Chapter 25: Graduation Party. Trouble Drops By

There had been some marvelous ideas to decorate for the graduation party. Again, the Cessna 150 had been hoisted up onto the roof of the core living room. A sexy mannequin borrowed from a department store at the mall was dressed in a graduation gown was getting out of the plane and stiffly waving to the crowd. The gown was open in the front revealing its nudity and a prolific crop of pubic hair. It was quite funny. Other banners and streamers were draped throughout the patio, living room, hallways, and just about anywhere that was considered ‘party space’ proclaiming Happy Graduation in one way or another.

The classroom that had been used for various college courses and for the home schooling had been cleared of furniture, and extra mattresses from all over the Circle had been lugged into the room, creating some ultimate sex den. As Dave stood at the entrance to the room, he noted a large bowl containing about two hundred condoms on a table just inside the door.

Multiple tables for food had been set up at four locations on the patio. Six bars had been set up. Austin had told Dave that a few of the older members of the Circle had volunteered to staff the bars for a while, and others were going to help serve the food. She said they didn’t want any falling down drunks, and wanted everyone capable of conscious consent.

Rose and Matt found Dave. She explained that several of their graduating high school friends were coming to the party. All had paperwork that they’d arrive with, all were of legal age, and all were hoping for a raucous time that involved a heavy dose of sex. She said she’d vouch for all of them. Matt nodded, and Dave took that as the stamp of approval for their guests.

At four p.m. Dave’s cellphone rang. He hustled away from the preparation activity to take the call.

“Mr. Prentiss, this is your friend from Houston. I have some unsettling news.”

“Go on.”

“Our opponents are in your town. We don’t know how or why or what they know at this stage, but they found something that led them to your locale. We are rushing resources to your city.”

Dave speculated, “You probably can’t do anything to them. They’ve probably reported what they know or don’t know back to South America.”

“We agree. We want to protect. People with a badge and the password Angel will be a friend. Today, we followed them to six other gated communities near you. We’re not quite sure what they’re looking for.”

“We’re hosting a huge graduation party tonight. Many, many guests - hundreds.”

“We know. We may attend. We’ll find you to check in.”

Dave grimaced, “Let’s hope that they run out of leads before they find us here.”

The call ended and one-by-one Dave found members of the security committee and let them in on the news. Rose looked as unsettled as he was, but then so did the others. The news led to some rapid re-staffing of the guard house, and the requirement that all cars would be stopped so the occupants could be visually screened. As that happened, they would also be appearing on a high-resolution video. If something happened, at least they’d have pictures of the opposition. The guard house had a hidden panic button.

Dale Harnett took the four p.m. to six p.m. guard house duty. He parked his car in a way to force all cars through the one gated lane into the Circle Compound. Despite a back-up of five to ten cars, he checked each car in as planned. In his opinion, he was only seeing students raring for a good party. He’d smile, aim them up the rise, and told them to follow the signs for parking and entry to the party.

By six p.m., when Dave arrived to take over at the guard house, Dale had admitted one-hundred-ten cars, most with at least two students per car. The arrivals continued with occasional back-ups.

At six-thirty, a car with three men in it appeared in the line. Dave had his finger on the ‘Alert’ button they’d installed that would light up all the right people’s cellphones like a nuclear detonation.

As they pulled up at the gate, the driver smiled at Dave and flashed his badge. The other three men held out badges. Each man in the car said the work, “Angel”. Dave sighed and relaxed. He said to them, “Lose the suits. Put your guns in your pants and shirts outside your pants. So far, we think we’ve only admitted students.”

One man got out of the car and came into the guard house. He said, “I’m Malick. I’ll do double-duty with you, if that’s all right.” He quickly adopted a casual look, and even picked up and held an empty cup as though he were part of the party that had leaked down to the guardhouse.

In a lull, the man said, “I have pictures of the men in question in my pocket, but I don’t want to show you because if I do, you’ll make some gesture of recognition when you see them, and tip them off that you expected them. Keep your panic button handy as you intended. I’m just a friend keeping you company.”

More students arrived. Dave even recognized a few of them from earlier visits to the Circle or as students he’d seen in some of the classes taught on the premises.

At seven-thirty, a tan Toyota rental approached the guardhouse with two Hispanic-looking men inside. It pulled up, and the driver put his window down.

Dave did his smiling bit, but distrusted these slightly older men. Something was ‘off’.

The man said with a slight Spanish accent, “We’re looking for Devlin Connor.”

Dave said, “Oh, is he a resident or guest at the party? There’s a big party here tonight. It’s graduation time.”

“Oh, he’s a resident.”

“Hold on.” Dave consulted a torn and tattered list of residents, as a dutiful guard would when faced with something he didn’t know. He didn’t bother to talk to his ‘friend’ in the booth with him. He turned back to the men in the car, “There’s no one living here with that last name or even close. We have a student Elton Cleats, an older couple Olive and Stan Carter, and a Chris Carlos. Those are about the only names starting with ‘C’ we have. It is a ‘C’, right, and not a ‘K’?”

“Si ... I mean yes. Connor.”

Dave shrugged, “Sorry. I even glanced at the guest list for tonight’s gig, and there’s nobody with that name.” He gestured up the hill.

“May we look around?” the driver asked.

Dave frowned, “No, I’m afraid not. It is a private party, and I’d lose my job if I let people up there that weren’t invited. They’re checking everyone very closely for invited guests only.” He tried to look impoverished and in need of the job.

“Oh, we wouldn’t want that. Not to worry. Can we just swing around your building to leave?”

Dave said, “Sure. If you want, I have a phone book for the whole downtown area. You could look up that Conrad family and see whether they’re listed.”

“That’s all right. We tried that. We’ll try some other possibilities.”

“Sure. G’night,” Dave waved. The car did a semicircle around the guardhouse, and drove off down Christian Grey Drive.

As soon as the car was out of sight, Dave was texting and the deputy marshal who’d been with him in the booth was on his cellphone to his cohorts who’d gone up to the party area.

After their messages had been relayed and several more cars cleared into the party, the marshal said, “Good. We got a locator tag on their car. They’re being followed right now.”

“How you do that?” Dave asked.

“While they were stopped here talking to you, our little electronic robot drove under the car and made the attachment to the frame. The robot is now under whoever’s car that is sitting over there.” He pointed at Dale’s car that was being used to block traffic running through the resident’s speedy entry lane.

“Where the tracker?”

“It’s a white van about three-hundred yards down Christian Grey Road. No lights visible. They controlled the robot and also have the tracking system. The thing is good within five miles. If they try an end run to come in your back door by the airport, we’ll know about it.”

“We have a gate guard back there,” Dave said.

The marshal smiled, “And just like me, he has a ‘buddy’ standing with him and having a party drink. He also knows what our guys look like. Those were the guys, by the way, in case you had any doubt.”

“What’d you do about the people they’re looking for?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care. Only care that you guys are not collateral damage. You were very credible, by the way.”

“We rehearsed all sorts of scenarios.”

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Well done. I think they believed you.”

Dave’s eight o’clock ‘relief’ came a little early based on the text message. Ty was in uniform of Harnett Security Company. Dave recounted word for word the conversation with men, gave an accurate description of the car, and introduced the marshal to him. The three men chatted for a few minutes, and then Dave went back to his house and got into casual clothes.

At ten p.m., Mike Holiday went down to relieve Ty. He’d gotten a run-down of the brief meeting from Dave. Larry Wainwright had also been clued in, and went down to relieve Bill Lewis at the rear gate. So far, there’d been no activity at the rear gate.

Dave wandered around the party space along with many of the other Circle members. There were clusters of young men and women eagerly talking to each other all over the patio, and living room. Food was being consumed at a prodigious rate, and beer and wine even faster. The bars hadn’t stopped serving anybody, and while some of the group were loud, no one seemed unruly.

The party attendees started to thin out starting around eleven o’clock. Concurrently, the mattress room saw a further influx of visitors about the same time. Dave peeked into the darkened room and saw about ten couples in various stages of intercourse or some form of sex in the dim light.

He noted that the high school students were all in the pool. The women were only clad in bikini bottoms. For Rose and Danica, this was standard dress, but it must have been a reach for the other girls. Rose and Danica were sitting on the side of the pool, not at all concerned about their exposure. The other girls were mostly up to the necks in the water, unless they had to stand up for some reason, such as to take a drink from their glass on the side of the pool.

Some of the college age girls had also gone half-naked, and one or two were completely nude. Dave noted that many of the Phi Theta Rho and Kappa Delta Alpha students were nearly naked, in keeping with the usual Circle dress code. Guests not used to the Circle would gawk at them for a while, and then the novelty would wear off, plus they’d realize that nudity didn’t necessarily imply some sexual was taking place – at least right then.

More of the college age youths went in the pool as midnight approached. An increasing number of those were nude, since they’d arrive without bathing suits and didn’t want to stand around in wet clothes after a refreshing dip.

Also, after the crowd thinned out, an increasing number of partiers took to making out on one of the chaises on the patio. Often, apparently, since the partners were both nude, they did what comes naturally and started to fuck.

Felicity hung out with Dave for a while as they sat and watched the party from two chairs against the house. She said, “It seems like so long ago when I went to my graduation party. It hasn’t even been fifteen years.”

Dave chuckled, “Try having a couple of stepchildren that are in love and who just started living together.”

“Matt and Rose?”

“Precisely. I can’t believe they’re old enough, nor can Scarlett. I guess this is the natural order of things. I’ve heard my mother say the same thing.”

“Where is she now?”

Dave laughed, “Well, my stepfather and she were headed for Colorado in their new RV and last in Oklahoma. They have something lined up near Colorado Springs where they’ll stay for a couple of weeks and explore the area. They’re towing a car behind their monstrous motor home.”