

#### Hoist the Jolly Lucas

#### by David J. Wighton

#### Book #4 in the Wilizy Series

### Smashwords Edition

### Copyright 2014, David J. Wighton

###

### This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy.

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### Thank you for respecting my copyright.

# Acknowledgements

This book is dedicated to my wife, Dale, and to my other family members whose support and patience made it possible.

Cover design by Jenny Anderson at WordPress.com

Editing assistance from Michelle Scoville who sees typos that mere mortals would never find unaided.

# Wilizy Family Members as of September 2082

• Doc and Granny (about 71 years old).

• Hank (about 41) and Yolanda (about 37).

• Wolf (17).

• Yollie (16), TG (17), and Liset (2).

• Will (16) and Izzy (16).

• Wizard (14) and Lucas (10).

• Theo (9) and Mathias (8).

• Reese (7), Winnie (6), Patella (2 months).

• Stu McKenzie (42).

**Also**

• Zzyk (the Evil Gnome).

• Rick (Zzyk's Executive Officer).

• Rolf (Rick's assistant).

• Ingrid (Head of the IOF's baby making business).

• Igor (Manager in charge of DPS computers).

• Mac (Stu's assistant).

• Franklin Franklin (FF) (BC government man).

• Bubba Franklin (Franklin's brother).

• David Wighton (Mac's great-great-grandfather).

This page is to help you if you get confused about who is who in the story. If that happens, click your way back to the Table of Contents and scroll back one page.

# Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Books in the Wilizy Series

About the Author: David J. Wighton

# Chapter 1

From Izzy's journals: Thursday, September 1, 2082, 11 p.m.

That first Assassination Day evening, the family was milling around in the meadow next to the big old empty pioneer house. That wide clearing gave the best view of the sky and Will had promised us that we'd have a personal viewing of my surprise. I don't believe that anyone other than Will knew what the surprise was going to be. I had tried to worm some information out of Wolf earlier in the evening, since he and Wizard were in charge of starting the surprise at 11:00 p.m. in Alberta's five cities. I figured Wolf would know what it was; he said he didn't. All he knew was that he and Wizard had to be as high as possible in their portion of the sky over Alberta before sending the wireless _Fire_ signal. Everything else was automated after that.

We had actually been in the clearing for hours. The men had built a big bonfire, and that, and the big full moon, were giving us plenty of light in our narrow little valley. We had fat wieners and fluffy white marshmallows to roast, hot chocolate to drink, and many of us were dancing to the music from Wolf 's portable P.A. system. We had been enjoying a good old-fashioned barn dance without the barn.

At 10:55, Will changed the music to _Unchained Melody_ and he lead me into the middle of the clearing and we began to waltz. Just like we had danced on the WZBN promo show. But I pulled Doc and Granny into the clearing with me, and Hank and Yolanda came too. TG and Yollie were soon dancing with Liset snuggled between them, her little arms hanging around each of their necks. Stu was waltzing with Winnie in his arms and the boys had stopped sword fighting with their wiener sticks and were wandering around looking at the sky.

A huge _BOOM_ made us all jump, and then we just stared at the sky as coloured lights streamed down amid mini-explosions from additional rockets launched into the sky. Everyone was responding with ooohs and aaahs and particularly sparkling bursts of colours brought spontaneous applause. Even Liset was clapping her hands, her eyes bugging out of her face; Winnie was telling Stu how she had seen some of these colours in California when Will was doing his research and how she had kept her promise not to tell anyone.

Too soon, we heard two powerful explosions, followed shortly afterwards by two more, and I knew Will was telling me that this had been all for me. I felt something well up inside of me and I grabbed him tight and gave him my A#1 kiss – the one I had never dared to use before. Will must have been holding one back too, because I lost track of time after that. I remember him lifting me off the ground and slowly turning in circles while we were locked in an endless series of kisses. I was melting and shivering at the same time, if that were possible. I remember thinking that as soon as Will put me down, I was going to take him into the woods. _Tonight was going to be the night._

Then I felt my toes touch the ground. I pulled my lips away from his, grabbed his hand and turned to sneak away. And ran smack into Hank and Yolanda. Doc and Granny were right behind us in case I had turned the other way. Before I could say anything, Will was answering Doc's questions about what chemicals were in the fireworks and how he had created the colours. Naturally Will agreed to help the men check the firing locations for unexploded shells. Couldn't have the boys hurting themselves, could they.

Me . . . I was being hustled towards the compound with Granny holding onto one elbow and Yolanda steering me with the other. They were chattering about what chores had to be done tomorrow and what they would like me to do. I turned to look back at Will, but Yolanda turned me firmly back towards the compound and whispered softly in my ear. "Tonight is **not** going to be the night, Sweetie."

Yolanda took me to her root cellar and parked me firmly on a wooden crate of some bottled fruit or vegetable. I was opening my mouth to give her a blast about meddling in my life when she sat down on her own crate and turned the kerosene lamp off.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 2

The Narrator: September 1, 2082.

Nobody knows what Zzyk said or did during the evening hours of Assassination Day. However from events that followed, we may assume that Zzyk's thoughts about the re-appearance of the WZBN broadcasts in Alberta's air waves went something like this.

### # # # # # # # #

Naturally, one of my staff drew my attention to the announcements urging Albertans to watch the WZBN on the evening of September 1. The re-birth of the WZBN broadcasts so soon after the DPS had supposedly shut down all of the Wilizy's broadcast capabilities revealed that Rick's celebration of the death of the Wilizy movement was premature. Zurt had to be alive. If Zurt were alive, so was The Slut. And so were Ingrid's treacherous son Ivan and his daughter. Rick had failed me badly. So had Ingrid, but Rick had worked hard to convince me that his assassination plot had succeeded. Ingrid had been trying to warn me that Rick had been fooled.

I had expected the worst and so I had sent the staff out of the command bunker well before the start of the Wilizy's last show at 10 p.m. Rick and Ingrid joined me in the command center – as I ordered – and sat in the chairs I had put out for them. We all stared at the screen without comment for the entire hour. I made a note of The Slut's challenge that I couldn't destroy their transmitter but didn't pay much attention to their plans for their upcoming shows since the new brain-bands would prevent any Albertan from viewing them. I also noted Zurt's use of rocketry to create the light show. There had been ample evidence that he had used missiles to destroy my planes. Now The Slut was bragging about his late entry into the rocket field with his tiny meaningless sparkles.

The sexual acts that they engaged in at the end of the broadcast were difficult to watch. I closed my eyes instead and focused on listening to Rick's breathing as it accelerated during their despicable coupling. Biometric measures in the chair will confirm if I'm right about that breathing. I'll also check to see what controls Rick has on his brain band, if any. I suspect they'll need to be increased.

The multiple repetitions of Ingrid's favorite words of condemnation – _stupid, stupid people_ – caught me by surprise. I assumed that this was proof that her son was alive and that he had shared intimate details about his mother with the Wilizy. The Slut probably had inserted those words into the broadcast to taunt me. However Ingrid did visibly react to hearing her words. Was she happy that her son was alive? Biometrics will reveal her true feelings.

I noticed that Zurt had lost a tremendous amount of his behavioural conditioning. The clowning, the dancing, and the obvious sexual attraction to The Slut were all signs of deep moral weakness seeping through the brain-band safety barriers. I'll add Zurt's slide towards depravity to my strategic spreadsheet later. But for now, I suspect that the odds of capturing and putting him to productive work have shifted dramatically. If so, further plans for his capture can be abandoned. Annihilation had always been the easier strategy to execute. A single missile can achieve that quite easily. I've already identified a promising infant to replace him; her education can be accelerated.

After Rick and Ingrid left, I examined their biometric reactions to the show. That prompted me to update a private file that I've been maintaining.

### # # # # # # # #

• April 30, 2082: Somehow Zurt destroyed my pumping stations, somehow he eluded capture, and somehow he destroyed multiple troop transports parked at different bases around Alberta at the exact same time. Only B.C. would have the capability of doing all of that simultaneously. Rick was in B.C. on April 23 and 24. He said that he was trying to backtrack the crate that Zurt had sent to The Slut.

• May 5, 2082: A para-gliding platoon was deceived into attacking a fake Wilizy camp and they were captured without a single soldier firing a shot. Platoon members said that they were surrounded by an estimated force of over fifty soldiers. Only B.C. could have put those numbers into the field so quickly. The commander of my forces willingly entered a copter and left the battlefield. Sources in B.C. report that he was in Surrey days afterwards. Rick was in B.C. only days before that defeat. He said that he had been talking with Ivan, but I have no way to confirm that.

• August 25-27, 2082: Rick was in B.C. checking on their border security. Two days later, Rick tried to convince me that Ingrid's hairs had killed Zurt and The Slut.

• August 30, 2082: After learning that he had been beaten by Zurt and The Slut, Rick watched a video of them having sex. His biometrics revealed increased breathing and an accelerated heart rate. How long has he been attracted to The Slut? Is that attraction why his decision-making has been so flawed? Rick is completely free from brain-band controls. Do I need to impose some? Or has he been fatally corrupted by a near-naked, gyrating, red-haired, white body? Some loyalty tests should produce the answer. Regardless, I will assess whether Rick's #2 is ready for promotion to #1.

• August 30, 2082: Why would Ingrid's biometrics show relief that Ivan was still alive? How did Prudhoe's missile fail to kill him? I have long expected that Alaska might not be the steadfast allies that they have claimed to be. Is this the beginning of their treachery? I shall start a file on Ingrid as well.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 3

The Narrator: September 1.

Once again, I must write a chapter without the benefit of written records. Based on what happened later, this kind of conversation must have taken place. But I can't tell you who exactly is speaking or even where in Alaska the two people would have been at the time. I'll identify them by rank.

### # # # # # # # #

Subordinate: Sir, the WZBN is back up and running. Will and Izzy have to be alive.

Commander: If so, Ivan has to be alive too. How?

Subordinate: We're checking. It was definitely Ivan's voice talking to us and the copter was definitely destroyed. We are assuming that he managed to transfer to some other transport before the missile struck.

Commander: A boat?

Subordinate: Probably. Something that was inflatable, low slung, and non-metallic. The escape boat was fast enough to be far away by the time we had enough light to check the crash site visually.

C: So an empty copter tried to avoid the missile. How could Ivan have managed that?

S: We're assuming that he was able to rig up a wireless pilot of some kind before he landed at the genetics lab. He has the technical know-how to do that. However we wonder if that simple copter could be automated.

C: Could the Wilizy have employed a radar-proof aircraft?

S: It's unlikely that they have the science to do that because Zzyk kept Will away from that knowledge. Moreover the specialized materials that such aircraft require haven't been manufactured for decades and second-hand radar-proof aircraft aren't on any of the underground markets in weaponry. We track such information closely. Ingrid has reported that any success that the Wilizy have had can be attributed to small copters and long-range weaponry.

### # # # # # # # #

C: What's your department's assessment of Zzyk now?

S: Zzyk has been beaten badly by the Wilizy three times. His science is old and he's not a good strategist. Blunt power doesn't work well against the subtlety that the Wilizy is employing.

C: Will the Wilizy beat him?

S: Not quickly with only copters and long-range weaponry. Zzyk will face an internal coup first.

C: You mean in addition to our own?

S: Yes. Rick will act soon. When he does, we can either make sure that Rick fails or that Zzyk eliminates him beforehand. We already have our people in the IOF's genetic and technical commands; plus we have the sleeper. When the time is right, we'll step into the IOF command structure without opposition. Six months to a year from now, perhaps.

C: The Wilizy?

S: They're a small group without any military training that we can determine. They've been lucky, but they're vulnerable now that Zzyk can find their lair. To smash them completely, Zzyk will ask us for help. We'll enter Alberta by invitation and remove both Zzyk and Rick after we destroy the Wilizy. The new brain-bands will keep the population under our control.

C: How long before both Zzyk and the Wilizy are out of the picture?

S: The eggheads are predicting a 50 per cent likelihood that we'll control all of Alberta by the end of the year. That goes up to a 90 per cent probability if Zzyk senses an imminent internal coup and calls on us for help.

### # # # # # # # #

C: That boat bothers me. How could the Wilizy transport a boat all the way up to the Beaufort Sea? A boat from Prudhoe is much more likely. That suggests assistance from inside Prudhoe.

S: Yes it does. We've already started a number of files.

C: Do you believe that Zzyk or Rick might have stashed a boat up there?

S: We've always known that Alberta would not remain steadfast allies but such treachery would be difficult to slip past Ingrid. She's been very close to Zzyk for a long time.

C: Perhaps too long to remain loyal to us? We know that somebody saved her son's life. She'd have the contacts inside Prudhoe who could have provided a boat.

S: Should I send a message to the sleeper?

C: Yes. Somebody is going to betray us – I can smell it. Tell the sleeper to maintain a close watch on Ingrid and Igor. Rick too, as always.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 4

From Izzy's journals: Friday, September 2.

I can't say that I was looking forward to our planning meeting today. Yolanda's comments to me last night in the root cellar totally trashed the good feelings I had after the success of _Dead Man Walking_. After she had finished yammering at me, I tried to explain all the pressure I was under – devising plans, fighting a deadly opponent, wanting to have sex with Will, and not expecting to live much longer. She kept saying _Been there, done that_. Yeah. Right. Yolanda's biggest stress in her life is trying to keep her house clean with five rowdy boys living in it. Somehow I'm supposed to believe that she went through what I'm going through?

However Yolanda was right about my decision to have sex with Will being a mistake. I'll give her that one. I don't know what came over me; I knew that my pregnancy would cause the Wilizy some problems. So yah, I shouldn't have tried to sneak off with Will. Especially without any protection.

I now have six foil-wrapped birth control packets. I only took them so that she'd get off my case. She said that they were part of her stash and she showed me where she kept the main supply in case I wanted more. They were at the back of a top shelf in the root cellar in a wooden box labeled _Brussels sprout seeds_ , something all the boys in the family hate. I don't know why she'd need a box that size. Somehow I'm supposed to believe that a middle-aged, married woman with eight kids is going to have sex often enough to need all of those packets?

Anyway, I've decided that I'll always have a foil-pack nearby in case I ever go crazy with love again. She was right about irresistible urges being irresistible, so I learned a lesson, I suppose. I didn't appreciate the _Been there, done that_ comment when she claimed to have had them too. I told her that I definitely was not going to have sex until I was married. Then she did it again. _Been there, done that._ Why would I care what an old housewife did or didn't do when she was young?

Yollie had warned me that Yolanda would meddle. She said that I should take the bad with the good. She's right, I suppose. Other than last night, Yolanda has always been very nice to me. But I wish that she hadn't pretended to be something that she wasn't. She doesn't have the faintest idea what I'm going through. How could she? She hasn't been in a war where she could die if she made a single mistake.

### # # # # # # # #

The planning meeting went well. Yolanda didn't give me any dirty looks and actually talked to me like everything was normal. Yollie was a pain in the butt though; acting giddy the whole time. She calmed down after I reviewed what TG had told us about the new brain-bands. Zzyk was going to have control of everything Albertans did, said, and thought. I had been thinking that we could gradually take brain-bands away from Albertans and replace them with fake bands. That plan won't work if Zzyk installs those new bands. When I asked if anyone had any ideas other than installing fake bands, Hank suggested that our focus should be on stopping Zzyk from installing the new ones. Nobody had any ideas on how to do that. We eventually struck a committee to come up with some options. Will, Wolf and I are on it.

We also talked about what Zzyk's response to our victory would be. Everyone agreed that he'd attack us somehow, but we couldn't imagine how. Whatever he does, it's going to be nasty. I can smell it.

Hank handed me an unsealed envelope at the end of the meeting. "Some ideas about how we can punish Zzyk for intruding into B.C. space and help ourselves in the process," he said. "Show it to the man in the gray suit. I'll add details if he likes the potential."

I said I would, of course. But after reading the note inside, I couldn't make much sense of it. _Leverage through intrusions of prison towers and value of the steel; threaten second transmitter Mount Assiniboine; threaten helping Albertans find long-lost relatives. Ask cash; settle land._ I'll show it to Franklin Franklin. Perhaps he'll know what Hank was suggesting.

I noticed a little interchange between Yolanda and Yollie as we were leaving the ship's main deck. Yollie was brushing by Yolanda and, while doing so, she grabbed her hand and slipped something into it. Yolanda looked down and popped it into her pocket, but I saw a corner of what Yollie gave her. It was a foil packet like what Yolanda had forced on me. I knew that Yollie had been instructed to carry those around with her too. But why would Yollie be giving a foil packet to her mom? She has her own stash in the root cellar. No way that Yolanda would run out of her packets this year, or even the next. Then TG was telling me that he could find out where the new brain-bands were being manufactured. I asked him to join the committee and I forgot all about Yollie.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 5

From Izzy's journals: Saturday, September 3.

I dropped into the compound the next day, thinking that I'd grab TG and perhaps fly-over Prudhoe Bay to see if anything up there had changed. The compound was mostly deserted but I found Winnie and Liset playing in the living room. Winnie was building wooden block towers and Liset was knocking them down and laughing.

"Where's everyone, Winnie?" I asked.

"Down at the Henderson's. TG and Liset are going to move into their place. I'm babysitting for another twenty minutes and then I have to peel carrots and cut up carrot sticks for Liset."

I waved good-bye and wandered over to the square of log houses. I didn't know which one was the Henderson's, but figured I'd hear voices. The neighbour families were all on holidays – otherwise they would have been invited to our Assassination Day party. I saw Yolanda and Yollie through a window and paused. They were hugging. Yolanda was caressing Yollie's left cheek and then, she pulled Yollie's face to her and kissed her right cheek. I had never seen her do that before; had thought that Yollie was having a melt down because their hug was so tight. Both were smiling; obviously not a melt-down.

I sauntered noisily through the front door. "Anyone here?"

"In the kitchen, Izzy." Yolanda's voice.

By the time I got there, Yollie and Yolanda were on opposite sides of the room. _Feeling guilty about hugging?_ "Winnie said that TG and Liset are moving in here?"

"The Hendersons are not coming back," Yolanda replied. "TG needs his own house and the Aboriginal Nation agreed that he should take over this one. Hank and TG are going through the house and making a list of things they're going to need."

I had noticed the living room when I came in. Two nice cushiony sofas, even a black leather recliner. A glass topped coffee table on a blue wooly area rug and pictures of mountains on the wall. The kitchen had a table with four chairs, some yellow place mats on the table and painted plywood counters (in yellow) with big Mason jar canisters. Based on what I saw here, the bedrooms downstairs probably had real beds, closets with doors, and even some bureaus for clothes. This was an impressive home! "Place looks full of stuff," I said.

"The Hendersons took their personal possessions and are going to guard the border further north. They left the Nation's furniture behind. Their children were long gone so there's nothing here now that's suitable for a two year old."

"Thought I'd grab TG and fly up to Prudhoe for a look-see."

"His schedule is full for the next couple of days, Izzy. He and Hank will be visiting some thrift stores, plus he has to spend a ton of time with Liset so that she'll start to accept him as a parent. Right now, she's only comfortable around Winnie. Perhaps you could try Wolf?"

"I'll check," I said, but I already knew that I wouldn't. I don't like being bossed around. If I had wanted to go up with Wolf, I would have found Wolf. There was an uncomfortable moment where nobody had anything to say. Y&Y were looking at me. Waiting for me to leave? "OK, see ya." And I left but peeked through the window on my way back. Y&Y were back in a hug. Yolanda with her left hand touching Yollie's cheek; another kiss on the right. The two of them were whispering? Either Yolanda has had a new personality implant or I'm missing something here; went back to the compound. Winnie will know what's going on.

### # # # # # # # #

I found Winnie still sitting on the floor but Liset was wandering around the living room, touching things. Yolanda's living room seemed empty now. All of her glass vases were gone as were the framed pictures of the kids. Breakables. They'd be hidden some place that Liset couldn't reach. "What'cha doing?"

"Waiting for Liset to decide what she wants to play with next."

"Who's taking over the babysitting after your turn," I asked.

"I dunno. The schedule is on the fridge."

I wandered into the kitchen. I had figured there'd be a schedule. I didn't expect two. One for Liset; the other for TG. The next three days were all blocked off into thirty minute segments. Yolanda had identified who was babysitting Liset in each interval and, as well, what TG would be doing during this time. I saw the trend – he'd be gradually increasing the time that he'd be spending with Liset. But today, he was scheduled to be with Hank through to 4 p.m. After that, he was with Liset until her bedtime. Tomorrow he was heavily booked with Yolanda, but assigned to Liset for all the meals. Plus he'd be with her for bedtime. I saw Yollie's name sprinkled liberally throughout the three days; noticed that she had babysitting duty first thing every morning starting at 6 a.m. TG didn't become involved until it was time for Liset's breakfast. Hmmmm. Yollie's kind of old for a sleep-over party, isn't she?

That foil packet that Yollie slipped into Yolanda's hand yesterday? I figured that it was empty and Yollie wanted Yolanda to know that it was empty. I'm guessing that Yollie is going to be spending a lot of time at TG's house from now on.

Back to the living room. Winnie was on the sofa with Liset on her lap. They were looking at an old-fashioned cloth book for toddlers. A wooden crate of cloth books was at Winnie's feet. It was true. Hank never does throw anything out. I sat down next to Winnie.

"These used to be mine. I still remember them," she smiled as I leaned over to see the illustrations. "Liset, do you remember Aunt Izzy? Can you say _Aunt Izzy_?"

" **Aunt** Izzy?"

"Mom says that children have to learn to address their elders properly."

"I'm not an elder."

"Sure you are. You're way older than she is. Do you want to read a book to her? Liset likes hearing the stories and seeing the pictures."

"Sure, I guess."

"Mom says that we should read to Liset a lot so that she'll enjoy being around books. Then she'll want to learn to read for herself. You should grab a book, sit down next to us, and pretend to read it to yourself. "

I did and it worked. Liset started to look over at what I was doing. Winnie slid her own book out of sight.

"Liset, do you want to sit on Aunt Izzy's lap? She'll read the story to you." Winnie mimed me holding out my hands to lift Liset off Winnie's lap. I did that. Liset shrunk back into Winnie's body and looked at me in fear.

"Too soon," Winnie concluded. "Mom says that children will be frightened of strangers at this age. She's not frightened of me because I'm not that much bigger than her. We have to get her used to Uncle TG as quickly as we can, Mom says, because she has to see him as her parent. She hasn't had a real parent yet."

Liset was still watching me closely. I moved away from Winnie. Liset relaxed and started digging for the book that Winnie had slid behind the cushion. "I see that Yollie is going to help TG out too," I said.

"Mom says that taking care of babies is a full time job. One person can do it, but Mom says it will be exhausting. Yollie volunteered to help. I did too. But Mom says that they can't use me too much or Liset won't bond with an adult. When Liset starts going to Uncle TG when she's crying, we'll know that she has bonded."

"Yolanda told you all this?"

I saw Winnie hesitate.

"Sort of," she said.

"What does _sort of_ mean?"

"I heard her say these things to Uncle TG. Mom says that she has to give him a crash course in raising babies because he has to start being her father as soon as he can. Tomorrow Mom is going to tell her as much as she can about raising babies."

"Does your mom know that you've been listening to her conversations with TG?"

"Well, I'm in the same room."

"Are you hiding in the room, Winnie?"

"Sort of."

"Are you invisible in your sling in the room?"

Winnie nodded.

"You should ask your mom if you could listen in, don't you think?"

Winnie shook her head. "She'd say, _No_."

"So perhaps you shouldn't listen in?"

"But I **want** to listen to them talk about raising babies. And Mom hasn't said that I can't, so I'm not breaking any rule."

"Well..."

"You're not my mom. You can't tell me what to do. I'm not breaking any rules so I'm going to do what **I** want to do." With that, Winnie hauled Liset up to her shoulder and stomped away while Liset struggled and twisted to get down. She turned at the corridor to her bedroom and glared at me. "I don't like you any more," she said and disappeared.

Wonderful. Nobody wanted me around. On top of that, Yollie is having sex when she's not supposed to. For her punishment, she gets kisses from Yolanda and a luxurious furnished house to live in. When I even think about having sex, Yolanda throws me into a root cellar prison and yells at me. What's wrong with this picture?

### # # # # # # # #

It was turning out to be a great morning; figured I'd be welcome at Doc's. He and Granny were sharing duty on the Wilizy. I glanced at Yolanda's crew schedule that was posted on the fridge as I went by. They'd be here until noon. Then Yollie would take over. Last thing I wanted was to hear her bragging about her sex life, so I had to be out of here by noon.

"It's me," I said. Saw Doc in the living room and plopped down next to him. Granny was hunched over some papers on the galley table, but when she saw me sit down, she joined us. Doc closed his whittling knife and put it into his shirt pocket; whisked some shreds of wood off his lap and onto the deck. "What's up?"

"Nothing much. Thought I'd do some dancing. What'cha doing?"

"Granny's working on her next child rearing lesson and I'm littering the deck. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it."

Something in how he said it wasn't right. Like it was another Doc talking. There was an uncomfortable silence – Doc not being his usual chatty self. "Winnie doesn't like me any more," I blurted. Then I had to tell them the whole story about her listening in.

Granny explained. "Usually Winnie is obedient, but she also has a mind of her own and she has a stubborn streak. She listens in because she wants to be part of the family, but she often is excluded because she's the youngest. That's why she sneaks her way into rooms. Sometimes Yolanda will catch her when she should be in bed or when she shouldn't be listening. Most of the time, Yolanda pretends to be tricked. It's tough being the youngest in a large family. Winnie will like you again by this afternoon."

I nodded my head. It made sense, I guess. Looked up to see Doc and Granny both looking at me, hands in their laps, smiling gently.

"Yollie's had sex with TG and she's going to be living with him. Sleeping with him too."

"Yah, we knew that." Doc this time.

"She's only sixteen years old; way underage. Everybody seems to be OK about that. Even Yolanda."

"Yollie is happy, so we're happy for her. TG is going to be good for her. She'll be good for him." Granny this time. Tag-teaming me?

"I got yelled at because I was going to have sex," I said. "Yollie receives applause from everyone. That doesn't seem fair."

"Yollie's been carrying protection with her for years so she's not going to become pregnant by accident. You've refused, so if you had had sex last night, it would have been far riskier. Plus if you become pregnant, everyone in the Wilizy is under threat of death. Yollie doesn't have the same impact on the family." Granny paused, and looked at me. "You could make things easier on yourself, you know."

"How?"

"Cut back on the hockey games," Doc interjected.

_Definitely tag-teaming me._ "But I like hockey games. I don't want to cut back!"

"And nobody has said that you can't, so you're not breaking any rule. We understand, Winnie."

_Granny with the zinger. I had heard that she speaks her mind; hadn't been on the receiving end before. Me behaving like Winnie? Stubborn? Determined to have my own way even though it was wrong. Yah, I guess. I knew that the more we necked, the more I wanted to have sex. Therefore ..._

I glanced up. Both of them were still looking at me, hands in their laps, smiling gently.

"I don't like you any more," I declared. But I said it without heat. Stuck my tongue out at them and put on a pouting face and stomped my two feet on the deck to emphasize that I didn't mean it.

Granny stuck her tongue out at me in return.

"I'm carrying protection now."

"We heard." Doc taking his turn.

"I am **not** going to have sex before I'm married. I'd hate myself."

"Personally, I'd be happy to see you stick to that goal," Granny said.

"What do you think of one hockey game a day and not before bedtime?"

"Discuss it with Will," Doc said.

"I was going to scout out Prudhoe Bay, but TG is tied up. Everyone's busy." I was hinting and hoping.

"I'll force myself to be around you, I guess. If I have to." Doc got up, brushed some more wood chips onto the deck, put an arm around me, hoisted me over his shoulder, and hauled me bodily out of the ship. I kicked and screamed in a little girl's voice, "I don't want to go to Prudhoe. I don't want to go to Prudhoe."

On the way up north, Doc told me stories about Granny growing up and what her life was like in her first marriage. I hadn't known that she had married a fire and brimstone preacher. Her husband considered sex before marriage to be a mortal sin and preached that to his flock, to his wife, and to his daughter. That's why Granny had said what she had said to me about personally approving my decision to not have sex. Her husband died when Yolanda was about six years old. Granny was a single mother from that point on.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 6

From Will's journals: Monday, September 5.

Izzy and Doc's trip up to Prudhoe Bay had been a waste of time except for one discovery. Doc had identified some high landmarks where we could set up a surveillance post, but he wondered whether it would be better to station some cameras high in the sky instead. Wolf immediately jumped on that idea for watching the DPS military installations in Alberta too. So Wolf and I spent a couple of days putting invisible cameras high in the sky above DPS installations and over the whole area around Prudhoe as well. We can now see anything coming into or out of that bay. The surveillance posts are almost the same as my repeater stations across Canada, but with slightly different electronics inside.

We now have lots of surveillance feeds coming into the Wilizy command post where they can be stored and analyzed later. Right now, they have to be reviewed regularly as we have limited storage capacity available. TG can probably help us out on that, but he's been tied up being a dad. I may be able to rig an alarm on each sky camera that will sound when there's any significant movement. I'm not sure how I should define "significant movement" yet. That part of the plan will take some time.

Doc and Izzy both agreed that it was too dangerous to venture too close to Prudhoe's installations, so they turned around and came home without getting close enough to actually see anything. I thought Izzy would be upset about that but she said that she enjoyed the trip. I'm not sure why she'd say that if it were a waste of time. Have I mentioned that Izzy can be confusing at times?

### # # # # # # # #

I mentioned to Wolf that we might be able to determine what kind of weaponry was installed at Prudhoe by studying what weaponry existed before oil disappeared. I figured Prudhoe wouldn't have anything as advanced as that – perhaps not even close to it. So that prompted the idea of visiting the Smithsonian Museum in Denver and we both thought it would be a good idea. I told Wolf that I'd ask Izzy about going down. Wolf said that I should **tell** Izzy that I was going to Denver. I was already kind of irked at Izzy, and she's been very cranky lately, so I did. Tell her that is. Then I met up with Wolf and left. We played sky-tag all the way down. Wolf won. Easily.

Wolf and I spent two days walking around the Smithsonian's military exhibits with our jaws on the ground. I figure that thing that shot down TG's copter in Operation Dead Man Walking was a short-range missile. It was like the tiny rockets that I used to carry the firework pellets into the sky for Izzy. Only way more powerful. Their missile would have had a longer range and a larger amount of explosive material in the rocket's nose. Same concept though. I could certainly rig something up like that quickly if I had a metal body to put everything into.

Missile guidance would be a different matter. I didn't care where my fireworks rockets ended up in the sky, so I just pointed them in the general direction that I wanted them to fly. However missiles have to hit something – perhaps a sitting target like a building or a moving target like a copter. Once the rocket has been launched into the air, that could be difficult to do if the target moved unexpectedly. The Smithsonian had an entire room dedicated to explaining how missile targets could be _acquired_ – laser sightings, for example. Then a little computer in the rocket would lock onto the target and direct the rocket right to wherever the target went. Or there could be a little camera in the rocket that would allow a remote technician to steer the rocket until it hit its target. The old societies used to have _drones_ that operated that way. Drones were unmanned airplanes that were difficult to see because they were small. I could totally create a bunch of those.

The museum also had a room about detecting military threats with things called _radar_ and _sonar_. War ships in the past used to have giant wire dish-shaped sensors that would be able to detect ships or missiles that were coming towards them. Submarines had the same capability but from a slightly different technology. Izzy had seen these sorts of dishes when she and Yollie had visited Prudhoe the first time. This meant that the soldiers at Prudhoe were using old military technology, not the kind of electronic technology I had used with the Wilizy's long-range sensors. That discovery made me feel better.

### # # # # # # # #

Something else on the trip made me feel better. Wolf said that I shouldn't care so much what Izzy liked or didn't like if I wanted to do something. We had long talks about girls while we were in Denver. I found out that he's not a great fan of Izzy. I guess I was worrying about him stealing her from me unnecessarily. Wolf thinks that she's too bossy. That she just tells me what to do and doesn't give me a say at all.

I thought about that some. It's probably true. Hockey games are a good example. Izzy told me on the weekend that we had to cut back on our hockey games. She said that the more games we played, the higher was the risk of her becoming pregnant. I could have said that the relationship was obvious, but she was on a roll and wasn't going to let me say a word. She said that we'd cut back to one game a day and not before bedtime. Cutting back didn't bother me, so I agreed. But what Wolf said was true. Izzy and I didn't actually discuss this; she just told me. Had we discussed it, I could have reassured Izzy that I wouldn't get her pregnant. She didn't want that to happen, so I wasn't going to let it happen. I'm kind of an important part of the baby creation process, after all. But I guess she figured that I was a mindless baby-making machine that couldn't control itself.

So I was already irked with Izzy when Wolf and I talked about bossy girl friends. He had had some girl friends like that and got away from them as fast as he could. I got the impression that he could have as many girl friends as he wanted. Izzy is probably the only girl that would put up with me. It's not like I can be all friendly and chatty, and I've noticed that chatting is something that girls like doing a lot. Wolf said that I'd be wrong about attracting only one girl friend. But he admitted that he's not a girl so what does he know.

Wolf said that if you let a girlfriend boss you around now, she'd run your life forever. I thought he might be talking about his mom who has tight control on her family. Wolf said that she did, but it was necessary, especially with his younger brothers. But I was wrong about his mom being the boss. He said that his parents discuss everything at night when they're alone. When he was a little kid, he snuck up and listened to them talk one night when they were cleaning the weapons; he was totally frightened that he'd be caught. He wasn't, but he didn't do it again. His dad is the real disciplinarian in the family. One of his looks is all that it takes to stop one of the kids dead in his tracks. Even now.

I said that I didn't think that I could be scary. Izzy would be the disciplinarian when we had kids. Wolf shrugged. He said that I had been one scary-looking dude when I was standing over the gunslingers with a loaded gun in my hand. He said that I should stand up for myself more. I have to think about that some.

There's a girl that Wolf likes a lot, I believe. He wouldn't say what her name was or anything else about her. He said he only met her briefly, and them being together wouldn't work anyway. He didn't say why. I think that he was unhappy about that.

I like Wolf. I like his dad too. One minute, Hank's a quiet guy; then suddenly, he's demolishing the nose of a man holding a gun to his head. I saw him in action from my sling when I was approaching Oliver. I didn't arrive in time to see the beginning of the battle, but the end was impressive. Wolf said that he had never seen that violent side of his dad before. I wondered if I could be like that. I'd have the quiet part nailed at least.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 7

From Izzy's journals: Tuesday, September 6.

Wolf and Will were down in Denver researching armaments. Will was being snarky so I was glad to see him go. Yollie is getting on my nerves too – gushing about what a nice little girl Liset is and how TG is so good with her. She's not rubbing my nose into the fact that she's having sex and I'm not, but she might as well be. They must be really going at it; both Yollie and TG look exhausted. We need to know where the new brain-bands are manufactured, but TG doesn't have the time to look into it. Yollie's being kind of selfish, I thought, wearing him out like that.

Everybody suddenly had something else to do when I dropped by, so I had time on my hands. After our debriefing, Stu had wanted to discuss an idea with me for a new WZBN program, but he didn't want to do that right then. So I thought I'd go down to Surrey, meet with Stu, and pass on Hank's envelope to Franklin Franklin. I wanted to ask B.C. what they knew about Prudhoe too.

### # # # # # # # #

I understood why Stu wanted a private chat; it was about Doc. At our debriefing, Doc had admitted in a sad sort of way to Stu that he had nothing of any value to do. Granny had her child-rearing lessons and that was keeping her busy travelling to Surrey and back every other day. Doc had accompanied her twice, but couldn't do anything to help her, so he stayed home after that.

Now I knew what had been bugging me about my visit with Doc and Granny. Doc had been sitting in his chair with his whittling knife, but he had been all slumped back into his chair, eyes half closed when I came in. He had enjoyed himself on our trip to Prudhoe, and I thought he was interested in looking around. He had a good suggestion for surveillance but he became quiet on the way home; said he was going to sweep the floors when I asked him what he'd be doing the next day. I thought he was kidding but his face didn't look like he was kidding.

Stu had suggested to Doc that he could do some medical training courses on the WZBN but Doc had said that it wouldn't be possible. I understood why Doc had turned down Stu's suggestion. If Zzyk learned that Doc was alive, and realized that Doc was a member of the Wilizy, he might re-examine that whole story about Doc dying from skydiving out of a helicopter. There could be lots of unanswered questions. We didn't want to give Zzyk any unanswered questions.

Stu changed the subject. Asked if I realized that his assistant was working directly on Wilizy business, and in the process, she was accumulating a lot of knowledge about us. Nothing about our scientific secrets, but still, she knew what we were doing and why.

"Sure," I said. "Hard to keep everything a secret." Yolanda had screened all of Stu's staff before they joined us, so I wasn't concerned.

"MacAndrew, my programming manager, has an idea how Doc could do the medical programs without revealing himself. She didn't know if she was allowed to talk directly to you or not."

I raised an eyebrow.

"If she doesn't know anything about you and has never even met you, she can't spill any beans."

I remembered Yolanda mentioning the MacAndrew name. She had joked about Stu only hiring Scots and so it had stuck in my memory – Stu's last name being McKenzie. I couldn't remember the girl's first name. Hopefully, it wasn't Mac. Mac MacAndrew would be a little strange. "What's her first name?" I asked.

"We call her Mac," Stu said.

"Really? Mac MacAndrew?" Perhaps I should introduce her to Franklin Franklin. Their kids could be named ... MacFranklin MacFranklin? B.C. people were a little weird with their naming conventions.

"She has Scottish ancestry going back a long way," Stu said. "She likes the nickname. Her first name is Barbara, but she'll hiss at you if you call her that. Mac was my assistant before I took on the WZBN job full time. Will you meet with her?"

"Sure. Why not?"

### # # # # # # # #

After my meeting with MacAndrew, I had some time to think about how I could convince Doc to try some pilot programs on _Doctoring at Home_. It would be good for him, I thought. Doc loves helping people and teaching them about medicine. Stu's assistant said that they could do the lessons with tight close-ups on the medical problem Doc would be explaining. She had subtle ways of changing his voice too. Plus make-up, and perhaps a surgeon's gown, and mask for long shots. It was worth a try, I thought. People in Alberta relied a lot on old wives' tales for curing illnesses and patching people up. A series on real doctoring could be a big attraction. Doc would enjoy doing it. Granny could help if she had the time. They could do a series together on doctoring young children, for example.

MacAndrew herself was unremarkable and easily forgotten. A little shorter than me; brown hair tied in a tight bun. Serious looking face; light coloured eyebrows, narrow nose. Nothing particularly pretty about her face, but nothing bad either. I must say that her business clothes were not flattering. She was wearing a female version of a man's pinstriped business suit with a man's blue business shirt. Everything was too big for her and she had bulges in her pockets from some bulky objects she was carrying around. Perhaps an objection to carrying a purse? My overall first impression was of a short, dumpy, messy, unattractive teenager.

Mac talked well, though. She made a good presentation including a mock up of the studio set and a list of topics that could be offered in the first three months of the program. She said that these were only ideas; Doc would be in charge of everything. I told her that I liked her ideas and would present them to Doc and encourage this kind of series.

### # # # # # # # #

FF met with me in another windowless office hidden underground somewhere within a maze of hallways. An armed soldier took me to the office and stood guard outside while we met. I wasn't sure what he was guarding. FF from me? Old guys in gray suits who sit in corners don't have to worry about me attacking them.

The B.C. military had searched their files for information on the group in Prudhoe Bay. Our information that they had close ties to Zzyk, and what those ties were, had come as a surprise. As far as they had known, they were a small group of wackos living on a commune in a deserted worn-out oilfield next to the Beaufort Sea. I told them what Doc and I had seen and that we'd be watching them; didn't say how. B.C. had no information on The Citadel.

"Tell me if you need any help stopping Zzyk from installing the new brain-bands," FF said. "Finding where they're being manufactured is a good idea. I can tell you that we'd find it very surprising if they were manufactured in Alberta. We have a good idea what goes on inside every major building in Alberta. Depending on where the plant is outside of Alberta, we might have some assets that we could put in place."

In FF-speak, assets meant people. "Do you mind if I call you FF," I asked on a whim.

"Go ahead. Many of my friends do. Some extend it to _Ffffft._ Like the sound of air coming out of a balloon. Others claim that it's a different kind of escaping air. I'm being delicate here." And then he smiled.

_Franklin Franklin has friends? And a sense of humour? And a gap between his two front teeth that you could pass a drinking straw through. No wonder I've never seen him smile._

### # # # # # # # #

FF put Hank's proposal down on the table and looked at me. His face was expressionless. A common feature for him, I thought. Big long face emphasized by his mostly bald head and big ears. "You've read this?"

"Of course," I said.

"Consider B.C. all in. We'll exert all the leverage that we have. And we've accumulated quite a lot. I'll handle it personally."

"I'll tell Hank," I said. "He'll be pleased." I didn't know what else to say. I had been waiting for FF to ask us what we had been drinking when we dreamt up the plan. His enthusiastic response surprised me. An errant thought floated through my brain that this wouldn't be the only time that FF would surprise me.

"Classic Hank," he said, waving the one paragraph proposal. "I've missed working with him."

"He worked with you?"

"He didn't tell you? Wait. Of course he wouldn't have told you. Hank never says anything about his personal life that hasn't been extracted with a chisel and hammer first. Even with me. Yes, Hank and I worked together. I was his commanding officer when he joined the RCMP."

I motioned him to continue.

"Let's see. What can I tell you that isn't still classified? I wouldn't want to be arrested for leaking state secrets." FF glanced at me and winked before continuing. "Hank joined the RCMP a year or so before he was scheduled to graduate from high school. I believe it was about 2058. He lived in a small town in the B.C. interior but I don't know where. This was before the creation of the Aboriginal Nation. I put Hank immediately to work as an undercover officer. Frankly, he looked and acted like a hoodlum. At least that was the picture he presented for others to see. Rough looking, willing to settle things with his fists any time, any place. We created the image of a petty thief, put those charges on the police records, gave him the skills that he would need to prove that history, and then let him loose to hang out in the local bars."

"You said _undercover_?"

"Yes. We wanted him to get in tight with the major criminals and feed us whatever information he could learn. We were especially concerned with the rise of the biker gangs. They were roaming freely throughout the interior, terrorizing everyone and feeling it was their right to ambush and murder law enforcement people. Joining them would be out of the question. They were very tight knit; but they did like to brag when they were drunk. Hank had a disarming way of talking with people. After he bragged about some of his recent burglaries, he'd be in."

"Really?"

"Really. Hank performed well for us that first year. We were happy; he wasn't. Any gem of information he passed to us was a gem we wouldn't have dug up any other way. Hank said that he could do more. One day he showed up in my office with a little slip of a girl. She looked fifteen. I didn't ask her age. Hank said that she was a friend with a special talent. He and his girl friend had been going to some bars together – she would be dressed to look older, of course. She was the one who gave him the initial intelligence that allowed him to focus on the key criminals. I expect you know the girl friend's name."

"Yolanda?"

"The one and only. She went by Yollie then. What a team they made! Hank's information increased in value tremendously. They'd report to me together – she'd sit, quiet as a mouse, holding Hank's hand. I don't believe I ever saw them in their first year together without her hand nestled inside his. Big brown eyes. Watching me all the time. They kept accepting more and more assignments – some of them with a risk."

"Risk?" I felt like an idiot repeating single words that FF had said but with a question mark. I was finding all of this hard to believe.

"Biker gangs were not friendly people, nor were the people they worked with. I started sending Hank and Yollie out to more distant locations where they wouldn't be recognized, but that meant weekend work. They'd check into a hotel – Hank with his hoodlum look, Yollie dressed to look like, you'll excuse the expression, a _working girl_. Hank would wink at the desk clerk, the clerk would leer at Yollie who by now was becoming a striking young woman, and nothing more would be said. Yollie would slip into the bar and spend some time with the men – doing what she did best, I assumed. At some point, she'd return to the hotel, passing her information to Hank on the way. Then he'd enter the bar, make conversation with the men she had targeted for him, and stay with them until the bar closed. They'd leave town the next day and report what they had heard to me."

"One weekend, I sent them to a sleazy little bar that was selling exotic drugs in West Kelowna. We wanted to know who was supplying them. That trip led to a big escalation in violence. I'm not sure if she's ever gotten over what eventually happened. I can't check because she hasn't talked to me since. I myself was promoted back to Surrey and the government gave me a job where I would be safe. I became used to sitting in dark offices with no windows. Now I rather like it, even though the risk to me personally is now slight."

"What happened in that bar?"

"Still classified."

### # # # # # # # #

FF and I chatted for a bit – he was just checking to see how Hank and Yolanda were doing. I felt awkward about revealing anything – seeing as how Yolanda wasn't talking to him and Hank was close-mouthed at the best of times. After expressing ignorance to a few probing questions, I had to say, "Sorry, I don't know what I can tell you."

FF shrugged and said that he understood. He seemed sad and stood up as though the weight of the world was pressing him down. "Tell Hank that B.C. loves his idea," and he excused himself and left. I was standing up to leave too when he poked his head back into the doorway to warn me that some security drills had started and I might be delayed in leaving the building. Perhaps I could use the delay to catch up on my reading.

I figured that was some sort of lame FF joke. The guard asked me to follow him and we walked for a long time through their mazes. Finally the guard pointed me into an office and said that I'd have to stay there until the halls had been cleared for visitor traffic. He said the drill would end in exactly fifteen minutes. He would be stationed outside and would knock on the door before coming in. He closed the door and I heard it lock.

The office was the same office that FF and I had been using. This time, a file folder was on the table; the file had a big red _Classified_ label glaring out at me. I found a multi-page report inside and I had been given fifteen minutes of guaranteed privacy to read it. I made it with five minutes to spare.

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# Chapter 8

Rick mentally prepared himself before entering Zzyk's office. This wasn't the office Zzyk used for military operations. This private office was deep underground and accessible only to invited quests who first had to face the scrutiny of two unarmed sentries stationed outside the steel door. That door had a password-protected lock that only the guest would know. This meant that the guards themselves couldn't sneak into the office and assassinate their boss. When they did escort a guest into Zzyk's presence, the first thing they'd see was his hand holding their brain-band controller. One false move and both guards would die in agony. After one visitor had left, the next visitor would have to enter a different password. This impenetrable security was required because Zzyk's living quarters were connected to this office. At least that was the rumour. Nobody knew for sure.

With such tight security, Zzyk could do whatever he wanted inside that office, including dismember a staff member who had displeased him. Rick knew that he had killed at least one staff member inside the office. Rick knew this because he had been the one tasked with disposing of what remained of Zzyk's previous executive assistant. That cleanup started with sweeping the larger remnants of the body into a canvas bag, and then washing down the furniture along with the walls, ceiling and floor of the office. This personal introduction to a previous supervisor's internal bodily fluids and tissues was designed to promote a sense of fear whenever one was called in for a personal meeting. Today it could be Rick's time to turn around and find his own #2 standing silently in a corner with a mop and a pail.

But not quite yet. Rick sensed that Zzyk was unhappy with him, but he had not yet made up his mind to kill him. For that reason, Rick had given one of Zzyk's assignments to his assistant. He had assigned him the task that held no hope for success – _Send a team up Mount Robson to destroy the WZBN tower._ Rick knew that this would be impossible and Rolf would have to report his failure. Will wouldn't bluff. The tower had to be impregnable to any kind of assault that a small team could mount. Hiking any higher than the tree line undetected was inconceivable when Izzy had specifically challenged Zzyk to try.

Rick took on Zzyk's second assignment – blocking the WZBN's transmissions by attaching program-jamming antennae onto the prison towers of the IOF's western wall. This also had no chance of succeeding. Will's transmission tower was a beast on top of a huge mountain. Any counter transmissions that Zzyk might float up into the air would be too weak to have any effect by the time they were high enough to reach the WZBN signals. However, this project allowed Rick to show initiative, something that he knew his #2 lacked.

Rick hadn't expressed any doubts to Zzyk about either job, of course. Especially not when he was receiving the assignments while sitting in the chair with explosives a mere three centimeters from his vital organs. Many years ago, a young, strong subordinate had tried to kill Zzyk with his bare hands. Since then, when staff were called in for a private meeting, the security guards placed visitors in _The Chair_ , strapped them in, and exited as quickly as they could in case Zzyk was in one of his moods.

Today, Zzyk had been in an amiable mood. To Rick's comment that he had stopped the program jamming installations after one day so that he could personally test the effectiveness of the antennae, Zzyk replied simply. "Good idea. They're probably not going to work. It's worth a try. Run the test."

To Rick's warning that Rolf had returned without achieving their objective and, on top of that, had likely been caught on camera, Zzyk replied, "That was predictable. Did they make it to the tower?"

"They found signs of booby traps and weapons covering the whole area above the tree-line. Rolf took pictures from the tree-line and retreated."

"They weren't in uniforms, right?"

"No. Dressed as tourists as you instructed. Nobody's going to believe that some Albertans are free to wander around and be tourists."

"Pffft," Zzyk replied. This was the sound that he routinely made to indicate he could care less. "Assuming the jamming of the WZBN signal isn't going to work, and the transmitter seems to be impregnable against conventional weaponry, the most obvious way to stop their broadcasts is to stop the Wilizy. I want a plan for finding their base camp. You have until Tuesday, September 20."

With that, Zzyk placed his hand under his desktop and pushed the button that unlocked the door and summoned the guards. Another button was there somewhere. One that would take Zzyk's head below the level of the desktop. Even he wouldn't enjoy being spattered by guts, bone fragments and miscellaneous bloody pieces of shredded flesh. Probably.

Rick had figured that any meeting in that office that lasted longer than fifteen minutes was not going to end pleasantly. At least not for the guest. He made it out with five minutes to spare. He had two weeks to devise a plan to find the Wilizy base camp.

### # # # # # # # #

That Tuesday afternoon, Zzyk went onto the airwaves with his version of the 6 p.m. news. The airwaves being his direct feed into the brain-bands of everyone living within range of his building rooftop transmitters. Zzyk sadly reported that Harold Stanley, a long-time IOF executive with a sterling record of service to the citizens of Alberta, had been found murdered in his bed. Carved onto his cheeks were the letters W and Z – disfigurations that the Wilizy had used in the past to brag about their crimes. Zzyk was at a loss to explain why the Wilizy had performed such an atrocity.

"I've asked for a full report on Mr. Stanley's murder. I've been told that he was a gentle, kind man. Mr. Stanley was the grandfather of Izzy The Slut who met him by teleconference some months ago. The Slut accused Mr. Stanley of forcing her grandmother into prostitution, a life style that eventually led to her death. The IOF will be holding a state funeral for Mr. Stanley. Citizens who have any knowledge of Izzy The Slut's location are asked to drop into a DPS office and share that information. The DPS is offering a reward of one week with an inactive brain-band for the first conscientious citizen to come forward with news on where The Slut can be found. Don't let this atrocity go unpunished," Zzyk urged. "Bring Izzy The Slut to justice."

### # # # # # # # #

Early Wednesday morning, Stu messaged Izzy to inform her what the IOF had told the citizens. Some queries had been posted on the WZBN website. "Why did you kill Mr. Stanley?" was the general theme.

By noon, the Wilizy had posted a reply to Zzyk's charges on their web page. They also broadcasted the reply at the beginning of every broadcast hour that day.

_The Wilizy had nothing to do with Mr. Stanley's death or his disfigurement. Izzy had no hard feelings towards her grandfather and the claim that she vowed to kill him is a lie. The statement that her grandmother was a prostitute and that is why she died is also a lie. A DPS agent killed Izzy's grandmother during a non-violent protest against the IOF many, many years ago._

### # # # # # # # #

The next morning, Zzyk returned to the airwaves to report that The Slut had struck again. This time the victim was a young IOF citizen named Janey, a former dissident who had turned herself into the DPS in an effort to escape The Slut's unwanted attentions. The Slut was Janey's dissident teacher and she visited young naive Janey frequently in her bedroom at night when nobody else was around. Janey was so distraught by what The Slut had forced her to do that she was unable to talk about those incidents with IOF psychological staff. This young innocent girl was found dead in her residence with The Slut's W-Z on her cheeks. Two weeks with an inactive brain-band were offered to any citizen who could help the DPS find where The Slut lived when she wasn't murdering innocent young girls who didn't want to have sex with her.

### # # # # # # # #

Shortly afterwards, the Wilizy responded with web and broadcast denials.

_The Wilizy deny any involvement in the death and disfigurement of Janey, a young girl Izzy taught in a dissident camp in 2081. Janey lived in a dormitory surrounded by other girls her own age. She was never alone. Izzy did not behave inappropriately with any of her students._

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# Chapter 9

At 1 p.m. Friday, FF messaged Izzy that he had fleshed out Hank's plan and B.C. was ready to act as soon as the Wilizy gave their approval. FF would then send a message to Zzyk demanding a meeting to discuss the DPS' incursions into B.C./A.N. territory. The message would not refer to the murders or to the personal attacks on Izzy, but Zzyk would recognize that the Wilizy was responding to them through these threats.

"We'll put a stop to Zzyk's accusations, Izzy," FF assured her. "But, I need the Wilizy's approval to proceed quickly. Zzyk won't stop with two murders."

### # # # # # # # #

The Wilizy directors and managers met at 3 p.m. in Yolanda and Hank's compound. They chose this new meeting place because Yollie and TG had to stay close to Liset and the ship didn't have the space for large meetings along with roaming infants. Stu participated by video-link. Izzy had called the meeting but turned the chair over immediately to Hank who was the project manager. With her one official duty done, Izzy retreated, red-eyed, to a corner of the living room, sat cross-legged on the floor, pulled her arms tight around herself and began to rock gently back and forth. She did not participate in the meeting other than to raise her hand when votes were called to approve Hank's plan. She did not participate at all in the discussion and subsequent decision to cease placing W-Z letters on the cheeks of defeated soldiers. Doc was also visibly shaken and said little during the meeting.

After the meeting, the Wilizy tried to comfort Izzy but she only smiled weakly and stayed in her tight ball, now under a heavy blanket in Hank's big arm chair. Yollie invited her to come by on Saturday and suggested a time when Liset would probably be well-behaved. Izzy nodded but gave no other response.

Will had no idea whatsoever how he could help Izzy. He did agree with everyone else that this week was only the first of Zzyk's responses to his recent defeats. He was now going to take the offensive with a direct attack on the Wilizy's credibility and Izzy's reputation in the eyes of Alberta's citizens. The call for information about Izzy's whereabouts suggested a second line of attack. He was looking for their base camp. Will disappeared into his work room and didn't come out for three days. Wolf kept him supplied with food but couldn't convince him to take even a nap.

### # # # # # # # #

On Friday night, Zzyk received B.C.'s complaint about DPS forces ignoring border treaties and entering B.C. and Aboriginal Nation territory without permission. B.C. was insisting on a meeting. Zzyk's facial expression would have broken out into a broad smile had his smile muscles not been immobilized by years of disuse. He did clap his hands twice in exquisite enjoyment though.

### # # # # # # # #

Rick received the summons to appear in Zzyk's _chamber of death_ at 8 a.m. Saturday morning. Rick already knew that his #2 had been responsible for executing Harold Stanley and Janey – his activities were clearly logged in the duty book. Rick also knew what the murders meant for his own future job security. He had nine days to submit a plan that would reveal the Wilizy's lair or his subordinate would enjoy some practice with a mop. Obviously, Zzyk had embarked on his own plan to take revenge on The Slut for defeating him. Rick had not been consulted beforehand and had been cut out of the plan's creation and execution.

Rick's near imperceptible shoulder check as he entered the private office revealed that Zzyk was alone. He let out a deep breath when the guards escorted him to the chair. Zzyk had to come around his desk and personally place B.C.'s letter into Rick's hands – the chair's restraints made it impossible for Rick to even lean forward.

"It seems that I hit a nerve," Zzyk smugged after Rick looked up from the letter.

"You were right that anything that caused Izzy to relive all the hatred that she had experienced growing up would destabilize her," Rick acknowledged. In fact, Rick had proposed that line of attack after her escape. Zzyk now believed that it was his own idea.

"We'll stall a few days before replying to this letter. There are more Wilizy atrocities to come. Your #2 is quite good at his job, isn't he?" Zzyk was quite enjoying this.

### # # # # # # # #

Saturday at 11 a.m., Izzy left Hank's chair where she had slept through the night and wandered across the grass meadow to Yollie's home. When she heard Liset wailing, "I spilled my potty all over me," she turned around and retreated to the ship where she slipped into her hammock, fully clothed, and pulled a blanket over her head.

### # # # # # # # #

Rick's second meeting with Zzyk that Saturday took place at 11:30 a.m. in the battle operations office and came with no advance warning. A full complement of military staff was flowing into the command center and the place was buzzing with activity. Zzyk was slumped in his chair, polishing his finger nails – an activity that Zzyk busied himself with whenever he wanted to appear unconcerned.

"We've had multiple reports of B.C. and Aboriginal personnel massing at multiple spots on the western border," Zzyk informed Rick. "Confirm and report back on the threat levels. I've issued a full military alert but I've been told it will be two hours before we're at combat readiness levels. I'm surprised that little Janey's death could provoke such a response from The Slut. I guess the rumours of the two of them being lovers were true."

In recent years, Zzyk had become susceptible to believing his own propaganda. He actually believed, for example, that he had been elected to office. Now Zzyk was believing the rumour of The Slut's love for Janey – a rumour that he himself had started less than twenty-four hours earlier.

### # # # # # # # #

The sensors in the Wilizy's command center triggered system-wide alarms minutes after Zzyk issued the military alert that would bring the IOF's forces to battle-readiness. Wolf was on duty in the ship and, as required, he attempted to notify the other managers. The Wilizy's Defensive Operations Manager was dealing with a temper tantrum accompanied by strenuously lofted porridge projectiles. The Strategic Operations Manager was in her hammock and was not responding to Doc's attempts to rouse her. The Research and Development Manager was locked in his workroom and wasn't responding to calls. The Wilizy's Computer Manager was trying to calm the Manager of Defensive Operations who had been the target of the porridge bombardment. So Wolf stayed on duty and received a clear picture of how the IOF army had been trained to respond to an imminent threat that had come without warning. This could become valuable information if the Wilizy ever wanted to completely disable Zzyk's entire armed forces in the first hours of a war.

### # # # # # # # #

By Saturday evening, Zzyk had downgraded the military alert. Rick had personally flown over some of the potential attacks points, but saw no signs of a military threat. Yes, enemy personnel were by the western wall. But they appeared to be labourers who were camping in the open. No more than twenty men were found at each location. No arms were in sight; no military vehicles; nothing but the four copters that had been used to bring the labourers and their equipment to the location and those copters were now parked in the open where they could be destroyed easily.

"Why are they there?" Zzyk asked Rick.

"Franklin really wants to have that meeting. It's what I would do to force a meeting. Point out an enemy's vulnerabilities to him and then wait."

"Our vulnerabilities? We have the superior forces."

"But they aren't mobile. We can't defend that entire western wall from an attack at one unknown spot. Franklin is pointing that out to us."

"Recommendation?"

"Agree to the meeting with Franklin as B.C. has asked. Find out what they want. A meeting can't hurt us and it will give us time to move our own forces into positions near their camps."

"It would be useful to know if B.C. has returned Franklin to active duty," Zzyk admitted. "Meet Franklin in Surrey in an open area. You're going to be trailed. Stay away from our sleepers."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 10

Rick was escorted to a clearing in Surrey's Bear Creek Gardens, Tuesday September 13 at 9:55 a.m. It wasn't exactly the open area that Zzyk wanted. Four platoons of men could have been hiding behind the huge trees and flowering bushes that made up one portion of the extensive grounds. After the expected search, Rick was escorted to a wooden bench where he was relieved of his briefcase, shoes, jacket, pinky ring, and anything in his pockets that wasn't made of cloth. He sensed, but couldn't see the cameras trained on the bench. A listening device was probably right under the seat. B.C. had not attempted to hide the security guards. Rick relaxed; it was a pleasant enough place to sit and admire the view. Alberta had no such gardens. In fact, nobody in Alberta grew any flowers, with the exception of dandelions. There was some underground trafficking in dandelion wine. Zzyk ignored it. Impossible to stop, really.

Rick watched in interest as Franklin approached. The motorized wheel chair stopped a few meters short of his bench. The guards retreated out of hearing. Franklin was a gray man with a fringe of gray hair in a gray suit. His face was sallow as though he had been in a long illness. Franklin extended a hand holding a thick envelope that shook in the non-existent breeze. Rick leaned forward to grasp the envelope and heard twelve clicks of weaponry. He sat back as soon as the transfer was complete. Franklin pulled his hand back to his lap, and then used his other hand to control the shaking.

The first section of the document was titled _History of DPS Incursions into B.C./A.N. Land_. Included were the para-troop attack, the baby-rescue attempt, and the Mount Robson tourists. Other illegal entries went further back. Each incident was identified by dates and times, and photographic evidence proved conclusively that such incursions had occurred.

Rick would hear Zzyk breathing _Pffft_ if he dared to mention these to him.

The second section was longer and just as detailed in its substantiation. It held a list of prison towers that the IOF had built on Aboriginal Nation land. Rick knew that in its days of military superiority over its neighbours, the DPS had erected its wall wherever it was most convenient for them to do so.

Titled _Plans for Use of Excess Steel,_ the third section described how the Aboriginal Nation forces were planning to dismantle each prison tower that was placed even partially on their land and to appropriate the steel for their own use or to sell to interested parties. For example, The WZBN wanted to build a second transmission tower and had chosen Mount Assiniboine as the site. By treaty, both Alberta and the Aboriginal Nation shared the mountain. A WZBN transmission tower on the mountain would blanket all of southern Alberta at the very least. B.C. would help A.N. forces dismantle the illegal towers in exchange for a portion of the steel that they would then sell to the Wilizy. The Aboriginal Nation would do the same.

Rick turned back to the previous section. Some of the alleged illegal towers in Aboriginal Nation land spanned distances from one hundred meters to five kilometers long. De-constructing these towers would open up huge gaps in Zzyk's western prison wall. It could take years to re-establish a new wall.

The report's fourth section of the report added to the threat. Titled _Plans to Increase Social Interactions between Citizens of British Columbia and Alberta_ , Franklin was planning on building a series of reception halls on A.N. land close to where some of the de-constructed prison towers had used to sit. With nothing lethal keeping them imprisoned, Albertans would be free to leave without fear of being caught. B.C. was willing to help them find and visit long lost relatives, tour B.C. attractions, and even relocate and find work in a province that didn't control its citizens with brain-bands. Government officials in these buildings would assist Albertans use these new portals to freedom, even to the point of finding safe paths for them through the IOF mine fields and helping them remove their brain-bands. Descriptions of the locations of these B.C. border entry points would be spread to Albertans through the WZBN.

The fifth part of the report, _De-constructions,_ stated simply that more de-construction crews would be deployed in the coming weeks but no schedule of where and when they would work would be released in advance.

### # # # # # # # #

Rick was escorted back to his copter and was advised that his safe conduct back to Alberta would extend only to 1 p.m. An army copter would escort him to the Alberta border. Rick took a direct route towards Calgary. When the B.C. pilot became bored and turned back prematurely, Rick landed as soon as he could do so unseen. He waited for nightfall before following a ground-hugging flight path through the United States territory and then into B.C. air space.

### # # # # # # # #

Mac MacAndrew served as Stu's program manager but her desk was in the front half of the office. By geographical location therefore, she was also the receptionist although it must be said that they received little foot traffic. All signs identifying Stu's former business had been stripped away. The heavy office door with its wide-angle peephole was always securely locked. In response to a persistent rapping, Mac, don't call me Barbara, saw the gray hair of an elderly brown woman through the peephole, unbuttoned her jacket, unlocked the door, and opened it.

The elderly visitor froze when she saw the business end of the pistol pointed directly at her head. "Shuffle slowly into the office, keep your hands out of your purse, and don't make any sudden moves," Mac ordered.

"Is this how you treat all your prospective clients, Dearie?" the granny figure asked querulously.

"No, but it is how we greet any unwanted visitors from Alberta," she replied. "Take the wig off. Stand up straight. Let the cane fall."

"I'm here in peace. I want to send a message to Izzy without my boss knowing."

"Rick!" Mac said. Then, realizing the reputation of the man facing her, she added, "Face down on the ground. Don't twitch." She fiddled with another inside pocket and withdrew a Taser pistol – the better for controlling the second most dangerous man in Alberta. "Boss," she called. "We have a situation here."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 11

From Izzy's journals: Tuesday, September 13.

A stinging smell blasted me awake. Yolanda was sitting on the side of my bed – a small glass jar of something in her hand. She held it under my nose and I recoiled against the head board, hands out to keep the foul smell away. Yolanda pulled the jar back.

"What is that stuff?" I asked.

"Do you know where you are?" she replied.

"My bed in the ship," I said, watching Yolanda as she put a lid on the glass jar and fastened it tightly.

"Look again."

I did. Not my hammock in the ship; looked like Yollie's room in the compound; saw some clothes hanging in the closet. "Yollie's bedroom," I said.

"Good. Do you remember coming here?"

I thought. Nothing. Shook my head. Shook my head to the question of any memories of eating recently. Same response to what day it was.

"It's Tuesday," she said. "You went back to the ship on Sunday. You've been sleeping ever since. Do you remember why?"

That question I could answer. "I killed Janey," I said.

"No, you didn't. Zzyk killed her. He did it to hurt you. You are not to blame for what the evil gnome did."

I guess I didn't look too convinced; thought it was a crock. If it hadn't been for me, Janey would be alive.

"Do you remember me telling you this already?"

"No."

"Do you believe me?"

"No."

"In time you will. Right now, you need to get up."

"No."

"Yes! Or I'll hold your head over this jar until you barf your guts out on the bed. Then, you'll clean up your own mess." She started to unscrew the jar.

I knew she'd do it. I tried to push the bedding off but my feet became stuck in a sheet. She whipped the bedding off and helped me sit up. Then she helped me dress. Then she helped me stand up.

"You're extremely weak because you've refused to eat for three days. You've rolled around in the bed some, but other than that, you haven't used your muscles. You and I are going for a short walk, but first the bathroom."

Yolanda had to threaten to come in with the jar before I managed to lift myself off the seat. I tottered off with my right arm draped over Yolanda's shoulder, her left arm under my left arm pit and holding me up. I had to lean against a wall when we reached the front door. She wouldn't let me sit down, so I just closed my eyes.

"Outside," she directed. "Fresh air. Sun. I have a water bottle if you need it."

Yolanda didn't have to hold me up, but we did walk back and forth through the grass in the meadow with her arm locked inside mine for balance. I felt her elbow rubbing against my ribs and looked down; remembered something about that elbow in the RCMP incident report that FF had left for me read.

### # # # # # # # #

The report was dated Saturday, June 13, 2059. The Kelowna crime scene team had been called to The Sink Hole, a bar in West Kelowna, to investigate reports of shots being fired the previous evening. They found the bar deserted. Detectives were able to track down a few patrons who had been at the bar that night; some were willing to talk. Meanwhile other detectives found ample evidence in the bar itself to reveal what had happened.

Witnesses at the bar reported that five bikers had come through a back door that evening. Two had confronted a young working girl, new to the bar, and began tearing at her clothes. Their intentions were abundantly clear. The other three formed a barrier to keep the patrons away. All patrons were fleeing through the front door at that point.

Detectives found two men near that back entrance to the bar. Both were in typical biker garb, both were Caucasian, both were very burly, and both were very dead. One man had died after his nose had been driven back into his skull by a significant blow – probably from an elbow. The second biker had blood on his knuckles and hands. He had died from a killing blow at his temple. This had probably been administered by a small, spring-loaded weapon that could release tremendous force when its button was pressed. This weapon, commonly referred to as a _baton_ , was favoured by women, as it was small enough to be hidden inside a purse or a pocket. The RCMP had used such batons when female members were still on the force.

The bodies of the other three bikers were found at the far end of the bar. All three had superficial knife wounds to their faces, arms and hands. The three men had weapons on them but had not drawn them. The detectives believed that someone had tried to come to the defense of the young girl while she was being attacked. The three bikers had probably been intent on keeping that person from interfering.

That was apparently a mistake. Two of them were almost cut in half by shotgun blasts. From the angle of the blasts, and from the narrow spread of the pellets, detective concluded that the girl must have killed her two assailants, found the shotgun behind the bar, climbed on top of it, and had used that lethal weapon on the two closest bikers. Biker #5 was beaten to death. From the force of the blows, investigators concluded that the girl's defender had been a powerful male. No weapon other than his fists had been used.

The man and young girl were not finished. All five bikers each received what would have been another mortal blow had they still been alive – this time from arrows that passed through their throats and lodged so deep into the bar's wooden floor that they could not be extracted. The five dead bikers had to be delivered to the morgue still fastened to the bar's flooring. Detectives concluded that only a large bow and a strong body could have administered that kind of statement.

A message to the patrons of the bar was left on the bar's long mirror. _The aboriginal nation protects its own. We fight to the death. We don't run away._ It was written in the blood of the victims. The detectives presumed that the fingerprints found in that bloody message belonged to the male, but no blood work on the fingerprints was ever completed.

Detectives determined that the two outsiders had been staying at a local guest house of dubious reputation. The clerk reported that a young hoodlum and a young working girl had checked into the room late the previous afternoon and were gone by the morning. Towels in the room had numerous blood stains, as did the bedding.

At this point, the investigating team returned to their station, reported the incident as _Death by persons unknown_ , sealed the file, and classified it as confidential. Two RCMP detachment heads provided written authorization for this unusual behaviour. One of them was named Franklin Franklin.

### # # # # # # # #

"You've done well," said the woman who had killed a biker with a lethal elbow. I looked up. I was standing up by myself in front of Yollie's new home.

"You walked by yourself for the last stretch," said the woman who had killed another assailant with a baton strike. "If you can find a way to not focus on your own problems but to think of other people who need you, it's possible to get out of bed in the morning. Once you've done that on your own, you'll be on the road to recovery. Yollie needs your help. Ask her what you can do to help her." Then the woman who, at fifteen years of age, had cut two bikers in half with a shotgun turned and walked away.

### # # # # # # # #

Yollie didn't want much. Just for me to babysit Liset for half an hour. I read Liset's books out loud to myself. Liset listened to me read and peered at the pictures, but never said anything and never came close enough for me to touch her. One time I looked at her and she ran away and hid. I didn't look up from my reading after that. She snuck back to listen.

Yollie came out of the bathroom half an hour later, as promised. Her hair was wrapped in a towel; said that she had spent the whole time soaking. She still looked terrible though; looked like I felt.

"I haven't had a half hour to myself in a week," she said. "I can't bathe before bed because I'd fall asleep and drown. Did Liset behave herself?"

"She listened to me read," I said. "She got scared when I looked at her and ran away. Did I do something wrong?"

"No. If I do something sudden, like turn to look at her, or even raise my hand to stroke her hair, she runs and hides. She doesn't do it with TG. She hates me."

I felt a sudden wave of exhaustion. "Can I sleep on your couch?"

"Sorry. That's against the law right now. The sleep police are now on their way. Double sorry."

Yolanda arrived at that point, bundled me into an erect position, and we staggered out the door. Remembered something; called back to Yollie. "If the problem is because Liset hates you, why did she run and hide from me?"

I don't remember much of Tuesday after that. I did eat something. I wasn't allowed to sleep in Yollie's soft bed; had to bunk down on the floor in Winnie's room; couldn't even sleep in my hammock. I woke once to find Winnie sleeping with me. Fell asleep again. Horrible nightmares. I saw Janey being murdered. Again and again.

### # # # # # # # #

I heard Yolanda come into the bedroom. Figured it was morning. Wednesday. Winnie was already up and gone. Looked up; saw the glass jar in her hand. "OK," I said.

Ate something, don't remember what; sat in kitchen; visitors came to see me; one at a time, regular as clockwork; figured a schedule was posted somewhere. I didn't mind. I couldn't have handled more than one at a time.

Will was first; he has a defensive invention ready to be produced; asked if he should go ahead with it. I think I nodded.

TG had found a link to a computer outside of the DPS network; it had the schedule for when the brain-bands would be manufactured and shipped. We had almost half a year to plan. I asked if he knew where they were being made. Said he only knew the Internet address of the computer. The plant could be anywhere. "Can you find?" I asked. Saw him thinking. When I looked up, he wasn't there. Don't know how long I had been gone.

Remembered lunch. Soup. No chewing. Good – didn't have the energy to chew; didn't really want to. Doc came; did his doctor stuff; gave me a kiss on top of my head; heard him talking with Yolanda; couldn't make out the words; didn't care.

Hank was next. Said that he thought that we should bring Stu into the compound for safety purposes. Said Stu was far too exposed in Surrey. They would convert the big pioneer house into a WZBN office with bedrooms. Both Stu and his assistant would be housed here. She needed protection too. OK with me?

I don't remember Hank leaving. I do remember Yolanda bundling me up for a nap, but this time I had to lie on the floor on a bunch of books and sharp edged kiddie toys. Didn't care; woke to find Winnie kneeling beside me, her hands on my forehead.

I was sent back to Yollie's. No bath for her this time; walk in the woods instead. Liset liked the woods; played hide and seek with Winnie. Patella there too. Liset not frightened of the dog. Asked about TG; Yollie said he was busy looking at foreign language dictionaries. Asked Yollie to find out if he really meant the brain-bands would be **shipped**.

Supper with the entire family. Will sat next to me. Stu on the other side. Introduced his assistant to everyone as Mac. She looked different without her business suit. Surprised that Hank had moved so quickly. Will cuddled with me in a hammock. Felt good. Don't remember anything after that.

### # # # # # # # #

Heard Winnie getting up. If yesterday was Wednesday, today must be Thursday. Found myself back on her floor; floor felt uncomfortable; so did the thought of somebody dressing and undressing me. Found some of my clothes in Winnie's closet; felt grungy; took a Yollie bath; got dressed all by myself. Ha!

Yolanda in the kitchen; cleaning up after breakfast; asked if I knew where everything was; nodded. Made my own breakfast. Double Ha!

Chewed some things; drank some things; wasn't paying attention. Did think some though. Asked a question. "Why are all your neighbours gone, Yolanda?"

"The Nation has relocated them to other posts because sooner or later the compound is going to be attacked. They'd be innocent victims. Plus, we'd always be trying to keep our secrets from them if they were around – the boys in their slings for example. Best for only members of the Wilizy family to be here now."

"What happened at Stu's office?"

"I'll find Hank," she said.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 12

Sunday, September 18 – the deadline for the Wilizy to respond to Rick's request for a meeting with Izzy as delivered by Stu. Rick had said that it didn't have to be a face-to-face meeting and the Wilizy could take all the defensive precautions they wanted. But he had to be able to communicate with **Izzy**. He would be at a certain place in B.C. at a certain time and he would be alone. He would deliberately put himself into a vulnerable situation where the Wilizy could easily assassinate him if they wanted to. The meeting **had** to take place before Tuesday, the 20th.

Communications about setting up that meeting were kept simple. The Wilizy would respond to Rick's meeting request by asking a question on a certain WZBN message board. The word _Yes_ or _No_ had to be included in the question. The message was to be signed _Chocolate Lover_. Rick would respond with the geographical coordinates of the meeting location and the meeting time buried inside a question of his own. That message would be signed _Flower Lover._ Other than indicating her willingness to be at the meeting, Izzy was not involved at this stage of the negotiations. Mac took care of the messaging since Izzy was still having difficulty staying awake.

An hour after Rick had sent his reply with the coordinates, Wolf, Hank, Will and Izzy were hovering invisibly over the next day's meeting location, a deep chasm inside a B.C. river valley. Sharp cliffs fell precipitously to the small river below. The land around the chasm was a plateau with visibility stretching for miles. No way could a DPS force sneak up on them.

The coordinates put the meeting at the bottom of the chasm, but Wolf figured that Rick would hide in one of the caves in the cliff walls. Once he was inside, he'd be invisible to spying eyes but still able to communicate. For the time that it took him to climb up to the cave, he would be extremely vulnerable.

They saw no signs of any of the area being booby trapped, so Wolf picked a spot at random where Izzy could hide, well away from the chasm wall but still close enough to communicate. Plus she'd be in her sling. Hank and Will would be nearby if she needed them. Nobody could see any personal danger for Izzy in this meeting. She'd listen but make no commitment to anything. However, there was high personal danger for Rick. First in being sniped, and second if Zzyk ever found out that he had met with Izzy. A visual recording of Rick talking to Izzy would be very valuable to the Wilizy but virtually impossible to make if Rick set up deep inside a cave. It would be very risky for anyone inside a sling to try and follow him in.

"But it would be valuable?" Will asked.

"We'd own Rick from that point on," Izzy answered and then added. "You're not going inside a cave, Will."

"I wasn't thinking of that," Will replied. But he **was** thinking of a way to make a video recording. So he went ahead and made the recording without asking Izzy first.

### # # # # # # # #

**Written transcript of a video record made of a conversation between an executive assistant of the IOF named Rick, and a manager of the Wilizy name Izzy. Time of taping was Monday, September 19, at 11 a.m. Location in B.C.**

Rick: Izzy? Please confirm that it is you by answering this question: _At the airport, what did you ask when you wanted to buy some food from a vending machine?_

Izzy: _Does anyone have change for a gold coin?_ What do you want, Rick?

Rick: First some preliminaries. As you can hear, I'm sending this message via computer voice. You can't record my voice and use it to blackmail me. I am hidden deep inside a cave so no pictures can be taken of me with a communication device in my hand. If we use this location to communicate again, you should be aware that I will know if anyone has climbed up or down this rock face recently. The rocks are quite unstable and crumble easily. Since these caves are never disturbed, I will also know if somehow, somebody managed to sneak inside them to plant recording instruments.

Izzy: I see no reason to have future meetings. I see no reason to have this meeting. Get to the point.

R: We have mutual interests. I freely admit that I have something to gain from reaching some accommodations with you. For example, tomorrow, Zzyk is going to order my execution if I do not have a plan to identify your main camp. I'd like to be alive on Wednesday.

I: Not nice knowing you, Rick. See yah.

R: My death will not be in your best interests. The subordinate who will take my place will undoubtedly submit a plan to locate your main camp that Zzyk will approve because he'll receive a lot of enjoyment out of the plan. When I say enjoyment, I'm referring to the enjoyment he received from ordering two recent executions. I would prefer to submit a different plan but I can't unless you help me.

I: Spell it out.

R: In the early hours of our recent difficulties, a recording of the living room where Zzyk's babies were kept was broadcast on the WZBN. In that recording a baby caretaker appeared. You don't know this, but shortly afterwards, a DPS sergeant stood in almost exactly the same place in the house. We know the exact height of the sergeant in question. That means that we now know the height of the child care attendant. There can't be that many giant aboriginal women in the Aboriginal Nation. In the plan that I expect my subordinate to submit to Zzyk, he will select aboriginals at random and will encourage them to identify the giant and where she lives. My subordinate is not reluctant to use intense encouragement. In fact, he is the man that Zzyk ordered to murder your grandfather and Janey. Somebody will eventually tell their torturer but many will die first. After he finds the giant, he'll find your camp. You have the ability to prevent those deaths.

I: You'll keep torturing people until someone tells you where we are?

R. Not I. I'll be dead. But yes, Zzyk will order an endless number of aboriginals to be interrogated and he will enjoy every minute of the recordings that my subordinate will make. You can't protect every single person in the entire Aboriginal Nation, Izzy. The man who will take my job has the skills to sneak into any part of the Nation he wants; he'll conduct the interrogation in B.C. and bury the body there; then, he'll find someone else. He'll stop only when some poor soul tells him how to find you.

I: You would stop this how?

R: I'd give Zzyk a different plan. One that doesn't require interrogation. One that will work quickly and easily. He'll be happy with my plan and his inclination to liquidate me will be lessened.

I: Where do you see this _accommodation_ with us going?

R: I will be utterly candid. Ultimately, I want Zzyk's job. He's getting old and he has lost some abilities. On the science front, he has no idea how to stop Will's transmitter. He believes that he can jam the WZBN signals or set up a competing broadcast network based on brain-bands. Those ideas have no hope of succeeding. He increasingly loses control of his anger and is resorting to violence at every turn. For example, in response to your broadcast on the silliness of modesty panels, he could soon announce that anyone who removes their modestly patches will be executed. He is so fixated on you that he can't see the danger that is concealed within the current negotiations about our incursions into B.C. land. I see the danger, but have not warned him. He is fighting a war that he can't win. But he will fight to the very end because he hates you to the point of obsession. You may eventually win Alberta; but many, many people will die in the process. He will give you no choice on that.

I: So, you want us to put you on the throne?

R: Not put me on the throne; just don't stand in my way.

I: How will that help Albertans? You'd still be another dictator.

R: Partly true. Let me explain. I assume that you know that Ingrid created more than twenty-six gene profiles. I was in the twenty-eighth. There were ten males in my class when we were created some years ago. We have somewhat unique appearances, but everything else about us is mostly the same. We were shipped out to another country early in our lives and given the education we'd need to perform as executive assistants/executioners. We were also instructed to walk the streets of the city that hosted us, and from time to time, we'd be told to kill the person standing next to us. The brain-bands we were wearing provided the motivation and the reward. The country hosting us permitted our violence because we kept their citizens scared to death of being anywhere near a foreign visitor. Our partners have had a very docile population for well over a century. They wanted to keep it that way.

I: Even more reason for us to stay clear of you, Rick.

R: I haven't murdered an Albertan citizen for a long time now. Men below me in the cadre are given those duties instead. When I am specifically instructed to make people _disappear_ , I send them out of the province instead of killing them. They lead an uncomfortable life, but at least they're alive and I don't have their blood on my hands. If questioned about my actions, I say simply that I made them disappear as instructed.

Since my duties now are so concentrated on running the IOF, I am losing the conditioning imposed on me as a child. When we captured you in Surrey, seeing a little slip of a girl take on the mighty Zzyk intrigued me. I had trouble hiding my enjoyment when you destroyed half of his air force. Recently I sat in a garden in B.C. and wished that we had such a garden in Alberta. I'm at the age where I'm tired of killing and torturing. I'd like to put my management skills to good use running the IOF while you put your long term plans into play. When the time is right, I'll leave. I'll take what wealth I've accumulated – and I **do** plan on accumulating wealth – and I will disappear.

I: I don't believe a word of it.

R: Then, don't. Do believe this though. When my cadre of ten boys was learning to be killers, ten girls were learning the same skills. Abby had the worst skills of all, which is why she's the only one you've ever seen. Two members of this cadre of twenty are hiding in B.C. Zzyk calls them his _sleepers_. One of them has been assigned to get close to somebody in the Wilizy. Did you know that Ingrid has a button she can push on her computer that will create white babies that look nothing like the brown Albertan babies? You'll have no warning before she strikes.

[Silence on the tape.]

R: Know this too. You have only one way to avoid the kidnapping and tortures that my subordinate will inflict on strangers in the next month to find your camp. Those won't happen if **I** find you.

I: And how do **you** propose to find us?

R: Easy. You're going to tell me where your camp is.

I: Would you prefer it if we shot ourselves and saved you the trouble?

R: No. That would ruin the surprise party. In return for your assistance, I'll tell you when the DPS is coming for you and what they'll be bringing to the party.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 13

From Izzy's journals: Friday, September 30.

Yollie and I were catching up while walking in the woods with Liset and Patella. Catching up had become somewhat of a routine for us. But walks in the woods were not routine. We had to wait for the DPS scout who was spying on our camp to go home for the day. No Wilizy members showed themselves when the scout was around except for Yollie and me. We knew that the DPS wouldn't invade until Will was here which is why everyone, including Will, was hiding. We weren't ready to be attacked yet.

Will was now out in the woods doing whatever Will needed to do to make his defensive system complete. Burying things into the ground or into trees, for example. He never fully explained how the system worked – I doubt that we would understand anyway. He reassured us that we were protected against conventional weaponry and that's all that Zzyk had. When I pressed him about what would happen if Zzyk had squirreled away some exotic weapons that we didn't know about, he was less certain. "I won't know if the system works against something I don't anything about, until I know something about it," he had said.

It was at that point that we started working on a plan to move all the children out of the area before the DPS assault. We'll be ready to let them attack the empty camp in about a week. A day or two before that, Granny is going to stuff the kids into the Wilizy and take them to a foreign land where they'll be safe. They believe that it's a school field trip to learn geography. Which it is. But, it's also a scouting trip. TG figured out that the computer he had hacked into was in a North Korean factory that manufactured the brain-bands. He can now read the language well enough to confirm that the new brain-bands will be _shipped_ to North America, as in _carried in a boat_. TG said their computers had virtually no protection, which led him to believe that the country might have primitive military defenses too. Granny is going to look. TG will be along as well, partly to handle Liset, but also to hear how their language was spoken. I keep forgetting that he's very smart. He had been trained in computers, but that doesn't mean he's only smart there. Having someone who can speak as well as read Korean could be very helpful.

Meanwhile, I show myself every day going over to Yollie's, and if TG is home to watch Liset, the two of us walk around outside; otherwise I visit inside. Liset is still screaming a lot at Yollie, but we don't need to worry about the scout hearing that. He's kilometers away on the top of the hills surrounding our valley. Establishing shooting positions, lines of attack, and so on. He's going to surround us with a DPS assault team. He thinks that we'll be like fish in a barrel at the bottom of our valley.

TG and Yollie figured out that Liset is scared of people because she was beaten. I had noticed her immediate pull back response when Yollie had raised her hand. I saw that a lot in the dissidents' camps from women as well as children. I hadn't said anything at the time; not my place. Yolanda told me to say something the next time I see something that will help them. TG and Yollie were overwhelmed with the problems that Liset was having. So I suggested to Yollie that she always kneel in front of Liset when she talks with her and Yollie said later that it worked.

The problem of Liset not being able to sleep through the night? Yolanda had suggested nightmares. Winnie took care of those. So now Yollie and TG are sleeping more. Still no sex though. Both are too tired. I never would have thought that Yollie and I would talk together about our sex lives – make that our non-sex lives. But she's actually quite easy to talk to. I told her that both Will and I are finding that one hockey game a day is all we need. Yollie said that she'd be happy if she just had a chance to skate on the ice.

Yollie told me today that Liset has been taking food out of their kitchen and hiding it. She has even buried some of it outside. Yollie found her eating a dirt covered food bar yesterday and almost lost control. "They beat her and starved her too?" I asked.

"That's what we think. We're storing half of our food supplies in her bedroom now. Hoping that will reassure her that she's always going to be fed. TG says that his people always take care of their children properly, but he figures that if they were going to discard her, they wouldn't assign a caregiver for the interim. They'd pretend that she didn't exist. That's the only explanation that we can think of. We can't imagine how someone so young could have survived on her own."

"She's not scared of Patella," I observed. Liset was sitting on Patella's back while the wolf trotted easily through the woods. "I'm surprised that Patella leaves Winnie's side."

"Winnie tells her to and she has shown her how to be a horsey. Will rigged a filament saddle and some stirrups, and she's locked into the saddle front and back. Patella will respond to me calling her too." When I raised an eyebrow, she said, "Winnie told her to. Right in front of me and the wolf understood."

We talked a bit about me and how I was continuing to improve. No more nightmares, thanks to Winnie. Something useful to do, thanks to Yollie. "Mom was right about thinking about others being the key to fighting depression," I said.

"You're calling her _Mom,_ now? Not Yolanda?"

"Yah. I was alone in the kitchen with her yesterday, gave her a hug and said, _Thanks, Mom_. She said, _You're welcome, daughter,_ and she put her hand gently against my cheek and kissed me on the other. I apologized for being a jerk and that got me another kiss. It became kind of moist in the kitchen for a while and we just hung onto each other. I know why I reacted that way, but why would Yolanda cry too? I have to admit that she surprised me. Did you know that our mom was in a depression once?"

"No. That's news to me. She's admitted that she had had a rough time when she first moved to this valley, but she didn't say anything else."

"Did she tell you how she and Hank met?"

"Yeah, we've heard that story. Falling in love in high school, working together for a bit for the RCMP, and then getting married."

"Did she say what she did for the RCMP?"

"Working the phones. Filing papers. Boring stuff like that."

_Interesting._ "Do you think that they had sex before they were married?"

"Izzy!"

"So I'm a nosy person. Do you think?"

"How would I know? Mother would never share something like that with anyone."

### # # # # # # # #

Izzy, Tuesday, September 30

FF wanted to bring me up to speed on his negotiations with Zzyk so I skipped out of my babysitting duty and asked Granny to fill in. TG was still working on his language skills and Yollie said that she needed to find out what Will was doing if she was going to be any help with the compound's defense. Granny hasn't been around Liset very much but Liset isn't scared of her. I don't believe a grandmotherly person had ever been mean to her. I wonder if TG's people let their grandparents live. I will have to ask.

FF was his usual self, as was the office where we met. Not really an office. Perhaps an interrogation room. Very bare. He said that negotiations about the DPS incursions into B.C. had reached the final stages. Zzyk was refusing to budge on one point, but FF would have their special forces remove some prison walls tonight while the DPS army was watching some volunteers from Kamloops party in another part of the border. "Is Will's defense ready to go?" he asked.

"Yes. We can't test his system yet, but he's confident that it will work. He's been letting the DPS scout wander throughout the security zone and the sensors pick him up every time. We've used those sensors before so they've been calibrated to pick up humans and not deer." I had to catch myself from saying that we had those sensors on the Wilizy. I am finding FF so comfortable to be with that I forget that he's not on the Wilizy team.

"OK. I'll let my old age and physical infirmities overwhelm me tomorrow and let them win one last point. Can Will show up in the compound Saturday morning?"

I wondered what he meant by physical infirmities. FF sometimes speaks in riddles. "Saturday is good. We'll send the kids on their holidays tomorrow. You believe Rick will warn us like he promised?"

"Oh, he'll warn you. His treachery won't come for a long time yet. Everybody in the Wilizy realizes that he's playing you, right?"

"Yeah. We didn't have any choice about teaming up with him. We have no illusions about his character. I did find it very interesting about how he was raised though. Did you know about IOF children being educated in North Korea?"

"No. We knew that the special gene profiles weren't being educated in Alberta. Searching for them is how we learned what happens in all of their buildings. But where they went was a mystery. You've confirmed the new brain-bands will ship from North Korea to Prudhoe, and then somehow to Edmonton?"

"That's what we figure. You knew about Ingrid's button that creates white kids?"

"We knew, but not as quickly as we should have." In response to my beckoning hands asking for details, he gave me his full smile – the one where I could see the black tunnel between his two front teeth. "Confidential."

"Closed-mouth gray ghost!" I snarked at him.

"Surly obnoxious teenager," he replied.

Like I said, we're getting along well. "How many sleepers have you tagged?"

"Not enough. One middle-aged woman made a run at me some years ago, but B.C. put me under protection and told me to stay in hiding. I don't believe that they'll send any more sleepers after me. I'm near death anyway. But Zzyk's going to throw everything he has at the Wilizy when he realizes that you've outsmarted him once again."

"We're ready. Hank's helping the Aboriginal Nation move the people who know where we live to safety. Did you look into Mac's background like I asked? Interesting that she weaseled her way into the Wilizy so quickly and easily. We're kind of worried about her even though our security measures said she was clean."

"She came to one of my colleagues some months ago and told him that her boss was in danger from the DPS. She didn't say why she felt that. All she wanted was a weapon or two. We checked her out. When we realized it had something to do with you, we quietly did as she asked. Our background check was inconclusive."

"Which means what?"

"She claims that she can trace her family back to Scotland, but we found no official records to back her up. The earthquake of '48 destroyed a lot of downtown Vancouver; the tsunami took care of the rest. Her only ancestor that we can confirm existed is questionable. She says that he was a B.C. author in the early 21st century who supposedly wrote youth science fiction books. But we found no evidence that any such books were ever purchased. She might be making him up. If so, everything about her could be a sleeper's cover."

"So we should watch her?"

"Depends on how much you trust your own security. Don't bother researching her supposed Wighton ancestor. We couldn't find much on him."

"Are you really on death's door?"

"Rick thinks I am."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 14

Zzyk was relaxing in his private retreat on top of what used to be the Hotel Macdonald in Edmonton. It was a sunny day and he was relaxing in a lounger chair, the top button on his white shirt undone, sun glasses reflecting the sun.

The Hotel Macdonald had long been an Edmonton heritage site. Zzyk had converted it to government cubicles when he took over the government decades ago. His own office at this site was deep underground. This wasn't the office with the exploding visitor's chair, but it was still a well-hidden and well-protected office. A contingent of six guards had this portion of the hotel's roof protected and all of them were ignoring Rick. He had been in Zzyk's good graces ever since he had told Zzyk where the Wilizy were hiding.

Rick had asked for this meeting to brief Zzyk on what had happened at the western wall the previous night. "Franklin dismantled one hundred meters of walls in three separate stretches. The DPS commanders in those areas were busy watching what Franklin wanted them to watch. He made one concession to us last meeting and last night's action is to tell us he won't budge any further. If we don't agree to make a public statement, he's effectively saying that we can expect our western wall to leak like a sieve."

"Why does he care so much about this statement?"

"The Wilizy are pulling his strings. But the statement will mean nothing if the Wilizy are destroyed. Just approve the statement. It will be all lies anyway."

"And the demands for financial compensation for the incursions? Where are we on that?"

"That's what Franklin conceded. We'll pay no money. However, instead of money, he wants Alberta land. That won't amount to much on the complaints they've lodged. We'll have to give them a few small parcels of land plus unrestricted access to them. I've mandated that the parcels they choose can't have any existing structures on them. That means that they'll be small and worthless. Hardly worth fighting about. After Rolf destroys the Wilizy, we can take the land back. B.C. won't be able to stop us."

"What do they want the land for? A symbolic victory?"

"Perhaps. They've lost on everything else that we've negotiated. They tried to threaten us with taking our towers and using the steel for a second WZBN transmitter on Mount Assiniboine for example – but I negotiated access to our steel out early. They weren't serious about it – it was only a negotiating ploy. A second transmission tower wouldn't consume much steel. Promoting Alberta visitors into B.C. was another ploy. Visitors would have no money to spend and would their government really want to deal with Albertans who had recently lost their brain-bands and were wandering around unable to control their emotions? But they're sticking to these land demands. Plus they want to build structures on them."

"Your recommendation?"

"As it stands now, this treaty will cost us a few worthless bits of land and a meaningless statement. However there's a risk. If Rolf's attack isn't successful, you'll face a penalty that you'll be obligated to honour. According to this treaty, any further incursions by our military forces into B.C. could cost you up to five square kilometers of land per incursion. The amount will depend on how many soldiers were involved. If you don't honour the agreement, they can strip five km of wall and we don't have the mobile forces to be able to stop them. We'll be attacking into Aboriginal Nation land within a week. If Rolf isn't successful against the Wilizy, you'll be obligated to honour the treaty."

"Five square kilometers is somewhat generous."

"To appear legitimate, the treaty has to hurt you. They'll believe that you'll be deterred if you agree to something that will hurt you. That way, you won't invade their territory, which of course you're going to do. If you refuse to agree on this, you'll tip your hand. The solution is to pretend to be deterred. Give them some tiny parcels, publish the statement, wait, and let Rolf solve the problem. After he destroys the Wilizy, you'll be free to ignore the treaty. B.C. won't care."

"Explain."

"B.C. is using this treaty to raise money. When I refused to give them Alberta money, they decided to obtain it from the Wilizy. They're going to re-sell any Alberta land we give them to the Wilizy, and in exchange, the Wilizy will charge them less for access to WZBN programming. The Wilizy are making a ton of money off the network. B.C. wants a bigger share. If the Wilizy are destroyed, B.C. will probably inherit the broadcast materials. They're storing them after all."

"Why do the Wilizy want our land?"

"I don't know. But what do you care what the Wilizy think they're going to do with our land. Rolf is going to destroy them, right?"

"He's been scouting the area for a week but the camp is basically empty. The Slut and the giant are the only ones there," Zzyk said. "He'll attack as soon as Will and The Slut are in the camp together."

"You did warn him that Will likes to set trip wires for people sneaking up on him?"

"Rolf assured me that he has stayed kilometers away."

"I'd feel better if I had been able to plan the attack. You said B.C. was the bigger threat. I had to agree, but still . . ."

"Relax. Rolf's good at killing people. Sign the treaty on my behalf. Issue the statement that B.C. wants."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 15

Yollie reported that the DPS forces left the Lethbridge base Saturday afternoon, October 8 at 5:30 in the afternoon. That base had already received additional troops from Calgary and Medicine Hat. She calculated that about three hundred men boarded twelve copters that took them into Montana, and from there, westward into the heavily mountainous and forested area of the old Glacier National Park where they made camp. Yollie saw some significant weaponry. Mortars, machine guns, powered grenades, plus other weapons in unlabeled packs. All of it will be carried on the backs of soldiers into the battle zone. Rick's advance warning of numbers and weapons appeared to be accurate.

The copters themselves were troop transports with machine gun weaponry, but they were not combat helicopters. All were solar powered with reduced engine noise, but by necessity, they'd be operating on battery power during the attack that Rick said would be at dawn. Those batteries should be sufficient to transport the soldiers to the battle site but they would not have much operating capacity left afterwards. The forecast for Sunday was for sunny weather. The copters could recharge soon enough and could leave after the battle. But it was going to be an infantry fight for the most part.

The invading force left the Glacier camp at 2 a.m. Sunday morning and entered B.C. airspace at 2:20. At that point, they broke into two groups - six copters aiming to come in behind the Wilizy camp from the west, the other six to come in from the east. All soldiers were on the ground by 3:30 a.m. and were slowly and quietly on schedule to have the Wilizy camp surrounded by dawn. The copters had offloaded their troops and then had relocated to a collection point south of the enemy compound.

The valley where Hank and Yolanda had settled was angled north-south with a small river running down the middle. To the east and the west were reasonably high hills. About two hundred soldiers with long range weaponry were quietly climbing the back sides of those hills and were on pace to reach the tops by 5 a.m. at the latest. One hundred men to the east, one hundred men to the west. From the hill tops, they would have excellent shooting angles on the compound below. Mortars would also inflict heavy damage on the buildings. In the event that any Wilizy escaped into the trees, some invaders would be dispersed lower on the hillsides and would ambush the fleeing Wilizy from their hidden locations. At those elevations, forest cover was not dense. Some sections of the hillside were quite steep – cliff-like in areas. This would force Wilizy survivors into a few obvious escape routes. The plan was to have heavy machine guns set up to cover those routes. With withering fire from the hills, they expected any surviving Wilizy to try to flee up or down the river.

The remaining one hundred soldiers had been dropped off beside the river. Fifty soldiers started about four klicks north of the compound and the other fifty an equal distance south. Both groups were now proceeding slowly towards the target. Together they would form a concentrated force that would first block off any escape through the valley and then would move in and mop up after the shelling. If any Wilizy bodies were transportable, they would take them to Edmonton where they'd be displayed.

Rolf's last report to Zzyk put the estimated number of Wilizy in the compound at six. Three hundred soldiers versus six Wilizy. He said that he would take personal command of the force and attack at dawn. He estimated they'd be finished by dawn plus thirty minutes.

### # # # # # # # #

The first request for instructions arrived at the Command Post at 4:31. Soon afterwards, all platoon sergeants were reporting that a small light was in front of them, slowly flashing red. Each light was about one hundred meters away. All forces were now holding positions and awaiting further orders. The troops assigned to reach shooting positions on the top of the hills surrounding the Wilizy camp were still on the back side of the hills and well below the peaks. The troops working their way up the river valley were two kilometers away from being able to see the little village.

"This is the Battle Commander. All units: Proceed carefully against possible sentry campfires. Platoon Sergeants: Be prepared to disable sentries silently."

Soon another rush of queries flooded the command post. Each sergeant reported that more red lights were becoming visible now. All were flashing red. The flashes were coming more quickly now.

"This is the Battle Commander: All units are to advance by belly crawl. Spread out. Use night goggles to identify any opposition. Hold positions at thirty meters from the lights. The Third Platoon Sergeant will report; all others units will maintain radio silence."

"Battle Commander. This is Third Platoon Sergeant. We're at thirty meters from the lights and holding. We are fully dispersed. Each soldier has a flashing red light in front of him. It's floating about two meters off the ground. The lights are now brighter and the flashes are coming at one second intervals. We can't see anyone standing or lying behind the lights. We're partially blinded right now. No need for night goggles. Battlefield is fully illuminated."

"All units: Hold for instructions."

Two minutes passed.

"This is the Battle Commander: Third platoon, attempt to flank."

One minute passed.

"Flanking attempt unsuccessful, Battle Commander. Red lights are following. We're now twenty meters from the lights."

"Third Platoon Sergeant – have half your force flank left, half flank right."

One minute passed.

"Battle Commander: Attempts to flank were unsuccessful. We're now at ten meters and holding. The men nearest the lights are becoming disoriented."

"Third Platoon Sergeant: Can you see anything living behind the lights?"

"Negative, Battle Commander."

"Third Platoon Sergeant. With no opposition detected, assume that flashing lights are intended to frighten casual strangers away. On your command, have your men charge past the lights and take cover on the ground behind in case the lights are intended to help guide the fire of sentries posted in the rear."

Thirty seconds passed.

"Battle Commander. This is the Second Platoon Sergeant. We were on the Third Platoon's left flank. The red lights were weapons. All Third Platoon soldiers are dead. The red lights facing them have disappeared. We heard no noises, not even from the men dying. Recommend an order to retreat."

"Negative, Second Platoon Sergeant. All positions hold. Await instructions."

Three minutes passed:

"Second Platoon Sergeant. Fire one grenade at one of the lights."

"Due respects, Battle Commander. At this range, the blast from that grenade could kill the soldier. Recommend strongly against deploying a grenade in such close quarters."

One minute passed.

"This is the Battle Commander: All forces, retreat twenty meters but no more. Second Platoon Sergeant, report on the orientation of the red lights."

One minute passed.

"Battle Commander: Red flashing lights are holding their positions. Brightness and frequency have diminished."

"Second Platoon Sergeant: Fire one grenade."

"Battle Commander. This is Second Platoon Corporal. Second Platoon Sergeant is dead. The grenade had no effect on the light other than to cause it to attack the sergeant. When it touched him, the sergeant died without a sound. The sergeant's red light is gone. Battle Commander: Due respects. Recommend an immediate withdrawal."

"Negative, corporal. All ground units hold positions. Copter #1 pilot. I want you in the air. Advance into the battle area at your highest possible altitude. Keep your mic open. Report second-by-second when you encounter enemy forces."

Two minutes passed with no activity to report.

"Battle Commander: I'm coming up the river valley from the south now. Estimate enemy compound is three klicks distant. No signs of hostiles. Still nothing. Still nothing. Battle Commander, I have a red light flashing in the distance. It is at the same altitude as I am. I am attempting to fly higher. My engine is struggling. Battle Commander, I estimate ten minutes of power remaining. Red light is flashing more quickly and brighter now. Battle Commander, at my speed, I estimate contact in less than twenty seconds. Request instructions."

"Maintain course heading and dive sharply underneath the red light."

One minute passed.

"Battle Commander. This is the First Lieutenant of the Special Command Force. The helicopter has been obliterated. Due respects, Battle Commander. Please identify yourself. I do not recognize your voice."

"First Lieutenant, you do not need to recognize my voice. Was there any sign of a missile attack?"

**"Battle Commandeer. This is First Platoon Sergeant. Red lights are advancing slowly in my sector towards all men. Suspect same conditions exist elsewhere. We will soon be under attack by hostile forces that we do not know how to stop. Recommend full retreat immediately!"**

"All units. This is First Lieutenant, Special Command Force. I am assuming command. **Retreat. All units retreat.** Regroup at the collection point. Command Center staff: Arrest and immobilize the Battle Commander on my authority."

### # # # # # # # #

All remaining soldiers in the DPS Special Command Force were photographed individually, as well as in their assembled formation before the three B.C. military copters transported them to the eastern side of Alberta's prison walls Sunday evening. Except for the copter pilot, the dead soldiers were also photographed and returned with due military honours. DPS copters were there to greet them. The DPS command structure didn't have the nerve to ask for their copters, weapons and ammunition back too.

On Monday morning, the B.C. government sent the Alberta government an invoice for five square kilometers of Alberta land that was due to them as per the recent treaty that the Alberta government had signed prohibiting DPS operations inside B.C. The letter asked for a date this week where B.C. officials could tour certain areas of Alberta and select the land that they would now own. The letter also contained a postscript: "Where's the statement you promised?"

That official statement was released to B.C. officials Monday afternoon, October 10. It was posted in its entirety on the WZBN website and read aloud each hour during Tuesday's and Wednesday's broadcast day.

_The government of Alberta regrets the allegations that were made that a member of the Wilizy had been responsible for the deaths of two recently murdered Albertan citizens. As part of our normal investigations into such incidents of violence, we have now determined that a low level security consultant named Rolf used his temporary clearance pass to gain access to both victims and murdered and disfigured them for personal reasons. Certain allegations that have been made publicly regarding the character of the victims and the Wilizy member were the opinions of the consultant only and the Government of Alberta regrets that an IOF citizen could have circulated such prejudices against others. This goes against all the principles of fairness that we espouse. In compliance with the principles of the IOF's renowned justice system, that consultant was executed today at noon._

### # # # # # # # #

On Thursday morning, the WZBN broadcast a special announcement that was repeated hourly for two days and was also linked to via their website. It showed a close up of Izzy in her familiar Wilizy colours.

_The Wilizy is happy to hear that the IOF has punished the person who murdered two Albertans recently and blamed those deaths on me personally. I thank Zzyk for discovering the truth to this most unfortunate incident and personally confirming that neither the Wilizy nor I had anything to do with their deaths or disfigurements._

_As grateful as I am for Zzyk's efforts to discover the truth, I am actually talking to you tonight about an entirely different matter. Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to have several personal meetings with Zzyk during a holiday that he himself had sponsored and arranged for my enjoyment. At the time, I told him that the Wilizy wanted to work with him in helping to create better lives for the citizens of Alberta. Indeed, Zzyk and I talked several times about how the Wilizy and his government could work together. Nothing came of those discussions until this week._

_I am wearing the clothes that I wore during that first meeting on April 21 to reflect the significance of that first meeting, and indeed, of this announcement. I am pleased to tell you that, this week, Zzyk's government has agreed to transfer large parcels of Alberta land to the Wilizy. Though Zzyk's generosity and the Wilizy's entrepreneurial efforts, we hope to use this land to improve the lives of Albertans._

_In the coming years, the Wilizy will be developing these empty parcels of land near the cities of Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. We are selecting the plots of land that will become Wilizy land this week. During the developmental phase, we will be hiring Albertans to manage various projects and, as well, to work on the site. No Wilizy members will be at these sites, so we'll ask the public not to disturb the workers by asking where the Wilizy are. The workers won't know. After the construction is complete, the public will be free to enter our land and enjoy themselves. Stay tuned to the WZBN for details as we get closer to our grand openings._

_Once again, our thanks to Zzyk for his generosity. I can tell you that there are provisions in our contract that might allow the Wilizy to acquire even more Alberta land, but that will be determined by Zzyk. If he chooses to donate more land to us, and we hope that he does, the Wilizy will look forward to initiating even more joint projects between our two organizations._

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 16

From Izzy's journals: Friday, October 21.

I had been trying to schedule a debriefing of our battle with the DPS army for a week now, but there was always somebody who couldn't make it; today was the first day we had all been free. I found out why there had been such a delay when Doc, Will and I walked through the compound's front door. We were greeted by a big yell of _Surprise!_

It was a year ago today that we had defeated Clem the Phlegm. They said that day was the start of the Wilizy. Not sure about that. I believe it was the day that Hank and Yolanda's family came into our lives. But, I wasn't going to argue. Copious amounts of ice cream! In the face of potential melting problems, we agreed to party first, meet second.

We were still flying high when I asked Will and Hank to describe their two operations. Considering that neither man generally put more than two sentences together at a time, their reports didn't take long to complete. Everybody knew what had been happening anyway. There was only one question: _How did Will manage to tape Rick's conversation with Izzy?_

Will said that he had been exploring drone capabilities and went on to describe what drones were. For my meeting with Rick, he had an invisible drone follow Rick into his cave, lodge itself into a crevice on the cave wall, and begin recording. I knew Doc was burning to ask questions about the compound's defense, but he'd be reluctant to do that with Mac in the room. Will wouldn't have answered anyway. He won't even tell me how his drone works.

We finished the debriefing with Yollie announcing the names of the campaigns. _Lights, Cameras, and Action_ for Will's defense of the compound, and _Smoke and Mirrors_ for Hank's acquisition of Alberta land. Both Will and Hank received standing ovations for their successes but both looked decidedly uncomfortable standing up to receive them.

Doc and Granny told me privately that they liked how I had skewered Zzyk into having to publicly accept the Wilizy's land acquisitions. That statement was the only thing I had contributed to the battles. I didn't feel particularly good about that; just grateful that we had had Hank and Will managing everything.

### # # # # # # # #

Preventing the brain-bands from entering Alberta remains our #1 priority. TG gave a riveting description of North Korea's history and what he had found out about its current conditions. _Source of extremely low-paid workers; will accept contracts from any country, no matter how disreputable they are or how disgusting the jobs were._ TG found names of the countries that worked with them along with the types of contracts that they had with them. He hadn't heard of most of the countries; suspected that all were dictatorships.

North Korea has a small ruling class – all essentially from the military although they have some political figureheads with genetic histories dating back to a previous dynasty. Their people are dirt poor and afraid to raise their head in front of one of the country's many _Supreme Beings._ They have been that way for so long that they're genetically predisposed to passive behaviour now. Anyone who had dared to look directly at one of the ruling class in the past had seen his family killed first before dying second.

TG said that Zzyk may have been supplying North Korea with their babies. There are some marked similarities in the appearances of the citizens. Doc pointed out that rumours had circulated in the IOF's early days that Zzyk had actually been born in North Korea, although this was nothing but speculation on his origins. Zzyk claimed that he had been born in Alberta to Alberta parents, but nobody believed him.

TG hadn't found any reference to human exports from Alberta coming into North Korea, but his Korean language skills were very rudimentary and he had only been diving around inside one of the country's computers so far. I looked at Will at that point, and he shook his head negatively. Meaning that he hadn't found any revenue from exported babies in the Alberta files that he had studied a year ago. That doesn't mean that this isn't happening. It would explain how Alberta is so wealthy. Make that how Zzyk is so wealthy and why Rick would want to have what Zzyk has. Keeping another country supplied with human robots that are designed to meet specific personality criteria, including being docile, could be a lucrative business.

TG reiterated that this North Korea computer had primitive defenses, but he couldn't say that this would be the case with all of their computers. Given the other linkages between Alberta, Alaska, and North Korea, it would make sense that some technical expertise could have been lent to North Korea at some point. Some of their computers could be protected with booby traps.

Granny added her own observations from the kids' field trip. She saw a giant wall separating the southern and northern ends of country with lots of military forces guarding each side. She also saw plenty of navy ships around both countries' ports and circulating in the waters off-shore. Lots of private ships in the water also. All of them sail-driven. There was ample evidence of plenty of trade volume between all of the ports in that area. Navies of all countries were clearly identified as such by flags. All had old fashioned cannons in old fashioned men-of-war ships. Other ships in the area were single- or double-masted and had no apparent weaponry.

The group decided that preventing the brain-band shipment from leaving North Korea was our best chance of preventing Zzyk from installing them province-wide. I asked for volunteers. Hank and Wizard were too busy with the Alberta parcels of land, Granny and Doc were tied up with their broadcasts, Yolanda and Yollie both had family responsibilities, and Will still had more work to do on the compound's defenses. He had been personally controlling all of our weaponry in his battle against Rolf; now, he's going to automate everything. TG will be working with him on that. That leaves me and Wolf with time to devote to North Korea. However TG will continue to wander through their computers. I asked Lucas if he would be interested in helping us with the research. He looked at his parents, received a nod, and then lit up the room with a big smile.

I described my interactions with FF and how he had been so helpful in our operations to burrow into Alberta's society from inside. Wondered out loud whether there was any potential for a closer relationship with him. Yolanda quietly said "That's not going to happen," and I dropped the topic quickly.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 17

From Izzy's journals: Monday, October 23.

I gave FF very sparse details on how we had defended the compound. I left the specifics out since Yolanda had quashed any possibility of his invitation into the Wilizy and we didn't want outsiders to have such information. I didn't mention that. Of course, he already knew why Zzyk had to give us land, but he was curious what we were going to do with it. I couldn't tell him much because Hank and Wizard were still working on the plan. I felt the tiniest sensation that I was being grilled, but put that down to my nervousness in telling FF anything. Yolanda wouldn't have quashed his entry into the Wilizy without good reason.

My real reason in coming down to Surrey for a meeting was to see if FF would show me another classified document. I wasn't disappointed. He waited while I read it. I'm summarizing a lot now – the report was long and dry. What I was able to piece together went something like this.

### # # # # # # # #

The Monday after the incident at the West Kelowna bar, Hank and Yollie had a meeting with FF in his office. Hank gave FF the details of the fight and explained why he had drawn so much public attention to the scene. Hank realized that the bikers had been making a concerted and coordinated effort to remove law officers from the province. Hank proposed that instead of being picked off one by one in their remote stations, all of the remaining members should be pulled into a single, operating unit that would take the fight back to the bikers. Laws should be declared which gave the RCMP the right not only to arrest criminals, but to provide a trial and justice as well. Judges and potential juries had already been intimidated into silence. This was the only way to restore order. He had drafts of the necessary documents ready for adoption.

The second step would be to issue warrants for the arrest of all the known bikers and a requirement for them to turn themselves in. Failure to do so would result in a trial where they could be declared guilty of their crimes even though they weren't present. Attending their trial would give them an opportunity to defend themselves. After time for the news of the warrants to be circulated, and for the bikers to turn themselves in, trials would be held. Decisions of the trials would be announced and enforced. Hank would take care of the enforcing part.

The remaining RCMP officers would be placed undercover in the local communities in the area where Hank would operate. Those officers would have some degree of safety, whereas right now, they would inevitably be murdered. When they learned of the locations or destinations of various bikers, they would communicate that to Hank. They would also help Hank with food, weapons, ammunition, and transportation needs (e.g., horses, copters, solar-bikes). Hank would live in the rough and let the bikers come to him. The area he had chosen for the battles was ideal for a guerilla war. He could see the bikers coming from a distance (they rarely dismounted from their bikes), and he had ample cover. When possible, Hank would leave his signature on his kills – the arrow deep through the throat – to keep the bikers inflamed.

FF had asked whether administering this form of justice – essentially killing from cover – would be distressing to Hank. Hank had looked at him incredulously. "These people are vermin. They attack individuals from the safety of a large group and kill them. They will have had a proper trial and will have been found guilty. They can die like the vermin they are. Nailed to the dirt where they came from."

"You can't do this on your own," FF had said. "Sniping requires a spotter. I don't have the skills to work in the wild."

"You're in charge of logistics, FF. Keep the communications coming to me; keep me supplied; warn me when you can; keep my name secret. Yollie and I will do the rest."

"Yollie?" FF had asked skeptically.

"She's not comfortable with the killing; but she knows that, sooner or later, both she and I will be murdered if we don't fight back. She'll give me support. I tried to talk her out of it. She's sitting with me right now so that I won't sneak out the back door without her."

In due course, all the legalities were taken care of. Hank and Yollie thoroughly scouted the area where they would operate and set up caches of food, clothing, and equipment. Everything was put into place for a year long campaign. Information was leaked on where the man who had killed those bikers in West Kelowna was living. The bikers came in a rush. In groups of five.

The first five were the easiest. With little risk to being immediately pursued by another group of five, Hank had the time to send his message of defiance after they were dead. Yollie held each dead biker against a tree, and Hank buried an arrow into each. Then they left them for the bikers to find.

The second set of five was similarly treated. Since Yollie had a close-up look at each face when Hank was nailing them to their own death tree, she was able to tell Hank that they had killed these bikers before. When Hank found this hard to believe, she pointed out that one dead man was the twin of the one Hank had beaten to death, a second dead man was the twin of the man she had killed with her baton, and the third man had been looking right at her when she had pulled the shotgun's first trigger.

"What happened next?" I asked FF.

"Thanks to Yollie, we realized that we were up against a military force of clones from Alberta. Five different bodies per group, but each group had the same five bodies, and all groups were operating in coordinated fashion throughout the entire interior. They all had what was beginning to be known as the _Alberta nose_. I was withdrawn to Surrey to manage the B.C. response to Zzyk's invading force. Yollie managed the logistics for Hank, arranging schedules, moving people from place to place, and spotting for him. My office in Surrey would simply deliver the supplies to the places that she designated."

"We let people know that we were facing an invading army of white biker clones from Alberta and that helped to make Hank's life easier. Hank's message on the bar mirror, plus the bodies of bikers nailed to trees, started people talking about an aboriginal man and woman who were singlehandedly fighting an army. This raised some pride within the aboriginal people. Aboriginal volunteers came forward to join the border watch. B.C. provided them with weapons and they'd wait in the woods to ambush the bikers as they drove by."

"With the help of aboriginals living near the border with Alberta, B.C. cut off their supply lines. Zzyk must have had hundreds of clones created in the IOF's genetics machines, and then he stored them somewhere for twenty years waiting for the time for invasion to come. But, over time, the number of bikers sneaking into B.C. started to drop. Then the bikers got smart."

"What happened when the bikers got smart," I asked.

"Confidential," FF said.

### # # # # # # # #

A couple of days after my meeting with FF, Yolanda quizzed me subtly on my meetings with him. Where did I meet him? Was anyone else in the room? I wondered if she had had second thoughts about inviting him in, but I guess not. She didn't raise the topic again, nor did I.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 18

November was the start of what became an extended period of peace between Zzyk and the Wilizy. Izzy's formal statement of gratitude forced him into a position of being part of a joint venture with the Wilizy while at the same time she threatened him that any military action he took would end up with the Wilizy gaining an even stronger foothold inside the province. After Izzy's statement was issued, Alaska sent urgent messages to their people in Alberta asking essentially, _What just happened?_

None of their spies knew. Zzyk wasn't talking about it with Ingrid, and Rick was back in charge of the government, thereby putting a halt to the advancement of their sleeper agent. Alaska knew that they weren't going to be invited into the province to help destroy the Wilizy any time soon. Zzyk was not even trying to remove them from the province. Alaska went back to their waiting game, content to believe that the peace could not last.

Zzyk disappeared into his laboratory. Ingrid knew that the first thing he worked on was a plan for pacifying an entire city and installing new brain-bands on all of its citizens. She learned this directly from Zzyk and duly reported it to her superiors. That trickle of information soon dried up. Ingrid would find reasons to pass by Zzyk's lab but the door was always locked. She'd put her head against the door and listen, although for the life of her, she couldn't see how this would give her useful information. One time, she heard a particularly strange sound. It sounded like a snicker. Zzyk was not one to laugh, let alone snicker, but there it was again. She reported to her superiors that Zzyk was working on a very nasty surprise for the Wilizy.

### # # # # # # # #

Rick welcomed being restored to his position in the government. He was not aware of what Zzyk was doing in his lab, nor was he curious about what might come out of that lab. Rick was content to accept the additional responsibilities and the latitude to make high level decisions that Zzyk was giving him.

### # # # # # # # #

The Wilizy had not expected the period of relative calm that followed their land acquisition to last. Instead they expected Zzyk to launch some sort of pre-planned counterstrike. But no counterstrike came. They remained on high alert for several weeks, before gradually easing back on their alert levels. They took this opportunity to finish a number of projects that had been stalled.

• TG helped computerize Will's defensive shell around the compound.

• The boys stripped all the trees and brush from the land just outside the defensive shell around the compound. Then they added warning signs and computer-voice announcements that this was a protected zone of the Aboriginal Nation – one that had lethal defenses. The intruder was warned to leave immediately.

• Stripping that area around the defensive perimeter of all of its trees gave Wizard the opportunity to build his fleet of wagons and stock them with firewood. They were now floating in the air awaiting Okanagan's fruit growing season. There were far too many logs to process, so the left over logs were stacked into high wooden barriers that were placed across all potential trails into this new Aboriginal Nation preserve. Innocent strangers weren't likely now to blunder into a killing zone. The laser cuts were adjusted to look like the trees had been cut down with axes.

• Hank acquired the furnishings for TG and Yollie's house from second hand stores and started on finding furnishings for Doc and Granny's house, as well as for Will and Izzy's house. The community had two empty houses – it didn't make sense for them to remain empty.

• Hank and the boys renovated the old pioneer house to provide work space and living quarters upstairs for Mac and Stu. They also expanded the former kitchen on the ground floor so that there'd be ample space for cooking and storing food – Yolanda's kitchen having been severely tested by the large number of people now resident in the community. They made the rest of the ground floor into a huge open area that could handle all of the Wilizy's organizational needs –meeting space for example that also served as a communal dining room. Hank had been prepared to haunt the thrift stores but Wizard suggested that since this house would serve as the home of the Wilizy and the WZBN, they should equip it with comfortable furniture purchased with Wilizy money. The women took charge at that point. Gone were all the rickety chairs, although they did keep a store of folding chairs for large meetings. They even added a comfortable living corner for members who wanted only to come in and relax. The focal point for this area was the big old piano that had sat unused in the pioneer home after the original inhabitants had died.

• With the increased numbers of people now in the little village, and with their community hall now functioning as a kitchen and dining room, various domestic duties were shared out to everyone, youngsters included. Yolanda got her home back and the Wilizy became a fighting ship again.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 19

The Wilizy Community Hall was formally christened in early December with a full scale planning meeting – the first time that they had had the space to hold such an event properly. Izzy sat alone at a table at the front of the audience and everybody else sat in whatever space they wanted. Granny and Doc continued to have the most comfortable seating off to the side.

At first the plan had been for Winnie to babysit Liset, but she had complained long and loud about being shut out from the meeting because she was the youngest. The problem was solved when Mac volunteered to babysit – saying that she herself was not interested in the Wilizy's activities other than as it touched her own new responsibility as WZBN manager. (Stu had been warned that he'd receive broader responsibilities at this meeting. Mac had already agreed to step into Stu's position.) Mac threw Liset onto her shoulders and galloped out of the compound, making horsey sounds the whole way.

First on the agenda was Wizard.

"Everything that we want to do in Alberta has been blocked by the reality that Alberta does not have any of the resources that we are going to need to stimulate its economy," Wizard started. "We believe from Will and Izzy's trips to Europe, and from the family's recent field trip to Asia, that what we need can be found there. Our first task therefore is to find a way to acquire those necessities and transport them here in secret. We have plenty of money. The WZBN is extending its broadcasts to Montana, Idaho, and Washington. They'll be paying us a lot of hard, cold cash for our programs. We can buy what we need for the Alberta project, but we need two more sailing ships to transport those goods here."

That started quite the buzz, and with Hank sketching out some glimpses of what he and Wizard were planning to do, approval was quickly granted. The Wilizy would buy two 3-masted men-of-war that could sail visibly in the waters off Europe and Asia. These ships had the capacity to store large volumes of cargo in their holds. They would sail visibly from port to port collecting the various resources that Wizard had ordered. Afterwards the contents could be sent home in invisible pallets. When not needed, the Wilizy #2 and Wilizy #3 would be anchored aloft over their respective oceans. The crew would be able to reach either ship via the slings at sub-sonic speeds in about eight hours.

Both ships would contain the same solar powered sails, sensors, and armaments as the Wilizy #1. As such, anyone trained as crew on one ship could operate the others. The best place to buy two ships was probably in Great Britain which had a naval presence and where language would not be a problem.

Will interjected at this time. He said that he would be installing a monster transmitter onto the top of Mount Assiniboine for the extension of the WZBN to the south. But when he had time, he'd look into shortening the time the crew would need to reach an anchored Wilizy.

Doc asked "How much shorter?"

Will explained how he and Izzy had experimented with their slings on a trip back from New York. The more pinky ring power they added, the faster the sling went. Theory said that the higher the sling was in the atmosphere, the less likely it was for a sonic boom to be heard on Earth.

"How long could it take to sling to an anchored ship safely and with no sonic boom?" Doc pursued.

"I'm guessing here," Will said. "Fly straight up at subsonic speed to the upper atmosphere – call it five minutes. Trip to Asia at Mach 10 – call it fifteen minutes. Descend at subsonic speed – call it ten minutes because you want to come down under control. I'd have to test it. A half hour instead of eight hours?"

There was stunned silence.

"Finding a way to keep oxygen inside the sling might take a while."

"Probably a good idea," Doc understated.

"Might have to consider the health hazards of overly harsh changes in air pressure as you flew up and down too. Maybe aim for a one hour trip instead?"

"An even better idea," Doc said.

### # # # # # # # #

Wizard went on to his second item on the agenda. "If the WZBN is going to provide the funding for a lot of different projects, we need to create ways to hire outsiders to manage these projects. Stu and I can't manage them all; we have too much to do already. We'll want to hire local people to take charge of various projects, and those people can't be Wilizy members since they'll have to operate in public. Stu suggests that we create a _Wilizy Foundation_ to handle all of the money that comes in from WZBN revenues and later, from other projects. The Wilizy Foundation will hire and provide funds as necessary for individual projects, such as Hank's trader network, which is operating at a loss right now. We're spending money to acquire the goods, but we're not bringing in any money in return when we barter the goods away. Later that might change. Stu should be the head of that foundation as he has the legal skills necessary to run it. He has already agreed to the idea."

The necessary motions were made and passed.

"The first separate business that I'd like to suggest for the Wilizy Foundation to create is the _Wilizy Cloth and Dye Company_ ," Wizard continued. "We're going to enjoy a tremendous demand for both of these products, and it would make sense that our foundation provide these to the peddler network rather than letting some other dye company or cloth producer profit from Albertan demand. Having an adequate amount of both cloth and dye available in the five major cities is going to be necessary if Hank's ideas for volunteer labour are going to work. I'd like to explore some options and be able to create this company if it's feasible."

Again the necessary motions were made and passed. Listening to Wizard was beginning to be like listening to Will. People grasped the general concept they'd be talking about, but got lost if either went into the details.

### # # # # # # # #

The extended Wilizy family was relaxing around a blazing fire pit. As is common in such situations, the men were on one side of the fire talking about something male and the women were checking out the newest member of the group on the other side. Izzy had already asked all three of the Yolandas, "Are you **sure** that Mac is safe? Now that she has her own sling, she can fly to Zzyk and donate it to him."

Each of them had ample opportunity to loiter behind Mac and all three found nothing worth mentioning. "Only some anger from something in the past but no impact on character," Yollie had said and since she was the closest in age, her assessment was taken as the official satisfactory clearance.

Izzy had reservations about Mac because of Rick's warning that one of Zzyk's white sleeper agents in B.C. had been assigned to get close to the Wilizy. Rick said that the sleeper was in B.C. at the time. That description fit Mac so Izzy pushed the Y-women to learn more about her background.

Yolanda began the interrogation softly with a question about Mac's Scottish background and genealogy became the topic of the night. When it was Mac's turn to talk about the oldest ancestor that she knew about, Izzy asked whether her great-great something or other really was an author.

"Far as I can tell, yes," Mac replied. "But, that's only the family's oral history. My great-great-grandfather lived in B.C. He loved coaching girls' basketball and wrote youth science fiction novels when he was retired. But I found no official record of his life."

"Not even the name of one of his novels?" Izzy asked, thinking that a book title would be a good place to start a search.

"No. I don't remember any titles, but I know one book was about pirates."

"Pirates?" Lucas asked as he waited for his turn to jump over the flames of the fire pit, and looked at Mac. "What's this about pirates?"

"Only that one of my ancestors might have written about them," she replied.

"Cool," Lucas said and shouted _Pirates_ to the line of waiting fire jumpers who immediately took off into the woods to find suitable swords. Yolanda had to leave the fire pit to set some ground rules – the prospects of flaming swords being too likely at this time of night – and that ended the interrogation.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 20

From Izzy's journals: Friday, December 30.

Essentially Will and I were now a married couple. We were living in a real house; we were dressing and undressing in the same bedroom without attempting to cover up if the other came in unexpectedly; we were even sleeping in the same bed. Nice and soft! And flat too. Better than being folded into the shape of a capital U. If either of us felt romantic, each of us would roll up inside some bedding and nothing dangerous could happen. One time, I started to unwind my sheet, but Will stopped me cold. "This is hard enough for me. Don't make it worse, please."

I am now the laundress for the community. Neither Will nor I can cook, so we couldn't help in the kitchen. Will set up some slings so that they had an automatic wash, rinse, and dry cycle just like the ancients had and I take everything to a lake.

Will's job for the community is to help the youngsters with their hunting. Winnie and Patella find the game and drive it towards Mathias and Reese who make the kill with their sling weaponry. The three humans carve up the carcass with their light sabres locked into low power mode. Will transports the usable portions into freezers and Patella takes care of whatever is left on the ground.

Will seems to enjoy being with the kids. He had seen how Mac had made Liset laugh so Will was trying the same thing with Winnie. Patella almost had a seizure the first time Will hoisted Winnie into the air and put her on his shoulders, but now she trots contentedly behind Will and his passenger.

Our hockey games had become painful for us, so Will and I stopped having them. Now we trade kisses at the breakfast table, tell each other what our plans are for the day, and go our separate ways. A similar exchange happens at night, and we crawl into bed hungry, but not for food. I always wake up when Will rolls over in his sleep and finds me with his hand. I press it against me until I fall back asleep. Like I said, a married couple, but with no sex.

The family had a nice Christmas. We agreed to exchange only one gift each and that was from an anonymous person, who usually didn't remain anonymous for long. Reese gave me a pair of moccasins that he had been working on in secret for a month. It had an attractive design of a W and Y on the top and a single white pearl that Granny had given him in the middle of the letters. He said that he had trouble fitting in a Z, so decided to do the first and last initials of the Wilizy instead. Wizard gave Will a book about humour that he had been hiding since the week after Assassination Day. Will's robot act had convinced Wizard that he'd enjoy it. I'm not sure that the family is ready for this.

Will gave Winnie a stripped out pinky-ring computer that would fit onto Patella's paw. He was a little concerned that she might try to chew it off. Winnie said that Patella liked the gift and wouldn't chew it. I guess she's part of the Wilizy family now. Sling, pinky ring. Are weapons next? I gave Stu a collection of exotic cooking spices that I had found in Surrey. Stu is one of the Wilizy's cooks and I teased him about bachelors and their inability to boil water. Stu quipped that he hadn't always been a bachelor and that caused my nosiness meter to go _ping, ping, ping_. I'm going to have a little chat with Mac after I get to know her better. See what I can dredge up.

Speaking of Mac, she's playing the piano in the evenings and people are coming by to listen, and even join in on some singing. It's a lot of fun and Will and I go down regularly and caterwaul to the best of our ability. Wolf made this possible. He saw Mac fingering the keys and asked if she could play. Mac said that the piano was hopelessly out of tune. Wolf traded anonymous Santa duties with Lucas (who charged him one chocolate bar) and tuned it for her. He went to Kelowna for lessons on how to do that from an expert. Turns out that Wolf has perfect pitch – a handy skill to have when tuning a piano in the wilderness. Nobody knew that about him. Not even Wolf. He didn't get it from his dad. Hank can't carry a tune to save his life, but he constructed a very basic drum which he's become quite good at. Uses a pastry brush to keep the beat quietly. Granny has a good voice. Mac has the best voice of all, but for some reason, she doesn't join in very often. Seems happy to play the piano. Hank made an emergency run to a thrift store when Mac said that she would be able to play more songs if she had some sheet music. He came back with a box full of song books that had both music and words. Winnie sits on the bench next to Mac and is totally into it. She wants to learn how to play but is too tiny still.

Will's off right now, along with TG, Hank, Wolf, Lucas and Theo. They're installing a transmitter tower on Mount Assiniboine. Wizard wanted it to be a monster – big enough to send signals over half the continent. The governments next to us are buying our content and interest is bound to spread further. We couldn't send out the signal in the clear from now on. It would have to be locked in some way; otherwise, everybody would tap into our broadcasts for free. TG is helping Will set up a scrambling system. The other men will ferry the surplus iron and steel from Mount Robson and then they'll help Will put it all together. They'll be gone about three days.

The season being a religious one, I started to think about what I was doing to myself and to Will. Why was it important to me that I be married before we had sex? I mean, if it's wrong to have sex before marriage, and then someone says a few words, why did that make it OK to have sex? Mind you, what the dissidents considered to be a marriage ceremony might be different from everyone else's, but still: why was it wrong before some words, but OK after? What was so special about a few words?

And why was I the only one concerned about a formal wedding? Yollie and TG were living like a married couple and actually having sex now, as Yollie would inform me daily through the quick wink or the frown she'd give me each morning when we passed each other. But they weren't married. And nobody in the family seemed to care. Yolanda was especially loving to them; Granny, who I knew from Doc was a religious person, didn't seem to mind at all that they weren't married.

So why was I putting off what was looking to be an inevitable ending? Will and I will get married. I am in love with him. I think. Perhaps I'm in lust with him. How can you tell?

I believe that Will is in love with me but he can't actually say the words. Or perhaps he doesn't know that he's supposed to. I believe that he loves me because of how he has been so quick to protect me whenever I've been in the slightest danger. I realized finally that was how he showed his feelings. By what he did for me. So if both of us are in love, why was I doing this to us?

Will and I are both sixteen years old. By B.C. law, we're not old enough to marry. But for years, I've been old enough to make babies; so has Will. Will was old enough to invent a defense that killed soldiers trying to annihilate us. I was old enough to be tortured by Zzyk. But we are both too young to have a simple marriage ceremony?

I waited for things to settle down after Christmas and went to see Granny when I knew Doc wouldn't be around. I opened up the conversation by asking, "How can I tell if what I feel for Will is true love or if it's just lust?"

Granny said, "Ack!" and then choked on her hot chocolate.

I guess I should have eased it into the conversation more gradually.

### # # # # # # # #

Granny and I talked for hours. About love and lust; about religions; about marriage conventions; but, she rarely came out with a straight answer to my questions.

Telling the difference between love and lust? She didn't know. What did I think? I said that you'd know it was true love when you stopped having sex but still wanted to be with the man. She said true love was when your partner's bad habits don't bother you any more. I said true love meant never having to say you're sorry – and we both laughed at that. Silly line from an old flic. Then, we started making up some stupid, _True love is_ sayings. Granny's best was _True love is sterilizing the knife before stabbing your husband through his throat in the middle of one of his snores._ I didn't have anything that came close to that.

On the role of religion in marriage. Granny told me that she had not been raised in a religious family, but had married a man who was deeply religious. She adopted his religion to support him and she raised Yolanda like he wanted. She found some comfort in the religion but wasn't the zealot that her husband was. Later she gave up the religion. Said that she found that it didn't apply in the real world. But that was only her experience. She didn't know what the answer was. For her and her family, it had messed them up badly. Could work for others. Wouldn't come back to the topic.

Was it necessary for us to wait until we were eighteen to marry? Granny said something that I thought was profound. _Marriage shouldn't be dictated by a bureaucrat's rule._ She said that marriage was a decision for the two people to make themselves. Nobody could predict how a marriage would work. She had learned that from bitter experience. Age was an important factor, but some young people are old for their years. Some old people are too immature to ever marry. Applying a bureaucrat's rule to everybody was pure horse-pucky. I hadn't heard that term before but guessed what it meant.

Asked her what she meant when she said _from bitter experience_. It looked like she wasn't going to answer, but she surprised me.

"I thought that Hank would be bad for Yolanda and acted on that thought," she said. "I was terribly wrong." Then she looked at me and I knew that part of the conversation was over.

"So would you think it would be wrong for me to get married when I was sixteen?"

She said that it would be wrong if I was the only one involved in that decision.

I said that I knew that. Was working on not being so bossy. Asked it the right way. "Would it be wrong for Will and me to decide to get married when we're both sixteen?"

"I can't say."

Asked the other option. "Do you think it would be wrong for me.... for us to have sex before marriage?"

Granny thought for a while before responding. "The two of you have to be absolutely on the same page. One can't be agreeing to have sex only to please the other. Plus you have to be true to your beliefs – to how you were raised to believe and to act. I'm probably not the best person to ask because of the way I was raised and how I lived. I didn't have sex until after I was married and I don't regret the decision. You should perhaps talk with Yolanda, because she can give you a different perspective. I don't know what's right or wrong anymore. You and Will have to have this conversation."

_Whoa! Did I just hear what I thought I heard?_

I changed the subject to talking about our new lives in the compound and we ended soon afterwards. I thanked her for help and for the pearl that she had given to Reese. She grabbed her walking stick – the big bow that she had close by all the time – and limped out to the grass meadow with me. "Perhaps you shouldn't mention to Yolanda what I said. We're getting along now. I don't want to mess that up. Sometimes I need to keep my big fat mouth shut."

And with that, she limped back into her house.

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# Chapter 21

From Will's journals: January 2083.

With the Mount Assiniboine transmitter ready, it was time to test the scrambling device that would ensure that only paid customers could view the WZBN content. I headed east to Saskatchewan. Wizard's government contact was waiting for me in Regina and we looked for possible sites for their receiving transmitter. They had only one tall building in the entire city, so it was an easy choice. It took a couple of hours to set everything up and test it. Worked fine. There was nothing between here and Mount Assiniboine to get in the way.

I told the man that the system would be operational on February 1. He asked me to tell Wizard that the Wilizy lease for five Saskatchewan copters was ready. The copters had green and white colouring, but not quite the same green as the Wilizy used. It was _Rider Green_ instead because they had tons of that paint colour around. He waited for me to respond as though this was supposed to mean something to me. He seemed surprised when I didn't clue in.

As for the raw materials we wanted, that wasn't going to be a problem. They would give us as much as we wanted since they had more than they could use. I had noticed that on the way over from B.C., so just agreed with him and started packing up. He called out, _Go, Riders, Go_ as I left which I assumed was their equivalent to _Goodbye_. I found out later that it was the cry that Saskatchewan people had yelled to cheer their football team on to victory – football being very popular in their province at one time. I watched a brief video clip of football and saw men butting heads with each other like rams do. Widespread brain damage might explain why so few people live in Saskatchewan these days.

The next day, I was off to England to buy some men-of-war with Hank, Wiz, Wolf, Lucas, and Theo. We were all very excited about this; that's all we had talked about when we working on the top of Mount Assiniboine, so we put the slings close to the speed of sound and let them rip. We had to make a little side trip to New York so that I could pick up every rollable solar panel that I could find; these would take the place of the canvas sails. I also loaded up on all the raw materials I'd need to produce more filament. While I was doing that, the boys were loading the entire inventory of New York's deserted Chocoholic Shop onto a filament pallet. I sent the solar panels and filament materials on a northeasterly heading to Europe, and pointed the boys' chocolate barge on its way back to B.C. Hank had been firm that we would not be taking this amount of candy on an operation. The trip across the Atlantic went quickly and we decided to establish our home port high above the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea because lots of ships were sailing in the waters below. Then we went ship hunting.

We found prospects quickly. Few people wanted to own men-of-war because of how big the crew had to be to sail one of the monsters. That wasn't going to matter to us because I'd automate everything that way I had for the first Wilizy ship.

As we inspected the prospects, Hank would judge them on cargo capacity, ease of access to the hold, and how much renovation would be needed to make the ships functional. I'd make sure that the science end of things could be fitted easily. The boys would check every nook and cranny for water, rot, or rat infestations and Wolf would look over the masts and rigging. Wiz would talk to the owner and have him almost begging us to buy by the time the inspection crew was walking in his direction.

We ended up buying two sister ships, which was ideal for us. They were identical in every respect to each other, including the presence of three decks of old rusted cannons. I knew enough about sailing to move both ships out to the middle of the Irish Sea where we'd have a bit of privacy. It took an hour to surround both ships in filament and install the solar panels. Then we went invisible, anchored the ships high enough that the sounds of carpentry couldn't be heard, and Hank and his kids went to work.

I spent that time looking for a source of pressurized oxygen so that we could sling at very high altitudes to Europe and back. Our trip to New York had reminded me of the scuba tanks that the terrorist swimmers would have worn. Perhaps we could use something similar. I talked to a lot of divers and tried on a couple of tanks. These would easily fit within a sling.

I also learned about _the bends_ , which is what the sickness is called if you change the depth of your dive too quickly. Nasty thing. I told the divers I was thinking of building a giant balloon and wondered if I would be at risk of the bends if I flew up in the sky too quickly. They said I would be even if I were taking oxygen with me since I wasn't in a pressurized environment in a balloon.

We were planning to fly at supersonic speeds at high altitude where the air pressure was considerably less than normal. This meant that we'd be susceptible to the bends. I created four safety rules to protect us. First, we won't fly the slings straight up or down. Instead, we'll change altitude gradually. Second, we'll shut the sling's baffles down so tight that we'll essentially be in pressurized cabins all the time we're flying. Third, we'll take extra oxygen tanks in the sling to keep the supply of oxygen stable. Having lots of oxygen will allow us to continue to descend slowly even if we're at high altitudes. Fourth, I'll determine how high we'd have to fly to avoid creating a sonic boom that could be heard on the ground.

When I returned to the ship, the carpentry work on the Wilizy #2 was complete. I finished off the science in a few hours while Hank and the boys were playing tourists. Then we headed out to a factory in northern France that sold a lot of pressurized oxygen tanks. We'd use this trip as our trial run. Could we buy a lot of pressurized oxygen tanks, load them onto an invisible ship without being discovered, and when we had a full hold, send them home by filament pallets? Wolf said that he had figured out a way to do that without sailing into a port. It was far too risky to do that in a huge sailing ship with solar sails and an improbably small crew.

The trial worked like a charm. Wizard wandered around the plant, asked for prices on the oxygen tanks, looked disappointed and left. We had thought that his lack of French might be a problem, but when the factory man understood how many tanks we wanted to buy, they quickly found someone who spoke English. We played tourist for a couple of hours and went back for a second look. This time, Wizard got the price he wanted. When Wizard asked if the factory could barge our tanks out to a certain location in the English Channel, leave the barge by a buoy overnight, and collect the empty barge the next morning, he acted as though this kind of delivery was commonplace. He spat on the ground, uttered a flurry of angry French words that ended in the word _taxmans_ , and we had a deal. That night, we palletized the oxygen tanks and loaded them onto the Wilizy #2. We could have as easily palletized them and sent them home. I had planted enough invisible repeater stations on our way across the Atlantic to make such freight trips easy. When we returned to the Irish Sea, we left about forty oxygen tanks in Wilizy #2's hold in case a sling warrior had to replenish his supply, and then transferred the remaining 160 to the Wilizy #3. As a last gesture to Europe, Theo felt that we should stop calling the ships by numbers. It was too confusing. He suggested we call ship #2 _Wilizy/Europe_ and that's what we decided to do.

The return trip home in the Wilizy #3 was slower than our trip over, but time went quickly. After all the carpentry work and my science installations had been completed, I dropped the ship into the water. It was time for an experiment and the boys were keen to determine how high a supersonic sling had to be so that its sonic boom wouldn't be heard. We didn't have to worry about other ships hearing us. We saw no transoceanic traffic whatsoever on our trip. Lucas and Theo raised their slings into the upper atmosphere slowly and paused at different altitudes as measured by the altimeters that I had attached to the oxygen tanks that they were using. Each then did a high speed run with six pinky rings to give them more than enough power.

At first, they were flying too low, but I kept messaging them to go higher and it wasn't long before the boom disappeared. The boys were disappointed that the flights weren't more exciting. They said it was just like flying over the compound. I explained that was because there was nothing visible that high in the sky that would give them a sense of speed. They seemed to understand. Theo suggested that I should always put two altimeters onto the oxygen tanks in case something went wrong with the first.

The boys came down slowly by flying in long descending spirals. Lucas thought that was a better way to get up and down than the "long staircase" approach that I had suggested. Hank asked if the height that we had to fly to avoid the boom would be different if we were over land or over ocean. He thought it would be and he was right. I built all these ideas into our "Remember" checklist that was going to be attached to the oxygen tanks. That was Wolf's suggestion. I discovered that it's a lot more fun, and more effective, to do experiments with other people involved.

By then, Wiz was anxious to return home. He had ordered a large amount of cloth from Japan while we were testing the sonic booms and he had some leads on a source of dye as well. Hank and Wizard would need both of those soon after elements of the Saskatchewan air force invaded Alberta. We christened ship #3 _Wilizy/Asia_ and headed home as quickly as we could.

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# Chapter 22

From Will's journals: January 2083 continued.

Hank and Wizard's plans would require sling warriors to be in the air soon, so we didn't have much time to go to Asia and back. I hovered the ship over the compound only long enough for Lucas and Theo to change clothes and talk to their mom. I figured that I could leave the Wilizy/Asia over the Sea of Japan. This would be a good place for the Wilizy/Asia's home port since we'd be picking up the cloth and dye in Tokyo. I'll drop invisible repeater stations along the way so that the cargo could make its own way back. I figured that it would take about three days to reach Tokyo and would have been happy to lie in a hammock the whole time. Lucas and Theo had other ideas.

First they wanted to have a contest to see who could sail the ship the furthest distance in thirty minutes. Lucas said that they had tried knotting a rope and throwing the end of it overboard, but that didn't work with a ship sailing through the air. The rope just drooped below the ship. I could join the game if I wanted to, but only if I found a way to determine the winner. So I locked a repeater station into the air, attached one end of a filament to it, and we measured who had pulled the most filament off the ship. I won the first contest as I tweaked the angles of the sails to get maximum sun power. Both boys had concentrated on their steering. They watched me carefully and Theo beat me in the second contest. Lucas didn't have the patience to just set the panels and steer. He was always fiddling with sails, trying to gain an advantage. Competitive kid.

As night started to fall, the boys wanted to play hide and seek. But first they had to negotiate the rules. I saw that this could take a fair bit of time, as each boy was adept at proposing something that would give him an advantage. In the end, they agreed that it was against the rules to use a sling to go invisible or to change hiding positions. The rules did allow the use of a pinky ring light at max. Finally, the hider had to come out if he heard the ship's bell because that was signal for _I give up._ The person who caught the hider would have his turn to hide next. They were very serious about rules to their games; they even wrote them down and each signed them. I asked if I could play too. They agreed, so long as I signed the sheet of rules but they warned me that I was too big to hide properly.

Theo found Lucas in the first contest, and then Lucas returned the favour. In the third game, I figured that Lucas was 'tween decks, but I couldn't see properly in the semi-darkness even with a pinky ring light. But I did catch a whiff of chocolate, so I followed the smell to where Lucas was munching on a bar underneath a canvas sail that had been stuffed into a tiny locker. Turns out that when we had been back in New York, both boys had hidden a large number of chocolate bars in their packs before showing their dad their chocoholic pallet. Obviously they still had some of their smuggled cache left.

I managed to make them ring the _We give up_ bell by using my sling to fasten myself to the underside of the deck. Both walked right underneath me but didn't look up.

"Not fair," they said.

"Yes, fair," I said. "Rules said I couldn't use my sling to turn invisible. There was nothing about using them otherwise." They had to agree on that.

Lucas created the best hiding place. He refused to disclose it in case we played the game again. Theo offered him a chocolate bar if he told us. Lucas looked at me. I said I didn't have a chocolate bar. "You owe me two, OK?" So I agreed. He showed us how he had been standing on the lip of a cannon that he had rolled forward so that part of it was outside the porthole. He was outside the ship the whole time we were searching inside! He had moved the cannon and lifted the porthole covers in a previous game so that we wouldn't hear the noise. Have I mentioned that Lucas is very competitive?

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of feet hitting the deck. I found the two little chocolate-fueled monsters racing up and down the main mast to see who was fastest. No fair using the sling except if you fell. They offered to let me time them, because they were sure they could do it faster once they had more practice. I said that I wanted to race too. So, we decided to share the timing duty. They beat me badly. I was stronger, but they were lighter and more agile. I decided to become a permanent timer because they were razzing me so much about being an ancient. When Lucas started to come down to the deck by sliding down the sails, I decided to end the contest. Have I mentioned that Lucas is ultra-competitive?

During the afternoon they wanted to do some diving, so I put the ship into the water. At first they dove from the little step at the back of the ship. It's about a meter above the water. They'd use their sling to catch up to the ship. Then they wanted to use the cannon that Lucas had stood on. That seemed OK to me. It was in the second deck, and they were only doing a cannonball dive anyway. I became nervous when I saw Lucas eyeing the top of one of the masts and changed the contest to seeing who could eat dinner the slowest while still having to chew. Theo won. Lucas claimed that Theo had won because he himself hadn't tried. These guys are wearing me out.

Nighttime came and it was back to the ship's sailing distance test but this time in a moonless night. I was allowed to go first because of my advanced age. Lucas was far behind my distance when he tried. I had used the feel of the wind on my check to add a little oomph to the dead solar power sails. I didn't share that with the boys though. Theo figured out that I had him beat so he tried to nudge the ship up to a higher altitude. "No fair," I said.

"Yes, fair," he said. "There's nothing in the rules that says I can't go higher."

This was true and he won easily.

Lucas was intent on beating Theo's distance and so he took the ship up as high as it would go. I realized that there was a distinct lack of oxygen at this height when all of us sat down suddenly out of dizziness. We decided not to play that particular game again.

"You know, Will," Lucas said. "You should have bottles of oxygen on the ships in case the Wilizy has to make a speed run some time. The ships are way faster up high."

I told him he was right and explained why. I hadn't thought about the oxygen bottles. I bundled them off to bed and made them give me their chocolate stash for safe keeping until the morning. Then I had the pleasure of listening to the two of them communicating back in forth in the dark in their private code and seeing who could make the most realistic fart noises.

The last morning, I figured we were nearing land and said that we didn't have enough time for more contests. But the horizon was still clear, so Lucas challenged me to a final contest: who could sail the furthest at a particular altitude. I was assigned to go first – again because I was a moldy oldie. I thought that I had him beat.

Lucas stepped up to the controls, threw an additional pinky ring onto the grid, and left me in the dust.

"No fair," I said.

"Yes fair," Lucas said. "There's nothing in the rules that says that I can't add more pinky power."

I had to agree on that. So I showed them how they could run a scientific experiment. We'd measure the distance at one pinky power, at two pinky power, and last on three pinky power. Then, we'd predict what it would be like at ten. They thought that was a great idea and pulled out paper and pencil to make their predictions. I wouldn't let them use their pinky computers.

Both had predicted high while I was pretty much dead on. They hadn't taken into account the higher vibrations of the ship as it struggled through the atmosphere.

"No fair," they said.

"Yes fair," I said. "There's nothing in the rules that says I can't use my brain," and they had to agree on that.

They wanted to see what would happen at eleven pinky rings, so we started a final trial. That's when the vibrations hit and I took off the extra rings and lowered the altitude immediately. I put the boys to work searching the ship for signs of distress but they didn't find anything. I noticed that they didn't take shortcuts. We spotted land soon after that.

I met the two owners of the export companies with no difficulty. Both spoke enough English for us to understand each other. Neither owner objected to sending their shipment out at night in a barge to a remote location in the ocean. The dye man said something interesting though. "I have gived you our entirety stores of emerald green dye, and because you have boughted so much of our production, I agree to never sell this dye to nobody elses. You tell Mr. Wizard, yes?"

Once again, we dropped down to the floating barges in the dead of night. It took longer to palletize them this time and send them on their way home because Wizard had ordered so much. However as per instructions, each of us was going to take one cloth packet and one packed of emerald green dye in our slings with us. Wizard needed these fast. I anchored the Wilizy/Asia over the Sea of Japan as planned, and readied the slings for the trip home. Lucas and Theo wanted to see who could reach home first, but I said, _No_. We'd have a contest on naming stars on the way home instead. However I had to agree to let them have one more contest on the ship since naming stars was going to be so boring. They named their contest _Knockwill_.

Back home, it took me about two days to recover my energy. That gave me time to think. I had been playing with Winnie whenever I could and she was a lot of fun. She giggled, screeched, and wriggled around when I tickled her and wrestled her onto my shoulder and pretended to be a horse. She hugged me when I brought her home. I had decided that after Izzy and I were married, I wouldn't mind having a girl. Girls were more huggy. Boys wouldn't hug. They'd prefer to play _Knock Will on his Butt_ , which is the _Knockwill_ game they had invented and suckered me into playing. In this game, Lucas and Theo got to run at me and try to knock me on my butt by launching their bodies at me simultaneously. It was an easy game to play so long as your name wasn't Will. I wouldn't mind having some boys too after Izzy and I are married.

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# Chapter 23

Five large transport copters began flying across the Saskatchewan border during the morning of February 1st. Izzy had warned the DPS about the flights beforehand, but the Wilizy's sling warriors were there to protect their newly leased Saskatchewan copters just in case. Five copters, five invisible sling warriors, five destinations. DPS copters showed up quickly after the Saskatchewan transports crossed the border, but seemed content to conduct a long range visual inspection of each copter's load and trail it to its destination.

Years ago, Saskatchewan's air force had decided that they couldn't match Zzyk's air force for quantity, but they could make up for that by quality. They had purchased heavily shielded and heavily powered monster copters. They argued that a copter that could carry a big payload of explosives and drop it onto a building in Edmonton posed more of a threat than a dozen single-seaters that could fire machine guns. Saskatchewan was never seriously threatened by Zzyk – not because of those copters but because Zzyk wasn't interested in owning a lot of grass. Saskatchewan's copter fleet had sat idle until Wizard called and asked about short term leases.

Now each of those five solar-powered monsters was hauling a very large, funnel-ended storage container beneath it. These were heavy loads as evident by the low altitude and slow progress that they made across the Albertan prairie. Then, hovering low over the center of a Wilizy-owned plot of Alberta land, the funnel would open and out would pour ... dirt. Heavy, dark dirt.

By late afternoon, each of the five plots of Wilizy land had a series of high mounds of soil stretching down the one kilometer middle of the plot. By this time, of course, the public was well aware of the activity over these parcels of land. At five p.m., workers were released from their buildings and a steady stream of onlookers congregated in the area, all of them wondering what was up with all this dirt. More informed pedestrians would comment that the WZBN had posted a schedule of its copter flights and that there'd be more deliveries tomorrow. Most pedestrians also saw the signage along one of the lengths of the property. _Barter area: bring your own blankets._

Saskatchewan's copters returned the next day and deposited their loads – again in the middle of the property, but adjacent to the mounds of soil. This time the payload was pea-sized gravel. New signage appeared as well. _Danger: please stay off the property._ As befitting a brain-banded population that always did what they were told, the citizens stayed off the Wilizy's property, except for the section reserved for barter blankets. A few had appeared and had quickly been bartered out of goods.

For the first week of February, only that one side of the Wilizy land saw any activity. As to what was going to happen in the center of the land, most citizens had concluded that, _They're going to grow something_ , but nobody had any idea what the gravel was for.

### # # # # # # # #

In the second week of February, the big copters delivered a load of rakes, hoes, shovels, wheel barrows, and canvas gloves, among other things. In addition, a large sign appeared on each property – _A Wilizy Public Garden is opening this summer. Please stay out for now._

If you'll pardon the pun, interest in the idea of a garden **took root** in each community. The speculation was that corn would be best but they weren't sure if the soil was deep enough. Radishes were more likely, but not popular. There were plenty of radishes around as it is. Farmers looked at how close the property was to water and nodded approvingly. Nobody knew what the gravel was for yet.

At mid-week, a man or woman showed up at each site wearing an emerald green and white vest that had _Wilizy Agen_ t printed on the back. (Wizard had asked Will to bring those packs of cloth and dye back quickly so that he could have those vests made.) The agent took a table and stool from the pile of equipment that had been dumped earlier that week, wrote _Now Hiring_ on some cardboard and sat down and waited. Work clearing out the weeds in the designated spots on the property started in earnest the next night.

The Wilizy agent had clear expectations, as had been dictated to him by Hank. During the week, people started work at 6 p.m. so that they'd have time after work to eat. They worked until dusk. On the weekends, work could begin at 8:00 a.m. but work always stopped at 4 p.m. Each worker would be given a thin strip of emerald green cloth to wear around his neck. At the end of the day/evening, the agent would attach a small emerald green square to the neck band that showed the number of hours worked that day. Workers could accumulate as many green squares as they wished before asking for their pay. The rate was five cents for each hour worked. Once the worker was paid, the agent would remove the green squares and the worker could start collecting squares again if he wished. No worker was ever pressured to work longer or more often than he wished. The long green neck ribbons were theirs to keep. Soon people worked up the nerve to wear the ribbons when they moved around the community and even to their daytime job.

Before readers howl in anger at the miserly salary the Wilizy paid for what was fairly hard labour, I should remind you that the Alberta government and the people themselves had no money at the time. Plus nobody in Alberta received wages. People worked for Zzyk's government who gave them accounts at government grocery stores. Anything else that a citizen might want had to be bartered. Besides nothing new could be bought anyway. Five cents an hour was something that was attractive as it was five cents more than most Albertans had to their name. For a while, the emerald squares served as a form of currency along with British Columbian pennies, nickels, and dimes, which are what the Wilizy used to pay its workers.

Within a couple of weeks, all the areas of the garden that the contractor wanted weeded had been cleared. Then they began covering those bare patches with enough soil to reach the top of the little sticks that the agent had hammered into the ground. This took a lot of time, and at one point, the green and white copters had to make return visits to bring more soil.

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# Chapter 24

The _Stop the Brain-Bands_ committee was having its second meeting – the first not having gone very well. At that first meeting, they had produced only one semi-possible idea of stopping the brain-bands from leaving the North Korean factory – cause the factory to have an accident. They had discarded that idea by the end of the meeting. An inexplicable accident would have been too suspicious to slip past Zzyk. They didn't want Zzyk beginning to wonder if the Wilizy had been responsible. That would have lead to questions like: _How did they find the factory? How did they get to North Korea? How did they break into the factory without anyone knowing_?

Today's meeting was to look at the next possible point of attack – the ship that was carrying the brain-bands. At the meeting were Izzy, Wolf, TG, and Lucas. Doc was also in the community hall, but had declined to join them at the table. He'd prefer to listen from a comfortable chair. Wolf asked if Doc would like him to bring in the whittle bucket - a sort of standing ash tray that Yolanda had said would keep the floor clean. Doc turned down the offer; he had been whittling that morning and his hands were sore.

"What about taking control of the ship's rudder from below and steering it into some rocks?" Izzy posed. "It would look like an accident."

The group pondered on that some, but decided that rocks meant shallow water and that meant the ship might jam itself onto the rocks and the cargo could be salvaged. If the rudder mishap were suspicious, the next freighter would be guarded.

"What about finding a non-suspicious way to sink the ship in deep water," Izzy suggested.

"Couldn't have any signs of weaponry," Wolf reacted.

"They'd avoid storms, or hunker down until it passed," TG mused out loud.

"What about you, Lucas. Do you have any ideas?" This from Izzy who was trying to involve Lucas in the discussion. He had been quiet in the first meeting.

Lucas wasn't paying attention. He didn't like the talking part of battles; he liked the battling part of battles. When Izzy had broken into his day dream, he had been thinking about the game that he and Theo would be playing that evening.

"Pirates," he blurted when he saw everyone looking at him. That was what he and Theo were going to play.

Wolf was going to admonish his younger brother for not being serious about the meeting, but he was stopped by Izzy's hand on his sleeve. "Lucas, tell me how a pirate ship would go about sinking a freighter. Would it be in deep water?"

Now this was something that Lucas did know. After Mac had mentioned something about a book on pirates at their bonfire, Lucas had found some books on the topic and had downloaded them. "Pirates might sink ships in deep water," Lucas said. "First they force everyone on the ship to climb into life boats and go away. Then they board it and take all the stuff they want. They'll sink the ship if the crew had fought back; if the crew had abandoned the ship, the pirates will leave the ship anchored safely. They want the ship to be available to carry more loads that they can steal. Ship owners usually have insurance against cargo being stolen, so they tell their crews not to resist. They don't want their ships to be sunk because then they won't earn any more money from shipping things."

"How come you know so much about pirates," TG asked.

"Theo and I want to have a pirate battle so we've been reading up on the rules first."

_Will, do you have a minute?_ Izzy mind-messaged.

"Pirate ships have to be very scary," Lucas said. "Otherwise it doesn't work. Also, the navies of the countries in the area always chase the pirates, so their ships have to be really fast. They need a secret pirate port that they can hide in too."

"We could do all of that," Izzy said.

### # # # # # # # #

The dreaded pirate ship Wilizy/Asia was ready for its first raid by the third week of February. Will had spent a week adding special equipment to their big, gun-laden three-deck man-of-war. The ship now had solar panels that could be converted from white to black by flipping a switch in the command center. The ship also had gun ports that would supposedly fire cannon balls accompanied by thunderous explosions and white smoke. The explosions and smoke were adopted from the thunder and lightning illusions that they had used when they rescued Izzy from Zzyk's child care center in Edmonton. The Wilizy's cannons didn't shoot old fashioned iron balls; they had electronics inside the muzzles that would fire laser strikes that would look like cannon fire if the victim ship were ever examined.

The pirate captain could fire the cannons on one, two, or three decks simultaneously or in sequence. A full broadside would destroy anything currently on the ocean. A _bow chase_ r was installed that could reach distances of more than a kilometer. Pirates used these long guns, mounted on the bow of their ship, to intimidate. Will used real cannon balls for this gun because he wanted the freighter crew to see the ball flying through the air at them. He did add laser sighting to ensure that the cannon balls fell where he aimed them. They also had a real skull and cross bones jolly roger, which was the flag that pirates have always used to disclose that the captain of the ship wasn't coming by to chat about the weather.

Most of the Wilizy family had decided to be part of the pirate ship's test run – the allure of pretending to be a pirate apparently crossed all ages and genders. Only Stu, Mac, Yollie, TG and Liset had stayed behind. Izzy wanted there to be a history of a big black pirate ship plying the Asian waters before using it on the North Korean freighter. To establish that history, they were sailing in the air above the South China Sea where the sea traffic was heaviest. All they needed now was a victim. Preferably two. Word of a pirate strike here would spread quickly and it would not be suspicious if the black pirate ship ventured north for its third victim.

Izzy was struggling with not wanting to attack an honest merchant ship when Lucas spotted the flashes and smoke below. "Shots ahoy," he called down from the crow's nest where he had assigned himself to keep watch. The sensors in the belly of the ship already gave them all the information they needed.

"It's _ship ahoy_ , stupid" Theo called from the second mast. "There's no such thing as _shots ahoy_."

"There is now," Lucas yelled back. "We have ourselves a real live pirate ship. Hoist the jolly roger," Lucas called out exuberantly.

The attack on the pirate ship went exactly as _Beardless Wolf the Pirate_ , the scourge of the seven seas, had planned. The crew of the bad pirate ship looked up in the pre-dawn light to find a big black ship sailing abreast of them, cannon ports open for a broadside. The good pirate's bow chaser made a big hole in the bad pirate's jib, which is the sail at the very front of the ship. The bad pirate captain wisely _hove to_ (screeched to a stop) and advised the crew to _abandon ship_ (dive off the decks and swim like crazy). Since no other ships were around them at the time, Beardless Wolf ordered the entire cargo of the bad pirate ship to be liberated, palletized, and sent off to Alberta.

After the successful pirating endeavour, Hank had to return to Alberta to manage the next stage of the Wilizy's land development and Yolanda said that she'd go with him. Izzy had promised that she and Will would give some awards for a contest that Mac had arranged. Will looked surprised at that and said that he preferred to stay with the pirate ship. They left shortly afterwards. That left Wolf and all his brothers, Winnie and Patella, Granny, and Doc to carry on the fight against piracy. Granny wanted to lead the second attack, so she made Beardless Wolf, the former scourge of the seven seas, walk the plank (she actually did!) and took over the ship. Before they could lift into the sky, they saw another pirate ship attacking a merchantman and she took chase. The pirate captain ignored the cannon ball warning, so Granny added some solar powered ooomph to their speed and gave a final warning before firing off a single deck broadside aimed at their waterline. "I'm going to send all pirates to Davy Jones' locker," she was heard to say which was somewhat weird because she had an eye patch and a pirate skull cap on when she said it. She also sprinkled her orders with such gems as _Shiver my timbers, Avast my hearties_ , and _Hang him from the yardarm_ , but nobody knew what she was saying.

The Wilizy made no attempt to recover what was going to be a water-logged cargo since other ships were in the vicinity and at least one of them was going to have electronic communications to call for help. They hightailed it out of the area as quickly as they could in a northward direction, found a handy fog bank, and lifted into invisibility. With only about a week left before the Wilizy/Asia was scheduled to make a real pirate attack, Granny put Wolf back in charge of the operations as he was supposed to be. Granny 1, Pirates 0. Not bad for a scurvy landlubber.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 25

It was Saturday, March 3, and quite late in the day when Hank received an anxious mind message from Mac.

_We've had a situation here at the awards ceremony. An Albertan nose was spotted in the crowd. It was fortunate that Franklin Franklin was here. He and some of his agents bundled Will and Izzy out of the building before anything could happen. I can't contact them because they gave me their communications gear. I have their slings too. The B.C. military can't reach Franklin. I have a bad feeling about this._

Mac was referring to the awards ceremony for the dance contest that the WZBN had been sponsoring. After the final broadcast of Will and Izzy's dance classes a month ago, Mac had started a contest to find the best pair of beginning dancers in B.C. She had named it _Dancing in the Stars_ because the backdrop to the set was a black night scene lit up by sparkling stars and a full moon. Mac found three experienced dancers to be the judges, and the contestants competed against each other for four Saturdays – each contest being taped and then broadcast a few hours later. Winners were to be announced this afternoon and Will and Izzy were present to hand out the awards. Naturally their involvement was a closely guarded secret with only Mac, Will, and Izzy knowing, although Izzy had told Hank and Yolanda too. Mac had asked Izzy if they should let B.C. know what was happening and Izzy had emailed FF about the plans.

Hank thanked Mac and asked her to return to the community hall immediately. He sent out a "Meet me in the community hall as soon as you can" message to the Wilizy who were available. Yolanda and Stu arrived within seconds. Yollie, TG and Liset were shopping in the Okanagan and landed within ten minutes. Hank had been meeting with his five Wilizy agents in a secret location in Alberta and arrived right behind them.

Hank told them about the dance contest and what Will and Izzy were doing there. By then, Mac had arrived and Hank asked her to explain what had happened.

"Will, Izzy and I were concerned about being in a crowded room with our slings because somebody could accidentally touch us and feel the filaments of the sling. We decided that it would be best if we didn't wear them. I have their slings in this backpack," and she held up a pack. "The pack was stored under lock and key," she added. "Also, it was invisible since I had my own sling wrapped around it."

"Their communications?" Hank asked.

"Both Will and Izzy would be shaking a lot of hands and people would immediately feel the large braided ring and the apparatus that kept it tight against their palm. Shifting it to their left hands didn't work very well, so they left them with me. They're in the bag too. You don't need me here now, so I can babysit Liset while you discuss what you want to do."

"You should stay, Mac. You may know other things that could be useful." Hank went on to review the brain-plug system for everyone. "Will and Izzy's brain plugs are supposed to send out system-wide emergency messages if they are tampered with. Plus Wilizy members can activate the system themselves if they feel they're in danger. There has been no such activation, so their plugs have to be intact. If Will and Izzy were in danger, they'd have activated that warning system – all they had to do was unscrew it enough to break the connection. Neither of them has done that. This suggests that they are safe and perhaps in hiding until FF can determine that the risk is over. He'll take them back to the military complex soon and everything will be fine."

"Hank," Yolanda said. "You need to declare a full emergency and set up a response team."

"But they're with Franklin Franklin," Hank said gently, believing that Yolanda was over-reacting.

"That's exactly why we need an emergency response team," she replied. To Hank's look she added, "You don't know him like I know him."

### # # # # # # # #

Franklin Franklin's manifesto

If you are reading this manifesto, then the Wilizy are finished. Hank and Yolanda are dead and Will and Izzy can no longer interfere with the proper order of things. I myself am safe, living comfortably, and rich beyond imagination. If I have failed, then you wouldn't have access to this document. The fact that you are reading it confirms that God does exist and works in mysterious ways.

As befitting a _manifesto,_ in this document I will declare publicly why I have acted to remove the Wilizy's threat to normalcy from our world. For too long now, I have been forced to exist as a different person. I endured the hatred of my brothers and sisters – they being unaware that I was still among them in heart if not in deed. When they read this, I will be allowed to return to the fold, rewarded that my life will now have had meaning.

I had a normal childhood. My family was tight-knit and loving. My father treated all of his children equally, and I can remember no instance where any of us were mistreated in any fashion. Unlike many in B.C. at the time, our family followed the way of the Lord, as revealed through my father's preaching. We would meet in our church every evening before bed to hear his message. The children grew up, learning to read from the _Good Book_ , as my father called it. In time, all the children had it memorized, it being quite short, and we could quote our favorite passages on demand. My own favorite was the one where we were supposed to prevent the heathen Indian savages from taking over the world. I had invented a pretend game – _Capture the Heathen Savages_ that I played by myself, but only in my mind. I wanted to play it with my brothers and sisters, but none of them wanted to pretend to be a heathen savage, the risk of eternal damnation being too great.

I was unique in my family because of the name that my mother gave me. She told me that it would make people notice me and they would know me for who I was. It certainly was noticeable. My last name, Franklin, came from my father, of course. My mother gave me my first name, Franklin, because it was her own last name as well as her father's last name. He was some sort of cousin to my father, I believe. She also gave me a middle name that was her mother's maiden name. So, I was Franklin Franklin Franklin. I dropped the middle name when I entered the outside world.

My happy life was disrupted when my father died. I remember him being quite old. We had a big funeral celebration for him - about fifty of his children (I couldn't keep track of them all, it might have been fifty-five) and eight current wives. He used to have ten wives, but two of them had disappeared suddenly and I never heard anything more about them. Fortunately, their children had been found and returned to the flock.

I found out about the outside world when my mother went on a holiday down to the big city of Surrey right after my father's funeral. We moved around a lot when we were down there, I recall. I was her only child. I came home from kindergarten one day to find an uncle waiting for me. "Your mother has died, Franklin," he said. "You'll be part of the family again." He didn't say what she had died of. I remember thinking that it couldn't have been an illness because she had been healthy that morning. I believe she was about nineteen when she died.

I stayed with my family until I turned fourteen. This was the age when all of the sons had to work in the outside world. The girls stayed at home to cook, clean, farm, and help their father replenish the family. In this case, since my own father had died, they would be replenishing the family of the uncle who had brought me home when my mother had died. Of course, the boys would still be part of the family and we were expected to send part of our pay home. But our main job was to lead the fight against the heathen taking over the world. One of my brothers arranged a job that gave me access to a lot of heathens, both whites and Indian savages. My brother administered the word of God to the whites; I administered it to the savages.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 26

Sunday, March 4, day two of Will and Izzy's disappearance.

Izzy awoke, stiff and sore. She wasn't aware that she had been sedated, transported by copter to a hidden site, loaded onto the top of a wheeled kitchen cart, and then hauled to where she was now lying on a thin pad on the floor of what was obviously a cell with long iron bars on three sides. All of the bars were much too close together for her to squeeze through. A solid rock wall was behind her, a rock ceiling above, and a rock floor beneath. The door was securely fastened by a solid looking iron lock. Similar cells were around her, but they were empty.

Izzy immediately sent the thought to activate her weapon array, only to remember that she had removed it before the dance contest. She put her hand to her throbbing head and found a securely fastened brain-band. She unscrewed the exterior section of her brain plug, pulled the plug out enough to disrupt its signal to her brain, and lay back under the thick blanket to wait for the Wilizy to respond to the emergency beacon. She had ample water and food bars in the cell to last several days. An hour for the Wilizy to find where she was; a day to plan a rescue?

### # # # # # # # #

The Wilizy adults were meeting in the galley of the Wilizy as it maintained a position high in the air above Kamloops. From here, the ship's sensors could see all the way to Edmonton and Calgary. The ship was also within reasonable sling distance to Surrey where they'd probably be spending most of their time looking for Will and Izzy, at least at the beginning of the search. Stu was at the compound with Liset, having insisted that Mac could help the committee more than he could. He'd care for Liset; he had had plenty of practice with toddlers. Wolf and Doc had arrived from Asia and Hank was going to give them an update on their progress. Granny had been left on the Wilizy/Asia to command the operation against the North Koreans although she wasn't happy about that. Doc had reassured her that Wizard would be a good second-in-command. Lucas and Theo were reasonably skilled sailors. He had assumed that Granny's unhappiness had stemmed from a lack of confidence of taking the Wilizy/Asia into battle herself.

Hank was beginning to tell the assembled group that he had made contact with the head military man in B.C. when Granny flew into the cabin, still in her sling – the top flung open. A canine howl of protest revealed that Granny was still towing Patella's sling with the pup invisible inside of it. Wizard and Winnie followed behind Granny but they had taken the time to deactivate their slings.

"I won't be left on the other side of the world when my daughter is being attacked," she announced. "I'm staying!" She released the pup from the carry bag, deactivated her sling, declined the soft chair in the living room that TG was offering, sat at the table, and glared at anyone who looked ready to argue with her.

"Yolanda isn't being attacked..." Hank started.

"Oh yes she is," Granny raised her voice to interrupt. "She may not be the one that has been kidnapped, but she's involved. I can sense it."

"Mom's right," Yolanda said softly. "This concerns me."

"Wizard?"

"I **have** to help, Dad. Please?"

"Why is Winnie here?"

"She has special talents that we may need," Granny jumped in before Winnie could respond. "As does Patella."

"Who did you leave in charge?" Hank asked. "That operation is very important to us."

"Lucas."

_Oh, dear God!_ was the thought that sped around the room. Well, it would have been the common reaction had the family been religious. Instead they experienced a sinking sensation that settled itself somewhere between their heart and their stomach. Lucas was a good boy, but known for his impetuosity and ultra competitiveness. Perhaps not the best combination for a covert operation.

"I gave Lucas very specific instructions," Granny tried to reassure everyone. "He is to report to me daily and he is to ask my permission before he brings the ship out of invisibility. Plus the ship's attack date is six or seven days away. That's lots of time for Wolf and me to return to the ship."

### # # # # # # # #

Hank, Yolanda, and Winnie met with the B.C. general who was anxious to provide assistance. Franklin had indeed been at the awards ceremony. He had received a warning that a DPS sleeper would attempt to assassinate both Will and Izzy, had gathered up a security detail of four sergeants, and had logged where he was going and why. The detail left the complex – all of them in their own military copter, all of which had been properly signed out.

At the ceremony, the general confirmed that a warning had been circulated about an Albertan nose, but nobody knew who had issued it. Franklin and the guards surrounded Will and Izzy, took them to the pre-designated back exit where the copters had been parked, and then executed a standard five copter mass ascent that is designed to confuse anyone trying to follow them. Will and Izzy were in FF's copter. The four sergeants flying the other helicopters reported that they followed standard procedures in losing contact with any presumed enemy before returning to the complex.

They hadn't heard from Franklin since. The general had assumed that Franklin had been the one targeted for kidnapping. "He had recently engaged in some negotiations with Zzyk that went badly for Zzyk. He has always been a potential target. FF won a lot of battles and made enemies in high places. We're hoping that you can help us find him."

"We'll certainly do our best," Yolanda assured him. "May we interview the four soldiers?" she asked.

In an extensive set of interviews, Winnie found no signs of lying and Yolanda had positive readings as well. They returned to the general.

"May we look at Franklin's office?" Yolanda asked sweetly.

"Secure zone," the general replied.

"Hard for us to help you if you don't give us access," Yolanda persisted.

"Come this way," the general directed. The very next words that he would express were, "Oh, dear god."

### # # # # # # # #

Back at the ship that evening, the Wilizy were trying to digest the news that the general had given them. Multiple secret government files were missing from Franklin's office. He was the only one who could have removed them. Franklin had served on a wide number of committees and was a trusted member of the government. Nobody had had any suspicions. Some files would have been military in nature, some economic, some financial. The general would develop a list of the files that Franklin had signed out, but that could take weeks and he wasn't sure if he could disclose those contents to the Wilizy.

"We won't need that information," Yolanda had said to the general. "We have our own information on Franklin Franklin."

"What's his motivation?" Hank asked the group assembled in the ship's galley. He looked at Yolanda who shook her head, signifying that this behaviour was new to her. The previous night, Yolanda had told Hank that she had been keeping something about Franklin a secret from him. She'd tell him what it was when this was all over. It wouldn't do either of them any good to open up that discussion now. Their first priority was to rescue Will and Izzy.

"He's been planning this for some time," Doc offered.

"Long enough to gain Izzy's trust," Yollie said. "He worked on her probably from the first time they met. Izzy told me that she liked him. He had a sense of humour. She would never have climbed into that helicopter with him if she hadn't trusted him."

"Not a spur of the moment decision. Therefore this kidnapping is important to him. What's important to a man of Franklin's age?" TG adding his bit and looking at Doc.

"Impending death?"

"Izzy told me that FF had mentioned he was at death's door," Yollie said. "But she thought that it was a ploy to fool Rick."

"Health records," Hank instructed Mac who was serving as the executive assistant for the committee. As such, she'd record all leads, assign teams to explore them, and record results.

"Love? A person who suddenly throws away his life might be doing it for love?" Granny this time.

"Interviews with all people on staff who might know something about his life outside of work," Hank instructed. Mac made the appropriate note.

"Money," Wizard suggested. "Worried about financial security as he got older?"

"Financial records," Hank instructed Mac.

"He could sell those state secrets," TG said. Alaska might be interested in them. Zzyk certainly would be.

"Mac, ask the general if that could be the case."

"He could sell Will and Izzy too," Mac spoke up for the first time. "If that's the case, he will want to keep them alive and healthy."

"Good to know. So, the place he's stashed them will have enough creature comforts to keep them alive and healthy until the buyers arrive. Where's the stash site?" Hank asked.

"Remote area to avoid being discovered accidentally," said Granny.

"So remote that their emergency signal can't reach us," TG added.

"What's the effective range of that system?" Hank asked, but nobody knew.

"How would he pick the stash site?" Hank asked. "Remember, he's been planning this for a long time."

"FF never travelled far according to the general."

"He was effectively in hiding. He had military guards on his residence. They logged him in and out every day."

"Something from his past?"

"Mac, we want to see FF's entire professional life from his first job ever to the present. Also, we want access to his residence."

The room fell quiet.

"Any other ideas?" Hank asked. When nobody spoke up, he said. "Let's operate on the assumption that Will and Izzy have been kidnapped to provide Franklin with a big retirement fund. Mac will assign the jobs, two people to each team if possible. Have Granny, Yolanda, Yollie or Winnie sit in on any interviews. Patella goes everywhere that Winnie does. If you ever see Patella's fur at the back of her neck stand up, then Winnie is at risk and that will mean that all of you are too. If the general blocks you, have Yolanda talk to him. If this assumption doesn't pan out, we'll return to the other possibilities."

"We need to talk," Yolanda said to her husband after the others had left.

### # # # # # # # #

Franklin Franklin's manifesto continued.

I was comfortable in my first work as a missionary, working among the heathens in the bowels of Hell. My goal in life was to convince them of the errors of their ways and lead them to the right way. Most ignored me, as my brother said was customary. "We must expect passive resistance," he assured me.

One of my lost souls was particularly resistant – even to the point of threatening me with violence if I continued to preach to him. My father was very firm about the evil of violence and denied us the right to practice it. However that didn't mean that I had to put up with it. "The body of the preacher is sacred," my father told his flock repeatedly. "To violate that body is to violate the body of God. God will act through the preacher to cut off that violent hand."

I knew that I was not required to actually cut of the hand of my lost soul. But I wasn't sure exactly how I should act. Since I always followed my father's scriptures, I could not use violence. So I decided to let God decide the fate of my lost soul. I took him to a particularly dangerous part of Hell, a pitch-black place where it was possible to fall into its flames. After securing his hands behind his back, I told him that God would save him if he were worth saving. If he weren't, God would make that decision too. I offered a prayer of repentance and the man tried to head-butt me. I came back several days later and he wasn't there. Nobody missed him or asked about him. Accidents happened all the time in the bowels of our part of Hell.

In time, as I administered to my lost souls and increasingly left their fate for God to decide, the savages began to fear me. I saw this as a good thing. Acting as I did as the face of God, it was right for the damned to fear their maker. After some months, when my brother suggested that fewer savages should be shown their way to their salvation, I ignored him. That was my pride talking and that is the one part of my life for which I feel shame. A few weeks later, both my brother and I were transferred to the RCMP and we were given joint responsibility for a small outpost in the interior of B.C.

I embraced the change, anxious as I was now to extend my missionary work. As the sole representatives of the law in the communities we served, my brother and I did not have to suffer the oversight of superiors who might not appreciate our work. By now, I had learned that men who refused to be saved would continue to refuse no matter how hard I tried. But the females were less rigid. I had reached the age where I was ready to start my own family or, in the words of my father, to _go out and replenish the family_.

Frequently savage women would be brought to our cells for temporary periods. I took the opportunity to offer these women the opportunity to be part of my family. As my wives, they would be expected to replenish my family, of course. I believe that I made that expectation abundantly clear as well as the rewards they would receive from living a woman's fulfilled life. But I met resistance. Since they were savages, they were fallen women who could never hope to become part of what my father referred to as _the clean, civilized world_. Yet as I met with them, and extended my hands of husbandly favour, they inexplicably fought back, pushing away my hands.

My father had met resistance from a few of his wives, as I had personally witnessed. I acted as he would have. I incarcerated them in a place of darkness and silence where they could consider the errors of their ways. With my father, that had meant placing them inside an outhouse and locking the door for several days. However I had no such place at my disposal, but made do as best as I could. To my dismay, since the savages were only in my custody for a limited time, my husbandly discipline was not receiving the time it needed to work. I was losing my prospective brides before they could realize the error of their ways. However I noticed that none of those women ever reappeared in our detachment's cells. Although this meant that I could not continue my efforts towards their salvation, I took solace in the fact that they had been cured of their wicked ways.

Although I was disappointed that I was making no progress in replenishing my father's family, I did have a sense of relief. I had harboured some feelings of apprehension about _lying with the heathen_. My father's book was unclear on that. It said that we must never break bread with them; it had nothing to say about lying with them and replenishing the family. My father had always replenished the family from within the family, so he had never faced the challenges of creating a family from heathen stock, let alone heathen savage stock. I take some pride in the fact that during my lifetime I have never broken bread with any heathen of any gender or race unless I was forced to through business. I enter this next phase of my life now – content in the knowledge that I am pure and deserving of the rewards I will soon receive.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 27

Monday, March 5, day three of Will and Izzy's disappearance.

Izzy had had plenty of time to reconnoiter her surroundings. Her cell was about two paces square. Nothing except the toilet handle, her sleeping pad, and her blanket could be moved. Not the long iron bars, not the locked door, and certainly not the rock walls, floor, and ceiling. She was in a cell block of some kind. It was impossible to determine how many cells were in the block as her view did not extend very far. She was sure that nobody was in a cell within hearing distance. She kept calling Will's name in the hopes that he had been sedated too and hadn't yet awoken. No response. She was sure about the sedation. The last thing she could remember was FF slapping her on the shoulder and the stab of pain that she had felt as she climbed into the military copter. She remembered that Will received a similar hearty slap as well.

Izzy's Zorro boots were off but lying on the cell floor. The rest of her clothing had probably been searched as well. That left her with a creepy feeling. Apparently, Zorro-wear was all the rage in B.C. now and both men and women were wearing the knee high boots. She had been assured that the Wilizy would receive more publicity for the WZBN if they both dressed up as Zorro. Neither was particularly happy about that, but they eventually agreed to the costumes. Izzy had refused to carry the fake sword.

Izzy felt in the pockets of her black satin trousers – apparently the female Zorro that roamed the villages of Southern California had access to satin and liked to wear the pants very, very tight. Will had been given looser fitting black corduroy. With the pockets in the satin pants being too tight to use, Izzy had come to Surrey with only two things on her person – the foiled six-pack of protection and the silver locket around her neck. With Zzyk's shiny brain-band now securely fastened around her head, she concluded that he had engineered her capture. She was in an underground DPS prison somewhere in Alberta. Izzy spent some time wondering, but not reaching an answer to the question, _Why'd they leave me with the birth control protection?_

### # # # # # # # #

The Wilizy task force trooped back to the ship at nightfall, exhausted by a long day. The first order of business was to eat and relax. Granny called Lucas while she was munching on her meal, so it was natural for her to start the conversation on that topic.

"Hi, Lucas. What's for supper?"

"Granny, we're not eating supper."

"Why not? You should make sure the boys are well fed, Captain. Part of your duty you know."

"Granny, we're ready to eat lunch."

This prompted a quick lesson on time-zones. They found that the sun was setting in Surrey but it was high overhead in North Korea. After some initial confusion, everything was straightened away. It was agreed that Granny would contact Lucas between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. B.C. time. This would make it about noon in North Korea the next day. If Lucas had an emergency, he should call any time; otherwise he could wait for Granny's daily call.

Lucas asked if they had found Will and Izzy yet, and that took up the rest of the conversation. Granny never did ask Lucas what the boys had done that day or even what they had eaten.

After supper, Hank convened the meeting and asked for reports from all of the groups.

Doc said that he would start because he expected that he and Granny had the least to say. They had met with the military's head doctor, who gave them Franklin's health records, and then when they were ready, he brought in the doctor who had seen Franklin most recently. The records showed absolutely nothing that would suggest that Franklin was near to death or that he might believe that he was near to death. Franklin's most recent visit to the clinic had been back in September. He had asked his doctor for something that would turn his skin gray, informing him that it was part of an official operation and to not bother asking any questions. The doctor prescribed something that he could drink that would make him nauseous, but would provide the necessary skin colour. He should take it an hour before he wanted the effect; the nausea and skin colour would disappear in six hours. The bottle held fifteen doses. Franklin did not return for a refill.

Doc and Granny had spent the rest of the day interviewing anyone in the clinic who had ever seen Franklin. Nobody had anything to offer. Other than seeing him in their official capacity, they had never socialized with him. While he was in the clinic, Franklin barely communicated with them at all. In the waiting room, he sat alone, staring into space. Granny said that the people they talked to had no reservations in answering their questions. She sensed nothing from them that should cause the task force alarm.

"This is a dead end," Doc said. Mac can reassign us to another group.

### # # # # # # # #

Yolanda wanted to report next so that she could put Winnie to bed. She said that the military had spent the entire day in Franklin's condo building in southern Surrey – a neighbourhood called White Rock. Befitting his high position within the provincial government, his condo was in an impressive building facing the waterfront. From what she could see from the hallway door, the military searchers had not spared any effort in their search. She'd be given access to his two-bedroom condo tomorrow if she wanted to root through the rubble of what had been Franklin's possessions. Yolanda wasn't sure if that would be worth the effort. Instead she and Winnie might begin interviewing other residents in the building. She could use some additional people to check the neighbourhood. Where did he buy his food? Did he eat at home or in restaurants? What did he do in his spare time?

"Did his guard detail give you any leads?" Hank asked. For those readers interested in such details, those eight words were the only words that Hank said to Yolanda that evening. If you're keeping score, Yolanda's words to Hank that evening totaled zero.

Yolanda ignored Hank's question, her eyes on Winnie and her voice directed to the group. "Winnie and I interviewed the members of the guard detail on the beach in front of his building. I asked them for anything that they could tell us about the man. It was reasonably warm and Winnie was lying behind a big log that protected her from the breeze coming off the water. Plus she had been huddled up inside a Patella blanket the whole time. Did you sense any lies from those soldiers, Sweetie?"

"No, Mommy. They were all telling the truth." Winnie was lying on a pad in the ship's living room, again underneath a Patella blanket.

"Only a limited number of soldiers served on the detail. They'd pick him up in the morning, take him back at night, and make sure nobody was in the condo waiting for him. They would walk through the rooms to confirm that, but they couldn't remember anything of a personal nature that he had left out in the open. Franklin rarely spoke to them other than to instruct them about changes in his schedule."

"The building supposedly has high security electronic surveillance – TG might be the best person to look at that. There's also a full time houseman at the front door. I expect that the building has a lot of wealthy inhabitants. It certainly looks like an expensive place to live and the location is wonderful. Franklin's condo is on the fourth floor looking out south-west to the ocean. The building has eight floors."

"Winnie and I finished our interviews late in the morning, and we spent the afternoon walking along the beaches. You can walk all the way around the point at Crescent Beach, but we stopped there and had a lunch of fish and chips. We took our time walking back. Collected sea shells. Made some sand castles. Winnie had a very peaceful and relaxing time."

"Since this operation looks like it may take a few more days, I'd like to suggest that we have our meetings in the community hall back home from now on. It will be easier to prepare meals and it will be more comfortable for the meetings. It doesn't take much more time to commute. It would do us all some good to sleep in our own beds, I believe." Yolanda was staring at Winnie the whole time she was talking. "Perhaps some of us could maintain a watch in the Wilizy in case Zzyk becomes ambitious."

Doc picked up on Yolanda's real intentions first. "Excellent suggestion. I find it hard to sleep aboard." Murmurs of agreement followed. Winnie didn't have her thumb in her mouth yet, but it was close.

"Come on, Sweetie. You helped me give our report. Let's put you to bed now. Patella is allowed to sleep with you in your hammock and when we get home she can sleep on top of your bedspread."

When Yolanda returned, she stopped any imminent questions about Winnie's condition by zipping two fingers across her lips and pointing at a nearby vent. During her short absence, Mac had volunteered to stay on the ship the whole time that the operation was underway. From there she could coordinate with the B.C. military. Wolf said that it was probably his duty to stay on the ship too in his position of managing the Wilizy's offensive operations.

### # # # # # # # #

Yollie and TG's task was to interview people who worked closely with FF to see if they could provide any insight. TG said that nobody could give even a single example of a personal interaction with FF that wasn't business. His instructions to them were always succinct and brief. FF made no personal comments to his staff and cut off any that were attempted from his staff. One woman said that she had the feeling that he thought she was beneath him, but couldn't back that up with an example. Naturally, if Franklin didn't interact with staff during business hours, he wouldn't interact with them afterwards either. He didn't eat lunch with his subordinates or even with those equal in rank.

Yollie said that she had no sense of anything being held back from the staff or any of the information being coloured in either a positive or negative manner. Franklin was their boss; nothing more, nothing less.

### # # # # # # # #

Mac had assigned Wizard and Wolf to check into Franklin's financial records. "He has only one bank account that I've been able to find," Wizard began. "It's in the bank where his salary is deposited. That's also the bank that deducts the rent for his condo. He's been living in this condo for about twenty years. I have no information on where he lived before that."

"I was given his bank records going all the way back to his first pay cheque after he was transferred from the RCMP and into the government. I saw nothing unusual in these records, other than he had removed all of his money from the account over the last two weeks. Nobody in the bank noticed it. No reason to expect them to. This is a very big bank. Franklin would have been an anonymous patron because all of the transactions into and out of his account were electronic. The only deposit ever made into the account came from the government. I saw payments made to purchase new copters on a regular basis, maintenance on the copter he owned, a cleaning service for his condo, a fair amount for restaurants but that is in total only. I never saw any food bill that would have exceeded the cost for one diner. Nothing untoward ever happened in that account except the way he emptied it."

"I made a query to government payroll and determined that Franklin was entitled to a pension on retirement and, as part of the pension, he would live in his condo rent free for the rest of his life. It looks like his condo is actually owned by the government and the payments they were taking off his salary were subsidized rent. I saw no point in pursuing this."

"The total amount that Franklin withdrew amounted to a tidy sum. A secure but not extravagant life style was awaiting him in five years when he entered retirement. He appeared to be a man who watched his money carefully and had few expenses other than the normal living costs. He'd be comfortable in his retirement, but that's all."

Wolf took over. "I had extensive military help in my search for any other bank accounts or safety deposit boxes that Franklin might have had. Every financial institution in the Surrey area received a visit from a ranking military officer who requested a meeting with the manager of the bank. If the manager showed any hesitation to search their records, the officer would show him a letter that would change that reaction immediately. I sat in on some of the interviews. I found no indication that Franklin banked anywhere else but at this one institution."

"What about surrounding areas?" Hank asked.

"Most of Surrey's banking needs are provided by a few major banks. The head offices of those banks were very cooperative in extending their searches throughout the province. No record of another Franklin Franklin account was found. Other Franklin accounts, yes, but lots of people have that surname. We may have missed a few very small institutions in this first sweep, but the military are going to take care of that possibility tomorrow."

"Safety deposit boxes?" Wizard asked.

"Included in our searches," Wolf replied.

"Could he have used an alias?" Hank asked.

"Yes, but I don't know how we can find him if he did." Wolf responded.

"Take a picture around to every bank?" Granny suggested.

"B.C. allows bank accounts to be opened electronically," Wizard replied. "No personal contact is needed to open an account."

### # # # # # # # #

Hank took his turn next.

"Since Wolf mentioned Franklin's transfer from the RCMP to Surrey, let me tell you what I already know and what else I have been able to find out about his career. Franklin was my commanding officer in my first job with the RCMP. As part of the battles before the establishment of the Aboriginal Nation, he was transferred to Surrey. He and I continued to work together but Franklin's role was purely to provide logistical support for an operation that I was on. Most of his time was spent on the committee tasked with defending B.C. from Alberta."

"During his career, Franklin advanced from being a junior member on the B.C./Alberta committee to being its chair. Zzyk would have seen him as a significant obstacle that kept re-appearing over the years to thwart his plans. That was especially the case when Franklin recently negotiated our acquisition of the five parcels of Albertan land. Izzy mentioned to Yollie that one of Zzyk's sleepers had made an attempt on his life, but had been captured somehow."

"From his official work records, I found no reference to him working anywhere before he was given charge of the station in the interior of B.C. It's possible that this was his first job. The RCMP were under siege and needed to fill positions. His work records reveal that his superiors were concerned about the lack of arrests coming out of his detachment. However nothing was officially said to him. It was at about that time that I met him and I never personally saw any reasons to doubt his capability. I found Franklin to be a supportive commanding officer. He took some ideas that I had proposed and made them into formal operations. That wouldn't have happened without his approval."

"I had little to do with Franklin after the Aboriginal Nation was established in 2066. I'd see him from time to time when I had meetings in Surrey. He was friendly to me and I was to him. I followed his career with a certain degree of interest as he became more important. I see on his official job records that he has been sitting on a number of very important committees."

"From what we've learned about Franklin's recent behaviour, and from what Yolanda shared with me recently about her own opinions of Franklin, we must conclude that this job record does not reflect who the man truly was. It's possible that the real Franklin can be revealed if we pursue an intensive inquiry into his job history. He has apparently lived a lie for several decades at least. Somewhere in that past, he would have slipped and somebody might have noticed it. Or someone might have said something about it to a close friend. Perhaps they might even have mentioned it to a husband."

Yolanda's lips tightened at that point, but nobody other than Hank noticed. Yolanda kept staring into the spot where Winnie had been cuddling with Patella and said nothing.

"I can help you with that inquiry," Mac said. "I have established contact with all of the senior military brass, and they know that I am representing the Wilizy and that we are to receive their full cooperation. They all know my voice now. I expect I can access any military document that I want. If it's necessary to go outside the military, that should be possible too. If I work the computer angle, perhaps others could pursue personal inquiries with friends, acquaintances, neighbours, etc."

"What's your take on the military's reaction to this?" Hank asked Mac.

"They're throwing everything they have at this. Full bird colonels don't receive orders to visit bank managers unless somebody has lifted the cover over the panic button and is getting ready to push it. They rightfully should be responding this way. If the Wilizy is taken out of the picture, and if the Alaska threat proves real, B.C. could be facing simultaneous and coordinated attacks from the east and from the north. In a worst case scenario, Will could be compelled to join the other side and then B.C. would likely pull back and try to hold onto just the lower mainland."

"You have this directly?" Hank asked.

"Of course not. They won't admit this to anyone outside their war team. But everyone in this ship knows what's going to happen to B.C. if Will and Izzy are sold to their enemies."

### # # # # # # # #

Franklin Franklin's manifesto continued.

In time, I was promoted to the head of the station. My comfortable life was disrupted when a young savage approached me and asked to join the RCMP. I was not in a position to reject him. Adding savages to the force had long been a goal for the force; plus biker gangs were killing our members and it was becoming hard to staff outlying stations. If anyone on the force heard that I had turned him down, my actions would have attracted unhealthy attention.

My dismay in receiving his application stemmed from an opportunity to extend my missionary work that my God had placed before me that month. He had brought to me a new associate who had pointed out that the Alberta government and I had similar interests – to preach to the heathen savages and show them the errors of their way. The head of that government, Zzyk, had heard of my preaching and had sent that associate to ask for my help. He had even sent a personal note to solicit my assistance.

I was flattered of course. But I couldn't see how a simple missionary like I could help this powerful man. I was given details of their master plan. First, remove all of the RCMP from the interior of the province; then, invade that area with full military force, re-educating any who opposed them; stop when they reached the Okanagan and consolidate power. My attraction to this plan was that since the savages formed the largest portion of the population that would stand in their way, they would be the ones who would be re-educated. Zzyk had overwhelming force, and at that time, the savages only had bows and arrows. Collecting them into groups for re-educating would be easy. I did advise him that the male savages seemed to be particularly opposed to my preaching, but Zzyk reassured me through his lieutenant that he had ways of dealing with that. It was at that time, I was told of Zzyk's brain-bands and I realized how powerful these tools would be for missionary work such as my own. In recognition of our silent help, my brother and I would be given positions of power in the new territory that would be formed and we could continue our missionary work without fear of interference.

I also saw the potential of being able to use the brain-bands for collecting wives, keeping them docile, and replenishing my family, so naturally I had agreed to Zzyk's proposal. I felt a little guilty about taking his money for my services in his cause, but my brother pointed out that even missionaries are allowed a small amount of compensation to cover expenses. So it came to pass that I began supplying the bikers with the information they needed about the whereabouts and the schedules of police constables in the area. I also met regularly with his lieutenant who was in charge of all of the biker gangs and, at that point, I realized that they were part of Zzyk's military forces. Again, I was impressed.

In order to prevent any chance of my government superiors learning of my efforts to seed the ground for the re-education of the savages, I would have to accept this young savage whose name was Hank. However I couldn't have him wandering into the detachment at all hours. I was still dedicating a lot of my time towards re-educating some of his sisters – my intent to start my own family still high in my mind. So I offered him an opportunity to work undercover and that meant that he could only come to the office secretly and on a schedule that I dictated.

To give him his due, the savage did well. Our arrest records went up and the head office complimented me on our success. Up to then, I hadn't been recording the arrests of my potential wives because missionary work should not be the concern of government. My brother had lost interest and was passing his time inside a bottle, so my station had little in the way of arrests to report. When my new recruit showed up for our weekly meeting with a young savage girl at his side, I was taken aback. But he explained that she had been helping him with his undercover work, but in ways that he couldn't disclose. I recognized immediately how she was obtaining the information, of course. She was young for a working girl, but her youth would be an additional attraction in itself.

I looked at her closely while Hank laid out his proposal. She was equally interested in me. I say this not to be a braggart, but it was true. The girl, name of Yollie, watched me intently every minute that she was in my office. She couldn't take her eyes off me. Not just then, but every time she came into the detachment. Of course, I became interested in her in return. Over the weeks, I realized that she could be my first wife if I could separate her from her pimp. Her big brown eyes followed me everywhere – how could I say _No_ to such an invitation?

My opportunity to propose to the savage who would become my first wife came soon afterwards. Yollie and Hank had reported to me after an operation and afterward, I told Hank to check the mechanical status of all of our copters. I had already noted that Yollie had a certain fastidious nature. Since this was a task that would require Hank to get greasy, she might be reluctant to join him. My insight was proven correct and we sat alone in my office for a couple of minutes, her big brown eyes following me everywhere, inviting me to act.

Since she had sent the invitation, I could hardly say, _No_. I offered to give her a tour of the building. She pretended to be reluctant about this, but she followed me down to the cell block. As I had copied from my father, I extended both hands in a husbandly greeting. I had hardly fondled her breasts for more than a second or two before she reacted. I was somewhat surprised by her quick acceptance; most of the women to whom I offered husbandly hands were resistant. But Yollie was a working girl and so she was refreshingly different. She came into an embrace with me and put one of her hands on me in a responding wifely manner.

Then she started squeezing her hand and I found it particularly uncomfortable. "Too tight," I said.

"It's going to get tighter until you take your hands off me," she replied.

I did as she wanted, not sure how I had displeased her. Then I looked down into her big brown eyes, and she was staring up at me and her look passed right through me and I knew her for what she was. She had the eyes of the devil himself.

I tried to pull back but she held me in place while she whispered. "Hank has big plans, but he needs your help to achieve them. I know you for what you are, but I will keep your secret from him so that he can achieve his life's goal. In return you will support him in his efforts. If you ever try to touch me again, or if you stand in his way, I will take these from you." She squeezed very hard and I felt the devil's touch go through my body. "After I have finished with them, I will tell Hank what you tried to do and he will beat what remains of you to death." Then she left.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 28

Tuesday, March 6, day four of Will and Izzy's disappearance.

Granny's evening call to Lucas revealed that the ship was still in one piece and the boys were behaving themselves. In the morning, Lucas had run war games by forming two groups that tried to outsmart each other. One group would invent a way to attack the Wilizy/Asia and the other group had to come up with a way to defend it. This afternoon, one group would pretend to attack a North Korean ship and the other group would try to prevent them.

Granny made the mistake of asking Lucas how the meals were going and learned that they were having peanut butter and jam sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When encouraged to have his crew eat some broccoli spears that were in the cooler, Lucas revealed that those had been lost overboard when they had played a new game – _Storm the Wilizy._ Granny expressed some concern about vegetables falling onto the earth below them, but Lucas reassured her that any such fall out would have been in tiny pieces. Broccoli spears didn't stand up to battle situations very well but they hadn't had any wooden ones.

### # # # # # # # #

At their evening meeting, TG and Yollie's news was not encouraging. TG had a look at the security on Franklin's building and assured the task force that it was top grade both electronically as well as through the building's security personnel. He did note, however, that while the security would probably prevent guests from sneaking into the building, Franklin could leave the building any time and meet them elsewhere. The White Rock location was extremely close to an unguarded border with Washington whose armed forces were decidedly weak.

Yollie had met all day with staff from the military complex, again to try and get a sense of the man. This time she talked to his superiors, both current and previous. She didn't learn a single thing that they didn't know already. Franklin kept to himself and shared nothing about himself with anyone. She recommended that this line of inquiry be closed and that both she and TG provide help elsewhere.

Wolf and Wizard recommended that they also be reassigned. They had gone as far as they could go with their searches through FF's financial records and bank account.

Mac had asked Doc to make one more attempt on Franklin's health records but focusing on public health clinics instead. To give him instant credibility with the doctors, a high ranking officer accompanied him. Nothing turned up. Doc recommended that this line of inquiry be closed. Granny meanwhile was at the compound in case Winnie needed her.

With all these dead ends, Hank and Yolanda's news would bring a spark of optimism. Yolanda and Winnie had been scheduled to start interviewing neighbours in Franklin's building. But, Hank had Mac re-arrange Yolanda's schedule so that Winnie could spend a day in the woods back at the compound with Granny. Instead, he and Yolanda had visited the town where Franklin had served in the RCMP. At Hank's request, Yolanda began the report of that visit.

"Both of us travelled to the town in our RCMP red serge uniform tops. Sadly, neither of us could fit into the trousers. The tops themselves were decidedly tight as well, but I was able to shift some buttons and, so long as we didn't inhale deeply, they would fit. We found no written RCMP records from that era in the current detachment's office. These along with the detachment building itself had been destroyed in the war with the bikers."

"Hank let it be known in the town that we were conducting a formal investigation into the conduct of the Franklin brothers when they had been posted there over twenty years ago. If any citizens had anything that they wanted to say, the RCMP would be in the school gym that afternoon. The principal of the school thought this sufficiently important that she let all classes out at noon so that students could go home and inform their families of the meeting. We had a large turnout of adults with many children from the school also present."

"The meeting with the community was productive. Older members of the community remembered the Franklin brothers as religious zealots, bigots, and men that abused their prisoners. The older one had assaulted some of the young aboriginal men, but when they fought back, he stopped. He took to drink and eventually left the detachment. The younger brother had sexually assaulted young women in the community while they were incarcerated for minor offenses. Fighting him off helped somewhat, but then they would be locked inside a tiny broom closet in the dark and without food or water and no washroom access except for a bucket. They were warned that they'd be kept in the closet until they agreed to have sex with him. Fortunately, their sentences were short and he had to release them. The aboriginal community had reacted to this treatment by establishing its own justice system and ensuring that no young people fell into the hands of the Franklins again. Your turn, Hank."

"We now have some productive leads to follow," Hank said. "First, we know that Franklin Franklin had a brother – name of Bertram Franklin. If we can find this man, he might have information that could lead us to Franklin himself. Second, we have determined that Franklin was a religious extremist, which suggests a church of some form. Probably not within the major religions. If we could find his church, we might find him. Third, we might look into the sexual assaults. From what the community reported, Franklin talked with each young girl that he assaulted about her becoming his wife and starting a family. He expected them to agree immediately but he wasn't reluctant to confine them in a horrible condition if they balked at what he called his _proposal_. I don't see an easy way to use this line of inquiry to find him, but perhaps others might."

"Fourth, Franklin was a bigot and considered aboriginals as inferior, uncivilized savages. He may have learned that from his church, but that's only speculation on my part. However it must have been hard for him to keep that part of his background hidden for decades. TG and Yollie mentioned that a staff person thought that Franklin considered himself superior to her. Was that woman aboriginal? Did he have contact with any other aboriginal women in the military government, and if so, what was their reaction? We may not get useful help, but at the very least, we should re-do some of the interviews."

At that point, the task force suggested lines of inquiry for all of Hank and Yolanda's findings. Mac organized the teams for the next day, and they all went their separate ways. Weighing on all of their minds was the slow nature of their investigations. Will and Izzy had disappeared on Saturday. Tomorrow would be Wednesday. If Franklin were selling the two of them, how long would it take him to assemble bidders?

Hank and Yolanda had more pressing matters to consider. They left immediately to sit with Winnie who had not been well enough to attend the meeting.

### # # # # # # # #

The reader will have noticed that Hank and Yolanda were now talking with each other. It's safe to conclude that they had tried to resolve their issues at some time during their visit to the Interior. It's clear that there was some urgency. Winnie's health was being affected by the anger that both Yolanda and Hank were trying to hide unsuccessfully from their mind-reading daughter. It's likely that they found Winnie in the woods and tried to soothe her with the sight of a more normal relationship between her parents.

As to what Yolanda and Hank said to each other about what had happened in that detachment office, I found no written records. Nor were there any references to that event within the family's oral history. Whatever Hank and Yolanda said to each other was never disclosed. However we may make some reasonable assumptions on what they said to each other in general.

In their first discussion Sunday night, Yolanda would have disclosed that Franklin had molested her and Yolanda had forced him into an agreement. In return for her remaining quiet, Franklin would give his support to Hank's ideas for fighting the biker gang and for any other ideas that Hank would have to pass through Franklin first. We may be sure that Yolanda told Hank that she had felt compelled to make this agreement, otherwise Franklin would find a way to stop everything that Hank wanted to do, and could in fact, find a way to have him dismissed from the force. Yolanda knew that her rejection of his advances would be disastrous for the two of them had she not acted in this way.

While admitting that she had kept this pact from her husband, Yolanda probably argued that she had to keep that secret for the twenty years that followed. She could not reveal what she had done because Franklin was still in a position to cause the Aboriginal Nation great harm. After all, he was the face of the B.C. government in all of its dealings with the Aboriginal Nation.

Hank, for his part, would have been incensed that Franklin had sexually molested her. Hank was fiercely protective of Yolanda and his children. In fact he tried to protect anyone who could not stand up to bullies on his own. This ultimately led to the violence that gave him a thoroughly bad reputation in their village. He'd take on a bully with his fists, no matter how much bigger he was, and no matter what risk he personally faced. Throughout his life, Hank embarked on quests to right the wrongs being done to people around him. He was a 14th century knight living in the 21st century.

When Hank learned at that community meeting of all the young women who had been attacked by Franklin, his unhappiness with Yolanda's secrecy would have increased. He would have argued that he could have protected those girls.

Yolanda, for her part, would have pointed out that this would have meant that his plans to fight the bikers would never have been advanced and the Aboriginal Nation may never have been conceived. After all, Hank's bloody message to the bikers had been adopted as the Nation's official motto: _The Aboriginal Nation protects its own. We fight to the death. We don't run away._ Today, that motto hung proudly in the school gym in the very community where Franklin had abused those girls. In response to Franklin's abuse, that community had established its own justice system – a precursor to what they would be asked to do as a nation.

Would that motto be hanging there now if she had revealed to Hank what she knew about his superior? Think of the good that had been created by the Aboriginal Nation's creation. Before that, the specter of the century old obscenity of the _Boarding School Scandal_ still hung over B.C. Long ago, thousands of aboriginal children had been taken from their homes and forced to live in boarding schools and were punished if they ever spoke their own language. Physical and sexual abuse had been rampant as well. It was only when B.C. actively supported the creation of the Aboriginal Nation that the white man's sins had been forgiven. Did the good that came out of Yolanda's agreement with Franklin not outweigh the bad?

I have no way of knowing how intense that discussion became. Did they scream and shout at each other? Did they storm around waving their arms in the air? I doubt that. Yolanda was quiet by nature; Hank was generally not overly demonstrative with his emotions, although he undoubtedly had strong emotions – a desire to find Franklin and beat him senseless for what he had done to Yolanda a prime example. His beating of the last remaining biker in that West Kelowna bar was another example. But that was in reaction to a threat on Yolanda. Yolanda herself was protective of Hank as well. Her use of the shotgun in that bar had been an automatic reaction to prevent the bikers from killing Hank.

As to the emotions that they themselves felt as they were engaged in the Biker War or in its aftermath, it's difficult to know what they felt. Did Hank experience any remorse for the bikers he killed? Did Yolanda? We'll never know. Neither of them talked about the emotions they felt as they suffered through some very challenging times.

In the end, Hank probably accepted the fact that Yolanda's decision to make a pact with Franklin and keep it a secret for decades was made in a rush and under stress. After all, hadn't he done the very same thing to Yolanda? And wasn't he still hiding that secret from her?

### # # # # # # # #

Franklin Franklin's manifesto continued.

The she-devil was good to her word. The next time Hank reported to me, he showed no sign of hostility. The she-devil continued to watch me with her eyes, but I now recognized them for what they were. What could a simple missionary do against the devil herself? I became quite morose until God told me. "A devil cannot be destroyed, but the human body it inhabits can be."

I was patient and prepared my plan ahead of time with help from my Albertan associate. I told him where I would send him a little gift. He reassured me that five bikers would be happy to accept the gift. Believing that this would be the end of my troubles, I thanked my God for the message He had sent me and went to bed content.

You can't imagine how disheartened I was to find Hank and his devil girl friend back in my office with a plan to destroy the bikers. It was brilliant! I could hardly reject their plan as much as I wanted to. The she-devil's eyes followed me everywhere, and if I tried to find fault with his ideas, she'd show me her hand and squeeze it tight.

Hank and the she-devil were very successful at the beginning of their war with the bikers. I was able to bask in their success as well. I was brought back to headquarters to manage Hank's logistical needs. I was also given a position on the government committee tasked with defending the province from Alberta's attacks – the secret of Zzyk's bikers having been revealed by the she-devil. Naturally I was quick to inform my Albertan associate of my promotion. Zzyk was heartened by having inside information on everything B.C. would do and we set up a regular meeting location outside of Surrey for his second-in-command and me.

As Alberta began to lose its bikers, his subordinate pressured me to provide assistance. I explained that I could do nothing. I was not involved in Hank's planning any longer. My only hope of interference was through the supplies that I was ordering for them. I told Zzyk that I'd keep an eye open for an opportunity. Privately, I made a vow to free myself from the she-devil's control by whatever means possible.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 29

Wednesday, March 7, day 5 of Will and Izzy's disappearance.

Granny was relieved to hear that the boys were off their diet of peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Lucas had admitted that they were tired of them. Besides they didn't have any peanut butter left. Now they were opening cans of pork & beans and eating them cold. As to why they didn't heat them up first, it took some prying but Lucas finally admitted that there had been a bit of an accident when they had used the stove and it had caught on fire. The ship was fine but they weren't sure about the stove.

Were they eating the pork and beans out of bowls and were they washing those bowls afterwards? Granny didn't even consider asking those questions. She knew the answer. As to why they were eating so much pork and beans? She didn't ask that question either. She knew the diet was deliberate. She was just glad that she wasn't in the ship at the time.

Lucas mentioned that they were running out of ideas for the pretend battles and could they leave the ship if someone stayed at the sensors? The North Korean ship hadn't arrived at the factory's port yet, so was it OK?

Granny said that they could leave in pairs and Lucas had to be in charge of one pair and Theo the other. Also they had to remain invisible at all times and they couldn't go so far from the ship that they couldn't return quickly. She didn't think about telling them that they couldn't fly at supersonic speeds. Nor was she aware that the boys had been part of Will's experiment to determine how high one had to be to avoid creating a sonic boom that could be heard on the ground. Nor was she aware of the ample supplies of oxygen tanks and breathing masks in the ship.

### # # # # # # # #

After the optimism of discovering new leads to follow at the previous night's meeting, a tired and discouraged band of Wilizy Warriors met for debriefing Wednesday night.

Doc and Granny had taken on the task of finding Franklin's church – their previous focus on health records being fruitless. Both reported that they had no idea how to find this church. B.C. had a number of major religious institutions, but it was highly doubtful if they would disclose their membership, as was it highly doubtful that Franklin had been a member. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of single churches throughout the province. Some of them met in buildings, some met in private homes, some were only camps in the woods. Again, they had no way to find a single individual who attended one of those churches.

Doc and Granny gave up their search at mid-day and went back to the compound to recharge their batteries. They had had three days of searching without even a sniff. Granny looked in on Winnie who had been much better that morning after sleeping with her mom and dad. Yolanda didn't want to expose her yet to the stress of being around people worried about Will and Izzy, so Winnie had been given the day off to play.

"How did she look?" Yolanda asked her mother.

"She wasn't lying in her bed, that's for sure," Granny replied. "I saw some flashes of a tiny girl racing a wolf pup though the woods. When she came down to sub-sonic speeds long enough for me to call her over, Winnie told me that she was using her visible sling to give Patella some exercise, but was letting Patella win most of the races. Both seemed to be enjoying it."

### # # # # # # # #

Yollie and TG had re-interviewed the woman who had sensed that FF had thought her inferior. Yes, the woman was aboriginal. They had asked Mac to determine if there was a way to identify how many aboriginal women worked for the government, and if it were a manageable number, could they interview them?

Mac reported that she was told that there were hundreds of them and yes, they could be interviewed, but she hadn't followed up. As she later told Hank: "I wasn't sure that this line of action would prove anything that we didn't already know, so I suggested to Yollie and TG that they could help with the survey of Franklin's neighborhood. I hope I didn't overstep my authority, Hank. But it didn't seem something that you needed to be bothered with. Continued searching for information on his bigotry would have been non-productive given how much time and energy we'd have to put into it."

"I agree," Hank said. "You're in charge of deploying our teams. Structure them as you see fit."

"However I did have a little time in the afternoon to take an electronic look for the information," Mac continued. "Sometimes large organizations have a private file storage area where potentially embarrassing complaints go to die a silent, private, and un-embarrassing death. I found a woman in the records section who pointed me to B.C.'s _I wish we didn't know this_ file. This file contained a number of complaints against a B.C. official who had made remarks to some aboriginal women that one might think were racist in nature if he weren't so important, and so they couldn't be racist but why take a chance. In another report, an aboriginal woman swore up and down that the same official had bumped into her by accident in an elevator and had used that accident to fondle her. These complaints never saw the light of day. The name of the official was censored out. Sure sounds like Franklin though. I still don't see what we gain by trying to confirm he's a bigot and a pervert. We know that. I'd recommend that we close this line of inquiry."

Hank agreed.

### # # # # # # # #

Mac had shifted Wolf and Wizard from examining Franklin's financial records to canvassing the neighborhood where Franklin lived. Yollie and TG had joined that group in the afternoon. Wolf reported that Franklin patronized numerous establishments as already revealed in his financial records. With military personnel in tow, they interviewed not only those businesses, but also every business in a two block radius. Many business owners had seen Franklin but they had nothing of value to report. Yollie had flitted from one interview to another and had not sensed anything in the interviews to warrant closer attention. They'd expand the search grid tomorrow but were not optimistic that they'd find anything.

Yolanda started to interview Franklin's neighbours in the condo complex but had aborted the attempt after knocking on one door. "I felt a strong negative reaction to my appearance at the door. The neighbour was polite but asked me how I had entered the building. I knew she was reacting to my skin colour. There could be others with the same thoughts. I'll try again tomorrow but with Winnie in tow."

Yolanda continued: "I spent all of the day searching Franklin's apartment. The military had already ripped everything apart. I redid the search. I handled everything he owned and hoped that I'd get a reading off something that had been deeply personal to him. I felt a little blip on a few things and I will ask Winnie to touch them tomorrow. I threw everything else into a giant pile in what had passed as his office. For the office of a business executive, it was surprisingly empty of anything business-like."

Hank put the final downer on the meeting. "We have found no evidence that a Bertram Franklin ever worked in B.C. The RCMP files in his detachment were destroyed, but there's no file on him even in the central RCMP archives in Surrey. He might have been registered under a different first name. Or Franklin Franklin got to the records before we did."

### # # # # # # # #

Franklin Franklin's manifesto continued.

My chance to kill the she-devil's host body came as the war with the biker gangs was reaching a critical stage. She had asked me to send some birth control protection and had emphasized that it had to reach her by a certain date. I looked in the records and saw that this date would be the day on which her host body would reach eighteen. It surprised me that she would want the birth control protection when she hadn't been using it before. I had no doubt that she was engaged in her profession with Hank the whole time, but without charging him. Perhaps Hank was now demanding the protection, but for the life of me I couldn't see why.

Then it struck me. She had become diseased and Hank didn't want to catch what her promiscuity had earned her. What she was had been using was probably ineffective – a common problem for ignorant savages and one of the reasons why there were so many of them. That gave me a delicious idea. I contacted my Albertan associate who promised that he could deliver what I wanted. In return I would deliver what the she-devil wanted.

Of course nothing about the she-devil's sexual cravings ever made its way into the reports that Hank submitted. But I was able to review those reports, and when you know what you're looking for, the information was there. The devil's host body became pregnant and left the battle zone in what was probably her third month of pregnancy, which was coincidentally also the third month after her host body had attained legal age. I had thought that the bikers would take control of the battles in 2063. They were operating more intelligently as a single group by that point, and had managed with my help to murder all the spotters in the towns. Ten bikers were left with only Hank to oppose them, and he had to do that without the help of a spotter.

For several weeks, there were no battles – Hank was probably trying to keep out of sight. Then he started slowly gaining ground on his enemies. At one point, he was severely injured – I knew because I filled his request for arm splints. Somehow he still managed to kill the bikers. Only one at a time, but their numbers were decreasing. He was also able to continue to send his message of defiance – the arrow through the throat. I knew this because his reports documented such details. When I saw that, I knew that he was healthy again. I had seen his bow; it was far too big for anyone with an injured arm to pull.

The war ended with a decisive battle. I knew that five bikers were left; I also knew that they had boxed Hank into a tight corner. Somehow he managed to kill all five. All with the bow. It was possible that he had attacked at night when the bow would have been a very effective weapon. Only five arrows were used; all kill shots. We sent in a team to clean up the area. Even after two weeks, blood was everywhere. Not only in the area where the bikers had camped, but also where Hank had lain.

For a while, I hoped that he had been mortally wounded and took comfort from the idea of his slow death. I took much more comfort from the probability that Zzyk's plan for the she-devil was working.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 30

Thursday, March 8, day six.

At 10 a.m., in a system-wide message to all the Warriors, Yolanda reported that Patella had sniffed out a hiding place behind the baseboards in Franklin's second bedroom. From the cobwebs and dust on the contents, it appeared that the hiding place hadn't been accessed for years. Franklin may have forgotten all about it.

Yolanda found a hand-bound book that had seen a lot of use at one time. Titled _The Good Book_ , it was a rambling set of thoughts on religion, God, and the evils of breaking bread with the savages, to name only one of the sins that were forbidden by the author. "This is a very sick book," Yolanda said. "I was happy to be able to stop after the second page, it was so vile."

An old picture of what she assumed was Franklin's family was inserted at that second page. Franklin may have been in the picture but it was hard to know which child he was. About fifty of them were standing in front of a big wooden structure that could have served as a church. One big portly man with a long white beard, bald head, and heavy black eye brows was in the center of the picture. Ten women were in the picture standing behind the children. Off in the distance was a mountain peak. It was distinctive but nothing that Yolanda had ever seen before. She digitized the picture and sent it out to everyone. "Does anyone recognize that mountain?" she asked the Wilizy.

At 10:15, Doc replied that the mountain was in the north-eastern corner of Vancouver Island. This huge island was a big chunk of mostly mountainous land that had become inaccessible immediately after the earthquake of '48. He didn't know what had become of the area afterwards. But he remembered seeing this mountain from a distance when his family had left Haida Gwaii. "It's south of Port McNeill, I believe. I remember camping on the beach there and seeing the mountain the day after that."

At 10:16, Wolf reported that he'd return to the Wilizy and bring the ship over the area. "If the church is still there, we'll want to use the ship as a base. Can someone fly over that mountain in a sling and report?"

Hank agreed to do that. He was already on the island and it wouldn't take much time to reach the area. The capital of the province had been in Victoria before the quake and a small government office was still in the city. He had been looking for the name _Bertram Franklin_ in their personnel archives.

At about 11:30, Hank reported. "This mountain is in a very isolated area. The village of Port McNeill still exists but there's nothing but wilderness between it and the next town at Campbell River. I saw a few wisps of smoke near the end of a long lake, but I wouldn't get my hopes up, folks. If a church were there, it's probably been deserted for a long time. The mountain is named Bonanza Peak, if anyone is interested."

### # # # # # # # #

Yolanda was coming to the end of her list of Franklin's neighbours to interview. Winnie was flagging and complaining. "Why do I have to pretend to be four? Six year olds are cute too."

Patella was cranky as well. Yolanda had been keeping the pup invisible when she knocked on the doors, her appearance being somewhat intimidating to anything other than another wolf. Winnie settled Patella down in a dark corner, turned her invisible, and joined her mom. "She's hungry and would like to have biscuits like I've been having. I don't like them anymore, Mom. Do I have to eat them?"

"Perhaps you could hide them in a pocket for Patella?" Yolanda wanted to finish these interviews before one of her two children bit somebody. She wasn't sure which one that would be. Yolanda was in a cranky mood too from the snooty, snooty people in the building. But in spite of that, she had been able to conduct the interviews. With her cute little four year old daughter in tow, and with the poor little thing needing to use the washroom, apartments doors had been opened. She would wait at the doorway for Winnie to be finished. After a while, if no invitation to come in and be seated had been extended, Winnie would call "Mommy, I need you," and Yolanda would rush into the bathroom. They'd emerge soon, Winnie sniveling in Yolanda's arms.

"She's not feeling well. Could I put her down somewhere while I clean up the mess she made? Bad sandwich, I'm afraid."

That always left cute little Winnie alone with snooty neighbour. It would be no contest. Yolanda would eventually emerge from the bathroom to find Winnie comfortably wrapped in a blanket with a cup of hot tea nearby and a plate of biscuits balanced on her lap. What was supposed to happen next was Winnie would ask her mother if they were ever going to find Uncle Franklin and complain that she was sooooo tired and could they go home soon?

Instead, the actress decided to throw in an ad-lib in this final interview. "This tea is good, but what my mom does to keep me from barfing again is give me some hot chocolate. You wouldn't happen to have some, would you? I'm kind of feeling sick again."

This prompted Yolanda to instinctively snap, "Winnie. Don't be rude!" which only prompted the neighbour to step in and take the side of the poor little sick girl. "Of course, I have hot chocolate." Then she bustled into the kitchen.

Yolanda glared at Winnie who rolled her eyes at the cup of tea. Seeing as how she was on a roll and the axe hadn't fallen, Winnie adlibbed a second time. "Do you have any marshmallows to go with it?" she called out. In a few minutes, the neighbour came out with three cups brimming with marshmallow foam and some chocolate covered goodies on a plate.

"This hot chocolate is extremely rich, Mrs..." Yolanda commented.

"Murphy," the neighbour responded. "It is, isn't it."

Winnie had her mouth full of a chocolate covered candy and so couldn't join into the conversation. She had noticed that six candies were on the plate and was wondering if that meant she'd get only two.

"And the candies ... same chocolate as what we're drinking?" Yolanda asked. She was watching Winnie closely and glared at her when her hand started to move towards the plate. The glare didn't work.

"Yes. I'm going to have to start rationing it soon, I'm afraid. I'm not able to move around too much and a neighbour of mine used to keep me supplied. The chocolates are from the Chocoholic Shop in North Vancouver. He'd go over there as regular as clockwork and would always bring me back a tin of hot chocolate mix and a big box of candies."

"You'll be rationing it?"

"Poor man has disappeared, it seems. I can't go all the way over to North Van by myself."

"He must have been a nice man to do that for you."

"Not really. Very cold. I wouldn't want to be around him for long. But he paid well."

"Paid?"

"The chocolates," Widow Murphy said. "He paid me to tell him if I ever heard any footsteps in his condo when he was gone. He lived right overhead. Wood floors. Footsteps come through clear as a bell."

"Was he away a lot?"

"Weeknights, no. Weekends, some times. I never heard a single footstep when he was gone until the police came in the other day. I figure he's dead. I saw him looking very gray one afternoon. I'm going miss my chocolates."

"I'll be traveling to North Vancouver tomorrow," Yolanda said. "I'll bring you back some chocolate in appreciation for you being so kind to my daughter."

"Could you bring back some marshmallows too?"

### # # # # # # # #

Granny's conversation that night with the boys revealed that three of them were becoming bored. That was her feeling, at least. Lucas sounded excited. She couldn't see any of those boys being interested in an arts and crafts project but Lucas said that he was going to make a contest out of it.

Lucas also said that were going to stick close to the Wilizy from now on as they could see a North Korean cargo ship slowly making its way down the eastern side of North Korea and on a heading that would probably take it right into the factory's harbour at Wonsan. Lucas had already decided to copy Wolf's tactics for the battle: draw close to the ship at night, show up next to it in the early morning, and force the crew to abandon ship by showing them all their guns.

As to what they had done yesterday afternoon when they had left the ship? "Just looked at a bunch of animals," was all that Lucas said. Granny was distracted from further investigation after Lucas asked how they could cook stuff from the freezer without it ending up charred black. They were cooking over a small bonfire that they had put on the top of the stove.

### # # # # # # # #

The debriefing meeting that evening was held in the Wilizy, which was hovering high over Bonanza Lake. Wolf and Mac had found a small wisp of smoke hanging over a tiny little valley that gave the exact same view of Bonanza Peak as had been in the picture. The area was so heavily forested that they couldn't see through the tree canopy down to the ground. They had been waiting eagerly for night-fall.

When it was dark enough that they could no longer see the ground, Wolf turned on the sensor that would check for body heat signatures and the screen lit up. "At least forty bodies, all crammed into a tiny space," he reported.

"Looks like church is in session," Mac said. "Folks, we have ourselves two real leads."

### # # # # # # # #

Franklin Franklin's manifesto continued.

It was through the announcement of the formal ceremony establishing the Aboriginal Nation and its partnership with B.C. that I found out that the she-devil's body was alive. Both Hank and Yollie were to be recognized at the ceremony as one of the nation's founding fathers/mothers. B.C. wanted to include me in the B.C. government's contingent, but I knew that people from the community that I had policed would be at the ceremony, so I informed them that my involvement in the wars had brought me some death-threats from Zzyk. I had indeed received a death threat, but that had been from one of my sisters who had informed me coldly that the Franklin family had heard of my support for the Aboriginal Nation and they all had sworn a blood oath to kill me. I duly reported her visit as an attempt on my life and I've been under protection ever since. This has meant that I live alone and I have been unable to create a family as my father had tasked me. Over the years, I have lost the desire for women to comfort me and my life has been unfulfilled.

Occasionally I have crossed paths with Hank when he comes to Surrey for meetings. He's friendly enough with me. He doesn't say much about his family, although that is just his way. I've managed to learn that it's quite large, but not where it is. The she-devil, who goes by Yolanda now, has not broken her promise. But her image nags at me.

When the government appointed me to work closely with the Wilizy, I knew that my God had not deserted me. I had spent my time in the wilderness and would soon be freed. When I was given an opportunity to capture both Will and Izzy, I took it. They are now in a secure if somewhat uncomfortable location. If I so wish it, nobody but I can get in. If I so wish it, nobody but I can get out.

In a few days, some friends will arrive to bid on their bodies. I have not decided yet if I will sell them singly, or as a pair. But the money I will receive is not what will bring me the most happiness. I have left enough clues for Hank and Yolanda to find where I stashed the bait. When they come to the rescue, I will unleash the flames of Hell and destroy Hank and his devil spouse. Then I will tell my brother that I have murdered two of the Aboriginal Nation's founding fathers/mothers and he will accept me back in the family. I will be back where I belong with enough money to greatly increase the family's size and influence. I will teach the boys in the family how to preach to the heathen savages. As I am feeling the desire once more, the women in the family will comfort me. Izzy has broken bread with the she-devil's family and that makes her a savage too. Perhaps I'll offer her the opportunity to have her sins forgiven.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 31

Friday morning, March 9, day seven.

Izzy had heard her captor's approach and so had the time to tighten her brain-plug into its socket. First, there was a clanging sound from above somewhere. Then the sound of a heavy-duty motor off to her right. Another clanging sound – something heavy and metal had been closed. Then footsteps – from the right and behind her. Getting closer. She was expecting to see Rick appear in the next ten seconds, smiling at her and holding a brain-band controller. Izzy had seen it used on her mother a year ago and knew what it would look like. A button to inflict pain; a dial to increase or decrease the pain. She sat down on her pad, leaned back against the rock wall, pulled her blanket around her, and closed her eyes. She had one lever that she could use on Rick. The tape of their meeting. However she wasn't sure how she could threaten him with it if she couldn't contact the Wilizy first.

The steps approached from a side aisle several cells down. She heard the footsteps approach her cell door and stop. "Izzy," the voice said.

"FF? Is that you?" Izzy opened her eyes and bounded to her feet, a big smile on her face. "FF? You're here to rescue me?" Then she saw the brain-band controller in his right hand and remembered who had slapped her on her back. She stopped in mid-rush to the door of her cell.

"To rescue you from your sins, yes." Franklin Franklin said.

### # # # # # # # #

At 8 a.m., Wolf left Hank and Mac in the Wilizy command post high above Bonanza Lake and appeared in Victoria a few minutes later. He walked to the government copter depot and picked up the rental that Mac's military contact in Victoria had arranged for him. Wolf signed some papers and headed north on a heading straight for Bonanza Lake. He stopped short of the lake and dropped down on a flat spot in Woss next to a set of railway tracks that apparently came from nowhere and went nowhere. He walked across a street of weeds and entered the village's country store – the only store of any kind that was close to Bonanza Lake and the church that nestled under the trees at its southern end. The clerk nodded at him as he entered the store.

"Government copter, eh?"

"Yup."

"Did you have engine problems?"

"Nope."

"That's usually the only reason any copter drops in these days."

"Enough people around to keep you in business?"

"Barely."

"How did you get so much stock?"

"I use home-made wagons that can ride the rails down to Campbell River and back. The community provides the horses to pull the wagons. I take their pelts down and come back with stuff they want to buy off me."

"Fishing gear?"

"No call for it. We all got our own."

"You willing to rent or sell yours?"

"Couldn't say. Depends."

"My boss – rich government man – wants to take his buddies on a wilderness fishing holiday. Seven days. Remote lake or river. Fly in by copter and rough it. Tents, someone to cook for them, clean their fish..."

"Lucky you?"

"Yup."

"We got no reason to like government people. But we have the remote part; plus the fish. What do I get out of this?"

"A very good price on the rentals if you give me advice where to take them."

"I have a map of the area right over there."

The reader may assume that what followed at this point was some deep discussions about defenseless little fishies and where one might pluck them out of their water homes. You can tell that I had no such desire to pursue this discussion further. However we do know that Wolf must have impressed the storeowner with his knowledge of all things fish-like because he offered him some free advice when Wolf asked if the southern tip of Bonanza Lake might be a good spot to set up camp.

"You wanna stay clear of that part of the country, friend. A man up there not only hates government people, but he hates aboriginals too. He'll ambush you sure as shooting if you set up in his area."

"Does the man have a name?"

"We call him _Old Coot Franklin_ and he's a miserable one. Comes in here once a month to trade. Uses some of his wives as pack mules."

"Has more than one wife, does he?"

"Bubba Franklin? You bet he does. You stay clear of him. He has all sorts of weapons and I'm told he knows how to use them. Had himself police training at some point, I hear."

"Nimpkish Lake is better?"

"Yup."

_Wolf, ask him if there are still caves at the Little Huston? Also ask about any caves deep into the mountains nearby._

_OK, Mac._

"My boss might like to do some caving while he's in the area. Any good places? He likes the ones that are all dark and scary."

"Little Huston. Also Devil's Bath, Devil's Spring, Vanishing River, Reappearing River, Eternal fountain, Artish River, ... to name a few. Wouldn't know what the caves are like. Have only seen their names on the map."

"I owe you. If this fishing trip pans out, how about I bring you a case of beer with me next time I'm in the area?"

"Make it six cases. I figure there never was going to be no fishing trip."

### # # # # # # # #

Wolf reported to Hank as soon as he was in the air. This was about 9:30. "The brother's name is _Bubba Franklin_ and he's our man, no question. Treat him as a high risk if you're thinking of interviewing him for information on Franklin. He's going to shoot any aboriginal face that he sees, or any face that looks like government. Vancouver Island has tons of caves. Are we done with this government copter or does Mac want me to start exploring caves now?"

"Hi Wolf," Mac entered the conversation. "I asked because I was reading up on Woss and saw a mention of caves. If a cave were deep inside a mountain, or deep underground, that could explain why the emergency beacons wouldn't have worked. Given the large number of cave options on Vancouver Island, I believe we'll have more success trying to find the brother."

"Wolf, take the copter back to Victoria and give it back," Hank instructed. "Wait in Victoria for instructions."

"You want me to look through some government files for Bubba Franklin?"

"Mac has already put the B.C. military on that," Hank replied.

"Let the other Wilizy know that we have the brother's name, will you Mac?"

"Already done, Hank. Perhaps Wolf could come back to the ship and bring that copter with him?" Mac suggested. "Then it would be available for anyone who needed it?"

"Sure. That's a good idea."

### # # # # # # # #

At about 9:30, Granny and Doc were entering the Chocoholic Shop in North Vancouver. It was a small place with walls full of shelves holding things that were chocolate covered. A smiling woman stood behind a glass covered display unit at the back of the room. Behind her was a door, presumably to a storage area.

The woman was elderly, and from her portly appearance, one might assume that she had been guilty of sampling too many of her wares. Or perhaps she just breathed too deeply. The shop was full of a delicious aroma that said _Grow fat with me!_

Granny's eyes bugged out when she saw the selection. She stood in the doorway, inhaling deeply. Doc was already in one corner of the shop, determined to make his way in an organized fashion – clockwise – around the room so as not to miss anything. After a few seconds, he pulled out a small notepad and a pencil and started listing what he wanted to buy.

"He's going to be a while," Granny said.

The woman behind the counter smiled. This was not the first time that she had seen people react like this. "You folks from out of town?"

"Milton worked deep in the woods near Revelstoke. His company gave him an all-expenses paid trip to Surrey for his retirement. We had heard about your place already, so this is his first stop. Do you mind if I stand here and catch my breath? That was a steep hike up from the boat dock."

_Milton?_

_Mac said that we should make up a little history about ourselves. We shouldn't give our real names in case Franklin hears about our inquiries._

_I know, but Milton? Seriously?_

Granny ended up on a chair from the back room, sitting almost behind the counter, a big cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in her hands and a lonely store keeper anxious to chat. Naturally they talked about selling chocolates, how the woman had started in the business, how busy she was, and so on. Doc was listening with only one ear, his other ear having been converted into an additional nostril. He started to pay more information when Granny opened up another line of conversation about fifteen minutes into the visit.

"You know, the man who told my Milton's boss about your shop actually lives somewhere in the area? Milty, do you know that man's name. Perhaps Mrs. Tucker knows him?"

"No, TwinkyDee. Can't say that I do. I only saw him once or twice. I didn't particularly like the man. He was cold to people. When I saw him, he wore a gray suit and had a long face with a fringe of gray hair at the back of his head. Mostly bald, I think. Never smiled. About my height, I guess. You could see a big gap between his two front teeth when he talked." (Mac had circulated Franklin's picture from his personnel folder to the Wilizy searchers.)

_TwinkyDee?_

_You look like a TwinkyDee. My back up choice was TwinkyDinky. I thought you'd prefer the first. Remember Mac said to enjoy ourselves. There's more chance of people gossiping with us if we chatter back and forth than if we badger them with questions._

"You could thank him for telling your boss, Milton. I bet he'd appreciate you doing that."

"Not this man, TwinkyDee. He's not going to want me, or you, talking to him. He has this thing about aboriginals."

"Oh, I do know him," Mrs. Tucker said. "Like you said, he wears a gray suit even on weekends which is when he always comes in. You're right about him not liking aboriginals. A few years back, my shop was bigger, and I had an area where people could sit and have their dessert and a drink. He was sitting by himself at a table when a couple like you folks asked if they could join him. Very nice, they were. Said that they didn't want to intrude, but his wife was pregnant, and would he mind if they sat with him? Your boss' friend stood up like he had been insulted, muttered something not very nice, and stormed out. That wasn't the only time that he treated some of my aboriginal customers like dirt."

"Sounds like our man. Do you remember what he said?"

"I do. It stayed with me because it started with the first letter of his last name."

"Bet'cha that letter is an F," Doc said.

"Oh no. What he said was much worse. He called them _savages_. Now, what was his name? Sanders? Simpson, Sampson? Samuelson. Andrew Samuelson."

The following went out on the Wilizy's system wide mental net at about 10:00.

_Granny: Franklin is using the name Andrew Samuelson. We're going to stay at the Chocoholic Shop for a bit longer. The shopkeeper may have more information._

_Mac: Wizard, you're up. Start checking the North Vancouver financial institutions for a bank account or safety deposit box in the name of Andrew Samuelson. You still have the government's introductory letter, right?_

_Wizard: I have it right here, I have only a co-op and a credit union to look at. North Vancouver is too small to have anything else._

### # # # # # # # #

"The alias is promising," Mac said to Hank. "We may have found his real home base. It would be good if we could find an apartment in the Samuelson name."

"I'll talk to the military. We can flood the area with soldiers who can question landlords." Hank made motions to open a communicator. He stopped when Mac spoke.

"Due... ah, "

"What, Mac?"

"Sorry, Hank. Lost my train of thought for a moment. Due to the possibility that Franklin might still be in the area, we should keep a low profile, don't you think?"

"Yah, I guess that's best."

"I'll let everyone know."

### # # # # # # # #

Communication log: Message to all Warriors: 10.05 a.m., March 9.

_Mac: All Warriors: Hank warns that we may be in the process of uncovering Franklin's home base. Everyone should stay invisible. If Franklin spots an aboriginal face, that may trigger his flight. Wizard, Doc and Granny are in the field and that's all we need right now. Granny – anything further?_

_Granny: Doc is pretending to be interested in how the shop operates. The woman can't make ends meet because she pays so much for the chocolate. The place is empty, so we'll be OK here for a bit. I'm watching the store while Mrs. Tucker shows him the storeroom._

_Mac: If North Van is Franklin's second home, he'll have the same pattern of eating out as he did in Surrey. See if Mrs. Tucker knows anything about his eating tastes. What restaurants he might frequent, for example._

_Granny: I have a perfect way to ask that._

_Mac: Franklin could walk in that store any minute, Granny. Let's get you and Doc out of there before he does. Ask the question and clear out. But stay in North Vancouver. Wait, let's have everyone meet at a central location. Everyone stand by._

_Mac: All Warriors: Hank would like you in a central location in North Vancouver in the event that we need to put moccasins on the ground quickly. Wizard, stay where you are for the time being. Everyone else, gather at the Lynn Canyon Park – the big green area on the east side of North Van. Winnie and Patella – that means you too. Stay invisible._

Hank had been watching Mac the whole time this conversation went on. "You realize that I didn't actually say any of that, right Mac?"

"Wouldn't it be part of keeping a low profile?" Mac asked. "Did you want them doing something else?"

"No. I guess not."

### # # # # # # # #

Communication log: Message to all Warriors: 10.30 a.m.

_Granny: Mrs. Tucker says that Franklin frequently eats at the restaurant right next to her shop – North Van Bistro. He'd usually have a meal there and then come to her place for dessert._

_Mac: Great! How'd you worm that out of her?_

_Granny: She doesn't like him because he's been rude to aboriginals in her store. Doc said that he'd like to have a few words with the man. Perhaps bring him a box of chocolate goodies that he had previously licked. We laughed a lot at that. Doc bought a box of some goodies that he said he'd give to Mr. Samuelson as thanks for the tip on the Chocoholic Shop and licked them right in front of her. He bought a second box for the Wilizy to eat. I think he's going to eat the licked goodies all by himself. We'll meet you at Lynn Park soon._

_Winnie: I don't mind helping him eat the licked candies._

_Mac: I expect you'll be the only volunteer, Winnie. Yollie and TG, can you check out the Bistro?_

_Yollie: What are we looking for? We know he comes here. We could just wait and trail him._

_Mac: That might work so long as he shows up before he sells his captives. Otherwise, not so good. Anything that you can learn from the bistro that won't be leaked to Franklin will be more than we have now._

_Yollie: Got it. You're fishing and hoping._

### # # # # # # # #

Communication log: Message to all Warriors: 10.40 a.m.

_Wizard: All Warriors: The North Van Co-op has an account in Samuelson's name and it had activity in it as recently as yesterday. FF has only a modest sum in the account now, but I saw no sign of it having large amounts in the past. When it becomes low, he transfers money into it. I've asked the bank manager to identify the source of the incoming funds. The co-op does not have safety deposit boxes for rent._

[A few minutes later]

_Wizard: This co-op account looks to be the account he uses for his daily transactions. The North Van Bistro appears regularly in his transactions. About once a month, either he becomes very hungry or he has a guest with him._

[A few minutes later]

_Wizard: The bank manager says that money is being transferred into this account from the North Vancouver Credit Union. It's across the street. I'm going there now._

_Mac: Did you copy that, TG and Yollie? Can you check on a possible guest once a month with Franklin at the Bistro? We're looking for a name or a description. Perhaps there's something in the bistro's reservation book?_

_Yollie: The bistro isn't open until noon. We'll scout around to see if we can break in. TG says they have a cheap security system. If we want to look at a reservation book privately, now's the time to do it. Staff will start to arrive soon._

_Mac: The staff that opens up the restaurant will typically be kitchen staff and you might be able to sneak in with them. They're unlikely to be hanging around in the area where the reservation book is typically found. Provided that the wait staff set the tables the previous night. But, it's your call. Only you can assess the danger._

_Wolf: Sounds like you're speaking from experience._

_Mac: Oh yeah. Far too much experience._

### # # # # # # # #

Communication log: Message to all Warriors: 11.10 a.m.

_Yollie: Franklin has had a monthly reservation at the Bistro going back to the beginning of the reservation book. I took pictures and can forward if needed. The reservations are always on a Saturday night, always for two, and always at 8 p.m. We can watch their meeting tomorrow night at eight._

_Wizard: Could you send me those photos? I may have something here too. Give me a few minutes._

_Hank: That's great news about that reservation, Yollie! I'll tell the B.C. military now and..._

At that point, the transmission ended.

### # # # # # # # #

"Mac, why did you do cut me off?" Hank asked in some exasperation.

"Due respects, Sir! But, involving the B.C. military might not be the best course of action." She clicked a button on her console, said "Transmission difficulties. Everyone stand by" into her headset, and unclicked the button.

" _Due respects?_ _Sir?_ What's gotten into you?"

"Sorry, ... Hank." Mac tried to relax from the rigid posture she had assumed as soon as she had interrupted Hank's order. "It's just that involving the B.C. army right now would result in a disaster."

"Explain."

"The general that would take over our operation has only one mode of action. He would be the general you would want if B.C. were under direct attack and the most desperate defense possible was necessary. But in an operation such as this where subtlety is needed, his presence would be like bringing a blow torch to a marshmallow roast. In the opportunity we now have, he'd have the restaurant full of undercover agents, he'd have copters in their air, and the wait staff would all walk with military precision. In addition, his focus would be first on finding B.C.'s stolen documents. Rescuing Will and Izzy would be his second priority. His first thought if something went wrong would be to capture Franklin and do what was necessary to find the lost files. We wouldn't know what would be happening to Will and Izzy while he was doing that. He doesn't think of multiple options; he takes the straightest line to his goal and puts everything into that effort. He's a general for a war; not for a strategic operation like this."

"And you know this how?"

"Due respects, Sir. But I cannot tell you."

"Due respects, again? Mac! Tell me what's going on!"

Mac stood up, squared her shoulders and said. "Due respects, Sir. But I cannot tell you. You should relieve me of my duties for failure to obey a direct order, Sir, if you believe that's your best course of action."

"What would you do if you were in my shoes, Mac?"

"Permission to speak freely, Sir?"

### # # # # # # # #

Franklin Franklin's manifesto continued.

I was surprised at how well the initial meeting with Izzy went this morning. She had been obviously happy to see me. I think it would be best if she realizes that I am her only hope to escape her fate. Once she understands that I am the best choice for her future, she will see the way to the light. If she turns me down, I'll sell her to Zzyk. Or perhaps to the North Koreans. I hear that their grand exalted high and mighty grand poobah enjoys variety from time to time.

I've decided to have a second visit with Izzy this afternoon, guided in part by my desire to begin saving her from her sins, but also perhaps shamefully, to see her smile at me again.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 32

Friday afternoon, March 9, day seven.

Izzy's meeting with FF that morning had been short. He said that he had come to save her from her sins but she had to be willing to be saved. He had offered to save a young woman in the past and she had replied with violence. This time, he wouldn't make the same mistake. The brain-band was to prevent her from attacking him. He'd return tomorrow morning to hear her answer.

"And Will?" Izzy asked.

"He's not included in this deal. I'm expecting him to bring heavy bidding. You – not so much. I expect that whoever buys you will kill you. So my offer to you includes saving you from your sins as well as saving your mortal life."

Izzy remained silent, her eyes searching his clothes for any clues that might help her learn where she was. Mud on his trousers? Was he wearing hiking boots?

Franklin saw what she was doing. "Izzy, escape is impossible. You are buried deep underground in a remote area where no communication signals can reach. You have only one way out. First, you have to get up to the ground level. The only way up is by a wire cage that is suspended in the middle of a giant dome. Only a successful iris scan plus entry of a key pad code will bring the cage down or take it up. Once you've taken the cage to the top, you'll still have to pass through three security checks, each of which requires you to stand on an electrified grid immediately in front of an iron gate. A one-person hole through that gate will open if you enter the right key pad code and if an iris scan is successful. The wrong code or a false iris scan results in electrocution. The key pad code at each security gate is different."

"Only I can get in. You will get out only if I take you out. You can't even get out of this cell, so you shouldn't be thinking about escaping from here. Think instead about escaping from your sinful life with the heathen savages. As the face of our God, I can absolve you of those sins. Together, you and I will replenish an arm of the family that has been dormant too long."

Izzy watched FF go. _It was kind of him to explain what Will and I will have to do to escape. Kind of stupid, that is._

### # # # # # # # #

Back aboard the Wilizy, Mac was also doing some explaining.

"Obviously, I have a military background," Mac began. "I had hoped to be able to hide that longer than I did. A failure on my part but, with due respects, you were making battlefield decisions that I could see would be difficult to undo, so I began taking more and more control. When I slipped up, you were close to making a decision that would have cost lives and I just reacted. Old habits. My apologies, Sir, for overstepping what you would think were my bounds."

"You are worrying now that I am a plant. A spy perhaps that has been infiltrated into your organization, perhaps for some wicked purposes yet to be revealed. I should point out to you that I was enjoying a pleasant, safe, quiet life before I was coerced into joining the Wilizy. Yes, coerced. Stu had given me a job as his assistant long before he took on work assignments with you. Since I was his executive assistant, it was natural for him to delegate some of your work to me. I did not ask for that work. When the risk of his involvement became evident, I was plucked out of my anonymous life and transferred into the thick of a long term war. I was not asked if I wanted to be in that war. Of course, I could have walked away at any time. But I had nowhere to go. I stayed so that I could continue to look after Stu – as I had already done in capturing Rick. Some time previously, I had asked the B.C. military for some weapons to keep Stu safe. I already possessed the skills necessary to use them."

"I will remind you that I tried to stay out of your affairs. I did not attend your debriefing meeting after the last battle. I tried to absent myself from this battle, but Stu in his perception that I would be more use to you than he, pushed me back in. So, no. I am not a plant and I wish you no harm. If I could have a wish, I would wish to be left alone."

"But what's done cannot be undone. So let me tell you what you face. For a group of amateur soldiers, the Wilizy has done remarkably well. You have achieved great success and the members of your group are, individually, top notch in what they do. However, your success was driven largely by your superior science and by Izzy's natural talents in formulating a long term strategy. Plus you were going up against an old man who had become set in his ways and may well be in his dotage. That fortunate success by rank amateurs will not continue when you face three simultaneous wars against three major combatants, each with assets that you do not have. Should you survive this current battle with Franklin Franklin, you will not survive the war that is coming."

"When I perceived the inevitability of what you would face, I took the opportunity of my time on this ship alone with your son to make myself thoroughly familiar with your capabilities. To a small extent, I took advantage of Wolf's attraction to me. To a degree that I allowed, we became friends. But not in the way that you are thinking right now. Although I do feel a sense of attraction to him, both of us know that a fuller relationship is impossible."

"From a battlefield perspective, the Wilizy have some major weaknesses. I will mention two. As mentioned, your science is a major part of your strength. However, it has been structured within your organization in what is referred to as a _silo_. One person alone knows what is inside that silo; nobody else can enter the silo; nobody else can take any of the science out of the silo. In a time of war, this can lead to a catastrophe because nobody in your organization can draw on that science with Will absent from the battle ground. Nobody in the organization is even likely to perceive that scientific solutions may exist because such things are Will's area and nobody knows what he does or thinks. Your silo is now locked tight."

"Your second weakness falls into the area of military organization. You, for example, have found yourself serving as a battlefield commander when you have had no such training and where your own natural talents make you a potential liability. I mean no disrespect, Sir, but your talents demand that you serve in the field as a member of a strike force. You do not belong in a command ship. The second half of what should be the Wilizy's #1 strike force is babysitting her daughter and trying to prevent any of her other children from being exposed to danger. On this, she has already failed."

"I see some hope in winning this battle if we can act as a professional military force. Our success will depend on what we can uncover on Franklin's brother. Succeed there and we might come out of this unscathed. Everything else that we are doing is useful, but not essential. I propose, Sir, that you assign me temporary duties as the Wilizy's battlefield commander. In that position, I will make some slight adjustments in your organizational structure and manage the battlefield. If I succeed, both of us can reconsider our relationship. You may choose to put me into that position formally; I may chose to walk away. If I fail in the next couple of days, ... well, there will be no need to have any reconsideration."

### # # # # # # # #

Communication log: Message to all Warriors: 12:20 p.m., March 9.

_Mac: Apologies everyone. We're back to full system broadcasts. No cause to be alarmed. If you have any urgent messages, send them now. Other messages – please hold those for a short period._

_Wizard: I'm at the North Vancouver credit union with good news. Franklin not only has a bank account here, but he has a safety deposit box as well. Here's the best news of all. The credit union is reserved for citizens of North Vancouver. Franklin had to provide a local address to receive his account. He has an apartment of some form east of Lonsdale Avenue near St. Andrews Avenue. The name of that cross street may have been why he picked the name Andrew Samuelson. I'm sending the full address to Mac now._

_Wizard: The size of this bank account has varied over the years, but it has had a large amount in it at times. It does serve as the source of the money that is transferred to the co-op. The money that comes into this account is always in the form of cash, and that cash deposit always occurs on the same day that Franklin accesses his safety deposit box._

_Wizard: Equally interesting is the fact that he always makes a trip to his safety deposit box on the Monday morning following his restaurant reservation with an unknown friend. The frequency that this has occurred is beyond coincidence. He's receiving cash in that restaurant for some service and that cash has been funding his secret life._

_Wizard: Final point: He has been accessing his safety deposit box a lot in the last month. No money has made it into his bank account after those visits. Plus he's not going to the safety deposit box after a meeting at the restaurant. I believe that he's been emptying the box._

_Mac: Can you access that safety deposit box?_

_Wizard: It would have to be drilled which means that if Franklin comes back to make one more withdrawal, he'll know that we're on to him._

_Mac: OK folks. Let's take some time to digest this news. It's about 12:30. We'll meet electronically at 1:00 and hope to get back into the field by 2:00. Have your thoughts ready._

### # # # # # # # #

Communication log: Message to all Warriors: 2:00 p.m.

_Hank: OK everyone, we're in Franklin's building. The manager gave us a nice tour and we're in the manager's suite now. Yolanda is discussing what we'd want if a three-bedroom in the building opens up in the near future. He's assuring her that a nice family like us would fit right in. She's asking him about schools in the area now. Winnie just left to use the washroom; she'll open the manager's key compartment on the way and take the spare key to FF's suite. Wizard is supposedly looking at their recreation room but is actually searching for security cameras and consulting with TG by video as necessary. Patella is stashed invisibly outside; we'll bring her with us when we sneak back in. Yolanda is wrapping up now. I'll update you when we're alone and in Franklin's suite._

[A few minutes later]

_Hank: First impressions of Franklin's suite: very much like Surrey. Sterile; lived in, but no sense of the owner's personality. No sign whatsoever of what he does with his time. Is it possible that when he's not at work, Franklin just sits at home and stares at four empty walls? It's possible that Franklin is still using this suite so we've searched as carefully as we can without disturbing anything. Wizard is on guard duty outside in case Franklin shows up. Winnie is going to put Patella to work now._

[A few minutes later]

_Hank: Patella found a stash in the ceiling. She made a few noises and was staring up, so Winnie activated her sling and floated up with her. We now know that Franklin kept records of money that he received. They are very healthy amounts. No mention of what currency was used; possibly gold coins, but that's my gut talking. If Franklin has been liquidating all of his assets, he has some heavy duty storage bags around somewhere. It would be nice to know where they are because that's the one place he's bound to return to. I expect that he's keeping Will and Izzy in the same place. Mac may have some idea of how we might be able to track them, but I don't. Patella has found another stash. Hang on. This is going to take more than just lifting some ceiling tiles._

[A few minutes later]

_Hank: This is disturbing. We found some injection needles along with a bottle of heavy duty sedation liquid hidden behind a vent. The source was a government clinic. No hint as to where or how he had obtained it. This raises the possibility that he had help on the inside. Also, Franklin had a pack of Alberta brain-bands and controllers hidden in the same place. From the packaging, it's clear that two brain-bands and one controller have been removed. It's not hard to guess where those brain-bands are right now. Mac, you need to know this. Those controllers are usually set at low levels. A brain-band controller set at high levels can do permanent if not fatal damage if the activator is pressed for too long. I don't know how close the control wand has to be to the brain-band to be fatal or how easy it is to adjust the settings. I believe we've found everything that we can find here. We're leaving now before Franklin can catch us in his suite._

### # # # # # # # #

Communication log: Message to all Warriors: 5:00 p.m.

_Mac to all Warriors: I've been waiting to hear from the B.C. government on their search for Bubba Franklin's job records. I called them just now. They did manage to find a personnel folder with his name on it. At the very least, there should have been a job application form, plus the results of an interview, plus a personal goals statement from the candidate, and a job placement recommendation. The folder didn't contain a single scrap of paper. It was kept in a secure area, but one to which Franklin Franklin had access. They will continue to search through the night, but I am not optimistic. I believe that we've accomplished enough for the day. If you're still in the field, return to the Wilizy. Wolf has anchored the ship over Lynn Valley. We'll have a rest, eat, and have a planning meeting._

### # # # # # # # #

At about the same time that Mac was bringing everyone back for some rest, Izzy was thinking that she should take a break too.

For most of the afternoon, she had been sitting in a lotus position on her pad and contemplating a small collection of items in front of her. Those items were: one locket; a silver chain still attached to that locket; a large collection of empty water bottles plus a half-dozen full bottles; a similar number of food bars in paper wrapping; a pile of paper that had once been wrapped around food bars; the sleeping pad; the blanket; the clothes that she was wearing including a set of boots that had a heavy heel.

A full water bottle could be used as a weapon if she were able to get close enough to deliver a disabling blow, as could the heel of her boots. She had mentally discarded everything else.

Also on display on the cell's floor were six foil packets, each containing a birth control device. Izzy had opened all six packets in the hope that one might contain a key to her cell door. Surprisingly, none did. The foil might have some value through its ability to transmit electricity, but what she needed right now was a key to the cell door.

The rubbery contents of the packets might have some value. At one point in the afternoon, she had mimed the act of placing a rubbery slingshot around her thumb and forefinger and with a full water bottle as the weapon. This was not likely to work. She could probably propel her silver locket through the air, but it could only distract, not disable. And even if she were to somehow disable Franklin, he would be outside the cell and she would be inside. She needed a key. The one that Franklin undoubtedly had somewhere in his clothes.

She spent some time trying to answer this question. "What would Franklin have thought about her when he found the foiled six pack in the pocket of her satin pants?" She remembered quite clearly what he had said as he left. _As the face of our God, I can absolve you of those sins. Together, you and I will replenish an arm of the family that has been dormant too long._ With that religious overtone, what would he think about a teenager that carried a full six-pack with her on a trip to a dance contest? The answer was easy to guess. Namely, that she had planned to use them all that afternoon. Seeing only one birth control device, one might guess that the condom was for an unexpected need for safety. But six? Franklin would never believe the truth. That she had thrown them into her purse after her meeting with Yolanda, never intending to use them, and had forgotten all about them. When she went to empty her purse before the contest, she was afraid that someone might find her purse and discover these inside. She had slipped the whole six-pack into her pants pocket out of a fear of somebody accidentally seeing them.

Izzy spent some time trying to answer this question: "Franklin is convinced that I'm a slut. How can I use that to get out of this cell?"

Next up was this question: "Why did he leave the packets in my pocket?" The phrase _replenish an arm of the family_ gave a disturbing answer. Namely that Franklin did expect her to use them, but with him. But she couldn't replenish his family unless ... Izzy rolled one condom over her finger and took a close look. It had a tiny pin-prick at the tip. After close examination, she saw tiny pin pricks in all of the packages. _He believes that I'm a slut who could give him a disease?_

Izzy thought that she might be able to drive some sort of bargain for Will's life. She unbuttoned her white shirt, put it on the floor, tried standing at the cell door with a smile on her face and her body arranged fetchingly just so. That must have triggered what would have been an embarrassing memory because she flushed red and picked up her shirt. She had some difficulty buttoning it back on and then realized why. The condom was still rolled onto her finger and it interfered with her grip. She returned it to its packaging and re-assumed her lotus position, her eyes fixed squarely on the six-pack. She could save her own life easily enough. But at a cost. Would that cost be worth it without Will?

### # # # # # # # #

Mac warned the Wilizy that a battle was near but was not likely tomorrow. Franklin was meeting with somebody tomorrow night. That might be the meeting where he'd listen to offers for Will and Izzy. If so, Franklin would deliver his captives on Sunday.

TG suggested that they'd be able to rescue Will and Izzy quite easily on Sunday by simply following Franklin to where he was holding them, ambushing Franklin and whoever else was there, and then just bringing Will and Izzy home. The mood of the family picked up considerably at that point. Mac couldn't let them go into battle on such a naive hope, but she gave them the news as gently as she could.

"What would happen if the winning bid came from someone that we didn't know? What if they had some weaponry that we hadn't seen before? What if they brought overwhelming force to the hand-over point? Think Alaska, for example. We would have scant minutes to prepare ourselves for battle."

Yollie countered. "But we don't know for sure that there are going to be multiple bidders. Even if that's the case, Franklin has a long history with Zzyk. He's going to accept his bid, right? We know what armaments Zzyk can bring to the hand-over point. We can defeat him."

Mac countered. "Franklin has been planning this for some time. If he had only one interested party, he would have sold them the day after they were captured. He has more than one interested bidder and he's been giving the bidders time to arrive."

Mac continued when nobody disputed her logic. "But the presence of single or multiple bidders could be irrelevant. You're assuming that at some point, Franklin is going to bring Izzy and Will out of the hiding place to turn them over. But what if the point of the bidding is to determine who gets to kill them? For Will to become Zzyk's pliant tool again, his memories of the last two years would have to be removed or suppressed. That would be difficult to accomplish. Zzyk is more likely to kill him because that would make the Wilizy impotent. Izzy would suffer the same fate. So while we're waiting outside the hiding place, what's to stop Rick from going inside that hiding place and killing them? If we ambush them before they arrive at the hand-over point, what if the hand-over point is not where Will and Izzy are being held?"

Nobody had anything to say. The energy in the room had just been sucked out. Mac was quick to step back in.

"It won't matter if the winning bid comes from a country with overwhelming force, of if the intent of the winning bidder is to kill one or both of them. We need to find where Franklin stashed Will and Izzy and take them away before the winner arrives. That's what our focus will be on tomorrow. We have one more day to find out where they are being held and we have one solid lead to pursue."

### # # # # # # # #

A subdued Granny made her regular call to Lucas at 8 p.m., or 12 noon North Korean time. Trying not to let her despondency show, she told Lucas that they were very close to finding Will and Izzy. When Lucas asked if that meant that Granny would be coming back to command the ship's attack on the North Korean freighter, she was less optimistic. According to TG's information, she said that that ship was due to leave port either tomorrow or the next day, Saturday or Sunday, Alberta time. The actual departure time was not given. Granny suggested that Lucas prepare himself to be the captain. "What's happening below you right now," she asked.

"The freighter has docked and is just sitting there. Lots of crew, but they're all lounging around. No sign of any cargo yet."

"OK, keep an eye on the ship and let me know when it's ready to leave. I'll try to be in constant contact with you during the battle."

"It should be alright, Granny. I'm going to use Wolf's strategy to sneak up on the freighter. We'll surprise them, scare the crew away, and empty the hold. We've practiced this a lot."

Lucas had been careful to avoid telling his granny a direct lie. He had told her what had been happening right now **below the Wilizy** , which he was sure was what she actually wanted to know. He hadn't told her what was happening below his pressurized sling right now. He'd tell her what was below him when he knew himself. Perhaps he'd tell his dad instead. This was going to be a dad problem, not a granny problem.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 33

Saturday morning, March 10, 5 a.m.

The call to Hank came a few minutes past 5 a.m., which would make it 9 p.m. in North Korea. "Lucas, are you and your brothers safe?" Hank asked immediately.

"Yes, for now. But we could be in a lot of trouble tomorrow. Dad, I don't know what to do."

"Tell me what happened."

Lucas told Hank about their long range sensors picking up a big mass of metal way off in the Pacific. The boys watched it for an hour. It was a huge blob on the edge of the screen but it seemed to be on a direct heading from B.C. to North Korea. Lucas decided to check it out. He had elevated his sling to a high altitude and traveled subsonic speed the whole way. As he flew closer, he could see a bright light on the surface of the ocean. Although this was in broad daylight, he could still see the light. He edged forward some more but took his sling even higher.

"Good sense of caution, son. Go on."

Lucas told his dad that he could see smaller bright lights buzzing at very high speed around the big light. The big light was sending what appeared to be bubbles into the air. Long streams of bubbles that went up very high. He could see that the bubbles were going higher in the air than he was, so Lucas took his sling even higher.

"Sling handle alright?"

"Yes Dad, but it was getting cold so I shut the baffles down completely."

"Good idea. Go on."

"When a stream of bubbles hit the fast little flying lights, the little light would go out and I could see something falling to the ocean."

"You must have been pretty close?"

"Not really, Dad. I had one of the ship's long range telescopes with me, so I was able to see the blobs falling."

"All of the lights kept flying round and round the big light, but the bubbles caught them sooner or later. It seemed like the entire area around the big light was full of bubbles at one point. Eventually, the last little light was hit and the blob fell into the ocean. By this time, I was almost directly above the big light."

"How high were you, Lucas?"

"Way high, Dad. I was higher than any of the bubble things could reach."

"What's _way high_ in parent terms, Lucas?"

"I was so high that I had to be on oxygen, Dad. I had grabbed some tanks when I left the ship. You knew that Will had put some aboard. I thought it would be a good idea to have a tank with the crew whenever we were away from the ship, just in case. So whenever the crew was on a training exercise, I made sure that all four of us had a full oxygen tank and a breathing mask in the sling."

Hank knew that this wasn't quite the truth. When Lucas had something that he wanted to hide, he'd go into long explanations. But, this was not the time to talk about that.

"Sounds like you were safe."

"Yes, I was Dad. I really was. And I was in constant contact with Theo too."

"What happened next?"

"The big light went out, and I could see a ship on the ocean's surface. But, I couldn't see any wake behind it. It was just sitting there. I took some pictures, Dad, but I don't know if they'll show you much. The ship was a huge amount of shiny metal in all different sizes, and all angled in different directions. Really big ship. Then, all of the little blobs of metal came to life, and they had lights on, and they flew up off the ocean, and landed on the big ship. I couldn't see them very well. I was too far away, and I wasn't going to get closer in case they started blowing bubbles into the air."

"Smart."

"But I think they had the same kind of design – lots of shiny metal at different angles. I bet'cha those flying things could blow bubbles into the air too. Those were guns of some kind. Why would only a big ship have the guns? And then the little lights started zipping around the big light again and I thought about what could happen if a little light came high in the air and shot bubbles at me, so I scrammed."

"Theo and I have been watching the big ship on scanner since. Dad, this thing is still on the same heading. The freighter isn't even loaded yet. If it doesn't leave port soon, that big light and those little lights are going to be close enough to interfere. A wooden Wilizy ship wouldn't stand a chance, Dad."

"Then we don't attack. You can always turn around and get out of there."

"But Dad, that's not right! We're aboriginals. We fight to the death. We don't run away. It's the Aboriginal Nation's motto. We don't want to be called cowards, Dad. The other boys are frightened. That's one big mutha of a ship, Dad."

Again, Hank declined to make a comment. Boys of this age were all about making fart noises, flashing obscene gestures at each other when they thought nobody was watching, and exploring the large number of _expressive_ words available to them. He had been that way himself.

"And you, the Captain? Are you scared too? You have to be honest when you talk to your Commander-in-Chief, you know."

"A little, Dad."

At that point, the Commander-in-Chief explained what a strategic retreat was – a decision to move back to a previously determined location so that a better opportunity to attack might present itself. That was a lot different than running away. Together Hank and Lucas worked out the location where the Wilizy would take up its new position, and under what conditions it would make that strategic retreat.

"Keep an eye on the long range sensor, Lucas. That big ship is running training exercises, just like you did with your brothers. Those small lights are pretending to attack the big light so that the men on that big light will have some practice. They could turn the ship around and head the other way any time. Issue a _Well Done_ to yourself and your crew, Captain." Hank was making this last part up but it seemed like a military kind of thing to do.

"Aye, aye, Commander-in-Chief."

### # # # # # # # #

Hank woke Mac and gave her the gist of Lucas' report. "What do you think?"

"Alaska," she said.

"Agreed. We just learned about their weaponry. Will can use this."

"First things first."

"Mac. You realize the ship of lights could be there for something besides training, right?"

"To escort the freighter, Sir."

"Probability?"

"Unable to say. Might depend on what happens in the auction."

"Why?"

"Because that ship probably dropped off the Alaska delegate several days ago in B.C. and went for a training exercise, which usually is an excuse that officers make up when they don't want their men becoming lazy or bored. They may pick their delegate up again and go home. They may convey the North Korean delegate back to his country, perhaps with a prisoner."

"Can they interfere with your operation, Mac?"

"Doubtful. What happens today will dictate whether we win or lose this war."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 34

Franklin Franklin's manifesto continued.

I must say that my early morning visit with Izzy went very well. She was contrite and embarrassed that I had caught her equipped to have the orgy she apparently needed to satisfy her lust. Zzyk's accusation was correct; Izzy **is** a slut. She as much as admitted that to me in her desire to confess her sins.

I have to say that I was surprised by the depravity of the girl. I had sat opposite her in several meetings and nothing like that had ever showed. She started by confessing to me that she had displayed her body once for all to see at a public function. Men, even children, were present. One old man said that seeing her naked body had blinded him. Everybody clapped after she had disrobed; she was laughing and enjoying herself the whole time. I believed every word that she said. Most of the people were savages, so that explains their behaviour. But Izzy is pure white. Zzyk must have been right when he talked about her grandmother being a prostitute.

I had no sense that Izzy had become a prostitute yet, but she did admit that she enjoyed what she referred to as _hockey games_ with Will. She winked at me when she said "hockey games" so we both knew what she was talking about. Also, I already knew that Yolanda could be a negative influence on her. Yolanda had been engaged in the sex trade from an early age. I believe it would be only a matter of time before Izzy became a fully fallen woman given the influences on her life. Fortunately I had come to her with salvation in my heart at exactly the right time.

When I offered to extend my husbandly hands of favor to her, she accepted without a word of complaint or even a swat of her hands. I believe that she was grateful. She murmured to me that I was so much gentler than Will. She was going to appreciate being with a real man. A mature man, not a violent boy.

When I asked if Will had mistreated her, she told me how she had spilled some porridge once, and he had become so enraged that he threw her to the ground and throttled her so badly that she fell unconscious. He even struck her when she was unconscious – she found the marks when she awoke. She never knew from that point on what would set him off. They could be at a social event, and he would suddenly throw her into the air so high and hard that she'd be spinning when she came down. Everything she said had the ring of truth. No wonder this girl would be seeking affection; she was starved for it. I reassured her that I would never use violence against her but I would discipline her if she disobeyed me. She just looked down and nodded.

I also warned her that she had fallen into a sinful state by breaking bread with the savages. She explained that she knew that but had to eat somehow, and they had forced her to do the laundry for the entire tribe just so that they'd give her a few morsels. I felt a little sad for her seeing how she had to put up with so much grief living among the savages.

When she asked if she could give me a little hug of appreciation for bringing her back from the precipice, I was leery at first. I would have to release her from her cell to do that. So, I warned her that I'd use the brain-band controller if she attacked me. She said that she wasn't going to do that; she only wanted to hug me like a good wife would do. I unlocked the door and held the controller high above her head where she couldn't reach it. She snuggled into my chest, and I felt her trembling in gratification. She stepped back into her cell, and closed the cell door and pushed in the locking mechanism. She watched me, in fondness I believe, as I left the area. "See you soon, Franklin," she said softly and waved good-bye.

I was almost out of the jail when I had the thought. She had always been curious about my career. I had learned a lot about my #1 wife in this meeting. Why shouldn't she learn more about me? I found some of the files that recorded events during the biker wars. She'd enjoy these. I brought them to her. She was leaning on the cell door, one hand reaching out to touch me.

"Are you taking me away with you now, husband?" she said.

"Not yet, #1 wife. For your reading pleasure," I said and handed her the files.

### # # # # # # # #

From Izzy's journals: Saturday, March 10, about 8:30 a.m.

I had made it through my mother's torture so I knew that I could stomach what Franklin was going to do. Besides, at the end of Operation Dead Man Walking, I had realized that I shouldn't be so upset if people saw a bit of skin every now and then. That's why I had flashed everyone at the debriefing. It's only a body. Franklin was only fondling _the milk delivery systems that were currently inactive_ , as Will would say. I had been prepared to let him do more, if it meant that Will would live. But then the plan came to me and it wasn't necessary.

So I knew that I could take the groping and I stayed calm about it because I also knew that it would put FF at ease. Which it did. When I slipped into an embrace with him, he didn't notice that the second finger on my right hand was deep inside the cage door's locking mechanism, and the third finger was rolling off the condom. I tamped it into the socket, all the while pretending to tremble a bit so that he wouldn't think anything other than, _This poor woman is in love with me so much that she trembles when she touches me._ I had a condom on my left hand too in case I got turned around the wrong way when I came out of the cell.

I hadn't heard the noises of FF leaving. so I knew that he was still around. I heard him coming, leaned on the cage door to stop it from swinging open, and pretended to be all dewy-eyed at the sight of my husband. FF gave me some files for my reading pleasure. I could have enjoyed them several days ago, but not now. I dumped them on the floor of my cell and waited for the noises of his exit to die away.

First, the brain-band. As long as I was wearing it, I could be disabled with the push of a button. I tied the five remaining condoms into a rubbery rope, slipped one end of the rope under the brain-band and wrapped it inside and around the rivet attaching it to my skull. I had enough condom-rope left to tie it to a bar of my cell if I placed my head right next to it. I had, in effect, just tied my head to a very solid piece of iron. The condom-rope was elastic. Gritting my teeth, I yanked my head as hard as I could away from the cell bar. The rivet popped on the first try.

I undid the fastenings and dripped some water onto the paper clump that I had prepared ahead of time. Clump became mush, and I put it against my skull to keep the bleeding down. Had to add more paper – scalp wounds bleed a lot. I wasn't sure if this would be necessary or not. But if FF re-appeared before I was ready, I didn't want him to see me with blood streaming down my neck. The other two rivets popped easily enough and I was free of his controller. I knew I could disable FF in a one-on-one battle. Getting out of here was another matter; but he could no longer threaten me from a distance and certainly not from close up. If he came close to me, the first thing I'd crush on FF's body would be his hands. I said I could take what he did to me. I didn't say that I liked it.

I put fresh goop paper on my wounds and tied my condom rope around my head to keep the wounds covered. Five or ten minutes should be enough. Interesting kind of sweat-band. Could be all the rage. Perfect for the slut who liked to keep herself physically fit.

I collected some things from my cell, stuffed the condom rope into my back pocket, let the brain-band lie on top of my hair, and started looking for Will. I came back to my cell when I realized how big this place was. I figured it was some old prison. I grabbed the files that FF had left me and started exploring the prison hallways, calling Will's name, and dropping a piece of paper at every major intersection so that I could find my way back to the exit if I needed to. Hansel and Gretel inside the Witch's prison. Guess which role FF is going to play.

Don't know how long it took, but it was a while. I got worried that Will might be sedated in some fashion, but discounted that quickly. I could hear FF's footsteps clearly whenever he came through the prison. They never stopped on their way to me. Thus, it was very unlikely that Will was closer to the exit than I was. FF never went further into the prison than my cell. Will had to be in the deep part of the prison, but eventually un-sedated and with lots of food and water. FF needed him healthy.

I heard Will's return call and ran the rest of the way. Found him leaning on the cell door, hands out. It's tricky to do, but if you hold your heads exactly right, it's possible to get a decent kiss going in spite of the bars. We hung together there for a while.

"Can you get me out?" he asked.

"No. Do you have a plan?"

"Part of one. Give me your brain-plug."

I did, but with some misgivings. "It didn't work when I activated mine," I said.

"Same with me. But, two plugs together might work."

Before I handed mine over, I told him that we were in a majorly big prison. "Rescuers coming through that front entrance are likely to be killed if they don't do it properly." Then I told Will about the prison's defenses; I didn't explain why FF had been so generous with the information.

"I'm almost certain that connecting the two plugs together will punch a signal through these rocks," Will said. "We'll need to send a warning along with that signal."

I remained quiet; knew that he was thinking out loud; not talking to me.

He looked at the brain-band sitting on my head and raised an eye-brow.

"He never used it on me. I managed to pop the rivets." I handed it over, but he glanced at it and gave it back.

Will saw my silver locket. "That might work. I need something to conduct electricity but that could melt the locket. Are you OK with that?"

I gulped, but I knew it was necessary and began to unfasten my grandmother's heirloom. While I was fiddling for the little catch on the clasp, I realized I had something else – the foil covers from the six empty packs instead. Will fashioned them into a wire; didn't ask where the foil had come from which I appreciated. I had sort of kept Yolanda's gift a secret from him.

"Izzy, what I'm going to do is connect the two brain-plugs together, but interrupt their combined signal with the foil wire. By interrupting it in shorter and longer intervals, I can send a coded message. Something like, _Bombs at front_ , for example. But to make those electrical pulses, I'm going to have to touch the foil with my bare hands. I can only take so much of that at a time. You'll have to help and it's going to be painful. You OK with that?"

I did a re-gulp. Electrical shocks can be painful and Will's warning to the Wilizy contained twelve letters. It would be nice to know that electrocuting ourselves wasn't going to be in vain. "Will TG be able to de-code the message?"

Will thought about that, and said "No. I don't believe so. He wouldn't have heard the code enough. It took me a couple of hours to learn it and I was listening to it intently."

"What's the point if nobody can understand it?"

"This is Lucas and Theo's secret code. They'll understand it."

I nodded. Good. A little pain is worth it. Even a lot of pain. We'd just take very short shifts. And then I had the perfect idea. I may not be in Will's league when it comes to science, but I've learned the basics. I took my condom rope out of my pocket and turned around while I unfastened one. This was going to be embarrassing. I turned back to Will and held out my hand, the condom dangling from the fingernails of two clenched fingers.

His eyes got wide. He knew what it was.

"Izzy," he said. "I don't believe that we should be thinking about having sex right now."

Oh, how I've missed this man!

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 35

Saturday morning, March 10.

"Camp is coming alive," Wolf said from the Wilizy.

"About time," Mac replied from the B.C. copter Wolf had leased. "I'm guessing that it must be pushing 8:30. I hate not having easy access to my pinky-computer."

"It's 8:24. No room to hide even a pinky-computer in that getup."

"A getup that you are not going to tell anyone about, remember?"

"Winnie is posting the pictures on the WZBN bulletin board as we speak."

"Winnie has promised to never tell anyone. She keeps her promises. Any sign that Bubba is up?"

"Other than the clearing where you're going to land, I have no visibility. A pregnant woman is walking by, though. Strike that. A pregnant girl. Can't be more than thirteen."

"I am so going to enjoy this. I wish I could eliminate every pedophile in the world with one swoop of my magic wand. Are the B.C. forces ready?"

"Their copters are on the ground twenty minutes away. Equipped to land on the water. You're going to keep Bubba in the clearing where I can see him, right? I'll have a laser poised to drill through his skull the whole time."

"No you won't, Soldier. I've gone through this with you," Mac spoke with some sharpness because she knew that Wolf considered it his duty to protect her. "Your job is to alert me if some external event could interfere with my operation. Martians landing, the arrival of Bubba's God on a sleigh pulled by eight tiny weasels. That kind of thing. You are here to watch my blind spots. I will take care of what happens on the ground."

"OK, OK"

"Not the correct response, Soldier."

"Yes, Sir ... Ma-am."

" _Sir_ will do. Besides Wolf, I have another wolf here to help me if I need her. Did you make sure that Winnie trained Patella to knock her victim down and only pretend to go for the throat?"

"I've been on the receiving end. Even when I knew it was coming, having a wolf come out of nowhere and finding her fangs pinching the skin on my neck the next second was unnerving, to say the least."

"Shock treatment. If Bubba is as dumb as I think, I don't expect to need Patella. But she and Winnie will be in the copter if I do. Bubba is probably the classic bully. A coward at heart. Is he up yet?"

"I don't know, but he'll be up by the time you've made your second sweep over the camp. Lots of people are now in view and looking up."

_Mac: To all teams: I'm going in. Anticipate results in fifteen minutes. Scout team #1, you are expected to be first on the scene._

_TG: Acknowledged._

Wolf was right that the noise of Mac's chopper would bring Bubba running. Straight out of bed. The ankle length night gown flapped behind him as he trundled as fast as he could trundle into the clearing, shot gun at the ready as the copter landed. Even the tent like capacity of the night gown couldn't hide his paunch. Bubba's ankles were bloated to the size of camp fire logs. The flesh on his forearms flapped in waves as he made his way through the clearing. His face was a mask of broken blood vessels. Bubba probably intimidated the tiny women in his camp into doing what he wanted them to do by blocking out the sun.

"Who are you? What do you want?" the face with fat cascading down its cheeks said.

"You must be Bubba," the body without a gram of visible fat replied. "I've been looking forward to meeting you."

The visitor certainly seemed sincere and her smile was quite disarming. Not that there were any chances of arms of any kind, disarming or not, being hidden. "I've come from a party and I must look a mess. I feel like a mess. Any chances of finding a shower around here?"

"Lake right behind you."

Pointing at her clothes, the visitor said. "My only clothes. I wouldn't want them to get any dirtier than they are now. Any chance of you holding them for me while I take a dip?" she smiled sweetly.

"Might be arranged. Who are you? Why are you here?" Bubba brought the shot gun up to shooting level again after his first bout of staring.

She started unbuttoning her top. "Your brother sent me."

"Got lots of brothers. Which one?"

"Franklin."

"Lots of Franklins in the family. Which one?"

"Franklin Franklin," she said. "A somewhat distinctive name, wouldn't you say?"

"I ain't seen FF for years. If I saw him now, I'd shoot him. What does he want?"

"FF said to tell you that he's sorry you want to shoot him, so he wants to make it up to you. He's sending you a surprise gift to show you that he's sincere." Mac had no idea what had caused the blow up, but was content to be able to use it to offer the gift.

"Gift? Where is it?"

Mac did a little curtsy. "TaDa," she said. Two out of five buttons were undone. Mac put her hand on the third.

"You?"

Mac curtsied again.

"Come out of the sunlight," Bubba said. "We can talk about it in the church."

That would be the place where the wives and children did their praying and where Bubba did his own kind of _preying._ Mac moved towards him and grabbed his hand before it could explore her clothing. She put her arm inside his, the better to control where his hand could roam, and began to stroll towards the church. "I have a couple more things that Franklin asked me to say."

"Talk later," Bubba said.

"Now," Mac insisted. "Franklin has taught me that I must always do what I'm told; otherwise, he becomes upset. I don't like it when Franklin becomes upset with me."

"You and that old coot Franklin are together?"

"Franklin is a very inspiring preacher."

"He has his own congregation now?"

"TaDa," she said.

"What's he want." Bubba stopped strolling. The ground stopped shaking at the same time.

"Franklin wants to have a private meeting with you. He won't tell me where that meeting will be, but I can fly you there provided you give me the directions." Mac was hoping that Bubba would just tell her, not actually try to sit in the copter. Copters weren't designed to fly on their sides. "I'll come back to your camp with you afterwards, of course. Franklin intended his gift to you to be permanent."

"Where's he at?"

"He said that he'd meet you at the place where the two of you first worked together before you were policemen."

"Shoot. I'm not going all that way. Half of these here women would be gone when I got back. Them and all my children too. You tell him to come here."

"FF won't agree. Thinks you'll just kill him."

"I would. You going to fly away on me now?"

"No, of course not. I have nowhere to go to. I'm afraid you're stuck with me."

"Let's go talk about that in the church."

"Not quite yet. You see, I believe that Franklin is hiding something from you. He said that I must be sure not to tell you anything about my past. But if I'm going to be one of your wives, I feel I must tell you."

"Your past? What about it?"

"Well, you see, I like to party. And sometimes, I've had a hankering to leave my husband for a while, especially when he became possessive. The last time I came back, I had a little bundle from heaven with me. He had the nerve to ask me who the father was. It was somewhat unlikely that it was him given the length of holiday I had taken, you understand?"

Bubba nodded.

"I wouldn't tell him of course. What I do with my body is my business. He said that if I ever left him again, he'd find me and make sure that I couldn't leave him again. I was a good wife for a while, but got my hankering again. This time with Franklin. I told Franklin about my soldier husband and he became worried about me being found with him. I was living with Franklin in the big city, although he had me hidden away nice and proper. Or improper, I suppose." Mac added a little giggle, although she was as much a giggler as Bubba was a synchronized swimmer. "Franklin said that you would be better able to protect me from my special ops husband and his two buddies what with your more extensive work experience. You know, being a policeman is good, but Franklin said that you'd be better for me because of all the work you did before he joined up with you."

Bubba nodded. "True, true. Let's talk about that."

Mac ignored the tugging, although it took all of her strength to stay firmly planted in front of the church. "So if I stayed here with you, I'd have to be absolutely sure that you could protect me and my young daughter who's sitting in the copter with a friend." Mac sensed Bubba's body quivering to attention when she mentioned the magic words, _young daughter._

"Hard for anyone to find us. I make sure of that."

"Yes, it is. And as strong as you are ... (Mac put a hand on his biceps and started to squeeze, but stopped when she reached bone without any resistance) ... I couldn't be my normal friendly self without knowing that you had the skills to protect me. FF assured me that you had been plenty dangerous in your youth."

Bubba thought.

Mac waited. _Winnie, get Patella ready._

"You're trying to find out where FF and me worked, aren't you."

_Release the hound!_

The earth shook again as a large blob of fat fell unexpectedly to the ground and wobbled and bobbled in harmony with the moon's passage overhead.

"Why, yes Bubba I am. Oh look. Fifi wants to play with you. Would you like to tell me where you worked before joining the RCMP?"

"Zeballos Regional Prison."

"And how would I find this prison? Easy Fifi, let the big man talk."

"Go to Zeballos. Follow the river north until it splits. Easy to see from there. It was an underground mine first before they made it into a prison. Goes way back into the mountain."

"So kind. I'm sure your God will reward you."

"The prison has been shut down for years. Why do you want to go there?"

"You women hiding in the woods," Mac bellowed in her best parade ground voice. "In about fifteen minutes, a large number of B.C. copters are going to land on the lake and take you and your children to safety. You will be cared for and protected from further harm. However the people coming to help you may feel compelled to take Bubba with them. They may not have sufficient copter capacity to lift Bubba out of here, which would mean that some of you might be left behind. That would be a shame because it sure seems to me that Bubba is due for a fatal heart attack very soon. Fifi and I are going to go to my copter and leave. Bubba's not going to feel like moving around much for a while. I'm sure he'd appreciate any tender loving affection you might want to give him when nobody is here to see you being appreciative. Y'all have a very appreciating day, now."

With that, Mac backed off from Bubba's prone body, Fifi was still engaged in taste-testing morsels of neck flesh. Bubba's splayed knees were facing Mac in invitation. She took three big steps backwards, one sideways, and then sprang forward in the classic run up for a football field goal attempt. Her pointy-toed shoes didn't hinder her at all. If anything, they added to the pleasure she felt. Perhaps not so much to the pleasure Bubba felt.

"Three points," she said with great enthusiasm. "Go Riders, Go."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 36

Saturday morning, March 10, about 9:30.

As instructed, Scout Team #1 (TG and Yollie) was the first to arrive at the prison. Their job was to search the surrounding area for possible interference from local inhabitants. Strike Force #1 (Hank and Yolanda) arrived shortly afterwards and Strike Force #2 (Doc and Granny) were right behind. Scout Team #2 (Wizard, Winnie, and Patella) had further to travel so they were the last sling warriors to reach the battle zone. Wolf and Mac were the Battle Control team at the controls of the Wilizy and they would be the last to arrive. The Wilizy couldn't travel as quickly as the slings, but Mac had already ordered the slings into a holding pattern until Scout Team #1 had completed its sweep.

"Do we go in?" Yolanda asked.

"Negative," Mac said. "Franklin planned this for a long time. He wouldn't leave his hidden treasures out in the open for anyone to come in and rescue. This place is a prison designed to keep prisoners inside. Franklin worked here. He'd know the security; he'd have chosen this site because of it."

"Plans for the prison have to be stored somewhere. Physical lay-out, security, everything," Hank said.

"The B.C. military is searching for that now," Mac replied. "Battle teams, don't get your hopes up. Franklin emptied his brother's files. What are the chances that he didn't think of emptying files about the prison too?"

### # # # # # # # #

At Mac's request, TG was briefing them on the possible security systems that might be in place, including sensors that could be outside the prison itself. Motion detectors, for example. Even approaching the prison might be dangerous if they did so visibly. Franklin could have programmed underground explosives to go off after any breach in the prison's security. "We have to be very, very careful now," he said.

It was then that they all heard the system wide warning alerting everyone that a brain plug had been tampered with.

"I'm receiving dual messages," Wolf said. "IDs are Will's and Izzy's."

"Can you determine their precise location?" Mac asked.

"No.... I mean Negative," Wolf stammered. "They're just blowing a huge electronic hole through the rocks below us. All I know is that they're deep underground and their brain plugs are together."

"Meaning that Will and Izzy are together and unsupervised." This from Granny.

"But why the signal after we just arrived on site? Do they know that we're here?" Wizard throwing in his two cents.

"Highly unlikely," Mac said after considering it. "They would have no means of detecting us. Coincidence, probably."

"There's a repetitive pattern to that signal," Doc said. "I don't know how long the sequence is, but I'm sure bits and pieces of it are being repeated."

"Tape it, Wolf," Mac instructed.

"I know Morse Code," Doc said. "It's not that."

"Can the sequences be analyzed, TG?"

"Yes. I can do that. It would confirm that Will or Izzy are sending out a coded message. But we already know that. This isn't random interference with the signal, but with no key to the code, it could take days to make sense of it."

"We don't have days." Mac – stating the obvious.

"Why would Will send a message in a code that none of us knows? That wouldn't make sense." The scientific mind of Doc at work. "He knows that one of us can decode it. Everybody listen closely."

Nobody spoke up. Then....

"Lucas can," Winnie said. "Theo too. They use this to tease their brothers and me. Makes us all mad, so they don't use it around us much any more."

"Wolf?" Mac asked.

"I'm on it. It's very early in the morning over there."

"Double pulse priority. Wake Lucas up. Try Theo if Lucas doesn't answer."

Lucas did answer and yes, it was a code that he and Theo used. The message was _bombs at front_.

Mac ordered Wolf to hit the mine with the Wilizy's heaviest gravity pulse possible. Twice, and then twice again. The sling warriors could hear the two double thunks from where they were high in the air. The messages stopped immediately.

"Scout team #1: You're up. Maximum caution."

Hank mind messaged Mac while TG and Yolanda were preparing their equipment. _We've never talked about that gravity pulse weapon since you arrived. We haven't talked about the double-double confirmation either. How did you know?_

_A good battlefield commander never reveals her secrets._

### # # # # # # # #

It took TG and Yollie only about ten minutes to set up their equipment. They had practiced with it most of yesterday and were now good at the controls. This was equipment that Mac just happened to see after she just happened to stumble up against Will's workroom door with her hand accidentally falling onto the door handle. She just happened to see the controller joysticks after she accidentally opened a drawer. She just accidentally happened to see a full drawer of spider-like insects in the desk on the other side of the lab. She spent enough time playing around to figure out what they were. Then some time later, she just happened to send TG down to the hold to look through Will's things to see if he could spot anything useful. She left the whole system all connected just to make it easier for him. Lucky the way all of that happened.

"Be sure to keep the drones high in the air," Mac reminded them. "They can't touch anything in case it's a detonator."

"That mine will have a ton of empty space in it," Yollie said. "Plus it will have lots of spiders already inside, so the system will be programmed to ignore them. We're only going to crawl along the walls like a normal spider would. We'll be alright." A polite way of saying, _Back off, girl. I've got this._ TG winked at her in appreciation.

The wall crawling had taken them past three big iron gates that spanned the entire width and height of what were very wide tunnels. Any human coming in or leaving would have had to stand on a suspicious looking wire grid while entering a key pad code and putting his eyes down onto an iris scanner. That wire grid was positioned in front of a small door in the iron gate. Similar wire grids were on the other side of the big iron gates.

"I think the drones are past all the security gates," TG reported. "We can follow a wide tunnel to the left or investigate a large wire cage that's hanging in the air. It looks like its some kind of elevator for going deeper into the mine."

"Which way, Boss Sir?" Yollie asked.

"Down," Mac said. "Explore the cage first," she instructed.

The cage – sort of like an adult-sized bird cage – was at the top of a big dome. Below it was a lot of empty space until you reached a rock floor way below. The cage was large enough to accommodate up to six adults. A winch operating a thick cable would drop the cage or raise it. The controls operating the cage were inside it. Access into the cage was protected by a fourth key pad and an iris scanner.

"Permission for the spiders to crawl down a wall, Boss Sir?" Yollie asked.

"Granted."

Once they had descended to the first set of cells, with no security measures in sight, Yollie and TG put the spiders into fly mode and it became easy.

"I can see an open cell door and whoever was there left us a paper trail to follow," TG announced.

"We're following the trail now," Yollie said. She had sensed Mac's mouth starting to open and jumped in before she could speak.

About three minutes later, Yollie announced. "Found them. Izzy is outside Will's cell. They appear to be checking each other's dental hygiene."

"Can these things of yours cough?" Doc asked TG.

"If they can, I don't know how to make them do it. I know how to make them crawl, how to make them fly, and how to record a scene."

"TG. Let's make the spiders kiss."

Scout Team #1 put the spider drones into a hover right in front of the faces of the kissing prisoners and had them bump noses together. Izzy noticed the movement first, and pulled away. "Will, we have some peeping spiders looking at us. They appear to be very friendly."

Will turned too. "My drones!"

"Yollie, is that you?" Izzy asked and one of the drones jumped up and down.

### # # # # # # # #

The meeting didn't take long. Will's spiders were built with snooping in mind so they had ample ability to watch and listen but no capability to send any signals. At least not to the people they were spying on. Will told TG what to do to transfer the drones' video signal into the Wilizy command center post, and from that point on, everybody could see Will and Izzy; the same was not true in the other direction.

Both Will and Izzy told the drones everything that they knew about the prison and about FF. Izzy spoke the longest, leaving out only the part about FF's groping. She'd tell Will about that privately and that would be the end of it. Unless she met FF alone in a dark prison, that is. Will asked about getting his sling and braided ring back. Izzy gave as much detail as she could about the security system – especially the iris checks and the key pads that needed different codes.

The spiders did a little dance before leaving, and Will and Izzy waved. They didn't need to be told that the Wilizy would be overhead. They would have liked to be told when the spiders would be back. Izzy wondered if perhaps she should go back to her cell in case FF came back, but Will said the Wilizy would warn them somehow, so she just sat on her pad, her back to the cell, and Will did the same, his back touching Izzy's back. They had no idea what time it was or even what day it was.

Before the drones left, Mac had Yollie and TG explore the other tunnel into the mountain that they had passed. The encountered no security stations on their way. Their first stop was at very large cave with a few scattered food bars and water bottles on the floor. "Food storage area for the inmates," TG concluded.

"Nice diet," Yollie observed. "Food bars and water for the rest of your life."

Further down the hallway was another cave that appeared to serve as a staff room with old food machines and picnic tables scattered around. One side of the room had been a small canteen, providing coffee perhaps. There were empty spaces for microwaves to warm up food, but no provisions for cooking food.

Behind the staff cafeteria was a small suite of offices. The big one at the very end was obviously for the prison warden. The two adjacent to that were probably for officers lower in rank. A computer room had stations for three. The computers were still hooked up, as was an iris scanner that was connected to all three. Next was a small service room with a large bank of electrical switches, some of them labeled as _Section 1 lighting, Section 2 lighting,_ etc. The switches for Section 1 lighting were on; everything else was off. Another entire bank of switches was on a board titled _Security_ and none of the switches was labeled.

Back on the Wilizy, Mac asked the group to describe any detail that they had seen or heard on the video that would help in the actual rescue. Just knowing where Will and Izzy were wasn't actually the end of the battle. Getting them out safely, and in a way that could have been done without special powers, would be their biggest challenge so far.

Lots was said and suggested. Below are the things that Mac wrote down.

• We can't let FF and the winning bidder walk into the mine without following them in. But even if we were invisible, all incoming and outgoing traffic is funneled through a small iron gate. We'd never be able to follow them though that funnel.

• Could we break into the prison ahead of time? We'd have to be able to enter FF's eyes into the iris scanner, and we'd need to know the key pad codes ahead of time. How?

• We can't kill FF or the bidders ahead of time because we can't get W&I out without blasting through those big iron gates. What if they were connected to explosive devices?

• We can't give W&I anything that will allow them to escape on their own because the drones do not have the power to carry anything to them. Izzy escaped from her cell somehow, but Will is still locked up. If there were an easy way to get him out, he'd be out by now. At least they didn't still have their brain-bands on.

• We can't coerce FF into letting us in; he might decide to enter the wrong code. The grid is almost certainly electrified, and again, intruders could set off a large explosion with one mistake.

• Will's cell appears to be at the far end of what's habitable. The lighted portion of the prison ends, but the tunnel appeared to continue. It was too dangerous to push the spiders into that area. They had no capacity to operate in the dark.

• Both W&I appeared to be in good spirits, if somewhat cold; they kept sharing a blanket. They should be able to participate in their own rescue if we can send them their weapons.

• Does the prison have a back entrance? Down those dark tunnels? We'd need to have light to operate the drones. Would the drones have the power to activate the light switches in the office?

• We still have nothing from B.C. on a map of the prison. They will send us a map of the area, but we have a panoramic view of the area already.

• The drones saw no signs of the cell area being booby-trapped. In a worst case scenario, could we enter the prison from the rear by lasering out a tunnel and have them escape that way? We'd be revealing a lot about our capabilities if we did that. It could take days or even weeks. But how could we do that before FF and the winning bidder arrived? We'd have to capture FF and the winning bidder first. Only as a very last resort?

### # # # # # # # #

Nobody had any suggestions how to mount an effective rescue. Mac ordered all teams to scout the area looking for a secret back door. Everyone would comb the area physically, searching for holes, crevasses, and hidden passages. They had until night fall. But at 5 p.m., when everyone was convinced that the mine had no back door, Mac circled one of the bulleted points and told everyone to eat, drink, and rest.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 37

Saturday evening, March 10, 8 p.m.

The drones taping FF's dinner conversation with his guest did not turn up any gems of information that were going to help Mac rescue Will and Izzy from that mine. Everybody figured that the guest would be Rick and they were right. He had disguised himself with some body dye so that he had the same coloured skin as B.C. aboriginals, but there was no disguising the nose. However the following tidbits of general information caught everyone's attention – the spiders' output being thrown into the Wilizy's command center for all to see.

Rick said that he wouldn't be using the White Rock entry point any longer. It only made sense to do so when FF was living there. When FF asked how he'd sneak in, FF was reluctant to say. "Now that you're going into retirement, you don't need to know," he said brusquely.

The reason for Rick's bad mood was revealed when he asked if FF had found any potential replacements in the B.C. government who could provide them with inside information. FF said _No_. With FF retiring, Alberta was losing its only spy and from now on Zzyk would be blind and deaf as far as the B.C. government was concerned. This was the first time that had been the case in twenty odd years. As to Zzyk's sleepers, they had been planted in B.C. to do harm, not to spy. FF said that they were still undetected and living anonymous lives – safe from discovery. Nothing further was said that would give anyone a clue as to who they were or where they were hidden.

FF suggested that if Alberta wanted inside information, they might tap into the sleeper that Alaska had inside the B.C. government. "He's better placed than I was to influence military matters." FF said. "That's not a good idea," Rick replied and the topic was dropped.

Rick warned FF about his intention to sell the B.C. government files that he had taken with him. "We paid for them once and we're not going to pay for them again," he said. When FF suggested that the other bidders might be interested, Rick replied. "When we bought those secrets we did so on the assumption that we would be the only ones to see them. You never said that you'd spread them around. Zzyk's rather annoyed with you right now. Perhaps he'll try to have you killed for real this time."

"I arranged to have all those police spotters murdered in the Biker Wars," Franklin replied. "And even before the war started, I was feeding Zzyk confidential information that his bikers used to find and kill police in the isolated detachments. Zzyk owes me. But he did pay me for stealing B.C.'s secrets, so I'll take them off the market and destroy them."

Rick asked if two certain people were alive and healthy. FF said that they had been given ample food and water. Rick asked if it was possible for either of them to hurt themselves where they were. FF asked, "Why do you care if they're hurt? You're just going to kill them anyway." Rick asked why Alberta had to bid on the right to kill them. FF asked, "Do you really want Alaska getting their hands on Will?"

Rick asked idly about FF's plans for retirement. FF said that he was going to reconcile with his family by revealing that he had always been on their side, but that he had had to operate secretly. He'd use the money to help the family prosper. FF didn't mention that Izzy would be taken off the auction block, nor did he reveal that he was going to start his own family.

### # # # # # # # #

After the spiders had left the prison, Will and Izzy just sat on the stone floor, back touching back, the long iron bars of Will's cell between them. At one point, Izzy asked if Will had any ideas for getting out of the cell.

"Easy with the braided ring." Will said.

"A way that wouldn't reveal our secret weapon."

"Then, no."

"Do you have anything on you that could have gotten you out in time?"

"All I had were my boots and the Zorro sword inside the boots," he said.

"Were your boots off when you woke?"

"Yah. He searched me. Found my secret weapon – a rubber sword."

"Let me see?"

### # # # # # # # #

"You look like you have a plan," Will said. He was wandering around the cell. Izzy had given him back the sword, a look of satisfaction on her face.

"Part of one. But we need to have our braided rings."

"The Spiders can't carry any weight. TG will figure that out in any test run."

"Is it possible to increase their power?"

"Not without a complete re-design."

"Let's pretend that Hank finds a way to smuggle our weapons into the prison. We're out of our cells in a way that will satisfy Zzyk's curiosity. How do we hide from FF and the people buying us without revealing any of our secrets? Then, how do we escape?"

### # # # # # # # #

The first part to the question had been easy. Izzy suggested that they could hide in the tunnels that the spiders hadn't been able to explore. The prison had masses of tunnels and FF wouldn't be able to bring in enough searchers to explore them all. Eventually he'd give up and lock up the prison.

"Still leaves us with having to escape from a secure prison," Will concluded. "Say that we do that with the slings or braided rings, and we reappear in the outside world. Rick's going to wonder how we escaped. We need to have an explainable way."

### # # # # # # # #

"How many prisoners do you think were in here at one time?" Izzy asked Will. She was chewing on a food bar and alternately sucking on a bottle of water.

"No idea. Two prisoners per cell? How many cells?"

"Lots. The place is a huge maze. I had to drop papers on my way here so that I wouldn't lose my way."

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just wondering. Hundreds of prisoners; three meals a day. They would have needed a lot of food bars and water."

### # # # # # # # #

"How are you doing on that book of humour Wizard gave you for Christmas?" Izzy asked.

"It's interesting. I liked the chapter on clowning. I like being goofy."

"You like making people laugh?"

"Especially little kids. Like Winnie and Liset. I was reading the chapter on pranking when we were kidnapped and then, I was going to move on to puns. Not sure that I like pranks. Kind of mean, sometimes."

"I don't like the mean tricks. Hip checking you into the woods is about as far as I like to go. "

### # # # # # # # #

"You ever think about babies, Will?"

"Ours?"

"Yah, ours."

"I thought that I'd like to have two boys at least, and one girl at least."

"You actually thought of that?"

"I did. When I was playing with Winnie, and when Theo and Lucas were trying to outsmart me with their games."

"I'm surprised that you'd ever think of having babies with me; we're always focused on not having any babies."

"I didn't used to. I do now. Do you think of how many babies you'd like?"

"I'd want lots of babies. Like Hank and Yolanda. Did you dream up any baby names?"

"With three kids, I'd name them Franklin, Franklin, and Franklin."

"You have to stop reading that joke book, Will. It's corrupting your mind."

### # # # # # # # #

They were back to sitting on their pads, blankets around their shoulders, backs up against the cell bars, and talking. Izzy had retrieved her own blanket some hours ago.

"Do you think this war is going to end in time for us to have babies, Will?"

"This war could be over for us tonight, you know that Izzy."

"If Franklin has a bunch of explosives in the mine, and somebody makes a mistake, he could bring the mountain down on us. We shouldn't talk about that, Will."

"I did think about it though. Also thought about me being taken off somewhere and you being killed. They'd give me my own physics lab. There are lots of ways to have fatal accidents in a physics lab. They'd never be able to stop me."

"You'd do that?"

"Yah. Did you think about the mountain falling?"

"Not the mountain, but I knew that lots of people would want to buy you. I thought of a way I could bargain for your life to be spared."

"How?"

"Franklin likes me, Will. He really, really likes me."

"You'd do that?"

"Yah. He'd take me away somewhere, but you'd be alive."

"I wouldn't want to be alive without you with me, Izzy." Will's left hand snuck through the bars and found Izzy's right hand. She squeezed it.

"I wouldn't want to be alive without you with me, Will." The other two hands found each other.

They stayed that way for a while.

"Is this what true love is?" Izzy asked.

Will started to speak, couldn't, but choked out these words. "Some day I'm going to propose to you, Melissa Stanley. Not here. Not now. But some day."

Izzy managed to strangle out her reply. "I'll say, _Yes_."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 38

From Izzy's journals: Sunday morning, 2 a.m.

I was reading Franklin's manifesto while Will was hanging off the bars in his cell, grunting like a gorilla.

"How's this?" the gorilla asked.

I looked up. Will was hanging from the top of the wall of his cage and facing towards the hallway. Two hands were on one of the bars while one foot was placed squarely on a bar to the left, the other foot was placed squarely on a bar to the right. He was resting for the moment. Previously he had been tugging and pulling on the center bar; the sound effects were for my entertainment.

"Not bad," I said. He was asking about the bar. I was talking about the view. Will had stripped off his white Zorro shirt some time ago and sweat was poring off his face and chest. I hadn't realized that Will had kept up with his gymnastic exercises. He said that whenever he had a moment or five, he'd throw a bar into the sky and have a work out. His chest is big now; thick muscles. It wouldn't surprise me if he could actually pull that bar out of its socket in a month or two. He wouldn't have to if we had our weaponry. We were just painting a picture of how he had escaped from his cell. If we ever figured out how to get him out of the cell. Speaking of pictures, I'd like to have a picture of Will right now.

"The bars, Izzy?"

I looked further up. I could see little gaps around the top of the bar and its rock ceiling that it was drilled into; could see crumbles of rock on the floor of the cell. "That should be good now, oh gorilla friend of Tarzan." For the life of me, I couldn't remember Tarzan's gorilla friend's name. Cheetah, I remembered. This was not a Cheetah moment.

Will climbed down and wiped himself off with his shirt. _That shirt is toast_ , I thought. Everything we were wearing was toast, but that shirt was going directly into the fire. Both of us were sticky and smelly. Our breaths reeked. I hadn't noticed it when we had kissed after Will had said that he'd propose. New definition for true love: _True love is when you can exchange deep searing kisses with your almost-a-fiancé after more than a week of not brushing your teeth and not notice a thing._ Really. Not a thing. Will had said the same.

Will picked up his shirt, planning to put it on I guess, but smelled it and thought better of it. He threw it down on top of the rubber handle that I had pulled off his sword. The rubber blade itself was in a corner of the cell. "You should read this manifesto, Will. FF has actually signed every page."

"You've probably read every page to me already, haven't you?"

"Pretty much." I had left out the stuff about Yolanda. I wasn't going to allow anyone to read that.

I had discovered the manifesto when I had gone back to my cell for my blanket. On the way there and back, I had wandered around a bit, wondering how we could get up to ground level and saw the basket elevator that appeared to be the only way out of the mine. If we had our slings, we could fly up to the ground floor easily. For a regular prisoner, that basket elevator was impossible to reach from below. The ground floor was a very long way up. And you couldn't climb up to the ground floor. You could climb part way up a wall if you were lucky to find hand and foot holds, but when it came time to cross the dome, forget it.

I had found the manifesto in an open cell. Franklin had just tossed things into it as he went by which is why I never heard any change in his footsteps. The cell had the manifesto, all the B.C. secrets he had stolen, plus Franklin's money. Big heavy bags of gold coins. Some paper currency as well.

In his manifesto, Franklin had said that he had been able to figure out when Yolanda became pregnant from their regular reports. He had given me those reports for my reading pleasure when he left. I studied them carefully. Saw lots of stuff that had been misunderstood. I put the reports in a pile that I was going to take with me. Tossed the manifesto on that pile too. Saw some lights coming towards me from way down in the dark tunnel that lead to who knew what. Somebody now knew. "The tooth fairy is arriving," I said to Will.

"Hope she brought some toothpaste," he said.

### # # # # # # # #

Tooth paste had not been on the list. Slings, weaponry and pinky ring computers were on the list. Plus a whole lot of information on what was happening outside. Delivered by Winnie of all people. Mac was in charge now and she had figured that the dark tunnels would be a maze but _Fifi's nose would save the day._ Patella was in her own sling, top off, and was floating at Winnie's knee when they arrived. Winnie was floating too and pushing Patella forward as necessary. They were wearing a multitude of pinky rings that were illuminating the way. Winnie said that great big deep mine shafts were sprinkled all the way through the tunnels they had used. Some mine shafts were so wide that they took up the entire path. Franklin had mentioned in his manifesto about putting some of his prisoners into the dark part of the prison and they'd disappear. He deliberately left them there, incapacitated, knowing that they'd fall down a shaft.

Winnie was very sleepy. She said that Mac had woken everyone up at 1 a.m. after she had figured out how to get into the mine. Winnie hadn't felt scared about Scout Team #2 being given this assignment because Patella was with her, plus they had all the light they needed. She said that she wouldn't have liked being all alone down in the mine with all the lights off. I agreed. We returned to where she had entered the mine and I repeated my Hansel and Gretel act on the way, but this time from my sling.

When I reached the entrance Winnie had used, I saw why she had been sent. Only tiny Winnie could have gotten in. I waved as she and Patella left to go back to their beds. Tried communicating with the outside world; it worked; spent a lot of time planning with Mac.

Mac had formed a Scout team #2? Really?

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 39

Narrator, early Sunday morning, B.C. time.

True to her word, Granny had set up a continuous communication feed between her and Lucas during his pirate attack. From this, Lucas' words and the replies of his brother were taped and re-broadcast to the entire Wilizy team when they awoke. I have taken those tapes along with the accounts of the battle from the boys' own words to give you the following description of what happened in North Korea. Remember the time difference. Lucas was attacking at night, but it was early Sunday morning, B.C. time.

### # # # # # # #

The North Korean freighter had been fully loaded by 6 p.m. North Korean time and had left port at dusk heading out into the Pacific Ocean. The loading hadn't taken long. But this port was probably the last in a long series of pick-ups. Lucas figured that this would be a good thing; the crates of brain-bands that they were going to steal would be at the top of the hold in case they didn't have time to unload the full cargo.

Theo reported that the light ship was still stationed in the mid-Pacific. Lucas was no longer worried about the ship interfering, but the ship's airplanes were a different matter. If they could fly at supersonic speeds, and if the North Korean freighter had the means to call for help, the planes could be overhead while the boys were unloading the freighter. Lucas figured that the earlier he could attack the freighter, the further they'd be from the light ship and the safer they'd be. There'd be a full moon tonight, rising at 9:00. That's when Lucas would attack. He wanted the moonlight to be sure that the freighter crew and their life boats were leaving the scene. It wouldn't do for the Korean crew to hang around and discover that four boys under the age of twelve were unloading their ship.

Lucas set the invisible Wilizy/Asia down into the water at about 8:30. The waters were reasonably calm and the ship rose and fell gently with the waves. He matched speeds with the freighter and gradually closed the distance so that the Wilizy's broadsides would reach easily. The freighter was a sailing ship, of course, but it might have modern armaments. If anything like that showed up, Lucas had instructed Theo to take out the freighter's defenses with his first shots. Theo had control of bow sweeper cannon that had been adjusted so that it could fire as part of the Wilizy's broadside, or separately if necessary.

All of Wilizy's cannons could be fired from the Wilizy control center. The lids to the gun ports were similarly controlled. Lucas had arranged pinky ring computers in each gun port so that when the lids were raised, the crew on the freighter would see the cannons clearly. The lights were programmed to flicker, like the matches that would light the gunpowder in the cannons. Although the ship would rise and fall with the waves, Lucas didn't have to worry about firing on the up-wave or the down-wave. For the broadsides, the Wilizy was firing lasers that would sound and feel like cannon balls. Theo's cannon balls on the bow sweeper were laser guided.

"Theo, shut off invisibility."

"Aye, Aye."

They waited but saw no sign of life on the deck across from them. However, Lucas could see an antenna mounted on the ship's foremast. He drew that to Theo's attention. The moon started to rise. By 9:20, the freighter had sufficient light to see the pirate ship.

"Theo, hoist the jolly lucas."

"Aye, Aye."

"Let's wake them up, Theo. Take out that antenna with the bow sweeper."

Theo didn't bother acknowledging the command. He had been itching to fire this gun for real. The real live cannonball split the top of the foremast in two. A flurry of anxious words came from the freighter and heads appeared at the rail.

"Mathias, raise deck #1's gun port lids. Roll out the cannon and don't forget to aim for the masts."

"Aye, Aye."

The natural creaking of the wooden lids caught the enemy's attention but not as much as the sound of trundling cannon wheels. The flickering matches caused panicky yells.

"Mathias, fire all guns, deck #1."

All the freighter's masts and rigging were blown into the ocean.

"Mathias, return deck #1 guns to stand-by. Reese, raise deck #2's lids, roll out the cannon."

Reese had told Lucas that he didn't want to hurt anyone, but he really wanted to fire his guns. Lucas could tell from the sudden absence of faces at the deck rails, and the sounds of splashes in the water on the far side of the freighter that a second broadside wasn't necessary.

"Reese, fire all deck #2 guns into the air." That command made everyone happy, especially the North Koreans.

"Theo, heave to."

With no sails, the freighter slid slowly to a stop and the Wilizy did as well. Louder splashes indicated that life boats were being deployed on the far side of the ship.

"Theo. Off you go. Check invisibly on the status of the freighter's crew. Search the freighter too for anyone hiding on the ship. We don't want to be ambushed when we're unloading the cargo."

Ten minutes later, the Wilizy was tied to the freighter. The Wilizy crew boarded by swinging from long ropes attached to the Wilizy's masts. All four crew members had an eye patch and a wooden sword. They hadn't had a chance to practice the boarding, so it wasn't surprising that all four missed their marks. Mathias and Reese were holding their ropes too far down and would have crashed into the deck had they not released early and used their slings to land safely. Lucas and Theo had grabbed their ropes too high, so they had swung all the way across the freighter and then back to the Wilizy without connecting. They hung on for a couple of sweeps and dropped down to the deck.

Theo and Lucas did the heavy work of palletizing the cargo. Mathias and Reese followed behind them to enter navigational data, close the pallet lids, and steer the pallets out of the hold and on their way to the Wilizy's home compound. After they had completely emptied the hold, the Wilizy crew returned to their ship.

"Mathias and Reese, cast off the freighter."

"Aye, Aye."

"Theo, resume previous course."

"Aye, Aye."

"Reese, un-hoist the jolly lucas."

"Aye, Aye."

"Theo, prepare for invisibility."

"Aye, Aye."

"Well done, crew! Take us home, Scotty." (It had become boring in the evenings when they ran out of things to do. Lucas had found some old bots of the original series of the antique show called _Star Trek_. Each boy had his favorite character and they watched the shows so often that the boys could join in with the dialogue. All four boys were convinced that the show was real.)

After gaining altitude, Theo checked their sensors and sent a private mind message to Lucas. _That light ship is heading east, Lucas. Looks like it's going fast._

_Send a private message to Dad that we have the brain-bands, we're safe, and I'm going to follow the light ship as far as I can. I'm taking oxygen and I'll stay out of range of their weapons._

_Private message? You don't want Mom to know about the light ship?_

_I don't want to be around when she finds out that I followed it to its home port._

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 40

From Izzy's journals: Sunday, March 11, about 9:30 a.m.

Will and I prepared Will's cell so that it would paint a pretty picture and then we hung around the prison's back door so that we could stay in touch with the ship. We heard the boys' capture of the brain-band cargo through the communication net. Impressive for such young kids. I thought about it a bit. I had been thinking that Lucas was young. He's almost old enough to join the adults in the meetings. When did I start feeling so old? Liset calling me _Auntie_ probably didn't help. I sent congrats messages to all four boys; heard back from three of them. Theo had made the report. Lucas injured?

Mac's voice came through loud and clear. "Franklin and Rick have left the bidders' meeting in Zeballos. They're in Franklin's copter and are heading your way now. Estimate arrival in ten minutes. The Alaska rep left in a hurry. Sore loser, we believe."

"You didn't put drones into the meeting?" I asked.

"We thought it too risky since we didn't know what capabilities the Alaskans had. Besides they weren't necessary. We were going to learn who the winning bidders were soon enough."

"Will and I are going to listen in invisibly on their conversation, so we'll be deep in the prison and out of communication range."

"Everything is ready to go outside. You can set up the inside as soon as Rick and FF leave. When you get up to the ground level, we should be able to talk."

Will and I flew back to the wide, deep mine shaft that Winnie had mentioned. I was collecting my Hansel and Gretel pages on the way. Will wrapped the rubber handle of the Zorro sword inside his shirt and tossed both down. We looked down and the shirt hadn't landed deep enough, so Will flew down and relocated it much lower. He came back saying that the shaft didn't appear to have a bottom.

We flew back to our cells and I collected the rest of the B.C. pages and put them and all of Franklin's files back into his loot holding cell except for his manifesto and Hank's progress reports. I stored those down the tops of my Zorro boots. We decided to keep our distance from FF and Rick because of our smell. Will floated by me to check and told me to close the baffles on my sling completely.

### # # # # # # #

Sunday morning.

"I still don't understand why you withdrew Izzy from the bidding, Franklin. Having another bidder that gave you a shut-out bid doesn't make any sense. The North Koreans had declined the invitation to come to Zeballos and both Alaska and Alberta were willing to buy her. Who else would want her?"

"Another player in the field. I know that Alaska wanted her for breeding stock, but why Alberta? You're just going to kill Will. You don't need her to control him."

"Zzyk wanted her. I didn't ask why."

"Well it doesn't matter. She's sold and I received a top price for her."

"Why is this cell door open?"

"It has my retirement fund and the B.C. secrets. I'm going to sell them back to them."

"Retirement fund not as big as you thought it would be?"

"Unexpected costs," Franklin replied.

"Another open cell door?" Rick asked.

"Oh, dear God."

### # # # # # # #

Franklin lumbered as fast as he could lumber down to Will's cell. Rick suspected what he wouldn't find, so he examined Izzy's former lodgings, found the condom plug, and took it with him until he could hear Franklin's string of _Oh, dear Gods_. He was outside a cell. One of the iron bars had come loose at the top. Someone had bent it over far enough that a body could squeeze through.

"This condom was in the lock of Izzy's cell door." Rick held it up so Franklin could see. "It stopped the door from locking properly and that's how she escaped. Why was Izzy in her cell with a condom?"

"Because she's a slut. She had six in her pocket."

"And you let her keep them? And you let her push the condom into the lock? Only you had the key. Why did you open her cell door?"

Franklin unlocked Will's cell door and walked in. He looked at the rock dust on the floor.

"You stupid old man! Izzy would never..."

"She would. She thanked me for bringing her out of her wicked ways."

"I was wrong. You're a demented old fool."

Franklin came out of the cell and looked into the darkness. "There's no way out of this prison. She must have headed into the bowels of Hell. Stay here, Rick. All is not lost. My God will provide." With that, he lumbered back to the basket elevator. Any more lumbering and Franklin was going to need a forest implant.

Rick walked into Will's cell and looked at the top where the bar had been embedded. Will had chipped away at that rock face with something sharp. Rick hung from the bent bar – yes, a man's weight could pull it down. He saw the rubber blade of Zorro's sword and picked it up. Smelled it. It stank. The whole cell stank.

Additional lights clicked on in the dark hallway. Rick heard FFs pants before he saw him. He waited, tapping the blade against his palm. "What's this, Franklin?"

"Zorro's sword. It was part of Will's costume."

"Where's the hilt?"

"What?"

"The hilt. The handle. The little thingy that Zorro hangs on to when he's carving people up."

"It was attached to the sword."

"It's not now. And it's not in the cell. And there are chip marks like a small knife could have made to release the top of that iron bar. Did you feel inside the rubber handle, Franklin?"

"I've turned on every light in the mine. It's quite extensive, but she couldn't have run far. Not in the pitch black. We can still find her."

"With tracking dogs, perhaps, but we don't have easy access to any. We should just lock the place up and let them starve."

"Foot prints. Let's follow them. My God provided foot prints to follow."

The foot prints led them to the edge of a giant mine shaft. No way past it; no way to see it in the dark; no way not to fall in unless you were crawling. Will and Izzy hadn't been crawling. "Shine your pinky ring light down the shaft, will you Franklin?" Rick did the same but only after taking deep sniffs.

"There's something white way down the shaft. What were Will and Izzy wearing?"

"Black pants, white shirts." Franklin said.

"Do you see any footprints on the other side of this shaft, you old fool?"

"No."

"I guess your God did provide after all. He gave us a big, black mine shaft into the bowels of Hell. Come-on. You're flying me to my copter."

As they went by FF's retirement fund, Rick kept him hustling. "You can come back for that."

Later, as they were stepping into the cage basket, Rick warned FF. "Since you didn't kill Will, I'm not paying you for him. And, don't bother complaining to Zzyk. He'll be severely displeased with you. He was counting on owning Izzy."

### # # # # # # #

Franklin returned to the abandoned mine about an hour later. He landed his copter and as he stepped out, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Unconscious almost immediately, he would have fallen had a shimmering Wolf not been there to catch him. Doc removed his own invisibility too and put the hypodermic needle and the bottle of sedative that FF had hidden in his condo into his jacket pocket. It seemed especially fitting that FF would be captured with what he himself had used to capture Will and Izzy.

_The area is still clear of any unwelcome visitors, but Rick might decide to come back too,_ Mac said into their heads. _Let's stuff Franklin into the mine quickly. Izzy, you can open it up now._

Wolf hoisted FF onto his shoulder and as he approached the mine, the first giant iron gate opened wide. As Wolf and Doc walked into the shadow of the entrance, they could see they had clear sailing through to the bird cage, or clear hoisting at least. Izzy and Will were waiting, big smiles on their faces. Doc and Wolf made moves to give them hearty greetings, but Izzy held up a palm and said, "Best not to get too close."

While Will transported Franklin to his new lodgings, Izzy led Doc and Wolf into the back office where she scanned their irises. "Everybody else associated with today's operation has already been scanned; we still have to scan the four pirates and Stu but we'll do that before the trial. We're going to let FF stew in the dark for a while."

"A helicopter is about fifteen minutes out and it's on course to the mine," Mac's voice interrupted. "Time to go, everyone. Lock the prison up tight, Izzy."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 41

From Izzy's journals: Monday morning, March 12.

I had the most delicious shower ever; can't believe how good it is to feel clean again. I was thinking that I should always have a tooth brush with me rather than a foil packet. Check that. Those packets were life savers.

Mac was off the compound today food shopping – her way of sharing the community's work load. So I took the opportunity to have a Wilizy staff meeting. Only the adults. I would have included Lucas too, but Yolanda said that he was sleeping. He had turned up at the compound long after the other boys on the Wilizy/Asia had arrived but Hank and Yolanda didn't seem too perturbed. Hank agreed that we should include him in the adult meetings from now on – he had taken initiative smartly, whatever that means. Yolanda didn't comment so I assumed that she was all right with that.

Hank told the meeting how Mac had helped; said that she was a very effective _Battle Commander_ and we couldn't have won without her. But she had agreed to serve only for this one battle. He told us what she had said about the way she was brought to the compound. That made us all feel rotten. He also said that she could be bossy. Lots of head-nodding on that one. He also repeated what she had said when she analyzed the Wilizy's strengths and weaknesses. She had nailed those. Did we want to ask her to be a permanent Battle Commander for the Wilizy?

They all looked at me. I said that I had gotten along with her well when we were working out all the escape plans and that she had thought of things that I hadn't. She had been sneaky, which I liked, and had worked hard to make sure that we escaped without leaving any nagging questions. Again something I liked. I had been uncertain about her at the very beginning; thought that Zzyk had planted her on us. She seemed to be hiding something.

Lots of people agreed on that. Yollie said that she had been hiding what her real body was like and so I learned about the scene at Bubba's camp for the first time. Nobody knew why she was hiding it. I learned that she was from Saskatchewan because of her football kick at Bubba's camp. Yollie had to tell me about that too. I was beginning to like Mac more and more. Her military background was something that we all had observed as well.

"She's hiding something, perhaps quite a lot, "Yolanda said. " I don't sense a threat to us. I believe that she's scared of something and wants to live an invisible life. We got in the way of that."

"Probably scared of Wolf," Yollie said. "Has she told you anything that we don't know? Had you seen that body before?" she asked Wolf in her normal blunt manner.

"No to both questions. We're friends. She won't let me get closer to her than that."

"Sounds like you're an unhappy camper," Yollie said.

"Be nice," Yolanda told her.

In the end, we agreed to offer her the position of permanent Battle Commander. The vote was unanimous. I made the motion, actually. It wouldn't affect my job as strategist, and she has the sneaky kind of mind that would work well with mine. We'd be good as a team. The group liked the teams that she had formed. They just wanted her to make one change. Yollie offered to tell her about the change. I'd make the job offer.

I adjourned the meeting. When I had heard Mac's copter landing, I figured I could talk to her right then.

### # # # # # # #

I grabbed Yollie on the way out and told her I was going to talk with Mac right now. Yollie had to pick up something first, so we arranged to meet at Mac's copter which she was currently unloading. I offered to help her unload, but Mac said that she'd do it; her responsibility, after all. I noticed that she was back to wearing her dumpy clothes.

"I need a decision," she said after putting down a heavy box and straightening up. I thought she was referring to a decision about her battle commander job, but I was wrong.

"The WZBN message boards are jammed with questions about you and Will. It started with rumours about the two of you being kidnapped. The postings are now in the hundreds and all of them are asking if you're safe. What do you want me to do?"

I didn't see any reason for holding back the information. "Post something about an attempt being made to harm us but nothing came of it and we are safe." I said. "Downplay it if you can. Don't provide any details and try to shut down the chatter about this. That sound OK to you?"

"Yah. You have to put a stop to it, that's for sure."

"I wanted to talk to you about something else. Do you have a minute?"

"A few of these boxes will need refrigeration soon, but sure."

So I told her how happy everyone was with how she had taken charge of the battle and that we had had a meeting about that. We were sorry that we had forced her to come into the compound, and we thought we should invite her properly to join us. Her job with us would be as battle field commander and we hoped she would take the position permanently.

"Are you OK with that?"

I said that I was and I had enjoyed planning our escape from the prison with her.

"I'll have to think about it," she said and turned away to carry on with the unloading.

Yollie galloped up at that point, a jumble of pictures in her hand. "Oh, my God. You'll never believe what I found outside the boys' bedrooms. I collected them up as fast as I could. Couldn't let the boys see these."

"What are they?" I asked in all my innocence.

"Pictures of Mac when she was meeting with Bubba. We can't let the boys see these."

"Let me see," Mac said.

We looked at them together. Yollie shuffled through them, a big mask of concern on her face. Mac climbing out of the copter; Mac in front of the lake and starting to undo her top – what little there was of it; Mac arm in arm with Bubba going towards the woods; Mac climbing into her copter. Lots of Mac flesh showing in all shots. The clothes she was almost wearing didn't leave much to the imagination. Now I knew what they had meant about hiding her real body. There had been no hint of this at all in the business suit I had seen, or in the dumpy clothing that she wore around the compound.

"Do you have any idea who took these? And why are you showing them to me?" Mac sounded very calm given the circumstances.

"No idea who took them. But I'm showing you these because you should know that somebody was trying to give them to the boys. They would be terribly embarrassing for you, I would think. Not good for the boys either. Not good at all. Mother and Dad would have a fit."

"I'd probably need help stopping these. I don't know who could have done this. It certainly wasn't the boys because they weren't at Bubba's camp. Do you have any ideas?"

"Probably Wolf," Yollie said. "He's kind of sweet on you."

"I don't believe it would be him," Mac said. "But I don't know who else it could be. Since you were so helpful in bringing these to me, perhaps you could help me?"

"Well I could try, I suppose. But you know, in our meeting reviewing your appointment, people were kind of unhappy with some of the things you did. It could be anybody. It would be hard to stop these pictures being passed around while people were upset."

"What things?"

I started moving out of the group of three. It was going to be a group of two; realized what Yollie was doing; what she had done to all of her brothers. Blackmail.

"Well I heard there was some unhappiness with the military speak. You know, the _Yes Sir, No Sir_ stuff. That didn't bother me, but the family isn't much into military orders."

"So if I backed off on that, people would be happier, and these pictures would disappear?"

I had the distinct impression that this wasn't going to work out too well for Yollie. She carried on oblivious.

"Yes, I believe that would probably happen. I certainly would do my best to put an end to it."

"Not sure I could agree to this," Mac said.

I waited for the Mac hammer to fall.

"These pictures are good! I particularly like the one of me unbuttoning my top. I hadn't realized that two buttons would reveal so much. Explains why Bubba was vibrating. I think I'll make copies of this one. Pass them out discretely. You know, so that nobody would know where they came from. I'd start with a boyfriend, I think. One who might be tempted by this small thin body because his girlfriend's body was so different."

Yollie's face changed into what Bubba Franklin's face must have looked like as he watched the Saskatchewan field goal kicker start her run-up.

"I'd probably forget about this though if I had the original images. I particularly would like to have the picture of me toe-punting Bubba. I hope that picture would be part of this collection. You think you could find out, Yollie?"

"Do my best," Yollie said and fled the kill zone.

"She wasn't kidding about the military speak?" Mac asked me after the dust from Yollie's heels had settled back to the ground.

"I had nothing to do with this, Mac. It was all Yollie."

Mac nodded. "I figured. The military speak?"

"Nobody was upset, but it did come up. Some discomfort is probably the best way to describe it. The family is much more into consensus building," I said. "Everybody contributing to the operation."

"I saw that. It worked well. My family wasn't that way."

"They loved the teams you created."

She nodded. "Tell them I'll take the job permanently, but when we're in the middle of a battle where I need immediate control, they can expect military speak orders. How they reply is up to them."

"And Yollie?"

"After I have the originals, you can tell her that I'm probably finished with her."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 42

Narrator, Tuesday morning.

Franklin Franklin's trial took place under the giant dome of the prison. Doc wasn't sure what effect the sedative would have had on an old man so he made sure that Franklin was awake and able to understand the proceedings before bringing him into the open area where the court had been set up. Doc noticed that FF's copy of his father's _Good Book_ was open on the sleep pad. The family picture was not inside, but that's because Mac took it out when she put the book in his cell.

The trial was going to be formal this time, not like in the Okanagan where a firewood wagon had been the only furniture. This time, the court room had tables and a set of folding chairs for the officers of the court. As well, they had found a chair for the accused to sit in and a section for the spectators. For spectator seating they had to make do with pads from the cages except for Granny who was sitting in the warden's comfortable chair. Everyone from the Wilizy family was there except Liset. Mac wasn't in the courtroom but she was watching from a distance. Doc accompanied Franklin to the accused's chair, bound his hands to the legs of the chair, and left the courtroom where he met up with Mac and together they'd keep an eye on Liset.

"All rise," said Reese. He had been given the role of bailiff. Izzy was serving as the prosecutor. Everyone except Franklin rose as the wire basket descended and Hank stepped out.

"My name is Hank" and Hank then terminated the sentence with what sounded like a coughing sound. "I am a member of the British Columbia detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The accused has seen my badge. That badge gives me the authority to detain suspected criminals, question them, determine if they have broken any laws, and apply justice as required within the Aboriginal Nation. By treaty, my authority also extends to B.C. I need a volunteer to serve as the court recorder."

Hank looked around and saw one outstretched hand.

"You, young lady. Can you write?"

"Yes," Winnie said. "Can I bring my pup to sit with me?"

"Will your pup harm the accused?" Hank said.

"Only if I want her to," Winnie said with a smile.

"Sit at this table and record the responses of the accused to the questions that the prosecutor poses. Franklin, we assume you will want to defend yourself. You're facing charges of kidnapping, espionage, murder, and accessory to murder. All are capital crimes and carry the death penalty."

"This is preposterous. You can't judge me – you're personally involved. I move for a mistrial."

"I don't intend to judge you. I have deputized a lawyer to hear the case." With that, Hank sat down in the audience and Stu walked up to the bench and sat down.

"My name is Stu," he said. "I've had twenty-five years of legal experience in B.C. During the time that the Wilizy family was searching for you, I was babysitting in a community in the Kootenays. I have not been involved in any of the matters coming before this court. Your motion for a mistrial is denied. Ms. Prosecutor, present your case."

### # # # # # # #

Izzy had drawn up a set of questions for Franklin to answer. They already knew the answers to all but two of the questions. They had more than enough evidence to convict him many times over for his crimes; but these two answers would provide valuable information and they were worth the trouble of the trial. Besides, it was a valuable experience for the youngsters.

As the trial progressed, Winnie had difficulty judging many of Franklin's answers. For example, to the question "Did you ever kill any of the convicts under your authority?" Franklin had answered, "No. My God made the decisions about the future of the heathens in my charge." Winnie mind-messaged to her mom. _He killed them – I can see him doing it, but he's telling the truth. What should I write?_

_Put it down as T &L._

Winnie made a similar double entry when he answered, "They wanted me to touch them" when he was asked about molesting female prisoners. He told outright lies about being involved in the killing of law officers during the Biker Gang war, and of acting as an undercover agent for Alberta. Most importantly, he was definitely lying about not knowing where Alberta's sleeper agents were hidden or knowing anything at all about Alaska's secret spy.

_He's lying and I can see their faces in his mind, but that's all,_ Winnie told Izzy.

"Your honour," Izzy called out as she rose. "This is preposterous. The accused is telling outright lies. The prosecution would like to enter the accused's own words into the record. I have a document that he wrote himself in which he gives a full accounting of his life and his actions. He called it his _manifesto_ and he signed every page. We can prove that those signatures are his. In this manifesto, he admitted to committing numerous capital crimes. The prosecution will restrict its charges of capital crimes in this trial to those that he has already admitted to in this manifesto."

"Show the document to the accused. Turn the pages for him. Do not let him handle it."

Izzy did as the judge had instructed. As she neared the end of the manifesto, Franklin tried to grab the document with his teeth – intent on eating it, presumably. Patella had a similar appetite, but not for the document. Franklin lost his taste for paper sandwiches very quickly.

"Give me one charge that you can prove from this manifesto that is a capital crime." The judge instructed Izzy.

"The accused was directly involved in the murder of numerous B.C. police officers during the biker wars."

"Show me the page where he admits this."

Izzy stepped forward and did so.

The judge read out loud for the courtroom. _I had thought that the bikers would take control of the battles in 2063. They were operating more intelligently – as a single group by that point, and had managed with my help to murder all the spotters in the towns._

"Did you write this?"

"No."

"Is this your manifesto?"

"Never saw it before."

"Is this your signature?"

"Forged."

Izzy stood up and said, "Rebuttal, your honour?"

"Granted."

"Perhaps this will refresh your memory," Izzy said. "The following conversation was recorded on Saturday, March 10, 2082 at the North Van Bistro. Your honour, the voice you will hear is that of Franklin Franklin. He is talking to Zzyk's Executive Assistant, a man named Rick."

_I arranged to have all those police spotters murdered in the Biker Wars. And even before the war started, I was feeding Zzyk confidential information that his bikers used to find and kill police in the isolated detachments. He owes me. But he did pay me for stealing B.C.'s secrets, so I'll take them off the market and destroy them._

"Mr. Franklin, you have a very distinctive voice," the judge observed. "Do you realize that you have just confessed to espionage and accessory to murder?"

Franklin's face was now the colour of the suit that he was wearing. Gray. "Invasion of privacy, your honour?"

"Not applicable in a public place," Stu ruled quickly. "The accused is found guilty of Accessory to Murder and Espionage. Both of these crimes carry the death penalty. I understand that some people in the courtroom would like to approach the bench before sentence is passed. You may do so, now."

Izzy came forward. She put her pair of Zorro shoes with their thick heavy heels on the table and said. "I wish to use these on the accused's body, preferably on his hands but I'm not picky. He knows the reason why," she said.

Next to approach the bench was Yolanda. She carried a pair of rusty scissors. "I wish to use these on the accused's body. He knows the reason why," she said. She put them on the judge's table and left.

Hank came last and held up his two fists. "I cannot leave these on the judge's table, but I show them to the accused. He knows the reason why I want to be part of the sentencing."

"The judge will retire with the applicants to decide how the sentence will be applied. Everybody else should go home now."

Wolf was the last to leave and he paused by Franklin Franklin Franklin's chair on the way out. "You better start praying, you poor old fool," Wolf admonished. "I saw my dad demolish one man's nose with a single blow. He wasn't even angry at the time. You have no idea what's waiting for you."

Franklin prayed as hard as he could.

To his surprise, his God replied. Sort of.

### # # # # # # #

"Franklin. Look at me. Come-on, boy. Look at me. Up here."

Franklin stopped his praying and looked around for the voice echoing in the chamber. It was somewhat familiar but he couldn't place it. However the face was very familiar, although he wasn't used to seeing it floating in the air up near the top of the dome.

"Father?"

"What have you done this time, boy? Tell me the truth or I'll lock you in an outhouse."

So Doc got to hear the answers to many of their questions, but he heard the truth this time. He let Franklin ramble for a bit, while he concentrated on not scratching at the beard that Hank had borrowed from an amateur theatre group and which Mac had applied with flour paste, using the family photo to make it realistic. Doc asked Franklin the two questions they were most interested in. "What are the names of Alberta's two sleepers? What's the name of the Alaska plant in the B.C. government?" Franklin answered the questions. Invisible Winnie said _Truth_ both times.

"I heard 'nuff, boy. You disappoint me. I'll be waiting for you when you get here. Bubba's here too."

"Heaven, Father?"

"Not exactly."

### # # # # # # #

About twenty years later, cultists who were determined to relive as much of the Wilizy legend as they could broke through the defenses of the Zeballos Regional Prison. Lights were duly turned on and a search was mounted. The wire cage was situated at ground level, high above anyone who might have been left in the cell block. All cell doors were open. The searchers found plenty of unopened bottled water and unopened food bars throughout the area. But they also found some bottles that were opened and some empty food wrappers. Those might have been from Will and Izzy's stay; they might not have been.

The searchers found a huge mine shaft, and they were able to descend with lights to the depths where they found a number of skeletons. But that's all they found. Skeletons. The top skeleton had a wind tunnel between his two front teeth. He also had injuries to both hands – but those were consistent with a fall from a great height. Other bones were broken too – again consistent with a fall from a great height. As to Yolanda's threat – time and rats had taken away what would have been needed to prove that she had been serious about what she would do to Franklin.

The searchers concluded that Franklin had received justice. Perhaps it was at the hands of the Wilizy. Perhaps Franklin had been left in the dark to wander around the prison and he died at the will of his God. They couldn't determine which. The reader can do some thinking on it.

### # # # # # # #

Franklin's demise was the topic of discussion in another location far away from the Zeballos Prison that March in 2082.

Rick was delivering the news to Zzyk that Will and Izzy had undoubtedly escaped Franklin's prison. Rick had immediately sensed the danger as he and Franklin had walked deep into the prison searching for them. "Somebody was going to die there," Rick said. "I could feel it. All the Wilizy had to do was shut off all the lights and raise the elevator. I left the prison as quickly as I could taking Franklin with me."

"So he's safe?"

"He flew me to my copter and then the fool went back to get his money. I waited a couple of hours and flew over the prison, just to see. His copter was parked outside the main gates. I didn't hang around. The Wilizy could have had any number of weapons pointed at me from the hills."

"Franklin?"

"The Wilizy would have used him to enter the prison and rescue Will and Izzy. All they had to do was tape his eyelids open. The keypad codes would be easily obtainable from the old fool – either with chemicals or torture. Then they'd leave him there."

"Dead or alive?"

"Wouldn't matter. Leave him alive in the dark and he'd be dead soon enough."

"Who purchased Izzy?"

"Nobody. Franklin wanted her for himself. She duped him into releasing her from her cell, helped Will get out of his cell with at least one if not two hidden knives, and then hid somewhere in the dark tunnels when we came in. Other Wilizy were waiting outside for Franklin to return to the prison. It was an obvious place for him to store his retirement fund. An old man beguiled by a young body. Happens all the time."

Zzyk looked sharply at Rick at that point, and pondered. "Yes, I expect it does," Zzyk said.

"Why did you want Izzy? Zurt would be useless to you. He'd be a danger if you left him alive. You couldn't use her to control him."

"I planned to personally supervise her long, slow death."

"Well, you still might get your wish. She's alive, but still vulnerable."

"Explain."

"I planted a few rumours that got the WZBN boards hopping with concerns that Will and Izzy had been kidnapped. Everybody jumped on board – worrying about Will and Izzy and besieging the WZBN for answers. That prompted a Wilizy response informing everyone that Will and Izzy were safe."

"Why did you do that?"

"A stupid old man captured Will and Izzy while they were making a public appearance. Obviously this was a huge hole in their security. I wanted to see if the Wilizy were still vulnerable to public pressure. They are."

"How is that going to help us? If we use public pressure to find them, we still can't defeat the defenses at their compound."

"Why would they only have one command center? You don't have one command center. Why would they? Their second command center has to be mobile, because we've seen how they can battle anywhere in B.C., the Aboriginal Nation, or in Alberta. Since it's mobile, they can't hide that command post behind defensive armaments. This means we can defeat them in a shooting war. All we have to do is find their mobile command center and then engage them in a battle away from their compound. It's out there somewhere. Perhaps disguised and in clear view."

"I'll do some thinking on it," Zzyk said.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 43

Tuesday afternoon, March 13.

The Wilizy's debriefing meeting was scheduled for 1 p.m. in the community hall and by 12:45, all nineteen Wilizy members were milling around – Patella now counting as one of the nineteen. Franklin's trial had concluded an hour earlier, so the buzz was all about the trial and how Franklin had looked so guilty. Some of the older members were trying to find out Franklin's fate, but Stu had issued a gag order because young children had been involved in the operations and he didn't want details of what happened to Franklin Franklin getting back to them. Izzy took the opportunity to ask Hank, Yolanda and Granny to meet with her at 4:00 that afternoon in the Wilizy.

Winnie and Reese were the first to take seats in the very front row of the community hall. Both of them had played big roles in these operations and they were excited about being included in the adult part of the meeting. They were chattering back and forth about what they had done in the operations. Reese was bragging how he had shot some cannons, built a fire inside the ship, and was a bailiff. Winnie countered with her role as a court recorder and a liar detector. They both agreed that Winnie had more to brag about because she was allowed to eat a lot of chocolates that Doc had licked first!

Mathias was off by himself. This desire to be by himself had nothing to do with any after effects of the trial. No, his solitude was because Theo had passed on to him one of the family's greatest treasures – at least as far as the boys in the family were concerned. This treasure was the big wooden crate of tiny toy soldiers that their father and grandfather had played with when they were boys. The big box was handed down from one child to the next who "owned" it for so long as he was still using it regularly. Yollie had owned it for about one minute. Theo decided to pass the box on to Mathias today because now that he had been in a real battle, he wasn't interested in pretending to fight battles with little plastic toys. Mathias was in the back of the room unpacking the box and putting his soldiers, tanks, and artillery into their respective armies, as revealed by their faded colours.

Liset had a corner of the room to herself as well. TG and Yollie would be taking turns sitting with her on her blanket and keeping her amused. They were hoping that her amusement would be restricted to the quiet things that they had brought.

Izzy rapped on the table at the front of the room and the meeting began. First on the agenda were heartfelt thanks from Will and Izzy on being rescued. Izzy made a special point of recognizing Hank and Mac for their leadership but also stressed that this had been a full family effort and without that effort, the operations would not have been successful and she and Will would not be standing here today. She asked Hank to summarize what each family member had contributed – she and Will not yet aware of all of the details of all of the battles. Izzy had asked Mac to share that duty with Hank, but she had declined.

### # # # # # # #

The debriefing had now progressed to revealing how certain aspects to the battle had been conducted. Stu was curious how the rescue had been completed so easily when the prison's defenses had seemed so difficult to crack. He asked Izzy, "How did you open up the prison's security so easily? Wasn't everything protected by iris scans and key codes?"

Izzy began: "I was munching on a food bar and drinking from a water bottle while we were waiting to be rescued, and that got me thinking about how the prison could have handled the job of providing food and water to so many prisoners. FF had described the security system to me – how there were these tiny gates that people had to go through. That system never would have worked for bringing huge amounts of food and drink into the prison. I figured that they had to have a hidden cargo bay where trucks could come into the prison and unload."

"After Winnie brought me my sling, I went looking for it. I saw how wide the tunnels were and figured that the cargo was being brought in through the front gate. That meant that the big gates could be opened and the little gates avoided. When I saw the utility room with a whole bank of the electrical switches labeled _Security_ , I knew what the prison guards did when trucks arrived. They just turned off the entire security system and let the prison staff bring all the food in on dollies. That wasn't a security risk because the prisoners couldn't climb up to ground level. Meanwhile, Mac was working on an entirely different way of helping us to escape. I'll ask her to describe that to you, but first, in case you haven't heard yet, Mac has agreed to be our permanent Battle Field Commander."

To a strenuous round of applause that Mac acknowledged with a sheepish "Sorry about the military speak," she took over the podium. "When TG and Yollie were taking their drones through the prison, I saw that the iris scanner was still hooked up to the computers. After we found the back door that would allow Winnie into the prison, I figured we'd be able to use her to open the gates. First, we'd find out what the passwords to the key pads were by having Yollie's and TG's drones follow FF into the mine. After FF found evidence of Will and Izzy's death, he'd leave the mine. At that point, Winnie would come in through the back door again, she'd fly up to the computer room, TG would put a drone into the room, and he'd mind-message Winnie through the process of scanning her irises into the system. Then, she'd be able to pass through all the tiny gates to the front entrance and let us in. We'd have Franklin captured by that point, so it would look like he had let us in. Izzy's plan was easier, so we went with that."

Izzy's turn: "But having two people working on a plan from different directions worked out well for us. Even though we didn't use Mac's idea for getting in, it was still a good idea that led to something neither of us had imagined. Mac is going to explain."

Mac resumed the explanation. "When I was able to enter the prison and saw how big it was, and how empty it was, I realized that we could use its security system for us instead of against us. We're going to make the prison a Wilizy safe place. Perhaps we'll use it to store cargo from pirated ships, for example. Or, perhaps a storage area for Wizard's purchases. We can't continue to haul stuff through Yolanda's house and store them in Hank's caves. The alternative of storing invisible pallets in the sky is risky. What happens if someone sees a bird bounce off one of them?"

"In addition to providing us with ample storage space, the prison could be a safe hole in case one of us needs to hide. Perhaps we might use it as a secret command center. There could be any number of ways of using a prison that only we can access. Plus as you've seen, it's built into a mountain so nobody is going to be bombing it. That's why we've scanned everyone's irises into the system, but they're stored under the names of the old prison guards in case somebody finds the files. TG has disabled the keypad entry routine to make it easier for the youngsters. I'm going to put some decent food supplies into the prison's staff room. This won't be a comfortable place for any of us to stay, but it will be safe."

"Mac, how'd you find the back door to the cell block," Stu asked. "Is it possible that someone could get in that way?"

"I only found it because the prison officials left their air conditioning on when they shut the prison down. Or perhaps FF turned it on. After we had inserted the drones into the cell block, I saw Will and Izzy huddling under blankets and wondered why they were shivering. Deep in a mine, you'd think that the temperature would be warmer than outside. Instead it was colder. I figured that it had to be air conditioning, or at the least, a reaction to air that was being blown into the mine for breathing purposes. If the air supply was being constantly replenished, that meant that a fan was active somewhere and it had to have air vents to the outside. Heat from that equipment had to be visible. So I told Wolf to turn on the heat sensors on the Wilizy and we saw bright red spots all over the hillside. They were all overgrown with vegetation but we managed to find a vent that was big enough for Winnie and Patella to use. We've turned the fans off now, so finding any of those air vents will be extremely difficult."

With no further questions on the prison break, Mac left the podium and took a seat in the back row of the audience. Winnie took that opportunity to find Will and put her arms up in the "Would you lift me up, please" signal. Will immediately brought Winnie up to his chest and she put her arms around his neck and burrowed in. Will clasped his arms under her bum and left the building with Patella in a dead run to catch up. Everyone saw the hasty exit and the room went quiet. We may assume that there was a flurry of mind-messages and then Yolanda announced that Winnie would be OK; she just needed to be alone with Will in a quiet place.

### # # # # # # #

The questions had now moved to the operation against Bubba Franklin. By this time, Mac had moved to Mathias' battle field at the back of the room. She had brought two of the folding chairs with her and had laid them on their sides so that they could serve as forts, or ambush sites, or mountains, or whatever. Mathias was now crouched behind one chair and a line of soldiers was exiting his position. Mac was hiding behind the other chair and she was bringing out her long range artillery. Mac was listening with one ear to the conversation, but her input wasn't needed. Granny asked the only question about that particular operation.

"What's happened to all those women and children who had been abused in Bubba's camp?"

Wizard replied in a round-about fashion. "We returned the secret reports that Franklin stole to the B.C. government, however they didn't want his money. They didn't want to have to explain how he had been able to take money from Zzyk for several decades without the government knowing about it. So they gave his stash to us in the understanding that the source of the money would be kept confidential. I'd like to put all of FF's money into a Wilizy Trust for Abused Children. We'd invest the money in ways to make it grow and use the proceeds to fund some programs that would help children recover from attacks by pedophiles. I haven't had time to work out the details yet, but I'll probably put a proposal forward at our next Director's meeting."

_[Narrator: Wizard did indeed put that proposal forward and it was unanimously approved. In future, any valuables like cash or gold that the Wilizy recovered during one of their operations would be placed in this fund. The Wilizy Fund for the Treatment of Abused Children is still active to this day.]_

As to how Franklin had been able to capture Will and Izzy in the first place, Doc asked the question designed to make sure this could never happen again. "What are we going to do about strangers being able to feel our slings or braided rings? Do we all have to stay out of crowds?"

Izzy was filling in for Will who had not returned yet with Winnie. "Will had a lot of time to think about that while he was relaxing in Camp Franklin," she said. "He told me that he has a solution, but it could take some time to create it. He has a number of other ideas that came out of Camp Franklin that will take priority. One change that he's going to make immediately is to include TG and Wolf in more of the science research from now on. That was Mac's idea, by the way."

### # # # # # # #

Izzy wanted to give the pirates a lot of attention in the meeting, so when nobody had any questions about that battle, she asked them if they had any suggestions for making such an operation go more smoothly in the future.

"We ran out of peanut butter," Reese said.

"More star trek bots but add their movies too." This from Theo.

Mathias looked up from his soldiers and suggested "Stoves that don't burn food."

"I was sort of thinking along the lines of strategy suggestions," Izzy said. "Did you win your battle easily? Was the weaponry sufficient? Did you have any difficulty moving in and out of invisibility? Was there anything particularly dangerous that you weren't prepared for? Those kinds of things. Lucas?"

Lucas looked at his dad and Hank answered in his place. By the time he was finished, the group knew about Alaska's light ship, their light planes, their weaponry, and how high one had to fly to avoid their bubbles. They also learned that Lucas had taken the initiative of trailing their aircraft carrier back to its base in Anchorage, Alaska – a base that is completely concealed from the air and which the Wilizy wouldn't have known about without Lucas' daring. And none of Lucas' information could have been gained if he hadn't had Theo to take control of the Wilizy/Asia and a good crew to bring her home. "A first class job, boys," Hank concluded. "I expect Will is going to be flying over Anchorage in the near future."

_Praising Lucas for being daring is like pouring kerosene on an open flame_ , Yolanda mind-messaged to Granny. Granny nodded and asked Lucas, "What the heck is a jolly lucas."

Reese answered before Lucas could shush him. "It's a flag that we made. I have a picture on my pinky computer. Wanna see?"

"Oh, my," Granny said. Then, she rallied. "Very ... uh .... interesting. This was your arts and crafts project?"

"May I see?" Hank said. Granny obliged. The flag showed a giant kangaroo with a black eye patch and a sword in its right hand. The left hand was lifted in a salute. The kind of salute that required the use of only one finger. Hank described the flag for the audience. "Care to explain where you got the idea for this, Captain?" he said.

"From a bot that was on the ship about the animals in Australia," Lucas started. He then went into what would have become a rambling description of how they had found the bot, and read about the kangaroo, and cut a picture and pasted, ....

"You know, I've heard that the one finger salute is very common in Australia," Hank interrupted.

"It is, Dad," Reese said. "We saw it being used all the time."

Oops.

"I thought Granny had said you couldn't fly far from the ship."

The Wilizy/Asia crew had nothing to say.

"Commander-in-Chief notes the stellar results of your battle with the North Korean freighter and so punishment will be adjusted accordingly. The crew of the Wilizy/Asia are hereby denied their daily tot of rum for this week."

"Dad," Reese started. "What's..."

_Shut up, Reese_ Lucas sent before his dad could change his mind.

### # # # # # # #

As for Will, he was circling far above Anchorage at that very moment and leaving invisible repeater stations with cameras in his wake. When faced with the choice of flying with Winnie in circles for several hours, or flying in a straight line to Alaska and back for several hours, Will had chosen to multi-task. Winnie was now sound asleep on his chest, and Patella was snoring while curled up on his legs. Both Patella's and Winnie's legs were twitching together in synchronization. Sharing the same dream. Will felt his own legs starting to react. He turned the sling around and vibrated his way home.

### # # # # # # #

All that remained now was for Yollie to name the battles. She called the battle against Bubba _Shock and Awe_ after Patella's charge into Bubba's belly and the reaction Bubba had to Mac's appearance. The rescue from the prison was named _Jailhouse Rock_ and, of course, the battle against the freighter had to be called _Hoist the Jolly Lucas._

Yollie ended the meeting with two surprise announcements. TG had proposed to her the day before Will and Izzy had been captured and she had said _Yes_. Tonight there'd be a grand celebration. Some might call it a wedding.

### # # # # # # #

Izzy and Granny had just left the community hall when Mac came running up from behind and stopped them.

"That operation name – Hoist the Jolly Lucas," she said. "Did either of you think that was kind of weird?"

"No," Izzy replied. "We all heard Lucas tell Theo to hoist the jolly lucas. Seemed like a good operation name to me. Why?"

"I did some more research on my great-great-grandfather, the writer. I couldn't find him before because I had been searching for books that he might have sold. He never actually sold any books. That's why I couldn't find any records. He did actually write some though. Including a book with pirates in it."

"Yeah, you told us about the pirate angle," Izzy said. "Writing is difficult. Not everyone can be successful."

"Well, it's more than that. One of my great-great-grandfather's books was titled _Hoist the Jolly Lucas._ He published it in 2014. I double checked. That was definitely the title."

"Wow," Izzy exclaimed. "That's weird. Your ancestor wrote a book sixty-nine years ago that has exactly the same name as the operation Lucas ran. Why are you looking so upset?"

"Well I can't help but wonder if perhaps the book that he wrote has a Mac in it. Obviously, it had a Lucas in it. Plus pirates. What if it had a Will too? And a Granny? And an Izzy? What if he had been writing about us?"

"You mean, we could be characters in a science fiction book? Wouldn't that mean that we aren't real people?"

Granny leaned across Izzy's body and pinched Mac on the arm.

"Ouch," Mac said. "Why'd you do that?"

"I felt warm flesh," Granny said. "You felt pain. If we were characters in a novel, would we have warm flesh and feel pain?"

"I know. I know. We're not fictional characters. But he wrote a book with the exact same title. And since he was a science fiction writer, he was writing about something that he imagined would happen in the future, and we're living in what would have been his future . . . Don't you think that's weird?"

"You could have a weird gene in your family, Mac." Izzy, teasing her.

"There were some rumblings in the family that he was kind of weird. My grandma Lily remembered him making funny faces at her. She said that he also told puns."

"Nice people don't tell puns," Granny declared. "Put it out of your mind, Mac. Lots of people have a weird person in their family Mac. It's no reflection on you."

"I know. It's embarrassing, that's all. I mean, he could have put puns in his books."

"That would explain why he didn't sell any," Granny concluded.

"So you're saying it's just a coincidence that we had an operation named the same as the title of one of his books." Mac, seeking reassurance.

"Sure. What else could it be?" Izzy replied. "The only other explanation is that he's travelling ahead in time, watching our operations, going back to his own time, and then writing about them."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 44

From Izzy's journals: Tuesday afternoon, March 13.

After the debriefing, Hank, Yolanda, Granny and I retreated to the Wilizy – the community hall having become a swirl of activity as everyone pitched in to prepare it for a wedding. Mac had been part of the secret and had been buying all sorts of food and treats. Now, she was helping organize the kitchen while Stu took care of the cooking. Wolf and Winnie were on the cutting boards. The boys were putting up decorations and cleaning. TG and Yollie had volunteered to help but had been sent packing – as in packing for their honeymoon.

Back in the Wilizy, I placed four kitchen chairs in the living room in the shape of a cross. Two chairs were back to back facing east-west, and two were back to back facing north-south. The four of us were all sitting in the chairs, facing outwards. If we turned our heads, we could see each other, but if we stared straight out, it was like being by one-self. Nobody argued with me when I set the chairs up this way, but I did get some questioning looks when they sat down.

"I feel awkward about meeting with the three of you and telling you some things that I have discovered. I don't really want you looking at me when I'm talking and I believe you won't want anyone looking at you either. That's why we are sitting back to back. I got the idea for this kind of discussion setting from Yolanda when she had to have a difficult discussion with me. At least it was difficult for me, not sure about Yolanda. She had brought me into a dark root cellar. I found it easier to talk, and listen, when I didn't feel Yolanda's eyes on me. In the prison, Will and I were sitting back to back when we had an emotional moment; it went a lot better because we didn't have to look at each other. Thought I'd try that here. I don't know how it's going to go. I do know that it's going to be a difficult discussion for all of us, so bear with me please. I owe the three of you an awful lot; I'm trying to repay part of what I owe you this afternoon."

"Once upon a time, there was a single mother and a daughter," I began. "The daughter was in her early teenage years, and she became close to a teenage boy, only he was older than her. This older boy had a bad reputation in the small community. The mother knew this – not only from what her friends told her, but also because she had the ability to sense the boy's personality. She saw nothing but violence in this boy. Violence swirling around him way off into the future. She told her daughter this. She repeatedly warned her. The daughter told her that she sensed something else, something honourable in the boy. They fought about this. They became estranged from each other when the boy left their community and her daughter followed him."

"The mother was deeply hurt by this. She knew that her daughter was living with the boy, and that meant they were having sex. Her daughter had sworn that she wouldn't have sex before marriage, and in the mother's religious upbringing, this vow was taken very seriously. When the mother started hearing tales from her friends in other communities that her daughter was flirting with men in bars in outfits that revealed her to be a prostitute, was drinking, and was staying in hotel rooms with her boy friend, she considered her daughter lost."

"The mother's instincts were completely correct. Her reading of the boy was accurate and she had come to rely heavily on those readings. She had always been right in her assessments before. Indeed, violence was going to follow this young man wherever he went. But she couldn't know that the violence would be directed at the people who would harm her daughter, not at the daughter herself. As for the actions of her daughter, they were just as her friends had told her. Except for a few critical missing pieces of information."

"First, the daughter was not having sex with her boyfriend, and I can prove that."

I sensed Granny stiffen at the point.

"The daughter didn't have sex with her boyfriend until she reached her eighteenth birthday. As to her questionable behaviour, she and her boyfriend were operating undercover for the RCMP. The mother found out about this some time later, but by this time, the estrangement was unresolvable. As to why the daughter hadn't told her about the undercover work, the girl had a solid reason. Initially she had gone into undercover work with her boyfriend with the sole purpose of protecting him from danger while he rooted out criminals. She couldn't reveal that to her mother afterwards, because she knew that her mother's attitude towards her boy friend would change significantly. Her friends and other acquaintances would notice that change. The only protection that the girl and her boy friend had from the criminals that surrounded them was their own bad reputation. If that bad reputation came into question, their lives would be forfeited."

"A significant event happened to the couple one night while they were operating undercover. The girl was surrounded by bikers and attacked. Their intent was obvious. The boy friend came into the bar and his life also was immediately threatened. The girl found a way to kill four of the bikers; the boy friend handled the fifth. The mother has probably not heard about this event until right now. She wouldn't have known that the attack in the bar wasn't an accidental encounter. Not even the young couple knew that until this minute. Franklin arranged the whole thing with Zzyk. The girl was to be brutally assaulted; the boy would be forced to watch and then he'd be killed. As would she. Franklin didn't want them interfering with his habit of sexually assaulting young women in his community."

I had their full attention now but had to stop for a bit. Both Granny and Yolanda were sniffling; Hank was rigid. My voice was breaking up. I couldn't imagine what that bar would have been like that night.

"From this one terrible event, good things happened. The boy conceived of a plan to attack the bikers, and from there, they discovered the bikers were an armed militia stationed in Alberta. The boy friend's message of defiance to the biker gangs became a rallying call for the formation of the Aboriginal Nation. What wasn't known, until recently, was that the girl had played a much more vital role in this initiative than previously thought. Franklin had attempted to assault her in a prison cell; she fought him off, threatened him with grievous bodily harm, and they made a pact. She'd let Franklin live, but in return, he couldn't block her boy friend's plan. The fact that the daughter found a way to control Franklin, while keeping him in place to advance her boy friend's plan was a master stroke of cunning, but the girl has felt guilty about it ever since, in part because she had kept a secret from her boy friend, now her husband. They have worked that out. But, this will be the first time that her mother has heard of what her daughter did for her husband, and for the Aboriginal Nation."

"The daughter herself is ignorant of something that her mother did for her, her boy friend, and for the Aboriginal Nation as well. All parties involved in this story have kept secrets – all for what they thought at the time were very good reasons. But it's time for **all** these secrets to be revealed."

"Once the daughter reached her eighteenth birthday, she and her boyfriend began having sex. But carefully. An unwanted pregnancy would be disastrous because they were in the middle of a war with the bikers. The bikers had sworn to kill both of them, and the couple was not only fighting for their lives, but for the lives of others in the land where Zzyk wanted to occupy. The girl acted as spotter for her boy friend, and as coordinator of all of their activities. When she realized that she was pregnant, she would have been devastated. In part because she had been so careful in obtaining birth control protection, but also because she would soon be a liability in the field. They agreed that she would hide away in a small valley where nobody could find her while her husband carried on with his war. He was a very proficient hunter and the odds were slowly lessening. He would just pick the bikers off individually. Meanwhile, they sent word to the mother that her daughter was pregnant and needed her help. For a brief time, mother and daughter were reunited in an uneasy relationship."

"This changed when the boy friend was almost killed. He escaped with a broken arm and perhaps other injuries. Somehow he got word to the mother that his battle was almost lost. Perhaps he warned her that her daughter would have to be moved soon. Whatever the message he sent, the mother reacted differently than he had expected. She grabbed her giant bow and joined him in his battle. She didn't tell her daughter what she was doing. Telling her that her boy friend was near death? Telling her that she herself would soon be engaged in killing people – something that was absolutely forbidden by her religion? She couldn't do it. It was at that time, that the mother gave up her religion in order to save the daughter and her unborn child. In her own mind, the mother considered herself a sinful woman for the murders she would commit, but she felt she had no other choice."

"The mother and the boy friend reached an uneasy compromise. He would be sworn to secrecy. The mother didn't want her daughter to know of the sins that she would be committing. In return, she would fight by his side. They became an effective fighting machine. Two hunters, both deadly with a silent bow. Either one of them capable of sending the message of defiance – the arrow through the throat so deep into the trunk of the tree that it could not be extracted. The boy friend's arm healed and the biker numbers diminished quickly after that."

"As the birth of the girl's baby drew closer, I believe that the two hunters made a deliberate mistake that would draw the five remaining bikers into an ambush. It was successful and in a night attack, all five were killed by the silent big bows. But the mother received a grave injury, one that left her unable to walk and which needed more treatment than the first aid that the boy friend could give her. Somehow he moved her to a medical clinic – the records of which I have seen. She was there for several months before being discharged. She was healthy, but she would walk with a limp from that point on. She knew that she was too late to be with her daughter when her first child was born."

"The baby did not make it through the nine months. The girl barely did herself. Everybody blamed himself or herself. The girl friend blamed herself for the death because she had fallen into a depression in mid term, in part because of loneliness and from feeling deserted, and in part, because of not being able to handle the pain she was experiencing from the pregnancy. The mother considered the dead baby as a sign from her God that her sins had been recorded and that she should never have deserted her daughter like she had deserted Him. The boy friend blamed himself for leaving his girl friend alone and taking on the war against the bikers. He should have run away and hidden with her. But he hadn't been able to do that."

"The three people never talked about this event with each other – at least not to reveal their hidden thoughts and the secrets they had been bound to respect by situations outside their control. What the three don't realize is that the girl's difficult pregnancy had nothing to do with angry gods or mistake made by anyone. On this I have absolute proof. Franklin and Zzyk caused that difficult pregnancy in an attempt to murder the girl and get revenge on the boy friend. Franklin sabotaged the condoms by putting a pin through each of them. In addition, he covered each with a poison that Zzyk gave him that would, at the very least, make the girl's pregnancy nearly impossible to bear. If they were lucky, she'd die a long slow death. They were the ones who were responsible for the death of that baby. The three of you were not."

An uncomfortable silence engulfed the living room. I rose to leave. They needed to talk by themselves.

"Hank and I were married before we had sex," Yolanda said as Izzy stepped away. "It was just a personal ceremony; we exchanged vows properly at 12:01 on the morning of my eighteenth birthday. I believe that I got pregnant that morning. I thought it would be a beautiful baby. What I gave birth to was a monster. I buried it in a place nobody would find and I didn't tell anyone what I had given birth to. I didn't want anyone to know what my body had created."

I noticed that both Granny and Yolanda's hands had found each other behind their chairs. Hank's hands joined them as I left.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 45

From Izzy's journals: Tuesday evening, March 13.

I hadn't expected to find the wedding so moving. Hank walked down the aisle in the community hall with Yollie and Yolanda did the same for TG who was carrying Liset. Then Hank, Yolanda and Liset sat down and Doc started. He said that he hadn't been part of an aboriginal wedding ceremony for over fifty years and had forgotten most of what should be said. For their part, Hank, Yolanda and Granny couldn't remember ever being in a formal wedding ceremony at all. For that reason, what followed would be their attempt to recreate an evening that they thought would reflect the family's values.

Doc started with this speech.

"Today we are a large extended family living together in one community and sharing in all of the tasks and chores of a household. Yet each nuclear family is separate. Everybody helps to educate our children so that they understand the important of family and family history. When problems arise, each family participates in determining its solution. This is how the ancients lived – inside what they referred to as the _big house_. This building we are in tonight is now **our** big house and this marriage between Yollie and TG will be our first formal ceremony as an extended family. I hope that there will be many more."

After that, Doc spoke in his own language and I couldn't follow much after that. I did understand the significance of Granny's gift to them of two feathers that were tied so tightly together that they could never be separated. Then she spoke.

"I'm proud of Hank and Yolanda for the way they have taught their family how to live a moral life. To make difficult vows and to stick to them in spite of enormous pressures; to stand up for the weak and the oppressed in spite of facing personal danger; to inspire their children to follow the Aboriginal Nation's motto. _The Aboriginal Nation protects its own. We fight to the death. We don't run away._ Most of you will not know this, but Hank and Yolanda created that motto and made it popular. They were one of the main reasons that the Aboriginal Nation was formed. They are great parents and Yollie and TG will do well to follow their footsteps."

In the hubbub that followed, Granny stepped down from the little stage and Yolanda came up to greet her. They did something that I had never seen before. They hugged each other. Granny put her left hand on Yolanda's cheek and caressed it while she brought her lips to Yolanda's other cheek and kissed that. The exact same way that Yolanda had comforted both Yollie and me. I could see them whispering to each other and Granny kissed her again. I began to tear up but could see enough to know that Hank was next to be embraced, in exactly the same manner. I was looking down wiping my eyes when Yolanda appeared in front of me and pulled me to the front. I was the next to be drawn into the Granny embrace and by this time, tears were streaming down my face. I could feel them on Granny's cheek as she caressed one of my cheeks and kissed the other. "For too long this family has been broken," she whispered to me. "You have brought us together and for that we will be eternally grateful."

The room fell quiet as the family realized what was happening at the front of the room. I felt myself brought into a circle with Granny, Hank, and Yolanda and we hung together for the longest time. Not a further word was said; we were all openly bawling, even Hank's great stone face was slick with tears. I felt a most intense something – I can't describe it. I'd like to believe that it's the feeling that a baby has when it's in its mother's womb. Being surrounded by love and entirely safe within its embrace. Then someone found Hank's makeshift drum and started a beat, and the family joined in with their hands and their feet and the beat quickened and quickened until it was a roar of thunder and then we were all in an embrace.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Books in the Wilizy series

As of November, 2019, there were twenty free novels in the Wilizy series. Check below to see if you've missed any.

**Book #1: I Got'cha**

If you think being a teenager in today's world is tough, try being one in 2081. In Alberta's It's Only Fair society, your brain-band will zap you just for chewing with your mouth open. One boy pried his brain-band off to see what living with emotions would be like. Being chased by the entire Alberta army was bad enough. It became worse when another 15 year old kid offered to help him escape.

**Book #2: The Get-Even Bird**

Will and Izzy are forced to flee from Zzyk's army. After months away from Alberta, they fly their sailing ship into B.C. thinking that they would be safe there. Bad mistake! Izzy is captured. All Will has to do to save her life is turn himself in for a free brain-band fitting appointment. That's what happens when you wear a Zorro costume to a dance.

**Book #3: Assassination Day**

A DPS technician offers to defect if the Wilizy will rescue his daughter from _The Citadel_ – some super smart military people who are friends with Zzyk. Izzy thinks that their new recruit is an assassin, but Yollie insists that he's a decent man. Can assassins be decent men? It will take a hair-raising experience to find out.

**Book #4: Hoist the Jolly Lucas**

It's bad enough that Zzyk pins the blame for two assassinations on Izzy and launches a full out assault on their home compound. But then, another enemy takes advantage of a security lapse to get revenge for a war that happened 20 years ago. The Wilizy are left reeling with two key members kidnapped and stashed where they can't be found, let alone rescued. For the family to survive, everybody must enter the battle. The story is as much about the past as it is about the present.

**Book #5: Teenage Mutant Ninja Torpedoes** (Yes, this is a Wilizy book.)

Mac disappears and doesn't want to be found. Will and Wolf use time-travel to search for her and discover secrets she wouldn't want them to know. The Alaskans attack when Will is finding out what happens to a submarine's air when it is lying helpless on the ocean floor. Between the Alaskans' impenetrable fortress and their bubblegum weapons, life is going to get a little sticky for the Wilizy.

**Book #6: Bob, the Invisible Dragon**

Raging hormones as well as Raging Gardeners play key roles when young Wilizy warriors are attacked and the Wilizy's scientific marvels offer no protection. The youngsters' future will rely on a different kind of warrior protecting them. Warning: events at the end of the story will move quickly. They certainly won't _drag on_.

**Book #7: Nary, Nary, Quite Contrary**

Theo and Lucas move to Toronto to live on their own. Both meet girls but neither is brave enough to introduce his new friend to the family. They wouldn't have the time anyway, what with villains trying to assassinate them and Voodoo royalty greeting them as though they were Voodoo gods. At the end of the story, Lucas receives a surprise Boxing Day gift that leaves him speechless.

**Book #8: Maddy's a Baddy**

Maddy had escaped from Big Momma only to find herself all alone in the cold and begging for food in Eastern Canada. While she's trying to return to her home in Seattle, the Wilizy have their own problems. Everybody in the family is intent on bringing the judge to justice for what he did to Lucas. It would have been so easy for them to rescue Maddy, but they didn't know anything about her.

**Book #9: Bite Me!**

Spurred on by Marie's desire to eat a meal with her former slave masters, the Wilizy plan to put Safe Haven ranches out of business. In the process, they encounter two foreign assassins intent on abducting Maddy. Theo and Nary become closer but a red-eyed chaperone does not approve. The Wilizy's war with Safe Haven starts with a bang but ends with a whimper.

**Book #10: Wheelchair Moccasins!**

A 13 year old girl pretends to turn to prostitution to gain her freedom from her crime boss father. In Wilizy family news, Winnie agrees not to meddle in Mathias' love life. No, the world isn't ending, so long as you don't have a green vegetable for your name. Best advice ever? If somebody wearing moccasins and sitting in a wheelchair offers to sing you to sleep... run!

**Book #11: Trial by Nick**

After the Scandinavians attack their home base, Winnie develops an idea for defeating Crown Prince Wilhelm that is a dramatic departure from their normal military battles. In their personal lives, the Toronto teenagers have to become schnobs to keep their basketball futures alive, Lucas and Lylah begin dating, and two of EmmaGee's personalities leave her body.

**Book #12. Tickled Pink**

A man uses his unlimited wealth and power to assault women without fear of legal consequences. If they object, he'll humiliate them publicly and ruin their lives. If they don't stand up to him, their lives as they knew them will be over. But how do you fight a man who is above the law? Here's how. The Raging Gardeners help the women while Winnie attacks him where he isn't looking.

**Book #13: Second Base**

Granny and Doc enjoy a spirited life in their new Australian house while Bean has to adjust to her mother joining her in the Wilizy cadet camp. She meets a charming man with country pumpkin witticisms whose entire life is dedicated to becoming a cold blooded killer. Meanwhile, Safe Haven's impenetrable offices aren't as safe as they thought they were.

**Book #14: Old Stone Face**

Bean moves to Toronto with her sheriff who takes a job as a private detective. Before long, he's trying to bring a mad scientist to justice - the same man that Winnie is after. With both the Wilizy and a countrified sheriff after the same man, you'd think he'd be easy to catch. Too bad there are no laws about a mad scientist killing twenty-one babies.

**Book #15: Remember the Halocracy**

Reese finds Annika - his first, and only, girl friend. For reasons that nobody fully understands, he sort of kidnaps her but she willingly accompanies him to the far side of globe. Reese figures out later that she could be trying to seduce him when in fact, she's actually going to try to kill him.

**Book #16: Coffee Can Kill Ya!**

Convincing Paula's brother to give her a proper share of her parents' estate had seemed so easy. Turned out that it wasn't so easy after all. In the Wilizy's defense, murdering extra-terrestrials that tried to kidnap a corpse created unique challenges. To their credit, the Wilizy dealt with those. But, how do you deal with something that you can't see and don't even know exists?

**Book #17: Nice Birthday Party, Governor.**

Plot twists abound as the Wilizy take on the Colorado government and the NORAD military simultaneously. Maddy quits the cadet corp to run a secret operation that ends in a one-on-one battle. Melissa breaks Reese out of jail and Cowboy shows his dramatic talents, which do not include stripping. Winnie directs two dramatic productions but only one of these involves wearing respectable clothes.

**Book #18: The Tale of the Scorpion's Tail**

The Wilizy have to neutralize NORAD's nuclear missiles while defeating their air force without causing any casualties. A special weapon (guided bird poop) will be needed. Meanwhile, Heaven's guardian angels are under attack from within. The key to success? Rescuing a gerbil imprisoned in an escape-proof cage. "Molly Moonblossom" and "Nympho Maniac" play key roles. One of these actors is Winnie.

**Book #19: Brunhilda, the Steamroller.**

Billy Bump resurfaces and plans Maddy's death. Winnie accepts a secret mission but runs afoul of Yolanda, who is sure that she has a boyfriend. Yolanda's vision that Winnie will be attacked comes true. Demonic infiltrators into Heaven escape detection when the steamroller named Brunhilda prosecutes Arthur and finds him guilty. This time, he won't be going back to guardian angel school.

**Book #20: Lock Up Your Corn Starch!**

While Paula, Winnie and Arthur are on a perilous mission for Heaven, the Wilizy family is trying to rescue Charlie and Sheila from prison. Wilizy forces battle demented escaped convicts intent on slaughtering innocent victims to help a brown supremacist politician win an election. If you're intent on going to Hell when you die, be sure to read this book for a preview of what's waiting for you.

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# About the Author

David J. Wighton is a retired educator who enjoys writing youth novels when he's not on a basketball court coaching middle-school girls. The books in his Wilizy series peek at how people lived after the word's governments collapsed in the chaos that followed the catastrophic rise in ocean levels and the disappearance of the world's last deposits of oil.

Wighton's novels have strong teenage characters driving the plot and facing challenges that, in many respects, are no different from what teenagers face today. His novels are intended to entertain and readers will find adventure, romance, suspense, humour, a strong focus on family, plus a touch of whimsy. Wighton also writes to provoke a little thought about life in today's societies and what the future might bring. Teachers may find the series useful in the classroom and the novels are priced with that intent in mind.

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