhaps I'll find out why he's rushing me in tomorrow morning's meeting about the Duke of Earl operation.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 19

Lillian's first meeting of 2092 started like her normal operational meeting. Paula and Arthur were present as was Joe-Joe, of course. Winnie had been invited even though she wasn't officially on their current operation. Meghan showed up as well, which was a surprise. It had been a surprise for her too. Lillian started the meeting by asking for the status of the Duke of Earl operation. "Meghan knows the rough outlines of the operation. I've told her to ask questions if there's something that she doesn't understand."

Arthur and Paula exchanged a glance and then Arthur began speaking. "The duke has taken approximately fifty shoulder demons by backpack into hell and has hidden them at the ends of two PUS lines. He was supposed to liquidate those demons, but he didn't. He makes solo trip to Hell from time to time. When he is on Earth, he is accompanied by three devils that we have nicknamed the three stooges, because they are so dumb."

"Larry, Mo, and Curly?" Meghan asked.

"We didn't give them any names."

"The Three Stooges were an actual comedy group way back when," Meghan explained. "Those were their given names. Slap stick humour. Pie in the face kind of thing. Rat loved them."

"I've been watching them in off hours when they're not stopping shoulder demons from escaping. I've planted a few seeds and I can influence their behavior when we need to. Paula, why don't you describe what the duke is doing with the shoulder demons?"

"He's killing most of the shoulder demons by having other shoulder demons attack them with miniature foils that look an awful lot like sewing needles. He considers himself as a royal personage complete with costume and a foil. He gives the demons a brief lesson on how to use a foil and then waits for the best demons to kill the others. He's hiding the survivors in Hell but we're unclear on his exact purpose right now."

"Usually, we have to deal with threats to mortals," Lillian stepped in. "We've never had to deal with a devil who is threatening the relationship that we currently have with Hell. Joe-Joe will explain."

"It's clear that the duke is planning to create a military force out of the shoulder demons. Remember that no weapons are allowed in Hell except for what the con&stab-ulary wield. The duke is apparently allowed to carry a foil, but that's pushing the boundaries. If the duke succeeds in creating a secret military force, it will be a huge threat to the established order. Hell has nothing that could counter that force. Hell's internal security is dependent on their pervasive security cameras and the visible presence of members of Satan's SSS. In SinSin-atti, that might mean five elite SSS devils. They also have the con&stab-ulary but these are low ability devils who have no military training and are essentially incompetent and crooked police. In SinSin-atti, Satan might be able to pull together ten or fifteen con&stab-ulary police in an emergency."

"Joe-Joe, are you talking about an internal coup?"

"Yes, Meghan, I am. It would be difficult for the duke to be able to defeat Satan who has powers that they could not withstand. But his army of demons could cause havoc throughout Hell by attacking wherever the defensive forces aren't. With that capability, the duke could influence Satan to make decisions that would be personally beneficial to the Duke of Earl. And that's the best case scenario."

"Tell them what's worse, Joe-Joe," Lillian said.

"Hell uses machines inside their Personnel Cavern to convert demons to devils. It's a reasonably quick process. The duke could use his army to attack the Personnel Cavern and put his demons through the converters. More likely, he would steal one or more machines. If he took those machines into the depths of Hell where the shoulder demons had been stashed, he'd soon have a thousand or more foil wielding devils that could effectively attack Hell's institutions, buildings, and infrastructure. The security forces don't have the numbers to stop them. Satan has some personal power that he could use, but if the duke dispersed his forces, Satan would have difficulty killing them all."

Meghan used the gap in the conversation to add a personal experience. "When I was in the Personnel Cavern getting converted from apprentice demon to devil, I noticed at least six other machines in the same room as I was. They might have others elsewhere. The duke wouldn't have to steal the machines. All he'd have to do is bribe somebody in Personnel, which would be very easy. Bribery is not a crime in Hell. Nobody would think twice about a conversion machine that had been sent out for repair and hadn't been returned yet.

"Do you have eyes and ears in the Personnel Cavern, Meghan?" Winnie asked.

"Yes, but my friend has access to the cavern's paperwork only. Any paperwork about the machines would surely be fudged if the duke were bribing somebody. I could have him watch the machines directly and report back if one or more disappeared. We wouldn't be able to determine if the paperwork were legit or not."

"But, we would know if the machines were being used to convert demons to devils if we had people embedded within the duke's forces," Winnie said. "Arthur and Paula have been passive watchers for now. I think they should infiltrate the Duke's staff so that we are directly connected to them. Arthur, Paula and Megan should become Larry, Mo and Curly. Or, they have to become Larry, Mo and Curly's replacements. Arthur could handle that."

"Can you Arthur?" Joe-Joe asked.

"Yeah. Replacing them would be better because we can't influence the duke if we are imbeciles."

"Meghan, can this work?"

"It'll work, but all this will do is give us a warning of the duke' plans. We wouldn't be able to stop him from converting his demons. We'd never be able to change his plans."

"Joe-Joe, give them the worst possible case scenario now."

"The duke stashes his demons around Hell and converts them to devils who have been trained with foils. But, instead of attacking Satan, he attacks Heaven. Angels are particularly vulnerable to foils. The majority of our angels do not know how to fight. We could fly away from them, but the devils could destroy our entire building infrastructure. After the duke creates havoc in Heaven, he could return home to Hell where he would be greeted as a hero and given status as second in command. It would take us years to recover. In the meantime, Hell would control Earth. And that's just the future for Heaven if he attacks us with devils."

...

"We'd be interested in hearing any of your ideas for stopping the duke and his army," Lillian spoke into the silence that had descended into the meeting.

"I have some questions," Winnie responded.

"Ask your questions."

"Joe-Joe, can we sneak into Hell through the Athenian caves and grottos? If so, what defenses has Hell installed?"

"We have had a secret back door into Hell through the grottos for centuries. We use it very rarely, but it's there for us to enter and leave if we need it. Any time we use it, we run the risk of discovery. If you follow the grottos to the very bottom, they open up into a mountainous area that has only a few paths up and down the mountainsides. Those paths are mined. Step on a pressure pad and you'd be wearing an entire mountainside of rock. Moreover, security cameras monitor the entire air space of that area. If we tried to fly through the area, we'd be discovered."

"But you have been able to go in and out. How?"

"We know where the mines are. We disarm each mine on the way in, and rearm it on the way out. It's time consuming and dangerous for untrained angels. We have specialists that have been trained to enter Hell this way."

Winnie continued. "I could probably freeze the air space cameras so that they were transmitting a static picture that would not create an alarm. That would allow us to fly in and out quickly. Could we sneak a military force into Hell this way?"

"Yes, but this is considered Hell's territory, so we would be invading their domain with considerable force. There are treaties outlawing that kind of behaviour."

"Got it," Winnie continued. "If we can't stop the duke's forces inside Hell, what defenses do we have that can prevent him from invading Heaven? Will they work if a thousand devils are coming at us?"

"We have secured the bottom-most levels of the grottos where the devils would have to enter in order to reach the top levels and Heaven's terrain. Think of the deep grottos as tight tunnels. There is no way for devils or demons to enter Heaven's territory except by entering those particular tunnels and then walking or crawling through them. We have installed purity gates in these tunnels. If the purity panel senses any devilian odour, they will explode and kill the intruder."

"Will that stop 1,000 invaders?"

"Probably not. There's no way of testing how many intruders we can stop without destroying the grottos which I remind you have been more useful to us than they have been for them. The problem is that the purity gates in the tunnels carry lots of explosives. The first ten or fifty devils attacking us might be killed, but the explosives could open new paths through the grottos that aren't guarded."

"So 1,000 devils or so devils could emerge from the grottos waving their foils. Can we stop them when they emerge?"

"Not yet, but soon. The purity gate explosions will give us warning that the duke's forces are coming. We can have our military in place with light bombs as they emerge."

"Light bombs?"

"If a blast of light is bright enough, it will kill any devil or demon that is in the area. We learned about the potential for a killing light blast many years ago, but have not pursued this idea until now. As you would understand, a light bomb would work best in a confined space. Our scientists are reasonably confident that light bombs would be effective in the area around the grottos. We could always use a series of them. Incidentally, light bombs invigorate angels."

"Would the light bombs kill invaders that are still in the tunnels?"

"Unlikely, but we have the technology to send a light bomb half way down the tunnel before exploding it. In the confined space, nothing from Hell could survive."

"Heaven is safe then."

"No Winnie, it's not. Heaven is safe against invaders in a devil's body. Shoulder demons will not trip any of our defenses in the grottos. They are too light, and their odour is barely discernible. They can walk right into Heaven and we'd never know it."

"With sewing needles as weapons?"

"What if those needles had biological poisons attached? Little dust mites from Hell would be wandering around Heaven stabbing angels and we wouldn't be able to see them or stop them."

### # # # # # # # #

Joe-Joe's words were a stunner. Everybody just sat there. Meghan was the first to react.

"We'll have to destroy their forces before they are ready to attack. Paula, Arthur, and I can be embedded in the duke's senior management. When we know how he is planning to attack and when, Paula can warn Joe-Joe. Joe-Joe and the military can come through the grottos and defeat the devil or demon forces by surprise. You have sufficient forces and weaponry to destroy their forces whether they were devils or demons, right Joe-Joe."

"If the duke is going to attack Heaven, he will marshal his forces close to the grottos. We can get our forces into position to remove them as a threat."

"And the treaty that we will be pulverizing?" Lillian asked. "There will be records of our invasion. Our forces will be seen inside their territory killing Hell's citizens. There are consequences when that treaty is broken. The consequences could be disastrous for us. They certainly would be disastrous to Earth."

"Such as?" Paula asked.

"Restrictions on how many angels we can put on Earth might be one."

"Hell takes over control of Earth," Megan extrapolated.

...

"So, we let them invade us and then pulverize them," Arthur started. "Then, Hell will be penalized. That should help us."

Lillian shook her head. "That probably won't happen. First, we can't pulverize dust mites if that's what we have to face. Second, Hell has vastly superior numbers. They won't get hurt much if they have to reduce their forces on Earth. Thirdly, they will claim and will be able to substantiate that the Duke was planning to attack Hell too. They will claim that they are not responsible for a rogue devil who has delusions of grandeur."

"Where's that put us?" Paula asked.

"Still looking for a solution," Lillian said.

"I have an idea," Winnie said.

### # # # # # # # #

Later, after Winnie had described her plan, and after Lillian had said that she'd seriously consider it, and after the new three stooges had left, and after Joe-Joe had stepped out of his own workshop to find something he had forgotten, Winnie approached Lillian.

"This was all a set-up, wasn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You already had a plan."

"Yes, I did."

"Why didn't you present it to us like you normally do?"

"I wanted everybody to see the enormity of our challenge. And, I wanted to see what you would plan. You might have thought of something unique."

"Did I?"

"No, you and I reached the same conclusion. We have to go into Hell and they have to invite us in."

"Why didn't you give me a role in the operation against the duke? You're teaching me how to fight a devil with a foil. That sure looks like you're preparing me for an operation involving the Duke of Earl."

"You're Plan B."

"So, in case my plan fails, I'm in charge of fixing my own plan."

"That's it in a nutshell."

### # # # # # # # #

"How'd it go with Winnie?"

"I told her that she was Plan B but didn't explain any further. How could I? I don't know what Plan B is."

"Are your boards still flashing red?"

"Yes. Her plan/my plan will fail and I don't why."

"Perhaps as we get closer to the date, the boards will be more positive."

"We're facing a random event that is almost guaranteed. Will she be ready?"

"We're working her as hard as we dare."

...

"How's Martha?"

"She's relapsed. She's obsessed with Prudence again."

"Is that because Winnie resembles Prudence?" Joe-Joe asked.

"It's interesting that Winnie gave herself a new appearance that is strikingly similar to what Prudence looked like when she was young."

"Did you influence that decision?"

"No."

"Random events certainly are keeping you on your toes."

"I think Winnie's resemblance to Prudence is actually good for Martha. This relapse could be a release of memories that have been long buried. That's a good development. Did you know that Winnie has healing powers?"

"On angels?"

"That we don't know yet."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 20

Maddy's words:

Honto had a great day today. She has been improving a lot on her running and had been creeping up on Jacobs, the slowest boy. She told me that today she was going to beat him.

After I finished, I jogged back a little to see how she was doing and she was in front of Jacobs who was working hard to catch up. I was there for her last fifty yards and was yelling at her things like: "Hard, hard, hard. Pump your arms. Go! Go! Go! Pump! Pump!" She ended up holding him off and had a huge grin. She ran up to me, grabbed me around my waist, and lifted me up off the ground in a giant bear hug. We danced around a little like that. She told me later that she had never hugged anybody before. I didn't tell her that this was the first time I was hugged so tight that I thought my spine would break in two. That race made our entire day.

### # # # # # # # #

I showed up at the swampland this morning to find Joe-Joe missing. I'm calling the flight attack training ground _the swampland_ because it received a lot of rain last night. Heaven's weather computer hardly has any protection at all.

An angel in military fatigues was there waiting instead of Joe-Joe. "The commandant has instructed me to continue your training," he said in an emotion-less monotone.

"What's your name?"

"That's classified, Stranger."

_Stranger?_ "I recognize you. You zapped me and took me away."

"You must be mistaken, Stranger. I've never seen you before and I don't even see you now."

I clued in then. I'm not supposed to be in Heaven and Joe-Joe didn't want to risk news of my 'visitor status' becoming known. "Are you wearing protection?" I was wondering if his fatigues might be padded or not.

"That won't be necessary, Stranger."

That motivated me a ton, so I drew my foil. He found a foil that he had stashed on his body somewhere and took up a hover. I found out that he didn't need any protection. I also found out the swampland will dry out over the day in Heaven's sunlight.

"I have duty elsewhere," he said at 5.

"I scared you off. Ha!" I was prone on the ground at the time.

"Your left wrist is weak. Your aim is improving. Your attack speed is good but you lose accuracy when you try to maneuver because that part of your attack can't keep up with your downward velocity. Don't reduce your attack speed. The spins will come. You're shutting your eyes when you slam into the ground. You are extremely vulnerable to a counter attack at that point."

"I'm too sore to sigh. Could you do that for me?"

He looked at me like I was strange and then left with these words, "Tomorrow, same time."

### # # # # # # # #

Honto and I didn't enjoy the day after she beat Jacobs in the cross-country race. We were coming out of class. I was walking next to Honto and we were gabbing away. She said _Ouch_ at one point and turned her head around, but I didn't pay much attention to it. Later, back in the bedroom she told me that Jacobs had been behind her and had reached around to her front and had pinched her right boob. She showed me the bruise.

"I thought you said that all the cadets had good colours."

"They did, Maddy. I wasn't worried about any of them."

"How can a guy have good colours and still assault you like that?"

"One of his colours had darkened and was in a different position today."

"That's possible?"

"Yeah. His anger colour was way darker and lower."

"Angry enough to pinch you like that?"

"I guess. What should I do?"

We talked about it. If we reported it to Major Vincent, Jacobs would be in a lot of trouble. I told her about Espinoza and how he had groped me two years ago. _[#16. Coffee Can Kill Ya!]_ I told her how he had to fight me in a duel and lost in front of the camp. I said that he would have been very embarrassed by this, and then I realized that Honto and I had really embarrassed Jacobs. First, I had been cheering her on very loudly, and then we did a big celebration dance in front of everybody when she beat him. That was why he got angry. "We were partly to blame," I said to her.

"I should let him do that then? Because we were partly to blame? Aren't we allowed to celebrate if we beat a guy?"

"I don't know, Honto. We were kinda rubbing his nose into it." Then I had to explain what that meant.

"But I beat him fair and square."

"I know. But he's not a bad guy. Espinoza was. Jacobs got mad and did something stupid. He shouldn't be kicked out of the cadets because of that."

"You want me to ignore it?"

"No. That might mean that he'd do it again. Or somebody else would. One of my moms said that women have to show men where the boundaries are. Some things we can ignore because boys act like idiots some times. Other things have consequences. We have to show Jacobs that boob pinching is across the line."

"How?"

I had to think about that.

...

"You should pinch him back."

"Boys don't have boobs. I thought you knew that."

"That's not where you're going to pinch him."

Back in June when I turned 11, Liset asked me if I wanted to have a sleepover at her place. She had a secret birthday gift for me. Liset and I had not been getting along, but I thought it was kind of her to offer me a birthday gift especially since I hadn't given her a gift for her 11th birthday in May. So I went. Yollie made a cake for me and we played some games. When it was time to go to bed, we climbed into the same bed like we used to do when we were friends.

"Here's my secret gift," she said, holding out a storage bot. "If Yollie finds out about this, I'll have dish duty until I'm 42."

"I won't tell."

So we loaded it up so that both of us could watch the bot at the same time. It was full of pictures of naked men.

"I downloaded the pictures off the Internet," Liset confessed. "This is sort of like the sex talk Mom gave me, but way better."

My sex talk had been from Mac, so I knew what I was looking at. But real pictures and diagrams don't compare.

Liset and I giggled a lot that night. One thing I can say for sure. Women have the better body by far. Men's bodies are uuuuuuuuuuugly with a capital UGH!

So, when I suggested to Honto that she should pinch Jacobs back, I pulled out the storage bot to show her the ideal location for the pinch. Honto had seen a male water buffalo once, but that was the extent of her sex education. I told her what I knew. That wasn't anywhere near as embarrassing as telling her how to use the bathroom. We had a lot of giggles that night and Honto agreed that men's bodies were not something that they should be proud of.

### # # # # # # # #

I arrived at the Swamp Land the next morning to find it was very squishy. This surprised me because I had been too exhausted last night to do anything other than eat and sleep. I looked at Mr. Congeniality and figured that he was innocent.

I improved today. His advice was helpful, even though it had been kind of tough to hear. My attack wasn't done at the same speed throughout. I focused on that. He was right about me shutting my eyes too. That's a very hard habit to break. I was popping back up onto my feet in the morning; not in the afternoon. He left, but without comment. Whoopee.

When I reached the ship, I found Lillian there waiting on the deck. She pointed to one of the hammocks and I saw Martha in her mortal body. Sound asleep, apparently.

"You'll probably be sleeping ten hours in bright sunshine. Martha might benefit from that too. She's in an unconscious state right now. Would you mind her being here overnight? I'll move her back to the care home after you leave."

"I don't mind. What's wrong with her?"

"I've set the overnight rain levels on the training ground so that you don't have to hack into the computers. There's food in the galley for you too. Eat and then get your sleep."

The food was very good. Mostly vegetarian which I like. There were some exotic spices that I couldn't place. I got the feeling that she had cooked it herself. I set up a hammock next to Martha's, fired up the ship's afterburners, and fell asleep as soon the autopilot clicked into a hover.

In the middle of the night, I awoke to some noises next to me. It sounded like crying, and I verified that by touching Martha's face. I was kind of reluctant to touch her. Some people, including angels I think, are protective of their personal space. I wiped her tears and felt the tingle that I get when the healing genes kick in. She was sleeping, so she'd never know. I climbed in, put my hands on her face, and fell asleep.

I awoke the next morning to a touch on my shoulder. Lillian's touch. "I let you sleep as long as I could. You have a breakfast that will replenish the nutrients that you've been losing during the day. Is it alright if Martha stays here at altitude for the day?"

"Of course. How long has she been unconscious?"

"Too long. She gets these spells but usually snaps out of them. Joe-Joe is hearing good things from your instructor."

_Huh_.

### # # # # # # # #

Once Honto knew where to pinch, we decided we should practice. I got to play the part of Jacobs and I placed a crumpled up face cloth where she had to attack. I emphasized that we didn't want to hurt Jacobs, but just wanted to show him that men had more to protect than women did. She crushed the face cloth the first time, which made me cringe in sympathy for Jacobs' health. She dialed it back the next time and I declared that she was now ready.

Honto retaliated as we were passing Jacobs in the hallway. I saw his eyes shoot open and he sort of went into a crouch and had to breathe deep a couple of times. I took him aside right after he stood up straight.

"Honto and I are sorry that we made a big deal about her winning that race," I started. "We embarrassed you in front of the other boys and that won't happen again. You'll win the next race. You can celebrate if you want. That'll make us even. But, if you ever touch Honto like that again, you should know that I've shown her how to use a knee instead of a little pinch."

Jacobs nodded and said, "Tell her I'm sorry, Maddy. It won't happen again."

I was right. Jacobs is a nice guy.

### # # # # # # # #

It was Thursday morning, well before the time that I wanted to wake. I was sleeping with Martha in a doublewide hammock now because I could arrange myself so that I could keep my hands on Martha's face better. She wasn't crying in her sleep any more, but she was solidly unconscious. Not crying wasn't the thing that awoke me. I had the sense that I was being watched. This is not a sensation that gives me a happy feeling. I sat up quickly.

Nothing.

Then I looked down. Martha had her eyes open and was looking at me. She reached out and touched my face with a trembling hand. I didn't say anything. I didn't want to do something that would put her back to being unconscious.

"Prudence," she said and moved her hand around my face like a blind person might do trying to determine who I was. A tear formed in her eye and then her eyelid closed. As she was drifting away, I swear that she burrowed into me and tried to hug me. Lillian said later that she was probably trying to get comfortable.

Lillian took her back to the care center that afternoon. She told me that Martha's relapse has un-lapsed and she was coming back to consciousness more often now. I offered to sleep-heal with her, but Lillian said that it might not be a good idea. Apparently, Prudence was a sad story and having Martha relive what happened might do her more harm. Then, she did something that blew my mind. She hugged me. Not a fake hug where you barely touch each other. A real hug. "Thank you for helping to heal her," she said during the hug and then she turned suddenly and disappeared.

Later that night, I had a message from Joe-Joe. "You'll have an abbreviated session with your instructor on Friday. Take the weekend off. "

I decided that I would visit Theo and Nary in Toronto on Friday night. It's basketball season and Theo has a game. I've had a standing invitation to visit them during basketball season. I'm thinking I might be interested in learning about basketball. I'm also thinking that male university basketball players are about the perfect age to know how big a family they might want when they marry.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 21

Honto and I were sitting alone at one of the mess hall tables. The boys were at the other tables and weren't talking to us. Some of them had actually taken benches that put their backs to us so they couldn't look at us. I was mad about that. Honto was sad. We didn't do anything wrong. We did what Lylah told us to do. I don't like it when people get mad at me when I haven't done anything wrong. I think Honto was used to it.

Lylah came and sat down at our table. "So girls, spit it out."

"Spit what out?" I said.

"Tell me what you think about this morning."

"I think you were mean. You were picking on them and they had done all you had told them to do about the costumes and how they were supposed to shine the new gym floor, which didn't need it. Why were you so mean?"

"Honto?"

"It made me feel sad."

"Why?"

"Because I thought I was finished with that. And now my new friends are angry at me and I didn't do anything wrong."

"You have to break an egg to make an omelet."

"We aren't eating omelets," Honto said.

Honto was right. We were having tacos for lunch. I knew Lylah was trying to say something else, but I didn't know what that was.

"Sometimes bad things have to happen before good things can happen," Lylah continued.

"Being mean is good?" Honto asked.

"No, being mean is bad."

"But you're a teacher. You aren't supposed to be bad."

"Did you girls bring your martial arts equipment to school?"

"Yeah."

"After lunch, go to the gym and practice the moves that Momaka has shown you. You know the routine. Don't be lazy about it. I'll come and get you after I'm done being mean to the boys. They didn't do anything wrong either."

### # # # # # # # #

If I had to tell the truth, I'd say that I was embarrassed by the whole exchange. Mister Congeniality hadn't done anything wrong, at least not as far as I was concerned.

The morning started with a nice surprise. Martha walked onto the field, stuck a campfire chair into the mush, and sat down. I went to greet her, but she waved me back. "You should be practicing, Prudence."

I wasn't going to try and change her mind about who I was. The name Prudence worked for me, although I have never heard of anybody with that name. I had actually looked it up after she called me that in the hammock. _Prudence is the act of being prudent._ Duh. That's like saying _stupidity is the act of being stupid._ Big help.

Here's a better definition: _Prudence is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason_. That sounded like a good thing. I looked a little further. _Prudence_ was derived from the Latin and French word _Prudentia_ which means _foresight and sagacity_ which means wisdom. It was a common name in the fourteenth century. Aha! This Prudence angel may have after-lived in the fourteenth century. That is now making sense.

Back to why I was embarrassed. I was getting somewhere in my attacks on Mr. Congeniality today. I actually nicked him a couple of time. On the second nick, Martha bellowed at him. "Lieutenant, come here!" And I do mean bellow, as in let the people in the next universe hear you.

My expressionless instructor marched full speed over to Martha's chair, stood at attention, saluted and virtually squeaked, Yes, Ma'am. He wasn't expressionless any longer. If I had to guess, I'd say he was scared stiff.

"Lieutenant, do you hate this gel?"

She actually said gel which is another way of expressing the word girl but nobody said that any more. Note to self. Remember that Martha is about 1,500 years old.

"No, Ma'am."

"Do you believe that women are too weak to fight?"

"No, Ma'am."

"I know that in these days men have to learn about swords, and lances, and new fangled things like crossbows, but that doesn't mean women can't fight against Hell as well as men."

She continued in this vein for some time. I realized that in her mind, she was stuck in the middle ages. Prudence, and now swords and lances. I also realized that she was standing up for the rights of women angels to fight and to be respected. Martha, the very first advocate for women to be treated as equal to men? I rather admired her for that. In her day, that would have been unheard of. The angels she trained would probably have walked through fire and brimstone for her. But as she went on, I understood why Lillian would not have done well under her. I could visualize Lillian, standing at attention, and getting berated at great length. Martha ended her diatribe with this instruction to the lieutenant: "Stop taking it easy on this gel because she's a women. She can take anything a man can."

So I wasn't getting somewhere with my fencing after all.

Martha left soon afterwards, satisfied now that I was bleeding and bouncing off the turf.

### # # # # # # # #

Neither Honto nor I wanted to practice the fight we were going to perform, so we faked it in case somebody looked in, and talked instead about the morning. We had thought at first that it was a game.

All the boys had to wear a crazy costume that looked like a pink ballerina skirt but it was a pair of girlie pink shorts. They had to wear very long and heavy sweatshirts with a hood that covered their head. Then Lylah taped their mouths shut. The rules of the game were simple. The boys could not talk. They had to do what Honto, Lylah, and I said. That started with polishing the new and shiny gym floor on their hands and knees. Honto and I were sitting in campfire chairs with a huge plate of chocolate goodies in front of us. The boys weren't allowed to have any, so Lylah told us to finish them off and make sure that the boys saws us doing that. Meanwhile, she walked around the gym floor criticizing everything that they did.

We got a bit pukey with all the chocolate and the boys were glaring at us. We were going to share some but Lylah said that was against the rules. She said that the boys didn't deserve them because boys are subhuman and not as good as girls. That's exactly what she said and the boys heard her. We were embarrassed for the boys because they were really trying but they couldn't satisfy Lylah. Later, they just went through the motions. Honto and I were just waiting for the lunch bell to ring.

### # # # # # # # #

Mr. Congeniality approached me at the end of the day as I was picking grass out of my teeth. He stood at attention. "Permission to speak, Ma'am?"

I knew a little bit about military life. I had actually served in the Saskatchewan army when I was 9 years old. _[Book #7, Nary, Nary]_ "Yes. At ease, Lieutenant."

He shifted positions one millimeter. Perhaps two.

"Sorry about the morning, Ma'am. I meant no disrespect. I saw that you were depressed and I thought a little success would help you."

"You did nothing wrong, Lieutenant. You gave me some confidence that I needed."

"Permission to speak freely, Ma'am?"

"Yes."

"Does Ma'am know that I'm giving you three days worth of instruction each day that we meet?"

"No, I didn't know that."

"You learn very fast, Ma'am. Faster than anybody I've ever trained."

I looked at him. He was telling the truth. "Do you have any tips on keeping grass out of my mouth?"

"I'll help you on that tomorrow, Ma'am. Does Ma'am know about Guinevere?"

"As in King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and the knights of the round table in the seventh century?"

"That's a fable, Ma'am. It never happened. The stories were first written in the middle ages."

"How do you know that? Were you there?"

"No Ma'am I looked it up on Wikipedia. Robin Hood now, he existed."

"I looked at him and saw his lips twitch."

"You have a sense of humour, Lieutenant."

"Yes, Ma'am. It can get me in trouble."

"Not with me, it won't. Why did you ask if I knew about Guinevere?"

"The code word for the operation that I wasn't on and in which you were never Tasered and never hidden away was Guinevere. Operation Guinevere."

"I was Guinevere?"

"Yes, Ma'am. You still are. My presence here is part of the same Operation Guinevere. My assignment is to never let any harm come to you. Pain, yes. Harm, no. I would never disrespect you or let you come to harm, Ma'am."

"If I'm Guinevere, you must be..... I'm a little fuzzy on the knights of the round table. You will have to be..... Sir Galahad. Why the code name Guinevere?"

"I have no idea, Ma'am. Permission to leave?"

"I give my gallant..... Is it the knight who's gallant or is your horse a gallant steed."

"The knight is gallant. The horse is smelly."

"I give my gallant Sir Galahad permission to leave. Climb up on your smelly horse and slay me a dragon or something."

"Your wish is my command, My Queen." Then he made a courtier bow with an imaginary hat and flew off.

_Somebody in Heaven has a sense of humour. Go figure._

### # # # # # # # #

Lylah came and got us half an hour before the last bell. She took us back to the classroom and we endured the look of the boys as we took our seats at the back of the room. Lylah waited until we were sitting and then clapped her hands to pull the guys' eyes to the front.

"The boys now know that this morning's activity was to show them how they would feel if they forced to wear clothes that they hated. They have told me how mad they were when they were denied the right to speak. They have told me how they angry they were when other people sat around doing nothing or constantly criticized them. They didn't like the experience very much at all. They had a right to be angry. They were treated badly."

Lylah continued. She had everybody's attention. "After we talked about that, I showed them a tape of Honto talking about the laws that she and other women had to abide by in their country in Africa. The boys now understand how it would feel to be a woman in that country. They have some questions they want to ask you, Honto. You all may form a discussion circle now."

...

"Who has the first question? Hands."

"Is it really true that you couldn't show any skin at all when......"

### # # # # # # # #

I looked up the name Guinevere on Wikipedia after supper. It is of Welsh origin. One person said that it meant it was _supernatural being_. Another person said it meant _holy peacemaker or one who brings peace._

Just out of curiosity, I looked up my own name. The name _Winnie_ is of Welsh origin and is a short form for various other names including Guinevere! I really am a Guinevere! And here I had always thought I was named after Winnie the Poop. At least that's what Yollie claimed since I was always pooping when I was a baby. She even gave me a second hand Winnie the Poop Bear stuffie for Christmas one year. It wasn't all that great. Yollie had shot its eyes out.

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# Chapter 22

Lylah's plan to sensitize the cadet to the plight of women in KwaZulu had some unintended after effects. The boys became interested in Honto, and what I'm trying to say delicately, is that they became very interested in her.

The first to show compassion and understanding was Jacobs. He really was able to understand. But when he went and sat at Maddy and Honto's table, Honto stopped chatting with Maddy and turned her full attention to Jacobs. It was like Maddy didn't exist. Jacobs and Honto spoke non-stop through the breakfast and never even acknowledged in any way that Maddy was there.

Lunch was a repeat, only with a different boy.

Supper was a repeat, but now with two boys. Maddy got up as they came over and went to sit with some of the boys at a table who looked like they were having a good time. As soon as Maddy sat down, they stopped talking and finished the dinner in silence. As soon as Maddy left, they went back into a huddle. Maddy heard them snickering.

Honto talked with Maddy when they were back in the dorm, and everything was normal except that Honto wanted to talk about the boys that had visited her and how they were so nice. So, Honto and Maddy spent the evening talking about boys. Honto talked; Maddy listened.

After two days of this and in the face on an increasing stream of boys sitting down and asking Honto about her life, Maddy had had enough. She wasn't welcome at Honto's table, and she wasn't welcome at any of the boys only tables. She asked Mac if she could come home and sleep in her own bed. She also asked if she had to hang around in the camp in the evenings? Could she do some babysitting or something?

Naturally, Mac said _Yes_ and then began probing. Honto had broken her friendship with Maddy! They had been sister-friends but now Maddy was only interested in talking with the boys! She had heard the boys snickering about Honto!

Mac took alarm at the snickering comment particularly. There's only one circumstance when boys of this age will snicker among themselves. The topic of conversation is always about girls, and frequently it's while they are sharing secret pictures of the female body unencumbered with clothes. Mac had an informal chat with Major Vincent and he pulled together a meeting with Honto's teachers who were already becoming concerned.

Sven explained his perspective. "She's indicating that she's available to them as a sexual partner. Think of a cat in heat. That's Honto. And that's not going to go away."

Lylah had a non-animal comparison. "Honto has been overwhelmed with interest from the boys and she's reveling in it. She's never had that interest before. Remember too that she has a fully formed female body. All the hormones are there and operating at full capacity. Sven is right. She's in heat. And because of how she grew up, this interest in boys will be reinforced by them. It'll get worse."

Mac joined in. "Maddy said that the boys were accidentally touching her hands and arms. She touches them back. Soon, there will be quiet little visits in dark places. More boys will swarm around her. She will have no reason to rebuff them. I don't know how her culture regards sexual contact, but right now Honto has no filters about what is right and what is wrong. I don't know for her culture what is right, or what is wrong."

"Consequences for the cadet troop?" Stanley asked.

"Disastrous," Sven predicted. "She'll need birth control protection."

Lylah chimed in with a similar warning. "The boys are too young for us to expect self restraint. They're not monks. They're young teenagers and how would we explain that they shouldn't take advantage of her? She's willing. She could initiate it herself. Classroom focus will disappear. We can't have her out running around in PT gear. We have to remove her or isolate her somehow."

"One decision is easy right now," Stanley began. "She will not return to the corp after the operation in KwaZulu is over. We'll reunite her with her mother. What do we do in the meantime? Mac, are Maddy and Honto ready?"

"Momaka says they are progressing, but they still have much to learn. Let me talk with the family, Stanley. Honto does not need to be in the cadet corp to learn what she's going to do in Africa."

### # # # # # # # #

Mac's idea to involve the family worked. Honto was put on an instructional program where she learned how to babysit. When she wasn't training with Maddy, she was babysitting. It's not like there wasn't a shortage of pre-school children in the Wilizy family. It was a huge success. Honto was developing into the zesty woman she would become. Part of that zest was zest for life. She loved children. Remember she had two younger sisters that she had helped her mother to raise. Now, given the opportunity to be with children almost constantly, she received the love and attention she needed in a non-sexual environment. Babysitting one kid at a time wasn't enough. She wanted to babysit them all at the same time.

One consequence was unfortunate. Maddy felt betrayed. She had lost her sister-friend to the boys, and then she lost her again to the children. Maddy and Honto never did regain the close relationship that they had developed. The two worked well as a military fighting machine, but they weren't personally close. Later in the training regimen that Momaka set up, the two of them had to fight one-on-one with each other. Nobody else in camp at the time could provide either of them with a challenge with the weapons that they were using, with the exception of Momaka. Maddy's competitive spirit meant that she always won. Skill wise, she was faster and smarter. Honto was big and powerful. Close encounters with a Honto world were not pleasant experiences. Honto didn't care that Maddy always won. She'd get up, slap Maddy on the back, say _Good one_ and go back into battle mode. Honto loved life and being a fighting machine was just part of enjoying life.

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# Chapter 23

February 2092 was a busy month for the Wilizy, but not one that had remarkable developments of any kind. They were working on two operations: one in North Korea and the other in KwaZulu. North Korea and its nuclear weapons weren't going anywhere, nor was KwaZulu and its woman hating constitution. This meant that they could take their time and _get it righ_ t as Hank expressed it. We've seen where the Wilizy could act in an emergency; this was not that kind of environment. Members had children to care for, some were at school out of town. It wasn't necessary to completely disrupt those lives.

Speaking of being out of town at school, Mathias and Kashmira finished up their studies in Australia and indicated their desire to join the family in Montana. That meant that the family had a home to build into the interior of a mountain somewhere, so that was a time consuming venture that they took on. Mathias immediately joined the scientific team and started to take lessons on creating winds from Nary. Not being a voodoo prince, he didn't succeed in the lessons, but he watched her closely. Then he brought in all forms of measurement tools that he had purchased before leaving Australia. He also brought other instruments in from Stanford. His new home had a sophisticated science lab and music studio. Kashmira wanted a break from singing tours but was interested in learning how to use the old singing synthesizer that she had in the church in Maasin City _[#10 Wheelchair Moccasins)_ ] She had developed quite a following in Australia and parts of Asia. She never felt safe at any time that she was touring unless Mathias was in the audience. She came back to Montana so that she could be involved in Wilizy operations and so that Mathias could take up his career. By now, she was talking openly about marriage and children.

Speaking of marriage and children, Winnie was now in a routine where she stayed with Theo and Nary Fridays and Saturdays in Toronto and then came to Montana on Sundays. Doc continued to be stable.

Winnie's initial search for suitable marriage candidates in Toronto had not gone well. First, attending Theo's team's post game parties where groupie girls threw themselves at the basketball players would not work for her. Theo warned Winnie about that before the first team party that they went to. Winnie left early, and so did Theo and Nary, per their normal routine. She then started trolling other social sites on campus. Nary joined her and after the first encounter with a breathing and possibly suitable male, Nary had to warn Winnie that asking men on their first meeting whether they wanted large families or what they expected from a wife would scare them off. Winnie thought it was just good planning; the men saw a looming trap. Winnie agreed that she should slow it down.

She was currently developing a friendship with a guy named Lance Williams, a pre-med student who was associated with Theo's team as a member of the training staff. Trainers are people who are especially skilled at handling athletic injuries. Winnie liked the idea of pre-med and he was easy on the eyes. He looked at her quite a lot during a Friday night social and smiled at her. She decided that a Saturday non-date would be warranted. She told him that she was looking to explore Toronto on the coming Saturday and asked if he knew any places that she should go. He took the hint.

Honto's availability for babysitting freed up the Wilizy costume design group so that they could work more frequently on sewing North Korean army uniforms. After that, they had costumes to prepare for the KwaZulu adventure. Honto in particular had a difficult costume to prepare. It didn't help that she didn't know what to ask for. Momaka took some time with her going through old pictures and records of Zulu warriors.

Major Vincent now had the cadets back in monk-land. Their training for the North Korea operation was going well. They were spending a lot of time on nighttime operations with the jet packs. Plus, all of the boys were receiving instruction on conventional hand held weaponry.

The Valkyries had a significant responsibility for the KwaZulu operation. They had been busying researching and buying equipment and materials.

Reese had been warned that if he wanted to pick Honto's brain for information about colours, he should do that this month. On the nights when she wasn't training with Maddy, Honto was talking colours with Reese in Momaka's kitchen while Momaka prepared goodies and snacks for the children. Momaka couldn't have been very good at that because she had to spend a lot of time in that kitchen. Reese wasn't told why that was necessary.

Stu and Doc spent some mornings together researching constitutions for primitive developing countries.

### # # # # # # # #

As to a certain non-Wilizy operation, the Duke of Earl was continuing to sneak backpacks of shoulder demons into Hell. He kept on stashing them away from sight. Those hiding places offered no clue as to how he was planning to use his army. The duke continued to go into Lord Percy's office to report, but Paula was wise enough not to enter and listen in. Arthur informed Winnie that the duke had at least another month of demon-napping to complete when he asked her to plant some incriminating evidence in the SSS computers. That exchange was done via emails. Neither of them had exchanged any words since Winnie had given Arthur her decision in early November. The briefing meeting on January 1 didn't count as neither of them said anything to the other.

Sir Galahad showed Winnie how to avoid face plants into the ground by rolling her shoulder as she landed and turning the impact into a vault into the air. Winnie stopped eating grass and started to become more dangerous. She scored a couple of nicks in Sir Galahad's body, which he said were genuine hits. She was looking at his face at the time and he was telling the truth.

Martha had not returned to the training swamp, which was now dry land. When asked how she was doing, Lillian simply remarked that she had returned to her normal condition.

Lillian's screens continued to flash red, which was not surprising since Heaven hadn't done anything but watch the Duke of Earl so far this year.

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# Chapter 24

During the first week of March, the Korean skies would be moonless and so _Operation Remove #1_ was scheduled for that week. The Wilizy ran a dress rehearsal on the Monday using a mock army base on the Montana prairie as a target. General Jock observed and pronounced the night a success. Lucas, who was in command of the overall operation, had been nervous about the cadets, but he and Major Vincent agreed that they were ready.

Let me set the scene with an overview of who was participating. The command center was the Wilizy/Europe, which Yolanda and Nary had flown from Sacramento to North Korea. Lucas commanded the non-cadet portion of the operation while Major Vincent commanded the cadets. Both of them had made full use of the research reports, including pictures, that the Wilizy had compiled in September, 2090 of the North Korean silos _[#19, Brunhilda]._ Akilah had a medical clinic set up in the ship as well.

Also working on the ship were some kiddies; Will (Melissa), Izzy (Melissa), Jock (Mac) and Yo-Yo (Yollie) who were 7 years old and on their first mission. Granny had been training them how to use the ship sensors but she had to beg off at the last minute to stay with Doc. Liset took her place as supervisor.

Three mysticals had been brought in for the operation. Scapula and Patella would be on the ground with the cadets but would respond to Yolanda's mind message instructions from the ship. Nary had brought her male panther son and she would control him from the field.

The entire cadet force was there with the exception of Maddy and Umkhonto. Lohla was the cadet's field commander. Hank was in charge of land transportation.

The scientific team consisted of William, Wolf, TG, Mathias, and Lylah. They would interact with the nuclear missiles, hopefully in a friendly amiable way. All had HazMat suits. There were ten silos scattered around the countryside to disarm. Each of them would disarm two silos and would leap frog from their first silo to their next silo.

### # # # # # # # #

The operation began on Wednesday night at 11pm North Korea time with TG shutting down all of the computer sensors monitoring the silo sites. These were sensors embedded in the lids of the silos and the cameras surrounding the area. Using one of the jumbo transports, the cadets used jet packs to drop into one of the country's numerous military storage sites where they palletized five army jeeps and Hank lifted them out of the motor pool's storage site and dropped them one at a time on the road leading into their designated silo. The scientist for that site and the six cadets assigned to that site disembarked from the ship.

The ship's sensor would provide an early warning if any late night strollers were entering the area. If so, mysticals would be routed to the area and would make growling noises in the dark. If that didn't work, the strollers would face North Korean military soldiers manning a jeep blockade. The cadets were armed with rifles and had received training on how to dissuade any late night strollers from going any further. This had to be done without saying a word. Shining rifle lasers onto the foreheads of a stroller was expected to be an effective deterrent.

Let's look at what happened at site #1. The jeep was dropped into position on the road to block any intruders. Expecting none, the six cadets shoveled away the soil covering the top of the missile silo. While they were doing this, the scientist at the site was measuring radiation levels and putting on a HazMat suit. Once the silo site was uncovered, the scientist lasered away the seal holding the silo cap in place and the cadets lifted it away. The cadets retreated to the jeep to avoid any possible radiation risk. The scientist in his HazMat suit descended into the silo using the metal ladders that the North Koreans installed on the interior sides of the silo for maintenance purposes. Opening up the missile was easy - it had been designed to make maintenance easy. Extracting the fissionable materials took less than a minute and they were dropped into the scientist's iron-titanium-iron storage unit. The cadets came back and replaced the silo cover and soil. Their final action at the site was to sit in the jeep and notify Hank that they were ready to go to their second target. Hank leap-frogged them to that area via the jeep's electronic pallet and the process began all over again.

This same scene was repeated eleven times. Hank returned the North Korean jeeps to their transport base while the cadets used their jet packs to gather at a pick up site. Everything went smoothly with the only delays being with the pallet transportations. They learned that one person could not keep up with the speed of the action at the silo site. In _Operation Remove #2,_ they would use two transportation coordinators.

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# Chapter 25

The success of Operation Remove #1 created a happy glow in the cadet camp. The boys had worked well as a military unit and that prompted Major Vincent to begin to train them for true military operations. Maddy joined them for this instruction and training. Her evenings were full with practices with Honto. Momaka declared them ready in one of the operational meetings, but Melissa and Mac said they had to wait for some equipment deliveries before they could proceed.

The scientists were content that everything went so smoothly. North Korea was an easy first target because TG had already penetrated their computer network. Plus, it was a small country that could be traversed quite quickly. Other countries would be more difficult. However, they did have a working strategic template now for future nuclear removal operations. Until the operation in KwaZulu was over, the scientists would concentrate on other projects.

Winnie asked about the iron-titanium-iron storage units and William gave her one to examine. He had made over one hundred of these things in anticipation that mass numbers would be needed by the time they were finished. He forgot to ask her to return the storage unit, so it sat in one of Winnie's bureau drawers.

As to Winnie and her heavenly operations, Sir Galahad was now teaching her how to fight on uneven terrain, as in an upward slope or a downward slope. High ground can be a valuable advantage in a fencing match. When Winnie asked why she couldn't just take the high ground by flying, he asked her how she would do that if one of her wings were disabled. That ended that discussion.

As to Winnie's other operation, finding a suitable candidate for the father of her four children, wasn't going all that well, at least from Winnie's perspective. She was still socializing with Lance Williams, the pre-med trainer. He was friendly enough, but he didn't seem attracted to her. Not once had he tried to hold her hand, although Winnie made sure that she had a hand ready for such an attempt when they were walking side by side. Advancing to a first kiss just wasn't likely if they weren't at the hand holding stage. And that meant that she couldn't give him the chemistry test.

Winnie began to wonder if he liked her. Then she began to wonder why he didn't like her. She made sure that she was always well dressed, and they seemed to get along, but not a single skin cell on her body had been approached, let alone touched. Was she not pretty enough? She decided that she would help him appreciate the fact that she had more than jeans and nice blouses in her closet.

So, she dropped the hint that perhaps they could go to one of Toronto's fancy events where people dressed up in their finest. She offered to pay for her ticket, but Lance, ever the gentleman, declined the offer.

She hit all the buttons in her preparation for this event. She was wearing a pair of high heels, an ivory white sheath skirt and an ivory white scooped blouse that had long sleeves ending in whiffs of white lace. She had had fastened an emerald green ribbon around her neck and two others around her wrists.

They had a congenial walk to the event. He was wearing a nice gray suit with thin threads of blue throughout. The tie matched the suit perfectly. They looked like the perfect couple, but nothing happened on the walk. Once inside they were congregated in the foyer waiting for doors to open. It was crowded and her bare arm was touching his suit coat sleeve. Nothing happened. She decided she wouldn't wait any longer. She'd take things into her own hands, so to speak. As they were climbing a set of stairs, Winnie stumbled and Lance stopped her from falling by grabbing her elbow and holding her up. "Thank you," she said. "I'm not used to wearing heels." It was only natural then for her hand to slide down into his hand. Later, as he was walking her home hand in hand, he turned and smiled. "This is nice," he said. "I'm glad you did that. I didn't want to be too forward."

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# Chapter 26

Friday, April 4: Melissa and Mac were in the command center of the Wilizy/Europe, which had been moved from North Korea to KwaZulu. They were going through their checklist for the final time.

"Women's clothes?"

"Check."

"Men's clothes?"

"We have some extras available but are counting on the numbers of men and women to be about equal."

"Prisoner restraints?"

"Check. William tested them yesterday and we have ample numbers."

"Major equipment?"

"Check. All have been unpacked and tested. As advertised, they are very easy to use."

"Materials?"

"Check."

"Are Honto and Maddy trained to expectations?"

"Check."

"Is Honto's costume ready?"

"Check. Momaka has confirmed it will hold."

"Stu and the legal department?"

"Check."

"Valkyries?"

"Check. All will be present for the first week. Those who will be staying behind are comfortable with that assignment."

"Their clothes?"

"They arrived today. Everybody is busy mixing and matching. They're in women's heaven."

"Cadets?"

"Check. They can handle their weapons. Stanley is not expecting any resistance."

"Jumbo transports?"

"Check. Mathias, Hank and Jock are ready. We have restraints inside the jumbos if they are needed. Plus, there'll be armed cadets inside when we're moving the men that have to be moved."

"Are Jock and Hank comfortable with this assignment?"

"They're happy to be involved. Jock and Hank have been meeting with Stu regularly after Doc begged off."

"Medical?"

"Akilah has a clinic set up in the ship. The only risk of injuries is with Maddy and Honto."

"Emergencies?"

"Hank and Jock are ready to step in if we need them. Plus, all of the scientists will be in the ship. Other than the spear thing, there's not much science behind this operation."

"The scientists want to watch the whole operation. We've never done anything like this before."

### # # # # # # # #

Let me set the scene. KwaZulu back then was a small country, roughly square in shape. You could walk from one side to the other side in a day. As described earlier, it's mostly flat prairie land. However, in the middle of the country, there was a small indentation in the land that created a natural circular amphitheater. Perhaps it held a small lake that had dried up? The floor was now dry soil. The walls gently rose from the soil on the bottom to perhaps four metres above the lakebed. If you leaned against the amphitheater wall, you could see and hear everything that was happening at the bottom of the amphitheater.

You may wonder why the cadets had been entrusted with moving some of the men. That because there were very few weapons in KwaZulu that went beyond spears and knives. The security forces did have some arms, but they hadn't been required to use them very much because all the men who might be threats were drunks or in the mines. They were not trained as a militia. The guards at the mines could also be easily overcome. Stanley and Lucas would be with the cadets but were not expecting any difficulties.

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# Chapter 27

Officially, Operation Zulu Goddess began before dawn on Saturday April 5 with the cadets using their jet packs to land just outside the mining camp in Lesotho. They searched for security guards but found none. They disabled the security forces' copters quietly and then waited for dawn to arrive.

When the camp began to stir, the cadets hastened the stirring. They tossed a stun grenade into each of the three bunkhouses. By the time that the miners had gathered their wits, they found armed men pointing weapons at them and yelling, "Get Down, Get Down." Unfamiliar with this form of announcing that breakfast was ready, the miners and security forces got down on the floors of the bunkhouses. After all had been secured with their arms tied behind their backs, they were taken outside and formed into even rows, suitable for being on parade in an army camp, although most such parades involved walking and not sitting. The cadets were wearing military uniforms but with no insignia proclaiming where they were based.

The commandant of the invading army, a big man with a big chest, walked up and down the rows of men, checking that their restraints were holding. He must have heard a voice in his head because he stopped twice to direct a cadet to take a man out of the formation and to secure him in the mess tent.

_Lucas, those are the two men in charge. Keep them away from the other men while you're interrogating them and put them under the tent when you get to the amphitheater._

_OK._

_You should find that the same names are coming up during the interrogations. When you see the pattern, mind message me with the names. I'll see you at the amphitheater._

_OK, Reese._

Lucas began a little speech of encouragement when the two men were out of hearing.

"The Lesotho army will be here sometime this morning. You do realize, I hope, that this mine is in Lesotho territory. Our own transport will arrive before they do. Those of you who provide us with information that we want will get a quick ride out of the country. The rest of you will be treated as spies. Buried alive in the mine is only one way you may die. Here's what we want to know. What are the names of the KwaZulu military officers that come to this mine? What are the names of the KwaZulu's senior government people that come to this mine? Where does the gold go after it is mined? Is there any gold currently in this camp?"

You could say that the Wilizy struck the mother lode with this approach.

### # # # # # # # #

At dawn, the Wilizy began the process of transferring the country's population into the amphitheater. This was done in stages so that the women would arrive first. The reason for that will become clear soon enough. Here's how this part of the transfer worked.

A jumbo would fly low over the village, make a few lazy circles, and then land in an open field. Since none of the villagers would have seen a jumbo before, they naturally would congregate at the landing zone. One or more white women dressed in brightly hued clothes would emerge and make an announcement that went something like this.

_Citizens of KwaZulu: The government of the country had called for a meeting of the entire population in the center of the country. This flying machine had been sent to collect the women of KwaZulu and transport them to that meeting. We women will accompany you to show you that you will be entirely safe during the trip. During the trip, we will be picking up other women from other villages. When we get to the meeting, you will receive gifts of welcome. A sampling of those gifts is inside the flying machine. You are welcome to come inside and look at a sampling of the gifts now._

Inevitably, a few of the more daring women would venture inside. Then, they would appear in the doorway and beckon the other women inside. One of the Valkyries would remain behind with the men when the jumbo left. Her conversation with the men went something like this: _Do you have a bar or tavern in this village?_

The reason to get the men into the bar was to delay their departure long enough that the women would all arrive an hour or two before any of the men showed up. The Valkyrie left behind would walk her half drunk oglers to the meeting. I say half drunk because that was the normal state of the men. Plus, dawn had arrived and so it was entirely fitting for the drinking to begin.

The ogling part was because the Valkyrie would remain outside the bar, so as to not offend the men by entering their sanctuary. (As they had learned from Honto's experience.) The men brought their drinks outside and looked, and looked, and looked. They stared because of the white skin which they knew about but had not actually seen before.

Before you get the wrong impression, let me describe how the Valkyries were dressed. Deciding on their civilian uniform actually took up a lot of time during the planning and is the reason why their uniforms had arrived so late.

Mac had never intended the Valkyries to be solely a military a force. They received training for that function, but they were so much more than a fighting force. Their primary function was as... think of them as ambassadors. Today, they were ambassadors that were going to introduce the women of KwaZulu into a different life. Ambassadors, especially ambassadors that interacted with women, needed something other than cammo gear or military fatigues. The Valkyries themselves decided what they would wear as ambassadors.

Mac set some restrictions, of course: (1) If it ever became necessary for them to appear en masse in a public function, they would have to be wearing exactly the same clothes. (2) Their clothes had to be top-of-the-line women's wear. They may have been soldiers, but they were women and they would dress as women. (3) Since it was possible that they might suddenly have to engage in conflict, the feminine clothes that they were wearing had to allow them to move freely and lethally. (4) The clothes that they chose had to allow for different levels of skin exposure. They had to have the flexibility to dress not to offend, or dress to attract attention.

The women decided that they would restrict their choice of colours to lavender, blue, gold, turquoise, grey, and white. Clothing in these soft pastel-like colours included various shoes, slacks, skirts, dresses, jackets and blouses. Independence in choosing various styles of these selections was encouraged. Mixing and matching colours was encouraged. It could mean the entire Valkyrie force could be dressed entirely differently at any time except when Mac wanted uniformity. Whenever they appeared formally as a group, each of them would wear a sprig of emerald green fabric somewhere on their clothes.

The commonality tying all the styles together was the bright colours. The world at that time was mostly dark and gray. The Valkyries brought brightness and colour wherever they went. That brightness and colour would appeal to the Zulu women who had known only blacks. And today, they also showed skin. Not skin as in what we would consider immodest. But skin that the men of KwaZulu had never seen before. When the single Valkyrie who been left behind in a village decided to take her half drunk charges to the meeting place, she would simply invite them to walk with her. The men would follow, zombie like.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 28

It's mid-morning now. The women have been dropped off at a campsite adjacent to the amphitheater. They were invited to enter a series of large tents where they found tables set up with bolts of colourful fabrics. _[Guys: A bolt of fabric is not a mechanical device that men would use to fasten two things together with a wrench. A bolt of fabric is simply a large amount of fabric._ ]

The women were invited to cut off enough fabric so that they could make three sarongs. Scissors were provided and the Valkyries assisted the women choosing the fabrics that they wanted. Other tables in the tents offered belts, underclothes, shorts, t-shirts, and other such items. After they had made their selections, the Valkyries helped them put on their favorite choice. They gave each woman a small suitcase that they could use to take their new clothes back to their village. Each woman identified her own suitcase with a marker and left the suitcase in the tent. After they had slipped their black shrouds over top of their new sarongs, a Valkyrie guided them to the amphitheater and guided them to where they should sit.

The miners arrived in Hank's jumbo, which had been sent to the mine after all the women had been picked up. Cadets took them to their place in the amphitheater and cut off their restraints. The two men that Reese had identified were taken to a large open tent with several rows of chairs placed in its shade. Their restraints were not removed. Four cadets were stationed there to keep these men inside the tent.

As the men from the villages drooled into the amphitheater, the Valkyrie leading them took them through a checkpoint manned by four cadets under the supervision of Major Vincent. Occasionally, as the village men passed slowly through the check point, Major Vincent would direct a cadet to take a man to the tent where he would be placed on a chair with his hands secured behind his back.

Reese remained at that checkpoint, invisible, but busy scanning faces and then putting a check mark next to the names that he was expecting. When the last of the village men had arrived and passed through the security, Reese checked his sheet, looked at the colours of the twenty men in the _celebrity tent,_ and messaged Lucas. _You can proceed now. We have them all._ Lucas ordered four more cadets to the celebrity tent and stationed the rest of his forces on the periphery of the dried lakebed. Lucas then strode to the center of the dried lakebed and began to address the people in the amphitheater.

### # # # # # # # #

"Today is an important day for the people of KwaZulu. The entire population of the country is here in this amphitheater. This afternoon, you will hear how the government of your country has caused most of you to be malnourished and locked into crippling poverty from which you cannot escape on your own. You will hear how your government made policies that deprived virtually half of the people here of basic human rights. The other half does no work and doesn't contribute to the country. You will hear how the powerful people in this country have robbed KwaZulu and the people so that they could become richer and more powerful. You, the people of KwaZulu, will decide if they have acted properly."

Lucas motioned at the cadets and they formed a line across the centre of the old lakebed. The men were on one side of the lakebed, the women on the other side. The open tent with its celebrity chairs was in the middle of the men's side. The miners were to their right; the village men were to their left.

"I invite all the women here today to stand."

There was a rustle of movement. Neither men nor women knew what would happen next. The Valkyries stood behind the women, ready to help if they needed it. As mentioned, the cadets were in the middle prepared to keep the women on their side of the lakebed if that became necessary.

"The people that have brought you here today are known as The Wilizy. We bring justice to the oppressed. We have been to many other countries in the world. No other country that we know of has banned women from speaking directly to a man of their village, even to their own husband in the privacy of their own home. No other women in the world will have their tongues cut off if they speak to a man. No other women are forced to wear oppressive clothing that covers virtually their entire body because the leaders of this country think that they are wicked immoral women if they don't. No other women in the world are forced into prostitution if they show any bare skin. No other women in the world are forced to marry men against their will. No other women in the world are forced to do all the hard labour of their villages while their men get drunk in the bars. I invite the women here today to approach to the middle of lake bed and tell the men what you think of the way you've been treated."

### # # # # # # # #

There is a custom in African countries for women to express their emotions by ululating. This sound, often described as a long, shrill, wavering howl, is frequently heard at funerals as an indicator of grief. It can also be heard at weddings when the women express happiness. When it is accompanied by a sea of fists shaking in the air, this is not usually a sign of happiness.

Lucas let the women express their anger, thinking that they'd become tired.

Apparently, it doesn't take a lot of energy to keep ululating. Plus, they had a lot of anger to express.

Finally, Lucas held up his hands and waited for silence.

"I invite the women of KwaZulu to show the men how they will be dressing in the future."

At that point, the Valkyries moved into position to help the women remove their shrouds. They needn't have bothered. The shrouds fell to the ground where the women in their brand new sarongs attempted to stomp them into the dust. Naturally, this was an occasion for more ululating, but this time in happiness. As the women strode back to the positions with their heads held high, their mouths open to the skies, and their tongues vibrating in unison, the men didn't notice the cadets scurrying across the lakebed and collecting the shrouds.

### # # # # # # # #

"In previous ages," Lucas began another part of today's ceremonies, "the Zulu waged battle against other Zulus. This was considered an honourable way to settle long-standing grievances. The side that won took prisoners to act as their slaves who were then considered their possessions. This is part of the heritage of the Zulu people."

"Today, here and now, the women of KwaZulu are challenging the men to face them in battle in order to settle a long standing grievance, namely the way that men have treated women for the last twenty years. Two women will stand here today, on this lakebed as the women's champions. Each will carry this as a weapon."

Lucas held up a six foot long spear that had a canvas covered mass at the end of the spear where there should have been a blade.

"These weapons will not cause mortal wounds, but the mass at the end of the spear is heavy and can inflict pain. The two women champions will defend themselves against four men who can attack them at the same time. Anybody who is knocked to the ground has lost the battle. Men who wish to challenge these two women should line up at the far end of the lakebed where you may form groups of four. You will also find bladeless spears there. Lift them, feel the weight of the mass, and prepare to go into battle."

Lucas gave the men ample time to familiarize themselves with the weapons. While they were doing that, the women were looking around to see which two of them had volunteered. They could outdo the men in throwing bundles of hay, but spears?

"The two women champions will now come forward onto the lakebed."

Two women shrouded in black did so. One was big; the other was smaller in comparison, but she was quick. There were perhaps thirty teams waiting their turn to show them their place. Being on the receiving end of shrill ululations had not gone over well. Seeing the immodest way that the Zulu women were now dressing had been shocking.

### # # # # # # # #

Using a bladeless spear as a weapon was Momaka's idea. She had researched how the Zulu's had conducted wars and she observed that spears were always present. They could be thrown or they could be used as long stabbing weapons. Momaka decided to make the challenge into a non-lethal battle with bladeless spears as that would bring the combatants into close contact. At first glance, this might appear dangerous for Maddy and Honto, but it wasn't. A trained pair of warriors could take advantage of the closeness of their enemy.

Momaka first taught Honto and Maddy how to use the weapons as a defense against four opponents attacking together from four different locations. She placed the two girls back to back and showed them how to put their hands in the middle of the spear and twirl the spear in circles so that the two ends would deflect spear thrusts. The movements had to be tight and fast.

When they had mastered that, she showed them how to twist their bodies clockwise so that they were protecting not only their front, but also their flank. This required Maddy to duck under Honto's circle of deflection while Honto rotated clockwise to face another direction. This way, their rotating circle of four spear ends could deflect any spear coming from any direction. They would be safe so long as they twirled their speeds at high speed and kept rotating.

In the last weeks of instruction, Momaka showed them how to attack from their defensive shield. By simply moving their hands from the middle of the spear to its end, their weapon could be wielded as a six foot long swinging cudgel. Or, it could be a six-foot long stabbing weapon. Momaka's strategy was now clear. Their defensive position would bring their opponents in tight where the girls' spears could be converted without warning into a semi-lethal weapon. If the heavy end of the weapon connected at high speed, the impact of that swinging or stabbing blow would knock their opponent to the ground.

The trick was in the timing.

In their defensive positions, at the point where Maddy was ducking under Honto's defensive shield, she and Honto would be facing the same direction if Honto didn't rotate her body clockwise into a new position. If they both suddenly attacked the single opponent facing them, his one spear could not protect him from two spears. Maddy would be stabbing at him low while Honto would be swinging for the fences high. At least one weapon would connect and an instant later, Maddy and Honto would be back in their defensive circle and ready now to face three men. Soon it would be two men, and at that point, Honto and Maddy would split up and go one-on-one. The reason why the cadets were positioned on the edge of the lakebed was now clear. They were there to haul the injured bodies away.

Their effectiveness as a team had increased considerably when Honto's brain plug was enabled to include mind messages. Maddy was in charge of deciding when to attack and both were constantly warning the other if an opponent on their flank was becoming brave.

The first four teams to face Honto and Maddy lasted less than two minutes each. Part of the reason for that slow win was Maddy and Honto were establishing their timing. After that, the cadets had scarcely removed four fallen bodies before they had four other bodies to haul away.

The eighth team tried a different strategy: a full out charge. It's hard to swing or stab when you are running at full speed. The men actually exposed themselves to counterattack. That team lasted five seconds.

The ninth team decided not to position themselves so far apart from each other on their charge. The other teams had men at the 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and the 9 o'clock positions. That hadn't worked. They decided they'd all attack from the 12 o'clock position. This didn't work out either. They were so close to each other that they could barely swing or stab. Maddy and Honto just stepped aside as they charged and pounded them into the ground as they went by.

The tenth team went back to the clock positioning, but after the first two men were down and Honto and Maddy had split up, the last two men dropped their weapons and put a knee on the ground.

The eleventh team did the knee on the ground response when their first man went down.

The twelfth team... There wasn't a twelfth team. All the waiting teams had decided to sit on the ground with the other men.

"The women have defeated the men," Lucas announced. "The men from the villages are now slaves. You must obey whatever a village woman tells you to do, starting with wearing this."

The cadets began distributing the black shrouds that they had collected to the village men. Maddy and Honto circulated to be sure that they men understood what would happen if they didn't put on their new clothes.

"You men from the mines, you will obey the Valkyries who are now distributing your clothing."

The ten Valkyries who would remain in the country began circulating through the men that had arrived from the mine and passing out shrouds as provided by the accompanying cadets. They must have run out of shrouds because not everybody in that group received one.

"Those miners who did not receive woman's clothes, stand up."

There was a unifying theme connecting all of the miners who were standing up.

"You boys may return to your mothers. Go now."

There was a split second delay, then the boys rushed to the other side of the lakebed, and the mothers were doing the same. There was a minute of mass confusion as mothers and sons found each other. As the mothers took their sons to their side of the lakebed, they raised their heads and demonstrated how ululation can express supreme joy. The boys joined in. As the sounds of joy swelled and echoed around the amphitheater, the Valkyries and Wilizy women could be seen openly weeping. Wilizy men were dislodging dust that had collected in their eyes and turning away so that other men would not see them attending to personal hygiene issues. And, if you're curious about such matters, yes, Zulu men can and do ululate.

It was at that moment, that the KwaZulu nation was reborn.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 29

Some of my readers may have recognized Yolanda's influence in Mac and Melissa's decision to make the men wear women's clothing. Yolanda had once become Bossy Mom when Princess Freya, one of Maddy's alter egos, was bossing her stuffies around. _[#9, Bite Me.]_ Finding out what it felt like to be at the receiving end of naughty behaviour was effective. Melissa and Mac used the same approach with their young children. They had hoped that a similar approach would work for the KwaZulu fathers.

A significant number of Wilizy, mostly males, thought that the way that five year old children reacted to this treatment didn't necessarily mean that adult males would react the same way. Plus, those males had been conditioned to be lazy drunks for twenty years. They predicted that the men would have to remain in servitude for some time and they might try to rip off those clothes and go back to drinking. They didn't want the Valkyries facing that kind of rebellion. William developed a wristband for the men that could serve as a reminder that they were indeed slaves and they needed to obey. A Valkyrie would be able to tighten that wristband to painful levels if she deemed it necessary. Those wristbands, pink in colour, were in a jumbo, available for attachment at the amphitheater. Only a Valkyrie could remove the wristband completely when the KwaZulu women judged that certain men had advanced out of pigdom.

In describing their plan to the Wilizy, Mac and Melissa were very fuzzy about how the miners would be treated. Servitude under the Valkyries was all they mentioned. They didn't mention that those miners included young boys, although many of them knew that. They kept their thoughts, and expectations, to themselves. They knew the impact that recovering their sons would have on the women. They weren't sure what impact it would have on the men. When they saw Wilizy men wiping away tears and the Zulu men joining in the mass ululation, only then did Mac and Melissa celebrate, although that celebration was somewhat moist. Let's just say that a birthday cake with candles would not have been a good way to celebrate.

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas was waiting for a degree of calm to return to the amphitheater before he introduced Umkhonto and Stu to the justice part of the assembly. Reese, who had never been accused of being overly sentimental, was looking at the twenty men who were under the cover of the tent. None of them had joined in on the celebration. Perhaps that was because they saw that this mass celebration marked the end of their control over the KwaZulu nation. Or, perhaps there was another reason. Reese was part of Honto's mind messaging address book and he messaged her.

_Honto, can you come over to the tent? I'm seeing a colour in these men that I've never seen before. I'd like you to look at them with me._

_I have to get ready. Something's wrong with my costume._

_That can wait._

Honto was still in her black shroud as she joined Reese in front of the tent. They were far enough away that they could speak normally.

"Have you seen that coral colour before?" Reese asked.

"No."

"It's not part of my database. Do you have any ideas what it is?"

"It's regret."

"How do you know?"

"I just know. Is it recent?"

"I checked their colours earlier today. I didn't see any coral. Are you sure that it's regret?"

"Yes."

"Is it temporary?"

"I don't know. It fills the entire center of their aura. I can't see if they have any bad colours underneath because of the coral."

"What about the two that aren't showing coral? I see intense hatred."

"I do too. I'll take care of them," Honto declared.

### # # # # # # # #

The original plan for this part of the day was for Stu to act as a prosecutor and list the charges against all twenty men. The people would vote on the guilt or innocence of each man. It would be a long afternoon, and many Wilizy had argued that the people would be hard pressed to keep their focus. Plus, now that the children were with them, that happiness could cloud their judgment. Reese had not been able to reduce the twenty to a manageable number. He had no way to quantify how evil each man was.

With eighteen men now showing colours that clouded if not removed their guilt, Hank made an executive decision that those men shouldn't go to trial. Instead, they should wear black shrouds and join the other men from the mines. Honto would be asked to check their colours on a regular basis to see what their underlying colours had become.

That prompted Mac and Melissa to make a sudden change in their plans. Only two men would face charges. Thus, Stu was not needed to prosecute them as in a courtroom. Honto would face the men directly. One man was the head of the government, a man who had named himself Inkosi, which means _King_ in English. The other was the head of the army. We have already met him. He was Umnqobi, Honto's interrogator. In English that name means _Victor_. Those two men would face justice as decided by the KwaZulu. Melissa and Mac had a brief visit with Honto to explain how she should do that. Honto wanted them to do something about her costume that wasn't working, but they told her that the costume would have to wait. First, she was going to do the spear thing.

### # # # # # # # #

"I will now introduce you to one of the women's champion who you saw fighting here earlier. He name used to Abina and she used to live in the village of No-Name with her mother Kabili and her two sisters."

At that point, Umkhonto joined Lucas in the middle of the lakebed. She was still wearing her black shroud and carried a spear with a wooden shaft and a knife blade attached to the end.

Lucas continued. "Abina took another name when she decided that she would have to take over the government so that the women of KwaZulu could lead a better life, one in which they could wear what they wanted, speak when they wanted, and marry the man the wanted. That name was _Umkhonto_. She left KwaZulu to find friends who would be able to help her. Umkhonto has lived with the Wilizy and the Valkyries and we came with her to help her change the country. It is now time for Umkhonto to speak to you."

...

"The Zulu gods have given me many gifts. I've always been big and strong. I've always questioned why KwaZulu women had to remain quiet and let men rule our lives in such a hateful way. The Zulu gods gave me the ability to see into the souls of people and know what kind of person they were. I saw evil men come into our village and talk with our men in the bar. Those evil men were from the government and from the country's security forces. I realized that nobody would do anything about that."

"As I got older, the gods sent me dreams in which they showed me how I could change what was happening. I decided that I would take over the government. The gods continued to send me dreams, this time of a man who would help me. I met that man and he had powers equal to mine. He took me to his land where his people taught me many things and agreed to help me free the people of KwaZulu from the evil men controlling our country. Those friends are the ones you see here in this lakebed. It is now time for me to free my country from tyranny. I appear before you as our ancient Zulu warriors would do battle." With that, Honto stabbed her spear into the dust of the lake bed and removed her shroud and then hoisted her spear into the air and pumped it a couple of times.

Well, if the Zulu warriors did battle in the outfit that Honto was wearing, they could have died from cold before they went into battle. The clothing part consisted of a straining black bra and black short shorts. A narrow burgundy coloured loincloth extended over the black shorts front and back. Both the bra and the shorts had received special treatment while Momaka was helping her dress so that she'd need help to remove them. She tried to take them off before her battle but couldn't. That was the something that was wrong with her costume that she mentioned to Reese. Honto had burgundy coloured leggings that extended from ankle to knee. These were covered in a mass of Pineapple Lily flowers that Momaka found in a special trip to South Africa. Honto also had a headband and wristbands in the same colour and flowers. If it had been Halloween, Honto's costume would have been a shrub of burgundy lilies, minus the shrub.

Lucas stepped forward and gestured to the cadets at the tent. They unfastened the restraints on the two men still sitting there, guided them into the centre of the circle, and then stepped away.

Lucas continued. "You know this man as Inkosi. He thinks of himself as being your king. How do you respond to what you have seen and heard here today, Inkosi?"

"The government is not run by tyrants. We are a poor country and it was necessary to make laws that would ensure that we could live in peace. Battles among us would cripple our country. During the time that I have been your king, no crimes have been committed. We have lived in peace with each other. With one exception, not a single act of violence has been committed that did not result in the criminal being taken out of society and jailed. The sole exception was this woman's crimes of violence. She is the right hand of the devil. Do not believe her."

Lucas continued to act as referee. "You know this next man as Umnqobi. He is the head of your army and security forces. How do you respond to what you have seen and heard here today, Umnqobi?"

"This woman attacked defenseless men and killed them. What Zulu gods would smile on that? Her stories about Zulu gods helping her are the ravings of a demented emotional woman - the kind of woman that our king's laws were designed to control. You saw this man-hating witch attack our men today. Do not believe that she had the blessing from the gods."

"Honto?" the ref asked.

"Yes, I killed some men. The men I killed were violating the very laws that King has said were never violated. You women all know that there are men in your village who beat their wives. You all know that there are women in your village who were forced to marry a man they did not want to marry. When that man had sex with her, he was raping her. The king did not make laws to protect us. The head of the army did not act to protect women from sexual crimes. Our gods do not smile on them."

"Only a demented woman would claim the gods sent her," Umnqobi responded. "She hears voices in her head. You can't prove that the gods have given you their blessings."

In response, Umkhonto raised her spear, took a few steps to her left, and thrust her spear deep into the lakebed so that only the tip of the shaft was visible. "The two of you have no power as a king or head the army. The boys that you see around the lake bed captured your entire army this morning. If you have powers, pull that spear out of the ground."

Inkosi, the king, went first. He had noticed how easily the spear had gone into the ground; he thought an easy pull would bring it out. It didn't. A hard pull didn't work either. In desperation, he planted both feet, bent his knees, grabbed the tip handle with both hands and pulled. The spear didn't budge.

Umnqobi went next and had the same result. He tried wriggling the spear so that it would come loose, but all he did was kick up dust. He gave up as well.

Umkhonto motioned the two men to move back and approached the top of the shaft sticking out of the dusty lakebed bottom. But first, a prayer to the most powerful goddess was in order. Honto began pounding the ground with her feet, pumping her hands into the air, and chanting repeatedly, "Mbaba Mwana Waresa, show these people your powers."

When she was satisfied that her prayer had been heard, Umkhonto approached the spear handle, and raised her two fingers of her right hand into the air. She kneeled beside the spear handle, and using only the two fingers of her right hand, she lifted the spear out of the ground. Waving it in a circle over her head, the KwaZulu people could clearly see the sun shining brightly off its gold shaft and blade.

The people had only one possible response.

### # # # # # # # #

While calm was being restored, Wolf entered the amphitheater and he and Lucas deposited eight black speaker boxes strategically positioned so that everybody could hear from them. When they had finished, they stood behind the two men, and each put a hand on a shoulder to keep them in place.

Umkhonto began speaking again. "These two men lied to us when they said that the men and boys were in our army. There was no army. The men and boys were living in a secret camp in Lethotho where they were working deep underground mining for gold. This is where my friends captured our supposed army this morning. My friends allowed me to listen to a conversation that the two of them had had in that mining camp. My friends will let all of us listen to that conversation now. You'll hear the conversation clearly enough to recognize who is speaking. Everybody should be quiet now."

_[From the recording, the KwaZulu people learned that both men owned a small part of the gold mine. They had been taking gold as payment and hiding it away for years. The recording also revealed that Inkosi wanted to keep the men and boys of the country small in stature so that they could mine in the narrow tunnels. Their meager diet had been intentional. This was the recording that Reese made but it could never have been admitted into a courtroom because Reese was invisible at the time. There's more than one type of courtroom.]_

Wolf played the recording twice so that everybody could hear and understand.

Silence again, and then Umkhonto spoke one final time.

"The people of KwaZulu should now judge these two men. If you think that these two men should taste KwaZulu justice today, stand on your feet."

Everybody looked around at the sea of standing men, women and boys. Lucas whispered into the men's ears. "If you don't move, it will go faster for you."

It did.

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# Chapter 30

I should tell my readers that justice in some places in the world is not delivered quietly, behind closed doors. The history of the KwaZulu people included public deaths. Their wars were hand-to-hand affairs and resulted in gruesome deaths. At least they were gruesome from the perspective of more 'civilized' people who want somebody else to slaughter their cows, and then somebody to else to strip the meat off the bones, and somebody else to package it up in nice sterile containers.

The two dead bodies on the lakebed were not gruesome for the KwaZulu. But they were for the cadets who were tasked with cleaning up the lakebed. This had been a conscious decision of the cadet leadership. The cadets would be a military force. They would see death first hand. They shouldn't be flinching when blood spatter hits them. They needed this clean up experience.

Umkhonto had no awareness that she had created a gruesome death scene. She kicked a severed head back to its body where it belonged and plunged her gold spear into the sand of the lakebed to clean it. Seeing some blood on the haft of the spear, she removed it with a clean piece of cloth from the other body and walked away. Perhaps she might have cleaned the shaft with a piece of her own clothing, but she didn't have much of that to spare.

Speaking of plunging the gold spear into the lakebed, you might be wondering about that. Yes, when the Wilizy gave Umkhonto the official blessing of the Zulu gods, that would be considered presumptuous if you didn't believe in Zulu gods. From the Wilizy's perspective, the gods didn't create a gold spear; the Wilizy did it. Honto's reaction was simple. "The Zulu gods brought you to me and you changed the wood to gold. Why does it matter who actually changed the wood to gold? You were serving their wishes."

You may wonder why Mac and Melissa changed the spear to gold? Both were aware of the Arthurian legend of the sword in the stone. In that fable, King Arthur had established himself as a magical king because he could remove that sword when nobody else could. Melissa and Mac wanted Umkhonto to be seen as a powerful, magical force because she would need that kind of presence to keep the country together. When two men couldn't remove the spear and when she lifted out a wooden spear that somehow had become gold, she was demonstrating to the people that the Zulu gods were helping her. The Arthurian legend was alive and well in KwaZulu.

As to how the Wilizy made that happen, it was easy. William designed a metal scabbard that would lock any contents in place as soon as the wooden spear was thrust into it. He buried that scabbard in the lakebed, leaving enough of it visible for Umkhonto to aim at. No force could have broken the scabbard's grip on the spear.

As Umkhonto prayed to Mbaba Mwana Waresa and raised a lot of dust in the process, William pressed an electronic button that lowered the scabbard deeper into the lakebed so that the tip of the wooden spear was no longer visible. He then pressed another button that raised another scabbard hidden in the lakebed close to the first. That scabbard contained the golden spear. A toddler could have removed that spear.

Are you wondering about the source of the gold? The Wilizy still had robots operating in mines in Alberta. _[Bob the Invisible Dragon, #6]_ Some of those mines contained gold. Wizard had barrels and barrels of it hidden in storage.

### # # # # # # # #

Let's return now to the amphitheater. The gore has been removed and the KwaZulus have sat down again. Mac appeared leading the thirty Valkyries in three lines of ten. She strode to the middle of the lakebed and the Valkyries took up positions around the circumference. For the fashionistas among us, the Valkyries were wearing white mid-heel pumps, white slacks, white belts, and white blazer-style jackets. For colour, they had a gold blouse and two crossed ribbons of emerald green on the lapels of the jackets.

Mac began to speak. Her background in the military meant that nobody had to strain to hear her.

"My name is Mac and I'm the commander of the Valkyries that you see standing in front of you. You should think of the Valkyries as a military force that can bring lethal weapons to bear when we need to. But we are more than that. We are also healers. As a nation, you have removed the source of the illness that has crippled your country, but that doesn't mean that you are healthy now. We will help your country recover its strength so that all of its citizens are respected and all citizens will contribute to the country. Ten Valkyries will remain here with you for the next year. These Valkyries are now your government. For a temporary period, they will make the laws and enforce them as necessary."

"The first law is this: You men must wear the black clothes that you have been given. You must do whatever a village woman or a Valkyrie tells you to do. You must work hard. You must treat women with respect. If necessary, the women of a village can ban you from talking to a woman until you can follow this law. If necessary, a Valkyrie will punish you if you do not obey. If necessary, Umkhonto's spear will have a chat with you."

"The second law is this: Effective immediately, all marriages are annulled. Men, you will have to build your own sod houses to live in. You cannot live in the houses of your former wives. Women will care for and educate the boys and girls that they had from that marriage."

"A man will be considered a slave until the village women, or a Valkyrie, decide that he is able to contribute to the KwaZulu country as an equal with the women. At that time, a Valkyrie will remove the pink wristband that marks him as a slave. It is entirely possible that some of you will remain a slave forever. That future is up to you to change."

"Once a man is no longer a slave, he may marry a KwaZulu woman if she agrees to this."

"At the end of June this year, each village will elect a woman, and a man (if he is not a slave), to represent the village at a grand meeting where the citizens of KwaZulu will create the laws for your new healthy country. The Valkyries will assist you with that process. That process will eventually end in a government that is controlled by the citizens of the country."

"We have some gifts for you. Each woman has already received a gift of three sets of new clothes. When a man rises out of slavery, he may also chose three sets of new clothes for himself from clothes that we will provide as gifts."

"For those of you farming the land, each village will receive a solar powered machine called a tractor that can till, plant, and harvest the crop in most cases. That same machine can dig holes, haul wagonloads of crops, and even transport people from one village to another. The Valkyrie will train people within the villages to operate this machine."

"For those of you farming the land, the Valkyries will alter the crops that you will grow. You are growing too much barley for the time, energy, and resources that this crop takes. You will be given instruction and the seeds necessary to widen the range of crops that you grow. Most important within these changes will be a peanut crop. Peanuts will help you and your children become healthier, and since no other country in Africa grows peanuts, this crop will give you an advantage when you trade with other countries."

"Not everybody may want to work on a farm. The former fake army will become workers for the country as a whole. These people will come to each village and build brick houses so that you do not need to live in wet holes in the ground. One of these buildings must be a school. Government workers will add solar and wind power collectors to villages so that all houses will have electricity. When the most basic needs have been met, government workers will build dams and water aqueducts that will bring more of your land into fertile use. The Valkyries will train these workers. Men and women from the villages may choose to apply for these kinds of job. Slave men need not apply while they are still slaves."

"Shortly, the Wilizy men will bring in the tractors and start you on your way back to your villages. You have made a big stride today towards becoming healthier as a people and as a country. It's now time for most of us Valkyries to return to our own home. Ten of our healers will be watching and helping you."

With that, Mac and each Valkyrie did something inexplicable, at least to the KwaZulu who all went barefoot. Each lifted up a foot and grabbed a shoe. Then they lifted up the other foot, and grabbed a shoe. At a nod from Mac, they flew above the amphitheater (power packs), hovered for a few seconds, and then disappeared over the horizon.

Showing the people of KwaZulu that Umkhonto wasn't the only one with magical power is understandable. Mac wanted to leave a lasting impression. But why the shoes? That's easy to explain. In the dress rehearsal for their departure, the elegant disappearance over the horizon was marred by shoes falling off feet. Raining cats and dogs can be explained. Raining white pumps can't.

### # # # # # # # #

Looking into the future. Mac's plan for how the Valkyries would re-build a nation worked like a charm. Mind you, she had many a morning session with Doc and Stu talking about how to stimulate economies and how to write constitutions and laws. The Valkyries who were going to guide the Zulus were there too. While Doc was unable to be in KwaZulu, he definitely was there in spirit and wanted to know everything that happened when they returned.

All of the KwaZulu men were relieved of their pink bracelets within a year. The peanut industry turned out to be a dominant economic force in Africa. Within a decade, every possible acre of arable land in the country was growing something. Government jobs were recognized as an opportunity, not only to help your country, but as a place where you learned important skills.

As to Honto. I have written earlier that Honto was developing into the zesty woman that she would become. As the years went on, she became the Zulu goddess mom of the country. She'd tour the county, visiting villages. The children swarmed her and she spent days playing with them.

Zest for life can be displayed in different ways. Honto had no shortage of zest for something else. We saw the emergence of that with the cadets. When she was of age, she'd play with the children in the daytime and share a bed at night. This may seem scandalous for some of my readers. Zulu women didn't mind. Zulu men certainly didn't mind. They all hoped that the child that she inevitably would bear would be theirs. To have a son or daughter of a goddess was as close as they could get to going to whatever heaven Zulu goddesses lived in. As we know from our mythological history books, few gods or goddesses can produce children with mortals successfully. Umkhonto wasn't sharing a bed to bear children. She was sharing a bed because she had a zest for life.

The Valkyries kept in touch with Umkhonto over the years. There was only one time when their services were needed, along with the now adult cadets. A neighbouring country thought that a country with no standing army would be easy pickings. Mac's daughter, Emily, and Melissa's daughter, MayaLou, led the Valkyries into battle. William's son, Will, lead the Wilizy forces. Umkhonto rampaged through the enemy with her spear as though she were 13 years old again. I can't give you any more details on this war because I was long dead when it happened.

Shortly after the war was won, the Zulu Gods called Umkhonto home. At least, that was what the KwaZulu people concluded when her sword of gold was found standing upright in the dust of the amphitheater in which it was born. That sword is now displayed in the KwaZulu National Museum of Heritage along with a tractor, a white and gold uniform of a Valkyrie, and a dusty, ripped black shroud.

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# Chapter 31

Back in Toronto, Lance Williams was walking Winnie home after an evening of dancing. They were talking about childhood experiences. He had his arm around her shoulders; she had her arm around his waist. They had been doing this long enough that they had their steps synchronized so that it was like one body walking without bumping each other. Up to this point, Lance had progressed no further in displaying his affection for her than holding her hand or walking arm in arm. Winnie was confident that he felt affection. He had been stalled for so long in the on deck circle that she thought no other man would pursue a woman for this long if he didn't like her. He just didn't want to scare her off. That's why he hadn't stepped up to the plate yet. He didn't know this, but he would reach first base when he eventually did step into the batter's box. Perhaps even tonight. It was dark enough. No moon. Could be romantic.

"I was teased a lot when I was in school," Lance admitted. "I wish I could have been homeschooled like you."

"Why did they tease you?"

"Did I ever tell you my middle name?"

"No."

"I was named after my mother. In our family, the first boy is given the maiden name of his mother. My mother's maiden name was Lott."

"Why would they tease you for that?"

"Lance .... Lott."

"Sir Lancelot of the round table?"

"That's me."

"Huh."

"I think that the teasing made me a better person. I believe that, even today, a man should be chivalrous towards women."

"Did you know that the origin of my first name is Welsh?"

"No. Is that important?"

"My name is a form of the name Guinevere."

"Really?"

"Really."

"It's like we're destined to be together. Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot. Do you believe in destiny, Queen Guinevere?"

"I might." _[He's chivalrous. That's why he's been going so slowly.]_

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# Chapter 32

Wednesday, April 9.

_Winnie, the duke has just told Larry, Mo and Curly to meet him in Hell at Staging Area 2. He's taking two backpacks of demons into Hell and will meet them there._

_Thanks, Paula. Do you know where Staging Area 2 is?_

_No. Meghan will follow him. She's taking Arthur into Hell in his fish form and he'll set up in the guest quarters that we used before. Lillian wanted you to take care of the cameras in the sewers leading to it._

_Hang on_

_..._

_The cameras will transmit an empty sewer scene from now on. What will you be doing?_

_I'll follow one of the three stooges._

_You must be jumping out of your skins. It's taken forever for the duke to act._

_We've all been antsy. Good to be back in action now. The wait was good for Joe-Joe though._

_How so?_

_If the shoulder demons are going to attack through the grottos, he has some very nasty rain that will flood the grottos. He hopes that they'll either drown or they'll be eaten up._

_Piranhas?_

_No. He's adding acid to the rainwater. Even with this, some of the shoulder demons could sneak through. He needs lots of advance warning from us._

_Any changes in Lillian's plans?_

_Not that we've heard. For now, we watch to see how the duke is planning to deploy his army. I figure he has at least a thousand shoulder demons. If you don't hear from me, that's because nothing is happening._

_Thanks, Paula._

### # # # # # # # #

Two days later, Friday:

_Winnie, the Duke has 1,327 shoulder demons. We may be wrong on the count a bit because they don't stand still very often._

_What are they doing?_

_The duke has set up a string of training activities that the three stooges are supervising. They practice with their needles, but they are also doing a lot of military formation work. He has them in squads of fifty and they are learning to charge a defensive position of twenty demons and overwhelm it. Nobody has weapons at this time. It's all claw-to-claw combat for now._

_We knew they would use their number to overwhelm. Where is their training area?_

_Way off in Hell's extremities where they won't be discovered by accident. We've seen no clues about who they will attack yet. The duke is going to SinSin-atti this afternoon but we don't know why. Meghan is following him and is hoping to approach him privately. Arthur has been bombarding the duke with worry emotions. She's been working on one of the stooges as well._

_Everything is going according to plan then._

_Yeah. What are you doing?_

_Joe-Joe is working with me one-on-one. He's teaching me to use a foil with a little hook in it that can de-scale a devil. Ordinary foils have a sharp point, but you have to be extremely accurate to slip the point under a scale. This other foil can be lethal. He's with me twelve hours a day. He says I can still go to Earth on weekends._

_Are you exhausted?_

_Not really. I only have to learn the wrist twist. He's also throwing in gymnastic moves that I can do on the ground. Roll and stab kind of thing. He says these moves are dangerous and I should only use them if I need to. I can't get the timing right on them yet. He's clipping me every time I try one. I think I'm giving away my intentions with my eyes._

_Clipping you?_

_A little slap from his foil. Doesn't hurt, but it's embarrassing. He always gets me on my butt._

_Women don't have butts. They have posteriors._

_This one has a butt and it's a sore one._

### # # # # # # # #

Friday, 1:15 pm.

"Duke, keep walking. Don't turn around."

"Surely you're not stupid enough to try to rob me. I'm a member of the SSS."

"Don't call me, Shirley. _[Very old joke.]_ I know you're a member of the SSS. You just came out of their building. Do you know that you are under observation?"

"Devils see me all the time. I'm supposed to be seen."

"Are you supposed to be seen way off in Hell's extremities?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'll tell you more, but not here. Meet me at Torture Pit #3257."

"What's being tortured in Pit #3257?"

"Mortals who play the accordion have to listen to classical music."

"Why would I go there?"

"One of your aides is going to reveal your secret operations with the shoulder demons this coming Monday. Satan will have your head that afternoon. Be at Pit #3257, tonight, 7 pm."

"How will I know you?"

"How many devils do you think would want to listen to classical music?"

### # # # # # # # #

Friday: 7:30 pm.

The Duke of Earl looked up as a devil body composed of elephant feet, a crocodile body, and the head of a pus dripping rat face trudged down the stairs of what had been an empty pit before the Duke arrived. The tortured souls were snoozing. "Sometimes, I wonder what Hell is coming to these days," Meghan said loudly enough for the Duke to hear."

"Did you choose that ugly body willingly?" the duke asked.

"I got this thanks to Lord Percy who was not full of admiration for my job as his apprentice."

"Who are you?"

"You can call me Huey."

"I have no secret operations, but say I did, what would I be doing?"

"You have been collecting shoulder demons and hiding them in Hell's extremities. The SSS has you under surveillance."

"I would never do that. The SSS don't have any reason to watch me."

"I'm glad you're suspicious of me. That means that you are indeed a devil to respect. I know who's watching you because I used to be a member of the SSS a long time ago. Lord Percy found me extorting an important devil and fired me. Because of that, I've been unable to get a full time job. I'm sure you'll want to check that I did work for the SSS. I will tell you how to access my SSS employment file along with my picture. You won't find the file in the normal SSS personnel folder. Lord Percy doesn't want other devils to learn that an SSS devil had been fired. It's not good for their image."

"Let's say for argument's sake, that I have been hiking in Hell's extremities from time to time. Why would somebody be watching me?"

"Because Hell cannot stop your army if you complete their training."

"And who would be watching me in this fairy tale of yours."

"You have three devils at your side almost constantly. All three of them are members of the SSS."

"But I have access to SSS personnel files. I could find these devils out easily."

"If Lord Percy had to investigate his own people, would he be stupid enough to put the personnel files of his snoops where they could be discovered?"

"Talk is cheap. Prove it."

"Go to the purgatory.net address on this paper. You'll be directed to an unnamed folder. In that folder are the pictures and employment history of the three devils you thought you could trust. I'll be here tomorrow night at 7:30. I can help you with those three devils and other parts of your plan that are incomplete. In return, I want to be in charge of the SSS after you defeat Lord Percy's security forces."

### # # # # # # # #

The next day, 7:30

"You said that my secret would be revealed Monday. How do you know that?"

"I have access to Lord Percy's computer. He has asked one of your trusted aides to report to him on Monday."

"One came to me this afternoon. He seemed quite insistent that I give him a two day furlough. He complained that he hasn't been on leave for months."

"I expect he will tell Lord Percy everything he knows. Can you survive his treachery?"

"We're not ready for battle. I can arrange a training accident for him and the other two."

"And when they don't reply to Lord Percy's next email?"

"Do you have a suggestion?"

"I do. I have a friend who knows computers. When Lord Percy emails any of these aides for a report, Lord Percy will get an email back that says a lot but reveals nothing. You're attacking Hell right? Not Heaven?"

"Hell first. My army will be able to overwhelm Heaven too, but I need to secure my home base first."

"Smart move."

"What about my three aides?"

"I have another friend who can make them quietly disappear."

"How would these two friends of yours feel about my little enterprise?"

"I'd have to share some information with them. They have every reason to hate Hell but they'd need to know more about your plans. They won't join if they don't believe you can win. You can't blame them for that."

"I expect to have an opening for three aides soon. I'll make you head of the SSS after I win here. What would your friends like?"

"Revenge on Heaven. Both got sent to Hell because of an interfering angel when they were mortals."

"Make my three aides disappear and we'll talk."

### # # # # # # # #

On Sunday, Joe-Joe found three devils trussed up, blindfolded, ear-plugged, and gagged in the grottos. "These three are the Duke's inner circle aides. Can you take care of them?" Paula asked.

"Sure."

"We know now that duke will be attacking Hell first. Heaven will be second."

"Good to know. Any idea when or from where?"

"Not yet. We've just joined his staff. He doesn't trust us yet. You wanted evidence that Hell was planning to attack Heaven. What if you caught these advance scouts in the grottos?"

"Do they know how you collected them?"

"They're dumber than a sack of earwigs. Meghan says that the duke isn't much smarter."

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# Chapter 33

Monday, April 14.

Huey and the duke were meeting in Staging Area #2. The duke had satisfied himself that Huey was indeed a disgraced SSS devil and his three current aides were active SSS agents. Huey was introducing his two friends.

"You're Dewey and Louie?" the duke asked. "Do you expect me to believe that?"

Paula responded. "You didn't think that we would give you our real names, did you?"

"So that makes me Uncle Scrooge?"

"That will make you the richest devil in Hell if you do this right," Arthur responded.

"What do you need from us?" Meghan asked.

...

"We can take care of all of that," Meghan assured. "You take care of training your army, we'll make all of your problem disappear."

"Like you did with my aides. What did you do with them?"

"If you don't know, you won't have to lie," Arthur said.

"What?"

"We won't tell you so that if you are asked about them, you can say that you didn't know where they went," Paula explained in words less than three syllables long.

### # # # # # # # #

On Tuesday, April 15, two demon-to-devil conversion machines appeared in Staging Area #2. The duke had a devilian army by Friday, four day later.

Friday night, April 18, Meghan and Arthur took the conversion machines back to their usual location. One of Meghan's friends removed the two signs that said, _Out for repairs_ and that was that. On his way back, Arthur stopped in Earth and picked up several dozen wooden torches.

Meanwhile, Paula told Winnie what they had been doing while she was on her Friday night date with Lance and ended the briefing with a question. _How's your date going?_

"He's certainly very chivalrous," she replied somewhat testily.

### # # # # # # # #

On Saturday, April 19, Meghan and Arthur retrieved ten cases of foils from the UPS depot in SinSin-atti and transported them in a UPS delivery vehicle to Staging area #2. Meghan had to squeeze into a UPS delivery devil uniform while Arthur just changed bodies. Nobody noticed a thing.

On Sunday, April 20, the Duke's devils began training with foils. It was a big difference from using a needle. Their skills had only been _sew-sew_ with those.

Sunday night, Paula briefed Joe-Joe and Winnie on everything that had been happening that week. Then, she added: "The duke says that we'll be in Staging Area #2 until Friday."

"Any idea where Staging Area #1 is?" Joe-Joe asked.

"No, he's staying secretive. He plans to give his army one day of training to sharpen them up." Paula replied.

"That means that we can expect him to attack Hell on Beezleday," Winnie observed. "What better day to attack Satan than on Beezleday?"

"Do you think that was planned?" Joe-Joe asked.

"No. The duke doesn't think too long when he's planning," Paula observed.

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# Chapter 34

It was Thursday April 24. Joe-Joe and Lillian were trying to set up a schedule.

"We expect the duke to attack on Beezleday, right?" Lillian asked.

"Yes, but we won't know where they're going to attack from until tomorrow."

"Will that make much of a difference for the Christian Soldiers?"

"No, not much. Only the timing changes. We can reach anywhere we need to in Hell's extremities. I just wish I could nail it down."

"You know that you cannot go into Hell, Joe-Joe."

"I know."

"We can't risk having two senior angels out of Heaven at this time."

"I know, Lillian. Are your boards still flashing red?"

"Yes. Normally, it would be folly to proceed."

"But, we know the basic plan is sound. Winnie confirmed it. You're still confident in her abilities?"

"We have no better strategist, Joe-Joe."

"Other than you. You're still expecting the plan to fail because of a random event, right?"

"Yes. I believe that random event will happen to me. That's why I will be in the safest place I can imagine. My side of the plan should not be affected if I am under protection. If the duke's operation is randomized, get Winnie into the battle zone immediately. She should be safe where she is now. I've kept her out of the operation for that reason. Paula can get to her instantaneously wherever she is. She should tell Winnie that she's in charge. Don't tell her about me."

"You'll be safe on the ship."

"Yes, remember that we cannot communicate when I'm not meeting. We can communicate at other times, but the conversation will be monitored. Be careful what you say. Who did you choose for battle commander?"

"Winnie's Sir Galahad."

"You've given him lots of time with his troops recently. Is he ready?"

"Yes. I've talked with him about all the circumstances that might arise. We military folks have battle plans coming out our wazoo. He's used to uncertainty."

"Can Winnie execute on all the possible solutions to the duke?"

"Skill wise, yes. Can she kill him? I don't know. Check your boards again?"

...

"Flashing red."

"We can wait a bit longer.

"No, we can't. Execute Plan P, Joe-Joe."

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# Chapter 35

The room was a sterile rectangular box. A simple meeting table sat in the middle of the box. A speaker nestled inside a white box sat at the end of the table. On one side of the table, an angel sat in a comfortable chair. The table surface in front of her was bare. Behind her, a locked exit/entrance door ensured she would remain in the room. Opposite her, there was an empty chair with an entrance/exit door that was currently unlocked. As she watched, a devil opened the door and sat down in the chair. He put no materials on the table. Both of them heard the door lock. They looked at each other and said nothing.

"This mediation meeting is now called to order," a metallic voice announced from the white speaker. "Present in the meeting is the female angel, Brunhilda. Also present is the male devil, Lord Percy."

"The angel Brunhilda called for this meeting under protocol 23.7.8 in which she invoked emergency measure that required a meeting as soon as physically possible. I remind both participants that the truth ray can be invoked at any time if a participant wishes to verify if a statement is true. If a participant wants to question the other participant under the truth ray, both parties must agree and any questions must be posed so that they can be answered with a _yes_ or a _no_. The respondent is not obligated to say anything else in his or her response but may do so if desired."

"Both of you have the credentials to negotiate on behalf of your race and as such, you will be prevented from communicating with your home organization during meetings as that would allow other individuals to be involved in the mediation. If you wish to communicate to your home organization while you are here, you must ask permission and you should know that your communications will be monitored. You two and only you two will participate in this meeting. As long as you are in this facility, both of you will be safe from harm. However, you will not be allowed to leave your half of the facility. The only time you can interact with each other is when you are in this room. Truth ray on: Do the parties understand and agree to these rules?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Truth ray off: Lord Percy, you may begin."

"I received a sealed envelope in my office earlier this morning. It contained a letter. I will read the contents of this letter into the official register."

_"From the desk of Brunhilda, Thursday, April 24, 2092. It has come to my attention that Hell is facing a crisis that may overwhelm its security forces and could cause untold harm to your organization. Heaven is prepared to help you if you wish us to._ That letter was signed, Brunhilda. Will you submit to the truth ray, Brunhilda?"

"Yes."

"Truth ray on Brunhilda _:_ Brunhilda, did you write this letter?"

"Yes."

"Did you personally deliver this letter to my office?"

"No."

"Is there a postal service connecting Heaven and Hell?"

"No."

"How then did you get that letter to me?"

A red light flashed. The mechanical box said, _Improper question. Reword._

"Brunhilda, do you have an angel working as an undercover agent in Hell?"

"Yes."

"Do you have more than one angel working as an undercover agent in Hell?"

"No."

"For the record, I note that this is an unacceptable violation of our borders."

_Record noted. Did you wish to ask the angel Brunhilda more questions, Lord Percy?_

"Yes. What is the crisis that you allege can cause Hell untold harm?"

A red light flashed and the mechanical box said, _Improper question. Reword._

"For the record," Brunhilda interrupted. "I am prepared to explain the crisis in my own words. When I am finished, Lord Percy may ask me if I what I have said is true under the truth ray."

"I agree to this. Truth ray off."

"If I am unclear about details, that is because our undercover angel has learned only the broad strokes of a plot against Satan. We have learned that the devil known as the Duke of Earl has formed a massive army of shoulder demons that he has smuggled into Hell from Earth. He was supposed to be removing them from active duty. He was operating with Hell's knowledge and permission as far as removing them from active duty. In the last several days, all of those shoulder demons have been converted into devils. The Duke of Earl has been giving them military training. I have been told that this force would be unstoppable if they attacked Hell's security forces. With the approval of my superiors, through this letter, I am offering to help Hell defeat these rebels. That form of assistance would require Heaven's military forces to cross Hell's borders and destroy the rebels. Our forces would then withdraw. Truth ray on Brunhilda."

"Brunhilda, is what you just said true?"

"Yes."

"Truth ray off Brunhilda: For the record, I will need some time."

_Meeting is recessed for thirty minutes._

### # # # # # # # #

Friday morning: Huey, Dewey and Louie were in Patsy Phew's old apartment gathering what they would need for the next couple of days. The duke had told them that he'd use the cover of murk-down Friday night to move to Staging Area #1. They were in human, non-duck, form. All three of them froze when they heard three loud bangs on the apartment's air lock door. Meghan converted to her devil form immediately. Paula went invisible a split second later. Arthur took the body of a lime green shoulder demon and positioned himself on one of the armrests of the sofa.

Three knocks were repeated. "I come in peace. Open up."

Meghan did and saw a devil standing there. "What are you doing here?" the devil asked

"What are **you** doing here?" DBBLYN replied.

"Trying to sneak into this apartment before anybody sees me. Can I come in?"

"No." DBBLYN certainly had the heft to bar entry.

They stared at each other with some degree of hostility. The stranger saw Meghan in all of her elephantine, crocodilian and rat face glory. Meghan saw a female devil wearing a black T-shirt with the logo _Marketers do it by branding_ on the front. A red beret was slung rakishly over one horn.

_She's the Director of the Media Manipulation Division_ , Paula sent everybody. Meghan knew of the division but had never met the director.

"Lillian didn't tell you that I'd be coming by?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Typical of Lillian. Never sharing information broadly. Everything has to be compartmentalized."

"Who's Lillian?" Meghan tried again to feign ignorance.

"We're wasting time. I have to get out of xx!x Hell." With that, she changed into an angel and pushed her way into the apartment. "My name is Prudence. Where are the other two members of your team hiding?"

### # # # # # # # #

Back in the sterile box, nothing was happening. Nobody was even there unless you count the mechanical speaker sitting on the table. The thirty-minute recess had become an hour-long recess when Lillian asked permission to leave the room. The speaker had given permission. "I'll call you back when he's ready," it said.

Lord Percy tried to get permission to leave too, but was denied. _This meeting is still in session. We expect you to respond. FYI, your external communication link is now frozen._

Lord Percy had not made a good first impression on old Whitey Box.

Lillian didn't seem too perturbed, but she was wondering whether Prudence had made her way back to Heaven safely yet. So, she made an approved call to Joe-Joe to find out. Joe-Joe didn't give her the coded signal that Operation P had been completed satisfactorily. He did provide other interesting information.

### # # # # # # # #

Back in Hell, Prudence hadn't made it out of the apartment yet.

"You were our back up in case we ran into trouble during The Rat operation?"

"Yes. I was to show you the back door out of Hell if the mission could not be salvaged. Otherwise, I was to observe from a distance."

"How did you report to Lillian?" Paula asked.

"With great difficulty. Having a spirit as a member of a team was a xx!x stroke of genius. That's Lillian. She can be a royal pain in the ass to work with, but there's nobody better in creating novel plans of attack. Did she think up using Rat's tortured soul as an undercover agent too?"

"No, that was Winnie's idea."

"I've heard about her. And you're Arthur. I've heard about you too."

"How long were you undercover?" Arthur asked.

"It took me a lot of time to get any kind of recognition for my tortures. They gave me the devil name TRBLMKR. That tells you how much they liked me being around. So I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"Why the dickens did Lillian expose me as an undercover agent? " _[Prudence didn't use the word 'dickens.' You've probably gathered that devils aren't normally considered suitable conversationalists for the genteel people of the world.]_

Huey, Dewey and Louie told her what they knew about the duke's plans. But they didn't know why Lillian would have blown the cover of an angel who wouldn't tell them how long she had been spying.

"Are you upset that your cover is blown?" Paula asked.

"Why don't I give you the grand tour? I know where the duke will be setting up. Nobody in xx!x Hell goes anywhere near it."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 36

It's 2 pm, Friday afternoon. Lillian had been called back into the sterile room. Lord Percy was there waiting for her and started talking as soon as she sat down.

"I need to know more about Heaven's flagrant abuse of conventions by inserting an angel spy into Hell before I can commit to allowing military angels into Hell."

"You don't need to know that. You need to know that the Duke of Earl is poised to defeat Hell's SSS forces and I have told you that under the truth ray."

"You have told me what your undercover angel told you. That angel wasn't under the truth ray at the time. Do you have any solid evidence?"

"That would require somebody from Heaven to enter Hell. Do I have your permission to send some advance scouts into Hell and take pictures?"

" _Advance scouts_ is another term for a military force that is planning an invasion. You do not have my permission."

"So, you want us to wait until your SSS forces are lying dead before we can enter? By that time, we may not be able to contain the duke's army. We will need to strike before he attacks you. That's simple military strategy."

"I contend that Heaven has an ulterior motive in proposing the insertion of a strike force. After all, you did insert an undercover angel into Hell for ulterior purposes."

"Truth ray on Brunhilda: I admit that there is a degree of self interest in Heaven's proposal to stop the Duke's forces from assassinating all of the SSS devils they meet. We are not doing this because of love towards Hell. We are doing it because Heaven will be next on the duke's list of targets. Except by then, he could be in charge of Hell and he'll come at us with all of Hell's devils and demons. That devil is deranged. I am trying to prevent a full out Heaven-Hell war. Truth ray off."

Lord Percy waited for the machine to flash red. It didn't.

"But you have no direct evidence of that. All you have is a single angel who could easily be deranged and attempting to gain permission to send Heaven's forces into Hell. That angel could be doing exactly what you claim that the Duke of Earl is doing."

"Truth ray on Brunhilda: But we do have direct evidence. Do I have permission for a colleague to send some pictures to me. I will display the pictures. Truth ray off."

_I will give you permission. You now have access to the large screen on the wall._

"This first picture was taken near what we call the Athenian Caves and Grottos. This is where Heaven and Hell's territories touch. If Hell were to invade Heaven, it would most likely be here. This is also where our strike force will enter Hell if we ever get permission. Lord Percy, are you familiar with this area?"

"Truth ray on: Yes, I was shown this area as part of a visit to Heaven for some bilateral meetings. Truth ray off."

_We're also familiar with this area_.

"The next three pictures are a progression of closer and closer shots of the angel that you can see in the distance. We are now at mid range. The angel's features are clear. Lord Percy will recognize my colleague, Joe-Joe."

"I recognize Joe-Joe."

_We're familiar with Joe-Joe too. It is clearly him._

"Now, we're going to zoom in on the objects that are on the ground close to Joe-Joe's feet. Lord Percy, what are those objects?"

"Three devils, bound, blindfolded, ear plugged, and gagged."

"As you can see, these devils are clearly inside Heaven's borders. Joe-Joe has determined that these three devils are the Duke of Earl's most trusted aides. We could probably find some halographic pictures of the duke with these three devils if further proof is needed. They have, after all, been operating openly on Earth. These are clearly advance scouts. Lord Percy has argued that advance scouts are another term for a military force that is intent on invasion. For the record, I submit that this is solid evidence that Hell's forces, as commanded by the Duke of Earl, will be intent on invading Heaven. We have the right to defend ourselves with a preemptive strike on his army. In defending ourselves, we are also defending Hell from itself. "

_Lord Percy?_

"Truth ray on Lord Percy: I am surprised by the presence of these three demons in Heaven. I need some time. Truth ray off."

_One hour recess._

### # # # # # # # #

Prudence changed form to a shoulder demon, sat on Meghan's shoulder, and directed her out of SinSin-atti. Paula and Arthur followed them invisibly. "We're clear of security cameras now," she said. "We can fly."

"Do you come here often," Paula asked.

"Often, no. Regularly, yes. This was the start of my escape route to the Athenian caves if I had to leave xx!x Hell in a hurry. I used the grottos to report to Joe-Joe. Hell has mined the area and installed cameras, but that didn't affect me when I converted to a shoulder demon. I gave Joe-Joe a map of the area and the mines a long time ago, so if he's going to invade, he'll have a clear passage."

"He won't invade," Meghan said. "Lillian wants Hell to invite us in so that we can't be accused of starting a war."

"How will she do that?"

"We don't know," Paula admitted. "I check with Joe-Joe daily. Once we're in staging area #1, I'll park myself at the edge of grottos for receiving and transmitting instructions. Lillian has used us mainly as eyes. We have gained the duke's trust, such as it is, and Arthur may be asked to influence him. Other than that, we don't know what's going on."

"See what I mean about compartmentalizing?"

"We're used to it. It works."

### # # # # # # # #

Back in the sterile room, Lord Percy and Brunhilda had been debating. Another word for debating is arguing. Lord Percy was about to articulate his position.

"No! It's completely unacceptable that you used an undercover angel to attack us. Who was it? I demand you tell me!"

"You'll find out easily enough now that she's left Hell. Our agent was TRBLMKR. You have not been listening. She didn't attack you! She spied on you! There's a difference."

"Our Director of Media Manipulation was your agent?"

"Truth ray on Brunhilda. Yes, she was our agent. Truth ray off."

"Did she influence the Duke of Earl in any way?"

"Truth ray on Brunhilda. No. She had no contact with him directly or indirectly. Truth ray off."

"For Hell to trust you in the future, we must demand that Heaven formally agrees to a pact stating that you will never again infiltrate undercover angels into Hell! This is non-negotiable. We have been victimized. This is unacceptable behaviour for an organization that prides itself on being pure white."

"We will consider that, but first, will you submit to the truth ray? I submitted to yours."

"Fine! Truth ray on Lord Percy."

"Is it true that you have an undercover devil in Heaven?"

...

_You must answer the question and do that in the manner required._

"Yes."

"Let's be more precise. Is it true that you have five undercover devils currently in Heaven?"

...

_Lord Percy?_

"Yes."

"Do you have more than five undercover devils currently in Heaven?"

"No."

"Did you have a fake co-op student operating undercover in Heaven?"

"Yes."

"Did one or more of your undercover devils directly attack our guardian angel program and attempt to neutralize it?"

"I object..."

_Answer the question, Lord Percy. You agreed._

"Yes."

"And do you admit now that Hell has apparently attempted to send three more devils into Heaven."

"Yes."

"By my count that makes nine undercover devils that you have used to attack us. How dare you object to our one?"

A red light flashed and the mechanical box said, _Improper question. Reword._

"Truth ray on Brunhilda: Heaven will sign a pact by which we will agree not to infiltrate any angels into Hell in the future, if Hell agrees not to infiltrate any demons, devils, or coop students into Heaven in the future."

"Truth ray on Lord Percy: Hell will agree to this. Truth ray off."

_[Narrator: Did you notice that this pact did not include any references to Heaven infiltrating any ghosts or mortals into Hell? Lillian also forgot to indicate that some hellish beings were already working for Heaven from inside Hell. It took some time for the pact to be formalized. We'll come back to the mediation room when negotiations resume.]_

### # # # # # # # #

Prudence, Arthur, Meghan and Paula were gazing at the interior of a huge empty cavern. It was in mountainous territory and almost completely enclosed by rock. They were standing at one entrance arch. There was another entrance arch on the other side of the cavern.

"Go ahead, fly around. Murk-down is hours away. When it does come, this area will be pitch black."

"Now I understand why he wanted torches," Arthur said.

"This looks like polished rock," Paula observed.

"It is."

"The upper part of the cavern has deep ledges," Meghan observed from above. "Hey, there's an echo. Is that because it's all polished rock?"

"I don't know," Prudence admitted. "I deliberately used a different route to get by whenever I reported to Joe-Joe. I never came through here."

"Deliberately?" Paula asked.

"Devils stay clear of this xx!x place. Nobody speaks of it. In fact, few devils have heard what happened. However, the whole area has become, for the sake of a better word, haunted. Devils get a very uncomfortable feeling coming anywhere near, and they naturally steer clear of it. I do too."

"How did it become haunted?" Paula again. She had an interest in haunting as you might expect.

"This is the place where Hell suffered its most ignominious defeat," Prudence said.

"How?"

"Ages ago, Hell found a way to lure a very important angel underground. They trapped him in this small cavern with no possible exit – even with his powers. They allowed him to send one message back to Heaven. They'd release him unharmed if Heaven would agree to a few changes in some treaties and make restitution for what they claimed was his unauthorized entry into Hell. They invited Heaven to send more senior angels to sit down and talk it out."

"They claimed his entry was unauthorized?"

"He was on a rescue mission that was successful. They trapped him on his way out. Hell's plan was to lure as many inner circle angels to the cavern as possible."

"Inner circle?" Meghan asked.

"Heaven's senior most angels," Arthur elaborated.

"As a sign of their good intentions, they showed up with all of their inner pentagram devils. Meghan, this was their equivalent to inner circle angels. Satan wasn't there, of course, but every other devil of high importance was present. All were sitting nice and business-like at their side of a table in the bottom of that cavern while the angel spiraled overhead out of their reach waiting for other angels to join him. We probably walked over the very space they were sitting."

"Is this story true, Arthur?" Meghan asked.

"I don't know. I've never heard of this."

"It's xx!x true," Prudence said. "Hell was bombarding the cavern with all sorts of rays to prevent the angel from escaping. They thought the rays would also prevent him from sensing the mass of devils accumulating outside the cavern waiting to ambush the other inner circle angels. They were right that he couldn't escape. They were wrong about what he could sense."

"What happened?"

"The angel didn't send the message that Hell expected. He said his goodbyes instead. When the devil army entered the cavern, he blew himself and everyone in the neighbourhood into smithereens. Hell underestimated the power of the sun even that far underground."

"The shiny rocks?"

"Partly from the type of explosion, partly from the devils who were liquefied."

"And neither Heaven nor Hell talks about it."

"Mutual decision. Hell stepped way over the line, but Heaven lost a senior executive. They put a number of treaties in place soon afterwards – the one about the no-try list on key executives for example. The pact prohibiting physical attacks on immortals was strengthened. Some other things were enshrined as well I expect, but I'm not privy to them."

"Heaven's senior executive that died?"

"Replaced by the next in line."

"Hell's inner pentagram?"

"Also completely replaced, but not as effectively. Wide scale promotions in Hell can become blood baths if they're not handled properly. It made my ascent into management much faster than it would have been otherwise."

"You were in Hell at the time?"

"Yes."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 37

Friday evening.

At the cavern, the angelic team was watching the duke's army wind their way under the arch and into the cavern. They found places to sleep on the cavern floor, extinguished their torches and went to sleep.

"I should go now," Prudence whispered. "The three of you make a good team. I'd love to stay and watch but Joe-Joe insisted that I be out of xx!x Hell by tonight."

"Hug?" Paula asked.

"Sure. Why not?"

...

"I can't remember the last time that I've been hugged by a female of any species."

"Here's another," said Meghan.

"Do you get hugged by males then?" Paula asked.

"Joe-Joe. He always hugs me when we meet in the grottos."

"What about Lillian?"

"Lillian doesn't come to the grottos. We aren't exactly on speaking terms."

"We kinda noticed you weren't too fond of her."

"Yeah. After a few centuries, you know..."

"We don't know about after a few centuries. Both of us are mortals or recent mortals."

"Where's Arthur? I'd like a hug from him."

"He said something about checking that ledge out. He was tired, I think."

"What happened between you and Lillian?"

"I don't take well to bossy. Lillian is in charge, so she's bossy. When I was offered the opportunity to infiltrate xx!x Hell, I took it."

"But you were all alone here. Didn't you ever want to come back?"

"I may have burned some bridges to home. Anger issues, you know."

"Angels get angry?"

"I do. Lillian wanted me to come back to Heaven. I didn't want to. I had the personality to do good work in Hell and I liked being independent. So, I refused. What could she do? Now, here I am. Coming home. She got her way. Again."

"I'm sure there's a good reason."

"There xx!x better be. See what I mean about anger issues? Where's Arthur? I need a man's hug."

"We can find him. He'll want to say goodbye."

### # # # # # # # #

Friday evening meant date night. This time it would be a different kind of date. Lance had surprised Winnie on Thursday.

"I'm tired of going out all the time. Why don't we stay in tomorrow night? You can come up to my condo. We can relax there. It's so hard to talk in noisy places. I'd like to get to know you better."

That sounded encouraging, so Winnie took the address, found the building, pushed the right button, and was buzzed in. Lance was waiting at his door for her.

"Nice building," Winnie remarked.

"It's my dad's building. I can stay here for free. Come on in. Pop for you, as usual?"

"Yes."

"I'll have my brandy. Take a look around. Make yourself at home."

Winnie did. The view from the top floor was amazing. Nice comfy furniture in the living room. Polished wood floor. The dining room looked like it had never been used. A picture of his high school graduating class was on one wall of the dining room. Earl Schnauble Private Academy. The name sounded familiar but she couldn't place it.

Lance called out from the kitchen. "I don't have the pop you like. I'll give you a different brand. It'll taste a little different."

"That's fine." On the other wall, she glanced at his framed graduation certificate. She had never asked for his age. She saw that he had graduated in 2089. Some quick calculations later, she had his birth year estimated as 2071. That put him five years older than her. Not ideal, but OK.

By then, Lance was pulling a coffee table closer to the sofa and placing the drinks on coasters on top of it. She noticed the thick crystal glasses. He motioned her to sit on the sofa and she sat in the middle. He took up position next to her. They both took a sip or two and leaned back against the padding of the sofa. Winnie leaned forward to put her glass on the coaster. The different brand of soda had a taste that she didn't enjoy.

As she leaned back into the sofa, Lance deposited his glass beside hers, turned sideways so that he could look at her and took both of her hands into his. "I want to tell you something about myself. May I?"

Winnie nodded and looked at him.

"I've read that love conquers all. I've read that true love lasts forever. I am attracted to you. I thought that you should know more about me. I try very hard to be chivalrous when I am with a woman. I believe that women would want a man to respect her and be there to protect her if she needs it. In my mind, that's what chivalry is. I expect that you don't see it very often these days."

_[Where are you going with this?]_

"When I learned that your name was Guinevere, I thought immediately of those chivalrous times of knights and queens. Lancelot and Guinevere were together. Will you and I be together forever? True love forever? Is that our destiny?"

_[He's speaking of true love and destiny?]_

"My family is rich. My half-sister Morgana and I will inherit my father's wealth. As a doctor, I also will become wealthy in my own right. My wife will want for nothing."

_[Is he proposing?]_

"If my wife wants a large family, she will have a large family. If my wife wants a small family, that's what she'll have. I will indulge her in anything she wants, clothes, jewels, anything. But, if my wife and I have a family, I will expect her to rear the children. Are not the children of a family its most prized treasure? Would not the mother of the children be the best person to raise those children?"

_[That makes sense, I suppose.]_

"But, as the poets say, true enduring love is the most important treasure a couple can have."

_[That's so romantic.]_

Lance put his right hand under Winnie's chin and raised her face. "May I kiss you?"

"Yes."

Winnie turned her upper body towards him while Lance put his right hand around her waist and started to kiss her. It was a tender, romantic kiss.

...

The interesting thing about that kiss was that Winnie didn't get lost in the kiss like she had with Arthur's kiss. She noticed that immediately. Her mind was thinking, not sighing. She remembered when she had heard about the Earl Schnauble Private Academy and how there had been a student riot because aboriginal Dreamer had been on their basketball team. Dreamer had called them a school full of bigots.

Lance was working away diligently on the kiss but Winnie remembered looking at his graduation certificate and seeing his full name: Lance Chalmers Williams, not Lance Lott Williams.

Lance's kiss was no longer tender. His body was pushing her body against the back cushion and soon her back and head would slide down that cushion onto the sofa seat. The fingers of his right hand were creeping up her rib cage.

Winnie grabbed Lance's right hand and twisted it just as she would twist the foil to slip the point under a devil's scales. She heard a loud pop. She also heard Lance scream in agony. Then he was alone on the sofa, hyperventilating. She smelled Lance's drink and then her own. The smell was the same. She poured both drinks on his head, offered him a few choice Japanese names to help him cope with the pain of a broken wrist, turned and stormed out of the building. She reached the sidewalk, called her sling out of its parking spot and felt it surround her body. _Winnie, you are such an idiot, idiot, idiot..._

### # # # # # # # #

Bank in the condo, Lance was hearing similar words.

"Lance, you are such an idiot, idiot, idiot."

"I'm in pain here, Morgana. Yell at me on the way to the hospital. I think she broke my wrist."

Morgana ignored him. "Did you use the speech that I wrote for you?

"I did. Word for word. True love, destined to be together, all of that crap."

"Did you lie at any time? Some women can sense a lie."

"No. I showed her the view from the condo and hinted that she could have anything she wanted. That's usually enough to start them undressing. She acted different."

"She's an in'jun, you idiot. Of course, she's different. All they care about is getting drunk. Did you spike her drink like I told you to?"

"Yes."

"That script always works. What did you do wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You had her almost pinned on the couch and then she broke your wrist?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember me telling you that it was first base only tonight?"

"Well, yeah but..."

"You went for second? You idiot. Girls that won't jump on your bones for your wealth have to be wooed. You have to go slow with them. You have to pretend to be sincere."

"I did go slow. I've been dating her since February. Not touching her at all."

"So you went for the home run all at once."

"Well, yeah."

"So, you lost our bet."

"Awwww, man."

"Plus she's a heathen savage, so the bet is doubled."

"Awwww, man."

### # # # # # # # #

_...idiot, idiot, idiot..._

Back on the street, Winnie was still beating up on herself. She was remembering his courtship, if you can call it that. The attack had come out of nowhere. Her face reading powers had been useless. He had pretended not to want her so that she would initiate the handholding. She had bought everything. She felt.... like a stupid cow. How could she trust anybody again if she was so easily ...

_WINNIE. WHERE ARE YOU?_

_Toronto, Paula. What's wrong?_

_I am arriving at the Toronto Pus station... now. We need you in Hell. You told me you had figured out a way to get in._

_Yes. I can hide as a shoulder demon inside a container that Hell's rays can't penetrate. What's wrong?_

_Do you have that container with you?_

_Yes. I've been carrying it around with me just in case. What's wrong?_

_I'll be outside the PUS station in my mortal body. Can you sling here?_

_Yes. Leaving now. Paula WHAT'S WRONG?_

_Arthur is unconscious in his mortal body. We can't revive him._

### # # # # # # # #

The PUS trip to Hell would have been long enough for Paula to tell Winnie everything that had happened, but William's radiation proof box also prevented mind messages. So, Winnie was left to stew, and beat up herself for the entire trip to Hell. Once she was through customs, Paula travelled instantaneously to the ledge in the cavern where they had found Arthur sleeping when they went looking for him so he could say goodbye to Prudence. Except he wasn't sleeping.

Winnie breathed the foul smell of Hell as Paula opened the container and immediately changed into her mortal body. She looked wildly around, saw Paula, Meghan and somebody else standing over a body lying on a bed of rock. The first thing that she did was kneel down beside Arthur, put her head on his chest, and listen for a heart beat. The steady beat released some emotions that she had been storing all trip long. Weeping in relief, she started kissing Arthur's face, his hair, his hands, his lips. She spent quite a bit of time on his lips while she mind messaged: _I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I don't want a family. I want somebody I can trust. I want you. I'm sorry..._

Prudence mind messaged Meghan and Paula _: Is this some form of_ _mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? He didn't drown. He's breathing fine._

_We should give her some privacy. She'll let us know when she's ready._

_Yeah, come away Prudence. We'll explain to you how mortals react when the love of their life looks like he's dead._

_I'm just saying..._

_Hush._

### # # # # # # # #

Yes, Winnie did compose herself to the point where she knew enough to try her healing powers. They didn't work. That's when she called the others back to the ledge. Introductions were made. She learned that they were alone in an empty cavern that would not be empty for long. Arthur was unconscious and not in pain. The first priority was obviously to get him out of Hell for treatment. They agreed that Prudence would carry Arthur's body and guide Paula through the grottos where she could call for help from Joe-Joe or Lillian. Paula would return as soon as Lillian told her what to do. Back in the cavern, Meghan would brief Winnie on the operation and answer any questions she might have. They'd stay on the ledge, as it was doubtful that any of the devils now drifting into the cavern could climb up to it.

### # # # # # # # #

Prudence had no difficulty getting through the grottos, or carrying Arthur's body. She simply used her devilian body. Joe-Joe was there waiting.

"I'd give you a hug of welcome, but your arms appear to be full."

"Thank you. He's unconscious, vitals appear good," Prudence reported. "The docs will know more."

"We can't put Arthur into medical care. He's been banned from Heaven."

"Really? Lillian allowed that to happen?"

"She was the judge that convicted him."

"So where do I put him?"

"I'll take him. We have a secret hiding place that we can use."

"Medical attention?"

"I don't expect that to be an issue."

"Well, I'll take off then. Is Lillian in her office?"

"Hang on." Joe-Joe turned to face Paula who was standing off a ways. "Paula, when you get back to Hell, tell Winnie that she's in charge of the operation. It appears that she'll have to fight the duke. Tell her that I'm sure she's ready."

"Has Hell asked us for help?"

"No. Stay by your listening post. I'll message you as soon as I hear anything."

Both angels waited for Paula to disappear.

"Is Lillian in her office?" Prudence repeated.

"No, she's on assignment outside of Heaven."

"I'll set up camp in her office."

"You'll find that difficult to do. Security here has changed a lot since you left."

"So how do I find out why I've been taken off my assignment when I made it very clear that I did not want to return to Heaven?"

"You and Lillian should sort that out."

"When will she be back?"

"If all goes well, next week."

"What do I do in the meantime?"

"We'll work something out. But for now, I need to put Arthur into a bed. Message me in the morning."

### # # # # # # # #

Meghan had finished briefing Winnie on the operation, including the haunting of the cavern and how they believed the Duke would use it as a launching pad for his attack. My readers may now assume that Winnie knows everything that you know.

Paula arrived and informed Winnie that she was now in charge of the operation and something strange was happening back in Heaven. "Prudence asked Joe-Joe where Lillian was and he quickly got rid of me before answering."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"He didn't say anything else other than you probably would be fighting the duke. He said you were ready."

"That's not much help. So what do the three of us know?"

Paula began. "We know it's Saturday morning and the duke's army is in this cavern. Tomorrow, they'll likely do some last minute training exercises. We've been assuming that they'll attack on Bezelday."

Meghan added: "We should assume that they'll wait until Bezelday has everybody in the stores spending their tormentts. That means they will leave here about noon and they'll have plenty of time to carve up the SSS forces who try to stop them."

"Do we know anything at all about what the Christian soldiers are going to do?"

"No."

"That'll be my first job. Find out, at least in theory how, when and where the soldiers are going handle the duke's army. If I'm going to have a foil fight with the duke, I need to know that. I also need to know why anybody even has to fight him."

"You think we should capture him and turn him over to Lord Percy?" Meghan asked.

"Remember that Joe-Joe warned the Duke when we were in Tofino doing the concert? Perhaps Joe-Joe wants you to deliver the sentence?"

"But why isn't Joe-Joe here? He's way better than me with a foil. He warned him. He would probably want to finish him off."

"So, both Joe-Joe and Lillian are out of action somehow?" Paula was still trying to make sense of why they had been left on their own.

"Paula, can you create a copy of Arthur's devil body?"

"Not an exact copy, but close enough to fool the Duke."

"Tomorrow, the two of you should continue to be the Duke's two aides. Plus, Arthur has to show up and disappear and then show up and disappear, etcetera."

"Got it." Meghan said.

"Paula, you also need to stay on top of that listening post. If we're waiting for the go ahead to enter Hell, that's gotta mean that Lillian is away from Heaven trying to arrange that. I bet that's what she's been doing. I don't know about Joe-Joe. I am now ordering myself back to Heaven. This is fun being in charge."

...

"She didn't look like she was enjoying being in charge," Paula shared with Meghan.

"When she was kissing Arthur on the ledge, she looked so desperate. I thought I was going to break out in tears and I was in a devil body."

"Betcha she's going back to be with Arthur now."

"No bet."

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie found Arthur sleeping in a hammock in one the ship's cabins. Joe-Joe was there, looking at the door to the cabin when she walked in.

"Heard you on the deck," he said. "Thought you might be by."

"This room won't work," she said and disappeared.

A minute later.

"I've set up another hammock in the larger cabin. Can you carry Arthur in?"

"Yes."

"Wider hammock means more comfort?"

"Sort of. Would you mind turning around Joe-Joe?"

"Uh, OK."

Joe-Joe heard some rustling sounds.

"You can turn around now."

The first thing Joe-Joe saw was some feminine clothes on the deck. Two bodies were in the hammock. Winnie was cuddled up under a blanket with Arthur who was lying flat on his back. He saw a black bra strap on Winnie's bare shoulder, which would allow him tell Lillian that she had been clothed. He relaxed a little.

Winnie pulled Joe-Joe's eyes away from her shoulder by raising her hand and wiggling her fingers at him. "I can't sleep when it's too warm. I use my fingers to heal. I know when they're healing because they tingle. They weren't tingling in the cavern. I don't know why. If you were to stay here, which you won't, you will see me kissing my patient. I will be doing that because I've been a jerk and I owe him. I'm also kissing him because he will kiss me back when he's better."

"The beautiful princess kisses the sleeping handsome prince and he comes out of the evil spell that he's under. Isn't that backwards?"

"Not in my world. Uh, Joe-Joe. This is a woman's bedroom now. No conscious men allowed without permission. My mom's rules."

"I should check Lillian's boards."

Later that evening, Joe-Joe was able to give Lillian a coded message that all of her boards were now green. An unconscious Arthur was the random event, but he didn't tell her that. She didn't need to know about Arthur right now. Some things have to be compartmentalized.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 38

"Rise and shine, ladies."

That order, and the clanging of two pot lids roused Winnie from her deep sleep. She looked over her shoulder and saw Prudence, pot lids poised for a second rendition.

"OK, OK. Why am I waking up now?"

"An angel wants to talk to you and he can't do anything until you do. I'm here to serve as your replacement nurse."

Winnie sat up, put her head on Arthur's chest, waited, and then gave him a kiss on the lips. She looked back at Prudence who was standing just inside the door. "Do you mind? Can I have a little privacy?"

"Just us girls here."

Winnie got out of bed and padded out of the cabin in her bare feet and underwear. "I'm taking a shower."

"Thank goodness."

....

Winnie was sitting at the breakfast table in cammo gear spooning some tasteless cereal into her mortal mouth. Prudence was perched on the stove, her feet hanging over the edge. She was in angelic form. "I can give Lance William another accident if you want. Two broken wrists might make him twice as sorry. Right now, he's only sorry for himself."

"You intruded into my private life?"

"Sure. I like to know the angels that I'll be working with. That wrist sure snapped nicely."

"I'm working with you?"

"I talked with Joe-Joe last night. He cleared up a lot of things. I'm going back into Hell."

"I thought you had to be out of Hell."

"I was out as ordered, and now I'm going back in as part of the Christian Soldiers. I've trained with them. I still have my uniform somewhere."

"What if you're seen?"

"I'll be a shoulder demon. My job tomorrow is to observe and advise as necessary. I know more about that area and how devils will react than anybody else. Nobody will see me. I'll be there if you need me. Do you know what you're going to do with the Duke yet?"

"No. It'll depend on what the soldiers do."

"No, it doesn't. You are in charge."

"Of the spies, I assumed."

"No, you are in charge of the entire mission. You tell the battle commander what you're doing, and then it is his job to do whatever is necessary for your mission to succeed. Strategic operations always come first. Military support is second. Lillian sets up her operations; Joe-Joe makes them work."

"I don't know what I'm going to do yet."

"Then talk with the battle commander and find out what military options he has. That may prompt an idea. But he doesn't tell you what to do. Do you have any idea what the mission goals will be if we're invited in? What will you do to that army?"

"Capture them and turn them over to the SSS?"

"Unlikely. That would mean that Hell would have to dispose of that army with their own forces and that would lead to leaks. Those leaks would sow discord in Hell. Hell would not ask us to do that. Try again."

"If nobody can know, that means that the army and the duke have to disappear."

"Correct. How do you make any army of devils disappear?"

"I saw a friend throw a devil into the sun once. He won't be coming back."

"I'd like to hear that story, but another time. What has to happen for devils to disappear forever?"

"If a devil arrives at the sorting station, he will simply be put back into Hell with his memories still intact."

"Not something that Hell would like. So?"

"I know that if an angel is hiding in a small place as a small animal and is caught so that it can't get out, that angel can't reincorporate. If so, he can't get to the sorting station. He could die in the darkness."

"You and I really do need to talk. We'll trade war stories. What will you do to that army?"

"I'm going to imprison them in that cavern so that they cannot escape. I still have to kill them somehow."

"Your battle commander can now give you some options."

"Did Joe-Joe tell you why he and Lillian can't be in this operation?"

"Yes, but I can't tell you."

"I thought you hated compartmentalizing."

"I did. I sort of still do. But if I tell you, that may close your mind to some options. It's best if you have an open mind."

...

"I heard about you before last night."

"Really?" Prudence got up and sat across the table from Winnie in a mortal body.

"I was helping Lillian with one of her old instructors who was ill. Lillian asked me to sleep next to her and use my hands to heal her. She woke up once and I heard her weeping. She was mumbling your name. I think she thought I was you. Supposedly we look alike."

"I was better looking than you are. Especially now. Did she get better?"

"A bit. She came out and helped me learn how to use a foil a couple of times. She was pretty strict, but she was nice to me."

"Was her name Martha?"

"Yes."

"Martha was my fencing instructor too. Plus lots of other things. You're right about her being strict."

"Did you and Lillian graduate from her finishing school at the same time?"

"No. I graduated centuries after Lillian."

"Do you still dislike Lillian?"

"We're going to talk when she returns."

"I used to dislike her, but I don't any more. I like her a lot now."

### # # # # # # # #

It's Saturday morning in the mediation room. _[A reminder: If Heaven is going to enter Hell and set up a trap, the soldiers will have to be in Hell by this evening.]_

"I'd like to make a statement in the interest of full disclosure," Brunhilda started the discussions.

_Does Hell have any objections?_

"No."

"Last night, I received a communication from my associate, Joe-Joe. During our conversation, I was told that our military has responded to this threat of attack from the Duke of Earl's forces by upgrading our defensive systems in the area of the Athenian Caves and Grottos. We are now confident that we can annihilate any of Hell's forces that try to attack our borders. I will go under the truth ray if necessary to confirm our new status, but the call was monitored. Will the mediator confirm the contents of the discussion?"

_The contents of the discussion between Brunhilda and Joe-Joe are confirmed._

"May I also ask the mediator to confirm that the defensive network we have just put in place would be able destroy any invading force of demons or devils."

_So confirmed, for the area of the Athenian grottos._

"Given these new circumstances, Heaven sees no reason why we should stop Hell from self destructing. I am hereby withdrawing our offer to intervene. We will watch from a distance. I'll need Lord Percy to confirm that he understands that our forces will remain in Heaven."

"Lord Percy?"

"I need some time."

_While Lord Percy is digesting the news, does Heaven understand the magnitude of this decision to withdraw your help?_

"I believe we do."

_Our analysts have run some projections on the consequences of an internal rebellion in Hell with and without Heaven's involvement_.

"So have we," Brunhilda revealed.

_Our projections are based on these presumptions. Hell has no internal military force that can defeat the Duke of Earl at this point and he will launch an attack within 24-48 hours. While Satan has enormous powers, once the rebels reach the cities, they will receive significant support from the common devil. There is a great disparity in Hell between the 1% of the population who are very wealthy and powerful and the 99% who are common devils with minimal wealth and power. The 99% resent Bezelday because they have to spend tormentts that they need. They resent the grasping fingers of Bank of Hell. They resent the green bean soup. They resent the afterliving conditions. Once this revolution takes hold and spreads, Satan will have to destroy huge swathes of the population and the infrastructure to maintain power._

"What if the duke's forces establish control quickly after the SSS forces has been defeated?" Brunhilda asked.

_We think establishing control will be virtually impossible. The devils in power have no idea what afterlife is like for the average devils. Putting weapons into their hands is an act of suicide. That's why our negotiated treaty with Heaven and Hell bans weapons in the afterlife._

"What about clause 33.1.4 in the treaty?" Brunhilda asked.

_That clause invokes the emergency assistance of the Cops of the Cosmos. Well, we could get involved I suppose. But Enterprise.3 is a scout ship. We have no military forces aboard. We have no way to bring military from the other side of the galaxy to Earth in time. This ship does have the power to neutro-bomb Hell but that would destroy 25% to 40% of their population, building, tunnels, etc. We would do that if we felt the safety of Earth and its mortals were compromised._

"Isn't their safety compromised right now by Lord Percy's reluctance to negotiate our involvement?"

_Yes, I suppose it is. Lord Percy, you do seem very hesitant to act._

"Well, I'm taking Heaven out of this. I won't risk Heaven's forces when Hell is going to destroy itself all on its own. We'll sit and watch. Heaven and the Earth will both benefit if Hell destroys itself."

"What about the demons who are now on Earth? What about the devils on Earth?" Lord Percy spoke for the first time.

"What about them?" Brunhilda asked. "Earth will be better off without them."

"But Hell manages them. We keep them under control. All of that will be lost. They could go wild on Earth. Little children could be hurt."

_[Narrator: Like Lord Percy cared about little children.]_

"So Lord Percy, are you asking Heaven to intervene now?" Brunhilda asked.

"Yes. Truth ray on Lord Percy. I am now agreeing to the offer for assistance that Heaven offered us earlier today. Truth ray off."

"I've already formally withdrawn that offer. If we were to intervene, I'd have to submit an offer again, but we'd need to re-negotiate some of the terms of our current Heaven-Hell treaty agreement before I did that."

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie left the Wilizy/America.2 with Prudence caring for Arthur, who was showing no signs whatsoever of recovering. Her first priority was to learn more about the Duke of Earl and his army. She had seen the duke in Tofino, but he had been in a mortal body then. She had heard what the duke was doing with his soldiers, but she hadn't seen the duke or his army in action. She set down on the ledge inside the cavern and asked Meghan and Paula to join her. They conversed with mind messages.

Winnie: _Are lunge and parry the only fencing moves they know?_

Paula: _I understand lunge, but what's parry?_

Winnie: _The parry is when the person who has been attacked deflects the foil to the side and then lunges at the other devil._

Paula: _That's what he taught them when they were in demon bodies and using needles._

Winnie: _Nothing more?_

Paula: _There's something more?_

Winnie. _Yeah. Lots of things. For example, they aren't using their wrists when they lunge._

Paula: _That's all I've ever seen them do_.

Meghan: _They seem to be having trouble holding the foil points up. That's a bad thing, right?_

Winnie: _Yes. It means that they are not protecting their face which is the most vulnerable part of the body. Eyes and ears do not have any scales to stop a foil thrust. It's probably fatigue._

Meghan: _Which is a bad thing because battles go on for a long time, right?_

Winnie: _Yes. Where are their horns?_

Meghan: _They were converted to devils last week. All they have are the little nubs on their heads. Their horns will grow as they do devilish things, like torturing. Once they start killing other devils, those nubs will grow along with their bodies. There's nothing more evil in Hell than killing other devils._

Paula: _The three stooges didn't have very big horns. They weren't big either._

Meghan: _Too dumb to earn them, I bet._

Winnie: _There are a lot of them. I'll give the duke that_.

Paula: _We always thought that they would just overwhelm the SSS with numbers._

Winnie: _Yes, I know that was the assumption._

### # # # # # # # #

"You're the battle commander?" Winnie asked. She was standing at the edge of the grottos with an angel in cammo.

"Yes, My Queen," Sir Galahad replied.

"That must mean that the lowly lieutenant who instructed me in fencing received a very rapid promotion. Or, he wasn't a lieutenant at all."

"Guilty, as charged, My Queen. You may lop off my head." Sir Galahad leaned forward and offered his neck for the lopping.

"Another time, I suppose. I didn't bring my guillotine."

"Wrong century, My Queen," he said in a whisper.

"Tell me, Battle Commander, what options do you have if I wanted to imprison all of the Duke's army in that cavern so that they could never reach the Afterlife Sorting Station."

### # # # # # # # #

Lillian had been pushing a button and wasn't getting anywhere. "What I'm trying to say is the Heaven-Hell treaty agreement was based on population numbers that were accurate centuries ago. Earth has changed. There are many more mortals and our current ratio of 1 guardian angel to five mortals means that many mortals cannot be supported effectively."

"Hell doesn't have any problems."

"You have a 1:1 ratio."

"We're more effective in tempting mortals to join our forces."

"It's true that more mortals are succumbing to the forces of darkness. Oh, well. I may bring up this topic the next time we meet to review the agreement. When is that anyway, Mediator?"

_The year 2100_.

"I guess we're done for this round of mediation. Will it be necessary for you to hold me as a peace bond?"

_No agreements were made other than the prohibition on inserting undercover agents, so there will be no need for a peace bond. I'll send out a meeting reminder in 2099. Thank you for..._

"Wait. I thought Heaven was going to intervene."

"I withdrew that offer. I see no reason why we should intervene. When your border controls disappear in the chaos after the duke destroys your SSS, you'll find lots of weapons entering illicitly. The guillotine is not only a knife, but put a little gravity on it, and it becomes a killing machine. Try and avoid sticking your neck underneath one."

"You mean you'll only help us if we buy your help?"

"Yes, of course. Why would we do this if we didn't receive something in return?"

"This is extortion!"

"This is saving your sorry butts. It's not a gift."

"One of our agents to two mortals."

"Of course, when they bring those guillotines into Hell, that would be a violation of your pact with the Cops of the Cosmos and they'll probably have to neutro-bomb Hell to protect the earthlings, but that's your concern, not mine."

"One agent to three mortals."

"Neutro-bombing is painful, isn't it Mediator?"

_I don't know. I've never been neutro-bombed. I do know that nobody has ever survived when hit directly by the blast._

"Well Lord Percy, I doubt you'll last until the Cops of the Cosmos have to bring out the neutro-bombs. As the leader of the SSS, you'll be one of the first high-level devils to die. I wonder how long it will take you to afterdie."

"One agent to four."

"I really like the ratio of one to five. We can't afford one agent to four mortals."

"Truth ray on Lord Percy: Hell agrees that we will only place agents in the field in a ratio of one agent to five mortals. Truth ray off."

"Naturally, you won't gang up by putting three agents on one mortal."

"Truth ray on Lord Percy: Hell agrees that we will only place agents in the field in a ratio of one agent to five mortals and no mortal will have more than one agent. Truth ray off."

"Truth ray on Brunhilda. Heaven agrees that we will only place agents in the field in a ratio of one agent to five mortals and no mortal will have more than one agent. Truth ray off. Let's draw up these papers. Time is running out for Heaven to save Hell."

### # # # # # # # #

"Sir Galahad, are you sure that using heavy duty fibre optical cables will work?"

"Yes, My Queen."

"I don't understand how you can figure out what is banned and what isn't banned in the afterlife. Guns with bullets are banned. But you can bring a gun into Hell and bash somebody over the head with it."

"The rules can be very confusing. For example, we use water to drink. But water can become a weapon if we force that water through a narrow hose at pressure and flush attacking shoulder demons down the grottos. Should water be banned from Heaven? Obviously not."

"How do you know if a possible weapon will work in Hell or not?"

"If it works in in Heaven, My Queen, it will work in Hell. We tested the light weapon here in Heaven. It will work."

"Let's go with Option 1. It's the fastest and easiest to set up. Looks like we'll be short of time."

"Just a reminder, you'll need to keep some of the devils from looking towards the cavern entrances. We'll try to stay out of sight, but there is a risk of a few of us being seen."

"I'll think of something. You forgot to say _My Queen_."

"My abject apologies, My Queen, My Queen."

"Do you enjoy doing this?"

"What? The planning?"

"No, the _My Queen_ thing."

"Does it bother you?"

"I don't mind, but I'm not your queen."

"I like to pretend that we are in the chivalrous world of knights and round tables. I am charged with protecting your life. If we were in that pretend chivalrous world, you would be my queen. I would be your knight protector."

"I've had a little trouble with one of those knight protectors. They don't always protect."

"My Queen, I would have stopped that fake Lancelot from spiking your drink and trying to put his hand on you, but your life was not in danger."

"Does everybody in Heaven know about my private life?"

"Let me think. The staff at the officer's mess do, the sabre polishers do, the angels who clean the barracks do and they'll tell everybody, so yes, everybody in Heaven knows that you repelled the fake Lancelot with a twist of your wrist. We all were most impressed. It was shown on the big screen at the drive in theatre."

"There is no drive in theater in Hell."

"I thought that might give me away."

...

"The fake Lancelot wasn't as bad as his half sister, My Queen."

"Who?"

"Morgana, Lance William's half sister, My Queen. The one that lived next door. She was a true witch. She taught him how to seduce women and enjoyed it when he succeeded. In the middle ages, a queen like her would have been a tyrant."

"I have an idea."

"My Queen?"

Winnie turned and started to fly away. "I need to write a script for the cast. Then there are costumes and we have absolutely no time to sew them. I'll need a few props. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

...

"Don't worry about devils looking to the exits," she added from afar.

...

"Do the Christian Soldiers have a trumpet and a man who can blow it?" Winnie added this from afar afar.

"I'm sure we do, My Queen." Sir Galahad had to shout to be heard.

"Tell him to bring it tomorrow." There were too many afars to be counted. Then, she was out of sight.

_Meghan, do you have one of the duke's foils?_

_In my hand._

_Describe it from its hilt to the end of the blade._

_..._

_Good. I'm off to Earth. I have to do some shopping._

_Oooh. Can I come?_

_Sorry, you're not regal enough._

### # # # # # # # #

"Is Heaven ready to finalize their offer to help us with the Duke of Earl?" Lord Percy seemed to be keen about wrapping up the meeting. "You had agreed to kill all members of the Duke of Earl's army and prevent them from reaching the sorting stations."

"Well, I was thinking about the year end budget forms that our people are filling out right now. I noticed that we seem to be always short of resources that we can commit to our guardian angel forces. I know this doesn't have anything to do with you Lord Percy, but I want to take the opportunity of this meeting with Cops of the Cosmos representative to confirm something in the treaty."

"You can do that later."

"I'll do it now. Harry, is that you at the communications desk?"

_Yes Brunhilda. I've been given this file._

"I thought I recognized your voice. So Harry, you know that we receive grants from the Cosmos Development Fund to offset the costs of our agents, for example their travel expenses, the cost of the powers that we can use, and so on."

_Yes._

"And that's why we have all these forms to fill out so that you can verify that we are using those funds properly."

_That is correct._

"And part of calculating how much we receive in funding is based on how many guardian angels we can put in the field. We can't count the angels operating hair salons in Heaven, just the Guardian Angels. Right?"

_That is correct._

"Is this going somewhere?"

"Yes, it is. Now as I understand it, Hell has a different funding formula. Something about recovering costs for torturing the souls."

_Yes. Hell has agreed to torture Earth's souls so that we don't have to burden other planets with their criminals. Your sorting station sends the data on how many souls that they assigned to Hell to us. That gives us the number of souls being tortured under contract. That information is used to calculate the size of the grant money Hell receives._

"That's what I thought. Harry, did you know that Hell's sewer floors have been paved with cans of _Dumbbells' Cream of Soul_?"

_"What?"_

"Hell takes the souls that aren't currently being tortured, condenses them, puts them into cans, and uses those cans as paving stones."

_They aren't torturing all the souls they receive?_

"I don't believe so. Wouldn't that affect the grant money you are giving them?"

_It surely would. Truth ray on Lord Percy._

"I decline the truth ray."

_You can decline Brunhilda's, you can't decline mine. Lord Percy, is it true that you are not torturing all the souls that you receive from the After Life Sorting Station?_

"Well, some are paroled ..."

_Improper response._

"Yes, it's true but some are given parole assignments where devils are required to torture them. There's lots of that going on."

_Truth ray is still on: Lord Percy, is it true that you condense souls and place them in cans that are used to pave the sewers of Hell. One word answer only._

"Yes."

_How many cans of condensed souls do you have?_

"I don't have access to those numbers."

_Estimate. Is it more than a thousand._

"I don't know."

A flashing red light indicated that Lord Percy did know.

_How many cans of condensed souls do you have?_

"In excess of one million. You can't believe how many souls will accumulate over the centuries, and they keep coming in so that we don't have the space or the devil power to create pits for them, but we do return them to torture pits every ten years and..."

_Stop: Your year-end forms have not indicated that you are storing some of your souls. That storage is not illegal. If you have space problems, then by all means store them. But your year-end forms have not indicated that you are doing that. Hell has been receiving funds for torturing souls that were stored in cans. That is hardly torture. That means that you are in violation of your agreement with the Cops of the Cosmos. I am now officially warning you that Hell must provide the Cosmos' Financial Accounts Directorate with an accurate number of your cans of condensed souls each budget year so that we can adjust your funding accordingly downwards. For this budget year, we will remove one million souls from your revenue. Next year, we will do an inventory count. You and I have some paperwork to fill out but first, lets finalize the last of our agreements. Truth ray is on both parties._

_Brunhilda, will Heaven save Hell from itself as previously described?_

"Yes."

_Lord Percy, will you invite Heaven to send forces into Hell with the provision that all forces must be removed within 24 hours after they have destroyed the Duke of Earl's forces as previously described?_

"Yes."

_Brunhilda, you will remain in this ship as a peace bond until we can verify that all of your forces are out of Hell. Lord Percy, you will remain here as a peace bond until we receive all of your corrected year-end forms for this budget year. I will meet you tomorrow to go through some forms that you obviously do not know how to complete._

_[Narrator: Busted by the Cosmocracy.]_

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 39

Sunday morning, Beezleday in Hell. Winnie left the cavern where she was observing the duke's fencing form and met Sir Galahad at the border between Hell and Heaven in the grottos. Sir Galahad was in full camouflage gear. Winnie was in her feathers.

"So, you're supposed to report to me or something about whether you're ready or not?"

"Yes, My Queen. I give you my report. You judge whether I have done my job the way you wanted. You make last minute changes if they are necessary and then order the operation to proceed."

"Report, Battle Commander Galahad!"

"Yes, My Queen. We activated the solar power magnification station on Heaven's side of the grottos yesterday. This station is taking solar power from Heaven's sun and converting it into optical power. That power then is pumped into miles of fibre optical cables that we have laid from the grottos to a pumping station in the rocks above the cavern. When activated, that pumping station will flow into solar power display panels that we installed in the roof of the cavern while the devils were sleeping. At my signal, power will move throughout the network and brilliant lights will illuminate every part of the cavern. For angels, those lights are healthy. For devils, they will sap their energy. If the devils cannot get to darkness to restore their health, they will afterdie. Since we will be sealing up this cavern, they will not be able to escape. They will afterdie here and never reincorporate."

"You're set to seal the cavern?"

"Yes, My Queen. My platoon is scattered across the mountainsides opposite the two cavern entrances. Using tightly focused light rays, they will dislodge the rocks above the cavern entrances. Those rocks will fall in a natural looking rockslide to the bottom of the mountains and completely plug up the exits. Anybody stumbling into this area will see a recent mountain slide. They won't know that there used to be cavern. They won't know that there are devils inside the cavern."

"How will Paula, Meghan and I escape from an escape proof cavern?"

"In the tumult of the bright lights and the falling mountain side, you may assume heavenly bodies and fly to the top of cavern where the light banks will blind anybody looking up. You will find a small escape hole there. I have marked that hole with a sound beacon that will beep regularly for two hours and then expire. You did say that the three of you can assume miniature bodies, My Queen."

"Yes, we'll be fine. And no devil will be able to climb to the roof of the cavern?"

"No my queen. The rocks are polished and slippery. Plus, the intensity of the light would blind them. Plus the escape hole is away from the cavern walls. They would need wings to get there."

"Are your men in position?"

"Yes, My Queen. They are camouflaged as rocks on a mountainside. I will have two men hiding near the entrances and they will relay your signal to blow up the mountainside when you give it. Communications in that area are very poor. That's why we have to rely on physical signals and that's why there's a slight risk of them being seen. If you run into trouble, my men and I can be in that cavern in less than twenty seconds."

"Armed?"

"Yes My Queen, of course."

"Foils?"

"No, My Queen. Nothing so archaic. We'll have solar power based weapons. Chivalrous weaponry is not up to the task for this operation."

"I may make some changes in the plan as we proceed. Just wait for my signal to blow up the mountainside. That has to come first."

"Yes, My Queen."

"I'm not quite ready. I'll see you at the cavern."

"Yes, My Queen."

### # # # # # # # #

_What's happening now Meghan?_

_He's still giving them foil practice._

_Paula, is the surrounding area clear?_

_Yes._

_Quiet on the set. Lights, cameras, action._

### # # # # # # # #

The peal of a trumpet in the distance caused everybody in the cavern to pause. A second peal caused them to look at the far entrance to the cavern. The third peal of the trumpet announced the arrival of something. Make that a somebody.

As she strode into the cavern, devils and demons stared. They gathered closer to have a better look. She waved her left hand at them in a stay away motion and the devils/demons on that side collapsed back. Then, she waved her right hand, and again the crowd on that side was repelled back.

She was a devil. That was clear from the scales that they could see. Her head had the face of an innocent looking, powerless mouse with flaming red hair cascading to her shoulders. That was a clear sign that she was a she. The jewel-encrusted crown on her head was another hint.

She wore a heavy robe that was tied to her neck and spread to the floor behind her. It had to be heavy because she had various fur bearing animal skins (and heads) attached to it. Muskrat, beaver, raccoon and skunk bodies flapped up and down as she strode in. Her front was a doublet of some kind that was covered with strings of jewels of various sizes and shapes. A diamond tiara was attached to her belt like a weapon that she could draw and fire. On the other side of her belt, a giant perfume squirt bottle was similarly positioned as a weapon. Take one more step and I'll squirt?

_[Advertisement: This costume was provided by the Kamloops Amateur Theatre society. Their next presentation is Romeo and Juliette, May 21 in the community center. Tickets at the door. Notice: No animals were harmed in the production you are watching. Thank you to the Kamloops taxidermy shops for their donations. And now, back to your show.]_

As this female figure moved, she continued to make space around her; perhaps the devil army was being repelled by the threat of the perfume bottle. It's well known that males can become frightened from this weapon of mass olfaction.

Her lower body was covered in part by a flaming red skirt. Underneath that, you could see black-scaled tights. Most devils have green (and grungy) scales. This devil's scales were pitch black and gleamed. You probably could see your reflection in them. Her hooves were covered in red Adidas sport shoes.

_[Nike shoes were more common in Hell but Adidas paid a larger fee to their celebrity sponsors.]_

One of the Duke of Earl's aides saw who had come to grace them with her presence, scurried forward and knelt in front of her. "Queen Morgana, Your Lowness. Welcome!"

"Rise, varlet. Pray point out the devil who is in charge of this assemblage."

"It is he, my queen," and Paula pointed to the Duke of Earl.

_[Regal aides are expected to use correct grammar. 'It is him' would be so uncouth.]_

"You may approach, Duke of Earl," Queen Morgana haughtified.

The duke approached simply to get a better look at this.... whatever.

"This is Queen Morgana le Fay, witch, enchantress, sorceress, and seducer," Paula introduced.

_[The army nodded. Those were pretty good credentials for a devilette.]_

"My queen, this is the Duke of Earl, the slayer of shoulder demons and a fashion mogul of the first order."

_[This was an accurate appraisal of the duke's achievements so far. The duke wasn't very appreciative and glared at Paula. The crowd nodded. Yup, the varlet had pretty much nailed the introduction]._

"Who gave you permission to form this army in my territory, Duke of Earl?"

_[Oh, oh. The duke must have forgotten to fill out some forms.]_

"I need no permission. I do what I wish. I've never heard of you."

_[D'ems fighting words.]_

"Swear allegiance to me and I'll pardon the error."

_[Sounds reasonable.]_

"You swear allegiance to me, and I'll let you benefit from the victories of my army."

_[Sounds reasonable too.]_

"The Duke of Earl doesn't understand royal hierarchy," Winnie played to the audience. "Dukes and Earls are close to being varlets."

_[The crowd didn't know what a varlet was, but it couldn't have been good. You didn't see many signs in Hell advertising: 'Wanted: a good varlet.']_

"Do you like being a slovenly dressed servant, Duke?"

_[Oooh. Burn.]_

"I am double royalty. A duke and an earl."

"Two times nothing is worthless."

_[A mathematical insult. Let me think. I know this. Two times zero is... where's my calculator?]_

"The Duke of Earl probably doesn't understand how to swear allegiance. You there. Elephant guy. You may approach me."

Meghan scuttled forward, bowing and scraping as she scuttled.

"Would you like to be a member of my court?"

"Yes, Queen Morgana."

"Kneel. Do you swear to honor, protect me, and do whatever I order you to do?"

"I will honour and protect you. I will do whatever you order me to do."

...

"Varlet, remove the scabbard from my back."

_[Nobody had noticed the scabbard hanging on Winnie's back. Devils are like men. They only look at a women's front.]_

Winnie withdrew the foil from the scabbard. She tapped Meghan on both shoulders while saying, "I hereby dub you, Sir Launchalot." Then she handed the foil and the scabbard back to Paula.

_[The crowd didn't understand the significance of the slightly different pronunciation of this famous name. You probably don't get it either. Patience is a virtue.]_

"Duke of Earl, this is your last chance to kneel and pledge loyalty to me."

The duke put his foil and feet into 'en garde' position and answered a threat with a threat. "This is your last chance to kneel and pledge loyalty to me, animal lover."

_[The crowd inhaled in anticipation. The muskrat, beaver, raccoon and skunk hung there wishing that she had been an animal lover.]_

"I am displeased," Queen Morgana admitted, waved her right hand in a circle above her head, and then slamming an open palm at the source of her displeasure. The duke fell backwards onto the rocks of the cavern, stunned. The queen approached with that palm still facing the duke. "Down, Fido. Stay!"

_[FYI: Like water and sun, gravity is everywhere around us. And it works everywhere. You wouldn't think that anybody could make gravity into a weapon. Oh, wait. I know somebody who did. This close to the Earth's molten core, William's gravity weapon on Winnie's sling was particularly powerful.]_

The duke struggled to get up but couldn't.

"Sir Launchalot, put the tip of your foil on his forehead and make sure this dog stays on the ground where it belongs."

Meghan placed the point of her foil worryingly close to the Duke's eyes that had not been examined recently for internal cataracts. Surgery could commence at any time.

Queen Morgana looked at the loose circle of devils around her, raised both palms into the air and paused. "The rest of you, sit down or you also will feel my wrath!"

They sat.

"Varlet, help me remove my robes."

### # # # # # # # #

Up in the Cops of the Cosmos scout ship, Brunhilda and Harry were relaxing in the crew quarters. Brunhilda was relaxing in the deep pool of salt water that formed the ship's recreation room. Harry turned out to be a dolphin. The ship's computer translated his squeaks and whistles into understandable words. For a species that humans had killed off, Harry was remarkably tolerant about human and their antics. Brunhilda had converted to a dolphin body so the two of them could communicate easily while relaxing. Harry had a question to ask.

"I wanted to ask you about that mortal that we had talked about. The one who could have revealed the existence of the Cops of the Cosmos. The prime directive is clear. Neither Hell nor Heaven can act in such a way as to reveal that afterlives exist and that Earth is being observed by the Cops of the Cosmos. Is he still a threat?"

"No. We turned his attention away to a young KwaZulu girl."

"Aah. That is good. I had heard that the Zulu planet had sent in a goddess to help them."

"That's the one. You don't have to worry about that young man any more."

"His sister?"

"I'm keeping a very close eye on her."

"What's your take on Lord Percy? He was most reluctant to let Heaven help."

"The Duke of Earl doesn't have the brain capacity to lick salt off sardines. _[A typical dolphin metaphor.]_ These are wonderful by the way. Lord Percy was behind the plot to form an army and take over Hell. We didn't know if Lord Percy expected the Duke's revolution to work and he would take over for Satan, or if he was planning to catch the rebels in action and take credit for their capture. It doesn't really matter. The Duke is gone, and when Lord Percy returns to Hell, he will find a most unhappy Satan."

...

"Betsy and I are taking one of those galaxy tours when I take my next furlough."

"You mean one of those ten planets in ten days with hand craft tourist trappers lining up at the gates to the space port to flog their wares?'"

"No. I don't need any more straw hats. We're going on tours to the pre-civilization planets. The ones that don't have life yet. Camping out in a comfortable cruiser, watching volcanoes erupt and rivers develop. Stress free afterliving."

"I could use stress free."

"You and Joe-Joe should come with us. We have lots of recreation in the evenings. I'm not playing poker with you though. I don't think Lord Percy has figured out how you tied him in knots yet."

"I'll mention it to Joe-Joe. Our rescue operation in Hell should be over by now. I wonder why we haven't heard anything."

"Do you have confidence in your assistant handling the operation?"

"Oh, certainly."

_[Winnie, what's taking you so long?]_

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 40

Queen Morgana was now in clothes that looked eerily like the clothes that a certain mortal used for exercising. She was still a devil though as her face and body scales revealed. She was simply a devil that liked to work out in black tights and a bright red short skirt. "Did the duke ever tell you what this army is going to do this afternoon?" she asked.

Varlet answered _No_ for the crowd and many devils nodded in agreement.

"This army is going into war this afternoon with other devils. The duke is trying to take over Hell."

"How do we know that's true, my queen?" This question was from Sir Launchalot who was speaking for the group. It was a legitimate question.

"Let the dog stand up," she instructed her elephantine-sized courtier.

The duke regained his feet.

"Tell them what you planned to tell them just before you left the cavern."

The duke seemed hesitant to obey.

Queen Morgana pointed her palm at the duke and palmed him upwards into the air. Higher and higher he rose until he was half way up to the to domed ceiling. "I can let you fall from there. What's it going to be, Duke of Earl? Tell them now or tell them when you are a broken pile of bones?"

"We are going into SinSin-atti to fight for the freedom of the demons and devils of Hell against the tyranny of Satan's SSS forces."

The queen lowered the duke slowly to the ground. "Don't move," she instructed him.

Turning to the soldiers, she ask, "You've received foils and have had some training. Am I correct?"

More of the soldiers were now focused intensely on the scene that was playing out in front of them. "Yes," some called out.

"Foils are good weapons, aren't they?"

"Yes," more soldiers called out

"Let's see how good they are. We'll have a contest. Varlet, give the duke your foil."

...

"To my left is probably the best foil fighter in the afterlife. Introducing the Duke of Earl, Champeen of Hell. Let's have some cheers for the duke."

The army responded as requested. They were solidly behind their leader. They had seen him with his foil. He could beat anybody.

"To my right is Sir Launchalot, who has trained with you with the foil. You would probably agree that he sucks with the foil. He's probably as good as an average devil would be who hadn't had any instruction. "

Sir Launchalot raised his hands hoping for cheers, but received nothing but catcalls.

"Duke, you may now move. Duke, meet an average devil. Average devil. meet the duke. The two of you will battle for the champeenship of the army."

The duke was now in his element, a foil in his hand, and both feet (and not his full body) on solid ground. "En guarde," he Frenchified and began to shuffle to his right.

"Screw this," Sir Launchalot sort of said but in more earthly terms. He threw away his foil and charged head down right at the duke.

_[A head down charge takes the vulnerable eyes out of danger. All the duke saw were scales and horns coming at him and coming fast. Have I mentioned that Sir Launchalot had a very strong body what with his massive elephant legs?]_

Blazing asteroid met tiny marshmallow. Meghan blew by a desperate foil swing, grabbed the duke at his waist, bent her legs, and launched the duke into the upper atmosphere of the cavern. Then she caught him on his way down and launched him again, thereby justifying the name Winnie had given her: Sir Launch-a-lot.

The second time, Meghan didn't catch the duke on his way down. He bounced, moaned, and rolled over to see Queen Morgana pointing a palm at him. "Down, Fido. Don't move."

The duke obeyed.

"You've just seen how an angry devil will react when he sees you coming at him with a pea-sticker weapon. He won't fight you with a foil. The devils you will face will have big, sharp horns and you will die with two big holes in your belly. The Duke of Earl didn't prepare you for that, did he?"

The army began digesting that news. Winnie waited a bit and then served up the next course of their meal.

"Let's say that you are fighting your way through SinSin-atti and you come across a devil who can't gore you because it doesn't have big horns yet. It doesn't have a foil or anything else dangerous in his hands. Varlet, come be that devil."

Varlet moved into the middle of the circle.

"I need a volunteer who is considered to be one of the best fencers in this army. Raise your foil if you want to show off your skills."

Several foils went into the air. The queen chose the biggest devil.

"On my right, you see a defenseless devil who has nothing other than his scales to protect him. On my left, you see one of the best fighters in this army. This duel will end when the foil wielding devil draws blood somewhere between waist and neck. If he can't draw blood in ten attempts, the defenseless devil will win."

The duel didn't take long. Paula just stood there. Her attacker assumed the right stance, he made his lunge properly, and the tip of his foil connected with a scale. Ten times he tried; ten times a defenseless devil withstood the attack by simply standing still.

"Did you find that interesting?" Queen Morgana asked the army. "Obviously, the foil that the duke gave you doesn't work. But supposedly, foils can kill devils. After all, they are outlawed from Hell. Let's see if they are dangerous. Varlet, my foil please."

Paula left the battleground and returned with the queen's foil. "Attack me five times," the queen instructed the devil holding one of the duke's foils.

Again, the devil set his feet and lunged. This time, the queen parried the foil and attacked with a lunge herself. When her foil hit the target she was aiming for, she flicked her wrist.

"Looks like a draw," Queen Morgana said after five engagements. The army fencer smiled.

"You lost these," Varlet informed the smiling fencer and handed him five scales that the queen had lifted off his body with surgical precision.

"This young devil is one lunge away from death," Queen Morgana announced to the army. "I have lifted five scales off his body and in my next lunge I could easily put my foil through a vital organ. He didn't even know that I had de-scaled him. Turn so that they can see your wounds."

...

"Why was I able to descale my opponent and he could not descale me?"

"You're better," a devil called.

"True, but that's not the real reason. My opponent will examine my foil. Tell your friends what you see and feel."

"Her foil tip is different."

"You're right. It has a little hook in it. When the tip hits a scale, I can twist that hook underneath that scale and pry it off. That's all done with a wrist flick. Go back to your seat. Your scales will grow back. You did well for a beginner."

...

"Why did the Duke of Earl give you a foil that would not work when he could have given you a foil that had a chance of working?"

"Because he doesn't care if we die," the former smiling devil called out.

"Give that devil a prize. Let's see how good the duke is against somebody who knows how to fence."

### # # # # # # # #

A big circle in the middle of cavern had been marked off with army packs. All of the army was sitting on one side of the cavern. That left nobody on the other side except the Duke of Earl. Winnie had told the army to sit behind the devil they wanted to win the duel. The men had voted for their queen by sitting down on her side of the circle. Essentially, they had voted for her with their bums.

Sir Launch-a-lot called the duelists into the center of the ring. "Show me your foils." He examined both and approved them. The duke was using his own descaling foil, as was Winnie. "There are no rules," the referee said to both combatants and left the ring. Queen Morgana grabbed the hilt of the duke's foil before he could leave and she stood with him, chin to chin.

_[For those of you who like to jump to conclusions, you now have a good idea of the duke's height.]_

"You were warned in Tofino," she spoke softly.

"What?"

"Tofino." The community party where you led the bunny hop. Afterwards, a colleague of mine sang to you."

Silence.

"Is milis briomhar leathanbhog an t-aer ann."

Winnie couldn't carry a tune if it were locked inside a bottle with a handle on it. She had recited the first line instead.

"Do you remember it now?"

"Who are you?"

"Your undertaker."

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie had scouted the duke. He always shuffled left so she forced him right. Even against the recruits, he got tired. She would attack him with speed and make him move quickly. He put his foil into his right hand; she put hers into her right hand and made him defend himself with his left hand. These strategic moves gave her six hits, each of which resulted in a scale being removed and a bloody hole left behind. A descaling foil wasn't intended to just draw blood. It was meant to descale, penetrate the body, and pull out flesh when it was withdrawn. Real foils are deadly in Hell if wielded by somebody who knows what she is doing. After those six hits, Winnie got down to business.

One time, she attacked with a yell and a head down attack. The duke crouched to brace himself. She summersaulted over him and removed two scales from his back before he could turn around.

Another time she forced close contact, grabbed the Duke's hilt with her free hand, and back heeled him to the ground. Four more wounds appeared as he rolled desperately and tried to regain his feet. _[No rules, remember.]_

In her last attack, she charged him on a diagonal attack line, slid by him on the shiny rocks as if she were stealing home base, and stabbed upwards after she passed that base. There's an area by a devil's home base that is not covered by scales. The home base is usually called something else. The Duke of Earl fell to the ground. The untouched queen stood back and waited for him to stand. The duke couldn't.

Winnie approached the Duke of Earl, kicked his foil away, knelt on the ground, and held his face in her hands. "Is milis briomhar leathanbhog an t-aer ann." This time she sang it. The duke would die that afternoon. We're not sure if he died because of the foil that Winnie had stuck into his intestines or from her singing.

The army rose as one and began belching and farting in applause.

_Stop cameras. Print._

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 41

Winnie turned to face what used to be the duke's army. Now, they were Queen Morgana's army, if that's what Winnie wanted. Varlet brought out a camp chair facing the semi circle of belchers and farters and Winnie stood in front of it. Sir Launchalot faced them and motioned them to sit and to be quiet. Both Meghan and Paula went to stand in front of a cavern entrance, blocking the view of the interior of the cavern from the sentries posted outside.

"We're blind and deaf," the sentries reported to their battle commander who already had heard from Joe-Joe asking for results.

"We will wait for her signal," Sir Galahad replied to his sentries, as he had already replied to Joe-Joe.

Inside, Queen Morgana waited for absolute silence before pointing to the dying Duke of Earl and predicting, "That will be you by this afternoon."

The army as a whole beiged in shock.

_[Devils can't blanche in response to a shock, because that word means 'whiten.' But the colour white is banned in Hell. Hence, they had to beige.]_

"Do you ever look back on your years on Earth and wonder if all of those sins that you committed were worth it? After all, you are in Hell now because you committed sins. They would have been serious sins. Were you after power? Wealth? Sex? Were those sins worth this kind of afterlife?"

"You've already spent years in the torture pits. You've been promoted to shoulder demons. You've even made it to devil. You know that one single mistake could put you back in the torture pits for another decade or so. Then you'll start all over again. Was what you did on Earth worth this kind of afterlife?"

"You'll never become wealthy or powerful enough in Hell to consider yourself safe from being sent back to the pits. Even devils like the Duke of Earl make mistakes. Make a mistake and back you go into the torture pits. Was what you did on Earth worth this kind of afterlife? Do you feel proud of yourself for what you did on Earth? Or, do you feel regret for what you did when you were living? If you had the chance, would you live you same life over again on Earth? Or, would you live a different kind of life? One that would not lead to an eternity in Hell."

"You do understand that there are two afterlives. Hell and Heaven. Those of you who want to, form a line here and tell me if you regret your life on Earth." With that, Winnie switched to her angelic form, hovered in the air to prove she could, and sat down in the camp chair.

### # # # # # # # #

Meghan had remained in her devilian form (she had no angel body) and was standing at the cavern exit that would lead to downtown Hell. Paula had changed into her angelic form and stood at the exit that would lead to Heaven. Winnie listened, looked at each devil's face as he talked, and pointed either in Meghan's direction or in Paula's direction. One line grew.

### # # # # # # # #

"Battle Commander, would you delegate some of your forces to guide these devils through the grottos and into Heaven. You may tell Joe-Joe that these devils can be given the status of Temporary Angel. They regret their previous actions on Earth and want a second chance."

"Do you realize that there is no such thing as a Temporary Angel, My Queen? How many are there?"

"Heaven can call them what they want. Tell Joe-Joe that I have given them my own Truth Ray assessment and they are all telling the truth when they say that they regret what they did as mortals. There are 1,330 of them. When you have them en-route, you and your engineers may close off this cavern permanently."

"With only the one body inside, My Queen?"

"Yes. He's still alive."

"As Mission Commander, you may want to stay here and ensure that I have completed the mission to your satisfaction, My Queen."

"Are you trying to protect me, Sir Galahad?"

"You will face many questions when you reach Heaven, My Queen."

A different voice intruded in their private conversation. "I can help her with that. Prepare to seal this cavern and return to Heaven, Commander."

"Yes, Private First Class Prudence."

### # # # # # # # #

Prudence and Winnie were winging their way very slowly through the grottos and stopping frequently to look at the colours. Prudence was speaking.

"Joe-Joe gave me a full briefing when I met with him Saturday morning. He cautioned me not to share the information with you **before** the operation. He didn't say anything about afterwards."

"Lillian was running an operation different from what she gave you. Her goal was to force Hell into making concessions that would change the balance of financial power between us and Hell. Lack of resources is Heaven's biggest nightmare. We are now on a nearly equal footing which you will learn about eventually. Our relationship with Hell is significantly different because her mission succeeded."

"She met with Lord Percy and was able to pressure him to accept these changes in exchange for you killing all of the duke's army and the duke himself. Lord Percy didn't want to do that at first because he had planned the duke's revolution and wanted to give the duke time to attack. Lillian prevented that with some procedural arguments. When he saw the duke's attack wouldn't be in time to work, Lord Percy cut his losses and negotiated for Heaven to destroy the Duke and his army. That way, his involvement would not be revealed. Lillian agreed. She didn't know that you were going to free the slaves, so to speak."

"Did I mess up her operation?"

"No. If there had been a risk of that, I was here to stop you but I wasn't placed here for that specific reason. I was placed here to kill Duke of Earl if you had been unable to do that. Why did you kill him? Joe-Joe wondered if you would. I gather you haven't killed before."

"Joe-Joe had warned him that he was being watched. Then, I put him on trial before his army. They served as a jury. The jurors voted by lining up behind me. I wasn't murdering him. I was just bringing justice to him. If it hadn't been about justice, I couldn't have killed him. I knew about Lord Percy, by the way."

"How?"

"It was obvious. The duke never could have planned that operation. The duke was tiny with small horns. He was my height. That meant that he was a nothing in Hell. How could he have been promoted into a high position in the SSS without Lord Percy wanting him there? It was all a farce. The SSS would have been waiting for the duke to attack and that attack would have failed for the reasons I revealed to his army. Lord Percy would receive the credit for stopping a revolution."

"You saw things that your team didn't."

"Yes. Arthur, Meghan, and Paula didn't know anything about foils. They didn't realize how badly outmatched that army would be. It didn't matter that the duke had over 1,000 devils. In the sewers of Hell, brute force would win. No puny single point foil would ever hurt a real devil, with real horns and real strength."

"Did you reveal your plan to Meghan and Paula?"

"Yes. I don't believe in keeping secrets. I trusted them to find any weakness in my thinking and make improvement. Will they be in trouble too?"

"Tell me what risk Heaven faces from this unexpected deluge of regret-filled devils?"

"There's no risk if Heaven handles it properly. Hell won't know that they are missing some devils because no records were kept of which demons were recruited into the army and which devils were created out of those demons. All they know is that the entire army is now stashed in a sealed cavern. Heaven has to find a way to record 1,330 new angels arriving in Heaven. Heaven has to memory wipe those recruits immediately and keep them isolated until their memories are entirely blank. My memories took a while to disappear. After that, they go through orientation like every other angel."

"You were memory wiped?"

"Yeah, several times."

"You and I need a weekend to talk. What opportunities does Heaven gain from these recruits?"

"Thirteen hundred angels is thirteen hundred more than we would have otherwise. See what they do in Heaven. Do they contribute? Later, if an opportunity presents itself, we might be able to offer Hell an opportunity to ditch a number of their devils who aren't contributing much. We could actually ask some of our watchers to start a short list of possible recruits. We could, in time, establish a pathway for unproductive devils to transfer to the other afterworld. Isn't eternal damnation a rather harsh penalty? If Hell has to store their souls in soup cans, wouldn't they be open to getting rid of some permanently? But we select, we don't let Hell select."

"And the reason why you went so much out of your way to give these devils that chance?"

"Nobody warned them like Joe-Joe warned the duke. Nobody gave them the choice of joining an army of revolutionaries or not. They were following orders. Where's the justice in sentencing them to afterdeath?"

"I will explain why you acted as you did to Joe-Joe and Lillian."

"Am I still in trouble?"

"Probably not."

"Good. I'm going to check on Arthur."

"Don't go to the ship. He's OK, but he's not there."

"Where is he?"

"Getting a new body. The working theory is that the barrier keeping his childhood memories away from his angelic memories was torn beyond repair when he entered a cavern full of evidence of fire and explosions. Heaven can't have an angel in the field who could fall unconscious during an operation. He needs a new body without those mortal memories. The scientists have an answer, so they say."

"Will he keep his angelic memories?"

"Will he keep his memories of you, you mean."

"Yes."

"The scientists are optimistic."

"Where is he getting that new body?"

"Heaven's top medical research lab."

"How can he be there? He was banned from Heaven."

"As part of our new Heaven-Hell agreement, we exchanged spies. Heaven got me back; Hell got all of their underfeather devils back. That means that he's no longer banned. Their spies won't last long in Hell. Lillian made it clear that she knew all about them."

"When will I be able to see Arthur? I'm not supposed to be in Heaven."

"I've arranged for you to have a direct portal into Arthur's hospital room between 9 pm and 9 am each day until he is released. Simply say _Arthur's room_ while you're in the ship's galley and you'll be there. He has an extra wide bed and there is no camera security in his room during those hours."

"You did that for me?"

"Yes. I like the way you think."

"You carry a lot of weight for a private."

"A private first class, Guinevere."

"Do you believe in that Arthur-Guinevere legend?"

"Nah, it's a bunch of malarkey."

"Malarkey?"

"That means B.S. I'll have to learn to swear in code now that I'm in Heaven."

"I know how to swear in Japanese. I'll share."

"I've died and gone to Heaven."

"Why call me Guinevere if you think the Arthur legend is malarkey?"

"Because that's your name. Plus, it'll irritate Lillian."

"What time is it?"

"One minute to nine."

"See ya' tomorrow."

"He may not remember how to kiss," she warned, but Winnie wasn't there any longer.

"I wonder if I should have told her that sooner."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Books in the Wilizy series

As of April 2020, the Wilizy series contained twenty-three novels as listed below.

**Book #1: I Got'cha**

If you think being a teenager in today's world is tough, try being one in 2081. In Alberta's It's Only Fair society, your brain-band will zap you just for chewing with your mouth open. One boy pried his brain-band off to see what living with emotions would be like. Being chased by the entire Alberta army was bad enough. It became worse when another 15 year old kid offered to help him escape.

**Book #2: The Get-Even Bird**

Will and Izzy are forced to flee from Zzyk's army. After months away from Alberta, they fly their sailing ship into B.C. thinking that they would be safe there. Bad mistake! Izzy is captured. All Will has to do to save her life is turn himself in for a free brain-band fitting appointment. That's what happens when you wear a Zorro costume to a dance.

**Book #3: Assassination Day**

A DPS technician offers to defect if the Wilizy will rescue his daughter from _The Citadel_ – some super smart military people who are friends with Zzyk. Izzy thinks that their new recruit is an assassin, but Yollie insists that he's a decent man. Can assassins be decent men? It will take a hair-raising experience to find out.

**Book #4: Hoist the Jolly Lucas**

It's bad enough that Zzyk pins the blame for two assassinations on Izzy and launches a full out assault on their home compound. But then, another enemy takes advantage of a security lapse to get revenge for a war that happened 20 years ago. The Wilizy are left reeling with two key members kidnapped and stashed where they can't be found, let alone rescued. For the family to survive, everybody must enter the battle. The story is as much about the past as it is about the present.

**Book #5: Teenage Mutant Ninja Torpedoes** (Yes, this is a Wilizy book.)

Mac disappears and doesn't want to be found. Will and Wolf use time-travel to search for her and discover secrets she wouldn't want them to know. The Alaskans attack when Will is finding out what happens to a submarine's air when it is lying helpless on the ocean floor. Between the Alaskans' impenetrable fortress and their bubblegum weapons, life is going to get a little sticky for the Wilizy.

**Book #6: Bob, the Invisible Dragon**

Raging hormones as well as Raging Gardeners play key roles when young Wilizy warriors are attacked and the Wilizy's scientific marvels offer no protection. The youngsters' future will rely on a different kind of warrior protecting them. Warning: events at the end of the story will move quickly. They certainly won't _drag on_.

**Book #7: Nary, Nary, Quite Contrary**

Theo and Lucas move to Toronto to live on their own. Both meet girls but neither is brave enough to introduce his new friend to the family. They wouldn't have the time anyway, what with villains trying to assassinate them and Voodoo royalty greeting them as though they were Voodoo gods. At the end of the story, Lucas receives a surprise Boxing Day gift that leaves him speechless.

**Book #8: Maddy's a Baddy**

Maddy had escaped from Big Momma only to find herself all alone in the cold and begging for food in Eastern Canada. While she's trying to return to her home in Seattle, the Wilizy have their own problems. Everybody in the family is intent on bringing the judge to justice for what he did to Lucas. It would have been so easy for them to rescue Maddy, but they didn't know anything about her.

**Book #9: Bite Me!**

Spurred on by Marie's desire to eat a meal with her former slave masters, the Wilizy plan to put Safe Haven ranches out of business. In the process, they encounter two foreign assassins intent on abducting Maddy. Theo and Nary become closer but a red-eyed chaperone does not approve. The Wilizy's war with Safe Haven starts with a bang but ends with a whimper.

**Book #10: Wheelchair Moccasins!**

A 13 year old girl pretends to turn to prostitution to gain her freedom from her crime boss father. In Wilizy family news, Winnie agrees not to meddle in Mathias' love life. No, the world isn't ending, so long as you don't have a green vegetable for your name. Best advice ever? If somebody wearing moccasins and sitting in a wheelchair offers to sing you to sleep... run!

**Book #11: Trial by Nick**

After the Scandinavians attack their home base, Winnie develops an idea for defeating Crown Prince Wilhelm that is a dramatic departure from their normal military battles. In their personal lives, the Toronto teenagers have to become schnobs to keep their basketball futures alive, Lucas and Lylah begin dating, and two of EmmaGee's personalities leave her body.

**Book #12. Tickled Pink**

A man uses his unlimited wealth and power to assault women without fear of legal consequences. If they object, he'll humiliate them publicly and ruin their lives. If they don't stand up to him, their lives as they knew them will be over. But how do you fight a man who is above the law? Here's how. The Raging Gardeners help the women while Winnie attacks him where he isn't looking.

**Book #13: Second Base**

Granny and Doc enjoy a spirited life in their new Australian house while Bean has to adjust to her mother joining her in the Wilizy cadet camp. She meets a charming man with country pumpkin witticisms whose entire life is dedicated to becoming a cold blooded killer. Meanwhile, Safe Haven's impenetrable offices aren't as safe as they thought they were.

**Book #14: Old Stone Face**

Bean moves to Toronto with her sheriff who takes a job as a private detective. Before long, he's trying to bring a mad scientist to justice - the same man that Winnie is after. With both the Wilizy and a countrified sheriff after the same man, you'd think he'd be easy to catch. Too bad there are no laws about a mad scientist killing twenty-one babies.

**Book #15: Remember the Halocracy**

Reese finds Annika - his first, and only, girl friend. For reasons that nobody fully understands, he sort of kidnaps her but she willingly accompanies him to the far side of globe. Reese figures out later that she could be trying to seduce him when in fact, she's actually going to try to kill him.

**Book #16: Coffee Can Kill Ya!**

Convincing Paula's brother to give her a proper share of her parents' estate had seemed so easy. Turned out that it wasn't so easy after all. In the Wilizy's defense, murdering extra-terrestrials that tried to kidnap a corpse created unique challenges. To their credit, the Wilizy dealt with those. But, how do you deal with something that you can't see and don't even know exists?

**Book #17: Nice Birthday Party, Governor.**

Plot twists abound as the Wilizy take on the Colorado government and the NORAD military simultaneously. Maddy quits the cadet corp to run a secret operation that ends in a one-on-one battle. Melissa breaks Reese out of jail and Cowboy shows his dramatic talents, which do not include stripping. Winnie directs two dramatic productions but only one of these involves wearing respectable clothes.

**Book #18: The Tale of the Scorpion's Tail**

The Wilizy have to neutralize NORAD's nuclear missiles while defeating their air force without causing any casualties. A special weapon (guided bird poop) will be needed. Meanwhile, Heaven's guardian angels are under attack from within. The key to success? Rescuing a gerbil imprisoned in an escape-proof cage. "Molly Moonblossom" and "Nympho Maniac" play key roles. One of these actors is Winnie.

**Book #19: Brunhilda, the Steamroller.**

Billy Bump resurfaces and plans Maddy's death. Winnie accepts a secret mission but runs afoul of Yolanda, who is sure that she has a boyfriend. Yolanda's vision that Winnie will be attacked comes true. Demonic infiltrators into Heaven escape detection when the steamroller named Brunhilda prosecutes Arthur and finds him guilty. This time, he won't be going back to guardian angel school.

**Book #20: Lock Up Your Corn Starch!**

While Paula, Winnie and Arthur are on a perilous mission for Heaven, the Wilizy family is trying to rescue Charlie and Sheila from prison. Wilizy forces battle demented escaped convicts intent on slaughtering innocent victims to help a brown supremacist politician win an election. If you're intent on going to Hell when you die, be sure to read this book for a preview of what's waiting for you.

**Book #21: The Champion Kisser**

Melissa's Operation Beef Jerky, featuring pragmatic momma cows and flying unbranded calves, goes after a stinky justice. In Hell, Winnie has to deal with a dead pharmacist and an asparagus-shaped devil geek in her operation against the perfume-toting, hog-riding Rat. On her side is a pussy tat named Santa Claws and a junk food eating canary that has a fatal encounter with a loaded frying pan.

**Book #22: Black Cats: Lucky or Unlucky?**

Strange characters abound in this story. You'll meet a woman named Fido, a purple gnome, a mining gal that can make a cowhand vibrate, a safe-cracking masked marauder, a stinker bell, a high wire gymnast afraid of height, three hench-devils, and a devil wearing an Elizabethan ebony doublet, complete with raven black satin breeches and a heart shaped codpiece. Oh yeah. There's also a black cat.

**Book #23:** **Morgana Foils the Duke's Plans**

In Book #23, you'll meet a zesty Zulu goddess who pulls a spear of gold out of a lake bed. An angel named Prudence has a potty mouth. A dolphin in the Cops of the Cosmos arranges for Heaven to invade Hell. Queen Guinevere meets Sir Galahad, Sir Lance Lott, and Sir Launchalot, one of whom is not gallant. The perfume toting Morgana wields a devilish weapon of mass olfaction.

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# About the Author

David J. Wighton is a retired educator who enjoys writing youth novels when he's not on a basketball court coaching middle-school girls. The books in his Wilizy series peek at how people lived after the word's governments collapsed in the chaos that followed the catastrophic rise in ocean levels and the disappearance of the world's last deposits of oil.

Wighton's novels have strong teenage characters driving the plot and facing challenges that, in many respects, are no different from what teenagers face today. His novels are intended to entertain and readers will find adventure, romance, suspense, humour, a strong focus on family, plus a touch of whimsy. Wighton also writes to provoke a little thought about life in today's societies and what the future might bring. Teachers may find the series useful in the classroom and the novels are priced with that intent in mind.

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