A Special Gift

by Alice Brown

  All of the CW participants were called, to let them know that training would start the following afternoon. Kevin then informed his fellow VCTF team members that everyone would be switching to night shifts until further notice. “Take the next few hours to do whatever you need to do in order to pull a shift tonight.”

  When everyone filed out of the office, Marshall turned to Kevin. “The chief stated today that theft is through the roof. Should we look for a safer place for that chest?”

  “You know, I am glad you brought that up, Marshall,” Charles replied, spinning around in his chair. “I think that hide-away you had installed in the back of the deep freeze is the safest place in your house. That chest should fit in there, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, I agree. I can’t think of anyplace safer that’s within easy reach,” Kevin stated after considering for a few seconds. He turned to Marshall. “Want to help me move that two-ton hussy one more time?”

  “Sure, besides, it will give me a reason to check on Stephanie.” Marshall chuckled.

  *****

  By seven o’clock, the team had gathered back in Charles’s office around a large map of the city, broken down into five different sectors. “I have put downtown in its own sector due to the high levels of crime recently,” Charles said. “As our CW members come on board in the next few days, I will assign them to each team, which will allow more coverage. It is important to remember, though, these CW members do not have your level of experience in dealing with the human public, so try to keep an eye on them.”

  Kevin took over. “Okay, you all know your assigned locations. I had a nice chat with the police chief today, and he is not in a good mood, nor is he thrilled that we have been called up to help. The last thing the police are going to want is to hear from us every five minutes to come pick someone up. So, here is the plan. If you catch someone who’s only breaking curfew, show that person his way home. Catch someone doing something illegal, tie them up to the nearest tree, light pole, or anything else that is sturdy and leave a note stating what they were caught doing. The locals can just round them all up at once in the morning, and do with them what they want. I would suggest you not use your handcuffs, unless you want to replace them, because I can promise, you won’t ever see them again. Any questions?” Kevin asked.

  The team headed out shortly and by eight o’clock, everyone was in place. Their first night ended with a total of forty-five people for the local police force to round up the next morning. After seeing the mood the chief had been in the day before, Kevin decided to wait until six a.m. to call him, informing him to send out a couple of cars to haul everyone in.

  “You know, we only have so much room in our jail,” he snarled at Kevin in annoyance. “What am I supposed to do with all of these people?”

  “Well, if I were you, I would take the severity of the crime into consideration. These people have all been tied up all night; my guess is that some have already learned their lesson. Let those go and see what happens, if they become repeat offenders, then throw the book at them. I think once they realize that police presence is strong throughout the city, they will give up and go back to acting like civilized human beings,” Kevin tried reasoning with him.

  “I hope you are right,” the chief replied.

  By the third night, they were able to incorporate the CW volunteers, and the added presence made all the difference in the world. They had at least four covering every sector, and five covering a few hot spots. The next morning, over a hundred people were hauled down to the police department.

  By seven o’clock, the police chief was on the phone with Kevin. “I know this goes against every grain in me, but you are simply catching too many! I don’t have the room in my jails, let alone the manpower for filling out all the paperwork.”

  Knowing the situation the chief was in and trying to offer what help he could, Kevin inquired, “Do you have a free desk in the office? Maybe one that is in a corner somewhere out of the way, or maybe a small office?”

  “Yes, I believe we could arrange that, but why?” the chief asked.

  “Because, starting tonight, my guys will bring in everyone we catch. You won’t need to send out cars in the morning to round everyone up; they will already be in the office waiting for you. Now, if you can let me borrow a desk or a small office, we will handle all the cases that we bring in the door. But, I am here to tell you, we will do things my way,” Kevin answered.

  “What do you mean, your way?” the chief inquired cautiously.

  “As it stands, neither the court system nor your jails have the space for all of these people, and I still think that things will calm down rather quickly once word gets out that lawbreakers are being caught again. What I plan on doing is putting those caught committing a minor crime out on the streets on work detail. God knows you need all the help you can get right now to clean this city up. Call up the few National Guard members still here and put them in charge of the work details. My team is perfectly fine handling the night shifts; if you and your boys take the day shift, everything will be covered,” Kevin replied smoothly to the chief.

  “Well, we usually don’t do things this way, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures,” the chief replied. “Okay, we will try things your way for three days, if I see no improvement, we will talk again. By the way,” he quickly added, “you had better have the governor’s seal of approval before you implement this program.”

  “I already do. Would you like a copy faxed to your office?” Kevin offered.

  By the fifth day of the teams’ involvement, the police chief had changed his tune dramatically. Kevin had been handed the keys to the police department, allowing him to stay overnight there. They had pulled one of the CW vamps to run Jordan the Cleaner’s van around town picking up the lawbreakers and delivering them to the police department.

  By day seven, the police chief was actually smiling as he walked in the front door. Kevin had only locked up five people in the past four days; all others had been assigned to clean up duty after the paperwork had been completed. The chief had been able to locate one guard unit that wasn’t deployed, and a quick call to the governor brought them to his doorstep to oversee the work detail program that Kevin had implemented.

  By the end of week two, word had gotten around that you did not want to be caught outside after dark. The teams were finding less and less trouble each night, and with so many on work detail, the city was starting to look more like itself again. Kevin assigned work duties like cleaning up debris, painting over graffiti, helping the elderly with small repairs on their homes, and cutting up fallen trees. He had been making a list of larger projects the city would need to be involved in, such as large cracks in roads, broken pipes, broken streetlights or traffic lights, and the like. As these lists came in, Kevin passed them to the chief so the proper department could be notified.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Meanwhile, as the team lent a helping hand to their fellow man, there was still major work to be done at the home front. The construction crews were working non-stop underground to clean everything up, and by Friday morning Charles completed the report he had prepared to start the discussion of rebuilding.

  Max, the jeweler, had stopped by while Kevin had been out on patrols, so Erica had sent him over to Charles. Max had been able to get an excellent price for just a couple of handfuls of the stones, so they would have enough funds to start rebuilding right away. Charles had given Max the green light to start negotiations on some of the other stones. If they had estimated correctly, selling approximately one-fourth of the jewels would generate enough funds to rebuild everything underground. That would still leave a sizeable fortune in reserve for the community’s future needs.

  The council was scheduled to meet in his office that afternoon, and Erica and Kevin both showed up, as well as Marshall and Stephanie. Stephanie took one look at Felippe and knew he was not happy to have what he considered “outsiders” intruding in on their meeting.<
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  “I didn’t realize this was an open meeting, Charles,” Felippe stated in his usual sarcastic tone.

  Stephanie watched her grandfather carefully for his response. “It’s not, Felippe. But believe me, I have enough of our elderly living under my roof right now that if you would like a public meeting, I can certainly accommodate that.”

  Before anything else could be said, Mr. Jacob Singleton called the meeting to order. Mr. Singleton was one of the founding councilmen; he had worked side-by-side with Charles years ago in setting up the bylaws for their society. Somewhere along the way, he had been appointed to lead all of the council meetings.

  He began by reading over the notes from the last council meeting, which ended with remarks that a resolution could not be agreed upon regarding the financial status of this project.

  The elder council member glanced up and asked for any new business. Charles stood proudly to address the council. “Fellow councilmen,” he began, “I know everyone is aware that we have lost a dear soul and fellow councilman with the passing of Mr. Samuel Atkins. While cleaning up underground, one of the construction workers discovered a large chest, which we later determined to have belonged to Mr. Atkins. That chest in now in my family’s possession, but I am sure that several items in that chest will be of interest to all of you. First,” he continued, “I have in my hand a copy of Mr. Atkins Will. In this document, he names his successor to his council seat as Mrs. Erica O’Rourke. Second, he has also left my family with a special gift of considerable means that he intended to help keep our society flourishing for many years to come.” Everyone watched him as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few precious stones. “I have already spoken to our jeweler, and he is in the process of finding top-dollar buyers for these stones.” He stopped for a moment to make eye contact with each council member. “We now have the money to rebuild our underground society completely. I have drafted a report,” he stated as he began to send stacks of the report down the two rows of council members, for everyone to have a copy. “This report clearly states the O’Rourke family will take care of any and all expenses in rebuilding our underground society. You will also notice on page four that I have asked an engineer from New Zealand, who is one of our kind, to visit and go over our building plans, so our buildings are able to withstand future earthquakes. My main goal is to see that total devastation never happens again. I would rather sink the money into building it properly now, so we are not at risk for this happening again.” Charles paused there for a moment as most council members were reading over his report.

  Mr. Singleton spoke. “Charles, where did you come up with the ideas listed in this report on how to make our underground more earthquake-proof? Have you already spoken with this engineer?” he asked.

  “Yes, I have spoken to him. But it was Erica and my granddaughter, Stephanie, who did the research and found this information in the first place. I have already run it by Mac, and he is in tune with what we want to accomplish.”

  “Charles, you state here on page six that you will only contribute the rebuilding funds if the council board agrees that half of the property taxes will come back to you for the next twenty years, as well as all rent monies for local businesses. I, for one, definitely have a problem with that. How do you expect the council to function and the society to grow if you are hogging up most of the finances we have coming in?” Felippe asked, looking daggers at Charles.

  “Felippe, I don’t remember that you ever offered to help financially in getting our underground rebuilt. If you will recall, both my son, Kevin, and I offered to contribute half a million dollars each during the last meeting.” Charles stopped and leaned his hands on the table in front of him, putting his face closer to Felippe’s. “If memory serves, Felippe, old friend, you were one of the very few of us who could not be bothered with opening up your home to our vamps who find themselves homeless right now. If I were you, I would watch your step, old friend; the by-laws contain a provision stating that anyone found not to be working for the best interests of our society can be voted off the board.” Charles held Felippe’s gaze until the other vampire looked away.

  He stood straight again, continuing to address the room as a whole. “The content on page six is simply to protect both my family and the future of this society. First of all, I really don’t see why the council should receive the funds if it is not going to lay out the rebuilding money to begin with. Second, my family will be fronting a staggering amount of money in order to put the underground society back on its feet, and it is not unreasonable to have some of that money trickling back to us a little at a time, so we will be prepared when another emergency hits.”

  Another board member, Mr. Raphael Livingstone, spoke. “I happen to agree with Charles. If he and his family are willing to pay for everything to begin with, why shouldn’t they be allowed to collect some of the monies for property taxes and rents? Especially the rents; if they are paying to build the buildings, then they should be the legal landlords,” he exclaimed. “Now, Charles, I did notice that page two states that you want to rebuild everything that was down there before, to increase the size of the school, and to add a library. But later in the report, you state you want to do this at no cost to the vamps who were living underground prior to the earthquake. Now, I am really not trying to be nosy, but can you actually afford to accomplish this? And, how will we handle any new families who wish to move down there after everything is rebuilt?”

  Stephanie watched as her grandfather smiled over to Mr. Livingstone before he answered. “I envision a bigger, stronger, better-built underground society when we are finished. But we must not lose sight of the fact that we have a large group of vamps and vamp families who have lost everything they own. Most just do not have the resources to rebuild even their own homes. Samuel Atkins left my family with a sizeable fortune with the stipulation that it be used to help our society flourish. I feel we owe it to our vamps who were already underground and have lost everything, to rebuild at no cost to them. You will even notice I have included a provision that the storeowners pay no rent for the first six to nine months, allowing them time to get back on their feet. Any newcomers who decide they want to live underground when we are finished will fall under the same terms as everyone else has since we first began expanding underground. A family who wants to move will need to purchase their home, or purchase the property and have a house built. If someone approaches us about opening a shop, they will have to go through the board just like all others prior to him have.” Stephanie had never been to a board meeting before, and she found the political undertones fascinating as she watched the sides go back and forth.

  Mr. Livingstone nodded his head slightly at Charles. “Thank you for clarifying that for me, Charles.”

  “My pleasure,” he replied.

  “Any other questions?” Charles now asked, looking around the room. No one spoke, so he resumed his seat as Mr. Singleton addressed the members again.

  The elderly councilman stood back up to take over. “Okay, let’s take a vote on Charles’s proposal for rebuilding our underground society.”

  It took a bit more questions and a bit of wrangling, but in the end Charles O’Rourke came out the victor. The only board member remaining in opposition was Felippe, who, most of the others knew, would object to anything Charles O’Rourke suggested on principle. Mr. Singleton hit the gavel on the table as he stated, “Motion passed to rebuild the underground society as outlined in Charles O’Rourke’s report.”

  The meeting was adjourned shortly thereafter, and the council members filed out of Charles’s office soon. Charles sat back in his seat, folding his hands behind his head. “Well, that actually went better than I anticipated.”

  “I don’t think they are too happy that I am taking Mr. Atkins’s place,” Erica said from her seat.

  “No, I didn’t think they would be. It has nothing to do with you personally, my dear. If I know the board, a few of them just don’t want the O’Rourke fam
ily to have any more power than we already do.” He stopped, and everyone could see the twinkle in his eye. “That’s okay, because I am determined to teach a few of those old buzzards that they simply are not God!”

  Epilogue

  Marshall and Stephanie got off the elevator to the underground society hand in hand. The young couple had a lot to be happy about these days.

  It had been four months since the board had passed Stephanie’s grandfather’s proposal to rebuild their underground development. Now, the hospital, two wings of the retirement center, one strip shopping center, and twelve homes had been completed. The judicial buildings, science labs, school, library, children’s park, and recreation center had all been started.

  The couple headed straight to the recreation center to see how it was coming along. They had plans to marry in three weeks, and had chosen to have the wedding in the recreation center, in the hopes of bringing everyone back together again. Now, as long as the builders finished on time, there would be no problems.

  The couple came upon the construction and stood back watching. Marshall wrapped his arm around Stephanie and brought her up tightly to the side of his body. Looking around at the building and rebirth of their community, he realized just what a precious gift Samuel Atkins had left them. Without the financial means to rebuild, who knows what would have become of their society?

  Everything from top to bottom had been rebuilt and reinforced with heavy steel. They had also hung large weighted pendulums between columns, so the pendulums would absorb some of the trembling and shaking of future earthquakes.

  Every new building had its foundations anchored into bedrock, and sat on huge rubber pads, designed to absorb movement without causing damage. The roofs were also tied to the walls, and a double wall system had replaced the singular old one. Yes, it had taken more resources and time to build these new buildings, but the community was banking on never having to deal with total devastation again.