Chapter 6

At exactly 7:30pm Alice arrived and picked me up. I said goodbye to my boys and my dogs and I was on my way.

The event had already commenced but I wasn’t due to make my appearance until 9pm to, hopefully, coincide with the first if the forecast four eclipses.

It was fifteen minutes later I realized I had traveled this route just days before. Lots of trailer parks, along a railway track and then passing The Dog House that was in darkness.

I did’t say anything but expected any moment to be surrounded by bikers. That didn’t happen. Then, as we were approaching “Brock’s Boarders” I asked Alice where we were going?

“Count G-------’s Estate,” she replied. “Both the Count and Countess are Priests of the Order. And that’s a secret. But you will be feeling his noble dick up your pretty ass I’m sure.”

We sped past “Brock’s Boarders” but only just a few yards further on the car slowed and we turned off along a single track before it widened in front of an imposing 14ft high brick wall with coils of barbed wire secured with concrete on the top and a pair of similar height ornamental gold colored iron gates sporting the Count’s coat if arms.

Immediately two armed guards appeared. One stood in front of the car and the other came to the driver’s side window that Alice had wound down.

“Turn around and go back,” the guard said. “You’re too late. We’re full.”

“Nonsense.” retorted Alice. “I’m The Deputy High Priest’s daughter and this is the Queen. They’ll be he’ll to pay if you don’t admit us or call someone with more authority. Tell me how many you have admitted and it had begetter not be 777.”

When she said the number 777 I saw the guard’s face turn white before my eyes. So did Alice.

“You damn fools,” she raged at both of them, getting out of the car.

She waved the official pass she had in front of his nose whist the other guard was on the phone.

“Just five minutes before you arrived another car drove up. A Rolls driven by a chauffeur and a woman in the back. They gave me an official looking pass and I waved them through.”

“Was the pass like this one?”

There was no reply.

“You didn’t look at it properly did you?”

The other guard came up to the window of the car.

“The Chief’s on his way,” he said.

“Did you notice any features of the persons in the car? The chauffeur and especially the woman?” Alice asked.

The first guard shook his head but the other one was more observant.

“He was foreign.”

“Foreign? Be more specific.”

“I dunno. Just foreign. Looks. Sorry.”

“Dutch? “.

A shrug.

Just the thought of The Ikeman set me thinking with a heavy heart.

“Could he have been ... An Arab?” I piped up. A horrible feeling welling up in the pit of my stomach.

“Yes,” the guard suddenly woke up as he remembered something. “Yes. I shone my flashlight direct on his face and his fist clawed up in front of it as if trying to hide it. But i saw it for a second. Hawk. That’s what I saw. Cruel. Yes. Yes. Arab. Only just realized it.”

“And the woman?” asked Alice. “Are you sure it was a woman? Could it have been a man?”

Both guards nodded. Now their faces were grim. They knew they were in big trouble.

A car drove up to the gates from the other side and two men got out. One opened the gate and came up to us.

He shone a flashlight straight into Alice’s face and then into mine. As soon as he saw me he exclaimed.

“My God! Miss Grace. I’m Sid. The man who stopped your kidnapping.”

“The man who was going to kidnap me first,” I said to him as a reminder. “It looks like the same people are here to try again.”

Alice brought him up to speed as to what had just occurred.

“We won’t let that happen, miss,” he assured me. “The Rolls will be easy to find. And even with nearly 800 people here two Arabs will stick out like a sore thumb.”

I quietly thought, in the dark? I think not. But at least I knew I was going to be protected. It was going to be hard for two persons to get to me, especially as we were forewarned. I still, however felt uneasy and I involuntarily touched the gemstone on my necklace and tried to find some comfort. But my sense if foreboding was increasing.