Chapter 44

Mark Resumes the Narrative:

The teams that were to quarantine the southern ports led by Gwyn and Sererena were the last to return. The rest of us had been very anxious about their tardiness, and Ken had suggested that it might be necessary to send some people to check on them if they didn't return soon. They all trooped into the main house at Hickory Hill shortly after that.

We were all amazed to see that they had two extra men with them. Men who appeared to be very thin and quite tired, but who had strong Talents.

"Sorry to be late,"Sererena apologized. "But we needed to make an extra stop to rescue these two gentlemen. This is William Banister, a printer," she finished. William was a man of medium height at about 5'-8" tall. He was quite thin at around 135 pounds with blond hair and gray eyes. He appeared to be about 25 years old.

"This is John McIntosh. He is a lawyer," Gwyn added indicating the second man who was taller at about 5'-11" tall, but also thin at about 150 pounds. He had auburn hair and gray eyes. He appeared to be about 26 years of age. Our other Sisters, Cousins and Wives were smiling at the new men.

"Are these your future Husbands?" Chandra asked with a smile.

"We certainly hope so!" Glanda and Saraid replied to shocked expressions from the two men.

"It's a little early to broach that subject to them yet," Sererena said to try to calm the men down. "We only met them a short time ago and had to rescue them from a British prison," she added.

"They required a lot of healing," Dymphna told us.

"And our senior Sisters needed to use a lot of Medical Magic to heal William," Cessair added much to the distress of G & G and S & S.

"We can hear all about the rescue later. Breakfast is waiting for you, and all of us need to get some sleep. We will be very busy later today," I told everyone.

"Where will the new men sleep? There aren't many open rooms," Jillian asked.

"Don't worry. We'll take good care of them for the night," Sererena answered with a smirk before the late arrivals went to eat, and the remainder of us returned to our rooms at the various sites. Nora and Nola were spending the night with Mrs. O'Flannagain and her children, as D & C hadn't wanted to leave them alone at Mount Sterling when they were away.

In our room at Mount Sterling, Clare was very talkative before we went to sleep.

"Your older Sisters have finally found Husbands," she stated.

"Maybe. They just met them. We don't know how they will get along together, or if those men are interested in marrying them. They could be married already," I told her.

"I have a feeling that your Sisters will convince them," Clare told me with a giggle. "That just leaves Gerald and James to find Wives," she finished.

"Gerald is only interested in a girl named Erika who he met at our Grandfather Carl's house when we were there prior to coming here," I told her. "James hasn't looked for anyone so far," I finished.

"And were you 'looking' for someone before we met?" she asked inquisitively in a catty voice.

"I had been way too busy to do any 'looking' as you put it, since we arrived here," I told her.

"And before that?" she demanded.

"There don't seem to be any Talents with the strength of the O'Connells in our Reality. There were only my Sisters, and our various Cousins plus some of the children of those who work for us that I had contact with," I told her before adding, "We all seem to have just run into people with strong Talents here while reacting to various threats." This explanation seemed to satisfy her, and we were soon asleep for the remainder of the night.

It was mid-morning when we arose. There were a number of things that needed to be accomplished today, and we would need to start quickly. Everyone was to assemble at Hickory Hill this morning. After a quick breakfast here at Mount Sterling my team and I transferred to Hickory Hill.

Ken and Kell had already started a number of teams back to their ports to check on what was happening there when we arrived.

"I need to inform General Greene that we launched phase one of our operation last night," I told them on arriving at Hickory Hill.

"Perhaps you should wait until we have some news of how the British are reacting before you report," Kell suggested.

"That might be a good idea. Who has gone to check on the British reaction already?" I asked.

"Gwyn and Sererena left to check on the reaction in Charles Town a half-hour ago or so. We are only sending out our Relatives and just part of each team to observe what is going on. We don't want to have too many strangers at the sites looking and asking questions," Ken informed me.

"Who has gone out beside Gwyn and Sererena?" I asked.

"Seamus and Carl left just before you arrived, as did M & M. We don't expect them back for a while," Kell told me.

"I guess that I should check on what is happening in Philadelphia with Wolf. The main British Headquarters is in Philadelphia, but they shouldn't have any news from the other ports yet," I said thinking out loud.

"A & A should check out Savannah also," Kell reminded me.

"We are going to check on New York and Boston after everyone else has started," Ken informed me.

"What about Baltimore?" I remembered to ask.

"James and Jillian will be going to check on that when either Kell or I return. They will be taking reports as the various teams return until then," Ken told me.

"Yes, we will all need to write reports of what was done last night, and add what we find out this morning. More paperwork!" I said in disgust.

Wolf and I prepared to transfer to Philadelphia after informing our Wives where we were going. A & A had already left for Savannah leaving their fiance, Duncan here with D & C and their fiance, Connor.

"Why are only the O'Connells going on these trips this morning?" I heard Duncan ask Dymphna, as I was kissing Clare goodbye.

"Because they all have Power Rings and can get out of any kind of situation that they find themselves in," Dymphna informed him.

"Will we get Power Rings eventually?" Duncan asked.

"You will have to ask the Eternal Flame because he is the source of those rings," Dymphna told him. Wolf and I left for Philadelphia right after that.

We arrived in Philadelphia to find panic and confusion throughout the city. The British Army was out in strength. It was impossible to approach the area around the docks and their warehouses, as there were barricades and check points on all of the streets leading to them, and they were manned by soldiers with fixed bayonets on their muskets. A considerable number of citizens had also been evacuated from the buildings bordering on the waterfront.

Wolf and I weren't worried. We cast an invisibility spell around us before transferring into the shell located around the docks near High Street. We found the soldiers trapped inside the shell to be not only unhappy but panicked, and some were even despondent over their situation. Several of them had also been wounded. There were several fires burning for warmth and men were gathered around them. There was also food being prepared at the fires.

"How do you think they were wounded?" Wolf asked on seeing several of them.

"I'm not sure, but one possibility is that they tried on their own, or were ordered, to fire at the shell from the inside, and their shots hit the shell at the correct angle to bounce back at them or their friends," I told him. We turned our attention to things outside of the shell following that.

We could see from the tops of several warehouses that we had transferred to, that the Army had tried to use artillery, particularly cannon, to try to blast their way into the shells. Though the cannons had been withdrawn by now, the results of their fire was visible on a number of buildings on the west side of Front Street where cannon balls had bounced (ricocheted) off of the shells and hit the buildings across the street causing damage, and in a couple of cases, the collapse of the building.

We had only been there a short time when we saw a number of large British Navy ships arrive in the Delaware River opposite the city. These were ships of the line that carried the heavy cannons that the Navy used. These ships were armed with cannon that fired thirty-two and twenty-four pound balls. These heavy cannon were located on the lowest firing decks of the ships, and it soon became apparent that they could not be elevated sufficiently to strike the shells above the level of the piers at close range.

This revelation only delayed the proceedings a short time while new orders were issued. The lead ship had been in position for some time, and soon opened fire on the High Street shell from a distance of about thirty yards. The roar of thirty-one of their cannons going off nearly together was deafening. The results were as expected, at least by us, as all of the cannon balls bounced off of the shell and back toward the ship at this close range, causing a massive amount of damage to the ship. So much damage and loss of life, in fact, that the ship had to be towed away. The remainder of the ships also retired to a safe distance from the area of the piers and their surrounding Defensive Shells. Wolf and I just smiled at this while those Army Officers who had been watching left in frustration.

"I believe that we can return to Hickory Hill for a while," I told Wolf after that. "It's too soon for the Generals here to have received word from any of the other ports yet. We'll return this evening. The closer ports like New York and Baltimore could have sent in reports by then."

Back at Hickory Hill, we made a verbal report of our observations to James and Jillian. A number of others had already reported in.

"It sounds like Philadelphia is in pretty much the same shape as the other ports that have been reported on," James told us.

"We still need the written report for your part of the entire operation so far," Jillian reminded me.

"I'm on my way to inform General Greene of the start of our operation," I told Jillian before turning to Wolf.

"Wolf start on our report with the help of Clare and Saoirse. I'll add my part when I return," I told him before going to change into my uniform and leaving for Fort Jefferson.

I appeared in front of General Greene's Headquarters startling the guards there. There had been no guards here on our previous visits, and I wondered what was going on now. It appeared that the guards had been informed about the O'Connells suddenly appearing out of nowhere, and I was allowed to enter the headquarters building. I made my way to Colonel Harrower's office.

"Good morning, Colonel O'Connell," he said in greeting on looking up from what he had been doing and seeing me.

"Good morning, sir," I replied and followed that with, "Is there something going on? There were guards at the entrance of the building."

"We are having a defensive drill today. It's in case the British should get past the French at New Orleans and send ships up the river to attack us. It's underway all across Washington City," he informed me.

"They won't be doing anything like that, at least not any time soon," I assured him. "We launched our operation against them last night. I'm here to brief General Greene and whomever else he chooses on the start of the operation," I informed him. Colonel Hubbard appeared quite surprised at this piece of news.

"Let me check and see if General Greene is busy. I'm sure that he will want to hear about this!" the Colonel told me, and hurried into the General's office. He quickly returned.

"General Greene will see you now. Follow me," he told me. We both entered the General's office and I saluted. He returned my salute and then rose from his seat to shake hands with me.

"Well, Colonel O'Connell, is it correct that you have launched your operation against the British?" General Greene asked.

"Yes sir. We launched it at midnight, Lexington time, last night. We struck all of the major ports along the east coast simultaneously from Savannah to Quebec. We cast Defensive Shells around all of their supply warehouses and also the piers where applicable. All of their new supplies have been quarantined.

"Members of all of my teams have returned to their ports this morning to check on the results. I, myself, along with Captain Wolf O'Connell returned to Philadelphia this morning. There was panic and confusion there. They had the trapped guards fire at one of the shells from the inside and several guards were wounded by ricochets. They then tried cannons from the outside of the shells and destroyed several buildings with the ricochets.

"The Navy then brought in several of their large ships and tried a broadside against the shells, but the ricocheting cannon balls crippled the first ship that tried it and the others withdrew, towing the remains of the first ship. My other teams have reported similar results in the other ports. We'll return later today to see what more has occurred at each port. I'll be returning to Philadelphia tonight to see what their Headquarters is doing about the situation," I informed him, before adding, "My people are preparing their reports on the initial phase of the operation presently. We'll be submitting them shortly along with updates as things progress."

"Very good, Mark!" General Greene said with a smile. "We'll look forward to receiving your written reports. Be sure to keep us posted on any important occurrences."

"Yes sir!" We shook hands again, and I departed to return to Hickory Hill. Back there, all of the teams were busy preparing their initial reports when I arrived. I joined Wolf, Clare, and Saoirse in the preparation of ours.

Lunch, later, was followed by everyone getting some rest. We would all be back at our assigned ports that evening to check on what had occurred there since earlier today. Wolf and I would also be going to British Army Headquarters in Philadelphia to see what was occurring there.

Historic note: