Chapter 277

I listened to the rest of the pony show then made my way out, first stop the main entrance. The bodies were gone; chalk marks still marked the spots where the gunmen fell and to add to the mess and a ton of debris from the investigators could be found every where.

The college lockdown had long been lifted, most classes were cancelled those students still left on campus were in various classes, or had gone to their dorm rooms. I met Richard Whitehead from maintenance when I turned to walk away.

"If you will pick up all this debris, I will call the fire company and have them wash down this area for you," I said.

"I have some barn booms and Tide powder that we can mix in some water; it will get rid of all the blood stains as they wash it off," he replied. "I will get my people started immediately."

I went to the security office to make the call. I ended up talking with the chief. He was very sympathetic to my needs. Then I filled in Jenny, Marcy, Ching Lee and Vicky, while Jason and Cindy had been diligently manning the security office for us. Jason's team had been screening the hundreds of calls that came in, that left me with a pile of notes to go through.

The first order of business after the call for a wash-down was a video-conference call to all security sites and the Island office for an update.

The information from today's event needed to be passed on to each security site. There were more things that needed to be learned from the data we collected and a process created to make it beneficial.

Marcy, Ching Lee, Cindy and Vicky were the best people at computers we had in-house. To them I directed the following question.

"Can we develop a real time search program that will automatically search the tag scanner data and remove the routine tags? By routine tags I mean those that are supposed to be on campus; students, faculty and administration. Then check those that are left, have they been here before? When and how long did they stay?"

"We used that information today after the fact. Can we turn it and use it real time. Could we have been better prepared and one step ahead of today's attack," I asked.

I could tell I had put them all in deep thought. Just how may people came to the grounds daily who were not regulars and why would they be repeat visitors? We found one reason today.

A few moments later Lorrie called to say they were landing.

"Thanks for calling we are leaving for the hospital now," I replied.

The fire truck arrived for the wash down before we left. I made a mental note to send the volunteer company a donation. It was customary to donate for any non-emergency help they gave. Insurance companies paid when they responded for accidents and fires. Many volunteer ambulance departments had a billing service to do paperwork for them.

There was a billing even if they burned an old barn down for training that the owner donated. Equipment, fuel and turnout gear was expensive. I would have Dan deliver a check in person, then forward the cost to the college account. Marcy had agreements in the contracts to charge for extra services and emergency events.

At the hospital parking area we met the Gibson and Chambers families Lorrie made the introductions. We walked the maze of reporters asking questions without answering them. 'No comment' was the phrase of the day.

We gave the families some time alone with their children before we went in. I found an old country doctor writing on patient folders while we were waiting. I asked questions I did not expect to get answers to.

I was surprised that he recognized me from the news conference. He asked how many colleges I supplied security for.

"Soon to be ten and covering over 20 thousand students" I replied.

"What are the conditions of the students?" I asked.

"Four have been released with tetanus shots, a few stitches and band aids. They were the lucky ones," he replied.

"Shannon Gibson?" I asked.

"The bullets went clean through on both of her legs, they didn't hit anything important, and lost some blood. She will have matching scars on both sides of both of her legs. We are going to keep her a couple of days. She will get IV antibiotics and blood. She will be OK," he replied.

"What about Sonny Chambers?" I asked.

"His right femur took a pretty good hit. The bullet took a chunk out of it, luckily it did not shatter. His football season is done for the year, it might be permanent I'm afraid. He is pretty down about it - he needed a football scholarship to be able to stay in college next year, not being able to play in the championship game and possibly the bowl games will hurt that," he replied. Then added, "He will be here a week then on crutches for four to six weeks after that."

We went to see Shannon first. Other than a little pain she was in good spirits. She said, "I am glad that the terrorist were such bad shots and your guys were excellent shooters. I just knew they were going to finish me off before security got there. I don't think I will be doing any dancing at the victory party after the game this year."