With the house charter still intact and good for the next five years, we relaxed a bit. The school year had started; the young women were traveling between the campus house and the mansion. The women living at the mansion had classes. The front gate buzzed, I answer the intercom, "Yes, what you have for us today?" I ask the man on the monitor.
"Four package, from the same address." He said.
"I'll be right out." I said. I headed for the front door and out to the main gate. As I was approaching the gate, I saw the big brown van pull away, as he away did. I could see the four boxes on the pavement next to the gatepost. I was still forty feet away when it blew, slamming me to the pavement of the driveway. Stunned I laid there a moment, rolled, and rose to my feet. I looked at the place by the gate where the explosion happened. The gatepost was gone and the rest lay on the ground inside the wall. The gate was a mangled twist of bars, I looked around no one else was in the yard. I checked myself, no blood, no broken bones I would probably be sore tomorrow. Others come running from the house, Nan ran out, seeing the destruction, she saw me. She ran to me, "Are you alright? What the hell happened?"
"Package bomb, driver left them or he would have been dead. Call police and bomb squad, there are still two or three packages out there." I said.
"I guess our work talking to the other houses has failed." Nan said.
"I don't think the other houses would go this low. Someone is after us for a reason, who they are and what they want, I do not know. We need to find out. I see future events to some degree. My insight is mute; I'm trying to find a way around it." I said.
"We need to protect all the young women here. If harm comes to one by these attacks, we can't continue as protectors?" Nan said.
"We can't if we are the targets. We haven't a clue who our enemies are. You can't fight what you don't know." I said.
The police rolled up, and the bomb squad was right behind them. They checked the other packages by dunking them in water in a blast can. They tried several ways to detonate the packages. Finally, they used the robot to open each one none of them was explosives. Nan had also called our insurance agent. After the cops cleared the site, he did his estimate on the damage. What seems like hours later, they were gone, and I walked out into the street looking up and down the street. I felt for anyone watching me, I felt no one in the area. I looked at the wall and gate, repairing it quickly. Once done, I called Rita at the on campus house. I told her she could send the girls back out to the mansion.
The twenty young women were in the house again. Rita had closed the campus house and set the security systems, which now included shields protecting the house when no one was in it. Rita, April, Esther, Mina, Beth, Nan and I had the power to work the security systems, I had given Rita and the four girls some powers with the same aging Nan and I had. The five of us would never grow old.
"What the hell?" April ask as she got out of the car.
"We don't know yet. Someone is after us we just don't know whom. We have not been given any clues as to whom." I said.
"We need to find out, this can't go on. This is the first time they have attacked the mansion." Rita said.
"You're right there, I just don't know where to.... Wait, the drive said all the packages had the same return address on them." I said. I moved to the destroyed packages the return address said, "Moody Warehouse, 1249 Webster St. That is right here in town; I will go down there tomorrow and check the place out. The girls started supper it will be ready soon. After we eat and relax, I could use some time with the six of you."
"Seriously, you want to lock us in the room with you and leave the walls unstaffed?" Rita asks.
"I suppose I could take eight to ten of the young women down with me, leaving the six of you to stand guard. I think the freshman girls need a treat there are eight of them. They have not experienced me yet." I said.
"Good idea. It's Friday, most of them have nothing tomorrow but to lay around if you take the eight freshman girls into the playroom tonight. Some of us will join you later and will work shifts watching. After we do a head count, set the shields over the property. After that, no one goes out, but we will have to staff the front gates to let the late ones inside the walls. So do a head count, see who is missing, then we call them and account for each one." Nan said.
"April, you Esther gather the eight undergraduate young women, Ernie will need to meet them and I want to talk with them. I am not sending them into the pit without preparing them some." Nan laughed.
Rita, April, Esther, Beth and Mina all agreed.
"Maybe one or two of us should join them for the first couple of hours; you know how he gets with newbies." Rita said.
"I am standing right here, how do I get with the newbies?" I ask.
", you're like a child on Christmas morning. A handful of new toys, you just might break one of them. Not physically, but mentally these young women are not ready for the strain you put on them. Shit, I was in my forties, and you about destroyed me at first." Rita said.
"Fine, Rita you and Esther will take the first four hours in the playroom, then Mina and Beth will do the middle four hours and April and I will take the last four." Nan said.
April and Esther left to find the eight young women that I was going to welcome into the family. I moved into the living room Heather and Amber were sitting there.
"When did you to come in?" I ask.
"Just after the police cleared the gate, all of you hand your hands full. We saw the women were coming in, so we called all of them down and check them in. Two are still out and according to the schedule; they are in class for another hour. We also texted them and ordered them directly to the mansion." Amber said.
"Good, we can use the help. I didn't expect you back this soon after graduation." I said.
"We've come to stay, if you'll have us." Heather said.
"Yes," I said.
Two women come into the room. They sat on the couch opposite the twins.
"What are your names?" I ask.
"I am Tiffany." The blonde said.
"My name is Peggy." The tall skinny one said.
Three more women enter the room, "Come in, and find a seat. I will need your names." I said.
"The redhead said, "Connie"
"The short thin blonde said, "Sugar"
"Jackie" the third blonde-haired woman said.
