07/05/06:

                Alfred let us all sleep until 11:00 this morning and had a breakfast buffet waiting for us. While we ate, he told us that Lucifer was safely ensconced back at the Venetian and had made a public statement to prove he was still alive. Olivia helped herself to more waffles and asked, "So, Sylvia, is anyone going to kill us today?"

                Connors held up a finger and reached into her pocket, pulled out a miniature Magic 8-Ball, and shook it. "Doubtful," she said with a grin. I appreciated Olivia's attempt to lighten the mood and said, "Is anyone going to try?" Connors shook the ball again. "Ask again later," she told me. Then she got serious.

                "I was thinking about Kingman last night. According to the maps it's a transportation hub - lots of different routes go thru there, and it appears to be in the control of the people who shot us down yesterday. I think we need to fire up the Scooby-van and make a preemptive strike. Someone is trying to kill us - you two in particular. I think the least we can do is return the favor."

                Before I could voice my concerns, she continued. "The problem the Lucky Duck had was that they had no indirect fire weapons; Scooby does. We can pound people from cover. We may not have the recoilless, but our Brownings have a hellacious range. All the same, it would be better to take Scooby and hide it somewhere outside of town and enter on foot. Quick, quiet and unexpected - that's the ticket. Besides, we'll have to at go past Kingman on the way to Martinez Lake - better to do it on our terms."

                I asked, "What about the two prisoners we brought back; have they been interrogated yet?" No one knew, so we decided to pay Lucifer a visit. Fortunately, there was no news media outside the casino this time, and we headed right upstairs. Lucifer greeted us in his office and thanked us for checking on him last night. Olivia asked him if the doctor had approached him with the idea to help Barnaby. He had, although reluctantly, and Lucifer had agreed to go along with it. He explained it to Barnaby, who agreed to let himself be enthralled. Lucifer commanded Barnaby to walk and use his hands normally, and that there was nothing wrong with them. "Now we just have to wait and see what happens when the compulsion wears off," he said.

                We told him how upset Hizzoner was about the helicopter. He laughed. "So tell him I'll have Vaschanka raised so he can create a new one." Eewwwww!!! No way in Hell! Olivia and I told him to tell that to Hizzoner himself; we weren't talking to him after the way he'd carried on last night. Lucifer poo-pooed it and said, "I'll deal with all that later." Then we asked him about Josey. He was equally unconcerned about that. "We have more pressing matters. Who are these people causing these troubles and what do they want?"

                I asked, "The prisoners - have you questioned them yet?"

                "I haven't been able to yet. I've been trying to decide on the proper 'approach' to take for maximum results. Any ideas? I've got a few, if you all don't mind playing along." He briefed us and gave instructions to some of his security people who were to accompany us. We were going to play 'Good Cop-Bad Cop-Psycho Cop'

                With no objections, he led us to where they'd been locked up, with a detour thru the kitchen and then the infirmary for some rather odd items. Alka Seltzer, some tubing, shish kabob sticks, (I got that one, they're bamboo) club soda, milk, some fresh baked muffins and an assortment of fresh fruit - mostly citrus, I noted.

                Down in the lowest sub-basement, they'd converted some storage rooms into holding cells. He asked Olivia and I which one to start with; we agreed that the one who'd been buying the produce from the farmers had looked like he'd been in charge. "That would be the one called Bob." Lucifer set the milk and muffins on one table and all the other items on a second. Then he nodded and a guard opened the door to the 'cell'.

                Inside the guy was hanging from a steam-pipe by his arms. Lucifer approached him and said, "Do you know who I am?" There was no response. "I'm going to be your new best friend." He signaled the guards to cut him down and take him out of the room and set him in a chair between the two tables. They tied his arms securely to the chair and stepped back exactly two steps each.

                Lucifer started things off by saying "I want you to know that you've already disappointed Miss Olivia here. She wanted to see just how much pressure she would have to apply, using a pair of vice grips, to rupture your testicles." Olivia glowered her very best glower and the guy started to sweat.

                Lucifer continued, "But I convinced her that that would not be very productive. Miss Jazz here, on the other hand, is insisting that we follow the tenets of the Geneva Convention. My question is this; are we at war with one another?"

                The guy glared and said, "I'm not going to tell you anything."

                "Oh, yes you are," said Olivia as she put some of the bamboo to work. I'll give him this, the guy held strong.

                Then Lucifer picked up the seltzer dispenser and said to me, "Jazz, you'll probably want to leave the room now." As I turned to do so, he shoved the nozzle up the guy's nose and let loose with a blast. Made my eyes water, let me tell you! Even after that, he was still defiant.

                They worked on him a bit more, still with no results. Then, at a prearranged signal from Lucifer, one of his men opened the door and told him that there was a phone call for him and Olivia. Lucifer said, "We'll have to take that upstairs, the reception down here sucks." Then he called me back into the room and told me to keep Bob company while he and Olivia were gone. As he walked past he gave me a 'warning glare' and said, "Don't let him go anywhere. If I have to recapture him, I will be most put-out!"

                Olivia stormed past me and said with a sparkle in her eye, "Twinkie Elf!" I lowered my eyes like I was afraid of her and mumbled, "Stupid bitch!"

                When they were gone and the door closed Bob asked me for a glass of water. I got it for him and helped him drink it. He begged me to get him out of there. I've got to be honest, I felt really bad for him, and for what he was about to experience. But then I remembered his men firing into a crowd of unarmed farmers and the moment passed. I went back to our little 'play'.

                I told him that I would try my best to make 'those two' go easy on him, but that's all I could do. "I can't do anything to control Olivia. She's just plain crazy, no one can control her."

                He tried to plead with me again and told me that I could go with him if I helped him escape. "There's even a Temple to your God there. You'll see, we're not so bad."

                On the other side of the door we 'overheard' Lucifer telling Olivia, "When we go back in there I want answers. I don't care what it takes or what you do - that's why I brought you here."

                I 'warned' him once more that he'd be better off telling Lucifer everything. "I can't," he whispered, "'they'll' kill me if I do."

                I shook my head, "Yeah? Well, these two will kill you if you don't." The door opened and I 'guiltily' stepped back from him.

                Lucifer looked at the water glass in my hand and tsk-tsked at me, "Water? Fraternizing? How many times must I tell you - this is not Geneva!" he bellowed at me. Olivia made a great show of 'slapping' the glass from my hand. Lucifer took some of the Alka Seltzer and ground it up into a powder. He put in into some of the tubing and put one end of the tubing in the guy's nose and blew the powder in to his sinuses. To top that off, he got a lemon and squeezed some juice into the tubing as well.

                The blood and foam pouring from Bob's nose was too much - I turned and rushed from the room. Leo and Connors where still out there and I very loudly 'pleaded' with Leo. "Go in there and make her stop! She's your sister; she has to listen to you!" Leo played along (I think) and said, "Wouldn't do any good. I've never been able to make her do anything. That guy is so fucked." Inside, Olivia was yelling to be heard over the guy's screams. "I don't like when people try to kill me!"

                One of Lucifer's men went in and said, "The pruning shears you asked for, Your Greatness." I rushed back in and Bob again begged me to help him.

                "I told you I couldn't stop her! Once I saw her shoot the toes off of a man who pissed her off. One by one, she shot them all off."

                Lucifer handed the shears to Olivia and said, "Your choice, toes or testicles."

                "I'll stick with a good thing," she said and applied the shears to a toe and squeezed. About halfway thru, Bob finally broke and screamed that he'd tell us everything. "Kingman! The main base is in Kingman!"

                "Main base?" I asked, "Main base for what?"

                "I'm not sure. I don't know all the details."

                Olivia asked about their numbers in Kingman. "30 - 35," he said.

                He told us about the trucks that come up from Yuma to take the food they get from raiding the farms. Olivia asked about the sacrificial victims. He refused to go on. When he felt the shears on another toe he said, "A prophet said that God had taken all the faithful and that the world had been given over to Satan. This world is His dominion now, and since we're all damned we might as well have a good time."

                I snorted, "Yeah, good, clean, sacrificial fun!"

                He nodded, "If the One We Follow receives enough hearts, He will be powerful enough to open the gates of Heaven for the Followers."

                Olivia asked, "Why the price on our heads?"

                "Because you voluntarily work for the cats. That makes you the worst kind of scum - a race traitor! Now you're nothing but big ol' cat toys. They must be destroyed, all of them. They steal our minds, and our pride."

                We were dumbfounded for a moment, then Olivia asked, "And stealing from farmers is a proud thing to do?"

                "They work for the cats," he sneered.

                I was pissed! "They work for themselves and for their families. They work to stay alive. You steal from them, rob them of their hard work, and you call us scum?" I backed off from him before I lost it and started hurting him some more. Meanwhile, Olivia leaned in and asked him if Martinez Lake is connected in any way to these 'Followers' and the raiders he belonged to.

                "Yes, they have seen the Light and were saved. Those who refused to see the Light fell in the Flower War." I remembered that term from my Central American religions class. When victims were needed for sacrificial ceremonies, it was a common practice for a nation to declare a war for the sole purpose of rounding up prisoners to offer up to the various Gods. Oh, joy!

                Olivia asked if he'd been to Kingman recently, and he admitted that he had. She asked him about the traps in town, but he said that he didn't know the safe route thru town and that only certain drivers did. With some more work on his toes he gave us the names and descriptions of the ones who'd been with him in Dolan Springs who knew the route. We could question their corpses, later. Olivia asked what kind of arms the raiders in Kingman have.

                "Not much, they don't really need it, they're so well hidden."

                I asked, "Hidden? Where?"

                "You'll never know" he sneered. So Olivia popped off another toe to refocus his attention.

                I looked him square in they eyes and told him, "Look, tell us what we want to know or we'll get it out of your cold, dead, stinking body."

                "You were just playing me," he said. What a genius!

                "DUH!"

                Olivia applied some lemon juice to the cuts on his feet, no result. But after some more bamboo he started to talk again. He told us that the recent 'Flower Wars' were to get sacrifices for the altar in Yuma. There's apparently one High Priest responsible for it all, no one is sure what his name is, they all call him "El Jefe" - "the Chief". He also told us a little more about the people in Kingman and confessed that he did know the safe route to reach their hideout. He also said that they attacked the Lucky Duck because they knew the city too well and would have been able to navigate the traps. Well, at least that explanation makes a little sense!

                At Martinez Lake there are about 350 'guards and believers' and about another 3-4,000 'serfs'. There are hidden machine gun emplacements around the area and there are explosives hidden in the school and daycare buildings. All of the children were taken from their parents and are kept in two locations. Their parents have been told that if they try to leave or disrupt the area in anyway, the children will all be killed! The commander of the area, General Ramirez, keeps the remotes for the explosives with him at all times.

                We were stunned by that revelation. I was trying to get past that and refocus when I finally noticed that he was going on and on and on about how superior their system is. 'Grow or Die' seemed to be his favorite catchphrase. I told him to shut up and stick to answering our questions, but he refused. So I kicked his maimed foot. That at least got him to stop talking for a few minutes.

                Olivia asked him if he'd been telling the truth earlier when he told me about the Temple of Corellon.

                "Yes. It's there, really."

                "And what do they think of all your plans?" she asked.

                "It doesn't matter what they think," he said, "They understand how things work. They understand that if they speak out against us or cause any trouble, the children all die. It's really very simple."

                "And just who exactly is 'us'? I asked him.

                "The Aztlan People's Front."

                Lucifer 'asked' him, "That's not all the truth; what else is there?"

                Well, it seems that the actual Aztlan government is unaware that all this is going on. "They've stagnated; they don't see what needs to be done. And they're next," Bob said

                The government knows about the Flower Wars, but didn't approve them. He said that General Ramirez has been double-dealing them and passing off the victims of his own personal 'business' victories as victims of the Flower Wars.

                He told us that this General Ramirez spends most of his time in Yuma and when he's there, his second in command, Colonel Ortiz keeps the explosive remotes. But the General has been spending more time at the Lake recently - he has a woman there. The people have taken to calling her "Malinche", after Cortez's girl, but no one knows what her real name is or where she came from.

                Finally, Lucifer looked into his eyes and hit him with the Whammy. "Have you been completely truthful with us?" he asked. Bob nodded slowly and said, "Yes…" Olivia and I exchanged startled looks. Lucifer thanked Bob for his time and ordered him to sleep and forget this ever happened. Bob went out like a light, and we left to compare notes. Once outside, we both turned on Lucifer. "Why didn't you just do that in the first place? Why did you have us torture that poor bastard?" Olivia looked ready to shoot Lucifer on the spot.

                Lucifer bowed his head and looked - honest to God - remorseful. "I couldn't. I tried earlier today, and he was able to block my mind from taking him over." He paused before looking back up at us. "I'm not very strong, I'm afraid, even in the best of circumstances. All my thralls in Montrose were either very weak-minded or under severe mental and emotional stress when I took them over." He gave us a very long look before continuing. "I did not enjoy that. That is not the way of my people. I simply had no other choice; if I went to Caesar or to any other Overlord and asked them to do it, it would be an admission that I am unable to manage my domain. I cannot allow that to happen." He turned to the guards and said, "Bring the healer, and then take him to Las Vegas Hilton for trial." The guards bowed and left. He looked back at us and said, "I have paid Charlie to come and heal him. He will be made whole, and then given a fair trial. He may yet live." With that, he gestured to the elevator, and we headed back upstairs.

                Back in his office, Lucifer said, "Well, the information Bob gave us matches with what I've been able to get out of the second prisoner - HE I was able to enthrall." He tried not to notice our glares as he shuffled some of the papers on his desk . Finally, he looked up and said, "The next on my to-do list is the questioning of the people we rescued from the raiders' camps on the 3rd. Would you be interested in sitting in on the interviews?" Olivia & I glanced at each other. I said "Sure" and Olivia followed with "We'd love to join you for that" - to keep an eye on him if nothing else. But first we had to make a trip to the Excalibur to clean up and let everyone know what we'd found out.

                Alfred met us when we got back and we told him what had happened and what we'd learned. If he noticed that neither of us ate much, he didn't say anything, but he did say he'd come with us for the other interviews. While we were 'eating' Olivia brought up a damned good question - "How or why does Luxor know anything about Aztlan and their organ harvesting? He had that city marked on his map, but how does he know about that?" That sent us all for our thinking caps! We hadn't come up with anything by the time we finished, so we headed back to the Venetian, hoping that the people we talked to would be able to shed some light on the situation

                Lucifer had an office set up in one of the suites and the people we'd rescued from the camp were brought in one at a time. Almost all of them thanked Lucifer for the care they'd been given, but a few bristled at not being allowed to leave the hotel. They were soothed when they were assured that as soon as we 'de-briefed' them, they were free to go wherever they wanted.

                We didn't really learn much from the first three people, but the fourth had some interesting info. He told us that he was actually from Kingman, originally, and he had NO idea why anyone would be that interested in the place.

                "When they (the raiders) first moved in," he told us, "most of their activity was centered around the airport. But I don't know why - it was bombed pretty badly right after things went to Hell and the runways are unusable. There was some small manufacturing companies near there, but they're not producing anything worthwhile these days." He shrugged and shook his head, "Really, the only thing unusual out there is the plane collection, and it's nothing but a bunch of 'vintage' WWI and WWII planes. Vintage - hah! More like rust buckets."

                We thanked him and Lucifer had him escorted out. The eight or ninth person we talked to said that he'd been forced into slave labor for the raiders after being captured and his work gang was assigned to an area near the airport. He said he saw lots of trucks hauling in scrap metal of all varieties.

                Lucifer asked if it was true that one of the rescued had gone back to the Excalibur with us that night. We told him that, yes, Mitchell Rodriguez, a very large and useful Orc (at least, I think he's an Orc - he's a damn sight bigger than every other Orc I've seen - taller than Alfred!) had accompanied us and as far as we knew was still there. Alfred confirmed that he was and that his security people had been keeping an eye on him, kind of like the arrangement Lucifer had going on at the Venetian. Lucifer asked Alfred if he'd have him brought over. Alfred made a call, and instructed his people to ask Mitchell very politely to come to the Venetian. While we were waiting, we went through several more people, but none of them had anything useful for us.

                When Mitchell arrived, Olivia asked him if he'd be interested in a trip to Kingman. "In chains?" he growled. "Of course not," we told him, "You're free to do what you will; we just thought you might like to get a little revenge on the people who captured you."

                He told us that he'd been in a work gang at the airport in a steel recycling facility. He wasn't sure what the steel was being used for, but had overheard talk of heavy armor.

                Lucifer thanked Mitchell for his patience and explained that we couldn't be too careful, and we had to make sure that no spies had been planted in the ranks. "I trust that you have found Lord Excalibur's hospitality to be generous."

                Mitchell complained that his 'Room Service' hadn't included any girls and he didn't think that was fair (and I didn't think it was likely that they'd be able to find a girl who'd be able to 'handle' him!). The he continued, "One more thing: can I get my Browning back?" At Lucifer's puzzled look, Alfred explained to Lucifer what type of 'gun' it was. Lucifer was appalled! "That's not a gun, that's an anti-aircraft weapon! It would cost a fortune to register it!"

                Olivia and I told Lucifer that he could pass the cost of the registration on to the other Overlords as part of their Peace payments, since we were SURE Mitchell would use it only in defense of the city. Lucifer exchanged a look with Alfred and they both sighed. Alfred got a pen and pad, wrote a short note and handed it to Mitchell, "Give this to my concierge and you'll get your gun back."

                Lucifer handed Mitchell a brightly colored 'ticket' and said, "Take this to the Bellagio and ask for the 'Special Entertainment' area and they'll find you a nice girl." Mitchell jumped up and made a beeline for the door. "Wait!" I yelled, "Meet us back at the Excalibur around dinner time - for a planning meeting!" He grunted and kept on going. Gotta' have priorities, I guess…

                After finishing the rest of the interviews (none of whom told us anything useful or interesting), we headed back to the Excalibur. On the way, Olivia called Leo and asked him to join us for a war council. When she hung up, I said, "Oh! We should get hold of Connors too; she'll want to sit in on this."

                We were going to call Dallas and invite him as well, but Alfred stopped us. It seems that according to Overlord 'customs' only HE could invite Dallas to come to his Domain. Oh please! It's only Dallas! But Alfred insisted and placed the call himself. Of course Dallas said yes!

                As dinner was being set up, Leo and Connors arrived, followed immediately by Dallas and Maisara, his green girlfriend. Even though she was keeping the pheromones to a bare minimum, she made QUITE the impression on Mitchell.

                After the introductions were complete, we explained to everyone that Mitchell would be coming with us, and started giving everyone the basics of the situation. We hadn't gotten very far when Dallas piped in then with, "So! We go in - we kill 'em, we kill them all…then we kill 'em some more. Jazz Raises them and then we kill 'em all again." I was actually startled; we hadn't heard anything like that from Dallas for quite some time. It was like the 'old' Dallas was back again. Maisara laid a quieting hand on his arm and said to us, "He's having one of 'those' days. I've been trying to keep him from going since we heard that you were going to move on Kingman, but maybe he should go. Get it out of his system."

                Dinner was pretty quiet, and when we finished, Allison's people removed the plates and we covered the table with maps.

                Connors started things off. "The mine fields the Duck told us about are a problem. We can only take Scooby in so far and then we should go off-road. But they might expect that and have those areas mined, also. We'll look for cultivated areas, they're not going to mine fields they're farming."

                "But why would they be farming? They're just stealing what they want from the farmers," Olivia asked.

                Connors ceded the point and continued, "We'll go towards the north end of town - away from the main routes, where they would be expecting us to come from."

                "Airport - is there a fuel depot? A fuel depot equals a good diversion," Dallas said.

                Mitchell asked, "Why not capture it instead?"

                Olivia said, "We've got higher tech aircraft than what's out there."

                "But low tech has it's advantages, too," I said.

                Mitchell nodded and said, "And then YOU can use them. Possibly against them."

                "I bet Caesar could scrape together some people to fly 'em, too," said Olivia. Interesting idea, but we put it on hold while we worked on the more immediate problems. Eventually, we decided to leave tonight, just after dark, when the desert would be giving off lots of its excess heat. That would make it harder to detect us with heat-scopes. We'd go into town using side streets and find someplace to hide Scooby, and then go in on foot, looking for something to use as a diversion.

                Leo asked if we had gotten any passwords from Bob; we had, so he suggested we use their own trick on them. "Call Caesar, ask him for uniforms for all of us. With those and the passwords, we can drive right up to the front door." You know, for a guy that is so much of an annoying pain in the backside, he can be pretty clever when he wants to be!

                So, we called Caesar and asked for five uniforms. He promised to have them waiting for us. Olivia asked him to put the word out for anyone who might know how to fly a biplane. That made him more curious, but when she told him that Alfred and Dallas would be accompanying us, he was NOT happy! They had a few polite words, then he apparently relented. When she'd hung up, Leo asked, "Why only five uniforms?"

                "These people are strictly human-only types. Mitchell, Olivia, Alfred and I will have to keep out of sight if this is going to work," I said. "Ahhh…" he said, looking like the lights had gone on for the first time in ages. So we all armed up and found Mitchell sitting in the lobby waiting for us and making the staff VERY nervous as he cleaned his gun. He wrapped it up and came outside with us.

                We got to the secured parking area where Scooby was being kept and were approved to enter by the guards. Mitchell stopped in his tracks when he saw Scooby for the first time. It was still fully armored up. Mitchell watched as Olivia punched in the disarm code on the door panel. "FULL ARMOR OF GOD DISENGAGED!!!" boomed the loudspeakers and the armor sheathing on the tires and windows retracted. I love watching it do that! So, apparently, did Mitchell. "Nice wheels," he said, then he headed for the assault ramp. "I'm driving!" Dallas called as he dropped into the cockpit. We were still getting settled when he revved the engine and we moved out.

                He pulled up to the entrance at Caesar's and stopped just long enough for Olivia and I to get back in with the uniforms before peeling out. He got us out of the city, then let Alfred drive just long enough to get into his borrowed uniform.

                We were stopped in Dolan Springs by one of Lucifer's patrols - boy were they surprised to see Dallas and Alfred! They commended the squad on their diligence and we continued on.

                It was getting dark when we spotted the roadblock across the hiway. Dallas yelled, "Showtime folks!" Olivia, Alfred and I skedaddled into the back to hide. One of the people manning the roadblock approached us with weapons drawn. Dallas rolled down his window, and when asked for the password rattled off one that Bob had given us.

                The guy shook his head, "Man - that's an old one! How long have you been out?"

                "Too long!" Dallas said with a big wink, "We were dispatched to SLC to see if there was anything left worth salvaging. Look what we found!"

                The guy admired Scooby and handed Dallas a piece of paper, "Here, these are the current codes, wouldn't want you to get shot!" Then he gave Dallas directions to 'the new flop' and asked if he'd found anything 'else'. "Just some cannibals." Dallas joked. He laughed and waved to the others to open the gate and let us pass.

                We were getting closer to the center of town when we passed some off-road vehicles headed the opposite direction. They looked just like the buggies the Duck crew took when they nerve gassed their attackers north of Kingman! Alfred and I were keeping watch out the back and saw one of them slam on the brakes while the others swerved to miss it and pulled U-turns to come after us. Just as we were yelling out a warning, Dallas did the same - he'd been watching the rear video monitor. "We're made! We've got company. Time to find someplace to hide this thing," he said.

                Connors jumped up to man the flaming oil jets, Olivia took one of the machine guns, and Mitchell manned the grenade launcher. I called up some Magic and gathered a plague of insects that swarmed into the open vehicles - they seemed to be having a terrible time driving! Mitchell sent a volley towards the buggies and nailed one dead center, while Olivia opened up at the barricade to prevent them from joining in and out-numbering us. The entire barricade vanished from sight in a huge ball of fire - apparently, they were storing something explosive there….

                One of the buggies turned and fled in the other direction while one closed in on us. A spurt from the oil jet and he slowed down, right back into the cloud of insects. A few seconds later, he swerved violently and went flying into a ditch on the side of the road.

                Dallas yelled, "I think I found a place!" and turned off the highway - right into a residential neighborhood! I saw a fence go flying and then we were airborne as he launched us over a retaining wall.

                "Hold on!" Dallas yelled. Ya' think?! I swear, he drove through at least one building, but with all the bouncing, I can't be sure. Finally, after a bunch more bumping and bouncing, he slammed on the brakes and threw Scooby into park. "Perfect," he muttered. I wasn't so sure - Scooby's front end was pointing up at an angle and I could see stars through the windshield.

                When we all got onto our feet, we saw that he had parked us in an empty swimming pool in someone's backyard. We all armed up; Leo passed around some camo face paint and we got ready to head for the center of town on foot.

                It was full dark by then and we made in to the central business district without incident. We got to what we were sure was the area the Bob had described to us and found a small building that had a good view of the area and whose roof we could get onto. Once up there, we were positive this was the right place. There was the parking garage, the motor pool and the street barricades he mentioned. Connors noted activity on the roof of the garage and after further study they saw some sandbags and some very precise holes drilled into the walls all around the roof.

                "Snipers," she, Dallas and Leo all said.

                Down in the street there were steel barrels with wood burning in them spread out at even distances to illuminate the street for the snipers and the people on the barricades. We stayed there for some time observing the activity. Besides the people on the barricade, Alfred, Olivia and I spotted some people sneaking around. They were sticking to the shadows and looked like they were carrying things. Closer observation showed us some awfully thin, dirty people. Had to be scavengers.

                Connors suggested moving in, keeping to the shadows and as quietly as possible, take the garage and use its location for our advantage. So we moved out and as we neared the first barricade, Connors broke us into smaller groups, the Dallas & leo in the lead. They got past with no problems.

                The second group was Olivia, Mitchell and little-ole me. I don't know what I tripped over, but to my ears I sounded as loud as a Fourth of July parade! The three of us froze. A flashlight from the barricade swept the area, "Who's there?" a voice asked. Ever a student of the strategy and tactics of the great Han Solo, Olivia drew her Glock and opened fire at them.

                All at once so many different things happened, it was hard to keep them all straight. Dallas & Leo darted into the garage itself and the snipers opened fire at our position, as did the people at the barricade. Both Mitchell and Olivia were injured when bullets hit their body armor. I may have been the loud one, but apparently I hid better than they did. Olivia used her wand and sent a Fireball at the barricade. When the flames died down, Connors leapt up, yelled, "Let's rock!" and opened fire at the barricade with her M-16.

                The snipers on the roof were still firing on us, so I asked Corellon to send some assistance in the form of one of His beasts, a wolf. Within just a few moments, we could he snarls and screams from the roof and the gunshots were no longer aimed at us. Leo shouted, "Fire in the hole!" and lobbed a grenade at the barricade. He overthrew it though and it ended up exploding well behind it. One of the men on the barricade took the opportunity and fired back at Leo. One shot pinged off his body armor and the gun jammed on the second shot. Two more opened fire and both Olivia and Connors were hit, with their armor taking the brunt of the damage.

                Then Mitchell opened fire with his Browning and that was the end of the barricade - and of a couple of cars on the other side of it!

                We all took a moment to catch our breath; Olivia took the chance to Heal herself. I was about to do the same for Leo and Connors but they just charged past me into the garage - so I followed. Once inside, there was no sign of Dallas or Leo. Connors was just charging thru the door to the stairs and I followed while Olivia stayed just under cover from the snipers to keep an eye open for people coming down the street at us. Mitchell stopped to wait for the elevator.

                We had gone a couple flights when I could 'feel' the wolf on the roof die. And moments after that we heard the sound of a concussion grenade going off up on the roof. Connors and I got to the roof to find several stunned men and Dallas charging one the snipers. He was trying to bring his rifle to bear on Dallas, but screwed up and shot himself in the leg - badly. Dallas bent over him took his rifle and hand weapons and left him where he was. One of the men stunned by the grenade looked almost coherent enough to be a threat, so I threw a Hold spell on him to keep him out of our hair while Connors ran to the north edge of the building to survey the area.

                Dallas and I took care of restraining the three remaining snipers. As we finished that the elevator appeared with Mitchell. When Leo noticed that Olivia wasn't on the roof he went back downstairs to look for her. I turned up the sweetness and asked one of our captives for his name. "Nick," he said. So I asked him, "Nick, where are all the prisoners were kept?" He politely pointed out the building for me. I heard Connors mutter, "Okay, we'll call that #1."

                One of the other two yelled at him, "Don't tell them anything!" then he looked at me, "We don't know anything and if we did, we wouldn't tell you anyway, we'd rather die first." Dallas kicked him and told him to shut up. Olivia and Leo showed up and both came over to glower at and intimidate Nick.

                Leo asked which building housed the headquarters. But Nick had decided to be tough and just shook his head. Olivia pulled her Glock and put it to his foot and asked the question again, while Leo and I stepped back. That did it; Nick folded and pointed out another building. "Right, #2," said Connors. The same guy yelled at him again, "Shut up, these people are the enemy! They're traitors, don't tell them anything!"

                Olivia turned smoothly and without warning shot the guy in the kneecap. She turned back and asked Nick about security at the HQ building. He told us that all ground level doors and the roof are guarded. Then she asked why no one had come to investigate all the noise, and he said that shootings and explosions aren't all that unusual, "The locals are always trying to create diversions so they can get thru the defenses to get to the food. So we have standing orders to not leave our posts unless receiving orders to do so."

                "And where is the food kept?" I asked. He pointed to the appropriate building. I looked at Connors, "Three," she flashed with her fingers at me. Olivia asked about the defenses for that building. He tried to tell us that there were just standard locks and a few armed guards.

                I removed one of his shoes and then the sock.

                "And the ladder to the roof is electrified and the ventilation shafts are boobytrapped with bear traps," he said, speaking VERY quickly. Then he went on to tell us that the food belonged to the troops and that General Ramirez had personally entrusted them to keep it safe for them. "The troops have to be strong so they can defeat the non-believers and the race traitors!"

                Olivia blew off a toe and sweetly asked Nick when those troops would be coming to get the food. He SWORE he didn't know.

                Mitchell asked, "Are we finished now? Can I let them go?"

                "Right off the roof?" Olivia asked.

                "Yeah", said Mitchell, as he grabbed Nick by his coat and lifted him off his feet. "Who was you shooting at?" Poor Nick's eyes started to bug out. "The people trying to steal our food!" he yelped.

                "So, you're just letting all the locals starve?" Olivia asked. "And what about all the kids who used to live here?" Mitchell demanded before Nick could answer. "The G-g-g-general insists - NO exceptions," Nick stuttered. Mitchell lowered Nick to the floor and suggested that we leave them to the scavengers we'd seen earlier. Dallas shook his head and said, "No, never leave any loose ends", and one by one he snapped the neck of each of the men. When he was finished, he looked around and said, "What next?"

                Connors snuck to the edge of the roof, pulled out some binoculars and reported that there were three more snipers on the roof of the HQ building and two men guarding the main door. The building holding the prisoners had four snipers on the roof and the building where the food was stored had no guards at all, at least none that we could see from the garage. Dallas picked up two of the sniper rifles and offered one to Connors, and then he asked Leo if he had any experience. "Ya gotta ask?" he sneered and grabbed a sniper rifle of his own.

                Olivia let loose with some Magic - an illusion of an explosion - at the men on the roof of the building with the prisoners in it. It was great! Two of the men either didn't see it or were protected by disbelief. The other two, however, suffered the wounds they believed they would, and fell to the ground screaming & writhing.

                The moment after the 'explosion' went off, Connors, Dallas and Leo opened fire at the men on top of the HQ building. Connors and Leo each dropped their targets, but Dallas's was only wounded. While they were providing covering fire, Mitchell crawled toward another of the sniper holes and enlarged it enough to allow the muzzle of the Browning to fit thru.

                Then the enemy returned fire. I couldn't see where it came from but a shot hit my armor and knocked me off my feet. Olivia pulled back and some bullets flew past her and into the wall behind her. Connors fired and dropped the last sniper at the HQ. Dallas had his M-16 on full-auto fire and jumped onto the restraining wall and opened fire

                There were more shots from the other buildings and I saw Leo go down, then get right back up again. Alfred was firing now, and he wounded one of the guards at HQ while Olivia sent a fireball towards the two guys at the main entrance, killing one of them.

                Dallas started yelling to get our attention and pointed out to us that someone had pulled a camo net off of a Bradley in the middle of a parking lot next to the HQ building. Three people were climbing into it and some others were trying to mount weapons onto some Hummers in the same lot. There was also movement in a Grease Monkey on the far side of the HQ - some heads popped out of one of the grease pits and a few shots whizzed out way.

                Leo fired three shots at the people at the Bradley and hit the man trying to get into the drivers seat. That rattled one of the others, who somehow managed to empty his clip into the third.

                Two in the Grease Monkey opened fire; one's weapon jammed and the other nailed Alfred, injuring him pretty severely. I was trying to go one way but stopped to try to get to Alfred instead. I was out in the open too long, and the bullets found the openings in my armor. I was hurt - bad!

                As I was crawling to some cover I saw Leo ducking chips of concrete flying from the wall near his sniper hole and then Olivia dropped as she too, was hit with a burst.
Mitchell opened fire with the Browning and laid waste to the motor pool while Connors took care of the last man outside the prisoner barracks. Dallas was reloading and Leo started firing at the men in the Grease Monkey. I used one of the Healing wands on myself while Alfred pulled on some power of his own to heal his wounds. I did not know he could do that! Tricky little monkey….

                Olivia was back up and used one of the sniper holes to launch a Fireball at the Grease Monkey. There was a huge explosion, complete with mushroom cloud effects! I don't know what all was in that Grease Monkey, but I don't think it would have passed inspection in the good old days! When we deemed it safe enough to look, the building was gone and the building next to it (the HQ) was in flames.

                People started to pour out of the buildings up and down the streets. A door on the roof of the food storage building opened and a guy emerged, took a look around and yelled something back into the doorway. In the building across the street from that, windows opened and some naked men and women popped out to see what had happened. The girls all kept looking while the men popped back inside. OK, that must be the brothel…

                We decided it might be best to leave the building we were in. Mitchell grabbed a couple of the extra sniper rifles and said that he'd cover us from there. We got downstairs and found that some of the locals had been stripping the bodies at the barricade. Dallas told them that there was a large number of soldiers headed this way and they'd better get under cover, quick!

                One of the locals raised his deer rifle and leveled it at him, "Appreciate the warning, but don't come no closer." Dallas raised his hand, "Okay, but they're comin' fast." A voice came from the barricade - it sounded like a kid! "Okay! All done here!" Two young boys came over the wall of sandbags, joined the older man, and they all took off.

                We saw three men hunkered down inside a sandbagged machine gun nest in front of the food building. I yelled to them, "Drop your weapons or we'll open fire." Nothing happened "This is your last warning."

                Olivia stepped up beside me and let loose with that Dark Aura of hers and pulled her Glock. That was enough for one of the men. He put his weapon down and stood up with his hands behind his head. The man next to him dropped him with a single shot to the head. Dallas opened fire at the shooter, hitting him twice and injuring him. The third man tried to shoot - I'm not sure if he was aiming at Olivia, me or the guy next to him who'd killed his own man. I'm not sure if he was sure because he ended up shooting himself in the hand.

                I called on some Magic and sent a shaft of Searing Light at the two of them, injuring them both, then pulled my gun and fired at the two men. I hit one of them, but then my gun jammed! Dallas stepped up and with a single shot dropped the shooter.

                And then, Hell broke loose.

                There was a deafening roar and a bright flash as something exploded right behind us in the entryway of the garage. Alfred, Leo and Connors all took some damage, but it was fairly light. Olivia, Dallas and I took the brunt of it. Connors said that she'd seen an arrow headed our way, but had no time to warn us. (And not just an arrow; apparently someone had seen Rambo a few too many times and decided to try the "dynamite on an arrow" trick.) She said that it had come from up the street.

                She looked from where it had come from and saw a bunch of people emerging from a building and heading our direction. She pumped her grenade launcher and let one fly, right at the building. When the smoke cleared, the building was a mess - part of the roof had collapsed and there were many dead inside.

                That's when we noticed they weren't dressed like the soldiers were. They were locals. I was torn between being distraught at what had happened and being irate that the people we were TRYING to help, the people that Dallas had exposed himself to danger to warn, had launched a bomb at us!

                But then we had to get back to the moment and the thought passed, although it's back with me now, and I'm still equally torn. I was stunned a bit, and when my head cleared, Olivia was using a wand to heal me. That's when I realized how much it hurts to get blown up!

                While I was out, Leo drew a second weapon and charged towards the locals yelling, "Assume the position now or I'll waste you all, starting with the children!"
They immediately complied, as did the man across the street! While Leo and Connors kept them all covered, Olivia and I used the Healing wands to get everybody back to tip top shape. After he'd been healed, Alfred approached the locals and told them, "If you people would just sit tight for a bit, we are here to liberate this town and we came here to fight them, not you."

                Olivia asked, "Who shot that dynamite at us?" A small voice said, "His hand's over there, and I think that's his leg right there…."

                Alfred continued, "You will soon be part of Vegas. You'll have food, water and electricity. Stay out of the way and your lives will be better. But if you cross us again - there will be less people here to share the food." Leo gestured towards the one lone guy who'd surrendered, "Listen to the man, soldier boy." Connors approached him and took his weapons, "What should we do with you?" she asked him.

                Alfred said, "He made a wise choice by surrendering." Connors nodded. "Good point. Now, if you answer our questions, she won't have to shoot your toes off one by one," she pointed to Olivia. Then she pointed to me, "And if you decide to tough it out, that one will rip the soul out of your cold, dead body and question it."

                He told us that the one building where we'd seen the men and women looking out the windows was in fact the town brothel. Another building was totally empty, the floors were unstable and no one would dare use it. Olivia asked him if all the food in storage had come from Vegas farms or had they been looting other areas as well.
"I don't know lady, I just guard the building." He also told us that all the men on guard duty had been told the same thing - that if the building (and the food) were to be captured, they had better all be killed in the attack, because anyone left alive would be 'Altar-Bait'.

                Olivia asked how many troops were in town, since there was obviously more than the 35 that Bob told us about.

                "We got 200 reinforcements just last week," he said.

                "Two hundred?" Olivia and I mouthed at each other.

                Olivia asked him if his guard post had a radio. "Yeah, but it's busted," he said. I set a Zone of Truth around him and asked him if he'd been completely honest with us, and he had. Then we asked about booby traps in or around the food building. He told us that in the barricade, the bottom layer of sandbags hid claymores set to explode outwards and there were more people inside the lobby and at the loading docks.

                Olivia asked about the laborers' barracks. They borrowed a trick from the people at Martinez Lake - the building is wired with plastic explosives and the Commander of the area keeps the remote detonator. He was nice enough to point out which building the Commander's quarters were in. Satisfied that we had everything we'll need, Connors pulled a neurogun and put our friend out.

                We decided that our next move would be towards the laborers' barracks going thru the abandoned building. Hopefully, the floors weren't as unstable as our prisoner thought they were. While we were talking about our approach, Olivia and I noticed a sound coming from up the street and around the corner. It sounded like a diesel engine, something big - maybe a semi? Then there was a sound like rocks being ground up, and the floor started to shake a little.

                Leo identified it for us. "The Bradley," he said. Just then, it came into sight, rounding the corner and heading towards us. We were pretty screwed for places to take cover. The missile launcher on the turret rose up into firing position as Olivia asked, "Hey Leo, what kind of electrical system does that thing have?"

                "Extensive," he answered. Olivia didn't say anything, but I felt her starting to pull in power. A bullhorn clicked on and a voice demanded, "Attention intruders! We know where we are and we have targeted your position. Surrender or we'll drop what's left of that building on you." Alfred told the locals to head out the back way while Olivia and I walked into the street with our hands up. I could feel the Magic she was generating, and when she let it loose a huge flash of lighting struck the Bradley.

                Sparks flew everywhere and the thing rumbled to a stop. Olivia and I finished crossing the street and hid in an alleyway. When there was no movement from the Bradley, Dallas charged out and rushed it with Leo in hot pursuit. Dallas jumped onto the front while Leo disappeared from sight around the back.

                The drivers hatch opened with a great rush of smoke and the driver popped his head out, coughing and hacking. Dallas put his M-16 to his head and said, "Surrender now." The guy put his hands up immediately. Dallas hauled him out and tossed him over the side. Leo appeared over the top of the vehicle to report that all was secure. He and Dallas then opened the turret position and removed that body - the lightning had electrocuted him.

                The party moved forward to survey the scene. Dallas asked Connors if she could drive a truck. She said she could and took the drivers place. Olivia created a small Magic and made a smiley face appear on the top of the Bradley. She explained that it was so Mitchell would know it was us and not fire. Dallas opened up the back door and we all climbed in. Connors started it up and got us turned around. Leo did some poking around, taking a quick inventory of our ammo. The TOW rocket wasn't working (the controls had been shorted out) but the 25mm machine gun was functional and Olivia moved to man it.

                There were 6 men walking down the street towards us. One had a radio that he was speaking into. He waited a few seconds, spoke into it again, and when we didn't answer (we couldn't have if we wanted to, it was burned out, too) he waived the radio at us. We were at the corner then and the Bradley was broadside to a barricade with about a dozen men on one side and to the open street on the other. Out that way we saw about 20 troops moving people out of the laborers' barracks and forming them into a bucket brigade to put out the fire in the HQ building.

                Olivia opened fire with the 25mm. But the men must have seen the turret turning their way. They all started to dive behind the barricade - for all the good it did. Mitchell's Browning is pretty impressive, but damn! Olivia blew the snot out those sandbags and the people hiding behind them, as well as chewing up a good-sized hole in the road.

                The men in the street started to draw their weapons, so I pulled up the Power and called a Flame Strike on them. When the flames died they were all still alive, but charred pretty good. Dallas and Leo both opened fire at the barricade. Leo's gun jammed and exploded in his hand - he wasn't hurt much, but he still needed medical attention. Olivia let loose with another burst from the turret. This time she aimed badly and strafed the building behind the barricade. Alfred was also firing at the barricade and injured a few men.

                Connors discovered a gun control for a front-mounted .50 caliber and opened fire at the men in the street commanding the bucket brigade. Several just vanished while others dropped like flies. When others saw what was going on, they surrendered. That was when we saw a man in the doorway of the building that our friend had said housed the Commander. He was in his BVD's, was waiving a handgun around wildly and yelling, "How dare you?!?"

                We weren't sure if he was referring to us or to his surrendering men. But then the question was moot - Mitchell opened fire from the garage and he was, well, dead. Since she was having no luck, Olivia let Leo take her place in the turret and used her wand to send a Fireball at the barricade. When they saw it coming, some of the men left the barricade and actually ran TOWARDS the Bradley. So, the ones that Olivia didn't kill, Leo did.

                Connors started us forward again, this time towards the prisoners. But our help wasn't needed there; they had turned on their guards and had the situation under control. From different directions and buildings, people appeared and began to surrender. Leo opened the back door and we all piled out. I grabbed Dallas and asked him to help me gather up what was left of the Commander so I could 'question' him.

                As we were doing that more locals appeared and started to handle the people surrendering. They also took and to take control of the food building. One man, filthy dirty and oh! so thin walked up to the group, "Who are you people?"

                I said, "We're out of Vegas."

                "Are you working out of there or are you actually based there?" he wanted to know.

                Alfred cleared his throat, "I'm one of the Overlords," he said. "Lord Excalibur, at your service, and this is Lord Bellagio." Dallas tipped his helmet toward the man and kept searching. The man was openly skeptical.

               "And you are?" I asked him. "David Simons. I used to be the Mayor of Kingman. Well, since everything went to Hell, anyway." Before I could continue, Dallas got up and presented me with - something oozing and too icky to look at. "I think this was his skull," he said. I took a step back and said, "That's nice, dear. But I really need most of him in one place. Let's see what we can scrape together." He followed me off, but I stopped as a very large Sylvan Elf stormed up to where Alfred and Olivia were speaking to the Mayor.

                Without preamble he blurted, "Thanks for the help. Now go home." Olivia started to say something but he cut her off, "This is our town. Leave." Olivia said, "Sorry, but we need some information before we leave."

                "Our being here for another hour or so, won't hurt you at all," I added.

                "Like it didn't hurt those people in the storefront your girlfriend here blew up?" he yelled.

                "They shot dynamite at us!" I yelled back. "After Dallas here endangered himself to warn you that the enemy was moving in."

                The Mayor stepped in front of the Elf and said, "Rodrigo, my thanks for all your help, but please - go organize the distribution of the food and see to the wounded." Rodrigo wouldn't leave. He set himself solidly in front of the Mayor and said, "You need me here or we'll all end up working for the Pussies."

                Olivia (all sweetness and light) said, "That's Mister Pussy to you."

                "I don't call anyone 'Mister' who doesn't earn it", Rodrigo shot back. Before they could get any further, Alfred and the mayor stepped in. Alfred pulled Olivia off to one side while the Mayor directed Rodrigo towards the building where the locals had begun to carry out food. He stomped off in a huff, but at least he left.

                Olivia approached some of the newly captured prisoners and asked where we might find important documents and such. A woman from the brothel stepped forward and said she knew where the commander had kept his records and would take Olivia to them. She and Leo followed the girl around to the freight elevator in the back of the building, while Alfred and Connors went to lend a hand getting more ex-prisoners out of their 'quarters'.

                Dallas and I finally had enough of the Commander gathered together that I thought some Magic might work. I could sense the Commanders presence and asked it, "Are you really the Commander of Kingman?" "Yes." Then I asked about the codes for the detonator for the explosives and he said that the codes were in the notebook underneath the detonator on his nightstand in his quarters. How handy! I asked what he knew about the defenses around Martinez Lake. "They're designed for keeping people in rather than out, since the Lake is so far inside our zone of control." Then I asked if he knew the codes for the booby traps in and around the Lake. He said that he did and they're in the same notebook!

                I felt his presence begin to fade so I asked one last question, "Do you know the codes for the explosive in the day care and school at the Lake?" "The main security computer - Password 'insurgent', user name 'RELee'. That will give you control over all the explosive devices the Martinez Lake." Then he was gone.

                Leo, Olivia and the girl came back. Leo took Dallas and Alfred back to get some supplies they found in the Commanders quarters. Apparently he'd been keeping the good stuff for himself -some furs, gourmet food, caviar, chocolates, brandy, those sorts of things. How nice of him to keep them in one easily looted spot for us!

                I told Olivia what I had learned and she showed me the detonators and the notebook. She gave the detonators to the Mayor and said that she had already used the codes to disarm them all. She then gave the girl a good-sized box of various different currencies that they'd found. The girl thanked her and left.

                After she was gone, Olivia showed me a bag of pot she'd taken from the guy's desk. "Don't we have enough of that back home?" I asked. She grinned wickedly.
"Watch this," she said, and pulled out her Fairie Fire be-spelled CZ. She passed it over the bag and the pot began to glow! Cool! Magic wacky-weed! We decided to take a few minutes at the first opportunity to see what its properties were - all in the name of the Kingdom, of course!

                Dallas dropped off his load of loot and announced that he was going to go bring Scooby in to pick everyone up. He asked Connors if she would drive him out there in the Bradley. She agreed and I went with them, just in case.

                It was a very quiet trip - no one was on the roads. When we got to the west end of town where we'd left Scooby we could see the fires from the downtown area. We could also see lots of lights and activity around the airport. Once inside Scooby, I switched on the IFF screens and went through the threat warnings. They didn't show anything headed our way, but then Dallas said, "If they're using those biplanes, they wouldn't show up anyway." Well, it was worth a try. We were up and out of the pool with a lurch, then back onto the highway. As we were closing in on downtown, the radio kicked on. "Scooby, this is Morningstar, come in Scooby, over."

                "Morningstar?" I asked myself. It sounded familiar.

                "Scooby, this is Morningstar, come in Scooby," they repeated.

                What the Hell, "This is Scooby," I said.

                "Jazz?" the voice said.

                "Ye-e-es, who is this?"

                "Morningstar…" sarcasm dripped from the radio.

                "Oh!" I felt like such a moron! It was Lucifer. "Okay, gotcha! So sorry, it's been kind crazy here, but we've got things under control now. What can I do for ya?" There was a big, patented, Lucifer sigh, followed by, "Can you report on the condition of the locals?"

                "Not good. They've got some injured, and a lot of very sick, starving people."

                "Did you locate the food," he asked.

                "Well, um, yeah. But it's not in our control. We had other things to take care of."

                There was another sigh, but a little less dramatic than the last, "Well, make sure that it gets distributed evenly. And tell them that it's the first gift from the new Overlord of Kingman." Overlord? That doesn't sound good… "And that would be…" I asked

                "The Overlord who is at this moment furiously pacing and gnashing her teeth with anxiety over her new demesne."

                Who? HER demesne… Oh, SHIT…please all you happy gods not HER!

                "Oh no, you don't mean…"

                "Oh yes. I do. She was promised the next available demesne. She'll be there soon and she'll be bringing medical supplies and a healer."

                "Good, make sure she's got lots of supplies. And you might want to send more than one healer."

                "No, for now, they're only getting one. One the hospital can certainly spare."

                Oh my God! That sealed it. I was getting out of there before either Olivia or I had to even SEE Dr. Happy Ass! Lucifer was still going on about "Pockets of resistance" and asking if the area was pacified. I told him about the activity we'd seen at the airport and he had the nerve to say, "See what you can do about pacifying the area."

                "Do it yourself," I told him. "We've got some of our own who are wounded AND as soon as we regroup, we're out of here." He sighed again.

                "Oh, all right. But please, advise me of your battle plans, ASAP," he asked.
"I promise we'll be in contact, but since the radios aren't secure I'll use another means," and with that we signed off.

                We were back downtown by then and I went looking for the Mayor. I found him watching Rodrigo distributing the foodstuffs and starting a triage operation. As much as I hate to admit it, he was doing it fairly and with some actual kindness towards the people.

                Not wanting to deal with Rodrigo again, I drew the Mayor a ways a bit. "Good news! Vegas is sending medical supplies and a healer - they'll be here shortly," I told him.

                "And who's bringing them?" he asked.

                "Your new Overlord," I said. Then I rushed to add, "But really, if you cooperate with them, they're not so bad. They're not enthralling people anymore."

                Olivia had joined us in time to hear the last part. "Who are they getting?" she whispered. I whispered back, "Sakkara." "Oh my," she said, "we are getting the fuck out of Dodge NOW!"

                "We're getting a Cat?" Rodrigo demanded. Damned Sylvan Elves - they're WAY too sneaky! The Mayor tried to calm him down, saying,, "We're getting medical supplies AND a healer." It didn't matter. Rodrigo was off on a rant about the Cats and all of us who 'submit' to them. I told him if he found it so distasteful, there's a Sylvan Elf community near Colorado Springs that he could join.

                He went and got snarky about that, too! He growled something about them being so cowardly they refused to stand up to the Cats - although I was a little unsure why they would bother or even care about the Overlords (being a LONG way from Vegas!) in the first place.

                Then the bastard went too far. "I've heard about the two who were with you in Vegas - how they ran away after you were attacked. Pathetic cowards, fleeing from a few Ka enforcers!"

                "They found out that Vesta was pregnant, so they returned to their home," Olivia snarled. Rodrigo dismissed that with a snort.

                "That's no excuse. One of the People should be able to fight despite that." That made me so mad I couldn't see straight! Nobody talks like that about Vesta! But I just bit my tongue, said goodbye to the Mayor, and left before I did something to Rodrigo. Even before the Change, there was nothing I hated more than a smug, self-righteous, Holier-Than-Thou attitude, especially when it came from someone who walked around looking for "wrongs" that they could get outraged about, regardless of whether or not an actual wrong existed! I used to see people like him asking for grant money all the time - professional whiners that thought that being angry about a legitimate tragedy made them some kind of honorary victim of it and entitled them to compensation! I stormed past Leo & Dallas towards the vehicles - so help me Corellon, if I heard him say one more thing, I was going to shove the Browning up his ass and turn him into modern art!

                As we approached Scooby and the Bradley, Mitchell joined us and we thanked him for his help. We were loading up the luxury items that Leo brought back from the Commander's quarters when Dallas heard something. He cocked his head and looked like Radar from 'MASH' - I kid you not!. "Choppers!" he said. We all stopped to take a look and someone spotted some explosions and fire from the direction of the airport. At least we wouldn't have to worry about that. Then we heard the cracking-whip thunder of an Azrael's main weapon, several times in rapid succession. That did it - no way in Hell we were staying here with that thing in the area!

                Connors immediately made for the Bradley and climbed into the drivers' position while Mitchell claimed the turret position. I climbed in too. I figured in case of trouble, maybe Olivia and I should split up. Dallas pulled Scooby into the lead and Connors followed. Mitchell was happier than a kid in a candy shop, playing with his new toy. He checked out the electronics and said he thought he might be able to fix them, given a few hours at a Radio Shack or something similar.

                The radio clicked on again - it was Olivia calling 'Morningstar'. She told him that she had a notebook taken from the former raider commander of Kingman and there was a note reading that a group of 150 raiders had recently finished training at the Lake Havasu facility and had been dispatched to Kingman! Another stated that Fort Mojave needed another 125 laborers, particularly people with agricultural experience.

               Lucifer acknowledged and said he'd relay the news. Then she told him what the commander had 'told' us about the defenses at Martinez Lake being lighter since they're deep into their 'Zone of Control'. Lucifer told her to be careful getting in and out and suggested that since we were going to be 'in the neighborhood' perhaps we could arrange some damage to the facilities at Lake Havasu and Fort Mojave.

                Olivia told him we'd think about it and signed off. As soon as we got away from the center of the action we started looking for a phone book. A small diner proved to have a phone booth that was pretty sheltered and had a phone book that was in remarkably good condition. There was a Radio Shack listed on the other side of town and we headed for it.

                When we found the strip mall that it was in, our hopes fell; the whole place looked pretty well ransacked, and the Radio Shack looked like people had been thru it more than once. Mitchell dug around for quite some time, and found some usable items. Then in the back he struck gold. The owner of the Radio Shack ran a VCR/DVD repair service out of the back room. There were also a few ham radios back there, and Mitchell was able to find more useful items by ripping some VCR/DVD players apart.

                So we found a place to stash the vehicles and get some rest while Mitchell worked. Olivia set about giving both of the vehicles a 'make-over' using the Kingdom colors of green and gold. As I watched her we decided that the Bradley needed a name. We decided that 'Velma' was a good name - it went well with 'Scooby'. Leo saw what she was doing and shook his head; "We're not a big enough target as it is? If you have to redo the colors, couldn't you use desert camo?"

                Olivia said, "It's not as if we're ever going to sneak up on somebody in these things, anyway."

                Connors joined in; "Actually I was hoping we could work on our sneaking." (Why did I get the feeling that was directed at me?) She went on to say that we got lucky here tonight; that the opposition was sloppy and had no discipline. "A small, organized, group of professionals should have no trouble with these kinds of operations."

                "Okay," I asked, "Where are we going to find 'em?"

                She sighed at me; "I was referring to us. I was hoping that with a little work, concentration, and a plan, we could do better next time. And we will need a plan to get into Martinez Lake. Has anyone got one?"

                Olivia said, "I figured we'd park Scooby, walk in, and find the guy with the remote controls for the explosives."

                Leo joined Connors this time, "No, no no!" Connors looked to Leo, and he explained to us. "That's the exact opposite of what we need to do. We need to go in, unseen, neutralize anyone who might stop us from taking care of the explosives and THEN neutralize the rest of the guards. But the first thing we have to do is eliminate the threat of the explosives."

                "So we sneak in and neuro-gun everyone we see," Olivia said.

                "That works for me. After all that's the kind of work they were designed for," Connors agreed. "But even before we do that we need intel. We need to know schedules, patrol patterns. There's bound to be weaknesses, we just need to find them."

                "And when we deprive them of the use of those explosives, we have the upper hand," Leo said.

                "But what about the anti-disturbance mercury switches they guy told us about?" Olivia asked.

                Leo shrugged, "Just makes it more interesting."

                Then Olivia asked about having someone on the inside, maybe she and I, posing as prisoners.

                "I thought about that, too," I said. "Either we sneak in or let ourselves be captured."

                Neither Leo nor Connors seemed to like that idea. And the conversation turned to how we might get inside the Martinez Lake perimeter. Connors had the idea of using the river.

                Olivia asked about wet gear. "Leo - you were a SEAL."

                He got a pack and rummaged thru it. He pulled out a box of condoms and tossed it on the table. "Here ya go."

                "We sleep our way in?" she asked.

                He rolled his eyes so much I was afraid they'd roll right out of his head, "No. You put them on your guns to keep them dry."

                "Zip-Loc bags, or trash bags and tape, that'll work too," I said. He and Connors looked at me with some astonishment. Hey! I watch war movies too!

                Then the conversation turned to getting there, (250 miles between here and there) and just what would we do with the Lake after we liberate it - it is VERY close to Yuma, after all. Connors warned us that we couldn't afford to make the same mistake that was made during Desert Storm when the forces got in spitting distance of Baghdad but didn't take it. Never leave a live enemy in power. No loose ends.

                When we all started yawning, Connors suggested that we stay not only the night here, but a good part of tomorrow, too. Leo made one last suggestion - that we hit the Yuma