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n1113 Chapter 98- Trinity – Aftermath (VOLUME 6)

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nTrinity

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n“Recently an interview was conducted with a man that called himself ‘the Colonel’ and claimed that he was the leader of the DOE, the extremist group that is responsible for several bombings nationwide. During the interview reporter Vanessa Davies, of The Gazette, spoke with the man about a recent incident that took place last night, Friday February the first, two thousand and forty-one.”

nI was reading the story from the newspaper that had been delivered to the castle that morning. The kids were all in their rooms, and the rest of us had returned to my office to continue the work that we spoke about last night. Reagan and Rika, as well as the other legacies, were with us right now because they technically aren’t kids anymore. And they had proven the day before that they were able to handle themselves in an intense situation.

n“The interview was conducted late in the evening, after ‘the Colonel’ had learned of the events that took place earlier in the day. In the interview, the man that claims to be leading this massive extremist group, takes ownership of the attempted bombing of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs campus.”

nI paused for breath and looked briefly at the others as they watched me reading the article that was taking up a good chunk of the front page. After a brief pause, I continued to read aloud once more.

n“The man is quoted as saying, ‘Yes, we knew about the bombing attempt. This is something that we of the DOE take full responsibility for. And we demand the release of our valued member, Gerald Ramie. He has done nothing wrong’. When asked why he doesn’t think that attempted murder and destruction of property are not crimes, the Colonel replied with a chilling response.”

nI could see the anticipation in the eyes of everyone that was present and listening to the story. We were all trying our best to hide the anger that we were feeling, because we all knew that the anger wouldn’t help with anything at all.

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n“‘It is hard to think of killing a monster as a crime, it is no different than killing a mosquito that is trying to suck your blood’. As chilling as those words were, the Colonel wasn’t done there. ‘The only difference between those monsters and a mosquito, is that one is bigger and harder to destroy. They are just as unpleasant and deserve to die. We humans cannot allow those things to walk among us. And as far as the university is concerned, it is infested with those things. Cleansing the university of all the monsters would be akin to performing a generous act of kindness for the world.’”

nI shivered at that. Not because I was scared or anything, and not because I was feeling cold. No, I shivered because the rage inside of me almost made me shift into my wolf form, and I had needed to physically settle my hackles if I was going to stay in my human form.

n“Yes, you read that right. The man calling himself the Colonel believes that bombing a public university is an act of kindness to be given to the world as if it were charity or something along those lines. As spine tingling as that thought is, I am sure that this monster of a man has other hideous acts up his sleeves. And I am sure that the man that the FBI has in custody at the moment, will be tried and brought to justice. I just hope that they can get ‘the Colonel’ before he has the chance to cause some real damage to our people and our country. I hope that no harm comes to the super naturals of the world as well. They are people, just like the rest of us are.”

nThat was the end of the segment that dealt with the interview. The rest of the story, which continued on pages two through four, were all about the attempted bombing of the university, the suspect that had been arrested, and a list of other potential targets for the DOE. There was no reason to continue reading from the paper, so I set it aside.

n“So, the Colonel is taking responsibility for the attempted bombing, even though we know for a fact that Ramie was working alone.” Vincent said with a scowl and narrowed eyes.

n“One of his men was found out. He could have either abandoned him or stood behind him. I think he believes that taking credit for the actions would get him more followers and support.” Shawn said in a voice that was purposefully devoid of all emotion.

n“I don’t think that it’s working though.” Reagan said as he scrolled through an online forum that he was monitoring.

n“What have you found?” I asked him, leaning forward with my elbows on the desk, and Reece’s hands around my waist to keep me balanced.

n“Well, it looks like there is a lot on here from people that were on the fence about where they stood in this debate. You know, the one about whether or not we are monsters. Anyway, a good number of these posts and comments are condemning the Colonel and the DOE. There are even people on here that openly claim to have hated us, and still don’t particularly understand us, but they want nothing to do with the DOE anymore.”

n“What do you mean?” David asked him.

n“Well, this one here is a good example.” Reagan paused as he scrolled to the top of the comment. “It says here that the man had initially hated all the monsters because he didn’t understand us. He wanted to be a member of the DOE and was looking at how to track them down. However, after the attempted bombing, and the fact that it was the ‘monsters’ that stopped the incident from happening, he can’t stick with that way of thinking anymore. He says that he still doesn’t understand what is happening in the world, but that he would rather meet one of us rather than a DOE member any day.”

n“At least the Colonel’s actions, and of course Ramie’s, is having a slightly positive effect in the world. Those that find their actions reprehensible, are more willing to side with the nonhumans that stopped them from committing such a heinous crime. I know that this isn’t a popularity contest or anything, but having more humans accepting of us, even if we’re just the better alternative, is a positive in my eyes.” Reece said as he hugged me a little tighter.

n“I agree.” I heard the sorrow in my voice. “They might not exactly approve of us, but at least they would rather have us than the terrorists. It’s a step in the right direction. And if we keep up the work that we have been doing, we might convince the rest that are on the fence to accept us as well.”

n“Hey, I am just glad that the humans are seeing the truth. We’re not the monsters here, we never were.” Shane’s voice was serious again, just like it was yesterday.

n“Agreed.” Several voices called out in response.

nThere was a lot that we needed to work on during this meeting. We needed to find out what city it was that Ramie had almost let slip yesterday. We needed to figure out who the Colonel was. We needed to figure out how to get a spy, or a mole, into the DOE so that they could send us back reports on what was happening in their ranks. And we needed to figure out what cataclysmic event the Colonel was planning. Or perhaps it was another person from another group that was planning the massive event that Odin had mentioned, and we were focusing all of our efforts on the wrong person. That wouldn’t be good, but we didn’t know what else to do for right now.

nJackson wasn’t here today, he were busy with the transfer of Ramie, as well as tracking down as much information as they could on the domestic terrorist and extremist groups that were active in this country. Rawlynne would be joining him after the meeting was over.

nWe had all agreed yesterday that it would be a lot of help if we could get help from the other agencies, but we couldn’t risk that just yet. We knew that the NSA was compromised, so they were out. Unless we could be certain that Dayton would be able to work without someone like Orson getting in his way.

nI was willing to take the risk though. If Dayton sensed any danger at all, he could always come to us for help. I would open a door for him to get him to safety, and we would hide him here in the castle. He wouldn’t come to any harm.

nFor the time being though, Jackson and Rawlynne wanted to work within their own department. Although, they only had until the end of the day, otherwise I would contact Dayton for help. That was how pressed for time that we were. We couldn’t let anything happen in the interim that we would have prevented if we had more help.

nWhen we all got to work in the office, we were focusing on the name of the city that Ramie had almost said. It had started with Benkel, and it was proving to be a quick search. There were a few cities in the country that had cities with names that started that way, but not all of them were that close to us.

nAs I was looking over the list and the data that was given to Reece and I, I kept coming back to the same one. There was a small town in the southeastern corner of Nebraska. It was called Benkelman and there were several reasons that it was perfect for the base of the DOE.

nFor one thing, the DOE, like most other extremist groups, was founded on a principle of white supremacy. It’s just that they wanted white human supremacy rather than just white. And it just so happens that the city of Benkelman, Nebraska was predominately white. In fact, according to census data, they were ninety-five point nine percent white. The other four point one percent were a mix of several races.

nBenkelman was also a small town, yet it was the county seat. And that meant that, small or not, it had more resources than others. And even if the DOE were living on the outskirts, or in a damned field and not in the actual city, they would be close enough to use that place as the location of their headquarters.

n“This has to be it.” I told Reece as I compared some of the other possible locations with similar names. “It fits all the requirements that we believe they are needing for their base of operations.”

n“Yeah, I agree.” I felt him nod as he pressed himself against my back. “We need to check this place out, see if we can find them.”

n“Covertly, of course.” I told him. “And we still need to figure out how to get someone on the inside of that group. That will be the next major thing that we need to do.”

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n“Well, if we find them, we can send someone in there that will be able to report back to us.”

n“Reece.” I shook my head at his words, but I didn’t turn to look at him. “That would never work. First of all, the Colonel would want to know how they found the headquarters. He would know instantly that there was something wrong.”

n“Yeah, you’re right.” He agreed without hesitation. “Ugh, we need to figure this out.”

nAs Reece and I sat there, quietly contemplating things that needed to be done, and how to accomplish them, there was a call that rang through the room. I hadn’t paid much attention to it at first, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to get a call after all. So, initially I ignored it and let someone else take care of it. It wasn’t my cell phone, so I didn’t need to do anything about it.

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