Artiface of Strength Ch. 11

Without rising, John looked at the men who were now training automatic weapons upon him and asked, "How can I help you?"

"Where is everyone else?" asked a tall, blonde officer.

John took another sip of lemonade and answered, "Who wants to know?"

"My name is Lt. Colonel Armstrong, and we are here to secure the area before the other agencies arrive here."

"Ah, more company," John said dryly, "Beth, do you think we have enough lemonade for everyone?"

"Mr. Billington, I will ask you once again. Where is everyone? It is my understanding that close to one hundred people live here."

"Well Mr. Armstrong, I have to break it to you; Beth handed out the bells, but most of them refuse to wear them. They claimed that it made them too easy to find when the pack plays hide and seek."

"It's Colonel Armstrong, and I would advise you to cooperate with us. The other agencies may be less friendly than we are."

"What?" John said, "Less friendly than sending a company of heavily armed men into a peaceful tribal nation... Breaking yet another treaty and completely ignoring our right to be free?"

"Again." Ja-mul added.

"Homeland security takes precedence, sir," Armstrong shot back.

"But it was our homeland before you ever showed up," Ja-mul stated forcefully.

"Major Reno, Take them into custody," Armstrong stated imperiously.

Just then, several large S.U.V.s began to enter the compound, all of them exactly alike, and all of them bearing U.S. Government plates. Beth noticed them driving in and remarked, "Look, more clowns. Do you think these clowns will be any funnier than the ones that we've already met?"

John grinned and replied, "I doubt it Beth; this circus will be the civilian brigade. Most likely, this group of clowns will even be rude to Corporal Armstrong here. Make sure that you remember to ask to see their clown permits, they hate it when you do that!"

"I don't think that you'll be laughing later, sir," Major Reno replied quietly.

"Oh, I don't know about that," John replied smoothly. Corporal Armstrong hasn't thought to wonder why we decided to remain behind when we clearly could have left with everyone else. Maybe our laughter is our message."

John would have said more, but just as he was about to continue speaking, automatic weapon fire broke out from the forest to the north of the dining hall. John, Beth and Ja-mul took this as a cue to sit back down and continue to drink their lemonade, as they assumed that it would continue to be too loud for conversation for the time being. Ja-mul took the opportunity to whisper softly in a voice that he was sure that only a wolf would hear, "John, I can't hear you when you guys send to one another. I was going to keep that card for awhile longer, but you might need to know it now."

"Thank you Di-yin," John replied with a respectful nod.

Thirty minutes later, the lemonade was mostly gone, but the shooting had finally ended. Not that it was quiet upon the cessation of the firefight- that's when the yelling began. Ja-mul once again wished that his hearing was as acute as that of the Were, for his curiosity was getting the best of him, while the looks on John and Beth's faces clearly showed that they were amused at what they were hearing. Not knowing what was going on was almost a novelty for the shaman however, so he sat back and waited for the next act to begin.

He didn't have long to wait... A few minutes later, two off-the-rack, suit wearing civilians approached, closely flanked by an obviously upset Lt. Col. Armstrong. John didn't wait for them to begin, instead he interrupted with a, "I hear that the Corporal's men got themselves a deer. I hope they had the correct tag for that; the local game warden is a real stickler on that front."

Armstrong erupted. "Two of my men were wounded, you smug bastard! You will pay for this!"

"You meant to say that two of your ill-trained and trigger-happy cowards shot each other don't you, Corporal? You chose to wind them up into a pre-mission frenzy, and now you'll get to explain this...event... to your superiors. That won't be fun will it, Corporal. Will they bust you back to Private?"

Armstrong angrily took a step forward before one of the civilians cut in sharply, "That's enough Colonel; we will take this from here. Go see to your injured men. Then ignoring the military man further, he turned to John and pulled out his identification and said, smiling, "As you can see from my clown papers, my name is Special Agent James Edwards, and I work for Homeland Security. Looking to the departing Armstrong he continued, "I see that you don't suffer fools gladly, and we do appreciate that you've remained behind to negotiate with us."

John chuckled before saying, "You guys sent Armstrong here just to gauge my reaction didn't you? Oh, and the fact that Major Reno is one of your men. He is wearing a wire, I assume."

Edward smiled a friendly smile and responded, "Do you mind if Agent Brown and I sit down and speak with you? And yes, we'd love some lemonade."

"I'll get right on that," Beth replied dryly, not budging an inch.

The two men seated themselves before Edwards continued, "Okay, let me tell you what we think we know, and then you correct me if I get anything wrong. Is that fair enough?"

John nodded and the man continued, "You three are John Billington, Bethany Fawn Yellow-Eagle, and Marris 'Ja-mul' Yazzie, and all three of you are werewolves...correct?"

John replied laconically, "Well, no one ever calls her anything but Beth, but that is technically her legal name. And Marris here," he said grinning at the old man, "is not actually Were; he is something darker and much more twisted than we are, he is our Di-yin."

Edward took that in for a moment before responding, "Am I right in assuming that you've stayed behind to speak with us?"

John assented and Edwards asked, "So...what do we need to know?"

"We only want to be left in peace. We've been in the Americas as long as the People have been here. We've never interfered in your affairs, and we have not broken any of your laws, and yet," he said, pausing to indicate the soldiers swarming through the compound, "here you are. Now, you tell me, what do we need to know?"

Edwards nodded his head at this and replied, "Some of my superiors are afraid of you. They have no idea what you are or how long you've been here, and this scares the Hell out of them. There was a very real discussion about coming in here, weapons firing, but cooler heads prevailed. The fact that you remained here to speak with us will probably strengthen the cooler faction somewhat, although I suspect that part of the reason that Colonel Asshole was given this assignment was purely to create a problem where none exists. Thank you for being so calm while you insulted him, I suspect that the video of that exchange will be making the rounds soon."

Pausing for a moment, Edwards then said, "But that said, the people who are afraid of you will likely be incredibly upset that the rest of your people have disappeared. They'll probably urge more violent measures..."

Ja-mul spoke up, "So, what you are saying is that some men within your Government want to herd us into reservations after we've been forced to sign treaties that we all know that you'll never follow. Then, if we are not willing to do this, they'll hunt us down and kill us like dogs in the street...again? Have I got that right?"

John and Beth waited silently; rather curious as to how the Homeland Security agent would respond to this. Edwards didn't respond immediately, taking the time to look from face to face to see if there was any disagreement amongst the three. Finding none, he sighed and said, "Clearly, the answer to that question is above my pay-grade. Can we fly you to D.C. and continue this conversation?"

"We absolutely do not fly; that one is a deal-breaker for us." John replied forcefully.

"Excuse me?" replied a surprised Edwards.

"We don't fly. We can agree to accompany you to Washington, but by ground only. Or, we could conduct talks here, or at the Resort, or even in Seattle or Portland if that works for you, but no flying...ever."

"It's against our religion," replied Ja-mul. Xwun does not allow us to leave the ground for his sky."

The two agents looked at one another quizzically for a moment before Agent Brown, who up to this time had not said a word; spoke up, saying, "I'll go make a call."

As Agent Brown walked away to make his call, Beth said with a smile, "Let's go into the dining room and find something to drink. All this talking always makes John thirsty."

"So... Brown is the senior agent?" John asked as everyone was filing into the kitchen.

"You don't miss much," Edwards replied, "They won't like that at all."

"Would you rather negotiate with a stupid man who couldn't deliver on his promises?" Beth said scornfully.

Edwards stopped moving and took a new look at his three adversaries, and then said, "No, they are not going to like dealing with you three. Can I ask which one of you is in charge here? I had assumed that it was Mr. Billington, but now I'm not so sure."

John replied, "Well, that would depend on the particular subject under discussion."

The agent chuckled ruefully, "Yup, way above my pay grade." Then changing the subject, he said, "What do we have to drink?"

John grinned and replied, "We make our own ale; we have a very fine brown right now. How does that sound?"

~~~

The music was loud in the car; no, check that... the music was very loud in the car as 'Joan Crawford Has Risen from the Grave' came thumping out of the speakers. Will glanced over at Florence and said, "Mate, your taste in music is extremely strange.

"Don't blame me for this one. I think Tom left this disc in the car; he drove it last time."

"Yes, but he wasn't the one to turn the volume up to eleven, now was he?" Tristan said quickly.

"You are not helping here!" Florence snapped. "We are going to see my mate's ex; I'm trying to bleed off some of my aggression before I see her. You don't want me to rip her head off do you?"

"Ahem," Will broke in, "Bleeding off some aggression is probably a good idea, love. If I know Liz, I can almost guarantee that she will try to make you lose your cool. Quite honestly, I'd say that your best bet would be to return her barbs with sugar. Smile, compliment her, she'll hate that!"

"Tristan, I will introduce you as Florence's bodyguard. Put your earpiece in before we get there, and don't say anything to them at all. Just frown and play the heavy; that will fluster them. They will wonder how many men we have on the outside listening in. They'll probably envision an army behind us; it will go smoother that way."

"You think this could get violent," Florence asked appraisingly.

"No, I doubt it. The fact that this is taking place in Sacramento means that Burton is traveling light. He must be trying to work something with the State Legislature. I doubt if he realizes that Medina has been neutralized yet; he likely thinks that his plans are still moving forward."

Tristan replied, "Yeah, I've been meaning to ask; what did Jefferson and those lawyers do with that?"

Florence answered him. "According to the Alpha, Burton discovered that the tribe who were originally on our land had gone extinct before we ever moved here. He was trying to establish a counter-claim with the only known descendent of that tribe, our George Medina. But Waters made a serious mistake there; he decided to shaft Medina too, so we stepped in and gave the man a much better offer."

"What did we give him?"

"Jefferson set it up so that Medina was confirmed as the official Chief of the Chimariko tribe, and then we all joined it."

Tristan burst out laughing, "You are kidding! You mean that our claim is even stronger now than it was originally?"

"Nope, he and his three friends are now part owners of everything that we've built. They each have full tribal shares and exactly one vote each in any pack decision."

"No wonder they signed so quickly."

"Yeah, they are set for life, and better yet, they won't ever have to deal with Burton or his legal team ever again."

"Are we going to turn them?"

"We'll give them that opportunity when all of this is over, but can you imagine any of them turning it down?"

"Wait... Hold on..." Tristan said, slowly adding it up, "I heard Sam talking about those girls. Two sisters who can pass for twins, smoking hot? They both used to be strippers, and now they are going to become wolves? Hot wolves?"

"That's the rumour," Flo replied with a grin.

"And you two dragged me to Sacramento before I had my shot," Tristan said accusingly.

"We've got work to do Tris', and besides all that, I think Beth has already set them up for a dancing date with the idiot brothers."

"I think I might just have to cut in," said Tristan with an evil grin.

"Stay sober this time," needled Will.

"Well yeah, especially since I may have to kick both of their asses in the parking lot!"

"Men!" Florence said, rolling her eyes.

"Think you can take 'em?" William said, grinning challengingly.

"Well, I'm kind of hoping that my Alphas have a new training regimen to follow. I mean, y`all want me to be the best Beta ever? Right? I figure that if you two are going to keep kicking my ass, I ought to get something out of it. I'm thinking that two smoking hot sisters would be about right."

William laughed and promised that they would see what they could do for their new Beta. Florence merely grumbled about the ongoing stupidity of men. But despite Florence's grumbling, she could see that this conversation had broken her worried mood. Clearly, Beth was right about men; they were large, spoiled children who rarely felt badly about grabbing what they wanted with both hands. This relaxed her even more, as this realization strengthened her hand versus a certain Elizabeth Waters. By the time, Tristan pulled their car up to the large gated entrance into the Waters mansion, Florence was ready for battle; she was even smiling.

"William Yazzie, Florence Billington, and bodyguard," William announced into the microphone. After a short pause, the mechanical gate buzzed and began to open, allowing Tristan to drive their car up the drive where he parked just in front of the mansion.

"A kiss for luck," Florence said with a challenging smile before laying an inferno of a kiss upon her mate.

"Great! Now I walk in with an erection," William said grumpily to himself. Tristan didn't respond though, he was already getting into his role of heavy, taking his time to securely attach an earpiece and to don a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Florence just smiled wickedly and waited for Tristan to open her door and to allow her to exit the vehicle with the proper decorum of an heiress.

The three wolves were met at the large double doors by a four man security team, all four of whom were well known by William. He'd trained three of them himself. "Hey Dave," he said absently to the leader of the team.

"Sorry Will, we have to pat you down before you can go inside, and your bodyguard is not going in at all."

William didn't bat an eye; he just reversed direction and began walking back to the car, saying, "Have Burton fax my separation papers to the Billington estate. Come on Florence, it's a three hour drive back to Redding."

"Hang on Will," Dave said before using his headset to communicate Will's refusal.

After a quick exchange of information, the man came back with a counter-offer. "Your man remains here with us, and Liz will come down and escort you and your companion into the residence herself. Will that work for you Will?"

Will glanced over at Tristan, saying, "Check in with the rest of the team every five minutes. Change codes every second time that you check in." Tristan nodded slowly, not saying a thing. Will then turned his attention back to his old comrade and said, "Send her out." Dave shot a worried look in Tristan's direction, but he did as Will asked and used his radio to call for Elizabeth.

As William waited, he sent a message to Tristan, "Dave will try to chat you up; he talks a lot when he gets nervous. So the less you say, the crazier he is apt to get. Look at your watch a lot and keep reporting to the rest of our invisible team. It will put him off of his game."

"You are a cruel wolf, Alpha," Tristan sent back with a mental grin.

"Just don't kill him. I wouldn't mind hiring him after all of this is over, kind of like I didn't kill you. Just remember, he is the best of these four, and that's why I want you to wind him up and make sure that he isn't thinking clearly. You'll take him out of the game before he even knows that you are working him."

"Yes Alpha," Tristan sent back without comment.

Florence sent William a private message, a message that Tristan was unable to hear, "and you said that you didn't know how to be an Alpha!"

"No dearest, I said that I didn't know how to be a wolf, but you are working on that. Now eyes front, here comes Elizabeth!"

Liz arrived without smiling and said tightly, "Will, you brought an armed bodyguard to our home?"

"Florence's father has assigned her a bodyguard. He goes wherever she goes, but since when is Dave ordered to frisk me when I show up?"

"I didn't order that," Liz denied hotly.

"No, I'm sure that 'daddy' did." William responded. "But let's get this over with. Is Burton in his office?"

William saw that Elizabeth was making no effort to lead them deeper into the mansion, and was instead very pointedly examining Florence, so he decided to provide introductions instead. "Elizabeth, this is Florence Billington, she is John Billington's only daughter. He owns the land that Burton is interested in obtaining. Florence, this is Elizabeth Waters, Burton's only daughter and my ex."

Florence ignored the frown that appeared on Liz's face when she was described as William's ex, and instead turned on the charm, affixing a happy smile on her face while saying, "Elizabeth, I am so glad to meet you! William has told me that you are a great mother to his children. I'm sure that we'll be great friends!"

A momentary look of shock appeared on Elizabeth's face as she began to realize that while she had very little information on her rival, that the reverse may not be as true. Worse yet, this creature seemed to think that they could be fast friends. Haltingly and with some resentment, Liz held her hand out only to have Florence grab her up in a tight embrace, hugging her with all of her might."

"Finding a way to scent her, my love?" William sent with a grin.

"If you ever smell like this, you are a dead wolf," Florence sent back before releasing Liz with her practiced blonde giggle.

"Err..." Liz stammered, "Follow me," she said before staggering off.

Will and Flo followed Liz silently sending to one another as Liz seethed in barely controlled anger. None of this was going as she planned. William had actually had the gall to call her his ex and the mother of his children, as if they belonged to him. And that stupid bitch had actually hugged her like she was some sort of southern-fried moron. She would get even if it was the last thing that she ever did. Liz certainly hoped that her father would have better luck bringing them down.

Locked in her ruminations, Liz missed seeing four eyes peeking out of a barely cracked door. "Daddy!" screamed Sarah and Noah as they burst through the explosively opened door, and they rushed to hug their father.

"I thought I told you to stay in your rooms," Liz snapped.

"But Daddy's here!" Sarah said excitedly as she hugged her father.