Chapter 31A

Wednesday Evening — Starting at the Hospital

The two families had been in the hospital room for perhaps 30 minutes when someone arrived in the hallway outside the room. Dan had described and re-described the latest incident to the point where he was getting slightly twitchy in irritation over having to repeat the tale over and over, again and again. The interruption was a relief. Mitch spoke from the doorway. "Sneak, someone needs to speak with you."

Dan looked to Corporal Littleton and raised his eyebrow in question. Mitch nodded and cast his eyes down the hallway. Mitch didn't seem worried about the visitor. Dan nodded Don's head and turned back to the watching Nichols families. "Let me see about whatever is needed. I'll be back."

Gwen looked worried while Henry just nodded. Jan and Susie held onto the twins along with Addie. Margaret kept firm control over her two younger children. Very little was said. Even as Dan turned to the door he found Don's Uncle William accompanying him to the door. He had to assume that William was concerned over who might be wanting to see him. Dan, however — wasn't overtly worried. If Mitch wasn't concerned then Dan figured it must be someone with more questions about the last assault.

As the two of them walked out the door Dan turned to look back and found Jan looking through the doorway and down the hallway. They exchanged looks for a second before Dan returned his attention to the hallway. As he did so he found two familiar figures waiting for him. It turned out that Darryl Hanks and Paul Tobler were just down the hall and across from the emergency nursing station.

William Nichols was eyeing them somewhat suspiciously as the four met in the hallway. Dan's brother Darryl spoke first. "How's Henry doing?"

William seemed to relax a slight amount at hearing that particular question. "He seems to be fine but for a mild bit of confusion. I understand that's typical with stunner after-effects."

Both federal agents nodded. "Yeah, one of my agents volunteered to be shot and he came out of it wondering what he was doing with us on his vacation." That was BATF agent Tobler.

Darryl nodded. "I was told something similar by the head of one of our labs. They tried it out on some volunteers and noted lots of cases of confusion." He turned to Dan. "How are you feelin', Don? Any bit of confusion after all that's happened?"

Dan actually pondered that for a moment before answering. "No, nothing more than the growing confusion over and curiosity about why I keep being targeted by that bunch of uniformed enforcers that the program seems to have created. Otherwise, nothing much seems to have happened when they shot me those several times. I mean, it just tingled and I just kept goin'. One of them was so surprised when I didn't fall over that he just looked at his stunner instead of trying to counter my strike against him." He once again shrugged Don's shoulders.

William was looking at him strangely. "Don, how many times were you shot with a stunner?"

"Oh, Uncle William - I've been shot four times by them. Each time it was with a different stunner. Nothing much happened except that I felt some tingling wherever the shot hit me. One shot was at a range of no more than three feet. The tingling was just more concentrated at that range." Another shrug followed.

William's eyebrows rose up a bit in surprise at learning that his nephew had been targeted with stunners four times. Then, he seemed to recall something. "Oh, you did say that you seemed to be immune to stunner shots. I almost missed that with what has happened to Henry." He was shaking his head a bit at his having nearly missed that important information.

Darryl spoke. "Don, we have a small problem. While we believe you in regards to what has happened, we don't have a witness to what actually happened. There's just you, your father, and those four you've told us initiated the attack. That's going to be a problem in court when they're brought up for arraignment. Do you know of anything that might help us with establishing a case against them?"

Agent Tobler was looking on with some real interest as Dan stood there and thought about things for several seconds. William Nichols was observing him also. Dan nodded slowly before speaking. "Let me go speak with Jan. I think there's something we can do." He tilted his head a bit and quirked up the right eyebrow of the un-injured side of Don' face.

Darryl Hanks took no more than two seconds to think about Don's request. "Sure Don — go ahead and speak with your sister."

Dan nodded and turned away to go aback to the room where the rest of the Nichols families were gathered. He walked in and gestured to Jan when she noticed his entry. She came over to him. "I need to use your phone again. I've got to call Abe and ask a favor of him."

Jan smiled. "Sure Dan. Here it is." She handed it over to him.

"Thanks. I'll only need it for a few minutes."

She nodded as he turned to retreat to the far corner of the room and dialed the number he recalled as being Abe Rosen's personal phone line. He quickly reached his favorite computer whiz.

"Hello, this is Abe."

"Abe! It's Don."

"Hi Don. How are you doin'?"

"I'm survivin', Abe."

"Oh, OK. What's goin' on?"

"I have a very large favor to ask of you."

"Oh yeah? What is it?"

Dan proceeded to describe his afternoon. He did leave out the salacious details regarding Tasha. But his descriptions of the attacks by the uniformed program enforcers seemed to get Abe quickly focused on matters at hand.

Abe sounded like he was cursing once Dan finished describing all of the actions. Dan was thinking that Abe had to be speaking in Hebrew as he couldn't follow what was being said. He allowed a slight grin to form on Don's face as Abe's fit of cursin' ran down. "That Hebrew you're cursin' in, Abe?"

Abe let out a sigh that was clearly heard over the phone connection. "Yeah, and a little bit of Yiddish, too. If my great-grandmother heard me speaking that way she'd try to have my dad take a belt to my behind."

"I heard Yiddish curses are kinda inventive an' real insultin'. Can I borrow some of that phraseology sometime for future use?"

Abe laughed. "Sure, Don. Just don't ever repeat any of it around my dad or granddad."

"Abe, I've only known you for a week. Well, that I can remember, that is. I don't know that I've ever met either of them."

"Don, the way your life's been gittin' so strange, you are going to meet my granddad some day."

"Why do you say that?"

"He's a federal district judge in Greenville. What you just described sounds like something that's gonna end up in his courtroom. I've worked in his office some during the last two Summers and I've sat in during some of the cases he's judged. You're gonna be in front of him or another judge in the same judicial circuit some day soon, I bet."

"Oh, OK. I guess you're right. Abe, are you planning on becoming a lawyer?"

"NO! No way! I like computer stuff too much to go into that. Maybe my little brother'll follow my dad into that stuff. But, no — not me."

Dan quickly related to that particular circumstance, as related to Don's maternal uncle. "OK. I understand that. I'm sure not goin' to follow my Uncle Matt into law. It's just not what I'm in to."

"Yeah. That's how I feel about it."

Dan finally got around to his request. "Abe, I've got what should be at least three video sequences on this little gadget of yours. Well, I hope I do. I think I initiated recording in the correct way. But, here's the thing. I've got a FBI agent who'd like confirmation of what happened this afternoon. He already has the video that you and Tasha shot yesterday. Now he's hoping to see something similar from earlier this afternoon and this evening."

"What do you need me to do, Don?"

"Abe, I hate to ask you this. But, could I bring him over to your place so that you could download what I got. Otherwise, there might be problems with holding some of those enforcers. I'd hate for them to get away after my father was shot by them."

Dan looked over to where the rest of the Nichols clan was still clustered around Henry's bed. Some of them were watching him. It was possible that several of them could hear his half of the discussion.

"Sure, Don. I helped with the computers and A-V stuff in the courtroom this Summer. I even worked with a FBI agent who was giving evidence and needed my help. I can do that real easily. Why don't you come on over right now and let's get it done. I've got everything needed to download the videos and burn them to some disks. So bring him on over. I'll tell my dad what's happenin' before you get here."

"OK, Abe. That's great! I know where you live, right? That's where I saw you the other day when I rode by on my bike?"

"Yeah, Don."

They took a few more seconds to make sure Dan had the street number and then they hung up. Dan walked over to Jan and gave her back the cell phone she'd loaned him. He gave her a smile as he spoke. "Thanks. I've got to help Agent Hanks with some evidence."

He turned to the rest of the group gathered around Henry's hospital room. "Folks, I've got go out and help Agent Hanks with some evidence they need concerning those four who attacked Henry and me. I think I have what he needs. We're goin' over to Abe Rosen's house to gather up some video that I might have got of the attack."

Gwen was looking at him oddly. "How could you have any video of what happened to Henry, Don?"

Dan pulled out the chronometer from around his neck. "This isn't just a stopwatch." He grinned and shrugged with Don's body.

Susie recognized what he meant right away. "Oh, right! It's another video thing from Abe, isn't it."

"Yeah. I think it's gonna prove to be really useful. Listen, I've got to go. Agent Hanks is waitin' for me to tell him what I might be able to do about his request. And Abe's waitin' for us."

He didn't escape without a whole series of hugs from nearly everyone in the room. Martha Thomas didn't hug him, but instead smiled warmly in response to what her children's' friend had said. Margaret Nichols and her two youngest children just looked on. Dan just took Henry's hand in a firm grip and assured him they'd make sure that the enforcers who'd shot him were going to be punished for what they did.

It was the hugs from the remaining six girls and women that kept him busy for another couple of minutes. Gwen and the twins Terri & Traci simply hugged him fiercely. Don's cousin Addie added a little grind to her hug. Jan and Susie added a touch more grind and innocent-seeming kisses to Don's uninjured cheek.

Dan eventually escaped the lovefest of the six females without getting an embarrassing hardon. The last three had been sending him messages. He knew that was the case for Jan and Susie. He was beginning to suspect that such was the case for Addie.

Damn. Damn. Damn! It sure does seem like Addie's turnin' out to be that way. She's younger than Tasha and almost as young as Julie is.

He shook Don's head in synchrony with his thoughts as he walked the short distance to where Don's Uncle William was still standing alongside and talking with Agents Hanks and Tobler.

Darryl Hanks spoke first. "Well, Don. Did you get what you needed from your sister?"

"Yeah. We need to drive over to a friend's house. He'll be able to provide you with what you want."

The three men were looking at him oddly. Paul Tobler spoke this time. "What's this about a friend? I thought your sister had the information you believed we needed."

Dan let a slight smile play across Don's face. "I didn't say that."

Don's Uncle William looked on and his expression seemed to get contemplative. He leaned over and whispered into Don's ear. "Misdirection?"

Dan nodded and whispered back. "Yeah. That was just in case."

Now it was William who grinned. "Right. I suppose you had to think of that."

"Yeah, I did have to think that way." Dan shrugged with Don's shoulders once again.

The two agents stood by and quietly observed the two Nichols whisper back and forth for a few seconds before the younger one turned back to them.

Dan allowed his typically grim sorta grin to play across Don's injured visage. "Let's get goin'. I'll give you directions once we're on the way there." He turned back to William Nichols. "I'll see you later, Uncle William."

"OK. I'll make sure that your sisters and mother get home."

"Right, OK."

As he walked with the FBI and the BATF agents he considered what he might want to carry with him. "Agent Hanks, I'm goin' over to get some things from Jan's car. I'd feel better having them with me. Especially so after what's happened these last two days."

The two men looked at him with what might be odd expressions. He continued. "Just pull up over there where I'll be waiting, please."

Darryl just nodded. Paul Tobler looked like he might be swallowing something sour. Dan headed over to Jan's car and he pulled out the keyring he was carrying. He used the copy of Jan's lock key to open up the car and retrieve the two bags and vest he'd brought along when they'd left the Nichols house.

He stood with the door open and the dome light shining on his load as he waited for the two agents to pull up beside him. Once they arrived he slung one gunbag on his shoulder and opened the back door to Darryl's vehicle. He first placed the tactical vest onto the back seat. He returned to Jan's car and got the second of the weapons bags. He locked and closed up Jan's car. He then slipped into the back of the FBI agent's vehicle with both of his weapons in hand. Darryl Hanks didn't say a thing about the small arsenal that had just been transferred into his official vehicle.