

#### Nary, Nary, Quite Contrary

#### by David J. Wighton

#### Book #7 in the Wilizy Series

### Smashwords Edition

### Copyright 2015, 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.

### Although this e-book might be sold at no cost to the reader at times, I retain ownership of the copyright and may elect to charge a small amount for its purchase at times.

# Acknowledgements

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

Cover design by Rita Toews at WordPress.com

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

# Cast of Characters

**Wilizy Family Members as of September 2085**

• Doc and Granny, about 74 years old.

• Hank (about 44) and Yolanda (about 40).

• Wolf (20), Mac (20), Jock (10 months).

• William (19), Melissa (19), Will & Izzy (1).

• Yollie (19), TG (20), Liset (4), Yo-Yo (21 months).

• Wizard (17), Lucas (13).

• Theo (12), Mathias (11), Reese (10).

• Winnie (9), Patella (3), Scapula (1).

Also

• Stu McKenzie (45).

• Momaka (41).

• Dreamer (15), Wanda (about 55).

• General Jock MacLatchie, Mac's father (50).

**Main Characters in Penticton**

• Mr. Smithman, Reese's teacher.

• Annika, the girl sitting in front of Reese; Mrs. Lee, her mom.

**Main Characters Associated with Safe Haven Ranch #4**

• Karita/Maddy, a blonde, blue-eyed girl.

• Renfrew and Jenkins, Karita's temporary mommy and daddy.

• Big Daddy and Big Momma, ranch owners. Pililiani, housekeeper.

**Main Characters in Toronto**

• Dr. Leonard Sandman and his three henchpeople.

• Basher/Arnold, an insurance fee collector; Sparkle, his mother (deceased).

• Slider, a carriage driver; Dennis Lee, head prosecutor; Snoozer, a bailiff; Mavis, a court recorder; an unnamed judge.

• Azure, a blonde, blue-eyed heavenly body.

**Main Characters on an Island in the Middle of the St. Lawrence Rivulet**

• Marie and Nary.

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

Her name was Dee-Dee. She was eleven years old and her blonde ponytail was bobbing along behind her as she walked briskly back to her home on Mt. Pleasant Road in Port Angeles, Washington. It was a Friday. More specifically, it was 11:38 in the morning on a teachers' professional day on May 25, 2085. Dee-Dee had been at the pool on Peabody Street with her friends. When she returned to where she had parked and locked her bike, Dee-Dee discovered that the chain had broken. She had a tire pump in her backpack because one of her tires had a slow leak, but no tire pump could fix that chain. No worries. It was only two miles to her home – a distance that was nothing for a girl who was always running around the neighbourhood, playing soccer with the local U-13 team, and generally being the tomboy of the family.

Not wanting to delay her friends from getting home to their lunches, she told them that she'd walk the bike home and waved as they sped away. Dee-Dee also used her pinky ring computer to phone home to let her brother know that she had to walk home because of her stupid bike.

Dee-Dee looked at the broken chain closely, but did not touch it because the chain was all greasy and she didn't want to mess up her best summer clothes. These were her white short-shorts, her white ankle-high socks, and her white canvas lace-up shoes. She had a light-green, loose fitting tank top that was a perfect match to the cloth band that was around her ponytail. The match was perfect because her mom had sewed the tank top from fabric that Dee-Dee had chosen and this had been a leftover piece. Being on the business end of the sewing machine, Dee-Dee's mom was able to ensure that the tank top wasn't too tight, something that Dee-Dee had argued for mildly. She had tried _All of my friends are wearing their tops tight this summer_. Her mother replied with the standard parental refrain: _If all your friends decided to jump off the Port Angeles city pier, would you too?_

Dee-Dee was smart enough to claim that she wouldn't. But she didn't tell her mom that she planned to do exactly that this summer. All the parents of her friends used that same question whenever the girls tried to bend the rules a little. _Would you jump off the pier if...?_ So she and her friends had decided to find out what was so bad about all of them jumping off the pier. Sure, the Juan de Fuca Strait would be cold, but so what? If lots of boys were around the pier, as was normal, they'd tell them that they were going to jump in the strait, take off all their clothes when they were in the water, and go skinny dipping. But they'd have swimsuits underneath. They hadn't worked out how they'd manage to put their soaking wet clothes back on. That thinking could come later. For now, Dee-Dee knew one thing for sure. She was jumping off the pier this summer.

Dee-Dee hadn't pushed too hard for a tight tank top because her real goal had been the white short-shorts. By now she had a good tan going for her and the stark white of the shorts and her socks made her legs look even browner. Her dad had not been pleased when he saw how the shorts fit, so she wasn't going to risk losing them by arguing for the tight tank top. As she walked home, Dee-Dee was thinking about asking her mom to make green shoelaces from the leftover fabric. She didn't notice the bike chain slipping off the sprockets and falling onto the sidewalk bordering Highway 101. She never even thought to ask herself how an almost new chain could have broken on a bike that was locked tightly onto the rusty bicycle rack next to a busy pool in downtown Port Angeles.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 2

The man's name was Yanker. He was middle-aged, balding, slightly pudgy, and unremarkable in every way. Experienced recruiters working on a contract basis for the personnel officer of the Safe Haven Ranches never drew attention to themselves, be it in how they dressed or how they presented themselves when they were working. Yanker's designated recruitment area used to cover the Olympic Peninsula excluding Olympia, the state capital in its southeastern corner. Years ago, Yanker had lobbied hard for access to Olympia, but he didn't have to face Dee-Dee's form of rejection. _If all your friends decided to kidnap young girls from Olympia's streets, would you too?_ Safe Haven's rejection of his request to expand his collection area had been based on caution: _Keeping state officials in Olympia ignorant of how many young girls are disappearing from the state is simply prudent. Potential assets in Olympia will have to remain untouchable._

Back then, Yanker's designated kidnap area was strictly small town and rural. He had two decent-sized towns in Silverdale and Bremerton, but he could only dip into those towns occasionally without drawing attention to his activities. He had proven himself to Safe Haven's personnel officer over the last ten years – never once missing his yearly kidnap quota and never once coming close to being discovered. However the list of missing girls from the Olympic Peninsula was now becoming noticeable, as was the type of girls on that list. White, blue-eyed, and blonde. Yanker abducted the odd brunette occasionally even though his commission on them wasn't very high. This deviation from his normal kidnappings was just so that he could top up his retirement fund. The real money was made off the blondes.

Yanker continued to lobby for an expansion of his kidnap area into Olympia based on his experience, his reliability, and the perils of over-snatching in small rural towns. He argued that expanding his kidnap area was actually safer for Safe Haven than keeping him bottled up in the Olympic Peninsula because somebody would eventually notice the pattern. Two years ago, his persistence had paid off. Receiving permission to snatch young girls in Olympia was the reward for his long service to the company and to his single-minded devotion to his life's work – kidnapping young girls. Yanker didn't see himself as a seriously deranged individual or even as a pervert. He was just a local businessman who was providing a valued service at a very high price in a market that had few competitors.

Yanker's initial code name had been _Yank He_ r. Now with success and credibility among his peers, he was in Safe Haven's books simply as _Yanker_. His abduction tactics had never been fancy – just brute strength and surprise. A young girl would feel safe riding her bike down the edge of the street as she came home from school. She wouldn't notice an anonymous looking deliveryman unloading some boxes from his copter. Until he yanked her off her bike. The chloroform pad to her nose and mouth required scant seconds to work. Yanker's technique was now so practiced that he didn't need the long-sleeved plaid shirts that he wore to protect himself from flailing arms and scratching fingernails. Regardless, he still wore them as camouflage. Plaid shirts were the standard clothing of the rural workingman in Washington State.

Teacher professional days were a special treat for Yanker because all the young girls would be celebrating their release from school confinement. Yanker was working an eight hour shift. He set up near the Port Angeles pool at 9 a.m. that morning. He had an alternate hunting ground for the afternoon, but saw that he wouldn't need it when one of the girls in his database cycled into the pool's parking lot.

Most school days, Yanker worked a 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. shift. He'd park his copter on a residential street at least one block away from the home of the girl he was stalking that day. She'd be coming home from school when parents and other adults would still be at work. The streets and homes would be mostly deserted. If he saw a potential witness on the street, he'd continue unloading as she rode by. Otherwise he'd yank her, subdue her, and then put her gently into the cargo bay of his anonymous looking copter. (Safe Haven didn't pay Yanker a commission if his recruits were bruised or harmed in any way during his kidnapping and delivery.) The empty cardboard boxes that he had been unloading were quickly tossed on top of her and he'd be gone in seconds.

Yanker knew that his cargo would stay unconscious long enough to fly north to Vancouver Island where he'd land in a deserted area and prepare her for the second stage of the delivery. That would mean adding restraints and dosing her with more chloroform. While worried parents were conducting a search for a missing girl on the Olympic Peninsula, Yanker would be in a foreign country. As night began to fall, he'd hop from Victoria across the Haro Strait to the San Juan Islands where he'd store her securely – still unconscious and unharmed. Early the next morning, he'd meet Safe Haven's personnel officer, transfer the girl into his copter, receive his commission, and then travel sedately back to the Olympic Peninsula. Yanker never knew where the personnel officer took the girl – a requirement for keeping his job. If he didn't know where his cargo ended up, he couldn't trade information about Safe Haven for a lighter jail sentence. Yanker never thought that he'd ever be caught, let alone serve time. He was just an anonymous deliveryman who was unremarkable in every way except for his cargo.

There was much more to Yanker's job than a one hour shift each afternoon. Given the scarcity of the desired product in his area, Yanker had to be patient. In the mornings, he'd drop into a community, scout for new blondes, and check up on potential assets that he had already identified. Elementary schools were the prime scouting area, but he wouldn't set his copter down near them. He's set down on the roads leading to the schools and look for walking or cycling blondes. When he spotted a new one, it might take several days, but he'd find out where she lived. At least once, he'd have to approach close enough to verify the colour of her eyes.

Over time, he had built a comprehensive database of young, blue-eyed blondes that lived in every single community in his recruitment area. He had a picture of each potential asset. A quick check on the database on his pinky ring computer would give him her home address. If an opportunity presented itself to add her to his list of successful kidnaps, Yanker didn't have to follow the little girl home; he knew where she was going and he'd be waiting for her at least one block away from her home. Being able to react immediately to an unexpected opportunity didn't happen by luck. It took planning. Lots of planning.

The need for effective planning is why he had changed his tactics. Yanker no longer used the brute force and surprise tactic. The insistent onset of pudge meant that he wasn't as spry as he used to be. Now he favoured the broken bicycle chain ploy. Disabling a bicycle chain was easy to accomplish simply by kneeling down to tie a shoelace and then using the short-handled boltcutter hidden inside his shirt. Walking recruits were much easier to kidnap than cycling recruits. However the new tactic meant that he had to throw the bicycle into the copter too. Bicycles without chains at the scene of a disappearance would be noticed. The chain-cutting tactic had one tiny risk – the chain would inevitably fall off. If it fell off close to her home, it might be discovered. That's why he favoured girls who had a long walk home. The chain would be long gone. As it was now.

Right now Yanker was waiting for his next blonde victim to walk her broken bike down Mount Pleasant Street. He was one block away from her home. The street was deserted except for the anonymous-looking man in a long-sleeved plaid shirt unloading boxes from his copter.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 3

Yanker's plan had worked perfectly. He had timed Dee-Dee's approach so that he was standing by the side of his copter, a small empty carton held in each hand, waiting politely for her to pass before he crossed the sidewalk and put the cartons down with the others. Yanker made no eye contact, but he did see her glance at him. She sped up a little so that he wouldn't have to wait long for her to pass. "Thank you," Dee-Dee said.

Dee-Dee paused and turned her head when she heard some boxes falling to the ground. She saw a white pad coming at her face, felt it pressed against her mouth and nose, and then everything went black. "You're welcome, I'm sure," Yanker said. Child abductors appreciated polite victims.

Before thirty seconds had passed, Dee-Dee was buried on the copter floor underneath seven empty cardboard cartons. Her chainless bicycle was propped up against the copter's inside wall. Yanker strolled nonchalantly to the pilot side of the copter and opened the door. A gust of wind from above prompted him to look up, at which point he saw two open talons a foot or so above his head. Above the talons was a bulging belly covered in gray-greenish scales. Yanker felt the talons enclose his chest and pinch through his skin and into the flesh around his ribs. Then he was pulled into the air. Yanker's habit of trolling for victims on deserted streets wasn't working out too well for him this time. You might say that he received poetic justice. Yanker had been yanked.

As the ground below him receded, every muscle in Yanker's body that could react to fear, did so. Then he lost consciousness. A foul stench wafted up to the dragon's invisible nostrils. _Bad smells are an occupational hazard_ , Momaka thought as she flapped Bob's wings. A little dip in the Juan de Fuca Strait would take care of it.

### # # # # # # # #

Meanwhile back at the snatch site, an invisible Wanda had watched Dee-Dee's abduction. After Yanker had been talonized, she set the time-travel functions on her sling and time-travelled (TiTr'd) three minutes into the past. She had lots of time to walk invisibly to the corner where Dee-Dee was due to appear with her bike. As Dee-Dee approached the corner, Wanda stuck out an invisible foot and tripped her onto the sidewalk.

Dee-Dee fell awkwardly but tried to put out her hands to protect herself as she went down. She fell hard onto the cement, receiving a bloody nose and lacerating her hands in the process. Dee-Dee lost consciousness shortly after she sprawled onto the sidewalk – an invisible moist pad in Wanda's hand covering Dee-Dee's nose and mouth providing that desired result. Wanda collected Dee-Dee in one strong arm, her bike in the second arm, and TiTr'd into the future to arrive near the snatch site one minute after Yanker had disappeared into the sky hanging from the tips of two sharp talons. She let the bike clatter into the street and gently placed Dee-Dee in an awkward position on the cement sidewalk. Then she waited.

"Oh you poor dear," a visible Wanda repeated several times as Dee-Dee tried to sit up. She was dizzy, her hands hurt, as did her nose. She couldn't remember what had happened and tried to make sense of it. She never thought at all about the possibility that she had just lost four minutes of her life.

"I saw the whole thing," Wanda said. "You were walking along with your bike and you must have tripped on your shoelace or something because you went down hard. I was in my copter, loading up some cartons. You're probably a little dizzy and you have a bloody nose, dear. Lie back on the grass and pinch this against it." Dee-Dee found a gauze pad resting against her nose and the aboriginal lady guided her hands to it. "Pinch hard. You didn't get any blood on your nice clothes, but keep your hands away from them because they're all scraped and bloody. Just lie back and breathe deeply."

Dee-Dee did as the nice lady instructed, but she looked at her shoes first. One of the shoelaces was undone. Yanker wasn't the only hunter who could plan.

### # # # # # # # #

Let's review for a moment what just happened. Yes, Wanda changed the future. But first, she let Yanker kidnap Dee-Dee and bury her under his empty cartons inside his copter. Then he himself was kidnapped. That means, as far as his impending trial was concerned, he was guilty of abducting the young girl. Yanker's past, present, and future lives on that deserted street were not changed by Wanda's actions. His future life beyond that deserted street will be affected by his close encounter with a dragon's talons, but Wanda's time-travel manipulations had nothing to do with that.

However Dee-Dee's future life is a different matter. In preventing her from approaching Yanker's kidnapping site, by rendering her unconscious, by skipping her four minutes into her future, and by placing her onto the ground next to Yanker's empty copter after he had been carried away by a drooling dragon, Wanda removed four minutes of what was going to be Dee-Dee's life. Nobody else's life was affected. Just Dee-Dee's. She was not aware that she had been unconscious for four minutes. She didn't realize that the place where she had tripped and the place where she had woken up were a block apart. She'd never know that she had slipped through Yanker's clutches. She wasn't even aware that a man like Yanker had been waiting for her. She emerged unscathed, with the exception of a few scrapes.

You may ask how Wanda and Momaka were able to plan such a precise operation. Here's what happened. The Raging Gardeners (Granny and the other Wilizy women who hunted down perverts) had conducted a wide-ranging TiTr'ng search for blonde blue-eyed girls who had disappeared in Washington State. A Bremerton girl had gone missing from the Pendergast Regional Park on April 21, 2085. They had TiTr'd to that specific day and place and saw Yanker in action for the first time. That sighting allowed them to find more of his victims. The Raging Gardeners were especially interested in Yanker's escape route into Canada. They made a few plans and Granny polished up her deputy badge.

Starting in April 2085, the Gardeners TiTr'd into Yanker's future in six hour gaps, looking for his next kidnap victim. This was a full team effort. Yolanda was the Gardener who actually found Yanker cutting Dee-Dee's bike chain, but it could have been any of them. Knowing the exact day and time that he'd kidnap Dee-Dee, Wanda and Bob (the invisible dragon) could plan to be there waiting for him.

Melissa had proposed the idea of finding an abduction, TiTr'ng back a couple of minutes, tripping the expected victim, and then skipping her past the kidnap into her future. They knew that they couldn't just rescue the victim from the kidnapper – she'd have the memory of the attack. They had to prevent her from being kidnapped but, at the same time, they had to let Yanker kidnap his victim so that they could convict him for his crime. Melissa had the necessary strategic thinking to come up with the solution. The Gardeners would use this _remove a small piece of the victim's life_ strategy many more times in the years ahead, but only when the kidnapping occurred where nobody could witness it. Fortunately for the victims, and unfortunately for the kidnappers, avoiding witnesses was high on the kidnappers' priorities. The Raging Gardeners had a similar preference for deserted kidnap sites because of Bob's attention grabbing appearance.

### # # # # # # # #

Yanker woke up that afternoon to find himself in a clearing. The first thing that he looked for was a beast with sharp talons and a scale covered belly. He didn't see one. He did see two wolves. One wolf started to lick Yanker's neck with a long pink tongue. The other hunched over Yanker's left leg and peed on it. That was Patella letting Yanker know what she thought of him.

"I wouldn't move too quickly if I were you."

Yanker found the source of the voice. An elderly aboriginal lady. She was all dressed up in some fancy ceremonial clothes with a black eagle feather in her white hair. "Lie still. That black wolf at your throat is hungry. She's a messy eater at the best of times. Try not to make any sudden movement. I'll be back."

True to her word, the aboriginal chief came back with a high canvas campstool, set it up on Yanker's right side so that he could see her, and then sat down with a groan. Two other women followed her. One was aboriginal and she too had a black feather in her hair and wore ceremonial robes. The other looked Asian and she wore a fancy set of clothes too. Red and black satin. They also sat on campstools, but they were on his left side.

"Scapula, you can go now," the chief said. Scapula took that instruction literally, poised herself over Yanker's right leg, and let rip.

"My badge," the old lady said and held out a shield of some kind for Yanker to see. "I'm known as Granny. I am a deputy of the British Columbia detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The badge I'm showing you 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. This clearing is on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. You're on trial for kidnapping and I will be your judge. Just so you know, kidnapping is a capital crime in B.C."

"I've been kidnapped," Yanker tried.

"I don't know anything about that," Granny said. "I found you here in this clearing and recognized your face. We've been looking at you for some time now." Yanker didn't recognize the significance of the difference of somebody _looking AT him_ , rather than somebody _looking FOR him._ Time-travellers tend to develop a subtle sense of humour that only they can appreciate.

"If kidnapping is against the law, then somebody broke a law to bring me into B.C. I was kidnapped."

"By whom? It wasn't me. Describe your kidnapper."

"Big scary flying animal of some kind with a long tail, talons on the end of its legs, and a long drooling snout."

"Do you seriously think I'll believe that?"

Yanker shook his head _No_ and went to his back-up plan. "I was drugged," he tried.

"By a flying monster. Sure you were. Would you like to confess to kidnapping a lot of young girls?"

"I'm innocent."

"Set up the big screen," the judge said to the other two women.

### # # # # # # # #

To improve his viewing pleasure, Yanker was allowed to put his back against a tree and extend both feet comfortably in front of him. Each wolf put her head on a shoe and appeared to be asleep. Except when he twitched. At that point, they'd do a fang check to see how much edible flesh he had over his anklebones.

"I've put together a little montage of your trips into B.C. Stop me at any time if you wish to relive the lowlights of your life."

Yanker saw himself pulling a girl out of his copter, putting her under restraints, re-chloroforming her, and then putting her back into his copter. Over and over the scene was repeated, but with a different girl each time. The tapes were even date-stamped. Partway through the montage, he noticed that the judge's two helpers had disappeared. He heard scraping sounds in the woods behind him and wondered what they were doing. But only briefly. He was thinking more about how B.C. had surveillance technology that was unheard of in the United States.

"Clear evidence of guilt, I'd say," the judge remarked. "Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

"I never hurt them."

"But you kidnapped them and sold them to somebody who did hurt them. I find you guilty of kidnapping. The penalty is death. We apply justice in B.C. a little differently than you may like. You'll die in the next five minutes. Perhaps ten minutes depending on how long it takes me to fill out your death certificate." The judge paused. "How painfully you die is yet to be determined." Then she started on her paperwork.

Yanker looked around. Escape was impossible with the wolves lying on his feet. He felt a rush of wind in his hair and looked up. Black shape. Long wings flapping noisily. Black tail trailing behind. Big black scaly head with two long yellow fangs protruding out of dark red lips. "It's the monster," Yanker called out. "I was kidnapped, just like I said."

"Where?" the judge asked.

"Up there," Yanker said and pointed right above the clearing. When he looked up again, nothing was there.

"You're probably hallucinating. Perhaps you're seeing the kind of afterlife that is waiting for you. Why don't you tell me why you've been kidnapping young, blue-eyed, blonde girls? That'll slow down this paperwork."

### # # # # # # # #

Granny administered the painless death and then she and Wanda carried the body into the clearing where the scraping sounds had originated. The grave was now ready for Yanker. But they put his corpse on the ground next to it.

_The copters with the audience are landing now, Granny._

_I'm going home, Wanda_. _I'll be soaking in a tub with lots and lots of soap. Let's talk tomorrow about what Yanker told us._

Granny flickered out of sight. Wanda returned to the clearing where Yanker had been convicted and waited for the others to gather for the ritualized cleansing ceremony. Everything about that ceremony is the same as I described in my previous book, _Bob, the Invisible Dragon_. Except for the following:

• Wanda and Dreamer were the first two women from the audience to vent their anger on Yanker's dead body. When Dreamer saw how viciously Wanda attacked the dead pervert with her knife, she found another knife and did the same. When they had exhausted their fury and had made their throats raw with their screams, they embraced for the longest time, cleaned up, and then flew back to Clearwater where Dreamer had been living after the terrible incident in Wizard's bedroom. She had tried to meet with Wizard but he had not answered any of her messages.

• Mac entered the burial clearing next and chose to use her own ceremonial sword. She was finished in about five minutes, but part of that time was cleaning up afterwards. The sounds drifting out of the burial clearing were nowhere near as angry as what she had expressed the previous time.

• Momaka had invited Lucas to the ceremony. He was sitting in the trial clearing when the last Franklin wife was finished with the body and had returned. Momaka approached Lucas and asked, "Would you like to participate?" Lucas shrugged his shoulders, went into the clearing, saw the remains, saw the shovel, and began cleaning up the meadow.

After the tree planting ceremony, and after the Franklin women were on their way home, Momaka asked Lucas if he'd like to attend this kind of ceremony again.

"You don't need me," he said. "Any of the women here could have buried the remains."

"I thought perhaps that you might have wanted to release some emotions."

"That pervert did nothing to me. I had no emotions about him at all."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 4

It was Friday, June 8 and the Wilizy were stumped. For five days now, all of the Wilizy had been involved under Hank's direction in cutting lumber, pouring cement, fastening hard foam pads to the cement, adding a wood covering, and then making that wood all shiny. They were left with a rectangular, perfectly flat wooden surface lying level on the grass of the compound's central meadow. It measured about ninety feet (twenty-six meters) long and fifty-five feet (fifteen meters) wide. They didn't have the foggiest idea what they had just built.

Check that. Some of the adults knew. For those who didn't know, they looked to the one person who could unlock the secret. Winnie. But Yolanda, Hank, Granny, Doc, Wanda, and Wizard were wearing tin-foil sweatbands over their foreheads and that spelled doom for the secret-buster. "I can't see through tinfoil," Winnie told the conspirators. That was kind of wussy, but sadly true. Superman's x-ray vision could be stopped by lead. Winnie's was stopped by tinfoil? What kind of superhero is stopped by tinfoil?

On that Friday, after everybody had watched two large pipes being erected at each end of the shiny floor, Granny made an announcement. "Wilizy general meeting, right here, tomorrow morning, at 10. Breakfast at 9 in the community hall. You'll find out what you built tomorrow."

### # # # # # # # #

At 9:00 on Saturday morning, the three families from the satellite community invaded the community hall. The men had arrived at 8:00 but had gone directly to the shiny floor where they had added some features. Wolf, TG, and William came into the community hall at 9:30 and were quickly rushed to the kitchen where they received freshly cooked vittles. Momaka and Stu had been in the kitchen at 6:00 that morning. They too had been kept out of the secret but had been warned to expect a crowd for meals that weekend.

At 10 a.m., the Wilizy wandered over to the shiny floor, each taking a folding chair to sit on, but being first cautioned to keep the chair off the floor because the shiny surface was still soft enough to be scratched. When everybody was seated in two roughly even lines of chairs, Granny came onto the floor. She was wearing white shoes with a soft sole, a pair of black shiny loose pants, and a red singlet. It had a symbol of some sort on the front and a little number four. When she turned around, the Wilizy saw a bigger number four on the back directly below big letters that spelled out _Yollie_. Granny was carrying a round brown thing.

"Most of you have never seen anything like this before," Granny started. "That's because, in the Aboriginal Nation, we home-school our children. Our communities are too small and too far apart for us to have school buildings. Before the troubles, every aboriginal kid attended a school. All of them would have spent a lot of time in a large room with a high ceiling and a floor much like this. They'd have called that room a gym, and it's spelled G, Y, M. You're sitting beside an outdoor gym."

"Some of the best days of my life were spent in a gym learning how to play various sports. I'm wearing my old high school team jersey, which I'm surprised I can still fit into. Doc and I met in a gym. He played a sport called hockey, only he didn't play it inside the gym. He played it on frozen rinks of ice, sometimes indoors, and sometimes outdoors. I know you think that I'm teasing you about that, but it's true."

"My favorite sport was basketball. This is a basketball." Granny threw the round brown thing into the air, caught it on the tip of the index finger of her right hand, and then used her left hand to spin the ball on that finger. "Spinning the ball on one finger isn't something that you have to do when you play the sport; it's just fun to do." She tossed the ball into the air, caught it on the index finger of her left hand, and kept it spinning for a few seconds before gathering it into both hands.

"To play an indoor sport like basketball, you first need a flat gym floor – one that gives your ball a good bounce no matter where you are on the floor." Then she gave a demonstration by walking around the gym floor bouncing the ball off the floor with either hand. Walking to the edge of the floor, she bounced the ball on the grass. Or at least tried to. "You can't play a sport like basketball on grass or dirt because the ball won't bounce. We now have a good floor because of the construction crew, Wanda and Wizard who obtained all the equipment and supplies we needed, and Dreamer who personally cut each piece of red oak that makes up the floor of our gym."

Walking to one end of the floor, she pointed to something new. "William, TG, and Wolf put these up this morning. This round thing with the netting is a basketball hoop. To win a basketball game, you have to be able to put the ball through that hoop. Like this." Alternating her left and her right hand, Granny lofted the ball into the air about a dozen times so that it went through the hoop. It made a swishing sound when it passed through the netting.

"Behind the hoop is a _backboard_. This backboard is not actually made from a board. It's made of hard glass. You are allowed to bounce the ball off the glass so that it can go into the basket." Granny walked from one side of the hoop to the other flipping the ball into the air, apparently at random, but each time hitting the board first before dropping the ball through the netting. "Wizard found these two backboards and hoops in Japan."

"The basketball that I'm using is a medium-sized ball designed especially for women. We have a dozen of these balls stored away in the community hall. We also have bigger sized basketballs for men and smaller sized balls for children. Again, Wizard found these in Japan. A basketball hoop is supposed to be ten feet off the ground. This is a good height for people who are teenagers and older. But even if they use a small ball, youngsters can find it difficult to learn to shoot properly when the hoop is so high. William, do you mind?"

William took off his shoes and came onto the floor. Holding an electronic wand, he pressed a button and the hoop at the other end of the gym started to lower. "It will stop at the eight foot mark. If you want it even lower, press the down button again." They watched the basket fall further. "Six feet is as low as we've programmed the wand."

"An outside court can be ruined by rain," William said. "Turn and look behind you." Wolf was there with the hose and he drenched the crowd from two paces away. Well, he tried to drench them. The water spattered off the side of something. Nobody got wet.

"We are sitting inside an electronic outdoor gym," Granny continued. "William, TG, and Wolf installed all the electronics this morning. Push a button and no rain can get through the walls or the roof. Neither can any wind. Too sunny for you? Close the baffles. Do you want a breeze? Open the baffles. Want to practice in the middle of the night? Turn on the lights. You can't see them now, but the gym has enough LEDs to light the whole court."

"Pretend that somebody has passed the ball to you but the ball went over your head. Now it's going to leave the court and run down the hill, perhaps into the river? Like this."

Granny whipped the ball towards the other end of the court where it bounced high and kept on going until it bounced gently a few times and stopped. "Invisible electronic walls," she said. "No critters can get in. No loose basketballs can get out. But any Wilizy with a sling can walk through the wall. When no sling is detected inside the gym, the computer shuts the place down completely and turns on the weather protection. All we ask you to do is come on the floor with soft-soled shoes. We have two large crates of basketball/running shoes in the community hall. Find a pair that fits you properly. When it wears out, take a new pair. We will always have a supply of soft-soled shoes handy."

"That's the good news," Granny said. "Now the bad."

### # # # # # # # #

Doc came onto the floor in his moccasins and Granny took a seat. "Granny and I have noticed that the general fitness of the Wilizy has been deteriorating badly. Look at the habits we've developed in the last year. We sling everywhere except perhaps for crossing the meadow. When we hunt, we do so by sling and laser. Few of us actually hunt now. Most of us don't even pull a bowstring. We sit on our duffs in front of a computer almost all day long. In the evening, we usually rest comfortably on our duffs with a bot playing in our minds."

"Two years ago, this family went to bed exhausted. The children were exhausted from all the chores they had to do plus whatever play they could fit in. The adults stayed up late because they had chores that had to be done before the morning. They woke up refreshed, full of energy, and ready to go. We were physically fit."

"Are any of you ever exhausted now? I know some of you were this week because I saw you becoming tired after only a few hours of work in the sun. Now, with our sad fitness, if we ever had to fight an enemy without our slings, we'd lose."

"So Granny and I, as the Wilizy medical staff, are imposing some rules. Starting this week, everybody in the home compound will create a personal fitness plan. That includes Granny and me. We're just as unfit as you. That fitness plan might involve learning to play basketball, either individually or in small teams. If that's what you choose, Granny will teach you. That's how she plans to become fit again. By playing basketball here in this gym either by herself or with you."

"Perhaps you'd like to learn another sport? This gym can be modified so that you probably can do that. Want to run in the woods? Fine. Set a goal and follow a schedule. Personally, I will be going on overnight fishing trips. No sling allowed. No food from the compound allowed. Join me if you wish. Or find something you like doing and offer to do it with another family member. Hank, for example, will teach you to box. Momaka will teach you judo. Your goal is to take a break from Wilizy work for at least an hour during the day. Get away from the computer. Eat a proper lunch."

"Each Wilizy member at the home compound has to submit a fitness plan to me before the end of the week. Your fitness goals will be posted in the community hall along with whether or not you met those goals that week. That includes you, Dreamer. I want to see you back at work this week."

"On the matter of work, I have raised concerns with Wizard that this family is being exposed to undue physical and mental stress because we are trying to build a new provincial economy all by ourselves. Wizard will unveil new jobs for all of us tomorrow. For the rest of today, let's enjoy being together as a family. Don't forget to pick out some sports shoes. Stu and Momaka can use some help preparing today's meals. The Raging Gardeners will have a meeting in the community hall tonight after the toddlers are asleep. The Wilizy/America is anchored right above us for sleeping purposes. Men, we have dish duty after lunch and supper. Afterwards there'll be a meeting of the Rampaging Goalies here in this gym. Only males are allowed. You'll find out what a real sport is like."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 5

All of the Raging Gardeners were sitting in a giant circle of chairs in the community hall. I was hiding behind the sofa and peeking out every now and then. At one point, we heard a big roar coming from the gym where the men were playing something. Granny was running our meeting. She had started by summarizing what had happened with some guy named Yanker when he tried to kidnap a girl named Dee-Dee. Then she moved on.

"We've proven that removing a small piece of a victim's life will stop the victims from having any exposure to the kidnapping. Dee-Dee came out of the kidnapping attempt with some scrapes, but that was all. Grabbing the pervert before he took off worked like a charm and Bob's presence at the snatch and then later in the trial loosened his tongue. When we have all the information we want on this Safe Haven group, we won't have to do that kind of interrogation. Bob will capture the pervert and bring him to a clearing. We'll show visual evidence of his crimes in a formal trial and he'll receive justice. Meanwhile another Gardener will protect and care for the victim and dispose of his copter. We gave Yanker's copter to the Wilizy Foundation for the Treatment of Abused Women and Children. Are there any questions on this operation?"

Mac asked if letting Bob loose for this kind of operation was helping Momaka or hurting her. Momaka answered that previously, Bob would escape when Momaka's anger built up and she couldn't keep him penned up. By releasing him when she was in full control, she could let go of that anger and put him back in his cage more easily. "It helps me," she said quite firmly to the group.

Wanda asked what should happen with the pervert's possessions after the trial. "Should we look for other assets to donate to the Foundation besides the pervert's copter? Yanker kidnapped for profit. He was bound to have money stashed away somewhere."

They reached a group decision quickly. Their job was to take perverts off the streets. Not to find their money. Taking Yanker's copter was to prevent anybody finding out how and when he disappeared, investigating, and perhaps seeing an aboriginal woman helping a young girl. They were taking the copter to keep their operations a secret. The Gardeners wouldn't be trying to make money from their operations. But if it fell into their hands, they'd take it just to ensure that no awkward questions could arise.

Momaka asked for feedback on the ritualized cleansing ceremony. Mac, Wanda, and Dreamer all spoke positively about it. They generally agreed that inviting a male to the ceremony hadn't worked, but they didn't say anything more and I didn't know what they were talking about. I asked Winnie about it the next day but she said that she couldn't say anything about it.

### # # # # # # # #

Later in the meeting, Granny began a discussion about the information that Yanker had revealed. "We now know about two Safe Haven kidnappers operating out of B.C. Yanker told us where they were working and how they snatched their victims. We should be able to get visual evidence of their crimes reasonably easily. Are there any volunteers for some time-travel excursions?"

Wanda and Momaka raised their hands immediately. Yolanda put her hand partly up. "I need to be partnered with somebody first, I think."

"Setting up partners is a good idea," Granny said. "Wanda and Momaka, do you want to look into the guy operating out of the Fraser Valley? Yolanda and I will research the pervert in the Okanagan."

"What happens after we put those two away?" Melissa asked. "More kidnappers are bound to be operating in Washington State. Perhaps even neighbouring states. Does Bob just snatch them and bring them up here for a trial?"

"That's the main reason why we're having this meeting," Granny said. "We can't put Washington State perverts on trial in B.C. because they wouldn't have committed any of their crimes in B.C. I can't judge them in the U.S. because I have no legal jurisdiction there. We need some ideas."

If any useful ideas came out of the discussion that followed, I didn't hear them. I don't think anybody else did either. They all looked sad when Granny said that they should move on to other business. Mac asked a question that made them even sadder. "Say that we find a way to shut down Safe Haven's snatchers. That still leaves the people running Safe Haven untouched. They'll just find more kidnappers. At some point, we have to destroy their head office. When are we going to do that?"

"We chose this approach because shutting down these individual kidnappers will give us more information on the organization itself," Granny said. "We now know that their kidnappers are controlled by a personnel officer who picks up the abducted girls. Yanker told us how he'd contact him when he had a girl to deliver and where they'd meet. I've TiTr'd this man and I've seen where he delivered some of the girls. He put them into some innocent looking buildings that remind me of our home compound. Each appeared to be just a small building above the ground, but I believe there's a bigger building underneath. They're probably bunkers with secret entrances and exits. We need more information on these bunkers. Where they are. What security they have."

"So once we know where all these bunkers are, we come in force and shut down each bunker one at a time. We have the weaponry. We can send in drones first to protect the innocent."

"Militarily, that might work," Granny said. "But Mac, we have no legal jurisdiction to do that. We would be attacking Washington citizens. Washington State could consider our attacks as an act of war."

As I said, the meeting ended with everybody unhappy.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 6

Washington State, Saturday evening. While the Raging Gardeners were having their meeting, two men and one woman were watching a blonde, blue-eyed little girl placing plates and cutlery on a dinner table. She was perhaps six years old. She had not advanced in her training far enough for her temporary parents to trust her to be in the kitchen by herself. Too many sharp knives were stored there. The temporary daddy didn't believe that she was the type to hurt herself, but then another temporary daddy had been wrong one time before with another girl who had hurt herself.

In response to that earlier incident, Safe Haven had warned that, in future, both temporary parents would face consequences if a little blonde girl hurt herself deliberately while under their care. Scraping a knee from a fall during a supervised walk would be considered an accident; running the edge of a sharp knife down a flawless white cheek while the parents ate dinner would not. That's why the Washington State woman had her index finger poised over a large button on an electronic wand the whole time the little girl was setting the table. Exercising caution was better than being assigned to dog-collared labour at one of Safe Haven's ranches, especially when Safe Haven's personnel officer was sitting right at the dinner table.

Safe Haven had implemented severe consequences for temporary parents who failed in their duty for a reason. Raising pristine, blonde, blue-eyed young girls was expensive. First, Safe Haven had to pay their staff of contracted kidnappers to find and abduct them. Since this was considered a high-risk activity, their compensation had to be at the top of the contract worker pay scale. They then had to hide the little girls for years while they received their training. Washington State had some wonderful high-security facilities that Safe Haven had been able to acquire at low cost. Their training facilities elsewhere had been much more expensive to develop.

Effective temporary parents were hard to find. They needed the patience and caring attitude of good parents; they also had to teach their temporary daughter the skills and knowledge that she would need in her new destination. But parenting and teaching skills were difficult to find within the criminal class of workers that were available to them. Psychological testing was fairly effective in eliminating the sexual perverts from consideration, but that testing often failed to identify other deeply flawed individuals. That had been why Safe Haven had been reluctant to take on this project when the opportunity had arisen years ago. In the end, they had agreed because the profit margins were so compelling. The reader might consider Safe Haven's managers to be deeply flawed individuals themselves. Assuming that you object to the business of buying and selling little girls for profit, that is. As to that little white girl who had run the knife down her cheek? Safe Haven's managers had sold her in a closed auction to a Safe Haven rancher. They had even managed to earn a handsome profit.

### # # # # # # # #

Back we go now to that dinner table and the three adults sitting around it. The little girl had just finished delivering her _Welcome to our home_ speech to Safe Haven's personnel officer. He praised her for how well she had pronounced some difficult words. He knew that young children could be quite adept at learning how to speak a foreign language, so he wasn't overly surprised at her progress. He was pleased because her proficiency meant that he wouldn't have to supervise her education as closely as he had to for some other girls. Safe Haven had offered him this position because he himself was fluent in that second language. He could predict which little girls would struggle with pronunciation and would need more attention as a result. This little girl wouldn't be a problem.

When dinner was over, the little girl cleared the table without being reminded and then left the room. Renfrew, her temporary mommy, watched as the girl descended to the basement, walked down the hall to her bedroom, entered, and closed the door. Renfrew pushed a button on the wand and the door locked itself tight.

"She's locked in," she said when she returned to the table. "She'll play with some colouring books for now."

"Is she still weeping and whining?" The personnel officer was here not only to check on the little blonde girl's language fluency but also to assess her behaviour. She was expected to obey Renfrew and Jenkins without hesitation and to present the image of a contented little girl who loved her parents.

"No. Not in front of us. She still cries herself to sleep. We're ignoring it for now. It's only been three months." Renfrew was in charge of this part of her education. Jenkins, the temporary dad, was responsible for teaching her the new language.

"The girl is doing fine," the personnel officer announced his findings. "However, we may have a problem."

Renfrew and Jenkins looked up at that.

"One of my recruiters has disappeared. I know where he was supposed to be working, but there's been no news of any kind coming out of that community. I have heard no news of a thwarted kidnap attempt, of girls complaining about strangers, or of male bodies floating to the surface of a lake."

"In some of these rural areas, a kidnapper caught in the act by a parent can disappear into the woods and never come out again." Jenkins reacted. "Some people would do that instead of reporting the incident to the police or to the military."

"I'm aware of that. My man had a long history of being very careful. I have a bad feeling about this. I think he's dead; I don't know if he was questioned first."

"Do we start packing?"

"No. Not yet. He often took long copter trips; perhaps he had an accident in a remote area. However you should activate all outside surveillance equipment. Be alert for anybody trying to follow you home from the village."

"And if someone finds us here and tries to enter?"

"Arm the explosives. Use the escape tunnel. After you're clear of the area, kill the girl and bury her body deep in the woods. You know the escape drill."

"I'd hate to lose all of our progress." Unlike Jenkins who would slit the little girl's throat without a second thought, Renfrew would have some reservations.

"If anybody sees that girl with the two of you, they'll know that you aren't her parents. There are lots of blonde, blue-eyed girls in the world; we can kidnap more. People like you are hard to find. Save yourself first."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 7

At breakfast Sunday, Reese told me that the men had learned how to play a game called _Floor Hockey_ that was played with a flat rubber disc that had a big hole in its middle. Each player had a stick with a rubber plug on the end. When a player stuck his stick into the center of the hole, he could shoot the rubber disc or pass it to a teammate who could shoot it. They practiced shooting and passing the hollow circle that Doc called a _floor hockey puck_. William and Lucas learned to shoot it so hard that it actually flew through the air.

Doc created two cages and they practiced shooting the puck into the cages. To make it harder, Stu and Wizard put some rolled up sweaters under their clothes as padding, stood in a cage, and tried to stop the puck. Doc called them _goalies_ but Reese didn't know where the name came from.

At the end of the practice, they formed two teams and had a contest to see which team could put the most pucks past the goalie. Often the shooter flubbed the shot. But it became exciting when the teams were tied and the next person to score would make his team the winner. Lucas won one game for his team and Theo did the same for his team.

Doc didn't play. He said it wouldn't be fair. But the boys teased him about that. So Doc widened one of the cages and had both Stu and Wizard be goalies at the same time. He ran toward the cage moving the puck from one side of his body to the other side. As he neared the cage, he pretended that he was going to shoot into the lower right corner of the net. Wizard dove on the floor to stop it, and Doc lifted the puck over his body and into the top part of the net. He scored two more times with those kinds of fakes. On his last goal, he faked that he was going to shoot to his left, but turned sideways and shot the puck from behind his back towards the right side. Stu hadn't been expecting that at all and the puck went in. That was the big cheer that we heard in the community hall. Everybody crowded around Doc, slapping him on his back, or punching him in his chest and tummy. Doc looked very happy. Reese didn't believe the tummy punches were real.

### # # # # # # # #

After breakfast, it was Wizard's turn to have a meeting. We sat in a big circle in the community hall. I counted twenty people older than I was. The kiddies were on blankets behind the chairs and some adult was always there keeping them entertained. Yolanda spent the most time babysitting. She even flopped on the blanket and made herself into a mountain that the babies could crawl over.

Wizard spoke for a long time. I taped it, so what you're going to read now is exactly what he said.

### # # # # # # # #

"Doc is right that what we're doing now can't be sustained. The family is way too busy. In some cases, we have members assigned to jobs that they don't like but they aren't complaining because they think they'll let the others down. Since we're no longer in battles, our old positions like the _Manager of Offensive Operations_ don't apply any longer. I've proposed some changes in our organizational structure to the Board and they've agreed to them. That Board of Directors – Doc, Granny, Hank, and Yolanda – will continue to have final decisions on all important matters. The positions underneath them are changing. I should say that I've also talked with all of the people who are having big changes in their job and they've all agreed to them. This meeting is mostly to let every family member know about all the changes at the same time."

"Starting as soon as possible, our managers will stop controlling the day-to-day operations of their businesses. We will hire professionals to do that work and we'll give these people the rank of _Vice President_. Our managers will act as presidents and their job is to make sure that the vice presidents are doing their job properly and plan the growth of their business. They won't make day-to-day decisions."

"The people we hire may come from B.C. or perhaps Ontario. Both places have economies that are doing well and we'll find experienced and capable executives there. We'll advertise for the kind of people we're looking for and offer a healthy salary if they come and work for us. You shouldn't worry about paying big salaries. These companies will be making ample profits."

"We will run all of the Wilizy's business operations out of an office building in Calgary that I purchased last week. The building that will house all of the Wilizy operations is the former Suncor Energy Center and it has fifty-three floors. We will use the top floors for our businesses and rent out the lower floors as other companies start to come back. We'll rename the building _The Wilizy Center_ and the roof of the building will have a diamond-based power generator as well as a laser defense system."

"While our focus is on re-starting Alberta's economy, the source of much of our revenue will come from B.C. With war against Alberta now unlikely, B.C. has some big shopping centers that aren't needed to protect underground military bases any longer. I couldn't buy any of shopping centers, but I have leased a very large retail space in Guilford Center above British Columbia's largest underground military base. The lease is for ninety-nine years and can be renewed."

"Now let's look at the new jobs everybody will have."

### # # # # # # # #

• "Stu will be the president of our most important organization – the Wilizy Foundation. It's the same job as he has now, but he'll hire all the people who will run that foundation. Stu will have his own office in Calgary, but he'll actually do most of his work here in the compound. All of our presidents will have that arrangement. Working here, exercising here, being relaxed, and going occasionally to Calgary to check on what their vice presidents are doing. All presidents have to remember to delegate everything of a day-to-day nature to their vice presidents. Your job is to look to the future."

• "Dad will be the president of the Wilizy Cloth and Dye Company. This is our flagship business and all of our retail operations will be run out of a WC&D store. All of the clothes that Albertan sewers are making will now be sold in B.C. out of our Guildford store. In addition to clothing, we'll sell lumber, construction equipment, and chocolate goodies. Once Dad has everything running smoothly, he'll start selling other types of products in the WC&D stores, for example any inventions coming out of our medical research efforts. This might allow us to have a health section in the store. Once the Guilford WC&D store is running, he'll expand to other B.C. cities."

• "I mentioned chocolates. I have acquired the last two Chocoholic outlets in North America. One is in North Vancouver and the other is in Toronto. Both of these stores were failing because they had to pay such high costs for their chocolates. As you probably know, Dreamer has been managing the Wilizy's chocolate industry and it's close to being operational. Once it's running, she'll delegate its management to a vice president and take on a broader job as President of Specialty Retail for our WC&D outlets. Chocolate is one such specialty. A second will be _Sports and Recreation_. All five of Rick's Government of Alberta Recreation Centers have gyms. The WC&D stores will start to sell sporting goods like basketballs and shoes to the people who want to use those gyms. No other retail outlet in B.C. has these products. Dreamer's job will be to get one specialty product up and running, delegate its management, and then create another product line."

• "Wanda's new role will be as President of Lumber Operations."

• "Momaka's responsibility will be as President of Agricultural Products. Peanuts, for example, will be used in our chocolate business. But peanuts have an appeal of their own as peanut butter or even raw peanuts. The WC&D stores can sell various peanut-based products. After that business is established, Momaka will develop another agricultural-based product that will eventually be sold in the WC&D stores."

• "Moving away from direct retail operations, any large organization needs support services. Doc will be president of _Communications and Special Events._ The WZBN falls into his area of responsibility, but he will delegate that job to a vice president. Special events like our singing contests will also be run by one of Doc's vice presidents."

• "Mom will be president of our _Personnel Division_ which will recruit and hire people to work for us. Mom will hire a vice president to run the Personnel Division. When important positions are being filled, Mom or Granny will be in the meeting to read the personalities of the candidates."

• "In addition to helping Mom out, Granny's other role will be to head up the Raging Gardeners. This group will not be mentioned outside of the family for obvious reasons."

• "Another group that won't be mentioned outside the family is our _Environmental and Energy Research Group_ stationed in the satellite compound. William will be president of that group and he will work closely with TG, Wolf, Melissa, Yollie, and Mac."

• "My job can be categorized as _Acquisitions._ One part of that job is to acquire new Wilizy businesses by purchasing existing businesses, as we did with the Chocoholic shops. Or I might develop new businesses of our own, such as what the Alaskan scientists are pursuing in their medical research. We also have Alaskan scientists in Red Deer who are currently field-testing a jumbo freight transport. This is not a copter. It is an airplane similar to what The Citadel produced but better designed, way bigger, and way faster than any copter could fly. Other air transports are in the planning stages. The Wilizy air transports will be emerald green and white in colour with power provided by William's diamond-based units. TG will be the president of our air transport business once we're ready to begin mass production."

• "Another function of our Acquisitions Operations is to import manufactured goods from other countries for resale in the WC&D outlets. We will also import raw materials that we will need for our own businesses. Wolf will be in charge of this business and we'll be relying on secret over-night express pallets to handle the bulk of our imports. But as far as the public is concerned, the Wilizy jumbo will explain how we are able to import materials quickly and cheaply from countries around the world. Mathias will be the jumbo pilot. Depending on what Mom and Dad want for his schooling, Mathias' role could extend to something like _International Research_. Since he'll be visiting a lot of foreign countries with the Wilizy jumbo, he could spend some time looking for products that we could import and sell. Mathias was the one who brought home some basketballs and other sporting equipment from Japan about two years ago. That's how our whole sporting goods opportunity arose."

• "Speaking of schooling, Reese does not have any assigned job in the Wilizy operations right now because he has to concentrate on his schooling. He has mentioned that he'd like to be a pilot and we'll look into that for him."

• "Theo and Lucas' roles are unclear right now. Starting in September, they'll be operating the Wilizy Chocoholic store in Toronto. Ontario could be a very big market for us. Consider Lucas and Theo as _Advance Scouts_ who test out new business opportunities. I know that Theo is not interested in working indoors, so this job in the chocolate shop is temporary. The same is true for Lucas."

• "Winnie will be working within the Personnel Department as a lie detector who sits in on important interviews. However when she and I talked, she proposed a new job that she'll be very good at. Winnie will be dropping into the offices of our various operations without warning and talking with employees. Patella and Scapula will accompany her to ensure her safety. As far as outsiders are concerned, Winnie heads up our Employee Satisfaction Department. However within the Wilizy, she wants to be known as the _Chief Snoop_. Her job is to alert us to little problems we might have with our hired employees before they become big problems."

• "Melissa, Mac, and Yollie will be in charge of Covert Operations. In addition to protecting our environmental operations and power unit secrets, they will deal with any emerging threats to our business operations or to our family members. The more we expand internationally, the more we will have to work with dictatorships and other forms of crooked governments. Realistically we have to expect that we'll become targets. Mac's dad was unable to attend today but has agreed to be a consultant if a military perspective is ever needed."

Back to the Table of Contents

#  Chapter 8

That Sunday, I was able to play with Winnie all morning. At noon, we had a big lunch. Granny had an announcement before they brought out the food. Since Wanda's duties as a president would require her to be at the compound a lot, and since Dreamer had the same type of duties, she said that both of them would be living in William and Melissa's old house in the compound from now on. That brought a round of applause, but I was sitting next to Winnie at the table and she was looking at Wizard. We both noticed that he wasn't clapping.

Dreamer stood up after the clapping died down and started a little speech. I could tell that she had rehearsed it. She even had a folded piece of paper in her hand, but she didn't read from it. She kept her head down and her voice was very quiet.

"I want to thank the Wilizy family for inviting me back into the home compound," she started. "I apologize to the family, and especially to Wizard, for the problems I created for you with my behaviour earlier this year. The person you saw back then is not the real me. Even I don't like that person. The Raging Gardeners are helping me forget what happened to me when I was a kid. But what happened back then is not an excuse for the way I behaved. I'm sorry that I caused Nonny..." and at that point, Dreamer sat down, took some deep breaths, and started wiping at her face. Wanda held her hand out and Dreamer passed her the paper. Wanda unfolded it and continued with the speech.

"... so much additional stress at a time that she was suffering herself. I want you to know that I have a full queue of dreams, but I'm not paying any attention to them. I have stopped letting my dreams guide my life. Seeing into the future has caused me nothing but grief. I will work as hard as I can on the job you have given to me. I'm sorry for what I did."

Nobody knew what to say. Dreamer was hiding behind an arm and snuffling into one of her sleeves. I looked at Wizard and he was giving an imitation of Luke's stone face. Granny started to rise, but Winnie beat her to it.

"Changing the subject," she started. "I want to ask the family a question. How many people here have personally seen Stu and Momaka either holding hands, or sneaking a kiss, or hugging? If you have personally seen them doing that, would you please stand up."

Chairs scraped backwards. Stu and Momaka were on opposite sides of the table and were stunned. First, that Winnie would ask the question, and second, that everybody else in the room was now standing. Even Wanda and Dreamer.

Winnie continued. "So my question to Stu and Momaka is: Who do you think you're keeping your secret from?"

Doc stood up. "The ancients held dinners after their weddings and they'd perform a certain ritual. When someone in the audience wanted the newlyweds to kiss, he would pick up a glass like this." Doc held up his glass. "Then he would take a fork or a spoon." Doc picked up his spoon in his other hand. "Then he would click the spoon against the glass like this." Doc began to clink slowly. "If other people in the party also wanted the newlyweds to kiss, they'd join in."

Doc continued to clink. After a two or three second hesitation, the entire room had been clinkified. When it was clear that nobody was going to stop clinking, Stu rose, walked around the table, and held his hand out to Momaka. She got up holding Stu's hand up in the air like they were planning to dance and stepped back from the table. Then they clinched and Stu planted a kiss on Momaka that bent her back in his arms. Everybody clapped and cheered. Wolf, who had been sitting next to Momaka, walked to the empty spot on the other side of the table so that they could sit together.

"Thank goodness, that's over with," Granny said. "I was getting hoarse from coughing every time I had to enter a room the two of you might be in."

"We have a couple of empty houses," Yolanda said.

Stu and Momaka left to bring in the food. As he put the big bowl of mashed potatoes onto the table, Stu said quietly to Yolanda, "We'll take Yollie's old house. Thank you."

### # # # # # # # #

The lunch dishes were all done, the community hall was back in order, and the Wilizy/America had been cleaned. That meant that it was time to go to the basketball court where Theo and Lucas would explain a game they had just invented.

Lucas began the explanation. "We'll form four teams of five players. Liset will be an extra player on Yollie's team."

Theo spoke next. (They kept taking turns so I won't tell you who's talking from now on.) "We found four different coloured tops with the sporting goods that Wizard ordered. Green, red, blue, and yellow. Each team will wear a different coloured top."

"In this game, each team will try to put a ball through the other team's basketball net, like in real basketball."

"But we won't be running on the gym floor."

"We'll be flying in the air."

"If you are playing defense, you have to be visible."

"If you're on offense, you can try to get open for a pass by making yourself invisible and flying to an open spot in the air. When you touch the ball however, you have to be visible and remain that way. At that point, you can't fly anywhere. You either have to shoot or pass."

"After that, you can turn invisible and try to sneak near the basket to get another pass."

"When you think you can score, you can shoot."

"But remember you're visible and someone from the other team will be trying to stop you."

"You must remain visible on defense at all times."

"As soon as a defender sees a visible player on the other team, you have to try and stop her from passing or shooting."

"The defense can't just hover in the air around the basket and stop anybody from coming near."

"We think the way to win this game is to make a lot of quick passes and sneak into openings that aren't being covered. Remember you can fly anywhere you want inside the gym walls."

"We'll play with the small rubber ball so that nobody can get hurt."

"We'll start a new game with different teams every ten minutes."

### # # # # # # # #

It was a blast. Nobody could stop Granny. She could score from anywhere near the basket. At one point, Wanda wrapped her arms around her body and wouldn't let go when she went invisible. Granny just dragged her through the air. Doc was a great passer – he even passed to me when I was up in the air above the basket and I only had to drop the ball in. Wolf and Mac had a play where they made a whole bunch of quick passes as they came down the court and scored. They were only visible for a second before they passed. Theo and Lucas had plays too, but they only played on the same team once. After that, everybody agreed that they had to be on separate teams.

To finish the afternoon, we had a shooting contest. You had to hover in the air and put the basketball through the hoop. Kids had a short distance to shoot. The teenagers were further back. Granny was furthest back. Whoever scored three baskets first won. Theo, Dreamer, and Granny all made three baskets on their first three attempts. To break the tie, they had a shoot out and Dreamer won. I saw Granny hug her in congratulations. She may have whispered something to her too, because I saw Dreamer nod at her and sort of smile.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 9

It was mid-July. Five weeks had passed since the family weekend. Advertisements for the vice president positions had been placed and Yolanda was hiring. She hoped to have all positions filled by the end of August.

Mathias was flying the Wilizy jumbo freight plane in the skies of Alberta and B.C. The plane had a long body like one of the ancients' old planes. But since it was solar powered, and because it was made of light titanium, the wings didn't have to be as long. The entire upper surface of the plane was a huge solar collector and William had put one of his biggest diamonds inside the plane's power unit. The bottom surface of the plane was a mass of little flaps of titanium that were attached by one end to the hull. When the plane was flying, the wind would cause the titanium flaps to click against the hull. Those touches generated a charge that was stored in the plane's batteries. That clicking mechanism was another of William's inventions. Between the solar collectors and the wind power generators, the plane produced more energy than it consumed when it was flying. However lifting it into the air did require a lot of energy, especially when it was carrying a heavy load. The interior looked like the inside of an empty barn.

The jumbo passed its test runs with flying colours, which pleased the Red Deer engineers no end. They began construction on three more jumbos that would be restricted to carrying Wilizy freight. In time, other countries and companies would be able to buy a smaller freight plane that the Red Deer engineers were planning to produce in large quantities. This would have less cargo space, less solar power, no wind power, and none of the other features that William would add secretly as soon as the jumbos left the Red Deer plant.

For example, William had already added a filament cover and a huge number of pinky rings to the first jumbo. In public, the plane would have good speed. It would be very visible in the air and everybody would know that another Wilizy transport had flown by. However when Mathias was away from public view, the pinky-ring powered filament surrounding the jumbo meant that he could fly it invisibly at supersonic speeds in high altitude. This would allow him to move cargo from Asia to the Zeballos storage prison in a few hours. Since nobody in North America would know when the plane left Asia, they wouldn't know how far beyond the speed of sound the plane had flown. With four jumbos soon leaving and landing all over the world, it would be even harder to figure out how quickly the Wilizy's cargo was being delivered. Nobody had thought to ask William who was going to fly the other three jumbos.

### # # # # # # # #

Hank had been spending a lot of time with Lucas, hoping that hard work and some new responsibilities would pull him out of his funk. Lucas was now in charge of preparing the interiors of all five Alberta WC&D buildings for customers. Wizard had ordered display units, shelves and things like that. Lucas was installing all of these on his own. When Hank suggested that he hire people and then supervise their work, Lucas looked at him in disbelief. "Why would I want to do that?" he asked. So Lucas worked eighteen-hour days to get the Calgary store ready to receive its merchandise. Dreamer already had the first load of chocolates ready to go for that store. She planned to put the chocolates section right in the middle of the store so that people were bound to walk by it.

Hank was preparing the Surrey store for its grand opening – a time-consuming task because the retail area that Wizard had leased was old and neglected. Hank had hired the Vice President for the WC&D's entire retail operations and choosing the manager of the Surrey store would be next on Yolanda's list.

At night, Hank and Lucas would meet and talk about how the day had gone. Everybody could see that Lucas wasn't interested in being involved in the stores; he was doing it for his father, I think. Hank offered to continue giving Lucas boxing lessons, but Lucas was more interested in basketball. Theo had been practicing a lot with Granny and was kicking Lucas' butt whenever they played against each other.

The family had always wondered who had given Lucas his competitive instincts. After watching Granny in the three-dimensional basketball game, everybody now knew. The family called the game _invisiball_ and played it every Sunday night. Lucas enjoyed himself in those games and the old Lucas appeared, if only briefly. He never smiled outside of the games.

As I have mentioned, Theo was practicing basketball with Granny in the evenings. In the daytime, he worked with Momaka. The family wanted to try that out because that kind of work got him outside. Theo worked hard and did what Momaka wanted, but he was not cut out to be a farmer. Momaka offered to teach him more judo, but Theo wanted to do basketball instead. He has become very tall and everybody is expecting him to stretch even higher into the sky. He dunked the ball for the first time this week and Winnie said that his face just lit up. Granny kept him on a tight leash in practice – dribbling and shooting only.

There's a special way of shooting a basketball that involves _putting your hand in the cookie jar._ Granny told Theo that he had to learn how to do that with either hand. Don't ask me what that means. I'm getting all my information from Winnie and Reese and they aren't basketball players. I've never even seen a cookie jar; I'm lucky if I see cookies. Theo was very athletic, so he was learning quickly. Especially because he was spending every possible free hour in the gym.

When Theo was practicing at one end of the basketball court, Dreamer was at the other. They were learning the same skills. Granny didn't set it up as a competition, (I think), but it certainly became one. Dreamer was better at dribbling; Theo was better at shooting. On Saturdays, they'd practice in the gym all day and into the evening. To give their bodies a rest, they'd take turns being a rebounder or a passer for the other player. Granny said that their progress was tolerable. Every now and then, when they started getting cocky or started slacking off, she'd let them go one-on-one against her. "I'm an old woman with a limp and you still can't get by me?" she'd exclaim after they had failed once again to score a basket.

Lucas didn't put in the same hours of practice as Theo, but he was learning quickly because he was more athletic than Theo. He liked to practice driving from the outside towards the basket. Doing something that Granny called a _lay-up_. When he wasn't practicing that with either hand, he was charging at the basket and then stopping suddenly and shooting. Granny called it a _Stop and Pop_. Lucas wasn't so good at that because his running was faster than his dribbling and he'd lose the ball if Granny suddenly stepped in his way.

A lot of Lucas' free time was spent camping in the woods. He even joined Doc on one of his overnight fishing trips. Granny asked Doc how many words they had exchanged in that twenty-four hours; Doc had to think about that and then held up one finger. "Lucas said _Thanks_."

"Did you ever consider opening up a conversation?" Granny asked.

"Why? We weren't there to talk," Doc responded.

### # # # # # # # #

The Raging Gardeners conducted another kidnapping trial for the man in the Okanagan. It hadn't taken long for Wanda and Momaka to collect enough evidence to convict him. He didn't specialize on blondes. Instead, he aimed for a high volume of brunette victims to make up for the lower commissions. Wanda asked William if he could rig up a sensor for the pervert's copter that would tell them that he had a passenger. Otherwise, the Gardeners could lose a lot of time waiting for him to snatch somebody. William did make the sensor and it worked well. From the compound, it's only a few minutes at high sling speed to the Okanagan. Bob caught him easily in the middle of a kidnap and it was Winnie this time who took a little piece of time out of a lucky little girl's life.

Bob made another appearance to prompt a confession, Granny did her judge act, and Momaka planted another hybrid tree. Wanda and Dreamer were still the first two to go into the clearing, but Momaka told Granny that they handled it better. Mac said that she was too busy to come up for the ceremony. Granny and Yolanda were anticipating that they'd get their Surrey guy in July. Nobody had any idea yet what the Gardeners could do about the snatchers who operated in the U.S. Granny said that she'd ask Stu for help.

### # # # # # # # #

Doc was first to hire his vice presidents. One was now running the WZBN and the other was organizing the harmonica and singing contests for the summer. Those events had been publicized widely and contestants were submitting applications to the website. At first, Mac and Wolf said that they wanted to watch the Calgary show. Later they began thinking about entering. With time on his hands, Doc was helping Yolanda find her vice presidents. He'd conduct the interviews for her while she judged character. Doc told her to just hire somebody who was like Wizard.

Wizard and Dreamer were polite to each other, but that was about it. Their Wilizy responsibilities were completely separate now. Dreamer had selected the kinds of sporting goods and footwear that she wanted and that large order would be here in time for the store openings. On the chocolate front, she had already hired her vice president and was letting her set up the manufacturing plants. Dreamer wasn't all that interested in working out details of what she was going to sell in the WC&D stores; she was much more interested in creating ideas for new products. Some Wilizy members speculated that she was getting some of her ideas from her dreams. Her latest idea? Miniature Wilizy cargo plane toys that children could fly remotely. The toy's cargo bay had space for five different chocolates and these would be packaged and sold as _Wilizy Jumbo Chocolates_. The first five would be included in the toy's purchase. Dreamer was pushing hard for the stores to have an entire toy section situated right next to the chocolate section. With that idea still to be approved, she had lots of time to spend in the gym.

Dreamer was practicing late one night when Theo and Lucas heard the dribbling and came in to watch. One rebounded for her and the other put a little defensive pressure on her. When she was finally exhausted, she thanked both of them for helping. Then Lucas said something unusual, for him at least.

"I never realized how much Double-Tom had hurt you until I heard you at Yanker's funeral. If you need help to get better, Theo and I will be there for you."

Back to the Table of Contents

#  Chapter 10

The little blonde girl's name was Karita. At least that's what Renfrew and Jenkins insisted it was. She knew that it wasn't. Her real name was Maddy – short for some name that was longer. Her first parents had told her once what that longer name was but she couldn't remember that word now. She did remember the name _Maddy_ and she remembered how happy her first mommy had been when she had spelled it for the first time. It was the first word that she had ever printed.

_Maddy_ was the word she was printing now on the inside of the heavy top to the toilet tank in her bathroom. Renfrew had given her a set of felt pens and colouring books when she had first arrived in the house with the special basement room. When Maddy found herself having difficulty remembering her real name, she had decided to write it down. Jenkins hadn't liked it when she had written it down on paper and had taped it to the wall in her bedroom. That was when she had learned that the thing around her neck wasn't a necklace after all.

Maddy was finding it difficult to remember her first mommy's face now. She remembered her first daddy only as a man who wore glasses. Maddy couldn't even remember what colour hair he had, but she did remember him telling her that she had blood that was different from everybody else's. If he ever saw some of her blood, he'd know it was hers. That was why Maddy had deliberately cut herself with a knife yesterday while she was washing the dishes. She made the cut under water, and since she couldn't see what she was doing, the cut was much longer than she had wanted it to be. Renfrew had pulled out the wand that would make her body shake, but she didn't push the button because Maddy was crying really hard. It hurt way more than she thought it would. Renfrew had put a thick Band-Aid on the cut. The Band-Aid with her blood was what Maddy was taping right next to where she had printed her name on the underside of the toilet tank top. She'd say that the Band-Aid had come off in her bath. And it had. She wouldn't say that she had helped it come off.

Maddy didn't like her afternoon naps. Naps were something that babies had. Maddy knew that she didn't used to have naps in the afternoon. She didn't know why she had to have naps now. All she knew was sometime after lunch, she would become very sleepy. Jenkins would let her nap on the comfy little couch in the special room – the one that had a computer screen with cartoons that she could watch when she had been especially good.

Maddy didn't like the dreams she was having in her naps. A frowning blonde lady was in those dreams. She made Maddy think that she had done something very bad and the lady was going to punish her for it. When Maddy had told Renfrew about her dreams, Renfrew had said that she was remembering things from her childhood. The people who she had thought were her parents were actually kidnappers who had stolen her from her real parents. Her real name was Karita, not Maddy. Now that those bad people weren't around any longer, she – Karita – was beginning to remember things from her childhood with her real parents. When Maddy had asked what had happened to the kidnappers, Renfrew had said that they had been caught and she wouldn't have to worry about being hurt by them again. Maddy didn't remember ever being hurt by them.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 11

It was mid-August and the Raging Gardeners had just buried the Surrey pervert. This one had focused exclusively on blondes. His capture, trial, and funeral were all routine. Yolanda had been involved in the capture, so that was one difference, I guess. And Mac had messaged that she didn't feel the need to be at the burials any longer and Wanda had gone into the clearing third instead of first. And Dreamer was currently patting the shovel on the grave and not showing any signs of wanting to leave the clearing. There were lots of differences, come to think of it.

Momaka finished collecting the gardening tools and stored them in a soft cloth bag that she placed at the foot of a cedar tree. Dreamer continued to pat the loose soil on the top of the grave flat.

"I'm tired," Momaka said. "I need to rest." Then she sat down, patted the ground with her left hand, and motioned Dreamer to join her.

She did. It was about 5 p.m., and although it was August, the deep woods were beginning to darken. "If you're worried about bodies rising from the grave in the dark woods, Bob is here to protect us." Momaka tried to make it a light comment.

"If he can't, Dreamer the manipulative bitch will take his place." Not a light comment. "I'm not getting any better," Dreamer said as she tossed the shovel towards the sack of tools and took up a cross-legged sitting position directly opposite Momaka.

"Why do you say that?"

"I'm still screaming and howling."

In that, Dreamer was right. The intensity of her released emotions had actually increased.

"Perhaps that's because you couldn't let everything out when Wanda was with you."

"Mac is all better, Nonny said I should come on my own now, and three of the Franklin women have quit coming."

"Every woman's experience is different, Dreamer. Mac was older when she was assaulted and she dealt with the incident herself at the time. Your nonny wasn't sexually assaulted; her daughter was murdered. Two different situations. Two different rates of recovery."

"Will I be able to have babies?"

That question came out of the blue. Momaka shifted her position as though she were trying to get more comfortable before answering. This answer would take some fudging. It was entirely possible that Dreamer might not be able to have babies if Momaka couldn't repair the psychological harm. She said something else instead. "You weren't physically harmed, so why not?"

"Is that why you never married and had kids? Because you couldn't?"

"There were a number of reasons, and yes, physically I can't bear children. Plus Bob is not the kind of companion that husbands like to wake up to."

"How did you deal with not being able to have children?"

"I didn't handle it very well. But after I was able to keep Bob under control, I decided to have different kinds of children. My flowers, bushes, and trees."

"I don't think I'll be able to have sex. That means I won't be able to have children. I don't like to garden. What am I supposed to do?"

"I have a thermos of tea that we can share. Why don't you start at the beginning?"

### # # # # # # # #

"After my dad was taken off to jail, I thought that I'd stop being scared. All the other bad things that had happened to me when I was a kid had gone away. Colds, flu, hurt fingers. Even the arm I broke when I fell out of a tree healed. I figured I'd gradually get better. But I didn't. I was still frightened of undressing even though I knew it was silly and that he wasn't around to look. I still locked my bedroom door at night. If I heard a man's voice in the house, I'd still hide in my closet. I didn't get better."

Momaka passed the thermos cup to Dreamer but said nothing. Dreamer moistened her lips and passed the cup back.

"When Wizard came to the tribal center, I recognized him from one of my nice dreams and I thought that we could be friends. I wasn't scared around him. We held hands and I liked that kind of touch. And we hugged. I didn't freak out. He wasn't touching my, ah..."

"He wasn't touching you sexually."

"Yah, he wasn't touching me sexually, but I thought that might eventually happen and I was OK with that. And everything would be all right because I was finally better. I had been cured. I had waited a long time, but now I was better. And then my dad burst into my bedroom, and he was hugely angry, and I remembered what he had said that he'd do to me if I told anybody what had happened."

"He was going to assault you sexually."

"Yeah. And now he was in my bedroom. But I hadn't told anybody what he had tried to do, so why would he do that to me? And I freaked. I absolutely freaked. And Granny brought me to the compound where my dad couldn't hurt me. But I knew that I hadn't been cured after all. I wasn't going to be able to let a man look at me naked, and I knew that they liked to do that. I wasn't going to be able to..."

"Let him touch you sexually."

"Yeah. That. And if I couldn't let him do that, I wouldn't have any babies. And I wanted to have babies. And I wanted Wizard to be my husband. But that couldn't happen even if I was forever protected from my Dad. I wasn't better after all."

"But you did improve after you came to the compound."

"Yes, on the outside. I wasn't as shy. I talked louder. I liked being around my Wilizy sisters and brothers and I was doing something that I was good at. But I knew that I couldn't stand to have a man see my body and touch it. That meant no sex and that meant no babies."

Momaka poured another thermos cup of tea, sipped it slowly, and said nothing. All in good time.

"I enjoyed helping Melissa with her babies and she told me how she had taken baby steps to solve a problem that seemed impossible. So I did that too. I undressed in front of Winnie. And it worked. I was able to do that. So I thought OK, if I can undress in front of Winnie, I could do that with a guy too. I didn't know about the touching stuff, but I thought baby steps, right? And Melissa's babies were so wonderful, and I started to believe that I could have babies, and Wizard would be my husband."

"I wanted to be cured so badly and I wanted to never have to be scared of being touched that I began to force it. I got Wizard to kiss me. He didn't want to, but I knew that if he kissed me, he'd want to, ah..."

"Touch you sexually."

"Right. And because I wanted him to do that, I knew that it would be all right. I wouldn't freak out. I'd be cured. I'd be normal. But he didn't want to touch me. And I thought it was because I'm so tiny on top. It was my fault that he wasn't interested because I didn't have a normal body."

"And so you helped him along a little."

"Yes. Because I had to know. Could I stand being touched sexually? And if I could get used to that little bit of touching, it wouldn't be such a big step to have sex. And because I wanted to have babies, I'd be able to do it."

"And you had the dream of Wizard's bedroom."

"That awful, horrible dream. My dreams had always come true. I figured that this one would too. I saw myself naked in Wizard's bed. At least my top half was naked. So, I knew from that dream that I wouldn't become upset when he saw me. I was sitting in the bed showing myself to him and smiling. I knew that I wouldn't freak out if he saw all of me. I wouldn't freak out if he touched me sexually. I would finally be cured. I was so excited to be cured. Then he ran out of the room and I knew that my dream hadn't been about me being cured, it was about me being a sicko."

"You're being hard on yourself, don't you think?"

"Momaka, I'm a sicko. I manipulated Wizard into doing what I hoped that he would do on his own. Now I've lost him and he's never coming back. And I'm back to being scared of somebody seeing me undressed. I know I'll absolutely freak out again if somebody touches me sexually, or if somebody bursts into my bedroom. I'm tired of being a freak. I'm tired of these dreams. I want to be normal."

"So when you were slicing our late friend into teeny-weeny pieces, is that why you were angry? Not because of what your dad did. But because you think you're not normal?"

"Momaka, it has nothing to do with **thinking** I'm not normal. I **know** that I'm not normal. How many people do you know who can see into the future and freak out if somebody touches them?"

"You're the only one. How many people do you know who have killed four thugs, can read people's personality, and have raised eight lovely children?"

"Yolanda?"

"The same. Yolanda is probably the only person in the world who has done that. But she's a perfectly normal person. In spite of some unusual events in her past that affected her at the time, she's still leading a normal life with a husband, kids, and now grandkids. You have had a very difficult childhood. That doesn't mean that you can't have a normal adult life. You'll learn to live with your dreams in a positive fashion, just as I have learned to live with an invisible dragon penned up somewhere inside me. You shouldn't get angry with yourself. You don't deserve those insults you made about who you are. You need to remove all the anger about your past. Keep coming to funerals. Who cares if you need more funerals than other people? And go back to taking small steps to counter your fear of being seen undressed. But do that in a safe environment where you know that nothing bad is going to happen to you. Don't let anybody touch you sexually until you have all these fears behind you. Go slowly. Be patient. And constantly look at all the good things that you have in your life right now. How many people in this world do you know who have flown into space in an old submarine and looked at our beautiful planet?"

"Did you and Stu go up?"

"Yes, we did. We had a very romantic time."

"Did you take Bob the invisible dragon with you?"

"Poor Bob was sick and couldn't go."

Back to the Table of Contents

#  Chapter 12

Karita came into the living room and saw the man sitting with Renfrew and Jenkins. He was the doctor she had met after being rescued from her first parents. She had seen another doctor once before when she had been sick. He had seemed very nice. Her first mommy had gone in the little room with her. He gave her first mommy something to drink that made her feel better.

She saw the doctor sitting with Renfrew and Jenkins after another man had rescued her from her kidnappers. He had the same white coat and lots of shiny tools. She had believed him when he put the thing around her throat and fastened it with something that she couldn't undo. "It's a piece of jewelry that I give to all of my young patients for being so good," he had explained. She had found out afterwards that it wasn't a nice thing to wear. She knew now that this doctor was a liar. He was a bad person. She wouldn't believe him the next time he told her anything. But in spite of all of this, Karita would do what he said. Because of what the thing around her neck did to her.

This bad doctor had come to the house where she and her temporary parents were staying once before. She had recited the little poem that Jenkins had helped her memorize and then she had left the room. Now he was back – looking at her.

"You say that she's had a fever?" Safe Haven's personnel officer asked the temporary parents.

"Yes. Two days now. We've noticed her face has been quite red and she's had very restless sleep. She may be coming down with a cold, but we wanted to be sure."

"Come here, Karita."

Karita did as she was told.

The doctor put something into her ear and she heard it beep.

"She has a fever. Quite high actually. I'll check her throat and glands."

Karita opened her mouth obediently and stood very still when his hands touched her throat.

"Her glands are swollen. It could be the start of something nasty. You should take her to a hospital. Why don't you help her pack some things, Renfrew?"

Karita went back to her bedroom and obediently filled a backpack with some of her favorite belongings while Renfrew watched.

Karita always obeyed her temporary parents. Karita agreed that her first parents were bad people – like her temporary parents wanted her to say. She told them that her name was Karita – like they wanted her to say. She said that she believed the blonde lady in her dreams was her real mommy – like they wanted her to say. She said that she believed that the big house in her dreams was her real home – like they wanted her to say. She said that she believed that the big man with blonde hair, bushy eyebrows, and a bushy moustache who was coming into her dreams now was her real daddy – like they wanted her to say. Karita had never seen this bushy man before. He was in her dreams now and she didn't know why he was there. But she didn't care why he was in her dreams so long as Jenkins didn't keep the button on the wand pushed down until she was rolling around on the floor screaming.

While Karita was filling a backpack with her favorite possessions, Maddy was there too. It had been Maddy who had thought of the singsong rhyme that would allow Karita to remember her real name. _Maddy's a baddy, Maddy's a baddy, Maddy's a baddy._ Maddy put the felts into the backpack so that she could write her real name wherever she went. She knew she wouldn't be going to a hospital. The doctor was a liar.

Maddy couldn't remember what her first mommy and daddy looked like any more. But she remembered about her blood being special. And she remembered to singsong _Maddy's a baddy_ several times a day, especially after she was forced to have afternoon naps. She didn't want to forget her real name.

Maddy was a bad girl because she lied when Karita said the things Renfrew and Jenkins wanted to hear her say. Good girls like Karita didn't lie. But Maddy **was** a baddy.

Karita went back to the living room where she let the doctor give her an injection to help her travel to the hospital. When she was unconscious, the personnel officer gave Renfrew and Jenkins their real instructions.

"Leave no sign of the child behind. Take or destroy any of your own personal belongings. After I leave, wait until midnight and then exit through the escape tunnel. Jenkins should carry the child on his back so nobody can find the child's footsteps. You'll have enough moonlight to work your way to the pick-up zone."

"This is a controlled retreat, not an escape at all costs. We're closing down all the Washington bunkers and moving all of our blonde girls into the ranches. Arm the explosives throughout the house and the bunker below. Put all security cameras onto high sensitivity. Perhaps we'll find out who's been killing our kidnappers. Perhaps we'll kill them too. In the meantime, keep the child unconscious until you are safe. A copter pilot will be waiting to take you and the child to Ranch #4. You will continue the child's education there."

"Be especially careful at the pick up point. Our pilot will expect the _sardine_ set of contact codes. If the pilot cannot give you the correct response, kill the child first and the fake pilot second. Then if you can, make your way to Ranch #4 and report. I believe the people searching for us have already killed three of my men. These kidnappers were well hidden. If you're caught, you can expect to be interrogated and killed. You'll be safe at the ranch."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 13

The Assassination Day holiday on September 1 was the excuse to have another family holiday, but this year it would be in the main compound – the presence of the gym being a compelling reason. Everybody wanted to play invisiball again. Yollie would not be playing as she was eight months pregnant, but Brigadier-General Jock MacLatchie would take her place. That's right. Brigadier-General. Mac's father was now in charge of Saskatchewan's entire armed forces and had relocated from Saskatoon to Regina.

The family was together for four full days with the Wilizy/Europe anchored high in the sky to provide beds for the satellite compound families. Yolanda had produced a schedule for meal responsibilities so that Stu and Momaka would actually have some holiday time. The general was bunking with Doc and Granny in their house. I'll refer to him as Jock from now on.

There were a few significant events to tell you about, but first, I'll tell you that the family took a lot of pictures – some of them showing each generation of the Wilizy family together as a group. The first generation was Doc and Granny, and yes, I know that Doc was not the family's birth grandfather, but everybody thought of him as that. Hank and Yolanda were the family's second generation. Other adults that were about the same ages were Wanda, Stu, Momaka, and Jock. The third generation had all the young adults and teenagers. The fourth generation was small in number but becoming larger. As of September 2085, it consisted of Liset (me), Yo-Yo, Will, Izzy, Jock junior, and one more to be born soon.

Below is the picture of the third generation of the Wilizy family. I have a copy of this picture in the living room where I am now sitting. It clearly shows Will and Izzy – two corpses that were alive and breathing on the day that picture had been taken.

[Censor's Note: A doctored picture has been removed from this book for reasons of public safety. The public is cautioned that this author invents much of the content of her stories and cannot be trusted to present an accurate account of historical events.]

The tallest 3rd Gen members were in the back row of the picture. Wizard was on the extreme left. Wizard didn't normally wear a suit coat and tie to family functions. Yes, he wore a suit when he was travelling and meeting other businessmen. But at home when he was relaxing, he wore a pair of ratty sweatpants and a crumpled t-shirt. You'll notice the pair of spectacles sitting on the top of his head. These were actually magnifying glasses that Wiz used when he was reviewing printed spreadsheets. He parked them on the top of his head so often that he didn't know they were there for the picture. Nobody else noticed either. You'll notice that Wizard, at seventeen, had his mother's oval face. He was slightly taller than her, so call his height in old measurements at close to six feet. By September 2085, he had stopped growing.

Next was Wolf – same height as Wizard. Wolf was a clone of his dad, especially the square jaw, piercing eyes, and chiseled stone face. As his dad did, he wore his hair long and in a single braid that was now reaching his shoulder blades. In contrast, Wizard had a businessman's haircut.

Third from the left was Theo, the tallest male member of the family at 6' 2" and I'll point out that this is as of 2085 when Theo was nearing his thirteenth birthday. Theo was another of the boys in the family that carried Yolanda's genes. The oval face gives that away immediately. Notice the slightly goofy smile? Theo was easy going and happy to be in company with anybody in the family. His hair in the picture was typical Theo: all over the place and he didn't care about that at all. Just about everybody else in the family checked their appearance before the picture was taken. Theo didn't. He just stood where he was told to, put his slightly goofy smile on his face, and enjoyed himself.

In the center of the picture was Dreamer. In the picture, she looks taller than Theo but that's not quite accurate. In 2085, they were the same height. Dreamer had been letting her light brown hair grow long for some time now. Wearing it short had made her look like a boy, or so she had thought. For gym time she bound her hair into a bun and parked it on the top of her head. It made her look 6' 4" – a dominating height for a teenage girl on the basketball court during this part of the century. Few girls in the frontier ever grew that tall because their nutrition generally was poor and their lives were harsh. (Theo was also much taller than the average frontier boy; a benefit of the nutritious life Hank's family enjoyed through his military connection.) Dreamer had her hair in a bun in this picture because she had been in the gym before the picture was taken. Outside the gym, Dreamer wore her hair in a ponytail most of the time. For important meetings, she'd pull it into a bun at the back of her head. Notice that even though Dreamer was not related by birth to the Wilizy, she did have an oval face although her nose and chin were different.

TG was next. Instantly recognizable by his white skin, TG had a Slavic face with the high cheekbones, round face, and straight, fair hair which he brushed straight back – giving him a high forehead as a result. You can't see his blue eyes. You can see that he's almost the same height as Wolf and Wizard.

William, the breathing corpse, was next. William always took the same picture – staring at the camera and with no hint of any expression on his face that is dominated by the Albertan nose. Melissa had William wearing his hair longer this year. Since it was quite thin, and since William never cared what he looked like, he'd often appear in public with his hair sticking out at all angles in the mad scientist look. Melissa would go _Ack_ and try to smooth it down with spit. Mac was convinced that William deliberately arranged his hair that way before he entered a public room, just to see what Melissa would do. However nobody had been able to catch him doing that. Wolf and TG would look at you blankly and go "Huh?" if you asked them if William was pranking Melissa with his hair. This is known as the _dumb male look_ and it's almost always a sign of guilt, at least in my experience.

On the far right was Lucas. At almost fourteen, he was nearing adult height and you can see that he's not quite as tall as Wolf. The Hank genes are strong in Lucas' body. Like his dad and Wolf, Lucas had the single braid falling down his back. If you had a closer look, you'd notice that Lucas had lighter coloured hair than the black hair that dominates Hank and Yolanda's family. Lucas was wearing a sleeveless t-shirt in this picture because he too had come right out of the gym. You can see how well developed his chest and arms were.

Now to the people sitting in chairs: from right to left this time.

Melissa was sitting right in front of William. You can see the classic Izzy face from before she died. You'll notice the wisps of red hair curling around her ears and her bright smile. She was also wearing a nice dress. If you're curious about such things, Melissa had lost the fire hydrant look and was back to her normal body. Given the hair and the new dress, it was likely that she knew that pictures would be taken. Several references to _I'm not going to look like a giant cow this year_ were heard coming out of the bathroom where Mac and Melissa were getting ready for the pictures.

Yollie was next. My mom was eight months pregnant which is why she was sitting in the picture and not standing with the giants in the back. You can see her gorgeous smile. Like Theo, Yollie was an easygoing goof ball who enjoyed having a grand old time. Everybody enjoyed being in my mom's company.

You'll recognize the waif that was standing by herself in the front row. Winnie with her pigtails. The picture showed her with what most people would assume was a simple smile. Those who knew her better would say that she was plotting something. At 9 years old, Winnie was still the little gem of the family, emphasis on the word _little._ At one point, Reese had been somewhat close to her in height, but you can see with him sitting right next to Winnie in the picture that this was no longer true. Winnie was holding something sparkly on a purple pillow in her hands. Yes folks, that's a diamond. A huge diamond.

As I mentioned, Reese was sitting next to Winnie. Reese was wearing some nice clothes for the picture – not his usual shorts, grungy t-shirt, and moccasins. For this picture, he wore brand new gray slacks and a white shirt. These were his school clothes. Reese would be attending school in Penticton in September, part of Hank and Yolanda's efforts to give their children a more exposed view of regular life. Reese was starting to shoot up as he approached his eleventh birthday. Reese sported another oval face and hair that wouldn't go anywhere he tried to put it. When this picture was taken, he hadn't made up his mind whether he'd let his hair grow long or not.

Like Melissa, Mac had another face that drew your eye. Not just because she was white and blonde, but also because she had that sparkling smile on her face. For a long time, Mac hid her true self away. No longer. She'd still show her gruff military manner, but when she wasn't being the family disciplinarian for the youngsters, she'd goof around and enjoy herself. In 2085, she'd warn misbehaving toddlers that if they weren't good, she'd sing at them. Here, I'm drawing on my personal experiences. Then she'd produce the most awful screeches. The screeches were so bad that we kids would run and hide. At least, I'd pretend to hide. I always liked my Auntie Mac a lot. When one of us kids was sick or troubled, she'd hold us tight and help us go back to sleep with little lullabies.

Last to tell you about in the photograph was Mathias – another boy who was wearing his school clothes. You can see in the picture that Mathias was getting quite tall. He had always been a bit stubborn. Now, with his voice starting to crack, he had become even more so. Hank and Yolanda's plan was for Mathias to attend the Penticton school with Reese. Winnie said that this wasn't going to happen. When people said Mathias was definitely going to school, she offered to make a little bet with them. Nobody would take the bet. Winnie said that Mathias liked his job as a pilot. He had ample time to study his home schooling bots between landings, and he liked having the responsibility of looking for new product lines. Winnie said the only question that there would be about that _school in Penticton_ decision, was how long his mom and dad would argue with him before they gave up.

### # # # # # # # #

The second afternoon of the holiday, the family all went to Calgary's Wilizy Gardens where Wolf and Mac were scheduled to perform in this year's singing contest. So many entries had been received that the organizers had to break the competition into four groups: Albertans under twenty, Albertans twenty to thirty-nine, Albertans over thirty-nine, and Out-of-Province entries. The Out-of-Province contestants had to compete from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. They could sing two songs, no more than four minutes total in length. In all, the contest had thirty entries ranging from singles to one large chorus. Four entrants from the Out-of-Province category were selected to compete in the finals and the duo of Mac'n'Wolf was one of them.

Sixteen contestants would sing in the finals that were scheduled for that evening while there was still enough light to see the stage. Their exact time slot would be determined by chance before the concert started. A panel of five judges would pick the winner, but they told the audience at the beginning of the concert that they could be influenced by crowd applause. That wasn't good news for Mac'n'Wolf since they'd be competing against twelve homegrown favorites. That afternoon, as they were touring through the new Wilizy building in downtown Calgary, Mac told Melissa that they were happy just to make the finals.

Since they'd be performing before the same judges that they had met that afternoon, Mac and Wolf had decided earlier that they'd sing something different for the finals if they made it that far. They'd sing only one song but it would be _Danny Boy,_ an Irish ballad that was very popular, but which few people could sing because it had some very high notes. When it was their turn to compete that evening, Wolf sang a soft low harmony while Mac took the lead. At the end, she nailed an impossibly high note and held it at full volume, which for Mac meant that it echoed throughout the entire park. They received a standing ovation.

When it was time to name the winner, the judges brought Mac'n'Wolf back on the stage and gave them a little trophy. One judge asked quietly if they had another song that they could sing as an encore. Mac and Wolf hadn't planned for anything like that, but they looked at each other and said simultaneously, _Indian Love Call._ They knew this song very well because they sang it a lot at home. This time, Wolf also got to show off his voice and again, they received a standing ovation.

### # # # # # # # #

The third day of the holiday, Granny held a Raging Gardeners meeting in the community hall in mid-afternoon. Some of the men were playing floor hockey in the gym, others were babysitting the youngsters in the meadow, and Stu and Jock were at the meeting. Stu was reporting to the group on the legal research he had done for Granny. Jock asked if he could attend because he wanted to know more about the Gardeners since they had helped Mac so much.

Stu's report was not encouraging. "I went back one hundred years but could find no precedent that would allow the Raging Gardeners to sneak into Washington State, kidnap a man they knew to be a pervert, and who had committed crimes only in the U.S., and bring him back to B.C. for trial."

"What if we found somebody real friendly and cooperative in Washington State?" Melissa asked.

"The Raging Gardeners have shaky legal status as it is. Hank's credentials are for a legal entity that no longer exists. Granny has status only because Hank forgot to put a time limit on her deputization. No U.S. law enforcement group would even dream about cooperating with you. Even if they did, we wouldn't want them to know anything about you. The justice system in Washington consists of small little police forces run by elected police captains who may or may not be honest and/or know what they're doing. They'd blab far and wide about you."

"Same thing south of Saskatchewan," Jock added. "Police, courts, judges – few and far between. There is no _state presence_. Just tiny little pin pricks of justice."

"Before somebody asks if that means that we could just go to the U.S. and do what we wanted, the answer is that we won't. Because it wouldn't be legal. We aren't doing this to seek revenge. We're doing this to seek justice." Granny – putting her foot down.

"Lots of perverts hunt in Canada," Mac said. "More than enough to keep us busy."

"I hate to give up on this," Wanda disagreed. "These are perverts who are working for something called Safe Haven Ranches. It's not the same as one pervert who feels the urge and attacks some defenseless girl. Somebody is making money from capturing and selling little girls."

"Dad, that group that Sven and his buddies were selling arms to in North Dakota – could they have been Safe Haven?"

"I never pursued it, Mac," Jock said. "It wasn't my jurisdiction, for one thing. Exactly the same situation you're in, actually. I don't believe they'd be the Safe Haven group. It's a long way from North Dakota to the western side of Washington State." Jock held up his hand in a _just a minute_ gesture, while his military mind marched down some well-worn brain passages. "The military justice system may offer you some opportunities for, shall we say, creative cooperation?"

"Meaning what?" Granny jumped in.

"Meaning, let me talk with Stu here and we'll play with some words."

"My pleasure," Stu said.

"What else do you need?" Granny asked.

"I need Mac and a ride to Regina. I hear you have a jumbo plane."

"Mathias can pilot you."

"Perhaps Mathias could show me the on-button? Mac, Stu, and I can talk in the plane."

"Meeting is temporarily adjourned until...?"

"After supper, I think," the commanding officer of the Saskatchewan military said. "If Stu is as good as I believe he is, this won't take long."

### # # # # # # # #

"So help me, God." A murmur of eight feminine voices finished the swearing in ceremony.

"And stand easy." Mac's voice. "That means that you can move your feet apart, clasp you hands behind your back, and relax a bit."

The eight women did just that. Seven were in a straight line facing the brigadier-general and one was standing in front of that line but facing the same way as the group. The brigadier-general wore his full dress uniform complete with medals. His shoes were shiny black, his trousers were black, and his jacket was a resplendent green over a white shirt. On his head, he wore a green beret that matched his green tie. All green colours were _Rider Green_ from the glory days of the Roughriders. When Saskatchewan adopts a favorite colour, they don't go halfway.

Mac was facing the group like her dad and was dressed in an identical fashion, but without the medals.

Granny was standing in front of the line of women. She was dressed as she always was – buckskins and moccasins – but with a Saskatchewan beret on her head. Behind her, in order from left to right, were Wanda, Momaka, Yolanda, Melissa, Yollie, Dreamer, and Winnie. Patella was sitting on her haunches at one end of the line and Scapula was her twin at the other end. Each woman had placed a green beret on her head, but otherwise, they were dressed in a normal fashion. Each wolf wore her every day set of fur to go along with her beret.

"Time for the first roll call, Brigadier-General?" Mac's voice.

"Yes Exec, I think so."

"RG Unit, stand at attention! That means you bring your feet together again, put your hands by your side, and stand up straight."

The RG Unit did as instructed. "What's RG mean, Mac?" Winnie was not aware of the protocols of remaining quiet when you're standing at attention.

"As far as the Saskatchewan military is concerned, it means Radar Group. You are a special unit created by the Saskatchewan military to use radar and other electronics to discover threats to public safety. But as far as **we're** concerned, you are the Raging Gardeners. It's common for military units to give themselves nicknames. You did."

"And we're all in the Saskatchewan military now?"

"Yes."

"And do we have to march around like you did with your arms swinging high and you feet stepping high?"

The General answered for Mac. "Corporal Winnie. In the military, it is very important that all officers and soldiers follow a certain way of doing things. Like the way we march. Or how we salute. It's a way of showing everybody that we're a team. And as a team, we always do things properly. We don't take short cuts. We don't get lazy. We do them properly. It's like the Raging Gardeners. You are a team. You hunt down perverts. But you do it properly. You give them a trial. You give them a chance to defend themselves. You apply the sentence of the court fairly."

"When Mac and I dress in our uniforms and march that way, we are just following historic military traditions. Not to do that would be disrespectful to the people who came before us. You are a team too. But because you are a secret team operating undercover, we don't expect you to act in a military fashion most of the time. But when the RG unit is on military parade like you are now, we do ask that you respect our traditions by standing at attention when asked to and answering roll call with the words _Present, Sir._ Let's try that now."

"Colonel Granny?" ... "Present, Sir."

"Captain Wanda?" ... "Present, Sir."

"Captain Momaka?" ... "Present, Sir."

"Lieutenant Yolanda?" ... "Present, Sir."

"Sergeant Melissa?"... "Present, Sir."

"Sergeant Yollie?" ... "Present, Sir."

"Sergeant Dreamer?" ... "Present, Sir."

"Corporal Winnie?"... "Present, Sir."

"Private Patella?" ... "Growl."

"Private Scapula?" ... "Growl."

"Executive Officer Mac?" ... "Present, Sir."

"And stand easy." The women did as General MacLatchie ordered. The wolves dropped to the floor.

"RG group may return to their chairs."

They did.

"Smoke'em if you got'em."

"I don't have anything to smoke, Mac." Winnie again.

"It's a very old way of telling soldiers to relax. Military rule is now suspended."

### # # # # # # # #

"In English please Jock? What have you done?" Colonel Granny taking the initiative.

"I've created a special military unit – the Radar Group that is nicknamed the Raging Gardeners. This undercover, highly secret group reports only to me. Nobody else in the Saskatchewan military will know that you exist."

"Tomorrow I'll message the head military people in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington to advise them that I have created Saskatchewan's RG Force to help us control cross-border activities like _trafficking in weaponry, chemicals, drugs, and people_. The RG force will also be tasked with stamping out _activities that are prejudicial to the continued security of the jurisdictions that are signatories to the accord and/or are prejudicial to the safety and well being of the citizens within those jurisdictions._ Stu wrote that, God help us. He can make clear thoughts disappear inside an incomprehensible maze of words."

"I'll advise my military counterparts that since much of the RG's activities will be electronic-based, that may mean that our surveillance and tracking might leak into their territory. I'll ask them to allow that. All the military forces in this area of North America have more problems than they can handle. These forces cooperate freely if it makes us more effective. The words _trafficking in weaponry, chemicals, drugs, and people_ will catch their attention. Every U.S. state will allow RG activities to extend into their territory because we're all trying to eliminate those activities. Stu has also written a very vague reference to stamping out activities that are _prejudicial to the safety and well being of citizens_. They'll agree to this as part of the whole package. They won't realize that these words give you a very broad opportunity to operate in these states."

"In other words, we are now able to go into these states and track people that we suspect are perverts."

"The way Stu has worded it, you are able to go into these states and track people who are picking their nose if you suspect that this behaviour is unsafe or prejudicial to other citizens anywhere in the northwestern part of the U.S."

"And we can bring them back here?" Wanda asked.

"Stu has that covered too. Saskatchewan is offering to charge any criminals that the RG unit finds and put them on trial – solely in the interests of keeping justice for such criminal cases uniform across the region. If any criminals have to be incarcerated, Saskatchewan will offer to handle all the costs."

Granny saw Stu's sly hand at work. "The other jurisdictions will gladly give Saskatchewan the responsibility for dealing with any criminals we find. It saves them the costs of court time and jail time."

"And if they don't like what we're doing with the perverts?" Yolanda asked.

"How would they find out? The agreement does not require the Raging Gardeners to tell anybody what you do with the criminals you find," Stu answered.

### # # # # # # # #

The last event that I want to pass on to you happened after the visitors had departed and life in the home compound was settling back to normal. Dreamer, Lucas, and Theo were having a three-way work out in the gym. One person shooting or driving, another person defending, and the third person passing. Just like Granny had said they should.

Not wanting to quit yet, they took a water break and huddled together under the basket talking and drinking. If a spectator had been close enough to hear the conversation, that spectator would have heard Dreamer saying things like:

"It made me afraid to undress."

"I hid in the closet I was so frightened."

"After a long time, I managed to undress in front of Winnie, but got scared again."

"No man would want a wife who freaks out if he sees her partly undressed."

"Momaka said I should try it in a secure environment where nobody would hurt me. You said that you'd be willing to help me get better."

Theo's reaction to what followed next in Dreamer's speech was abrupt and shocked. "You want us to do what?" And after she explained in detail, he blurted, "I'm not going to look at you when you're undressed!"

Lucas' reaction was calmer. "Then don't look. Just standing in front of her with your eyes closed will help Dreamer."

Then Dreamer said something.

Theo couldn't believe what she said. "Right now? Here?"

Lucas tried to calm him down. "Theo, nobody is here other than us. You're not going to look; I don't care one way or the other."

Dreamer left the huddle and went to her sports bag. She turned her back on the boys and took off her top. She took another top out of her bag, put it on, turned back to the boys when she was covered again, and re-joined the huddle.

"My shirt was absolutely soaking in sweat," she said.

"You can open your eyes, Theo. She only showed us her bare back."

Of course, that's what a spectator would have heard if he had been close enough. For invisible Wizard, who was high in the air at the other end of the court, he never heard those comments. He had come to the gym to see how Dreamer's basketball was going. He had done that several times that holiday. And he had been wondering what if....

Tonight, he saw Dreamer get partially undressed in front of his brothers and that started him on another kind of wondering.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 14

On September 1, Jenkins placed a sleeping Karita on the big soft bed in a second floor bedroom in the Big House overlooking the wide expanse of land that was Ranch #4. Big Daddy had led them to the bedroom next to his own. Karita's few possessions were stored on the floor of the ample, but empty closet. "We'll find some clothes and toys for her," Big Daddy assured Renfrew. "I'll treat her as if she were my own daughter."

Renfrew was assigned to a bedroom on the fourth floor where the house staff bunked four to a room. Jenkins would become one of the ranch's bosses. Bosses carried wands. Workers wore dog collars. In future, Jenkins' affection for the feel of an electronic wand in his hand and the sight of a writhing body on the ground would be confined to his supervision of the men working the cattle south of the ranch. He'd be far away from little whiny girls who screamed uncontrollably at the first bite of pain.

Jenkins had to work away from the house because Big Daddy was very protective of the young teenage girls who made up the majority of his house staff. Mrs. Big Daddy didn't object to the large number of teenage girls that Big Daddy liked to have in his house. In fact, she actively encouraged their presence. Mrs. Big Daddy was the business brains behind Ranch #4's success. Big Daddy's job in the ranch's business plan was to keep crop production high.

Big Daddy's wife wasn't actually called _Mrs. Big Daddy_. I gave her that name to show you her relationship to Big Daddy. Their husband/wife relationship was somewhat clouded by the many temporary husbands Mrs. Big Daddy met when she travelled. She liked to travel. Big Daddy encouraged her to travel. They got along well in that part of their marriage.

Big Daddy referred to his wife as _Big Momma_ , although she was neither tall nor large. When house staff addressed her, they did so by lowering their head and saying "Yes, your ladyship." As she had instructed them. Occasionally they'd have reason to say "No, your ladyship." That might be the prudent thing to say if Big Momma had said something to her house staff like – "I can always have you whipped and sent into the fields to work. Is that what you'd like?"

Now, about those dog collars: All workers on the ranch wore electronic devices around their necks. Their supervisors – known as _bosses_ – carried wands that controlled the length and the strength of the electrical charges that the dog collars would send through a worker's body. The younger bosses wore dog collars too during their apprenticeship period.

The collars were manufactured in North Korea and were similar in some respects (pain delivery) to Zzyk's brain-bands. (The Wilizy had intercepted a shipment of these collars and had stored them safely away in case they might prove useful.) This is what Karita wore around her neck too. A dog collar was the equivalent to handcuffs and leg manacles, only the collar didn't get in the way of people working. The collar did stop workers from disobeying, or horror of horrors, from escaping.

As to the whipping: Yes, workers could be tied to a post where they would be whipped in front of other workers. This was mostly to send a message to the other workers. And, let me be frank here. Those _workers_? That's not what they were. They were slaves, pure and simple. From now on, that's how I will refer to them.

### # # # # # # # #

With access to the Big House denied, Jenkins was unable to continue Karita's language education. Renfrew took over that part of Karita's upbringing. Renfrew didn't actually speak the language Karita was learning, but that was not a serious impediment. All of the instruction could be delivered by bot under hypnosis the same way the dreams were being implanted. The two people whispering in the root cellar that first night of September didn't know that Renfrew was wiping Karita's old memories and replacing them with new memories. They only knew one thing about Karita.

"That child can't stay in the bedroom next to Big Daddy," the female voice said. "You know how he is."

"Last time I looked, I was wearing a dog collar," the male voice said. "So were you."

"The plumbing in the Big House is old and pipes can burst."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 15

After watching Dreamer get partially undressed in front of his brothers, Wizard developed a strong hankering to get away from the compound. He decided to see how the kid with the peach farm in Chicago was doing. Wizard had given him peaches in exchange for Chicago pellets that proved very valuable in Operation Dead Man Walking (as described in Book #3). The last time Wizard had talked with him, the kid had plans to plant peach trees as a way of earning revenue for his gang of young boys.

Wizard did an invisible fly-over Chicago first. Since he was on his own, he couldn't take any risks, and the Chicago area had proven to be dangerous to the Wilizy in the past. He found the peach farm easily on the mud flats north of the city. The farm was quite big with perhaps fifty trees in various stages of growth. The boys of the gang were pruning them. He knew they were gang members because everybody on the mudflats had red somewhere on their clothes. Except for the men with the rifles.

Wizard counted six men stationed on the edge of the dry land at the southern perimeter of the farm. They weren't protecting the farm from intruders; they were keeping the gang members working. Wizard did some low fly-overs looking for the Chicago pellet kid. He would have been thirteen or fourteen years old by now, but the boys on the mud flats were too young to be him. He saw all different shades of skin colour, but he didn't see a teenage boy with a crooked nose. As he watched, some solar cars came out with more boys and the cars took the other boys back to Chicago with leg restraints stopping them from getting out of the cars. The kid wasn't in that group of boys either.

### # # # # # # # #

The students at North Penticton Middle School weren't wearing leg restraints, but they too were being escorted under guard. The first day of school had started with an assembly. Being a middle school, all of the grade 6s were new to the school and needed help to find classrooms and move from one room in the school to another. So in the assembly, the principal read the names of the students in each grade 6 homeroom class. A teacher collected the students, put them in pairs, formed them into a long line, and took them to their homeroom. From there, the teacher marched them to their other classrooms too. Reese was in Mr. Smithman's 6B class. He would teach them Language Arts and Social Studies. They'd go to other rooms for Math, Science, and their electives. Mr. Smithman kept the twenty-seven students in his room orderly on the initial march to his homeroom. On the tour to their other classrooms, he just ignored them if they were talking or goofing around. As they approached one of their classrooms, he'd point and say _Math,_ for example, and then keep walking. For students at the back of the line, this wasn't too informative because he didn't turn around so that his voice could be heard.

One of the reasons for the noisy line was that almost everybody in 6B knew each other already. They had been in the same grade five class in their elementary school. For many they were seeing each other for the first time since the end of June and old friendships were being renewed. The point in keeping everybody together from grade five was to help ease their transition into middle school. However, for any new students assigned to the class, they were walking into a room where they were the only strangers. Reese and a girl named Annika fell into that category.

NPMS had about three hundred students, approximately one hundred in each grade with four classes in each grade. The school had been built about ten years ago and sat on a big area of land fronted by Reservoir Road. This was an elevated property with a good view of Okanagan Lake. The area around the school itself had been landscaped with two big playing fields. The property to the southeast of the school had been left heavily forested.

School let out at noon with the students being reminded that tomorrow was a full day and they were expected to show up in their blue/gray uniforms. Reese and Annika hadn't known about that and had arrived in their uniforms. They were the only two students in the school so attired.

As Winnie had predicted, Mathias was not attending NPMS. He had been slated to enter NPMS' grade seven. Yolanda had planned for him and Reese to sling into the forest behind the school and walk out of the forest onto school property together. If anybody asked where they lived, they'd point to the east where a cluster of little farms nestled on the other side of the hill. Their last name would be in the school records as Wiltz. Hank and Yolanda's discussion with Mathias about his school career had been long. It never became heated because Mathias didn't argue back. He'd just say that he already had a job as a pilot and he would do his job. That put his parents into the impossible position of trying to persuade him to be irresponsible and that wasn't going to fly. Mathias was going to fly. And that was the ultimate decision.

Reese was sitting in the same room listening to the discussion as his parents and Mathias hashed out what Mathias would be doing this school year. He saw how strongly his parents tried to convince Mathias that he needed to go to a formal school. He saw how disappointed they were when they couldn't convince Mathias to register at NPMS. When it became his turn to talk with his parents about NPMS, Reese agreed immediately to attend. In actual fact, he didn't want to go.

### # # # # # # # #

For the grade 6s, the first full day of school consisted of a barrage of tests in the four core subjects of Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. The results of these tests would give the teachers an idea of how well the incoming students were equipped to handle their new grade. The students faced no tests when they went to their non-core subjects. Instead, teachers talked about what the students would be doing in their classes and handed out sheets of paper that identified what each student had to bring to class. Since Yolanda had already asked for copies of these lists when Reese had registered, he arrived that first morning wearing Theo's old backpack crammed with a full set of supplies. He stored them in his locker.

On the second day, Reese arrived at his homeroom to find the students milling around trying to find a desk with their name on it. There were five lines of desks. The line closest to the window had seven desks. The other four lines had five desks. Reese found his desk at the very back of the line of seven that was next to the window. The new girl was immediately in front of him.

As 6B went from one core subject to the next, they discovered that their teachers had assigned desks in those classes too. Reese noticed that the arrangement of his classmates varied from subject to subject, but he always had the last desk in the column closest to the window, and the new girl was always sitting in front of him.

What Reese didn't know, nor did the other students, was that the teachers of the core subjects had met the previous afternoon to share test results. Plus they had had meetings last spring with the Grade 5 teachers to talk about each incoming student. High on that meeting's agenda had been a request for warnings about students who could pose a behaviour problem or a learning challenge. While each of 6B's core subject had slightly different seating arrangements, there was a common theme. The smartest students in each core subject would be furthest from the teacher's desk. The students who could be butt-aches were at the front of the lines of desks where the teacher would be able to see everything they did and hear everything they said. Three of the front seats in these classrooms were occupied by boys. Two largish girls sat in the other two.

### # # # # # # # #

The same week that Reese was beginning his formal school education, Dreamer was opening Toronto's new Chocoholic Shop. Wizard had bought the lease from the previous owner and that meant that they were in an established shop in the commercial area of Toronto. The sign on the window still said _Chocoholic Shop,_ but now there was a second sign – _Under New Management_.

Toronto's shop would be an experiment for the Wilizy. Their other retail outlets for chocolate would be in the WC&D stores that had multiple products that could bring customers into the stores. True, they expected chocolate to be a strong attraction in the WC&D stores, and it had a high profit margin, but the amount of money that people would spend only on chocolate was probably quite small. Wizard wanted to see if a separate shop that sold only chocolate could be a profitable business. For previous owners, it hadn't been. But that was because the costs of importing the chocolate were too high.

The Wilizy were importing their chocolate at next to no cost. Mathias brought a jumbo airplane load quite visibly to the Toronto airport where local transport moved the freight to the shop's storeroom. He'd do a monthly run to establish that the chocolate was being transported openly. However they were also keeping the inventory topped up by using overnight express to the Wilizy/Asia that was anchored virtually right above the store. The Wilizy/Asia had plenty of space for storage and accommodation too. Lucas and Theo would run the store and live on the ship. Dreamer would take care of the administrative details and would visit them periodically. When she did, she'd bunk in a ship's bedroom that she had prepared for herself in advance.

Dreamer was in Toronto before the store's opening to work out hours of operation and shifts. Since the store was in the business section of downtown Toronto, most of its customers were the people working in that area. Mondays to Fridays should be high volume sales. On Saturday, they could expect some business from Torontonians coming into the city to shop, but no business from the office workers. Dreamer, Lucas, and Theo agreed on operating hours of 9-5 on Mondays through to Fridays, with both boys working the store and taking breaks as possible. They'd try a Saturday shift as well, but only to see what kind of response they'd get. The store would be closed on Sundays.

One of the underlying reasons why Theo and Lucas were in Toronto on their own was precisely that: to give them the opportunity to be on their own and to learn some responsibility. The directors had made this decision but had said nothing about this purpose to Wizard or to Dreamer. Yolanda and Hank had sent subtle messages to Theo and Lucas about the opportunity for both of them to develop some maturity by living on their own. Yolanda had had a very private talk with Theo during which she had asked him to keep an eye on his older brother. Theo agreed. He had been doing that all of his life anyway. Hank and Yolanda had a third purpose as well: Get Lucas out of the compound and keep him busy so that he couldn't sit around moping all the time.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 16

While Reese was finding his way around his new school, Karita was finding herself in a school too. A school where she learned how to clean kitchens. I'll back up a couple of days.

An unfortunate accident in one of the Big House's water pipes meant that Karita could not stay in the large and comfy bedroom she had been given. The old biddy housekeeper had put her foot down. When this housekeeper put her foot down, it stayed down. Since her foot had the weight of an elephant's foot, this was understandable.

_(From Wikipedia, 2085: The ELEPHANT is a mythical creature that supposedly inhabited some parts of the world before the ancients destroyed it. People believed that elephants could shoot water out of their noses. In today's society, con artists talk about elephants and their noses to see how gullible the person in front of them is. If they believe the elephant story...)_

The old biddy started making comments to Big Momma like: "That water has seeped into the carpet and underlay. We might never get it dried out. Lots of possibility for mold."

...

"Mold is a health hazard. That little girl could develop a life-long susceptibility to asthma."

...

"Keeping the girls in this house under control is hard enough without a little bitty thing like her sleeping in a bedroom the size of a barn while other girls are sleeping four to a room. I can just see one of these vixens taking a pair of scissors to her face one dark night."

"Where would you put her?" Big Momma had asked.

The old biddy's age was now such that she had trouble hearing things. She was sure that Big Momma had asked, "How far away from Big Daddy can you put her?" She acted accordingly.

_Pililiani_ was the old biddy's name. It was a nice Hawaiian name that meant _close to heaven_. Pililiani's family could trace their recent ancestors to Hawaii. When the Chinese invaded, they had managed to escape to California, and from there, they relocated to Provo, Utah and a cabin on the edge of Utah Lake. One day, Pililiani was canoeing on the lake but didn't return home. Her parents found her overturned canoe but not Pililiani. They were confused by her apparent drowning because she was a very strong swimmer. A few days after she went missing, Pililiani found herself wearing a dog collar and working as a slave in Safe Haven Ranch #4's kitchen. She was a little slip of a thing back then. She started eating everything she could get her hands on after the other little slips told her about Big Daddy.

Since Pililiani's first assignment had been as a kitchen drudge, she had ample access to food. The lowest position in the kitchen, the one always assigned to the new girl, was known as the _drudge_. She would be given all of the nasty work until the next new fourteen year old girl arrived. After two months and thirty additional pounds, Big Daddy's daddy's daddy had lost all interest in Pililiani although that hadn't stopped him from getting her pregnant the first month she was at the ranch. Pililiani made sure that he didn't get interested again. In Pililiani's experience, rolls of fat kept Big Daddy away.

Now in her 60s, Pililiani ran the Big House and all of the slaves in it – the girls as well as the women. Some of her decisions were made with Big Momma's approval. Some were made without Big Momma's knowledge.

One such example was Pililiani's decision to test whether the pipes leading into that big second floor bedroom could take a lot of physical abuse. That test caused an unfortunate water leak that required Pililiani to put Karita into a new bedroom that was created out of an empty storeroom leading off of the kitchen. This was an undesirable location that any of the other girls in the house would have dreaded because it just happened to be next to the old biddy's bedroom. Plus the little girl would have to work in the kitchen as the drudge. Washing pots and pans. Peeling vegetables. Dumping kitchen scraps into the compost bin. Karita would no longer be a target of envy; pity was more likely.

Pililiani also decided to have a new electrical power switch placed on a wall in her own bedroom. She had observed Renfrew doping Karita's lunches and hooking her up to a machine in her bedroom after she fell asleep. Two hours later, Karita would emerge from her bedroom stumbling, mumbling, fumbling, and bumbling. Pililiani didn't know what that machine did. But obviously it created a safety issue that had to be addressed. She couldn't have a member of the kitchen staff endangering herself and others.

Pililiani reported a potentially dangerous problem with the wall outlet of her own bedroom. That report went from Pililiani to Big Momma, and from there to Boss #24 who was in charge of fixing problems inside the Big House. Only this boss, of all of the twenty-four bosses working for Big Daddy, was allowed to enter the Big House. Once inside, he'd work under the direct supervision of the old biddy who would ensure that he didn't get any romantic ideas about any of the young girls. Both Big Momma and Pililiani were confident that this boss could work in the house without being tempted by the young girls because he wasn't old enough to shave yet.

When this boss had finished repairing the electrical fault, Pililiani had a light switch in her own bedroom that controlled the power outlet on the wall in Karita's bedroom. Every afternoon, after Renfrew left Karita doped up in her shoebox of a room, Pililiani would turn off all power to the shoebox. When Renfrew returned to wake Karita from her drug-induced nap, Pililiani would turn the power back on. Karita's mumbling, stumbling, fumbling, and bumbling tumbled away.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 17

It was in the second week of school that Mr. Smithman fell back into his old habits. An experienced teacher, Mr. Smithman would tell new teachers that it was very important that they establish tight discipline early in the year. He himself believed in that practice. Which is why on that first day, he made sure that the students walked quietly and properly to their homeroom. But Mr. Smithman was lazy. So after the students had demonstrated that they knew how to walk quietly, he didn't care how they walked to the other rooms. Nor did he want to turn around and find out.

In the classroom, Mr. Smithman believed in keeping the students busy. He knew that one of the first signs of a teacher in trouble was a noisy classroom. Mr. Smithman made sure that he kept a quiet class; therefore everybody would know that he was a good teacher. So in a typical class, Mr. Smithman would instruct for about ten minutes and then hand out stacks of paper drills for the students to complete. These had been copied from old bots. In some cases, the drill sheets referred to content that wasn't actually in the bot the students had been given for that class. Students would be unable to answer questions on that content, but they soon learned to keep that information to themselves.

Mr. Smithman checked that all students had completed their assignments and homework by standing at the front of the room and instructing every student who had completed their assignment to hold up their workbook. So long as everybody had a hand up in the air holding a workbook that had writing on it, Mr. Smithman assumed they had finished the assignment.

In terms of keeping discipline during the assignment portion of the lesson, Mr. Smithman didn't believe in walking up and down the aisles answering questions, checking if anybody was having difficulty, or doing other things associated with being a teacher. Instead, he believed that students should be encouraged to work out their own difficulties, either on their own, or through _peer teaching_ where a classmate would provide the necessary help. Peer teaching was a recognized form of good teaching because the youngsters could talk to each other at their own level. Plus the student who was teaching would receive the empowerment of having helped one of her classmates learn. I use the word _her_ deliberately. Girls tried to explain. Boys were notoriously bad teachers. They just told the other student what the answer was. They'd even write the answer on their student's paper in case the student they were helping was busy doing something non-classwork related, like pulling on the hair of the girl in front of them.

Mr. Smithman was sure that if his instructional model weren't working efficiently, the results on their tests would reveal any students who had not kept up. In theory, that would be true. If Mr. Smithman had marked the tests. But marking tests took a lot of time. And it was boring. Instead, he believed in encouraging students to have a sense of honesty and responsibility – so important these days for youngsters. After each test, he'd tell the students to exchange tests with other students and then he'd read out the answers from his teacher's manual. Although these manuals were notoriously bad for having mistakes in their answer sheets, none of Mr. Smithman's students ever raised a question about not being able to understand, for example, how option E could be the right answer when there were only four options in the question.

The students in Mr. Smithman's classes had their own educational philosophy. It was called _Cooperative Learning_. They'd ask each other, _What mark would you like to have at the end of the year?_ By cooperating in the assessment process, students learned the value of finding the best person to mark their work. In some cases, one student in Mr. Smithman's room could be marking three tests simultaneously. In case you believe that this would be difficult, it wasn't. Knowing in advance what mark they were going to give their friends, these markers just ignored Mr. Smithman's droning voice and made the necessary number of checkmarks. At the end of the dronation, he'd say, "Add up the right answers." Since the markers already knew what the total was, they could complete that task quickly.

To ensure that nobody dared to cheat on his exams, Mr. Smithman would scan the test results. He'd be looking for the case where one of the _dummies_ in the room had scored higher than he should have. In this way, Mr. Smithman was unwittingly teaching his students the concept of clustering, which is something found in statistics. In statistical theory, a student's test scores should fall in a cluster around a mid-point score, and by golly, the students in Mr. Smithman's class had mastered that theory. The markers never gave their friends the same mark as the previous test; instead, they gave them marks that clustered around what the final mark in the course would be months later. Even the dummies in Mr. Smithman's room knew that nobody would believe they had earned a 90 per cent. They'd be quite happy to earn 65 per cent. It was a sign of Mr. Smithman's excellent teaching that no student in his many years of teaching ever earned a final grade of less than 65 per cent.

Mr. Smithman would record the marks in his computer and post the results of the test on the bulletin board for all to see. For the first couple of weeks, he noticed that one student in his class was consistently earning 100 per cent. Then, that student's success tailed off. He started earning marks in the 65 per cent to 70 per cent range. Obviously home schooling wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.

### # # # # # # # #

Mr. Smithman had another bad habit. Since he only worked in the first ten minutes of class, he had nothing to do after he had completed reading the morning paper. So each period he would take a little break from the rigors of teaching. He'd disappear from class for about ten minutes so that he could do teacher business, such as conferring with another teacher or drinking coffee. Since it would set a bad example for him to be drinking coffee in front of the class when they were working so diligently, he drank it in the staffroom while checking his personal emails.

The one difficulty with all this conferring was that an unattended classroom could become a noisy classroom. That just wouldn't do. It might undermine the stringent discipline that he employed otherwise. To give his class the opportunity to show responsibility, he'd plop a seating plan on a responsible student's desk and instruct him to put a check mark next to the name of any student talking while he was out of the room. Anybody caught talking would have a detention.

The most mature student in the 6B classroom, in Mr. Smithman's estimation, was the new kid in the back seat who always had his head down reading. Mr. Smithman didn't know that this new kid was reading something other than the assignment he had just given the class. He didn't know that this new kid was reading something different because he already knew the content of the assignment. He didn't know that this kid was finding grade 6 so easy that he was downloading non-fiction books from the school library and working his way through them in alphabetical order to keep himself awake. Mr. Smithman didn't know any of this because it was a long walk from his teacher's desk to that student's desk in the back of the room. But that wouldn't have made any difference to his decision. The back row was an excellent place to have the classroom monitor because he could see everybody in the room without having to turn around. The new kid, what's his name, would be this year's classroom monitor.

Reese looked at the seating plan on his desk and at the departing backside of his teacher. Because he had always done what he had been told to do in his former school, he started making check marks.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 18

By mid-September, both Lucas and Reese were in difficulty. Theo – less so. All three kept quiet – their desire to be responsible and to make their parents proud was uppermost in their minds. Let's look at Theo and Lucas first.

The Chocoholic Shop was doing well on Mondays through to Fridays. It was continually busy. Theo and Lucas had quickly learned how to respond to customer questions, to collect orders, and to fill them efficiently. Theo had made a few minor changes in how the different chocolates were placed around the shop, but otherwise, they filled orders and collected money for eight hours a day. Saturday was a bust. "Nobody is in the streets down here, let alone in the shop," Lucas messaged Dreamer. She told them to close the shop on Saturdays and both of them should take their days off on the weekends.

Theo did not enjoy the work in the store, but he didn't complain because his evenings were enjoyable. He had found two schools that had an evening drop-in basketball program. One ran on Mondays and Wednesdays; the other was on Tuesdays and Thursdays. From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on those nights, he was sweating in a gym and enjoying it. On the weekends, he and Dreamer would play on an outdoor court for hours on end. They were still doing the practice drills that Granny had given them. When other players came onto the court, Dreamer and Theo would challenge them to two-on-two games. Dreamer would spend the weekend on the ship, and at least once a day, Lucas and/or Theo would help her with her undressing problem.

Theo now, he could handle the monotony of the store. I should also point out that since he was at basketball in the evening, he didn't have the foggiest idea what Lucas was doing during his evenings. Nor did he think it was his place to ask.

Lucas was finding the store routine mind-numbingly boring. Remember now that Lucas was a very active, competitive young man. He needed action of some kind to catch his interest. Selling mint chocolates at two cents a pop wasn't going to do that. With Theo in the gyms, and with Lucas having no real desire to join him, he needed something to do at night. He found his answer in the topless bars that populated the streets only a few blocks away from the shop.

First I should give you a little explanation about what constituted _topless._ Toronto's police chief was very firm that the local bars should not become a source of disruption and rowdiness in the downtown core. He insisted that the beat cop show a presence. However just as Mr. Smithman was unlikely to walk down to the end of his classroom unless it was absolutely necessary, so also the beat cops were loath to check the bars after 8 p.m. Their shift ended at 9:00, and if they were stupid enough to arrest somebody in a bar, that could result in paperwork that would consume more than an hour.

Knowing this, the managers of the bars changed their interpretation of the _topless laws_ after 8 p.m. Before 8, a dancer would be legally _topless_ if she had no clothes on above her waist. No police constable would object. After 8, the bar managers decided that their dancers would be legally topless if they had nothing on above their ankles. But for the sake of abiding by the law, the bar owners insisted that everything below the ankles had to be covered. And for that reason, just in case a beat cop did show up, every girl on the stage would be wearing high-heeled shoes. And if the cop tried to insist on the traditional definition of what constituted a girl's top and a girl's bottom, the owner would point out that the city's regulations didn't actually define the waist as the point of departure from legal toplessness to illegal toplessness.

Before you jump to a faulty conclusion: Lucas was not sitting in the topless bars to looked at _nekid wim'n_. He had no interest and took no pleasure at even glancing at the dancers. It may be difficult for you to believe this, given that Lucas was a healthy teenager approaching his fourteenth birthday. But his experience with Candi had been so traumatic that he was not interested in any woman whatsoever, clothed or unclothed.

Lucas had decided to go to the topless bars because he had heard the essentials of what his father had done in his early days with the RCMP. Although Lucas was not officially an undercover agent for the Toronto constabulary, in his mind, he was there to collect information on the seedier males that populated that area of Toronto. The pimps, the drug pushers, and the chemical suppliers were his targets. He had a good memory that allowed him to watch and memorize so that he could jot down notes later that evening. Plus he had an invisible camera. Lucas was in the topless bars to collect data, and at some point, he might offer it to some police organization. However there was one major difference between what Hank had done and what Lucas was doing. Back in Hank's day, the bars would allow a patron to nurse a drink. Hank would buy a drink when he walked in a bar and gradually empty it onto the floor throughout the night. In Toronto, the bar maids would insist that customers ask for refills regularly. This was particularly hard on Lucas because he'd make friends with the bar maids easily enough, and when they told him that they'd get in trouble if they didn't keep Lucas' glass topped up, he caved.

By the third week, Lucas was a regular customer at the seediest bars in Toronto. He'd order the necessary number of glasses during the evening but he wouldn't drink them. Then the barkeeps told him that he was giving other customers the impression that the bar's liquor wasn't good, perhaps even watered down. If he was going to sit in their bar, he'd have to drink. By the end of the third week, Lucas was waking up with headaches. Nobody had ever told him what a hangover was because the family didn't tolerate any liquor in the compound. They had never talked about it. Lucas knew, in theory, that liquor could be a problem for aboriginals; but these headaches weren't an alcohol problem. They were just stress from his boring work.

I should reveal one other incident in Lucas' life. A man in a suit had come into the Chocoholic Shop in the second week and had tried to sell him some insurance. To cover instances of glass breakages, for example. Lucas told him that he was hired to sell the candies; if the man wanted to sell insurance, he'd have to contact the shop's owner. The man replied that they liked to work with the shopkeeper instead and left. Lucas mentioned it to Dreamer but she said that Wizard had purchased all the insurance they needed.

### # # # # # # # #

Reese had two problems. The first time that he had been the class monitor, the other students had been reasonably well behaved. But they did spend a lot of time looking at Reese wondering about him. If Smithman had given the seating chart to somebody from the "old class," it wouldn't have been a problem. They were all friends. But this new guy? What was he going to do?

Reese did what he was told to do. He made check marks. He knew that his classmates were unhappy with him, but if that were the case, why didn't they just shut up and get to work? Which the students mostly did. But Reese was disrupting their free time. Smithman's class was when they talked quietly among themselves, pulled out game bots, passed notes, tried to look up girls' skirts or down their blouses, and so on. The lookout at the door gave them plenty of warning when Smithman was on his way back. Reese wasn't telling Smithman anything about the not working part, or the passing notes part, or even the lookout at the door part. His job was to put a check mark next to a student's name if she or he had been talking. Why couldn't they understand that?

News of his unconventional behaviour spread to the other grade 6 classes. Girls would glare at him in the hallway. They'd walk right through him if he didn't dodge first. The boys were more physical. It became difficult for Reese to walk down the hallway without being bumped into lockers or "accidentally" tripped.

In gym class, if they were playing a team sport, nobody would pass to him. Reese would run up and down the soccer pitch wide open, but he would never touch the ball. By the third week, he wasn't even running. He'd sit against a tree and wait for gym period to be over. The teacher would be in the staff room with his coffee by this time and wouldn't see what was happening. In labs where partners were formed, nobody would volunteer to be his partner. If they were assigned to partner up with Reese, the student would complain to the teacher that Reese smelled. It would have been insensitive for the teacher to go over and check, so Reese worked alone.

Reese's situation wasn't helped by a second problem. The courses were too easy for him and so he always earned 100 per cent on his tests. The girl in front would mark his test and he'd mark her test. She'd also receive good marks, but the students were used to her kind being smart. Reese was an aboriginal, and for some students in some families, aboriginals weren't ever considered smart. With Smithman posting the test marks on a bulletin board, everybody in the class knew that he was earning 100 per cent. Since they were all cheating, they figured he was too. However they were being smart about it; he wasn't. Nobody earned 100 per cent all the time. What was he thinking? He'd be caught and Smithman wouldn't let them mark their own tests any longer. Verbal abuse started to accompany the physical abuse.

The unduly high marks were something that Reese learned to handle. He knew what each question on the test was worth and he figured out where his mark should be to avoid abuse from his classmates. When a blank test was distributed, Reese had a simple solution. Start at the back of the test where at least a few of the question were slightly challenging and work his way to the front. He'd stop answering questions when he had earned about 70 per cent, turn over his paper, and go back to reading the non-fiction bots in the school library. After a while, the girl in front of him wrote him a note. "Why don't I just give you something between 65 per cent and 70 per cent and then you won't have to pretend to mess up on the test?"

He wrote _Thanks_ and passed the note back to her. He would have offered to do the same for her but he could see that she was intent on doing the test properly. She actually became upset when she made a mistake on a question. Reese had yet to have that experience in anything that he did in the academic classes. Art class was different. He was hopelessly inept at drawing.

The next week, after the girl in front of him saw him struggling through the onslaught of accidental collisions in the hallway and heard the comments, she wrote another note and passed it back. "Why don't you ask your parents to write a note to Smithman telling him that they don't want you to be class monitor any longer. That's why he doesn't call on me. My mom wrote a note after I told her what you were going through."

Reese wrote back. "I can't. My parents would pull me from the school and I'm learning stuff I'll never learn anywhere else."

The next morning the girl put a computer-generated note on his desk.

_Dear Mr. Smithman_

_We don't want Reese to be class monitor any longer. It's interfering with his learning._

_Sincerely_

_Mr. and Mrs. Wiltz._

The letter was even signed. Reese had seen enough of her handwriting to know that this hadn't come from her. Somehow she had convinced her parents to write the note. He was worried that her parents might talk with his parents. So he whispered, "Who signed this?"

She turned her head sideways a bit and whispered back, "I did – with my left hand."

"Thanks. I'll give it to Smithman."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 19

Dreamer was visiting Theo and Lucas on the Wilizy/Asia that was anchored over Toronto that Friday night in the fourth week of September. She was in Toronto partly to see how the Wilizy Chocoholic Shop was doing. She was also there to play basketball. The boys had been given the Wilizy/Asia to use as their home base because it was big enough to handle the chocolate cargo that Mathias would deliver, plus it had ample cabin space if anybody wanted to visit the boys and see how they were doing. So far, Dreamer had been the only visitor.

Dreamer had been to Toronto enough that she had been able to personalize her cabin. On her bed were sheets, a bedspread and several pillows. Stored neatly on the floor of her closet were two basketballs, two pairs of high top basketball shoes, and two pairs of business shoes. Two business suits and blouses were also in the closet in case she had to meet with somebody about the shop. A bureau held about half a dozen sets of shorts, sport tops, sport socks, sports underclothes, and regular underclothes. She also had other casual clothes along with an extra pair of sheets and pillowcases in the bureau.

In contrast the boys had bedrooms consisting of two sheets on a bed, a pillow, and a horizontal closet. A horizontal closet is where you store all your clothes horizontally, as in on the floor. Dreamer would wash her bedding and dirty clothes before leaving Toronto; she would include anything from the kitchen that needed washing. She refused to wash anything from the boys' bedrooms and insisted, as their manager, that they wear clean Wilizy Chocoholic franchise clothes each working day. They had six sets of official t-shirts for that purpose. The boys would race up and down the mast to see who got to choose chores: wash all the laundry or clean the ship's kitchen. When Dreamer wasn't aboard on a weekend, they'd air wash and dry their uniforms (i.e., shake them in the air a few times) and ignore everything else that needed cleaning.

On this night, Lucas had stopped by Dreamer's bedroom on the way to his own bedroom. This was part of his nightly routine when Dreamer was aboard. He leaned against the doorjamb and looked at Dreamer as she sat cross-legged on the bed, her head down. She was wearing her sleeping clothes – a loose fitting pair of black shorts and an even looser blue top.

"Bad funeral?" Lucas asked. He was wearing red shorts and a pair of flip-flops. His wet hair was hanging down to his shoulders and he was busy rubbing it dry with a short towel.

"Bad capture. The Safe Haven kidnappers are harder to find now. Plus they're scared stiff of giving us any information when we catch them – even when we threaten them with Bob. Granny takes pity on them. They still have to die, but gently."

"Does that mean that you've beaten Safe Haven?"

"No. Far from it. They're probably grooming new kidnappers. Granny wants to talk with Mac and Melissa again about our strategy. My nonny wants to take the Safe Haven underground bunkers apart. Mac wants them terrified first. Melissa doesn't know what to say. Granny says that Melissa is being a mugwump."

"What's a mugwump?"

"A mugwump is a creature that sits on a fence with his mug on one side and his wump on the other side. It's a fence sitter."

"I've never heard that expression before," Lucas said.

"Granny has lots of interesting expressions that nobody has ever heard before."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas had entered Dreamer's bedroom and was now lying on the bed, his back against the headboard, and his feet (minus the flip-flops) stretched out in front of him. Dreamer had moved over a bit to give him room, but she was still sitting cross-legged on top of the bedspread. Looking sad. Lucas had picked up on that and that's why he had moved to the bed. He already knew the way. The right side of the bed was his; the left side was Dreamer's.

"Did you go first on the justice part of the burial again?"

"Yeah. I'm not getting any better on that, Lucas. I still go crazy when I'm in the clearing alone with the body. I can't help it. I barely know what I'm doing. Only a few of the women are still coming. I used the hammer this time. I put the pervert's hand on a rock and smashed every bone to dust."

"You know why you attacked the hand, right?"

"Yah. I know. I understand why I have so much anger. I just wish I could get rid of it faster."

"There are plenty of perverts waiting to be caught; you don't have to hurry."

"Are you doing anything about your own anger? I wish you had stayed in the group with me."

"Beating a pervert's dead body wasn't going to do anything for me."

"So you're still angry?"

"Yup."

"Great stone face?"

"Yup."

"Still hate all women?"

"Not hate. I just don't want to be around any. Except you."

"So why do you go to the nudie bars all the time?"

"I'm working undercover. I'm developing quite a picture album of Toronto's scum."

"Do you need to drink to do that?"

"You've been talking with Theo."

"Seriously, Lucas. Drinking is bad for you."

"I have it under control."

### # # # # # # # #

"I'm ready," Dreamer said softly. "Are you ready?"

"Sure."

Lucas switched positions on the bed so that he was sitting up on his side of the bed, feet on the floor looking away from Dreamer. She lifted herself off the bed and came around so that she was facing Lucas. He looked up at her. "When you're ready," he said.

Dreamer took a half breath, pulled her top completely off, and held it in one hand away from her body. She stood frozen – looking at Lucas' face. He was staring at her chest.

"Ten seconds...now," Lucas said.

Dreamer quickly moved to her bureau and put her blue t-shirt on top of it. Then she grabbed the brush and comb on the bureau, climbed onto the bed, and positioned herself on her knees behind Lucas. She did not attempt to cover herself during that process. Lucas didn't turn to watch her. She started brushing out his hair.

"Are you finding the heavy staring easier now?" Lucas asked.

"Yah. But I sure know how long ten seconds is. Good basketball training, I guess. Most of the time when I'm in the kitchen, I'm topless now. Theo doesn't look and neither do you, so that makes it easy. It's when you're staring right at me within touching distance that I can hardly stand it."

"Are you planning to increase the time soon?"

"Perhaps. Is Theo OK with me going around like this? He looks uncomfortable."

"He is trying to be comfortable because he kind of likes you, so he wants to help. He hasn't said anything about you stopping. But, ..."

"You think I shouldn't be walking around topless so much? I'm OK being uncovered there now. Less stress for Theo if I stop?"

"Sounds like a plan."

### # # # # # # # #

"I've finished combing, Lucas. You'll need a trim soon. The ends are all ragged." Dreamer left the bed and peeked into the hallway. Theo was nowhere in sight. Normally she would have closed the bedroom door, but Lucas had taken it off. This way, Dreamer would never know when Lucas might peek into her bedroom. Theo would pretend to peek in, but he always closed his eyes first.

Dreamer stepped into the shelter of her open closet, pushed her shorts to the floor, and stepped out of them. Back to the bed. She sat on her knees immediately behind Lucas' broad back and began the braiding process.

"Please don't look over your shoulder, Lucas. Not even a little bit."

"I figured you'd be doing this soon. I'm not interested in your body, Dreamer. I see enough naked women in the bars."

Time passed. Dreamer tried to suppress the urge to braid Lucas' hair as quickly as she could. The trembling hands eased off a bit, and she focused intently and solely on getting the braid as straight as she could. When the last knot was tied, she leaned over, slapped him twice on the shoulder, and whispered into his ear. "You're done. I'll be over by my closet. You can look at me for five seconds, no more. Wait until I say _OK_."

Lucas waited until he heard her breathing settle and she said _OK_. Then he walked out of the cabin, glancing for five seconds at Dreamer's naked back and butt as she stood facing away from him, pretending to peer into her closet. "Did you know that your neck, back, and butt are bright pink?" he said on the way out.

"I didn't need to know that," Dreamer called after him.

### # # # # # # # #

Sunday afternoon. Dreamer and Theo were off to play basketball. This time they were going to a different gym. Nobody in the school gyms that they used for practices could stop Theo. They could stop Dreamer close to the basket because she couldn't jump as high as guys. But when she came to the outside for a pass, she just blew by her bigger, slower check when she attacked the basket. "Go play at the U of T," they had said. "It's free drop-in basketball and they have seven gyms with fourteen half court games going on at one time. Guys your own age will be there; perhaps even a girl or two."

Lucas decided to keep them company, so they ended up taking the metro to the St. George Subway Station and walking a few blocks to the university's Athletic Center. As always when they practiced, they'd untether their slings and collect them later. Basketball was a contact sport. If they wore them, the slings would get ripped or discovered. They didn't need their slings to get up in the air. Theo, almost thirteen, was dunking regularly. Dreamer, at fifteen, was touching the rim with her fingertips. Lucas had quickness, but couldn't dribble very well. On defense, he was a force.

When they entered the gym, a tall teenager asked them for their ages. Faced with a thirteen year old, a fourteen year old, and a fifteen year old who wanted to play together, he sent them to the upper gym where they'd find kids their own age. They found two guys that didn't have a team yet, asked them if they were interested in playing together, and then the five sat down to wait their turn to play. The gym had simple rules. Win and stay on the court to play the next team. Lose and come off the court. You're now last in line to come back in. The winner of each game is whoever is ahead when the ten-minute buzzer sounded. Ties were broken by shooting fouls. The first player to miss a foul shot lost his team the game.

They won four straight games before fatigue caught up with them and they had a thirty minute break. That gave them the chance to drink, eat a bit, and talk strategy. One of the new kids, Adam, was a good dribbler, and the other, Gordie, was an outside shooter. Their team strategy was obvious. Pass the ball into Theo and Dreamer. If they were covered, they'd pass the ball back outside for Lucas to drive or for Gordie to shoot. If everybody were covered, Adam would start all over again. They won their first game easily. Things fell apart in the second game.

### # # # # # # # #

Theo had the other team's tallest player checking him – as always. Both players were evenly matched except that Theo's check was two years older. Dreamer had the second tallest player from the other team checking her, and he couldn't match her for skills, but he was a very tight checker. She noticed on more than one occasion that he was pressing up against her butt a lot, trying to push her out of position when she set up near the basket, but also making her very uncomfortable with the way he was pushing up against her. One time she went up for a defensive rebound, caught the ball very high over her head, and felt his hand grab her left boob and squeeze it. The next time she was fighting for a rebound, he squeezed her right boob. One touch could have been an accident; twice was not.

The next time they were on defense, Dreamer gave the guy a clear lane to the basket. He took it. As he was rising into the air to take a shot, she gave him a hand with his elevation. To be accurate, she didn't actually give him a hand. She did slide in front of him, placed her leg between his legs, and helped him elevate to the basket with a solid knee to the groin. It was an _uplifting_ experience. He collapsed with a thunk to the floor and curled up in a ball. All action on the half court stopped. Then all action in the gym stopped.

_What happened, Dreamer?_ Theo didn't have any idea what had been going on.

_He squeezed my boob. Twice. Deliberately. Plus he's been bumping up against my butt all game._

_I saw the bumping once – the guy had a big grin on his face._ Lucas messaged while coming over to stand with Theo and Dreamer.

They watched as the other team gathered around their player, who was now on his knees and breathing deeply. Five very angry faces were looking at Dreamer. They overheard his accusation. "She kneed me deliberately because I had beat her clean."

_I'll take the guy on the ground,_ Lucas messaged.

_No. He's mine. You'd kill him. You have Dreamer's back._ Theo left his team and approached the guy still on the ground. Behind Theo, their two other teammates joined Lucas, pushing Dreamer behind them in protection. Dreamer pushed her way determinedly back to the front.

"Your guy sexually assaulted my sister," Theo said. "Bumping her butt and squeezing her boobs. She gave him his own treatment back. Take a breath and walk away."

Four faces turned to the guy on his knees. "Idiot!" the big fifteen year old said. "We told you not to do anything stupid with her."

"I didn't," the guy said. "She can't take the physical stuff under the basket, that's all. She's a lying squaw."

The fifteen year old raised his hands at chest level, palms out, as in _Truce._ He approached Dreamer. "Tell me what he did."

Dreamer did.

"You're on your own, Pizza Breath. I don't know her at all and I'd trust her to tell the truth before I'd trust you." He took his teammates, minus the squeezer, to the sidelines. "We're not involved," he said to the crowd gathering on the edges of the court.

Pizza Breath was now on his feet, still glaring at Dreamer. "I owe you."

"Take a breath. Walk away," Theo repeated.

"Can't let a squaw get away with lying."

Theo put his hands out at waist level and curled his fingers twice towards himself. _Come and get it._

Pizza Breath came and got it. Theo was used to sparring with Lucas – a boxer versus a thrower. Both were evenly matched. Pizza Breath had nothing. His first roundhouse swing put him off balance. Theo increased that imbalance with a kick to the back of Pizza Breath's already faltering knee and down he went onto his back, dazed. Theo knelt beside him, licked two of his fingers on his left hand, and inserted them into Pizza Breath's nostrils. His right hand found the squeezer's forehead and pressed his head to the gym floor.

"Struggle and I'll rip your nose off your face."

Pizza Breath lay back.

"Take a deep breath."

Pizza Breath tried to do that but found his nose otherwise occupied. He opened his mouth instead. Theo tried to ignore the unexpected stench. Pizza Breath did have pizza breath. The extra large size pizza breath.

"Listen closely. We are not squaws or bucks. We are aboriginals. We protect our own. We fight to the death. We do not run away. You assaulted my sister and you called her a squaw. In my family, we have a tradition when some ignorant person acts as you have done. The girl is allowed to toe punt the guy that assaulted her."

Pizza Breath watched from his prone position as Dreamer eased off to her left and started to bounce on her toes in readiness for the field goal run up.

"Are you ready for this?" Theo said quietly to the impending toe-puntee. "Or perhaps an apology instead?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," an authoritative voice said. "Nobody is toe-punting anybody."

### # # # # # # # #

While the big man in the blue shirt labelled _Varsity Blues Coach_ got the other teams back to their games, Dreamer found Lucas and planted a kiss right on his mouth. "I did it! I did it! I didn't freak out when he touched me!" Then she gave him a long hug and added another enthusiastic kiss on the lips for good measure. Theo received the same treatment. Then she fist bumped her two other teammates, making sure to explain that Theo and Lucas were sort of like brothers, but weren't actual brothers because Adam and Gordie both had this weird look on their faces with all the hot kissing.

Pizza Breath was banned from the gym for the season because of his bigotry and sexual assault. The other four guys on the team were told not to bring him back. The coach had a quiet word with the fifteen year old and shook his hand. Then he approached Dreamer and her team. "Gordie and Adam, you were playing well. I liked the way that you stuck up for your teammate. You'll need a new team for the rest of today. Try the four guys you were just playing against."

Then he approached Dreamer and her two brothers. "You three can't play in this gym any longer," he said as he led them through the exit door.

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas immediately bristled but Theo messaged him, _I'll take care of this. Don't blow up._

_I was just defending myself,_ Dreamer messaged, not understanding why they were being banned too.

"Who are you guys anyway? I haven't seen you here before. Tall guy. What's your name?" The coach started descending some cement stairs.

"Theo."

"How old are you, where do you go to school, and how long have you been playing basketball?"

"I'm almost thirteen. I'm home schooled and I've been playing basketball since June."

The coach stopped in mid-step and looked back at Theo. "You've only been playing for four months? Who coached you?"

"My grandmother."

"Can you beat her one on one?"

"She has a bad hip and no, I can't beat her when she's trying."

The coach resumed descending. "Same questions to your brother. He is your brother, right?"

"My name is Lucas. Theo and I are brothers and I'm fourteen years old. I've been playing since June, but not seriously."

"Why are you here?"

"Just keeping them company."

"You're athletic enough. What sport do you play that you do enjoy?"

"Fighting."

"Boxing?"

"Yah."

"Dream Girl. Are these guys your brothers or what? You have an entirely different bone structure to your face."

"My name is Dreamer, I'm fifteen, and I've been adopted into their family. Theo and I started playing ball at the same time. His Granny coached me too and I can't beat her."

"What do you like to do when you aren't kneeing dumb-asses in their brains?"

"I manage a chocolate store. Lucas and Theo work with me. I didn't do anything wrong. I was defending myself. I don't see why we can't continue to play here."

"Well, if you want to know what you did wrong, you can't dribble worth a darn with your left hand. But you showed a good high knee lift, so I guess that counts in your favour. You **are** allowed to continue to play at the U of T. But not in that gym. We let the good players into this gym." And with that, he opened the back door to the U of T's main gym.

"Theo and Dreamer, we give small group instruction from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Continuous games start at 1 p.m. and go to 5 p.m. The twenty players who show the most effort in the afternoon are invited to play a full court game at 7 p.m. Everybody here is older than you. They're also better. You'll probably quit after the first week."

"Lucas, if you want to get serious about basketball, you can come too. Otherwise, I'll introduce you to the boxing coach. He runs similar weekend practices."

"Who are you?" Theo asked.

"You can call me _Coach_."

### # # # # # # # #

They arrived back at the ship at 9 p.m. Theo and Dreamer had stayed to watch the game. Three girls made it to the final twenty. Dreamer noticed, but did not comment on the fact that none of them had any boobs to speak of. That made her feel better. She was their height, but in everything else basketball-wise, they were better. They were also older. Lucas had visited the boxing gym and had stayed late to practice on something called the speed bag.

"Amazing day," Dreamer said as Lucas rummaged through the fridge looking for anything to eat. Even a vegetable. "I wish I could tell Wizard."

"No reason why you can't," Theo said.

"You know I can't. He won't talk to me. Besides, just because I didn't freak out when somebody touched me, that doesn't mean that I'm better. You guys are going to continue to help me, right?"

"Could we talk about the topless stuff?" This from Theo.

"She's starting to go around bottomless too."

"No, Dreamer. Please! Have pity!"

"Lucas?"

"I don't care but Theo is starting to vibrate when you walk by – even when he has his eyes closed which he has almost all the time. Besides, you wouldn't want Wizard to drop in unexpectedly and find you walking around without any clothes on."

"OK. Last day showing skin will be tomorrow. Only the top will be bare. You guys have helped me a lot!"

### # # # # # # # #

Unfortunately for everybody concerned, the possibility of Wizard dropping by unexpectedly was no longer a consideration. Waterborne or airborne, that ship had sailed. Wizard **had** dropped in unexpectedly, and invisibly, thinking that he would like to at least talk with Dreamer again. Who knows. Perhaps?

When he saw her in her bedroom, completely naked, and braiding Lucas' hair, that thought had evaporated like a drop of water hitting a hot iron, which Lucas or Theo wouldn't know anything about but Dreamer would. Obviously Dreamer had been having sex with Lucas for some time. They were within a minute of having it right in front of him now. Wizard tried to convince himself that there could be a reasonable explanation, but all he could see was a completely naked Dreamer leaning over Lucas' back and kissing his ear. Wizard left before he had to witness what was coming next.

Then the next morning when he took a quick peek inside the ship, he saw Dreamer half-naked in the kitchen having breakfast with both Theo and Lucas. They had obviously seen her like this many times since they hardly looked at her at all.

Add to all of this what had happened in the gym. After the fight or whatever it was that they almost had, Wizard saw how the three of them were. Dreamer had been very happy and had hugged Lucas tight and kissed him passionately on the lips. She did exactly the same thing to Theo.

Only one conclusion to draw.

Dreamer was having sex with both of Wizard's brothers.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 20

It was the last week of September and Pililiani was cutting hair in the salon in Big House #4's basement. Big Momma #4 was currently in the chair. As hostess of the event, she was the first to have her hair done. Also in the salon were her equivalents from the four closest ranches: Big Momma #2, Big Momma #3, Big Momma #7, and Big Momma #10. Twice a month, the five ladies would have Pililiani wash and cut their hair. They'd sit and gossip the entire morning. Pililiani carried on shampooing, cutting, and styling – as well as chuckling and snickering – as the stories unfolded. Pililiani had been around forever; the ladies made no attempt to hold anything back from her. In fact, Pililiani was the oldest slave on any of the ranches. This was a position of seniority that gave her some power within her own group of housekeepers who always accompanied their mistresses to these social gatherings but met separately. Right now, she was focused on memorizing all of the lurid details of the Big Mommas' sexual excursions so that she could tell the other housekeepers over lunch. They'd also share news on everything important that was happening or was due to happen on the ranches in their area. Pililiani had learned about the impending visits of the itty-bitty blondes in this manner. She was anxious to ask if the other little white girls were being drugged and why the other housekeepers thought that was happening.

Karita was also in the salon. Her job was to sweep the floor, bring things to Pililiani, and paint the toenails and fingernails of the Big Mommas. This last task was a new salon service that Pililiani had introduced and she used it to explain why the little girl was there. The real reason for her presence was Pililiani's desire to keep her safe. When she wasn't busy, Karita would use a pair of hair salon scissors to cut out some hand-tracings that Pililiani had helped her make before breakfast. She'd colour them during the afternoon and Pililiani would attach them to the front of the big freezer in the kitchen. Big Momma asked about the safety of the scissors since they were quite large but was reassured when Pililiani said that they were old and dull.

### # # # # # # # #

By mid-morning, and with Big Momma #2 now in the chair, Karita had finished cutting all of the hand tracings and was sitting cross-legged on the floor in a corner of the salon by the hair dyes and skin moisturizers. Pililiani had found some small-sized clothes that fit her in the ranch's nursery. These clothes had all been made in the moonlight since the huts where the field slaves lived did not have any electricity. Big Momma thought that keeping the huts dark would force the slaves to go to sleep earlier, wake up earlier, and then work harder in the fields the next day. But Big Momma couldn't turn off the moonlight. She could ensure that they worked hard in the fields though. Field slaves who didn't work hard were declared _excess to needs_. Any slaves designated in such a manner would take a long trip away from the ranch and not come back.

Karita was wearing gray leggings under a gray shift. Old hand-me-downs tend to lose their colours over the years. These legging fit and they were warm enough for September. She was playing with some discarded paper that Pililiani had found in the trash. (Pililiani always read the contents of the trash baskets coming out of Big Momma's and Big Daddy's offices. This morning those papers had provided nothing of interest.) Karita had brought a set of felt pens with her when she came to the ranch and she was using those to put alphabet letters on the trash papers. Pililiani saw a big W and a few lower case p's. Even if she had thought about looking at Karita's letters the other way around, they wouldn't have meant anything to her. Pililiani didn't notice when Karita left the salon to go into the nearby washroom. She did hear a clunk at one point that sounded like the heavy toilet top had become dislodged. She forgot about that sound when Big Momma #10 started a story about Big Daddy #10's ugly toes and what lengths he went to hide them. The next time she saw Karita, she had a little spot of blood on her finger.

"I put a Band-Aid on it," Karita said. "But it fell off. It's not dripping any more."

When Pililiani asked Karita how she had hurt herself, it was Maddy who answered. "I got a sliver from a piece of wood. It didn't hurt much."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 21

It was early Thursday morning, four days after that great Sunday experience in the U of T gym. Lucas was sound asleep on the deck of the ship. He didn't know that he was sleeping on the ship's deck, but he was. He didn't feel somebody lifting him up off the deck, but somebody was. Nor did he feel that somebody dropping him into the waters of Lake Ontario, but somebody did. He did feel the water rushing into his nose and mouth, awoke at that point, and frantically used his sling to emerge from what was becoming a frothy descent to the bottom of the lake. Lucas hovered in place for a moment to catch his breath and wipe the water from his face. When he looked up, he saw the Wilizy/Asia hovering next to him and Theo leaning on the ship's railing looking at him. "Are you awake now?" Theo asked.

Theo stopped Lucas from boarding the ship, even though Lucas complained about having a splitting headache. He did answer Lucas' question about the time. It was 6:00 in the morning. In response to Lucas' question why Theo had thrown him in the water, Theo replied, "I have to start work at 9:00 and you and I have some things to work through." When Lucas asked why he couldn't come on board, Theo said, "Because you still have puke all over your clothes. Wash yourself off in the lake first."

### # # # # # # # #

With Lucas now clean, albeit complaining bitterly about the way he had been woken up, Theo commiserated tenderly about the harsh treatment and the splitting headache. "Shut up," he said. "Get in my sling. We're going to TiTr back to earlier this morning. Don't puke in my sling."

Soon Lucas and Theo were hovering invisibly above a dark Toronto alley. "It's 1:00 in the morning," Theo explained to a still soggy and stupefied brother. "You are leaving the bar that you had been in for three hours. You'll be walking around that corner in a moment. Do you remember walking away from that bar?"

"No. Why? I obviously made it back to the ship alright."

"Really? Let's see. You're coming around the corner now."

Below them, the dark shape of a man staggered down the alley. He was walking in a long zig only to bounce off a building wall to begin the next zag. Or perhaps it would be a zag followed by a zig. The stumbling figure didn't seem to care. Remaining semi-upright was requiring all of his attention. "That's you," Theo said.

"I don't believe you."

Theo dropped his sling low enough that they could look closely at the drunk as he passed under a light.

"I don't remember any of this."

"That's because you were stinking drunk. You're going to meet some friends in a minute." Theo flew Lucas slowly to the corner where the alley met Spadina Avenue. Hiding just around the corner were four men. One man was holding a short whip; the others appeared to be unarmed, but they had bulges in their pocket. "I'll TiTr us back in time five minutes so that you can hear what surprise these men had in store for you."

Five minutes of back-time passed while below them, the four men described what they were going to do to the drunk after he turned the corner.

"You heard them. Three of those guys are going to hold you while a fourth guy whips your clothes off. In your current condition, do you think you'd be able to get away without revealing the secret of the sling?"

"Why are they going to whip me?"

"I was hoping you'd know."

"I don't."

"Do you recognize any of them?"

"No."

"What does _send the others a warning_ mean to you?"

"Nothing."

"If you had been sober, they wouldn't have been able to whip you senseless."

"What happened instead?"

"You'll see."

Lucas and Theo watched as the drunk staggered further down the dark alley towards the intended whipping. Then, one second the drunk was there, the next second, he wasn't.

"You grabbed me?"

"Yup."

"How'd you get there in time?"

"I've been following you to your pubs this week. You returned to the ship on your own Monday and Tuesday night but you were drunk both nights. You thought that you had hidden it from me, but I was behind you the whole way, making sure you made it home safely. Wednesday night, you could have died from that beating. Those goons may have been planning to kill you."

"I owe you."

"Yup, and you're going to pay me."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas was leaning over the railing of the ship in his red sleeping shorts and with the rest of his body bare. He was holding an open bottle of beer under his nose with his left hand. His right hand was gripping the ship's rail. Gripping it hard, in fact. A bird flying high over Lake Ontario might have heard the _whap_ of a wet towel hitting flesh and come by to investigate the sound coming from an invisible ship.

"Are you inhaling the smell of that beer?"

"I'm going to barf again."

"Then barf again. That won't stop me from whipping you with this towel."

Indeed, Theo didn't stop all the time that Lucas was retching nothing onto the waters of the lake far below. He continued to wet the towel down from a bucket of lake water, continued to wring it into a thick wet whip, and continued to flail at Lucas' bare back. The towel wasn't thin enough to break the skin, but it was wet and tough enough to bruise. Lucas' back would be a mass of angry bruises in a day or so.

"Turn and face me," Theo ordered. "Smell the beer." Then he started on Lucas' front.

"Ah man," Lucas moaned.

"The next time you smell beer, what are you going to remember?"

"Getting whipped," Lucas said.

"Good."

### # # # # # # # #

"Turn," Theo ordered. "Take two more swallows."

"I'm going to barf again."

"That's why you're leaning on the rail."

This time, Theo went after Lucas' legs.

### # # # # # # # #

"Turn," Theo ordered. "Last round. Can you take it or do you want to curl up on the deck and hold your tum-tum?"

"I can take it," Lucas said.

"Finish the bottle," Theo said. Then he finished the front of Lucas' legs as Lucas spewed the last of the beer onto the deck.

### # # # # # # # #

"I have to go to work. I'll handle the whole day. When you can, clean up the barf on the other side of the ship and here. You gotta think your decisions through more, Lucas."

"I know man. God, I hurt."

"It'll be worse tonight and tomorrow. We'll go camping Saturday. Get out of this stinking city."

"Thanks man."

"Yup."

### # # # # # # # #

Saturday morning, Theo and Lucas flew to Kingston, a small city northeast of Toronto. From there, they flew over what had been known as _the Thousand Islands_. These islands filled the northeastern end of Lake Ontario as it became the St. Lawrence River, which drained into the Atlantic. With the decline of rain in the area, all of the five Great Lakes could now be called five _So-So Lakes_. With lake levels down, that meant that the St. Lawrence River could be more accurately referred to as the _St. Lawrence Rivulet_. Where there had been clear, deep-water channels through the islands, now there were places where you could cross from one island to another and not fall into the bottom of a bog more than up to your knees. If the alligators didn't eat you first, that is.

That's right, alligators. Swamps. Hot humid conditions. Perfect for alligators. With global warming, alligators had spread north from the southern United States. Theo was interested in seeing one or two. But only from a distance. They chose to camp on a small island that was a quick flight to either the Canadian side of the rivulet or to the U.S. side of the rivulet. The island itself was oval, about four kilometers long (three miles), and one and a half kilometers wide (one mile). It was covered in vegetation with a mixture of high ground, bog, and some significant swamps. Theoretically it was possible to walk from the island to Canada, but Theo and Lucas wouldn't be doing that because of the alligators.

Alligators typically are four meters long (fourteen feet) and weigh over five hundred kilograms (one thousand pounds). They hide in the murky waters, lunge out of the water to catch their prey, and then drag it back into the water to drown it. Their hunting habits tend to deter people from walking through their territory.

Once an alligator's mouth is open, not much will stop it from closing into its victim. It's theoretically possible to stop an alligator from opening its mouth by just pressing your hand on top of the snout. That assumes that the alligator in in the mood to be petted.

Alligators kill large prey by grabbing it in its jaws, spinning wildly in the water, and tearing off bite-sized chunks of its victim. This _death roll_ is good for the alligator; not so good for the prey. Theo knew all of this because he had done the research. His plan was to lounge in a tree overlooking a place that alligators would lurk and see if they could catch sight of one. He wasn't planning on going swimming with one. Theo didn't know that Lucas was planning exactly that kind of excursion. Something that Theo had said the morning of the whipping needed a response.

They decided to fly over the island first before picking a home base. A small primitive camp sat at the northern end of the island where the bogs were worst. They could see house-like structures built on stilts over a bog and wooden suspension bridges going from one structure to another. Two elderly women were crossing over a bridge when they flew by. The walkway sagged badly and these weren't heavy women.

"Why did they set up over one of the most dangerous spots on the island," Theo asked.

"That doesn't make sense unless it's a good fishing area," Lucas replied.

Lucas and Theo decided to set up their camp at the highest part of the island – a hill at the southern end. The ground was dry, although out of habit, they'd be sleeping in the trees. Theo hung their pack of food from one of the branches of a big tree and they went alligator hunting. After an hour of not sighting even one of the beasts, Lucas suggested that they go swimming and look for them underwater. Theo responded immediately. "You'd have to be crazy," he said.

"Tum-tum not feeling so good? Want to curl up on the ground and have your nap first?"

Theo reacted, of course. "Lucas, you gotta think through your decisions."

"I did. I found the information. The water takes away its lunge. It's harder for it to open its jaws underwater. Underwater, we'll look like other alligators. They probably won't even notice us. Plus I bet our slings can travel faster underwater than alligators can."

So they went underwater alligator watching through the waters surrounding the island. The biggest population that they found was at the northern end. _Absolutely crazy place for anybody to build a permanent camp_ , Lucas messaged to Theo.

As dusk began to edge its way into the skies above the island, Lucas and Theo made their way back to their hilltop camp. Theo went dry stick hunting while Lucas flew up to the tree branch to untie their food and bring it down to ground level.

"Where'd you put the food?" he asked Theo.

"Right by your head. I slipped it inside an invisible pouch in case some hunters came by and wondered about it."

"I know that. There's no pouch hanging from the branch."

A search on the ground turned up no pouch, but it did raise some questions.

There was a mid-sized bush below the branch. They saw no broken branches in that bush which would have been the case if the pouch had fallen. Then they ran their hands over the branch where the pouch had been suspended. They found the filament that Theo had used to attach it to the tree. The end of that line had been cut. Perhaps by a knife? Perhaps by teeth? The pouch that held all their food had been stolen.

"This won't be the first time we've gone hungry," Theo observed.

"Yeah, but you should think about this some more, little brother." Lucas took another dig at Theo. "How did an animal, or even a human, find an invisible bag of food?"

"By smell?"

"You closed the baffles tight, right?"

"Yeah. Something bumped into it?"

"Which means it would be a bird. How would a bird cut through a filament line that it can't see? Something with some brains found the pouch, climbed that tree, came out onto the branch, felt for the filament, pulled up the pouch which means that it has an opposable thumb, cut the filament somehow, and took our pouch of food away."

### # # # # # # # #

Night. Their fire was small but more than enough to keep them warm against the little breeze coming through the trees. They had forgotten all about the mystery of the missing pouch. But they were pecking away at another mystery.

"So if you can't hang around bars as an undercover officer like Dad, what will you do with yourself, Lucas? You have to find something to do. You're like a giant sponge full of unhappiness and you're squeezing yourself over anybody who hangs out with you."

"I know. I can't get out of this mood. I thought that boxing at the university would be good for me, like the basketball is good for you. I talked with the coach and even sparred with some of the guys."

"Are any of them any good?"

"Some. But they're all into boxing because they want to hurt people. Some pretend that they want to be champs, but deep down, they don't care if they hurt somebody to get there."

"You hurt that kid who wouldn't pay Candi."

_(In case the reader hasn't realized this, Lucas and Theo are very close. After the trial, Lucas told Theo everything. Absolutely everything.)_

"Yeah, but I didn't enjoy it. I hurt that guy to send him a message. He wasn't going to listen to me talking at him. So I talked to him in a way that he'd remember. Like you and your wet towel."

"So goodbye to boxing?"

"As a sport, yeah. I'll keep learning it because I can't convince people with my mouth. I'm not smart like you. But I can talk with my fists and people will listen to them."

"The RCMP doesn't exist now but what about Toronto police? That would be like following Dad's path."

"Have you seen those dolts? They're fat, they're stupid, and they're crooked. Those beat cops that come into the bars? They either leave carrying brown bags full of bottles or they leave with a paid-up hooker following a half block behind."

"What about military? That would be fighting. Not the same as the battles we had with Zzyk, but still fighting. Mac's dad is impressive. He flew the new jumbo with no instruction at all. He's one of the top army guys in North America."

...

"Lucas, are you awake? Did you hear me? Army?"

"Thinking. Like you told me to. Do you know anything about how smart I'd have to be? Or where there'd be battles to fight? Or what I would do while I was waiting for a battle?"

"No, but I know who you could ask."

### # # # # # # # #

"So basketball for you?"

"Yeah, I think so. I love the game, I'm good at it, and I'm still growing."

"Can you make a living from basketball?"

"Not sure. Some of the big universities have teams now. Toronto and McGill. I don't know who else they play. If you win a spot on one of their sport teams, the university will pay some of your fees."

"That takes you up to what? Age of twenty-two? Then what?"

"I dunno. Not much basketball after that. Some of the guys at the gym say there are teams in Europe that play in front of small crowds. They're paid a little money. It wouldn't be enough to live on."

"Would you want to work for the Wilizy?"

"As what? A bookkeeper? Wizard likes that stuff. I don't."

"Working hard at basketball now can't hurt you."

"You know how you and I are alike, even though our bodies are now way different?"

"What are you trying to say?"

"You like sending messages to people with your fists; I like sending them a message with a basketball. I enjoy beating another guy one-on-one. I try and get the highest score I can."

"But you don't do that with Dreamer."

"No. I don't try my hardest with her."

"You know she can't be the type of friend you want her to be, right? Theo? She's only interested in Wizard."

"She and I are about the same height. We like the same things. Why not?"

"It's not going to happen, Theo. Don't get your hopes up."

"She may change her mind. If Wizard blows it, I'll be waiting."

"I tried to persuade Wizard to at least talk with her. I tried to tell him how much that pervert had damaged her. Wiz just walked away from me."

"See. There's hope."

### # # # # # # # #

"I saw that you washed out the fridge," Theo said. "Why?"

"After I did all that puking, my tum-tum was sensitive to smells. My nose reacted when I went looking for the juice bottle. The whole inside of the fridge stunk."

"I don't know why. We don't keep anything in there except the juice bottles."

"It still stunk. I found little black stuff growing on the shelves where we had spilt the juice. Your bedding stunk too."

"You went in my bedroom?"

"To find out why the stink was coming out. It was the bedding."

"I don't see why. I shower before I go to bed."

"I do too, but my bedding was the same. It stunk."

"Is that why Dreamer's nose sort of wrinkles when she goes by?"

"Does your nose ever wrinkle when you go by her bedroom?"

"No. Her bedroom smells like a girl."

"I washed all our bedding plus all of our clothes, Theo. They all stunk."

"I don't want my room and clothes smelling like a girl, Lucas."

...

"I was thinking. You don't wear your sleeping shorts to bed, right?"

"No. They make me sweaty."

"You ever fart in bed, Theo?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"I do too and I don't wear my shorts either. Where do you think that gas goes?"

### # # # # # # # #

"Lucas, are you sure that you didn't make those guys mad at you?"

"You saw. We backtracked them to the pub, but all I ever did in the pubs was sit in a corner and watch people. I never said anything that anybody could object to."

"Did people talk to you?"

"Nah."

"Did anything happen in the shop? An angry customer? Somebody complaining about the prices? Any little thing?"

"I dunno. That insurance salesman didn't like it when I said we weren't interested in buying insurance. I told you and Dreamer about his first visit. He came back a second time. I said we weren't interested. Then I said I had to get back to my customers right away because we were so busy. He said something strange."

"What?"

_That's exactly why you should buy insurance. So that you'll stay busy._

"That didn't make any sense, so I went back to the customer line-up, he left, you came back from your lunch, and I went on my lunch break."

"Then what?"

"I went down to the noodle shop, bought my lunch, and ate it while talking with Mr. Kim about the street being so busy these days. Then I went next door to the coffee house, bought my smoothie, and drank it while talking with Janet about something about her business. I can't remember what. I went across the street to the food stand and bought an apple. Mr. Klosky offered to give it to me for free because we were bringing so much business into the neighbourhood, but I refused. We had a little pretend argument because he's always offering us free fruit and vegetables and I can't offer him free chocolates back because he's allergic. Then my break was over and I came back into the store."

"I don't see anything there."

"Nor do I. I did what I always do on my breaks. Talk with the other store owners; find out how they're doing; see if we can learn something from them."

"Do you think that those guys didn't like your skin colour? Your braid?"

"Lots of people here give me the look. You know – _what's a guy like you doing in the business area?_ Same look that the bigot gave Dreamer. But why would anybody want to whip my clothes off me because I'm aboriginal?"

"That insurance guy is the only thing I can think of."

"Me too."

### # # # # # # # #

Much later.

"Theo, are you awake?"

"Yah."

"Do you have the feeling that we're being watched?"

"Yup."

"Do you realize that we're sleeping in the same tree that used to hold our food? The thing that stole our food must have climbed it."

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"Are you wondering if that thing is still hungry?"

"New camp? One kilometer straight up?"

"Sounds like a plan."

### # # # # # # # #

Theo and Lucas were indeed being watched. The red eyes had seen them arrive and land on the hill that afternoon. It had thought they were birds of some kind. But they weren't birds. At least not the kind of bird that had ever landed on this island before. They walked on two legs but flew whenever they wanted. Neither had wings. One had markings everywhere on its body. Angry black, blue, and red stains. This had been foretold. The man with the markings would be Shango. The man next to him would be Ogun. Only gods could walk like humans but fly like..., well, fly like gods.

The body with the red eyes had watched Ogun hide their treasure. One moment it was there; the next it was not. The gods had sent a challenge. But it was easily solved. A sense of smell confirmed where it had to be; four limbs ending in sharp claws climbed the tree and found food. It was easily taken. The gods had responded to their call for help.

The body with the red eyes saw them return and observed that the gods didn't need food to survive. Again, that had been foretold. As night fell, the creature climbed a moss-covered tree quietly and invisibly to humans. Its body was as black as the heart of the killers who would come in the metal machines. That made the creature invisible to any normal person. The creature saw the gods looking at its moss-covered tree. Then they disappeared into the sky. They could see blackness in the darkness. As had been foretold.

Soon there would be a battle with many deaths. That too had been foretold.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 22

By the beginning of October, Reese's life in school had settled down. He didn't have to record the names of kids who were talking any longer and he was earning solid C+ grades. His classmates still weren't talking to him – either in class or out of class. Reese didn't mind that because he wouldn't have wanted to talk about what they liked to talk about anyway. He knew what they were talking about because he'd float invisibly around the schoolyard at recess and lunch hour, listen to the kids, and work on his _art project_. Although the grade 6 art teacher considered Reese terminally deficient of any art skills whatsoever, Reese did have a particular interest in colours. As he floated around the schoolyard, he would jot down notes about colours in a secret workbook. The information he was collecting on colours was why he didn't say anything to Hank or Yolanda about how the kids treated him. They'd probably pull him out of school and Reese didn't want that. Recess and lunch were his favorite times of the day. The other times? Boring, boring, boring.

Yollie and TG had a baby boy on Monday October 1, 2085. His official name was Harry, but they'd be calling him Hank. Yollie was doing fine. She had enough spunk to tell TG that she enjoyed the process of popping babies out of the oven more than the process of putting them into the oven. TG complained to Mac about the disrespect and she patted him twice on the cheek and said, "Poor baby. Do you want Mommy to kiss your boo-boo bye-bye?"

In Toronto, the man in the suit who was trying to sell insurance to Lucas came back to the store on another sales call the same day that Yollie had her baby. This time he brought a big man with a short bat. The salesman explained to Lucas that his company's insurance was not optional and their fees were due weekly. Lucas should have $100 ready when Basher came by again to collect next week. "Basher, show him what happens if he doesn't pay," he said to his assistant.

Basher tapped the bat once on the glass counter above the most expensive goodies in the store and the glass shattered onto the candies below. Lucas came around the counter, fists up. Basher saw him coming, raised the bat into the air, and took a slow and ponderous chop at Lucas' body. Lucas stepped inside the chop and made his own chop at Basher's exposed ribs. When Basher grunted and doubled over in pain, Lucas grabbed the batsman by the belt of his pants and ran him out of the store. Theo came out of the storeroom just as the insurance salesman was saying, "We'll be back. Next time, we won't be polite."

"What did you do?" Theo asked Lucas.

"We may have a problem," Lucas replied. "You clean up this mess. I'm going to find out what's going on." Lucas – taking charge like he used to before he met Candi with an i.

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas talked with some of the shop owners on the street. Yes, they all were paying insurance to prevent bad things from happening to their shop. Basher was always the collector and would arrive in their stores Friday afternoon when they would have enough money from business that week to pay their bill. The charge was painful, but not fatal. When Lucas asked Mr. Klosky why nobody had warned them, he said that he thought they knew. Everybody knew about the insurance scam. Even the police.

"The police know?" Lucas asked in disbelief.

"They pretend not to know, but they know. We asked them for help, but they ignored us. When we kept asking, they put a constable on the street to stop it. That worked until they reassigned him. That Friday, Basher was back and he collected that week's bill plus all the other bills that we owed. We went back to the police. We described Basher. We even had his picture. The police said that they couldn't find him, but they'd keep looking. And Basher kept coming every Friday."

"How many shops are paying Basher?"

"Everybody in Toronto pays for insurance. If not to Basher, to somebody else."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas used TiTr to follow Basher and the suit man after their _sales call_. The suit didn't take Basher to a clinic; he took him to a private home in a wealthy part of town. The sign on the house indicated that a Doctor Sandman worked out of the house. Basher and the suit went in. The suit came out immediately afterwards and walked away. Basher came out half an hour later walking stiffly. Lucas followed him invisibly into the building where he lived and watched Basher unlock his door and walk in. Lucas TiTr'd forward to live time and knocked on the door.

Basher opened the door wearing flip-flops and a pair of purple shorts that hung down to his knees. The doctor had wrapped several bands of adhesive tape around his ribs. He was a big man, as you already know. But closer inspection suggested that he wasn't yet a man. Perhaps sixteen-eighteen years old? Perhaps younger. It was hard to say because the first thing anybody would notice about Basher was this bulk looming over you. The top of Lucas' head came up to his chin. The second thing you'd notice was the heavy infestation of acne down his cheeks and across his forehead. Basher's hair was short cropped – perhaps in an attempt to reduce oil from his hair filling the pores of his face? In addition to the acne, the lack of any significant facial hair suggested teenager, not adult.

While big in stature, Basher was not muscular. With his shirt off, he revealed a lot of pudge. He was still a presence to be feared, especially by small, middle-aged shopkeepers. Armed with the short bat, Basher didn't need to be muscular. He just needed to know how to wield the bat. His skin colour was pasty white, even on his forearms and face where one might expect some semblance of a tan to still be found in sunny, warm October. In its absence, it was safe to conclude that Basher didn't get out much.

Lucas asked, "What's up, Basher?" and walked in before Basher could stop him. Lucas took a quick look around; no sign of any weapons. Basher was still at the door, looking confused.

"Is this how you treat your guests?"

Basher shut the door and came into the living room. "Clients aren't supposed to come here."

"Nice place. My name is Lucas. What's your real name?"

"Basher."

"No, not that name. The name your parents gave you."

"I didn't have parents. I had a mom."

"What name did your mom give you?"

"Arnold," Basher said.

"Nice name," Lucas said. "Does your mom know how you make your money?"

"She's dead."

"I'm sorry. How long ago did she die?"

"I don't know. I know I was ten."

"Do you mind me asking these questions?"

Basher shrugged. "You aren't asking me questions that I'm not allowed to answer, so it's alright I guess."

"Did anybody ever tell you how to treat a guest?"

"No. I've never had one."

Lucas wandered into the kitchen. "You might offer me a drink of something and you could have one too. We could sit down and drink them together." He opened the fridge. "Whoa. You really like puddings and soda, don't you. Why'd you buy all of this?"

"I didn't."

"Who did?"

"I don't know. Every Monday morning the fridge gets filled."

Lucas opened the freezer compartment. "Six different types of ice cream. My family likes ice cream too. It's one of my favorite desserts."

Basher didn't bite on the hint.

"Do this fridge and freezer ever get filled with something you don't like?"

"No."

"So these are your favorite foods? Puddings, soda, and ice cream?"

"Yah."

"One of my favorite drinks is hot chocolate. That's why my favorite ice cream is chocolate. You have a carton of chocolate ice cream in your freezer."

"Yah."

Again, no bite on the hint.

"Why don't I dish up some chocolate ice cream and we can talk?"

"OK."

"How many scoops would you like?"

"I always have five."

Lucas filled one bowl with three scoops of ice cream and another with five scoops. The bowls were dark blue, made of some sort of ceramic, and were stored neatly in a cupboard over a counter that had shiny wood. The kitchen looked impressive and was immaculate to boot. "Do you wash your own dishes, Basher?"

"No."

"Who does?"

"I dunno. Somebody comes in when I'm having breakfast and cleans the kitchen, bathroom, and my bedroom."

"Every day?" Lucas came out of the kitchen and handed Basher the five scooper bowl with a spoon.

"Yah. I have breakfast every day, don't I?"

"Where do you usually sit when you eat?"

"In front of the display wall."

The display wall was exactly that. An entire wall that was almost filled by an electronic display unit. Basher sat down in the recliner chair opposite the wall. It was the only chair in the living room. Lucas brought a chair from the kitchen table into the living room and sat down next to Basher who was cramming an entire large scoop of ice cream into his mouth.

After Basher was finished with the first scoop and was fishing around with his spoon trying to collect the next scoop, Lucas asked. "Do you ever get bad headaches when you eat ice cream."

"Yeah, all the time."

"Did you ever figure out why you get those headaches?"

"Mmphhh."

"I'll tell you why you get headaches when you've finished swallowing."

### # # # # # # # #

While Basher was trying out what eating ice cream in small amounts would be like, Lucas continued to probe. He learned that Basher didn't know how old he was. He didn't know how his mom had died. After her death, he had lived in a foster home until they kicked him out when he was still growing. He had gone to school but didn't like it except for recess and lunch. That, he had enjoyed.

Basher had his breakfast, lunch, and dinner at restaurants. Some of those restaurants belonged to his own clients while others were clients of other insurance collectors. He never paid for a meal. His teacher would come by Friday night, open all the envelopes that Basher had collected from his clients, count the money, and then give Basher his weekly salary. Basher could spend that money however he wanted. He bought candy, comic books, and electronic games. He never bought clothes because all of his clothes were kept clean and ironed. New clothes would appear in his closet if any got too small.

"Do you ever count the money your teacher gives you?" Lucas asked.

"Nah. He'd never cheat me."

"You ever count your change when you buy something?"

"Nah. Nobody would ever cheat me."

"Can you count, Basher?"

"Sure."

"Can you count backwards?"

"No. Why would I want to do that?"

### # # # # # # # #

They were in the kitchen. Basher was still ice-cream deficient, so he had filled a big wide-rimmed glass with soda up to the top and was preparing to add a scoop of strawberry ice cream.

"You know that the soda will spill out of the glass as soon as you put in the ice cream, right?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah, it always does."

"Did you ever think that it might not be a good idea to fill the glass right up to the rim with soda?"

"But I like soda."

"You ever think of putting the glass in the sink so that the soda won't spill on the floor?"

"Nah. It gets cleaned up."

"Would you like to see a different way of making a float? One that won't make your hands and floor so sticky?"

"OK."

Lucas put a small scoop of ice cream in the bottom of a glass, added a little bit of soda, paused, added some more, paused, and added some more. "Don't try to fill the glass right to the top."

"Huh," Basher said in amazement. Then he had to test how it tasted.

"If you don't try to drink the float all at one go, it probably won't spill all over your belly."

"Why would I care if it spills? There's always more soda."

### # # # # # # # #

"You said that there are some questions that I could ask and you wouldn't be allowed to answer, right?"

"Yeah."

"Just so that I don't accidentally ask you those questions, would you like to tell me what things I shouldn't ask you?"

"Nothing about my dad – like his name, or where he works, or where he lives."

"Good to know. I thought you said that you didn't have a dad."

"My dad says that he's not my dad. He says that he was just my mom's friend."

"Why do you think he's your dad then?"

"Because the man that he sends around to teach me things says that he's my dad."

"How long has your dad been sending you a teacher?"

"Ever since my mom died."

"You were going to school back then. What did your dad's teacher teach you that you didn't learn in school?"

"How to make littler kids to do things that they didn't want to."

"Like?"

"Give me their chocolate bars. Give me their lunch money."

"How did you convince little kids to give you those things?"

"Hit them where it wouldn't show. But I had to do that when nobody was looking."

"And if they were bigger than you?"

"No kid was ever bigger than me."

"What if they were a better fighter?"

"Hit them from behind and hurt them a lot."

"You started learning this in elementary school?"

"Yah. Lunch hour. Recess. I told you I liked that part of school."

"And when you were older, your dad's teacher showed you how to use the bat."

"Yeah. How'd you know that?"

### # # # # # # # #

Basher was burping contentedly while he played an electronic game on the giant screen, having followed the five scoops of ice cream with an ice cream float and four cups of pudding. Lucas noticed that he was good at the game even when he was hyper-energized.

"You play this one a lot?"

"Yah. I only have to work one day a week, so I have lots of time to learn. This is one of the teaching bots that I've had for a long time."

"You like the games that get blood and guts all over the place, don't you?"

"Yah. The big guy in this bot uses his fists, so I like that the best cause I'm learning to use my fists."

"Did your teacher give you some games where the fighters use knives or guns?"

"Yeah. He gave me those this year. How'd you know that?"

"Did your teacher say something to you about learning how to use the knives and guns for work when you're older?"

"Yeah. How'd you know that? First I have to play the new games a lot so that I'll know what to do."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas was wandering around the apartment while Basher was occupied with his game. He had made it into the bathroom. "Basher, do you have any soap in here?"

"In the cupboard under the sink."

Lucas found a dozen unopened bars. There were no signs of soap residue on the top of the sink or anywhere in the shower. There was no sign of any shampoo in the cupboard either. "Do you ever wash your face with soap or take a shower and wash your hair with shampoo?"

"I don't stink so I don't need to."

Lucas went into the next room. Bedroom. Big bed, closet full of clothes, but nothing of a personal nature in view except for what was on the nightstand. "Basher, who's in this picture?"

"Don't touch that."

"I'm not touching it. Can I look at it?"

"OK, but don't touch it."

"She looks nice."

"My mom."

"What was her name?"

"I'm not allowed to tell you her real name. You can't ask that."

"OK, I won't. Did she have another name?"

"Sparkle."

"She was a dancer, right?"

"Yah. How'd you know that?"

"From her costume. I've seen dancers like her. How'd she choose that name?"

"From the sparkles that she had on her costume. You can see them if you look close."

"The sparkles are right in the middle of the three tiny bits of cloth that she's wearing?"

"Yah."

"And your dad was her friend?"

"Yah. Until she had me."

"I'm not asking you for your mother's real name, but is there anything else that you could tell me about her? I'd like to understand more about you and your mom."

"My teacher said that she was my dad's niece. Does that help?"

"Yes. That explains a lot."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 23

Two days after Lucas followed Basher to his apartment, Momaka asked Dreamer to meet her in the clearing where the Raging Gardeners had put Double-Tom on trial.

"Why are we back here?" Dreamer asked as she landed next to Momaka.

"We didn't catch a pervert this week and I thought that you should come to more burials than what you've been doing. You thought that you weren't getting better."

"Will I be the only one?"

"No. Two others will join us soon. Wanda is picking them up. Are you OK having another session here?"

"I don't have a pervert to smash, so how will that help?"

"Actually you will. Why don't we go into the burial clearing?"

Dreamer started unbuttoning her blouse.

"That won't be necessary."

### # # # # # # # #

"You dug up Double-Tom's right arm and hand?"

"Yes. I cleaned it up a bit. It's just bones now. I noticed that you had a need to smash some hand bones last time. You know why, right?"

"Yeah. Because he put that hand under the bath tub water and went after me."

"Would you like a go at his hand again?"

"I wouldn't mind." Dreamer went to the bag of tools, selected the hammer, found a broad rock, put Double-Tom's detached hand on it, and knelt down on the ground.

"Visualize what's happening in the bathroom. Get angry. You're going to teach him not to do this to young girls again."

Dreamer closed her eyes. Her breathing increased, her face flushed red, and she became physically agitated. Dreamer raised the hammer into the air, opened her eyes, and was taking aim when Momaka yanked the hammer out of her hand.

"Now that you've visualized what happened in the bathroom up to the time you are the angriest, perhaps you should tell me what actually happened. Include what you've been hiding from me."

### # # # # # # # #

The hand was still on the rock. Dreamer was at the edge of the clearing, sitting on the ground with Momaka, both of them sort of cuddled together.

"So his hand happened to brush your body. You still fought him off. Why are you upset about a glancing touch?"

"Because Nonny told me when we had our first sex talk that some boys in the tribe might try to touch me where they weren't allowed to touch me. And that's where my dad's hand touched me. I wasn't supposed to let anybody touch me there. Otherwise, I'd be a baddy and she didn't want me to be a baddy. I didn't want to be a baddy. I never wanted Nonny to be angry with me or upset with me."

"You weren't a bad girl because of what happened, Dreamer."

"But you don't understand. He touched me where he wasn't allowed to touch me! And I was so scared that I peed in the bathtub! The pee got all over me and over his hand. My dad took his hand out of the water, looked disgusted, and swatted me in the face. Then my nose started to bleed into the bathtub. And he left. And I couldn't clean the tub up properly, and the pee and the blood were all over me and the tub, and I had been yelling so loud that I thought Nonny would come in and find me and see the bath tub all yellow and red. And now I'm frightened that if somebody who I like touches me, and even though it might be alright to touch me, I could..."

"...have an accident that would make you extremely embarrassed."

"Yes!"

"Is that what you've been holding back from telling me?"

"It's really, really embarrassing to tell someone that you once sat in your own pee in a bathtub, Momaka."

"Did you know what one of the best things a woman could do when it looks like a man is going to have forced sex with her?"

"What?"

"Exactly what you did."

"Honest?"

"Honest. It tends to put most men off. Peeing accidentally or intentionally when a man is forcing himself on you doesn't stop a woman from having a normal sex life with somebody they love. Women don't have a repeat performance because, when you're having sex with someone you love, you're not scared for your life. Peeing uncontrollably is the body's natural reaction to extreme fear."

"Did it ever happen to you?"

"I had my own very embarrassing moment in a bed and I soaked everything. The sheets as well as the mattress."

"Did it scare the man off?"

"Are you ready to pulverize that hand now?"

### # # # # # # # #

Wanda and Momaka were in the trial clearing with an elderly aboriginal couple when Dreamer came back to the clearing. _Did they hear me?_ Dreamer messaged to Momaka.

_They were warned that anybody they met in this clearing would have a lot of emotions to unload. Besides, you weren't as noisy as you've been in the past._

_Why are they here? Did a pervert attack her years ago?_

_No. Somebody in their family was murdered. Let's fly for a bit and give them some privacy._

Wanda took the couple into the burial clearing and left them there alone. When she peeked in, she saw that the wife had put the pulverized remains of Double-Tom's hand back in his grave. The husband had dug up the pieces of Double-Tom's skull and had worked on that. He also cleaned up after himself and made the grave look normal again. _You can come back to the clearing now_ , Wanda messaged Dreamer and Momaka.

Momaka led the couple through the tree planting process. Two young trees were already growing in this clearing from Double-Tom's and Candi's funerals. Momaka placed the third tree on the opposite side of the clearing. The husband willingly grabbed the shovel and dug the hole. He was a tall thin man and, although he had to be at least 60, he found the labour easy. The wife also assisted. She was shorter than her husband, stocky, and with a long braid down her back as compared to her husband's short curly hair, with lots of silver interspersed with light brown.

When the ceremony was over, Momaka and Wanda pulled Dreamer aside. Wanda said, "These people are strangers to you and they can remain strangers if you wish. They were here to mourn the murder of their son. Their son was your biological father. His name was Sam Buck. Your grandparents don't know that you exist. Knowing that you do exist might give them some comfort."

Dreamer thought about it while the couple walked to Wanda's copter and their ride back to Barriere. Then she trotted over, stopped them, and said, "Hi, my name is Dreamer. I'm your granddaughter."

Had the Bucks been drinking hot chocolate, they would have spewed it all over themselves. But they weren't, so they didn't. It did take them a minute to react though. Teenagers don't understand that they have to ease their way into some discussions.

### # # # # # # # #

Dreamer wasn't the only one to relive an embarrassing moment this week. The morning after Dreamer had told Momaka about her bathtub experience, Lucas was sitting on one of the public wooden benches on the edge of a small Toronto park facing the Chocoholic Shop. Theo had flown off to the St. Lawrence Rivulet that morning, taking with him the portable heat sensor that William had sent up by overnight express. Theo was convinced that some creature was living on that island and the sensor would not only tell him where it was but it would give him an indication of its size as well.

Theo would be back by noon. Lucas had offered to handle the store by himself for the morning because he also was curious what kind of animal with opposable thumbs could find an invisible pouch. Normally he and Theo would be in the store by 8:45 and that would give them ample time to prepare everything for a 9:00 opening.

Lucas has been sitting on the bench thinking about what he should do about the insurance salesman. He had thought that all he'd have to do was scare off the big guy. But Basher was just a tool for his father. Basher could barely take care of himself. Actually, he probably couldn't even do that. The key to stopping the insurance demands would be to find the father. Lucas had some promising leads.

Lucas was checking the time when he heard a voice say, "Look who it is. It's _Take you hand of my boob, Lucas._ "

"That's not funny, Theo. I told you that was very embarrassing. Why would you remind me of that?" Lucas was trying to find his juice bottle and didn't even bother looking at Theo who had come up beside the bench and had imitated a girl's voice. "What happened to your trip?" Lucas asked.

"What makes you think that I'm Theo? Do I sound like Theo?"

"No you don't, but voices can be disguised. If you're here, we can both open the store." He continued to look for his bottle of juice. It wasn't under the bench, not by his feet...

"Do I look like Theo?"

Lucas raised his head. Nobody was there. "Winnie? Did Theo talk you into this?"

"I'm not Winnie."

Lucas identified the location of the voice. He made a quick lunge, grabbing with his hands for the source of the voice.

"Hey, take your hand off my boob, Lucas."

"That's not funny. I didn't touch your boob. I didn't connect with anything."

"Yeah, I know that you didn't touch anything, but still, you tried to grab something. Would you like another go? I'll stick my boob out where you can grab it."

"Who are you? Where are you?" Lucas started feeling with his hands. There. A tingle. But it wasn't a body.

"I hate to be repetitive, but if you search with your hands at chest level, sooner or later you'll connect with a boob. That type of inappropriate contact may cause me to have severe emotional difficulties when I'm older."

Lucas took off his light jacket and swung it around in a circle. Nothing. "What's your name?" he asked.

"None of your business."

"Do you actually have a name?"

"Yes. It's _None of your business_. You can call me NOYB for short."

"Why are you bugging me?"

"So that you'll be late for work."

"Why don't you want me to get to work on time?"

"What time is it?"

"Almost two minutes to nine. I have to go."

"Wait ten seconds more."

"Why?"

"Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, ..." The window of the Chocoholic Shop exploded outwards and a giant flame filled the space where the window had been. Lucas could feel the heat all the way across the street.

"That's why," _NOYB_ said.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 24

It was an early October afternoon at Safe Haven Ranch #4. Pililiani was sitting in the backyard on the top step of the short set of stairs up into the kitchen. Karita had just emerged from her drugged nap and was sitting next to her. Both had cups in their hands and were sipping quietly. Pililiani was drinking warmed-over coffee from breakfast. The head cook made sure that Big Momma and Big Daddy always had more than enough coffee for their breakfasts. The rules stipulated that anything left over from breakfast had to be thrown out. Slaves were not allowed to eat the same food as the high and mighty. Sadly, all that extra coffee had to be thrown out too. The head cook just opened a kitchen window and dumped the remains of carafe onto the ground below. Big Momma watched her do that frequently enough that she was reassured that the cook was obeying the rules. She didn't see Pililiani standing underneath that window with an empty bucket that didn't stay empty for long.

Big Momma also watched the head cook char whatever toast had been left over. Slaves can't eat bread that Big Momma or Big Daddy might have breathed on. But the head cook was allowed to burn leftover toast and scrape the burnt toast into a bucket so that she and Pililiani could make burnt-toast coffee for themselves. The coffee that emerged from that process tasted remarkably good. Almost like real coffee that had been percolated that same morning.

Karita was drinking a brown liquid too, but not coffee. Pililiani gave her an afternoon treat of hot water with a brown sugar and cinnamon flavour. The kitchen had both substances in abundance and Big Momma did not track how much was used or when. Karita watched as one of the Safe Haven copters landed in the large clearing behind the house and the pilot emerged. "Have you ever seen inside a copter, Karita?" Pililiani asked.

"I've always been asleep when they took me places," she replied.

Pililiani knew that both Big Daddy and Big Momma were on their way to separate meetings. Big Daddy was scheduled to get stinking drunk in a private bar this afternoon. He'd sleep over, enjoy some feminine companionship, and return tomorrow. He'd tell Big Momma that he was meeting with the other Big Daddies. Big Momma was off for a week to places unknown. Unknown to Big Daddy, at least. Pililiani and all the other Big Mommas knew where she was going. They'd hear the juicy details later.

The Safe Haven organization provided each rancher with two personal copters as part of the franchise fee that they paid to acquire the ranch. Both had room for up to six people. If the back four seats were removed, they had decent cargo space. The copter that had just landed was not one of those ranched-owned six seaters. Safe Haven had larger copters available for ranchers to rent by the day or by the week when they needed to transport a lot of people or cargo. Pililiani recognized the pilot – one of the bosses from Ranch #10. They were borrowing some of Big Daddy's field slaves to help with their harvest and they'd be gone for three days. She watched as the pilot sauntered down the well-worn path to the slave huts in the gully below. He'd be gone for at least half an hour. "Let's go look at that copter," she said to Karita.

### # # # # # # # #

Pililiani didn't know anything about piloting a copter, so she couldn't tell Karita much. She just let her sit in the seats and look at all the dials and buttons, but without touching them. Then they moved back to the cargo area. Pililiani had to stoop, but Karita didn't have to worry about that. The back of the copter was empty space right now. The hatch at the back could be opened, but Pililiani could only tell her about that.

"What are these?" Karita asked, pointing at some metal things hanging from the copter walls.

"Those are metal bracelets that are locked around the wrist of the slaves when they're being transported. The short chain keeps them sitting down so that they can't cause trouble or try to escape."

"But don't the pilots have wands? They could zap them, right?"

"Not really. These locked bracelets are necessary because the slaves aren't wearing their dog collars when they fly."

"Dog collars can come off?"

"Yes. Bosses have to remove them before they take slaves away from the ranch." And then, because Karita wouldn't understand why that was, Pililiani gave her the full story, but in words she would understand. Essentially: there was a machine hidden in Big Momma's bedroom that would send out zaps to any slave that tried to escape. So long as the slave was wearing that dog collar, the machine wouldn't let him leave the property. If a boss had to take a slave to another ranch, he'd take off the collar so that the machine couldn't zap the slave. If a slave ever tried to take his collar off by himself so that he could escape, the hidden machine "would hurt him a lot" no matter where he was. Pililiani didn't say _kill him_ , although that was what it did. She was trying to save Karita from words like _kill_ and _death_. She needn't have worried. Karita had been on a working ranch for a month. She had seen what happened to chickens and hogs. She knew about death. Sort of.

"If a slave tries to escape and he's killed, do they cook up his body for people to eat?"

"No. That doesn't happen. You don't have to worry about being badly zapped, Karita. Don't try to take off your collar and always stay close to the Big House."

"So the bosses take the collars off when the slaves are going to fly away," Maddy pursued. "That way the slaves don't get big zaps. Then what?"

"When they arrive at the other ranch, the bosses put the dog collars back on and unlock the metal bracelets. If they try to escape from the new ranch, the same thing will happen. Big zaps."

"Were you ever zapped hard?"

"Yes. When the bosses took my son away."

Pililiani changed the subject at that point. Later that evening she showed Karita the ranch's nursery.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 25

Friday, October 5. Two meetings were in progress – one in the Wilizy community hall and the other in a Toronto health clinic. Let's look at the Wilizy meeting first.

Hank was chairing the meeting and the three other directors were with him at the table. The attempt to kill both Lucas and Theo had raised a lot of anxiety – especially since it was just blind luck that Theo had been out of town and Lucas had lost track of time. Lucas did not reveal what had actually happened to make him late. Not even to Theo. Let's see why he made that decision. Here what he might have said:

_An invisible girl that wasn't a Wilizy member and so wouldn't have a sling and invisible powers came up to me on the bench and started talking to me. I tried to find her by feeling for her body, but grabbed her boob instead, at least that's what she said, but I couldn't actually find anything to touch, which means that she wasn't in a sling but was still invisible which is something that we don't know how to do! Her name by the way is None of Your Business and she disappeared immediately after she saved my life._

Yeah. That would work.

Also present at the meeting with the directors were Lucas, Theo, Dreamer, and Wizard. Their first decision had been easy. The store was a complete loss. The heavy presence of a _protection racket_ in Toronto combined with lax policing meant that they would be fighting an uphill battle to establish enough of a viable presence to penetrate the confectionary market and achieve wide profit margins. They should collect the insurance and discard further plans for the project. You can probably tell that Wizard was driving this part of the discussion. Nobody objected to what he proposed.

Wizard's motion to bring everybody associated with the project back home to the compound where they could take on other duties **did** meet some opposition.

Lucas agreed that re-opening the store wouldn't work, but he said that the Wilizy shouldn't be running away. The mention of the _We are aboriginals; we fight to the death; we do not run away_ motto received a lot of murmurs and head nodding.

"What do you suggest instead, Lucas?" Hank asked.

"We should find out who tried to kill Theo and me and bring him to justice."

"How difficult is that going to be?" Yolanda asked.

Lucas described the meeting that he had with Basher and what he had learned about their neighbourhood's protection racket. It was run by one salesman and one goon who had severe mental issues, probably because his father and mother were closely related. Lucas didn't mention anything about the time that he had spent working undercover in the Toronto bars or how that had worked out. He did offer to take the lead on the planning and the research. That raised four sets of directorial mental eyebrows. Lucas? Planning?

"How would you go about this, Lucas?" Doc asked.

"The mother had a dancing name. _Sparkle_. I know roughly when she would have been dancing, I know the costume she wore, and I know what she looked like. There are only so many bars and pubs in Toronto that have exotic dancers and they usually post pictures of their featured dancers on posters outside the entrances. A little time-travel and some invisible walks down the main streets should give me the mother. After that, I can TiTr back to watch the mother and see who she's dating. That gives me the father. After that, I can TiTr back to watch the father and look for meetings where he's instructing his workers to kills us."

"Promising leads," Granny said.

"Or I could also use TiTr to identify the man who planted the bomb and follow him backwards in time to when he received his instructions. One way or the other, I should be able to find the father. Once we identify all the players, we can look at how we're going to catch them."

"Sounds like you've worked it all out," Hank said with a nod and a private mental approval. "Will you and Theo be working together on this?"

"Yah. We're used to working together. This first part should be easy. I was thinking that Dreamer could help us out too if she wanted some time-travel experience."

A giant invisible monster jerked on the puppet string holding Wizard's body upright. Wizard had been sitting back in his chair and staring at his shoes under the table. Now he was sitting up erect and staring at Lucas. If Philadelphia is considered the city of brotherly love, Wizard was **not** living in Philadelphia.

"What about it, Theo?"

"We can do that first part real easy, Dad. But I have another reason to stay in Toronto." Theo went on to describe what the basketball opportunities were in the city, and how he had been working out in the university gym with the university coach. "I believe that I can be good at basketball and perhaps get some financial help attending university. If I become good enough, I could play professional basketball for a few years. I'd like to stay in Toronto after we catch Basher's dad."

"Dreamer," Hank turned to her. "What are your thoughts? Are you interested in staying in Toronto to help Lucas and Theo?"

"I'd like to learn how to do some undercover time-travel work so that I'd know how to do that when I join the Raging Gardeners as an agent, not as a victim. Momaka says that I've turned the corner and the worst is behind me. My projects here at home are all operating properly and I have effective vice-presidents in place. They can easily report to me while I'm in Toronto. Plus I have the same goals as Theo. I'm also working out with the Toronto men's coach and he has introduced me to the assistant women's coach who is also spending some time with me. I don't believe two university coaches would be working with me if I didn't have a chance to be good at this. I'd like to stay in Toronto so that I could see how far I could go with basketball."

_You mean so that you can see how much sex you can have with Lucas and Theo_. (Narrator: I don't have to tell you who had that thought.)

"I'm thinking of getting serious about basketball too," Lucas jumped in. "I tried boxing, but I don't want to pursue it as a sport. The university basketball coach said I could work out with them if I wanted to. I'd like to stay in Toronto for the basketball too."

"Can the three of you live together alright?" Yolanda asked.

"Yeah. We're getting along well," Dreamer said.

_They're all sharing Dreamer's body if that counts as "getting along well."_

"What do you do about food?"

"We'll have to do something about that." Dreamer was taking charge of answering for the trio. "None of us can cook. We'd be OK for breakfasts..."

_Lucas and Theo eat. Dreamer provides the view._

"...but we should be eating proper meals if the three of us are training hard. Restaurants are expensive and take-out not much better. Plus none of us knows enough about nutrition to know what to eat."

"Way back in time, before the dinosaurs became extinct, a university coach tried to talk me into playing hockey for his team."

Granny looked sharply at Doc.

"For a starving aboriginal kid living in the slums, one of the attractions of that offer was the free food that I could have in the student union building. Universities make sure that everything they sell is nutritious."

"I didn't know you were approached by a hockey coach." Granny couldn't help interrupting the discussion about Toronto.

"University of Calgary had a good hockey program. The Dinos. I was planning to accept his offer but the troubles came."

"Does Toronto have a student union building with good food?" Yolanda asked.

"Easy to find out," Doc said.

"They're not members of the university," Wizard said. "The university would probably have rules about letting outsiders have food tickets."

"We could explain to the coaches that they're living away from home but want to eventually play for the university," Yolanda offered. "We could even pay for tickets. We could afford to do that, right Wizard?"

_Only if we don't have to bail them out of jail for having underage sex_. "Sure," he said instead.

### # # # # # # # #

The second meeting – the one in Toronto – was at the clinic of the doctor where Basher had been treated for his cracked ribs. Three henchpersons were in attendance. All three had the required skills for general henchperson services. These were: (1) general assault including shooting, stabbing, beating, and their favorite, kicking when their victim was down; (2) general mayhem including vandalizing, looting, and terrorizing; and, (3) general villainy including deceit, foul play, and double-dealing. As such, the three henchpersons were interchangeable cogs in Toronto's insurance racket. They could fill in for each other in the event one was engaged already on a professional call. However each had been hired for a specific expertise: to sell insurance, to blow up people and things, and to kill from a distance. All three had been with the good doctor for years and each had a certain physical peculiarity from which they had been given their nicknames.

The insurance salesman was the most senior. On his sales calls, he always wore a suit, a white shirt, and a conservative tie. Underneath – women's red lingerie. Not because he was a deviant, but because he liked the feel of the soft satin clothes on his very sensitive skin. In his outward appearance, he was non-remarkable and blended into the background wherever he went. The red lingerie gave him something that made him non-average. On a sales call with a troublesome client, he would listen in sympathy to the client who was trying to explain why he couldn't come up with this week's payment. He'd nod his head, and say "Ayup" in a soft very slow drawl to every excuse. Nod ... "Ayyyyyyy-up." Nod ... "Ayyyyyyy-up." Nod ... "Throw him in the freezer, Basher." His nickname was _Nod_.

A second henchperson was the explosives expert. She was the reason why the good doctor's criminal organization called their staff _henchpersons_ rather than _henchmen_. Killing was acceptable; politically incorrect references were not acceptable. The explosive expert was also the source of Nod's red lingerie. (Nod was a little anxious about the impact on his reputation if he were seen buying women's underwear.) In providing Nod with her own underwear, it was fortunate that she had lingerie in the large economy size and she didn't mind sharing. She even offered to help with the fitting if Nod wanted such assistance. He didn't. Perhaps that was because of the bleeding mole on the tip of her nose that she was always scratching; perhaps it was her fat thighs rubbing against each other in a scrinch-scrinch sound with every step she took; Or perhaps it was the sound of her cackle when she blew things up. Whatever the reason, Ms. Blow'em Up didn't have much success with men. She did have good success with explosives. With one exception. She had created so many explosions and fires that the smoke from her professional endeavours was now causing allergic reactions in her eyes. They were dry and, in an unconscious effort to keep them lubricated, she'd blink about every ten seconds. For obvious reasons, she had been nicknamed _Blinker_.

The most junior henchperson was the sniper. He was very good at his job – partly because he was short enough to squirm into the smallest of vantage points that would give him shooting lines at his victims. He claimed that he didn't need a spotter, and indeed, his record said he didn't. Not one of his assignments had survived. The sniper was small enough to wear small teenager clothes, or in a pinch, children's clothes. (He had also served as Basher's teacher years ago because he was able to be on the playground with him during his lessons.) After killing his victims, he'd leave the rifle where it was and skip away. The biggest risk to his disguise was the facial hair that grew back very quickly after each shave. But since he was fair-haired, it couldn't be seen at a distance. Close up, a person might wonder what he used to comb his face.

This one-person sniper team was so very good because he had a special optical talent. Most snipers look through a gun's telescopic lens with their strong eye, while they close their weak eye and keep it closed. This makes them blind to events that are outside the target in the scope. This sniper could wink his weak eye so that he could not only see what was in the scope, but he could see what was around him as well. His nickname, again for obvious reasons, was _Winker_.

So it was that Doctor Sandman and his three henchpersons – Winker, Blinker, and Nod – were meeting in his treatment room. I remind my readers that I am only the narrator of this series; I do not make up the names of the people who appear in these pages.

### # # # # # # # #

"What happened?" the doctor asked Winker.

"The tall dude didn't show up for work at the usual time and the drunk guy was detoxing on the bench in front of the shop when he should have been inside."

"Detoxing?"

"Yeah. Mumbling to an empty bench, waving his hands, lunging at invisible teepees or whatever he sees in his visions when he's hungover."

"What do we know about them?"

"Aboriginals from somewhere," Winker said. "Not Toronto."

"Can we find out through our contract with the former chocolate shopkeeper?"

"That contract is probably burned up." Blinker this time. "The shopkeeper is long gone."

"The names of the tall dude and the drunk?"

"Who knows," said Nod. "They're gone now. Nowhere to be found. Why are you worried?"

"Because we don't know for sure that they're gone. The drunk guy found Basher's apartment and nobody has done that before. The drunk also talked to Basher. Nobody has done that before and Basher liked that conversation. The drunk showed Basher some things, like not eating ice cream all at once, and Basher liked that. All of this means that if he's still in Toronto, he might cause trouble. Do you guys have any ideas?"

Winker winked, Blinker blinked, and Nod nodded. The doctor sighed.

"Winker, find out where they live in Toronto. Blinker, find out where they came from. Nod, find out what they like to do when they aren't selling chocolates. From now on we use _High Security_ communications only."

In response, Winker winked, Blinker blinked, and Nod nodded. The doctor sighed again and opened the back door to his clinic.

### # # # # # # # #

Saturday afternoon, Nod texted the Doctor who was at home relaxing with his wife. "They play basketball at the U of T. A tall aboriginal girl hangs out with them."

Five minutes later, Doctor Sandman texted Nod. "Put Winker on the job. Tell him to kill the girl as well."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 26

Granny was settling in to have a relaxing ten minutes in her favorite chair, a mug of hot chocolate steaming beside her. She took a couple of deep breaths to relax. A quick touch of the chocolate against her top lip to check the temperature. Perfect.

A tap-tap on the outside door prompted her to stop the mug in flight before it reached the critical tipping point. A face appeared in the crack of the door. Reese. She had seen that expression on a pale face before. Twice before actually and both times she had spewed hot chocolate into the air. This time, she'd make sure that there wouldn't be a repeat performance.

Granny put the hot chocolate onto the table beside her. She couldn't spew it if she wasn't drinking it. "Come on in, Reese. I have some hot chocolate on the stove. Help yourself."

"Uh. That's OK, Granny."

"Cookies?"

"Uh. No thanks."

"Give me your best shot. I'm ready."

"Huh?"

"What's up, Reese?"

"What makes you think something is up?"

"Just a feeling."

"Granny, is it OK for a teacher to put his hand on a boy's willie?"

Granny took the mug from the table, took a healthy slurp, and cradled the hot mug in both hands in some satisfaction. "Why don't you start at the beginning?" she said.

### # # # # # # # #

Reese told his granny how his math teacher had put his hand on Reese's willie one time early in the year and had asked him if he was playing with it instead of doing his schoolwork. Reese said _No_ and the teacher left. But every time the teacher wandered all the way to the back of the room, Reese would push his chair close to his desk so that he couldn't touch him again. "He's a teacher, but I didn't think it was right."

"It's not right, Reese. Did you tell anybody about this?"

"No. I saw him touching a few other boys in the class that way and they didn't seem to mind. I thought it was something that you learn to do in school. But I didn't want to learn that, so I made sure he couldn't touch me again."

"He touches other boys too?"

"Yes. He has some favorites. They hang around with him before and after class. He tells them dirty jokes."

"Why are you telling me about this now? Has it become worse?"

"There's a boy in the grade seven class who was always pushing his hand away, but the teacher kept coming back. Yesterday he whispered something in his ear and the boy didn't push his hand away."

"Your mom and dad put you into grade six, right?"

Reese nodded.

"How do you know about this grade seven boy? Did he tell you?"

"No. I saw the teacher doing it on the visual record."

"What visual record?"

"The visual record from the drones I put into the math teacher's classroom."

"Why don't you start at the beginning with the drones?"

### # # # # # # # #

Granny heard how Reese had thought this teacher was a bad man. So he had asked William if he could borrow some drones. William sent him some by overnight express and told him how to use them. William had asked Reese what he was going to use them for and Reese had said that he wanted to catch a very bad man. But it was an undercover operation. William said, "OK, but return them to me after you're finished with your game."

"You recorded what was happening in the teacher's classroom?"

"I put the drones at the sides of the classroom so that I could see if he put his hand under boys' desks."

"And you caught him?"

"Lots of times. I put video clips of all the times he touched boys on this bot. I think he's going to hurt that grade seven."

"I think so too, Reese. You were right to tell me about this. Very smart detective work, I must say. May I tell your parents about this?"

"Sure. Can I have some of the hot chocolate now?"

### # # # # # # # #

The pot had been warmed up, some fresh cookies had appeared out of Granny's secret stash, and the two of them were now back in the living room. Reese had five cookies on a plate in front of him and he was nibbling the chocolate chips out of each one first.

Reese nibbled chocolate chip cookies like a squirrel nibbled a peanut. Cookie in his hands, both hands up right next to his lips. Nibble, nibble, nibble; teeth searching for the good pieces; nibble, nibble, nibble. After the chocolate chips were gone, there'd be cookie debris all over the plate. Reese would pick up the bigger pieces with a licked forefinger. After those nibblets were gone, he'd look at Granny, and when she nodded, Reese would lick the rest of the plate clean. Granny had seen this show many times before. That's why he was wearing a big apron that covered his entire lap and parts of the sofa as well.

Granny was taking a deep pull on her steaming mug when Reese asked, "Is it OK for a principal to tell a teacher that she has to have sex with him?" Volcano Granny came back for an encore performance.

### # # # # # # # #

After the environmental team had cleaned up the area next to Granny's chair, Reese began to explain.

"I was returning some library bots after school and I was passing by the school's office when Ms. Paulson came out of the principal's office. His office has a door into the main office and also a door that opens onto the hallway. She didn't see me but I saw her and she was crying. Ms. Paulson is one of the nicest teachers in the school. So I was sad to see her crying and I followed her down the hallway and she went into her classroom and she left the door open a bit and I could see her put her head down on her desk and I was worried a bit because her breathing got all bad so I knocked on the door like we're supposed to but she didn't hear me so I walked in anyway and went up to her desk and asked her if she was all right. She looked up and her cheeks were all shiny and they had big tears rolling down them and she said that she was but she had to be lying because she was so upset. I knew that the school was almost empty by this time but the principal had to still be here so I asked her if she wanted me to ask the principal to come down and help her and she said _"God, no_."

"Ms. Paulson doesn't swear very often so I figured it had to be something that the principal had said to her in his office that made her cry. I asked if I could help her and she sort of smiled and said _No, Reese_ , which surprised me because I didn't think that she knew my name. _Nobody can help me_ , she said which made me sad because I thought that she might have a serious illness. But then I thought that it had to be something to do with the principal and I knew that he was a very bad man, so I figured that something happened in that office."

"Did you put a drone into his office, Reese?"

"No."

"OK, that's good."

"Winnie did."

"Ack."

"I wanted to catch him but the parental controls on my sling won't let me time-travel yet but Winnie knows how and so after I told her what had happened and how Ms. Paulson had been all alone in the principal's office and how he's a bad man she time-travelled back a month and put the drone in. Then she watched the video record and saw what happened. She said it happened three times but she won't tell me what it is that happened and she said that I can't look at the bot or Ms. Paulson would be very unhappy so I didn't. I said I was going to tell you about the two bad men in the school so Winnie gave me the bot to give to you. I'm pretty sure that he forced her to have sex with him."

"May I see the bot?"

### # # # # # # # #

"Winnie was right that Ms. Paulson wouldn't want you to see this, Reese. You did a good job handling this and telling me will help her. Is there anything else bad happening in that school?"

"The kids in the woods taking their clothes off, I suppose."

### # # # # # # # #

That led to Reese explaining that nobody in his class would talk to him and why that had happened. He'd spend lunch hours working on his art project. When he was doing that, he saw some kids going into the deep part of the woods every noon hour. They were playing cards, but somebody had to take off some clothes after each hand. They kept taking off clothes until somebody wasn't wearing anything at all or until the bell went.

"One time the girl who sits in front of me in class was pulled into the woods by two girls in our class and they were pressuring her to pull up her shirt and flash some boys and she didn't want to but they were being very mean and nasty so I walked into the group and told Annika that the vice principal wanted to see her right away and so she came back to the school with me. I went invisible after she was safe."

"Annika?"

"Yah. She's one of the nice ones."

"How do you know that? And how did you know the principal and those two teachers were bad?"

"I can see their colours now. Just like you and mom and Yollie. Everything about Annika is very white. Like Ms. Paulson. Everything around the principal and the math teacher is black."

_Yolanda, Reese is a reader. Multigenerational. Entirely different reading mechanism. We need to talk. Bring Hank. Some horror stories are coming out of Reese's school._

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 27

By the end of October, the Wilizy's investigation into Toronto's insurance racket had progressed nicely. Dreamer had connected Basher's mother to Doctor Sandman. They had had a hot affair for a short time – Dreamer thought it would be considered an affair because Dr. Sandman was married. He would pick her up after her show in the _Peek-a-Boo, I See All of You Lounge_ , and take her to the Fairmont Royal York in one of the city's horse-drawn carriages. The Royal York was one of Toronto's oldest and best hotels.

Dreamer watched them go up to the doctor's room in the elevator enough times to learn the routine. Sparkle wore her dancing clothes underneath a fur coat that reached to her ankles. Those ankles were encased in sparkling high heels that were part of her act. She also had sparkling earrings. Those were not part of the stage act. They were gifts from Doctor Sandman and had real diamonds in them. After her show, Dr. Sandman would come back to her changing room with the coat. She'd twirl on her toes a little so that he could see her, he'd nod, and off they'd go.

After stepping down modestly from the carriage, Sparkle would walk elegantly into the most prestigious hotel in Toronto in her fur coat with only three tiny pieces of cloth underneath. Dr. Sandman wore a tuxedo with a snow-white shirt and a black bow tie. He made no effort to hide his relationship with Sparkle, introducing her as his niece if anybody recognized him and many did.

Later that evening, Dreamer would watch as room service brought up a cart with trays of food and bottles of liquor. She was able to take pictures of the room bills with her pinky ring – all expenses were charged to Dr. Sandman's account. In the morning, Dr. Sandman would leave the hotel in a business suit and carrying a large suit bag that held the coat. Sparkle left an hour later dressed in casual clothes and carrying a small sparkling wallet that presumably held her working clothes.

Dreamer caught Sparkle's act in the club. The boys had ruled themselves out of doing any surveillance of Sparkle, so somebody had to verify that she was indeed an exotic dancer. Dreamer watched her show for five minutes and left. Dreamer thought that what Sparkle was doing in her act was stomach-churning gross, but in the crowd that watched her midnight show, she'd have been the only spectator with that opinion. Dreamer asked Lucas afterwards if he actually enjoyed watching exotic dancers' performances. "What performances?" he asked and Dreamer regained some trust in the male gender. Dreamer didn't try to put a drone into the Sandman/Sparkle hotel room. She didn't believe that it was right for her to be watching another woman having sex. Her own modesty obviously was at play here.

The affair had a sudden ending with Sparkle leaving the room one morning trying to hide her tears. Dreamer watched Dr. Sandman cancel the long-term reservation for the room that day. He had no difficulty masking the pain that he must have felt from the collapse of their affair. Perhaps that was because he got to keep the coat. Dreamer tracked Sparkle to where she lived and, over many time-travel visits, she watched her fall into depression. Unable to work at the club due to her pregnancy, she stayed alone in a tiny flat, growing bigger month by month. Each month, she'd receive an allowance. Dreamer assumed that this was Dr. Sandman's parting gift. It was enough to live on, but no more.

Arnold was a very big baby. After a difficult birth, Sparkle tried to regain her dancing form but gave up because she had nobody to take care of the baby. Her club was no longer interested in her and Sparkle had few skills other than dancing. She lived off her allowance for a number of years, but Arnold was difficult to care for. He grew quickly and even though she relied on second hand stores for his clothing, the costs of raising him kept growing and her allowance didn't. She pawned the diamond earrings and that paid her bills for a full year. But Arnold was beginning to show the signs of the learning challenges he would face. He was three years old before he began speaking, for example.

When the money from the earrings ran out, Sparkle became desperate and turned to the only way that she could earn money. That worked a couple of times, but she soon found that establishing a thirty minute meaningful relationship with a client was difficult to achieve when Arnold decided to come watch what mommy was doing.

Despairing of ever being able to care for her son's needs as he kept growing, Sparkle took Arnold to Dr. Sandman's clinic. Dr. Sandman saw her as she was coming in the clinic, took her aside, and spoke with her before she could register with the receptionist. Sparkle left soon afterwards, apparently satisfied. Dreamer was unable to put a drone into the drug closet where the doctor and Sparkle had talked as it was kept locked in case of a break-in.

A few days later, Sparkle was walking towards the Fairmont Royal York in her most presentable clothes when a runaway horse and carriage trampled her and she died on the way to the hospital. Dreamer was sure that Dr. Sandman had arranged it. Having seen how Sparkle struggled to care for her son after his birth, her sympathies were now squarely behind Sparkle. However Dreamer was unable to prove that Dr. Sandman had been responsible for what he must have thought would be a fitting way for her to die. Especially fitting in his mind perhaps, because in preparing her body for burial in a pauper's grave, the mortician had found her wearing three tiny pieces of sparkly cloth under her clothes. A day after his mother's death, Arnold found himself in foster care at the age of five. A few years later, Winker started giving him lessons on how to be a bully.

From the death certificate, Dreamer learned that Sparkle's real name was Helen Masters. She tried to confirm her uncle-niece relationship with Sandman but had no success searching through Toronto's Internet news sites and blogs. She told Lucas that the teacher must have told Basher that his mother was Dr. Sandman's niece because that's how Dr. Sandman introduced her in the hotel. She found no evidence to support that allegation.

### # # # # # # # #

Using TiTr, Lucas and Theo found the woman who had bombed their shop. Following her around led them to her two associates. Their TiTr surveillance of the three henchpersons revealed that they had committed many crimes, but they couldn't find any direct links from those crimes to Dr. Sandman. Their surveillance also led them to the meeting in Dr. Sandman's clinic where he told them to get information on Lucas and Theo. It was at that meeting that they learned the names of Sandman's three visitors.

They also learned that there'd be no more physical meetings between Dr. Sandman and his three henchpeople. They'd be using Sandman's _High Security_ communications instead. They did not know that communications to Dr. Sandman from now on would be by text only and only from Nod. Texting was a very old and cumbersome way to communicate. Even if they had known about the messages, and even if they had managed to read them, nothing in the messages would have incriminated Dr. Sandman. That was part of their High Security precautions. Their text messages would always appear innocent. Lucas and Theo didn't know that a sniper now had instructions to kill all three of them. Nor did they know that the sniper knew where they were spending much of their time.

### # # # # # # # #

In terms of their personal lives, Lucas and Theo had decided that they should clean up their act. Literally, as in clean up with soap and water. They had been invited to see the dorm rooms of two practice roster players and were shocked at how some teenage boys kept their bedrooms. The words _neat_ and _tidy_ sprung to mind when they saw how basketball players lived in the residences. For anybody seeing their rooms in the Wilizy/Asia, the words _pig_ and _sty_ would spring to mind.

The _practice roster_ was the group of players who were one step away from being considered for the university's Varsity Blues team. The players on the practice roster would pretend to be the team that was scheduled to be the Blues' next opponent. When the Blues prepared for their next game, the practice roster would pretend to play like their next opponent. Learning how to copy another team's offense and defense every other week took a lot of concentration and effort. If they were able to learn quickly enough, and if they played hard enough in these practices, some players on the practice roster might be given a chance to try out for the varsity team the next year.

Theo and Lucas had been invited to attend one of the nights when only the practice team players were on the court. The coach hadn't been particularly encouraging about the invitation. "The two of you aren't working hard enough. Tuesday night, 7 p.m., here." That comment had bothered both of them since they thought they had been working hard.

The Tuesday night practice had been grueling. It had been entirely focused on basic skills, but run at a high tempo. The coach had finished the practice with a _Let's see if you have anything left_ drill. "Lines," he announced and everybody grabbed a ball and went to the end of the court. "Two minutes left in the game," he announced and whistled the start. Players had to dribble the ball to one of the lines on the court, touch the line with one hand, change dribble hands, return to the start, touch the line with one hand, change dribble hands, dribble to another line on the court, return to the start, and so on. Near the end of the two minutes, Lucas and Theo were well ahead of everybody else. Lucas beat Theo by a sliding head when he flung himself past Theo as the coach raised the whistle to his lips and inhaled. Lucas slid several feet on his stomach before he came to a stop. Theo helped him up and both clapped each other on the shoulder. That's when the two players who came last in that drill were told to show Theo and Lucas their dorm rooms.

Theo and Lucas were invited to only two more practices with these older boys. But they did start to have practices with two Blues players who had already graduated. The former Blues started to drop into the gym where Theo and Lucas practiced in the evening and they'd compete in two-on-two games. First duo to make ten baskets won. Lucas and Theo were lucky to score one basket. But the other guys would show them what they were doing wrong, and in time, the games got closer.

### # # # # # # # #

With Theo and Lucas' living conditions now rising above the previous levels that were only frequented by members of the animal kingdom, that meant that the Wilizy/Asia was suitable for guests. Lucas and Theo were using vertical closets like normal humans. Since Dreamer was in the ship full time, all three were now sharing the chores. They rotated them weekly so that one person wouldn't get stuck with the bad one – cleaning the bathrooms.

After she had described her most embarrassing moment ever to Momaka, Dreamer began to improve. The connection to her father's parents probably played a part in her improvement. She had had a long visit with the Bucks back in Barriere and was now emailing them on a regular basis. Seeing how her grandfather behaved, walked around, and interacted with his wife gave Dreamer an idea of what her father had been like. _Highly athletic_ were the words that her grandfather used to describe him.

At fifteen, Dreamer was the closest of the three to becoming old enough to try out for the Varsity Blues. Theo would have two more years to prepare than Dreamer had. Lucas had one more year. For Dreamer, that meant that she had to work harder than her brothers, and she did. After she had reached a dead end with her surveillance of Sparkle, she spent every possible minute in the gym – at first on her own. Later an assistant coach would come by, offer suggestions for an hour, and disappear. When the university teams were into their competitive schedule and all coaches were busy, a former member of the team would come into the gym and practice with her. She was a guard, so Dreamer got to work on her dribbling and driving. The guard would knock the ball out of Dreamer's left hand repeatedly until, one day, Dreamer had had enough. She put her shoulder into the guard during a drive to the basket, knocked her to the floor, and scored an easy lay-up. "What took you so long to do that?" the guard asked. "Did you think we were having a tea party out here?"

At the end of the practice, Lylah – the guard – invited Dreamer to fill an empty bedroom in the boarding house she was living in. "You're going to wear your body out if you don't learn how to practice properly. If you're in my building, I'll have more time to show you what to do. We can work on your guard skills too. You'll have to pay your share of the rent. Think about it."

"You know that I'm a forward, right?" Dreamer said.

"You're not. You're a guard. Or you will be by the time I'm finished with you."

### # # # # # # # #

Dreamer talked with Lucas and Theo about how she had driven right through Lylah. She repeated what Lylah had said. "Did you think we were having a tea party out here?" She had sounded sort of like Mac. Brusque. She also told them about Lylah's offer to live in the same boarding house.

Both of the boys had seen Lylah practicing with Dreamer. Lucas' reaction to the offer was surprising.

"If you don't take her up on the offer, I will."

"Lucas!" Dreamer exclaimed.

"Seriously. Blonde, blue eyes, as tall as me, almost as quick. And a body that..."

"Lucas!" Dreamer interrupted before he could finish. "I thought you were off women."

"I'm reconsidering my position," Lucas said.

Dreamer accepted the offer the next day and moved out of the ship that evening.

### # # # # # # # #

Theo helped with the surveillance duties until they reached a dead end. As you've read, he also spent a lot of time in the gym. But during some of the mornings and early afternoons, he was flying over that island in the thousand swamps.

Theo had used the portable heat sensor to locate the thing that had stolen their food. It turned out to be a young black girl who wore pieces of black fur as camouflage clothing. Her feet and hands were covered with pads that had claws that she could extend and retract. She lived in the village of huts on stilts with three elderly women. All three had white skin, silvery hair, emaciated bodies, and shiny metal bands around their necks. These bands had the same appearance as the dog collars that the boys had liberated from a North Korean freighter when they had been pirating. Presumably the collars acted as electronic prison guards. Lucas passed that information on to the Wilizy directors who once again concluded that North Korea had an extensive list of customers for their products.

Theo never saw the elderly women roam too far away from the safety of the huts. That may have been because of the dog collars, or perhaps because of the alligators. Yes, their houses were on stilts, but they still had to move around on the boggy land below and they still had to collect water for drinking and washing. That proved dangerous. On one of Theo's visits, he observed the girl and two of the old women near the water's edge with their heads bowed in sorrow. The oldest woman in the group appeared to be the leader. She was the one who lead them in their chants.

Theo determined that the young girl was keeping the elderly women alive. She was able to roam around the island freely as she did not have a dog collar. She'd set traps for small prey, but her best success was when she walked through the water to Canada. She showed no fear whatsoever of being attacked by an alligator when she did this. Each time she came into human communities, she'd rub mud all over her body to hide her scent. Then she flitted from one house to another stealing food in her dark skin and her black fur. When she crouched on the ground, she had the appearance of a large black panther. When dogs would catch on to her presence and bark, she'd snarl back to them in a realistic panther scream and change neighbourhoods.

Meanwhile Theo saw the emaciation of the two old women and began buying food and dropping it into areas of the island that he knew the panther girl would pass through. One time he was hovering at tree top level when he saw her look into the sky, nod at him, and pick up the food. This was disconcerting because Theo was invisible at the time. Also disconcerting was a kill he discovered. A large buck had crossed onto the island and something big had brought him down. Long slash marks on the buck's hindquarters and a large gouge in its throat said that a large creature had killed it, but had left it untouched afterwards. As Theo was following some very faint paw prints, the panther girl came into the kill zone and began butchering the buck. She had a large sharp knife and she knew how to use it.

### # # # # # # # #

As to the Safe Haven perverts, the Gardeners couldn't find any more kidnappers. With TiTr, the Gardeners had been able to identify the homes to which the personnel officer had travelled with kidnapped blonde girls. The homes all looked alike. They had guessed some time ago that they were bunkers for the doomsday people who believed the world was going to end. But even with William's spy cameras hovering over each bunker now, they could find no sign of anybody living inside. Granny called a meeting to discuss what they would do next. Slipping spider drones into the bunkers was the designated next step if the bunkers remained deserted.

Speaking of Gardeners, although this is none of your business, I can tell the curious readers who want to know such things that when Momaka and Stu moved into their new house, they slept in separate bedrooms for the first month. But with Bob the Invisible Dragon getting his quota of exercise, Momaka told Stu that perhaps they could try sleeping in the same room. For that to have a chance of working, Stu had placed his bed right up against one wall and Momaka had placed her bed right up against the far wall. But as middle aged men are often required to do, one night Stu had to get up in the darkness and use the bathroom. On his return, he became disoriented in the dark and walked too far into the room. He nudged Momaka's bed with his knee. One second later, a dragon had its snout in Stu's face and was looking for his throat. Stu started yelling and pushing the snout away, but with little success. The noise of Stu's yells and Bob's roars brought Momaka awake. She managed to gain control of Bob and turned on the light. Stu's face was white. He had collapsed on the floor and was checking his throat for blood.

"Stu, you can't ever touch the bed when I'm in it," Momaka reminded him.

"I was disoriented," he eventually gasped.

"I'll find some nightlights tomorrow," Momaka said. "I'm sorry," she added. "Bob puts himself on guard duty when I sleep in a bed. I can't turn him off."

To answer the questions from everybody in the compound the next morning about what had happened in the middle of the night, Momaka merely said that Bob had had a nightmare.

The next day, Winnie went to Momaka and pried around trying to find out what had happened, but Momaka wasn't having any of it. "Mind your own business," she said firmly. "Can't blame me for trying," Winnie replied. Later, from the pleasant conversation that followed, Momaka learned that Winnie wanted to wear a proper ladies suit when she visited the Wilizy businesses in her capacity as Chief Snoop. Momaka revealed that she had spent some time around a sewing machine and would help Winnie learn to sew. The _Winnie business suit production team_ went into operation. Winnie ended up with a black business jacket and a set of black pants as well as a black skirt. They'd buy a couple of ivory white blouses. For a business tie, Momaka made an emerald green ribbon that Winnie could place underneath the blouse's collar and she'd cross the two ends just above the second button on the blouse and Velcro them together. Both Momaka and Winnie agreed that solid black along with the ivory white and emerald green were three colours that went very well together. Patella and Scapula would have similar emerald green ties around their throats, but their colour combinations would be just black and emerald green.

"What will you do about shoes and socks?" Momaka asked as Winnie modeled the finished product.

"I'm going with black ankle socks and I've been working on Mom to agree to black shoes with a little bit of a heel." At nine years old, Winnie was finally starting to show signs of growth and she was going to get as much out of that as she could.

### # # # # # # # #

Wizard's business enterprises were going well. Nothing to complain about on that front. But in his personal life, he was acting strangely. He approached Granny one day and asked her if she could teach him how to play basketball. Granny agreed, but later she'd tell Yolanda that she didn't know why he would want to do such a thing. Wizard was cut out to be an athlete like Lucas was cut out to be a violinist. After two weeks, Granny had to tell Wizard that he probably wasn't going to have much success in the sport. Why didn't he try something else for exercise? Wizard had sensed that a gentle _Sorry_ speech would be coming. For all of Granny's coaching expertise, he had not yet managed to put the ball through the hoop. His two hands were good for flat spreadsheets, not for round basketballs. He left Granny and visited Momaka. "Can you teach me how to do judo?" he asked.

Down at the satellite compound, Mac announced that they were trying for baby #2. Not to be outdone, Melissa said they were going for #3. Yollie said that she had the perfect baby, so they were wasting their time. Mathias informed the moms that he had found a supply of very realistic baby dolls in the Philippines. Were they interested in trying them out? Hank looked at the dolls and told his CEO to order a thousand or two for the WC&D.

All in all, as you've read, life in the Wilizy family was going well and on course to remain that way. So long as Blinker didn't murder three of them in an ambush. Dreamer was the least likely to be sniped, as she spent her entire day within the university complex, effectively inaccessible to Blinker. Theo also would be difficult to snipe. He'd either be practicing in a closed gym, flying over a remote island in the St. Lawrence Rivulet, or living in an invisible ship.

Lucas was a different matter. He wasn't willing to accept that they had reached a dead end in their research. He still had no evidence to link Dr. Sandman to anything illegal. But he hadn't given up, and from time to time, he'd drop by Basher's apartment and they'd make ice cream floats and play computer games. Lucas introduced Basher to hot chocolate with marshmallow froth and Basher liked it so much, he put it on the list of things he wanted in his cupboard. Lucas also introduced Basher to Star Trek, which turned out to be a big hit, especially since Basher had lots of free time. Nod had taken Basher off his enforcement duties. Sending a ferocious enforcer out into the neighbourhood to collect money was a good idea when the collector could be ferocious. Sending him out to intimidate shopkeepers when he had cracked ribs on his right side and couldn't even raise the bat over his head – well, that just wasn't good for customer retention. It was too bad that Basher couldn't cripple worth a darn with his left hand.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 28

Mid-November. Theo was preparing to light a fire to cook a small lunch. He was camping on his own at the campsite that he and Lucas had set up a month ago on the island. The campsite where Panther Girl had stolen their cache of food. Each time he came to the island, he set up here hoping to draw the girl into the open where he could see her, perhaps talk with her. Theo could sense her watching him, so he scanned the trees and glimpsed a dark shape plastered to the backside of a tree. Only her black face was fully visible.

"I have enough food for two if you're interested," he looked at her and spoke conversationally.

No reply.

Theo erected a portable campfire spit over the fire, hung a pot from it so that it was over the flames, and poured some water over a handful of dehydrated soup flakes. A little stirring, a little waiting, and it was ready. With his thick sweatshirt in his left hand, he poured some soup from the pot into the cup in his right hand, sat back against a tree, and began sipping.

"What animal did that come from?" The voice came from the opposite side of the woods from where Panther Girl had been before. He hadn't heard a thing when she had moved. Now she was behind him. He was a perfect target for that knife.

"No animal. It's a soup. With vegetables."

"I've had soup before," she said. Still at a distance.

"I'm drinking it," Theo said. "It won't hurt you." He rose, grabbed another cup, poured some soup into it, and placed it at a comfortable distance from where he was sitting. Comfortable – as in outside of knife throwing range.

Theo returned to his tree and waited. Sipping. Listening. A black shape climbed down the tree closest to the soup. That wasn't where she had been before and once again, she had moved positions without making a noise. More disconcerting was the way she came down the tree. A human would climb down a tree feet first, using his hands to grasp the trunk to keep from slipping. Panther Girl was coming down the tree head first, like a cat would. She circled the cup on all fours, sniffed it, and sat down cross-legged, facing him. Like a human.

"Why do you give us food, Ogun?"

"Because your people are starving. Who's Ogun?"

"You are."

"My name is Theo."

"I will call you Ogun."

"Why don't you call me _Theogun?_ "

She nodded.

"Why do your people live in the most dangerous place on the island?"

"We have no choice. This is where the men in the copters put the old women. They cannot leave because of the pain from the neck metal."

"It is very dangerous there. Alligators could kill all your people."

"That is why the men in the copters put them there."

"To be killed by alligators?"

"Or to die from starvation."

"Why do they want them to die?"

"Because they are old and no longer useful."

### # # # # # # # #

"Will you have some soup?"

"No. It has no meat."

"How about a chocolate bar instead?"

"What is that?"

To answer, Theo rose and rummaged through his pack. When he looked up, she was halfway up the tree that had been behind her. _She's scared of me._ He found the bar, unwrapped it, took a bite out of it, chewed it, and swallowed it in front of her. He put the rest of the bar next to her cup of soup, returned to his own tree, sat back down, and waited.

Panther Girl came down by winding around the tree. Again she came on all fours to sniff the food. She pulled off the right paw of her clothing, picked the bar up using only her fingernails, resumed her sitting position, and held the bar out for inspection. "No meat," she said after sniffing.

"But still good."

She took a nibble and swallowed. Then she placed the bar down again.

"Not good?"

"Waiting to see if I get sick. Some foods cannot be eaten even if they look and smell good."

"How long have you been here?"

"All my life."

"Do you know how many years that has been?"

"No."

"Did you come in one of the copters?"

"No."

"How then?"

"Inside Marie's tummy."

"Who's Marie?"

"Marie's the one who said you and the man with the red and black markings all over his body would come and protect us from the copters."

"That's Lucas, my brother."

"Shango," she corrected.

"What's your name?"

In answer, Panther Girl picked up the chocolate bar and placed it in her mouth so that half was in and half was out. She put the paw back on and leapt up the tree like a panther – pushing with her legs, landing with her paw-covered hands clutching the bark, coiling her feet underneath her, and leaping up again. Choosing a path between branches, she was gone in seconds.

"The copters will come soon." A voice from a treetop.

"What's your name?" Theo asked again.

A distant voice now. "Nary, nary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow."

_Hmm. That doesn't sound too scary._

### # # # # # # # #

Perhaps the need to know somebody's name is part of the human condition that we all possess. Like walking erect. Or combing our fingers through our hair when we're frustrated, or checking constantly in the mirror to see if that pimple is getting bigger. So perhaps Theo's and Lucas' need to know the name of the mysterious person in their lives was a perfectly normal human reaction. I'll explain. Pretend there's something growing all over your body, so you go to a doctor.

"What do I have, Doctor?"

"You have Susta-busta-musta disease."

"Ooooh. Sounds dangerous. Will I die?"

If you can't understand the name, it has to be dangerous. Contrast that with – "You have Rooster-scratching-in-the-barnyard disease."

"OK, I understand what's going to happen to me. I can put up with scratching in a barnyard like a rooster."

Thus, when Theo labelled his mysterious creature _Panther Girl,_ that wasn't so scary. He knew what a girl was; he knew what a panther was. From what she had called out in the distance, he also knew that her real name was a line from a nursery rhyme. That was a little bit weird, but still not scary.

Lucas, on the other hand, wasn't getting any reassurance as to what kind of creature his mysterious stranger was or what her name was. Theo and Dreamer were long gone from the gym. Lucas had been on a roll in practice – hitting eight or nine out of ten foul shots. Always coming close, but not quite making ten. He told the other two that he was going to stay until he made ten for ten. And he did. As he flew out the upper window in the gym, a girl's voice said, "Lucas. Do you have a minute?"

"What are you?" he blurted in response. This had been bothering him. He knew she was female. But what kind of female was she? A female alien? A female Susta-busta-musta disease carrier?

"Does it matter?"

If it didn't matter, Lucas wouldn't have asked. And he wouldn't have asked the question in that _I'm frustrated and I need an answer_ tone of voice if he didn't want to know.

"Yeah," he said. "It matters."

"Think of me as your guardian angel."

"Angels don't exist."

"As far as you know."

"If you exist, let me see one of your feathers."

"Humans aren't allowed to see an angel. That's one of the big rules that we have to follow."

"What's your name?" Lucas asked. "Your real name."

Again, if you name it, it might not be quite so scary as the thought of a guardian angel popping out of the black sky while you're invisible and nobody is supposed to be able to see you.

"Azure," she said.

"Why is your name _Azure_?"

"Because I have blue eyes and Azure is a word meaning blue. That's why."

"OK."

A blue-eyed angel he could accept. Sort of like a human, but with feathers. This almost sounded possible. At least she wasn't an alien or an invisible female dragon called _Bobbie_.

### # # # # # # # #

"You start running hard when you cross the pedestrian lines back at the intersection. Stay on the left side of the street. When you hit the edge of this pothole, you have to dive onto the ground and roll."

"Right or left?"

"Roll right. Towards the other side of the street. Run directly towards this door and stand as tight as you can against it. The person with the gun will be directly above you on the roof. You'll be out of his sight. Wait until you hear him moving away. Then run down this side of the street, turn the corner, go invisible, and return to the ship."

"You know about invisibility and the ship?"

"We're too modest to brag, but angels know a lot."

Lucas was still finding it difficult to have a conversation with a disembodied voice. She was standing close enough to him that she could whisper the instructions. He knew he should at least be able to sense her body even if it were invisible. He wasn't going to risk searching for her with his hands because he had become really tired of her mouth the last time. But still, how can you have a discussion with somebody who doesn't have a body?

"OK. I got it. Dive, roll, run, and stand."

"We'll practice. I'll shoot at you. Just make sure that you don't go past the pothole."

"You're using blanks, right?"

"I'll be using a slingshot and if I hit you, you'll feel it. Did you think we were having a tea party out here?"

An hour later, she pronounced herself satisfied. "He won't be expecting your quickness," she said.

"When's this ambush going to happen?"

"Soon. Probably in the daylight. I'll warn you ahead of time. You'll walk across the street, see the pedestrian crosswalk, and start running hard. Don't miss the mark."

"Are you really an angel?"

"I've been told that many times. Why? Are you looking for references?"

### # # # # # # # #

Two days later, Nod texted Dr. Sandman. "Missed the opportunity for a big sale."

"Why?" Dr. Sandman texted back.

"Customer inexplicably changed the direction he wanted his sales to go."

"Can we find another location to service him?"

"Grocery stores near the university perhaps."

"The two other customers?"

"No longer active in our market."

"Watch for an opportunity for a sales call nevertheless."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 29

It was the third week of November and Raging Gardener frustrations were building. William's observation drones hovering above all of the Safe Haven bunker-homes in Washington State had reported no movement into, out of, or around the bunkers. Granny called the satellite compound for help and William, TG, and Wolf came up. I'll describe what they did with the first bunker that they looked at. They did the same thing with all of them.

TG checked the exterior grounds for any booby traps or surveillance. He found plenty in the surrounding woods where a sophisticated passive surveillance system was in place. (A _passive_ system activates itself when motion is detected nearby.) TG was using his own long-range sensors to search for plastic or metal and found the passive system before it could find him. Provided he remained invisible, TG could escape detection.

As to the home itself, William had created spiders with enhanced sensors that could record anything human or electronic inside the buildings. The building may have been waterproof, but it wasn't spider proof.

The home they searched first was indeed a bunker built to keep its inhabitants safe for a long time. A kitchen, a living room, and the master bedroom were on the ground floor. Belowground, they found a concrete bunker that included: a large storeroom for food and water; another large storeroom for arms and ammunition; a large library of bots that were presumably for entertainment purposes; and, four small bedrooms for the family. The bunker also had a periscope that the inhabitants could use to determine if enemies were waiting outside for them to emerge.

The bunker had a front door as well as a solid underground metal door that required a passcode before it could be opened. The Gardeners didn't have the passcode to what they assumed was an escape tunnel; they didn't even know how many digits were in the passcode. Wolf couldn't even slip a drone past that door. They searched the woods as best as they could without activating the bunker's outside sensors, but they couldn't find where the escape tunnel emerged. That meant they couldn't TiTr the occupants after they had left the bunker.

Wolf expected to find security devices inside the home and he wasn't disappointed. Motion detectors were active in all of the ground floor rooms. The ground floor also had a sensor that TG had never seen before. William studied it via a drone and was 95 per cent sure that it was looking for increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air. It would become active if somebody had managed to enter the bunker and had made the mistake of breathing. They didn't try to find out what would happen if the bunker's internal security were breached by a breathing human. Some form of death, no doubt. Learning how an intruder would die was not worth the risk of pursuing the lead.

Each bunker had a small bedroom downstairs with an enhanced level of security inside and outside of it. They found a small bed with appropriate bedding, a bathroom, a closet that was empty except for some small hangers, and a large screen display. The door had a lock but **that lock was on the outside of the door.** That meant it was a cell. The size of the bed and the small hangers left in the closet said, _A young girl had been imprisoned here._

The inhabitants had removed everything personal from the bunker when they left. The drones found no paper or electronic information that would give them even a hint on where the inhabitants had gone. But all the bunkers did have charred paper in wastebaskets. The Gardeners concluded that the inhabitants had left their bunkers calmly and with the intention of purging anything within the bunkers that could lead to the discovery of where they went. They messed up by leaving the small bed and the small hangers, but other than that, the Wilizy had nothing to go on.

Subsequent searches of all of the other bunkers gave them only one additional piece of information. The number of bedrooms in the bunker could vary from two up to six. This was not helpful information. It simply meant that the original doomsday families who had built the bunkers varied in size. The Safe Haven families that took over the bunkers had changed only one bedroom into a cell. This meant that whatever they were doing to the little blonde eyed girl, they were doing it with no other little girl present.

"We forced them to quit," Wanda concluded. "At least that's a positive."

"We forced them to re-locate," Momaka corrected. "They're still operating."

Everybody agreed on that.

"Should we just focus on home-grown perverts now?" Granny asked. "Or should we wait for them to come back?"

"You have an elaborate set of sensors watching the bunkers now," TG offered. "I can notify you if anybody comes back."

"We need to circulate information to all of the Gardeners on these bunkers. They're too dangerous to let anybody go bumbling around the property. TG, can you do that?"

"Can do. I'll send out exterior and interior pictures. I'll also include a list of all the threats you'd face when approaching the bunkers and how to avoid those threats."

"We should also circulate pictures of all of the kidnappers we've shut down; a picture of the personnel officer too. Wanda?"

"Good idea, Granny. I'll take care of it."

"How about asking my dad to talk to his military friends? He could ask them to contact him if they hear anything about young, blonde, blue-eyed girls disappearing in their area."

"Good idea, Mac. But we also need to set up some sort of network where citizens can send us news of kidnapped girls quickly enough that we can do something." Both Mac and Izzy were participating by video link.

"What about using the WZBN?" Winnie suggested.

### # # # # # # #

Lucas was frustrated. Through TiTr excursions, he had managed to slip some drones into Dr. Sandman's house and medical offices. These allowed him to search for other occasions when the three henchpersons might have met in the treatment room, but he found only the one meeting that he had already discovered. He monitored the bugs daily. He found no signs of the henchpersons meeting with the doctor. He couldn't even catch Dr. Sandman talking by pinky ring with any of them. He did observe Dr. Sandman texting, but this was infrequent. If Dr. Sandman were running an insurance racket, he certainly was not a _hands-on_ manager.

The attempt to assassinate him in the street seemed like an opportunity to learn some more about the group. So, Lucas TiTr'd back in time to see where the assassin had hidden himself. He found Winker climbing onto the roof of a building that gave an excellent view of the street where Lucas had been scheduled to die. Not only had Azure picked the exact spot where Winker would fire the gun, but she had also directed Lucas to the safest spot to avoid being hit with a follow-up shot. Lucas also learned that Winker was the sniper and Blinker was the bomber. Lucas TiTr'd even further back and found Blinker watching Basher's condo every night that week.

_They knew I was visiting Basher, but not when. I left the area in a predictable route and that gave them the opportunity to snipe me._

This was valuable information because Lucas could now appreciate how serious these people were. A sniper had staked out the one possible place where Lucas might show up and had stayed there until he did. Lucas also learned how they were intending to kill him – by gun from a hidden location. He'd make no more visits to Basher's home. He had been hoping that Basher would reveal something out of ignorance, but further contact with him was now too risky. With his access to Basher now denied, Lucas had no idea how to link Dr. Sandman to the insurance racket.

Lucas dropped into the university gym that evening to clear out his head and reduce his frustration. He was flying back to the ship well after midnight when a familiar voice beside him said, "Lucas, do you have a minute?"

Having Azure pop into his life at that exact moment was a little disconcerting since, once again, Lucas was invisible at the time. She took him to a poorly lit, giant, empty copter parking lot where she gave him instructions on how to avoid the next attempt on his life. This escape route would involve much more twisting and turning this time. They practiced for a long time.

"Is Blinker not using the sniper rifle this time?" Lucas asked. "I don't see a sniper rifle being able to cover this much territory."

"He'll have help this time," Azure said.

"I have some questions," Lucas asked after he had made it successfully through her escape maze three times.

"About the escape?"

"No. About you."

"I already told you. I'm your guardian angel."

Lucas almost believed that now. He had been wondering how she knew what was going to happen. Was Azure sitting at the table when this assassination attempt was being planned? Or if angels actually existed, did they know everything going on in the world? He could ask her if angels were all-knowing, but he had a more pressing question.

"What colour hair do you have?"

"Hair?" she replied.

"Yeah, hair. I know that angles have feathers and wings. But you must have human hands and a human head, right? If not, you couldn't talk and listen. So if you have a human head, what colour is your hair?" Lucas had looked up _Angels_ in the Internet and he found some very old pictures of what angels were supposed to look like. They resembled humans, but with feathers and wings.

"I have blonde hair," she said. "Can we get back to making sure you're alive tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? So soon?"

"Yes. I can't tell you exactly when. Don't change anything you were planning to do tomorrow, because that may throw their plans off. If they make last minute changes, that might foul up your escape. Just do whatever you were planning to do during the day. I should be able to give you at least twenty seconds notice. This escape maze will work if you do what you've practiced."

Lucas was going to ask where the attack would come, but she was gone.

On the way back to the ship, Lucas was feeling good about tomorrow. First, he had a real live angel watching over him; plus, he knew where he could find her if he ever wanted to. The last time she had helped him escape, she had said, "Did you think we were having a tea party out here?" That was exactly what Dreamer's basketball coach had said when Dreamer had finally knocked her down on the way to a basket. "Did you think we were having a tea party out here?" Lylah was blonde with blue eyes. As far as Lucas was concerned, she looked like an angel. Azure was blond with blue eyes and feathers. Was Azure guarding Dreamer too, but as an undercover angel whose name was Lylah? If angels can see a person in an invisible sling, then surely they can play a wicked game of basketball too. No, they wouldn't be able to do that. Make that a heavenly game of basketball.

### # # # # # # # #

Blinker, Winker, and Nod made almost simultaneous attempts to kill Lucas the next afternoon as he came out of a grocery store that sold energy drinks. The store was on his way to the gym and Lucas had used it before. Only one shot was actually fired – and it had come from Blinker's silenced gun. He had missed when Lucas made an abrupt turn to his left and accelerated away into a crowd. The other two had silenced guns too, and each had Lucas lined up after he had made a sharp turn and found one of them in his way. Each time, Lucas executed a sudden shoulder roll into their feet that knocked them down. Just like he had practiced in the parking lot.

All three assassins were frustrated. So was Doctor Sandman. He gave Nod another location to watch. He also told them to wear disguises since this drunk had now seen all three of them. Perhaps he wasn't a drunk after all.

### # # # # # # # #

On the theme of being frustrated, Wizard's judo classes with Momaka were not going well. She was still in the early stages of the sport – teaching him how to take the sting out of a landing with map slaps and teaching him how to do shoulder rolls. Wizard had difficulty doing a somersault, so the lessons were progressing very slowly. Perhaps this sport wasn't for him?

Hank was the next stop on Wizard's find-a-sport quest. "Can you teach me how to box?" Wizard asked his dad.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 30

The first winter storm of the season was blowing across the prairie. Poorly situated on the top of a small hill, Big House #4 creaked and groaned in the wind. The building was old, not insulated in any fashion, and subject to drafts. Fortunately, Pililiani's bedroom was in the middle of the house and happily, with only a thin wall between her and the kitchen stove. Pililiani made sure that the stove was kept hot well into the evening, solely in case either Big Daddy or Big Momma wanted a hot drink before bedtime.

Pililiani's bedroom contained a sturdy wooden bed frame, a thin mattress, and two blankets. Like all of the slaves, she had only two sets of clothes but with the kitchen stove nearby to keep her warm, she didn't have to wear both sets of clothes to bed. Her second set of clothes was hanging on a nail on the back of her bedroom door.

Pililiani also had an old ratty armchair in her bedroom – a gesture from Big Momma for her long service. As part of her evening routine, Pililiani would squeeze herself into the armchair, put her feet up on a stepstool from the kitchen, and pray for an hour before going to bed.

She prayed because a friend of hers had given her that comfort. Years and years ago, when Pililiani had been twenty-three, her son had been taken from her. She died inside that day. She knew that some of the ranch's boys might return, but Pililiani's son never did. When she was taken out of the fields and installed in the house as assistant housekeeper, Pililiani's life improved. But she remained dead inside. Her only comfort was eating.

It was many years later, after Pililiani had assumed the position of Head Housekeeper #4, that she found a degree of solace. The senior-most housekeeper among the ranches in the area kept urging her counterparts to give their slaves some hope. "You cannot let them die. Give them something to hope for. Our lives are **not** hopeless. We **can** escape this life."

"It **is** hopeless," the second oldest had said. "The dog collars. The bosses with their guns. We can't fight them with rolling pins and knives."

"Our lives will change. Our youngest, Pililiani, will live to see it. Others too. If you stay alive."

"You say that, but how do you know?"

"I can see it. The Big Daddies and Big Mommas will die in pain. You have to help your women to believe."

"In what?"

"I follow a religion. It has rituals and ceremonies. It will save us. I can see our rescue coming."

Years after that meeting, and long after that senior housekeeper had been found _excess to needs_ , Pililiani was the one who secretly preached that religion to her housekeeping counterparts and to her fellow slaves. She prayed every night, as did all of her women. And every year, at 2 a.m. on the day after their children had been once again stolen from them, the women of Ranch #4 would meet in the gully that was invisible to the house. They'd say their prayers and perform their rituals. At the end, when Big Daddy's and Big Momma's cloth bodies had been burned to ashes in their little bonfire, they'd go back to their beds believing again that their lives would change.

### # # # # # # # #

Ranch #4's infants were kept in a nursery that was part of the little community of huts in the wind-protected gully around the small river that provided the farm with year-round water. During the day, the infants were cared for by a slave who would be excused from duty in the fields for that day. This was Pililiani's doing. She had also ensured that the entire floor of the nursery was covered in blankets, in part to stop the crawlers from picking up slivers, and in part to protect the babies from any drafts that would sweep across the floor in winter.

It was in this room that Karita was now spending most of her time. The day after Pililiani had taken her to see the nursery, Karita had wandered on her own to the nursery hut, sat down on the blanketed floor, and had begun hugging any infant who crawled near her. Those babies who were too young to crawl? She waited for them to cry before picking them up and holding them tight. The twenty-one year old in charge of the nursery for the day told Pililiani that Karita had the _magic touch_. That morning had been the quietest she had ever experienced. Pililiani had come down to the nursery ready to punish Karita for missing her lunchtime chores and not telling her where she had gone. When she saw Karita lying on the floor with two babies sleeping in her arms, she decided to give her another work assignment.

The head cook didn't mind losing Karita. She was only letting her work in the kitchen so that she'd be warm anyway. However convincing Renfrew to allow Karita to work in the nursery during the day would be more of a challenge. Pililiani confronted her head-on. "I know you're drugging Karita and connecting her up to some sort of machine. Why don't you connect her up to that machine at night instead? You could leave her connected for longer periods." Renfrew had to check with Jenkins and he agreed that a longer exposure to the language lessons might be more effective. Karita wasn't learning her new language as quickly as she had before coming to the ranch.

That had been early October. Today, when Pililiani went down to the gully to bring Karita up for supper, she found her completely surrounded by laughing infants, all playing a game where they had to crawl over her, or under her, or around her and, in the process, they'd receive a giant hug and a smooch. Pililiani's trip down to the nursery was necessary; Karita wouldn't leave otherwise.

### # # # # # # # #

This blustery evening, Karita was sitting on the arm of Pililiani's ratty chair. This chair was now part of Karita's own getting ready for bed routine. Pililiani had decided to teach her how to read.

Reading was not encouraged at Ranch #4. Arriving as fourteen year olds, the girls knew how to read, but recreational reading materials of any sort were banned from the ranch. Kitchen slaves were allowed to read recipe books, but that was it. They had no access to electronic books, and since that's how almost everybody in the world read these days, the slaves in Ranch #4 had nothing to read. Nor did they have the energy.

Pililiani knew that somebody had already taught Karita the alphabet. She decided to take her further. Even though she knew that Karita would one day leave the ranch, she'd leave knowing how to read a bit.

But how to do that without children's books? Pililiani would have to make up the stories. So she did. Immediately after the dinner meal, she'd write a story on the back of the papers she had received from Big Daddy's office trash that day. It would be a simple little story. One page long, perhaps two. She'd read it to Karita. Then she'd explain how to sound out the words. Pililiani now had ten stories hidden away safely for when Karita wanted to hear them again. Tonight, Karita was sitting on the arm of her chair waiting to hear story #11 for the first time. Pililiani had gotten the inspiration for the story from what one of cleaning girls had found inside the toilet lid of the closest bathroom to the hair salon that morning.

_Once upon a time, a little girl lost something that she liked a lot. She lost her mommy and daddy. The little girl looked all over but couldn't find them. She waited and waited. She was hoping that her mommy and daddy would find her. She even tried to help them find her by leaving hidden messages. But they didn't work. The little girl was very sad. Until the day that her mommy and daddy found her. After that, all three were very happy._

Pililiani looked up at Karita. Normally she'd have questions about the story. This evening Pililiani saw something different about Karita. Her eyes were hard and suspicious, not soft and friendly. She stared at Pililiani for the longest time before asking, "What was the little girl's name?"

"Her name was Maddy."

Again, silence for a moment. Then, "Maddy's a baddy."

"Maddy's **not** a baddy. Maddy's a very brave little girl."

Silence. Maddy looked at the paper in Pililiani's hand. Then she slid off the chair's arm and into Pililiani's lap, put her legs and feet on Pililiani's thighs, and leaned back into the cushion of Pililiani's ample body. "Would you read me the story again?"

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 31

Granny was settling in to have a relaxing ten minutes in her favorite armchair with a mug of hot chocolate steaming on her lap. A couple of deep breaths to relax. A quick touch of the chocolate against her top lip to check the temperature. Almost ready. There was a tap-tap at the door. It opened and Reese's face peeked in. "Hi Granny."

"Reese! Come in. You know where my secret stash is. Help yourself." Granny blew on the mug to help cool the chocolate down. Blow, blow.

"How many cookies can I have?" Reese's voice from the kitchen.

"Five." Blow, blow.

"Where's the apron?"

"Hanging by the fridge." Blow, blow.

"Do you want some cookies too, Granny?"

Granny felt the hot chocolate mug. It was still too hot. She wouldn't be able to drink the hot chocolate before Reese came out of the kitchen. "OK, but I have a rule. The cookie that I eat can only have five chocolate bits showing on top. You look through them until you find one like that, OK? Take your time." Blow, blow. Blow, blow.

"OK."

Granny took a sip. Then another.

"Granny, I can't find any fives. Would you like a six? You made a lot of those."

"Just a minute. Let me think." Another sip. A gulp. Another gulp. "A six is good." Gulp. Blow. Gulp.

Reese came into the living room while Granny was hunched over her mug, put a cookie onto her lap, settled down on the couch, and spread the apron around his body.

Granny looked at his face. No signs of worry. Just nibbling away at his cookies like he always did. She decided to take a chance and pulled the last of the hot chocolate into her mouth.

"Granny," Reese said. "Am I too young to get married?"

"Ack."

"I'll get a wet cloth."

### # # # # # # # #

"So are you in love?"

"No. I'm not even in like."

"Why are you thinking of marrying then?"

"I'm not. I don't want to get married. I'm too young. I was hoping that you'd agree."

"I do agree. No marriage for you right now."

"Good. I'll tell Annika _No_."

"Annika proposed?"

"I don't know what _proposed_ means."

"Did she ask you to marry her?"

"No. She asked me if I would walk her home."

"And that means marriage to you?"

"It could. I get kind of clumsy when I walk next to her."

"You better start at the beginning."

### # # # # # # # #

"Annika is the very nice girl at the school who sits in front of me and she had figured out that I was deliberately trying to earn only average marks on the tests and offered to give me just an average mark so that I wouldn't even have to do the test. She said that she knew that I'd ace the test anyway so it wasn't like she would be cheating. Besides the teacher never ever marks our tests but lets the kids mark each other's tests and they cheat all the time so that they'll end up with a final mark that they had already picked out."

Granny thought that she had already heard all the bad things about that school, but this was new. _Yolanda, Reese is here. Did you know that his teacher never marks any of their tests? He lets the students do it._

_Really?_

"I asked Annika if she wanted me to give her a certain mark too, but she said that she'd never ask me to do that. She wanted to earn her mark and she was sure she'd get her A."

"Sounds like an honest girl."

"She is, Granny. All white colours."

"And the marriage?"

"Yeah. That. So I've told you before that I had made up a story that the vice principal wanted to see her so that she could escape from the two girls who were forcing other girls to flash guys in the woods. They can't do that any more, by the way, because Ms. Paulson, the new principal, hired some people to put up a big fence to keep the kids in the playground and she also told the teachers that two of them had to be in the playground all recess and lunch."

"Good."

"Well, when Annika went into the school to see the vice principal to find out why she wanted her, the vice principal said that she hadn't asked her to come in so Annika went looking for me all over the playground and asking people if they had seen me."

"I stayed invisible until the bell rang and snuck into my desk after everybody was working and she turned around in her seat and looked at me and I dropped my pen so that I could duck under my desk. When I put my head back up I found a note on my desk and it said _Thank you._ "

"That was nice of her."

"Yeah. So things are good between us."

"You talk with her?"

"Oh no. I don't talk with her. We see each other in the hallway, she nods at me, and I nod back. That's what I meant by being good."

"I see. Carry on."

"One noon hour I'm invisible and listening in on the two girl bullies in our class and they were talking about Annika. They said they were going to wait for her and get even with her for not being in their group any more. And I found out that they were planning to wait for her at the shortcut to her home where she walks through an alley and I knew a different way that she could go home so I waited for her before she reached the alley."

"You know where she lives?"

"Yeah, of course. These bullies are browns and that means they're dangerous so I have been making sure she gets home safely. I knew they'd try and gang up on her."

"You could see what they were planning to do to her in your head?"

"No. I just knew because they're so mean."

_Yolanda, Reese can't see into the future like Dreamer. But he is learning what people of certain aura colours are likely to do._

_Thanks._

"I was at her locker waiting and told her that she should take the long way home this time and she asked me why and I said the shortcut was dangerous today and she thought about it and said that she would take the long cut. She asked me if I was going to stay with her to make sure she was safe and I said that I knew it was safe and left. But I did follow her invisibly in case the bullies changed locations."

"She kind of asked you to walk home with her."

"Yeah, she did."

"Why didn't you?"

"I'm too young to get married. I thought we agreed on that."

### # # # # # # # #

"I'm confused, Reese. Why would walking home with Annika mean you'd have to marry her?"

"Because I'm all clumsy around her like I said. I know that I'd probably bump into her."

"Still not understanding."

"Granny, you know about the four bases, right?"

"Tell me."

"OK. Guys and girls have four bases that they go through. You know what a baseball diamond is, right?"

"With you so far."

"So picture me and Annika at home plate. And say I'm holding her hand."

"Got it."

"Now that I'm holding her hand, that means that we can walk to first base. When I reach first base, I can kiss her. First base is kissing, OK?"

"Got it."

"After first base, the next step is touching her boobs. If I touch her boobs, then we're at second base. I can't believe you don't know this. Everybody knows this."

"I probably did but forgot."

"If I decide to touch her on her butt, that means that I'm now on third base."

"And home plate is?"

"Having sex. And if you have sex, you might as well get married because you're going to have kids."

"And you are worried about walking her home because...?"

"Because I'm clumsy and because of what would happen if my hand accidentally touched her butt. That would mean that I'd be on third base and I don't want to be on third base. But I don't know how to get off third base except by running to home plate and I definitely don't want to be there. I mean, once you're on third base, you're there. Right? You can't turn around and run backwards to second. Right?"

"Where are you finding your information about sex, Reese?"

"From the Internet."

"Pictures?"

"No."

_Thank God._

"Videos."

_Oh God!_ "You've downloaded videos of men and women having sex?"

"No."

_Thank God._

"I've downloaded videos of men having sex with men."

"Reese, I'm feeling a little faint. Would you bring me a glass of water?"

_Yolanda! Hank has to have the sex talk with Reese tonight. He's downloaded videos of gay sex._

_Ack!_

### # # # # # # # #

"I'm ready. Tell me about the videos of men having sex with each other."

"OK. Gay sex is kind of interesting actually. You have two teams. One team is wearing uniforms of a certain colour; and the other team has a different coloured uniform. The men have sex in front of a huge number of cheering people in a giant open outdoor building. I don't think I'd want to have gay sex. I mean the crowd boos some times when a player fumbles the baseball. What would they do if they didn't have sex the right way?"

"You downloaded a video of men playing baseball?"

"Yeah. That's where the four bases come from. First, second, third, and home. The rules must be slightly different for gays. They don't kiss on first, although I did see two guys whispering into each other's ears, which is kind of a kiss. And since men don't have boobs, there are no boob grabs on second. But when a guy reaches third, a guy often pats him on the butt."

"And the sex?"

"Right as you cross home plate. I saw a guy who hit the baseball a long way – I don't know where the baseball fits into gay sex by the way. But he was a very fast runner and he ran by first base without getting a kiss and he ran by second base without having anything grabbed and he ran by third and the coach was running almost beside him encouraging him to have sex and then he slid onto home plate and the guy on the other team jumped right on top of him on the ground."

"They had sex on home plate?"

"Right there in front of everybody. Then the guy who was the first to reach home base ran around jumping and screaming and his teammates came out and jumped and screamed and there was a whole bunch of butt touching and hugging and the crowd went crazy too. I didn't know that having sex could be that exciting."

"Few people do."

### # # # # # # # #

"Reese, your dad will tell you what real sex is about tonight. What you saw was a baseball game and it's not the same as sex. The thing about kissing, grabbing boobs, butt touching, and naming a base after them? That's a code that some stupid men use to tell other stupid men how they and their girl friends are getting along. Women hate it. Don't ever ask a girl friend, _Can we go to second base now?_ You'll be lucky if you see her again."

"Got it."

"Walking a girl home is not having sex. If you were to accidentally touch her butt or her boob, that's all it is. An accident. Tell her you're sorry. Don't deliberately have that accident. Women hate that."

"Got it. So I can make sure that Annika gets home safely and I don't have to marry her."

"You can make sure she gets home safely without having to marry her. However, you do need to be polite to her."

"Do I have to walk beside her?"

"How were you planning to walk her home otherwise?"

"About ten paces behind in case something came up from behind her suddenly and I had to warn her."

"Walk beside her. It's easier for the two of you to have a conversation that way."

"Do I have to talk? Couldn't I just let her talk? Girls are good at talking. I'm not."

"If she asks you a question, you should answer it. Do the two of you ever talk in school?"

"No. Never. We just nod at each other."

"Try talking. You'll learn a little bit about her."

"What if I learn that she hates me?"

"She wouldn't have invited you to walk her home if she did."

"Do I have to start the conversation?"

"I think you can rely on Annika to do that."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 32

It was early December, a few days after the second unsuccessful attempt on Lucas' life. University classes were out for the holidays and the gyms were locked up tight. Dreamer had returned to B.C. and was staying with her grandparents this week. Theo had been spending a lot of time on his personal research project – Panther Girl. He had asked Lucas to bring the ship down to the island and witness what Theo had been seeing. Theo wouldn't tell him anything else until Lucas was there.

The Wilizy/Asia was now high in the sky over the island. By high, I mean very high. Theo had a reason for being well above cloud level and shared it with Lucas. "Panther Girl knows when I'm slinging invisibly over the island at tree top level. She looks at where I am and nods at me."

Lucas had had his own experience with a female of some kind knowing exactly where he was when he was flying invisibly, but he wasn't ready to share that with Theo yet.

"I don't think that she'll be able to see me if I'm as high as the Wilizy/Asia can get, so that's why I asked you to bring the ship."

On that, Theo was proven correct. They flew the ship way high over Panther Girl's head and she didn't look up.

"OK, the ship is here. So am I. What am I supposed to witness?"

"Something strange is going on," Theo started. "Remember that I told you that the old women were left here by people wanting them to die, and how they didn't give them enough food, and how they were counting on the alligators to kill them all off."

"Yeah. Bunch of jerks."

"Two old women are still alive, but they shouldn't be. They don't have enough food. Panther Girl traps some small animals and steals some food from the nearest town, but that's all the food she can give them. Fishing is too dangerous; there's no arable land where they can grow anything even if they had seeds, which they don't. The food that was left for them is all gone. I gave them a little until I ran out of money. But the women are still alive. I saw them eating venison!"

"There'd be no reason for any deer to come over to an island that has nothing much for them to eat."

"Right. So I did some time-travelling. About once or twice a month, a big deer swims across the water from the Canadian side and climbs up onto shore. It doesn't live long. Some big beast kills it and Panther Girl butchers it. I looked at the deer's body before the last butchering. It had claw marks on the hindquarters and a huge crater where its throat used to be. Some big animal killed that deer, but no such animal is living on this small island. Panther Girl has a knife and that's it. She has no bow and arrow, no spear, and nothing else that could bring down a big buck. If she did have such weapons, I'd have seen the marks on the carcass."

"The beast followed the buck over from Canada? Chased it?"

"I found where the last kill had come ashore. Soggy land. Perfect for leaving hoof prints, or paw prints, or any kind of print. I found the deer's hoof marks. I didn't see prints of anything following it. The women are out of food again. When that has happened in the past, a deer has swum across to the island."

"That's why we just took that very slow trip over the entire island. You were looking for the beast with the ship's telescope?"

"Right. It's not here."

"In a cave somewhere?"

"Perhaps. I didn't find a cave, but perhaps."

"What's the plan?" Lucas was definitely interested now. It was a hunt for an answer to a mysterious question.

"The sun is almost down. It's dark enough for us to turn on the ship's heat sensors and they'll give us a much better reading than the portable sensor. We'll take one more trip around the island looking for sources of heat. Both old women are imprisoned inside the camp. Panther Girl will have a small heat signature. We're looking for a big heat signature. I'm thinking a full-sized panther."

### # # # # # # # #

It was now completely dark. The only heat signatures that they had seen were from the two old women and Panther Girl. The Wilizy/Asia was hovering high over the northern edge of the island and the boys were scanning the coastline with the heat sensor looking for a swimming deer. Theo was working the sensor. "Panther Girl is crossing north into Canada," Theo said.

"Is she swimming?" Lucas asked.

"Walking, probably. The water's not too deep. For some reason, she's not bothered by alligators."

"Do alligators sleep at night?"

"Dunno." Theo answered and shrugged simultaneously.

"Where's she going?"

"Inland. She steals food from the small towns. I don't think she does it too often or else the people would get upset and bring in dogs."

"She's not going anywhere near any homes. She's in deep woods now."

...

Theo tapped Lucas on his shoulder and pointed. "A heat signature is directly ahead of Panther Girl. Large deer, I'd say."

"I'll bring the ship directly overhead. Is that her sneaking around behind the deer?"

"Looks to be."

...

Theo again. "She's driving it towards the water."

"Did you see how fast she is? It tried to break to the left and she got in its way." Lucas was always impressed by fast.

"It's now trying to the right. Again, she cut it off."

"You and I could do that with slings. We couldn't do it if we had to run through thick woods."

"She runs on all fours." Theo said. "I've seen her do that in daytime. Very quick."

"She won't be able to run fast enough when that deer has the wide open riverbank to escape down."

...

"Lucas, what's stopping the deer from escaping? Look. Panther Girl is behind it and driving it towards the river. It's breaking to the left; now it stops; breaks to the right; it stops again; breaks to the left; stops again. Why does it keep stopping? It has a clear path."

"Are the heat sensors on max?"

"Yeah," Theo answered. "There are only two heat signatures on that beach. The deer's and Panther Girl's."

"The deer is in the water. Swimming hard."

"Panther Girl isn't following. She's moving towards the little town now."

"Follow the deer."

...

"That's a kill." Lucas was interpreting a motionless lump of heat.

"And that's the scream of a large cat."

"Did you see where it came from?"

"I didn't. One second the deer was alone. The next second, there were two heat signatures."

"Where'd the beast go?" Lucas looked over Theo's shoulder to see the sensor monitor himself.

"On the ground. Eating?"

"No. That's only one heat signature. It's too small for two animals."

"The beast is gone. Vanished. Let's find Panther Girl. She should still be in that town. She was there only five minutes ago."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas and Theo didn't find Panther Girl that night. They did see her at first light when she left the settlement of huts, walked directly to the kill, and began butchering. She carved off some of the big pieces and carried them into camp. She then returned to the kill site, pulled the rest of the carcass onto her shoulders, and walked into camp with it. Afterwards, she washed herself off by swimming in alligator infested waters.

"This whole island is definitely weird," Lucas said.

"Wait until Panther Girl tells you her name."

"I'm meeting her?"

"Yup. You're meting her and an old woman named Marie. I believe that Marie is her mother, but she never calls her that."

"Why are we meeting Panther Girl and Marie?"

"Some men will arrive soon by copter. According to Panther Girl, they'll shoot anybody still alive in the camp and throw the bodies in the water for the alligators. Since the old women are prevented from running away by the dog collars, it won't take them long. The men will be leaving a new lot of old women to starve to death on the island. Marie wants these men to die. I think she expects us to help."

"Do you like Panther Girl? You sound like you do."

"I wouldn't want to be stranded alone with her on this island if she were hungry."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas and Theo met Panther Girl at their original campsite. They had left the Wilizy/Asia anchored directly overhead in case they needed it; plus they were wearing their slings. They both had checked that all their weapons were working – a huge beast that appears and disappears without notice was something that prompted caution. Theo had whispered a warning to Lucas about mind-messaging. "If Panther Girl can see invisible slings, who knows what else she could see or hear."

"Where is she now?" Lucas whispered back.

"Directly above you but behind the tree trunk," Theo whispered, and then more loudly – "You can come down. He won't hurt you."

Panther Girl came down the tree face first, circled Lucas warily on all fours, sniffing. Then she went back to the tree she had been in, stood up on her two legs, crossed her arms in front of her, and leaned back against the trunk. "Where are your skin colours, Shango?"

"My name is Lucas," he said. He noticed that she had a nice voice.

"Shango," she corrected. "Are you an imposter? Your skin was coloured before."

"I was in a fight and was injured. I'm healed now."

"Shango is a fighter," she admitted and nodded approval. "You said he was your brother, Theogun. He's short compared to you."

Lucas looked sideways at Theo and raised an eyebrow in question at the Theogun mention.

Theo refused to message an explanation. "Even though we are different in appearance, we are brothers," he confirmed. "I have the body type of our mother, Shango has the body type of our father."

"What's a father?"

"A man who mates with a woman and produces babies. Then they live together and love their children together."

"You gods have different lives than we do."

Lucas turned and looked at Theo with another eyebrow question. _Gods?_ Theo shook his head. Not now.

### # # # # # # # #

"Marie will meet you now. She has been calling you. You have come. As she foretold."

"You should tell Shango your name," Theo said to Panther Girl.

"Nary nary quite contrary, how does your garden grow."

Lucas and Theo exchanged glances. Theo smiled. "Told you," he said.

### # # # # # # # #

The Wilizy/Asia was anchored high about the island. Shango and Theogun were relaxing in the kitchen talking about their meeting with Marie and Nary.

"Marie is a Voodoo queen?" Lucas/Shango asked.

"She says she is."

"And Nary is a Voodoo princess? Marie is teaching her to be a queen?"

"That's what she says. We're Voodoo gods, or at least we could be if we do what she tells us to."

"There are Voodoo gods?"

"Apparently. We're Shango and Ogun. Brothers. I persuaded Nary to call me Theogun."

"Did you believe the old woman is a direct descendent of somebody named Marie Laveau?" Lucas asked.

"How would I know? She says she is. She's used that name her entire life."

"And the Laveau person was a Voodoo queen?"

"That part is true. I looked it up. The original Marie Laveau was born in the early 1800s."

"And Marie called us to the island so that we would kill the men who are going to hunt them down. She called them _bosses._ "

"Yes. She had been calling us for a long time; chanting our names over every death of their sister prisoners. She had wondered what was taking us so long to show up."

"What did you say?"

"I told her we had been fighting an evil gnome. That seemed to satisfy her."

"Theo, do you believe that Marie has a spell that kept these bosses from seeing her whenever they've come to kill the women in the past?"

"She said that she did. It doesn't matter if I believe her or not. The fact is that she has survived for about fourteen years on a tiny desolate island if my guess of Nary's age is correct. She can't leave these houses, so can you explain any other way that she could have hidden in clear sight and survived?"

"Assuming that the part about the murdering bosses is even true." Lucas was clearly a non-believer.

...

"Lucas, did you notice the size of Nary's brain-plug?"

"No I didn't."

"That's because she doesn't have one. Under what circumstance might it be possible for a child not to be given a brain-plug at birth?"

"If she were born outside of civilization," Lucas admitted.

"Did you notice the similarity between Marie's dog collar and Zzyk's brain-bands?"

"I did."

"What type of person would send old women into a prison compound surrounded by alligators so that they'd either be eaten or starved to death?"

"A man like Zzyk."

"Do we believe enough of Marie's story to know that we have to save these women from a man like Zzyk?"

Lucas didn't hesitate. "We do."

"I'll do the thinking, you do the battling," Theo said.

"Sounds like a plan."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 33

The next morning Theo and Lucas were in the kitchen of the Wilizy/Asia, which was still anchored high above the island. They were drinking their breakfast. Lucas had the orange sports drink; Theo had the red sports drink.

"We should have some kind of food on board for times like this," Theo said.

"Are you planning on living on the ship for a while?"

"I have to. We don't know when the next shipment of old women will arrive. The Wilizy/Asia is crucial to the plan, so it has to be here in place. Plus it has long-range sensors that can give us some advance warning of their arrival. You don't have to stay here. With your sling, you can be here quickly enough."

"I need one day in Toronto. The rest of the time, I can stay here on the ship with you. I'll bring back some food."

"Why the day in Toronto?"

"I have one more possible lead on Dr. Sandman to explore – the driver of the horse and buggy that killed Basher's mom. If that doesn't work out, I'll have to give up. I don't have anything that links Dr. Sandman to a crime."

"We know Sandman has a protection racket. We know he was having an affair with Basher's mom."

"But the only link to the protection racket is that he knows all four of the people running it. That's not a crime. Having an affair with an exotic dancer is not a crime. Plus my research is becoming dangerous."

"Arranging to have somebody murdered would be a crime. How's it becoming dangerous?"

It was at this time that Lucas finally told Theo about the two unsuccessful assassination attempts. It was a carefully edited confession. He didn't say anything about the guardian angel. He figured Theo wouldn't believe that Azure was a guardian angel; just like Lucas didn't believe that Marie was a Voodoo queen. Lucas thought that Marie was one crazy old woman. He believed that the men in the copter did drop her and the other women on the island. The dog collars proved that. However he didn't believe that those men went around killing survivors. He had listened to Theo's plan to deal with the next shipment of old women and didn't raise any objections because Theo was energized. He thought he was being a rescue god and he seemed genuinely interested in protecting Nary. But this trip to the islands was just like one of the many make-up games that they had used to play. Lucas was quite content to play the game – even to the point of agreeing for Theo to message home and tell the family that they wouldn't be coming home for Christmas holidays. Lucas **was** intent on stopping his investigations into Doctor Sandman if the buggy driver lead didn't work out. Those two assassination attempts were enough. He still believed, mostly, that Azure was a guardian angel. What he wasn't sure about was whether she went back to her home for Christmas Holidays and if she would be around in case Sandman made a third attempt. Presumably Christmas was a somewhat important date in Heaven. If so, without Azure to guard him, a third attempt on his life could be successful.

### # # # # # # # #

As agreed, Lucas was back at the ship by noon. "This is actually real food," Theo said. "Where are the cans of pork & beans and bottles of peanut butter you were planning to buy?"

"I kinda like the food at the student union," Lucas admitted sheepishly. "They're open for limited hours during the holidays. I put all of this stuff on our food plan."

"I thought you were going back to Kingston, not to Toronto."

"I wanted to close up the research on Sandman so I could concentrate on this. I figured the horse and buggy driver would be long gone."

"Was he?"

"No. I found him easily. He's on the same job as he was when he murdered Basher's mom."

"He murdered her?"

"He drove the carriage."

"You can prove this?"

"I have TiTr pictures of him killing Sparkle, but I have zero chance of using them in a court of law."

"Are you going to quit now?"

"Nope. I figure I can tie Sandman to a crime now."

"What will you do?"

"The carriage driver knows the truth. I figure he might be willing to share that information with me."

"Do you want to do that today?"

"Nah. William and TG are coming up for your meeting with Marie. I'll visit him tomorrow. He's not going anywhere. By the way, I picked up the dog collars that Wizard sent by overnight express."

"Good."

"Wiz included a note," Lucas added. "He wrote that he would have delivered them personally, but he had cracked some knuckles in both hands."

"Weird. How'd that happen?"

"He didn't say. He wrote this instead."

_I have some things to say to both of you about what you've been doing with Dreamer, but I will wait until you're home for Christmas._

Lucas looked a question at Theo who asked a question in return. "Did Wiz send the note before I messaged Mom and Dad?"

"Looks that way. Why does he want to talk basketball with us? He's never been interested in that before."

"Dunno. The chief snoop will know."

"I'll talk with Winnie, you prepare lunch?"

"Sounds like a plan."

### # # # # # # # #

William and TG came back with Theo and Lucas to the Wilizy/Asia after their meeting with Marie and Nary. Theo had briefed the two ahead of time, including telling them about the deer visiting the island when the women needed food and the talk about Voodoo. Theo had asked both of them to observe Marie closely and tell him what they thought of her afterwards.

"I still don't know what we're going to do with two old women and Nary after we rescue them," Theo started. "They can't stay here on the island. They have no food here and no way of growing it."

"Perhaps the Wilizy Foundation could find a home for them?" TG suggested.

"Bubba Franklin's old camp is empty," William added.

"Marie wants to go back to where she used to live," Lucas reminded everybody. "Won't that place be full of the people who thought she was useless and too old?"

"She wasn't budging on that," Theo reminded them. "She doesn't know where it is, but she's going back to her home. Says that she's going to die there. Says that we're going to take her. Says that it's been foretold."

### # # # # # # # #

"Marie? Impressions?" Theo, running the meeting.

"I'll start with the obvious," William said. "Looks to be pure white in skin colour, probably Melissa's height, mostly skin and bone. Wrinkles everywhere. Gray hair, turning white. She looks about the same age as Granny so that would put her about what?"

"Mid seventies, I think." Theo guessing.

"How'd you figure that?" Lucas asked.

"Mom's about forty. Granny told me one time that she had had Mom when she was in her early thirties."

"Marie is not a crazy person," TG said.

"Yeah. She understood the plan. She also seemed to understand when I told her how I was planning to set it up for you to take off their dog collars." This, from William.

"You know how some people have dull eyes." Lucas started. "Basher's eyes are like that. His eyes will look at you when you're talking, but nobody's home behind the eyes. Marie's blue eyes were following everything you said. I think she's smart."

"You're right. She's a smart old woman. She'd have to be smart to survive for fifteen years in this desolate place. With or without Voodoo." TG would know smart; he had been around smart people all of his life.

Theo focused them. "In her youth, what did she look like?"

"I can answer this one," Lucas jumped in. "White skin, blue eyes, probably good looking."

"Anybody notice the eyebrows?"

"Fair hair," TG said.

"That would make her white, blue-eyed, and blonde when she was young," Theo summed up. "Does that ring a bell for anybody?"

"Her home couldn't be part of the same group that Granny is chasing. It's way too long ago. Did Marie know anything about where her home might be?"

"I've talked to her a couple of times," Theo answered TG. "She has said nothing about her past except wanting to return to it. But, ..."

"But what?" Lucas couldn't wait while Theo drew out the suspense.

"A white, blue-eyed, formerly blonde woman arrives at this island at the age of about sixty and immediately gives birth to a black skinned, black-haired girl. Is that even possible?"

"If the father were very black, it might be possible," William said. "The genetics might work but the odds are against it. But giving birth to a baby at the age of sixty seems even more unlikely."

"I don't know if this would make a difference or not," Lucas said. "But if you catch Marie's eyes in the right light, they aren't blue. They're bright red."

### # # # # # # # #

They talked about Nary as well. "What's with her name?" Lucas asked.

Theo had asked Marie about the name, so he knew the answer. "Marie smuggled a picture book inside her clothes when she was brought to the island. She wanted to be able to teach her child to read when she grew up. Her hut fell into the swamp when Nary was an infant. Marie dived in to retrieve the picture book but was unable to bring it up quickly enough. The only thing still legible in the book was a scrap that said, _Nary, Nary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?_ "

"Isn't it supposed to be _Mary, Mary quite contrary_?" William asked.

"Water damage," Theo replied. "The Ms looked like Ns so that's what Marie taught Nary to read. When Marie asked her daughter what name she'd like to have, that's what she said."

"She can read?"

"Nary can read that one sentence. She can't read anything else because there's nothing else here on the island to read. She can't write. She can't do arithmetic. But somehow she can drive a buck across an alligator-infested stream of water onto an island where a beast will magically appear, kill the buck, and then disappear."

"You do like her," Lucas said.

"I admire her. But I still wouldn't want to be stranded alone with her on this island if she were hungry."

### # # # # # # # #

Night had fallen. William and TG had returned home some hours ago. Before they left, William had preset the ship's power conversion equipment so that it would put out exactly the power that Lucas would need. TG said that Theo's plan would work and he thought the bosses in the copter deserved everything they were going to get.

"I want to check something out," Theo said to Lucas who was eyeing a kitchen full of dirty dishes with some distaste. "You wanna come with me?"

Theo had cooked some food for William and TG since the time zone change was going to play havoc with their sleep and eating. William and TG had said it was better than what they could have cooked. Lucas admitted that he probably wouldn't die. Since Theo had cooked, that meant Lucas had to do the dishes.

"Do I get out of doing the dishes if I come?"

"No. And no fair putting them in a sling and dipping them in a lake." Lucas had tried that once when Dreamer was living with them and she had had a minor fit.

Theo changed his mind. "I'll make you a bet. I want to TiTr back to last night when Nary was driving that buck to the river. We couldn't figure out why it didn't escape down the riverbank, remember? I'll write down how I think that Nary did it. If I'm wrong, I'll do the dishes tonight and tomorrow. If I'm right, you do them for both nights."

"What if I guess the right answer?"

"Do you have any idea?"

"Well..., no."

"Bet or no bet?"

"Bet."

Theo wrote something on the paper, turned it over, and put it on the one spot on the kitchen counter that wasn't already occupied by something needing to be cleaned. Lucas stepped into Theo's sling and they disappeared.

### # # # # # # # #

"The buck is coming to the river now," Theo observed. "It's going to break left, now right, now left, now right. Do you see anything?" They were observing at treetop level but the night was very dark.

"Some logs on the river bank, perhaps?"

"Going back two minutes. Let's take a closer look at those logs this time."

...

"Alligators."

"Lying completely out in the open. When the deer approaches, ..."

"... they open their mouths."

"And the deer tries to escape to the other side only to find..."

"... another alligator. Perfectly positioned."

"You think those alligators were on the river bank by a lucky fluke?" Theo asked.

"Not a chance."

"Going back in time twenty minutes," Theo said.

...

"The alligators just emerged out of the river, climbed up the bank, and sat in the sand." Lucas described.

"Two on one side of the funnel and two on the other side."

"Nary knew exactly where they were because she drove the deer in an almost straight line through the woods into their funnel."

"We didn't see them from the ship because they're cold blooded and gave off no heat signature."

"You know the little hairs on your arms?"

"Sticking straight up right now."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas had a thought. "You know, if we followed the next deer coming to the island, we might find out where the beast has been hiding."

"Think it through, Lucas."

...

"We'd be flying into the beast's killing zone in slings that the beast can probably see," Lucas admitted. "And we don't know how high it can jump, or if it's hiding in a tree, or anything else about it. Do you think it was the beast that was watching us that first night when we decided to camp high in the sky? Didn't you think it was Nary?"

"I don't want to find out the hard way," Theo said.

"Man, this place is weird."

### # # # # # # # #

This time it was Theo thinking out loud. "You know how Marie said that she had a spell that allowed her to hide when the men in the copter came looking for her."

"Yah."

"She said that we shouldn't worry about where the three of them will hide once we take off their dog collars. Do you think... "

"... that she'll hide everybody inside a spell of some kind?"

Theo continued. "You know how we couldn't find any sign of a big, warm-blooded animal when we were looking for the beast?"

"That could have been because it was hidden inside a spell?" Lucas, on the same track as Theo.

"And you know how neither of us wants to believe that there can be a Voodoo spell..."

"... but there's no other possible explanation."

"So if we believe that Marie is going to hide herself, Nary, and the other old woman inside a spell, and if we wanted to prove that she can make a hiding spell, why don't we..."

"... put some trackers on them so that we'll know exactly where they are?"

"If we watch them as they flee away from their huts, and all of a sudden they disappeared ..."

"... that would mean there is Voodoo on this island."

"Do we have any trackers?" Theo asked.

"William left us a crate of electronic gizmos, including some drones."

"Those will do."

### # # # # # # # #

Back at the ship, Lucas was doing the dishes because Theo had written _alligators_ on his slip of paper. Theo was relaxing in a hammock testing out a drone.

"Did Winnie tell you what's up with Wizard?" Theo was only asking to see if the recording function on the drone was working the way it was supposed to.

"He had asked Dad to teach him how to box. He was practicing by flailing away angrily at the big bag as hard as he could, but he hadn't toughened up his hands first. Like Dad had told him to. Doc says he'll heal up fine."

"Why'd he attack a big bag of heavy sand?"

"Winnie didn't know. He tried to learn basketball first; then he tried to learn judo. Both Granny and Momaka told him that he should try another sport."

"Wiz was angry because he's not athletic? He should know that by now. Everybody in the family knows it."

"It doesn't make sense. Winnie says that he hasn't been himself recently."

"Well whatever made him mad, it has nothing to do with us. We've been in Toronto the whole time."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 34

Annika was waiting at her locker five minutes after the last bell when Reese came down the hall. They walked down the back staircase together. She was wearing a gray skirt, gray knee-high socks, black shoes, and a white blouse. Since December was a little cool, she was also wearing a royal blue blazer. All part of the school uniform.

Annika was a little taller than Reese with dark brown curly hair that fell down to the bottom of her ears, brown eyes, a button nose, and a tiny chin. She had a round, brown face. In addition to her pinky ring, she wore a braided friendship bracelet on the wrist of her other hand and a little silver locket around her neck.

Reese wore the boy's school uniform – black shoes, black socks, gray slacks, white shirt, royal blue blazer, and a tie of his choice. Today's choice was purple. He thought it was his best tie. He was wrong. Bright purple and royal blue don't go all that well together but he ran out of the house before Winnie could check him over. His hair was the usual: one hundred strands of hair pointing in one hundred different directions.

Annika had decided that she'd open their conversation by talking about the school's former principal and its former math teacher. Supposedly some parents had complained to the school district about both of them. When news about kids playing strip poker in the woods surfaced afterwards, everybody thought that this was the reason the principal had been transferred. The district had wanted the principals of the two middle schools to just switch jobs, but the principal of South Penticton Middle School abruptly decided to retire instead. That meant that they needed a new principal at North Penticton. Only one person applied and that's how young Ms. Paulson had been given the job. All the kids loved her even though she had immediately shut down access to the woods. The teachers weren't big fans of her principalship. She'd walk into classrooms to see what the teachers were doing. Without warning even!

As for the math teacher, he also had to change jobs with a teacher at South Penticton. Nobody knew why he had been moved. Rumour-ably, the teacher coming into North Penticton didn't want to come but she was only twenty-eight and was too young to retire. Other than that, the rumour mill had been quiet since the move.

But those transfers were old news. The new news was that both Mr. Hunfrey and Mr. Rogers (the former principal and the former math teacher of North Penticton M.S.) had disappeared one night. All the kids were still buzzing and some nasty rumours were beginning to circulate.

"Did you hear about Mr. Hunfrey disappearing?" Annika opened the conversation confidently.

Reese thought about that before answering. "Yah," he said.

"I heard that he had attacked a whole lot of women teachers. You know – in a very bad way." Then she waggled her eyebrows. "Do you think that's what happened?"

Although the idea of sex can surface frequently in grade six conversations, it has two modes of appearance. With girls, the word is spoken in girl huddles, with whispers, some giggles, and usually some exchanges of conversations like this:

"She did what?"

"No!"

"Really? I heard..."

With boys, the concept of sexual activity is always accompanied by sniggering. In grade six, the word does not occur in cross-gender pairs – like when somebody was walking somebody home for the first time. The eyebrow-waggle was the go-to backup.

Reese thought about that rumour of the principal attacking women teachers before answering. "I dunno anything about..." and he waggled his eyebrows. Reese may have been slow to respond, but he was eyebrow-waggle literate.

"Do you think he attacked one of our school's teachers?"

Reese thought about that before answering. "Nah."

Poor Reese was especially handicapped here in the conversational challenge facing him on his first ever walking home encounter with a person of the feminine persuasion. He was walking beside a girl and thus open to ridicule if anybody in the school saw him. For Reese, this was a familiar feeling, so perhaps it wasn't much of a deterrent to him talking. But Reese knew everything that had happened in that school. He was the one who had spilled the proverbial beans. The complaint to the school district had come from somebody in his family. Questions about how Reese or his family had learned of the school's dirty little secrets would draw instant attention to his family who had secrets of its own to keep. He had to be sure that he showed no knowledge of anything remotely connected to what had happened. So dear reader, I must tell you that anything that Reese said on this walk would follow a ten second delay while he thought about what would be safe to say. I won't bother telling you each time that he stopped to check what he was planning to say for land mines. I'll put in ten little dots before he answers instead. Personally, I expect that Reese would have preferred to just grunt, but his training on becoming an uncommunicative male had not progressed that far. He wasn't grunt literate yet.

"Why do you say that?"

.......... "Dunno."

"And Mr. Rogers, he's disappeared and they say that he was messing with some boys."

.........."Really?"

"Yes, and there are posters in the school advertising free counselling for anybody who has been hurt by either of them. Some foundation is giving the counselling. Did you see the posters?"

.......... "Yah."

"Do you think anybody would go?"

.......... "Dunno."

"The new math teacher, Mrs. O'Leary. What do you think of her?"

.......... "Nice."

They walked together in silence for about three minutes while Annika regrouped. She had counted on the school's staff changes to get them to her home. They were only halfway there and she had run out of all the opening questions she had prepared and practiced beforehand.

"Are you still reading through the bots in the library when we're supposed to be working in class?" Reese had told her what he was really doing when Annika asked why he never did any of the classwork.

.......... "I'm finished with the science bots now."

"What are you reading now?"

.......... "History bots."

"Are you planning stay in this school next year?"

.......... "If my parents let me. They didn't like students being able to go into the woods and... (eyebrow waggle)."

"Same for me. Especially with those two bullies who were after me. Those girls are gone now. Ms. Paulson sent them to some other school."

.......... "I heard. They were nasty."

"How'd you know that?"

.......... "I just knew."

Pause of about a minute.

"That's my place in the middle of the block with the big tree in front."

.......... "Yah."

### # # # # # # # #

_At the door, Annika worked up her nerve and turned to face Reese._

_"You know, I'm having trouble understanding the new math teacher, and I was wondering, you know, if you weren't busy, would you mind explaining some math to me?"_

_"I could do that."_

_"I can't do my homework for tomorrow without help. Since you're already here, do you think you could help me now?"_

_"OK."_

_"I have to ask my mom first."_

_"OK."_

_Annika opened the front door with the key hanging around her neck, poked her head in, and yelled, "Mom, I have a visitor."_

_"That's nice, dear." A lady came to the door, like Annika, but in the tall size. "What's this about a visitor?"_

_"Mom, this is Reese Wiltz. He's the boy that sits behind me in most of my classes. Reese, this is my mom."_

_Reese held out his hand. "I'm glad to meet you," he said._

_"Annika told me what you did for her. We really appreciated that." She shook Reese's hand._

_"Wasn't much," Reese said._

_"Mom, you remember that I told you that I was having trouble with my math because of the new teacher."_

_"Trouble? Math?"_

_"I told you how worried I was. Remember!"_

_"I do now."_

_"Reese has offered to help me with my homework. Since I always do my homework on the dining room table, and since we always eat dinner late, I thought that he could help me with my homework right now because there'd be enough time even though I couldn't give you any warning. Is that all right?"_

_"Come on in, Reese. I'll show you to the dining room. You know math, do you?"_

_"Some."_

_"Let me take the cutlery and these dinner plates off the table. I don't know where my mind is these days."_

_"Mom, you know how I always become distracted when Theo is around when I'm trying to study in the dining room, and how he's always so irritating, could you tell him to stay downstairs while I'm studying with Reese?"_

_"I'll lock him in the downstairs cell."_

_"Mom's kidding. We don't have a downstairs cell."_

_"We do have an upstairs cell though. Reserved for Annika," her mom said as she skipped down the stairs to the basement._

_"She's kidding again."_

_"Who's Theo?"_

_"My younger brother. He's a little pain."_

_"I have a brother named Theo. He's older than me. Way bigger than me too."_

_"Tell me about your brother Theo. Is he nice? Would you like to trade Theos?"_

_Well, getting to that homework took some time. First, Annika had to offer Reese something to drink, and since he took her up on the offer of chocolate milk, and mentioned that his family liked hot chocolate, Annika offered to fix him some as soon as she had a quick talk with her mom. After that, she came back and made some hot chocolate._

_Reese must have liked the hot chocolate because he became all talkative and told Annika about his brothers and sisters. Then they talked about the other kids in the class, and about sports, and about whether either of them was planning to try out for a school team next year._

_Then Annika's mom walked into the dining room and said, "About that math homework?"_

_Annika quickly pulled out the assignment page she was working on – using ratios to make equivalent fractions. "How can you be sure you have the right number on the top?" she asked Reese._

_"Cross multiply to check your answer," Reese said. "If the two answers aren't the same, you made a mistake."_

_"OK. Got it. Thanks."_

_They said goodbye because Reese had to get home but not before Reese thanked Annika's mom and Annika for the hot chocolate._

_After the door had closed, and before Theo was allowed upstairs, Annika's mom said, "Math difficulties? You?"_

_"Motherrrrrrrr," Annika replied._

### # # # # # # # #

Back in the real world, Reese had not been invited into the house. He had walked Annika to her sidewalk, said _See ya_ , turned around, and walked away. Annika was left standing on the sidewalk watching him go. She had been outside a long time, so her mom opened the door and asked, "Are you coming in now?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"What were you doing?"

"I was thinking about something Jessie had said. You know Jessie. She's the one you don't like."

"Sometimes she's a manipulative, lying little witch."

"She's that way all the time. She's not my friend, but she walks with me at noon hour and she knows that I like Reese."

"Does Reese know that you like Reese?"

"I don't think so."

"About Jessie?"

"Jessie said that I should make up a story about how I wanted Reese to help me with my homework, invite him into the house, pretend to do homework, but use it as an excuse to get him to like me. Give him hot chocolate, for example. All boys like hot chocolate. She said that I should touch his arm a lot when I was pretending to not understand what he was saying."

"But you didn't invite him in."

"No. But I wanted to. After Reese left, I was just pretending what would have happened if I had lied like Jessie had said I should. Reese and I had a nice conversation in my pretend homework date. I knew that he has an older brother named Theo and he's way bigger than Reese and I used that to start him talking about his family. That's when he did the most talking."

"How did you know about the brother Theo?"

"That's the name that's inside Reese's back pack. The straps are worn, and if they were put back to where they would have been before, they'd fit a tall boy."

"I'm curious what subject you told the pretend Reese that you're finding hard."

"Math."

"Honestly? Math?"

"Honestly. I'm sitting at 98 per cent right now, so it's my worst."

"And what would have happened when Reese found out that you had lied to get him to come inside the house."

"I know what would have happened, Mom. That's why I didn't do it."

...

"Mom, in my pretend homework date, I said some things about our family that weren't true. Was that wrong?"

"I probably know what you made up. That's called wishing, and it's not wrong to wish for something. I wish for the same things that you do."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 35

Downtown Toronto's transportation needs were provided to its citizens through its metro, sidewalks, and streets. The Toronto Metro was an underground subway system that consisted of a large number of tunnels and _subway cars_ that were like miniature rockets with space for people to sit inside. Mostly automated, a train of subway cars all connected together would stop at one place in the underground system, pick up and drop off passengers, go to the next stop on the system, pick up/drop off, etc. When the train reached the end of the line, it would reverse course. Power was provided by electricity to whatever end car was pulling the train behind it at the time.

Although my readers will scoff at such an archaic system of transportation, it actually was quite efficient, although painfully antiquated. The tunnels and the cars were built in the twentieth century, but the workmanship had been good. Even in the 2080's, Toronto's Metro was the prime transportation system delivering thousands of passengers into the downtown core and out of it quickly and efficiently. The system even had a built in exercise facility. These were metal turnstiles positioned at ground level that blocked the way to the trains. Most people vaulted over them. For others who weren't that agile, they could always perform the underneath crawl. Either system worked well to give passengers the right amount of exercise to start or finish the day. Long staircases of steps also provided valuable exercise.

At ground level, Toronto had two transportation systems. The _street_ was a wide concrete or asphalt pathway that was connected to other such streets in a two-dimensional grid system. Back in those days, if one needed to travel from one's home to one's business, a citizen might follow a north/south road for some of the distance into this grid, and then turn to an east/west road, and then a north/south road, and so on.

Before the oil crisis, Toronto's streets were impossibly crowded with automobiles that provided citizens with the welcome opportunity to sit in a line of cars, read novels, drink caffeinated beverages, and listen to the music wafting down the street. This music was known as honking. Honking was the noise that the cars automatically made when they were stationed in one spot for too long. You'd think that listening to this music would be quite relaxing, but surprisingly it wasn't.

In the 2080's, Toronto's streets were mostly empty due to the disappearance of oil. Unlike Calgary, which tore up its streets trying to recover oil from the pavement, Toronto didn't touch their pavement. This foresight proved valuable for a particular Torontonian establishment, but more on that later. The empty streets could have been used as parking lots for copters, and that indeed was how they were used before the 2082 city administration was voted into office. The new mayor immediately banned all copter traffic from the downtown core, citing the danger of accidents as his reason.

With no copter traffic up and down the streets, that meant that thousands of people in the downtown core had to walk on what were called _sidewalks_. The word is a combination of what the people were doing (walking) and where they were doing it (on the _side_ of the empty street). The ancients' naming protocol is quite intuitive. Sidewalks were concrete paths that passed in front of the city's businesses and residences. People would come up out of the metro and jostle with each other down these relatively narrow walkways (north/south and east/west grids again) until they reached their destination. It was somewhat time consuming, but effective.

Back to those empty streets – also known variously as _roads, avenues, boulevards,_ and many more equivalents. One such equivalent word was _expressway_. The word _express_ back then meant _slow_. _Expressway_ therefore meant _Slow-way_. I told you it was intuitive.

Since 2082, Toronto's roads had become the domain of the horse-drawn carriages of a business known as _Top Hat_. The company didn't have this as its formal name – it was identified in official records by an anonymous number instead. With the drivers of their carriages wearing top hats, black bow ties, and tails (all provided by the company) – _Top Hat_ was an obvious way for citizens to refer to the company. The horses all had a top hat nestled between their ears and a company black bow tie around their neck too. As you would expect, the horses provided their own tails.

Top Hat provided a delivery service mostly within the downtown core. This service was primarily focused on delivering people who, because of Top Hat's high fares, tended to be the wealthy. With the nearly empty streets, a rapid transit of the city's streets would have been possible. But Top Hat never stooped to anything so vulgar as a rapid transit. Its customers weren't in a rush to meet people; those other people were in a rush to meet them. A horse-drawn carriage ride was to be savoured and enjoyed. It was an experience for others to admire and yearn for. A slow gracious passage from home to office was the norm. If Top Hat had ever thought of putting a sign on their carriage doors that would identify their clientele, that sign would have read: _I'm Rich, You're Not. Nyaah, Nyaah._

Top Hat also delivered packages, but again for a high fee due to the level of service provided. A driver would pick up the package at the sender's address, place it within the company's distinctive packaging (a top hat sealed tightly at the bottom), and transport it to the address given. The driver would dismount from the carriage, produce a few notes on a bugle to announce his arrival, and walk regally toward the destination – the top hat package sitting atop a shiny tray. If the actual intended recipient showed up to receive the package, the driver would do a repeat rendition on the bugle, bow reverentially to the customer, and offer up the contents on the silver tray. If a flunky had been dispatched to pick up the package, the driver would hand it to him and go back to his carriage. The bugle, bowing, and silver tray ceremony was usually sufficient to prompt the important person to receive the package personally and in front of everybody who would be staring at someone impressively rich enough to receive this kind of recognition. In the event a flunky had been sent, Top Hat's packaging made it impossible for him or her to open the package without leaving evidence of such presumptuous daring.

You're probably wondering about the horses and especially what horses were going to leave on those roads sooner or later.

Toronto had century-old rules about separating road traffic from sidewalk traffic. Vehicles used the roads; people used the sidewalks. This was an historical tradition. The 2082 city council revered the historical traditions that permeated the city. Places like the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Toronto Opera House, the Toronto Art Gallery, the Toronto Private Club, the Toronto Polo Club, the Toronto Golf and Country Club, and so on. Such traditions should not be lost. Wealthy people would become disgruntled. Something as minor as pedestrians casually walking across the road wherever they wanted to cross them had to be actively discouraged. Pedestrians stay on the sidewalks, after all. They cross at the crosswalks. That's the way it had always been.

This council's focus on preserving Toronto's rich heritage of traditions was supported by the Chief of Police. A law and order man, the chief knew that if the Toronto Constabulary paid a great deal of attention to the little transgressions of the laws, there'd be fewer instances of serious transgressions. It was just good policing for constables to be visible, showing the badge, and deterring common criminals. That's why the constabulary was always out in force on the sidewalks so that they could crack down on violations of pedestrian traffic laws. If some pedestrians didn't know their place within the transportation network, the punishment to apply was obvious. They'd be ordered to walk the streets at night, cleaning up what Granny would call horse-pucky.

### # # # # # # # #

The day after William and TG's visit to the island, Lucas was floating over Toronto's downtown core, looking for a Top Hat carriage driver wearing a red bow tie instead of a black one. He saw a few red bow ties before recognizing the driver he wanted. Some casual conversations with other drivers yesterday had yielded his name, or rather his nickname. _Slider_. Slider had been the driver of the carriage that had killed Basher's mom.

Slider was a wrinkled old man with a large nose, yellow teeth, and two fingers on his left hand that also were yellow. From above, he looked like a dry stick. At street level, that comparison proved to be unduly complimentary. Looking like a shriveled prune was the best that could be said. Slider wore the Top Hat uniform and it fit quite well in spite of his small size. Shriveled prune appearance notwithstanding, he had a masterful peal on the bugle, he bowed to his customers in convincing fashion, and his hands were the master of a skittish horse. His customers greeted him with familiar cordiality; they offered generous tips; and, they give him a hearty clap on his shoulder as they left the carriage. Mind you, they gave the horse a hearty clap too but that clap was on its hindquarters. Since Slider was sitting on his own humanoid hindquarters, his passengers made do with his shoulder instead.

Lucas waited until Slider was parked at the entrance to the Westin Harbour Castle before sauntering up to the carriage. Slider saw him coming and greeted him warmly.

"Get lost, Chief. Your stink is going to upset my horse."

Perhaps _warmly_ wasn't quite the right word.

He didn't get any warmer when Lucas told him exactly how Slider had killed a dancer named Sparkle.

"Beat it. Police ruled it was an accident."

"Was the $100 bill that Dr. Sandman gave you an accident too?"

"He was just paying his account."

"Top Hat drivers can't accept account payments."

"Must have been a tip. Been so long ago, I forget."

In 2085 terms, $100 was a lot of money. Toronto was recovering from a decade of economic woes. Lucas had seen enough carriage rides to know that the usual cost of a buggy ride was $10; the tip to the driver would be $1.

"I know enough about what happened to Sparkle for a court to convict Dr. Sandman. The question for you is whether you're going to jail with him, and in your case, that means a murder conviction. Or whether you're going to slide out of trouble." Lucas had correctly guessed that Slider's nickname didn't come from his prowess in baseball where he would run along the baseball diamond's roads, or streets, or lines or whatever they're called and then slide into a base. _(Narrator: The reader will understand that I have no great affection for sporting activities and am not familiar with the jargon. All that sweating!)_ His nickname was awarded to him because of his ability to slide out of trouble.

"Do they still hang murderers in Ontario?" Lucas asked. As the reader knows, Lucas had nowhere near enough information to put Dr. Sandman in jail. But Slider didn't know that.

Slider fished in a pocket and brought out a very cheap brand of electronic cigarette – the _heritage model_ that was designed to leave artificial yellow stains on teeth and fingers. He lit, inhaled, and blew yellow vapor at his horse's tail. The horse didn't mind. He had ample stains there already.

"We can't talk now. I have a customer coming out that door in five minutes. I'll meet you in High Park by the cherry trees. I have a lunch break in an hour."

"No. You'll drive up and down Yonge Street from Queen Street to King Street and back again. I'll pull you over. One hour."

Lucas was sufficiently nervous about unexpected noises of the fatal variety that he wasn't going to take visible form unless he had to. And if he had to, it would be in a very crowded and busy part of the city. Not in a large, treed, mostly deserted park.

### # # # # # # # #

An hour later, Lucas was browsing in a used-book store that had an excellent view of Yonge Street. He had arrived early, and to kill time, he had looked through the entire store, idly thinking that his dad would like to palletize the store's contents and throw them into the Wilizy/Asia's hold. He saw Slider coming but let him go by. He stopped him on the way back.

"We can't stay here, Chief," Slider said. "You're too noticeable. People know me; they might comment to my boss that I was talking to an in'jun."

Lucas saw the horse brush on the seat next to Slider, grabbed it, and began to work on the horse's coat. "Now there's a reason for me to be here. Satisfied?"

Slider nodded and fished for his smokes again. "You gotta prove you know something, Chief. Sandman is one powerful man."

"Ask," Lucas said and started working on the yellow in the horse's tail. That would put him close to Slider's seat.

"What was Sparkle to Dr. Sandman other than a good time?" Slider asked this without moving his lips.

Lucas bent over and did the no lip talk right back. "She was his niece. Slider, he made a baby with his niece."

"I need protection. Another job somewhere. Far away."

"If you tell me what you know, he won't be able to hurt you. I'll go to the police."

"Not the police, Chief. That place leaks like my unmarried Aunt Bessie on Mother's Day. Go to the prosecutor's office. The head guy has to guarantee that I won't get charged with anything and that they'll hide me out of town. He has to put that in writing. If he does, I'll tell my story. In case they don't think I can deliver, I kept a little insurance just in case."

"In case of what?"

"In case Sandman decided to tidy up after himself. I was his favorite driver, but who knows with these rich guys. I know things about his deliveries that he wouldn't want exposed."

"Like what?"

"That's for me to tell the head prosecutor. You set it up."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas repeated the gist of the conversation for Theo. "I believe we can prove that Dr. Sandman paid for the murder. Slider will be the source of the information – as far as the courts are concerned."

"Will he show up?"

"I told him that I could prove that he had killed Sparkle and threatened him with the death sentence. He'll want to avoid that."

"What's next?"

"I'll go into Toronto and sit in the prosecutor's office until the head guy can see me. I have an eyewitness to the murder. You'd think that would be enough to put Sandman on trial."

"We'll complete two operations at about the same time – the murdering copter men and Dr. Sandman. Looking good."

"Incidentally, I was in a used book store in Toronto and saw shelves of used picture books that would be good for teaching reading. Rock bottom prices. They'd give you an excuse to see Nary."

"What makes you think I want to see Nary?"

"Pulease."

"It's a good idea, but I'm broke. I spent all my money on food."

Lucas fished in his pocket and passed a couple of coins over. "Leo's Used Books, Yonge Street, near Queen."

"I'll pay you back."

"On me. Go teach Nary to read."

### # # # # # # # #

The next day, Lucas entered the Prosecutor's Office which was located in the big City Hall on Queen Street a couple of blocks west from where Slider and Lucas had met. Lucas refused to tell the receptionist why he had to meet with the head prosecutor, just that he had to.

"Mr. Lee is very busy today," the receptionist said. "You should make an appointment. We have room in January."

"That's way too late," Lucas said. "It has to be today. I'll wait."

And wait he did. Occasionally a Chinese man in a blue suit came out of the corner office and talked to the woman sitting at a desk in front of his office. After a couple of hours, he'd come out, look at Lucas, and frown. At 12:15, he went to the receptionist.

"Why has this man been waiting so long?"

"He wants to see you. He won't say why. He won't make an appointment."

"I'll see him." The prosecutor looked up, caught Lucas' eye, and said, "Come on in." After they were seated, he said. "I'm Dennis Lee. I can give you two minutes."

"I have proof that Dr. Leonard Sandman arranged to have a Top Hat driver named Slider murder a dancer named Sparkle on April 13, 2074 in front of the Royal York Hotel. Slider is willing to give evidence if you provide him with certain guarantees."

Total elapsed time: ten seconds.

Mr. Lee pushed a button on his phone. "Alice, hold all my calls. Clear my appointments from now to 1 p.m. No interruptions."

### # # # # # # # #

Of course it wasn't as simple as that. After Lucas gave him all the details he could, Mr. Lee was anxious to proceed. Dr. Sandman had an unsavory reputation and they'd be happy to close his very thick file. But they had to have a witnessed deposition from Slider and they'd need the evidence that Lucas had on the hotel room rental to prove that Dr. Sandman had a reason to kill Sparkle. Their office would take care of finding Basher's birth records, arranging immunity and protection for Slider, and preparing any other legal papers that were needed.

"How do we find Slider?"

Lucas described him and the red bow tie.

"That should be enough. We'll have somebody talk with him and arrange to take a statement in such a way that nobody will suspect he's been talking to us. We'll need a couple of weeks to pull everything together. The next step will be to arrange for a pre-trial meeting with a judge who will rule whether we have sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial. Usually this is only a formality, but since Dr. Sandman is a slippery character, we want to make sure that our witnesses are credible and the evidence is sound. The city doesn't like being sued," he said with a smile.

"Will I have to testify?"

"Probably not," Mr. Lee said. "The case is based on Slider's testimony. The evidence you collected in terms of an affair and a possible connection to the protection racket – these are minor issues compared to premeditated murder. We'd rather focus entirely on what we can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. Still, I will need you in the courtroom in case questions come up. For example, why did Slider decide to come forward so long after the murder? We'll need a way to get in touch with you. Phone? Street address? Email?"

"I'll be out of town for a while."

"I have to be able to give you the date and time of the hearing. It will probably be the week after Christmas."

"I'll phone you."

"My direct line is on this card."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 36

It was Monday, the last week of school before Christmas break. Reese was waiting for Annika at her locker. "I thought I might go home by a different route today," he said. "I don't have to be home so early tonight." (Hint, hint.)

"Do you have time to walk me home? You know. In case..." Annika wasn't sitting in the smart desks at the back of 6B's classrooms because she was too tall to see over.

"OK."

Without any time to prepare, Annika was forced to draw on what had happened that day in class for conversational starters. "What do you think about the crib tournament coming up?" she asked as they left the school grounds.

Mrs. O'Leary, the new math teacher, had taught them this card game in a desperate hope that it would help these grade 6 students learn how to add to fifteen. If the tiny green leprechauns by the waterfalls were willing, they'd even learn to add to thirty-one. The game was new to both Annika and Reese, but they took to it quickly. They'd play against each other all math period, and when both finished their work early in another subject, they'd pull out one of the old ratty crib boards that Mrs. O'Leary had found buried in a storeroom and play some more. No words would pass their lips. But every now and then, in reaching for the cards to shuffle for the next hand, a finger might accidentally touch another finger, and both would pull their hands back in a fear reflex common to students of this age. _What if somebody had seen that?_

Annika and Reese were evenly matched not only in their knowledge of arithmetic facts, but also in terms of their knowledge of what cards to keep for their hand and what cards to throw into the crib. They hadn't studied statistics, but they had an intuitive sense of how to build a hand that could give them a big score if the right card from the deck appeared as the _cut_. Reese was cautious by nature; Annika was more daring. Reese was good at not leading cards that could give Annika big points when they were putting their hands down. Nevertheless, Annika was able to peg points during this phase of the game that sometimes made Reese wonder, _How did she know what my last card was?_

Annika had thought that the upcoming crib tournament would be something that Reese would be able to talk about. But in response to her question how he felt about the upcoming tournament, Reese simply said: "Uh. OK, I guess."

Annika was floundering in the deep end of the conversational water pool. She had no boat. No oar. No life jacket. Nothing. They walked in silence for a block. "My throat is a little scratchy. Would you mind if we don't talk for the rest of the way home?"

"OK," Reese said.

So they didn't talk and both of them enjoyed the walk more that way.

### # # # # # # # #

Meanwhile that same day at about the same time, Theo walked into the little village on stilts, climbed the rickety stairs to Nary's hovel, and knocked. She came to the door with a bloody knife in her hand.

"What are you doing here? This isn't where we meet."

Theo was taken aback by the aggressive tone. In all of their meetings, Nary had been retiring, even shy. Now she was standing in front of him with a bloody knife. That caught his attention. Mucho, mucho attention.

"I found this crate of books that are a lot like the picture book you used to have. I thought you might want to read them. I could help if you wanted." He put the crate down and pulled out a book at random, opened it, and shuffled through some pages so that she could see the pictures and the big lettered words.

"Marie," she said and held the knife by its tip. Marie was not visible from the door. Nary drew her hand back and threw the knife at full velocity. When there was a solid-sounding thunk in response, Theo's first thought was _She's killed her._

"Does this mean you want me to finish carving the venison?" Marie's voice.

"Yah. Theogun is going to show me some books." Nary ran down the stairs, waded barefoot into the river, washed her hands, and bounded back up the steps two at a time. "We can sit in here," she said and opened the door to the hovel.

Theo walked in. This was the first time he had actually seen inside the houses that the women had been given. It was empty of any kind of furniture. Two blankets on the floor marked their bedroom. A short, rough wooden counter was in front of one wall. A big hunk of bloody venison on it indicated it was serving as a cutting board right now. The knife was stuck in the wall behind it. Theo also saw a big pot and a fireplace for cooking. A metal pipe through the roof served as a chimney. No dishes were in sight; no cutlery – only a single long-bladed knife; no glasses; nothing. The pot would hold their cooked food, their drinking water, or their bathing water. They'd eat out of the pot with their hands.

"Sit here," Nary said, and she folded down onto the planks that were the floor. Theo did the same, although not as easily. He left plenty of space between them in case she felt uncomfortable being close to him. Theo had actually organized the books ahead of time so that he could start with simple alphabet books. "This is a book on the alphabet," he said.

"I know the alphabet." And Nary proved it in a singsong voice.

"Do you know what each of the letters look like?"

"Mostly. The ones from my old book for sure. Marie drew the others in the mud for me."

"Let's see if you recognize them in this book."

### # # # # # # # #

Half an hour later, Nary had tired of trying to learn the sounds that each letter made. "You read the books to me. OK?"

Theo did. And because he was holding the book in front of him, Nary didn't have quite the full view of it that she wanted. So she scooted over so that she could see better. Shoulder touched shoulder. Arm touched arm. Marie saw the scoot. She came over to where they were sitting. Had Theo glanced up at that point, he would have seen a look that male animals only see once – just before they're butchered. Luckily for Theo, Marie held back and said only, "I'd like to see too." She pushed the two apart and sat squarely and irreversibly smack dab between them. "Continue with your reading, Theogun," she said coldly. "I'll hold the book so both of you can see."

There is a look that frequently passes between mother and daughter during the teenage years. When it originates from the mother's eyes, THE LOOK can often be interpreted as _Wait until we're alone, young lady_. The same kind of look can originate with the daughter but the intended meaning is different. Very different.

It doesn't matter what society a social scientist might be studying – that glare between mother and daughter is universal. Every mother and daughter worldwide has used or has been the target of that glare. Some social scientists have argued that the daughterly look was a learned response. Something that they may have picked up from an older sister, for example, or from a friend who had found her way into boyfriend land inadvertently. Other scientists have argued that it's a genetic trait passed on from generation to generation as a natural response to a threatening situation. Is THE LOOK learned, as some argue? Or is it genetically programmed, as other argue?

With the evidence now in front of us, we may conclude that the argument has been decided. Nary had never sat alone beside a male before this month. She had no knowledge of social conventions, dating principles, or hand-capturing strategies. She didn't know how to place skin on skin _accidentally_. She certainly didn't know what to do if a mother stepped in between her and a male prey. She had no siblings to mimic. No girl friends to learn from. But still, even though she had had no chance of seeing it in action before, as Marie took her place on the floor between them, Nary gave her THE LOOK. Full force and unbridled. In panther land, it would have been a growl ending in a snarl and a show of fangs. In this hut, it was THE LOOK. _You embarrassed me and I'm not going to forget this, ever._

### # # # # # # # #

Tuesday, the day after their first conversationally-devoid walk home, Annika and Reese walked to Annika's home again without talking. Except when they arrived. He said, "See ya tomorrow?" and she said "OK."

Annika's mom asked as she came in. "Is Reese still not talking?"

"Doesn't bother me," Annika said. Then she gave her mom half of THE LOOK, as in, _Don't you dare say anything._ Some teenage girls may have difficulty when they have to learn fractions in math class. However they are very adept at breaking THE LOOK into fractions and doling them out, as necessary, in a family situation.

### # # # # # # # #

That same Tuesday afternoon, as Theo arrived at the foot of the stairs to give Nary her second reading lesson, Marie started down the stairs. She brushed by Theogun without a word. She could have said that she was off to visit Ellen, the other old woman in camp because she was doing poorly. But she didn't. Theo felt the chill of Marie's mood but ignored it because a more welcoming presence was at the open door.

Nary had seen Theo coming and had the crate of books ready on the floor. The blankets that had been their bedding were rearranged into pads to sit on. Two pieces of dried venison were sitting on the floor within easy reaching distance. Nobody had told Nary what might be done in a social situation like this. Certainly not Marie, who was still bristling after being told that she'd have to leave her own house if Theogun came back to read. But the evidence was right on the floor in front of Theo. The trap for the prey had been set. A comfortable place to sit and goodies to eat. It's in the genes, guys. You can't fight it.

"I've been practicing my letters," Nary said. "Tell me if I'm right."

### # # # # # # # #

Daylight was now fading. Since there were no candles or any other form of artificial light in the hut, that meant that the reading lesson was ending too. Marie stomped noisily up the stairs, cleared her throat, and entered her own hut. She saw immediately that Nary and Theo were back in arm-touching-arm territory. Nary was reading from a cloth book and laughing at what to her were very strange pictures. She glanced up and gave Marie a quarter of THE LOOK. _I know, I know. Just let me finish reading this book without jumping down my throat, OK?_ Then Nary finished the book paying no attention whatsoever to Marie's own version of THE LOOK.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 37

It was Friday, the last day of school before the holidays. Reese was waiting for Annika by her locker, his presence there now expected. Nothing was ever said or asked. Both knew that they'd be walking to Annika's home together. Today they actually had something to talk about. The crib tournament that they had played that afternoon.

Mrs. O'Leary had started the tournament off with each student playing two games against a classmate. The person who had the biggest combined score played somebody else who had also won. Those who lost played somebody else who had lost. And so on. Everybody played a lot of games. Yes, any card game has a lot of luck associated with it, but in the end, the result was as Mrs. O'Leary had anticipated. Reese and Annika played the final two games with everybody looking on. Annika won.

"You're good at pegging," Reese said halfway home. They had been talking about the tournament since closing the school door behind them for the last time in 2085.

"Crib is a lot of luck. You're good at counting how much each hand is worth."

"After a while, the hands follow a pattern," Reese said.

"Those girls that came up to you afterwards – did they say nice things to you?"

"Yah. That surprised me. Somebody actually talked to me."

"What did they say? Start with what Jessie said. Tell me every word."

### # # # # # # # #

As they had already planned, getting out of school for the holidays deserved a celebration. Annika had asked Reese on Thursday if he would like to come into her house on Friday and visit. He had said _Yes,_ and he'd tell his mom he'd be a little late arriving home.

Annika opened the front door with the key hanging around her neck, poked her head in and yelled, "Mom, I'm home. Reese is with me."

"I'm in the kitchen."

They automatically dumped their backpacks at the door, shuffled out of their shoes, and walked in their stocking feet into the kitchen. If the reader is interested in such details, both had checked earlier that morning that there were no holes in their socks.

Annika made introductions, hands were shaken, and Reese was invited to sit at the dining room table while Annika prepared some food.

"Annika made some cookie dough last night," her mom explained as Annika turned the dials for the oven and a big heating element on top of the stove. "We'll have hot cookies."

"That's when they're the best," Reese said. "What kind?"

"Chocolate chip."

"My favorite."

A glance passed between mother and daughter. That glance may have included a touch of Annikian satisfaction on selecting the right kind of cookie to bake.

Reese watched as Annika measured some milk, poured it into a pot, and placed the pot on the stove element. Then she brought out a carton labelled _Wilizy Hot Chocolate Mix_ and a bag of mini-marshmallows.

Annika's mom saw Reese looking intently at the preparations. "Do you like hot chocolate with marshmallows, Reese?"

Reese nodded. "All my family does. It's our special treat. My granny really likes it too, but I don't know if she'll be able to drink it much longer."

"Why is that?"

"When I visit her when she's drinking her hot chocolate, she chokes and it spills all over herself and the floor. I think something is wrong with her throat. I told my mom about that but she said I shouldn't worry. But still, it's her favorite drink and she'd be unhappy if she couldn't have it any more."

If the reader is interested in such things, that flood of information from chatterbox Reese contained fifty-eight words.

Annika's mom wheeled her chair to the head of the table where she could move back and forth to the kitchen if she had to. Annika was focused entirely on the pot of milk, stirring it slowly, and watching the blob of butter floating in the pot to know when the milk was hot enough to pour in the chocolate mix which she had measured out ahead of time. Concentration was necessary. Somebody else would have to take up the conversational duties. An unlikely source stepped up.

"My family likes chocolate of all kinds," Reese said. "My sister even has a chocolate store. The store is in Toronto but it blew up, so she's back home for the holidays."

I draw the reader's attention to something that Yolanda had said back in book #3 when Reese was dressed up like a cowboy and was guarding Winnie. Yolanda said: _Once Reese started talking, he might never stop and who knew what he might reveal._ When she said this, Yolanda had been concerned that Reese might reveal some secrets because he had the habit of just blurting out whatever thought might be going through his head at the time. Mind you, he was seven years old when she had expressed that concern.

"Blew up? Was anybody hurt? Why did it blow up?"

"Uh, I don't know much about it. But Dreamer said that the store couldn't open again, but she was going to stay in Toronto because she wanted to play basketball for a university. My brothers, Lucas and Theo, were working in the store too, and they weren't hurt, but they want to stay in Toronto because they like playing basketball too. And, uh, that's all I know."

"Two brothers. Is Dreamer you sister? Do you have any other brothers?"

With a lot of brothers and sisters for Reese to run through, he was still talking when Annika made the announcement. "The hot chocolate is ready. So are the cookies."

### # # # # # # # #

The hot chocolate was a big hit. The warm cookies disappeared quickly too. Reese sat up straight, and since he didn't nibble the chocolate chips out of the cookies first, there was no need for him to pick up his plate and lick it clean. He had figured out on his own that this might not go over so well. When Annika stood up to clear the table, he stood up too because that's what meals at the compound were like. The person who cooks doesn't have to do any more work.

"I can do that," Reese said.

Annika sat back down again and a look may have passed between her and her mother.

When Reese was sitting back at the table again, Annika's mom pulled out two packages from the bag hanging off her wheelchair and gave one to Reese and the other to Annika. "A little early Christmas present for the two of you," she said. Reese opened the long and flat package – a crib board. A brand new one. Annika opened the small package. Crib pegs that wouldn't break in two and which fit perfectly into the board. Plus a new deck of cards.

This was a big surprise for Annika and she came around and gave her mom a hug. Reese didn't know what to do. He didn't think a hug would be right, so he stuck out his hand for shaking and said _Thank You_.

"I hear the two of you are turning into pros. Let's see how good you are."

### # # # # # # # #

They were in the middle of their third game, and Reese was looking at the four cards in his hand and the card that he had just cut. For those readers who know the game, Reese was holding the following cards: 4, 5, 5, and 6. The cut had been a 4. If you don't know the game, this is a great hand. They played it out, and when they both had only one card left in their hand, Reese put down his 6 and Annika paired it up.

"I don't know how you do that," Reese said.

"Do what?" Annika asked.

"You always get points on pegging. That six of yours was the only possible pair you could have made off my hand, and you made it work."

"I knew you had a good hand," Annika said.

"Yeah, but how did you know what card to hold back?"

"I looked at your cards as you put them down, and each card you put down gave me a clearer picture of what your hand might have been at the start. That meant I could predict what cards you would have left at the end."

"OK, I see that would help. But how did you know I had a good hand before we even started?"

"You told me."

"I didn't say anything."

"Doesn't matter. When you looked at your cards at first, you sat forward in your chair and squirmed a little. This told me that you wanted to play that hand. When the 4 was cut, your pupils got big and you smiled."

"Body language signals, Reese," Annika's mom stepped in. "If you know what to look for, a person can tell a lot about another person by how their body is positioned. Annika is becoming good at it. It's not cheating, by the way. She's just using her brain."

"My mom is writing a book on how to use body language to catch criminals. It's like being able to read their minds."

Reese opened his mouth. He was about to say that he had a sister who was sort of like that and to stop her from knowing what they were thinking, people in his family would put tin foil over their foreheads.

Annika saved him. "Let's finish the game," she said. "You're going to win."

So they did, he did, and Winnie's tin foil weakness was not revealed.

"You've told me your secret weapon now."

"I'll still beat you more often than you beat me."

"You know," Annika's mom said tentatively. "The two of you could have a sort of tournament when school starts again. I mean if Reese is planning to walk Annika home every day to keep her safe, you could play some crib games after school here. Keep track of who wins how many games. Add the total scores up at the end of the week?"

Annika looked up at that. Sometimes her mom surprised her. "I wouldn't mind."

"We could put the scores into a spreadsheet," Reese said. "That way we could figure out each person's average winning margin."

"It wouldn't only be who won the most games, but who had the biggest winning margin too?"

"Sure."

### # # # # # # # #

Reese was on the porch and had finished saying his thank yous and goodbyes. A thought came to mind. Then a question. One that Annika's mom might be able to answer.

"Mrs. Lee," he asked. "With you writing that book about criminals, you know a lot about them, right?"

"I suppose. Why?"

"I was thinking. Some of the kids in the school aren't very nice. Do these kids grow up to be adults who aren't very nice too?"

"That can happen. It's not guaranteed because things can happen as they grow up that could change them. Having a good teacher, for example. But yes, an adult that's a criminal very possibly started on that path as a young person."

"So if a person could identify the very bad kids in school, that person would know they'd turn into criminals and he could watch them as adults and catch them."

"Or he could try and stop them from becoming criminals."

"Does that work?"

"Sometimes. Why are you asking?"

"I was thinking about those two bad teachers in the school. Why couldn't somebody have caught them way earlier?"

"Those are good questions. I have other questions too. Why did the school district move them to another school where they could continue to hurt people? Why didn't they do something when they had the chance? Why did they disappear? And where did those two people disappear to?"

Reese knew why they had disappeared. Because they were continuing to be perverts. He even knew who had disappeared them. Bob, the invisible dragon. That was a secret that he didn't even come close to spilling.

"Mom."

"Oops, I forgot. Dinner to cook. Reese, I enjoyed talking with you. If you want to come over during the holidays and play some crib, you're welcome to. We aren't going anywhere." And then Mrs. Lee stepped inside and shut the door.

It turned out that neither had much to say. They just stood there awkwardly, so they fist-bumped and Reese left.

### # # # # # # # #

Big Momma didn't have much to say either. She never had much to say to Big Daddy. Especially not when Ranch #4's finances were slipping. Big Momma had been staring at some disconcerting data when a knock on her office door interrupted her deliberations. Only two people had permission to knock on that door. Big Daddy and Pililiani. "Come in, Pililiani," she answered. Big Daddy would be sharing his affections with Renfrew at about this time; if these numbers were right, she'd have to talk with him about that.

The door opened. Speak of the devil. Speak of both of the devils. "Big Daddy," she acknowledged. "What's Renfrew doing in this part of the house?"

"She has a problem. You should hear this," he replied.

It turned out that little Karita had gone to Renfrew to tell her that her neck was sore. Renfrew looked at Karita's neck and asked for Big Daddy's advice. He just happened to be within consulting distance at the time. Karita's neck under the collar was quite red. Renfrew concluded that the dog collar was too tight and it had probably been chafing her neck. Karita had obviously grown. Safe Haven had been quite explicit in its instructions. _The little blonde girls have to remain pure and perfectly white. No permanent marks are allowed on their bodies._ Renfrew wanted permission to take off the collar, medicate the neck, and let it heal. She would need somebody in Ranch #4 to adjust the security software and remove the collar; she'd take care of the medication.

Irritated by her husband's lack of discretion, Renfrew's lack of good taste in selecting a sexual partner, and the problems facing the ranch, Big Momma simply gave the necessary permissions and shoo'ed them out of her office. When she returned to her spreadsheet, she saw a solution quickly. All she had to do was cut expenses. This was easily done. She would send more staff to the slave island than she usually did.

It didn't take Big Momma long to decide which slaves to send to the island. She simply put a check mark next to the names of the twenty oldest women on the ranch. She didn't know any of the women by name. Pililiani was the one exception. She'd let her stay at the ranch one more year as a reward for keeping her informed about Big Daddy's excursions.

This was the time of year that Big Momma put excess staff _out to pasture_ , so to speak. The slave island could easily accommodate twenty slaves. There'd be no need to change the procedures that she had perfected over the years.

First, she'd send eight bosses in a large copter transport to the island. They'd search the camp in case any of the slaves she had sent the previous year had managed to survive. Nobody ever had, but they'd conduct the search to be sure. Then they'd unload food supplies from the copters, distribute them to each hut, and cut more trees for the slaves' firewood. With a full twenty slaves to feed, she'd have to send more food than normal. A large copter could carry about three months of supplies. Plus she'd have to send replacement pots, blankets, and large knives. Typically, the eight bosses needed a day to prepare the camp.

The following day, she'd send this year's retirees to the camp in another large copter. The second copter would have enough room to take another three months of food. The bosses and the two empty copters could be home that night. After that, she'd use one copter to take this year's harvest to the drop-off point. In all, she'd have to pay for five days of copter rentals. Big Momma started on the paperwork.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 38

Lucas and Theo spent the day before Christmas on the island with Marie and Nary. Ellen had died the night before, so Monday morning, December 24, Marie had chanted some unintelligible things over her body. Afterwards she and Nary had taken Ellen down to the shore and put her body into the water. It didn't take long for the water to boil up. In response to Theo's horrified look, Marie simply said that Ellen would prefer to be inside an alligator rather than buried deep in the swamps of this place that had killed her. "The copters will probably come tomorrow," she said. "Perhaps the next day."

"How do you know?" Lucas asked.

"It has been foretold."

### # # # # # # # #

Subtle questioning revealed that neither Marie nor Nary had any awareness of Christmas or any celebration associated with it. They had never experienced a celebration or holiday of any kind.

Lucas and Theo agreed that they wouldn't make any mention of the holiday or gift giving. Theo would spend the afternoon with Nary – reading books. Lucas would spend the afternoon with Marie – preparing the battle site. He started by turning off the electronic jail's transmitter, popping some small restraints on Marie's collar, and taking it off. "I will keep this jewelry for later," she said.

After Lucas had turned the security system back on, he asked her if she wanted to save anything from the camp; if so, he'd put it in the middle of the island for safekeeping. They walked through the other huts and Marie chose to take all the blades, all the blankets, and some of the clothes that had belonged to the other women. She wanted to choose where they'd hide everything, so they walked together out of the camp, Marie leading the way. Lucas suggested that he could wrap everything inside the blankets and then hide the blankets between two trees and cover it with brush and leaves.

"No, Shango. Deep in a swamp is better. Nobody will go there." She pointed and said, "We'll go that way."

A few minutes later, she put a hand on his arm to stop him and pointed again. "Inside the roots of that fallen tree. You'll find a hollow spot inside."

Lucas wasn't so sure about wading into the swamp and was looking for a dry route in.

"Did Shango forget how to fly?" she asked.

### # # # # # # # #

When they arrived back at the cabin, Theo was sitting at the bottom of the steps beside the crate of books. The door to the cabin was closed.

"Where's Nary?" Lucas asked.

"Inside," Theo said. "She wanted to be alone."

"That is her way," Marie said. "Did she give you the page from the book that I saved from the water?"

"It's in here with the books."

"Nary and I will sleep dry tonight in the hut. Early tomorrow, we will take our blankets and our blade and will hide in the spot where Nary met with you first. We will meet you there when the moon is high tomorrow night. The first copter will hold the killers. The second will bring the new prisoners."

"We're ready," Shango said.

"Theogun, you take that crate and keep it safe. That page is all that Nary has."

"I'll show you where..." Lucas started.

"No, not there," Marie interrupted. "Too much water. Hide it in your ship." She pointed up at the sky. And with that, Marie climbed the rickety steps and joined Nary inside.

When they were out of sight of the huts, Theo asked, "Did you plant a spider on her?"

"Are you kidding? What do you think she'd do to me if she found it? She touched my arm when we were hiding the blades and the blankets. I don't want her touching me again, Theo."

### # # # # # # # #

Back at Ranch #4, Big Momma's preparations for tomorrow had gone smoothly. Two of the bosses had flown to Safe Haven's regional copter storage facility and returned with the two rented transports. Slaves from the cattle camp had loaded crates of food into both copters. The official description of what Ranch #4's slaves could expect in their retirement was: _No more hard work in the fields; a dry comfortable place to live, and food that they didn't have to pick out of the ground._ None of the slaves knew that this retirement paradise was on a barren island surrounded by alligators. But every slave knew that food was transported to that paradise only once a year and the copters never took enough food to last a year.

Based on previous years, probably eight women would be retired tomorrow. So the eight oldest said their goodbyes. If they had managed to acquire something special over the twenty or thirty years that they had been at the ranch, they gave it to a friend. A metal spoon instead of a wooden one. A leather belt rather than a piece of rope. Even a simple hairpin was passed on.

Pililiani was the oldest slave on the ranch. If her age were the only thing considered, she would be in that second copter. But Pililiani had found that gem of information on Big Daddy partying with his secret women and had held it back until December so that it would be fresh in Big Momma's mind. She figured she was safe for another year. She spent Monday the 24th circulating, trying to keep the women calm and trying to give them hope. When Pililiani saw Karita's curiosity when the copters landed, she sent her down to the village of huts with a note to Hanna, the slave in charge of the village of huts. The note asked Hanna to keep Karita in the nursery until late Wednesday. Two days far away from the Big House and the helipad would be best for her during this time of turmoil.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 39

Tuesday, December 25. The first transport copter with the eight bosses left at dawn without incident. Both Big Momma and Big Daddy were sound asleep in their respective beds. The kitchen slaves were up and preparing for the day. They were not prepared for the pounding on the back door that came about fifteen minutes after the copter had left. It was Boss #24 – the young one in charge of the Big House's maintenance.

"I have to talk to Big Momma. She'll want to hear this."

The head cook wasn't allowed to go up to that floor, so she found Pililiani who came to the back door and looked at the boss. He was holding a drooping sack in his hands. When he moved his hand, the bag clinked. "Why do you want to bother her this early?" she asked.

"Not for you to ask or to know."

"Big Momma doesn't like waking up this early. Can it be put off for an hour or two?"

"Sure, if you want her to know that you stopped me from giving her an urgent message."

The entire kitchen staff was listening to this discussion. Pililiani recognized what Boss #24 was doing. He was setting up his alibi. _It wasn't my fault you weren't told in time. It was Pililiani's fault._

"She'll throw me out of the bedroom unless you can give me some reason why she should see you."

"Tell her that not seeing me will cost her money."

"I'll wake her, but you won't be able to go into her bedroom with that sack in your hands." No slave with a sack of something that clinked would ever be let into the Big House, let alone anywhere near the two slave owners.

Pililiani escorted the sackless Boss #24 to Big Momma's bedroom five minutes later and pushed him inside when she heard Big Momma agree to see him. She had placed an empty flour sack over his head. Nobody but her personal maid saw Big Momma before she had made herself presentable. "This better be good," she growled from her bed.

"I found a sack of replacement saw blades in some tall grass near the helipad. Somebody must have taken the sack out of the transport copter that just left because I personally put that sack in Boss #1's hands yesterday. I saw him put it under the co-pilot's seat."

"You woke me up for that?"

"The saw that is currently in that copter will cut firewood for half an hour. After that, without these replacement blades, it won't even cut paper. That copter's trip will be entirely wasted. It will cost you an extra day of copter fees."

Big Momma started calculating. She could send the sack of replacement blades tomorrow morning with the second copter, but with two days of work with the saws needed, the young boss was right. It would increase the copter rental bill. Or she could leave the old women without enough fuel to cook with. What to do? What to do?

While she was debating if she should pay additional rental fees or leave the slaves without adequate cooking fuel, another option presented itself. The young boss could use a personal copter to fly after the transport and deliver the blades to Boss #1. He could catch up easily enough. The downside was – he might take that opportunity to disappear. That was preventable. She liked giving the young bosses little tests. Being allowed into the Big House to fix things was one of them. Boss #24 had passed that test. Now this bit of sabotage could be made useful.

"Pack a change of clothes and come back to the Big House. Wait outside the kitchen door."

Big Momma would have to remove Boss #24's dog collar before he could leave. But first, she had to have Big Daddy's copter prepared for a long trip that might end with an apprentice boss trying to escape. Boss #2 had the necessary skills.

### # # # # # # # #

Marie and Nary left their hovel Christmas Day at dawn and relocated to the far end of the island. Lucas and Theo used the ship's long-range telescope to watch them collect some dry branches, start a small smokeless fire, and huddle over it. They weren't due to meet up with them until that evening. Lucas and Theo weren't keen to meet them right now because Marie was taking small things out of a pocket and placing them carefully in the fire. Both of their mouths were moving. They probably weren't singing campfire songs.

A large copter transport and a smaller copter arrived at the island before noon and both landed outside the boundaries of the electronic jail. While seven armed men formed a loose perimeter around the land-side access to the camp, the eighth examined the security system transmitter. "The security system is on and working properly," he bellowed. The armed men from the big copter and the boy from the small copter entered the camp slowly and carefully. Their caution was because the slaves had big knives. Finding nobody in the open, they searched the huts and any potential hiding places on the ground or in the trees. Boss #1 went back to the large copter, raised it into the air, and landed it as close as he could to the little village of huts.

"Are you going to bring Big Daddy's copter into the compound," Boss #1 asked the carpenter.

"Nah. It will be in the way here. It's safe enough where it is." He passed over the sack of replacement blades.

"Some of those women can be sneaky. Good thing that you saw the sack."

"Just lucky. I should fix those sagging bridges before you try to put supplies into the huts. They won't be safe to walk on until I do."

"We'll start cutting some firewood. You fix the bridges. How are you planning to do that? We don't have any carpentry tools or supplies."

"I brought my own just in case."

### # # # # # # # #

Darkness comes early to Canada in December, so work had stopped for the day. Ranch #4's bosses were gathered together in one of the huts on stilts. They had cracked open one of the food crates and some young bosses were sampling the delicacies found within.

"This stuff is barely edible," one of them said to nobody in particular. "Where did she find this?"

"From people too smart to eat it themselves," Boss #1 said. He was chewing on some dried beef that he had brought with him. Other experienced bosses were doing the same.

"You could have said something."

"And ruin the fun of seeing your face?"

"I found no blades or blankets in the huts," the carpenter said. "Is that normal?"

"Yah. They probably lost the blades trying to fight off the alligators," Boss #1 said. "They would bury their dead in the blankets. We'll replace blades and blankets tomorrow when we distribute the food to each hut."

"There won't be enough food here and in the next copter to feed twenty women for a year," the carpenter advised.

"What's your point?"

"Nothing. Just wondering if Big Momma will send more food shipments mid-year."

"I'm sure she will."

Boss #1's buddies all broke into guffaws.

### # # # # # # # #

It was about 8 p.m. Christmas night. Some of the bosses were playing cards around a kerosene camp light that Boss #1 had brought. A rumble in the distance caught their attention. As did a gust of wind that made the hut sway.

"How stable are these stilts?" Boss #1 asked the carpenter.

"Dunno," Boss #24 said. "Me, I'm going to tie Big Daddy's copter down and bunk there."

"Don't step on any alligators on the way," somebody called out as he left and the carpenter heard laughter at his expense once again.

"Weird guy," one man said.

"Yeah," Boss #1 said. "But he's smart. He learned how to be a carpenter quickly. We'll bed down in the transport copter. It's not gonna fall over into the water."

### # # # # # # # #

Theo and Lucas were too high overhead in the Wilizy/Asia to hear the guards' conversation. However they weren't too high to miss the heat signatures of their bodies as they scurried for cover away from the hut. One to a small clearing outside the security fence and the others into the big transport copter.

"That was easy," Theo said. "I thought we'd have to make more thunderstorm noises."

"That gravitational/anti-gravitational pulse did the trick, I think. Probably gave the hut a good shake. About time for the thunderstorm to arrive, wouldn't you say?"

### # # # # # # # #

The storm kept the bosses in the copter transport awake, what with thunder rolling through the skies and lightning strikes making the skies flash in angry bolts. Then a bolt hit the big copter square on its top rotor, not only destroying the rotor, but also spreading an electric charge to all of the copter's metal walls and deck. Since the entire inside of a transport copter is metal, and since each boss had to be touching something metal, it was a good thing that William had calibrated the lightning bolt precisely. It was powerful enough to disable the rotor and render the bosses unconscious but not enough to kill them.

After disabling the big copter, Lucas and Theo looked for the little copter and its lone pilot. "It was in the clearing right below," Lucas said.

"It's not there now. Heat sensors show nothing. Sensors for metal show nothing."

One boss got away," Lucas concluded. "He looked young. Our age."

"We can find him tomorrow in the light. Do you have those dog collars that we pulled off that Korean freighter handy?"

"Yup."

"We have to put them on the bosses before they awake," Theo reminded Lucas of the plan's timing. "You changed the settings on the transmitter so that it would zap these particular collars, right?"

"TG did that before he left. We have to remember to take all their guns."

"You put on the collars; I'll grab the guns."

"Sounds like a plan."

### # # # # # # # #

Theo and Lucas met Marie and Nary at their original campsite at high moon as agreed. The missing young boss didn't disturb Marie because he hadn't been involved in the deaths of any of the women that had been brought to the island previously. Besides, it would be all over before the second copter with the next batch of slaves could land.

Lucas and Theo were trying to puzzle out what _would be all over_. Theo's plan did not end tomorrow. After Marie muttered a few words at them in an unintelligible language, they stopped wondering. It's hard to do so when you're sprawled on the ground asleep.

"How long will they sleep?" Nary asked.

"Long enough."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 40

The bosses in the copter transport regained consciousness well before dawn on Wednesday, December 26. They awoke with headaches, dog collars around their necks, and a strong desire to leave the island. This would be a challenge since their copter didn't have a working rotor.

The question of whether alligators came out of the water in the dark had been a popular topic of conversation inside the damaged copter while they waited for sunrise. These bosses knew little about the creatures. None of them had had any formal education; few could read, write, or do 'rithmetic. They had gone to the _school of hard knocks_ and they had survived. That school didn't have any lessons on alligators. All that the bosses knew about alligators was that they were all over this place and they could kill and eat old women. It didn't take a high school education to realize that they'd be able to kill and eat young men as well.

The question of whether the dog collars around their necks were active or not was also a popular topic of conversation. These collars were slightly different than the ones that the ranch used; perhaps they wouldn't work. Boss #1 ventured outside with the kerosene lantern to test the dog collar. He returned shaking his head. The collar worked. "We're safe inside the copter for now. We'll wait until we can see where we're walking before testing the full perimeter."

None of the bosses found it remarkable that the person or persons who had captured them would have a stock of dog collars handy. For most of their lives, these bosses had lived in a world where pitiable creatures wore dog collars. Why wouldn't everybody else in the world wear them too?

As to where their guns had gone? Nobody had raised that question. They knew where they had gone. Into the hands of their captors. The bosses had emptied their pockets to find only a few utility knives that could be useful. But one of the wooden crates in the clearing had more than enough blades. The bosses could be armed shortly after sunrise.

Nobody had raised the question of what was going to happen to them either. In their world, such questions showed weakness. Bosses never showed weakness; they showed cruelty. Asking other bosses what was going to happen to them would make them appear weak. Their captors had left them alive – a sign that they were weak. They should have killed them when they had the chance. These bosses certainly would have. What the bosses had talked about while they waited for dawn was what they themselves would do to their captors when there was enough light to see them.

### # # # # # # # #

Were Lucas and Theo weak? Since it was Theo's plan that put the bosses into a flightless copter and immobilized them with active dog collars, let's look closely at that plan.

Theo had designed an effective plan to capture and neutralize the bosses. But it wasn't particularly creative. He had incorporated science powers that he had seen the Wilizy use before. Theo had been there when they had used the thunderstorm capabilities of a Wilizy ship to rescue Melissa from Zzyk's child care center prison. More recently, Theo had been part of the thunderstorm attack on China's coal industry. It was natural that he might think of a thunderstorm as a weapon. He had added a few new features (gravity weapon, a lightning strike to knock the men unconscious), but the basic strategy had been used before. Theo's plan was effective though. He achieved complete success in capturing, confining, and disarming the opposing force. Theo had brains and knew how to use them.

As to what was would happen to the bosses in Theo's plan? Let me start by telling you what I knew about him at that time. He had just turned thirteen years old. He had an easygoing nature and walked around with a goofy smile on his face most of the time. He wasn't present when Daniel Boone and the Putt-Putt Gang received justice for what they had done to a village of pacifists. He wasn't present when Franklin Franklin received justice. He wasn't present when the Raging Gardeners dispensed justice. The worst punishment Theo had ever received as a kid was after he had squished Reese into a confined space and wouldn't let him out. Yolanda had showed him how Reese must have felt by putting Theo into a confined space and not letting him out. Was that discipline effective? Yes. Theo learned his lesson and he never mistreated Reese again. But Theo was nine years old at the time.

Up to now, the worst that Theo had ever treated anybody was when he had whipped Lucas with a sodden towel. He had found it hard to work up the resolve to bruise his brother's body. He did it with love in his heart. He didn't do it to punish and he didn't do it in retaliation for something Lucas had done to him.

Contrast Theo's orientation towards _punishment_ with the experiences of the bosses. I've told you how Big Momma could threaten her slaves with a whipping. But she didn't whip the slaves herself. She gave that job to a boss. He'd tie the victim to the ranch's whipping post and, with Big Momma watching along with all of the slaves in the area, the boss would whip the victim until she hung limply from the post – unconscious or, in one instance, dead.

Theo's plan called for the bosses to find out what it was like to wear a dog collar, eat bad food, and live in fear of being eaten by alligators. He was planning to put the bosses in the shoes of the old women. In principle, this was how Yolanda had disciplined Theo. Would it have been effective against these bosses? Would it have reflected the severity of what the bosses had done to the women both at the ranch and later on the island? Marie obviously didn't think so because she changed Theo's plan. The reader may have a different opinion.

### # # # # # # # #

Sunrise at 7:30 gave the bosses enough light to move around the slave village without fear of stepping on an alligator. The first thing they did was find the crate containing the knives and arm themselves. Then they tested the security system to see if there were any gaps in its coverage. There weren't. In that search, they determined that they were alone in the village. They saw no sign of their captors whatsoever.

They tried calling to Boss #24 who was supposed to be in Big Daddy's copter outside of the security perimeter. The woods between the village and his tiny clearing were too dense to see the copter, but it was close enough for them to call for his help. There was no reply in spite of how loudly they called, either individually or in unison. That silence provoked a number of thoughts.

The most likely reason that Boss #24 wasn't responding was because he had taken this opportunity to make a break for his individual freedom. In other words, he was long gone. The bosses were on their own.

Or he might have seen their enemies taking advantage of a lucky lightning strike to attach dog collars to the bosses. Perhaps he tried to rescue them but had been killed or severely injured. He would not be able to help them out.

Or perhaps Boss #24 had tried to neutralize the security transmitter so that they could escape. Boss #1 knew that simply unplugging it would result in death. Nobody else would know that.

Or perhaps Boss #24 had seen their enemies attack their copter last night and had taken off for the ranch in darkness to get reinforcements. He was smart. Perhaps he could navigate by the stars. If this is what he had done, they could expect a rescue party soon. Nobody believed this. They did hope for it though.

### # # # # # # # #

When dawn was breaking at 7:30 over the slave island, it was 6:30 and pitch dark at Ranch #24. Marie and Nary's island was in the _Eastern Time Zone._ Ranch #4 was in the _Central Time Zone_ , which is one hour behind.

However even at this early hour, the ranch was starting to come to life. The cook and assistant cook who took care of the meals for the bosses had been up for an hour and breakfast was five minutes away. The bosses lived in a one storey bunkhouse with room for thirty bosses in a squeeze. Currently Ranch #4 had twenty-four bosses, but eight of them were permanently assigned to the cattle ranch and lived in another bunkhouse further south. Eight bosses were on temporary assignment in Ontario. That left eight bosses who would be coming into the mess hall within the next half hour for their meal. Life on the ranch started earlier for the bosses than it did for the residents of the Big House. That's because the field slaves were expected to be working half an hour after sunrise and the bosses ensured that they met that schedule.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 41

As the first light of dawn seeped into the skies over Ranch #4, eight bosses burst through the doors of the huts in the gully, found the twenty slaves that had been declared _excess to needs_ , yanked them off their sleeping pads, and force-marched them to the helipad. They completed the tasks of chaining the women to the floor of the copter and removing their dog collars by 7:45. The crates of food had been loaded the previous day. While they waited for enough light to fly, the bosses took up positions around the copter – whips at the ready and rifles slung over shoulders. One boss stood on the top of the copter with a rifle. Big Momma was being careful – the increase in staff _retirements_ might be a little disconcerting to some. She had even roused herself early and was watching from the balcony of her bedroom on the second floor in case some slave did something incredibly stupid.

The news that twenty women had been taken spread quickly through the field slaves and a crowd formed on the edge of the grass helipad. Anxious friends looked for other anxious friends in the crowd. Soon, plaintive voices were calling out to the copter to ask if their friends were in there. Muffled voices responded.

"They took twenty," Hanna told Pililiani.

"I didn't know she was going to do that."

"Knowing ahead of time wouldn't have helped. Are the house girls OK?"

"I locked them inside the house," Pililiani responded. "They don't need to see this."

"It's a good thing Karita is in the house instead of in the nursery. She'd be here in the crowd otherwise."

**"WHAT?!** Didn't Karita give you my note asking you to keep her in the nursery all day yesterday and today?"

"She didn't give me a note."

"When was the last time you saw her?"

"Monday night. The night before the first copter left. That afternoon, she told me that she was allowed to stay in the nursery until all the babies were asleep. I gave her something to eat for supper and she put all of them to bed by herself. Afterwards I walked her up to the Big House myself. We went right by the loaded copter. She said that you wanted her to stay in the Big House for the next two days. I thought that was a good idea. I watched her go into the kitchen and left."

"She's run away!"

### # # # # # # # #

While Pililiani was desperately searching through the Big House for Karita, the bosses stranded on the slave island were desperately searching for possible weapons. The splintered remains of the huts/stilts, the long blades, and pieces of rope from the bridges gave them all the raw materials they'd need to make spears. Not the kind that could be thrown with any accuracy, but the kind of spear that could be used to defend a small fort. Brigadier-General Jock MacLatchie would have referred to the weapons as _pikes_.

### # # # # # # # #

It was 8:30 a.m. at the ranch. Full light. The second transport was still on the helipad, heavily laden. The field slaves who weren't chained to the copter's floor were sitting in a tight circle far away from the copter and were being watched by two armed bosses. The other bosses were doing an intensive search of the grounds around the Big House in case Karita had hidden there. Bosses from the cattle operation were on horseback and were searching the prairie around the Big House. She had had a head start of at least twenty-four hours, but she was a little kid. She couldn't have wandered very far. On horseback, a boss could see for a long way across the prairie.

Renfrew was conducting a second search for Karita inside the Big House. Big Momma didn't trust the house slaves to report her if they found her. She had put an inactive dog collar around Renfrew's neck to motivate her.

Right now, Big Momma was meeting with Big Daddy and Boss #2 on the grass below her balcony. Safe Haven would come down hard on Ranch #4 if their asset had escaped. All the trio knew for sure was what Pililiani had discovered in her initial search. Karita had left with all of her clothes and two blankets. This suggested that she was dressed for warmth and had planned the escape. Getting her dog collar removed was obviously part of that plan. She had also emptied a large orange sack of onions and had taken that sack with her. She may have used that sack to carry her clothes or she may have just worn all of them. The blankets would have fit into the sack easily leaving some room for food and water. The head cook reported that she might have taken some dried fruit. Perhaps some crackers. Perhaps some empty glass bottles that Karita could have filled with water. None of these items were inventoried so the cook couldn't be sure.

"We won't find her hiding in the house," Big Momma had concluded on this evidence.

Boss #2 agreed. "She's gone. We could put your copter in the air. That would increase the search area. She was prepared for cold nights."

"Do it. Give the job to Jenkins. He'll want to find her. Boss #24 left the ranch suddenly yesterday morning. Could he have taken her with him?"

"As far as I know, he had had no dealings with the girl in any way. He found those replacement saw blades in the grass. He had a reason to leave quickly."

"What if he had taken the blades out of the copter himself? What if he had hid Karita in Big Daddy's copter and came to me with the blades. She left with him." Big Momma had a devious mind. One of the reasons she had survived so long.

"She wasn't hiding in Big Daddy's copter. I would have seen her when I put in the bomb."

"Bomb? What bomb?"

"Be quiet, Big Daddy. She could have snuck into the copter after you finished."

"There wasn't enough time to do that and I stayed in the area anyway. I'd have seen her."

"Bomb, what bomb?" Big Daddy persisted.

"The bomb that would kill the carpenter if he didn't come back quickly enough." Big Momma turned to Boss #2 again. "Could he have picked her up outside of the ranch?"

"Unlikely. Again – he has no reason to help her. He's had no contact with her. She doesn't know him; he doesn't know her. How could they have set up the plan? When did they meet to plan this? She has no idea what the ranch looks like outside the Big House. How would he tell her where to go in words she would understand? There are no significant landmarks in this part of the ranch. But the possibility is easily checked. Big Daddy's copter has a tracker that records how long the copter is in the air and what compass heading it had flown on. That data record would show if he set down to pick her up. The data would also show if he made any unusual changes in his flight path to the island. All we have to do is get Big Daddy's copter back."

"You put a tracker inside my copter?" Big Daddy was speaking in a normal voice but was struggling to hide his concern about this violation of his basic masculine rights to be able to have sex with wild women without his wife finding out where and when he was doing that.

"Be quiet, you old fool."

"What if she couldn't escape yesterday like she wanted to, but is leaving today?" Boss #2 was trying to earn points with Big Momma now that Boss #1 was away. An opportunity like this couldn't be ignored. "We are led to believe that she left yesterday when actually the plan is for her to leave today when our guard is down."

"She's only five years old. She's not going to think of that."

"But Pililiani would. And Pililiani liked her."

"True. Do you believe that Karita is hiding in the transport copter right now?"

"She's not hiding in the front of the storage area – that's for sure. The bosses would have seen her when they chained the women to the floor. All we have to do is open the back hatch and look inside."

"Do it."

Boss #2 reported back two minutes later. "The crates in the copter are all squares or rectangles. The crates are tight against the sidewalls, but they're not tight against the curved walls at the back of the copter. A little girl might be able to squeeze into that space. She wasn't hiding in this copter. She could have been hiding in yesterday's copter."

At 8:45, the second transport copter with twenty slaves lifted off the helipad. Boss #2 was in the pilot's chair and the heavily-armed, burly Boss #10 was sitting next to him. As Big Momma had instructed, Boss #2 took the copter up to maximum speed and kept it there.

### # # # # # # # #

At the same time as that second transport copter was lifting off Ranch #4's helipad, Boss #24 was landing Big Daddy's copter in the clearing of the slave island where he had landed it the previous day. This morning, he had approached the island from the water side and had kept the copter below tree top level. If he couldn't see the slave camp, bosses in the slave camp couldn't see him. Solar powered copters are quiet; there was no chance that he would have been heard.

Meanwhile, with his small force of bosses now armed with pikes, Boss #1 was preparing to make the transport copter into a fort. He had instructed the bosses to bring all the long pieces of wood with a sharp end that they could find to the damaged copter. If they could bury the non-pointy end of these large splinters of wood underneath the copter, the pointy ends sticking outwards might slow down attackers trying to get in the fort through the rear hatch or the side doors. They had no shovels for digging, but they did have cooking pots and the ground under the copter was somewhat spongy. With a barricade of sharp splinters protecting the copter, the bosses could stay inside the copter with their pikes to battle anybody who got through.

While the eight bosses were busy creating a wall of splintered wood around their transport copter, Boss #24 was busy putting Big Daddy's copter back to the way it was before he had borrowed it.

### # # # # # # # #

Boss #24 had finished tying down Big Daddy's copter when he heard the sound of a woman's voice shouting. He moved in a direct line from the little clearing towards the village of huts. He paused when he saw the charred transport copter surrounded by a wall of splintered wood, sharp points facing outwards. He also saw that every hut in the clearing had been blown to the ground. There was a certain tone in the woman's shouts that caused the hairs on Boss #24's neck to stand up. He felt danger and decided to make himself into a small target. As he crawled through the underbrush towards the water, he could hear the woman's voice more clearly. She was cursing. Not cursing in terms of swear words. These were curses like, "I curse your black heart for murdering...."

The carpenter crawled closer. An old woman was standing on the water of the bay right in front of the ruins of the hut settlement. He looked again. She was definitely standing ON water that came to her ankles. He could see nothing holding her up.

The bosses were in a loose semi-circle on the shore facing her. All carried blades in one hand and spears in the other. The woman's skin was white and wrinkled. Her hair? Gray with streaks of white. She wore a shapeless discoloured shift of some kind over some leggings. As she cursed, she called each of the bosses by name and pointed her right hand's index finger directly at him. Boss #24 was surprised to see dog collars around the necks of the other bosses. The old woman herself wore no such jewelry.

For reasons that he couldn't explain, Boss #24 activated his pinky ring computer and began recording the scene. The old woman continued to curse each boss standing in front of her. When she was finished, she swept her hands together and clapped three times. A fog enclosed her body. "You will die today for your crimes. You will pay for your crimes in your afterlife. Big Momma and Big Daddy will join you there soon enough." Through the fog bank, the carpenter saw the outlines of her body diving into the water. Then, nothing.

On shore, the bosses huddled around Boss #1. He dropped to the ground and used his blade to sketch something in the ground. Ambush positions perhaps for killing the old woman when she came ashore. Focused as they were on the ground, the bosses never saw what had materialized inside the fog bank. Boss #24 saw. Two creatures were swimming through the mist towards shore. One was a massive alligator. An equally large black panther was sitting upright on the alligator's back.

Boss #24 didn't remember calling out a warning, but his pinky-ring computer recorded it clearly. "The water! Look at the water!"

The bosses turned as one, and as one, they turned back towards the camp and fled in the direction of the destroyed copter. That's when alligators streamed out of the underbrush and blocked their way. The black panther rose into a crouching position on the back of her alligator transport, her red eyes flashed, and a horrific panther scream raged through the clearing as it leapt ashore.

Boss #24's pinky ring video revealed the fate of the first boss that the panther encountered. Afterwards, there were sounds of retching and the tape ended.

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas and Theo awoke the morning of December 26, 2085 to find Marie and Nary in front of them. "It is finished," Marie said. She was sitting on the ground, dressed as always in her grey leggings and shapeless gray dress. At her feet were four stuffed backpacks. The boys didn't know it yet, but those packs had been formerly owned by four Safe Haven bosses who wouldn't be needing them any longer. Inside the packs were more blades, blankets, and spare clothing. "We should leave now," Marie said. "Another copter will arrive soon."

"What do you mean, _It is finished_!" Theo said this with some indignation as it dawned on him that he hadn't been sleepy when his eyelids had slammed shut last night. He glanced at the sky – it had to be noon already! Lucas had a court appearance scheduled for early afternoon, so he muttered a good luck wish to his brother and disappeared.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 42

The pre-trial meeting with the judge took place in Toronto's South Court building which two hundred years ago had served as Toronto's third city hall. Situated at the corner of Bay Street and Queen Street West, at one time it was the largest municipal building in North America. The entryway alone was two stories high. The front door was locked, but as Lucas tried it at 12:55 on December 26, a man in a blue uniform approached it from inside, unlocked it, opened it wide enough to stick his head out, and asked, "What's your name?"

"Lucas."

The man held the door open wide enough for Lucas to get in and then locked it. "The building is closed for Boxing Day and I'm not supposed to let anybody in but you. The judge arranged for it to be open for this one case. I'll take you down to the courtroom. Everybody else is there."

Lucas stared for a minute at the stained glass window, the grand staircase, the mosaic floor, the murals on the wall, and even the doorknobs that had some fancy crest on them. Then he followed the man along a lot of hallways and down some stairs.

"I'm the bailiff," the man said. "Impressive building, right?"

"Yah. I'll need help finding my way out again."

"Not to worry. I'll show you the short cut."

### # # # # # # # #

The courtroom they were meeting in wasn't actually a courtroom. It was just a meeting room. "I'm treating this as a mostly informal meeting," the judge explained as he met Lucas at the door. "Prosecutor Lee explained to you that we want to be sure that the case against Dr. Sandman is solid before arresting him. I'm wearing my robes because I am still operating in a formal capacity. By law, we have to have a court secretary and a bailiff present, but otherwise, think of this as a business meeting in an old meeting room. Quite the building, isn't it?"

Lucas nodded. The room was empty except for two big tables, a small table where a lady was sitting with a machine under her hands, and a bunch of chairs. The bailiff sat down at one of the chairs near the back of the room, pulled his cap over his eyes, and tilted the chair backwards until it was leaning against a wall, the two front legs in the air.

Prosecutor Lee came out from behind one of the tables where he had been sitting, greeted Lucas warmly, and shook his hand. He was wearing a blue suit again and had a pair of round glasses pushed up onto his forehead where they sat firmly over the comb-over he was using to mask his hair loss.

"So glad that you're here, Lucas" he said. "You're going to help us put one of our biggest problems behind bars. Slider is in a nearby room and ready to testify. I was worried that he wouldn't show up. You can sit here."

Lucas sat at the indicated chair that was right next to Prosecutor Lee's chair. The judge sat at the table facing them. He had black hair along with a thin moustache and a tidy goatee, but the rest of his face was clean-shaven. The goatee and his thin cheeks made his face look unduly long. Underneath the black robe, Lucas could see a white shirt and a bright red tie. A sparkle of red took his eyes to judge's left hand. He had a ring with a red stone in it.

"Judges always sit by themselves away from other people," the judge explained. "A long time ago, they sat closer to the audience but that meant that they were more likely to be assaulted by people who didn't like their rulings. Now we have our own table. You're not planning to assault me, I assume?" and he laughed.

"No," Lucas said. Lucas was experiencing some memories of another courtroom and so he was quite tense. Both the judge and the prosecutor were friendly at least.

"If you do, I'll have to get Snoozer to protect me." The judge pointed to the back of the courtroom where the bailiff was clearly sleeping in his chair.

"A bailiff's job can be extremely boring. Especially in my courtroom because I handle a lot of business cases. Boring, boring, boring. Even for me. Snoozer has developed the ability to go to sleep anytime, anywhere. We've been working together for a long time and I don't mind it. Poor old fellow would find other judges more difficult to work for."

Indeed, Lucas saw that Snoozer was quite old. He hadn't quite limped as he climbed down the stairs to the courtroom, but he had been unsteady on his feet and had held onto the railing.

"Mavis," he turned to the court recorder. "If you wouldn't mind."

Mavis went into a back room and soon came out with a trolley with some cups and two thermoses on top.

"Mavis and I have also been working together for a long time. We wouldn't do this in a normal trial, but I usually need a caffeine fix by this time of the day. Mavis takes care of me. I warn you, I like my coffee very strong. Mavis?"

Mavis served the judge first. "Mr. Prosecutor?"

"Coffee but give me four sugar cubes please."

She did. "Mr. Lucas? I have coffee and hot chocolate. The chocolate is quite sweet, I'm afraid."

"Hot chocolate please," Lucas said.

All three sat back and had some sips. Mavis took the trolley back to the other room and resumed her place at the little table.

"Some formalities to be completed first, I'm afraid," the judge said after putting his cup down reluctantly. "The law requires that all people participating in a trial or in a legal hearing have to be an attorney or be represented by an attorney. The exception is a witness who simply swears to tell the truth and then leaves after giving his testimony. But Lucas, you're not a witness. You've been working for the prosecution. Slider is the witness and it's his testimony that will put a certain person behind bars. I can't have an ordinary citizen participating in this hearing unless he is represented by a lawyer who could provide legal advice and act on his behalf if such were required. Prosecutor Lee here can act as your attorney. Show him the document, Mr. Prosecutor."

Lucas read the document that Mr. Lee had pulled out of a briefcase and put in front of him. It was exactly as the judge had said. Provide legal advice; act on his behalf; only if necessary. Lucas looked up before picking up the pen that Mr. Lee had put on the table for him. The judge was sipping his coffee and was on his cell phone – texting. Mr. Lee was putting another sugar into his coffee and stirring it. The court recorder had pulled a nail file out of her purse on the floor and was rounding off some sharp edges. In the silence, he could hear gentle snores from behind him. Lucas signed.

"Judge?" the prosecutor said.

He looked up from his pinky-ring. "All ready? Good. Mavis, warm up your fingers. We're starting now."

The initial part was just a bunch of stuff where the judge gave the day, the time, the courtroom, why they were there, and so on and so on. He spoke rapidly and Mavis kept up. Then it was time for the witness.

"Snoozer," the judge said sharply and Snoozer woke. "Bring Slider in."

Snoozer disappeared into the hallway and moments later accompanied the witness to the front of the room. Lucas looked up at that point, looked again, and then looked again. Slider's left leg was encased inside a cast and he was hobbling along with the help of a crutch. He had another cast on his right arm and bruises on his face. _Slider tried to run away and was caught?_

Snoozer brought a chair to the front of the room and helped Slider settle in, the left leg awkwardly sticking out in front of him. The cast on his left leg looked like it had already seen a lot of wear. Two long black marks extended over the shin and the cast had a noticeable dent above the inside ankle. The cast on the left arm was in better shape but Slider must have spilt some coffee on it because it had a large brown stain. The crutch was now on the ground. Snoozer stood behind him, on high alert, in case he tried to run away. Well, make that dozing alert. Snoozer might have the ability to sleep standing up. It was only a matter of time before the courtroom found out for sure.

"Where's my immunity paper?" Slider demanded.

The prosecutor held a document in the air. Snoozer showed that he was still awake and brought it to Slider, who read it and nodded.

"Sign it," the judge ordered.

"With what," Slider snarled.

"Mavis?"

Mavis produced a bible for the document to rest on and a pen. After Slider signed it, she took the document and bible to the judge who placed both on the side of his table.

"I was going to get a trip out of town and a new job."

"After you testify," the judge stipulated.

"I want protection," Slider insisted.

"From whom? You're safe in this courtroom."

"Protection from him," Slider said and pointed at Lucas. "He's the one that did this to me."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 43

Boss #2 returned to Ranch #4's helipad in the still fully loaded second transport copter. He allowed the twenty slaves to leave the copter, but he had them sit on the ground in front of it under the watch of Boss #10. Boss #24 landed Big Daddy's copter next to the transport as this unloading was underway. He too left his copter and sat on the ground under Boss #10's watch – waiting for Big Momma to decide what to do with him. Boss #2 took a backpack out from underneath the pilot's seat in the transport copter and stood under Big Momma's balcony. She watched him approach.

"Come to the front porch," she directed. "You better have a good reason for bringing those women back."

### # # # # # # # #

Big Momma had finished watching the carpenter's short video. She had also reviewed the still pictures that Boss #2 had taken of the village. They showed the debris from the shattered huts as well as the destroyed transport copter. Some of the pictures were from ground level; others were from the air.

"There are no dead bodies in your pictures," she noted.

"There wasn't a scrap left when we got there," he replied. "Blood, yes. Lots of blood in the grass or dirt. That didn't show up in the pictures. But no body parts were left."

"How long after the massacre did you arrive?"

"Boss #24 couldn't say. Half an hour? He saw the first killing; heard the rest. When he was able to look up again, the alligators were eating the remains. That finished him off. He wasn't making much sense when we arrived. I needed the video to understand what had happened. Was the destruction of the village and the massacre of the bosses a good enough reason to bring the old women back?" And then Boss #2 smiled at her.

Big Momma was sitting on the comfy swing on the front porch of the Big House. It had a nice soft pad on top of the wooden slats. The swing was close enough to the front of the porch for her to hear any report from an underling, but far enough away that they couldn't touch her. Since her marriage to Big Daddy, she had become adverse to touches from sweaty men.

Boss #1 had always stood on the grass in front of the porch, his straw sun hat in his hand. If he had to give her anything, he'd step into the dirt of the flowerbed, lean against the railing at the edge of the porch, stretch as far as he could, and hand it over. Big Momma liked his subservient attitude. He wouldn't always agree with her, but he knew his position.

Boss #2 was different. Right now, he was sitting cross-legged ON THE PORCH, right beside her swing. He had passed the bot and the pictures to her and his hand had almost touched hers. And he had smiled at her. Like they were almost equal. He had been like that a month ago when he told her that he could put a tracker into Big Daddy's copter if she ever wanted to know where he had gone. In case there was an emergency and she had to reach him. Then he had winked. That wink said that they were co-conspirators. He was cocky. Sure of himself. She liked that.

"It was the correct decision. Tell me about Boss #24. Did he help Karita escape?"

"No. Not according to the data on the tracker in Big Daddy's copter. Here's the tracker itself. You can see the data for yourself." Boss #2 held up an electronic unit and dropped it into her open hand. "I reviewed the data on the trip back."

"Tell me what you saw."

"Boss #24 flew in a direct line from the ranch to the island. At no point in the trip did he stop flying."

"And at the camp?"

"He landed the copter outside the security fence and after that, the copter never moved from that location until after I arrived. I used Big Daddy's copter to search the island for the little girl and to take some of the pictures you've seen. When you look at the tracking data, you will see my use of the copter. Boss #24 used the copter solely as a shelter during the thunderstorm that came the night before the massacre. He told me that he tied the copter down when the wind started to gust and he stayed with it the whole night. That's what the tracking data show too. That copter never moved until I moved it."

"Why didn't he land it inside the village."

"He said that it would have made the clearing too crowded. It would be harder to unload the copter and move the food into the huts. I agree. It would have. The clearing is small."

"His actions during the first day?"

"What they should have been. He repaired the bridges connecting the huts so that they could take the weight of the men distributing the food. I saw some evidence of those repairs in the debris of the huts. He took a backpack of carpentry supplies and equipment with him in case repairs were needed. He wasn't told to do that. He took the initiative."

"Not even a hint of being in a plot to free Karita?"

"No. As I said before, he had no reason to and no opportunity."

"Is he worthy of promotion eight levels up?"

"I know he's smart and he plans ahead. He's also literate. So yes, he should be promoted. He handled himself well, in my view."

"And Karita? Did you find her?"

"I used Big Daddy's copter to search for signs of her. I found this."

Boss #2 pulled an orange, sodden onion sack out of a backpack that he had brought with him from the copter, showed it to her, and then placed it on the porch. "This sack was caught on some weeds close to shore at the opposite end of the island from where the camp was. When I saw two alligator snouts in the water, I used a long branch to bring it to shore. These scissors were inside." He put them into her outreached hand.

Big Momma had a close look and handed them back. "Pililiani let her use these to cut paper."

"She may have taken them for a weapon. I searched the surrounding area. I found these in a dry piece of land a short distance from the river." He held up two used Ranch #4 blankets. "I also found two empty glass bottles and some food litter. I didn't bother bringing those back with me. I returned to the destroyed slave village, gave the slaves in the transport a bathroom break, and came home."

"Your conclusion?"

"Karita is dead. Taken by an alligator, perhaps when she went to the river to get water. She wouldn't have known about them."

"You may be right. I have to think on it."

"Have you ever seen that old woman in the video before? The one doing the cursing?"

"She used to be Ranch #2's housekeeper. They found her preaching a religion and asked us to strand her on our island. That was fourteen or fifteen years ago."

"She couldn't have survived that long. Could she be somebody else who looked like her? One of ours?"

Big Momma noticed Boss #2's use of the word _ours_. She approved. "No. She did my hair for years. I recognize her voice. It's Marie, no question."

"Will she be a problem for us? She said that you and Big Daddy were going to join the bosses in the afterlife."

"Safe Haven will be a problem for us. Not Marie. She has no idea where this ranch is. Plus how would she get here? Fly across the country on her broomstick?"

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 44

"Protection from him," and Slider pointed at Lucas. "He's the one that did this to me."

Lucas shook his head, _No_. That made him dizzy and the courtroom moved around in his head. The judge left his chair and approached him, looking closely.

Lucas tried to deny that he had beaten Slider, but his voice wasn't working. There was a tingling in his legs and it was climbing up his body. He was about to activate the weapons in his sling, but in his somewhat muddled mind, he could hear Theo's voice. _Think it through, Lucas_. At least he thought it was Theo's voice. But why was Theo speaking with a girl's voice? With what little mental capacity he had left, Lucas realized that they were going to find the filaments on his body. He sent the un-tether command to his sling. He tried to lift his hands to the back of his head to unscrew his brain-plug, but he couldn't move his arms.

"And 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1," the judge counted down. He lifted Lucas' hand off the table and let it go. The hand fell with a slap on the table.

The judge went back to his own table. "Mavis, we've had a brief recess and we're now ready to resume."

"Lucas Wiltz, I have sworn testimony from a man named Slider, a Top Hat carriage driver who claimed that you beat him severely on December 8th, 2085 in an attempt to compel him to lie to this court that a Dr. Leonard Sandman employed him to kill a dancer name Sparkle. To avoid further beatings, he agreed to do that, but he spoke privately with the prosecutor's office to warn them of your intentions. The prosecutor's office agreed to provide Slider with protection as well as immunity from any further harassment regarding the death of this dancer which had already been ruled as an unfortunate accident by this court back in April 2071."

"I am looking at Slider in this courtroom. His left leg is in a cast as is his right arm. He has bruises on his face. The man was clearly beaten. I am hereby charging you, Lucas Wiltz, with vicious assault on Slider. How do you plead? Your attorney is present if you wish his advice. Mr. Lee?"

Lucas' attorney leaned forward in order to hear Lucas as he whispered his answer to him – at least he probably whispered his answer. Lucas' voice didn't make it into the record. His lawyer's voice did. "My client pleads _Guilty_ , your honour."

"Mavis, please record the accused's response."

### # # # # # # # #

The judge continued. "I have a sworn affidavit from a teenager named Basher that you cracked his ribs when he attempted to buy some chocolates from a store in which you were employed. We found a witness to this violence – a man named Nod who has also provided a sworn statement. Lucas Wiltz, you are once again charged with assault. How do you plead? I remind you again that you have an attorney present if you wish to consult with him."

"My client pleads _Guilty_ , your honour."

"Mavis, please record the accused's response."

### # # # # # # # #

"Lucas Wiltz, I have sworn testimony from a man named Blinker who saw you in the early hours of Thursday October 4, 2085 enter your chocolate store and place explosives within it. You watched your store explode from across the street. The prosecution's office has verified that an insurance claim was made for the damage that your bomb caused. Lucas Wiltz, you are charged with arson, using dangerous explosives in a way that could harm the public in the area, and fraud. How do you plead? I remind you again that you have an attorney present if you wish to consult with him."

"My client pleads _Guilty_ , your honour."

"Mavis, please record the accused's response."

### # # # # # # # #

"Recess mode please, Mavis. Snoozer, please bring me the pinky ring on Lucas' right hand."

Snoozer removed Lucas' ring and during his walk to the judge's table, he put Lucas' ring on his own right hand. The judge met him partway. The judge stuck his face out. Snoozer swung at the judge, and in doing so, Lucas' ring cut the judge's cheek. Snoozer gave the ring to the judge and both returned to their previous positions.

"Back in session now please, Mavis. During this recess, the defendant, Lucas Wiltz, tried to flee from this courtroom. I managed to block his way and he swung viciously at me with his right hand. I, the bailiff, and the prosecuting attorney managed to subdue the defendant with no further harm to anybody. This record will include a picture of my face that will show the results of that assault on a city judge as well as the sworn statements of all present in the courtroom at the time. I am keeping the defendant's ring as proof that he attacked me. It has my blood on it. Lucas Wiltz, you are charged with felonious assault on a court official and attempting to flee the jurisdiction of this court. How do you plead? I remind you again that you have an attorney present if you wish to consult with him."

"My client pleads _Guilty_ , your honour."

"Mavis, please record the accused's response."

### # # # # # # # #

"Lucas Wiltz: This court acknowledges that all of the charges against you must be adjudicated in a court of law and that you are innocent until proven guilty. However, the assault on me falls within the law covering _Contempt of Court._ Your vicious assault on an officer of this court certainly qualifies as contempt. Under this law, I am able to summarily rule that you are guilty of Contempt of Court and I am permitted to incarcerate you until you apologize to this court. I advise you that while the prosecutor's office works on the other charges facing you, it will be necessary to confine you on those charges until the cases can be brought against you. But that trial is for another day. For now, you're sentenced to jail for contempt. Court is adjourned."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas was still in his chair behind the prosecutor's desk. The judge was sitting next to him, talking conversationally, one friend to another.

"You don't have to worry about those other charges, Lucas. We won't be pursuing them. Snoozer will take you to the basement where he'll stuff you into one of the old cells. Nobody uses them any more, so you won't have to worry about other inmates keeping you awake. The walls and the floors in the basement are exceptionally thick. You won't be digging your way out, even if you could move, which you can't. Nor could your voice be heard calling for help, if you could call out, which you can't."

"The beauty of the drug that Mavis slipped into your hot chocolate is that we know the timing on it. We know how long it takes to suddenly strike and we know how long it will last. We also know that all signs of the drug will disappear twenty-four hours after the last dose. No coroner, for example, would ever be able to find evidence of it after those twenty-four hours. Mavis will be down to your cell every day to keep you paralyzed. Snoozer will bring food and water to you every day. It's unfortunate that you decided to go on a food and water strike during your incarceration. Not a good idea, Lucas. But that was your choice."

"Another beauty of the drug is that you can actually hear me as I tell you how you're going to die. It's a variation of the MS virus that Mavis used with great success in a previous job. You can hear, you can understand, and you can see. That's it. Oh, and by the way, you can't sleep. Did you know that doctors and coroners can't find the true cause of death when a person dies because of sleep deprivation? We do this in case somebody finds your body before we can take it away. Not much chance of that happening over the holidays when this building is shut until January. Sleep deprivation plus water and food deprivation is a tough combination to fight. We usually run a pool on how long busybodies like you last. You look strong. I'm thinking one hundred hours? Blink bye-bye to everybody, Lucas Wiltz. Oh, dear me. I forgot you can't even blink."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 45

Five sets of eyes were looking at a wheel chair that had tipped over and was blocking the elevator door from closing. Mavis was on her knees beside Lucas who was face down on the courthouse's basement floor in front of the elevator. She had her hand on his wrist.

"Pulse is good," she said.

"What happened?" the judge asked Snoozer.

"I dunno. I was almost out of the elevator and all of a sudden the chair tipped over. He was scrunched up in the chair already when I put the chair in the elevator. I had trouble keeping him centered."

"Roll him over."

Mavis and Snoozer did. "Nasty bump on his forehead," Mavis observed.

"Will this be a problem?" The judge was showing concern.

"You mean is he still going to die?" Mavis asked. "Yes, he's still going to die."

"I meant will it affect how long it will take him to die?" the judge asked.

"You want to redo the pool. Is that it?"

"Well technically, he hasn't reached his cell yet."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas was flat on his back on the pad of the old bed hanging out of the wall in the last cell in the block.

"His eyes are closed," Mavis said.

"So?" Prosecutor Lee asked.

"Just that I've never seen the eyes closed before. No brain impulses are reaching any of non-essential muscles in the body. Why would his eyes be closed? They were open in the courtroom."

"You said that he was probably unconscious from the bump on his head."

"No way of knowing for sure."

"Tape his eyelids open if it's bothering you."

"No point," Mavis replied to the prosecutor. "If he's unconscious, he's not hearing us and he's not seeing us."

"Does this mean that his body is sleeping?" the judge intervened.

"Yah, I guess. You want to bring in Sandman to check him out?"

"He's with some of our friends. You're the expert on this poison," the judge said.

"We really have to redo the pool," Slider said. "I'm way too soon." Slider was now cast-free. He had had a miraculous recovery.

"Does this increase the chances of his discovery?" Prosecutor Lee asked.

"Don't see how," Snoozer replied. "No-one ever comes down here."

"Snoozer, disable the basement button on the elevator," the judge instructed. "Lock the door at the bottom of the stairs. Give Mavis the key. Snoozer – I want you to come down with Mavis to deliver the food from now on."

"Mavis could do all of that herself, Slider said."

"She'd lie about when he died."

"I don't know how that chair tipped over," Snoozer said. "It was like it had a mind of its own."

### # # # # # # # #

Wednesday, December 26, late at night. Two people were meeting in Ranch #4's root cellar that night – its normal pitch-black interior lit by a tiny candle. They were the same two people who had been whispering there after Karita had first arrived at the ranch four months ago.

"Big Momma believes that Karita is dead," the male voice said.

"Good," the female voice replied. "Thank you."

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.

Back to the Table of Contents

# 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.

Back to the Table of Contents

