Chapter 27

We drove south out of the camp ground and headed for the stretch of road that the locals called 'The auto mile.' I don't know if the length of that particular stretch of road is really a true mile but it was certainly where all, or at the very least, most of the car dealerships were located, all side by side.

The first dealership in line was the Jeep dealer. I was about to give the place a pass until all of the women saw a row of smaller SUVs in a rainbow of colors. Instinctively, I think, Tony slowed and turned into that dealership.

"His women have him well trained," I thought.

I was about to say that Jeeps were not what I wanted, when I saw Tony look at me in his mirror, shake his head and mouth the words, "Don't do it, boss." I looked at him and thought, "Well, he is far more experienced in dealing with the female of the species than I am." I bowed to his advice and snapped my mouth shut.

Even before the van stopped, Ann Marie opened the sliding door and jumped out! The rest of the women followed after her as soon as Tony had braked to a stop. The women, happily jabbering, squealing and screeching away swarmed the collection of little cars. The cars were the new model of Jeep called the Renegade, a small sub-compact crossover SUV.

Madame went to the black car...

Ryn paused and then looked at me, I nodded and he sauntered over to the car of the color that I later learned was called Glacier Metallic...

Michelle went to the bright yellow car...

Ann Marie raced at top speed toward the fire engine red car ... then she stopped short! The expression on her face showed the confusion in her mind, for right behind the red car was one in a bright flame orange color. The poor girl was torn between the two colors. Finally, after much walking back and forth from one to the other she settled on the orange one...

I must admit I was confused, "What the hell is going on?" I asked Tony who was standing at my side.

"Boss, there is neither rhyme nor reason that any man will ever understand when women go shopping. All I can say is that there is something that speaks to them about those little cars," Tony said with a shrug.

Adin, who was standing at my other side, said simply, "Those cars are sweet and cute, and since they are smaller they will be easier for them to drive."

As I was watching the goings on, I noticed that Ryn had a frown that was getting worse the more he explored his choice of the little cars. He adjusted the steering wheel and seat positions and got in and out several times. Finally, with a sour expression, he exited the car. He shut the door with a definite slam and then looked around the lot. It was obvious that Ryn didn't like the cute small SUV! It was no wonder, since the man was six and a half feet tall! The same reason that made the Renegade so attractive to the women was the reason that Ryn disliked that model. Suddenly he strode off with determination deeper into the collection of cars. I followed him with my eyes and was not surprised when he stopped at a Grand Cherokee in a metallic silver color. After an extensive inspection, Ryn just sat in the driver's seat with a huge smile as he caressed the steering wheel. He had found his car.

While the circus was taking place in the Jeep lot, Tony started staring at the lot of the dealer next door, the Chrysler/Dodge/Ram dealership. I knew instantly that I would lose Tony. There, not fifty feet from us, in the premiere position on the corner of the lot, right beside the main drag, was a customized Ram, turbo diesel, four wheel drive, and crew-cab beauty! It had a black on black paint job with ghost flames and huge chrome stacks behind the cab. The whole thing was blacked out. The stacks and the grill were the only things that were chrome, everything else was black. It wasn't a brand new truck, but it was magnificent! Parked next to this thing of beauty was a fifth wheel cargo trailer with a matching paint scheme, and beside that was a v-plow.

Tony was drawn like a moth to a flame. Truth be told, the thing was speaking to me, also. I wanted that truck! I started to join Tony when I had a chilling thought! I had not allowed Adin to choose a car for herself. I quickly turned one hundred and eighty degrees and returned to my wife.

"Adin, honey I apologize for not asking what you would like for a car. I just went ahead and chose the Navigator. What would you really like?"

My wife smiled brightly and hugged me impulsively and said excitedly, "Oh thank you my wonderful husband! Yes, yes, I want a 1949 GMC 4 wheel drive restomod pickup truck. We need to find the best custom builder and then sit down with him and design my baby!"

This had to be a bit of Adin's old life as a trucker poking through the mists of her mind, but I didn't care.

Adin was so excited that she was alternating between jumping up and down like a young girl that had just received a puppy, and squeezing the breath out of me with exuberant hugs. I felt very blessed to share my life with this woman! With all of the different facets to her personality, she is always a marvel to me.

"Well, let's get everyone together and buy these cars for the family."

Adin stopped and looked up at me questioningly, "You consider all of them family?"

"Of course! Madam is the grandmother, Michele is your sister and Ann Marie is our niece, Ryn is my brother and Tony is a brother-in-law but, and this is a big but, you are the Queen of us all!"

"WOW!" she said as she digested what I had just said and then smiled. She took my arm and leaned her head against my shoulder and sighed. We slowly walked toward the others in a cloud of bliss.

However, my happy feeling turned to foreboding, as I saw Madam followed by Michel and then Ann Marie freeze. What was really troubling, was that even at the distance that separated us, I could see each woman in turn, go white as a sheet. After about two minutes the women rushed together to confer in that rapid fire French that is so incomprehensible to us outsiders. Madam looked up and searched for me. Once she made eye contact she raised her hand and tapped her forehead twice. I understood that she wanted me to scan her. I'm sure that I went just as pale as the women had, once I saw their collective vision.

The vision started with a white mini-van racing up to the front of the dealership and disgorging five men with automatic weapons. They ran into the dealership's front doors firing and screaming in heavily accented English, 'Where is the Wizard? Where is the Wizard? Tell us or we will kill you!'

At that both Adin and I called forth our staffs, and prepared to fight the attackers but we never got the chance as a magical plasma ball appeared and exploded with the force of a five thousand pound bomb. The building was totally destroyed and many of the cars in the lot were thrown into the air. In minutes the whole place was enveloped in flames as more and more cars caught fire and then exploded, spreading more fire and destruction.

At first my bowels froze ... then I used a calming spell on myself.

Once the spell took effect and I was calm again, I thought to Madam Cecile and asked, "I seem to remember you telling me that these visions were not written in stone, am I right in that?"

"Oui!" the ashen faced woman thought back to me.

"Good then, we have a chance," I said to myself then I yelled, "EVERYONE TO ME!"

Everyone except Tony rushed to me. He was still inside of the customized truck, across the road. I didn't have time to deal with Tony.

"Everyone we're about to be attacked by some gun thugs that are working for a Dark Wizard. They are the bait for us to use magic, so that our enemy can target us. We must not use any magic! Is that clear?"

All nodded.

"Now, we all are highly trained in many styles of martial arts. Use those to fight, especially those chain whips and meteor hammers! Stop them from hurting us and the innocent ones that are here."

[All of the women had taken to wearing some form of weapon openly, as if they were female adornments such as belts, hair pins and such.]

We all moved into the showroom just as the mini-van came roaring at us. Ryn was the first into the building. On either side of the door were flags on poles, the US flag pole had an eagle finial and so was useless in a fight. However, the state flag was on a pole that had a spear point as a finial. Ryn snatched the flagpole, and moved it in a circular motion so the cloth of the state flag wrapped around the wooden staff. It made a perfect lance!

Our attackers began to fire as soon as they exited the van while screaming, "Where is the Wizard? Where is the Wizard? Tell us..." As the attackers came in the door they became confused, grew silent and paused for just an instant. They were not meeting a bunch of cowering victims taken by surprise as expected, but a group of determined defenders! We were all, in one form or another, in a martial arts stance.

Ryn impaled the first man while Cecile used a whip chain that caught the second attacker around the throat. The man dropped his weapon and grabbed at the chain that was strangling the life out of him. Ryn turned his attention to the second man, and smacked him on the temple with the bloody end of the lance. The attacker was, after all, fighting with Madam, Ryn's wife. The fellow crumpled to the floor, unconscious. The third man in became crazed at our resistance, he charged Ann Marie with screams and epithets.

Ann Marie froze!

Adin stopped the screaming fanatic with her meteor hammer (a metal weight on a cord.) The weight hit the man on the corner of his jaw with such force that it quite nearly tore his jaw off! It did shatter most of the bones on the lower part of the left side of his face. Instantly, he was unconscious; but his momentum kept him moving forward, until he collided with a wall. As the man slid down the wall he left a messy red streak of blood, teeth and tiny pieces of bone as he slid to the floor.

Ann Marie still stood frozen. Therefore, the fourth man managed to grab her arms and spin her around with her wrists held firmly behind her. That woke the girl up, and she stamped down on his instep with her heel using all of her weight! The man shrieked out in pain as the arch of his foot was shattered. The pain caused him to let go of Ann Marie and clutch at his injured foot. Ann Marie spun back around to face her attacker. She pulled the two hairpins from her hair and stabbed the man in the eyes, the pins went into his brain killing him instantly! (the hair pins looked like metal chopsticks with sharp points.)

I took care of the fifth man. I stepped through the shattered window and caught him unaware as I came up behind him. I was so close to him that when he did notice me and tried to bring his weapon to bear, I easily broke the bones in his wrist with a knife hand strike. The machine pistol dropped to the ground when his hand ceased to function.

Just then there was a horrendous crash behind me. The driver of the white mini-van had tried to run me over but Tony roared up in his big custom van and t-boned my would-be killer. Tony had noticed the gunfire and sped to our defense. As he passed his van, he noticed the white van start to move toward me. Tony jumped into his van and roared to hit the minivan. The greatly outclassed minivan flipped onto its roof violently, and the driver ended up crumpled against the windshield as he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. The violent fall had broken his neck.

I quickly dove into the mind of the man that I was holding, and found that all of the attacks were from an incredibly old Wizard based in the Carpathian Mountains. Once I knew the location of the Evil One, I scanned his castle. I found the old Wizard surrounded by twenty lesser craft workers. They were holding a huge plasma ball at the ready, waiting to send that huge power bomb at us once they received the signal from their terrorist group. I had to admit that the old boy and his crew were, indeed, powerful craft workers. I conjured three drug lab buster FAE (fuel/air explosive) bombs and placed them around the Wizard's valley. I then detonated them simultaneously.

The explosion was gigantic, much larger than I expected! Perhaps my explosives had set off their bomb as well.

In my astral form, I showed myself to the Evil Wizard at the last moment, so that I would distract the evil man from protecting himself.