Paul got no standing ovation and only about half even bothered to applaud. He thought to himself, “The United Nations is one of the least unified organizations on Earth.” As he was escorted out of the General Assembly by an assistant to the Secretary General he knew that the rest of the emergency session would now actually become an emergency. Just as Paul was about to leave the secure area and step back out into the lobby, the assistant spoke softly to him, in a strong Nigerian accent, “Well you’ve opened a fine can of worms. I for one lost a father, mother and had a sister kidnapped by Boko Harem. You couldn’t start soon enough for me.” Paul asked, “And where is your sister now?” The Nigerian smiled, somehow knowing, and said, “You already started didn’t you? She lives with me now in New York after I got her from the Embassy in Nigeria.” Paul grasped his shoulder and replied, “Tell them we’ll be back.” With that he left what may well be his one and only fan at the U.N.
Paul didn’t bother to stick around. He checked out of the Hotel and went to his room to gather the few things he brought with him. He gave Leona a call to let her know Tomas would be in touch and had her contact General Zarman to have a team of Marines assigned to 520 Park Avenue, with force-fields; body armor might just be a little intimidating for the local residents. Leona, knowing Paul well, asked, “So who did you piss-off now?” Paul laughed as he replied, “Oh, no one important, only the entire U.N. General Assembly. Make sure you check the evening news and the Times to see what kind of a hornet’s nest I’ve stirred-up. It may not hurt to ask George Sullivan to keep you posted on anything he hears. I don’t want you and Donald in any danger because of me.”
Leona turned to Hunter who was anxious to speak with his grandfather and handed him the phone. He came on line and immediately asked, “I take it your declaration of war on terrorism did not go well.” Paul only asked, “Lucy?” Hunter told him, “Yeah, she didn’t have a camera inside except for what was in front of your face. Those people did not look too happy.” Paul told him, “Then I don’t guess I need to warn you and your sister to be careful. I just declared war against terrorist throughout the world. I don’t imagine it will be well received.” Hunter quickly changed the subject, “Grandpa, how much money do I have?” Paul knew he would never ask if he didn’t have something important in mind, he answered, “As much as you need. What’s going on?” Hunter, who was a man of few words, that’s what Paul liked about him, replied, “Ursula and I were discussing what she will do one day when she is too old to model or gets tired of the lifestyle. Our conversation lead to her old boss Gregorovich Romenov and the business she had been modeling for. He owned a company in France that manufactured a line of fragrances, women’s clothing and jewelry. The company is on the market since his death for $800,000,000, which is, from what I understand, about half of what it is worth. I want to buy it and make her CEO. Her name and reputation in the industry is exactly what the company needs. I plan to rename the clothing line, Fashion by Ursula, market some of the Verron made jewelry and fragrances and expand the product marketing to include Verron and Xhondar I.”
Paul couldn’t help but smile. This was his grandson’s first interest in business and it was a really good plan. He didn’t want to discourage him. He simply said, “Tell Leona and Donald to go ahead and buy it in your name, not mine. Those two will probably get an even better deal than the 800 million. I’ll leave it to you to negotiate an agreement with Ursula; I’d suggest you work with Donald and Michael on that part. Your new at this and could get taken advantage of. So you’re going to be a fashion mogul, I better see your products in my stores. Tell Ursula, welcome aboard. Fill me in when you get back. I’m headed home.” He hung up. Made a gateway and stepped out in the kitchen to the smell of Mom’s strawberry cobbler. It was good to be home.
With the Christmas holidays closing down much of the activity on Earth, things had slowed down considerably. The networks and the internet had already been buzzing with news on the King’s six nation tour, but when his speech to the U.N. went public the world literally went crazy. Both sides of the arguments were being aired. Paul Verron was no doubt the most loved and most hated man on Earth. Outside of the six treaty signing allies, most Earth governments considered him rude, brash and a trouble maker. The loudest to express their dislike for him were those who knew he would one day be stepping on their toes. Russia and China had even expressed the possibility of declaring war against this arrogant King. Paul watched the news and monitored the security reports and knew that he would have to make an example of someone before his threats were taken seriously.
While Earth was in the middle of the Christmas season, Verron was about to celebrate their version of Thanksgiving; Founders Day. There weren’t any stories about Pilgrims and Indians eating together, this was a celebration of the day that Paul Verron began to bring his family to Verron. Many of the people living on Verron didn’t celebrate a U.S. only holiday, like Thanksgiving, they had to create their own. Between Earth’s holiday slowdown and Verron’s, Paul was able to just relax and enjoy some time to his self. He knew that the following week he would be busy trying to organize everything he had committed to during his whirlwind tour of Earth. Hunter called him excited that Leona and Donald had put an offer on the table for Romenov’s operation in France. They still offered to purchase the corporation for 800 million dollars, but managed to sweeten the deal by having the agents in France add two manufacturing facilities that sewed the high fashion and high priced line of clothing. They both manufactured other lines of clothing under a variety of labels. The deal was scheduled to close in a major publicity signing in Paris after the first of the year. The entire corporation would be renamed Ursula Enterprises. Hunter remained the silent investor since he didn’t want her to be targeted by people who may not care for the Verron family. As far as the world was concerned, the very successful super model had put together a deal to buy her old employer.
Everything on Verron came to a halt for two days. Founders Day fell on the day after the Sabbath Day so everyone had at least two days off to spend with family. Renee held a feast at her house that included Donald and Renee, Josephs mother and father, Josephs brothers, sisters and nieces and nephews, also present were Leona’s brother and sister, Donald’s family, Renee’s sister Marie and of course Hunter and Amber. The hacienda was swarming with dozens of family members. Ursula didn’t quite know what to think of this rowdy bunch. They soon had her in jeans and boots riding a horse with the others that decided to go for a ride. She even went mudding on a four-wheeler with Hunter and Amber. It wasn’t long before she was best friends with Amber and Renee. Ursula came from a very formal and regimented German family, with lots of love, but very conservative in everything they did. When she returned from their ride she had already decided to market a line of high fashion ladies western wear. Renee had totally corrupted her. Leona, Donald and Hunter knew that after this weekend they would only see Ursula when they went to Paris or she came to New York. She would be looking for a place in Paris as soon as she returned from Verron. Renee teased her that she should buy a nice big four-wheel-drive pick-up truck to drive around Paris. There was no better way to get attention.
The Mansion was absolute mayhem. With the Queen Mother and her two brothers and all the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and a few great-great grandchildren, the people from Xhondar, plus Camil, Cali, Hon IV, 99, Finley, the ever present Uduak, King Darsai and wife, Princess Tiffanis and her new boyfriend, a very handsome blond haired and dimpled chinned, Captain Boris Abarnikov, now Duke Abarnikov, builder and commander of King Darsai’s Navy and shipping fleet. Tala had invited High Priest Tu as well. Marcus and Michael and their wives were there with both of the MJs, Katelyn, Chase, Daniel and of course their adopted children. Vladimir and Jesserrica and their children and of course Joe Verron and family and Kary Verron were also there. In total, there were over a hundred people celebrating Founders Day in the Mansion. There was no shortage of talking about the things to come, and thankfu
lness for the things that this group had accomplished. The Queen Mother’s dinner prayer truly reflected the feelings of everyone at the dinner table, when she thanked God for His many blessing He had bestowed on the Verron’s and asked for his continued blessing and guidance for the future.
After she finished, someone asked Paul to make a speech, he replied, “I think I’ve made enough speeches in the past week. I already have 8 billion people who hate me; I better quit while I’m ahead and not turn those who love me away. All I can say is that if you think we have been busy over the past five years, just wait and see what the next five brings.” Kary immediately joked, “What makes you think we love you?”
The table was spread with sugar cured ham, stuffed turkey, fired chicken, mashed potatoes, roast beef, green beans, sweet white corn on the cobb, spinach soufflé, cranberry sauce, sweet baby carrots, buttermilk cornbread and dinner rolls, eight kinds of pies, four cakes, banana pudding … no one left hungry. After the huge late lunch they settled around the terrace and pulled out their instruments, enjoying a wide variety of music and singing for the next couple of hours.
As the guests began to slowly head home or off to visit others who had invited them to celebrate Founders Day, the Dragon Guard was becoming bored and restless. Katelyn, Chase, Daniel, Tala, Camil, Cali and Hon IV together decided to get out of the house and go have a little fun in their Speeders. Tala double checked to make sure Tu was in good hands and found him hanging out with 99 and Finley; no doubt they would soon be in 99s room watching Sci-Fi movies and eating buttered popcorn and Tu’s new discovery, Milk Duds. She immediately headed to join the rest of the gang in the hanger. They were excited about flying together and wished Hunter and Amber were here with them. Today they decided to play follow the leader as Tala took off in her pink Speeder being hotly pursued by the rest of the Guard. As she dove into the woods for the river bed, she did it upside down; everyone else had to follow the leader and do the same, negotiating the river below as they starred at it just a few feet below their faces through their cockpit window. They exited the river basin to the lake and Tala began to do corkscrews only inches from the water’s surface and she executed a 180 just before they reached the deep river canyon on the other side of the lake and flew backwards through the tight and twisting rock walls on either side of them. She executed a backwards flip with a twist yards before the waterfall and drilled the cave opening just as she completed her flip over spin. Never had they raced through the cave as fast as they did on this day.
Tala shot straight up as she exited the cave and cleared the 40,000 foot rock face ahead of them, then leveled out and headed for Mt. Alene. They raced side-by-side across the glacier and even did a little bumper-Speeder along the way; twisting, turning, doing the boot-leg turnaround, side-slide and flying upside down inches above the Speeder underneath. Tala did a rolling twist just before the next gorge and shot off directly for the cave opening in Mt. Alene, hotly pursued by Chase as he pushed with everything he had to keep up with his sister.
Blasting through the dark cave, Chase and Tala exchanged the lead a few times, but Tala always managed to slip back past her brother when he least expected it. He realized she was really good and decided to see just what she could do. The exit at the back of Mt. Alene was not wide enough for them to pass side-by-side, and with Chase now just ahead, Tala did an upside down roll and slipped past Chase’s ship from underneath. Accelerating past him just as he thought he had lost her. She dove for the plateau 30,000 feet below and disappeared into a narrow canyon; so tight that they often had to fly perpendicular to the steep walls to get through. The others were lagging behind as the challenge heated up between Chase and his little sister. He soon realized she was following the canyon so she would be at the best angle for her ascent to the needle. At the canyon’s mouth Tala shot like a bullet directly for eye of the needle 10,000 feet above, leveling out and accelerating to stay ahead of Chase. Chase decided he was going to make her work for her victory and stayed side-by-side until the last possible minute; almost playing chicken with her to see who would back-off first.
Tala punched her throttle and hit the eye of the needle at just over Mach 3, not realizing that her brothers attempt to beat her and the slight bump they had as they jockeyed for position had pushed her just a hair off her line. It wasn’t a hard impact, barely noticeable, but at that speed it caused her Speeder to clip the edge of the hard immovable rock, sending her Speeder into an out of control spin. It instantly slammed much harder into the other side of the needle setting off a combination spin and roll that caused the Speeder to impact at Mach 3 into the canyon wall on the other side, then flipping violently end over end for nearly a mile before it finally slammed into the snow and ice filling the canyon floor.
The others had finally caught up with the battling siblings and entered the canyon just moments behind a shocked and terrified Chase. It was almost over by the time they pulled alongside Chase; now in his stalled-out Speeder. They looked down at the upside down pink Speeder, buried under rocks, snow and ice. They were excitedly speaking to each other about what to do next, since they couldn’t land and attempt a rescue at this altitude without survival suites, which today, they were not wearing. Just as they were about to climb to a higher altitude and radio for assistance, the real nightmare began. The impact of Tala’s Speeder had set off a chain reaction and the rumble could be heard even inside the hovering Speeders, as snow, rocks and ice began to avalanche down the side of the 40,000 foot mountain, destroying everything in their path. The others watched in horror as millions of tons of debris slammed into the side of Tala’s pink Speeder and swept it away toward a ravine that was over 5000 feet deep. In seconds Tala and her Speeder had disappeared, buried under tons of mountain.
The Dragon Guard began to cry. Chase began to shout, “It’s all my fault, I should have never bumped her.” Katelyn kept her cool and quickly climbed to an altitude above the mountains and radioed a distress signal, reporting that Tala Verron had crashed into the canyon of the needle and was buried under an avalanche. There was no sign of her Speeder.
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