Chapter 9

SATURDAY 9:30 A. M.
Hall of Lord Kalish, Elfrealm Vankell

As Lord Kalish sat listening to the report from the four scions of house Lentel, he pondered what he was hearing. Even taking what was presented with a grain of salt the size of his thumb, this was sounding like it would be the best 'Hunt' ever recorded. The abundance of 'Death Metal' would just enhance the danger factor and add spice. He began calling in the chosen among his Clan and then lesser lords among his vassals.

Heading for their fathers domain, the four rode in silence until the youngest spoke, "Brother, why did you not tell our Lord of the possible slaying of the Elfrealm Prince?

"Why would I trouble his heart over an accomplished action? Or did you perhaps leave a card behind with our realm's address on it?" Mazal asked.

Aseal snorted at this, saying, "Of course not. It just somehow seems unwise. What if that Prince should recover from our attack?"

At this, Mazal paused his steed while a look of concern passed over his face. "He was near death when we left him, but caution never hurt anyone. I think a hunting trip in the hinterlands might be just the answer to this possible dilemma. We'll start at once."

SATURDAY 10:30 A. M.
Downtown, Chicago, IL

The execution of Kyle Martin had triggered an avalanche of Homeland Security agents to Chicago. All of which had one thing on their minds, track down the P O S that had taken out their fellow agent. The premise for this attitude was very simple and the same reason that 'Cop-Killers' never got away. They all knew that they were at risk and letting this go unpunished would open the season on Homeland Security personnel. They would turn this place upside down until they found the person responsible, after that ... well, accidents do happen.

All of which, was making Monday look like a very good day to call in sick, or a very bad day to go to work. Especially if your job was at Chicago's City Hall.

MONDAY 8:30 A. M.
NSA Headquarters, Fort Meade, MD

K. E. O. T. C. section at NSA was one of those, 'never heard of it', outfits because 'officially' it didn't exist. Their unofficial acronym stood for, 'Keep an Eye On The Competition' and that's exactly what they did. While the rest of the agency spent their day sifting though worldwide traffic, this section sifted through CIA, FBI and Homeland Security traffic. Recently some very interesting FBI traffic had hit their sensors and now Homeland Security was going nuts in the same region, Chicago, IL. By 9:00 A. M. a Geosynchronous bird was dedicated to this region scanning all frequencies and visual also. The question that needed answering was, "What in the world had all these folks so stirred up?"

Head of section K. E. O. T. C., Col. Ret Miles Davidson, glanced at the mail concerning this bird, thinking, 'Thank God for competent help. We'll just see what picture comes up out of the data. So far, it looks like a real barnburner.'

MONDAY 10:30 A. M.

Elfrealm Lake's Edge

Since his wounding, Elnore had been subject to round the clock healing beamed at him by all of Lake's Edge Physician Corps. Galden had even taken the unprecedented action of moving two of the 'Green' Dragon Eggs to Elnore's bedchamber. Of course, Aldana had to come also, she wasn't about to let her babies out of her sight. The last update from the Master Physician, put his complete recovery at about three days from now.

Sighing over the boredom and at the same time chuckling over Mike's new found attitude, he thought, 'I wonder how many 'seats of learning' Michael will be forced to kick, to get the new 'world view' across to my cousins? This could prove to be a very interesting encounter.'

MONDAY 10:45 A. M

News Stand, Chicago, IL

Michael was still seething inside, but mentally 'understood' why the coming field trip needed to play out the way he and Elnore had planned. 'It doesn't help how I feel all that much, but at least it's enough to keep me from going off half-cocked.' He mused, then his thoughts turned to Agent Altman. 'Hum, still in the area with Collins and doing surveillance work now.' Then the 'idea' exploded full blown in his mind, 'Oh, that's just perfect and she'll never see it coming.'

Having reached his decision, Mike contacted Daland and requested a one-half carat Red Diamond, set in a shield shaped pin, with the inscription "You Shield Us, Thank You".