You have already seen the benefits of this training in your ordeal with Engoza, even though you are still learning. It is key to your position to learn every type of mental power you are able to learn. This varies from person to person. Lova is very skilled in this. Being able to use your mind, as well as your body, to protect yourself is one of the things that all Guardians and the Gatekeeper must continually practice.
In order for us to break down a skilled mental block, it may take days we do not really have, but there is nothing we can do to change this. This is one reason we feel Tidbit may be an incentive to breaking the resistance of the man he attacked. There is already fear there. If he knows the cat is in the room with him, he may break more easily than the others. We shall see."
Jenny thought that maybe having Liliath in the room with the others might be a great incentive as well, but she wasn't sure she felt brave enough to say so. Liliath's eyes were slits, which usually meant she was upset or angry about something. Her mom's old saying kept repeating in her head. Liliath had never been anything but kind to Jenny, but she didn't want to ever give her reason to feel otherwise.
Ingot stood, looking somberly from face to face. "You all have your assignments. We will be asking much from all of you until this situation is resolved. I fear, whether it takes weeks or months or…longer, we will all be strained to the maximum of our capacity. We will communicate to your headquarters immediately, if there are any changes or news regarding our prisoners. Gariel will be travelling to meet you at your headquarters as soon as he has something to report concerning the progress in the interrogations.
His second in command will take over his general duties, but he will be running our efforts from Sanglarka for now. We want him on the ground and ready to move quickly when the Groga agents are found and a plan is devised to capture them. We will transfer the MDPs you found to Sanglarka, so Gariel may inventory them and discover how they can aid us in our fight and to potentially puzzle out why Engoza was so intent on retrieving them.
Be well, all of you. Much rests on your well-being. You are not alone. We will not fail you."
It was a dismissal. The company rose. All of them looked determined and grim.
Jenny turned to the Councilors. "How long do you think until the man Tidbit shredded will be able to be interrogated?"
Myla replied, "The healers say a few days. We will notify you when we are ready for Tidbit."
Tarafau nodded. Jenny hugged each of the councilors in farewell and left behind her fellow Guardians. Most of them would be going home to secure their gates and then would be returning to Sanglarka as needed. Jenny had already secured her house, as much as it could be until the techs from Alliance headquarters were able to set up some new shields for both the house and the shed.
Jenny thought about the little safe under the floor tiles. What were in those MDPs and why hadn't LizzieAI told her about them? So many questions and little time for answers.
Chapter 27: The Lair
Since she had returned, Sanglarka had become a buzzing hive of activity. Everyone had their assignments, and not all the Guardians were there at any given time, due to the necessity of continuing to step up security at every gate. Lova had increased Jenny's mental training sessions and Arvid was putting her through unarmed combat techniques, which meant more bruises both to her body and her ego.
Between that and the endless meetings and exploring the MDPs, the three days they had been back on Earth had seemed like weeks. Every night, after doing her breathing exercises, she had collapsed onto her bed like every bone in her body had dissolved. She didn't remember her dreams, but there had been no reoccurrence of Sam invading them. She was sure she would have remembered that.
Since Juan had been notified about the potential danger that Sam may be able to pinpoint his gateway, he had immediately been sent home to see to the protection of the estate. He assured Jenny when she had tried to apologize that this was a part of his job and he had prepared for it. "I have a few tricks up my sleeve," he had said with a wink and a grin. "I would never leave Luz unprotected, and she is by no means helpless." He got that dreamy look on his face that he had whenever he talked about his beautiful wife.
Aliki, Adelle and Guaray had undertaken to inventory the MDPs. The three of them had communicated with their Guides with instructions to assist the Alliance in securing their gates so they could stay in Sanglarka for this task. Between Aliki's photographic memory and Adelle and Guaray's background in research, they were well equipped to do a thorough job. That being said, they had only gotten through the first two, and the lists of equipment and supplies was more than a little surprising. The MDPs, when filled, were more like one of the "big box" stores than anything, large warehouses that expanded at need.
They had gotten very excited about a lot of tech that Jenny didn't begin to understand, but Aliki had said, "This changes everything." He assured Jenny that both Burt and Bob would be extremely excited to see what Lizzie had accumulated over her 60 plus years of working as a Guardian.
He also told her that there was some of the tech in the first MDP they had explored that was unknown to him. He was hopeful, however, that Burt would know more about it.
Lova and Tarafau had gone over the lists of equipment and supplies that had been found so far with blooming hope in their eyes.
Lova explained, "We will need to be able to shore up security at every Earth gateway. This means using tech that is not scannable by any of the current technology available to Earthlings or the Groga. It also means employing more mundane methods that have been used for centuries on Earth by various cultures. We want to keep the Groga off their guard.
In addition, much of the equipment on this list are surveillance related, which when installed throughout the network, should give us advanced warning of imminent attack and will allow us to watch our enemy, hopefully unnoticed."
As Jenny continued her training, she concluded that although she was constantly learning new things, her tasks were not impossible, as long as she took it one day at a time and was willing to rely on the experience of her team members. Trying to comprehend the entirety of it was just too overwhelming. Her dad had always said, "Do the work that's in front of you and do it well." It often surprised her how often the sayings she had rolled her eyes at as a teen turned out to be wisdom, after all.
At the end of the third day, Lova assembled them at the gate. In the waning light, Burt, Bob, Leland and Xao Ting stepped through, all looking tired and rumpled. "We found them," said Burt wearily, shaking his head. "Let's get to work."
They followed the four into the lodge. Lova insisted they eat and rest before reporting, but Bob shook his head. "We'll eat and rest, but first we need to bring you all up to speed."
They retired to the dining room. Arvid bustled off to the kitchen. When all were seated, Burt began.
"If they had hidden out in pretty much anywhere but a Louisiana swamp we would have been back sooner. The beacons I planted in Moe and Curly are still active and sending a clear signal. But there are few roads where they have set up headquarters and there is no way to go in clandestinely except to hike in. There are no straight lines in a swamp and the swamps in that area are home to some of the most dangerous wildlife pretty much anywhere else on earth.
Most everyone knows that there are alligators in the Louisiana swamps, but there are also bears, and more varieties of poisonous snakes as anywhere I've ever been, not to mention constrictors. Add to that bobcats and mosquitos big enough to carry off a Smart Car and you can begin to see what we're up against.
That being said, they haven't done much in the way of other security. I'm guessing they figure to let the native reptile population keep out unwanted visitors. There is definitely some kind of tech being used inside their compound and I do mean compound. They've got a force there, probably a few hundred Groga, which doesn't count for much against the forces just the Louisiana National Guard could bring to bear, but no one knows they're there and I think t
here's way more to this than it appears.
It isn't just a few brutal henchmen. This many Groga in one place could only mean one thing. They're planning something bigger than any of the raids they have done up to this point. I don't know if they are just using the swamp as a staging ground for raids to other dimensions or if they mean to do something here on our planet, but either way, it isn't good.
We got footage of their operation for the team to analyze, and we installed some recording equipment up in some of the cypress trees that surround their lair. We'll know if they appear to be getting ready to make a move. I don't think we were noticed, but I have to tell you, if they see us coming it won't be pretty. I'm voting we get the Troopers involved in this. If we're going to take this camp without letting any of them escape and without attracting attention, we're going to have to have a solid attack strategy. I would be surprised if this was an in and out mission. There's likely gonna be some fighting and there's gonna be some big risks.
One of those risks is alerting the governments of Earth that there is a combat mission right under their noses. We have to make sure that the satellites that survey that region are looking the other way, somehow, and we're going to have to keep it as quiet as a raging battle can possibly be. There isn't any human habitation for miles, but some sounds carry for a long way, if we don't figure out how to curtail that.
I want Gariel to head this operation up. He's a tactical genius and he may have some resources we don't have."
Aliki piped up. "And we may have more resources than you think," he said with a big grin.
"You found something?" Bob asked excitedly.
"Yep, five MDPs from the storage shed behind Jenny's house, and we're only mostly through the second one. That Lizzie was the ultimate pack rat."
Lova nodded. "And we'll brief you about it over your meal," as Arvid came into the dining room laden with trays of food which he sat before Burt's team.
None of them argued even for a moment.
Lova brought them up to speed on everything that had happened in their absence. Bob sent a worried glance at Jenny when they recounted the attack by the Groga in Jenny's living room. She tried to smile back encouragingly, but Bob just shook his head in disbelief. The look of horror on Burt's face would have been funny, if it wasn't so unexpected and sincere.
"Have you heard anything back about the interrogations, yet?" Burt asked clearing his expression.
"We expect to hear soon. It appears the one who was still conscious after the conflict is very mentally resistant to our extractors, so they are attempting," she paused, pursing her lips, "other means."
Xao Ting had been sitting quietly between Burt and Bob, but now he spoke up. "I may be of some assistance in that area. There are some herbs…" he left the words hanging in the air.
"I'll let them know," Lova replied.
She turned to Jenny. "What are your thoughts, Gatekeeper?" she asked respectfully.
Jenny hesitated, looking into the faces of the Guardians, Guards and Agents assembled before her. When did a twenty-something blogger become the leader of an interdimensional force? She saw hope and confidence and worry all at once on those faces. She felt very small and inadequate at the moment.
"I am not a general or a statesman. I am a girl from Earth who has gotten herself way in over her head, but I have the best possible team and councilors anyone could ask for. I'll try my best to do my part, but I must depend on the collective experience and skills of each of you. Between us and the resources we can call on from the Alliance, I believe we can do this. We must do this.
The people of our planet are unaware, with all of their petty squabbles and big plans, that an inimical force has become entrenched here. We must try to keep it that way, if we can, because I don't think than anyone on Earth is any more ready for this than I am.
Lova, please acquaint The Council with our current situation and consult with Burt as to what we need. Burt, I think you should add Brendan to your team. Aliki, in the morning, I want you to do a walkthrough with Burt's team of what your team has found in the MDPs, so far. There has to be something in one of them that Sneaky Sam was aware of and that she wanted bad enough to blow her cover at this stage.
You also need to speak with Megan. She knows a lot about wildlife, and I think there may be some ways we can use that to our advantage.
As for the rest of us, it will be important to increase our vigilance in the gateways and their surroundings. I would like Adelle to put her brilliant mind to work on how these Groga are circumventing the gateways. With her grasp of science, she should be able to get together with the Alliance physicists to figure this out. If the Groga can do this, then they might not be the only ones. We need to know how they are managing to slip onto Earth without using any of the known gates.
That's all I can think of right now. I need everyone to reassemble here right after breakfast tomorrow morning, so we can work out the details and make any additional assignments any of you can think of that I've missed."
Lova nodded. "Jenny has the right of it. This is bigger than any one of us could handle on our own, but together we have the resources and the talents necessary to get this done. Right now, everyone needs to get some rest, so we can get an early start."
Next morning, the entire group did their run and workouts together. It reminded Jenny of the many wonderful hours she had spent with her hiking group and that memory brought pain to her heart again. All those happy times completely ruined by the blatant and unfeeling betrayal by her best friend. She pushed it aside. "Think of what you have, not what you don't have," came back to her mind.
This group of Guardians, Guards and Agents were fast becoming something more than a team dedicated to a mission. Jenny knew that when it came down to it, she could trust any of those gathered at Sanglarka with her life and the fate of her planet. She had to keep reminding herself that the fate of the Dimensional Alliance also hung in the balance. But for now, it helped decrease the immensity of it all to focus on saving Earth.
All of her life Jenny had been fascinated by space and had dreamed of space travel. The universe had been bigger than she could imagine and now she found out that she lived in one universe among billions, each as vast as her own, and that somehow the actions she and her little team would take in the near future would impact more than she could possibly count or even envision for eons to come.
After a good night's sleep, showers and the usual Sanglarka breakfast, the diners helped clear the table and returned to meet about last night's revelations.
Jenny stood, and they got quiet. "I hope everyone is rested and your minds are clear," she began. Unlike the day before, she had spent time before sleep considering carefully everything Lova, Tarafau and Burt had revealed to her and what she needed to do to organize her resources. She felt much more prepared. "I don't want to spend a lot of time just batting things around. I'll be coming around to get a report from each team once we separate into groups, so we can put together a plan as quickly as possible. I'll give everyone until the end of the day to come up with the best plans you are able. We are expecting Gariel and Brendan sometime later today who will be joining Burt's team. We have sent them each a brief, so you won't have to start them from scratch.
Arvid is setting up a buffet so that people can go ahead and eat as they are ready to take a break without having to worry about a mealtime schedule and I want you to feel free to continue to work while you eat."
At this there was a chuckle that went around the room. Like they would even consider slowing work for something so mundane as eating, unless, of course, it was Arvid's masterful cooking!
"In the meantime, if you have any questions for Lova, Tarafau or me, just let us know. Is that clear?"
A concurrent nodding of heads and chairs scooting back told her that they were ready to get started.
Bob sidled over to Jenny who hadn't yet risen from her chair. "Wow, kiddo. I'm impressed. I had commanders in the military that didn't take charge t
his well. Obviously, all that training with Lova, Tarafau and the LizzieAI is paying off. We'll get this done. Mark my word." Jenny realized that maybe Lizzie's slip would make all of this much easier. Bob was going to be a true asset, both for the team and for her.
Some of the groups headed out to the balcony that stretched the length of the lodge, overlooking a valley filled with wildflowers, a magnificent view of the snow-capped mountains framed in a crystal blue sky frosted with wispy streaks of nearly transparent clouds. Others convened in one or more of the private offices or the library. Tarafau gathered Jenny's guards and headed toward the workout room. When they all had dispersed, Nova steered Jenny out the front door toward the gate. The Sanglarka gate actually looked like a white picket garden gate, arched by a white trellis draped in wild roses.
"Brendan and Gariel will be coming through soon," Lova said, as they stood before the gate. "I thought it would be nice to meet them, so we can get them into their groups as quickly as possible. Both of them will be meeting with Burt's group first and then Gariel will be meeting with you, me, Arvid and Tarafau."
"Lova, I'm glad I got to spend a few moments privately with you. I think you probably know that I am 'scared spitless' about all of this, as my dad used to say. I am not afraid of the conflict, although I've never been in any kind of a fight in my life, but I'm most afraid I'm going to mess this up. I know next to nothing about fighting or strategy or subterfuge, except what I've read about in books. I'm not afraid of technology. My generation was raised with it, but I don't know enough about what the tech we have can do. Isn't there someone else who can take over for me?"
Lova arched her eyebrows, puzzlement clear on her face. "Are you saying you want to quit? I don't believe that of you for one moment."
Jenny shook her head vehemently. "No, I'd just like someone else to be in charge."
The House on Infinity Loop Page 24