Chapter Four: Ireland, The Land of No Snakes, Molly's Castle

The feather bed surrounded me like a cloud and I refused to wake up. An hour later, a voice rang in my ear, "Gretchen, get the hell up!" My eyes fluttered open and there was Molly. Good for her, she gets to die her hair, I thought jealously. I smiled as she started yanking the quilts and sat up, excited to see my friend and anxious to hear the news from back home. What luck that the Secret Service had bought the Dromoland Castle when the owners couldn't keep up on the taxes. What a coincidence that Molly had seen the part-time accountant job on the internet and flown to Ireland, only to be swept off her feet by Brendan O'Brien. The ancestor of Tanist Murrough O'Brien had been hired to manage the hotel nestled in the foothills of Ireland. His passion for fishing the Fergus and Shannon rivers was only eclipsed by his vision of Molly in her hip-waders on her first day off. "So, Molly, how is castle life treating you?" I said. She smiled and said, "Duh, whaddya think girl?" "I need coffee." I said as I slipped on my pink Nike flip flops. She turned through the doorway and we sprinted down the winding staircase to the back patio. I sat down and the handsome young waiter rushed over with covered chaffing dishes and began lifting the tops. He poured my coffee and I looked at the view of the lake and maze. Molly was seated across from me and said, "How was Russia? Did you have fun at the librarian convention?" I was busy piling eggs benedict, lox and bagels, sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs and hash browns on my plate and looked up, "Oh it was a great convention. The International School Librarian Association really knows how to put on a show. The Russians are so smart and warm and friendly, I made lots of new friends." "Um, Gretchen, if you were at a librarian convention, how come you were in the hospital for two days?" I fingered the stitches that ran from the top of my nose and across the top of my cheek. Cool, my grand-kids would love that scar but my sons would have a fit. "I was at the Saint Petersburg zoo and got too close to the baboon cage. Did you know they can be very dangerous?" She looked at me skeptically but just smiled. She knew I had a bad habit of lying like a dog in the sun. "So, any word from Brenda? I know she lives not to far from here." I heard a yell from the maze below and saw a big floppy hat being waved over the top of the boxwood wall. "Oh Gretchen!" "You're up!" I swallowed my eggs benedict and stood up and yelled, "Brenny! When did you get here?" She bounded up the stairs, trim and fit as ever and came over and hugged my shoulder, luckily the uninjured one. Molly looked at us, "Say girls, I have to go fishing. I'll see you later okay?" We looked at each other and Brenda winked at me. "We'll be fine. Just gonna look around the library for a few hours." The only person that could out-lie me! She hadn't read a book in decades! "Have fun Molly and thank Brenda for the free rooms." I finished my breakfast and led Brenda up to my room in the turret. I put the Do Not Disturb sign on the doorknob and locked the door. I went over the ancient built-in bookcase and pulled out the ratty copy of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and the wall swung open silently. We turned on our penlights and descended the old stone stairs built for servants hundreds of years ago. I held my hand to the biometric lock pad and the door slid open. It was bright and modern in the secret laboratory, and I looked at all the beakers and containers with interest as I passed to the recessed floor of the amphitheater. Plus fabric-covered recliners in rows of four went down the floor in three rows. I plunked my big bottom in one and Brenda sat next to me. She placed her hand on the biometric pad and the ten by twelve foot screen began to flicker. Instantly Director Wiggins was frowning at me. "Gretchen, what was that in Russia? President Murray is all over my ass!. You know she insists on saving humanity!" I looked up and could see the others on the conference, including myself in the foot square boxes going across the top of the screen. "I don't know who tipped off that thin man! Who is he anyway?!" I said. "I'm surprised you're alive. William O. Williams is the best in the KGB and Borris Farloft rarely makes a mistake, he is bad to the bone you know. My mind wandered for a second and I wondered if William's middle name was Oscar and then the song, Bad to the Bone, began playing in my head. Kathy stared at me intently, "I'd like to know how they got the guns. Since FEMA and NATO took for a year in 2017 and bought back all the guns and shut down the manufacturing plants, it's now a crime against humanity to own guns outside the police. Download your report as soon as you can. You have two weeks off before your next assignment. Stay safe until then." I said good-bye to the black screen and listened to the soft strains of "Hey Hey We're the Monkeys." I looked at Brenda, who was slunk down in her chair with her eyes closed. "Did you hear all that?" I asked. "Yeah, yeah. Two weeks off!" Her yes popped open and she said, "Hey, Molly is remodeling the dungeon and since we are in basement five, let's go up a floor and check it out." I rose from the chair, stiff but happy having a vacay and followed her out the door. We climbed the stairs up a floor and opened the unlocked door. What a mess! Sawhorses and metal-working tools were strew between the rack and terrible-looking cages dangling from the ceiling. "Awe geez Brenny. This is giving me claustrophobia." I said. She was busy laying on the rack and monkeying around with the wrist-wraps. "Hey Gretch, my back is stiff, give me a few turns. I smiled at her and crossed to the door instead, giving it a jerk. "The door's locked." I crossed to the door we'd entered and pulled on the handle. Locked! "Brenny, were locked in and it's Saturday. The workman probably are off until Monday!" As she climbed off the table the overhead bulb began to flicker. "Good thing we have our penlights." She said as the overhead light went out. I climbed up on the rack table and asked, "Do you think they have rats in here?" She aimed her beam along the walls and said, "Sure they do Gretch! But no snakes!"