The Stolen Dozen Ch. 03

Two extra people were going out with them this time, Robert Riefsynder, and Anthony Graziano. They had been held back yesterday, but even President's Eisenhower or Kennedy couldn't have held them back today. They were put in the center, shoulder to shoulder, to cover the middle of Grid 1. They were always in shouting distance of one another.

It was 10:50 AM, when everybody set out, and the skies were a crystal- clear blue. Sheriff Fond yelled to the men, "Nothing, and no one, is going to be able to hide from us, under skies like this, today. Let's go find these kids, and then let's find the bastards that killed them."

There was no cheer after his statement, just determination. 53 men set out to search Grid 1, with maps, canteens, and compasses in hand. Only the FBI agents, state troopers, and Deputy Sheriff's had weapons with them as they searched, none of the civilians did.

As luck would have it, one of the deputies stumbled into a mother black bear, and her cubs. The deputy wasn't happy. The mother black bear was less so, and she let him know it by growling at him fiercely. Knowing the rules of the forest, the deputy did not turn and run. He retreated slowly, and cautiously, keeping eye contact with the bear. He kept feeling behind him for the first possible tree. When he touched it, he began circling 90 degrees behind it, out of the bear's line of sight. Knowing bears can climb trees as well as humans, he began walking into the thicket surrounding the area, and was more-quiet than a mole. He stayed there for 10 minutes before emerging, and walking back to the tree to peak around it to see if the bear, and her cubs were still there.

Fortunately, they had moved on, so he could continue his search.

However, he heard dogs, lots of them, barking, from the direction the bears had walked towards, and decided to investigate. It wasn't unusual to have feral dogs in a forest, but this sounded like an unusually large pack. The forestry service would have to cull them, before they became a problem.

He followed the tracks of the bears, slowly and carefully, not wanting to catch up to them, but hearing the dogs getting louder and louder, as if they were being approached by a predator.

He wished he was not on the extreme left side of Grid 1 now, because he could use some help, if he could just call out and get some, but that was not possible. If he needed help, he would have to discharge his weapon, for someone from his right to come to assist him. He would wait and see.

He kept walking through dense forest, but the moss on the ground made tracking the bears relatively easy. That, and the noise the dogs were making made it too easy. They could not be more than 100 yards ahead of him now, and it sounded like a fight was brewing.

He decided to veer to his right, to get from behind the bears, and hopefully see where the dogs were, and what they were up to, as he moved closer. He moved 20 yards to his right, out of the trees, and into deep brush, which was perfect cover for him. He moved carefully forward, towards the sound of the dogs, and nearly burst into an opening, before he stopped.

There they were, 17 of them, of many different breeds, but three were humongous English Mastiff's; one male and two females. One of the females was nursing six new borne young ones, and the other one was very pregnant. That's why he thought this group was being so rowdy about the approaching bear. She could go after the newborns and even the 170-pound male would be no match for her. If she left her cubs hidden in the forest behind her, she could maraud through this camp of dogs, like Sherman went through Atlanta.

He wouldn't interfere; they were wild animals, and they would have to sort things out by themselves.

However, there were 14 dogs, in this pack, that were going to tell the bear she was not welcome here, and the big bull mastiff didn't even get up to enter the fray. When the mother bear roared into their compound, she was circled and attacked from every angle, at once. Her nose was attacked by a Doberman, her feet were attacked by four different breeds, looking for an afternoon snack, and her tail was attacked by a Bull Dog. If she was a male, she would have been in really big trouble, because this dog was not letting her go. Her neck was attacked by a German Shepard, and she was determined to get through this mother bears fat, and muscle to get to her spinal cord and sever it. All this was done simultaneously, as if they had practiced it hundreds of times before. This bear didn't stand a chance, even though she tried to put up a fight. She gave up. She turned, and ran away bleating like a lamb, in under a minute.

When it was over, the pack went over to the bull mastiff and licked him, showing fealty to him. It must be nice to be the king.

Then the Doberman ran under a group of trees, and came back holding what looked like a long piece of jean material.

This got the deputy's attention. He fired his weapon twice, requesting help, now. He was not going to walk into the dog's compound, without backup, to see what that material was, and where it came from. He received a single shot reply soon afterwards.

15 minutes later, Deputy Maze heard a shot fired to the southeast of him. He returned the shot signaling his position.

Five minutes later, Stevens called out, "Where the fuck are you, Jeff?"

"In the bushes, asshole."

"You better have a good reason for having me run a quarter mile through forest to get here."

"Take a look. Do you see that Mastiff at the front of the pack?"

"What's a Mastiff?

"Fuck you, Stevens."

"You would have to invite the sheriff, before you did that. Otherwise, he would fire you."

"I can't wait for you and Beverly to get married. It's going to drive him insane."

"You mean he's not already?"

"I hate you. The reason you are here is in front of that mastiff. Can you see it clearly?"

"It looks like the leg from a pair of jeans."

"That's exactly what I thought. Let's go find out if it is."

They did not walk through the compound, they circled the edge of it, under the watchful eyes of 17 dogs. This time, however, the large bull mastiff stood up, with the pregnant female at his side. The nursing one did not stand. They two stood at the point of the pack, which formed an arrow towards them.

As they approached the trees, where the Doberman had gone to get the pant leg, the pack moved forward en masse.

Both deputies stopped and pulled their weapons, and turned towards them.

The bull mastiff growled. The pack stopped and lay down, while he and the female continued forward.

The deputies watched as the mastiffs passed 12 feet in front of them, and went under the trees to see what would happen.

A moment later, they dragged Robert's body out, by his shoes, with a dachshund sitting on his head.

Jeff Maze said, "He looks pretty good for a dead man. It must be almost a week now."

Sherman said, "I'm no expert, but his flesh still looks viable. What the fuck is that dog doing, laying on his head?"

"Come on you, get off there."

The Dachshund growled, as if he didn't want to go anywhere.

"Well, are you going to shoot it, or am I going to have to do it?"

"Take a look behind you, before you shoot that dog."

He did. "Good thought. That pack might get angry with me if I hurt one of them. Let's get some help here. Go into the bushes and fire your weapon several times, and get everybody's attention."

Steve went into the brush, pointed his weapon in the air and fired it six times. Shortly afterwards he received several answering shots from different points of the compass.

He reloaded his weapon and returned to the dog's compound.

"I think they got my message, Jeff."

"I believe you made it plain enough, Steve. While you were away, I took his pulse at the ankle. He's alive, I don't know how or why, but this young man is alive."

"And the creature from the Black Lagoon, just wanted to get laid."

"That may be possible, but take his pulse yourself, and you tell me what you find."

He took Robert's left ankle in his right hand, looked at his watch, and waited.

"I count 31; what did you get?"

"You got one more than I did, I only got 30."

"How the hell is this kid alive? What the hell did they do to him? There's not a mark on his body."

"I will make you a bet that dog is hiding it, and will not let us see it."

"You are out of your freaking mind."

"Why would an animal be so protective of a person's body part, if it wasn't injured?"

"I have no idea."

"While we are thinking about this, how the hell are we going to get him out of here, without killing him?"

"Why do you always ask me the easy questions?"

"You already have the answer?"

"Of course, a Helicopter!"

"I wouldn't fly in one of those things, unless I was dead."

"He is, almost."

"Good point."

Everyone searching Grid 1 heard the gunfire, and knew something of great importance had come about. Robert and Anthony made a beeline towards the sound of the gunfire.

However, the smartest one of the family was Richard, who was on the furthest southeastern side of Grid 1. He headed for State Road 423 to look for any of the jeeps, cars, or the Greyhound bus that was to pick them up later in the day. He had to get the word out that something of importance had been found and help was needed. Joseph had to be informed immediately, and he was at the ranger station.

Ten minutes later, he broke through the edge of the forest and saw the road. It wasn't going to be easy to get there, because of all the bushes he had to go through, but they were not going to stop him from getting there. It took him another 15 minutes to make it to the road.

As he made it to the edge of State Road 423, there were no cars, jeeps, or bus insight, so he stuck out his thumb and tried to hitchhike to the ranger station. It didn't take long for someone to stop and pick him up.

Seven minutes later he was at the ranger station delivering the news that something important had happened. He didn't know what, and he didn't know where, but 6 shots had been fired in succession, from the west, and 4 answering shots had been heard afterwards, from further east.

Dave Kelly said, "Let's head down the western edge of Grid 1, using every Jeep we have available. If they found anything, we are going to want to bring it back here, because it's already been out in the elements too long to do us any good out there."

The sheriff said, "Call Jeffrey Cousins, and tell him to get his ass here now with every camera he needs for outdoor photography and enough film to cover the forest. We are not moving until he gets here, and he'd better be here within 20 minutes, or he's losing my daughter's wedding."

Kelly said, "You were always such a nice man, Hank."

"I'm just giving him an added incentive."

"Incentive hell, you are putting a sticking of dynamite up his ass, and lighting the fuse."

Joseph said, "I work for people like you, Hank."

"Is that a good thing or bad thing?"

"I think it's a very good thing."

Jeff Cousins made it with 2 minutes to spare, and had an angry look on his face. He was with Beverly at the time. They were up to no good, and they were very happy about it.

"I was with my 'intended', Sheriff, and had to leave her in a very unhappy mood. I am very happy to tell you that when she sees you next, she will get even with you as your wife use to do, when she was still upon this earth. She tells me that she remembers her mother's ways, and intends to use them on you, "In Spades," for doing this to us today. I will have my cameras and high-speed film ready for that altercation, Sheriff."

Sheriff Fond said, with a smile on his face, "If she kills me before the wedding, you have to pay for it."

Cousins replied, "I will fuck her, naked, on your open casket."

They had to pry the two men away from each other, before there were two more murders to deal with.

The morning of September 29th, in New York City, 12 families were celebrating the upcoming departures of their children, to universities in Europe. Each of them had excelled in their preparatory schools and were on their way to excel in their upscale universities, in foreign lands.

Their parents had spared no expense on their previous educations. They had spared no expense on their travel arrangements, and had spared no expense on their next four years of education. Their educations would not end there, either. Each would continue onward to become a lawyer, a doctor, a PhD, or some other exalted individual of higher education, and intellectual process. They would join their families in the upper crust of society, marry as they were told to, and produce progeny that would continue the family lines into the future. Their lives had been preselected for them, and each of them knew it. They had grown up knowing it, and had found ways to work around it. Even though those ways were not exactly rational and normal, they found them convenient and comforting.

The parties broke up at 1 PM and everyone headed to the docks to be at their separate ships for the outgoing tide at 3:30 PM. These families didn't have to worry about getting their luggage to the ships on time, because that was taken care of by their underlings earlier in the day. Such trivialities didn't matter to them.

They didn't have to stand in line with those other people. They had a special boarding area for the upper-class passengers, who would dine with the captains of those ships each night, if they so desired. There would also be very-special entertainment provided for each of these young men, any time they so desired. These ladies were not part of the ship's company, but a special retinue, hired by the ocean liner's ownership, to keep these young men happy, during their crossing.

"Idle hands and idle minds, you know!"

They departed by berth assignments: the Queen Elizabeth to Great Britain, the Cristoforo Columbo to Greece, Neptune to Italy, the Ile de France (guess) to France, Franconia to Germany and Concordia to Spain. All these great ships were top-of-the-line. The 12 young men, assigned to these ships, were in the best cabins, Port Outbound -- facing south for the warmest accommodations, have nothing to fear, and nothing to do, except have fun for the next week, or more of their travels, until they reached their destination. They will do absolutely nothing that can get reported back to their parents by the steamship companies. They will be perfect gentlemen.

Their 'entertainment' might be the exception to that rule, and she will be told to keep her mouth shut if she wants to expect a gratuity at the end of her travels. They were always generous after they used a body, vigorously, multiple times.

The new arrivals at their universities were not alone. Students from many nations around the globe descended upon these meccas of outstanding learning, and hazing was nearly unheard of from the local population. There was another reason, also. Most of these new students were from families of extreme wealth, not ordinary wealth, but extreme wealth, and if anything happened to these students; their families would suffer untold damage. They were treated like the finest crystal, as if they would break if they were touched or mistreated. Cliques were formed to keep foreigners away from locals, and this caused bad blood between the two segments of the student population.

School administrators at Oxford saw it taking place and after months of deliberation knew something had to be done. They decided to have a dance in the quadrangle at noon on a Wednesday, because most students had classes that day, and no one would be able to stay away. They hired a well-known English band to play at the concert, and had it catered, keeping all four corners of the quadrangle, encased in food and beverage.

They were going to keep everyone in the quad from escaping their clutches. The entire faculty was going to be there on orders from the administration: 1: To keep the piece 2. To break up the cliques 3. To have everyone to mix with each other. 4. It couldn't be all bad, could it?

On Wednesday, November 17, Freshman students of Oxford University gathered in the quadrangle, with a band playing, and stood there like statues. Except for the few that were eating, no one moved. They didn't even sway to the music.

The Dean of students was extremely upset with them, and took the stage. He said,

"There are approximately 870 young adult students in front of me. Is there a brain in any one of your heads? Most of you are supposed to be bright, that's how you got here. Are you so afraid of each other that you won't even look into each other's eyes and say hello? You are no different from one another then I am from the band director. You are both human. One of you may be male and the other female, but you are both human. Rich or poor, it doesn't matter in this university, all that matters here is your intellect, and only your intellect will get you through this university. You can't buy an 'A' here, you have to earn it. You have to work your tail off to get it. It takes hours of study and hours in the library to get that grade, and if you don't put in the work you're going to fail. You can't go up to your teacher and say 'Here is 10,000 quid, give me an 'A',' because he or she will laugh in your face and tell you to go to hell. This ladies and gentlemen is Oxford. You got in because of your intellect, and you will graduate because of it. Now look at your neighbor, and say hello I am your equal, because you are. I got here the same way you did, and I am going to be here every day you are. I'm going to graduate the same day you are, and I'm going to fight you to be valedictorian."

He was amazed when the students in the quad cheered. He had broken the ice among them and that's all he wanted from them. He didn't stand down from the podium. He turned to the band leader, and asked him to start playing a fast song.

The band leader played a Bill Haley song called, "Rock a Beaten Boogie," which to the Dean's mind, the words made no sense at all, but the kids danced to it like it made sense to them. That's all that mattered to him. For the next three hours, the quadrangle stayed full of students, who intermingled, talked, ate, and generally had fun.

There were three fights, all between females, who were arguing over the use of a single male. The proctors put an end to the fights firmly and quickly, using the female's hair, as a weapon, against them.

Friday, the Dean of Students sent out a letter to all sister universities, both in and out of the country, telling them how he handled the problem of disparate students, who had formed cliques against each other, simply because of economic, and colonial status. He explained how well it worked, how economic it was for Oxford University to use, as opposed to psychological counseling for all the students, either individually or in group sessions, and the savings of time involved.

'We were able to open 870 minds in four hours, instead of having to go through the standard course of therapy to get each of these students to talk to one another.'

If you are running into the same problem, we did, I suggest, heartily, you try it.

Very Cordially Yours, Edward Mahon Dean of Students,

Oxford University

6. Recover and Recovery

When the first contingent of the sheriff's teams reached Jeff and Steve's position, it was not all that pretty. The dogs were not happy to have that many humans in their compound, and they became very restless. Amazingly, it was Dominic who settled them all down. He went over to the bull mastiff and his mates, sat down, and began scratching their ears.