Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“Oh dear God,” she groaned.
“I set it up today, and there will be five of them, given at night, and each will be taught by one of the marshals on your father’s team. Isn’t that great?”
“So great,” she agreed feebly.
“Ian’s going first, and he wanted to show everyone how to throw a knife, but I said that having blades flying all over campus was probably not prudent.”
“Probably not,” she said, sighing deeply.
“So––” There was a scream then. “––I think it’s gonna be great, and this way maybe some of the people you know who aren’t as comfortable defending themselves will find a good start with us and might want to continue their training and––”
“You’re just ignoring the scream?”
“Why is my phone dead?” Jalissa asked, walking in from the bathroom.
“Wait. Where did Jalissa come from?” I interrupted her retelling.
“She and her roommate are in the room next to ours. We share a bathroom.”
“Four women in one bathroom?”
“Don’t get me started. You have no idea.”
“Okay, sorry, go on.”
“You’re ignoring the scream?” she asked Eli.
“It’s probably just that kid.”
She whimpered as he turned to Jalissa. “Hi, Eli Kohn,” he said and passed her his business card. “We’re using a jammer at the moment until my friend gets through speaking to Calvin whoever because we don’t want any pesky videos popping up with words like ‘brutality’ or ‘coercion’ or ‘threats’ attached to them.”
“Wait,” I said, interrupting again. “Would a jammer prevent a phone from taking a video to post later?”
“No, but most people get all caught up in the phone service interruption and forget to video or take pictures.”
“Okay.”
“Plus, Ian closed the door behind him, as you do when you’re threatening someone with bodily harm.”
“Got it. Go on.”
Eli said, “We’re using a jammer at the moment until my friend gets through speaking to Calvin whoever because we don’t want any pesky videos popping up with words like ‘brutality’ or ‘coercion’ or ‘threats’ attached to them.”
“Okay,” Jalissa replied, “groovy.”
“Excellent.”
“Killer Hugo Boss suit, by the way. The shoes are good too.”
“Oh, thank you very much.”
She nodded, he smiled, and suddenly Miro Jones was at the door.
“Hi, Hannah,” he greeted her with a smile.
She shook her head.
“I’m gonna need you out here in the hall for a second.”
Coretta grabbed Hannah’s hand and led her out there to a hall filled with young women.
“Hey, all, who’s ready to learn some street skills from the marshals service?”
The yell of excitement was loud. Eli had missed explaining there would be tactics taught as well. Sam’s whole “head on a swivel” would be learned, along with other simple measures that would keep everyone safer. And while Hannah appreciated that, she was concerned that Ian had terrorized an eighteen-year-old boy.
“He can’t just do that,” she told Miro after the crowd dispersed.
“Well, when we tossed his room––”
“You can’t toss his room without a warrant. This is school property!”
“Uh, federal marshal,” he reminded her. “We don’t need a warrant. We are the enforcement arm of the judicial system and all federal agencies.”
“Yes,” she whined, “I know that.”
“And that kid had pills in there.”
“Pot too, probably,” she threw out.
“Like I give a crap about the pot,” he said, squinting at her. “You know that marijuana is legal in Illinois, don’t you?”
“Oh my God, will you guys just go away? I’m never going to live this down. I’m going to be ‘marshal girl’ forever.”
“With no documented evidence?” he asked snidely.
“Oh look, my phone works again,” Jalissa apprised everyone.
“Jammer’s off,” Eli announced.
“That’s pretty cool,” Jalissa said, clearly impressed.
He smiled at her.
Hannah then explained that they hung around after that.
“Pa, you don’t even know,” she told me. “They just wouldn’t leave, and so many girls came to my room.”
I sipped my wine.
“I mean, Ian, Miro, and Eli—they have jobs! They needed to go do them.”
“Certainly.”
“And again, the girls…it was nuts.”
I nodded sagely.
“Have you ever heard the term badge bunny? Do you know what that is?”
“No,” I lied. “Tell me.”
Apparently, Ian got to throw his knife after all and got rounds of applause. Some guys came by and said that Calvin’s side of the room was epic, the way it looked like it had been turned completely upside down and then shaken. His roommate’s side was pristine.
“I had to go down there and talk to Calvin,” Hannah told me. “And he actually screamed like one of those goats in the videos when he saw me.”
More wine so there was no laughing.
“I told him that as long as he was respectful, he’d never see them again.”
“I’m guessing there was a problem?”
“Well, yeah. Ian came back, of course, to make sure that Calvin was cleaning up his room.”
Poor Calvin. He was made to understand, in a very real sense, that women he heckled had people in their lives who didn’t like that.
“I was surprised that he didn’t threaten Ian or say he was going to call his folks about what happened.”