A Journey to the Revolutionary City

Phoebe and Marley made their way to their assigned patrol. It was several miles out of town and dark by the time they arrived. It was milking time so the followed the farmer in and settled behind some hay bales.

The farmer, John Adams (named by patriotic parents after the two dead Presidents), finished milking his two cows by hand and put the pails away for the family's use latter. He bedded the cows down for the night and started arranging hay bales in the empty area before the big double doors. He came towards where Phoebe and Marley were hiding. The cats quickly run and find other shelter before farmer John can see them. They found a shelf of buckets to hide under.

Twenty minutes later, people started streaming in. They found seats on the hay bales until there were no more seats left and then they leaned against the barn walls. All in all about thirty people from a variety of walks of life, there were town shopkeepers, other farmers, a local politician or two, and some state workers from both Virginias. They talked for a bit before Farmer John called the meeting to order.

“Let's get started with today's meeting of the Virginia Assembly of True American Patriots,” Farmer John started.

Over the next hour they planned and schemed. They arrived at a course of action that would let the world know how dissatisfied they were with the current state of affairs in the United States of America. They hatched a crazy plan to reignite the American Revolution and start the country over. They were going to blow up the place where the Revolution started.

The more they planned, the more worried Phoebe and Marley got. Marley told Phoebe, in a low rumbling purr, to get closer because she was smaller and gray and white so she could blend into the shadows. She did so in order to get a better reception for her collar so that DERP could record the conversation.

The meeting broke up an hour later. There was a plan but no start date. They agreed that it would go in effect in the next month but not until all the supplies could be gathered.

Phoebe and Marley worked their way out of the barn as the meeting broke up. They had to get back to headquarters as soon as possible. They had an explosion to prevent.

They arrived at the DERP farm just before midnight. Tucker had been listening and knew they were coming and had prepared a small midnight snack of cream and catfish for them. He had signaled the other cats to come back and there would be a planing session as soon as everyone was back. Phoebe and Marley enjoyed their small repast and went for a nap. There was no use waiting around when they could take a nap. Phoebe was pleased to see the Americans had a similar sensibility when it came to napping on missions. Why wait around when you could nap.

In the morning a meeting was held. Dale had relayed the information back to National Headquarters in D.C. and received orders back. Since they knew who was plotting and what they were planing, the West Virginia DERP could continue with the mission even though D.C. was closer to the target.

The five cats were soon in a beat up old jeep with Tucker heading down the road. They reached the target city, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, just as the daily activities were winding down. They watched the parade down to the green space before the Governor’s palace for the canon demonstration. The cats jumped at the sound of the blast. It wasn't that they weren't expecting it, it was just that that would make a good cover for someone to detonate a bomb around here. They looked around and saw that everything was just the way it had been before. They calmed down and waited for the tourists to go home or at least file into the taverns and hotels for dinner.

The cats spread out and Tucker made his way to check in to the hotel and get the keys to the Colonial Guesthouse that DERP had reserved for him to use as local head quarters. Dale went to check out the Capitol. Marley went to inspect the Governor's Palace and gardens. Beru and Jeb went to watch the taverns. Which left Phoebe to look through the trades buildings.

She went trough the milliner's, the tailor's, the silversmith's buildings without incident. Then she got to the carpenter's building. There was apparently a demand for rocking chairs since the workshop was full of them. Phoebe, being a Norwegian Forest cat, even if she was a runt, was worried. She had nice long fluffy fur and a long tail. Rocking chairs were the stuff of nightmares. She tried to pick her way through but managed to nudge one and it set a dozen off rocking, as they were packed in so tight. It took all her skill to wind her way through. She was almost to the exit when she miss judged the timing and got her tail caught beneath a chair and she suppressed a yowl. She didn't want the yowl on the record and DERP was listening to her collar.

The cats patrolled and investigated all night and found nothing. It was still early in the time frame for the attack. They would be here awhile longer. The cats joined Tucker at the guesthouse just as the morning tourists were arriving. They'd need back up to keep up a twenty-four hour patrol and the additional cats would arrive that afternoon. Now it was time for a bit of food and sleep. The patrol would resume again in the afternoon.