The Rescue Mission
Chapter 9
Written by rachel76m
Edited by Don Kaufman

Friday morning at Jacksonville proved to be normal for me. I wake up at 7 A.M., an hour before the nurse comes in with my breakfast. My fairies tend to me again before she shows up. Once she does enter the room, they return back to the flowers to get themselves fed and recharged.

~~~000~~~

Doug enters in the R&D lab at Secure-Sys at 7 A.M.. He logs onto a computer to check his emails. He sees an email that gets his attention quickly. He immediately opens another window and accesses the chat room. He sees the scripts going up the screen. He immediately sets the printer for live printing. Soon he sees a single line go by. It reads only ‘4 PM B-TIME’.

“Oh boy, that means 10 A.M. here. My friend is right. It is a two-prong attack. I need to call Detective Torres right now.”

Doug brings out his cell phone and opens it. He immediately presses the numbers to reach Detective Torres.

“Ring . . . ring . . . ring.”

“This is Detective Torres. Is that you, Doug?”

“It is Detective. I just got an email from my European contact. I immediately logged into the chat room. I found a line that states “4 PM B-Time.”

“What does that mean, Doug?”

“It means it is a two-prong attack at the same time. 10 AM here and 4 PM there in Brussels.”

“Thanks for the update. I will get the squad cars there as quick as I can. We’ll come in unmarked cars without lights and sirens.”

“That is a must, Detective Torres. Brent and the others usually don’t arrive here until 7:30 AM.”

“Okay.”

Doug closes his cell phone. He opens it again to contact Ben in the main frame room.

“Ring . . . ring . . . ring.”

“What is it, Doug?”

“My European contact gave me a heads up. I immediately logged into the chat room. I printed out the chat lines live for proof. It is a two-prong attack at the same time, 10 AM here and 4 PM there in Brussels.”

“Thanks for letting us know. We’ll keep an eye on them.”

~~~000~~~

The nurse comes in at 8 AM with a tray. She places it on the table. She picks up the apple juice cup first. “Good morning, Richard. We have something new for breakfast.”

“I hope so.”

She smiles at me, “Ahhh . . . a pessimist.”

“I have done some wilderness survival.”

“Well I hope this is better than pine bark and needles.”

I give a droll response, “Hah . . . Hah.”

She smiles again and brings the apple juice cup near me. She puts the straw into my mouth. I take a few sips and swallow it carefully. She puts that down on the table. She picks up another cup with a straw and brings it near to me.

“It is chicken bouillon.”

“Whoopee . . . I’ll take the dinner again . . . more filling.”

She giggles, “You are a pessimist.” She brings the straw to my mouth.

I close my lips around the straw and suck up some chicken bouillon. I soon taste some herbs strained in the bouillon. I open my mouth to catch my breath.

“There is oregano in this.”

“See, it is different.”

“Then add some basil, rosemary and marjoram, then I will be happy.” I try to smile at her.

“So, we have a cook here.” She smiles at me again. “I’ll see what I can do.” She brings the straw to my mouth again. I continue to suck up the warm soup. In fifteen minutes I finish drinking both cups for my breakfast.

She leaves my room. Soon my fairies return to me and continue their healing touch for the next hour. At about 9:05 AM the door opens and Detective Torres walks inside. The butterflies flutter back to the flowers quickly.

“I just received a contact this morning from Doug. He was in the chat room again. He saw a line from one of the three men in question. It states only ‘4 PM B-Time’.”

“What does that mean?”

“Doug thinks it will be a two-prong attack. It will be 10 AM here and 4 PM there in Brussels.”

“That makes sense. If it is 4 PM there, the banks are just closing over there. No one will be able to stop it, if it spreads from there. The real focus is on the US dollar here. With that in mind, I think Brent will be trying to keep his control here and provide a beachhead so the New Dawn can take root here.”

“I see. Can you link your 3D system here with your system back in Secure-Sys?”

“I sure can. Walk over to the closet. Take out the four holo-transmitters and set the telescoping mounts at the four corners of the room. There are cameras already in this room.”

“I understand, Richard.” Detective Torres walks over to the closet and retrieves the four holo-transmitters. He sets them near the corners of the room as Richard described it.

“That’s good. Now watch this. Computer, open air-link with 3D system in Mr. Bryson’s office. Put the image of his office in the upper corner of this room.”

“Recognize Richard Moore’s voice pattern. Establishing air-link with Secure-Sys 3D System in Mr. Bryson’s office.”

Soon the image of Mr. Bryson’s office appears in the upper right corner of the room. I see Mr. Bryson sitting there.

“Good morning, Mr. Bryson.”

“Good morning, Richard. Doug told me it will happen at 10 AM here.”

“I’ll be here waiting when the time is right. Go into stealth mode so my image won’t be seen in your office. This will keep our connection active.”

“I understand, Richard. Computer, switch to stealth mode and turn off the video only from Richard Moore.”

“Recognize Mr. Robert Bryson’s voice. Switching to stealth mode from Richard Moore’s connection.”

“That is something to see, Richard. I’ll be going now. I have two officers here just in case as orderlies. I will be there at Secure-Sys to make the arrests. Thank you for all your help.”

“You’re welcome, sir.”

Detective Torres leaves the room. I whisper to my fairies quietly. “Please don’t be near the bed when it goes down. I want Brent to see my face.”

I hear a whisper back from them. “Yes, father.”

My fairies flutter back to me to continue their healing touch until about 9:45 AM. In my mind I think about my life lately. That Brent is some piece of work, Creator.

As smart as he is, he always has eyes set on higher goals.

We should be like that, Creator.

That’s true, Richard. But his problem is that he is in it for himself and not helping others. His life is not balanced. He is a ‘taker’ through and through.

Soon he will have nothing left. Perhaps in that moment or a little bit later, he will find you.

I have been here all this time waiting for my Creation to acknowledge me. But some are too blind to see the truth. Well, it is time, Richard. It is time to confront Brent.

I look up in the corner and see Mr. Bryson going about his business of running the company. He looks at his watch and sees it is 10 AM. He gets up to get in position. “Computer, split images between Brent’s office and Mr. Bryson walking down the hallway.”

“Creating two images, Brent Morgan’s office and Mr. Bryson in hallway.”

I see the two images in the corner. Then I see Brent typing on the keyboard to begin his plans.

~~~000~~

Brent mumbles to himself. “Time is now. Heh, heh, heh . . . “ He enters a series of keystrokes on the keyboard and then hits the ‘Enter’ key to send his virus.

The screen shows many lines scrolling upward on a pop up screen. He sees that he has accessed Secure-Sys’ main hard-drive. He then types in the commands to find the files he is looking for. The files are the accounting records and the patents created at Secure-Sys. He finds the patents and looks to change the ownership of the patents to himself.

There’s Richard’s patents. I’ll just delete his name and put my name on all of them along with the other patents listed here. I hope the rest of my crew is doing all right. This is so easy.

~~~000~~~

Michael Pearson types at the keyboard in his cubicle. Okay it is time to take control of the police station. He types a series of commands, soon he accesses their main hard-drives. Oh, this is fun. Now to put in that virus to wipe out their login passwords and put in ours. He types in his commands to do that. That’s great. Now we can shut down the network and release certain felons who have been waiting for this.

~~~000~~~

Brian is at his terminal in the Shipping Department. He types in the commands to gain control of the Duval County Court House. He soon is sitting there on their hard-drives. Once the mayhem starts at the banks, we all go at once. Hah . . . this is too good to be true. I love it. Soon we’ll be in control of the State of Florida!

~~~000~~~

Darren sits at his desk and types in the commands to gain control of the bank where Secure-Sys have their accounts. I love it. Now we can steal from the other businesses and move their money to our own private accounts, once everything changes to the Euro currency.

~~~000~~~

Across the Atlantic in Brussels, Belgium in a high rise office. Four men are watching the progress from their side.

“Well, that is it, my friends. Everyone is in position. There is no way anyone can stop this now. We are ready to release the New Dawn. Send it now!”

The four men type in a series of commands at their computers. Once they hit ‘Enter’ the virus is released into the world wide web.

~~~000~~~

Soon, bank tellers, stock exchanges, CEOs at their computers from around the world see their accounts become $0.00. They all panic and get on the phones to the banks to find out what is going on. The banks have no answers as to why this happened. This goes on for the next 24 hours at least, as everyone seeks answers to their questions.

Anybody with a computer in their office, cell phones or at home are seeing the same thing. They get on the phones and cell phones and cause a massive jam at the switch boards and on the internet. Soon, no one gets through to reach a bank representative.

The only ones who have an idea what is going on are Interpol, the FBI, the CIA and other security agencies. They try to track down who did this, but they have problems because their lines are jammed with traffic as well.

~~~000~~~

Back in Jacksonville, Brent, Darren, Michael and Brian see the same results. Darren puts a jump drive in the slot. This was given to Brent, so that our side of the Atlantic will start as backup. The PC accesses the New Dawn virus automatically. Just when they thought it was a done deal, Darren sees something unexpected on his screen. He sees the principal amounts returning back to their original values.

He yells, “This can’t be happening! What is going on here?” He gets on his cell phone and calls Brent.

“Brent, we have a problem.”

“What is it, Darren?”

“The principal values of the bank accounts have returned to normal. The only thing that is wiped is the debt owed by the people and the businesses.”

“That can’t be happening. Let’s see if we can get out.”

Once they try to get out, they find themselves blocked and can’t get out.

~~~000~~~

“What’s this ‘Gate 1'? This is not part of Secure-Sys software programs. I’ll just go through it with a good virus program.” Brent types in the commands and hits ‘Enter’.

Then he sees the next message pops up and it speaks out loud through the PC speakers.

“Can not access Gate 1. Blocked New Dawn and virus. Virus signature is already in Virus Database. New Dawn is now changed to new parameters. New Dawn is sent into the world wide web. Needs five-word password sequence to reestablish access to network.”

Brent frantically types in more code and gets the same result.

“No! This can’t be happening!” He slams his fists on the desk.

~~~000~~~

Darren, Michael and Brian see the same thing on their computer screens. They frantically type any virus, Trojans, malware they can think of, to see if they can get out. They see the same results on their screen.

They scream in frustration that this is happening. “This can’t be happening! We have control of the servers now! Arrggh!”

“Some one has laid a trap for us. But whom could have done it? It can’t be Richard. We put him in the hospital so we can do this.”

~~~000~~~

Across the ocean in Brussels, the four men are seeing something new happening on the screens.

“What is going on here? For one moment the balances all read zero, now the principal amounts have been restored.”

“Yes, the only thing that disappeared is the debt owed to the banks from the people and the countries. This is not part of the program.”

They look up at each other with scared faces. One of them speaks up, “It has to be Richard Moore. It started with the Secure-Sys’ bank. I saw it spread it out from there.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

“No, we still have time to save our money.”

“Yes, we must save it.”

They frantically type in a bunch of codes at their computers and send them to private accounts in Switzerland and other offshore accounts. However, they soon encounter the heavy traffic on the internet. Their transactions are updating very slowly.

~~~000~~~

Back at Secure-Sys, the door opens to Brent Morgan’s office. He sees Mr. Bryson standing there with a police officer next to him. They both are looking at Brent with angry faces.

“Hello Brent. What’s the matter? You can’t get out of the system?”

“Yes, s . . . sir. S . . .Someone has installed some new code. I . . . I can’t get out. Who did this, sir?”

“Computer, resume live video from my office.”

Then an image of me appears in his office. He sees me cracking a smile at him. Mr. Bryson smiles as well.

“No way! You couldn’t have done this in seven days!”

I whisper as loud as possible, “Yes I did, Brent. I’ll see you in court!”

“Arrrrghhh . . . ! Noooo . . . This can’t be happening!”

“Officer, arrest Brent Morgan.”

Brent looks at the police officer with a scared face. “Huh? No . . . you can’t arrest me. There is no proof . . .”

“Yes, Mr. Bryson. Brent Morgan, you are under arrest to commit theft of company property. Your three other friends here are being arrested as well. We’ll come up with more charges later.” He then recites the necessary suspect rights to Brent.

As soon as Brent leaves with the officer with his head down in defeat, Mr. Bryson looks at Richard’s image. “Richard, we need access to the network.”

“Yes, sir. Computer, reestablish control of networks to Secure-Sys. The password is hectare-gomel-brachus-filtron-wharftel.”

“Recognize Richard Moore’s voice pattern and password sequence. Revolving to new password sequence. Reestablishing control back to Secure-Sys.”

“Thank you, Richard. We’ll be back in touch on Monday. Have a great weekend.”

“You do the same, Mr. Bryson.”

“Computer, end video feed to Richard Moore, keep air-link stealth mode connection between Secure-Sys and Richard Moore.”

“Stealth mode reestablished. Ending live video feed to Richard Moore.”

My image disappears from Brent’s office. Mr. Bryson leaves the office to resume the next step in getting things back to normal at Secure-Sys. Then he hears the tech-support hot lines ringing like crazy. He stops by to see how they are doing.

He sees and hears they are trying their best to field their questions. When the banks call, they immediately want to upgrade their network to prevent this from happening again. Mr. Bryson smiles widely on the success that Richard had in preventing this potential disaster. He definitely needs a nice bonus for his efforts here. I’m sure our tech support office in Texas is buzzing like crazy with this incident.

He walks out of the hot tech support room and resumes his walks down the hallways. He stops by to see Darrell and to see how the programmers are holding up. He sees them talking to each other. They stop talking when they see Mr. Bryson walks into the room.

“Hello Mr. Bryson. We were just talking about what just happened.”

“Why were they taken away, Mr. Bryson?”

“All four men planned a serious takeover of the city systems and our company, Phillip. They were also in league with a foreign group to get rid of the US dollar and put the Euro dollar as the only currency.”

“Oh wow. I didn’t realize it was that type of conspiracy. When will Richard be back?”

“Hopefully he will back in about two months. He has to get healed first from his injuries.”

“Yes sir.”

“You realize your work load will now increase some again. We’ll get replacements for those four. I do remember some of your talents. Some of you could get promoted to their positions.”

“Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Bryson.”

He smiles back, “You’re welcome, Phillip. Try your best to get the programs done in time and be very accurate. We don’t want any holes in the programs. In fact, go over the previous editions we just put out and where you contributed to the programs. Find what Brent did. Richard was able to do the same as well with his own contributions. We’ll need to create several update packs for our products.”

They all shout together with enthusiasm, four men and five ladies. “Yes, sir!”

Mr. Bryson leaves the room and continues his rounds of building the morale back up at Secure-Sys. Carol and Jennifer are especially happy of hearing the good news about Richard. They start laying out the initial plans for a ‘Welcome Back’ party when Richard comes back.

~~~000~~~

The four are brought out of their offices handcuffed. Their heads are down in defeat. Some of the employees wonder what is going on. They look up now and then to see a scowl on their faces.

The four men mumble to themselves as they are escorted out.

“Who did this, Brent?”

“Richard.”

“No way!”

“He said he did it in seven days.”

“How did he talked to you?”

“Via a 3D-video link. His jaw is still wired, he whispered as loud as possible.”

“That’s impossible!”

~~~000~~~

Ben sees the four men taken away on the monitors. “Okay, David, send the Rabbit Trails program.”

“Yes, Ben. I have the parameters put in. It will be saved to the spreadsheet for further analysis.” David presses the ‘Enter’ key. A pop up screen appears with a spreadsheet. Soon lines of node-hits are appearing on the screen. It reaches 20,000 lines before it finally stops.

David saves that file and sends it to a map database program. Detective Torres, Ben and David look at the screen as they see lines traced out from Jacksonville. It soon spreads around the world quickly. Then it comes to stop in Brussels, Belgium.

“That must be the key players in Belgium. Print out that page and email or fax it to Interpol, the FBI and the CIA quickly.”

“Yes, Detective Torres.”

David sends the entire file and the map photo of Belgium to the agencies.

~~~000~~~

At Interpol, they receive the email from Secure-Sys and open the attachments.

“This is it. Get there in Brussels quickly, before they leave.”

“Yes, sir!”

They contact the Brussels office of Interpol and relay the information to them. They quickly send a group of twenty officers, vans and other equipment to the address in Brussels. They arrive in less than fifteen minutes. They board the elevators and press the button for the tenth floor. The doors open and find a typical office. They quickly rush forward to find the four men. When they open the door to an office, they see them frantically typing at their PCs to save their money.

They get arrested and taken away in the vans. One of Interpol’s techs sits at one of the terminals. He quickly looks for their email contacts of other conspirators. He sees them all grouped together. He quickly prints those out, he opens his laptop and adds them to his email database.

One of the email addresses gets his attention. The email is to a Mr. Grangor in New York City.

“Who is that gentleman, Captain? I don’t recognize that name.”

“I don’t either, Lieutenant. Save it for later. Print out the names from their chat group; that is how they communicated most of the time.”

“Yes, sir.” The Lieutenant searches for their chat group. He eventually finds it. He prints out the list. They see a list of names they recognize right away.

“There’s Doug’s chat name. He is from Secure-Sys.”

“How did he get in there, sir?”

“He has a European contact in this group that I know personally. They have been good friends with each other for a long time. Doug was employed in France for about two years doing work on their computer systems. If it wasn’t for that friendship, none of this would have happened.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Hopefully, their new programmer, Richard Moore, will be able to help improve our network quickly.”

“Yes, sir. We have been hacked too many times by the high-tech criminals. I’ll be glad to see those holes plugged up.”

“Me too, Lieutenant. Track down those transactions those four were doing. We need to know where they tried to hide their money.”

“Yes, sir.” The Lieutenant types in several lines of code in a pop-up window and hits ‘Enter’. He sees the banks, the account numbers and the amounts that are kept there. He saves that to a flash drive. Then the IT tech crew comes in to take away the four PCs and their equipment for evidence and further analysis.

“Well, let’s get back to the office. We still need to track down their accomplices.”

“Yes sir.”

They both leave the office together and exit the building. They get in the vans and drive back to their main office in Brussels.

~~~000~~~

In a New York City high rise building. Grangor is looking at his computer screen in disbelief.

“Arrrgghh!! I hate this Richard Moore!!! I hate the Omega Unicorn!!! I thought for sure we got him out of the way for this to plan to work.”

“How long was he unemployed until he was put in the hospital, Grangor?”

“A week, Thrashtin. He must have done it all during that time. He is a most stubborn foe.”

“Yes he is, Grangor. We now have underestimated his computer abilities. He must be one of the smartest ones to come along in a long time. How long have we been planning this to ruin the USA economy and their government?”

“Ever since President Nixon, that is when we gave him the idea to have the dollar to stand on its own from the gold standard. We then did the same with the other countries around the world.”

“And what happened next, Grangor?”

“We then told the future 44th President, when he was still in school, our ideas for change and how the new socialist idea could work. It all hinged on printing new paper money and making it worthless. It worked beautifully up until now with the succeeding presidents. Then we had the immigrants do their revolt in spreading their desert laws and making the new Desert Empire thirty years ago.”

“But what happened with the revolt?”

“We didn’t see the grass roots movement by their children and grand children in rejecting their murderous ways twenty years before that.”

“Who led them and where?”

“It actually started in Israel by someone we haven’t found yet. He has remain hidden to this day, Thrashtin.”

“We’ll find him and deal with his peace movement at another time.”

“Yes, now we have to start over in some areas.”

“Yes, Grangor. We’ll find another chance to get rid of Richard. He still has to make a trip to China to continue earning his black sashes.”

“Yes, let’s hope they will be able to cripple him there in mind and body.”

“To think, our decades of planning is undone by one man with a computer.”

Then they both grumble at the same time, “Grrr. . . I hate the Omega Unicorn!”

~~~000~~~

I watched the news unfold at 12 noon on the TV. The hosts talked about the potential tragedy that was quickly averted somehow. The Wilsons and Anna show up a few minutes later. We all watch it together. Anna has a big smile when she looks at me.

“You did it again, Richard. I’m so proud of you.”

“Thank you, Anna. This is just the tip of the iceberg. It will be interesting to see how far the tentacles will go and which government heads got involved.”

“Yes, it will be a major shake up in the governments.”

After watching the news, we just talked about each other what has been happening in the Wilson family. I’m given an update on their three sons. I hear that Charles had a tough lesson about me. Brian is still trying to get a steady job. Allen looks like the stable one among the three brothers.

After the hour is up, they all leave for the afternoon. Anna has to go to AG Russell’s office to put some further work in getting their prosecution put together. They also contacted Interpol, the FBI and the CIA to see if there are any new suspects to add to the list. They also told them that it was I who averted the potential disaster.

They are also told I won’t be available to give my testimony until I am more mobile and healed from my injuries. They agree to be patient until that happens. They also agree to keep my name sealed and confidential as long as possible.

They all agree the minimum sentence should be sought for all of them. That is thirty years minimum without parole. Some more charges are brought up against Brent and his three friends in their assault on me.

People around the world soon realized what could have happened. Their own countries are saved from embarrassment; if the virus did what it was supposed to do. A lot of countries try to figure out what to do next in protecting their assets. Then some hear an idea from an US Congressman it is time to have our money backed by gold again, some even suggested platinum be used.

A lot of them agree to the idea. For one part of it, it would definitely help stabilize the paper currency to what it should be in value. People would be hard pressed to do anything foolish again by going into debt again, especially on the government level in their spending habits. The national budgets became more realistic now and not inflated too much decades later. Prices started to drop in all categories of goods, lodging, food, fuel, building materials, wages, etc.. However, the price drop is not immediate, it took about ten to twenty years for that to happen. For example, price of regular gas went from $10 per gallon to about 50 cents a gallon.

My nest egg in the bank did not change in value. It still is about a quarter-million dollar. That is two years worth of sales from my 3D System. I expect it to rise in value now. Anna has invested portions of it in several different categories.

I spent another week in bed under their careful watch. Anna returned back to my apartment to get some more fruit and water for my fairies in my room. Anna also tells Traphel and the other fairies the good news as well.

The Wilson family stayed another week in the apartment before they returned home. After the second week, I get another round of X-rays and CRT on my body. The doctors are amazed at how fast my bones are healing. Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Thornton agree with me, even if the fairies were not here, I am still a fast healer.

Brianna stays one more week and helps me get back on my feet. The first goal is getting strength in the hands and the arms to support my weight on the parallel bars in the therapy room.

The bandages and splints are removed first from the hand. I slowly squeeze my fingers inward. They are very stiff now. I also do some arm movements as well with Brianna and the nurses help. Slowly I am able to make a fist with both hands. We all smile when I can do that.

The next day, the bandages and the wires are removed from my jaw and face. I open and close my mouth many times. I even move my head in a circle, up and down and side to side.

“How is the pain in your mouth, Richard?”

“It is not too bad, Dr. Mitchell. I need to close my mouth tightly on an object.”

“Use this foam piece for starters. Don’t worry if you bite it into two pieces.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She places the foam piece into my mouth carefully. I slowly bite down on it. I feel a little pain in the jaw, but they are near the joints.

She takes out the foam piece from my mouth, “Where is the pain, Richard?”

“It is near the joints, ma’am. The bones and teeth are not tingling.”

“That’s good. That means your ligaments there are tender from the hit. We’ll try some soft foods the day after tomorrow.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She puts it back in my mouth and I continue with the jaw exercises until I can’t do it anymore.

Dr. Mitchell takes the foam piece from my jaw and looks at it. “This is not too bad, Richard. You haven’t cut through it yet with your teeth. It should be back to normal strength soon.”

I smile at her. “That is good news to hear, ma’am.”

~~~000~~~

On Wednesday during the third week, I get a surprise visit from Sensei Chou.

He walks into the room and looks at me. “Why didn’t you defend yourself, Richard?”

“If I did sensei, the four men would not have been able to carry out their task. The Europeans who planned this probably would have canceled their plans.”

“I see. So by feigning weakness, you revealed their arrogance.” He smiles at me, “That’s a good tactic. I also see, that my bank accounts are still safe. Thank you, Richard. I have made a decision in helping achieve your goals, Richard.”

“What is it, sensei?”

“Once you have recovered from your injuries, I will be here at the local Shaolin Temple in Duval County during your six month rest periods. I will make sure you have earned as many black degrees as possible here.”

“Thank you, sensei.”

“I will also confer with our order in China and make plans there for further training.”

“Hopefully, by that time my vacation time will be up to one month by then.”

“Yes, that is what I’m hoping for.”

“Sensei, I would like for you to meet Brianna Wilson.”

He smiles at her, “Ah, the pretty next door neighbor of his youth.”

She smiles widely at the comment. “I’m pleased to meet you, sir.”

“From what I know about Richard, you will need to learn some self defense moves as well.”

“Uh . . . how much do you know about Richard?”

“Everything about his new life since that Spring Break trip he had to another country.”

“I see, are you okay with it?”

He smiles back, “Yes I am, Ms. Brianna.”

“Sensei, I think you really need to see the video copy when I encountered those four men.”

“Is there something you wish to show me?”

“Yes I do, sensei.” I turn my head to the nurse. “Nurse, please have Dr. Mitchell play the video here in this room.”

“I’ll get on the phone here to ask her.” She picks up the phone in the room. She punches some numbers and reaches Dr. Mitchell. They have a short talk about it. She then puts the headset back on the base.

“Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Thornton will bring it here shortly.”

“Thank you. Brianna, you need to be strong now. They used four bats on me. But I did some preparation before they arrived.”

“I’ll try to control myself, Richard.”

Soon, the door opens, Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Thornton step into the room. “I have the DVD with me, Richard. Who else do you want to see it?”

“Sensei Chou and Brianna, Dr. Mitchell. Once my sensei sees it unfold, he will recognize a tactic I used to minimize the damage to myself.”

Sensei Chou looks at me with a smile and nods his head slightly. I crack a smile at him and nod my head my slightly.

Dr. Mitchell puts the DVD into the DVD reader of the PC box in the closet. Soon the morning is shown in the room.

“Computer, scale video image to the upper corner. Base measurement is two meters cube.”

“Readjusting images to base measurement.”

The image gets reduced in size and moved to the upper corner of the room. Brianna has a hand to her mouth so she won’t scream out loud. The nurse and Dr. Mitchell walk over to her to help hold her up. Dr. Thornton looks at the video closely.

Once the beating commences, Sensei Chou sees what I did to protect myself besides using the metal corset. He sees that I stiffened my muscles throughout the entire time. He is glad to see their efforts did not get completed. He chuckles a bit when I removed their masks and sprayed their faces with the clear spray. Then when I get kicked in the jaw, I then pass out unconsciously. Then the flying insects come in to chase them out of the apartment and sting them as they fled. Then my fairies, in butterfly mode, rest on me to console me.

“They came to your rescue as well, Richard.”

“Yes they did, Brianna. However, I had to let them beat me up so they could continue with their plans. By that time I already had completed what I needed to do to thwart the New Dawn virus. Mr. Bryson and several others came to my apartment the next day after this incident.”

“I see.” She begins to crack a smile.

Sensei Chou looks at me with a smile. “So, you did use the mantis technique for self protection. That was an excellent decision, Richard.”

“Yes, sensei and thank you. The blows to the arms and legs only received stress cracks. The finger bones had to be realigned before the healing began.”

Dr. Mitchell looks at me with a smile.

Dr. Thornton speaks up, “That is what you did to lessen their blows. We wondered why most of your bones were not broken all the way through. This means, the strength of your bones has now increased to a point of not breaking the next time.”

“That is right, Dr. Thornton. The same technique is used to increase the strength in the bones of the fighters and soldiers in China. They start out with bamboo sticks and progress to clubs. This conditions the body to withstand the rigors of further training for the higher black sashes. In this case, Richard did it without their knowledge.”

“Did you know of the technique, Richard?”

“I did, Dr. Thornton. When I moved to Charlottesville, my dad had me join Sensei Chou’s dojo. It took time to gain confidence to stand up against four bullies or fighters.”

Sensei Chou smiles again, “I remember Richard very well when he started out. He had the right attitude to stand up to them, but he had no knowledge of what to do next. Once Richard sets his mind on something, he goes for it with every ounce of will and strength. He completed the purple sash with the three degrees two years earlier than normal by the time he finished high school.”

I blush a bit at the praise from my sensei. “Then I look forward to when we meet again, Sensei Chou.”

“Until we meet again, Richard. Before I leave, Richard. Will you please make a fist and push into my hand?”

“Yes, sensei.” I make a fist with my left hand and place it against his palm. As soon as I press against it, I back off as I scream in pain. “Arrrghhh! That hurts, sensei. The pain is shooting back through my arms to my shoulders.” I look at my left hand. I make a fist with my right hand and push into my left palm. “Arrrgghh! That hurts as well. What is going on sensei?”

I relax my hands and arms. Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Thornton look at my hands closely.

“The wrist bones are the foundation for the hands, doctors. This needs to be corrected before any more rehab takes place. If it is not addressed. Then this will become two weak points for an adversary to take an advantage off.”

“I agree, Mr. Chou. We must find the problem.”

“The wrists are warm to the touch, Dr. Thornton.”

“Yes they are, Dr. Mitchell. I think we need to take a closer look here. It is possible there could be a loose bone or cartilage within the wrist that is pinching a nerve.”

Brianna comes closer to look at it. She touches my wrist. “You’re right. It is warm. What is the solution, doctors?”

“We need to pinpoint it where it is exactly and see if it can be moved back into its proper position.”

Then several butterflies come fluttering in. They land near my hand. They start touching my skin. Soon I hear them whisper to me.

“It is here.”

The doctors look at me.

“They are pointing to where it is, doctors.”

“We’ll need four different directions on the wrist to pinpoint it. They will be paired up and opposite from each other.”

“Then get a pen ready to mark where their feet are tapping.”

“Yes, Richard.”

I carefully lift my arms. The butterflies cling to my skin as they determine the locations. Once they see them tapping on a spot, Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Thornton make four dots around each of my wrists with a fine point pen.

Croin, can you please verify what the problem is?

Of course, Richard. I will check it out. Croin moves down my arms and checks both of the wrists. Once he determines the problem he speaks to me. Richard, there is a very small bone in each wrist that is touching a nerve. It appears to be broken off from a larger piece.

I whisper to the doctors. “Doctors, my dragon friend found a small piece of bone that is touching a nerve in each wrist. He thinks it is broken off from a larger piece.”

“That’s a very a good possibility, Richard. We’ll have to do a closer look after another set of CAT scans.”

“Yes, doctor.” I look at Sensei Chou. “Thank you for showing up sensei. It is good to see a familiar friend.”

“Yes it is, Richard. When will be starting your next birth period?”

“I’m already in it. I will give birth in three months. I just gave birth to Victor and Victoria last year in May.”

“Then I will make plans for this December.”

“Yes, sensei.”

We nod our heads slightly to each other while we smile at each other. Sensei Chou then leaves the room.

Some male nurses come in and lift me up and put me on a stretcher. They wheel me down to the CAT scan room. After taking a series of CAT scans with a finer resolution on the wrists, they put the images into my 3D System in my room. Then a group of doctors with a network tech walk to my room to view the images.

Once I get done in the CAT scan room, the male nurses put me in a wheel chair and push me down to the rehab room to start working on my legs.

~~~000~~~

Once the images are loaded in the PC unit, the network tech shows the bones of my wrists in 3D.

“Well, there it is, my friends. It’s that bone right there that is chipped off.”

“Yes, I see it. It is in almost the same position as the other wrist.”

“We should remove the bone pieces. I see no reason to try and push it back where it belongs.”

“I agree, Dr. Thornton. It could create a spur and not solve the problem at all. It could make it worse.”

“I agree with that assessment as well.”

“Daniel, overlay the nerves and the blood vessels. We need to determine the best path to the bone chip. Also connect the dots on the skin with a thin white line.”

“Yes, sir.” Daniel, the network tech goes through the menu to have it appear as they requested.

Then Daniel rotates the images to see all sides of the wrist slowly.

“Hmm. . . . It appears we need to come in from below the wrist.”

“Yes, that appears to be the best angle of approach. Daniel, print out a photo from this angle.”

“Yes, sir.” Daniel accesses the print menu and prints out two photos to the print server near the nurses’ station. “I sent two photos to the nurses’ station, doctors.”

“That’s fine, Daniel. What would be a good day to get this done?”

“Let’s do it first thing in the morning at 8 AM.”

“Does everyone agree to that?”

Everyone responds together, “yes.”

“Okay, I’ll call the Scheduling Room to make a reservation for tomorrow morning at 8 AM.”

The DVD is removed. The doctors and the network tech return back to their offices to get other things done during the day. The doctors pick up the two photos at the nurses’ station as they leave.

~~~000~~~

Brianna brings along the two flowering plotted plants as well. My fairies get to see me work out. They stay in butterfly mode the entire time in the rehab room.

Some of the other patients wonder why there are butterflies fluttering around me. They are told the butterflies are my source of calming and inspiration to do better.

Some of the orderlies lift me up and put me in the bicycle seat. I then begin to pedal my legs slowly. I grimace in pain as I complete each revolution. But this pain is from inactivity. After five minutes of that, I’m taken to a bed nearby in the rehab room. I’m asked to push against the hands of the nurses to determine my strength.

I breathe a bit and push my feet into their hands.

“That’s it, Richard. Push harder.”

“Uggh . . . I’m . . . trying . . . “

After two minutes of pushing I get to relax. “Pant . . . pant . . .”

“That’s good, Richard. We need to keep this up for an hour today. Then you can rest until tomorrow afternoon to do it again.”

“Okay.”

I do some different exercises this time in putting more movements into the legs. At the end of the hour, we try for the big test to see if I can stand.

The nurses bring me over to the parallel bars and hold me up. I rest my elbows on the bars. My knees are flexed underneath me. “Okay, let’s try it.” I push myself up slowly.

“That’s it, Richard. Push to stand up!”

I smile a grimace at Brianna. I see her smiling widely at me. I then push through the pain and find myself standing. “Unnnh . . .” The male nurses are nearby to keep me steady.

“Whew . . . That was some workout.”

“Can you take a step forward?”

“I’ll try, Brianna.” I lift my left foot and move it forward about one foot. I then move my right foot a foot forward to complete the sequence.

“That’s it, you’ve got it, Richard!”

Sweat comes down my forehead. Everyone cheers in the rehab room. I can also feel the excitement from my fairies as well. They are glad to see me walking three weeks after the beating. I look to an orderly. “I think it is time to sit down and catch my breath. My heart is beating very fast.”

“Of course, Richard.”

The male nurses pick me up and carefully put me in the wheel chair. Brianna comes forward and hugs me around the neck. She backs away and kisses me on the lips.

“With that kiss, my heart is beating faster than when I try to stand for the first time.” I smile at her.

We hear a lot of giggling and laughing in the rehab room.

Brianna smiles back, “If that is the case, I will use it as an incentive for you to start running.”

“But I need to walk first, then I can try running later.”

I carry one of the potted flowers in my lap. Brianna carries the other one. My fairies flutter to the flowers to get their rest. We leave the rehab room and I get wheeled back to my room on the fourth floor. We put my potted flowers on the table with the other flowers. Brianna gets ready to leave for the afternoon. She said she’ll back for the 6 PM visiting hour. She gives me another kiss on the lips. This time I try to clean my lips with my tongue.

“Mmm . . . Cherry . . . that’s a good flavor.”

“That should help you remember me until this evening.”

“I should hope so. See you later, Bri.”

“See you later, Richard.” She turns around and leaves the room.

My fairies flutter to me in their butterfly mode. They land on my chest and on the pillow around my head. They whisper their thoughts to me . I whisper back to them.

“She has a beautiful soul, mother.”

“Yes she does, Tigress.”

“She is in love with you very much.”

“I’m in love with her too, Lavan.”

“We need to do another visit to the cabin.”

“We will my fairies, when we get the chance. Until this Euro conspiracy is resolved, it will have to wait until then.”

“We understand, father.”

“Well, I need to rest now. I will be having the surgery on the wrists tomorrow morning.”

I relax in the bed as my fairies relax with me. They lie on my chest, soon I feel their heart beats are in rhythm with mine. At 5:50 the door opens. A nurse comes in with a tray of food for me. The butterflies flap their wings and flutter back to the flowers to have their evening meal.

“Hello, Richard. As promised we have some soft food here. We have a banana sliced up, a small slice of salmon, mashed potatoes, tomato slices with the seeds removed and skinned. We also have some melon here for you to try.”

“That smells great, ma’am. Thank you very much.” My mouth begins to water a bit.

“Well, let’s see if you can feed yourself.” She smiles at me.

“Yes, ma’am.” I reach for a plastic fork and take a stab at the salmon. A piece flakes off the main piece. I use the plastic knife to get the piece onto the fork. I bring it to my mouth and drop the salmon meat into it. I slowly chew the salmon. Once it is eaten I give my response, “Oh that is good. Thank you very much, ma’am. It is lightly seasoned as well. Give my thanks and kudos to the chefs.”

“I’ll be sure to tell them.”

Then Brianna shows up in the room. “What’s this? I had planned a candlelight dinner with wine for tonight.” She smiles at me.

I smile back, “I’m sorry, Brianna. But the nurse brought in this salmon dinner for my first soft meal.”

The nurse smiles at Brianna. “We can bring in another plate if you like? However, we’ll have to skip the wine until he is discharged from the hospital.”

“Thank you, nurse. I would appreciate that. I checked with the hospital cafeteria when I came in. They have a plate ready for me down there after I paid for it.”

“Then I’ll go down there and bring that plate here.” The nurse leaves room.

“You haven’t eaten yet, Brianna?”

“No, Richard. I was hoping to eat with you here. I went down to the hospital cafeteria. They said it could be done.”

“That’s nice. How are you holding up?”

“I was very stressed out on the day we found you. It took awhile for me to calm down. Fortunately, mom and dad were here for the first two weeks. I need to get back to the Rescue Mission when this week is over. We need to finalize the plans with your presence there. Karen has kept me up to date so far. So far, there are no problems. Some of the women there are looking forward to meet you. Some will be afraid of you.”

“I’ll miss you until then, Brianna. I will just have to prove myself to them that I’m no threat to them.”

The nurse comes in with the dinner plate that Brianna ordered. She sits near me in a chair. She puts her plate and cup of water on the table nearby. Then my butterflies flutter to me and land on the pillow around my head.

“Why are they here, Richard?”

“So we can give our thanks to the Creator together for this first meal.”

“That’s sweet.”

“Creator of the Universe, I wish to give you thanks for this wonderful day. May this food restore our strength and will to serve you better. I thank you for sending Brianna and leading her to find me. She has definitely brightened my soul. You can add some words as well, if you like.”

“Thank you, Richard. Thank you, Creator, in helping me find Richard. We have missed each other for twelve years. I am glad to be back with him. May our lives together be great and wonderful over the years. I realize I will have to make an adjustment in accepting his unique family. But that is your gift to him. Thank you for this food we are about to eat.”

She looks at me for me to continue.

“Together, Brianna. Thank you, Creator.”

She smiles, “Thank you, Creator.”

Then we both hear the butterflies whisper as well, “Thank you, Creator.”

We enjoy eating our meal together. Brianna has a chicken dish with vegetables on the side. She sees me trying to be neat in my position on the bed.

“You need to be higher, Richard. I can raise the bed for you.”

“Be slow about it. It is the device here on the right of me.”

“Okay.” She takes the control and pushes the button for up slowly.

Soon my upper body rises from thirty degrees to about fifty degrees. “That’s good, Brianna.”

She stops using the control. We resume our eating of the meal. My fairies return to the potted flowers to have their meal.

“Why did they go back to the flowers, Richard?”

“Anna found a way to have them here. Within those two potted flowers is a bottle of water and a bag of fruits that butterflies can eat for energy. They will also drink from the nectar of the flowers as well.”

“I remembered what they looked like yesterday.”

“They will still have the same wing pattern. However, they will be wearing clothes that will match their wings.”

“Did you make the clothes?”

“No, Brianna. They make the clothes themselves. They have the hands and dexterity to do it themselves. Barbie clothes are too big for them.”

Brianna giggles, “That’s interesting. Are there more like them?”

“That’s an interesting question, Brianna. There are more like them. However, they are not here. They are located in the mountains where our families like to go to.”

“I see, then I will have to be patient until then. If we get married, Richard. You realize we will have children to raise and take care of.”

“I’m counting on it, Brianna. How would two of each sound to you?”

She smiles back, “Two boys and two girls? The apartment life will not do at all. We’ll have to get a house.”

“Yes, it will probably be two stories. I would like to make sure the backyard faces a good set of woods that will be never developed.”

“That would be nice. It will be a lot quieter without the traffic nearby. What about the house in Charlottesville? What will you do with it?”

“Right now it is a place that I can use to call home during the summer. I used it several times while I was training at the dojo. I haven’t been there the last two years. I am planning to keep the cabin for perpetuity in the family. It is a great place to get quiet and recharged.”

“That sounds romantic.” She smiles at me.

I smile back, “Oh yes, it is very romantic, Brianna. I am also planning to build a green house next to the cabin. That way, what is grown there won’t get blasted by the winter storms there.”

“I’ve been through some of those in Knoxville. I know what they are like.”

We get done eating our meal together. She picks up her cup of ice water and mine. She hands my cup to me.

“To us, Richard. You are my knight in shining armor.”

“To us, Brianna. You are my queen and the delight of my soul.”

She smiles at me, “A queen huh? Then you are my king as well with a heart of gold.”

We ‘clink’ our plastic cups together, then we drink from it together.

“See you tomorrow and the next day. I will be leaving Saturday to drive back to the Rescue Mission. I’ll miss you until you arrive there.”

“I’ll miss you too, Brianna, my love. Hopefully I will be released by the end of next week.”

“I’m hoping for the same thing too, my love.”

Brianna bends down and gives me a lengthy and sexy kiss. I feel my male self rising from the depths. Then Brianna gets up and sees she is successful when she sees the tented sheet.

“Well, that just proves you’re still a man, Richard.”

“That’s fine . . . by me.” I smile at her. “You crazy and sexy girl.”

“I’m still crazy about you, Richard. At least my sex appeal is still active.” She turns around to pick up her purse from the table. She puts it on her shoulders and sashays out of my room swinging her buns just right in her jeans.

“Whooo . . . you’re so right, Brianna!”

I hear her giggling as she walks down the hallway.

The nurse comes into taking our plates, utensils, cups and cleans up from our little dinner we had. “Did you have a nice dinner?”

“We did, ma’am. We talked about a lot of things. It wasn’t the right time to discuss too far into the future.”

“Yes, this is not to time to do it. You have a life time together to explore that.”

She leaves with the portable table and the dirty plates we used. She gives me a clean cup to use.

“Don’t forget, wrist surgery first thing in the morning, Richard.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She leaves the room. I reach for the TV controller and turn on the TV. My fairies fly over to me to sit on my chest and around my head on the pillow. We watch the news for a half-hour.

They are still discussing how the incident was averted. They think it was some hidden group of people in the USA government who was able to avert the disaster. Several groups denied it was them. They continue the debate for another five minutes before switching to other reporters from around the world.

I hear them talking about repossessing parts of the USA to have them pay up their losses in buying our debt. Some members of Congress said that won’t happen, because they are in debt as well with their own people and not taking care of them properly with the proper building codes and to live and work in safe buildings.

This goes back and forth for another five minutes. Then it switches to a scene in front of Congress, outside the building. The reporter states there is a call to subpoena the people before a grand jury in Congress. They want answers to their questions on where their money went.

I get a phone call ring on the night stand next to me. I pick it up.

“Hello, Richard. This is Mr. Bryson. Have you been watching the news lately?”

“I’m watching it right now. They want to subpoena the people who averted this potential disaster.”

“I just got a call from the FBI, CIA and Interpol. They are behind us all the way. They are trying their best to keep your identity a secret. An outside group narrowed it down that it came from the Jacksonville area and leaked it to the press.”

“Do you know who this group is?”

“The only word I heard is the number eleven.”

“Oh crap . . . ”

“Does your response mean you know who they are?”

“I do, Mr. Bryson. I met one of them while I was in college, it was just after my second trip to that special place we know. They are a very clandestine group located in New York City. They like to use other groups, armies, countries and people to do their dirty work.”

“What is one of their goals?”

“To rule the world as they see fit.”

“Is there a way to keep them in check?”

“Yes sir, there is. It is I. I have stopped two or three of their plots so far. Heh, heh, heh, . . .”

“Hah, hah, hah, I love it. Thank you for telling me that. Well, I’ll let you get your rest. I hear they are operating on your wrists tomorrow morning.”

“They are sir. It is to remove two small bone pieces that are pinching my nerves there.”

“Ouch! I hear you also had your first steps today.”

“Yes I did, sir. I hope to do some more walking tomorrow as I regain my strength.”

“That’s good. Well, good night, Richard.”

“Good night, Mr. Bryson.” I put the headset back on the phone base. I turn off the TV. I use the controller to lower my upper body back down to the sleeping position. My fairies stay in butterfly mode as they go to sleep as well around me.

We have a restful night of sleep. We get dreams of comfort and rest from the Creator himself.