Chapter 10: Ready To Go

They had all gathered at Carl's home that night. Uncle Rick, Aunt Clara and Peggy had come over for the meeting that Carl had called. Carl's father had once more been called out of town so was not present.

Sitting around the dining room table, they all sat silently waiting for somebody to start talking.

"Well since I asked all of us to come over tonight I guess I better start the meeting. Today some people tried to kidnap Peggy almost in front of her school." Carl said.

"The Homeland Security has no idea who they were. They have some pictures and a mixture of DNA. Even with them almost on the scene they were not able to stop them from getting her into a van and start driving away. It was only when they tried to drug her that her protection was triggered. That worked, but what happens when they grab one of you to uses as a hostage, trying to force us to do what they want?"

He waited, hoping that one of the adults had an answer.

"Well, Carl, can't you put one of those wards on each of us?" his Uncle Rick asked.

"Maybe, but the problem comes about in setting the safeguards to prevent the wards going off by accident and taking out innocent bystanders. Let say they use some gas to just put you to sleep, and then they use an ambulance to take you away. They have not crossed over the threshold that sets off the ward. But they now have gotten you under their control."

"One thing we can do is to get enough material to prove you are you, so that we can use it to find, or even transport you to a place of safety. Then, we set a ward on you that even you can't take off.

They spent the next couple of hours getting the identification items together. First he took a digital picture of each one of them. Then he took the memory card from the camera up to his computer where his reader took the pictures from the card and stored it on his computer. He then printed two copies of each picture.

Returning down stairs, he then pricked each of their thumbs, and had each of them put their bloody thumbprint on the back of their picture, and sign their name in full across the blood. Next, he took a clipping of hair and finger nails and taped some on the back of each of their pictures.

He folded the pictures and placed them individually in a Ziploc sandwich bag. Turning to Peggy, he handed her one set of identification materials. "Peggy, hide these and put a real big ward on them; I will do the same here in my lab in the basement."

"That way, we each can rescue all the others. Mom, as soon as Dad is home we need to get his picture and have him put his fingerprints on the back side. You get some hair from him; hey!, trim his toe nails."

"As soon as you get two sets, send one to Peggy and get me the other set."

With that he got up, and went down to his lab. When he entered his first ward at the bottom of the steps he could feel it; then the next one and the next. In the area under the basement he opened his file cabinet and put all the identification material in the bottom drawer.

As he started back upstairs he paused to read the Placard on the wall.

"You are entering an ultra top secret area as designated by the Department of Homeland Security. Trespassing in this area without authorization is a felony punishable by 20 years in a maximum security prison."

Behind him he heard a beep and a flash of light for each step he took. Even knowing, he could not help but look at where the flashes of lights and beep came from, there was a closed circuit camera recording him. Looking away, as if to hide his face, he found himself facing another set of cameras.

These cameras had magic in them. They took pictures of the person on the steps and nothing could block their vision. The pictures were sent automatically to a server in Amity, Missouri. He waved as he continued his trip back upstairs.

Carl paused at the top of the stairs; there, on the side wall, was a file holder where his family could put things for his attention. Such as letters, papers or just notes to remind him of things or messages from people. It was empty; it was mainly a backup system for things that came up while he was gone. This is where his mother would put his father's identification materials when she got them.

When he reached for the doorknob, he froze. He had forgotten the ward protection for the family. He closed his eyes and leaned forward until his head rested against the door. He grabbed his own ward on his chest in his left hand, and held his other hand palm up. Visualization could be very important here. One, two, three and four items appeared in his hand. Straightening up, he continued to the dinner table where the rest of his family waited for him.

Peggy was setting there big eyed. "I felt that Carl! What did you do? You did it outside a circle! After all the warnings you have sent to me!"

Carl dropped in his chair. "I should not have done that. I'm sorry Peggy, but I didn't want to tramp back down those steps sending more pictures to that DHS server in Amity! There would have been some agent banging on the door wanting to know what I was up to if I had made two trips down there."

They set there staring at each other for a time.

"Yeah, that's why I rarely go into my own lab at home now days; it's so invasive. I throw up a temporary circle in my garden when I want to do something new."

"I think of it as just another ward, one that is just a little more annoying than the others."

"I did a full transmutation spell with materialization carrying a protective ward."

Carl brought his right hand to the table and dumped the items he was carrying. He pushed one to his Aunt and Uncle. They were a pair of hands clenched together; engraved on them were the words. "In these protecting hands, my love for you will always abide." With a twist the hands could be parted, and each person could wear one.

The set he pushed to his mother said the same. "I think Dad will not object to wearing his when he reads the words engraved on them."

His mother removed hers and put it on. He watched as his Aunt and Uncle did the same. He and Peggy stared at each other, feeling the wards as they snapped into place.

His Aunt's and his Uncle's wards were interconnected! He had not done that! But when both wards snapped into effect an additional element came into played. Their hands reached out for the other and he could see the glow from each join, as their hands touched.

Now almost the whole family was protected. If anything happened and they disappeared he could find them. Carl would have bet that his dad had enough things, photographs, hand writings and hair samples laying around that he could use to find him if he was snatched. The problem was that until he got the ward on his person, he could be physically harmed.

That night, Carl and his Uncle Rick returned to the factory to do the setup. The workers had finished the refurbishing of the interior. All the conveyors were in place; the only thing missing on the assembly line was the 'energizer' for the Power Capsule just before the two conveyers met. There, in the joining of the two roller conveyors, a person would pick up a Power Capsule from one set of rollers, and insert it into the Inverter on the second set of rollers.

The Inverter then would be pushed on down the merged set of rollers, where the next person would lock the toggles on the power capsule, turn the power capsule on to the selected setting for that Inverter, then give it another push down the line.

The next person on the line would flip the power cage shut and put butterfly nuts on the anchoring bolts. Then, close the inverter top, and give it another shove.

The next person would use a power screw driver to drive the final screws shut. Then it was the tester who would flip the switch on the front and test the voltage coming out from the outlet plug.

The labels were put on the outside with the date and serial number on them. Then, the next person boxed the Inverter, and put the final label on the outside of the box. The last person then sealed the box, and set it on a pallet.

When the Pallet was full, a person would pick it up with a forklift and moved it to the shipping area.