Chapter 06

The Rest of the Week

Wednesday morning is a slow start because the cafeteria is staying open for breakfast much later than usual in recognition of the break period. That’ll be the situation for the whole week.

After a nice shared shower and late breakfast Lyn explains his plan to Nancy. They discuss the whole situation and his plan before they start sending emails to people they think can help them. Barry is a key starting contact. They break only for a quick lunch.

By dinnertime Lyn and Nancy have networked with many students and they’ve confirmed help from over four thousand of the over eleven thousand students enrolled for the coming semester. Some others are prepared to provide moral support and help on the sidelines without them being given the full details. The active revolutionaries will be the ones to upset the AD’s apple cart with their actions.

The revolution starts with the students lodging SPA module changes over the Internet. As per the Athletics Department policies the changes to student enrolments in Intramural sports are automatically approved and are processed by the staff without any further involvement. The sports stats do change, but the AD is away on break and he’s the only one who tracks that information, so no one high up sees the overall picture.

After a good dinner Nancy and Lyn enjoy popcorn in the bed while watching a DVD on the large TV. Followed by another snugly night.

Thursday

The usual shower and cafeteria breakfast is followed by a check of emails, and some serious grins with the number of extra students who are signing on to join the revolution. During the coming months the AD will learn the students are truly revolting and people power does exist.

Mid-morning is a drive to collect the town car because they’re called and told it’s ready for them. A quick trip back to the college to put the SUV in the garage, and then a drive to Stockbridge so Nancy can show her car off to Dave and the girls. They spend the rest of the day there.

Friday

The morning ritual is as usual after another night of cuddling sleep. The rest of the morning is spent contacting people to help the revolution. The afternoon is an unofficial off campus practice with some of the football players to fine tune Lyn’s American Football skills. Watching DVDs in bed with snacks is an easy evening, followed by a night’s cuddling again. Both are now very used to sharing the bed.

This is the same pattern for Saturday and Sunday, with a visit to a local church for services Sunday morning. Monday is New Year’s Eve with a large party throughout the whole dorm. Fun with a lot of hugs and kissing at midnight, but not too wild.

A few of the interstate students return on Monday, but most will be arriving back on campus on Wednesday with some on Tuesday.

All during this time Lyn and Nancy hand out the VS catalogues with discount cards to people they meet, and they also encourage them to shop there. Some are left on tables in common areas for the students to take, and Lyn arranges with the cleaning staff to put some in the staff rooms. The whole college is soon saturated with the catalogues, and so is part of Stockbridge when they hand them out while visiting Dave. On later visits to the store the staff tell Lyn and Nancy how happy they are with them for the increased business and the fact they’re spreading the sales over the staff so they all get some commissions from the extra business. They continue the process for the whole semester by using the new catalogues when they come out and are provided to them by the store manager.

January to March

On Tuesday January 1st everyone is getting up late. Many have sore heads because they had a bit too much alcohol the night before, despite it not being legal for most of them to drink alcohol. By lunchtime all of the students on hand are fully active. By mid-afternoon many students who live a few hours drive from the college are arriving back on campus to have time to settle in before their classes start on Thursday.

Mid-afternoon the first major steps in the active revolution are under way when Lyn spends some hours on one of the college football fields with several of the football players who are part of the plot. Only a couple of the football coaches are on campus today, but the two who are take a break around 3:30 p.m. and they see Lyn helping the team kicker practice by being a kick receiver and then punting the ball back. They’re impressed by the sure way he catches all of the kicks made, even when they’re kicked to the side to make it hard to catch. They talk about the unknown catcher while they drink their coffee and watch them. After another twenty minutes the kicker takes a break and Lyn practices with the back up quarterback by running down the field to take his passes. Both the coaches make a note to find out more about this kid.

Wednesday Lyn spends more time on the football fields helping some of the players with their practice by receiving passes and catches as well as punting and passing the ball. He even spends time with some of the receivers from the collegiate and intramural teams while teaching them some moves to avoid a block or tackle. The coaches are very impressed.

Although Lyn avoids the physical contact sports at the moment he didn’t always do so. He’d been a good player of all the Australian football codes plus basketball until last July when he took a break to concentrate on his studies for the many exams he had coming up in September. In Australia the schools don’t issue jacket ‘letters’ for the players of the sports teams like they do in the USA. If they did Lyn would have a dozen or so for all of the school representative teams he played on while in high school. It’s only since his father died his temper has developed a very short leash and he’s needed help to control his anger.

The War Starts

Classes start on Thursday, so do the collegiate team practices. The coaches who saw Lyn training with some of the team members are a bit surprised he doesn’t try to join the team as a walk on. One approaches a receiver Lyn has been seen to work with and asks, “What happened to the kid you were training with earlier in the week?”

Jeffrey smiles when he asks, “Which one?” After the coach describes Lyn he adds, “Oh, Davies! He’s joined the Maniacs intramural team as a kick returner. He doesn’t want to get too involved with the contact.”

After the practice the coach talks with the other coaches and they go check the records for the players on the team mentioned. After a glance at Lyn’s file they bring him to the attention of the Athletics Director, who starts to prepare to get Lyn on the collegiate team and ready for the next football season as a regular team member.

While he concentrates on his collegiate teams the AD isn’t paying any attention to the rushing about and mad activity by his office staff who are busy with the other departmental courses. He’s briefly upset about having to fund the maintenance work on several of the facilities that are controlled by his department. He knew the work had been put off from last year, but he didn’t expect the facilities unit to just go ahead and do the work this year then send the bills to his office for payment. Nor does he realise they’re getting good discounts by having him pay for the work in advance. But he’s angry at how this is messing up his planned budget. He also doesn’t like the new directive for all Suspension and Probation matters to now go through the President’s office for approval.

Lyn made a few class changes in anticipation of what he’ll need to do for the revolution. He also hands the office staff of each of the academic departments a letter signed by him, Doctor Grey, and President Mason stating from 4 January any course registrations or changes for Lyn have to be counter signed by Doctor Grey and the President as well as being personally lodged by Lyn. It states this is because of legal concerns on Lyn’s mental state. The departments make notes on their departmental file on Lyn. The records show a similar letter being sent to the Athletics Department and it being received by them, but it’s placed on his file by a student intern without being noted in their computer or a senior staff member being told about it because the intern is in on the revolutionary plot and they want the senior staff to not warn the AD.

Lyn isn’t too concerned about students or staff connecting him with the revolution against the Athletics Director, and he’s prepared to accept any issues arising if they do. However, he knows all of the college sports teams that have player names on them only have the surname while the coaching staff always call the students by their surname, so, should he end up on a team he need only make an effort to hide his hair and wear close fitting clothes when doing sports team activities. Few will connect the two because there are many students on campus named Davies.

In general the college and students go on as usual with classes etc. as per the usual college lifestyle for them. Lyn slips into the lifestyle with ease, and he loves it. Most mornings are the usual shower and meal with Nancy before going to classes, and the evenings are studying with a night of cuddling, plus some television watching too. Weekends are usually for half a day or two part days spent in Stockbridge.

One Saturday toward the end of January sees Lyn in Stockbridge to approve and pay for the work on the house. Everyone loves the twelve person spa and giggle at the signs telling all not to wear clothing in the spa, one on the front and back of the door to the room. The signs read:

Hot Tub & Spa Room

All clothing to be removed on entry. No drugs or alcohol.
This room is under video surveillance for security reasons.

Lyn explains the video security is because of the expensive gear in the room and it’s used by the others when he and Nancy aren’t there. The room has a top quality sound system, a large television mounted on the wall, a wall of door-less locker style storage units for clothes etc. as well as a number of towels and soaps. It also has a shower unit in one corner to rinse off before and after using the spa. The top of the spa is level with the three foot high decking which surrounds it, about six inches on one side, two feet on the other side, and four feet at the back of it.

Mounted in the corner opposite the door, about five feet up the wall, is a small corner shelf with a security video camera on it. This unit can see the whole of the change area plus where the electronics are. However, Lyn has other small high quality video cameras set up to view the whole room, these are the same as the ones he set up in the dorm but the power lines are much better hidden because the cameras were all put in during construction with all of the wires behind the wood panelling. If someone does do anything wrong in the room Lyn intends to get it recorded. His main concern is with any friends the girls bring back to enjoy the hot tub / spa using drugs or alcohol while in the room.

Lyn and Nancy also discuss how to fit out the basement, then they tell Joe what they want. He arranges access to do it with Dave, and it only takes another week. The finished result is very good and it’s approved by them. When they have time they visit to furnish the basement rooms which include their study / work areas, a recreational area, and a ‘safe room’ - a hidden room with a secret entrance and well armoured to be safe in it if the house is invaded or attacked.

After talking with the Housing Department staff Lyn puts in an obvious security camera with a sign in the dorm room. The sign reads:

This room is under video surveillance for security reasons.
No drugs or alcohol are allowed in this room.

Front Door Fiasco

Lyn walks down to the front door to pay for and take delivery of two large pizzas since they should be here soon. He walks out the door when the pizza car pulls up behind a van with some young men in it. Just outside the door another student, Sharon, is struggling with a young man Lyn has seen her with of late, but Lyn didn’t like the way he behaves.

Sharon pulls back while saying, “I told you before, I can’t go to this club meeting you’ve got because I’ve got a lot to study. Now let me go, you’re hurting my arm.”

The man says, “I told ya, it don’t matta what ya want. Ya do as I say. Na move it.” He starts to drag her toward the van by the arm.

Lyn leaves the building and heads toward them as he says, “I suggest you let her go and be on your way if you don’t want to be arrested.”

The man snarls over his left shoulder, “Stay outa dis unless ya want ta be gang banged too. She’s ta be ‘nitiated t’night.” He drags Sharon another step by pulling with his left arm while she struggles against him.

While swinging a fast stiff fingered uppercut into the guy’s left armpit Lyn says, “I don’t think so, for either event.”

The man screams and lets go of Sharon. He snarls, “Fucking bitch,” while spinning toward Lyn. The sudden release causes Sharon to fall down. Although Lyn is focussed on the man near him he can see four more men getting out of the van: two with baseball bats and two are reaching for guns in their belts. The man Lyn hit has a gun as well, but he’s swinging a wide right hand punch at Lyn while moving toward him.

Ducking a little while raising his left arm to deflect the punch up Lyn swings a hard and fast punch to the man’s lower chest. They both make contact at the same time, and both grunt with the hits. Lyn due to the pain in his left forearm and the man due to being winded. When the man bends over Lyn reaches in and draws the man’s gun with his right hand before stepping to the side and hitting him between the shoulder blades with his left hand to knock him to the ground.

The other men are part way along the short path when Lyn raises the pistol and says, “Drop the guns and bats.” The two men with guns continue to raise them as all four snarl abuse. They don’t stop so Lyn starts on the left and puts a round in the middle of the chest of each one in rapid fire. All four are punched back with bloody chests.

Lyn spots the driver of the van raising a sawn off shotgun, so he lets him have a round in the chest as well. The sound of Lyn’s fifth shot is followed by the boom of the shotgun when it discharges into the side door of the van, a few spent pellets make it through the door but not far.

When Lyn walks over to the Pizza guy he hears some banging in the van, so he diverts there. He finds two tied up girls lying in the back of the van while kicking the wall to get attention. Lyn hops in and undoes their hands, they’re quick to remove the gags and leg ropes once their hands are free. Lyn gets out and goes for his Pizzas.

While paying the guy for the pizzas Lyn calls Nancy to come collect them because he figures he has to stay here until the police let him go. He asks the delivery guy, “Got any more deliveries to make?”

“Yeah, a large with the lot,” is his reply.

“Ring your boss to tell him to do it again, since you’ll have to stay until the police are finished with us. I’ll pay you for the other pizza.” The guy agrees and he makes the call while Lyn hands over more money.

Lyn also calls the college police to tell them what’s happened, then he calls Dr Grey to let her know as well.

Nancy, Joan, and Margaret arrive to see what’s happening. Instead of taking the pizzas back to their room they take the three of them into the waiting area of the dorm entrance to share them with the other people involved in the incident while they all wait for the police to arrive.

Lyn keeps an eye on things to see no one disturbs the scene until the police arrive to take it over. By then all of the attackers are dead. Lyn has no idea why the guy he hit is dead, but the autopsy will tell them.

It’s over an hour before the police are finished taking statements, photos, and remove the dead and van. Part of the delay is them waiting for the Atlanta Police Department (APD) Crime Scene Analysis Unit (CSAU) officers because the college doesn’t have any while they’ve an agreement with the APD for them to do it all for the college as needed.

The police take their statements while the CSAU officers work the scene over before the bodies are taken away. The APD officers also take statements from the other girls about their kidnapping before providing them escorts to take them home.

After the police leave Lyn spends another thirty minutes in his room talking about the incident with Doctor Grey. When they finish up and get up to walk out John Grey knocks on the door, and is let in. He turns to Lyn while saying, “I just finished checking a few things. The men doing the kidnapping were part of a gang called ‘The Gators.’ They’re a new group that’s been around about a year, just under a hundred of them, all are very vicious and very mean. They may try to get revenge on you for stopping their fun.” Lyn sighs and gives a slow shake of his head while he thinks on this. But there’s not much he can do about it, and they all know that. A little later the Greys leave for home as Lyn goes to bed.

While on his way home John Grey calls Dave Richards to tell him about the incident and to warn him the Gators may call there after they check up on Lyn.

Note: During the autopsy the Medical Examiner finds the one Lyn punched had a minor heart defect. When the shock-wave of the punch reached his heart it caused the defective area to tear, and he died of internal bleeding.

The court ruling on all six young men is Self Defence by Lyn as they died while committing the felony of kidnapping Sharon.

All of the local law enforcement organisations pay more attention to the activities of the Gators, but there’s not much the police can do until the gang members are caught committing a crime.

Gator Games

On the Saturday morning a week after the foiled kidnapping Nancy and Lyn are walking along the side of a mall. They’re heading for their car in the back car park. Lyn opens a can of cold drink and he hands it to Nancy before getting another out of his bag, he bought them just before they left the mall. When they approach a concrete bus-stop seat by the road they hear a car rev up and a loud squeal of tyres at the same time.

Both look up to see a car accelerating away from a parking space a bit further along. Two men stick their upper bodies out of the passenger windows. They both have guns in their hands and both are aiming toward Lyn and Nancy. Almost without thinking Lyn throws his can of drink at the front windscreen just before he grabs Nancy’s arm and takes them both to the ground behind the seat just as the men start shooting. They hear bullets hitting the concrete wall behind them. Both wonder what they’ll do if the car stops, because they’re out in the open with no real protection apart from the six foot long concrete seat.

Lyn’s thrown can turns end for end while it flies through the air. The top is forward and a little down when it strikes the windscreen. The impact causes the can to flatten a lot and the sides to burst, spraying most of the drink out the ruptured sides. The middle of the windscreen shatters and bits of safety glass spray the driver and front passenger. The half flattened remains of the can with some glass embedded in it misses the side of the driver’s head to hit the passenger behind the driver in the lower face and neck. The pain of the hit causes the man to squeeze his hands. The gun in his left had goes off and punches a high velocity .357 magnum round through the back of the car seat in front of him. The bullet’s trajectory is upward and to the right at about forty-five degrees. It hits the driver in the back just to the right of his spine and below his shoulder blade. The hit throws the driver forward and to the right while the bullet plunges further into his body. The driver has a good hold of the steering wheel with his left hand near the top of it, so the wheel turns to the right and the car veers to the right at a sharp angle.

The car goes within a foot of a large steel and concrete light pole. The two gunmen hanging out the windows have insufficient space or time to get out of the way, so they both have their arms broken and their heads smashed in by the pole when the car passes it before smashing into the end of the seat Lyn and Nancy are hiding behind. The seat is dislodged and punched along a couple of feet by the impact before the car stops.

On hearing the car crash and stall Lyn sits up to look at it because the gunfire has also stopped. The side and insides of the car are a real bloody mess. Hearing moans behind him Lyn turns to see two women on the ground with gunshot wounds.

While getting up and racing to the women Lyn says, “Nancy, call nine one one for an ambulance and the police.” He administers what first aid he can while she makes the call. Nancy also calls Dr Grey to tell her of the incident.

The ambulance arrives at the same time as the police. Luckily the women aren’t seriously hurt, but they do need to be treated by doctors. The two women are stabilised and taken to hospital while the police get statements from Lyn and Nancy.

After giving his statement Lyn asks, “Officer, can you tell if these men are connected with a gang called the Gators?”

He gives Lyn a long look before saying, “Yes, they have the Gators tattoos. Why the interest?”

“Damn! I had a run in with them a week ago. Now it seems they want revenge for me defending myself so well. I’ll have to see what I can do to better protect myself from them.”

The officer knows about the trouble last week, but he didn’t know who with. “Not much you can do. Except to wear body armour.”

Lyn nods yes, “My grandfather is organising some. But we need to get special permission to wear it on the college grounds, and that’s where we spend most of our time.” The cop shrugs and goes to his Sergeant.

Dr Grey arrives a little later and they talk about the event until the police officer in charge tells Lyn and Nancy they can go, so all three go on their way.

Risk Assessment

Sunday afternoon Dave Richards is down at his gun club at target practice, and he’s also finalising the sale of some more of his guns. He’d set them aside for Lyn, but Lyn said he’d not use them because they’re too powerful for him so he asked they be sold too. While at the club Dave wants to find out all he can about the Gators and what sort of risk they represent to Lyn. So he has a long talk with an old friend who’s now on the APD.

Dave doesn’t like what he’s hearing, especially about the problems the police have dealing with the gang. He really hates learning the gang is based near his home in Stockbridge as it’s within ten miles of his home.

Note: All four gang members in the car are dead because the jagged edge of the can tore open the rear driver-side gunman’s carotid artery and he soon bled to death. The driver died from internal bleeding before the emergency medical people arrived on site as he was shot through the right lung. The two hanging out the windows had their upper bodies and heads crushed between the pole and the car.

Game Over

Two hours after sunset on the Thursday following the attack at the mall a man is riding a motorcycle through the forest within the Panola Mountain State Park for a few miles. After checking his GPS location he stops and he turns his headlight off. A moment later he has night vision gear on and he’s moving again at a slower speed. Several minutes later his GPS beeps at him and he slows down to check it. He’s at the spot he has marked. He rides the bike over to beside some bushes and turns it off. After removing the key he gets off the bike and takes his jacket off. In a few minutes his outer clothes are in the side bags while his night camo clothes make him all but invisible in the dark. After a few more minutes he walks off in the same direction he’d been going before he stopped. Twenty yards further along the man comes to the edge of the forest. He stops to carefully looks over the area and building in front of him.

There’s a large warehouse building directly in front of him with an open car park all around it. He’s at the back left corner of the facility. There’s an eight foot mesh fence all around the compound with a large double gate and a smaller car gate in the front fence. He can see two men in the guardhouse at the front gate and a car parked across the road with two men in it. To his right is the back of the building which has two large truck sized doorways in it, both shut. The main building is three stories tall but the rear right corner has a single story area of about forty by fifty feet attached to it and along the back wall it has stairs from the car park to its roof. Two men are on the roof area; one is watching the far side space and fence while the other one is watching the back area and fence.

From watching the place since Monday the man knows the person door in the front of the building and the one behind these two men are the only unlocked accesses to the building. He has to remove these men to get in, and he needs to get into the building tonight.

By moving along inside the trees the man relocates to a spot halfway along the back of the building. Kneeling down he swings his backpack around. Opening the pack he removes a plastic rifle butt. After sliding the end off he takes out the firing mechanism to attach it to the front of the butt, next is the short barrel, the scope that attaches to the rail on top of the firing mechanism, the already loaded magazine, and last is the sound suppressor he attaches to the front of the barrel. He puts the butt cover back in its place, his bag on his back, and he moves up close to a tree.

The man takes his time while he practices aiming at one guard then quickly switching to the next one. He has to be quick and accurate. He knows they wear body armour so he has to hit above the armour to take them out. He stops while both of the men are moving toward each other. They meet, then both light up cigarettes as only one has a pack of them, then they return to their posts. They smoke while they look over their areas while leaning on the rail going around the roof of this addition.

Taking aim at the base of the neck but above the armour of the man nearest him the man fires. Without waiting to see the effect he switches to the other man to aim at his back a little to the right of centre at the base of the neck and fires again just as the man starts to turn.

The rifle fires sub-sonic .22 calibre rounds, with the suppressor on it makes a small pfft sound that can’t be heard more than a few feet away. So the fired round is unheard by the two guards about sixty feet away from the man. However, when the bullet hits the first guard there’s a sound like a soft slap on the hand, it’s this noise that causes the second guard to turn his head. It’s in expectation of the response that has the man aim a little right. So when the second guard turns the round hits him on the side of the neck instead of the back of it. Both men drop down as soon as they’re hit. Neither bullet penetrates far due to the low speed and them being frangible rounds that break up on impact. But the liquid cyanide in the middle of each bullet is very fast to kill them.

The man is quick to pick up the ejected casings, run to the fence, cut a hole in the mesh fence, and slip through it. He moves as fast as he can when he crosses the car park to go up the stairs to the roof of the annex. By the time he arrives there both guards are dead. The man grabs their coats and moves them deeper into the shadows so no one will see them.

Kneeling by the back of the warehouse he takes off his pack to get out the components of another gun. He takes a moment to finish assembling the weapon, slip a smaller bag over his shoulder to hang in front of his left hip, put his pack back on, slip the strap for his new gun over his right shoulder, take the silenced rifle in hand, and stand up.

In another moment he’s through the door, across the break-room the door is an exit for, and out the room’s other door to move along a walkway running along the front of the offices built against the side wall. While he walks along he looks over at the large group of men gathered in a well lighted semi-circle of seating in the warehouse proper.

About a third of the way across the warehouse, around forty feet from the offices the man is beside and about halfway down the building, are just over eighty men sitting on an odd assortment of chairs, desks, and lounges. In front of them is a large board with maps of Atlanta, a local college, and an oversized photo of two girls. Three men are standing in front of the board while talking to the men and pointing at the board. Reaching a spot opposite the three men talking and as close to them as he can be the man stops, goes to the rail, kneels, lays the silenced rifle down, lifts the other gun into position, and he takes aim at the three men.