Lucifer’s Semi-Final Conclave Part 10
Old Town, Las Vegas, NV…
Danielle opened her shoulder bag and withdrew her pack of tissues, laying them on her lap… The woman, with face still deeply buried in Danielle’s neck had finally progressed from intense, deep sobs to infrequent sniffs. Danielle folded two tissues together, and glanced at Phil, who was offering her now uncapped bottle of water. Smiling at Phil, she accepted the bottle, slightly dampened the folded tissues and handed the bottle back to Phil. Danielle then gently placed her hand under the woman’s chin, and slowly raised her head from her shoulder. As their eyes met, she gently began to swab the woman’s red cheek, flipping the folded tissues to repeat on the other cheek. She then handed her entire pack of tissues to the woman, whose dark eyes smiled in gratitude, as she used one to wipe the crevices around her eyes. She used a second tissue to blow her nose, as she turned her head and audibly said … excuse me….please…I am SO embarrassed… Danielle gently patted the woman’s shoulder, assuring her clear receipt of the universal female communication, identical in all languages… “I COMPLETELY understand…” Their eyes met again as the two “girls” began serious communication…. With a refreshed attitude now, the woman stated “I’m Alexandria… but I don’t really go by that name often… especially among friends… please just call me Buffy.“
“Buffy“, said Danielle … I am Danielle….and lately, my name among friends is.. uhh.. Brihg….
‘Bree’ exclaimed Buffy… I Like that… Danielle smiled, it’s Irish, she stated, and its actually pronounced more like ‘Brihg’…. you have to kinda roll your tongue like this.. “Bre-i-quegh” … Buffy replied slowly “Brehkee”? Close enough, said Danielle, smiling broadly… They laughed and briefly hugged again. Finally - motioning to Phil, with a double-dimple smile ... This hippie is my hubby, Phil.
Phil smiled at Buffy, while nodding in greeting. Phil had been intensely observing the proceedings with the typical male’s mental struggle to decode the many strange nuances of most, (hell .. All) purely female to female body language. He was, after 16+ years, a still learning student of the exact meaning of Danielle’s many non verbal expressions, which to his male mind, quite often had small, and to him, insignificant variations that somehow greatly changed the entire interpretation…. He shrugged in silence.
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IAD Airport, VA
#2 was waiting for Georges flight, which had just landed, to complete its maze-like journey to the gate. With him were two others, a man and a woman. who had been instructed to examine the USB sticks George was bringing. Their orders had been clear… time was of the essence… and this had been repeated to them several times by #2, the final time emphasized with raised and contorted eyebrows…. They understood.
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32 miles east of Pahrump, NV
Anu opened the barred gate with a wave of his hand, and said to Bill as he stood transfixed, I have some emergencies to attend to, but, I will be back soon to join you… ask around for one called Amok. He is expecting you, and has been carefully instructed to give you a complete tour. I’ll see you shortly… An eager Bill Meacham went through the gate, which closed behind him. He of course did not yet realize that he would never exit.
Anu mused, well that’s another one down…Personally, he thought -- I think I‘m pretty good in my hopefully soon to be role as chief of Master’s room of Deception … He knew that his previously assigned goals of completing the deception of George Healy and #2 must wait, though, until he retrieved the Amulet from Danielle and completed his ultimate goal. He excitedly remembered his previously shape shifted appearance of the muscular, blond, virile male human, and he greatly anticipated his, hopefully, soon coming, seduction of Brighid… Anu vanished.
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IAD Airport, VA
As the cleared the ramp, George was greatly surprised to see #2, with extended open palm, waiting for him. He recognized the pair standing on either side of #2 as two of the chiefs from their nerd division, as he termed it -- aka data miners…
George dropped his carry on as he retrieved the USBs from his shirt pocket, and as he placed them individually in #2’s palm he stated, the black one is voice. #2 offered them to his companions, each nerd selected their choice, then turned and disappeared into the milling throngs of sheep.
George, said #2... Lets go to the office.. They walked toward the escalator at a brisk pace. As George was entering the U-turn to descend the escalator, #2 grasped his arm and pointed to the TSA guard standing in front of the locked door leading to the Concourse rooftop heliport. As # 2 approached, he pressed his transponder. The door swung open, and the guard stepped aside with a nod. They climbed the stairway to a waiting chopper.
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Old Town, Las Vegas, NV…
Phil was was both amazed and pleased. In his entire life with Danielle, he had never known her to have had many female acquaintances at all. He smiled as he perceived that this Buffy was almost as important to “Bree” as her known, lone female friend… Jennifer her mom. Even as her forever friend since first gazing at her eyes at the UM campus and now, finally again, her sole male best “friend”, Phil realized… Danielle severely needed this new soul in her life. He smiled as he watched the two of them laughing while jabbering incoherently (at least to him).. about their personal lives.
It was, indeed only about 30 minutes or so after they had completed the tissue episode, that Buffy and Bree had become instant ‘besties’. Exactly as grade school friends often do.
Mostly, it was Buffy that had downloaded first, with Bree occasionally interjecting her own life trip experiences with smiling, wide opened eyes, while briefly tapping Buffy’s arm with one index finger. They often laughed out loud, for no reason, Phil thought.
Phil learned during the past 30 minutes of his silence, all he needed to know about Buffy a least for now. Buffy was 32, and 7 months pregnant. The purse snatching drunk was her husband Ken. She seriously testified that Ken was the sweetest man you would care to meet except when he got snockered, which, she emphasized sincerely--- was a rare occurrence indeed . Ken, she said, did not have a mean bone in his body. He had never, in their 11 years together, so much as raised his hand in anger to her. Buffy loved him dearly, but she became rightly adamant when he had demanded that they leave and go home. He was in poor condition to even walk, much less drive. She had sneaked his keys from her purse into her pocket as he went to relieve himself on the way out. Ken was the only one who could get them home, she said, because the setting sun was impossible for her to negotiate on the long drive because of her stupid contacts, and her regular glasses had been left at home, They lived maybe 75 miles southwest, on a secondary road between Henderson and Searhlight… When Buffy started to tear up in despair, Bree wrapped her with a big hug. Danielle offered Buffy her water bottle…. I’m not contagious, I promise… Buffy instantly grabbed it and drank deeply. They sat silently for a moment. Buffy finally noticed Bree’s silver necklace, that had made her face slightly uncomfortable when she had had her face in Bree’s neck during her sobbing episode. Can I see it? Bree extracted it fully and held it up to Buffy’s out stretched hand. Buffy exclaimed-- OOH, that medallion is something else… It’s an antique.. Right? Bree nodded. Buffy exclaimed --- Bree, I have to hear the story…
Danielle glanced at Phil, who just sat smiling… and as she began considering how to start, and how much to divulge, Buffy suddenly exclaimed … it’s vibrating! And it seems to be growing warmer. She touched Danielle’s neck… it’s much warmer than that, she said. Buffy handed it back to Danielle, and as she dropped it in her bosom,she realized that it WAS abnormally warm… and a strange calm seemed to pervade her mind. Bree started to speak….
Buffy, she truthfully said .. We are from back east.. We are running from ..uuh.. business acquaintances who are adamantly trying to kill us. They are extremely organized and powerful. A few hours ago…. She continued with most of the sordid details beginning at the airport gift shop, but leaving out the details of amulet and Brighid parts, for now.
When she finished a wide mouthed Buffy exclaimed --- Bree… you mean you are homeless, and unable to use your ID? Danielle nodded the affirmative…. Well, he was sure right! Who, Danielle queried…. My preacher, Buffy said … just last Sunday he said… God will never let you down… He will help you in ways you will not expect when you most need it.
We both just got Blessed real specially… You both are coming home with Ken and I, and I just got a sober driver, and to top it all off, a wonderful new best friend…Bree and Buffy exchanged a tight embrace… Let’s go, Buffy said … Phil dutifully gathered the bags.
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Bally’s Casino, on the Strip
The six ‘suits’ were sitting around an old Blackjack table that had suddenly been reassigned duty as a makeshift desk in a small store room that had been repurposed as their new office. They were going over all their data for the third time, looking for overlooked details. The knock on the door was answered quickly. A plain suited LVPD detective stated… We just got a hit at Denny’s from up the street… your Phillip Warren for sure with a petite lady in cammos whose head was hidden behind the paper she was reading. It was near noon… He continued… the data stopped as they went to a rear booth out of view. The strange thing though… they never showed on any cameras again, that we have been able to find so far… we are still looking… nothing since, though…. Four ‘suits’ came alive and headed to the rear casino lot…
The other two took the usb from the detective’s hand and began searching 4 hours of Dennys video, beginning at 11:AM Occasionally going into fast scan mode on their monitors. Finally, one looked at the other and said… y’ know?.. these are trained by our very own agency in E&E. Pulling up the denny’s layout… they chose a location out of camera range that is here, he pointed with his finger. Right beside the Emergency exit and the remote restrooms… They changed their duds, Bob!! It was less than 5 minutes until they located a tall hippie and petite dark haired pregnant woman in a green maternity outfit obviously together, and… carrying the identical bags showing on the ID hit
making their way from that area to the door, at 51 minutes past the definite hit at the entrance…. Bob said … Bingo…see if you can ID that large bag… Just then the Bally’s security chief walked in with a fresh carafe of coffee… Find something new? He queried… Well yeah… see if you can ID this large shopping bag, stated Bob
He looked into the monitor which Bob had frozen, zoomed in on the bag… He immediately replied … Yes.. It’s one of ours …. From the Boutique…
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The previous part 9 is here:
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=114339
Note: next will be an intermission ... maybe a day or two....
My fingers are sore, and my eyes blurry...and what little mind I have left is taxed.
....Happy New Year...
