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It's Dolly's Birthday
Chapter 8.
Terry draws a line in the sand...
"Center out," Terry replied, but the line had already gone dead before she got the words out. She quickly called the alert Troll Action Team at Rickenbacker and ordered them south to Cincinnati, told them to meet Callisto and/or Drummond at Lunken Airport and put themselves at Drummond's disposal. Then she called up the backup team and placed them on alert.
She cradled the handset and rocked back in her chair, her fingers templed in front of her mouth, the opposing forefingers pressed to the tip of her nose. Something had to be done. If this kept up, none of them would be safe in their beds. She picked up the phone again and dialed an internal extension.
"Serafin. Terry. Do we have a way to get word to the Meqs?" Or the clones, either one?"
"Um, no, Terr. Not that I know of."
"Hmm. See if you can find a way. Then..." a weary sigh, "Dolly's been kidnapped."
"Not again!" Serafin almost wailed. While she had her reservations about the dollies and indeed the whole Genesis project, Serafin bore as great an affection for the little redhead as anyone in the OOD.
"Yeah. And this time it was right out of her own damned house!" Terry let her outrage creep into her voice. "Can you imagine? What percentage of key personnel live off-campus, where we can't mount guard on them?"
"Too freakin' many of them," came Serafin's reply.
"So I want to send a message to the Meqs and the clones. They either return Dolly or there will be no safe place for them on this planet or off, in this time or any other."
"That's not going to be much of a threat to them," Serafin answered. "They are probably already assuming that we'll come after them with the full weight of the forces at our command, and that we will be playing for keeps when we catch up with them."
"All quite true. But before we've always played by the rules. Now, if they insist on escalating matters, the gloves come off. We will take no prisoners. We will practice a scorched earth policy. I will use my influence with the Gods of Olympus, and we will totally destroy all of their known bases, even if it takes kamikaze attacks to do it. I will call down a jihad on their heads. This practice of kidnapping our personnel from their homes will stop, or they will have cause to regret it."
Serafin was quiet for a moment, then, swallowing, said, "OK, Terr. I'll find a way to tell them."
"And Serafin... Pray for her."
"You bet, Terr."
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