Dance Moms Bodyguard (6) The Wrong Family

Chapter 3 : Homeland

The helicopter landed at an Air Force Base. Chloe was escorted into the hangar, where she saw her friends and families. Brooke and Paige were with their mother, and Jill was holding Kendall in her embrace. Christi ran up to hug her, checking if she was all right.

"Are you all right, Mom?" she asked her mother back.

"I'm okay. I was at the bank when they picked me up. They brought me here but didn't say anything else, but they were polite."

"Why do you always get the grand entrance?" Paige came protesting.

"What's going on?" Chloe asked.

"I don't know. No one is speaking to us." Paige shook.

Two men in uniforms made a headcount, nodded and spoke.

"Ma'am. We are sorry for the delay. Now if you would please come with us."

They were showed into a concrete building, passed a series of security posts, and arrived a meeting room with no windows.

"Hello Girls!" a tall woman tipped her hat.

"Garrison!" the girls gather around her in excitement.

Garrison was in her usual cowgirl persona from hat to boots, her two Single Action Army revolvers hanging by her sides. She set everyone to their seats, and introduced the firm man next to her as Captain Brennen of Homeland Security.

"Ladies. I'm sorry I have to bring you in at moment of notice, but it has come to my attention that your safeties are involved with the National interest." the Captain addressed with his hands behind his back, so did four guards stood behind him.

The mothers began complaining how their lives were intruded, and being brought to this place without explanation, demanding to speak to a higher superior as usual.

"Please, hear him out." Garrison said. "You are one step away from being arrested by the Department of Homeland Security. I am the only one standing in their way."

Tension flooded the atmosphere, the mothers turned silence by her word. The Captain picked up a remote and pointed to a flat screen TV, played out a series of slides.

"Sixteen hours ago, two U.S. Supreme Court Judges was assassinated, die of explosions in their residents."

"Oh My God! Are they all right?" Jill gasped in her usual reaction, Christi rolled her eyes.

"What sort of explosives?" Paige asked.

"Police found C4 residual from one of the wreckage." the Captain stopped at a picture of a burned structure, then to the next picture. "See anything familiar?"

"My Dispenser!" Paige jumped.

Everyone's eyes turned to her, Paige felt a chill up her back, realizing that she has just admitted her link to a serious crime.

"She has confessed! Take her!" the Captain ordered, his men making a move toward the young girl.

"NO!!" Paige dreaded, jumping into her mother like a frightened little lamb.

"Easy, Captain America!" Garrison put out a hand. "Paige, I know you weren't involved, that's why I am here. But your design was post on your school website three days ago. I need to know where did you get the idea from."

Paige was white as a sheep, her body trembling, her eyes turned red and began to cry.

"I didn't..." she sobbed. "I got the idea seeing the contractors working at school, and combined the glue gun idea with a handheld sewing machine. That's all!"

"Did you talk to them about your ideas?"

"No, I just asked them how the gun works." Paige shook.

"Did you show anyone your design?"

"NO!! I wanted it to be a surprise!" Paige broke into tears, fell into her mother's chest.

Morris barged through the door, scared everyone to jump.

"Is everyone all right? I came as soon as I heard!"

"YOU!" Kelly Hyland stood and slapped him across the face. "You did this to my daughters!"

Her attack drew other moms into a riot, suddenly everyone began blaming the man for his bad influence on their daughters.

"HEY!" Morris barked them to silence. "Your daughters wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for me! Kendall wouldn't be where she is now with her anxiety issues! Brooke and Paige would still be bullied at school if I didn't make them strong! And you!"

He turned to Christi, but his word got choked by her daughter. Chloe shielded herself before her mother, her eyes narrowed and sharp, as if warning the big man to choose his next word very carefully.

"You are as a loving mother as you've been!" Morris swallowed his original words.

"The bottom line is," Garrison brought everyone to calm down. "No one is being charge of anything yet. This is all a protocol."

"Like hell it's not!" the Captain protested and pointing at Paige. "This girl has just admitted that she made the device! We're sending them to Washington!"

"Negative!" Garrison narrowed her eyes. "They are not going anywhere without my approval!"

"Oh yeah? The last time I checked, domestic security is still my jurisdiction! You're just a foreigner here, Garrison!" the Captain turned to his men. "Get the plane ready! We're taking off in twenty minutes!"

The officers exited the room and locked the door. Garrison rested her hands at the table, faced down and let out an exhausting sigh, as if she's just lost a battle.

"Morris, please tell me you have something!" Garrison asked without looking up.

"Orion received multiple tasks from the government. They are looking into it now."

"Please tell me they assigned you to one of them."

"No." Morris shook his head. "This is big, they gave it to all the top guys."

"Can't we just explain everything?" Kelly asked, holding little Paige in her arms.

"It doesn't work this way. Washington will lock up any potential suspects until the whole thing is over. It could take months. It has been their way of doing things since Nine Eleven."

"So what does it mean? We're all going to jail?" Kelly broke into tears.

Out on the air field, a twin engine Dash 8 was waiting on the tarmac. The mothers and daughters were handcuffed and escorted to the plane by four armed guards.

"Is that necessary?" Morris looking at the cuffs.

"We're just following procedures." the guard said, shoving them up the plane.

Morris and Garrison looked up the cloudy sky, watching the thundering storm building ahead, like a warning of a rough journey to come.