Grantham Academy was proving a good fit for Juris Kristaps. It was located in upstate New York and was a four year high school. Plus, a portion of it was set aside as a preparatory school for college. Juris was teaching in the preparatory portion of the academy.
Grantham was set in the countryside on one hundred acres of land that had been donated by the wealthy Grantham family. They had long contributed to the school, which easily explained the name of the academy.
Juris had a small bungalow as his housing. Part of his pay was that the academy provided him with a place to stay. Juris sat looking out the front window at the manicured landscape and shook his head.
Here was an abundance of wealth. The academy was not cheap. For students who lived close by and did not stay in the dorms, the cost was thirty thousand a year for tuition! For students who lived at the school, it cost a whopping forty seven thousand dollars a year!
Juris had had a busy time settling into his new position. Still, he thought back to the terrorists he had not finished with and frowned. He had wanted them to die in agony, but the police had arrived and had interrupted his plans.
Juris zipped up his sweatshirt, and went outside for his morning jog. He started off at a leisurely pace. He enjoyed running, and always had. It was how armies had moved in the past when they marched. It was a combination of marching and jogging. He had enjoyed it so much that he had become a messenger in several early armies.
He enjoyed the freedom running gave him, as well as the ability to think things through. It also provided him with an obvious reason to be all over the property since he wanted to get a good feel of the place where he would be spending a great deal of time.
One of the first things that Juris noted, was that security was very good at the academy. The dorms had walking and vehicular patrols at staggered times. Security was taken seriously, as only the rich and influential could afford to send and entrust the care and education of their children to the academy.
Juris had already spotted a number of discrete video cameras located in strategic locations throughout the property. Another thing that oozed money was that the entire grounds were surrounded by a stone wall, or at least the portions that housed the students and buildings, were. Still, that was a lot of wall!
The wall had sensors and cameras running its entire distance. Juris actually had been impressed with the coverage the school did of the nine foot tall wall. No one would get over that wall without setting off motion detectors and cameras, and alerting campus security.
To get into the walled area, you had to go through a gate, which was fairly well protected. Again there were guards who were armed, and they had a guardhouse that was bullet proof. Further protections were the retractable nine inch steel spikes that popped up from the ground if the guards needed them, along with a rolling barrier that weighed in at two tons, which rolled across the entire gate entrance.
Juris admired the style of the buildings as he ran along. While most buildings had been built over fifty years ago, they were all well maintained and improvements had been added over the years.
The newer buildings had stayed in the same style of architecture and had used the same building materials, so everything matched well. He looked up and smiled as he rounded a corner and saw the high school ahead of him.
It had been built on the style of a castle back in the thirties, and was three stories tall. It was easily the biggest building on campus, as it was where the most students were taught. The high school had grades 9 through 12. Juris had filled in one time only, so far. It had been an enjoyable day, actually.
He had filled in for the French teacher. He had been thrilled to note these children actually were here to learn. Actually, most of the kids at this academy were serious students. They had very few problem students at the academy.
After his morning jog, he showered and dressed. Since today was Sunday, he had no duties, with the exception of showing up for lunch at the dorm cafeteria, for the boarding students at the preparatory portion of the academy. He could eat free at the cafeterias also. All teachers could.
Still, his bungalow had a small kitchen, and he had learned to cook very well over the years. He cooked at least three meals a week at his home. American food still tasted peculiar to him, or at least the way they prepared it. Thus he cooked dishes he was more used to, and enjoyed them immensely.
While he had lunch duties today, supper was on his own if he wanted, and he was going to make roladen, with scalloped potatoes, and a nice imported German beer with it. He prepared the roladen's prior to going to lunch. He had set them in the refrigerator, so that all they would need was cooking, along with the potatoes, late this afternoon.
Eating with the students was not a hardship. He was just there in case something happened that required adult supervision, or a member of staff to act upon. He sat at the staff table with the female staff member who was on duty with him. There was always a male and female member of staff on duty, as the Academy was co-ed.
Juris was sitting with Doris Atkins for lunch. She was a good conversationalist. She was the chemistry teacher, and looked more like a beauty contestant. She was a walking advertisement of why you did not judge a person on looks alone. She was very smart in more than one subject, too. She had graduated with two majors, chemistry, and history. She had been teaching at the academy for two years.
"Juris. I find your knowledge of Europe fascinating. The way you make history come alive is a very rare talent," Doris told him.
"Thank you, Doris. These young adults make my job so much easier by being interested to begin with," Juris responded.
"It's more than that. I have audited a couple of your classes, and the way you draw everyone into what you're discussing is almost magical. How do you do it?" Doris asked with a slightly puzzled look on her face.
Juris was not sure how to answer that, and just when he opened his mouth to answer, was when three masked and armed men entered the room. They quickly blocked both exits, and then one separated from the other two and yelled out.
"Everyone be quiet and no one will be hurt! I want two people brought to me. Josh and Marian Brighton. We know they are here in this cafeteria, and the sooner they come with us, the sooner we are out of your lives," the big masked man stated.
While he was talking, another masked man entered, and walked up to Juris and Doris. He took out two pairs of handcuffs and made Juris and Doris sit back to back. The masked man then handcuffed the two teachers together, wrist to wrist.
With their hands now handcuffed behind them, the masked man moved slowly through the dining room. He stopped, and looked at Josh, and pulled him to his feet. This caused screams and whimpers from those students sitting closest to him.
It was not long until Marian was also collected. The masked men then moved out, closing the doors to the cafeteria behind them. While confusion reigned in the cafeteria, Juris concentrated briefly. He soon freed himself from the handcuffs.
"How did you do that?" Doris gasped.
"I spent some time learning magic tricks. Escaping handcuffs was a trick which apparently has come in useful," Juris answered briefly.
Juris had noticed that while students tried to exit through the doors, they were apparently chained from the outside. Juris went to a window and looked out. No one in sight. He frowned at that. Where were the kidnappers?
He finally got the window open, and forced open the security screen. He jumped out onto the ground. Still no sign, and there was a campus patrol car moving sedately along the street. What the hell?
Ok, they must not have exited this way, so how did they manage to get in, and out without being seen? He went around to the front of the building after shouting instructions to Doris to notify security about what had happened.
He entered the front of the building, and stood a moment. He eyes lost focus and he sent his senses out... seeking. They had gone down into the basement area! Now why had they done that? Surely they had to know the building would be searched?
He took the stairs down two at a time and felt himself closing on the kidnappers and two students. There were seven people altogether. As he got closer, he started wrapping light and shadows around himself, so he would not be seen if he got to close to the kidnappers.
A tunnel! There was an open door marked steam pipes and tunnel to boiler room. Damn! In the old days, the buildings had been heated with steam, and the old boiler plant was located outside of the gates to the campus! The kidnappers had entered through the old tunnels!
Juris heard the echoing in front of him, and voices raised in question, and orders of silence. He moved along quickly and quietly and finally caught up with the kidnappers. He reached out with his mind, and touched one kidnapper in his mind, and the masked man dropped to the floor.
One down, four to go.
"What the hell? Mark just dropped like a rock," someone shouted.
"Shut up! No names. Go back and see if you can't figure out what's wrong with him," the biggest masked man ordered one of the others.
Three men and the two captured kids went on, and another man dropped to his knees and shook the unconscious man. Juris reached out and rendered that man unconscious as well. That made two down, with three left to go.
Juris grimly pressed on, following the sounds and the tunnel. Occasionally there was a light on the ceiling that worked and gave a brief respite to the darkness, but by now he had caught up with the group again.
He reached out with his mind, and caused another masked man to drop.
"Damn, there must be a gas build up or something down here," someone said in a panicky voice.
"Grab him and carry him out," the big man ordered his companion.
"What about the other two? Shouldn't they have caught up by now?" Asked the man who had been ordered to carry his companion.
"They will have to fend for themselves. We head out to an alternate place to hide since they might be captured," the big man said.
Juris reached out while the big man was talking, and touched the other man in his mind. The man dropped down and did not move.
The big man grabbed Marian by the hair and held her in front of him like a shield. She screamed and her brother shouted at him that he was hurting his sister.
"Shut up! One more word out of you, and I will shoot you here and now, understand? Now shut the fuck up!" The big man roared.
While the big man had been distracted, Juris slipped by the group unseen and while it was a tight squeeze, he managed it without a problem.
"You there! Whoever you are! Stop following us, or I will kill these kids, understand?" the big man yelled.
Juris remained silent. Apparently, the masked man figured that his men dropping was due to a human agency, and not a gas build up.
Juris reached out and touched the man's mind. He dropped to the ground, his weapon falling uselessly.
"Go back through the tunnel. Leave the masked men alone. You will be all right. Notify the guards," Juris whispered.
Juris watched with amusement and a bit of concern as the two kids looked around desperately for the person who whispered, but finding no one there. They looked at each other and started running back down the tunnel.
Juris made his way out of the tunnel by continuing on, the way the kidnappers had been going. He exited the tunnel in the old boiler building, and found a guard and a maintenance man, both bound and gagged.
He silently went past them, and checked out the rest of the building. It was clear, as was the scrap van that was outside. He went back inside after letting his will relax the light and shadows he'd wrapped around himself. He released the two men.
'All in all, a good days work, ' he thought to himself.