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Morning Briefing.

---

Shelby stopped talking for a little bit. Once more he looked over the crowd.

This is thirsty work he said I need a break. You all know how old and feeble I am.

Everyone grinned. Shelby might be old but lord no, he wasn’t feeble.

I’m hogging the show. He said Momma always told me to share. I’ll let the Dragon Lady speak for a while. While I was learning how to build wheel chairs she had other things on her mind.

Dragon Lady

I’ll take it from there boys. I told them. I turned to the virtual crowd and said. I imagine that most of you have heard of me. Some folks call me the Dragon Lady

I frowned at Shelby and the boys theatrically. I over did it. I exaggerated. I was trying to emphasis that I was kidding. I apparently succeeded because many in the crowd laughed instead of fainting.

I’ll get around to telling you all about who I am, what I’m doing, and what I had in mind for the people of Flint City a.k.a. The Banana Slug a.k.a The Mother Matrix a.k.a. The Scepter’d Isle., who are now known as The WaterTribe.

But I’ll do that in good time. To continue with the story. About that home invasion the boys told you about. Well I’m the boss and I need to know about things like that....so we have a pre-shift briefing every day

---

The next morning, Captain, Marc and I, were in my office chatting a bit before the two men began their duty day.

I hear there was a bit of excitement last night I remarked as I daintily nibbled on my one and only Danish of the day. I do SO love sweet pastries, but they aren’t good for my girlish figure, so I must limit my partaking of them, and anything sweet, severely. It’s brutal.

Yes ma'am. Captain replied Another home invasion burglary. Seems a lot of the criminal types on the mainland think that Flint Island is up for grabs. The poor fools tried to rob Gary and Eleanor.

Oh my. I looked at Captain curiously. Did any of the burglars live?

Nope not a one. Gary blew ‘em away with his twelve gauge. Captain told her as he was licking sugar off his fingers. Damn those sugar donuts he was eating were messy, especially since he was eating so MANY.

Except for the ones that Eleanor took apart like butchering hogs, with a big old butcher knife. Marc said. Too bad the poor guys bled to death before we could help them.

I see I said. That pretty much agrees with what Eleanor told me. We had a nice long chat.

Uh Oh, Marc looked at Captain who returned the look guiltily. That couldn’t be good.

She said you did your best to save the poor man. I shook my head in sorrow. But the wounds were just too severe and deep. Eleanor said she’d spent too much time as a young girl butchering hogs. She really got carried away. There might have been a very, very slight grin on my face. I really, really tried to maintain a facade of inscrutability.

Do you really call me the Ryujin? (dragon lady) when I’m not present? I changed the subject.

Um Captain said.

Ah Marc replied.

I kind of like it. Dragon Lady, Ryujin. I replied It fits right into my diabolical plan of world domination.

Didn’t you say that there had been a number of home invasions? I asked Captain.

Uh, yes Ma’am, there has been. Rather say there have been a number of attempted home invasions. None of our people have been hurt. None of the invaders have survived. Shoot, Shovel and Shut-up as far as the RiverCity Police are concerned. Captain replied. I could tell that he wondered What DID I have in mind. Marc was grinning, perhaps he had a clue.

That needs to stop. I told them The residents are having way too much fun. That isn’t the problem. The problem is the state. One day the poor fools will wake up and notice that Flint Island has been a roach motel for crooks.

They check in, Marc said

But they don’t check out. Captain agreed.

Exactly I agreed We're obviously violating their civil right to terrorize people, then the politicians would think that they’d have to protect the criminals like they always do and who knows what they’d do. Marc and Captain nodded. That had occurred to them too. So we use psychology. I continued. I was born in Amarillo Texas, but nobody but you two know that. You two were born on the Rez, right? Apache?

Marc and Captain nodded.

I thought so. High cheek bones. Epicanthic fold to the eye, just like me. You say the word in out about a mysterious Ryujin, The Dragon Lady. Let’s double down on that. We’ll start a Ninkyo Dantai aka Chivalrous Organization, which is sometimes referred to as the Yakuza. You might think about our ‘mythos’ today. We’ll talk about it later. I said. Marc and Captain grinned and headed out the door. It was the start of a new day. It was time to get to work.

---

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To Be Continued

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I hope you are enjoying this
Yarn

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Perhaps you might also enjoy
Other Books
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Follow me @everittdmickey
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That's my Blog
in which I pontificate on Technology,
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ShantyBoats
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In my Blog I write about,
and hopefully engage my readers in discussions about,
the possible lifestyles that we will encounter after
TEOTWAWKI happens.
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It WILL happen, one way or another,
probably something in between.
One thing is for sure and for certain though,
the world will NOT remain the same.
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So Come on Down!
Sit a spell.
I got the Coffee on.

---

The Hobo Picture is a Public Domain image from
Samantha at the Worlds Fair
by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)
Illustrated by
Baron C. De Grimm published by
Funk and Wagnall's Company 1893
Unless noted
All other Illustrations are from
Pixabay

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writing scifi technology anarchy-fic apocalypse