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Author's Chapter Notes:
JASON GRANT'S P.O.V.
* * * * *

I closed the manuscript for the night, determined to get some sleep. What I had just finished reading had me more concerned for Ken Gambol's state of mind than ever before! So, instead of heading back to my office in New York City, as originally planned, the first thing I did the next morning was to call McCarran International Airport and cancel my reservations for JFK. Instead, I made new reservations...for a flight to Atlanta, Georgia.

My plan was to catch a connecting commuter flight from there to Wake County, North Carolina. The location of his employer (and our old alma mater); Lebaron University.

It was a land-grant school that had been named for the original owner of that land; Jean-Baptiste Lebaron. He had first immigrated to the United States, via England, as a refugee aristocrat from the French Reign of Terror. And, in actuality, his full name had been Jean-Baptiste, Le Baron de Mondragon! But, as would happen at Ellis Island starting a hundred years later, the customs and naturalization authorities of late 18th-century America had misunderstood the pronounciation of his surname...and consequently changed its spelling for the rest of all time.

Nowadays, the only acknowledgement of his true surname was in the name of the athletic teams; the Demon Dragons.

Anyway, the second stage of my altered plan was to rent a car (or, failing that, to call a cab) at the commuter airport in Wake Forest. And, then, head for Ken's office at Lebaron U. There, I would systematically psychometrize everything stored in it, until I caught a vibe as to where he might be, currently.

To pass the time during the plane ride back east, however, I masochistically resumed reading the manuscript.

* * * * *

"Time stopped having any meaning for me, Jay. Seconds blended into minutes into hours with seemingly no effort, at all. I woke up; sipped what was basically a banana smoothie from an upside-down hamster bottle; then burned off the calories doing the sit-ups required of me in that burlap straight-jacket all us prisoners wore. Then, after repeating that procedure twice more, the same day, I went to sleep. Starting the whole cycle all over again, the next day."

"During all that tedium, I was only mildly curious as to why I hadn't felt any need to go to the bathroom!"

"In any event, this same old boring routine was finally interrupted by the arrival of a group of giantesses wearing sleeveless sequined leotards in green-and-black. These ensembles off-set by their tan moccasins and pony-tailed hair (mostly blonde). And, it was then that the realization hit me of where I was."

" 'Mars Hall' was Marshall University!"

" 'Good morning, Kenneth,' " sang the baton twirler seemingly in charge of the group: " 'We've good news for you, this morning. Today is your graduation day! What's more, you and your next-door neighbor, Mr. Hughes, will be accompanying the six of us, our marching band, and our football team...to an away game against the University of Florida Gators. Upon arriving in Florida, the two of you will be temporarily re-enlarged so that you might enjoy a brief reunion with an old friend. Someone who has been proving quite an annoyance with his obsession to recover a certain item from Ohio. One that rightfully belongs to the Supervisors' homeworld, anyway.' "

" 'In short? You will help us ensnare General Ira. C. McCoy of the USAF Office of Special Investigations.' "

tbc
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