The Four Queens
Copyright© 2026 by Uncle Jim
Chapter 12
The following new character appears in this chapter:
Lieutenant Bernard
SWAT Lieutenant, 5’-11’’ tall (180 cm), 185 pounds (84 kg), 37 years old, short brown hair, gray eyes
The following characters return from previous stories:
Chu Hua
Dragon offspring, now a Dragon, Frank’s Wife, 5’-0’’ tall (152 cm), a very sweet but plain looking woman, still somewhat thin at 35 years of age with medium length black hair
Franklin (Frank)
Dragon Security employee, Chu Hua’s husband, 5’-9’’ tall (175 cm), 175 pounds (79 kg), 44 years old, black hair, brown eyes, a very strong Talent, a Dragon
Stewart
Dragon Security employee, 5-11’’ tall (180 cm), 190 pounds (86 kg), 37 years old, brown hair, violet eyes, very strong Talent, now a Dragon
Maly still has the Narrative
“We need to do some planning before we go in there,” Mother told us and the SWAT lieutenant, who was listening very carefully. Many of the other first responders had already spread out in the various camping areas to help those who were wounded, injured, or burned, and to collect the bodies of the dead.
We hadn’t even gotten started on the planning when one of the policemen, a sergeant, approached.
“Lieutenant Bernard, we are going to need more paramedics, ambulances, and body bags. This place is a real mess,” the Sergeant told him.
“That’s not all that we are going to need, Sergeant. We are going to need a number of the other SWAT teams in the Atlanta area and many of the local police to clean up this mess. I’ll be on the radio shortly. We need to do a little planning first to determine just how much help we are going to need,” the Lieutenant told him, before turning back to us.
“We’ll need to make this quick. I need to call in for more help, but I’ll need an idea of how much help first,” the Lieutenant told us. Mother smiled at him.
“We can still use the approach that my two Daughters have been using, but we may need more help to cast a large enough Freeze spell to cover the entire resort complex. What do you think Doreen?” Mother asked.
“We have six of us here now. A couple of more wouldn’t hurt. Say three more Dragons. There could be a problem with that though,” Doreen told her.
“Problem?” Mother asked with a raised eyebrow.
“What is happening in the other area. Daeva said that the Queens sent Deirdre and Botum to another area where there were terrorists also,” Doreen told her.
“Yes, Maddy went to help them when Dallas called her, and I came here. Call Maddy and see what their situation is,” Mother directed, and then turned back to the rest of us.
“The escapees told you that there were just three terrorists at the resort. With six of us here, that would give us three teams of two each to remove them. However...” Mother started but was interrupted by Doreen.
“Mother wants to speak to you,” Doreen told her holding out her cell phone.
“Maddy, how are things on your end?” Mother asked on taking the phone.
“Things here are very busy,” we heard our Grandmother, the Queen of the West say, as Mother had the phone on speaker.
“So far we have rounded up six of the terrorists. Deirdre and Botum had developed a way to capture them after the first one blew up. Fortunately, the Inn at Stone Mountain Park has been under renovation for the past several weeks, so there is no one staying there, or we would have 92 rooms plus a couple of conference rooms to search. We are still looking for the final two terrorists. There are a lot of injured and dead here, so we need more help. The SWAT lieutenant is trying to determine how much more help to ask for. How are things in your area?” Maddy asked.
“We are in about the same shape that you are. Only we have a resort with 400 rooms plus a number of large conference rooms. We believe there are three terrorists and an unknown number of hostages in there. We’ll need a few more Dragons to help out here, and a lot of near-Dragons to help with the clearing operation afterward,” Mom told her.
“Alright, I’m calling in the rest of the local Dragons, and I’ll see how much help we can get from Dragon Security for the clearance operations in both areas. This is going to take a while to clean up,” she told us before they both broke the connection.
“Well, all of you heard it. Maddy is going to try to get us some more Dragons and near-Dragons to help us. Once some of the help arrives, we’ll take out the terrorists, and then the real work will begin,” Mom told us.
“Yes, the real work,” the Lieutenant said. “We are going to need to clear all of those rooms as well as the conference rooms, offices, kitchens, work rooms, store rooms, and even the janitorial closets. We are going to need a lot of help, and that presumes all of the hostages and others in there don’t panic or get in our way,” the Lieutenant told us with a worried look.
“How many people are usually on your clearance teams?” Mom asked the lieutenant.
“Usually two or three plus a leader or supervisor for every three or four teams,” he told us. Mom looked thoughtful for a short time.
“We can leave the hostages and the others still in the buildings under the Freeze spell until the area they are in has been secured. We will also attach a near-Dragon to your teams to cancel the Freeze spells, but you will need someone to guide those released out of the building,” she told him.
“Those could be regular police officers. We’ll also need some paramedics outside in case of injuries or other health problems. I can also get a couple of drones to search the roof area for anyone hiding there or in the surrounding area,” the Lieutenant told us. Mom smiled again.
“That won’t be necessary. I’ll have a couple of male Dragons fly over the roof and the surrounding area. They’ll be able to spot anyone there or who is hiding. They’ll also be able to shoot back at anyone who fires at them,” she told him with a Dragon grin. The lieutenant stared at her for a few seconds.
“Ah ... yeah. Our drones can’t do that,” he managed to say. The lieutenant got on his radio then and contacted his headquarters to ask for as much help as they could provide. I heard them tell him that they were calling in teams from all of the counties and cities around the Atlanta area to send them help. They would let him know when to expect them.
On letting us know this, the lieutenant went to see how his other people were doing, but he left most of the SWAT team with us for when we were ready to begin clearing the resort.
A short time later, Chu Hua, her husband Franklin, and our Father, Craig Sweeney, appeared near us. They all smiled at us but had startled the SWAT people with their sudden appearance. We need to fill them in on what had happened, and what we intended to do, but first we had questions.
“Were some people sent to help Maddy?” our Mom asked.
“Yes, Steve, Keith, and Stewart were sent to help Mom,” our Father told us before adding, “Dad is calling in all of those working for Dragon Security and will be sending a number of our people here to help with clearing all of the affected areas of the park. Mom has already promised that all of them would be well paid for their help, and that there would be a big party in the Nest when all of this is taken care of.”
The SWAT lieutenant had returned by the time we had finished filling them in on the situation that we were facing. When we had finished, Mother, as the Queen of the East, looked around at all of us plus the SWAT team and gave us our orders.
“Let’s all move up near the resort buildings and then we’ll spread out more or less on line before we all cast our strongest Freeze spells. After giving them time to affect the entire resort area, we ladies will move inside and remove the terrorists that we know about. The men will increase their size to 40 feet tall (12 meters) and take off to patrol the area and to search for any more terrorists. If you are fired on, return fire with blasts of Magic. If they blow up, you will be far enough away that it won’t affect you,” Mom told us and them turned before addressing the SWAT team.
“You are to follow us. Do not use your guns and remain behind us. We have wards that will protect us. You do not have wards, and we don’t want to see any of you injured or killed,” she told them.
“You’re sure those wards will stop bullets?” one of those on the SWAT team asked in a loud disbelieving voice.
“Of course,” Mother answered in an upset voice. I was sure that she was wondering how they could doubt her. I spoke up then.
“When we first started, one of the terrorists managed to sneak up on me and tried to grab a hold of me before he blew himself up. All that he managed to do was to move up against my ward before he set off the explosion. When I looked down after the explosion, there was blood and gore sliding down the outside of the ward and blood and body parts, or at least, bloody meat scattered around the area. The only problem I had was a loss of hearing for a time from the noise of the explosion,” I told the shocked questioner and the rest of the SWAT team.
After moving a good distance, we all stopped in the large parking area of the resort. There were a large number of cars parked there indicating that there were many people inside. Getting everyone on line to cast the Freeze spells required a bit of time because of the size of the facility, and we needed to get everyone close to the same distance apart. Mother had the position in the center of the line. When we were ready, she lowered her arm pointing it at the buildings, and we all cast our strongest and most long lasting Freeze spells. We then waited a few minutes to ensure that the spells covered even the most distant parts of the resort.
When she was satisfied that the entire area was covered, Mother waved us forward into the building. Dad and Frank changed to their largest size before taking off to cover the entire resort area from the air. The SWAT team tagged along behind us. It was obvious from the looks on their faces that our men changing size and taking off from the parking area had impressed them.
The main entrance to the resort / hotel was under a large portico. Several of us used that entrance while some of the others used side entrances or the one to the large adjacent restaurant. Chu had taken the restaurant. The ground floor of the resort was very elegantly appointed with a large reception desk, a fine large fireplace and a number of comfortable looking seating arrangements. All of this, however, was ruined by the blood and the five bodies on the hardwood floor, along with the numerous empty cartridge cases there. At least there were the five bodies that we could see, as it turned out, there were two more. One was behind the reception / sign in desk, and the other one was in the office area behind the desk. The main clue to finding them had been the numerous bullet holes across the area behind the sign in desk. Someone appeared to have fired an entire magazine from their weapon into that area.
“Alright, let’s find these conference rooms, as they are the most likely places for them to be holding hostages,” Mother told us, after we had checked the area for a short time. “There is one located here on the ground floor,” she reminded us. Fortunately, locating the conference room on the ground floor proved easy, as there were signs and arrows pointing the way. We all moved toward it but stopped short of it.
“Doreen, come with me. We’ll check it out, but we’ll do so while invisible,” Mom told my aunt. They both cast the Invisibility spell and disappeared before moving forward. The few members of the SWAT team, who had come with us, were shocked by this also. The remainder of their team had remained in the entrance area to search it for more bodies, or those still in hiding there.
We could feel the use of Magic in the conference room, and a couple of minutes later the door opened revealing Mom and Aunt Doreen who were still in their Dragon forms.
“We have removed the terrorist to the Timeless Zone. There was only one in here. There are still twenty some hostages under the Freeze spell. Has any of the expected assistance arrived yet?” Mom asked the lieutenant who had just joined us again.
“A number of local policemen have arrived as well as more paramedics and a couple of ambulances. They are setting up in the parking lot,” the Lieutenant informed her.
“Are any of the police officers women? A number of the hostages are women, and all of the hostages will need to be searched for weapons and explosives before being released from the Freeze spell,” Mom informed him.
“I believe a couple of them are women. I’ll need to check,” he replied and pulled out his radio to check. We soon had the bad news.
“Only one female police officer has arrived so far,” the Lieutenant informed us a minute or so later.