Chapter 59: Honors

While dessert was being brought out, Werner commented, “This is the first time this summer that so many of the family has been able to gather. Some of us have traveled widely this summer; as you know, Peter went with Tamara and her folks to England where she was knighted and then most of the youngsters went to California. Peter’s told a lot of us about their England trip and I think most everyone’s heard the details. Am I right?”

Everyone replied with a variation of “yes.”

“So Audrey, what did you think of UCSD?” Werner asked.

“I really liked it, Gramps. They have great facilities and Scripps is awesome. I visited the Marine Biology department too but I think I prefer their oceanic and atmospheric science program. And Eddie found out that UCSD has a cool program for himself, too.”

“Yeah, they have something new there, a cognitive science program,” Eddie said. “From talking with Tamara, I got interested in learning about how the mind works. I wasn’t sure which area was best to major in to learn about the mind—whether it should be AI in computer science, neuroscience, psychology, whatever. Then I found out that UCSD has this cool cognitive science program where you can do all of those things and fit them into your own study program. I liked that idea.”

“Yeah, and he mostly liked it there ‘cause they have an awesome nude beach,” Mike teased and everyone laughed.

“Say, that’s right,” Scott commented. “I’ve been there. I was stationed at San Diego early in my Navy career, when I was with the Pacific Fleet. So you climbed down those cliffs—or did you go in along the shoreline?”

“The cliffs,” Audrey said. “We had a good time; met some nice people, and played volleyball, but got chased off by a thunderstorm in the afternoon.”

“So how was that beach?” Werner asked. “Is it as nice as reports make it out to be?”

“Oh yeah, except for the water. We didn’t go in ‘cause we were warned about real bad rip tides when the surf was up,” Mike said. “We went wading though, and JoAnne made friends with some sting rays.”

He had to explain what happened for everyone’s amusement.

“And there were lots of people surfing—and they have paragliding there too. The views there were just awesome.”

“He means the scenery, not the nudists, I think,” Audrey snickered. “Hey, Peter, tell the folks what you told us about those guys who brought the Avery Program to England. Mom, they’re gonna send the latest version to our school.”

Peter told the group a little about Kevin, Denise, Amelia, and Jeremy, and what they had done to be selected for knighthood.

“And they’re totally awesome people too,” he finished. “We spent quite a while talking and then they came for two days at Cambridge too. They came to the unveiling of Tamara’s and Emma’s energy device. We really hit it off—we have lots in common and they all can fight like demons too ... oops, sorry, Tamara ... damn, you were right about memory association.”

Claire jumped right on that. “Fighting? What’s that about? What happened that you didn’t tell me?”

“Um ... I didn’t want to make you anxious, Mom. I asked Tamara not to talk about that part. Some Russians were trying to kidnap Emma, it looks like. But Tamara, with Kevin, Denise, Amelia, and Jeremy, stopped them.”

“And you too, Peter,” Tamara grinned at him. “According to the British queen, you’re a hero too. You’re going back to London to get your award from the queen, I heard that from Emma yesterday; I was waiting for a good time to announce it.”

“What?” Peter exclaimed. “What do you mean? What award?”

Tamara walked over to a corner of the sitting area and picked up her backpack.

“Oh no, not her magic backpack again,” Peter groaned as Tamara pulled out some papers and brought them over to Claire.

“I figure your mom can read this to everyone,” Tamara said, grinning. “Emma emailed this to me and I printed it; it’s an extract from The London Gazette, the U.K.’s official government publication. Go ahead and read it to us, Claire.”

Claire took the papers and looked them over, shaking her head and chuckling. “My goodness. Okay, here goes. It reads:

CIVILIAN GALLANTRY LIST | LONDON GAZETTE | SUPPLEMENT NO. 11

CENTRAL CHANCERY OF THE ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD

St. James’s Palace, London SW1

“It’s dated August 8,” she commented. “It goes on:

THE QUEEN has been graciously pleased to approve the following awards of The Queen’s Gallantry Medal and The Queen’s Commendation for Bravery and for publication in ‘The London Gazette’ of the names of those shown below as having received an expression of Commendation for Bravery.

The Queen’s Gallantry Medal

Sir Jeremy PORTER KBE, civilian
Dame Amelia HADAD DBE, civilian
Denise ROBERTS GBE, civilian
Kevin CORIS GBE, civilian
Peter WINSBERG, civilian

For confronting heavily armed criminals and thwarting an attempted kidnapping.

On 21 June of this year, Jeremy Porter, Amelia Hadad, Denise Roberts, Kevin Coris, and Peter Winsberg, together with many others, were attending a corporate event in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, when they were accosted by an armed foreign criminal impersonating a security guard, just as a panel lorry carrying five additional heavily armed criminals drove up to them. Dame Amelia Hadad was able to subdue the guard when he attempted to restrain her, while Denise Roberts, Sir Jeremy Porter, Kevin Coris, and Peter Winsberg, at the risk of their lives, rushed the men at the lorry. They all had understood, from previous police reports, that there might be an attempt at kidnapping of a prominent scientist who was also present at the event. While the criminals were being kept at bay by Denise Roberts, Sir Jeremy Porter, Kevin Coris, and Peter Winsberg, Dame Amelia Hadad and others rushed the scientist to safety.

Despite the fact that the five criminals from the lorry possessed and were brandishing automatic assault weapons, Denise Roberts, Sir Jeremy Porter, Kevin Coris, and Peter Winsberg, were able to subdue and incapacitate them, risking their lives to protect the target of the kidnapping attempt.

Sir Jeremy Porter, Dame Amelia Hadad, Denise Roberts, Kevin Coris, and Peter Winsberg were all aware that the criminals were armed, yet were willing to risk their own lives to ensure the safety of the intended kidnapping victim.

“Then there’s some more,” Claire went on, “other people and other decorations, but that’s it about Peter and his new friends. Trial by fire, Peter? That’s a real bonding experience. So tell us what happened—why did you risk yourself like that?”

Peter was looking at Tamara in shock and Tamara had to give his shoulder a little shake.

“Your mom asked you something, Peter,” she prompted.

“Yeah, that did happen. But it was so quick! It was over so fast,” Peter told them. “But Tamara was behind our success, you know—she used one of her magic devices to disarm those jerks. I don’t know why I reacted that way but it was like the four of us—me, Kevin, Jeremy, and Denise—just acted like a trained unit. I never thought that I was in danger, actually. We were able to put them all down so easily, it seemed.”

“Your judo?” Barbara asked.

“Yup. And Kevin knows taekwondo, he’s a high-degree black belt and the other three learned from him or something. Anyway, those four are very close.”

Tamara broke in, “Those Russians had been trying to steal industrial secrets from Emma’s company. Like the citation read, there were six of them and Amelia clobbered one, Then it was five against four and Denise, bless her, actually destroyed two of them. All I did was get them to drop the guns they were waving around.”

“All? Damn, Tamara, that’s a mighty big ‘all,’” Werner said. “Can I ask what kind of magic you pulled off?”

Tamara grinned, “You can ask, but...”

Most everyone in the room chanted, “ ... if I tell you, then I’d have to kill you!” and everyone burst out laughing.

“I’ll give you a hint,” Tamara teased, “Remember what happened to that drone last year. My gadgets don’t only work on electronics. Speaking of magic, though, Emma sent me a link to a little video from that roll-out she did. Let me pull that up on my phone and you can watch it.”

She passed her phone around and Peter passed his too; he also had it on his phone. Soon everyone had seen it and were laughing.

“Wish I saw that in person,” Scott chuckled and the others agreed. “That was very entertaining, Tamara. Emma’s got good marketing people to come up with that,” he said.

Peter snorted. “Dad, that was all Tamara; she got the idea of doing it after I bought the robe and stuff and she thought of all of that herself.”

Then he had to tell everyone about London’s King’s Cross Station and the Harry Potter setup that the station management had created there.

“I got that Harry Potter stuff thinking that somehow Tamara could use them, but she came up with the whole idea on the fly, right after the stress of the battle with those Russians,” Peter finished.

“So what happened with those Russians?” Claire asked. “What were they trying to do, anyway? Why a kidnapping?”

“So, they had a spy planted in Emma’s company,” Tamara told her. “The guy stole some materials that make up part of the energy-storage unit. But the company has tight controls on the actual manufacturing part so the spy didn’t get everything; just enough to blow himself and more than a dozen others to kingdom come. So apparently the survivors came up with the idea to kidnap Emma, probably to ransom her for the device plans; they had a photo of her from the spy and an imposter guard they planted to alert them when he saw her at the roll-out event. Peter and I noticed that the imposter had a bulge under his arm, like from a shoulder holster, and Emma had just told us that her guards couldn’t be armed. Guns in England are totally illegal; even the cops usually aren’t armed.”

“Amelia’s only five foot three or so,” Peter said. “When the fake guard tried to grab her, she just ruined him with an awesome shoulder throw. Broke his arm and back, we heard afterward. Kevin did a taekwondo kick—I didn’t see it—but it crushed his guy’s throat and shattered his jaw. Jeremy’s guy wound up with most of his rib cage shattered and that bruiser must have weighed 300 pounds. He was a giant. But Denise? Damn, she took on two of them and broke a shoulder, a leg, and two knees, on her jerks.”

“And your own opponent?” Claire prompted.

“Um, did a shoulder throw and helped his head put a nice dent in the side of their van,” Peter told her. “I didn’t want to go round two with my guy; he looked like he had seen some fights before and I had him off balance. Sensei told me, in those situations, you just end the threat.”

“That’s absolutely right, Peter,” Barbara said. “Good for you.”

Claire shook her head. “Peter, I hope you know not to go looking for dangerous situations...”

“Mom, sensei drums that into our heads. Use the skills for defense, he drills us. Um, Tamara, so when am I supposed to go back for that award?” Peter asked her.

“Emma told me that Amelia and Jeremy are getting theirs when they get back to London—that’s in about two weeks. Kevin and Denise are already back in the States, so she thinks you three should go together—according to Sir George, that would be appropriate, all of you at once; that would allow a single presentation. Sir George told Emma that the queen was enraged when she heard about what had happened and she had personally called the Russian ambassador to the palace to ream him out. Anyway, we’ll need to contact Kevin and Denise and work out when you all can go. Sir George will be getting suggested dates from the palace. Emma said that these awards are mostly done in private presentations, not huge ceremonies.”

“Jeez, I said those four were awesome,” Peter sighed. “Knighthood honors and now heroism awards.”

Tamara grinned at him. “Well, Peter, work on doing something dramatic with your collaborator at Imperial College London and you can get to be a knight too.”

Everyone laughed at Peter’s sputtering attempt to deny that was possible. After a little further discussion about Tamara’s and Peter’s experiences, everyone began leaving the table and started to clean up from the meal. When they were finished, Barbara grabbed Werner’s attention.

“Gramps, Tamara’s got a real estate question,” she told him.

“Really? That’s interesting; Tamara, you’re not house-hunting, are you?”

Tamara laughed. “Nope. Not yet, anyway. With the intelligence service your company seems to have, you’ve probably heard that the quarry next door is on the market.”

“True, we did hear about that. Its resources are about exhausted and the outfit doesn’t want to keep paying the taxes on a non-producing property. Don’t tell me you’re interested in the site?”

“I have a thought—like a shadow of an idea,” Tamara told him. “From my discussions with Kevin, I got a premonition that having a land site handy would be useful and my premonition tells me that I’ll be staying in this area for a long time. How big is that property?”

“Right around 125 acres. The resort is 98 acres, so it’s a bit larger.”

“So the quarry part only takes up about half of the site?” she asked.

“About 60 percent. They weren’t permitted to dig closer to the river. Exactly what were you thinking of using the land for? Something commercial? Any site work would be expensive, in order to make the property suitable to build on.”

“I just have the impression of needing a site for something involving research, possibly in educational psychology, teaching methodology, and applied neuroscience research. It needs to be in a rural setting, away from any background neurological interference that can be found in populated areas, but close enough to those areas to draw the needed expertise. This area would be close to ideal.”

Werner shook his head. “Peter was right; you don’t think small. Okay, several questions. Any timeline?”

“Nope. Nothing firm. Maybe when my doctorate’s done. I have a feeling that Kevin and Denise, Amelia and Jeremy too, they’ll somehow be involved. Others I haven’t yet met will be too.”

“All right. Does your ‘vision’ include how you’d use the site?” he asked.

“The clearest picture is of a kind of school building but with large open areas. Perhaps several low buildings, spread out in a natural setting.”

“Okay, let’s go with the school idea. If we get the property, we could apply for a much lower tax rate. Are you aware that the site has some significant holes to fill?”

Tamara nodded. “Peter and I have seen the area on our hikes in the woods. What’s the best way to fill them? We wouldn’t want to bulldoze the surrounding woods to level the site out.”

“Since you apparently have a few years before you start doing anything there, I’d suggest making the site available for dumping clean fill or hard fill and not charge a dumping fee. That way, builders will have a place to cheaply dispose of rubble.”

“That’s not trash, is it, Gramps?” Barbara asked. “Ron told us that the county wouldn’t let the site be used as a landfill.”

“Oh, no,” Werner said. “Hard or clean fill has no general garbage in it; not even scrap lumber. It’s typically demolition materials like concrete or brick rubble, broken up. Rocks, unclassified gravel that can’t be used for construction, sand, even clean soil like they get when a basement or pool is dug. The trucks would have to be monitored, though, to prevent anyone from bringing trash in.”

“So when rubble arrives, they’d just dump it in the quarry?” Tamara asked.

“Right. Since you’d not be building on it for a while, it could compact itself mostly naturally, but you’d still need equipment there to do gross compaction or else any voids would make the soil above somewhat unstable. You’d need to have a civil engineer do periodic checks. As I said, reclaiming land like that is expensive, however you proceed. Would you make the purchase as a private individual?”