Chapter 12

While all of the preceding was occurring in the United Stated, things continued to occur in Tibet and Iran.

In Lhasa, the wards around the Shangri-La Lhasa Hotel ran out of Magic and ceased to exist. The police had been monitoring the buildings, and as soon as the power returned and the lights came on, the resources that the Guoanbu Investigation Team had gathered from the local government raced into the buildings of the hotel to locate the Guoanbu agents and others who had been trapped in there for the last seven days.

They found several of the agents dead, and those who had survived were in very poor condition. They were whisked off to a hospital, but none of them were in any condition to be questioned. In fact, it was a week before even the strongest of them could be interviewed.

The Investigation Team had been busy during this time interrogating the employees of the hotel who had been trapped with the agents, but who had access to food and water as well as movement through part of the hotel. They hadn’t been trapped in their rooms as the agents had been. They, however, could tell them little as they knew nothing. This didn’t keep the Investigators from torturing them to learn the little they knew.

It was those on the State Security Team who eventually convinced the Guoanbu Team that the employees really didn’t know anything. They had been unable to learn anything during their own investigation of those at the Department of Public Security and the Communications Department. They had also interrogated all of the local government Leaders again and learned nothing more.

All of the Leaders of the local governments believed that the Dragons were the source of their trouble, but they had no proof of this other than the earlier rumor of the Dragons’ return. It was a rumor that State Security was beginning to believe was the truth. The problems in many of the major cities of the country helped to convince them.

Things in Iran had also continued to escalate. While the Iranian Leaders believed that the American President’s Address to the Nation was nothing but lies, they were beginning to realize that the continued attacks countrywide were the result of the Dragons interfering with their plans. While it didn’t appear that the Dragons themselves were the ones committing the attacks like in China, it was obvious to them that it was being carried out by someone the Dragons had hired to do their dirty work. Since this was one of their favorite methods of doing things, they had no doubt that the Dragons were doing the same thing.

In the meantime, the Major Demons had deployed nearly all of their followers in teams of six Demons each who continued to attack locations across Iran indiscriminately every night. The Iranians had, by now, managed to capture pictures of those making the attacks, but they couldn’t determine who they were, where they came from, or where they returned to during the daytime, as the attacks only occurred during the hours of darkness.

During this time, the Major Demons had accumulated a huge supply of weapons, explosives, and other military gear in addition to a number of additional female goats. They had all of this material stored in their living area deep underground in the Demon-lands. The female goats were kept out of sight.

“What are we going to do with all of this?” the Leader of the Silver gang asked one morning as the Leaders reviewed what had been brought back that day.

“There are lots of places where the Humans are fighting. They always need more weapons and other military gear. Even those running many of the smaller countries need gear to supply their armies. There is a ready market for all of this stuff and more. We can clean up and be on easy street by selling it,” the Leader of the Red gang told him.

“Sell it where?” Silver asked him.

“Africa is a good location. So are a lot of the smaller Middle East countries. Those people are always upset with someone and are a ready market. Plus, they usually have more money than those in Africa, who tend to be big on ideas and short on cash or tradable assets. Of course, the poorer ones often have a lot of drugs to trade. Drugs are big in the western countries, and they have the money and other things that we can use. Why didn’t we ever think of this before?” the Red Leader asked in a puzzled voice.

“Why did it take the new Dragons to get us started on this?” the Silver Leader agreed but had more to say. He also didn’t have an answer to the question.

“We can probably get those upstairs to help peddle some of this stuff, especially the drugs,” the Silver Leader continued. “They have lots of contacts in the west.”

“Yeah, with them and us also, there won’t be any customs agents to worry about or borders to cross either. Direct delivery IS the way to go,” the Red Leader said, proud of his idea.

“Still, I wouldn’t trust the minor Demons with any of the weapons or especially the explosives,” the Silver Leader told his opposite number. They both laughed.

Craig still has the Narrative

“So, what do we do now?” I asked shortly after the President and his entourage had departed. We, the entire Kavanagh Clan, were all still in the front yard of our Mother’s house where she had met with him under the oak trees.

“I believe that we should spend some time relaxing and enjoying our children for a while,” Mom said with a smile. All of the new members of the Clan had been present for the meeting, and they had behaved very well for infants.

“I made it quite clear to the President that we only wished to be left alone, and that we had no desire to be involved with the government -- any government, but that we could repeat what had happened any time that we needed to, if they continued to do things to annoy us,” she continued.

“Besides, he will have enough to keep him busy for some time. Those in the Congress were all upset about being trapped for three days. I’m sure they will continue to have hearings on what occurred in the various buildings during their detention. They will want to set up any number of committees to investigate everything that happened. That is sure to keep all of the bureaucrats busy for the next year at least and keep most of them from thinking up something else to annoy us with. Also, I wasn’t kidding when I threatened to repeat detaining those who annoy us again, and it would be for longer the next time,” she assured us.

Mom had no more than finished speaking when all of the new members of our families decided that they needed some attention and let us know it in their usual way ... by screaming loudly. Everyone rushed to take care of their particular family members. The front yard was quickly emptied as we all went to correct the current problems.

For the next several weeks, we tended to the Clan’s security business and enjoyed being with our families. All was not as quiet as it seemed, however.

D.C. was in turmoil with the Congressional hearings. The bureaucrats called to testify lied as usual, but a number of them were caught doing it. Many of those in foreign governments who had spies here checking on us decided it might not be wise to annoy us and removed or at least reduced the number of those they had watching us. There were also problems in China and Iran that we wouldn’t become aware of until later.

In China, the leaders of the Guoanbu were exceedingly upset by the loss of some of their best agents in Tibet because of the Dragons. They wanted revenge and were determined to get it.

Those on the Central Committee, especially those in the Politburo, its Standing Committee, and the General Secretary were more interested in rebuilding their ruined cities and their economy. The Guoanbu was told to forget about revenge for now. Those in charge heard the orders but decided that they would have their revenge whether those on the Central Committee approved of it or not. They set about determining the best way to accomplish that. The most obvious and easily accessible target was the Queens and their families in Atlanta. Those in charge of the Guoanbu set about deciding how best to carry out their revenge on them.

We, that is the Kavanagh Clan, had no idea of the extreme animosity of those in the Guoanbu at the time. We didn’t learn about it until several months later. Jorani and I were on one of our monthly checks of Tibet several months after the President’s visit when we did. We had already checked on the offspring’s settlement in the Dragon Reality and had found Dukhor very busy and quite happy. He had been glad to see us, and we spent a few hours visiting with him and those in the settlement. They were all quite busy preparing for the coming winter.

Following our return to the Human Reality, we decided to check on things in Lhasa and to see what rumors Tsepak might have heard. He and the other Black-marketeers had returned to Lhasa several weeks after the Guoanbu and State Security had departed. We found him in the office that he and the others had used previously. He was quite surprised to see Jorani with me, as she had been too busy previously with our Daughters to accompany me.

“You’re back!” he said after recovering from our sudden appearance in his office.

“Yes, we’re just checking on things again. Has there been any new or unusual activity here or in China? We don’t hear much about what is going on there on the news,” I told him.

“You don’t know then!?” he asked in amazement, obviously surprised.

“Know what?” I asked, as we had heard very little about goings on in China other than that they were rebuilding the cities that had been attacked.

“The Guoanbu, the old Guoanbu, has been wiped out,” he told us to a shocked look from us.

“Wiped out?” I asked, not understanding what he meant.

“Oh yes, all of them are gone ... dead and the bodies burned. You understand that I wasn’t in Beijing when this happened, and all of this that I am about to tell you is third or fourth hand. Of course, nothing has been said officially by the government, but those in the business in Beijing have many sources, and they all agree that those in the old Guoanbu were removed by those in State Security for treason,” he told us and paused to take a breath.

“The story that has been pieced together from various sources is this. The Leaders of the Guoanbu were very upset about the deaths of their agents here in Lhasa. They blamed the Dragons for that and wanted revenge, not later as the Politburo directed but ... NOW. Those in the Politburo told them that it was unimportant, and that rebuilding the cities and the economy took precedence. They would have to wait until later ... much later.

“The Leaders of the Guoanbu were even more unhappy about that than the death of their agents and apparently decided to proceed with their plans for revenge anyway. According to those from Beijing, they managed to steal or otherwise obtain a suitcase size atomic weapon and a quantity of Sarin nerve gas.

“How they did this wasn’t mentioned, but the Guoanbu had people working for them and spying in many places even in the government, so it isn’t difficult to believe that they could acquire both of them,” he told us and paused again.

“The things that happened in your country with the Dragons were followed very closely both here in Tibet and in China. Your President’s trip to Atlanta to see the Dragon Queen was also closely followed. The Chinese took it as a sign that your government had given in to the Dragons. It also gave them a good idea of where you live. The rumor is that they sent agents with the bomb and the gas by boat not to your country, but to Mexico, as they don’t check as closely on things coming into their country.

“In fact, the agents never actually left China according to the sources those in Beijing have access to. According to them, those from State Security had learned about the theft of the bomb and the gas. They too have spies everywhere. Perhaps even the same spies that were working for the Guoanbu. They intercepted the agents before they got any further than the boat. The sources are very vague about certain details about that,” he told us before continuing.

“The Leaders of the Guoanbu had planned a large party for when the bomb was to destroy the Dragons. They had contact with their agents by cell phone and knew how they were doing and where they were, or they thought they did anyway. Apparently, those from State Security had taken their agents’ places and had gone to America so they could assure the Guoanbu Leaders that things were going as planned.