I lifted my eyes and saw him standing there. Just standing. He still had a bit of a grimace on his face, and he was gently hitting the right side of his head with a slightly cupped hand. Obviously his hearing wasn't all that good on that side at the moment, and he looked confused.

  I scanned both ends of the hall. Surprisingly nobody had showed up from either direction, yet. Then I remembered. The cameras on this hall must be some of the ones that Jane had gimmicked.

  Mr. Hafiz had a puzzled look on his face and had put his hand in his pocket. He glanced at the cameras.

  I shook my head. "Jane fixed them so that a number of them aren't working right now. We figured that it would make our talk a lot safer if nobody heard or saw us talking about things that are, ah, not related to school."

  An expression of relief crossed his face. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and handed me a USB drive. "Everything is on this. At least everything I could find out without drawing undue attention to myself.

  "Once again your girls have shown that they don't need me for protection. I am beginning to see my purpose. It is probably not to be their physical protection. I am to direct attention away from them whenever necessary, and right now it is going to be VERY necessary."

  He stared at the body and began stroking his chin.

  I looked a question at him.

  He thought for a few more seconds. "I have it. Mr Baird is a Vietnam veteran. Fortunately he spotted the assailant coming out of the storage room over there and saw the knife in his hand. He charged in, without thought of his own life, as he had no way of knowing who the assailant was going to attack. Little did he know that it was himself until the assailant spoke."

  He said, "There you are you bastard!" Then he started to turn toward Mr. Baird. However he was too late. The heroic Mr. Baird had reached him by then and had grabbed him. The assailant tried to throw him off, but Mr. Baird did not let go. As he flew backwards, the assailant's neck was twisted by the force and was broken."

  "How does that sound? I think we can arrange to all say something along that line, with suitable variations so we don't sound like we cobbled it up together."

  This guy was great. I really needed to get to know him better.

  "That works for me. This time there's no way to keep the family away from the reporters, so I think we'll let Jane deal with it."

  Jane was climbing back to her feet. She'd obviously been listening. She was a bit wobbly in the knees still, but when she spoke I knew that she was fully functional.

  "Look Mama, using that story to protect the girls is fine, but what's with: 'Let Jane deal with it'?"

  "In case you hadn't noticed, I'm barely 5' tall and not all that attractive. You're the buxom, tall, beautiful blond with the killer smile.

  "Jane, you're going to gush. Something like this I think. Oh that Mr. Baird. He was so heroic. He risked his life to protect us. I don't know what I'd have done if he hadn't been there. That awful man might have killed someone!"

  Her glare was at a 9 out of 10 at that point, but then she dropped her shoulders and sighed. "Oh, all right. You're right, this time at least. I expect that the reporters will want me to go to Mr. Baird's hospital room and gush all over him. It'll be a great sound bite for the evening news."

  She pondered for a few seconds and said, "Oh, and the girls were, fortunately, in the bathroom at the time. They rushed out when they heard the commotion. They didn't see anything except the aftermath."

  Jane turned to the girls. "You understand? You saw nothing. You just heard a loud noise as you were coming out of the bathroom. OK?"

  Both girls nodded. Kumiko went over to her sister and offered what emotional support she could.

  Mr. Hafiz had his cell out and was obviously talking to 911.

  "Yes that's right. I'm Xandros Hafiz. I teach at Schirle Elementary. We've had another attack. No, no students were hurt. They're not here today because of the Parent-Teacher conferences."

  "One of the other teachers charged the guy with the knife and stopped him. Yes, we do need the paramedics. Our teacher was injured in the fight. The guy with the knife? I think that he is dead. His head is all crooked and he is not breathing."

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Hell no. We are not going anywhere. Just hurry will you? Mr. Baird needs medical attention as soon as possible. He is unconscious. Right. I will stay on the line just in case."

  He put his hand over the pickup. "In case of what I wonder? I guess even 911 operators sometimes have no idea what to say."

  Then he hung up. "I have nothing else to say to them. I will have to say it to the police, over and over and over again, just like last time. At least this time I was not directly involved. I think we must spin this. Ah, 'spin' is the right word, yes?"

  I nodded.

  "Yes, spin this so that the authorities think that someone is targeting ex-military people. There are always some nuts like that, and with the shootings on military bases lately, they should swallow it, especially if we gradually direct the conversation so it seems like it was their idea. Can you do this?"

  "Count on me Mr. Hafiz. Jane and I can be very subtle. It comes to her naturally, and I've worked at it long enough to be able to pull it off if I concentrate. Right now I'm feeling very motivated to concentrate."

  I looked over at the girls.

  Mr. Hafiz followed my gaze then looked back at me and nodded. "I take your point. And, speaking of points Ms. Knight. There is one thing I could not put on the drive. I must be telling this to you personally.

  "Since that first attempt, I have discovered that you are not the first family my government has sent someone to protect. To be exact, you are the sixth. The first was 30 years ago. All are still being protected. Though, at the time I was dispatched here, I did not know that it was a family that I was being sent here for.

  "The other families are in India, Estonia, Swaziland, Korea, and China. I do not know why they are being watched. That is something that we must discover in due course. Unfortunately I do not have any names, just the names of the countries that they are in.

  "Due to the many constraints on my activities, it may be some time before I can learn more. Can you help?"

  "I have no idea, but we can try. Our contacts haven't been talking to us either."

  Just then I heard the first faint sound of sirens, lots of them. Things were about to get very busy.

  "Kimiko. I know that you want to protect him, but the best way to do that is for you to move over behind Mr. Hafiz with your sister. Huddle and hug each other and try to look innocent.

  "Don't look at me like that. Just do it.

  "Jane, you hold his head steady when Kimi gets up and then lay it down on the floor, very carefully. Yes, just like that.

  "OK everyone it's curtain time. Take your positions. The show is about to start."

  That was when the police charged in, guns drawn and looking for someone to shoot.

  -----------------------

  It was deja vu all over again. Only it was Mr. Hafiz and I who sounded like a stereo system.

  "For crying out loud, put your guns away. You're scaring the children!"

  Actually I'm pretty sure that the girls were scared. I sure as hell know that I was! If any of those idiots accidentally pulled a trigger, there were a lot of metal lockers for their bullets to ricochet off of and a lot of people said ricochets could hit.

  The cops looked shocked and a bit sullen, but they DID put their guns away. They seemed awfully reluctant though.

  Then the paramedics arrived and did their thing with Mr. Baird. The rest of us had been taken into the nearest classroom and were told to wait.

  After a few minutes my worst nightmare walked in. It was a balding, overweight sergeant who had a swagger. "What in Hades is going on here? I want an explanation people, and I want it right now!"

  Fortunately, I've had to deal with his kind a few times over the years, so I knew exactly what to do. Attack!

  "You want an explanation Mr. Policeman! Are you a total idiot? Some crazy terrorist showed up inside the school and almost killed my family. If it weren't for that courageous teacher that the paramedics just left with -- Oh I hope he'll be all right! -- who knows what would have happened? And WHERE WERE YOU? Why didn't you stop him before he got inside? And speaking of which, how DID he get inside?

  "Why weren't you here protecting us? Were you sitting in some donut shop stuffing your face? It certainly looks like you do that often enough. You need some exercise. No, you need a LOT of exercise!

  "And what's with this attitude you have. We're victims here, not criminals. How did someone as stupid as you get promoted anyway? I'm going to be filing a complaint with your Captain and I'm going to talk to the Statesman Journal and Channel 2.

  "I'm not going to sit here and take this kind of abuse from you!"

  By the end of my tirade I was right in his face. Or right in his belly. He was having to bend down to see me.

  Like most of his sort he had no idea of what to do if he wasn't in charge. Usually his act intimidated people. He was clueless when it was him being intimidated.

  From what I saw out of the corner of my eyes, he wasn't all that popular with the rank and file. The other officers in the room all were trying to hide rather large smiles. Most were also rolling their eyes.

  I figured that it was time for me to wind this up. "You get out of here you walrus. Send me one of those handsome detectives to talk to. I'll be happy to tell them EVERYTHING. Now go away and leave us alone. The children are terrified!"

  "OK girls. Now is the time. Make like you're scared, a lot!"

  "To be sure Okaa-san. We don't like him either...and he smells bad. He needs to bathe more regularly!"

  The girls threw their arms around each other again and started moaning.

  The sargeant looked at them and looked at me and then looked back at the girls.

  "Take over here. I have more important things to do." Nobody knew who he was talking to. He probably didn't either. Then he huffed his way out of the room. We never saw him again. Good riddance!

  A couple of the officers went over to the girls and made nice to them. The girls allowed themselves to be petted and praised. Actually, they ate it up, but hey, they deserved some cuddles after all that had just happened.