

#### Maddy's a Baddy

#### by David J. Wighton

#### Book #8 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.

### Thank you for respecting my copyright.

# 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.

# Wilizy Family Members as of January 2086

• Doc and Granny, about 74 years old.

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

• Wolf (20), Mac (20), and Jock (1).

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

• Yollie (19), TG (20), Liset (5), and Yo-Yo (2).

• Wizard (17), Lucas (14), Theo (13), Mathias (12), and Reese (11).

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

Also

• Stu McKenzie (45) and Momaka (41).

• Dreamer (15) and Wanda (55).

• Brigadier-General Jock MacLatchie (50).

**Main Characters in Toronto**

• Judge Foster Lewis, Head Prosecutor Dennis Lee, and his wife Madhuri.

• Annie, Betsy, Christy, Doreen, and Eldreadth (Foster's sisters).

• Helen Masters (Eldreadth's daughter), Basher (Helen's son), and Dr. Sandman.

• General Douglas Cameron of B.C. and Hector Rodrigues (Ontario's Chief Justice).

**Main Characters from the slave island**

• Marie and Nary

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

• Big Daddy and Big Momma.

• Karita (Maddy) and Pililiani (housekeeper).

• Boss #24 (Yuri) who becomes boss #15.

**Main Characters in Watertown, NY**

• Brute and Pissy (Brutus and Priscilla).

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

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Books in the Wilizy Series

About the Author: David J. Wighton

# Chapter 1

Lucas and Theo awoke the morning of December 26, 2085 to find Marie and Nary in front of them. "It is finished," Marie announced. She was sitting on the ground, dressed as always in her gray leggings and shapeless gray dress. At her feet were four stuffed backpacks. The boys didn't know it yet, but those packs had been 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's finished, Marie?" Theo asked this question with some indignation since he had just realized 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. Nary looked a question at her mother and Marie shrugged. Nary wrapped herself up in a blanket, put her head on Marie's lap, and closed her eyes. Marie stroked Nary's hair automatically, her thoughts elsewhere. Theo would have to find out what was finished on his own.

Seconds later, Theo was hovering above the slave camp and peering closely at the ground below. As he expected, Safe Haven's transport copter was a blackened ruin thanks to Lucas' lightning bolt. Marie referred to Lucas as _Shango_. In Voodoo circles, Shango is known as the _God of Thunder and Lightning_. Theo didn't know that when he had devised the plan to have Lucas attack the bosses with a thunderstorm.

Now that he had daylight, Theo could see what had been only glimmers last night. The slave huts were pieces of kindling on the ground. That had been part of Theo's plan. But the bosses were nowhere to be seen – that had **not** been part of Theo's plan. The dog collars should have kept them inside the security fence. So where were they? Time-travel would provide the answer.

Theo TiTr'd back to dawn that morning. From there, he skip-TiTr'd to when Marie was standing on top of the waters of the bay. He heard her curse each of the bosses in turn and listened to the reasons for those curses. However part of his attention was focused on Marie standing in water up to her ankles but not sinking into the bay. How? A closer look provided the answer. She was standing on the back of a submerged alligator.

Marie clapped her hands and a fog bank materialized around her body. She dove into the water and a large alligator emerged out of the mists, carrying a large black panther on its scale-covered back towards shore. As intended, the panther's gruesome attack on one of the bosses panicked the others. While they were fleeing mindlessly in different directions, thirty alligators came out of the waters and formed themselves into the shape of a funnel three alligators deep on each side. The panther drove the bosses one by one into the mouth of the funnel, and from there, into the waters of the bay where the large alligator did what large alligators do. Those bosses who tried to escape their fate by jumping over the side of the funnel found out why the alligators were lying there three deep. The massacre was over in minutes.

A dispassionate observer might have noticed how quickly and efficiently the bosses had been killed. Theo was not dispassionate, so that wasn't what he noticed. He just saw the blood, the guts, and the gore. Mind you, he had witnessed animals killing animals before. But he hadn't ever watched helplessly as animals killed people before. And he certainly hadn't ever stood aghast when alligators ate people before. Theo's stomach reacted like any teenager's stomach would react when he watched an alligator trundling down to the water with a dismembered guard's leg sticking out of its mouth. That leg was slowly disappearing down the alligator's throat, crunch by crunch.

When Theo could look up again, from the invisibility of his TiTr sling he saw alligators taking care of the bodily flotsam floating on the surface of the bay. In the midst of this environmental cleanup, a large alligator was swimming towards shore where the black panther was waiting. Theo actually saw the bodies change form. One second the large alligator was swimming, the next second Marie was wading. The conversion of the panther's body to Nary was just as quick.

### # # # # # # # #

An unappreciated beauty of time-travel is that an observer can see a scene a second time. Theo had been revolted by how Marie and Nary had killed the bosses. There had been no hint in his meetings with Marie that such violence was coming. He had given Marie and Nary food; he had talked with Marie face-to-face in her clean but empty hovel; he had sat beside Nary and read picture books to her while munching on a dried piece of venison that she had offered him. These interactions had been civilized. What they did to the bosses was savage carnage.

Theo TiTr'd back to when Marie first appeared on the water and he listened closely as she listed the reasons why she was cursing the bosses. He watched the bosses die again. It was quick. The other old women who had lived in that camp had died from prolonged starvation, continually fearing an alligator attack every time they approached the water. In the end, every woman sent to that island had died with the exception of Marie. It had taken them months to die.

Theo took advantage of another benefit of time-travel: the opportunity to go off by himself into the past, take as much time as he wanted to think about what he had seen, and then return to present time. Theo did that. A calmer young man emerged in the clearing where Marie had put him to sleep. Theo had concluded that justice had been delivered. The reader may have a different opinion.

At that clearing, Nary was lying on the ground, swaddled inside a blanket. Marie was sitting next to her, stroking her hair. Theo couldn't leave them here. How would they survive? But both Nary and Marie were aware that Theo and Lucas could fly; both knew that a sailing ship was anchored in the air above the camp. Theo realized that he had to take them onto the ship to keep those secrets safe. As to what would happen after that, the Wilizy's directors could make that decision.

When Theo explained that his flying suit only had room for two, Marie refused to let Theo fly up to the ship with Nary. Theo thought that Nary was afraid of flying without anything visible holding her up, so he tried to reassure Marie. "I'll be there to hold Nary in case she becomes frightened of falling."

Theogun engaged in holding Nary was exactly what Marie was worried about. She insisted on seeing how tight the flying suit would be around them. She watched as Nary and Theo stepped into the suit and then she wrapped Nary up in the blanket she had been sleeping in. A second blanket would be even better. Only when Nary was mummified inside three blankets was Marie content to let Theogun take Nary up to the ship. Nary paid no attention to the mummifying or to the trip up to the ship. Theo took her into the ship's living room where Nary curled up on the deck, mummy and all.

A second trip took care of the luggage Marie had taken out of the camp as well as what Lucas had stored for her earlier. The third flight up to the ship with Marie took longer. She was curious about seeing the entire island from the air, so Theo flew a giant circle around it.

"How high can you go?" she asked.

"Extremely high."

"How fast can you go?" she asked.

"Extremely fast."

"Show me?"

"Will you answer some questions first?"

"OK."

"How was Nary able to see us when we were in our flying suits? How did you know that we had a flying ship? Could you see it?"

"We couldn't see you but we could smell the covering you wore when you flew overhead. We thought something was burning. Something high in the air smelled like that too. I knew that it was a sailing ship because that had been foretold. But the odour was very faint and only I could detect it."

"I am going to talk with Shango now. Tell me if you can hear our conversation."

_Lucas, the slings give off an odor that Marie and Nary can smell. They can't actually see us when we're flying inside the slings. Marie can take the form of a very large alligator. I expect that she used that form to thwart the security fence._

_That explains a lot._

_Marie and Nary killed all the bosses this morning when you and I were under a sleeping spell. I saw Marie as an alligator and Nary as a panther._

_Tell me more later. I'm in the courthouse and the judge looks like he's ready to start. Give me an hour._

"Do you know what I just said to Shango, Marie?"

"I didn't hear anything. Being able to talk so quietly is a good power. Can you teach me?"

"How about I show you how fast we can fly instead?"

...

Theo did a ten minute trip towards the Atlantic and back at under the speed of sound. Marie nodded at him and touched his arm in thanks. Theo now knew what Lucas meant when he said he didn't want Marie's hand touching him ever again.

Once on the ship, Theo gave Marie a quick tour – Nary didn't want to leave her napping spot on the floor. Included on that tour were the bedrooms and the bathrooms on the lower deck. He wasn't sure what he should do about the bathrooms, as he had seen no evidence anywhere on the island that such facilities had been provided for the women.

Marie said, "I've seen these before. Nary hasn't. I'll teach her." And that solved that dilemma. Theo was showing her an armchair, which Marie had seen before but had never used, when a Wilizy system-wide alert began clamouring inside his head. He left in a dead run for the ship's command post and set a course for Toronto at the top speed the Wilizy/Asia could manage without shuddering. Seconds later, the alert was replaced by William's voice inside Theo's head.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 2

_Theo, all I know is that Lucas is unconscious_. _The system-wide alert was an automatic function triggered by his brainwaves falling inactive. His brain-plug is still intact. I read his location as somewhere in or near Toronto's old city hall. Do you have any idea why he's there? Would he be in any danger?_

_Lucas was working on Toronto's protection racket. Yes, he's in danger. He told me recently that some people had tried to kill him. I'm in the Wilizy/Asia now. I'm about ten minutes away from Toronto and..._

_Wait a sec, Theo,_ William interrupted.

Mac's thoughts followed another peal of the system-wide alert. _All Wilizy who can do so, report as quickly as possible to the Wilizy/Asia which will be anchored above Toronto. Repeat: All Wilizy to Toronto if you can. Any messages should go through Granny. Keep these to a minimum please. All we know is that Lucas is in danger and is not responding to mind messages._

_Carry on, Theo. What are we facing?_ William was back in Theo's head.

_I'm listening in, Theo._ Mac's mind.

Theo told them what he could, his two guests forgotten.

_Granny says that Jock has the least distance to travel and so he will be at the ship first. He'll take charge of the situation until I can arrive. Nobody is to do anything until we have a battle plan and that incudes you, Theo._

_Are you taking battle command, Mac?_

_Yes. Melissa is backup. William, TG, and Wolf will TiTr through the city hall as soon as we get there. We're still a long way out but we're coming as fast as we can. Can you give me any idea what time it was when Lucas arrived at the city hall building?_

### # # # # # # # #

Theo had only a few minutes to tell Marie and Nary that Shango had been injured and wasn't answering calls. He warned them that Shango's family would be responding to the threat and they'd all be crowding onto this ship. Did Marie and Nary want to go down to the cabins?

Marie responded by taking all of their backpacks to the corner of the living room where Nary was now lying de-mummified. Marie took one of the blankets, made it into a pad, and sat down next to her. She put out a hand to Nary but Nary pushed it away.

After that, Theo became busy.

As predicted, Jock was the first to arrive and he took up station immediately outside the deck door leading into the main quarters. He had a clipboard at the ready and began checking off Wilizy personnel as they arrived. His basic message to each arrival was: "Go inside, find a place to sit, and wait quietly. We don't know anything other than Lucas is unconscious and he had been in some danger before today."

The Wilizy were good at following the first part of that instruction; not so good on the sitting and waiting quietly part. Theo became the center of a large noisy circle. He told the milling crowd what he could about Lucas' recent activities, including his discovery of a key witness to a murder and how a judge was going to listen to this witness in a hearing. He couldn't say much about the attempts on Lucas' life since he didn't know much himself. As new members arrived, they clustered around Theo repeating the same questions while the others huddled together in the galley. Nobody noticed the two strangers sitting in the corner of the living room. That was understandable because Nary was in a dark corner and she was wearing black clothes on black skin. Marie was there too, but mostly out of sight behind one of the comfortable chairs. Both were watching and listening to the burny-smelly people as they came into the ship.

Hank and Yolanda arrived and Hank spoke with Jock who by now was inside the ship and doing a head count. "Who's not here?"

"Yollie is staying at the satellite compound with the babies. Melissa and Mac are about five minutes out. They put six extra pinky-rings onto their slings and probably broke every known speed record on the way here. They're currently taking their time coming down from high altitude. Wolf, William, and TG are a few minutes behind them but they will go to the old city hall first. Mathias is in Southeast Asia loading a cargo. He will park it there if we want him here. I told him to carry on with his duties unless he hears from us otherwise. Winnie had to go searching for Reese who was out somewhere playing crib. They will be landing any minute. She's bringing Patella and Scapula. Wanda is seconds away. That's about it, Hank. Everybody else is here."

At that point, Wanda pushed into the galley crowd and right behind her came Reese, Winnie, and the two wolves. The hubbub became even more hubbubblier.

"People. PEOPLE," Hank raised his voice to get their attention.

An angry cough was followed by a half scream that echoed in the small interior of the ship. Everybody froze. Tiny arm hairs rose in alarm. Only Theo recognized the sound. He had heard it on the island right after the beast had killed the deer. With his height, Theo was able to see what was happening in the living room.

"No! No!" he yelled and burst through the crowd in the galley, not stopping until he was in front of Nary. Turning to face the threat, he barked again. "No, Patella! Down! Down! Scapula, down! Down!" When that didn't work, he mind-messaged, _Winnie, call your wolves! Now!_

Nary was out of the corner. She was in human form if you consider flashing red eyes and a coiled, four limbed crouch as a normal humanoid appearance. Beside her was Marie, a long sharp blade in each hand. Patella and Scapula had seen the strangers in the living room, had immediately split, and had gone separate ways. Patella was coming from the left, low to the ground; Scapula was an identical twin on the other side of the room. A pincer movement against an age-old enemy. Both focused on the human form crouching in front of them. It was like no human they had ever seen before. It wakened long dormant instincts.

Nary coughed again and the sound of a hostile panther filled the room.

"Your beasts will die," Marie said in the silence that followed. "They are no match for her."

Theo moved to block the attack lines to Nary even further. He energized his sling and pointed his left forefinger at Scapula and his right forefinger at Patella. Out of each finger a shimmering gravity force pulsated, ready to be released. "Down, Patella! Down, Scapula! Nary, don't hurt them!" With his height, his commanding posture, and his dominating voice, Theo showed a side of himself that nobody had ever seen before. Marie and Nary both saw the new Theo and then looked at each other. _Ogun, the protector. God of weapons._

Patella went into a down and put her head between her paws. Scapula was younger, less likely to obey.

Winnie came out of nowhere at sling speed and knocked Scapula to the ground. Then she gave her THE LOOK! Scapula whined and rolled over onto her back.

Mac and Melissa came in from the deck at that point. "Not the greeting we were expecting," Melissa understated.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 3

After a few minutes of babble, Yolanda took control of introductions. The wolves were behaving themselves in a far corner of the galley. Winnie was trying to explain to them why they should tolerate a panther on the ship. The almost-a-panther body was back in the dark corner, lying on a pad. With her black skin and black clothes, she'd be virtually invisible if it weren't for the red eyes watching everybody very, very carefully. Theo was still in a protective position, but he had deactivated his sling. Marie had put the two blades away and was standing in conversation with Yolanda who was pointing at people and saying their names. When Yolanda finished, she added an apology for the less than friendly greeting. "We're all upset with Lucas disappearing," she started to explain.

"Shango," Marie interrupted.

Yolanda raised an eyebrow at Theo and he took over the conversation.

"Everybody, this is Marie and her daughter Nary. They were imprisoned on a slave island in the St. Lawrence Rivulet. I believe most of you knew that Lucas and I were helping them. Marie and Nary call us by different names. Lucas is _Shango_ and I am _Theogun_. We don't mind the names. In helping them to escape from their island prison, we learned that Marie is a voodoo queen and Nary is a voodoo princess. Both have extraordinary powers. For example, you almost saw a human panther in action. Marie talks about events that she has seen that have not happened yet. When Lucas and I were flying invisibly, both were able to detect us by the smell our slings left behind us. Marie was able to smell the Wilizy/Asia when it was high in the air."

Those revelations produced a buzz in the group. Jock took the opportunity to activate his sling, slip invisibly along the side of a wall, and hover near Nary's corner. Both Marie and Nary looked up at him as he approached. Nary's red eyes flashed open. "Go away," Marie said. "You are not safe there." Jock did, satisfied that they had the powers that they claimed. A military mind always assesses risks in uncertain environments.

"I took Nary inside my sling, flew up to the ship, and then gave Marie an aerial tour of their island." _I've established that they can't hear our mind messages._

_But sending any more mind messages in front of our guests would be rude,_ Yolanda added.

(In all the years that I knew her, Yolanda was always about doing the right thing. And being neat and tidy about it. If she were in a situation where it was necessary to slit somebody's throat, I expect that she would do it calmly and efficiently. Then she'd pull out a hanky, spit a couple of times into it, and say, "You have blood around your neck. Here, let me get that for you." We'll go back to Theo now.)

"I thought that it would be a good idea if I brought them to the ship after the rescue so that they'd be safe here. They can't continue to live on that slave island."

"Shango and Theogun are going to take me to where I used to live," Marie added. "I have many slaves to rescue and more bosses to kill."

That certainly got their attention.

"Where did you used to live?" Yolanda asked.

"A place called Safe Haven Ranch #2," Marie answered.

"Hoo, boy oh boy oh boy!" Wanda exclaimed.

### # # # # # # # #

"Why don't we all relax a little?" Yolanda was trying to make this into a normal social gathering. Voodoo royalty, a snarly panther, and chastened wolves. Yup. Just a normal social gathering. Marie was the first to act on Yolanda's suggestion. She sat down on her pad next to Nary and extended her hand to touch her. Nary swatted the hand away and pulled on Theo's pant leg instead.

"Nary has not been her usual self," Marie explained. "She knew that she'd have to leave the island, but that's been her home all of her life. She didn't want to leave. In addition, her panther had to kill one of the bosses who had come to the island to kill us. Nary is used to being with the panther when it hunts, but this was her first human kill. That upset her. She and her beast have never been in a place where there are so many people. The beast is still angry and Nary is a little scared. Theogun, the beast will calm down if you stroke Nary's hair." Marie made room for Theo to sit next to Nary and patted the deck with her hand. And with that, Marie invited Theogun, the protector, into their lives. He wasn't a timid grass eater after all.

Seeing how Marie and Nary had made themselves comfortable, Yolanda motioned everybody else onto the deck too. Wolf and Hank offered Doc and Granny comfortable chairs only to receive firm shakes of their heads. In a few minutes, the Wilizy were all in a giant circle. Nary bundled herself into a blanket and curled up with her upper body across Theo's outstretched legs. He found the rhythm of stroking her hair that she needed and her red eyes changed to black and soon closed.

Yolanda turned to Theo. "Perhaps you could tell us why Nary has never seen so many people before and how she got that beautiful name."

So Theo did. And as he described in detail, and in compassion, what their lives must have been like, Marie relaxed. And every Wilizy hearing the story wondered how they could have survived like that for fourteen odd years.

### # # # # # # # #

It was a subdued group of warriors that the three male time-travellers found in the ship's living room when they rushed in from the deck.

"It took us some time to get into the building. It's all locked down tight because of the holidays," Wolf explained their late arrival.

Granny spoke quickly before anybody could mention time-travel. "Wolf, we have visitors and we haven't finished meeting with them. Perhaps the three of you could talk outside with your dad and tell him what you found? He can tell you what's happening here. Meanwhile, I want to ask Marie some questions."

The three men just stood there, baffled. They had been expecting an onslaught of questions about Lucas.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Granny asked and finger-shooed the three time-travellers out of the ship and motioned Hank to join them. Granny looked around and saw the other men. "This is now a Raging Gardeners meeting, guys. Get some fresh air."

When the women were alone, Granny continued. "Marie, I hope you don't mind a personal question, but would you tell us how old you are?"

"I don't know," she said. "I was brought to the ranch when I was thirteen. I was a slave for a very long time. I had stopped being a woman long before they caught me poisoning Big Daddy's food and sent me to the island prison as punishment. I don't know how long I was there because I don't know how often the new prisoners would come. Nary has been a woman for a few years now. Other than that, I don't know how old she is."

"You were a slave?"

"Yes. In our Safe Haven ranch, anybody who wasn't pure black was a slave or a boss. Some of our youngsters were taken away from us each year. We never saw the girls again. Some boys were brought back, but they'd be bosses and would whip the slaves if they were ever told to. Every year, Big Momma would bring new young girls to the ranch. They would work in the Big House and would become mothers. Big Daddy would take care of that. Their babies would be put into the slave nursery and later, the youngsters would work in the fields with their moms. Too soon, both the boys and the girls would disappear and new white slave girls would arrive, work in the Big House, and become mothers."

"Were they always blondes?"

"No. I was a blonde when I was young, but most of the girls had brown or black hair."

"And I'm sorry to ask, but..., Big Daddy and you?"

"No. An old woman helped me to escape that."

"How?"

Marie stood up and lifted her shift to her throat. "He never became interested," she said.

### # # # # # # # #

Momaka was below deck with Marie. During a break, the directors had had a quick meeting to decide if they should reveal their time-travel capabilities to their visitors or not. They agreed that they might as well because Marie would find out anyway. They asked Momaka to talk with Marie because her powers were similar to Marie's. Momaka was standing now with Marie in Dreamer's bedroom. Nary was still sitting on the deck with Theo. Every Wilizy woman had had an idle thought or two about the fact that Nary skin was touching Theo skin.

"We are a large family of adults and children with special skills and powers," Momaka started. "We use those skills and powers to bring evil people to justice. If that doesn't work, we take justice to them. Some of us have been searching for Safe Haven. Others were working on other projects. It is very important for our future as a family that our secrets remain secret. You know some of them already. Our ability to fly, for example. If you remain in our midst, you will learn them all. We are willing to help you travel to Safe Haven Ranch #2, and even help you bring justice to the slave owners if you want our assistance. In return, we'd ask that you not reveal our secrets to anybody."

"You'd fly us there in your ship?"

"If that is what you want."

"That's what was foretold."

"You can see details like that in the future."

"Only if it involves my curses."

"We have a member of the family who can see into the future too."

"Do her curses always come true?"

"Yes, but she doesn't see everything that's going to happen in the future."

Marie nodded. "This meeting was not foretold."

### # # # # # # # #

"One of the secrets you'll learn is very important to us. We all have the ability to visit the past and see what has happened. Three of our people did that today and were able to discover what had happened to our Lucas, your Shango. He is alive, but barely. We have a small amount of time to rescue him. We cannot help you with Safe Haven ranches right now."

"Shango needs to come with me when I go home. Theogun too. That's why I called them."

"That will be another reason why we need to rescue Shango. Would you like to join us in our meeting upstairs?"

"But keep everything a secret from anybody not on the ship?"

"Yes."

"Nary and I will do that. But perhaps you would do us a favour?"

"Perhaps we might."

"You say that you can go back in time?"

"Yes. But we don't change the past. We only look."

"Could you take Nary and me back to New Orleans in the 1800s."

"We could do that."

"Are you the boss of the family? Is that why you're here?"

"No. We don't have bosses the way you think of bosses. Each of us adults does what we do best to help the family on its projects. Sometimes that means taking charge; sometimes it doesn't."

"Why did they send you?" Marie asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Because like you, I have a companion."

Marie did a circuit around Momaka, sniffing her up and down. "I do not smell your companion," she said.

"It may not be a smell that you would recognize."

"Show me?"

"This cabin is too small. My companion hates being confined. He would cause a lot of damage if I let him loose in here."

### # # # # # # # #

Wolf opened the next part of the meeting by giving them an overview of what he, William, and TG had been able to accomplish. "We were not able to get into the courthouse by following Lucas inside. A man in a blue uniform barred the entrance. We had to go further back in time, come in with a crowd, go up to the top floor, and leave a window in one of the turrets unlocked. From now on, any Wilizy wanting to enter the courthouse will be able to go through that window."

"We went back to the time when Lucas came into the building, followed him into the courtroom, and began recording. Some very nasty people tricked him into coming into the courthouse and then put him on trial. We saw and heard everything. After they found him guilty at the trial, they took Lucas into the basement. We couldn't follow without being noticed and we weren't able to reach the basement after they left. We know only that Lucas is imprisoned in a cell down there. William has an idea for a de-locking tool that will give us access to that basement. He'll make that tool tonight."

TG took over. "We are certain that Lucas is alive. We have about one hundred hours to rescue him. I'm going to show you a recording of the trial. What you'll see will be hard to watch. It may be best if Winnie and Reese didn't see it."

Both refused to leave.

Nobody spoke when the tape ended. Mac stepped up to the front.

"We have two operations to run. One will be _The Rescue_ and I will serve as battle commander. The second will be _The Justice_ and Melissa will serve as strategist. There are too many of us for everybody to be involved in Lucas' rescue. We need to move fast and that means that we can't have a lot of discussions. We need quick decisions and faster actions."

"One rescue strategy comes quickly to mind. Find a way to get into that basement and stop Mavis from giving him a new dose of poison every day. If we can do that for one day, the poison will leave his body. Then, we have to find a way to break him out of the courthouse. Ideally, we'll be able to do that without creating a huge mystery. But if that's the only way we can rescue him, that's what we'll do. I'd like the following people to serve on the Rescue Team: Doc, Granny, and Winnie for medical help; TG, William, and Wolf for time traveling and drone surveillance; Theo because you know Lucas the best; Hank and Yolanda as Strike Force #1. Winnie's wolves can stay so long as they behave themselves. The rest of you can work with Melissa on the Justice Team but that will come later."

### # # # # # # # #

Warriors were saying their goodbyes as the members who wouldn't be involved in the rescue plan prepared to leave the ship. Yolanda noticed that Marie and Nary were sitting on the deck and watching. She gave herself a mental slap to the head and approached them. "We were hoping that the two of you would be able to help us with Lucas' rescue."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 4

Thursday afternoon, December 26. The Rescue Team was preparing to scout the interior of the courthouse building, and if possible, sneak into the basement to see Lucas and how he was imprisoned. Doc had his medical kit; Hank also had a kit of tools that they might need. Burglars might call them break-in tools.

But before the break-in, they first had to figure out how they were going to leave the ship. Marie wanted Nary to get into a sling with one of the women; Nary had another idea. As they were clustered around preparing to leave as a group, Nary hid behind Theo, clutching onto his arm. She'd swat at anybody who came close. Occasionally that swat came perilously close to being a claw. Marie went to her packs of possessions, brought out two blankets, and started to wrap Nary in them.

Granny and Yolanda gently took Marie aside. "Taking blankets could be dangerous," Granny said. "If the blankets came undone, they might set of alarms. We understand that you want to prevent Theo from having physical contact with Nary, but he's not a threat to her."

"Nary doesn't know anything about sex."

"Why don't the three of us keep an eye on them instead of wrapping Nary in blankets?" Yolanda suggested. "None of us want them tempted by sex."

So that's why Nary got to travel in Theo's sling like she wanted. Marie joined Mac in her sling. Initial entry into the building was easy, but Mac had the group stay in the turret room where they had entered. She, Theo, Wolf, and William activated some sensors and went looking for security cameras in the building. As they were descending by stairs to the main floor, Mac asked William if he could fit Marie with her own sling. "First thing tomorrow morning would be good," she urged.

The scouts returned to the turret room thirty minutes later. So long as they used the elevator to move from the turret room to the basement, they'd be safe from detection. They didn't know about the security in the basement because they had been unable to get down there. The elevator had a button for the basement, but it wasn't working. The staircase into the basement ended in front of a locked door. Still, Mac was optimistic.

They decided to try the elevator first. Hank unscrewed the button panel and found that the wires to the basement button had been unfastened. That made for a quick fix. When they reached the basement level, Mac pushed the button to keep the doors closed while TG slipped a sensor under the doors and scanned the hallway for security cameras. "There's nothing down here to worry about," he said. Mac let the doors open, but held up a hand to stop everyone from getting out.

"One more check," she said and flew face down to the end of the corridor and back scanning the floor closely.

"Lucas is in an open cell at the very end of this corridor. He appears to be sleeping. We're in a basement with cement walls and a ceiling that is bound to shed dust, but I saw no footprints or wheelchair marks on the floor. I should have seen some. Somebody is cleaning up. We'll have to clean up too before we leave. Try not to stand on the floor too much. There's room in Lucas' cell for everybody to see him, but let's give the medical team lots of space."

Lucas was lying flat on his back on a bed that hung out from the wall. A tray of food and a bottle of water were on the floor of his cell, well away from the bed. Lucas' eyes were closed. Doc did a quick check. "He has a big bump on his forehead, his heart is beating properly, and he's breathing naturally. When I opened his eyelids, his eyes were unfocused and his pupils did not respond to light. The bump on his head would have been severe enough to cause a concussion and that's what I believe he has. I have no idea how long it will take for him to come out of his concussion."

Mac had Winnie use her pinky-ring to take a picture of Lucas lying on the bed so that they could always make sure he was back in that position when they left the building. That would be Winnie's job because she would spend the most time with him. Granny and Doc pulled Lucas far enough into a sitting position for Winnie to slip behind him. She wrapped her arms around him so that her hands were touching his forehead and Doc let Lucas fall back against her. "OK?" Granny asked.

"For now," Winnie said.

### # # # # # # # #

While the health team was looking after Lucas, Mac gave instructions to the others. Wolf and TG were to search for another way in and out of the basement so that they could use that as an explanation for Lucas disappearing. Hank and William would search all of the rooms that were on the same level as the courtroom for signs of Mavis' drug. If they could get into the courtroom, they'd be able to recover Lucas' sling. They would also look for Lucas' pinky ring in that room. If all the rooms were locked, they'd return tomorrow to unlock and then search them. Mac would search the building's exterior for signs of an alternate entrance/exit. The others could return to the ship for now.

"For those of us staying here," Mac gave final instructions: "We'll pack up and go in an hour. Everybody has to leave at the same time so that we'll remember to disable the elevator and leave it on the ground floor where it was."

"I'll start supper," Yolanda said.

"We don't have much food in the ship," Theo admitted. "Both Lucas and I are broke. I can buy something from the university but we don't have much money left in the account."

### # # # # # # # #

The Wilizy had a small supper of sandwiches with fillings from various tin cans and bottles. They all gathered in a group in the living room to eat off plates on their laps. "I've messaged Wizard that we'll need money that Toronto shops will accept," Yolanda said. "He'll express it to us tonight. We can start eating properly tomorrow."

"I've worked in a kitchen," Marie offered. "Nary knows her way around a knife," she added.

That brought everybody's attention to Nary who was the only human sitting on the deck. The food in front of her was untouched. Smelled, yes. Touched, no.

"Are you not hungry, Nary?" Yolanda, probing.

"No meat," Nary said.

Theo explained.

"Nothing but meat for fourteen years?" Yolanda exclaimed in astonishment.

"We ate what was in the stomachs of the animals we killed," Marie explained nonchalantly.

"That's how all large predators in the wild get the full range of nutrition they need," Doc explained. "That's what Winnie's wolves do."

The wolves in question were on the far side of the deck from Nary and polishing off some paste that Yolanda had created for them. Nary got up, ventured towards them, peered, and smelled. "I'll have what they're having," she said.

Marie added _Manners_ to the mental list of lessons she would be giving Nary soon. At the top of the list was _Not undressing in front of people other than Marie_. The second lesson on the list dealt with using the cold, hard, white open seats that were in the tiny closets in the ship.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 5

It's still the evening of December 26. The Wilizy on the rescue team had sorted out their sleeping arrangements and had gone to bed. It wasn't quite bedtime yet back west at Ranch #4. Two people were meeting in the root cellar that night – its normal pitch-black interior lit by a beef tallow candle. They were the same two people who had been whispering in the root cellar after Karita had arrived at the ranch in September.

"Big Momma believes that Karita is dead," the male voice said.

"Good," the female voice replied. "Thank you."

Silence.

"Did you manage to prevent the other bosses from looking in the back of the transport copter?"

"Yes. I told them that I had to fix the bridges to the huts before they could empty the cargo in the copter. Boss #1 took the other bosses away from camp to cut firewood. I poked my head into the front of the transport copter and tried to reassure Karita. I couldn't see her from the front, but you had seen her sneaking into the copter so I knew she was there somewhere."

"Karita," I said. "Pililiani sent me. I won't hurt you or tell on you. I'm going to open the back hatch of the copter. Don't make any noise or try to run away. OK? I'm going to give you some gifts that Pililiani sent."

"Did she say anything?"

"No. I opened the hatch real slowly, ready to nab her if she tried to run. She was squatting down in a tiny space. She looked at me with this hard stare and had the scissors poised to strike."

"I told her that I was a friend and I was going to reach into my backpack to bring out your gifts. She didn't say anything but she didn't try to run either. I pulled out your story and held it out for her to see. The special one. #11. She recognized it. I opened my backpack and showed her the extra food and clothes you had snuck to me. I asked her if she would like the gifts and she nodded. I asked her if I could put your story into her backpack and she nodded. Would she like me to move her things from the onion sack into the backpack? She nodded again. I said that now would be a good time to sneak out of the copter and hide somewhere else. The bosses would return soon. That's when she spoke for the first time."

"I don't know where to hide," she said.

"Would you like to hide in my copter?" I asked. "Nobody will look in it. You'll be able to stretch out on the floor on a blanket. I have more blankets for you if you want."

"OK. Is Pililiani mad at me?"

"No, she's happy for you. She wants you to be free. Would you like to walk with me to my copter now?"

"My legs won't move."

"Would you like me to carry you?"

"She nodded and whimpered a bit when I lifted her out of the crouch she was in."

### # # # # # # # #

"I had looked closely at the island and the surrounding area when I flew in, so I knew that there was a good sized community on the Canadian side of the rivulet. I waited for it to get dark, used an approaching thunderstorm as an excuse to go back to Big Daddy's copter, disconnected the tracker, placed it under a tree, and took off. Karita never said anything. She just stared at me with those hard eyes and with the scissors ready in her hand. I landed near the Canadian community and walked her in with me. It was late and the place was deserted. I found the local food store and it had an alley next to it. I wrapped her there in blankets and put her backpack in her lap."

"You'll be safe here tonight," I said. "Tomorrow, when there are people on the street, take your blankets and put them on the sidewalk in front of the food store. Sit there with your backpack behind you so that you won't lose it. When you see a lady that looks nice, ask her if she'd give you some food. If she ignores you, try another lady. Don't ask any man. Don't go away with any man. Only ask the women. Somebody will help you."

"Tell Pililiani that I have to find my mommy and daddy," she said.

"She knows. I have to take those scissors now. People won't like you holding scissors like that. They'll stay away from you and won't help you."

"She gave me the scissors and I said good bye. She said something strange when I was leaving."

"What did she say?"

"My name is Maddy."

"That was her name before she was kidnapped."

"I did all I could, Pililiani. I had to come back to the ranch and you know the reason why."

### # # # # # # # #

"What happened next?"

"I flew the copter back to the island in the dark and set it down. Fortunately, the moon was high and the thunderstorm had blown over. When dawn approached and I could see my hand in front of my face, I took the copter, created a rough camp where Karita could have stayed the night, and made signs that she had been taken by an alligator. Then I flew back to the camp and put the tracker back into the copter. By this time, things were happening in the slave village. I went to explore and you know the rest. Boss #2 found the evidence that I had planted and concluded that Karita was dead."

"So she's in that community in Ontario."

"And she'll tell somebody about her mommy and daddy, and perhaps there's a missing poster about her. And somebody will reunite her with her parents. But we can't be those people, Pililiani."

"I know."

### # # # # # # # #

"Do the house and field slaves know what happened to the bosses on the island, Pililiani?"

"That they're dead, yes. Not how. I'll tell them how they died early tomorrow morning. The cattle slaves will find out when one of them comes in for supplies."

"You'll tell them that they were killed by two big beasts?"

"No. I'll tell them that they were killed by Voodoo. That woman standing on the water was Marie. I don't know where those beasts came from, but Marie had her revenge like she said she would. She'll be coming back to the ranches now to kill the other bosses and slave owners that she had cursed. We have to get ready. I'll tell the other housekeepers when I have a chance. Will you be coming to the meeting tomorrow morning?"

"To hear you preach? I heard enough of that as a child, Pililiani. There's no such thing as Voodoo."

"Is that the official word out of the bosses' camp?"

"Yup."

"Good. Keep telling them that, Yuri."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 6

It was Friday morning, December 27. Doc and Winnie breakfasted on toast and peanut butter and were off early to help Lucas. Doc took his medical bag which now contained a screwdriver for the elevator panel. Winnie had Momaka's acupuncture needles plus some pads she could place against the concrete wall and lean against. Winnie was planning on being there for the day, except when Snoozer and Mavis came in. Doc would keep a watch for unwelcome visitors entering the building. Granny would spell Doc off later and bring food and drink for Winnie.

The four warriors from the satellite compound also rose and ate early – peanut butter and toast – and were gone. William had a prototype of a door-unlocking filament to try. Mac would explore the building's interior and exterior again for an escape route. Wolf and TG would visit Toronto's current city hall and ask where they might find blueprints on the old city hall.

Hank, Yolanda, Marie, and Nary had risen early as well. Hank was planning to meet William at the courthouse and help test his unlocking mechanism. Yolanda told Marie and Nary that she and Theo would buy some food and would be back soon. Nary offered to help Yolanda butcher the meat which Marie thought was a good sign after the talk she had had with her about manners before they went to bed. Yolanda said that butchering wouldn't be necessary, but thanked her for her offer.

### # # # # # # # #

An hour later, Yolanda returned to the Wilizy/Asia to find Nary and Marie in the living room. Both were sitting on the floor and Nary was reading to Marie from a picture book. "I have food," Yolanda announced. "Marie, I also have a sling for you to wear. A sling is the suit of invisible wire that we wear and which allows us to fly and to become invisible. We'll eat some breakfast and then I'll show you how to use it. I was thinking that after that, we should find some other clothes for you and Nary to wear. Nary has very unique clothes and they suit her well. But the Wilizy try not to be too noticeable with the clothes we wear, so she'll need the same kind of clothes that kids her age wear."

"You don't make your own clothes?" Marie asked.

"We can and we do. Deer hide mostly. But we don't have time for that now, so we'll go to a place where we can buy clothes."

"What's _buy_ mean?" Marie asked.

"I'll explain on the way."

But first, they had breakfast to get through. Nary complained that there was no meat and she wasn't interested in what Yolanda had brought. Yolanda explained that wild animals didn't live in Toronto because it was too full of people. Hunting them wasn't possible, but she had other kinds of food that were just as tasty.

Out came the bread and the peanut butter. Marie showed her how to open the jar, how to put peanut butter on a knife, and how to spread it. The ship even had a special knife for that – one that wasn't as big or as sharp as the large blade Nary was accustomed to using. Yolanda and Marie both prepared a sandwich for themselves while Nary watched, sniffing. "You try making one," Marie said after taking a bite out of hers.

Nary did. But she found the knife hard to handle, so she put it down on the floor, stuck her finger in the jar, and used that to spread the peanut butter on some bread.

"Was it good?" Yolanda asked as Nary's finger went peanut butter diving for a second sandwich.

"Mpphhh," Nary replied. She stuck a finger in her mouth, pulled out the paste that was still sticking to the roof of her mouth, looked at it, smelled it, and put it back in.

"Milk?" Yolanda asked Marie.

"Let's try water."

### # # # # # # # #

Marie's sling lesson only took an hour because William had restricted the sling's capability to flying slowly, becoming invisible, and mental messaging. He denied her access to weaponry and to time-travel. "Last month, I saw myself flying through the air," Marie confessed. "But I didn't know how I would be able to do that."

"It'll be harder to give Nary a sling," Yolanda warned. "Doc has to install an electronic plug in the back of Nary's head and that will hurt. He will do it as painlessly as he can.

When they returned to the ship after the lessons, they found Nary squatting on the floor in the living room trying to read a picture book. The peanut butter jar was beside her. Empty. A large spoon was sitting in the jar and it had bits of peanut butter residue on its surface. Nary's hands were clean.

"My finger wasn't long enough to dig out all the peanut butter. I found this thing in the galley. It works better because it holds more peanut butter than my finger and I can eat it at the same time as I read."

"That's good," Yolanda said. "All our boys love peanut butter. I thought you might too."

Nary's eyes shifted back to the book. Marie coughed and looked at her.

"Thank you for giving me peanut butter to eat," Nary said.

"You're welcome."

### # # # # # # # #

Supper in the Wilizy/Asia was an opportunity for everybody to talk about their day. Lucas' condition was foremost on everybody's minds.

"I'm not having any effect on Lucas, either with my hands or my needles," Winnie warned. "The poison is too strong. I'll continue, but if I'm going to do any good, we have to stop Mavis from dosing him up every day."

Doc took over. "Mavis and Snoozer arrived at 3:30. That will probably be the schedule they'll keep. We'll know better tomorrow. Mavis inserted what we call an I.V. drip into Lucas' arm and attached a leak-proof bag to it. The poison will be in a solution inside that bag. It took thirty minutes for the contents of the bag to drip into Lucas' body. When it was empty, she disconnected the bag and threw it into a corner of the cell. Mavis remained in the cell the whole time the poison was transferring. We will be unable to stop the poison drip once she starts it. However we have some good news. She left the needle that carries the poison into his body in place. Granny will tell you why that's good news, of a sort."

"Leaving the needle in place means that Doc can create his own solution that we can feed into Lucas' arm without leaving any new needle marks that might be noticed. Doc's solution will keep Lucas hydrated and will give him some nutrition. This will mean that he won't die of thirst or starvation. We have one problem. With all that liquid coming into Lucas' body, his body will need to expel it. Doc will take care of that, but you don't want to know how. Not at the dinner table, at least."

Hank continued. "William made a filament that allows us to see inside the mechanism of a door lock. The filament allows us to open any locked door and lock it afterwards. We searched all of the locked rooms close to the cell or close to the courtroom. We were hoping to find the place where Mavis had hid her poison. We didn't find that. But Mac, Theo, Wolf, and TG all have their own unlocking filament now and know how to use it. We'll keep looking."

William took over. "We searched the courtroom where Lucas was poisoned and recovered his sling. Mavis kept her court recorder and other supplies like the coffee maker in a closet but not her poison. We did find the fake casts that Slider used to pretend to be injured. Normally they're very hard to take off, but these fakes can be removed easily. That proves that Lucas didn't threaten him and beat him. We took pictures of the fakes, but otherwise left the room the way we found it."

Wolf was next. "TG and I went to city hall hoping to find blueprints for the courthouse building. We had thought that we'd have to sneak into city hall after hours to look at the plans, but an office in the building is in charge of heritage buildings. They gave us access to the plans without asking us why we wanted to see them. We found nothing in those plans that would help us sneak Lucas out of the building. We returned to the courthouse in time to see Snoozer and Mavis coming in. We trailed them back to their homes but weren't able to slip into their places invisibly. We know when they are likely to leave their homes tomorrow and we have William's lock opener. Doc will help William search Mavis' house tomorrow when she's at the courthouse. TG and I will look inside Snoozer's place, but we're not expecting to find the poison there."

"I helped Mom find her way around Toronto," Theo reported. "I also went into the basement prison, went back in time ten years, and planted a drone that gives a good view of the entire cellblock. The TiTr records we'll get from the drone are something that the Justice Team will need, so I thought I'd put the drone in place now. I started searching those records and found no prisoners in that cellblock nine to ten years ago. I'll look through more recent records tomorrow."

Yolanda took over. "Wizard gave me lots of cash for buying supplies – most of it in BC Klabooies which are accepted here. He also gave me some gold coins that are accepted anywhere. We have lots of food in the ship now. I taught Marie how to use her sling and she's very good at taking short trips. This afternoon, Marie, Nary, and I went shopping for clothes together. I prepared our evening meal with help from Marie and Nary. I don't mind doing this kind of ship work right now, but I do want to be directly involved with the team when Lucas is rescued. Marie, you can go next. Tell people what you did today."

"I received my sling like Yolanda said and practiced with it. Yolanda took me to a second hand store but I didn't see any second hands. Perhaps they were out of them. Yolanda tried to explain about buying, but I didn't understand it. Safe Haven gave us our food and clothes and we never saw any of the little things that you call money. I liked the clothes that Yolanda helped me pick. This is my favorite because it has a bright colour. Yolanda gave me a hairbrush and a comb, but they couldn't get through the tangles. So Nary sliced all my hair off with her blade. Thank you Yolanda for your gifts."

"Stand up and show everybody what you're wearing," Granny said.

Marie did. Black slacks and a fire engine red top. With her hair cut almost to her scalp, she looked younger. The Wilizy applauded.

By now, Nary was all pumped to tell them about her day. "I learned that peanut butter is a very good food and I'm learning that jam tastes good too. I'm not sure about this thing called milk. I liked the clothes that Yolanda bought for me. The clothes I'm wearing now are my favorites. Thank you, Yolanda. I am trying to be polite. I've used a spoon and know now that I'm not supposed to just stick my hand into a jar of food. I helped with dinner by cutting things called vegetables. They don't taste good. I also used the white hard open seat in your little closets. Twice."

"Stand up and show everyone the new clothes that you're wearing, Nary," Granny said with a straight face.

Nary did. Blue jeans, a black belt, and a black t-shirt with a bold streak of red on the front. She too had tried brushing her hair and had success doing that because her hair was already short. Yolanda had put two bobby pins in it to keep it out of her eyes. She too was applauded.

Mac finished. "I found no hidden exit out of that basement cellblock. I believe that we're on track to find out more about the poison and perhaps stop Mavis from poisoning Lucas. We had a successful first day, everyone. Well done."

Mac didn't say that, by her count, they had about seventy hours left before the poison worked.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 7

Saturday morning, December 28. Maddy woke up disoriented and looked around her. She was lying underneath the covers on a nice soft bed. She didn't remember how she got here. The bedroom looked nice. It was time to go exploring.

The closet was full of pretty clothes hanging on a rod that she could easily reach. She saw lots of dresses, skirts, and blouses in light colours but mostly bright pink and a light green. There was also a light pink jacket and a heavy black coat. She saw two pairs of jeans and some sweaters on a shelf above the bar holding the hangers. On the floor were some black shoes, a pair of running shoes, and some heavy winter boots with fur inside of them. Also, a pair of slippers with bunny heads on them. Her backpack was on the closet's floor too. Everything was still in it. Maddy tried on a few clothes. They all fit.

Everything that was in the bureau by the bed looked like it would fit too. Socks and underwear were in the top two drawers. The bottom two drawers were full of stuffies. Maddy pulled one out and squeezed it. She knew what it was. A bunny.

Against the wall was a big wooden chest. Maddy opened the top and looked inside. Toys. Lots and lots of toys. Standing against another wall was a cupboard with four shelves. In front of it was a little stool that she could stand on to reach the top shelf. The bottom two shelves were full of books. She pulled one out and looked at it. It had lots of pictures. The top two shelves held paper of different colours and sizes. A round metal container sitting in front of the shelves held markers and crayons. All different colours. All unused. She even had a pair of short blunt scissors for cutting up the paper if she wanted to do that.

Near the side of the bed, Maddy saw a door. She opened it to find a bathroom with a big tub, a shower, a sink, a towel and a face cloth hanging on a rack. Also, a toilet.

Maddy had lucked out.

Pililiani's friend had warned her not to talk to any men at the grocery store and she hadn't. Maddy had waited until a woman walked by wearing boots and a heavy coat. Those clothes must have kept her warm in the freezing cold. Maddy was wearing both of her blankets and still shivering. She figured that the woman would be nice like Pililiani because she was very big in the sideways direction. "Could you give me some food, please?" Maddy had asked. Just like Pililiani's friend had said she should.

The lady looked down and saw a frail, cute little blonde girl shivering inside two ratty blankets. "Why are you out here in the cold? Where are your parents?" She had a nice voice. Not a yelly voice.

"I lost my mommy and daddy. I'm trying to find them."

A few minutes later, Maddy was sitting inside a four-seater copter that was parked in a flat open space with lots of other copters. The lady made sure that she was still bundled up in her blankets even though there now was no wind making her cold. "I'm going to buy some food at the store," the lady said. "Then we'll go to another store and I will buy you some warm clothes and other things. I'll take care of you until I can sort out how I can help you. You'll meet some people who will ask you some questions, but they'll be nice people."

Maddy didn't remember much more. She did remember somebody climbing into the copter, looking at her, and saying that the woman who was buying food had asked him to keep an eye on her. Maddy fell asleep shortly afterwards and woke up here. The big lady must have bought all these clothes and toys while she was asleep.

It was almost the perfect bedroom for a little girl. Only three things were missing. A window to see outside, a door knob that would allow her to leave the bedroom, and a tool that Maddy could use to take off her dog collar.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 8

Saturday morning, December 28. Another girl woke up disoriented and looked around her. She was lying underneath the covers of a nice soft bed. She didn't remember how she got here. Granny was there, waiting for her to wake. "How do you feel, Nary?" she asked.

"OK."

"Do you have any pain at the back of your head?"

Nary used her right hand to feel. "Something is sticking out. It hurts."

"That's your brain-plug. Do you remember talking about that last night with Doc?"

"Marie was going to put me to sleep and then Doc was going to stick it into my head."

"That's right. Why don't you get out of bed slowly? Let's see how you feel."

Nary jumped up instead. "The room is fuzzy."

"Just wait." Granny noticed that Nary was still wearing her new clothes. Last night before the operation, Yolanda had suggested that she could wear a pair of new sleep shorts to bed instead, but Nary refused. She had always slept in the same clothes that she wore during the day.

"Are you ready for breakfast now?" Granny asked.

"Will there be meat?"

"How about a peanut butter sandwich and a different kind of jam this time?"

### # # # # # # # #

Granny said that Nary's neck was still inflamed and so flying in a sling would have to wait. Yolanda offered to take Nary on a tour over the city and then they'd stop in at the courthouse. Nary showed no hesitation in stepping into Yolanda's sling; she showed no hesitation in urging Yolanda to go faster and faster either.

Lucas' cell was crowded when they arrived. Winnie was sitting behind Lucas again, but this time she had her hands on his bare chest. He was still unconscious. Doc and Granny were both there and Doc immediately went up to Nary, pulled up her hair, looked at the brain-plug, and touched the skin around it. "Is this sore?"

"A little," Nary said.

"You heal fast," Doc said.

Theo was flying above the courthouse looking at the TiTr tapes from the cellblock. Yolanda was sitting on the edge of Lucas' bed, holding his hand, and telling him what everybody was doing. Nary caught the scent of something and followed it to the corner of the cell where a thick bag was lying on the floor.

"Careful Nary, that bag had poison in it," Doc warned. "Don't touch it."

Nary leaned over it, smelled it, and said "Bad smell." She put her nose in the air and followed a scent to the bed, leaned over sniffing, and then knelt by the bed sniffing. Yolanda backed away to let her get closer. Nary sniffed up and down Lucas' body. Putting her hands on his chest, she said, "The smell is strongest here. There is no smell in his feet or in his hands."

"That makes sense," Doc said. "He has had this dose for eighteen hours; it would be strongest in his core; weakest at the ends of his body. Granny, try moving his feet; see if there's any resistance. I'll work on his hands."

Everybody in the cell was looking at Granny and Doc manipulating Lucas' body, so they didn't see Nary leave the cell. Nor did they see her look up at the ceiling of another cell, go in it, wander down the corridor into another cell, come out, go in another cell, come out – all the time gazing steadily at something and sniffing. When she reached the end of the corridor, Nary went into the little box that moved and stared up at one of its corners. She tried jumping at something in the corner. Disappointed, she backed up against a wall of the little box that moved and, in doing so, her hand touched a button. The door closed. She paid no attention, but took a step forward instead and jumped. Whatever she was jumping at, it was out of reach. Or it had moved.

Seconds later, a large black panther stood on her hind legs, put her two front paws together, and then slid down onto the floor of the moving box. The panther's front two paws formed a sort of cage. The panther opened her paw-cage a bit and peered in.

"My mom will have a slimy kangahoopdedoodle if you eat me," a girl's voice said. "I won't be any too happy about it either."

The panther disappeared and Nary was lying on the floor, something cupped in her hands. She was holding the something so that it couldn't escape. "What did you say?"

"I asked – Do you have a license for that beast? If not, some animal control officers will be having a serious talk with you."

"Huh?"

"Would you mind letting go of me? You've damaged my wing."

### # # # # # # # #

A minute later, Nary was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the elevator. The voice's body was standing in front of her. Nary couldn't see the tiny body too well, but it gave off the same smell as the sling that Theogun used. The voice's smelly suit was very small – about the length of Nary's pinky finger. She knew that a person was inside because the suit had two legs, two arms, and a head.

Nary didn't think this small suit was anything unusual, at least not anything more unusual than what she had already encountered. Flying invisibly in the air was normal for these people. Why wouldn't a tiny body that spoke in a girl's voice be normal too? Nary had captured it; now she wanted to make sure it wouldn't escape. "Do you promise you won't run away?"

"I can't run away. You've closed the door and I can't push the button to open it. Not with what you've done to my wing. How'd you see me?"

"I didn't see you at first. I smelled you. Then when I caught you, I was able to see you. I went after you because I thought there might be some meat that I could eat."

"That's so pathetic. I leave this world as a mid-morning snack."

"I won't eat you."

"Thank you."

"You don't have enough meat on you."

"Now you're getting all mushy on me."

"Huh?"

"What's your name?"

"Nary nary quite contrary, how does your garden grow."

"Ah. I know who you are now. I didn't recognize you."

"Who are you?"

"Azure. I'm Lucas' guardian angel."

"Shango."

"Him too."

"What's a guardian angel?"

"A sort of person who protects somebody else from harm."

"Were you asleep when the bad people poisoned Shango?"

"No, I was there. Watching."

### # # # # # # # #

"Let me get this straight," Azure said. "You're going to let the panther eat me now because I'm a bad person."

"You let Shango get poisoned. That makes you one of the people trying to hurt him."

"I'm not a bad person. I let him get poisoned because I had to. But I pulled him out of the wheelchair and made sure that his head hit the floor hard."

Black eyes turned to red.

"Whoa, girl! Red eyes are not an attractive feature for you. I put Shango to sleep so that he wouldn't be able to think about dying. He doesn't know what's happening right now and he's peaceful. He's not frantically trying to escape from a poisoned body."

Back to the black eyes. "Why didn't you just kill everybody trying to hurt him?"

"Because that's not what happened. Shango went into the cell. That's what happened. Now he'll be rescued. Hopefully."

"Nary? Where are you?" Yolanda's voice was at the far end of the cellblock.

"Nary, do you know what the word _secret_ means?"

### # # # # # # # #

"Nary? Where are you?" Yolanda's voice. Coming closer.

"I'm a secret, right? You don't tell anybody about me. Plus you hafta hide me because I can't turn invisible or fly until my wing heals."

"OK. Where will you hide?"

"Your jeans are too tight; you have no shirt pocket. I'll go in your hair."

Nary put a hand out and the smelly suit ran up to her hair and buried herself in.

"Did you ever consider using hair conditioner, Nary?"

"Nary? Where are you?"

Nary let out half of a panther scream.

"Yeesh, Nary. You want to warn me the next time you let loose with one of those? Otherwise, next time your hair will need more than conditioner."

"There you are." Yolanda said as the door opened.

"I got locked in," Nary said.

### # # # # # # # #

The physical part of learning to use the sling came naturally to Nary. She even asked if the sling could fly faster and Yolanda had said "Perhaps next week."

However Nary had difficulty understanding when she was visible and when she was invisible. "Everything still looks the same," she said.

"It will," Yolanda said. "The invisibility power doesn't block your eyes from seeing out. But when you're invisible, the sling will be tight all around your body. Try it. Switch back and forth. Think the command."

...

"What happens if I'm in the sling and the panther comes?"

"The panther will probably be invisible. Do you want to try it?"

"OK."

"We'll do it right here on the deck of the ship. Turn yourself visible. Then, call the panther. Then, try to turn the panther invisible. Then, try to turn the panther visible. Then, change it to you."

Yolanda watched as Nary sat on the floor, became the panther, disappeared, reappeared, and then switched to Nary.

"You can change bodies that quickly?"

"I can when the panther is right here. It takes longer if I have to call her."

"Where would she be when she's not with you?"

"I don't know."

"Does your panther have a name?"

"I don't know. She doesn't speak to me. She just pulls me inside her body when I call her."

"Why don't you give her a name so that you don't have to keep calling her _the panther_? Momaka named her companion _Bob._ "

"I can give her any name I want?"

"I don't see why not. She's your companion."

"Yolanda, what does the word _contrary_ mean. Marie told me once but I forgot."

"It means being stubborn; always doing the opposite of what you're supposed to do."

"I'll call her _Contrary_ then, because that's what she is."

### # # # # # # # #

Nary found mind messages difficult to send because she didn't know very many people and she had trouble visualizing faces when she didn't know their names.

"Let's try Theo. Picture his face in your mind. Then think of what you want to say."

_Hi Theo._

_Hi Nary._

_It worked!_

"Did it work?" Yolanda asked.

"I just said that it did."

"But you were thinking your message to Theo. I can't hear what you're thinking unless you want me to."

"How do I do that?"

"Picture both of our faces in your mind and think your message."

_Hi Theo. Hi Yolanda._

_Hi Nary._

_It worked, Nary. I heard you in my mind._

_The two of you have different sounding voices in my head. I can tell who said what._

_Try messaging Marie._

_She's sleeping, Yolanda._

_Bye, Nary_

_Theo said goodbye to me, Yolanda._

_Yes, it's polite to say goodbye when you've finished talking with somebody whether you're talking with your voice or with your mind._

_Goodbye, Yolanda._

"You did well. Where's Marie? You said she was sleeping. I didn't see her in the bedroom."

"She's sleeping somewhere else. She'll be back in a couple of days."

"She'll be sleeping the whole time?"

"It's her way."

### # # # # # # # #

"Yolanda, do you think Contrary would be able send a mind message?"

"I don't know. Bob doesn't. I believe the wolves do, but only Winnie can hear them. Would you like to try?"

"OK."

Contrary appeared on the deck and looked at Yolanda. Then an image appeared in Yolanda's head. A deer. A second deer joined the first. This deer was bigger. Yolanda didn't know how to get Nary back, so she tried a finger shoo at the panther. The panther yawned and a big pink tongue emerged as did some very nasty looking fangs. Yolanda decided to back up a bit. Actually, quite a bit.

Nary took over the body a minute later. "Contrary wouldn't let me back in. She was being contrary. Did she send you a message?"

"Yes, but not in words. An image of a deer, then a bigger deer. ... Oh, my. Contrary's hungry."

Nary nodded. "Meat," she said. "She needs meat."

"She doesn't eat people, does she?"

"Why wouldn't she? You're meat to her."

"Nary, I'm heading out to buy some meat right now. Tell her that."

### # # # # # # # #

At 3:35 that afternoon, Nary received a mind message. _Nary, do you know how to fly yet?_

She looked in her mind and saw Doc's face. _Hi, Doc. Yolanda helped me learn._

_Remember when you were in the cell and you smelled that poison that the bad people used on Shango. Do you still remember the smell?_

_Sure._

_How'd you like to practice some flying?_

_Sure._

_William is on his way to the ship and then he'll fly back with you to Mavis' home. She has a lot of waterproof bags here. We'd like you to smell them._

_OK._

_We're in a rush. You'll have to fly fast._

_Can I fly all by myself in my sling?_

_Sure._

_I'm ready now._

_William is almost at the ship._

"Sorry, Azure," Nary said. "I can't read to you anymore. I have to go smell something."

"I'll come with you."

Back to the Table of Contents

#  Chapter 9

It was Sunday, December 29 at 4:00 p.m. Snoozer and Mavis had left the courthouse after watching the last drops of Sunday's bag of poison disappear into Lucas' body. He had now been poisoned for seventy-two hours. The judge and his buddies expected him to die within the next twenty-four to thirty hours. Snoozer had wheeled in a cheap wooden coffin and placed it in the adjoining cell in preparation for the happy event. The Wilizy had overheard Snoozer and Mavis discussing the bets. Slider had the earliest bet: Monday, 2:00 p.m. The Rescue Team knew that Lucas would last past that time because they had been giving him liquids and nutrition. But they also had heard Snoozer and Mavis planning to arrive at the cell Monday at noon and they'd stay until Lucas died. If the Wilizy were planning to sneak Lucas out of the cellblock, they had to do that before noon on Monday. Otherwise, the rescue could get messy.

The entire rescue team met in Lucas' cell as soon as Snoozer and Mavis had left. Winnie sat in her customary position, but waited for Nary to smell Lucas' body before putting her hands in place. Nary pointed at Shango's ribs. "Here and here," she said. "This is the worst."

"Mac," Yolanda asked as she watched Doc and Granny manipulating Lucas' limbs. "The poison bag that Mavis used today is the poison bag that Nary had smelled for you. Right?"

"Yeah," Mac said. "Nary found two bags with this poison. Mavis' laboratory had other bags with other solutions and none of them were labelled in ways we could understand. Nary could smell the poison she was using on Lucas. Doc expelled all the poison in this bag and the second bag as well. Lucas received pure saline today. We left the second bag in Mavis' lab and that's what she'll bring to the cell tomorrow."

"She has a laboratory?" Granny pursued.

"It's a second bedroom converted to a chemistry workshop," Mac said. "Who knows how this witch uses the other bags. They're not full of vitamin supplements, that's for sure. Theo, how many paralysis murders have you seen now?"

"I haven't reached current time yet, but I've seen twenty-nine murders with the poison. The judge talks with all of the victims after they're drugged, so I hear why he's killing them. I believe he enjoys showing them how smart he is. The trials are not just for people who won't pay for their insurance or are threatening to reveal what they've learned. Incidentally, I found out why we found no dust in the cellblock. Snoozer vacuums the place after each murder so that no signs of their presence were left behind."

"The judge is careful. You flagged all the murders?" Mac asked.

"Yah. I'll give the bots to Melissa plus a note on each flag and what day and time she should look at. I should be done in a couple of hours."

"OK. You go ahead and finish. I'll call you when Lucas is awake."

That call came at 8:30 that evening.

### # # # # # # # #

Theo came back to the cellblock to find William and Wolf propping Lucas up, his arms draped over their shoulders, his feet mostly dragging on the cement floor. "Arnnf," Lucas said.

"Right back at you, older brother," Theo answered and they sort of fist bumped.

Doc and Granny were sitting on top of Lucas' empty coffin in the next cell. "He can't talk yet and he has no coordination, but we have plenty of time," Doc said. "Let him sit for fifteen minutes, boys. Yolanda has some soup."

At 9:30 p.m., they all flew to the ship. Lucas would be allowed to sleep until 9:30 in the morning and then they'd return him to the cellblock. They hadn't figured out how he'd escape yet. There was still only one plausible way out of that cellblock – walking out. But Mavis and Snoozer locked both the stairs and the elevator when they left the basement. There was no credible way that Lucas could get out of the cellblock on his own.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 10

Maddy woke Sunday morning and found herself still in the pink bedroom. She was hungry, but she had some of Pililiani's food in her backpack, so she ate that. Then she started playing with the toys and reading the books. The books had pictures of funny looking animals and told a story. Maddy couldn't read all the words, but her reading skills were actually quite advanced because of Pililiani's instruction. She could understand most of the stories. Just like she had been able to understand Pililiani's note to Hanna telling her to keep her in the nursery. That note meant that Maddy could sneak into the copter without being caught.

Maddy enjoyed reading the picture books. The time passed quickly. Yes, she became hungry again, but she had been hungry before. Picture books were new and there were a lot of them. Plus, the room had blank paper as well as lots of crayons and felt pens with different colours. Later that day, she lifted the lid of the toilet, wrote her name on the underside of the lid, and went back to her reading.

That evening, she heard noises coming through the wall. A slapping sound of some kind. And a woman's voice. Crying. The slapping noises got louder and harder. The man was yelling, "Don't talk back to me." The woman's voice got louder too. So did the man's voice. "Don't talk back. Don't talk at all. Keep your mouth shut!" Then she heard sounds of a woman screaming. A man's deep voice was laughing. At times, there'd be a pause and she could hear a low murmur from the man talking to the woman. The slapping sounds soon resumed and the woman began yelling and howling in pain. At some point, those howls of pain became howls of passion. But Maddy didn't know anything about howls of passion. A howl was a howl. She had heard that slaves could be whipped; she had seen the whipping post at Ranch #4. She concluded correctly that the woman next door was being whipped in some fashion. She didn't know that the woman was enjoying it. Maddy had a troubled sleep that night.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 11

Mavis arrived at the front door of the courthouse at noon on Tuesday but had to wait for Snoozer to arrive with the key. They were downstairs in the cellblock by 12:10. Snoozer went to get the vacuum while Mavis put the last bag of poison onto the floor of the cell and checked Lucas' pulse. She looked at her pinky ring, noted the time, and made an entry onto a piece of paper on a clipboard. That paper showed the five bets and at what point in the day, each might become the winner.

"He's still alive," Mavis said as Snoozer put the vacuum down outside the cell. "Mavis, is that you?" Lucas said and sat up in the bed. "I dozed off waiting for you." Lucas hopped off the bed, fished in the front pocket of jeans, produced a gold coin, and put it on Mavis' clipboard. He would have put it into one of her hands, but Mavis' eyes were the only part of her body that was still functioning at that point.

"One gold coin as we agreed for substituting water for the poison. I don't know if you're planning to tell the judge that I died or I escaped. I don't care. I'm leaving Ontario and he'll never find me."

Lucas stepped out of the cell but paused as he reached Snoozer who was staring at him, the vacuum cleaner still in his hand. Snoozer didn't have a lot of fully functioning body parts at the best of times. Right now, he was frozen in place – perhaps by arthritis, perhaps not.

Lucas grabbed Snoozer by the throat and pulled him upright. The vacuum clunked to the cell floor. "Mavis says that she won't have any problems with you becoming a tattletale. I would have split the bribe with you, but Mavis said it wasn't necessary. She said that if she ever became worried about you telling on her, she'd slip something into the thermos you bring to work. Instantaneous death. Mavis knows her poisons. You should keep your mouth shut, Snoozer. Don't say anything about me walking out of here. But if you do talk, don't drink or eat anything ever again."

Lucas turned on his heels and walked out of the cellblock. As I said, there was only one way out of that basement. Walking out. Winnie had thought of a way to make it work.

### # # # # # # # #

The Rescue Team had discussed Winnie's idea at some length the previous evening. Not whether or not it would work. They all were confident it would work. Neither Mavis nor Snoozer carried weapons and Lucas would have most of his strength back when he awoke from being almost dead. Neither jailer had the strength or the bravery to stop him. But one of them was probably going to die after Lucas escaped. And that death would be because of the picture that the Wilizy had painted.

Enough fluid was left in Monday's poison bag for a technician to determine that it was harmless. Tuesday's poison bag lying on the cement floor of Lucas' cell contained harmless water. If Snoozer had the inclination, and a quick hand on his pinky ring communicator, Mavis would die for something that she didn't actually do.

Or Snoozer would agree to keep quiet, perhaps for half of the gold coin's value. But he was slated to die too. Mavis would certainly kill to keep Snoozer quiet. The Rescue Team was setting him up to be murdered.

However, Theo's research showed that these two were involved in a huge number of murders. Was dying for a **failed** attempt on their latest victim justice? The Rescue Team thought that it was – given the long list of murders. The reader may have a different opinion. Or the reader might be thinking about Mavis in the same way that Marie and Nary were thinking about Mavis.

### # # # # # # # #

Maddy was sitting cross-legged on the cover of her bed that Monday evening. She had already coloured on some of the papers in the bedroom. She had read some more. She had played with some toys. She had hugged a bunny stuffy. The day passed slowly and she was becoming increasingly hungry. She was listening to the man's low voice in the room next to her now. The slapping and the howling began again. There was a small hiding place under her bed, but the Big Daddy would easily find her. She hid there anyway.

### # # # # # # # #

Nary was sitting cross-legged on the cover of her bed that Monday evening. This would be her last chance to learn things from Azure. Her wing would be healed by tomorrow morning and then she'd be gone. Azure would have a new human to guard now that Lucas was safe. "Do you think I should sleep in the bed, Azure?"

Azure was sitting on Nary's shoulder so that her voice could reach Nary's ear. She was still visible in her pinky-finger size. "Definitely. Just because you always slept on the floor of your hut before, that doesn't mean you have to sleep on the floor forever. The bed is more comfortable. You'll sleep better. You should try it."

"OK."

"You have to try other new things too. Like your clothes. You only wore one piece of clothing when you were on the island because that's all you had. That doesn't mean you have to wear these blue jeans until they fall off you. You shouldn't be wearing them to bed. You'll get all hot and sweaty. Wear a loose pair of shorts and a top. If you're too cold, ask Yolanda for another blanket."

"They have more than one?"

"Sure they do. And change your clothes from one day to the next. That way, you can always wear clean clothes. You'll smell better. And wash the clothes regularly and use soap. I've shown you where that is"

"OK. We didn't have any soap and we only had the one bucket to wash in."

"Nary, that was horrible, but it doesn't mean that you have to live like that always."

"OK. What else?"

"Your hair. You have to brush it regularly to undo the tangles. Wash it with soap too. You have nice curly hair. Don't let it hang in front of your face. Use Yolanda's bobby pins to pin it back. Ask Winnie to help you find a pretty way to wear your hair. Winnie's nice. You'll like her."

"How do you know about Winnie?"

"I'm an angel, remember. We're too modest to brag, but we know things."

"What else should I do, Azure?"

"You know about using your knife, fork, and spoon. When you eat, chew with your mouth closed. After something is in your mouth, don't take it out and look at it."

"You saw me do that?"

"I may have peeked at the family once or twice, but only to make sure that everybody was ready to rescue Lucas. Nary, you have to eat your vegetables or else you won't grow up strong. Even if you don't like them at first, you'll get used to them. If I have something to eat that I don't like, I eat it first and save the best food for the end. My mother taught me that."

"Angels eat?"

"Of course we do. We need energy to guard people, right?"

"I need to eat meat for Contrary."

"Fine. But don't forget to eat for Nary too."

"Did you say that you had a mother?"

"Yah, and a father too."

"Angels have parents?"

"Of course. How else would there be new angels like me?"

"So, since you're a new angel, that means that your parents had...you know...."

"Sex. Yes. I learned that in my biology class."

"You go to school?"

"Angel school."

"I don't know anything about having sex."

"Are you asking me to tell you stuff about sex?"

"Well...yeah."

"OK, but first I have to draw you something."

### # # # # # # # #

"Nary, this place here is home plate. Over here is first base, and then second base, and then third base. Say you're at home plate and you're holding your boyfriend's hand. If you go to first base, that means you can kiss. First base means kissing. The next base is..."

### # # # # # # # #

"Thank you. That was very useful, Azure. How do you know so much?"

"I'm an angel; we know things."

"But you're too modest to brag."

"Right."

"Will we see each other again?"

"Yes, I'm sure we will."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 12

The Wilizy from the satellite compound left Toronto on Tuesday morning, December 31, 2085. Theo had handed the drone from the prison cells to William with all of the paralysis murders flagged. Thirty-seven innocent people had died. Theo had asked William to be sure to tell Melisa that these murders were only what he had found in the cellblock. "There could be more murders from other types of killings. Run away horse-drawn carriages, bombings, and snipings to name only a few. We may never find them all."

"Melissa will welcome a new challenge," William revealed. "We've been trying for baby #3 for over a year now and she's getting frustrated. It doesn't help that Mac is four months along with their second."

That revelation brought Doc's head up from his whittle stick. He was working on a panther sculpture. Contrary was sleeping on the deck and serving as an unsuspecting model. Winnie was sitting across the room and working on her own panther stick. She didn't look up. She wasn't much interested in new babies. Winnie **was** interested in how Nary and Theo were getting along. But Theo would be giving Granny, Hank, and Yolanda a guided tour of the slave island this afternoon. Nothing would be happening on the Theo-Nary front for the afternoon.

Marie was back at that slave island sleeping. Her absence didn't have anything to do with the new beds, which Nary and Marie did like. She just needed to sleep – it was her way. "Perhaps we'll see Marie at the island," Yolanda wondered.

Nary said nothing. Yolanda had as much chance of seeing Marie sleeping as Nary had of understanding why these people would want to make sticks look like a panther. Nary had difficulty understanding something else too. Mavis had tried to kill Lucas and she was still alive. In Pantherland, when one carnivore tries to kill another carnivore, at least one carnivore dies right then.

### # # # # # # # #

Have you ever watched a barn cat wait for a rat to emerge from a woodpile? The cat knows that the rat is in there; she can smell it. The cat just needs to lie in wait patiently – out of smelling range and out of sight. Eventually the rat will come out to feed – usually in the darkness of the night.

Mavis and Snoozer had come to an agreement about Snoozer keeping his mouth shut. She would give him 25 per cent of the bribe if he helped her dispose of Lucas' imaginary body in the usual fashion. That usually meant manhandling the body into the coffin, visiting a certain Toronto funeral home in the middle of the night, turning on the crematorium fire, and placing the coffin onto the conveyor belt. This time, no body would be in the coffin but they had to go through the motions in case the judge checked. For reasons that were not completely clear to Snoozer, he ended up volunteering to be the body in the coffin. That willingness might have had something to do with the mist of spray that Mavis had produced from a bottle that looked like it had once held perfume. _Eau de Murdeur_ , perhaps.

Mavis told the judge, the prosecutor, and Slider that Snoozer had won the bet, collected the pot, and had decided to visit a niece in Ottawa for a couple of weeks. She figured Ottawa would be a safe place for his hypothetical visit because it was mostly deserted. What few people still lived in the capital of the former nation of Canada were descendants of civil servants. That meant they had been genetically trained to see nothing, do nothing, and say nothing. Mavis kept the gold coin along with Snoozer's winnings and considered herself safe. Late that Tuesday night, she developed a hankering for some popcorn. A twenty-four hour convenience store was two blocks away.

### # # # # # # # #

Marie returned to the ship Wednesday afternoon – the same afternoon that Dreamer arrived to resume her basketball life. Lucas also arrived Wednesday afternoon after some time alone somewhere. He didn't mention where he had gone and nobody was tempted to ask. Coping with near death experiences needed time. Hank did ask him if he had any difficulties with his new pinky ring. Lucas remembered little of the trial itself, but the TiTr record showed clearly that the judge had taken the ring for evidence that Lucas had assaulted the judge. They searched the courtroom but didn't find it. William made sure that the new pinky ring was calibrated with Lucas' sling before he left. Lucas said that it worked fine but he was angry that he had lost a lot of personal files.

Theo started talking about getting back to the gym and Yolanda took the hint. The Wilizy from the home compound left Toronto Wednesday evening. Marie and Nary joined them and would share a house back at that compound. What else they'd be doing was anybody's guess. Other than smelling things, neither had any skills that the Wilizy thought would be useful in their own, non-Voodoo world. Hank had made it clear that Safe Haven Ranch #2 would have to wait. Any available time that the Wilizy had outside of business would be spent bringing the judge and his friends to justice.

As for that justice front, an interesting news item didn't hit the Toronto media until two days after the Wilizy visitors had left. The remains of a woman were found in a dark, heavily treed area of Toronto Island Park. A large animal had mauled the woman and had enjoyed the contents of her stomach. People in the area had heard a panther scream. This incident was reported on the bottom of the first page of Toronto's _Starry and Sunny Globe_ but none of the young people on the Wilizy/Asia were paying any attention to media news. Basketball season had started again.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 13

Tuesday morning, December 31 was full of activity. Let's look at a certain bedroom in New York State.

I can tell you now that Maddy had been left alone in that bedroom for the 28th, 29th, and 30th of December. But she herself had no way of knowing how many days she had been locked in the bedroom without food as there were no windows to show the passage of time. Nor were there clocks. The reader may be wondering how Maddy had gotten from Ontario to New York State. That wasn't what Maddy was wondering. She was wondering if Big Daddy was going to beat her like he had beaten the other slave.

Safe Haven's New York personnel officer based in Syracuse happened to be doing some personal shopping in Canada on the morning of December 27 when he saw a young blonde girl sitting in an alley, shivering inside two ratty blankets. His recruitment area did not extend into Canada, so she wasn't in his database. But since it was the season for giving gifts, the personnel officer gave himself a present of the blonde girl sitting all by herself in a copter outside of an Ontario food store.

The snatch was quick and easy. On the way back to Syracuse, the personnel officer set down in the small town of Watertown where two of his temporary parents had asked him to drop in for a visit. When he arrived, Brute and Pissy reported that they had found themselves with an acute case of _dead blonde on their hands_. These two temporary parents had developed a standard routine for acclimatizing freshly assigned daughters to their new situation. They would leave them alone without any human contact or food. At the end of two or three days, the little girl would be so grateful for something to eat that she'd do anything they'd ask in fear of being starved again. For this particular little girl, that routine hadn't worked too well. She was a crier.

The personnel officer made a quick decision. He wouldn't report the death to Safe Haven. He'd slide the new girl from Canada into the unexpected opening in Watertown. Brute and Pissy would be relieved that their little slip-up would not be punished and would willingly give him a cut of their proceeds when it came time to sell the girl. The ages of the two girls were the same; their sizes were the same. The new girl could use the same clothes as the first, play with the same toys, and use the same name.

### # # # # # # # #

Brute and Pissy lived in the U.S. near the shore of Black River Bay, which was itself part of Lake Ontario. They were living on Snake Island just west of the Old Watertown International Airport. Lake Ontario was much shallower than it used to be, but Snake Island was still technically an island. It was surrounded on three sides by Lake Ontario, and on the fourth side it was connected by very swampy land to mainland New York State. They liked this spot because it was isolated from the small community of Watertown itself, some six miles (ten km) to the east. Few people had any reason to trudge through swampy mud to their home. Brute discouraged any that did from coming back.

Brute and Pissy's home consisted of a one-level cottage. Unlike the more secure bunker-based homes that housed the kidnapped girls of Washington State, a home on swampy ground could not have a basement. Dig down into that soil and you'd be hitting water soon. However they did have a well-secured bedroom on the ground floor for their mini-guest. The floor of the bedroom was solid wood. If a young girl managed to break through that wood, she'd have to dig deep into the sandy loamy ground to escape under the cottage, but the soil would allow no such tunneling. Cement blocks backed the four walls of the bedroom. There'd be no escape that way. Cements blocks were too heavy to place in the ceiling, so the Safe Haven contractors had devised a different way to prevent escape that way. They made the ceiling too high to reach. Brute and Pissy had put nothing in the bedroom that could be placed on the floor, or even on the bed, that would allow a young girl to reach the ceiling. Not even an adult could reach that ceiling. In addition, as already mentioned, the bedroom had no window to the outside and no doorknob on the inside of the door. They didn't need to electronically seal their new prisoner into her bedroom at night; they just walked down the hallway and pushed the door shut behind her as she entered.

There was no risk of their young prisoner escaping from the home itself when she was out of the bedroom. Yes, she could slip out the front door. But the security transmitter hidden in Brute and Pissy's bedroom was set on a short leash. She'd be zapped if she stepped too far away from the house. And even if somehow she managed to unfasten her dog collar, where could she go? Swim across Lake Ontario? Walk through the swamp back to Watertown? The whole area around the cottage was full of water snakes lying in small colonies on rocks near the shore. On Maddy's first outing outside of the cottage, Brute would ensure that she saw them. But that pleasure was still to be experienced.

### # # # # # # # #

"There you are, you little honey," Pissy said in her happy cheery voice. "You're awake. I was hoping you'd be up. I have some breakfast for you. But first, let's find out your name. You can call me Mommy. What's your name, you sweet little thing?"

Maddy looked at the very large man looming in the doorway. He was big like Big Daddy, but not black. This was the man who had whipped the cheery lady.

"Come on honey. Tell me your name."

Maddy opened her mouth but nothing came out. Not even a squeak.

"Honey, we expect the girls who stay with us to do as they're told. Your daddy won't like it if you don't obey. Do you understand me?"

Maddy nodded.

"So tell me your name like a good girl."

Maddy opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

"I'll help you," Brute said. He pressed the button on the wand.

Maddy screeched and flailed away at the dog collar. But no words emerged.

Brute let up on the button and waited for the wailing to stop. "Your mommy doesn't like it when you cry. You don't want to make your mommy mad. Do you understand?"

Maddy nodded her head as she used both palms to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

"Tell us your name."

All Maddy could get out were a few sounds.

"I warned you that you didn't want to make your mommy mad." Brute passed the wand to Pissy.

Pissy knelt in front of Maddy, put her face close to Maddy's, and screeched at her. "Tell me your name, you little witch!" She didn't use her happy and cheery voice this time. Definitely not the happy and cheery voice. Spit from Pissy's mouth mixed with the tears running again down Maddy's cheeks.

Maddy tried, but she was too frightened. All she could get out were some incomprehensible sounds. Those sounds became shrieks when Pissy held the wand's button down.

"He gave us a dumb one," Brute observed as Maddy rolled on the floor screeching and wailing. "Take your finger off the button, Pissy."

Pissy did and they both watched Maddy try to crawl into the bathroom still wailing and shrieking.

"Mute, I think," Pissy said as she held Maddy's right ankle aloft. "Not dumb."

"Still blonde though," Brute observed as Maddy tried to claw her way across the slippery floor.

"Lock her in the bedroom?"

"Nah. She can come out. Put some food on the table. We won't have any trouble with this one."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 14

It was Friday, January 3 at about 6 p.m. Theo returned to the Wilizy/Asia to find Wizard sitting in the ship's galley. Theo had been working out in the university gym all afternoon in preparation for team practices that would begin on the Monday. Over the holidays, he had received a message that he could work out with the practice team from now on. He wouldn't be on that team, but he could work out with them. So Theo was in a good mood, tired but happy. It had taken only an hour and his shot and his timing had come back. He had spent the rest of the day on conditioning.

Lucas and Dreamer had helped Theo with his practice, but had stayed behind when Theo quit for the day. Lylah, Dreamer's housemate/coach, was back in town and wanted to work out with Dreamer that evening. Lucas volunteered to stay and help. That offer wasn't strictly so that he could keep an eye on Dreamer's shooting form. There was another form that he was interested in.

"Hey Wiz," Theo said when he saw Wizard sitting in the kitchen chair. "What are you doing here?" He didn't notice the glare that Wiz was aiming at him.

Wiz stood up and put his arms up in a strange fashion. His right arm was extended in front of his face, but bent at the elbow. His right hand was in a fist. His left hand was closer to his body, but still in front of his own face. That hand was in a fist too. "Put up your dukes, Theo," Wiz commanded.

"What?"

"Put up your dukes." Wiz had been researching the Internet for quick ways to learn how to box. He had found this picture and it looked reasonably easy to copy. The article said that this was how real men fought. The man in the picture had been the first Heavyweight Champion of the World – John L. Sullivan. He had lots of muscles. He had a thick moustache too. Dukes were fists. Putting your dukes up meant putting your fists up. It was how real men warned other men to prepare for a fight. Wizard liked the warning and the stance. The moustache was good too. He hadn't noticed that this picture had been taken in 1882.

"What are dukes, Wiz? And why are you standing like such a...." Theo was searching for the right word. _Geek_ seemed somewhat harsh, but Wiz did look like a geek right now.

"Put up your fists, Theo. I'm going to fight you."

"I'm not going to fight you, Wiz."

"Yes, you are. I have challenged you properly and now I will thrash you." Apparently this was how people spoke in the 1880s. Wizard wasn't sure how he was going to thrash Theo – the bot hadn't been clear on that. But the bot had dwelt at some length on the honour of boxers fighting each other – the warning, and then the fighting with bare knuckles until one man went down and couldn't get back up. The book hadn't mentioned that the losing boxer couldn't get back up because he had been beaten so badly that he didn't have the strength. Wizard had never felt the blow of a fist striking his face. He didn't know what he was getting himself into.

"Why would I fight you, Wiz? What's going on? Why are you mad at me?"

"I don't like what you've been doing with Dreamer!"

Here, Wizard was referring to Theo's pastime of sleeping with Wizard's ex-girlfriend. Wiz had seen Dreamer walking around half-naked in the galley and he had seen how passionately she had kissed Theo one time in the university gym. He had put 2 and 2 together.

"I'm just helping her, Wiz."

Here, Theo was talking about how he was helping Dreamer practice basketball. He hadn't been sleeping with Dreamer, although at times he had thought about that. Theo had had romantic ideas, but those had faded away to be replaced by another thought or two about somebody else.

"What you're doing is not _helping_ , Theo. You're taking advantage of her. You have to agree to stop or I will thrash you."

Wizard really liked that word.

"I'm not going to stop, Wizard. Dreamer wants me to help her. She likes it. I like it. Why would we stop?"

Well that slowed Wiz down a bit. In his mind, he had always thought that Theo and Lucas had put some sort of Vulcan mind paralysis on Dreamer and she had been participating in wild sex against her will and without her knowing anything about it during the event. The reader may recall that Theo and Lucas had enjoyed all the Star Trek bots that they had watched while they were alone in the pirate ship and waiting to ambush the North Korean freighter. They had shared their favorite stories with Wizard. Wizard's favorite character had been Spock. At the time, the boys had believed that the Star Trek bots were documentaries – real events.

"I'm still going to thrash you. For corrupting her. She used to be a good girl."

"She's still a good girl, Wiz. She's very good at this."

That ended the civilities. Wizard couldn't stop himself once he heard Theo praising Dreamer for being good at sex. He started flailing away at Theo's face, body, and anything else that he could reach. Theo had some decent skills in martial arts by now, plus his arms were much longer than Wizard's. Wizard did a lot of thrashing, but no connecting. Theo just blocked everything that Wiz threw his way. After a while, Wiz became tired of flailing and Theo got tired of blocking. Theo gave Wiz a two handed push in the chest, Wiz went down hard on his butt, and Theo went below deck without saying another word.

### # # # # # # # #

"Thanks for helping with the practice, Lucas. But we'll be doing skill work now that won't need your help."

Lucas heard Lylah's words but didn't take them in. He was too busy looking at Lylah. She was wearing a perspiration stained green t-shirt, a loose pair of green sweat pants that went down to her calves, and short white socks inside a very expensive set of green basketball shoes. Her blonde hair was done up in a bun at the back of her head and wisps of her hair were in the process of escaping. The band of cloth that wasn't quite keeping that hair contained was green. Shamrock green. Like the other green clothes she was wearing. Only the sweat beads on Lylah's forehead were not colour coordinated.

Dreamer took Lucas by the arm and steered him towards an exit. "You have to go now, Lucas. Women don't like guys staring at them when they're working out."

"You don't mind, Dreamer."

"You don't stare at me like you're staring at Lylah. I'll see you back at the ship."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas returned to the ship re-running Lylah's message in his head. He wasn't focusing on the words; he was remembering the voice. It was very close to Azure's voice. Not quite the same, but there were a lot of similarities. Obviously, Azure had tried to disguise herself by speaking in a higher voice when she had met with him, but that hadn't fooled Lucas. Azure and Lylah were the same person.

"Hey, Wiz. What's up?"

Nothing was up. Certainly not Wizard. He was still sitting on his butt – Theo having deposited him there and then departing scant seconds ago.

Wizard pushed himself up off the deck and assumed the stance. "I'm going to thrash you, Lucas."

You have to admire Wizard's persistence, but Lucas was a boxer. He could crack ribs with a single blow. Lucas did recognize the stance though. The university boxing coach had described it as an incredibly stupid way to box. He had even showed Lucas why it was stupid. Lucas knew exactly how to put a man in that stance down with one blow. That blow wouldn't be in the ribs. It would be in the face.

"Get real, Wizard." Lucas pushed by Wizard, went to the fridge, pulled out a sports drink, and inhaled it. He reached into the fridge for another. When he turned around, Wizard was in the stance directly behind him.

"I'm going to thrash you. You have to fight me. Otherwise you'd be a coward."

"I'm not fighting you. Why would I do that? Why do you want to fight me?"

"Because of what you're doing with Dreamer."

In Wizard's mind, Lucas was the main culprit here. Wiz had seen a naked Dreamer leaning over Lucas' shoulder and kissing him on his ear. They were seconds away from having sex at the time.

"What she and I do on our own time has nothing to do with you, Wizard. You aren't her boyfriend any longer."

"I suppose you'll say that both of you enjoy it."

"Yeah, we do actually. We do it a lot. We have a lot of fun. She's becoming very good at it, Wiz."

(Narrator: None of this would have happened if these males had used sentences longer than four or five words. As in, _she's very good at_ **basketball** _, Wiz._ Men and their grunts!)

Wizard didn't know what to say.

"Did you know that she's thinking of going pro?"

"Pro as in prost..."

"Yeah. Pro as in being paid. I believe she could make a lot of money. I help her practice – I would know how good she is at it. Theo too."

That ended the talking part of this confrontation. Wizard couldn't stop himself once he heard that Lucas was turning Dreamer into a prostitute. Lucas had been a pimp once; now he was preparing to be a pimp again, but this time with Dreamer.

Wizard took a wild swing. Lucas stepped inside it, put his open hand on Wizard's face, and squeezed. This wasn't the counter-attack that the boxing coach had shown him. Lucas didn't want to hurt Wizard.

"Stop it, Wizard. You had your chance with Dreamer. She's moved on." Lucas released his face squeeze.

"I don't know you anymore, Lucas. I can't believe what you've become." And with that, Wiz left.

### # # # # # # # #

Dreamer and Lylah were back in the boarding house, both exhausted.

"That was great, Lylah. I learned a lot. You're so good at basketball!"

"Yeah, well, I guess. But I'm too modest to brag." Lylah laughed and Dreamer did too. "Could you do me a favour, Dreamer?"

"Sure."

"Could you let Lucas know, gently, that what he's thinking is never going to happen?"

"He's really stuck on you."

"I know, and he's a nice kid, but it's never going to happen. It can't."

### # # # # # # # #

Later in her room, Dreamer checked her dream queue. Something in the queue had troubled her. Troubled her badly, actually. She was trying not to pay too much attention to her dreams, but they kept queuing up and they kept on coming true. The dream that had been at the front of the queue this morning had involved Wizard, Lucas, and Theo. She had seen some sort of physical fight in the ship. Wizard swinging; Theo pushing him to the deck; Lucas with his hand in Wizard's face. Harsh feelings. Three brothers violently disagreeing with each other.

Dreamer didn't know what the fight would be about. And she didn't know where she was at the time of the fight. She didn't see herself in the dream, but she could have been in the galley, just not directly visible in the dream. Since the dream was in her head, the fight was probably about her, but she couldn't imagine why that would be. She had tried to prevent the dream from happening today by staying away from the ship. If she wasn't ever in the galley, the dream couldn't come true.

Dreamer checked the queue again. The dream wasn't there. Not in the front of the queue. Not anywhere at all in the queue that was now ten dreams long. Staying away from the ship must have worked. She would have hated to have been the cause of three brothers becoming alienated.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 15

It was the first full week of January. Big Momma was on the rampage at Ranch #4. Both Renfrew and Jenkins were now wearing dog collars. Renfrew would begin work as a slave in a new revenue stream soon and Jenkins was re-assigned to the cattle business, but as a slave rather than as a boss. Pililiani was demoted to the ranch's nursery. Big Momma had awarded Pililiani's head housekeeper job to Hanna who apparently had made some striking improvements inside the nursery. Pililiani was aware that this demotion would likely mean that she'd be declared redundant next year. However, with the island slave camp destroyed, that might be delayed. She didn't care; she was sure that Marie would be returning soon to kill the people Pililiani had cursed.

The young carpenter boss was promoted nine positions – eight because of the eight bosses killed by some creatures and one more because Jenkins had been dog-collared. That teenager was now Boss #15 and he would be put in charge of the new revenue stream. Boss #2 was now Boss #1 and would be the first in line to become the new Big Daddy in the event that the current Big Daddy met with an accident. Big Momma had some thoughts about that accident. Boss #1 was not only charming but he was cute too.

The twenty slaves who had been sent to the island slave camp and then returned to the ranch, were allowed to live. They'd work in the new revenue stream. With the penalty charges that Safe Haven was assessing for the loss of a transport copter on top of the loss of an important, blonde blue-eyed asset, Big Momma was looking at a serious imbalance in her books. More revenue would be desperately needed in the next few years so that she could pay off those penalties.

### # # # # # # # #

I should explain to my readers how these ranches worked from a financial perspective. Ranch #4 produced three crops as did the other ranches. The first crop was the food that the field slaves grew in the land near to the house. This crop was sufficient to feed everybody on the ranch. However Big Momma had to be careful to control the numbers of slaves and bosses. If these numbers rose too high, they'd need to grow more food than they were currently producing. That would mean preparing more land for agricultural uses and irrigating it from the river. They had plenty of land but irrigating it was expensive. That was one of the reasons that she had sent the twenty old field slaves into retirement. To reduce their drain on the ranch's food and water supplies.

Ranch #4's second crop consisted of the cattle that they raised at the south end of the ranch. She didn't have the means to increase that crop. The land produced barely enough cattle feed and water was again an issue. The ranch butchered the weak cattle for their own use and sold the balance to a manager in Safe Haven's office who would buy all the cattle from surrounding ranches and sell them at the best price he could get. After marketing and sales fees were deducted, Ranch #4's share of the profits from the Safe Haven cattle sales went into Big Momma's books. She'd use this money to buy necessary equipment for the ranch.

Big Daddy was in charge of producing the third crop. That third crop? The baby slaves that they'd sell to Safe Haven. Big Momma made sure that the girls that would produce those slaves were kept close at hand; the less energy that Big Daddy had to use to find the young girls, the more energy he would have for crop production. Big Daddy approached his job with great diligence. It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it.

Big Momma expected each girl in the big house to produce one baby. After the birth, the baby would go into the nursery and the mother would be sent to the huts in the gully. From that point on, she would work as a field slave. Big Momma would buy new fourteen year old girls to keep Big Daddy's interest high. Big Daddy didn't know it yet, but that quota of one baby per young girl was about to be doubled. The baby slaves were the ranch's only revenue stream that made a handsome profit. It made sense to focus a lot of energy, Big Daddy's, onto that side of the business. Big Momma knew that he had energy to spare – the trips to the private bar and the floozies who worked there proved that. She also knew that, from time to time, Big Daddy would tire of the young teenagers and develop a hankering for somebody older, like eighteen or nineteen year olds. He'd wander the fields and grant some lucky teenage mom the opportunity to have another child. These moms tried to disappear when Big Daddy went wandering. The question in Big Momma's mind was whether he had the energy to double the entire harvest. If not, she might give Boss #1 the chance to work directly in the slave production business. Perhaps on an occasional basis just to see if he was suited to take over Big Daddy's role. She'd put him through an extensive interview process first, of course.

The harvesting of the crop was straightforward. At the age of ten, all their young slaves were sold to Safe Haven who would re-sell them at the age of fourteen back into the system (i.e. to ranch owners), and failing that, to interested outside parties. Very few people knew what Safe Haven did with the children for those four missing years or how many of them survived those years.

None of the ranches kept birth records. Big Daddy #4 didn't know the names of any of his baby-bearing slaves. If he had to address a white woman, he simply called her _girl_. Big Daddy didn't know the names of his sons who had achieved boss status either. Nor did he want to know. So it should come as no surprise to you to discover that he had no idea which little white girl had given birth to which little brown son or daughter. It had never crossed his mind that the white mothers who had borne his children might recognize their sons if they were returned to the ranch. Or that the sons might recognize their mothers.

Some ranch owners liked to bring their own boys back to the ranch and, in time, one of the ranch owner's sons would become the next Big Daddy. The costs for keeping the genetic records that allowed ranch owners to track each son would be added to the bill. Other ranchers didn't care. They ordered the number of bosses that they wanted and took whatever they were given.

This brings us to the new revenue stream that Big Momma was planning. Even if Big Daddy had the energy to satisfy Big Momma's new baby quota, revenue from that energy would take ten years to materialize. But Big Momma had fines to pay now. She needed a new cash crop soon. No other ranch in the area had a fourth revenue stream, so asking them for advice would be no help. Instead, she searched the records of the slaves already in the ranch's books and that search produced an interesting idea. To learn more about that idea, the reader will have to take a trip with me to a dark root cellar where two people are talking about Pililiani's new role on the ranch.

### # # # # # # # #

"Actually, I don't mind the change," Pililiani whispered. "I'll enjoy working with the moms more than the vixens in the Big House. Plus I do love the babies and the toddlers. I'll start teaching the older ones to read. I get along well with Hanna and I'll help her learn the new job – especially the snooping part. She'll keep me informed."

"For our purposes, having you in direct contact with the older slaves will help. Each one of them has lost a child, some of them two. When the time comes, they'll be better fighters."

"And you? How do you like your new job? Do you actually know anything about growing peaches?"

"Actually I do. Big Momma must have been reading my Safe Haven file. When I was in Chicago, my gang started up a peach business. Safe Haven took it over when they moved me back to the ranch. Big Momma talked with me before deciding to add peach trees to our crops. There's good soil in the gully and around the riverbank. We'll have water for the trees all year long. There are no other peach producers anywhere near us. As Wizard would say, we'll have a monopoly."

"Who's Wizard?"

"A gang kid I met. I don't know which ranch he was born into."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 16

The Wilizy/Europe filled up quickly that first week of January when all three families, children included, came up to Toronto from the satellite compound. Wolf, William, and TG were prepared to TiTr extensively as part of their duties for Team Justice. Melissa had other ideas.

"We won't exhaust ourselves," she said. "We can be away from home for a couple of weeks. I don't expect this to last longer than that. Who wants to do what?"

"I can work full time on the judge," Lucas said. "I owe him."

"I have to put in half a day on basketball every day," Theo said. Then he explained how special the offer had been for him to be put on the university's practice roster.

Dreamer had good news to share too. "Lylah talked to the assistant woman's coach for me and I have a full training load in the afternoons and evening too. I'll spend some of each day with Lylah and some of the day with the practice roster team. I can't give up those opportunities, Melissa."

"You won't have to. The judge isn't going anywhere."

Care of the children was uppermost on the women's minds. Liset would be six years old this year; Yo-Yo was two; Jock, Will, and Izzy were one; and Yollie's Hank was three months old. Mac was approaching the five month mark in her pregnancy and was already asking for some time away from Wilizy duties. Yollie had announced that she too was pregnant but would be able to help with the children. Melissa decided to put all the women, herself included, into childcare duties while the men took on the time travel research. Dreamer already knew that was going to happen, but hadn't said anything in fear of losing that dream from her queue. Melissa assigned the men to different periods of the judge's life and told them to be thorough. "No rush. We can spend all January in Toronto and enjoy ourselves too. February is soon enough to return home."

### # # # # # # # #

Back at the home compound, life had settled into a routine. All of the Wilizy returned to their business duties except for Reese who went back to school. Reese spent each afternoon after school with Annika – either alone with her or with her and her mom. For those of you who have Winnie-istic fervour, hand flesh had not connected with hand flesh yet. Speaking of Winnie, she was working as the Wilizy's chief snoop and was enjoying it. Mathias was away somewhere – only he and Wizard knew where at any given moment. Wizard said nothing about Lucas and Theo on his return to the compound. In fact, he said nothing at all. After his failure to convince his brothers to do the right thing for Dreamer, Wizard disappeared into the woods somewhere in western Canada. He ignored all queries about why he wasn't home. _I'm doing my job,_ he mind-messaged his dad at one point. _Leave me alone_ , he added tersely. This was most unlike Wizard.

Yolanda suggested that they back off. "We know where Wiz is from the GPS tracker and can find him if we need to. It's probably something to do with Dreamer. He hasn't been the same since the two of them broke up." She probably would have had a different reaction if Wizard had told her that Lucas was grooming Dreamer to be a prostitute.

Granny was the only one in the home compound who had time on her hands since the search for more Safe Haven bunkers had stalled. The Raging Gardeners knew that Marie had been on a Safe Haven ranch, but they were spread too thin to pursue that lead right now. Granny spent her time making sure that Marie and Nary were settled in. She moved them into one of the empty houses in the compound and then took Marie on some tours of the thrift stores in the area. Marie was very reluctant to purchase anything, even though Granny had emphasized that the cost was very low. "We don't need any of those," Marie said on one trip and walked away from a shelf of glasses. "We can drink from the tap."

Nary spent most of the day either lounging in the sun or hunting. The first in her human skin, the second in her panther skin. She had lost interest in reading the picture books. When Granny tried to encourage her to read and even offered to help, Nary answered, "Why should I learn to read?" She'd listen politely to the answer and ignore it. She had the same response for learning to count. Nary did work on her manners, her personal appearance, and on using civilization's conveniences like toilets, sinks, and shoes. She helped Marie with the meals – that being their contribution to the family's daily duties. But otherwise, she'd just lie in the sun.

Once Granny had explained how she could always find her way home, Nary spent more and more time prowling the woods in panther form. (On her first excursion, Nary had lost her way and had had to mind-message Granny for help.) After a couple of days, Granny asked her to take her hunting further away from the home compound as the panther was proving to have a voracious appetite. Contrary ended up hunting in the remote and very animal-abundant lands in northern B.C.

After three days of such a hunting trip, one in which Nary did not respond to mind messages, Marie went to Granny. "We have to find Nary and bring her back. If Contrary takes over her body for too long, she won't let Nary back in."

Indeed, that was what had happened. They found Contrary easily enough, but they couldn't get her to change form. Granny decided to call Momaka for help. Bob the invisible dragon made his appearance and talonized the panther into the air. The panther and Marie were duly impressed. When Marie asked Nary why she had let Contrary take over the body, Nary responded, "Why not? At least Contrary has something to do."

Granny and Marie had a long discussion. Much of that discussion centered on Theo. In spite of severe apprehensions, Marie agreed that Nary would be better with people her own age in Toronto. However she did insist that Nary re-start her reading and that she begin to learn math. Nary agreed but only if it was Theo who helped her.

Granny's conversation with Marie allowed her to ask some questions about Marie's health. "Do you become tired often?" she asked.

"Yes," Marie admitted. "I'm getting old."

"Are you tired physically or tired as in being sleepy?"

"Both. Why?"

"Perhaps Doc could help. He knows a lot about medical problems."

"Your husband is a doctor?"

"Yes."

"As in a doctor who wears a white coat and has shiny tools."

"Yes, I suppose."

"Then, _No_."

"You had a bad experience?"

"When I was kidnapped."

"I've had medical training too. How about I do any touching that needs to be done and Doc tells me what to do?"

### # # # # # # # #

"Less than one-quarter of your heart is working properly," was Doc's verdict. "Avoid any strenuous activity or you'll die before your time," he added.

Marie shrugged it off. "I know where I'll die and I know how I'll die. I just don't know when."

Later when Doc and Granny were alone, he asked about the scars on her chest and stomach. "Who did that to her body?"

"A friend so that she'd avoid being sexually assaulted. Marie told us about it in a Raging Gardeners meeting. Showed us too."

"Her body has the age of a seventy year old. That would make her about fifty-five when she gave birth to Nary. Theoretically possible, but unlikely. Here's another curiosity. Did anybody ask her how she fed baby Nary when she had no breasts and there was no milk of any kind on that island?"

"Nobody asked," Granny admitted.

"I'd be interested in knowing how a baby could survive without milk, but I don't believe she'll tell you."

Doc was usually accurate in his readings of people. He was this time too.

### # # # # # # # #

Speaking of reading... By the third week of January, Maddy felt safe enough to sit beside Pissy on the sofa and listen to her read from the picture books. Maddy pointed at words that she didn't know and Pissy sounded them out and explained what they meant. Pissy hadn't yelled at Maddy after that one time in the bedroom.

Except at nighttime, Maddy could go anywhere she wanted inside the house without supervision. Just like she had been able to do in the Big House. On one such exploration, she snuck into Brute and Pissy's bedroom and saw the chains and metal bracelets on the bed. Those things had been on the whipping post in Ranch #4's yard. She concluded that Pissy was a slave, like Pililiani had been. On that, Maddy was right. Pissy was a slave, but not to Brute. Maddy believed that another slave wouldn't hurt her, so that's why she had gone to Pissy with books in her hands. On that, she was wrong.

Pissy _was_ a good mom – when she was in her happy place. Brute himself never paid much attention to Maddy. He heard how happy Pissy had been when Maddy showed up in the kitchen one day, pulled a peeler out of a drawer, and climbed up onto a chair ready to work. "She's a nice little girl," Pissy exclaimed.

"Humpph," Brute replied. He didn't much care what Maddy was like so long as she didn't cry. If she did cry, sooner or later he'd have to report another dead blonde and he was sure that Safe Haven wouldn't be providing another replacement this time. As far as Brute was concerned, his god had provided the last one, not Safe Haven's personnel officer. After the first blonde had died, Brute was sure that he and Pissy would be fired. But Brute had prayed to his god for help and his god had provided a new blonde-girl that Safe Haven didn't know about. Brute was quite a religious zealot. He prayed to his god a lot. Praying always required a lot of prayer juice. His god's name was _Coors_. Brute enjoyed what people might say was a fluid religion.

Speaking of Safe Haven, they had sent along some bots to be played daily into the little girl's mind. Safe Haven also told them the name that she should be trained to use. Maddy would take the place of a little girl that had gone missing around Christmas. From now on, Brute and Pissy had to call Maddy _Karita_.

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# Chapter 17

Brute wasn't always known as _Brute_. In his pre-school years, he was known as _Brutus_ , the only child of two Latin scholars. Back in the time of the Romans, Brutus was the man that Julius Caesar turned to and said, _Et tu, Brute_ after Brutus plunged his knife into Caesar's back. For the non-Latin aficionados among my readers, and there probably are a lot, that translates loosely to – _Even you, Brutus?_ Brutus was Caesar's best friend before Caesar was assassinated by a whole lot of knife wielding enemies. Brutus' participation in the assassination probably cooled Caesar's affection towards him.

The modern day Brutus was raised by his parents (Robertus and Cleareta) in the only Latin college in the continental United States at the time. This was in the town of Augustus Georgia, situated in the Chattahoochee National Forest, the only part of modern day Georgia that was above water at the time. The citizens founding that town in 2037 thought that they were naming it after the drowned city of Augusta, Georgia. But the old maps were hard to read and nobody could spell back then anyway. They named it Augustus instead. When the town's citizens realized their mistake, it would have been too embarrassing to admit that their town fathers didn't know how to spell, so they created the popular fiction that the town had been named after Augustus, a famous Roman emperor. They invited Latin scholars to come to the town and study Latin. Scholars across the land flocked to Augustus. All four of them. All four came primarily to see what a chattahoochee was. Two stayed. Brutus' mother and father.

I'm sure my readers are also curious to know what a chattahoochee is. The Chattahoochee National Forest obtained its name from the Chattahoochee River that starts in that area. Chattahoochee is a word in a famous song from the 1990s that refers to the area being hotter than a hoochie coochie. This hoochie coochie item was a belly dance and yes, you're right – the ancients had some very weird words.

ChattanoogaChooChoo is a similar sounding word from the time of the ancients and it referred to a railroad. The reason that I mention this to you is because of what happens when the ChattanoogaChooChoo railroad crosses the Chattahoochee River. At this point, it is referred to as the Chattahoochee-ChattanoogaChooChoo crossing. Seeing this on a road sign is worth a trip all on its own.

When the Latin college failed (no students showed up), Robertus and Cleareta moved to Rome, New York, believing that they'd find Latin scholars there. They were wrong about that. Brutus reacted to his classmates teasing him about his name by becoming exactly what they were calling him. A brute. In psychological terms, he became a sadist. A person who enjoys inflicting pain on others, especially during sex.

Pissy now, she grew up in a normal family environment. Sort of. Her parents had named her Priscilla. The family was wealthy for the time and they lived in a fancy house in Syracuse, New York. Priscilla's mother, Honoré, gave her daughter frilly little gifts. She also dressed her in cute little clothes and gave her lessons in ballet. Priscilla grew up believing herself better than everybody else in her school. It wasn't much of a leap for Priscilla's schoolmates to start calling her _Prissy_. The word _Prissy_ would fit a person who cares too much about dressing and behaving properly and is easily upset by other people's behaviour. That's what Priscilla was. Prissy. She wouldn't be called that for long.

Priscilla didn't like the name Prissy. She didn't like it at all! She told her classmates that she didn't like it! She told them they had to stop! The teasing increased. Since Priscilla's mom had always showered her with affection, Prissy expected it from everybody. Her dad reacted to his daughter getting teased by buying her expensive gifts. Her own copter at the age of ten was one attempt to deflect Priscilla's attention from the teasing. It didn't work; it made her classmates even angrier with her. The increased teasing caused her body to react uncontrollably in a way that embarrassed Priscilla thoroughly.

At that point, _Prissy_ became _Pissy_. She moved around inside the school in a cloud of urine smell. She left school at the age of sixteen and her dad bought her a husband. Pissy produced a child one year into the marriage. It was a beautiful little girl. Unfortunately, the little girl peed in her diaper. Several times a day even. Pissy managed to handle the distress of changing diapers – she had become used to it in her own life. But when the little girl cried and cried and cried, and peed and peed and peed, Pissy couldn't cope. You might say that she made a _piss-poor_ job of coping. The baby had a fatal accident. Dad paid for it to be covered up.

(Narrator: Not to belabour this reference to a mildly offensive word... Do any of my readers know where the term _piss-poor_ came from? Hands? Nobody? OK, I'll tell you what Granny told me. Way back in time, when people worked on the land and used animal skins to clothe themselves, they'd create leather from animal hides. Tanning these skins required a mild acid. Those families that couldn't pay for this acid would bring a pot of urine to the tannery instead. These people became known as _piss poor_. Some peasants were so poor that they couldn't even bring a vessel containing urine to the tannery. That's where we get the expression: _They were so poor that they didn't have a pot to pee in._ You can now go to your parents and impress them with how much you know about urine, piss, and pee. They'll be happy that you did. Let's go back to Pissy's story now.)

A second child was produced a year later. A boy. Boy babies cry as often as girl babies; they pee too. He didn't live as long as his sister. This time, there was no covering it up. Pissy was sent to an expensive rest home in Rome, New York. They tried to cure her, but all Pissy learned was that she was sick, sick, sick. She couldn't live with the guilt of killing her two babies. She decided to end it all.

Pissy slipped out of the rest home one dark night. Crying and distraught, she bumped into a man on the street. He hauled off and hit her. It was love at first blow. Brute provided her with the punishment she craved for killing her own children; Pissy provided Brute with the willing punching bag that he needed. Psychologists would define her as a masochist. A person who needs physical pain to be happy. She became a slave to her need to be punished. She implored Brute to beat her as often as he wanted, especially during sex. Safe Haven knew their background. Ideal temporary parents were hard to find. They'd take whatever they could get.

Karita was now living with a violent sadist and an unstable masochist. So long as she didn't cry, and so long as her pretend parents didn't scare her so badly that she'd wet her pants, Karita would live.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 18

It was the second week of February and Wolf was reporting for the group who had conducted the TiTr research on the judge. The adults back at the home compound were listening in. The research had taken much longer than anybody had expected.

"The judge's name is Foster Lewis," Wolf started. "We have confirmed some things about him, but we're also making some guesses. Foster was the youngest child of six in the Lewis family. His mother's name was May and his father's name was Burt. They named their children Annie May, Betsy May, Christy May, Doreen May, Eldreadth May, and Foster."

"Not Foster May?" Yollie asked.

"Foster had no middle name that we could determine. Notice that the children's names are in alphabetical order. We don't know what that tells us about the parents. Foster is six years younger than his sister Eldreadth and thirteen years younger than the oldest sister Annie. He's currently about fifty-two."

"The family was dirt poor. They lived outside a tiny village named Cobourg that is on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario. They had a one-room shack on the lake itself. The father was a labourer and hired himself out to do jobs that nobody else would accept; the mother sewed and took in laundry that she washed in the lake. The girls would help. Foster was always considered too young to help with any family chore."

"Once a week, the family would wash their clothes in the lake and then bathe in it themselves. None of them were body shy. With a one room shack and six kids living in it, the Mom and Dad used the distraction of the family bath to slip around a bend in the lake and try to make a seventh baby. On this they were unsuccessful, but not for lack of effort. The children knew what their parents were doing. The oldest peeked first and then gradually brought the others to watch as they became curious about sex. They giggled and went back to their bathing area. Foster also watched. We have a clip of him as a four year old boy staring intently at his parents, going back to the bathing area, sneaking up on Eldreadth, and trying to duplicate what his dad was doing. She pushed him away and told her sisters what he did. They all thought that he was being cute. Over the years, Foster watched his sisters as they grew into their women's bodies. He watched intently. Every bathing day, after his mother and father had slipped away, Foster would do what any normal family would consider creepy. There were many inappropriate touches. The girls didn't mind. It was like getting an advance look at what their boyfriends would be doing. We heard them saying those exact words. No sister discouraged him; the parents didn't know."

"For years, this pattern of family bathing continued every week. At night, the family slept together in the single room on straw pads. It was too dark to be sure, but we believe Foster would wait for a sister to fall asleep, crawl inside her bedding, and sleep with her. She'd wake up in the morning and push him away, but said nothing to her parents and didn't seem overly concerned. He was far too young to be having sex, but we believe that the expectation was well established that some sister would wake up each morning to find Foster sleeping with her, skin on skin."

"Annie was the first to leave the family at the age of twenty-three in 2045. Foster was ten at the time. By then, he was definitely sexually active in some fashion. We have a clip of Annie threatening to tell her mother what he had done to her. Forest responded with, _Go ahead. I'll tell mom you told me to do it. She'll punish you, not me._ "

"Annie was extremely good looking and smart. All of the Lewis girls were beautiful and smart except Eldreadth. Annie attracted a young man who took her away to Toronto, established a business, and was successful. We did not follow the sisters after they married."

"The girls left the family home to a marriage in birth order. Some of them more hurriedly than they might have otherwise. They did this because of Foster who was enjoying each of them in turn from the time he turned fourteen. He was able to do this because his Mom and Dad had died when Foster was thirteen. Only Eldreadth remained with Foster at the lakeside shack after Doreen left. Eldreadth didn't seem to mind Foster's attentions. She saw herself as having little chance of finding a husband and Foster encouraged her belief in that. After Foster left the cottage at eighteen in 2053, she must have found a man because she had a daughter in 2055. She named that daughter _Helen_. To hide the fact that there was no father in Helen's life, Eldreadth gave her a fictional surname. _Masters_."

"Oh no!" Dreamer interrupted. "Helen Masters. That was Basher's mom. But she was having an affair with Doctor Sandman."

"No she wasn't, Dreamer," TG said gently. "She was having an affair with the judge. She'd walk into Dr. Sandman's suite and go straight through an adjoining door into the judge's suite. One of us watched them have sex. Doctor Sandman was fronting for the judge and staying the night in his own suite with his wife. We don't know why he did that. We don't know why his wife would agree to it."

Silence.

"I messed up," Dreamer said. "I didn't want to watch people have sex. I told Lucas that Dr. Sandman was Sparkle's boyfriend. Lucas accused the wrong man."

"It wouldn't have made any difference," Lucas tried to set her at ease.

"I almost got Lucas killed," Dreamer said. She was pale and her hands were shaking. "Just because I didn't want to watch Sparkle have sex." Melissa stood behind her, put her arms around her shoulders, and whispered something in her ear. Yollie also got up to provide support.

"You didn't attract attention to Lucas, Dreamer." TG added more support. "The judge had already decided to kill him. Helen Masters was not the judge's niece. We can't find the proof yet, but we're confident that it was Foster who got Eldreadth pregnant, making Helen Masters...

"... his own daughter," Melissa emphasized for Dreamer. "The judge had sex with his own daughter and he had to have known who she was. You weren't the reason the judge lured Lucas into the trial. The judge had to kill him before anybody, even his own people, found out about his incest. That's why Lucas was given the poison to stop him from saying anything at all in the trial."

"We have way more to research," William said.

"Weeks more at least," Wolf said.

"I'll be joining the research team," Mac said.

"The judge is mine, Mac" Yolanda said from the home compound.

"I'll hold him down," Mac offered.

"Hoo boy," Wanda exclaimed. "Can I be at the surprise party?"

### # # # # # # # #

Back in Watertown, Brute and Pissy told Karita that they were going to take her outside the house for the first time and give her a surprise. Brute blindfolded Karita and Pissy pulled her up into her arms and carried her into the middle of a colony of snakes sleeping on some rocks near the front door. Brute kicked some of the snakes aside to make room for Karita while Pissy put her down on the rocks. Then they both stepped away.

"Karita, you can take your blindfold off now," Brute said. He had been looking forward to this for a week. Pissy wouldn't let him beat Karita, but this would be the next best thing.

Karita took the blindfold off and looked around. She saw the outside of the house, the lake, the trees...

"Look down, Karita," Brute said.

She did.

"Don't move," Brute advised. "Those snakes are poisonous. They'll kill you." (Surprise!)

Karita shrieked and peed herself immediately. She stood there, petrified with fear, shrieking and howling, the pee running down her legs. That didn't sit too well with Pissy, and as Brute had anticipated, she stepped into the circle of sleeping snakes and started whaling at Karita's face and body. Just because Brute couldn't beat the little girl didn't mean that he couldn't enjoy watching Pissy do it.

And he did exactly that as Pissy swung and swung, and Karita covered up as best she could, too frightened to move her feet. Somehow, her body made more pee and that made Pissy even madder. When she put her hands on Karita's shoulders and started shaking her, Brute stepped in. To protect his investment.

Brute pulled Pissy away from the circle of snakes, embraced her, and consoled her. "There, there. It'll be better. Karita has learned her lesson. You'll see." Then Brute took Pissy back to the cottage, leaving Karita wailing inside a circle of supposedly venomous snakes.

It took less than ten minutes in the cottage for Brute to satisfy not only his own sexual cravings but Pissy's as well. She was still extremely angry but feeling guilty as well for hitting Karita. When Brute emerged from the cottage to bring Karita back into safety, she had stopped wailing at least. But she was vibrating in fear on the rocks. "Karita, it's not safe for you to be outside," Brute warned. "You should stay inside unless Pissy or I can be with you. Don't leave the house without us."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 19

It was the third week of February. February 21 to be exact. Yolanda had put up with Wizard hiding in the wilderness long enough. She went to her mom for advice.

"He's still working?" Granny asked.

"As far as we know. Hank says that all the supplies are arriving on time; new supplies are being ordered. The chocolate industry is progressing. The last super transport is being finished. Everything in Wizard's business appears to be fine, but he's not talking to any family member. Winnie tried and didn't even get a response. Both Lucas and Theo said that Wizard had acted strangely when he visited them. Something may have happened between them, but they're not saying anything."

"Did you talk to Dreamer?"

"No. I believe that she's given up waiting for Wizard to forgive her. I didn't want to open old wounds."

"Probably best," Granny agreed. "Who is he closest to?"

"Other than Dreamer, that would be Hank. But Wizard has snarled back at him."

"What about Doc?" Granny asked.

"I don't know. Perhaps. What do you think?"

The Doc they were talking about was whittling on the sofa next to Granny. He was letting the shavings drop right on the floor in front of Yolanda who was squirming at the sight of the floor getting messier and messier.

"I'm sitting right here, you know." Doc said.

"Be quiet, dear," Granny replied. "We're talking. Yolanda, what do you think?"

"Perhaps. He could drop in unannounced. Perhaps a pretend fishing trip?"

"Might work."

"I'm still sitting right here in front of you."

They both ignored him.

"I'll talk with Doc. He's underfoot a lot now; just sits around whittling. It would do both of us good if he were on a fishing trip. I think he'll agree."

"OK. Thanks, Granny."

After Yolanda had gone, Doc asked. "What was that all about? Talking around me."

"It's not nice to agitate Yolanda, dear. She can't help being a neat freak. You're going on a fishing trip."

"I gathered that. Do I have to catch any fish?"

"You have to catch Wizard and bring him home."

"Do I have to eat him?"

"No. Yolanda will take care of that."

### # # # # # # # #

"Where are you going," Nary asked Dreamer.

"To the gym," Dreamer answered. It was 3 p.m. and she always left the ship at that time.

"What do you do there?"

"Practice basketball. I'll work out with Lylah for two hours, take a break for supper, and then practice with the university team for three hours."

"What are hours?"

Nobody in the family had realized that Nary didn't have any concept of time. She had never asked what hours were and so, they just assumed she knew. But how would she? There were no clocks on the island. Any talk about time that she might have had with Marie would have referred to the location of the sun or the moon. Dreamer explained about hours and how many there were in a day. She didn't realize that Nary couldn't understand the explanation because she didn't know how to count. Dreamer finished by saying, "I'll stay at the gym until 9 p.m."

"Will Theo be there?"

Theo had left an hour earlier after helping out with the research on the judge's eldest sister. His practice schedule was somewhat different. "At the university, yes. But we use different gyms. Why?"

"He didn't want me to come with him."

"Only university team players are allowed in the practices. They're secret. Do you know what a secret is?"

"I do. I have a secret."

"Really. What is it?"

"It's a secret. I can't tell you. Is your practice a secret?"

"Not the first part. Would you like to watch?"

"Sure. I'm tired of this picture book. It's boring."

"Watching me practice basketball could be boring too."

"Anything is better than what I'm doing now."

### # # # # # # # #

Maddy had reached that same conclusion yesterday, although she wouldn't have expressed it so clearly. Today, she had thought and thought. Anything was better than living with Brute and Pissy. Maddy was ready.

Sitting at the door of the cottage was her backpack – the one that Pililiani's friend had given her. In it, she had put her running shoes and an extra set of everything that she was currently wearing. The pack also held a couple of felt pens and the story that Pililiani had written for her. That paper was safely hidden inside the extra sweater in case the backpack got wet from all the slushy rain they were getting. The warm winter coat was hanging on the peg by the front door and her warm winter boots were underneath. A warm woolen hat that would cover her ears was also there. She'd grab them on the way out. Everything Maddy had packed was warm. She had learned about cold the last time she had escaped. There was room in the backpack for some food. She'd put that in later.

Brute was lying in the recliner chair in the living room making snoring noises. Brute had been praying a lot that afternoon. After he had finished off the sixth bottle of prayer juice, Maddy knew that he'd be sleeping soon. She had watched and waited for the snoring noises. From where he was sleeping, Brute couldn't see the front door.

Pissy was in the back of the house doing laundry. She couldn't see the front door either. When Pissy did the laundry, she liked to stay in the laundry room the whole time. Brute didn't like it when she prayed to his god, so Pissy made sure that he didn't know that she snuck prayer juice into the laundry room. Maddy knew. She saw everything.

Maddy tip-toed in her warm socks to the kitchen, opened a drawer, and pulled out the metal thing that Pissy used to pull meat out of the frying pan. She tip-toed to the front door, slipped into her boots and her coat, lifted the small empty backpack that Pissy had given her, opened the door, and left – without permission even.

### # # # # # # # #

"Hailing the camp," Doc called. "Permission to come down?" Wandering unannounced into a camp in the wilderness was against the Hunting God's rules. Killing hunters was a no-no. Killing other creatures was a yes-yes.

"Is that you, Doc?" Wizard called back.

"Yah. On my way through. Thought I'd say hello."

"Come down." Wizard actually sounded eager to see him.

...

Doc looked around. "Nice camp," he praised. "Looks like you have everything you need."

"I planned it out before I came," Wiz admitted. On the planning front, Wiz was even better than Maddy. "You knew I was here, right?"

"Yah. Granny said I had to drop in to make sure that you were OK. I told her that you'd be messaging us if you weren't. Women! Sometimes they worry too much."

"Yeah. Winnie's been bugging me too."

"Just ignore them. That's what I do. I won't stay long. I'm going up to the Diamond Lakes system further north. Good fishing there. Had to get out of the compound. I was receiving too much grief about my whittling."

"Granny doesn't like you whittling?"

"Sometimes. Says I leave a mess. Who cares about a mess, I say. Men don't. Women do."

"Yeah, that's my feeling too."

Wizard's camp was immaculate. He took after his mother, but Doc wouldn't mention that.

"What's that on your lip, Wiz?"

"Moustache. Thought I'd grow one."

"Nice. Seems to be coming in fine. Going for a beard too?"

"Yup. Been working on that since I got here. Not much happening yet. But my face is itchy so I know it's coming in. You ever grow a beard, Doc?"

"I did when I was about your age. I didn't have much facial hair back then and you're right about the itchiness. Drove me crazy. I gave it up when a very special person in my life discouraged me. She said I was more handsome without it."

"You had a special person when you were my age?"

"Yeah. Melissa's grandmother. Did I ever tell you about her?"

"No."

"No time like the present. Mind if I sit down?"

### # # # # # # # #

Back in the gym, Nary was tired of sitting down. Dreamer and her coach Lylah had been on the shiny floor a long time. Lylah had been bouncing the ball and running around with it. It was called dribbling. Dreamer was supposed to stop her from dribbling into a big circle on the floor and banging the ball on the floor right in the middle of the circle. Dreamer couldn't stop her and was becoming frustrated.

"You have to move your feet, Dreamer. Don't reach with your hands."

"I'm trying, Lylah. I'm just not quick enough."

Nary had heard enough. She walked onto the court and stood in front of the blonde girl. "Why are you making my sister unhappy?" she asked.

"Nary," Dreamer put a hand on Nary's arm. "I'm alright. I'm having trouble learning something. Lylah is helping me."

"Are you unhappy because you can't catch her?"

"Yes. I'm supposed to stop her from dribbling into the circle, but I can't."

"Why don't you just do this?" Nary grabbed Lylah by the waist and hoisted her onto her shoulder."

"Hey!" Lylah squawked. "Put me down. No grabbing."

"Is that true, Dreamer? No grabbing?"

"Put me down!"

"Nary, put Lylah down. You're not allowed to grab a person in basketball and put them on your shoulder. You have to shuffle your feet sideways so that you're always in front of the person dribbling the ball. You try it."

So Nary did.

"I'm still up on a bony shoulder. Put me down or I'll start clawing."

"No, Lylah. Don't say anything about claws. Just stay there for a minute. This is my sister, Nary. Don't claw her, Lylah. You will **not** like what happens if you claw her."

Lylah recognized the urgency in Dreamer's voice, but couldn't understand the reason. But she did as she was asked. She was hanging like a wet bag of sand off Nary's shoulder. Nary's left hand was holding her in position while she walked around watching Dreamer shuffle. This was one powerful girl. Perhaps imitating a wet sack of sand was a good idea.

"That's not so hard."

"You wanna try it? Put me down."

So Nary did. Dreamer explained the rules. "No grabbing with your hands. No blocking the dribbler with your arms. Keep your hands close to your body. Lylah can't throw the ball into the center of the circle. She has to dribble the ball by your body. You can't just stand on the circle. You have to stay within reaching distance of her. She only has twenty seconds to get by you. You do the counting."

"What's a second?"

Lylah looked up sharply at that.

"It's how long a person takes to take a breath. This is a second." And Dreamer demonstrated. "You count to twenty now and I'll tell you how close you were to right time."

"I don't know how to count to twenty."

If Lylah hadn't been looking incredulously at Nary already, she was now.

"I'll count for you. You stand here with the ball in your hand. When you're ready, give the ball to Lylah and she'll try to get by you."

Nary did and Lylah did.

"That was four seconds."

"She's allowed to pretend to go one way, but go the other way instead?"

"Yes."

"Let's try again."

"Eight seconds."

"She's allowed to put the ball between her own feet?"

"Yes."

"Let's try again."

"Fifteen seconds."

"She's allowed to pull the ball around her back?"

"Yes."

"Let's try again."

"That was twenty seconds, Nary. You won."

"That wasn't so hard. Deer are quicker."

"Hey! Was that a slam?"

"No, Lylah. Nary wasn't insulting you."

"That was fun. How about Lylah and I play a different game?"

"What game?" Lylah was still reflecting on what had happened in the previous game. Nary had played her so tightly that they might have been wearing each other's shirt.

"How about I try and push Lylah into the corner over there while she's dribbling. If I pin her into the corner, she has to give me the ball."

"No way you can do that."

...

"Holy kangahoopdedoodle," Lylah panted.

Nary was holding the ball and smelling it. "Meat?" she asked Dreamer.

"No, Nary. Not meat. Don't eat it."

"Who **are** you?" Lylah asked.

"Nary nary quite contrary." Nary replied. "I have a last name too."

"And that would be?"

"How does your garden grow?"

"With silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row."

"You know the story!"

"I do. Girls, we have to talk."

"I need meat, Dreamer."

"Let's grab a burger, Lylah. Nary is on a high protein diet."

### # # # # # # # #

Pissy finished placing the burgers onto the plates on the table. Everything was ready. Brute was sitting at the table, impatient as ever. Pissy had a rule. _We eat together as a family._ Karita had been called but she wasn't at the table. Pissy called her again, but with an edge to it. "Karita. Supper is ready. Don't make us wait."

She heard a shriek in response. Then another.

Pissy ran down the hallway to Karita's bedroom. Karita was outside in the hallway, shrieking, hopping up and down in fear, and pointing. Pissy looked at her legs but couldn't see under the warm jeans that Karita was wearing.

"What is it?"

Karita continued to point into her bedroom and the shrieking stopped. Other kinds of noises emerged. Like she was trying to say something.

Pissy went in the bedroom and looked around. Nothing. She turned back to look at Karita. "There's nothing here."

Karita got down on her knees and pretended to look underneath something. Pissy failed to notice that everything Karita had on was too warm for wearing inside the cottage. She did notice that there was a snake under the bed.

"Brute! Brute! There's a snake is in Karita's bedroom!" What she didn't know was that the snake had been collected by a pair of kitchen tongs, dropped into a backpack, brought inside the house, pulled out of the backpack by the same set of kitchen utensils, and tonged under the bed.

"Somebody must have left the front door open again," Brute observed as he came into the bedroom.

"You'll have to pull it out. I can't reach it."

While Pissy watched, Brute lay on his belly and used a hanger from Karita's closet to fish for the snake.

Maddy slammed her bedroom door shut and went to the kitchen. She liked hamburgers. She'd escape tomorrow when it was light. Too bad for Pissy and Brute that there wasn't a knob on the inside of that door.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 20

While Maddy is sleeping on the sofa in the living room, let's look at what's happening in Wizard's wilderness camp during the evening of February 21. Doc and Wizard had caught enough fish for an evening meal as well as for the following breakfast. They hadn't talked much while they were doing that – Doc said that fishing was intended to be a quiet activity. They did talk long enough for Wizard to invite him to stay the night at the camp.

They were relaxing around a campfire that was bright enough to see the gloom of each other's bodies, but not much else. The topic of conversation had shifted back to body hair – Wizard observing that his dad, Wolf, and Lucas seemed to have a lot of it. Wizard admitted that he had no hair on his chest and his facial hair was disturbingly slow to come in.

"Wizard, you keep mentioning _real men_. Are you saying that _real men_ have lots of body hair and, if you don't have body hair on your chest, you're not a _real man_?"

"Well, no. But women seem to like men who are hairy, strong, and fearless."

"Real men are that way?"

"Yeah. Sure. Lucas is that way. He doesn't have any problem attracting women."

"And real men would probably be the type that would go to bars, swear a lot, hang out with other real men, and have a good time?"

"Yah."

"And you thought that if you grew a beard that would make you more masculine, and then it would be easier to do the other things that real men do?"

"Yah. Growing the beard might give me more male hormones."

"So I happen to know how real men live – having been around some a long time ago. Why don't I give you some practice in being one of them? You'd be ready when your beard comes in."

"You'd do that for me?"

"Sure. Here's the first thing to learn. You have to drink like a real man. Drink beer out of a bottle, for sure. No beer in glasses. No sissy drinks with umbrellas either."

"I don't know anything about drinking."

"You don't have any beer bottles in camp, but we have some water bottles. We can use those. The key to being a real man is to drink the beer as quickly as you can without actually tasting it. The faster you can inhale it, the sooner you can start on the second bottle. The more you drink, and the quicker you do it, the sooner you'll be drunk and that's when the real fun starts."

"Got it."

"You have to take the bottle, tip your head back, and pour it down your throat. Don't slow down to swallow it. Just open up your throat and fire away. It's called _chugging_. Here's a full water bottle. Give it a shot."

Wizard lasted about two seconds before he choked and spewed water all over himself. He had to make two circles around the fire before he could stop coughing. "That's harder than it looks."

"True. But with a lot of practice, you'll become good at it. Real men get drunk just about every night, so you'll want to put in some hours learning to chug a drink. You're probably allergic to alcohol so you won't have to drink as much as other men to get drunk."

"They get drunk every night?"

"Sure. Real men go to pubs, remember. For male companionship. That's what pubs are for. So let's pretend now that both of us are drunk. When you're drunk, you don't know what you're doing. But you do know that you're drunk and you want to make sure that everybody else knows it too. It's bragging. That's what real men do."

Doc stood up, began weaving around the campground and slurring. "Ho, ho, ho. I'ssse exstremibly durunk. You try it."

"Ho, ho, ho. I'm really drunk."

"Not bad for a first try. But you have to talk in a deep voice because real men have deep voices. Plus you have to slur your words because when you're drunk you don't talk so well. Plus you have to stumble a lot and almost fall. Try that now."

Wizard did.

"Do more stumbling. More slurring. You're so drunk you can hardly stand up. Keep trying."

Doc kept him working at it until he had it right. Practice makes perfect.

"Real men like to fight when they're drunk. Even with their friends. So let's do that now. We'll both stumble around and bump into each other. That will make us mad, so we'll start swinging. Let's try it."

"Ho, ho, ho. I'se so realieeee strunk. Hey, why'd yoused pusssht me? You can't do theet! I'se gwanna to teached you a leston." Doc swung at Wizard but missed and fell over. "You do it now. I'll stand up so you have something to aim at."

Wiz ended up on the ground as he was supposed to. So did Doc.

"You should roll over a bunch of times now and try to stand up, but you can't. I'll do the same thing."

They did.

"Hey, you rowed on top of me. Youse can't dew that. Ho, ho, ho. I'so struunk. I have to tich you a letsson." Doc grabbed Wizard's shirt, pulled him close to him, and pinned him to the ground. Wizard tried to roll him off.

"That's right. Keep fighting. Real men don't know when to stop."

"I'm not fighting Doc. I'm trying to push you off me so I can breathe."

"Good. Good. But remember the deep voice." Doc wrapped him in a wrestling hold and started rolling the two of them around the camp. At one point, Wizard ended up on top.

"Good. You should take a swing at me now, but miss. Oh wait. I forgot. You have to puke on me now."

"I what?"

"When you get drunk, you almost always end up puking. The stomach becomes upset from all that rolling around and fighting. Puking on each other when you're drunk is a sign that you're a real man. Go ahead. Puke on me."

"I'm not going to puke on you."

"Well, let's crawl over to the bushes instead and we can pretend to puke there." Doc did, and gave an impressive rendition. "Your turn. Don't forget to gag and moan. Puking is not a lot of fun."

Wiz tried, but his heart wasn't in it. Or perhaps his stomach wasn't in it.

"Now that we've puked, we're feeling better. We should probably move onto the swearing part now. Usually, real men put three or four swear words together at a time. You know some swear words, I'm sure. You go first."

"Dang, dang, dang, dang?"

"No, no, no. Wizard. Your words have to be so bad that women and children will flee the area. Like this." Doc let a couple of sentences fly.

"Doc! That was gross!"

"Thank you. You want to give it a shot now? I'm sure you've heard those words before."

"Not like that. I'm not going to say that."

"Fine. Be that way. It's time now that we start talking about women, but you gotta remember that we're still drunk. The important thing to know here is that real men can be charming and can talk some women into having sex with them. But behind their back, they'll be as demeaning as possible about the woman they lured into sex. Real men can't reveal that they might like a woman to their friends. That would be fatal to their image. So they do a lot of ugly taking about women's body parts. Do you know their favorite part to talk about?"

"Uh. The chest area?"

"Right. But a real man would never say _chest area_. Nor would he say _breasts_ because that's what they're actually called. He's has to say something extremely demeaning. Do you have any ideas?"

"Uhm. Boobs?"

"Too tame, Wizard. Let's see. Ho, ho, ho, I'sse sew strunk. Hey, d'yu sieze that gurllie over dere. She's sure has the guuuuuud flour sacks on her."

"Flour sacks? Really?"

"I guess not. I was just making that one up. The favorite slang words change all the time. I don't know what's in use these days. Let's make some up. The trick here is to treat women like a piece of meat. They're only something to have sex with and then throw away. You go first. Your goal is to be so gross that if a girlfriend heard you talking about her, she'd break into tears. Remember too that you don't have to make fun of her for having big breasts, you can make fun of her for having tiny breasts."

"I don't want to be a real man any more, Doc."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 21

The morning of February 22 dawned clear and bright. Not being used to sleeping in a room with a window, Maddy woke with the sun. She had breakfast and stowed some extra food in the backpack. She was almost ready to leave when she remembered the dog collar. Pililiani had said that she'd be safe from the zaps if she stayed near the transmitter machine. Pililiani had even told her where this machine was hidden in ranch #4 and what it looked like. Maddy had snuck into Big Momma's bedroom and looked at it. So when she searched Brute and Pissy's bedroom, she found it quickly. It was on the floor in their closet. Maddy pulled out the plug of the machine and its green light turned to a flashing red light. She stuffed the machine into her backpack so that it would always be close to her.

It took her only a minute to put on warm outside clothes and then Maddy was outside. She could go to her right or she could go to her left. She chose to go to the right. This put the waters of Lake Ontario on her right side.

Maddy followed the coastline as closely as she could, never losing sight of the water. But sometimes that meant that she had to climb some hills and then come back down to the water again. She paused now and then for a drink of water and a bite to eat. But she didn't pause long because she was worried that Brute would be coming after her. She didn't know that Brute had found it impossible to climb up to the ceiling using the bed's box spring as a climbing wall. Maddy didn't know that the ceiling was the only possible way out of that cell, short of somebody opening the door from the outside.

The boggy part of the shoreline was difficult to walk through. Maddy's boots kept getting stuck in the mud, and if she tried to walk, she'd leave the boots behind her. She decided to walk with her boots in her hands and that worked better. But she saw some snakes slithering around, so she put them back on and struggled through the mud with the boots. When the land started to rise out of the bog, she relaxed.

Maddy became quite cheery when she caught sight of the house off in the distance. The shoreline would take her right by it. She thought about how she could ask for help without being able to talk. When she reached the front door of the house, she realized that the people in the house wouldn't be able to help her. They were locked inside a bedroom that had no windows.

### # # # # # # # #

That same afternoon, Doc and Wizard were sitting behind some brush watching the hillside below. Doc had said that he was tired of fish for breakfast and then fish for lunch. Why not have rabbit for supper? Wizard had told Doc that yes, he knew how to set snares; Doc happened to have some snares in his supply kit that he had left on the hillside when he was hailing the camp. Wizard had set the snares and said that he would kill and dress out any supper they trapped. Doc agreed to cook. They were watching Wizard's snares from high above so that they wouldn't scare off any prey.

"You decided that you don't want to be a _real man_ after all?"

"Yeah. That's not the kind of man I want to be. That kind of man is a brute."

"Not somebody you're cut out to be, I think. But you do want to be something other than what you are now? You still want to have a hairy chest?"

"I don't know about the hair, Doc. I do know I don't want to be one of the rabbits we're hunting."

"In what way?"

"Being timid. I want to be able to fight – not like a drunk, but like a brave warrior."

"A hero? Able to defeat villains in a fist fight, sweep a damsel off her feet to safety, while simultaneously fending of nasty people who are trying to have their wicked way with her?"

"Yeah. Sort of like that."

"Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise?"

"Not a bot hero; but a brave warrior, yeah."

"You're a warrior now. We go into battle and fight for weaker people."

"You may go into battle, Doc. Lucas and Theo do. But I stay on the ship and communicate. I'm not a brave warrior; I'm only a person who knows how to turn on a communication device."

"A necessary function that helps the people in battle survive."

"For people too scared to go into battle."

"Are you too scared to go into battle?"

"I'm always scared in those battles."

"I am too. I am scared that one of the children will be hurt."

"I'm not good at the battle part. Even when we were kids and fighting mock wars in the woods, Lucas was better than I was. He'd lead the team; I'd plan. He does all the scary stuff without flinching or even thinking about it."

"And you flinch? And you think about it?"

"Yah."

"Everybody is like that in a battle. They go in nervous and then they perform the way they've been trained. Not being a little scared would be dangerous for everybody. That kind of person would take too many risks. When you have to face scary things, it's alright to be a little scared."

"I can't even fight normal fights. Against a single person."

"Is that why you tried to learn to box and to do judo? So that you could have a physical fight?"

"Yeah. I was no good at any of it."

"Physical skills are not your strength, Wizard. They never have been. Your strengths are your mental skills. Sort of like Melissa. She does the battle command part; others do the battling. There's no shame in being more of a thinker than a fighter."

"You say..."

"But?"

"A person who can't fight is a rabbit."

"Who would you want to fight?"

"Lucas. And Theo. Mostly Lucas."

"Why would you want to fight your brothers?"

"Because of what they're doing to Dreamer."

"What are they doing to Dreamer?"

"They're turning her into a prostitute."

Doc looked up in disbelief.

"I have proof, Doc. I tried to fight them. To stop them. They ignored me like I was a rabbit."

### # # # # # # # #

Back in a certain cottage near Watertown, Maddy was ignoring the sounds coming out of her bedroom the evening of the 22nd. She ignored the instructions to open the door. She ignored the assurances that all would be forgiven. She ate some cereal for her supper. Then she washed and dried the clothes that had gotten all muddy when she had gone through the bog. She had nothing else to do to get ready for the next day, so Maddy went to sleep on the sofa in the living room. Tomorrow would be different. She'd escape.

Five year old children have no sense of geography. Maddy knew her way around her neighbourhood on Bainbridge Island, just west of Seattle. She could lead her mom to the school she'd be in next year and all the way back home too. She knew her way to the playground down the block and could be trusted to look both left and right, and up and down, for copter traffic. She knew about the water and how she should never walk too close to it. But she didn't know that islands were surrounded by water and she didn't know that unless you had a bridge, a boat, or a copter, there was no way off the island. All she knew was that home was just a couple of blocks away from any place that she went to. Most importantly, she didn't know that Brute and Pissy lived on an island that was connected to the mainland by a muddy, boot-sucking, snake-hiding bog.

When Maddy had set out that morning to find her mommy and daddy, she thought that all she had to do was walk a few blocks and she'd be in a place she'd recognize. She'd go home to find her mommy and daddy waiting for her there. She didn't know that Seattle was about three thousand miles from Watertown – as the crow flies.

### # # # # # # # #

Doc hadn't believed that he'd be flying three thousand odd miles when he set out to have a friendly chat with Wizard. He certainly never expected that he'd be TiTr'ng either. But Wizard insisted on proving that Lucas and Theo were turning Dreamer into a prostitute. So they flew to the Wilizy/Asia and then they TiTr'd back to the time when Wizard tried to fight his brothers.

"This is your evidence, Wizard? This conversation tells you that Dreamer has been having sex with your brothers and Lucas is becoming a pimp again?"

"I have more. I can take you to the time where Dreamer took off her top in front of both of them in our own gym. I can take you to the time when Dreamer was walking around in the galley without a top and both Lucas and Theo were there. I can show you Dreamer kissing both of them passionately on the lips. I can even show you the time when Lucas was in her bedroom and Dreamer took off her top and let Lucas look at her. Then she took everything off and started kissing him. I left at that point." Wizard was quite confident that Doc would believe him. After all, video evidence is very hard to misinterpret.

"And where were you when you were watching this? Were you time-travelling or in real time?"

"I was in real time, Doc. In my sling; high in a corner; invisible. I told you I could prove it."

"Let's go back to camp, Wiz. It's late. We'll talk tomorrow."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 22

The morning of February 23 dawned bright and clear again. Maddy rose with the sun, had breakfast, and left the cottage. There were three differences about this trip as compared to the previous one.

First. She decided to go left, not right. She didn't realize that the result would be the same.

Second. When she reached the boggy area, she took off her shoes and socks, rolled her pants high up her leg, and walked tentatively, but steadily through the mud carrying everything in her arms.

Third. The transmitter in her backpack started to make loud beeping sounds partway through the trip. Maddy took it out of her backpack and looked at it. The red light was flashing quickly in time with the beeps. She thought that perhaps she wasn't close enough to it, so she put it inside her shirt. The machine went quiet soon enough and the light disappeared. Maddy didn't know what to make of that, so she continued to carry the transmitter with her. She didn't realize that the dead light meant that Brute and Pissy had rented Safe Haven's cheaper security system – the one whose battery would be allowed to run down without consequences to any slave within transmission range.

On other aspects, the trip was the same. Maddy found herself once again back in front of Brute and Pissy's cottage. She went inside, had cereal for supper, and slept on the sofa.

### # # # # # # # #

That same February 23 morning, Wizard awoke to find Doc sitting on a stump in front of his shelter. Wizard lifted himself off the ground to put on some clothes.

"Don't bother putting anything on, Wizard."

"But I'm in my underwear."

"That will be enough. I have some things to say to you about last night and what you have done recently." Doc didn't wait for a response.

"First: That discussion you had with Theo and Lucas where they talked about Dreamer enjoying sex, how they were helping her to practice it, and how Lucas was turning her into a prostitute. They were talking about basketball, Wizard. They help her practice _basketball_. They all enjoy _basketball_. Dreamer is thinking of turning pro as a _basketball player_ if she can get good enough. The directors knew this. None of this was a secret. You could have found this out simply by talking with Dreamer as a friend."

"Second: Dreamer was walking around with her top off in the galley because Momaka had recommended that she gradually get used to somebody she trusted seeing her undressed. That way, she wouldn't freak out if her husband saw her naked. That way, she'd be able to have sex with a husband and make a baby. Theo and Lucas agreed to help her. Theo always kept his eyes closed when Dreamer was partially undressed. Lucas would look at her, but only because she needed to have somebody look at her. He wasn't interested in her body."

"Third: The scene you saw in her bedroom. Lucas was there so that she would gradually get used to undressing for bed in front of a man. He stared at her body because she asked him to. They gave themselves a time limit. Each time they met at bedtime, she'd try to increase the staring time. The day that you saw her fully naked, she had decided she was ready for the next step and took off all of her clothes. When you saw Dreamer kissing Lucas' ear, she was actually whispering in his ear that he wasn't supposed to turn around before she was ready. She was very nervous about it. Lucas didn't turn around until she told him to, but by then you were gone. All he saw was her backside. They didn't have sex. He left the room. They've never had sex. Thanks to Lucas and Theo, Dreamer is almost over her difficulty. I know this because Dreamer tells Momaka everything and Momaka gives reports to the directors. Dreamer knows that we know."

"Fourth: You know how Dreamer was so creeped out about how her father would peek through the keyhole to try and see her naked? When you were invisible in your sling and watching her walk around in the galley, you were peeking through a keyhole. When you were invisible in your sling and watching her undress, you were peeking through a keyhole. If a woman wants you to see her body, she will invite you to do so. Dreamer did invite you once. You turned her down. You were not invited to spy on her in the ship, or anywhere else for that matter. What you did was creepy."

"But Doc, I didn't know any of this. I just stumbled into the bedroom when..."

"Be quiet, Wiz. You never go into a woman's bedroom unless you knock first and are invited in. You weren't invited in. You didn't belong there."

"Fifth: You have treated Dreamer extremely poorly. You have treated her like a _real man_ would, and I don't use that term in a complimentary fashion. You could have avoided this whole sad story of you and Dreamer if you had followed Granny's advice and talked to her about things moving too quickly for you. You chose not to, for reasons that I don't want to know. You know though. You could have avoided this in many other ways, as well. But you didn't."

"Think of your behaviour this way. Say, you're on a desolate island and you want to get off. In your case, you have a problem about your relationship with Dreamer and you don't like that problem. There are solutions, just as there are bridges off that desolate island. Granny told you about one solution. Talk with Dreamer. You didn't. You burned that bridge down by not following her advice."

"When Dreamer tried to apologize to you privately, that was another bridge off your problem island. You wouldn't let her apologize to you. That's another bridge that you burned down."

"Then Dreamer apologized to the entire Wilizy family in public. You didn't respond. You never said that you appreciated her words, that you weren't mad any more, or anything. You burned that bridge down too."

"When you started thinking that you'd like to get back together with her, you didn't talk to her. You spied on her instead. That was another bridge that you burned down. A simple talk with her won't work any longer."

"You think now that you might want to be friends with Dreamer, perhaps even more. But you are on a desolate island that you yourself created; there are no easy bridges left for you to leave that island. The only way to leave that island now is with an act of courage."

"Courage is not growing a moustache. It's not being more masculine. It's not learning to fight instead of coordinating communications from inside a ship. The courage you're seeking is found in everyday life. Both men and women have courage but may have difficulty finding it. Dreamer found herself on a desolate island where everybody in the family thought that she had behaved very badly. She found the courage necessary to escape from her island by making a public apology and then working hard to gain everybody's trust."

"Wizard, courage is simply this: Forcing yourself to do something when you don't want to do it. It starts with little things – accepting an apology or telling a girlfriend you'd like to slow down. When you have the courage to force yourself to do small scary things, it's much easier to deal with the big scary things. Refusing to confront your fears only makes the problem worse."

"Hank and Yolanda's family has a ritual for such situations. Wolf and Yollie both went through a difficult period in their lives. They were struggling to find themselves. They went off and lived in the wilderness by themselves. They looked at their lives to that point; they asked what kind of person they wanted to be; they thought about how they would get there. They went into the wilderness as a kid; they came out as an adult."

"On the hillside above us, you will find a cache of supplies. You will find everything there that you will need to walk back to the home compound. Some clothes, but not many. Hiking boots. Some ways of obtaining food – a bow, a few arrows, a knife, snares. A canteen with water. You will find means of building a crude shelter. I confirmed in the last couple of days that you know how to use snares and feed yourself. I am satisfied that you can survive on your own in the wilderness."

"You know where you are now. You know enough about this part of the country to find your way home. You will leave your sling and pinky ring with me. I have told William that you are on a mission and off-line. I will strike your camp and take it with me. If your life is threatened, remove your brain-plug and I will come."

"The family will know only that you are on your wilderness challenge. If there's anything more for them to learn, that will come from you, not me. When you return to the compound, everything that happened here between you and me will be forgotten. It didn't happen."

"Go now. Use your brains, but find your courage too."

### # # # # # # # #

The next morning, while Wizard was leaving the crude camp that he made out of tree branches, Maddy was leaving the cottage. She had finished off what cereal was left. She had crammed as much food as she could into her backpack. She turned neither left nor right but instead went to the spot where the trail was very muddy and swampy. She sat on a stump and stared. She could see snakes slithering in the mud. But she could also see a sort of trail.

Maddy left her backpack on the ground and went back to the cabin. At the front door were Brute's big rubber gumboots. She looked at them for a long time. Then she lifted them and went back to the muddy area. She didn't have to take off her own boots to get into Brute's. His boots came up to her knees.

Maddy entered the swamp timidly. Looking for snakes. The ground underneath was mucky, sucky, and gucky. One time, she lost her balance but she didn't fall because she put both her hand and arms into the guck to stop herself. A lot of times, a boot would get stuck in the mud. Maddy would grab the top of the boot and pull it and her foot out of the mud. Then she'd take another step, get stuck, and pull the boot with her foot out of the mud. In time, the trail opened up and became more solid. She could see far enough ahead to know that there was a road. A real road. Maddy took Brute's boots off and left them on the ground. Then she walked onto the road, looked to the left and to the right. She saw some buildings way off to the right, so that's the way she went.

Maddy was off Snake Island. She had found courage.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 23

Watertown, New York

March 1, 2086

Dear Florence,

I am sending a young girl to you in the hopes that you will be able to help her find her parents. She has a bot that will tell you what little information I have been able to get from her. I thought that if I sent her to a fellow Weight Watcher west of me, and if you sent her to a fellow Weight Watcher west of you, and so on, we could send her far enough west for her to find her parents. I know where her parents are. Read the bot and you'll understand.

Back here in Watertown, the big news is that Bulky Barney, our messiah, has put a mechanized ramp into the church so that members can come in and out more easily. Before – we had to push our most advanced followers and their wheelchairs up a ramp. That proved to be sinful because we'd break into a sweat. It didn't make any sense to go to church to be faithful to our religion and then at the end of the service, sin by exercising and breaking into a sweat. Our messiah thought about that and decided to put in a moving ramp that would take us up to ground level.

We're still meeting in the basement storeroom of the local Bulky Barney retail outlet. Our church has all the conveniences we might want. The chairs are comfortable, and when it comes time to have communion with Barney our lord, we have a mug of thick fruit syrup right by our hand to drink and a bowl of candies to munch on. Nobody has to get up and walk. I myself have now managed to reach the two hundred and fifty pound level and wear my badge proudly. Of course, our senior members top the scales at over four hundred pounds, so I have a ways to go yet. However, I go to church weekly. Afterwards, I browse through all the barrels of religious foods that Bulky Barney sells and I stock up on these things as our religion encourages. The people at Bulky Barney are very supportive. We see our bill by the time we reach the top of the ramp and, with a quick initial, the money is deducted from our bank account. The prayer resources are delivered that afternoon to our homes and the staff will even bring them into the house and scatter them around in Bulky Barney mini-barrels so that it is easy to act on an urge to pray.

We had a good sermon today. One of our apostles came in and told us about the evils of artificial sweeteners. I believe he's an apostle; he might be a saint. I get them confused. It all depends on how much discount they give us Weight Watchers on whatever we buy from them. Anyway, this man was the owner of the Sweet Sweet Sugar Emporium in town and so he knows his stuff. We were all convinced by the end of the sermon that we should stick to eating sugar and not corrupting our bodies with artificial sugars. So we sung the hymn _A Cupful of Sugar Will Help the Medicine Go Down_ and we all agreed to try his offering – a sack of sugar – at his special discount rate. I'll tell you whether it helps me to gain weight or not after I've tried it. It does taste very good, but I don't know if I can get a cup down every hour. I've tried it and it actually makes me nauseous. But faith in one's religion is not always easy to keep and I'm sure that I can work my way up to that quota. The nice thing is that the Emporium will keep delivering the sacks of sugar on a regular basis without us telling them to.

I've been too busy with this little girl to keep my regular routine, so I'm looking forward to meeting all our members for the Tuesday service at _Dunk, Dunk, Dunk that Doughnut_. The owner is an apostle, I believe. I've noticed that all of the apostles/saints are very slender – at least compared to us. They explain that they are unable to gain weight no matter how hard they try, but they feel guilty about that. So they support our religion by giving us special deals when we come to their businesses.

The Dunk is a good example of that. We can stay as long as we want. They do ask us to pray several times an hour and their staff will bring by hot doughnuts for that purpose. They also serve us a juice of some kind or a hot chocolate. They give us two or three doughnuts at a time in case we want to be very fervent in our religion.

The Dunk ownership has built a big room full of large comfy chairs just for our members. You can sit in a recliner if you have reached the _Cake Doughnut_ loyalty level. If not, you still have a comfy chair. They're so soft that we all sink into the cushions. When we want to leave the service, it's too hard for most of us to push ourselves up out of the chair. However, one of their staff will come by, attach a wide leather strap to our body, and winch us out of the chair. There's a nominal fee for this that is added to our bill.

The Dunk's managers gave us our own room because they allow non-believers to buy doughnuts at their business. These non-believers usually come and go quite quickly, but now they have their own room to do that. This way, we don't have to look at their skinny bodies and worry about how they will not reach the promised doughnut shop in the sky when they die. I thought that was very considerate of the Dunk's managers.

Yours in watching our weight grow,

Rhonda.

### # # # # # # # #

Watertown, New York

March 1, 2086

My name is Rhonda and I'm a Weight Watcher. Accompanying this bot is a lost little girl. I'm asking my fellow Weight Watchers to keep on sending this girl west until somebody can take her directly home.

Here's what little I know about her. It's not much. But if each Weight Watcher adds new information about this girl to the bot, the last person on the list will know quite a bit. When she's finally delivered to her parents, please let me know. My email address is at the bottom of the bot.

I met this little girl when I was in the checkout line in our local food store. She was in front of me and patiently waiting her turn to pay for an apple that she had in her hand. I saw that she was dressed in warm outside clothes and was carrying a backpack on a shoulder. When she reached the front of the line, she put her apple on the conveyer belt, just like everybody else did. Floyd, the cashier, told her it would be five cents and held out his hand. She held her hand out for the apple.

"No. First you give me five cents; then I give you the apple," he snarked. Floyd is short tempered early in the morning.

The little girl just looked at him.

"Do you have five cents?"

She shook her head _No_.

"Then get out of here. People are waiting."

"Floyd, give her the apple for Weight Watcher's sake," I said. "She's obviously hungry." I don't normally take our religion's name in vain, but Floyd can be quite a jerk.

"Are you paying for it?" he asked me.

So that's how I ended up with an apple and a little girl. I told her that I'd take her to a spot in the store where she could sit down and eat it. I was walking beside her when I got a whiff and leaned over for a better smell. "Let's go to the washroom first," I said. "I think you need to go, right?"

She nodded. She was in the stall and I heard her whimpering. I smelled the reason why. Turned out the urge to go had been a long time ago. I had her push her jeans and panties underneath the stall door. They were past saving so I dumped them in the trash. I told her to stay in the stall and then liberated a face cloth and towel from Floyd's shelves. Serves him right for being a jerk. She wasn't too bad about letting me clean her up, but she had a nasty rash on her bum. I liberated some ointment and put some on. She pulled out a clean set of panties and jeans and put them on. She did so very gingerly. I had been prepared to do more liberating but it wasn't necessary because she had some extra clothes. Whatever she was doing, she had planned it first.

"This ointment will help you feel better but your bum will hurt for a couple of days. Are you frightened of me?" I asked.

She shook her head – _No._

"Good. I'm not frightened of you either. I'm going to invite you home with me, help you get rid of that rash, feed you, and keep you safe. You can run away from me whenever you want. I'm obviously not able to run after you and catch you."

She nodded at me and I gave her the apple. She put on her backpack and we left the store together. I just figured that she was a little Watertown girl who had run away from home over some spat and her parents would be looking for her soon.

When I reached my house, I told her to take off her backpack, coat, and shoes and leave them at the door. She seemed quite content to do that. I gave her a tour – showing her where she'd be sleeping, where I'd be sleeping, the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room. I showed her how to open the front door. I even left it open a bit.

I told her I'd wash her apple and cut it into slices and she could eat it. She watched everything I did – never took her eyes off me. Solemn face. Not a hint of a smile. She even came over when I took the knife out of the drawer and looked inside. Curious little thing, I guess. She didn't want to sit down and I didn't blame her. She stood by the table watching me as she ate. When she was finished, she went to the sink but couldn't reach it. She just looked at me and held out her arms. Not a word.

I was thinking that she was shy and scared. I lifted her up to the counter. She knelt on it, turned on the water, washed her hands, and turned the water off. She held out her arms again and I lifted her down. We stood there looking at each other.

"Do you want anything else to eat?"

She shook her head – _No._

"What would you like to do now?"

She just looked at me.

"My name is Rhonda. What's your name?"

She just looked at me.

"You do know your name, right?" I figured her to be about five or six years old.

She nodded.

"Are you too scared to tell me?"

She shook her head – _No._

That left me kind of scratching my head, but I decided not to push it. "Would you like to show me what's in your backpack? I won't take anything from you."

She brought me the backpack and I put it on the kitchen table, put a chair next to the table for her to stand on, and told her to go ahead and take things out. She had a partial second set of clothes. Three empty water bottles. A thick sweater that had some paper folded inside of it. A flat machine of some kind. And at the very bottom, some felt pens. I looked at her; she looked at me.

"What's this machine for?" I asked and reached for it.

She screeched, grabbed it, and held it tight to her.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I won't take it from you. Do you know what it's for?"

She nodded.

"Will you tell me?"

She shook her head – _No._

"Are you able to speak?" I had thought about that squalling noise. A normal six year old would have yelled _No_ or something like that when I had reached for it.

She shook her head – _No._

A mute, I thought. That explains some things. I looked at the felts. "Can you write?"

She nodded – _Yes_.

### # # # # # # # #

I managed to find out a few things but she couldn't write very much. Her name is _Maddy_. She is five years old. When I asked her why she was walking around by herself, she wrote _Mommy_ and then underneath that _Daddy_.

"Your mommy and daddy are lost?"

She nodded – _Yes_.

"Are you lost too?"

She nodded – _Yes_.

"You're looking for them?"

She nodded – _Yes_.

"Can you write the place where you live?"

She shook her head – _No_

"Do you know where you live?"

She nodded – _Yes_.

I was stuck for questions. I didn't know what else to do. But I saw the piece of paper sticking out of her second sweater and asked her if I could see it. There was some handwriting on one side of it. It told a short story about an unhappy little girl looking for her parents. "Is this story about you?"

She nodded – _Yes_.

I turned the paper over. It had some computer printing on it. A business letter of some kind. The letterhead was simple. Safe Haven Ranch #4. No address, but the date was fairly recent. "Did you used to live at Safe Haven Ranch #4?" I asked.

She nodded – _Yes_.

### # # # # # # # #

After three days, I haven't learned much more. Maddy's bum is healed. She's opening the front door, looking out, and then looking at me. Constantly. I get the hint. I'm sending her west. I bought her some extra clothes and those are in her pack along with everything else she brought. I have given her some water for the copter ride, but there's no room in the backpack for anything else.

Three things you need to know when you interact with Maddy. First, you must not take that flat machine from her. She panics if you even touch it.

Second, when I gave her a bath that first night, I saw she was wearing a sort of leather strap around her neck. When I tried to look at it more closely, she put her hands around it and wouldn't let me touch it.

Third, don't let a man near her. I had asked a friend of mine to use my copter to take Maddy to my friend in Rochester. I was planning to introduce him to Maddy and tell her that he was a nice man. As soon as she heard his voice at the door, she ran into the kitchen, took a knife out of the knife drawer, and squeezed herself into a corner. She was holding the knife in front of her as a weapon when I came in. Some man has hurt her badly. We have to get her to safety in Safe Haven Ranch #4 as quickly as we can so that her parents can help her get better.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 24

In the first week of March, Momaka took Marie to New Orleans and skipped around in time. Marie watched both of her ancestors (Marie Laveau and Marie Laveau II) preach. She also floated in real time over the first Marie's flooded gravesite in the Saint Louis Cemetery #1 in New Orleans. According to historical rumour, people who wanted Laveau to grant them a wish simply had to put an X on her tomb, turn around three times, knock on the tomb, yell out their wish, and then leave. They'd come back later after the wish had been granted and put a circle around the X.

"An overly complicated way of getting a wish," Marie sniffed to Momaka. "Nary knows how to reach me. I'll save my post-death powers for her."

"You'll have powers after you die?" Momaka asked with some curiosity.

"Of course, but there are limitations to what wishes I can grant. And the requests must be made at the place where I die, not at the grave. What happened here was pure hoax. I could wake both Maries but I'd have to find where they died and New Orleans is completely underwater now. It would be difficult."

"To find the site?"

"No. I'd feel their presence. It would be difficult to mouth the commands. Alligators have trouble with vowels."

Momaka looked sharply at Marie.

"Consonants too," she added.

"You're teasing me?"

"Yup. Suckered you good on that one."

"Coming back for Nary's wish is a tease too?"

"Not teasing on that. I can come back to life for Nary three times, but she can't wait too long to ask. It's part of the deal that I made with the god that allowed me to have Nary."

"About that. How would you be able..."

"Don't ask. You wouldn't believe it anyway."

"You're pure white. Both Maries had black heritage. I could see that."

"It's not the body that you're living in that counts. A voodoo queen can live inside any body she wants – black, white, or mixed."

"You're teasing again?"

"Nope. How'd you like to let Bob loose and he can play with my alligator? They could be friends."

"You're teasing me now."

"Yup. My alligator is not very social. She doesn't know anything about friends. Just eating."

"She?"

"Of course."

"I don't know when you're pulling my leg."

"I know," Marie chortled.

"You and I could be friends."

"We could but I won't be around long enough. I might like your companion. I may ask to borrow him."

### # # # # # # # #

Back at the University of Toronto, Nary was holding a basketball in her hand and waiting for Dreamer to come on the court. To explain this, I have to go back ten days to a conversation that Lylah had with Dreamer after she had forced Lylah into a corner and taken the basketball away from her. Nary had been standing in line for more hamburgers while they had that conversation. She had already sucked in six of them and was going back for more. Lylah had been suggesting that Nary could be a University of Toronto basketball player.

Dreamer had told Lylah all of the reasons why Nary could never play basketball at the university. She couldn't read, write, or do arithmetic. She was still learning how to live in modern society.

"How could she be this old and..."

"Don't ask, Lylah. You wouldn't believe it anyway. She's my sister. I won't put her in a situation where she could be humiliated. She'd never be able to pass any of the university's classes. We'll be lucky if she can learn to read simple books. Nary is stubborn and she's not too interested in thinking skills."

"She has physical skills though."

"Yeah. She's very athletic."

"So why don't we see how much dribbling she can learn in a week or two? What's the harm in it?"

"No harm, I guess."

Today was the day that Nary would show Lylah how well she could dribble.

Dreamer came on the floor, took the ball out of Nary's hands, and bounced it a few times to test that it was still fully inflated. The basketballs that Nary practiced with tended to develop leaks when Nary got frustrated and squeezed too hard.

Dreamer handed Nary the ball and said, "Beat me."

A minute later. "That's very good, Nary. You're improving. You can dribble the ball five times before losing it."

"Is five a big number?"

"Pretty big. You should continue to practice right now. I'll be talking with Lylah."

...

"She can't look up when she dribbles. Plus she dribbles with the palm of her hand. She doesn't curl her fingers."

"None of this is a natural action for her, Lylah. It's very difficult for her to learn new things."

"Too bad. She would be so good defensively. Can she shoot?"

"We never got that far. I doubt it. She can't curl her hand properly."

"Nary," Lylah called out. "How would you like to score a basket before we go for some burgers?"

"Sure. What do I have to do?"

"Just put the basketball through the round thing with the netting."

"From below or from above?"

"From above."

"Do I have to dribble?"

"No. Just try and get the ball to fall through the basket. I'll give you ten burgers if you can do it."

"OK."

...

"You owe me ten burgers, Lylah."

"Holy kangahoopdedoodle," Lylah said.

"I'm hungry _now_ , Lylah."

"You know the way. Dreamer and I will follow."

...

"Did you know that she could dunk?"

"I didn't have the foggiest notion. We never did that."

"Her head was above the rim! Dreamer, no woman I know can jump that high and she's only my height!"

"She did a lot of jumping when she was a kid, I believe. It's a natural action for her."

"And did you see what she did just before she jumped? She was almost on all fours!"

"Yeah, I noticed that too. What's with the kangahoopdedoodle saying, Lylah? I've never heard that before." Dreamer was thinking that creating a distraction would be a very good idea about now.

"It's something my family says. My younger sister invented it, I believe."

"That's quite the word. Does it mean anything?"

"Only that my family is a little different."

_You think your family is different? Want to meet mine?_

### # # # # # # # #

By March 8, Maddy had completed a hop to Rochester and a second hop from Rochester to London Ontario. This put her about three hundred miles closer to Seattle. But that's not where she would be delivered. Maddy didn't know this yet, but she would be delivered to the area around the headlands of the Missouri River. More precisely, she'd be delivered to Fort Peck Lake. This area in Montana was one of the few remaining pieces of land in the center of Canada and the United States that had water all year long. Total distance from Watertown: nineteen hundred miles. Total distance remaining for Maddy to travel was sixteen hundred miles.

The Weight Watcher guides that transported her to Rochester and then to London had little to add to Maddy's bot. They arranged transportation for her quickly, and as a result, they didn't have any time with her.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 25

It was the third week of March and Brute and Pissy were still inside a locked cell. At least their bodies were. Brute's soul might have been floating inside the big beer barrel in the sky by then.

When Maddy shut Brute and Pissy into her bedroom, they had access to plenty of water so hydration was not an issue. But if the body doesn't get food, it starts converting fat on the body to usable energy. It also breaks down muscle as well. When the heart loses muscle mass, it becomes cranky. We don't know the exact day that they died, but it would have been between two to eight weeks after February 21.

In building a cottage in an isolated area, and then dissuading people from coming around, the pair effectively sealed their fate. Obviously, building a cell that nobody could escape from played an important role as well. Plus, the Safe Haven personnel officer was not particularly diligent in checking up on Karita. He had other things to do and he really did not want to see Brute and Pissy at work. He didn't come back to Watertown until mid-May. He estimated the couple's deaths as the third week of March and that's what I'm going on. Even if he had filed a report with Safe Haven that they were dead and that Karita had escaped, the report wouldn't have been received in time to change what happened afterwards.

It's possible that Pissy died earlier than Brute, but that's impossible to determine. The personnel officer's report indicated that she had suffered a number of health incidents besides starvation by the time she died. It might be romantic to think that the two had discovered true love in the end and they had died in each other's arms. However it's hard to do that when one lover has two broken arms.

When I've told this story to my family over the years, some have complained that Brute and Pissy never had a chance for a normal life. It wasn't their fault that they turned out the way they did. If only Brute's parents hadn't named him Brutus. If only Pissy's parents hadn't turned her into a prissy person. If only the kids in their schools hadn't teased them. If these things had never happened, they never would have turned into the brutal people that they became. They were doomed from the beginning – at least that's what some of my family argued.

Others have been more hard-line. Nobody forced them to torture young girls. They didn't have to take that job and do it with pleasure. Pissy knew that she had murdered her own child and she still had another? And she murdered that one as well? Brutus received a lot of pleasure by beating women. Did he believe that he was normal? Could he not have sought help?

The question of whether Brute and Pissy deserved what they got is part of a larger question that has been around a long time. Were Brute's and Pissy's lives determined by how they were raised? Or were their lives determined by the bodies and personalities that they received at birth? In other words: Did the _environment_ in which they were raised dictate their lives? Or were _genetic influences_ the determining factor. People have debated this question of environment versus genetics for a long time. The majority of my family believed that the duo deserved to die the way they did. Brute and Pissy had killed and tortured young children. A minority of my family believed that they may have committed some terrible crimes, but they couldn't help themselves. It wasn't their fault. I leave it to my readers to form their own conclusions.

My family's opinion on Maddy is not split. Did Maddy murder her kidnappers by locking them into her bedroom? _No, she did not!_ My family said that she had no intent to kill them.

Did she kill them accidentally? Was it an accident for which she has to be taken in front of a judge and tried? Again, my family said _No_. She was too young to understand the consequence of her actions. In fact, no matter how many times I have told this story to different members of my family who were old enough to hear it, all of them applauded when I told them about Maddy slamming the door on her two kidnappers. My readers may have their own opinions on whether she should have been brought in front of a judge.

Speaking of starvation... Wizard has been in the wilderness for almost a month now. Bear with me; I'm getting to his story.

### # # # # # # # #

Doc was leaning over a chart that listed the staff of the Surrey WC&D store when there was a tap on the door. He had promised Hank that he would look for some staffing efficiencies.

"Come in," he said, not taking his eyes of the chart.

Wizard walked through the door. His face was covered in fuzz, his hair was matted into a greasy looking mop, his visible skin had multiple scratches and welts, his boots were covered in mud, and he reeked.

"Grunt."

"Grunt," Doc replied.

They fist bumped.

"Grunt," Wiz said on the way out.

"Grunt," Doc replied and returned to his chart.

### # # # # # # # #

Wizard's visit with his parents was a little more informative. But only a little.

Yolanda had heard Wiz come into the house and go down to his bedroom. Then she heard the sound of water running. _Wizard's back_ , she mind-messaged to Hank.

_Coffee break?_ Hank messaged back.

The two were sitting idly in the kitchen, sipping on some coffee, munching on a Granny cookie – only the two mugs on the table. Not three because, officially, they didn't know that Wizard was back. They heard his footsteps approaching the kitchen and began a conversation on why Hank was asking for Doc's help.

Wizard entered. "I'm back," he said.

Yolanda and Hank tore themselves away from the intense discussion they were having. "Good," Yolanda said.

"Anything exciting happen?" Hank asked. Yolanda was determined that she would not pry for information. She was equally determined that Hank would perform that function for her.

"Treed by a young male grizzly who got curious."

(Remember – I did tell you to _bear_ with me.)

"Tried to shake you out of the tree?"

"Yah. Then he hung around at the base of the tree. He had lots of food to keep him there."

Yolanda had trouble swallowing.

"Grunt."

"Grunt."

"Grunt."

"Yah. That's what I thought too," Wiz said.

(If they don't say at least five words, I'm not dignifying it with a sentence.)

"We have hot coffee and some of Granny's cookies if you're hungry," Hank was still the only parent talking. But Yolanda had been sending him urgent body language messages. Looking at the cookies. Staring at Hank. Looking at the cookies, steam spewing from her ears...

"Thanks, but I'm off to Toronto for a couple of days. Heading out now, actually."

"Why don't you take the Wilizy/Europe and stay there. Melissa has called a full family meeting for the 31st and we'll need accommodation. The ship is already stocked. This thing with the judge is way bigger than we had imagined."

"Grunt."

"Grunt."

"Grunt."

"OK. See you in Toronto. Bye, Mom."

Sound of door closing.

"Why don't you stay in Toronto? You actually suggested that he stay in Toronto? For eight days!"

"Sure. There's no point in going all the way to Toronto, coming back to the compound, and then turning around again."

"No point? Yes, there's a point to coming back! To tell us what happened!"

(Here Yolanda was using _us_ when she actually meant _me_.)

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, Yolanda. You know that."

(Yes, people in the 2080s did still use that expression even though they had no idea what _Vegas_ was. Some people thought it was a form of meatless diet, so if somebody said _What happened in Vegas, stayed in Vegas_ , that was now a polite way of saying that the person was constipated. Yolanda herself was experiencing a form of blockage right now; a strong urge was building up pressure and would be released real soon.)

"Men!"

The sound of a slamming bedroom door followed a few seconds after her stormy exit from the kitchen.

### # # # # # # # #

Maddy arrived in Wisconsin on March 23. She had reached Milwaukee in three hops: London to Sarnia Ontario; Sarnia Ontario to Lansing Michigan; and Lansing Michigan to Milwaukee. Maddy was now eleven hundred miles from Ranch #4. She was almost halfway and she had made it that far in about three weeks. If that pace continued, she'd be in Big Momma's clutches by the end of April.

The Sarnia guide had added a small comment to the bot. "I know how to _sign_ with people who can't speak. Maddy doesn't know how to sign. She likes to have people read to her."

The Lansing guide had a longer contribution.

"When I put Maddy into her bedroom, I showed her how she could put a chair up against the door so that nobody could come in if she didn't want them to. When I got up the next morning, I noticed that Maddy had opened her door and had put the chair up against it so that it would stay open. I don't know what that means. She was too hot and wanted fresh air?"

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 26

The March 31 meeting of the full Wilizy family took place in the cargo hold of the Wilizy/Europe that was anchored over Toronto. They needed to use the cargo hold because there'd be thirty-one people if everybody in the family attended the meeting. Actually, make that twenty-five because the six little children wouldn't be in any of the planning meetings. Mathias had brought the Wilizy/America to Toronto as well so that there would be ample space for all of the families. Everybody's first thought when they saw Mathias was how much taller he was now.

The hatch to the Wilizy/Europe's cargo area had been removed and the sunlight streaming into the bottom of the ship provided ample light. It was raining in Toronto but the three Wilizy ships were sailing high above the clouds. Wanda had brought four portable light standards for meetings held during the evening hours. Chairs from the community hall provided the seating, and these included the sofas and armchairs for directors.

The Wilizy/America, the smallest ship, was designated as the accommodation for the families from the satellite compound. A private area for lactating moms included a play area for the children and Hank had prowled through his favorite thrift shops for toys they might not have yet.

### # # # # # # # #

Melissa ran the meeting.

"This operation has turned out to be far more complicated than any of us had imagined. I believe all of you know now that Foster Lewis is guilty of multiple crimes, including attempting to kill Lucas, having sex with an underage Sparkle, and arranging to have her killed. We have confirmed that Helen Masters – Sparkle – is Eldreadth and Foster's daughter. In addition to having incestuous sex with his own daughter (and producing Basher), we have confirmed that the judge had incestuous sex with each of his sisters when they were growing up. He used those events much later to coerce them into actions that benefitted him."

"Annie and her husband put the judge through university. We don't know if the husband was fully aware of why he was doing that. Betsy and her husband paid for his law school – the husband may not have been told why. Christy and her husband took care of his expenses until the judge's law practice became fully operational. The judge is now tremendously rich, but little of that comes from his position as a sitting judge. Almost all of it comes from his wide-ranging criminal organization. The people helping him run that organization are his sisters. I'll describe how the organization works later.

We do not know how the judge communicates with his sisters and we're not fully aware yet how his sisters communicate with their underlings. They don't use face-to-face meetings. This means that we can't use time-travel to record their involvement in the non-murdering criminal activities that these families engage in. Without time-travel, we know about the crimes, but can't prove them. We can't even put the judge into a Raging Gardener trial because we have no jurisdiction in Ontario."

"Our attempts to bring the judge to justice will be complicated by the fact that some of the businesses that he owns are legitimate, at least on the surface. Only a few people in Toronto know what's really going on. All of those people are taking profits from the crimes. Those others who learned about the crimes, and have tried to do something about them, have been killed. We can't convict the judge for these crimes because we only know about the deaths through time-travel."

"Complicating this further is the absence of anybody that could help us. The Mayor and the Deputy-Mayor were elected with the judge's help and paid him for that. We can't prove that in a court of law. Some of the politicians sitting on council have taken money from one or more of the families. This means that we can't make changes by going through the council. Nor can we count on having honest people voted into office; the judge controls the ballot boxes."

"The police chief and the deputy police chief are part of the judge's group. They share in the profits. Many of the constables on the police force have taken bribes to keep quiet. They don't know that those bribes have come from the judge's families; they know only enough to take the money and keep quiet. We have no quick way yet to determine how deep the rot goes in the constabulary. We have to assume that nobody in the police force can be trusted. The same holds true for the office of the prosecutor. Nobody can be trusted. These are the people who would bring charges against the criminals we catch. We know for certain that the head prosecutor is in league with the judge. Other prosecutors may also be corrupted. Other judges in the court system may be corrupted. We don't know."

"I have a plan that I believe can be successful. But it will take time to execute. You should count on being in Toronto for at least a month. Possibly longer. The timing on this will be difficult. Any move we make against the judge and his sisters will have to be coordinated carefully. This war will have battles like we've never had before."

"Here are our battle groups: I will lead the battle against the judge and his sisters. In this operation, we'll have Hank, Yolanda, Doc, Theo, Dreamer, and Wanda."

"Jock will lead the battle against the city's political and judicial systems. He has asked for Stu, Lucas, Mathias, and Reese to join him on that team."

"TG will lead our communications group and his team will consist of Wizard and Granny. This group will determine how the families are communicating and then find a way to put that to our advantage. This group has **not** been formed to operate our internal communications. It is an investigative group."

"William and Wolf will provide scientific support. When they are not doing that, they will work with my group, although Jock or TG could borrow them as necessary."

"Momaka will be in charge of Special Forces. Helping her will be Winnie, Patella, Scapula, Marie, and Nary. Special Forces will assist any of our other groups as necessary with, shall we call it, surprises."

"All of us will have to be involved in daily duties such as food preparation and clean up. Lucas, Theo, and Dreamer will be given assignments that will allow them to continue with their basketball studies in the afternoons and evenings. Mathias, you will be able to continue with your deliveries for a while. However when we call on you, we'll need you to be here with all of three super transports. Everybody else will be leaving most of our business work to our vice-presidents."

"Jock has prepared a detailed battle plan showing dates and times that each operation will begin and end, along with the intermediate deadlines that will have to be met. The battle commanders will meet on a daily basis as we move through that plan. Those commanders are myself, Hank as my deputy, Jock, TG, William, Wolf, and Momaka."

"Before we break into our groups, are there any questions?"

...

"Hearing none..."

"I would like to say a few words if I may." Wizard rose and moved to the front of the group before Melissa could say _No_.

### # # # # # # # #

It's now the evening. My readers should picture themselves hovering invisibly in the galley of the Wilizy/Europe. Yolanda and Hank are sitting at the table enjoying a mug of hot chocolate. A scattering of crumbs on the table in front of them suggests that they have also enjoyed several of Granny's cookies. She had stocked the freezers of all three ships with numerous goodies. Hank was licking his index finger, putting it on top of a cookie crumblet on the table, and then putting his finger and the captured crumb into his mouth. Yolanda muttered something about Hank being a messy cookie eater. We know now where Reese learned how to eat cookies.

"Wizard's speech went well, I thought," the family's model of decorum said.

"It did," Hank agreed. "He handled that well."

"Plus he had spoken with Lucas and Theo privately first and had a long meeting with Dreamer too."

"Long meeting with Dreamer? How would you know that?"

"Winnie said it was a long meeting. I didn't ask how she knew. All those shoulder punches and thumping afterwards between Wizard, Lucas, and Theo – do guys do that as a way to avoid showing any emotion?"

"Pretty much, but don't tell anybody I gave away our secret. I wouldn't get any more thumps."

"Your secret would be safe with me if you'd dampen a cloth and wipe the table."

"Just a few more crumbs to go."

"Dreamer has grown again. She had to dip her head a little when she talked with Wizard after his speech."

"Was that a kiss on the cheek that she gave him?"

"Winnie says she was whispering something."

"How'd she know that? I couldn't tell."

"She moved close to them and got the angle when she saw Dreamer approaching Wizard"

"She told you that?"

"Yeah. It was only a whisper but their meeting earlier was over an hour."

"Are you paying for information?"

"No. Winnie is offering her information for free, but she is also angling to be given a different battle assignment. Winnie says that she should be more than a minder for the two wolves."

"Will you speak to Melissa?"

"Perhaps," Yolanda ventured. "It'll depend on the quality of the information I get back from Winnie on Lucas' love interest. Besides, Jock asked Melissa to put Lucas into his group. And Doc asked Melissa to put Wizard into TG's group. Why shouldn't I do a little lobbying for Winnie? She has her powers and these could be useful. But I don't want her exposed to any direct danger. She's still far too young to be in close quarters with criminals who kill."

Hank wasn't going to open that discussion again. He thought Winnie was ready for full participation in the Wilizy battles. After all, she had thought up Lucas' escape route out of the cellblock, but Yolanda was being especially protective. Part of Winnie being born prematurely, no doubt. "Lucas has a love interest? What is it? A new high powered sling?"

"A blonde basketball player. Friend or coach of Dreamer. Winnie's not sure. She says that he's gone ga-ga over her. I told her I'd need her name before I spoke to Melissa for her."

"You **are** running a snoop."

"I have to now that so many of our kids are away from home. Otherwise I'd never know what's going on in their lives. Theo is being very protective of Nary, by the way. On her part, she wants to be near him all the time, but can't because of basketball."

"Do you think that could go somewhere?"

"It might." Yolanda paused before continuing. "Nary is a little blunt and rough around the edges, but she has a certain quality. She'd be good for Theo, I think."

"And the babies they'd have?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just wondering what they'd be."

"Does it matter? Boy or girl, whatever comes first. They'd want two at least."

"Do you want to take a big gulp of that hot chocolate? It's getting cold." Hank, the hot chocolate temperature advisor.

Yolanda did.

"I was just wondering if their babies would be humans or panthers."

"Ack!" Yolanda spewed hot chocolate all over herself and the table. Hank had already backed out of range.

"You brute. You did that on purpose!"

"Would you like a wet cloth so that you can wipe the table, Yolanda? You're kind of a messy drinker, you know."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 27

The judge's four crime families controlled all the criminal activities in Toronto. As Melissa had indicated, all four families were run by his sisters. For the sake of clarity, I will call each family by the first names of Foster's sisters: Annie, Betsy, Christie, and Doreen.

The ABCD families earned most of their money through: (1) Bars and the sale of illegal substances; (2) in-house prostitution; (3) accident insurance; and (4) gambling. By _in-house_ prostitution, I mean prostitution that was run inside Toronto's bar, brothels, and gambling dens. The judge couldn't control amateurs from picking up customers on the streets. He did control the constabulary though, and they discouraged street prostitutes to the point where they willingly chose to work indoors for one of the families. Pushing prostitutes indoors was part of the mayor's platform of discouraging crime in the streets.

The judge gave each family certain areas of Toronto where they could operate without fear of infringing on another family's business interests. However, Toronto was a small city and splitting the downtown core (where all the lucrative business opportunities arose) into four equal parts was difficult. As such, the ABCD families shared the downtown core, but it was not a perfectly equal and friendly alliance.

The judge operated his own businesses: the Top Hat carriage operations, a small printing business, and a mortuary. All were legitimate on the surface. How these fit into the larger operation will become clear later.

The profit sharing arrangements between the ABCD families and the judge were simple. The judge took 5 per cent of any revenue that the four families received. Not 5 per cent of the _profits,_ 5 per cent of **any** money that came into the families' businesses. The judge audited the family's books himself. This way, he knew precisely how each family was faring and could throw more business their way if the sharing arrangements were going askew. It was in the judge's best interests to keep each family healthy, wealthy, and wise. Especially wealthy.

### # # # # # # # #

Safe Haven Ranches operated under an entirely different business plan. The slave ranches were run off what is called a _franchise system_. Anybody with money could become an owner of a slave ranch. It didn't matter to Safe Haven what colour you were or what colour slaves you wanted. Sometimes those slaves were white and the owners were black; sometimes the slaves were black and the owners were white; sometimes the slaves were a mix of different colours and/or different ethnicities. Safe Haven tried to group similarly minded owners in the same geographical area. Thus, ranches #2, #3, #4, #7, and #10 were reasonably close to each other. They all had black owners and white slaves. While the judge controlled what crimes his families committed, Safe Haven didn't care what franchise owners did to their slaves so long as they kept paying the franchise fees.

Safe Haven had two types of franchise fees: (1) the initial _buy-in_ fee, and (2) the monthly fees. They made the initial buy-in fee very high so that only the very wealthy could become franchise owners. (The reader may remember the three Saskatchewan SODs who were saving up to buy a ranch franchise by selling military equipment to Safe Haven. They were paying for that franchise over time because the initial fee was so high.)

In exchange for that initial fee, a new franchise owner would acquire a short-term lease on the land and the big house, a number of neutered male slaves for cattle management, some older female slaves to work the fields, some cattle, some initial equipment and supplies, and the ranch's security system.

Monthly fees covered everything else that the franchise owners acquired from Safe Haven. If the ranch owners wanted teenage slaves, they had to buy them from Safe Haven. They could earn the money to do that by producing their own slaves, selling them to Safe Haven at the age of ten, and then using some of that money to buy fourteen year old slaves. The sale of young slaves was a very profitable business for Safe Haven, especially since they could sell them to buyers outside the Safe Haven family. It wasn't nearly as profitable for the ranchers. It was the same for the cattle. Owners had to sell the cattle to Safe Haven who resold the cattle on the open market. Most of the profits went to Safe Haven.

Virtually anything that the ranch needed had to be purchased from Safe Haven: clothes, blankets, and shoes for the slaves were only the beginning. An enhanced security system that continuously tracked the location of every slave was available for an extra fee. Big house too cold? Additional heating could be provided for an additional fee. Did the ranch want to transport something large? You already know about those transport copter rentals. And if anything bad happened on the ranch – like a destroyed copter – there'd be hefty penalty fees.

Safe Haven ranchers were living in a challenging environment and I'm not talking here about the weather. I'm talking about how hard it was for them to grow enough food for themselves, raise enough cattle, and maintain their slave production levels. If anything went wrong, it seemed to the ranchers that their business went downhill fast. This was not a coincidence. It was part of Safe Haven's business plan. Yes, they made money when a ranch was operating properly. They made more money when it failed.

Here's how. Good land for ranches was hard to come by. The best land had already been taken for ranches #1 - 24. Safe Haven was carving out land for more ranches, but it was slow going. They had to build dams for water delivery, for example. But while ranches were in low supply, demand for them was high. Any number of wealthy people were willing to fork out big money to be able to degrade other people, assault them sexually, and whip them. Safe Haven was just responding to market demand. Since they couldn't create new ranches fast enough, they'd make the current ranches fail instead.

When a ranch did fail, Safe Haven took everything that was on that ranch – the slaves and cattle being the most lucrative. They'd resell them to new owners or to other ranchers who were down on their luck. And they'd receive a hefty franchise fee plus new owners who probably didn't know how to ranch and would fail in their first couple of years. Also, Safe Haven deliberately made it difficult for ranchers to communicate with each other so that failure was more likely.

Thus, one critical difference between the two criminal organizations was that the judge wanted his crime bosses to be successful; Safe Haven wanted their ranchers to fail.

As to the people running the businesses? The judge's bosses were family members. Yes, they may have been coerced into becoming part of the organization, but essentially, they were ordinary criminals who were all sharing the same dream. Accumulation of wealth. Safe Haven was catering to people who were already wealthy but wanted to own slaves to flaunt that wealth.

As to the owners' motivations for owning a ranch that allowed them to treat people like cattle? Perhaps as a payback for what had happened to their race years ago; perhaps because they liked what had happened years ago and wanted it to return; but mostly, because the men wanted to have unlimited sex with young girls whether the young girls wanted to or not. And they'd even be encouraged by their wives to do so! Talk about a real man's dream come true!

Before my feminine readers become too smug over what beasts the members of the male gender are, stop and think for a minute. The feminine gender does include women who might be described as domineering, controlling, vicious, vindictive, and smart. A Safe Haven ranch allowed such a woman to run everything, whip anybody who talked back, and sell people who were unproductive or annoying. Welcome to Big Momma's world. Safe Haven catered to the wealthy who enjoyed power and weren't afraid to use it in any way describable or indescribable. A slave ranch gave them unlimited power. The men used their power to satisfy their sexual fantasies; women used their power to also satisfy their fantasies. There were no innocents here.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 28

It was April 1 and Melissa was meeting with Hank, Yolanda, Doc, Theo, Dreamer, and Wanda. Also, William and Momaka had asked to sit in with them so that they'd be aware of their basic attack plan in case their assistance was needed. Wolf was sitting in with Jock's group for the same reason. TG was holding a meeting of the communications group at the same time. Winnie had not been invited to any of the meetings. She had anticipated that and had put drones into all of the meeting rooms. William had thoughtfully stored several large cartons of them in the Wilizy/Asia's hold. Nobody had said that she couldn't take any.

"We know how the ABCD families make their money, now we need details," Melissa opened. "For each family, we need to know the management structure. Are the sisters in charge? Are their husbands? Who actually runs the businesses? We want pictures of all the important people so that we can post them in the Main Operations Room."

The Main Operations Room had been Jock's idea. He wanted a large room where all the data would be available for other battle groups to study as needed. The pictures would be useful in learning who everybody was. They expected to have lots of people under watch. The cargo hold in the Wilizy/Asia had been converted into an operations room for that purpose.

"TG needs to know how they're communicating with each other and with the judge. Make this one of your higher priorities. His group is essentially stalled until we can tell them what communication software the families are using."

"Put drones in the homes of the families; we may hear some idle gossip. Also, put drones into the main offices of each business. We'll work in real time for now. If you find anything particularly valuable, TiTr as necessary and collect data that will be useful. There are cartons of drones in the Wilizy/Asia cargo hold. Use as many as you need but don't leave them in place after you're finished with your family."

"I'll be watching Annie's family. Hank, please take Betsy; Yolanda has Christy and Wanda has Doreen. Theo and Dreamer, I'd like you to research the judge's special interests: the Top Hat business, the printing business, and the mortuary business. We didn't get a sense that they were large businesses; you should be able to handle three of them between the two of you. Doc, would you look into Dr. Sandman? We weren't able to figure out where he fit. Lucas had already researched him but came up empty."

"Remember people, you are not only collecting data on how these families operate their businesses; you're looking for weaknesses that we can exploit. Unless there are any questions, that's all."

Winnie decided that she'd research Dr. Sandman too, but not for data. She'd be looking for the ideas floating through his head. She was feeling a little sick.

### # # # # # # # #

Jock was meeting with his battle group – Stu, Lucas, Mathias, and Reese. They already knew the general outline of what they'd be doing.

"Stu, you're in charge of bringing in the cavalry. Have meetings with their political masters – use the Wilizy name as needed in B.C. and my name in Saskatchewan. We will need a quick assessment of the justices of the Ontario Supreme Court. Don't open up any discussions with them until Reese is able to see them in the flesh. If there are any doubts about their honesty, we will exclude them from the plan. We can't take the risk of one person talking indiscreetly."

"Mathias, make sure that you can operate all three freight transports simultaneously. William will help you with the test flights if you need him. Before you do that though, you and Reese will be students on a field trip to city hall. Take pictures of every important person in the city government and justice system, label them, and put Reese's assessment of each person's character on that picture. Tell them that you're a reporter for a student newspaper if you have to. Post the pictures in the Main Operations Room."

"Lucas, you and I will research all of the individuals that Reese identifies as targets. You will also serve as my aide in collecting the data on our primary targets and then helping to develop battle plans. We may need different attack plans for each person. Be prepared to be creative."

"Wolf, if you have the time, we could use some help researching the key people in the municipal government. That's it everybody. Battle Group is dismissed."

Winnie had always wanted to be a reporter on a school newspaper. But first, she needed to find out what a school newspaper was.

### # # # # # # # #

TG's meeting with Wizard and Granny was short. "We can't do anything until somebody on the other teams tells us what software they're using to communicate. We'll meet properly when we have something to do."

### # # # # # # # #

Colleen Harwood was preparing a sheet of peanut butter cookies for sale in her little bakery shop in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It would be the seventh such batch that day. Maddy had arrived two days ago from Madison. Colleen had put her to work tamping down cookie dough on the cookie sheets. When the cookies were ready to eat, Maddy brought Colleen empty cartons and then took the full cartons into the shop where her assistant was helping the customers. Colleen noticed that Maddy would never go in the shop if a man were there. But Maddy was afraid of Colleen's shop assistant too. She'd take the fresh cookies into the sales room but would quickly turn around and run out. Colleen's assistant was a slender woman whereas most of Colleen's customers were avid consumers of cookies. Was slenderness the reason for the fear? Colleen added this information to the bot.

Colleen also wrote that Maddy was very trustworthy. When she helped take the cookies off the sheet and transfer them onto a plate for cooling, she never deliberately broke any. Colleen had told Maddy that broken cookies would be given to staff to take home or to eat right there. Maddy would eat such cookies. She'd even smile at Colleen when she gave her one, but she never broke one on purpose.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 29

After ten days of researching, the battle groups were ready for another large group meeting. But first, they had a problem to solve. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep the youngsters entertained on the small ship. They needed to be outdoors. Plus, Reese was missing school and his work for the Wilizy was probably finished for now. Yolanda suggested that she and Yollie should take the Wilizy/America with the kiddies and Reese back home. That group left Toronto before the meeting started.

As to the meeting itself, it lasted several hours since the researchers had found a lot of information. I'll boil down their findings for you.

Melissa's group had determined how the judge and his family members communicated. There was ample pinky-ring phone coverage inside Toronto but the judge didn't allow that. Instead, they communicated by text messages. Presumably, it was in these text messages that instructions were given both from the judge to his sisters and then from the sisters to the people actually running the business. These people would be considered _second in command_. I'll call them _underbosses._ The reason that Melissa had to presume the presence of instructions was because text messages were not stored on Toronto's central computer system. There was no point. Nobody in Toronto texted since pinky-ring communications were so superior. Melissa's group also presumed that the judge knew that such records were not kept.

After TG was told about the text messages, he gained access to Toronto's main communications computer and began to set up a hidden software system to record all future texts. However he had no way to find text messages that had been sent previously. This meant that the Wilizy had no way to prove anybody in the four families guilty of criminal activity before mid-April, 2086. If the judge, for example, had texted Slider to kill Helen Masters, they could never prove that. Even if they could verify it with a TiTr tape, they still could not use that information in a court of law. Effectively, the judge and all of his sisters were immune from prosecution for crimes they had planned and ordered by text.

TG begged off from attending any further planning meetings so that he could work directly on inserting his software into the city's computers. He nominated Wizard to take his spot as Head of the Communications group.

Jock's idea of posting all the pictures of the key personnel in the crime families provided a break-through. Lucas recognized many of the faces in those pictures from his time observing Toronto's seedier citizens in one of the city's pubs. After a bit of TiTr, Jock's group had determined that the underbosses of all four families met on a regular basis in that pub. They used these meetings to pass on instructions to people in their own families, and as well, to coordinate the activities between the four families. However, since the judge was not at these meetings, he could not be directly connected to those activities; nor could members of his family be linked to them.

The Wilizy did learn how each family made its money. Annie's family, for example, made most of its money from prostitution. Theoretically, they should have had only one quarter of that business, but since they owned all the good brothels, they essentially controlled prostitution within Toronto. The three other families earned some prostitution money from the bars and the gambling halls, but this was nothing like what Annie earned.

Betsy made most of her money from selling liquor. As part of his crackdown on crime, the mayor had ordered hefty taxes to be imposed on any alcohol purchased from Toronto's official liquor stores. A dwindling amount of tax revenue from these stores was proof positive that less alcohol was being consumed, and therefore the mayor's crackdown was working. At least that's what the public was told. The public didn't know that Betsy's family was selling increasing amounts of liquor illegally to the bars and gambling halls and making a tidy profit along the way.

Christy's family specialized in gambling. They controlled a large casino, fifteen gambling dens, and over a hundred bookies running the numbers racket. Gambling operations attract thieves who try to cheat; collecting debts from compulsive gamblers can be problematic. Both threats to Christy's profitability required her to employ personnel who could deter thieves and convince deadbeats to pay. These personnel were physically active men with few scruples and fewer brain cells. Some people would refer to them as _thugs._ Christy had a small army of them.

Doreen made most of her money from selling insurance to grocery stores and restaurants. She wanted to make it possible for these small business to sell liquor as well – under more expensive insurance coverage of course. Betsy was reluctant to share her liquor dominance, even though Doreen's sales would be small in comparison. She would agree to Doreen's expansion, if Doreen convinced the mayor to require any business establishment that sold anything that involved chewing or swallowing to have a liquor license for which she would supply their inventory. Candy stores, for example. (Doreen owned the mayor through some embarrassing pictures that she had obtained. She sold him insurance against those pictures ever becoming public.) The mayor was stalling because of his aforementioned crackdown on liquor sales. He was willing to expand the presence of liquor licenses in the city if Christy increased the amount of money that he was allowed to win at her casinos. Christy was reluctant because the mayor was using his entire extended family to "gamble" profitably on his behalf, but she'd be willing to reconsider if he allowed her to build a tunnel from her gambling hall to an adjacent building that would serve as a home-away-from-home for lonesome male gamblers. Annie was opposed to this unless she was the one who provided the prostitutes. She'd let Christy set up some slots in the waiting area of the new brothel, but all other income would go to her. Negotiations on all of these "cooperative" ventures were ongoing.

### # # # # # # # #

Doc had looked long and hard at Doctor Sandman. He was a real doctor with numerous patients who come to his home-based clinic. He had visiting privileges at the local hospital, meaning that he could treat serious illnesses and operate there. Doc calculated that he had enough money from his medical work to support himself and his wife. If Sandman were receiving any income from his crimes, Doc found no evidence of any such money.

Doc could find no reason why Sandman's wife would participate willingly in a ruse that would give the judge secret access to his own daughter for sexual purposes. His wife was not related in any fashion to the ABCD families, nor was Sandman. Complicating the theory that Sandman was a major criminal figure in Toronto was Reese's assessment of his colours. Dr. Sandman had some wide streaks of dark colours – possibly because he was controlling Winker, Blinker, and Nod. But of all the people that Reese looked at in the judge's inner circle, Dr. Sandman had the second lightest colours.

"Who had the lightest," Momaka asked.

"Eldreadth."

"She's not involved in the families' crimes?" Momaka pursued.

"Not as far as we know," Melissa confirmed. "She is unmarried but lives in a large mansion. She has no visible source of income. Reese said that she has some faded dark colours. Is she guilty of major crimes? Reese says _No_."

### # # # # # # # #

Jock's group was responsible for looking at Toronto's municipal government, police, and judiciary. He reported that the mayor, deputy mayor, business controller, police commissioner, police chief, and deputy policy chief were fully involved in graft. They changed the laws and the way they were enforced on request from the families. In return, they received money or free services (prostitutes) from the families. Reese confirmed that all six of these people had dark colours.

Others in city hall, the police stations, and the prosecutor's office had dark colours, but not heavily so. This probably was because they were taking bribes to keep quiet. From Reese's colour observations, bribery in various forms was rampant in the constabulary.

Judge Lewis was the sole owner of the Top Hat carriages business, although he hid that ownership behind some numbered companies. It earned a reasonable amount of legitimate income. But that income was only made possible after the judge told the mayor to ban all other forms of transport from entering the city center. Top Hat also delivered contraband items like drugs to favoured clients. The drivers involved in that scheme all wore red bow ties. The driver who killed the judge's daughter wore a red tie. He was not a regular killer as far as they could determine; he just happened to be handy.

Top Hat earned its most money in a single night every two years. That income all came on the night of the city elections. Top Hat collected the ballot boxes from the voting stations and delivered them to City Hall for impartial citizens to count. The ballot boxes that they collected were not the same boxes that they delivered. This couldn't be done unless the judge had access to a lot of extra ballots. That may have been the only reason he had a printing business. Everything else that his printing company did appeared to be legitimate. Similarly, the only reason for his mortuary business was so that he could dispose of the bodies coming out of the basement cellblock. In both cases, the operators of those businesses didn't know what was going on.

### # # # # # # # #

I'll give you Jock's closing comments word-for-word.

"The head prosecutor, Dennis Lee, is fully involved in the families' crimes. Reese says that he has very dark colours. From what we've been able to observe, he works for the judge as his right hand man. They met when Lee was in law school. They talk together on a regular basis in the prosecutor's office, but this is not remarkable because discussions between judges and prosecutors are common. Those conversations reveal nothing incriminating. We know that small pieces of paper are transferred in those meeting, but we don't know what's written on them. The discussion I'll share with you happened in the judge's mansion."

"Judge Lewis asked Lee about his wife and whether or not she knew what he was doing in his spare time. Lee had a free account at one of Annie's brothels and would be there when he told her that he was _working late_."

"She knows nothing," Lee said. "My wife thinks that she knows me, but she doesn't."

"We should make sure that she doesn't find out."

"Agreed."

"You know, I've always considered you and your wife to be like family to me. I've always enjoyed family life, even though I've never married. My family was very close. We even bathed together. I miss that kind of family life."

The prosecutor remained quiet.

"Why don't you and your wife come over for a social evening this Friday night?"

"We have a daughter, Judge."

"Bring her along too. If the evening goes long, she can sleep in a spare bedroom. You may need to leave to respond to an emergency call. Be sure to use my copter."

"My wife may not be interested in family bathing, Judge."

"I'll give her a choice then, shall I?"

### # # # # # # # #

"What happened next?" Hank asked. He was looking very grim.

"Lee had to leave suddenly, as arranged. The daughter was already asleep somewhere in the house. The judge explained to Lee's wife about his family's love of bathing together. She stood up to leave. The judge told her that her husband had no objections to her sharing a family bath with the judge, but it would be her choice. He'd prefer to bathe with her, but if not, there was always her daughter. He knew where she was sleeping. Mrs. Lee didn't."

"Lee's wife left early the next morning with her daughter. She used her husband's copter. She stopped at her house and collected as much as she could out of that house – clothes, special possessions, and the like. Half an hour later, she was flying west to stay with a sister in Winnipeg. She never arrived. The copter exploded when they were landing at a helipad in Barrie, Ontario for a food break. I myself did not witness this. I did hear Blinker, the explosive expert, informing the judge that she had witnessed her bomb exploding and that both the mother and the daughter were dead."

"What about the prosecutor?" Hank asked.

"He came home to find his wife and daughter gone. The judge told him that his wife had been a willing bather and had left his mansion with her daughter the next morning. He had no idea why they would not be at home now. The prosecutor had his house cleaned of everything belonging to them. He now has a permanent relationship with one of Annie's best. Neither he nor the judge seems unduly disturbed by the event. The one time they talked about it, the judge said – _"She was bound to catch on eventually."_

"Yeah. She was getting suspicious. The kid was obnoxious at times. Clinging to me, hugging me, wanting to do things with me. They didn't suffer did they, Judge?"

"Whatever are you taking about, Dennis?"

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 30

Two days after the big group meeting, William and Wolf were back at the home compound visiting their families. Doc, Granny, Hank, and Wanda were back there too. In Toronto, Lucas and Jock were working on attack strategies while Theo and Dreamer were concentrating on basketball. Nary came to the gym with Dreamer and rebounded for her. Dreamer showed her how to box out a pretend opponent, just because it was the right way to rebound. As far as Dreamer was concerned, nothing could come from Lylah's quest to get Nary onto a basketball team somewhere. Momaka and Stu were off touristing. Winnie suspected that their touristing was in a submarine, but she wasn't saying anything about that.

Winnie's personal research into the crime families had uncovered nothing useful. She wasn't interested in pursuing any of the little leads that remained. She had removed her spy bots and was putting them into the empty box that would contain any jewelry she owned when she was allowed to have a boyfriend. That's when somebody knocked on her bedroom door. Winnie was sharing a bedroom on the ship with Dreamer and she thought that it would be Wizard. He had been _dropping by_ regularly. It was Marie instead.

"Hi, Marie. Did you want to go back to the home compound? I'll go with you if you want."

"Would you go somewhere else with me instead?"

"Sure. Where do you want to go?"

"Safe Haven Ranch #2. The Wilizy aren't working right now; Hank promised that the Wilizy would look into the Safe Haven ranches when you had time."

"We did promise that. But I don't know where your ranch is. Do you?"

"No, but I know how you could find it."

So, that's how Winnie ended up squished together with Marie in a single time-travel sling. It had to be a single sling because Marie's sling did not have that function activated yet. Marie directed her to the prison island. Winnie remembered that the attack on the island had been around Christmas, so she went back to December 24 and skipped forward. When the panther and the alligator came ashore, Winnie stopped skipping and began watching intently. Unlike Theo, she wasn't squeamish about what she saw.

"When you're killing like that as an alligator, do you know what you're doing? Do you remember any of it?"

"Both Nary and I are fully aware of what our companions are doing and we remember everything. We have a degree of control over their actions. I have more control than Nary because my powers are greater than hers. For now." Marie liked the word _companion_ and used it whenever the topic of the alligator came up. She certainly wouldn't give it a human name. She had no great affection for the beast, although it did provide her with a safe body where she could sleep for a week at a time and restore her human body's energy. But, the alligator was cold-blooded and Marie was always cold afterwards. She could hardly wrap herself in blankets when she was inside the alligator.

"Does it bother you when it's killing like that?"

"Nah. I made sure that it killed them quickly. I may take smaller bites out of Big Daddy and Big Momma. Slaves learn that small bites make their food last longer. I wouldn't want to upset Big Momma unnecessarily."

"That's funny."

"I hope Big Momma enjoys the joke. Nary was anxious before the bosses came because she and Contrary had never shared a human kill before. But she wasn't a slave and she didn't see what those bosses did to the slaves. She didn't have any difficulty with her second kill. She understood that Mavis deserved to die."

"Nary killed Mavis?"

(I'll skip the part of the conversation where Marie tells Winnie how Nary stalked and killed Mavis. You already know this. They agreed that this news shouldn't be shared with the family. Some family members might object that Mavis hadn't been put on trial first.)

"Your alligator was almost bigger than Nary's panther. I thought panthers would have been bigger."

"I let the alligator get big because I wanted to scare the bosses away from the water. Nary could have created a bigger body too but she needed speed, not bulk."

Their conversation was like two assassins talking about what size bullet would kill their target most effectively.

"You can make the alligator any size you want?"

"Sure. All the way from very very big to very very small."

"Can you be a panther too?"

"Sure. We did that on the island. Contrary would drive the deer to the island in her panther form and then I'd kill it with my panther. Why?"

"Just curious. I've seen Patella and Scapula kill. They enjoy it. I don't know if I could kill."

"You didn't mind watching it."

"They deserved it."

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie followed the Safe Haven copter with its load of slaves back to where it came from, as Marie requested. But Marie wasn't happy.

"This isn't my ranch. We need to find Ranch #2."

"Any idea where it is?"

"It can't be far. The air smells right."

"We'll go to current time and then roam around a bit. If I take us up to the cloud levels, we'll have a good view."

They found Ranch #2 easily enough after that.

"That's where you were a slave? Do you mind if we go lower?"

"Go ahead."

Marie pointed out the slave quarters, the whipping post, the crop fields, and the big house. "That's Big Momma," she pointed to a spindly little woman rocking on a porch swing.

"You're not planning to kill her now, are you?"

"No. Theogun and Shango have to be here."

"Why?"

"That's what was foretold. It's afternoon. Big Daddy is making babies. I don't want to see that. We can go now."

"Toronto or the home compound?"

"Home compound. I'm tired of living on a ship."

"Good. I have something there that you might enjoy."

"What?"

"Something called Monty Python."

During that entire afternoon, Winnie and Marie were squeezed together tightly. They found that co-existing in the same sling was easiest if they stood beside each other – arm in arm. On the way back, Winnie slipped her hand into Marie's hand and that's how they ended the trip.

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas and Jock were finishing up their planning. "I've never seen these kinds of forms before," Lucas said.

"Project management software," Jock replied. "With this software, you can break any military operation into small chunks and date and time each chunk. You can also assign personnel to each piece of the operation. There are windows available for risk management too. Battle casualty expectations, alternate plans, that kind of thing. You and I didn't look at those windows as I don't expect casualties or the need to make alternate plans. Not with Melissa doing the planning. She has already built those into her thinking."

"Melissa is really good then? She could be a general?"

"I'd hire her to be my battle planner. But being a general is more than fighting battles. She wouldn't be as good at the organizational part of the job. Mac is particularly good at organization."

"Being in the military means having to think a lot?"

"If you're an officer, yes. Why?"

"I've thought about joining the army after I finish school. I'm good at fighting; not so good at thinking."

"Some things can be learned."

"Not if you're dumb."

### # # # # # # # #

Reese was walking Annika back home from school. He had arrived at the school from Toronto yesterday and had automatically met her at her locker. On the way home, she had asked him where he had been but Reese was evasive and Annika didn't pursue it.

The big news, from the perspective of the girls in the school, was the dance coming up. Annika had a new dress but she had figured that she wouldn't get to wear it. Then Reese showed up at school again.

"Did you hear about the dance on the eighteenth?"

"Yeah. A bit."

"All of the girls will be there. I'm going with my friends. We'll be hanging out underneath one of the basketball hoops. The one by the score clock."

"My new sister is very good at jumping for basketballs."

That would have been a very interesting conversation. _How can a little girl baby be a good jumper? Oh, you mean she's not a little girl. She's a teenager? How could a teenager suddenly come into your family? What's she like? What's her name? How could she have a name like that?_

Yes, lots of questions would have been possible. But Annika had her mind set on something else. "Will you ask me for a dance Thursday night or not?" With Reese, she had learned that sometimes she had to be direct.

"Do boys dance with girls at these things?" Reese had never been at a school dance. But he knew his classmates well. None of them would willingly dance with a girl.

"The brave ones do."

That was a nice touch on Annika's part, but Reese still stalled.

"You'd only have to ask for one dance. The gym will be sort of dark. Probably nobody would notice."

Reese thought about it. He could go in his sling, stay invisible most of the time, and just ask for the one dance. It would be dark enough that he might not be seen. He'd wear dark clothes. "OK, I'll see you at the dance. When should I ask you to dance?"

"The **last** dance. They'll announce the **last** dance ahead of time. Just listen for the announcement."

"OK."

Reese didn't understand the significance of the last dance. He was more concerned about the fact that he didn't know how to dance. He didn't know that the last dance was when they turned the lights down low and put on slow music. Annika knew and that explains her choice of the dance she'd have with Reese. Sometimes a girl has to do what a girl has to do.

### # # # # # # # #

"Maddy, you have to do exactly what I tell you to do."

The Weight Watcher in Minneapolis was being very serious.

"You have to sit still. Don't squirm."

Maddy had been staying with Victoria for over a week now. She was very nice. Right now, Maddy was sitting on the kitchen table and would try to stay still even though another person was in front of her with a sharp knife. Maddy hadn't seen her before, but she was built like Pililiani and Victoria had said she was nice. Still, that knife was very sharp and it was right in front of Maddy's face right now. Maddy closed her eyes.

The lady with the knife put one finger inside her dog collar and pulled it a little way from Maddy's neck. Maddy immediately tensed up.

"It's OK. We're only going to cut your collar open a bit so that Sylvia can look inside it. Sylvia is very smart about computers and technology. She won't hurt you."

Maddy heard some cutting sounds. Soon enough Sylvia said, "I have the leather away from the electronics now. I'm going to take a look."

Maddy didn't know what any of that meant, but the cutting sounds had stopped and Sylvia's hand wasn't pressing against her throat now.

"Somebody has put a whole pile of electronics inside the compartment, Victoria. Two wires go into the two prods placed against Maddy's skin. Put current into those and it would be painful, I expect."

"Are those wires hot now?"

"They could be if the receiver were activated. There'd have to be a transmitter somewhere. It would send a wireless signal to the receiver, the wires would be electrified, and that would create the charge."

"The machine in her back pack might be the transmitter."

"How long has she been carrying it?"

"Since March 1."

"I better look at it. It's unlikely to be active now, but it's best to be sure."

"Maddy, Sylvia is going to look inside your flat machine. She won't do anything that will cause it to go off. You don't have to worry."

That was like telling Yolanda not to clean, or Winnie not to snoop, or Granny not to bake. Maddy started to whimper. She knew what would come next. The whimpering got worse as Sylvia rotated the machine, looking for an access panel.

"Hurry."

"I'm hurrying as safely as I can, Victoria. Somebody has used this collar on her a lot. She's been conditioned to expect pain."

Victoria held Maddy close to her body as Sylvia worked on some tiny screws in the transmitter. She stroked her hair. When that didn't work, she picked Maddy up, held her close, and carried her around the kitchen, rocking back and forth as Maddy started to wail.

"Got it. It's dead. And if it hadn't been dead already, it is now. Maddy, this thing will never hurt you again."

Maddy eventually calmed down, sat on the table again, and Sylvia cut the collar off. "What beast would do this to a little girl?" Sylvia asked nobody in particular. Nobody in particular answered.

"Let's get that ice cream now, OK?"

Maddy wiped some tears off her face with the palm of her right hand and shook her head in agreement. Later in the copter, she smiled at Victoria and bounced up and down in her seat. Victoria had given her ice cream on the first day she had been in Minneapolis.

That afternoon, Victoria and Sylvia took Maddy shopping. They didn't take her to Minneapolis' Mall of America because that mall had been taken over by gangs and it wasn't safe to shop there any longer. Maddy didn't know anything about that. She just knew that they took her on a copter ride, they stopped where there were lots of buildings, and Victoria took her to eat at a place that had ice cream.

Victoria also bought new clothes for Maddy to replace the others that were now too small. She even bought a pink rolling box for her. She called it a suitcase. Maddy could put her new clothes in it and pull the suitcase behind her. She didn't have to put her clothes in a backpack. Victoria promised to show her how to pack all of her new clothes in her suitcase tonight. But first, she took her to a place where another big woman took a picture of her in her new clothes. Victoria took one copy of the picture; Maddy got another copy that she could put in her suitcase and then give to her mommy and daddy. A digital copy went onto the bot that Maddy was still carrying around with her as she travelled west.

For her special picture, Maddy was wearing a long sleeved white pullover and a dark blue jumper with light blue dots. She had a pair of knee high blue socks and black shoes. For the picture, Victoria combed Maddy's blonde hair so that her curls were over her ears and away from her forehead. The photographer stood on a chair in front of Maddy and told her to look up as she snapped the picture. Maddy wasn't smiling, but she wasn't crying either.

The next morning, Sylvia took Maddy to Fargo, North Dakota and left her with another Weight Watcher. Maddy was now five hundred miles away from Fort Peck Lake. At her current rate of travel, Maddy would be wearing a dog-collar again in two weeks.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 31

On April 13, Annie's biggest and most expensive brothel was empty by 10 p.m. This brothel was advertised as a health care center for men wishing personal attention. The men who were engaged in field-testing the linens on Annie's beds earlier that evening didn't appreciate the personal attention they were receiving from bed bugs the size of miniature alligators. Thanks to Winnie, Annie's customers quickly turned to _cuss_ -tomers. Annie's staff didn't realize that only two bed bugs were the source of the problem, but they were very mobile. Invisibly so.

By April 15, news of a plague of bed bugs had caused Toronto's wealthy health-conscious males to abandon all plans to become more healthy through exercises with Annie's health care specialists in her main facility. By April 17, the bed bugs had shut down Annie's entire prostitution business. The sisters had been sending texts to the judge, but not hearing a thing back from him. That was because the judge had been kidnapped by two figures dressed completely in black leather and wearing black motorcycle helmets. The shorter of the two figures was a woman and she spoke a foreign language of some kind. The taller figure was also a woman. She carried a softball bat and looked like she knew how to use it. The judge was blindfolded and taken for a one-way copter ride.

When the blindfold was removed, the judge found himself in a clearing in the woods. For shelter, he had a tarp to sleep under. For warmth, he had blankets and additional clothes. All things considered, the judge had all the amenities he'd need for a pleasant stay in the woods, minus any device that he might use for communication purposes. For entertainment, he had two dogs to keep him company. If he had owned a ball, he could have played _Fetch_ with them. He didn't have a ball, so the dogs had nothing to do other than lie in the clearing and growl when he tried to leave. If the judge had been more knowledgeable about canines, he would have noticed that they were wolves. Winnie fed them regularly in a nearby clearing and visited to keep them company, but without revealing herself to the judge, of course. She was getting increasingly annoyed that her role in this operation was confined to feeding her wolves so that they wouldn't eat the judge.

Losing customers wasn't the only thing that Annie had to wrestle with. She was also losing her health care specialists. Some do-gooders were finding them and convincing them that prostitution was not a good career choice for young teenage girls. Those girls disappeared as quickly as Annie's customers had.

Melissa's _Operation Bite Me_ was considered successfully concluded on the evening of April 18. The Raging Gardeners had transported over 75 per cent of Toronto's young prostitutes to a Wilizy Foundation center. Annie's entire business plan was in shambles and she was begging her sisters to lend her enough money to start up other brothels. Her sisters pointed to her lack of personnel and said _No_. In anger, Annie threatened to branch out into other business lines. That didn't sit too well with her sisters who again bombarded the judge with texts. They all received a reply telling them to sort it out for themselves. The judge wouldn't be a referee any longer. Annie told her underboss to skip the meetings in the pub from now on. He would be too busy making expansion plans to attend.

### # # # # # # # #

On that evening of April 18, Melissa told the Wilizy that she was delaying the next step in the operation. She wanted to give the ABCD families more time to make their problems worse. This meant that the Wilizy would be sitting around with nothing to do for several days. Marie and Nary had been the only Wilizy warriors involved in the first operation; others were itching to go. Annie's customers had already itched and gone.

The conversation around the dinner table was subdued. Boredom was the most common emotion until Winnie erupted in a peal of laughter.

"What?" Yolanda asked.

"Nothing."

"No, something. What's going on?"

"Just something that Marie mind-messaged me. You don't need to know."

This only made Yolanda need to know whatever she didn't know even more. "Why don't you share it with us, Winnie?"

Having now provoked the model of decorum to the point of ordering her to share, Winnie had to share. Not to do so would have been disobedient. Marie helped with the sharing. A Monty Python skit. Complete with funny voices from Marie.

"That was good," William said. "Marie, those voices were..."

"Really irritating," one Wilizy said.

Winnie and Marie shared a glance. Success! "We have another skit to show you."

"Oh dear God of Sanity," Granny implored. "For what we are about to receive, may you please grant us temporary deafness."

Unhappily, the God of Sanity was otherwise occupied. He was probably insanely jealous of Marie's voices.

"I'm trying to eat here," one Wilizy commented on the skit.

"We have one on eating."

When they were finished with the skit, Granny ordered a code of silence around the table. "Don't encourage them. They're trying to make you sick. Just pretend you're a mute. Don't say anything."

Speaking of mutes, Maddy arrived in Bismarck, North Dakota this afternoon. She was 330 miles away from her destination.

That evening, Betsy's underboss received an anonymous text offering to sell Betsy's family insurance that would protect them from damage to their liquor business. Everybody assumed that Annie's family was behind the threat so they were not invited to a face-to-face meeting of the three other sisters and their underbosses. The judge remained mute on the subject.

### # # # # # # # #

April 18 was the night of the big dance in Penticton. With his mom back in Toronto, Reese didn't have to explain to anybody why he had dressed himself all in black and had slipped out of the compound without saying anything to anybody. He'd be invisible in a darkened gym. Zorro without the mask or sword.

Reese flew aimlessly above the large crowd in the gym during most of the dance. The dance had been for grade six students only. This had been by intent. The students in grades seven and eight had gotten past the inhibition about touching people of the opposite gender; the teachers didn't want to expose the 6s to such temptations yet.

Reese wondered what the big hype had been about this dance. The music was playing to a big crowd – all of them standing on the sidelines. There had been some balloons tied to different pieces of gym equipment but the boys had managed to burst all of those. Girls were flocked together in fillips of fragrant, frilly frocks of femininity.

The boys had tired of wrestling and cavorting. They were mostly sitting on the gym floor watching two pairs of teachers doing something very boring to the music. The girls weren't sitting on the gym floor because each of them was wearing a new dress. Moms had decreed that getting it dirty was not an option. Some were even wearing shoes with a heel on them; most were carrying the shoes in their hands. Getting their bare feet dirty **was** an option when their feet were killing them.

"This will be the last dance," a bored voice intoned on the PA system.

The girl assigned by her friends to take care of the lighting for the last dance was standing next to the switches. She flipped all of the switches off. The teacher assigned by the principal to make sure the gym was never completely dark, flipped two of them back on. The four teachers who had been dancing came off the floor. Everybody waited. Who would make the first move?

Some big football dude wandered across the gym. A water fountain was over there somewhere. He was only going for a drink. Perhaps he'd stop on the way to say _Hello_ to one of the girls. He did. She agreed and he strolled nonchalantly onto the dance floor – the girl looking back at her friends and making faces to them. _Why him of all people?_

Water seeps gradually into grass. Boys move more slowly than seeping water when they have to ask a girl to dance. Reese timed it so that he'd be in the middle of the crowd seeping across the gym floor.

"I thought you weren't going to show up," Annika said.

"No, I said I'd be here," Reese replied. When the music started, they put their hands just so (Mac had been the one to show Reese how to start dancing), and began to dance together. Grade six boys know enough about what they're supposed to do to shuffle their feet minutely in one direction or the other. The girls tried to go in the same direction as the boys for a while but eventually gave up. Keeping time with the music was something else they had to give up on too.

Guys – in case you don't know this – girls learn how to dance by dancing with each other first. They are good at it. You don't practice. You're not good at it.

When the first minute of the dance was ending, the couples dancing on the floor were far enough apart that Bubba Franklin (remember him?) could have walked between them and not touched either. In the second minute, the gap closed.

The music for the last dance had been carefully chosen. The girl making the choice opted for the song that lasted seven minutes. The principal had a different idea. Three minutes, no more.

Reese noticed that Annika was now dancing closer to him. He looked around. Other couples had given up on the dance where you hold each other's hands. All the other dancers were now attached together differently. The girls had their arms around the guys' waists; the guys had their arms around the girls' shoulders. Annika pulled her hands out of Reese's hands and put her arms around his waist. Reese had very little choice about this. Should he just let his arms dangle? He put his arms around Annika's shoulders instead. She moved even closer to him.

Reese could feel the little wisps of hair from Annika's curls touching his ears. Then more of her hair was touching his ears. With thirty seconds to go, face-to-face contact had been won. Annika's temple and cheek were touching Reese's temple and check. They swayed together. Reese felt the warmth of her face next to his. Annika felt the warmth of his face next to hers. Both were wondering if the other had noticed that little droplets of sweat had emerged on their temples. Both noticed. Neither cared.

The last stanza of the music was accompanied by a sudden eruption of light in the gym and dancing bodies split apart as though they had been spring-loaded. Girls started to clutter together so that they could share their last dance experiences on their way home. Guys remembered that they had forgotten to walk the dog and beat a hasty retreat out of embarrassment over such a slip-up. Annika and Reese were momentarily alone in the center of the gym. Neither knew what was supposed to happen next. All of their attention in the dance instruction lessons each had received at home had been on learning the mechanics of dancing. Who knew all you had to do was sway?

"Would you walk me home, Reese?" Annika resolved the dilemma with a direct request. Reese wanted to but he was still locked into remembering the touch of her face against his.

"OK, I guess," he said, not wanting to be too anxious lest she think of him as a pervert for letting their faces touch. On the way out of the gym, Annika's hand brushed against his and Reese found himself holding her hand all the way to her locker.

On the way home, it was just natural for Reese to sneak his hand next to hers and then snatch it. After all, they had been holding hands during the dance. Annika didn't seem to mind. They didn't have much to say on the walk. Both were wondering what would happen at the door. At least, that's what Annika was wondering. Reese was thinking that he didn't want the walk to end.

When they reached Annika's house, they found a darkened front door. The light must have burnt out.

"Thank you for dancing with me," Annika said. And because the word _dance_ had been uttered, it was perfectly natural for her to put her arms around his waist, just like they had been in the dance.

Once again, Reese had a dilemma. He couldn't just let his arms dangle. But what if her mom were looking out the front window? (Annika's mom wasn't looking out the window; but she **was** in the living room and had seen the two figures merging into one.) Reese decided that it would be OK to put his arms around Annika's shoulders. He had done this at the dance and she hadn't stopped him.

Then, because they had done this at the dance, both heads moved inwards and cheek touched cheek. They hung together while Annika's mom became increasingly perturbed and started to consider turning on the porch light. But if she did, Annika wouldn't speak to her for a week. She was the one who had turned it off.

There's a certain male instinct that kicks in when a male cheek is pressed against a female cheek. The male's instinct is to turn his face inwards. Reese didn't know that this instinct existed, nor did he know what he was doing. He turned his face inwards and his lips brushed against Annika's cheek. She stepped back at that point. "See you tomorrow?"

"Yah."

Annika turned and went into her house. Reese turned around and walked away. He didn't hear Annika's mom say "Well?" to her daughter. He also didn't hear Annika tell her mom that she didn't want to talk about it.

In baseball, everybody knows that the pitcher will be throwing the ball towards home plate. Sometimes the batter swings and hits the ball solidly through the infield and trots down to first base. Sometimes the batter swings and misses. And sometimes, the batter swings and connects with the ball, but only partially. In these situations, the batter may go a few feet down the line to first base, watching the ball as it flies through the air. Will it stay fair? Or will it go foul?

Reese had been half way down the line to first base when the umpire had called, _Foul Ball!_ Reese didn't mind. He thought about that cheek-to-cheek touch all the way home. Reese didn't realize that he had almost made it to first base. Annika was disappointed, but as far as she was concerned, Reese was still at bat.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 32

Melissa's second attack on the four families started on Sunday, April 21 and ended the same day. The target was the centerpiece of Christy's operations – the big casino. All of Toronto's elite frequented this lavishly decorated two-storey building. The first floor contained all the gambling tables and machines; the second floor held Christy's staff who were charged with watching everything happening below, finding the cheaters, photographing them, and escorting them out of the building. The basement held the vault. Fully 75 per cent of Christy's revenue came from profits from the rich and powerful. The non-rich and non-powerful gambled in Christy's small dens or placed bets with her bookies.

Christy had installed a wide variety of gambling attractions in the casino, all of them capable of pulling money out of the pockets of the wealthy. Every gaming table required the guest to buy chips and use those instead of real money. The smallest chip you could buy cost $5; the largest cost $5,000. Whether it was the roulette wheel, or the black jack table, or the poker tables – every table was rigged to be in favour of the house, that is, in favour of Christy. In other words, Christy cheated. Big time.

The most lucrative of all of the tables was the _high stakes poker table_ where only five patrons were allowed to sit at a time. This table had no limit on the size of the bet that patrons could make. A player with a lot of chips in front of him might be able to _buy_ the win simply by raising the bid beyond what his opponent could cover. However nobody at the table was dumb enough to show how much money he actually had. Players came to the game with large briefcases and they would hide their briefcases under the table when they had to dip into them. They didn't know that Christy had cameras built into the undersides of the table specifically so that they could see inside those suitcases.

The wealthy saw this table as an opportunity to satisfy their bloodlust without actually killing anybody. It was a **very** popular table and spectators crowded around when somebody was winning big. Christy liked that table too. It brought in 25 per cent of her casino's revenue. My readers might ask how a table where wealthy patrons played against each other could bring the house so much money. This table was different. The five patrons sitting around the table didn't play against each other. They'd take turns playing a hand against the casino itself, in the form of the person sitting behind the sign that said: _Warning: I am a professional poker player._ The wealthy took that as a challenge. They had a chance to beat a pro. They didn't know that they also had to beat Christy's sensors that were reading the vital signs of the five schmucks sitting nervously around that table waiting to be fleeced. When the stakes got high, the pro player merely looked at a certain bank of lights that only he could see. Various flashing lights would tell him if his opponent was nervous, excited, or despondent. Within that combination of lights, he'd also be able to tell how strong that emotion was.

High stakes games started at 2:00 in the afternoon and the table closed at 2:00 in the morning. The casino's pros would work four-hour shifts. Few amateurs lasted through a shift. On this day, five non-Torontonians would play poker against Christy; a sixth foreigner would be an interested spectator. The six non-Torontonians were professionals too, of a sort. Since Christy was cheating at the game, so would these six. It would come down to who was best at cheating.

Doc would start at 2:00 p.m., Stu at about 4:00, Momaka at about 6:00, TG at about 8:00, and a very pregnant Mac at 10:00. Wizard had used the pause in the battles to go back to Alberta and bring back a large chunk of the Wilizy's available wealth. He also brought back a lot of nervousness. Wizard knew enough about poker to realize that it was a game of chance. Get the right cards and you might have a chance to win. Get the wrong cards, and you could lose big. Wizard's business investments were not based on random chance. He and Mac had a long talk. She explained the strategy behind betting and how it was possible to recover from a poor hand. Wiz wasn't buying it. "Far too risky!" he exclaimed. "Why don't you and I play a couple of hands," Mac replied.

In the end, Wizard agreed to fund the game for the first three Wilizy players. If they had won some money, they could use that money to play further. If they had lost badly, Melissa would stop the operation.

The poker played at this table went like this. When it was his turn to face the pro, the player would receive one card face down and another card face up. The pro would be dealt cards in similar fashion. After that, the player and the pro would bet on whether they thought that they'd win the hand or not based on what the first two cards told them. Then a third card would be dealt – face up. Then more betting. A fourth card would follow – face up. By this time, both players would have a reasonable idea how good (or bad) the hands could be. Betting could become intense at this point. Three cards would be up, one card would be down. The last card, the fifth card, was dealt down. At that point, the betting could become bloodthirsty.

Mac and TG had been teaching Doc, Stu, and Momaka how to play this variation of poker on and off for several days. They now knew which was the best hand, which was the next best and so on. That order was: straight flush was best, four of a kind next, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, and high card. If the reader is not familiar with the game of poker, you don't need to know what these names mean. I mention them only to emphasize that poker is a very complicated game. None of these three Wilizy had ever played it before. TG had played poker and he knew math very well too. Mac had played it most of her life. It's what Saskatchewan soldiers did when they had free time. Mac had started playing the game when she was eight years old. If they had allowed her to bet anything other than match sticks, she would have owned half of Saskatchewan's army by now.

Winnie was the interested spectator that I had mentioned. She'd be hovering invisibly above the table, reading what was in the pro's head and describing the pro's hand to every Wilizy listening in, including Mac. Winnie would also tell the Wilizy followers what their own player's cards were. It would be like listening to a real baseball game, but without the boredom. Mac would be back in the ship, relaxing as much as a very pregnant woman could relax. Through Winnie's observations, she could mind-message Doc, Stu, and Momaka how much to bet and when to fold. They were there to pretend to be a certain kind of player. Mac was actually playing the hand from a distance. She'd personally take the last shift of games if necessary.

### # # # # # # # #

Doc played for an hour and a half. He pretended to be a very nervous player. The sensors told the pro that he was very nervous. Doc didn't have to act – he **was** very nervous because of the amount of money involved. Doc was even nervous when, near the end of his shift, he was holding a _straight_ – a 10, 9, 8, 7, and 6 of mixed hearts and clubs. This is a reasonably strong hand. When Mac saw the straight developing, she kept Doc raising the bet by a small amount when he could. The pro saw three queens in his own hand. This was a fairly good hand, but he also had a chance to add a pair, making it a full house. This would be a winning hand against a straight. The three queens were also a bettable hand. The pro bet aggressively. When all five cards had been dealt, Doc had a guaranteed win but only the Wilizy knew that. Meanwhile, the sensors were informing the pro that his opponent was very nervous. The pro interpreted this nervousness as a sign that Doc was bluffing. (Bluffing is pretending to have a good hand when you don't have one.) The pro kept building the pot higher and higher, adding thousands at a time. Doc nervously increased the bid a little bit too. The higher the pile of chips on the table, the more nervous he became. "He's bluffing, he's bluffing," the spy in the sky messaged the pro. Eventually the bidding stopped. Doc walked away from the table with $50,000. Security guards from the casino offered to accompany Doc to his hotel room. Doc wisely declined the offer and disappeared.

### # # # # # # # #

Stu had reluctantly agreed to be part of the operation. Stu didn't understand the game at all, so his most evident emotion in the sensory data being collected was one of confusion. He deliberately emphasized that emotion and his ignorance by asking the pro questions like – _Is a straight better than a flush?_ Stu was winning, but the sensory data that he was projecting told the spy in the sky that he didn't know why he was winning. And truly, Stu didn't know why he was winning. He didn't pay any attention to the cards in front of him, he just did what Mac told him to do. At a rest break, the pro reassured his bosses that the guy was just lucky. If they kept him betting, he'd run out of luck.

Stu was on a lucky streak. He'd clap his hands in delight whenever he won – like it was the first time that he had ever played the game, which it was. Christy's staff saw him as a hick from a small town running a streak that would eventually end. Mac ended the streak when William told her that Stu had taken $100,000 of the house's money and the people upstairs were seriously unhappy about that. This was way more than they had hoped for.

### # # # # # # # #

Like Stu, Momaka had little interest in the game. But after seeing the Annie's prostitution business in operation, she had a lot of interest in bringing down the judge and all of his sisters. If she had had a choice, she would have challenged the casino to a game of mahjong, which is what she and the other child prostitutes had played when they weren't working in their tiny bedrooms. Momaka had been transferred from the Child Palace to the Teenager Palace when she turned thirteen. By that time, she was very good at mahjong. Unfortunately, Momaka's owners wouldn't let her play mahjong when she was working the Teenager Palace. They expected her to work longer hours instead. Since mahjong had been the only thing keeping Momaka's fierce anger in check, that decision turned out to be unwise.

Momaka presented the image of the ideal schmuck. A flighty, irrational woman who made every decision based on what turned up when she rolled these weird looking dice that she kept in a soft cloth bag. She had even let the pro see one of her losing hands. This is a big mistake if you're facing a good player because it tells your opponent whether you had been bluffing or not. The pro now knew that she had bet thousands on a hand that had nothing other than a ten of spades as a top card. Meanwhile, the pro had been showing three of a kind. No poker player with any skill would have remained in the game that long, let alone bet additional money on a hand that had no chance of winning.

This crazy Asian didn't mind losing. She just shrugged, said something in her own language, and pulled out more money to bet. One hand proved to be very expensive. Her dice kept telling her to bet even though her visible cards showed little promise. She seemed uncertain during the whole hand but still she bet. The pro's handlers couldn't tell him much; all of their sensors were showing a flat line. If their sensors had been able to see what Winnie could see in Momaka's head, it would have been a crane. Calm and peaceful in appearance; deadly for fishes who thought it was a tree. The pro decided to bet very aggressively. After all, the crazy Asian had a history of putting big amounts onto the table when she had nothing in her hand. On the last bet, Momaka muttered at her mahjong dice, "Really? The whole amount?" And she shook her head in bewilderment and put the briefcase on the table.

"We don't know how much is in the briefcase, Madam. We don't know what to put into the pot."

"Tell her that you'll match it then," the man with the Slavic face standing in the crowd around the table said. "Or give her the pot. That is how this game works, is it not?"

The pro paused to receive instruction. The crowd had been on Momaka's side during her turns at the game. She would shriek with laughter when she won, take her losses in stride, and all the time she was chattering away in a language that nobody understood. "Match it, match it," the crowd urged the pro. And he did.

Momaka walked away with $400,000. Indeed, her visible hand wasn't showing much. But the two cards that were face down were red jacks. She also had a black jack facing up. That gave her three of a kind. Thanks to Winnie, all of the Wilizy knew that the pro was betting on a losing hand of two aces and two fours.

When the casino offered to protect Momaka on her way to her hotel, she fluttered her fingers at them in a _go away_ gesture. Then she muttered something incomprehensible into her pinky-ring and shortly five black clad figures wearing black motorcycle helmets came into the casino. Four husky figures placed a fancy chair on the casino floor and helped the Asian woman sit on it. They lifted her and the chair into the air and left the casino – each man holding one leg of the chair over his head. The fifth black clad figure, a giant in stature, limped her way out of the casino with the briefcase held in front of her as if it were on a velvet pillow. The procession received a lot of attention from the people in the casino.

The chair had been draped in red and purple tablecloths that had been found in a Toronto thrift shop. The chair itself had been found in the basement of a used furniture store, also in Toronto. The men carrying the chair had been found in a ship sailing in Toronto's air. Hidden behind the murk of the thick window on the helmets were Theo, Lucas, Wolf, and William. Granny had insisted that she'd be part of this gong show even if she had to be covered head to toe in black. She got to carry the loot.

### # # # # # # # #

TG was up next. By this time in the evening, rumblings were coming up from the vault. They had lost more money today than ever before. Cash reserves were alarmingly low. It was 9 p.m. and certain faces in the upstairs offices were looking nervous. They called in their best pro to close out the day.

TG told Melissa that he wanted to try playing poker on his own for one hour, just to see what he could do. He'd use the statistical odds of certain cards being dealt as a guide to his betting. TG knew his stats but that method of betting assumed that his opponent would not go on a streak of luck. Sadly for TG and the rest of the Wilizy, the pro did get lucky. TG was down about $30,000 by the end of his hour. A good professional poker player will know the game inside out; he'll also be lucky. In this case, the professional "he" was a professional "she" and, on this night, the casino's woman pro was lucky. The same lucky woman pro was set to go against Mac. Watching half-clad bimbos rolling around in mud and wrestling with each other can't reach this level of excitement.

### # # # # # # # #

Mac was content to let TG play his hands on his own because she had been feeling increasingly uncomfortable throughout the evening. At 8 p.m., in the middle of Momaka's shift, she told Doc that she thought her baby was getting close to arriving. At 9:05, just as TG was looking at his first hand, she reported a contraction – a contraction being the sign that the baby had pushed the down button on the elevator. Doc checked and shook his head negatively. At 9:20, she had another contraction. Doc asked everybody in the birthing party to come to the ship. Melissa was prepared to cancel the casino operation at that point, but Doc said that labour pains this far before the due date were often a sign of false labour. The key would be to look for a regular pattern of contractions.

At 9:50, Mac insisted on slinging to the casino. It took her five seconds to pass through the casino doors – four seconds for her belly to go by and one second for the rest of her body. Have I mentioned that Mac was seriously pregnant? By 9:59, Mac was waiting in the line to take a seat at the game. A very nice man noticed her condition and offered her his chair. She sat down with a thump and a groan at 10:00. Somehow, military people always find a way to be punctual.

As the game began, Mac was very uncomfortable. The chair had a soft seat but no back support. She had a few hands that showed promise, but the pro wasn't interested in betting big, so Mac held off and won some small pots. When she wasn't playing, she was stretching her back and twisting around to find a comfortable position. She was also keeping her legs closed tightly together. Every woman in the crowd who had ever been pregnant saw what she was doing and began experiencing the same reaction. The feminine spectators would have to pee soon, but they were hoping that this pregnant blonde could beat the pro and they didn't want to miss a second.

_Mac, the pro has to pee_ , Winnie sent.

_So do I. Should I call a time out?_

Time-outs were allowed if both people in the game agreed.

_No. She really has to go. That's all she can think about. She might make a mistake._

But Mac started to have difficulty containing her discomfort. She was two hands away from her turn.

"Mmmmmph," she groaned.

"Unnnhhhhh," she added.

Mac put her head down on the table, closed her eyes, and went "Arunnnhhhhhh!" The crowd thought she was in pee-distress and the women responded in kind. It wasn't an urge to pee that was causing Mac that distress. It was another false contraction.

When it became Mac's turn to play, the table dealer dealt the first two cards to each player and everyone paused. The pro's handlers sent light signals that the pregnant woman had a bad hand. Her fear emotions had sky rocketed when she had looked at her cards.

Mac's fear had indeed risen precipitously. Another false contraction twinge had brought an image to her head. She saw herself giving birth to her baby on a poker table with hordes of men crowded around the table looking on and chanting "Push, push, push." For a woman who hadn't even wanted her doctor to be in the birthing room on her first pregnancy, such a scene would cause fear emotions to rise. Mac was not easily scared. Giving birth in front of dozens of men watching her and cheering her on was one of the few exceptions. "Bet or fold," the dealer said. The casino imposed a maximum ten-minute mulling period.

"Bet $500," Mac grunted.

"I'll see you," the pro said.

_Mac, use the whole ten minutes before making a bet. Drag it out. Use sound effects. The pro is not as strong as you are._ Strategist Winnie was at work. Strategist Winnie hadn't experienced birth before. She didn't realize how strong the urge to pee could get when a woman was pregnant.

Rarely are women measured against each other on the strength of their kidney control, but there's a first for everything. Winnie was correct on the strategy. Was Mac up to the challenge?

The third card was dealt. Face up. Mac had nothing going for her other than a king of spades as a hole card.

_Tell me again what she has_ , Mac messaged Winnie.

_Three of spades, four of hearts, and five of diamonds. Possible straight. Are you all right now? You look better._

_I can stall._ And stall Mac did for another nine minutes. She still had to pee, but another false contraction was over. In comparison to a contraction, an urge to pee was nothing.

"Bet $25,000," Mac grunted when the dealer prompted. She took a full two minutes to pull her briefcase up onto her knees, open it a smidge, feel around inside and pull out cash. "I don't have any chips left, but I have this. I'll go to the cashier's booth and change it."

"We'll take the cash," the pro said urgently. Her legs were now clamped so tightly together that the bone from one knee was grafting itself onto the bone of the other knee.

A casino floor manager held up his hand as the pro was ready to speak, listened to a bug in his ear, ran around to the pro's side of the table, and whispered into her ear. The pro spoke immediately. "I'll see your $25,000 and raise it $50,000." The floor manager had told her that the under-table camera hadn't seen much cash in her briefcase.

Mac took the full ten minutes to respond to the raise in her bet. "I'll see your raise." Again, two minutes had passed before she had the money in her hand. She had seen the floor manager run around the table and knew why he had done that. The pot was now up to $101,000.

The dealer gave each player one more card face up. Four cards had been dealt, one card remained.

Mac had started with her king of spades down. She also had a queen of clubs and a ten of hearts showing. This gave her a possible straight, but the card that had just been dealt was a three of clubs. With that card, the pro knew that there'd be no straight. The pro didn't know Mac's hole card. It could be another queen in which case Mac held a winning hand right now. To beat a pair of queens, the pro had to get a very good last card. But Mac didn't have two queens. She had one king and that was it. Based on these four cards, it wouldn't be good enough.

Winnie gave the family her report on the pro's hand after the fourth card had been dealt. _Three of spades in the hole, four of diamonds, five of clubs, and ace of clubs showing. Possible straight._

By now, all the Wilizy in Toronto were in the casino. It was becoming rather crowded in the rafters. Few of them knew anything about poker. TG messaged them that the pro would definitely win if she were dealt a two of any suit. She'd also probably win if she were able to pair up any of her other cards. She'd also win with her ace if Mac couldn't get a pair somehow. The final card would be the key.

Mac took five of her ten minutes thinking, drumming on the table with her fingers, groaning and otherwise sending extreme distress signals. Every woman in the room, as well as the dealer across from her, felt the pressure building in their bladders. The pro wasn't going to let her off the hook with a time out. Luck had been with the dealer this evening. She had four chances of seeing a two appear on her side of the table.

Mac lifted the briefcase to her lap. Perhaps it was her belly sticking out too far; perhaps she had forgotten that a camera was under the table. Whatever the reason, Mac lifted the lid of her briefcase too far. She rummaged around in the insides for a bit, formed the remaining bills into a sheaf, pulled them out carefully, put the closed briefcase on the top of the table, and announced her bet.

"I'll bet the following. Hang on while I count it." She did so carefully and slowly. "$75,000 is my bet."

By this time, the floor manager had told the pro that this was the last of the money in the briefcase. The blonde was trying to buy the pot. He told the pro how much to bet.

"The casino sees the $75,000 and raises $500,000."

(We'll take a little break in the action here in case you've been having trouble following the game. The pro bet that huge amount because the casino had decided to buy the pot themselves. Yes, the pro might fill the straight. If not, her ace might still be the winner. But the blonde could have a pair somewhere or a pair might turn up on the last card. Why take a chance when they would have a sure thing by raising the bet way beyond what the pregnant woman could match. That's why they increased the stakes by $500,000. If the blonde couldn't match it, no fifth card would have to be dealt. The floor manager was sure that she was bluffing. Not only had the camera reported an empty briefcase, but the table sensors had reported that the blonde's fear levels had spiked just before she entered the bid.)

This time Mac did not wait ten minutes. "I see your $500,000 and raise you another $500,000." The total pot had been over $1 million. With Mac's raise, the pot would be over $2 million. The casino had to come up with $500,000 which was more than they had in their vault. They weren't the only one who were attempting to buy the pot.

"What are you raising with?" the casino floor manager asked her. "You have to have the money here."

Mac opened her briefcase and pulled a gold bar from the storage folders in the lid. "With this. This bar will more than cover the amount I bet. You have ten minutes to match my bet and come up with the money. My father-in-law will act on my behalf. Hank, please?"

Hank walked into the crowd from the back of the building.

"I have to leave," Mac announced to the crowd. The spike in her fear levels had been for a reason. _Meet me at the ship, Doc! This is not false labour. Trust me on this._

Fifteen minutes later, Mac owned a casino. On her behalf, Hank told everybody to leave. But women were given a few additional minutes before they had to leave the premises.

Yollie heard what had happened and named the battle _Operation Flush_ because of the sounds that had echoed throughout the casino soon after Mac had won.

Two hours later, Mac delivered a baby girl. She and TG had been planning to call the baby _Emily Wilizy_ if it were a girl. They changed their mind. They decided to call her _Emily Poker Wilizy_ instead.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 33

Two days later, Tuesday April 23, Melissa was in full stall mode. She was waiting for one or more of the sisters to react.

Reports of some pregnant blonde girl winning Christy's casino in a poker game were still cannonading through Toronto's upper circles. _Who was she? Where did she go? What's going to happen to the casino?_ One question had been answered, but only partially. A large sign on the casino's beautifully emblazoned front door provided the hint. _Re-opening soon under new management._

Also pinballing through the same circles were pictures of the Asian woman being paraded through the casino on a chair carried by four men all dressed in black. Several Torontonians of Japanese ancestry corrected the rumour that she was Chinese. "Definitely Japanese," they said. They also revealed that it was common back in historic times for Japanese nobility to be carried through busy streets by servants. However the chairs the nobility used were different than the one in the picture.

Back in Christy's mansion, Christy and her underbosses were asking, "What are we going to do now?" They had lost their most important asset. Although they couldn't prove it, they were convinced that the pregnant blonde had been cheating, as were the two others who had won big pots at the high stakes poker table that night. They couldn't prove that they had cheated, but they did know who had hired them. The gold bar was a dead give-away. Only two people in Toronto had the kind of cash money that would allow them to buy a gold bar – Foster and Annie Lewis. Annie had lost her business, but she hadn't lost her wealth like Christy had. The new management that would appear soon in the casino? It would be Annie's management.

For Christy, continuing with only the small time gambling revenue was not possible. Plus she had lost her small prostitution business when her employees had decided to leave town. Christy had a small amount of revenue from liquor and an equally unimpressive income from insurance. Expanding either of these businesses was unlikely to be successful since neither Betsy (liquor) nor Doreen (insurance) had offered her condolences for the loss of her casino. They'd do everything they could to freeze her out. Annie wasn't talking to anybody in the family either. Why should she? She had successfully taken over the city's gambling business two days ago.

The judge had ignored text messages asking for help. But Christy did have an army of goons with nothing to do. It wouldn't be much of a stretch for Christy to train them to go from strong-arming gamblers to pay their debts to strong-arming storekeepers to buy insurance. Plus the goons gave her enough personnel to supply liquor to the entire city. Betsy never had the staff to run her liquor business the way it could have been run. For their own safety, Christy told her goons to disappear for a while. Whatever her three other sisters were planning to do to her, they'd have to strip Christy of her goons first.

Betsy and Doreen were each hunkered down in planning sessions, but independently of each other. Betsy had made copies of the text she had received on the 18th – the one offering to sell her some insurance. All of her underbosses had copies. Doreen was obviously trying to take advantage of the situation. From now on, nobody in Betsy's family would be talking with anybody in Doreen's family.

In their separate planning meetings, both Betsy and Doreen focused on defense, as in _How do we protect ourselves from Annie and Christy?_ Annie was almost certainly behind the attack on the casino. Christy was bound to be looking at the liquor and insurance businesses. Neither Betsy nor Doreen had large goon resources but they spread them around their businesses as best as they could to defend themselves from any physical attacks. The sudden disappearance of all of Christy's goons was very worrisome. She obviously was planning a big surprise.

### # # # # # # # #

Brigadier General MacLatchie was also planning a big surprise and it would have to go without a hitch. He was looking over the plans that Lucas had drawn up for placement of security personnel. It didn't look right. He decided to check. _Do you have a moment, Lucas?_

I'll be right down.

_Down_ was the hold of the Wilizy/Asia where all of the data from the Wilizy's research had been stored. Jock had converted it to a full-blown Battle Command center, complete with a large screen display tied directly to his pinky-ring. Another large screen display held Melissa's battle plan. Jock knew that they had one more day of inactivity before they'd be engaging the enemy. If everything went well, they'd be finished in Toronto by the end of April.

"Hey," Lucas said as he entered the hold and sat down in the chair next to the general's table. Lucas didn't know what to call the man who was looking at him with a slight frown on his face. The adults called him _Jock_ and he seemed quite comfortable with that. Wolf and Mac called him _Dad_ , but that was normal. But the man was a brigadier-general in charge of the entire Saskatchewan armed forces. He was sitting in what was obviously now a military office. He had his Saskatchewan army uniform on. Not his dress uniform, but still an army uniform. No teenager would be calling him Jock. Lucas solved his problem of what to call the general by not calling him anything.

"I have a question about your plan for the deployment of our forces, Lucas. Do you have time to discuss this?"

The general was always polite, but when he said that he had a question, Lucas realized that he probably had done something wrong.

"Sure."

The general did some thinking and a street map of Toronto came onto the big screen. "Do you know where this is?"

"It's the area around Toronto's city hall."

"Do you want a street level view?"

"No. This is good."

"You put security forces in strength here, here, here, and here." With each _here_ , a symbol popped up on the general's screen that indicated what kind of force was there and the number of personnel.

"Ahuh."

"I understand those placements. What I don't understand is why you have placed small forces here and here. Why are they there?" This time two red question marks appeared on the general's screen – each of them was a short distance away from the city hall.

"Can you switch to street level?" The general did and Lucas continued. "Do you see the grate down by the curb?" and he pointed with his finger.

"Hold on." The general passed Lucas a wand and sent a mental command to his pinky-ring. "Hold the top button down," he said.

Lucas did and the wand became a laser pointer. "OK. See this grate right here?"

"Push the right button to zoom in, the left button to zoom out."

Lucas pushed the right button. "This grate right here is part of the underground ventilation system that provides air to the pipes and tunnels under the street."

"OK."

"There are two metal lids right in front of that grate. They're on the sidewalk. See them?"

"Got it."

"Those lids form the roof of a hand-cranked cage that can lift a person from the tunnel below up to street level. It's an access system for moving workers and supplies into and out of the tunnels easily and quickly. These lids are all over the city. People walk on them all the time, not realizing that those lids could open right in front of them."

"And you put forces there because...?"

"A person who knew the underground tunnel system could leave City Hall, travel underground, and reappear several blocks away."

"Interesting. Did you check the route personally?"

"Too risky. But I did check the map that showed all the tunnels and an escape route is definitely possible to these two exits. They were easy to guard."

"Where was the map?"

"City Hall has an office where they store all sorts of maps for the city. All you have to do is go in and ask."

"Well done. Good thinking."

"It wasn't my idea, General. TG and Wolf found the office when they were searching for ways to rescue me. Theo told me about it. I only remembered what Theo told me." Lucas had decided to call the man in front of him _General._ After all, he was acting like one and Lucas was feeling very much like a lowly private right now.

"You don't want to take credit for this idea?"

"It wasn't my idea. I never would have thought of it on my own."

"Tell me your thinking about your other deployments."

### # # # # # # # #

"Do you like puzzles, Lucas?"

"Depends on the kind. Not jigsaw puzzles, that's for sure."

"I have a different kind of puzzle for you to solve, if you're up for it."

### # # # # # # # #

"This is the view you would get if you were flying overhead. There's a heavily armed fortress on top of a hill. Three sides of that hill are essentially cliffs. They can be climbed, but not easily. The residents of the fortress have anticipated that some enemies might want to gain entry to their fortress by climbing the cliffs so they have ample men and guns to defend themselves. The south side of the fortress can be reached by a long, reasonably gentle slope. People inside the fortress use this slope for bringing in supplies. This path up to the fortress is well marked and heavily guarded. Any enemy force using that approach to attack the fortress would be without any cover and under heavy fire for several minutes. Even if they did reach the top of the hill, they'd still be at the bottom of the fortress facing a heavily secured gate. Enemy forces at the top of the fortress could kill them with ease. There would be no place to hide."

"It's like a castle, but without a moat. An attacking force can't climb the cliffs nor can it attack on the gentle slope."

"Precisely. The fortress has big sturdy outside walls with doors that can take a direct hit from an artillery gun. An empty square is in the middle of the fortress so that forces can be re-positioned easily from one side to another."

"Theo and I used to play games of _Attack the Castle_ when we were kids. They were fun. Do I have another view?"

The general thought the command.

"OK. I see the long hill, steep cliffs, big thick walls, and the multi-storey castle. Why are you showing me this?"

"You've just been put in charge of the forces attacking the castle. Your forces are itemized on the lower right of the screen. You have triple the amount of men that the enemy has. Fully one-third of your forces are now trying to scale the north cliff. They started at midnight, but they've made slow progress and it is now dawn. The defenders know that they are there. They just can't kill them yet."

"Is this like a real castle? I have catapults; the other guy has boiling oil? I can sit there for months and starve them?"

"No. It's modern warfare. Your air force is engaging the enemy's air force. You cannot count on their support. The enemy will be reinforcing this fortress within forty-eight hours. He knows where you are; he will be coming at you from your rear. Your predecessor has been relieved of command because of his decision to put so many of his men and women in peril on that north cliff. Your forces are demoralized. You have no casualties yet. The enemy has gun placements at the top of his fortress that can reach your command post easily. They're holding off until their reinforcements arrive and at that point, your command post will take fire from two directions."

"Do you have a list of all my weaponry?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Theo and I always made rules about what the defender had and what the attacker had. We'd argue about who would get what. That was part of the fun. Trying to gain an advantage."

"Your armaments are on this next screen. Tell me when you have finished reading. You won't have access to this screen again."

"That's nasty. We never thought of that."

"A general doesn't have time to check a database when he's in a battle. He should know exactly what he has available for an upcoming battle and that will change when reports of casualties and destroyed equipment come in."

### # # # # # # # #

"I'm ready."

"Issue your commands."

"All forces that are stranded partway up the north cliff are to retreat to the base of that cliff."

The map changed as the general thought the commands.

"All artillery units that are now covering the north, west, and south sides of the fortress should prepare for half of their forces to move."

"Done."

"Wait for nightfall."

"Done."

"Command center staff are to retreat out of range of the fortress guns. Artillery units on the north, west, and south sides of the fortress that were designated to move are now ordered to relocate so that they have firing lines on the east side of the fortress. Do I have laser guided shells?"

"You do now. Repositioning took an hour."

"Artillery forces on the east side are to destroy the enemy's guns on the top of the fortress using laser-guided shells."

"Enemy guns have been destroyed. They were heavily shielded. It took you an hour. You expended 120 laser-guided shells. The enemy retaliated by shelling the former position of your command post. You had no casualties because you had taken all personnel out of range."

"You won't tell me how many laser guided shells I have left, will you?"

"Nope. You should know that."

"I do. All forces are to go quiet. Ground forces who had been hunkered down at the base of the north wall are to relocate to the base of the east wall. All of our artillery guns at that east wall are to relocate to other walls."

"Done. That took half an hour."

"Artillery on the north, south, and west are to fire on the remaining guns at the top of the fortress. Give the fortress a withering fire for half an hour so that they'll keep their heads down. Our ground forces now hunkered down at the east side are to wait ten minutes before retreating straight back to base. Warn them that they may receive small arms fire, but no artillery fire since those guns have been destroyed. Get out fast!"

"Done. All but two of your ground personnel have now been brought out of danger safely. You fired two hundred laser-guided shells. You knocked out 60 per cent of the enemy's long-range guns. But they still have the capability to destroy any of your forces that attempt to attack up the gentle slope. The east wall had been vulnerable to attack but the enemy repositioned some of its remaining guns to cover that possibility."

"All troops on the ground. Re-deploy so that you have three sides of that gentle slope covered in case the enemy tries to come out and attack us. Artillery units, break out the mortars."

"Done. Half an hour consumed."

"Fire mortars at will. Set fuses so that they will explode at various heights inside the center courtyard."

"One hour consumed. Enemy forces are attempting a sortie."

"All forces with guns trained on the slope: Don't let them out. Force them back in."

"Enemy forces have retreated. You have no eyes or ears on the interior of the fortress. You may assume from their attempt to sortie that your mortars have had some success."

"Cease mortar fire. Do I have communications into the fortress?"

"You do now."

"Send message: _Fortress Commander: Surrender now or I will finish destroying the fortress and everyone in it at dawn_."

"Enemy fortress fired long range shells at where he presumed you were stationed. No casualties."

"How long to dawn?"

"Dawn is approaching now."

"Send message: _Fortress Commander: Do you wish to pluck out your own eyeballs or should I let the buzzards take care of that?"_

"Why did you send that kind of communication?"

"Theo and I always tried to end our battles with a gory call for surrender. We figured the other guy would have to refuse the first call for surrender. He'd be looking for an excuse on the second."

"Enemy has capitulated."

"What's that mean?"

"They gave up."

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie wasn't giving up. She had been energized the night of Operation Flush, but that soon passed. At least she had been involved in the battle. She had read Jock's battle board and knew what was coming up and what she would not be doing.

"Why can't I be on the raid, Mom?"

"I've already explained. It's too dangerous. These people have weapons. We don't know how they'll respond."

"But Mommmm."

"It doesn't matter how much you whine, Winnie. You're too young. You'll be staying on the ship where it's safe."

### # # # # # # # #

The general had given Lucas three more pretend battles to solve. Lucas found them fun and won all three. The general didn't say much – just asked him if he enjoyed what he called _simulations_. Pretend battles.

"Yeah. They're way better than what Theo and I could do. The computer has different views, data sheets, and everything."

"That data sheet on your first battle. Do you remember what you had as commander?"

"Sure."

"Tell me what you had."

Lucas did. When he and Theo played, they had to remember what they had started with so that the other person couldn't trick them. The next questions surprised him.

"Have you ever seen death first hand?"

"Animals, yes. We had to hunt to eat and make clothes.

"Is that where you saw buzzards plucking eyeballs?"

"We didn't have buzzards near the compound. Crows, for sure. I made them into buzzards for the enemy guy because they're more scary."

"Are you scared of buzzards plucking your eyeballs out?"

"Not if I'm dead."

"You've killed animals. Did you ever kill a human?"

"Yeah. In the battle against the Alaskans. I shot down three of their airplanes. The planes crashed. I didn't see the pilots die."

"Did that bother you? The fact that you were going to kill three men?"

"They had attacked us. They were trying to kill us. We were only defending ourselves."

"I have heard you say negative things about yourself. That you're dumb. Do you consider yourself dumb?"

"I'm dumber than everybody in the family. I'm always making mistakes. Theo protects me – tells me to think things through. Wizard is the thinker in the family; sometimes I wish I could be like him. But I like fighting and he doesn't, so I probably wouldn't want to change places."

"I have good news for you, Lucas. You're not dumb."

"I'm not?"

"You're not. I just gave you the entrance exam that we give people who want to join a part of the Saskatchewan army. You passed. I thought you were smart when you were working on the plans for City Hall. The test confirms it."

"But I didn't think up the part about finding the underground plans. I never would have thought of that on my own."

"Part of being smart is using other people's ideas to solve problems of your own. Very few people have brand new ideas that nobody has ever thought of before. The idea of using mortars to destroy the enemy inside a walled fortress has been used thousands and thousands of times before. Sending troops to scale the cliff was a dumb idea – that's why that pretend officer was removed from duty. Rescuing your troops by focusing the enemy's attention elsewhere was smart; firing mortars into the castle was smart. Who cares if thousands of other people had used that idea before? You had a problem; you chose that tactic to solve your problem. That's what a good battle commander does."

"Huh."

"You aren't dumb, but you **are** impulsive. You think of something part way through and then act too quickly. You did that in simulation #2. The army has a way of discouraging people from doing that."

"How?"

"We put them in positions where a single mistake can cost people in their command their lives. We show them how a disciplined way of thinking can reduce deaths."

"Huh."

"Have you ever thought of a career in the military?"

"Some."

"You should consider it. You've already passed Saskatchewan's entrance exam. Come see me if you're interested." The general didn't tell Lucas that the test he had passed was for recruits wanting to be officers.

"OK. Thanks."

"Good work on the plans for City Hall. Dismissed."

### # # # # # # # #

Later that evening, Jock and Hank were in the Battle Command center. Jock had explained what he had done with Lucas earlier and why.

"Yah, he's always been more daring and impulsive than he should be. You believe he's that good?"

"I do. Memory, tactic selection, knowledge of armaments, willingness to act in lethal situations.... He passed all of them with flying colours."

"Yolanda..."

"Talk with her. At some point..."

"Yeah. She has to let him go. She and I are always on opposite sides of that argument. On that point, Winnie is giving Yolanda a lot of grief. She wants to be involved in the raids. Do you have anything that you could give her that would be a challenge for her but without risk of injury or death?"

"Let me think on that."

"Winnie will sneak into our next battle if we can't find some other assignment for her. We have to get her out of town."

### # # # # # # # #

Louise Wilson was thinking something like that too. She had to get a young girl out of town. In her case, the young girl was Maddy and the town she had to leave was Dickinson, North Dakota.

Maddy's progress westward had slowed down after she had reached Fargo. The area she had to cross was immediately north of a huge desert. Towns did exist west of Fargo, but they were few and far between. Weight Watcher guides were even rarer. When you work on the edges of an inhospitable land, you tend to struggle to find enough food to live on, let alone to munch on constantly. From Fargo, Maddy had reached Bismarck and, from there, Dickinson. She had been there five days now. She'd be there even longer if Louise couldn't find somebody who could copter her west.

Louise had read all of Maddy's bot: how she had been traumatized in some fashion; how her parents were waiting for her at Ranch #4 if only Louise could get her there. She was looking at Maddy's picture right now as she added a comment to the bot.

"My name is Louise Wilson and I live in Dickinson, North Dakota. Maddy has been staying with me for a couple of days now. I have three small children. I can't believe how those little monsters have taken to her. My life is normal thanks to Maddy. I wish I could keep her, but I will send her westward as soon as I can."

Louise could try one small community to the west. Glendive was a cluster of homes on the Yellowstone River. Louise herself had not heard of Safe Haven Ranches. But Glendive was one hundred miles further west; perhaps somebody there could help.

Louise's biggest problem was that she knew nobody at all in Glendive. Her second problem was that she herself could not fly to Glendive to search for people who could help. The Dickinson community had only two functioning copters and both were heavily booked in advance. But there was a little bit of commercial copter traffic between Dickinson and points west. Dickinson was the biggest community in the area and served as a source of food and supplies. One commercial copter pilot was in town now. Louise didn't know the man who was in the food store right now, but he had said that he'd be heading west.

Louise described the favour that she wanted from the commercial pilot. She gave him a copy of Maddy's bot so that people in Glendive could learn the full story. She also handed the man a handwritten letter.

"Can somebody in Glendive help this poor little girl? She has had such a difficult life. She needs somebody to take her the rest of the way to Safe Haven Ranch #4. Her parents are at the ranch. They probably think that she's dead."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 34

Jock would have talked to Winnie that Wednesday morning at breakfast, but she wasn't there. She had left the ship angrily that morning to feed the wolves and look in on the judge. This was her job and she'd do it, even if any other Wilizy could have dropped some venison into the clearing next to where the judge was stashed. She fumed with the wolves for a while, but they weren't too supportive. Guarding a stupid smelly man was not much fun either. They hadn't been able to hunt, or fly, or do anything. So Winnie gave Scapula and Patella the morning off to do whatever they wanted. She spent the morning invisibly guarding the judge and sulking.

The wolves returned with blood-flecked fur and if the judge had been thinking of strolling off into the forest, that certainly changed his mind. Winnie had time to think too. She knew that she'd have an important role to play soon enough, so perhaps not being able to dress all in black and wear a motorcycle helmet wasn't so bad after all.

### # # # # # # # #

"I have something that might interest you, Corporal Winnie," the general said when Winnie showed up in the Battle Command Center in response to his mind message. Winnie eyed the black helmets in the hold. There probably wasn't one small enough for her anyways.

"I received this flyer some time ago from my military counterpart in Washington State. He said that the flyer was old, but he'd be interested if I had heard anything. I haven't had time to respond. I thought you might want to look into it. A blonde and blue-eyed girl has gone missing. The Raging Gardeners were looking for these cases."

Winnie held out her hand and the general handed her a well-worn poster with two large words at the top. _Missing Child_. Below was a faded picture of the little girl. The bottom half of the poster read: "Last seen at the Eagle Harbor Drive playground on Bainbridge Island, March 4, 2085. Her name is Madison Smythe, but she goes by the name Maddy. Contact the Chief of Police, Seattle Washington, if you can help us find her." The bottom lines had the girl's data: age, weight, height, hair colour, and eye colour. Blonde and blue-eyes, for sure.

"That poster is very old. She's been gone over a year. If I did find her, what could we do? We wouldn't be able to undo the kidnapping if that's what happened to her."

"That's what I thought too. I'll tell them that we weren't able to help. Thanks for popping down, Corporal."

"Wait, let me think."

...

"It might give us a lead on another kidnapper. But I wouldn't want the parents to be told that we were looking into it."

"Fair enough. Do you need anything from me?"

"I need a partner. Standard rule for time-travelling."

"Pick somebody. Keep in mind though that we're running an operation tonight and most people will have duties."

"That won't be a problem."

### # # # # # # # #

William was busy testing the new weapon that would be used tonight. He had only a few hours left to tweak it, so he wasn't interested in chatting with Winnie when she came into his makeshift workshop.

"S'up, Winnie," he said without looking up. "Hi Marie," he added.

"The general gave me an assignment to investigate a missing girl." Winnie flashed the poster but William had his head down and was concentrating on a computer screen. "Marie is on the assignment with me because we need two Gardeners, but she needs to have her sling switched over to TiTr capabilities."

"OK. Marie, would you untether it?"

Thirty seconds later. "You're good to go. You'll give Marie the necessary instructions on using the sling, right Winnie?"

"Sure."

"Does your mom know?"

"I assume so. The general would never have given me the assignment otherwise. Thanks, William."

Thirty seconds later, William replied, "You're welcome," but Winnie and Marie were no longer there.

### # # # # # # # #

"That was easy," Marie said.

"Told you."

"Your mom doesn't know, does she?"

"Well...no. I'm kinda bending the rules on TiTr'ng without telling her. But I'm only obeying the general's instructions. Besides, I'm not disobeying her. She didn't say that I couldn't TiTr with you."

"She doesn't like me?"

"It's not that. Nobody in the family dislikes you. They're just worried that you might decide to go back in time and do something at Ranch #2 that would change the future."

"Why would I do that? I know what's going to happen at Ranch #2. It's been foretold. I will kill Big Momma and Big Daddy. They will scream in fear; they will die a long terrible death. Why would I want to change that?"

"We hafta get out of here before somebody catches us. Let's TiTr in one sling and keep the other as backup. You can watch me and learn that way."

"You don't mind being in a sling with me?"

"No. Why would I?"

"I don't know, but people that come in a sling with me develop a funny smell and want to get out as quickly as they can."

"Weird."

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie and Marie were each slinging invisibly above the Eagle Harbor Drive playground early in the morning. They had TiTr'd to early morning on March 4, 2085 and were now waiting for Maddy to appear. Winnie had suggested that they use separate slings now for real time spying so that they could follow two kidnappers if that's who showed. "Our communications work when we're not TiTr'ng, Marie. If we're separated, just mind-message me when you want to join up again." Winnie could have skip-TiTr'd them in small steps through the day to the very second when Maddy was kidnapped, but she had something else in mind to pass the time.

"So in your vision Marie, how will you kill them?"

"Who?"

"Big Daddy and Big Momma. Are you going to chew them into little bits?"

"I don't see details like that in my visions. All I know from the vision is that Theogun and Shango are in the sky above the house and it's dark. A lightning bolt comes out of the ship and hits the house. After that, I light myself on fire and I go through the house scaring the teenagers into the yard. I find Big Momma and Big Daddy on the top floor. They see me coming. They scream. They try to run. The flames from the house stop them. I know I do some chewing on them. Then I die."

"Are you sure that you die?"

"I had set myself on fire, remember? My body can't survive that."

"But you were in your alligator body, right?"

"Yeah, but that can only protect me for so long. I don't feel any pain in my vision, but I die."

"Buy why do you have to die?"

"It's been foretold. It can't be changed."

"But I don't want you to die."

"I'm old. I was sent to the island because I was no longer useful. It's my time to die."

"But you can't die."

"Why not?"

"Cause I like you."

### # # # # # # # #

The kidnapper came at 11 a.m. and they followed him in real time. He chloroformed Maddy with a pad and then laid her carefully on the floor of the copter. He didn't have far to go. _That's the personnel officer,_ Winnie messaged Marie. _All the kidnappers give their victims to him and then disappear so that he can put them in a bunker somewhere._

_Who do we follow?_

_The kidnapper,_ Winnie decided. _I don't recognize him. If we can find his home base, we can track him from there any time we want to. The Maddy girl is gone. All the Safe Haven bunkers were deserted when we searched for them. We had no luck finding their escape hatches._

Marie and Winnie spent the rest of the day following the kidnapper. Eventually he entered an apartment in Seattle. Winnie made a note of the location. She'd give Granny a report on him when she finished the research. For now, they had to get back to Toronto to see the Wilizy thugs set off on their operation.

### # # # # # # # #

The first phase of Melissa's Operation Evaporate was designed to put pressure on Betsy's liquor operation. All available (adult) Wilizy were already dressed in black with black motorcycle helmets in their hands when Winnie and Marie arrived. They'd be operating visibly but some insomniac might see them. If so, the connection back to Momaka would be made. If not, there was always phase two of Operation Evaporate for that connection to be made.

Melissa reminded them of the operation's main points. "William's new weapon cannot operate through a sling. The Warrior holding the weapon has to be visible and close enough to a pub for you to place the front of the weapon against any wooden surface. Hold the button for ten seconds and by then everything made of glass inside the pub will have shattered. There's no risk of you leaving footprints or anything identifiable behind if you never have to enter the building. Do not do that. We have no idea what kind of explosive devices they may have protecting their pubs. Plus the floors of the pub will become covered in liquor. Liquor is flammable. Our goal is to destroy all of the glass objects in Toronto's pubs by 4:00 a.m."

"You'll be in pairs, of course. The Warrior with the weapon will be at risk for less than twenty seconds, but the noise of the glass breaking could attract attention. The Warrior on sling duty is there to protect and warn. Form whatever pairs you want. Pick up your street assignments from Jock. He has tried to restrict the amount of flying you'll have to do. Do a fly-over each site first to see who's out on the streets and where any other threats may be. That's all, folks. Stay safe."

The natural pairs formed first, picked up their assignment sheets, and left quickly. These were Granny and Doc, Hank and Yolanda, Stu and Momaka, and William and Melissa. Wanda started to approach Dreamer but saw where her eyes were looking and offered to work with TG instead. She was leaving the hold when Wizard approached Dreamer and she saw her nod. Wanda had to run to catch up with TG. Nary was tugging Theo up the stairs behind her – "I'm the one to break the glass, OK?" That left Lucas and the general in the hold. "You should handle the weaponry, Lucas. You're more agile than I am."

"Sounds like a plan, General."

Everybody was excited to finally get into action.

"Marie and I will watch the ship," Winnie said to an almost empty hold. "Marie, about that vision..."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 35

On the morning of Thursday, April 25, the day after every liquor bottle in the pubs and bars of Toronto had exploded, the judge reacted. He sent texts to all four sisters. The messages all started like this: _I don't want to get involved, but I've always thought that you were my smartest sister. You should be the one to run everything after I'm gone._

On Annie's text, he added: _The sister who destroyed your prostitution business will be attacking your mansion in full force tonight. Leave a bomb in your kitchen – you know the kind. Your sister's most precious remaining asset will be at the old Toronto City Airport and will be unguarded. Capture it and you can start another business. Come in from the north_.

On Betsy's text, he added: _The sister who destroyed all your pubs and bars will be attacking your liquor storage units at the Toronto City Airport. You have the manpower to defend these. Bring your forces in from the west and hide them well. In case one of your sisters attacks your mansion, leave a bomb in your kitchen – you know the kind._

On Christy's text, he added. _The sister who hired those crooks to cheat you out of your casino will be attacking your mansion in full force tonight. Leave a bomb in your kitchen – you know the kind. Her most precious remaining assets will be at the old Toronto City Airport and will be unguarded. Capture them and you can start another business. Come in from the south._

On Doreen's text, he added: _Your sisters can never destroy your insurance business because it's too big. All three of them will be attacking your mansion in full force tonight. Leave a bomb in your kitchen – you know the kind. Their most precious remaining assets will be at the old Toronto City Airport and will be unguarded. Capture them and you'll have all of the crime business to yourself. Come in from the east._

The old Toronto City Airport was on the northwestern corner of Toronto Island – swimming distance from Toronto's wharfs. As Lake Ontario receded, there were places where it was swamp walking distance. The airport's tarmac had been crumbled asphalt for many years before Betsy saw the benefit of using the old fuel storage tanks for her liquor. She told her sisters about the deserted nature of that part of the island. Christy was storing her surplus gambling tables in a hanger. That hanger was in close proximity to the liquor storage tanks. Thanks to the judge, it would be an interesting and crowded evening on that island.

### # # # # # # # #

Neither Winnie nor Marie had any role to play in tonight's operation, so they had TiTr'd back in time to Washington State. They planned to trail the new kidnapper from his apartment forward into his future. They quickly learned that the kidnapper had been caught in the act of kidnapping his next assignment and was serving as food for the fish in Gig Harbor. Winnie and Marie went back to the time when the kidnapper had handed Maddy over to the personnel officer. They watched as he deposited her into one of the bunkers and left.

"That's a dead end," Winnie concluded. "We can't even approach that place without setting off some explosive. We know the people living there are long gone, but not where. An escape tunnel is in that ground somewhere, but neither William nor TG could find it."

"They're the smartest the Wilizy has?"

"In terms of science and technology, for sure."

"Hmpph. I thought you were the smartest. You found the way to rescue Shango, didn't you?"

"I'll need science to find the escape tunnel. Attacking a problem from a different direction isn't going to be the answer. That's all I do when people can't solve a problem. Look for a different approach. It's easy."

"Back to the ship now?"

"Yeah. We can watch the fireworks."

"What are fireworks?"

"You'll see."

### # # # # # # # #

Those bombs that the judge recommended his sisters use? TG had no idea what those bombs would be, so he couldn't be too explicit in the text messages that he sent from the judge's phone. But with a bomb expert working for the judge, the families would know how to make some kind of bomb to kill people. And the black-clad Wilizy now knew where that bomb would be. It would be in the kitchen of a deserted house. Kitchens are always in the back of houses.

At 2:45 a.m. Friday morning, four liquor storage tanks at the old Toronto airport exploded and threw flammable liquor into the air. The liquor in the air exploded as well with a gigantic _whoosh_ that could be heard across the city. A giant fireball took over the night sky and brought people out of their houses. The burning liquor evaporated into the air. So did everything else in the area that was flammable. Subsequent investigations revealed that residents in the condos across the harbour from the old airport had heard numerous shots being exchanged just before the explosions. Whoever those shooters were, they had evaporated too. Shooting guns in an area where flammable fluids were stored in tanks? Not a particularly smart idea.

The people living in the wealthiest area of town had the best view of the flaming harbour and plenty of them were on their porches. There were ample witnesses to see black clad figures in black motorcycle helmets racing away from the area seconds after four mansions in the area exploded almost simultaneously. A mid-level city bureaucrat made a call to the only functioning part of the Ontario government still remaining after the troubles – the Ontario Supreme Court. The mid-level bureaucrat was in charge of Toronto's metro. With fireballs rising in the city, it was later determined that he was justified in believing that his metro was under attack. The chief justice of the Supreme Court, sitting as he was on his front stoop and watching black clad ninjas fleeing the area of the explosions, was justified in agreeing that the city was under attack. He called the only military man that he knew.

"This is Brigadier-General Jock MacLatchie of the Saskatchewan armed forces."

"Do you recognize my voice, Jock?"

"I do, Hector."

"Toronto is under attack. We're being bombed. I've seen soldiers of some kind setting houses on fire. We need help."

"Declare martial law," the brigadier general instructed. "Saskatchewan has a mobile task force set up for quick assistance to governments under attack. We'll be there as soon as we can."

Reese's investigation of the Ontario Supreme Court had revealed that all of the justices were honourable men. Hector, the chief justice, was the man in charge. Reese had also found the bureaucrat in city hall that had the lightest colours. He was a man in charge of the Toronto Metro and had the necessary authority to call for help. Both men had received visits from strangers, had heard what was going on behind the scenes in Toronto, and both men had agreed to make phone calls when they heard explosions in the city.

Jock had one other conversation that Friday morning. He sent a mind message to Mathias who had two super transports sitting on a grass field in Surrey, BC. _Is the cavalry ready to fly?_

_Sitting around right now waiting for your call. We can be loaded in ten minutes._

_Saskatchewan's forces?_

_Sleeping in tents next to the transport copter, I expect. I'll pick them up on the way._

_You have the coordinates for the landing sites in Toronto?_

_Lucas sent them to me earlier. I'll set all three transports down simultaneously._

_Be sure to have the cavalry in place before lunch hour._

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 36

As the three Wilizy super transports were approaching Toronto on that Friday morning, a smaller transport copter was landing in Dickinson, North Dakota. The pilot, a bulky woman in blue overalls and a red plaid woolen shirt, was directed to Louise Wilson's house.

"I read a message that somebody wanted to transport a young girl to a Safe Haven ranch. Was that you?"

"Yes. Her name is Maddy. She's in the backroom with my three little rascals." Louise observed the woman's size but didn't want to ask if she belonged to the Weight Watchers. Some people are sensitive about disclosing their religion.

"My name is Birdie. Birdie Quarters. I'm the cook at a mobile work team currently stationed at Fort Peck. We're doing maintenance on the Peck Lake dam. Safe Haven copters fly over Fort Peck Lake once a week. I can raise a flag and they'll drop down and see what we want. One of their copters will be going by tomorrow morning. I can have this girl picked up and delivered to the ranch you want tomorrow if we act quickly. I don't have much time – I have to be back to prepare lunch. Gotta go to your store right now. Back in fifteen minutes. After that, I'm out of here."

Louise knew about Fort Peck dam. It was four miles long and had been used a long time ago to control flooding along the Missouri River. It had also been built to provide hydro electricity for the area. No worries about flooding these days and electricity was no longer being produced; but Fort Peck Lake was over 130 miles long and it provided a steady source of water downstream. She didn't know that the Safe Haven ranches were the main beneficiaries to that water. She did know that Maddy could be with her parents tomorrow. She rushed into the back room and that was the first thing she said.

"Maddy! You're going to see your Mommy and Daddy tomorrow. A copter is here. The lady pilot can take you to a place with a huge lake. Tomorrow, another copter will take you to your Mommy and Daddy! You have to pack now. Get your suitcase."

Louise's excitement was infectious. Maddy couldn't remember much about her mommy and daddy any more. She had had too many pretend parents and Weight Watcher moms. But she remembered enough about them to be excited. She would find her original mommy and daddy. She'd be safe. She'd live on Bainbridge Island again. Maddy pulled out her pink rolling suitcase and started folding her clothes. Louise stopped the folding and started the throwing. She took more care with Maddy's special story and her picture. Two minutes later, Maddy was standing by the copter. Louise had her hand over her eyes to reduce the sun glare and was scanning the street leading to the grocery store. No signs of Birdie.

Maddy left her suitcase and looked inside the copter. She noticed it was as big as the copter that had taken her away from Safe Haven Ranch #4. There was a jumble of stuff lying around that Maddy didn't recognize. She did see some ropes, but she saw no chains. No metal bracelets either. No dog collars. No wands. She began to relax – until she recognized a smell coming from the front of the copter. There – between the two soft seats. A carton of some kind with six bottles of prayer juice in it. She leaned over for a better look. Two bottles were open and empty. One was open but it still had juice in it. The other three bottles were closed. The bottles didn't hold the same prayer juice that Brute had used. His juice had the letters C, O, O, R, and S on them. Maddy remembered the letters and their order clearly.

Maddy pulled the partially full bottle out of the carton. Smelled it. Looked at it. Took a taste. She turned around and dribbled the juice out of her mouth and onto the copter floor. It was terrible. She saw the letters. B, U, D. _Bud_ she said in her mind. Sounding out the letters like Pililiani had taught her. Maddy had learned from experience that people who prayed with bottles of juice were not very nice people. She hopped out of the copter, grabbed the handle of her suitcase, and headed back to Louise's cabin. Louise was still scanning the street. A couple of minutes later, Maddy and her suitcase were back in front of the copter.

Birdie returned before the fifteen minutes were up. She stored several big boxes in the back of the copter and looked at Maddy standing next to her suitcase. _Pink,_ she thought with disdain. _How typical for a cute little blonde girl._ She said something more friendly instead. "Are you ready or not?"

Maddy saw a lady like Pililiani. Most of the Weight Watcher guides were like this lady and they had all been nice. Maddy made the decision to go. She tried to pick up the suitcase and hold it to her chest so that it would be with her during the flight. It was too bulky. Louise lifted Maddy into the copilot's seat and strapped her in. When Maddy grunted and pointed to her suitcase, Louise lifted it up onto her lap. Maddy relaxed. The scissors she had stolen from Louise were in the front pocket. Louise waved good-bye; Maddy undid the Velcro tab on the front pocket.

Ten minutes into the 230 mile flight to Fort Peck, Birdie looked at the pink monstrosity. She grabbed it out of Maddy's hands and heaved it into the back. _Hope that didn't break your little fancy-dancy perfume bottles._ "Too dangerous to hold it on your lap," she said instead. Then she took a swallow of prayer juice.

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas spent that Friday morning learning to march and salute. Well, he did more than that during those hours, but it seemed like that was all he was doing. The general had told Lucas that he needed an aide to serve as a glorified messenger between himself, General Cameron of B.C. and the troops. Was he up for it?

Lucas said that he was, so Jock pulled out a Saskatchewan uniform that he happened to have lying around and had Lucas try it on. It was a little tight around the chest but otherwise it fit well. "I'll ask Yolanda to move those buttons," the general said. "You'll be more comfortable."

"What are these things on my shoulder and sleeve?" Lucas asked.

"Those indicate your rank. I have some on my uniform too. The yellow dot and crossed swords on black indicate that I am a brigadier-general. You have the same yellow dot and what we call a pip."

"What rank is my uniform?"

"You're wearing the uniform of a former second lieutenant. A general's aide must always be a lieutenant or higher."

After that, Lucas received a whole lot of instruction on how to approach Jock and General Cameron, how to salute, how to stand, how to turn away, and much more. Lucas didn't mind. He and Theo had often played games of army.

When Mathias messaged that they were half an hour out, the general told Lucas that the sergeants securing City Hall and the police station would be reporting to him on what they had done. Lucas knew the plan best, so he should tell them what to do next. He should only report to the two generals when the operation to secure the two buildings was complete.

"Oh, before I forget. Second lieutenants are entitled to wear a sidearm. Put this belt and holster on. There's a pistol inside the holster and it's loaded. I have a similar weapon."

### # # # # # # # #

Lucas and Jock were standing together in a street intersection in Toronto that was close to both City Hall and the police station. They watched as a Wilizy transport landed in front of City Hall. Soldiers dressed in khaki quickly leapt out of the transport and placed themselves in front of all possible exits from the building. City Hall was a big building and it had a lot of exits. Lucas would be working with one hundred B.C. soldiers.

The police station was smaller, but the police would be armed, so Lucas had assigned one hundred Saskatchewan soldiers to that building. Their transport landed at the same time as the B.C. transport and the Saskatchewan soldiers surrounded their building quickly too. Like Lucas, they wore khaki uniforms with a Riders' green beret on their head. The B.C. soldiers were stuck with a khaki cap. A third transport landed nearby too. It was carrying supplies for the two armies.

A man with a lot of braid on his sleeve started walking towards Jock. _Move away from me now,_ the general instructed Lucas. _Don't speak until you're spoken to._ General Cameron saluted Jock because Jock had the higher rank and would be in charge of both armies. Jock saluted back. They chatted for a while about family and friends that they had known. "I believe we're ready to start," General Cameron finally said.

"We are too," Jock said. "I'll make the announcement at both sites; your sergeants should report to my aide," and he pointed at Lucas.

"Second Lieutenant," General Cameron said. Lucas snapped to attention, gave him the A#1 salute that he had practiced, and dropped his hand. "Shall we take a stroll?" Jock asked his counterpart. _Keep two steps behind, Lucas._

They strolled to City Hall first. Strolling in army talk means marching but without the high arms and feet. "Bugler, sound _Attention_ ," Jock said. "Put some ooomph into it." A corporal had a bugle on his belt and he used it as directed. All of the B.C. soldiers had been briefed as to who was in charge. They came sharply to attention. If people inside the building weren't already watching the soldiers, they were now. Some opened windows; others came out onto the big front steps and gathered in front.

Jock waited for a crowd to develop. "Bugler, sound _Prepare to repel boarders_." Technically, this was a naval command, but armed forces in B.C. and Saskatchewan were a combination of navy, army, and air force personnel. (Saskatchewan was a little light on the navy part. The largest standing body of water in the province could be found inside the Regina water tower.) As soon as the last peal on the bugle had sounded, all the men pivoted sharply so that their backs were to the city hall building and so that they were in triplets – all with weapons at the ready. One man scanned to the left; one man scanned to the right; the third directly ahead. They paid particular attention to the tops of the building now facing them as well as to their windows.

"Civilians! As per orders from the Ontario Supreme Court, Toronto is now under martial law. The men in front of you are from the B.C. army and they have been assigned to protect you. We have received credible information that your City Hall will be attacked in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. The attackers will be from a foreign country that we have not identified yet. They were responsible for last night's explosions. For your own safety, you should leave your building now and gather in front of it. The B.C. army will take you to a safe site where you will be able to rest and feed yourself. Do not be alarmed. We don't believe that they've had a chance to place bombs inside the building yet, but we'd hate to be wrong."

This last statement had been designed to get the bureaucrats moving. It worked. Jock had issued that statement without any amplifying equipment. Everybody within one block of city hall heard it.

"General Cameron, I leave Toronto's city hall in your capable hands. My lieutenant will coordinate operations." The B.C. general waved two fingers and two sergeants approached Lucas and saluted him. Lucas returned the salute and gave his first ever army order. "Spread the word inside the building to leave quickly but safely. Bring everyone to the front plaza. Report to me when done."

Jock repeated the same speech in front of the police station, Lucas repeated his orders to another two sergeants, and then he waited in the intersection between the two buildings.

Lucas' next set of orders was for the armies to send search teams through both buildings. That prompted some city officials who had been hiding to find alternate exits from the building. B.C. soldiers caught them using a hand-cranked elevator and brought them to Lucas. "They say they're tunnel inspectors," a corporal reported. Lucas looked at them. "Put them with the others," he ordered.

"Would you like my men to take their names and positions?" General Cameron asked, thinking that should have been done but technically not having the authority to tell Lucas to do so.

"Thank you, General. I know who these men are."

Soon afterwards, the B.C. sergeants reported that the building was empty and the crowd in front was under control. "Take them to Maple Loaf Gardens," Lucas said. "Let them sit anywhere inside the arena. Control all exits. Nobody leaves."

At that, Lucas' responsibility for City Hall ended. He still had the police station to handle and Jock was waiting there for him.

"The police are all out, but I expect to have difficulty disarming them. I'll give the orders; you follow my lead."

### # # # # # # # #

A little background may be necessary for my readers. Maple Loaf Gardens is where Toronto's pro hockey team had played before the troubles. That team used to be known as the Maple Leafs and their uniform had a logo of a big maple leaf on it. Their building used to be known as Maple Leaf Gardens. Different owners came along, the team changed arenas, and the Gardens arena was downsized. But it remained an historic building. In 2042, when the Maple Leaf fans had endured seventy-five years without winning the Stanley Cup even once, they re-named the building _Maple Loaf Gardens_ and the team symbol became a hockey player sitting in a recliner in his skates and gear while sucking on a beer. Hockey hadn't been played in Toronto since the troubles, but the Gardens still could function as a place large enough for the Wilizy to store hundreds of people and keep them under control.

### # # # # # # # #

The crowd in front of the police station had a different feel to it than the crowd of bureaucrats in front of City Hall. They had all exited quickly enough when Jock had mentioned the "b" word, but they came out belligerently and then clustered together in groups – staring at the Saskatchewan soldiers. The soldiers maintained their own discipline – ignoring the glares and scanning the nearby buildings around them for foreigners with guns. The prevalent feeling of the police was that they didn't need an army wearing spiffy green berets to protect them. Nor were they willing to let the same berets find the foreigners. That was their job.

"This area is under martial law according to a lawful order from your Supreme Court," Jock started. "Military law dictates that weapons can only be carried by the military with jurisdiction in the area. This only makes sense. You can't have two different armed forces operating independently. If somebody fired a gun, innocent people could be killed – yours as well as ours. As the military commander in Toronto, I am hereby ordering the members of the Toronto constabulary to place their weapons at the base of the statue in the plaza."

Nobody had trouble hearing the general, but nobody responded. Most were looking around to see what others would do. A lot of glances were focused on a clump of experienced policemen, standing shoulder-to-shoulder and staring down anybody who looked inclined to unbutton a belt.

_Do you see the leaders_ , Jock asked Lucas.

_Yeah. I've seen some of them in the bar with the underbosses of the families. They're on the take._

_We will identify their alpha male._ "Bugler, sound Dixie," Saskatchewan's brigadier-general ordered.

When the last peal had sounded, all of the soldier turned 180 degrees and focused their guns on the police and the civilians standing in the front of the station. Dixie was the bugling song that the general had told them he'd use if they had to go from protecting the police to threatening the police.

"Stay calm," Jock continued. "Slowly put your hands on your gun belts and let them fall to the ground."

"Don't!" one male voice said.

"Lieutenant. Reason with that man." _Buzzards and eyeballs_ , Jock sent privately.

Lucas performed his A#1 march and positioned himself nose to nose with the man. Being that close, he was able to see that the man had a large, bulging red nose that indicated a fondness for alcohol. Lucas knew that this man liked checking the strip joints during his duty watch. He wasn't checking for violations of the _Below the Waist Edic_ t. He was looking for alcohol that had been specially priced for members of the constabulary.

"I encourage you to obey a lawful order, Sir."

"I'm not giving up my gun, beret boy."

"General, the man won't reason."

"Shoot him."

Lucas pulled out his revolver and placed the muzzle against the man's shoulder.

"Shoot to wound or shoot to kill, General?"

"Shoot to kill."

Lucas raised the muzzle to the man's forehead. "I'd recommend that you don't stand near this man," Lucas said to the crowd within blood spatter range. "There's a high velocity bullet in this gun." The seas parted. The man was now standing all by himself. He'd be feeling a little lonely right about now.

"You wouldn't dare shoot me. I'm an innocent man standing in front of my station."

"Men like us follow lawful orders, Sir. You are disobeying a lawful order. The general has ordered me to shoot you. Would you prefer that I leave your body here in the square or would you like me to arrange a burial for you? The crows will probably take your eyeballs before I can get you buried."

Big gulp. The veteran policeman looked at the soldier in front of him. Great stone face. Not an emotion showing. He lowered his hands and unbuttoned the belt. The others followed suit.

Toronto's police arrived at Maple Loaf Gardens soon afterwards and flowed into the seats. The Saskatchewan army took over guard duties at the Gardens. The B.C. army took up visible positions throughout the downtown core to deter the Japanese gang. It was 12:30 Friday. Time for lunch.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 37

Birdie Quarters set the copter down on the helipad next to a square of large trailers that housed the maintenance equipment and supplies. She grabbed two cartons of food from the back of the copter and set off in a rush to another large trailer in the middle of a large field. Maddy watched her go. When Birdie came back for another two cartons, Maddy watched her go again. She watched a third time. This time Birdie slammed the hatch at the back of the copter shut before she left. Maddy waited.

When Birdie didn't come back, she undid her seatbelt and climbed into the back of the copter. She looked at the hatch and tried to open it, but she couldn't make the handle work properly. She could open the door next to where she had been sitting and did so. However, she didn't want to go anywhere without her suitcase. There was a small gap between the two seats at the front of the copter but she couldn't squeeze the suitcase through it. She'd have to lift the suitcase over the seat instead. It was too heavy. She sat down on the floor of the copter and looked at it.

Emptying everything out of her suitcase allowed her to lift it over the back of the copilot's seat, however the unpacking and repacking process took time. Extending the suitcase's handle, she set out for the same trailer where Birdie had disappeared. The ground was full of weeds and ruts. The suitcase bumped on the rough ground a lot and it didn't go straight for very long. It was too heavy for Maddy to hold in her arms, so she tried pushing it. That was worse.

When she finally got to the trailer, Maddy heard noises coming from the front of the building. She would have to climb some wooden stairs to get into the trailer and, once again, the suitcase wasn't cooperative. She left it upright on the ground, climbed the stairs, and peeked in. Birdie Quarters was stirring something in a big pot on the stove. Maddy came into the kitchen and watched.

On one of her trips from the fridge to the stove, Birdie saw Maddy standing there. "Took you long enough," she complained. "There are some brats in the yard behind the trailer. Keep them quiet and I'll give you something to eat." Then she turned back to the stove.

### # # # # # # # #

"We're ready to give you something to eat now," the voice over the PA system informed the crowd in Maple Loaf Stadium. "Please go down to the floor of the rink and stand in line to have your hand stamped. These stamps will be in four different colours – white, yellow, brown, and black. Once you've received your hand stamp, please return to the seats. We'll call people to eat by stamp colour so that nobody has to stand in line too long. If food delivery is delayed, we'll provide rations here in the rink." Hank was in charge of Wilizy operations inside the Gardens. He was using a PA system that allowed everybody in the stands to hear him. People were hungry. They all trooped down to the rink as requested.

The Wilizy had positioned five tables on the rink floor. A young aboriginal boy was sitting behind the first table where everybody lined up. He'd look at the person standing in front of him, pick a colour, and call it out. That person would then stand in front of one of the other four tables. Each of those tables was clearly marked with a colour. The woman behind the table would stamp the person's hand with the appropriate colour, tell him or her to return to the stands, and then wait for the next person to approach the table. This stamping process took less than half an hour to complete. At that point, the tables and people staffing them disappeared from view.

...

"We'd like to invite all those people with a white food stamp to come down to the rink now. Soldiers will direct you into the eating area. Please be patient while you wait. We are preparing the food as quickly as we can."

As Hank finished his announcement, soldiers came onto the rink floor and formed a line that led to a tunnel into the private area of the rink. Citizens from the police station were asked to sit outside a door marked _Visitors._ Citizens from the city hall were directed in the opposite direction and they sat outside a door marked _Home._ People at the front of each line were invited into each dressing room one at a time.

Once inside their respective dressing rooms, the citizens were probably surprised to find that they weren't getting their food right away. Instead, they found eight small tables, each situated so that it had some privacy from the other tables. The citizen would be directed to sit in front of a table that had just become open for new business. There, they'd listen first to a prepared speech.

"You will receive food shortly. But I must tell you that you are under investigation for committing illegal acts while you were employed. The Ontario Supreme Court is conducting this investigation. Soldiers are present in the room to prevent any person who has committed crimes from leaving."

Two armed soldiers were at each of the two exits to the dressing room – the one that led back to the hallway and the other at the emergency exit that led to the parking lot outside of the building.

"I am formally advising you that everything you say in your interview will be recorded by a court stenographer's machine just as it would be if you were giving evidence in a trial. The camera in the machine in front of you will record both your voice and your face. I will take notes as necessary. All of this will be saved on a computer in a remote location. Your statement will be reviewed for accuracy later. But if I believe that you are lying to me during the interview, I have the authority to charge you immediately with the crime of _obstructing justice_. I will stop the interview and have you placed in a cell. It will take us a couple of days to get around to interviewing you again, and I should warn you that we will interview you thoroughly the second time. I should also tell you that we are good at detecting lies."

"If you are innocent, you have nothing to fear from us or from any of the people you've been working with. Nobody other than the people being employed by your province's Supreme Court will know what you said. During the interview, I will be asking you if you have observed criminal acts being committed while you were working. You should prepare yourself to tell the truth when you answer that question. If you try to shield those criminals, you will be given the same punishment as they receive. Do you understand that you are now under criminal investigation?"

### # # # # # # # #

This process was used first for the Whites and then later that afternoon for the Yellows. Both these groups were receiving a gentle interview because Reese's assessment of their character was either very positive or mostly positive. The point of interviewing the Whites and the Yellows first was to generate evidence on the Browns and Blacks. Every time that an interviewee mentioned that she had seen so-and-so doing such-and-such, that information was entered into the computer system.

Toronto's regular stenographer's machines were not capable of sending data to a central computer for storage and processing. In Toronto's court system, each trial was recorded on a bot and that bot would be stored centrally. If somebody wanted to review the trial, he'd retrieve the bot. But for these investigations in Maple Loaf Gardens, TG had equipped the recording equipment with a wireless transmitter that could send the data to a powerful computer that he had set up in the referee's changing room. TG's software would automatically transfer any evidence of a criminal act from the interviewer's computer, along with the source of the evidence, into the file of the Black or Brown who had been mentioned. I'll give you more detail later on what was planned for the Browns and Blacks. All you need to know is that Winnie would be participating in their interviews tomorrow, but for today, she was off duty.

The Wilizy managed to finish the interviews for all the Whites and Yellows that Friday afternoon. At the end of the interview, each person was thanked for being honest and one of the soldiers offered them some army rations to eat outside. They were advised to stay at home until a formal announcement was made for workers to return to their jobs. By nightfall, everybody in Toronto knew that numerous crimes had been committed in the city hall and in the police station. These were being investigated and trials would be coming soon.

That news never did make its way into Maple Loaf Gardens. By Friday evening however, the Browns and the Blacks had figured out that something was up. They hadn't been taken for an interview, they were given army rations to eat, and they were free to go to washrooms. But armed soldiers wouldn't let them leave the arena. The Browns and Blacks looked at who was with them under guard and they knew they were in trouble. Some of them collected in groups and talked very quietly among themselves. Nobody thought it unusual that a deserted hockey rink would have a lot of spiders, so naturally they continued to talk when they saw one.

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie and Marie left the ship early that Friday morning – neither were needed for the preliminary interview process. They were sitting on a gentle slope of a hill overlooking the bunker building where the blonde girl Maddy had been deposited. Winnie was staring at the building; Marie was lying on her back, looking at the sky. "How's it going?" Marie asked.

"I have nothing," Winnie confessed. "I'm trying to force a solution, but these ideas don't work that way. I get them – like bam, all of a sudden there's an answer. Right now I have no idea how to find the escape tunnel out of that bunker."

"What do you want to do then?"

"Why don't we relax and talk. Tell me what it was like living on a slave ranch. You can skip the whipping and baby making parts."

So they did. Marie talked about the daily life of a slave in the fields and in the kitchens. The best part? How they all made fun of the slave owners and bosses behind their backs. The worst part? Marie had two worsts. When a child was ripped out of a mother's arms and sent away; and, the never-ending grind of despair, knowing that they'd always be slaves and would die that way. "I tried to give the housekeepers hope," Marie said. "With the voodoo. And some of them would spread that hope to their slaves. Other housekeepers gave up and their slaves did too."

"They believe in voodoo?"

"They believe in putting curses on the bosses and owners and hoping that some day those curses will come true. It makes them into fighters, not quitters."

"What curses would they make?"

[Censor's note: Two paragraphs have been deleted for the sake of maintaining public morality.]

"Whoa. Those are nasty curses. Did everybody put in all those swear words too?"

"Definitely. Plus the more grotesque, painful, and gory they imagined the deaths, the more hope they could take from it. Intestines being ripped out; insects eating their vital organs from the inside out. Those were common."

"You said some swear words that I've never heard before."

"That's not surprising. Voodoo draws on an African background."

"Would you tell me some of your best swear words and what they mean?"

### # # # # # # # #

"Where did the ten year old slaves go after they were collected from the ranches?"

"I don't know. The new girls coming to the ranch wouldn't answer that question. But we were all strangers to them, so perhaps they were scared. I do know that none of the girls that they took away from our ranch ever returned to our ranch. Also, we always had more girls leaving than girls coming back as house slaves."

"The boys?"

"Same thing. More boys left than came back. Some boys arrived as cattle hands, but they weren't from our ranch. We learned that they had been given something to drink that changed them."

"How were they changed?"

"Not interested in women, for one thing."

"Oh. Like what farmers do to male cattle."

"Exactly. Some of our own boys came back as bosses, but they were different too. They didn't mind whipping slaves."

"Did the mothers recognize them?"

"Of course."

"Did the mothers find a way to talk to them privately and ask where they had gone?"

"One mother at another ranch tried to ask a boss where her boys would be taken when he was still little."

"What happened?"

"Their big momma found them talking. She made the boss whip the mother to death in front of her boys. Then she made the boss drink something in front of everybody and he was sent to work with the cattle. She sent a video of this to the nearby ranches. Mothers and bosses didn't dare to have private talks after that."

"I'm getting very angry."

"Let's change the subject then. I have a question for you, Winnie."

"OK."

"Where did all those flames come from last night?"

(At this point, Winnie tried to explain about explosive devices and flammable liquids, but Winnie didn't know all that much herself so we'll skip that part of the discussion.)

"If I set myself on fire with a burning liquid, would I be able to sneak up on the owners or would they know that I'm coming?"

"They'd probably know you were coming because the burning gives off a smell. Last night, I could smell the fumes of the exploded liquor even though we were up in the ship."

"I'd want to sneak up, I think it..."

"Wait, Marie."

"I won't change my mind about burning myself up, Winnie."

"No, it's not that. Just don't talk for a minute. Please."

...

"Got it!"

"Got what?"

"A way to find the escape tunnel."

### # # # # # # # #

William managed to construct what Winnie wanted within an hour and then he shipped it to her at high-speed express because she wanted to try it out before dark. William reminded her that there were lots of Safe Haven sensors in the woods around the bunkers, but so long as Winnie and Marie remained invisible, those sensors would remain inactive. The equipment and materials he had sent would remain inside an invisible pouch. William used mind-messages to help Winnie install the equipment.

_Do you have your sling's laser focused on a wooden wall?_

_Yes._

_Good. Fire the laser through the wall now with as little power as possible._

_I have a hole._

_Good. Put one end of the tubing that's in the pouch through the hole. I've given you more than enough tubing so push a lot of it in so that it won't accidentally come out. That tubing is connected to a pressure pump in the pouch that will take normal air and push it into the house in a strong concentrated stream._

_I see the pump. It's a big square thing, right?_

_Yeah. Make sure that you're not blocking the air from entering the pump. The pump sucks in air from the outside and pushes the air through a tube that goes into a little brown box. Then the air comes out of that brown box and goes into the house through the hole you drilled. Is that what you see?_

_Yes. What's in the brown box?_

_Some chemicals that will turn the clean air into red air. That air will have a distinctive smell, like the fumes you smelled from the exploding liquor storage tanks._

_After the air passes the brown box, we'll be pumping red smelly air into the house at high pressure?_

_Got it._

_And if we pump enough of that red smelly air into the house, some of it will leak out of the house, like through windows and doors._

_And through emergency tunnels, just like you thought it would, Winnie. Great idea!_

_It'll work?_

_It should. The bunker's motion activated systems won't react. Nor will their carbon dioxide activated systems react because we're not changing the levels of carbon dioxide. It will take some time to find the tunnel because we have to push that air through the entire bunker. Be patient. Start up the pump and then you and Marie can go looking for red smelly air._

_Green button to start?_

_And red button to stop._

### # # # # # # # #

_It worked, William. The tunnel took a sharp turn south after it left the bunker, so that's why we couldn't find it with a physical search. That was quite the smell you used._

_Nothing smells worse than the fertilizer that farmers make from their pigs. When you leave, take our drone with you. We don't need to watch that bunker any longer._

_OK. Marie wants me to tell you that the smell reminded her of her days at Ranch #2._

_They raised pigs?_

_Yeah. Marie doesn't have happy memories of those days on the ranch, William._

_What are you trying to say?_

_She says that I should tell you that she's coming to git you._

_Really?_

_She's looking for a spell to change people into pigs as we speak._

_Winnie!_

_Relax. I'm pretty sure that she's kidding._

_Define "pretty sure."_

_I don't know. There's a 20 per cent chance that you'll be snorting through your nose within the hour?_

_I'll be in a Wilizy meeting. There's some sort of serious problem._

_What's it about?_

_I have no idea. Are you coming in?_

_Marie and I will TiTr this little girl for a bit. Don't "hog" up all the conversation in the meeting, William._

_Good one. You're kidding about Marie, right. She's one scary woman._

_She's nice, William, but with a crazy sense of humour. Marie, where are you? Marie? Marie?_

_I'll be in a meeting, Winnie. With witnesses._

### # # # # # # # #

"We have no idea how to catch them yet," Hank admitted to the Wilizy at the meeting.

"We can't convict the judge or the prosecutor?" Yolanda asked incredulously.

"We don't have enough to even put them on trial," Jock said. "Not one White or Yellow has said anything incriminating about them. William's drones are picking up some chatter in the arena that will incriminate some of the Blacks, but we have nothing on the judge or on the head prosecutor."

"But they killed all those people in the jail cell!" Yolanda was steaming. She'd remain steaming if she didn't hear better news soon.

"We have no proof that we can use. The bodies have been incinerated. We can't even prove that those people are dead, let alone murdered."

"Hank is right," Jock stepped in. "Both Judge Lewis and Prosecutor Lee have kept themselves insulated. I doubt that we'll find anybody who can say that the judge or the prosecutor spoke directly to them and ordered them to commit a crime. Any communications would have been by anonymous texts."

"Dr. Sandman? Could we threaten him enough to turn on the judge?"

"We don't have much on him. Besides, Reese says that he's mostly innocent. Even if Sandman accused the judge of anything – like instructing his people to try to kill Lucas – it would still boil down to the doctor accusing and the judge denying. We have NO proof." Hank was now exasperated. Yolanda's voice was now raised. Nobody tries to kill one of her babies and gets away with it.

"What about what he did to his sisters when they were growing up?"

"He was a minor when these incidents happened. Besides, there is no proof."

"The murder of his own daughter."

"No proof. Slider, the driver, has already shown that he won't say anything incriminating, and even if he did, it's still one man's word against another."

"The prosecutor?"

"We might be able to convict him on some graft within city hall, but not if he has hidden his money well. We know that he was involved in all of the murders committed in the cellblock, but there's no proof."

"The people helping in the trials? Mavis and Snoozer."

"Both have disappeared. We can't find them. We didn't try very hard. It's still one person's word against another. "

"Hank, you can't let him get away with this."

"Tell us what to do then, Yolanda. Everybody, tell us how to catch them. Jock and I are at a dead end. And neither the judge nor the prosecutor has done anything that would allow the Raging Gardeners to become involved because they have no jurisdiction. If we can get the two of them to trial, it will have to be in front of an Ontario judge for crimes they committed in Ontario."

"What about asking for people who know something about the judge to step forward?" Dreamer was able to say something because Yolanda's steam engine had almost run out of water.

"Did you see that in one of your dreams?"

"No, Yolanda," Dreamer said. "I have no dreams at all about the judge or the prosecutor or anything about trials. But why not ask for help? Perhaps somebody out there knows something that we don't know?"

That was the only useable idea that came out of the meeting.

### # # # # # # # #

_We can't convict the judge or the prosecutor?_ Winnie and Marie were on their way back to Ontario Friday evening. Winnie was mind-messaging with William on the way.

_Not unless we receive some help from the public. Your mom asked where you were. I said you were working on an assignment that Jock gave you._

_Is she mad at me?_

_Not after I said you were on Wilizy business. She wanted to know if you had any bright ideas._

_I haven't been too involved in the planning for this operation so I don't know much about the judge or the prosecutor._

_Did you find the little girl?_

_Yeah. She's a slave at Safe Haven ranch #4. She's wearing a dog collar._

_No chance of saving the little girl?_

_I don't see how. We can't change what happened in the past._

### # # # # # # # #

News Release, Friday, April 26, 10:00 p.m.

From Brigadier-General Jock MacLatchie

Officer in charge of Martial Law in Toronto.

To all Toronto Citizens

The expeditionary forces from the B.C. and Saskatchewan governments have established defensive positions within the city and are actively searching for the foreign forces that were responsible for the fires and explosions that occurred in the early morning of April 26. We are now asking Toronto citizens for their help in our search for one of Toronto's leading citizens.

Judge Foster Lewis has gone missing from his home and office and we have reason to believe that the forces that attacked Toronto have kidnapped him. If anybody has seen Judge Lewis in the last several days, please contact me. Also, if any citizen has any idea why anybody would want to harm or abduct Judge Lewis, please contact me.

I can be reached at Maple Loaf Gardens.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 38

Saturday, April 27th was the day the Browns would be interrogated. By Saturday morning, TG had updated all of the Browns' files with information obtained from their co-workers. Reese thought that they were guilty of some crimes, perhaps by taking a bribe. However, they had some streaks of good. Reese had cautioned his dad that he could only read the basic colour of each person. He hadn't learned how to read the variations – when colours were entwined, for example. All he could say for sure was that the Browns needed to be asked a lot of questions.

Winnie added a recommendation. The interrogators should ask them direct questions about their knowledge of the judge and the prosecutor. This way, if they knew something that might incriminate either of them but lied, she'd see the lie and the Wilizy could go after it.

For the time being, the Wilizy would keep the Browns who had been interrogated and found guilty in the cellblock in the basement of City Hall. This way they couldn't talk with the Blacks who were still in Maple Loaf Gardens. Saskatchewan would be responsible for guarding and feeding the Browns in the cells.

The interrogation of the Browns would be conducted in the Home dressing room. Six tables were placed in such a way that Winnie could see all six faces. As far as they knew, she was in charge of offering water and/or food. The Wilizy who had been initially chosen for the interviews were Hank, Wanda, Granny, Momaka, Yolanda, and Wolf. TG was substituted for Wolf who wanted to stay with Mac. Melissa suggested that Marie should also be added to the team to provide extra incentive for anybody who was lying or showing reluctance to cooperate. When that happened, Marie would sit next to the Brown, place her hand on his hand, and encourage him to tell the truth. She'd keep her hand there and talk about work camps that she'd be recommending for his incarceration. Marie enjoyed herself immensely and was very good at her role. This was the point at which the Wilizy accepted her into the family without reservation.

### # # # # # # # #

Meanwhile, Stu and Jock were meeting with General Cameron and Hector Rodrigues, the Chief Justice of the Ontario Supreme Court. Several important decisions came out of that meeting.

General Cameron would take over the duties of Toronto's police chief and keep his troops visible to Toronto's citizens. When the Whites and Yellows came back to work, he'd put them back into their former positions. If their skills warranted it, he'd promote them to higher ranks that had been held by the Browns and the Blacks. Nobody from those groups could be trusted and they would not be back on the force. General Cameron would conduct a search for qualified people to replace the Browns and Blacks and to bring the police force up to operational speed. He would gradually remove his forces from the city as conditions permitted.

Brigadier-General MacLatchie would provide security for the trials that would have to follow the interrogations. He would initiate discussions within the city on how Toronto's criminal justice system could be improved. In the meantime, his troops would continue to search for the people who had attacked Toronto.

The seven justices of the Supreme Court would conduct the trials for the Browns and then later for the Blacks. With the quality of information being generated by the interrogations, nobody in the room expected that process to take much time. They had ample evidence to convict already. They did expect that sentencing would be difficult. Other than a few cells in isolated police stations, Ontario had no functioning prisons. Establishing such a system with personnel to man it would not be possible before these trials were held.

Stu observed that B.C. had functioning prisons and asked General Cameron if perhaps they might take responsibility for Ontario's soon-to-be-convicts for a short time at least. This would be as a gesture of friendship to Ontario and perhaps a sign of further cooperation to come. All members at the meeting endorsed such a movement. Stu did observe though that B.C. would need a formal agreement from Ontario that gave them the authority to incarcerate and control Ontarians charged with criminal offenses and found guilty of the same. This agreement would have to include clauses that allowed B.C. to put them in prison for crimes they had committed before the B.C. force arrived. Stu would even be willing to write up a draft document.

They also agreed that a military tribunal would conduct the trials of any Blacks that were accused of capital crimes requiring more than simple jail time. The military tribunal was necessary because martial law was in effect in Toronto at the time. Brigadier-General MacLatchie and General Cameron were ranking officers and were empowered to conduct such trials. General MacLatchie recommended that a third person be added so that there'd be an odd number of judges. He suggested a former RCMP officer who had also served as a high-ranking officer in the B.C. military. Everybody agreed that Hank would be an excellent choice. Stu suggested that this tribunal should have powers to investigate and punish any crimes that had been committed before military law had been established in Toronto. Since Stu was already drafting a document empowering B.C. to imprison Ontarians, it made sense that he create a similar document for the military tribunal. One major obstacle to convicting the judge and the prosecutor had now been eliminated. It didn't matter when a crime had been committed. If the Wilizy could prove it, a military court could find them guilty.

As to Toronto? General MacLatchie would arrange for civic elections as soon as possible and would take on the role of Mayor until this could be done.

### # # # # # # # #

Some interesting tidbits arose out of a subsequent personal meeting between the two generals. General Douglas Cameron had once served under Jock and they knew each other and their families. Both had some catching up to do.

"How's Mac," General Cameron asked. He had always been a fan.

"She's married now with two kids. The second was born a week ago."

"Is she working in the military when she's not bearing children?"

"She's employed in a private company now; something to do with environmental research, I believe."

"Doing security for them?"

"Naturally."

"I wouldn't think that there'd be much call for that in an environmental company."

"You'd be surprised."

...

"That aide of yours. Are you robbing the cradle now to find recruits?"

"He is young, I admit. You know how hard it is to find people willing to serve. Especially when there's no threat of war with Alberta now."

"We're facing the same situation. I hear your aide stared down a mutineer."

"He did."

"I hear he also did that with a uniform that had some very old and outdated insignia. I'm surprised you'd let that go, Jock."

"It's tough to get the funds we need."

"So now you rob the cradle and re-issue very old used uniforms. What's so special about this kid?"

"He's one of the Wilizy boys."

"Not the one that will take your eye teeth if you let him?"

"No, that's Wizard. Lucas is the kid that shot down three Alaskan planes all by himself."

"Does Hank know you're recruiting him?"

"He's helping me out on that."

"And Yolanda's reaction?"

"How's your wife, Douglas?"

### # # # # # # # #

That Saturday afternoon, Maddy took the little kids down to the lakeside to play in the sand. There were five of them. They weren't little brats – they just liked to run around a lot. This part of the dam site was flat and city fathers had put in a beach next to a safe swimming area years ago. They had also placed picnic tables and a little playground next to the beach. Maddy knew about beaches and not walking too close to the water, so she kept the kiddies away from the water.

There was a small slide in the playground. She put the kids into a line in front of the steps up to the top. The youngest girl was at the front of the line. Maddy made sure that she got up the steps safely. After she was sitting at the top, Maddy ran around to the bottom of the slide, watched the girl give herself a little push, and then made sure that she had a safe ride to the bottom. Then it was the next kid's turn. The laughs and screams of the kiddies brought unwelcome attention.

The overalls lady found her by the slide and asked Maddy what she thought she was doing. She didn't wait for an answer. She screamed at her not to go to the beach again because it wasn't safe, slapped her face twice, and left. Maddy touched her cheeks, but didn't cry.

### # # # # # # # #

Interrogations of the Browns carried over into Sunday, April 28. The day became more interesting when Dr. Sandman came to the Maple Loaf Gardens and asked to speak to General MacLatchie. The general delegated that duty to Stu who slipped Dr. Sandman into the Visitors dressing room and met with him. Two minutes into the conversation, he asked a young stenographer to join them. An hour later, Stu let Dr. Sandman out the exit to the parking lot and reported to Jock.

"I don't think he can help us. He told me about his entire involvement with the judge, but whatever criminal activity there might have been, he was coerced into it. Winnie sat in on most of the interview. He was telling the truth."

"How was he coerced?"

"Dr. Sandman was the doctor who supervised Eldreadth's pregnancy in 2055. She was under his care at the time – a serious case of depression leading to suicidal thoughts. He had placed her in a care facility under constant supervision. Eldreadth recovered with Dr. Sandman's help and she raised Helen as best as she could. By this time, the judge had bought her a mansion to live in – his attempt to provide fatherly love for his daughter, I suppose. Eldreadth told her brother that the baby was his. Foster never disputed it. There had been no other man in Eldreadth's life."

"Helen never knew that the judge was her father; just that he was an uncle that came by regularly. When Helen began to mature, the judge started coming around to see her, not her mother. He found her a job in a strip joint. At this point, Eldreadth fell back into depression and she had to be hospitalized. The judge took that opportunity to seduce his own daughter under the guise of _Families that bathe together stay together_. He coerced Sandman to go along with the charade of being Sparkle's suitor by threatening to cut off Eldreadth's money. She had no revenue of any kind; the mansion was not in her name. She had a monthly allowance and that was it. The doctor did not have the means to support Eldreadth's care because the judge owned his clinic building and would evict him. Sandman went along with the ruse so that Eldreadth would be taken care of. However, he made sure that his wife was always at the hotel so that he could disprove any accusations that he had taken advantage of Helen. The doctor's involvement with the three henchpersons was coercion through the same means – threats to throw Eldreadth into the street. He was the doctor who attended Basher's birth too."

"Does he know about the family and what went on?"

"He knows everything. Telling Dr. Sandman that sad story was part of Eldreadth's recovery. She'd only talk to him and she insisted that no recordings were made. She was too ashamed. We can't use Sandman's knowledge to reveal anything because what Eldreadth said would be discounted as the ravings of a suicidal maniac. Plus Sandman gave me the information on the condition that it would never become public and that Eldreadth would never be publicly humiliated. That explains why Reese had found his colour so light."

"So we have nothing that we can prove in court?"

"Nothing. But Sandman will allow us to interview Eldreadth at her mansion provided he is present. He doubted very much that she would talk about her childhood."

"Who'd be best to do that?"

"Yolanda, perhaps?"

"Have Marie go instead," Jock suggested. "She has lived through pain. Have Doc go too. We want him there in case she says something that Marie may not realize is important. Tell him to listen to the conversation invisibly if Eldreadth won't let him in the house."

### # # # # # # # #

For Maddy, Sunday afternoon started out with laughs, but ended differently.

After lunch, Maddy took some plates and cutlery from the kitchen and went to the picnic area well away from the beach. She had the kiddies sit down at one of the wooden tables and they began to play _Picnic_. Maddy dished out pretend food with a big wooden spoon and they all pretended to eat it.

They had just started to eat their pretend ice cream dessert when Overalls Lady found them there. She looked at the top of the picnic table and began screaming at Maddy for taking good plates and cutlery. When she was finished yelling, she grabbed Maddy's left arm and abruptly yanked her off the bench. She whipped Maddy's jeans and panties down, pushed her facedown onto the ground, and paddled her bare bottom with the wooden spoon. "Don't be such a bad girl," she warned. Maddy cried during the beating but quit immediately after Overalls Lady had left. She had learned that if you cry, the beatings stop sooner than if you don't cry.

That Monday evening, Bare Bottom Beater thought about Maddy and how she was behaving. Doing what she wanted to do without asking; taking things that didn't belong to her. Maddy reminded her of another cute little blonde girl that had taken something that didn't belong to her. Birdie's boyfriend. Other girls in the school didn't have a chance when cute blonde girls were on the prowl. Maddy was the same. She had been there one day and all the little kiddies loved her. Bare Bottom Beater wrote a note on the big calendar on the fridge. _Send Maddy to Safe Haven Ranch #4 today_.

Maddy was peeking around the corner, watching Bare Bottom Beater write the note. When BBB had gone, Maddy stood in front of the calendar. She had never seen a calendar before. She didn't know what the boxes on the page were for; even if she did, she didn't know what day of the week it was. She did know something more important. She understood what BBB had written.

Maddy opened the knife drawer and pulled out a carving knife. She took that knife and some food into the room where she had a space to sleep on the floor. There was an empty backpack at the bottom of the closet. She put the food into that backpack along with warm clothes, a piece of paper, and a picture. It was too small to hold all of her clothes and the food, so she left her warm boots and extra jeans behind. Maddy placed the knife on the top of the clothes, zippered the pack shut, made herself comfortable on her pad on the floor, and went to sleep.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 39

Monday morning, Maddy woke at sunrise, slipped out of the trailer, and headed south away from the dam. At first, she walked by the lakeside. But one time when she turned around to see if Bare Bottom Beater was chasing her, Maddy saw her own trail of footsteps. She walked into the rough terrain away from the lake and continued to follow the lake south.

At one point in the afternoon, she saw a copter and hid under some bushes. It was the big copter and it was circling over the place that she had just left.

Twice more Maddy would hide from the copter. That night, she hid under a bush, put on all of her clothes to keep warm, and ate more of her food. Bainbridge Island was further away than she had thought.

### # # # # # # # #

The Wilizy started interviewing the Blacks that same Monday. The format was the same with Winnie there to assess the truth. This time they assigned two Wilizy interrogators to each Black to ensure confessions. By the end of the day, they had achieved a 100 per cent success rate. Tomorrow they'd work on the key figures in the city hall crimes – the mayor, deputy mayor, business controller, police commissioner, police chief, and deputy policy chief. To date, nobody had come forward with incriminating information on the judge or the head prosecutor.

The cellblock in the basement was now full, so they moved the people who had already confessed back to the Gardens, and the remaining suspects into the cellblock. Head Prosecutor Lee showed surprise that such a facility could have existed undetected in the basement for so long.

Brigadier-General MacLatchie had a visitor that morning – or at least almost a visitor. Stu was once again delegated to meet with her. He reported to Jock five minutes later that the visitor wouldn't talk with him. "A woman is here to give information about the judge. She says that it's about a crime he committed. She'll only talk to another woman."

"Did she give any information about the crime or herself?"

"No. She's young, perhaps in her thirties. East Indian. Confined to a wheelchair. That's all I know."

"Ask Yolanda to speak with her. Use the Visitors dressing room again."

### # # # # # # # #

"My name is Yolanda," Yolanda began. "May I ask your name?"

"Madhuri Lee. Prosecutor Dennis Lee is my husband. He _was_ my husband, I suppose. I left him."

"Madhuri is a pretty name. Does it have a special meaning?"

"It means _Sweetness_ in Sanskrit."

"Would you tell me where you live in case we have to reach you?"

"No."

"Would you give me contact information of any kind?"

"No."

"That's alright. I'd like to hear what you have to tell me."

The young woman talked in a monotone voice, eyes down. She said that she and her husband had had a social relationship of sorts with the judge. One night, her husband had arranged to leave her and her daughter alone in the judge's mansion. She described how the judge had coerced her into having sex with him by threatening to _bathe_ with her daughter.

"I bathed with him. To save my daughter. It was a sexual assault."

"Yes, it was."

"You'd do the same. Any mother would."

"My youngest daughter is almost nine. I would have done the same thing." (On this, Yolanda was probably lying. She'd have killed the judge and made his body disappear. But few women have Yolanda's background or access to disappearance weaponry.)

"I knew he wouldn't stop with just the one time and I had nobody I could tell. My husband had turned me into a sex toy for a judge. Nobody would believe me. I packed everything up, took as much money as I could find, grabbed my daughter, and tried to escape in my husband's copter. I didn't get very far before a bomb blew it up."

"That's why you're in the wheelchair?"

"Yes. We had landed in Barrie and I was on the way to a restroom, so the blast partially missed me."

"Your daughter?"

"She had run ahead of me. She needed to go more than I did. She's fine."

"Does she know what happened?"

"About the judge? No. About her father? No. She only knows that we've had marital problems and are getting divorced. About the bomb that had been planted to kill us? No. She's too young. I'll tell her when she's old enough to understand."

"What did you do after the bomb destroyed your copter and left you injured?"

"I contacted a friend in Toronto who came and helped me. We couldn't go to Toronto for medical care, so we went to Winnipeg where I had family. We stayed with them until I could travel. Fortunately, I had been carrying the suitcase with all my money and it wasn't lost. It's been spent now. I'm living off an advance that my friend has given me for a book that I'm writing and her firm is publishing. My daughter doesn't know that I'm broke."

"Are you safe now?"

"Yes. We live a long way from Toronto. The copter was completely demolished. The judge probably thinks that we're dead."

"What do you want from us?"

"Put the judge and my husband in jail for a very long time."

"Can you give us any incriminating evidence on your husband?"

"It wouldn't count. I can't give testimony against him."

"But perhaps we might be able to charge him without calling you as a witness."

"That wouldn't make any difference. I know nothing about his work. I thought that I could read criminals but he completely fooled me."

"How so?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Is there anything about the judge's body that is unique?"

"You mean, is there anything about his body that only a person having sex with him would know? The answer is _No._ Besides, he'd deny that he had assaulted me. He'd say that I agreed. My husband would probably tell everybody that I was promiscuous."

"What can we charge your husband with?"

"I don't know."

"Why did you come?"

"My friend insisted. She came to my house and brought me and my daughter to Toronto after she heard you were looking for information on the judge. She's paying all of our expenses. She said I'd feel better after I told people what had happened to me."

"Do you?"

It was only at this point that Madhuri Lee actually looked up. "I'm sure you're very nice Yolanda, but no, I don't feel better. I don't like it that you know what happened to me. I don't like it that the judge and my husband are going to get away with this. The judge has already escaped. I just want to go home."

"Mrs. Lee, Judge Lewis has not escaped. He's in a copter right now that is taking him to a jail cell. Perhaps what you've told me will help us put him on trial. Would you give evidence at the judge's trial?"

"No. I can't prove anything I've said, so what would be the point?"

"Will you at least wait in Toronto until we can collect more evidence? We're still hopeful that we can convict both of them. You could watch the trial."

"How long would I have to wait?"

"No longer than a week."

"OK. I'll stay in Toronto, but no longer than a week. My daughter is missing her boyfriend. She's nagging me all the time to take her home."

"Do you have a place where we can reach you?"

"You don't need to know that. Make a public announcement about the trial. I'll be there."

### # # # # # # # #

Dr. Sandman met Marie and Doc at the front door of an imposing mansion with a view of the expanse of Lake Ontario. "Eldreadth is in the sun room and is expecting guests," Dr. Sandman said. "I said you wanted to talk to her about Foster, but nothing more than that. I'm surprised that she's letting you in."

He led them through an empty foyer past a grand staircase and into an empty living room. Then, an empty dining room. From there, they walked into a kitchen that at least had a stove, fridge, and sink. The walls were bare as were the counters. "She eats very simply," Doctor Sandman said. "Soup and sandwiches. I don't know if that's by choice or if she simply doesn't know how to cook. I invite her to go out for meals with me and my wife, but she always refuses. I don't believe that she's left the house in years. I arrange for groceries to be delivered. The sunroom is through those doors."

"Is the entire house just empty space?" Doc asked.

"Pretty much. She has a basic bedroom with a comfortable bed. The closet and bureaus are only half full. She keeps herself clean and wears fresh clothes daily. She does her own laundry, but refuses to go shopping for anything new. Most of the other bedrooms are completely empty. The judge has a bedroom for when he sleeps over."

"What does she do with herself every day?"

"She paints. This is a hobby that I've encouraged. In the beginning, her work was full of angry slashes and dark reds and blacks. When she's depressed, the canvasses will be empty spaces with a few dots scattered here and there. Right now she's in a good space, so you'll see some light colours."

"Landscapes?" Doc asked.

"I have no idea what she's painting. Abstract art of some kind, I guess. I can read the emotions but nothing else."

"What does she do with the paintings when she's finished?"

"She stores them in the basement. There must be hundreds of them. All are in frames and hanging properly. Foster does the framing for her. I haven't seen what she's working on this week. She's very reluctant to let anybody look at her work. If you're able to take a peek, look for reds. Those are bad signs. This is the sunroom."

The room was aptly named. South facing, it was full of sunlight. Long windows were opened right now letting in a gentle breeze. The furniture consisted mainly of a wooden rocking chair and a lounge chair that was opened to provide a possible bed for napping. Three kitchen chairs were arranged in a semi circle around an easel. They provided an excellent view of the back of whatever Eldreadth was working on. She was standing in front of the easel, a paintbrush in her hand. Doc noticed that she worked in acrylics; they'd dry reasonably quickly. That was about all he knew about art and only because Melissa had told him about the time that she had painted to avoid having to think about Zzyk who had imprisoned her at the time.

"Eldreadth, these are your visitors."

"Everybody calls me Doc," Doc said. "I used to be a doctor but I'm retired now and spend my time whittling."

"My name is Marie," Marie said. Before anybody could stop her, she stood next to Eldreadth and looked at the painting. Eldreadth stepped back from the intrusion in fear, perhaps. "This black splotch here. That's Forest, right?"

Eldreadth nodded.

Doc and Sandman angled slightly to the side where they could also see the painting.

"You've captured him perfectly. He _is_ an ass. Are these your sisters?"

Eldreadth nodded.

"You shouldn't blame them. Blame Foster instead." Marie sat down on one of the chairs and saw Doc staring at her. _What?_ _You can't see it?_

_You can see Foster and his sisters in that painting?_

_Nah. I was teasing you. But you gotta know that's what all of her paintings are about. Right? That's all she can think about. I had slave sisters like her. They'd work in the fields, but their minds were always focused on the one thing that haunted them. In their case, it was having their babies snatched away._

### # # # # # # # #

Doc was into his introduction. Eldreadth had looked at him when he had started, but now she was painting and ignoring him. _I'll do this,_ Marie sent.

"Eldreadth, we're not here to talk with you about what happened in the past. We know what happened to you and your sisters. We know the kind of life you had growing up and how your brother has controlled you and your sisters since. We know the bad things that you paint about. We don't want you to tell us about those. But for all the terrible things that have happened to you, other women have had a worse life. Let me tell you what happened to me."

Marie described life on the slave plantation and Eldreadth looked and listened – her paintbrush forgotten, but still in her hand.

"Talk is cheap," she said when Marie finished. "How do I know that you're not just making those things up?"

"Marie stood up and lifted her dress up to her chin. Both doctors averted their eyes. But they did see Eldreadth's reaction.

"Eldreadth, you live a comfortable life here in your prison," Marie continued after letting her dress fall back into place and taking a seat again. "But the only person keeping you in your prison is you. We slaves had an electronic device that would kill us if we tried to escape. The slave owners would leave our dead bodies on the prairies for coyotes to eat."

"Yes, you've had a terrible life; but others have had something far worse. You are never too cold and never too hot. You have all the clothes you want. We had only two dresses. We had no underwear – those reduced the slave owners' profits. We wore both of our dresses to bed in the winter and cuddled together under a thin blanket; otherwise, we would have frozen. In the summer time, we worked in the sweltering sun for twelve hours at a time. They only gave us sun hats because too many women were dying of sunstroke."

"You can eat whatever food you want. We were given food that was not fit for animals. There were times that we'd sneak into the pens holding the hogs and steal their food. You were sexually assaulted. We were sexually assaulted and whipped. You lost your child. We lost our children too. But you have a grandson. No slave ever had the chance of having grandchildren. So, stop wallowing like a hog in your misery, get over it, and move on with your life. You're a woman, not a sow."

"He won't let me see him."

"See who?"

"My grandson."

"We can change that."

Eldreadth didn't react, so Marie continued.

"When I was a slave, instead of focusing on what had happened to me, I thought about what I would do the slave owners who had done such terrible things to me. I planned and I planned. Would you like to know what I'm planning to do, Eldreadth?"

She nodded.

"I'm going to kill them."

"Really? How?"

"Eldreadth, I will chew them into little bits and swallow the bits."

Here, Eldreadth figured that Marie was using a figure of speech that didn't actually involving chewing and swallowing. The intent was clear. She was planning to kill them. But Marie was speaking literally. She actually was going to take the living bodies of her tormentors, take bites of flesh off them, chew the flesh, and swallow. Hopefully, the slave owners would live through much of her alligator's enjoyment of its appetizer, entree, and dessert.

Eldreadth looked uncertain.

"I **will** kill them, Eldreadth." Marie didn't mention that she'd be dying in the process as she didn't want Eldreadth thinking along those lines.

"I couldn't kill Foster. He's my brother."

"How about we make a deal? We'll take care of Foster; you help us. Tell us what you know. Not about your past. We know that already. Tell us what Foster has been doing here since he moved you into this prison."

"There's not much to say."

"Tell us whatever you can."

"What's my grandson like?"

Doctor Sandman took over. "He's big for his age. He enjoys his life, but Foster keeps him isolated. Nobody shows him any love. He needs somebody to care for him. Somebody like you."

### # # # # # # # #

Eldreadth talked a lot about her life with Foster that afternoon. He hadn't touched her since giving her the mansion. He'd come by on a semi-regular basis, but only to brag about the person he had just killed. He told her what the person had done, how long he had taken to die, and whether he had won the death time bet or not. Afterwards, Foster would go up to his bedroom. He'd stay there for a while, even overnight. He'd frame and hang her paintings. He never spoke to Eldreadth again on that visit. She never went into his bedroom. It was always locked. There was much more detail; but that was the gist of the information Doc and Marie would report to the group that evening.

When Eldreadth had talked herself dry, Marie asked a last question. "When I was planning how to kill my owners, I put a curse on them first. Would you like me to put a curse on your brother?"

"A curse like, _May you rot in Hell?"_

"No, that's too tame. I know a good one." Marie turned to the two doctors. "Guys, you might want to leave. This curse involves some body parts that you might feel protective about."

...

The two doctors stood on the sidewalk, waiting for Marie to finish.

"Is she for real?"

"100 per cent genuine."

"Is she going to kill the slave owners? Will you let her?"

"Would you like to be the one standing in her way?"

At that point, they heard a long chortle echoing out of the empty mansion. It was followed by a higher, softer sound.

"The first sound was from Marie," Doc said. "I know because the hairs on my arms stood up."

"I've never heard Eldreadth laugh before," Dr. Sandman admitted.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 40

Monday evening, the full Wilizy family met in the Battle Command Center in the hold of the Wilizy/Asia. Wolf was present, but not Mac. Yollie was taking care of her and little Emily at the home compound. All the other adults, as well as Reese and Winnie were present. Hank and Stu had made it a priority meeting – they were trying to find a way to legally deal with the judge and the prosecutor.

Stu gave them an update on the interviews. "We finished all of the Blacks today. All have confessed. We have no reason to delay, so they'll be going in front of the Supreme Court justices tomorrow along with the Browns. One justice per trial. They should be finished by the end of the day. I've made it possible for the justices to legally send them into B.C.'s prisons."

"Only the prosecutor and the judge remain to be processed. Hank and I see no reason to interrogate them. We know they're guilty. We'll put them into a military trial when we've collected enough incriminating evidence. Jock, General Cameron, and Hank will be the presiding judges. We chose to try them in a military court because these two men are experts in Ontario's laws. They won't be familiar with the proceedings of a military court. This will give us an advantage which we may need if our case against the two remains as weak as it is right now. No Black or Brown gave us anything that we could use."

"I have also created the legal documents that will allow both men to be tried for crimes that they committed before martial law was imposed. All we need to do is find a way to prove that they committed those crimes. Yolanda had an interview this morning with somebody that wants to see both men imprisoned for a long time."

Yolanda stood up so that people could see her better. "This is the woman that Jock told you about earlier when I was back home. She told me how the judge coerced her into having sex with him – the threat being that he'd assault the daughter if she didn't agree. She told me what had happened and I believed her entirely. I read her as an honest, caring mom. She doesn't see how she can help us. There is no proof that she can offer. She refuses to testify because she sees her evidence as worthless and she would suffer great humiliation by giving it. I agree that she cannot help us. We'd harm her further if we tried to use her incident to attack the judge. I managed to convince her to stay in Toronto until the trial. I'm hoping that we can give her some good news; perhaps give her some treatment for what she has undergone."

"Doc, you're up," Hank said.

"Marie did a masterful job convincing Eldreadth to tell her what has happened in her life with the judge after he put her into an empty mansion. Eldreadth cannot help us directly. She would not be a credible witness and could offer no proof. But she did reveal that the judge likes to brag. He told Eldreadth about the murders that he committed in the basement of the courthouse. We already knew about the murders, but knowing that he shared that information with Eldreadth may help us. I don't know how yet, but it's a side to him that we haven't seen before. Also, he may have some feelings for his sister. He has put her into a comfortable life, he's footing the household bills, and he's helping her with her painting hobby. Reese, did you see any sign of him caring about her?"

"All I saw was solid black, Doc. But I'm still learning about these colours."

"That's where we are, folks. We still have nothing that will stick. The floor is open for suggestions."

### # # # # # # # #

Not much of any substance came until the second half hour. "What about taping the judge and the prosecutor in their cells in case they let something slip?" Yollie asked this from the home compound.

"We're already doing that."

"What about trying to turn one against the other?" Yollie tried another idea.

"We'll be trying to do that in the trial," Stu revealed. "We're putting them in the same courtroom at the same time so that they can hear what the other person is saying. If one of them tries to separate himself from the other, we can try to exploit that. But if that's the only thing we can think of, we may as well not go to trial."

"Who TiTr 'd back to Lucas' court case and taped it for us. Was that you, TG?" Mac was visible only from her face up. Sucking sounds accompanied her voice. She wasn't the one making them.

"Wolf, William, and I were all in that courtroom, Mac. I was operating the equipment."

"William likes to ask this question. Was there something that you should have seen in that trial, but didn't?"

"Mac, I'll answer that," William said. "It looked like an ordinary trial. Everything that should have been there was there. The judge, the bailiff, the court recorder, everything."

"Is it possible that Mavis taped something that she should not have taped? Like the judge pretending that he had been assaulted?" Mac was pursing a thought.

"I was watching her closely. When the judge said that they were in recess, she definitely clicked the pause button in. When he re-convened, she clicked the pause button out. No help there, I'm afraid." TG – with the bad news.

"I'm confused," Nary said. "Why were they taping the trial if it was supposed to be a secret?"

"Good question," Hank responded. "The tape could be incriminating evidence if it fell into the wrong hands."

"Unless they omitted the illegal bits, which is what they did." TG – with the logic.

"But still, why tape any of it at all?" Dreamer was also confused about the whole point of taping the trial.

"So that Mavis would be there to give me poisoned hot chocolate?"

"Perhaps, Lucas. But if so, why did she continue to use the machine after you had been paralyzed?"

"So that the judge could brag?" Doc said with some confidence. "He'd visit Eldreadth and tell her about the trial."

"He wouldn't need the record of the trial to do that, Doc." TG still couldn't see anything useful coming out of this line of questioning.

...

"Ow, ow," Nary said.

"What?" Winnie asked.

"My hair got snagged. It really hurt!"

"Oh."

"I was going to say," Nary continued, "that there's a machine like the one we're using to record the interrogations in a storeroom in the basement of the court house. It was where Mavis kept her coffee supplies."

"I saw that when we were looking for Mavis' poison," William said. "It's a stenographer machine, no question."

"Why don't we look at that machine?" Nary continued. "It has to be the one Mavis used."

"To what end? She only recorded the innocent parts."

"How can it hurt, TG?" Winnie with the winning argument. "I'll get it."

### # # # # # # # #

Winnie came back not only with the machine, but with Lucas' pinky ring as well. It was hidden inside the machine's battery compartment.

While Lucas was happily looking through the files on his ring, TG connected the machine to a display unit and fired it up.

The Wilizy were silent after Mavis' recording ended.

"Holy kangahoopdedoodle," Dreamer reacted first.

"I'll second that. Holy kangahoopdedoodle!" This from Theo.

_What's a kangahoopdedoodle, Granny?_

_I don't know, Doc. A kangaroo that jumps through a hoop while it's doodling?_

"Can we see the part right near the end? Freeze when I say to?" Wizard asked.

...

"Holy kangahoopdedoodle," Dreamer said. "Great eyes, Wiz." The two gave each other high fives.

"I don't believe it. Holy kangahoopdedoodle," Lucas joined in the prayer meeting.

_Did the three of them join a church or something, Doc? Holy this. Holy that._

_I hope it's not one of those churches where you pray to a beer god._

_Is there a god I can pray to who will give me better eyes?_

_Me too. Do you have any idea what's going on?_

_No, do you?_

Melissa did. "OK folks. We have to find the bot of the trial that Mavis just handed to the judge. Mavis was recording the trial because he's keeping souvenirs."

"Why can't we just bring the machine into court and play it?" Dreamer asked.

"How would we explain finding it," Mac answered. "The storage closet is locked. The judge would know that."

"Could we put the file on a bot and find that?"

"Sorry, Reese," TG answered. "Copies are date stamped. If the file didn't have the date of the trial, the judge could claim that it wasn't the real record."

"We have to find Mavis' copy," Mac repeated. "Here's what we'll do."

### # # # # # # # #

Later that evening, after all the plans had been made, Nary was walking on the ship's deck alone. She appeared to be talking to herself.

"You didn't have to pull my hair so hard!"

"You were going to miss your line, Nary!"

"I said the first one properly though. The one that started with _I'm confused."_

"You did. You were perfect," the angel spoke into her ear. "So why were you so slow on the second line?"

"I didn't want to lie."

"That's why we changed the line from _I saw a machine_ to _There's a machine_."

"It still sounded like a lie. I never went near that closet the day that I caught you in the elevator."

"It's bending the truth, that's all."

"Angels do that?"

"When we have to."

"Like tonight?"

"Yes, like tonight. You had to say those lines because that's what actually happened in the meeting. And then Winnie would convince people to look at Mavis' machine."

"How did you know what was going to happen before it did."

"Angels know things."

"But you're too modest to brag."

"Exactly."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 41

Jock was meeting with General Cameron, Hector, and Stu. He wanted to go over what would happen tomorrow when the judge and the prosecutor stood trial. He had already let General Cameron and Chief Justice Rodrigues know that the trials of Foster Lewis and Dennis Lee would have to be somewhat unconventional. Both understood why this was necessary.

"All of the Browns and the Blacks who confessed will be in a B.C. prison by tonight. Mathias is taking them back now under guard. You're not receiving any flack from the B.C. government, are you Douglas?"

"Quite the contrary. They see our cooperation as the beginning of a way to tie the former provinces together. They'd like to see more cooperation. Do you think the Wilizy would be in favour of using the WZBN transmission towers as the basis of a network for public communications? Rick has good pinky-ring coverage with his former prison walls, but B.C. has huge gaps in its coverage. What about Saskatchewan, Jock?"

"The Wilizy are giving us help in converting wheat production to peanuts; plus they have plans to start up two big WC&D stores in Regina and Saskatoon. We're working closely with them. I could ask if they'd like to offer a tri-province communications service." (Jock hadn't told General Cameron how close he was with the Wilizy.)

"You don't believe Rick would object?" Douglas raising the topic.

"Alberta's economy is growing faster than the both of our economies combined, Douglas. All because of the Wilizy's industries. He's not likely to do anything to get in their way."

"We could ask them to put a specialized military broadcast capability into their transmission towers, right? That might help us bring law and order to the west."

"We already have links to some U.S. states. Having a military communications capability might be the foundation they need to start expanding what little law and order they have."

"How can Ontario help?" Hector asked.

"Well, you can't do anything until you have a provincial government in place, but Jock will have civic elections in Toronto soon. Perhaps that could be a start."

"Hector, I should tell you about our RADAR group and the agreements that we have with the northern states." (Jock and Stu were getting to the real reason for the meeting.) "It's part of bringing law and order to them. From time to time, some of our electronic surveillance units come across lawlessness. These U.S. states allow us to surveil, capture, and punish such cases of smuggling and potential cross border crime. We have the capabilities to do that and they don't. So they don't mind. In return, they keep us up to speed on the criminals that operate in their jurisdiction in case they move into ours. We could have the same agreements with you. This could lead to more extensive sharing later."

"I could draw up the agreements if you like, Hector. I wrote the original agreements with the other states. Then if you ever needed our help again, all the legalities would be in place."

"I don't see any difficulties with this."

"Good," Jock replied. "Hector, I wanted to ask you what you were planning to do with the judge and his prosecutor if they're found guilty of capital crimes. Now that we have this agreement, why don't you let Saskatchewan deal with them? That way, you won't have to worry about it."

"I can make the agreement retroactive to when you asked for military intervention," Stu offered. "Shall I?"

"You're better able to take care of those two that than we are. Do you think the trial tomorrow will actually stop them?"

"We're tidying up the loose ends today, Hector. Why don't you sit in on the trial as an Ontario law expert? You could help us keep those two criminals from getting free and starting all over again."

### # # # # # # # #

Speaking of loose ends, Melissa was desperately looking for a way to tie her own loose ends into a knot. The Wilizy knew what they were looking for. Mavis' bot. The most likely hiding place was the judge's mansion. A single bot could have been hidden in so many places. It was terrible how that Japanese crime family had torn that nice mansion apart. But they had found no bot.

Eldreadth's mansion was the second on the list of places to search. But they couldn't bring in a large team and cause the damage they had in Foster's house. Instead, Doc asked Eldreadth if she minded if two nice teenagers went through Foster's bedroom. Those teenagers turned out to be one teenager and a panther. William's lock pick took care of the locked door. Contrary's nose made for a short search in the mostly empty bedroom. "Nothing," Nary said.

There was one other place in Eldreadth's mansion that Foster liked to go. The basement with all of Eldreadth's art. Framing abstract art did seem to be a little outside Foster's normal interests. Once again, Eldreadth gave the two teenagers access. Contrary found a large stash of evidence inside the bases of those art frames. Theo was learning to get along with the panther a little better now, so he petted Contrary's head and praised her. "Good panther! Good panther!" Contrary rubbed against his legs in a figure eight, almost purring in satisfaction. When a house cat does that, it's a distraction. When a full-grown panther does it, you have to brace yourself or you'll be knocked over.

"What was that all about?" he asked Nary when she appeared.

"I dunno. Contrary hasn't been herself lately. She must be trusting you more. She wouldn't do that with a stranger."

### # # # # # # # #

With no truth-metering duties required on the battle list today, Winnie was back to TiTr'ng with Marie to find the little girl. They were very happy when they found that Maddy had disappeared from Ranch #4, but it took a lot of time to spot her sneaking into the copter. When they saw that she had been on the same island when Marie and Nary had been taking care of Ranch #4's bosses, they couldn't believe how their paths had crossed so close to each other.

It took them some TiTr'ng before they found the young boss with the bent nose sneaking Maddy to the Canadian side of the rivulet. But they discovered her re-capture, kidnapping, and incarceration in another Safe Haven jail in Watertown quickly. "Did you see what they did to her with those snakes?" Winnie asked in disbelief.

"Those are water snakes," Marie said. "They're not poisonous at all."

"Can you do something about her pretend parents? Like put a curse on them?"

So in mid-February 2086, Marie cursed both Brute and Pissy with a short life, full of hopelessness, desperation, and starvation. "I was thinking of getting some snakes to creep down into their bellies and lay some eggs, but I need the kidney of a young girl to make that work. I figured you wouldn't volunteer."

Even Marie couldn't cheer Winnie up after that scene. "Let's go home. Those two will be beating her senseless soon. I don't want to see that."

Neither Marie nor Winnie returned to Watertown to see how Marie's curses worked out.

### # # # # # # # #

Back in real time, Maddy was well away from the Fort Peck Lake dam by now. The further south she walked, the more the land changed. The area around the dam and the village had been relatively flat. But she was moving into wilderness territory now. Except for a narrow stretch of hard dirt next to the water, the land was no longer flat. Gentle hills now swept down to the lake. These hills weren't high yet, but they would become so soon. The lake was over 130 miles long. Nobody lived near that lakeshore. Nobody would see a young girl trudging south, looking for Bainbridge Island.

And trudging was now what Maddy was doing. She had developed a touch of hypothermia from the cold night she had spent in the open. The food that she had packed was gone – she had finished the last of that this morning. Her two bottles of water hadn't even lasted that long. But she did have the empty bottles and she had a lake. In the morning, she took off her shoes and socks, waded into the water, and filled both of her bottles. By late afternoon, she had no bottles. She had left them, forgotten, at places where she had stopped to rest. Now she was just wading into the water and using her hands to lift water to her mouth. She was still walking south, but taking longer and longer rest breaks. It was getting dark. Bainbridge Island would be around the next bend, she was sure of it.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 42

Early Wednesday morning, Dennis Lee and Foster Lewis were given access to shower facilities, shavers, and the like. The previous night, the guards had taken their clothes, leaving them with some ill-fitting bailiff uniforms. The soldiers returned their clothes, washed and pressed, Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Stu was meeting with Jock. He would have met with Hank too, but Hank had excused himself. He didn't want to have any advance look at Stu's case against Lee and Lewis. He wanted everything that happened in the courtroom that morning to be a surprise so that he could be as fair and impartial as possible.

Stu didn't like surprises. Especially not the kind TG had given him an hour earlier. "Jock, the boys couldn't find the bot of Lucas' trial," Stu revealed. "It wasn't in Eldreadth's art frames with the others."

"We saw Mavis slip the bot into the judge's hand," Jock said. "He's had ample time to take it to Eldreadth's house and hide it in one of the frames."

"It's not in the basement. We searched his bedroom again – same result. We had already torn his house apart. We don't know where that bot is."

"What will that do to our case?"

"It weakens it further. We wanted to focus our case on what the judge and prosecutor did to Lucas. He'd be able to challenge everything they said. The bot would prove he was right. We can show any number of fake trials from the bots we did recover, but nobody is alive to support the bot's evidence."

"Still," Jock countered. "It's visual evidence. Strong visual evidence. How could they get themselves out from underneath all those fake trials?"

"I could do it. The question is whether Lewis or Lee can see the hole we have in our case now without Lucas' bot."

"We have a hole? How big of a hole?"

"Did you have a chance to go for a ride through Toronto's underground tunnels yet?"

"Yes."

"That's the size of the hole in our case."

### # # # # # # # #

A squad of four armed Saskatchewan soldiers brought two men to Toronto's South Court Building at the corner of Bay Street and Queen Street West. It was at one time the largest municipal building in North America. As the soldiers entered the building, they noticed that the entryway alone was two stories high. It was 8:55 a.m.

The soldiers 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. Judge Lewis and Prosecutor Lee didn't stare. They had been here before. The soldiers followed a young aboriginal boy down a lot of hallways and down some stairs. The soldiers took them deep into the building to a room that wasn't even a courtroom; it was just a meeting room.

The room's furniture was quite sparse, as was the audience. Three men were already sitting behind the biggest table. All three were in uniforms. The man on the left of the table was a general in the B.C. armed forces. The man on the right was a retired, high-ranking officer of the now defunct Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The man in the middle, and the man in charge, was a brigadier-general in Saskatchewan's armed forces. They would act as justices in this meeting. A fourth man in a gray suit was sitting in a chair off to the side. He was the Chief Justice of the Ontario Supreme Court. All four men were facing the tables and chairs that would constitute the rest of a courtroom.

Also at the front of the room, adjacent to the sitting men, was a young aboriginal girl with a recording machine in front of her. That machine identified her as the secretary who would record the events and conversation that would take place in that meeting room that morning. The young boy who had brought the soldiers down to the meeting room took a chair from the audience, placed it next to the court recorder, and sat down – also facing the audience and the two big tables that have yet to be described. He would serve as bailiff. He was the same boy who had assigned food stamp colours in Maple Loaf Gardens, but the prosecutor never recognized him.

The table on the far left facing the judges had three chairs, the middle chair being currently occupied. The table on the right had only one chair and that was occupied by the prosecuting attorney.

"What's going on?" Judge Lewis demanded as he entered the room and recognized the seating plan. "I have received no formal notice of impending legal action against me. As such, anything that happens within this room today is illegal."

"I have not been charged with any crime," Prosecutor Lee accused. "I have had no opportunity to obtain a defense counsel to represent me against baseless accusations that the people in this room might bring against me."

"Relax Forest, Dennis," Hector said. "This is not a trial. It is merely a hearing – an investigation into certain events that you may have information on that will assist these officers in the execution of their duties. No charges have been laid because these men have not had the opportunity yet to even talk with you. That was because the search for Forest was unsuccessful for so long. It was horrible what those terrorists did to you, Forest. Holding you in captivity in the wilderness for so long and trashing your mansion like they did."

"What?" the judge exclaimed. "They trashed my home?"

"We believe that they did that the night of all of the explosions," General Cameron explained. "My soldiers looked in your home as part of our search for you and saw the destruction. With the information we've been able to gain on the damage these terrorists have caused, we believe you were their target."

"Me? Whatever for?"

"Good question, Forest" Hector said. "That's what we'd like to determine so that we can be sure there'll be no more attacks from black-clad terrorists. They did kidnap you, after all. The damage they did to your home suggests anger. Your sisters lost their lives and their businesses. More evidence of anger. Before we remove your protective custody, we want to be sure that Toronto will not be subject to more attacks."

"I was held in a prison cell without any charges and without access to an attorney."

Hector responded again. "Well Dennis, as I've explained, we were merely keeping you protected against attack by the terrorists. All of the people from city hall and the police station received that protection. Brigadier-General MacLatchie explained that to you. The men in this room will make some inquiries that will allow us to determine if you face any further risk from the terrorists. Afterwards, if the situation warrants it, you will be released."

"Hector, I was imprisoned in a cell."

"No Dennis, you weren't. All the cells in that block were open. An elevator was at the end of the hallway. There were stairs leading up to the main floor. You had ample food and water. You were free to leave the cellblock at any time."

"The elevator wouldn't work. The hallway door to the stairs was locked!"

"Really? I don't know how that could have happened. Are you sure?" For a chief justice of a supreme court, Hector was remarkably adept at stretching the truth.

"I'm sure."

"Who's this man?" Judge Lewis was pointing at the man sitting at the defense table. Teenager, actually.

"I've been told you know him," General MacLatchie said. "His first name is Lucas."

"I've never seen him before in my life," the judge exclaimed.

"Lucas.... Lucas.... Yes, I think I remember," Prosecutor Lee admitted. "He came to me before Christmas last year with some outrageous story about one of our respected citizens murdering a young girl. My staff investigated and found there was no substance to his allegations. He never came back to our offices; we figured he had left town."

"What's he doing at the table?"

"Judge Lewis, Lucas will be serving as your military advisor in the event that such service becomes necessary. He'll provide legal advice, act on your behalf, but only as necessary of course." Jock had explained the situation in almost the exact words that the judge had explained why Dennis Lee had to be present at Lucas' fake trial.

"Why is he in uniform?"

"Judge Lewis, Mr. Lee may have informed you that Toronto is under martial law," General Cameron said. "That means that any legal proceedings that occur during this current period of instability must be military proceedings. Think of this as a military tribunal tasked with collecting information. We three justices have military backgrounds and have the necessary rank to sit as a military tribunal. By military law, the people under investigation must be represented by a military officer. This young man volunteered for this service and acts in that regard as a second lieutenant. He will serve on your behalf. Mr. Rodrigues is attending this meeting to ensure that your legal rights as far as Ontario law is concerned are respected. Why don't you sit down and we'll start."

They did, but reluctantly.

"Mr. Lee," the Brigadier General took over. "The man at the prosecutor's table to your right will ask you some questions. During this interview, Judge Lewis will not be present. Since you will not be sworn in as a witness, and since this is only an informal hearing, any answers that you provide to the prosecutor's questions must go through your military advisor. He will answer on your behalf. You cannot speak directly to the court. Once the prosecutor has finished with you, he will pose questions to Judge Lewis – many of them will be the same. You will not be present to hear his answers. Again, Lucas will answer on the Judge's behalf. Later if we find it necessary to get clarification, for example if the two of you have answered a question differently, we will seek that clarification individually. Throughout this process, Lucas will relay your answers to the court."

"I don't like this," Judge Lewis complained. "Why the separate inquiry? Why can't we answer directly? What happens if this teenager doesn't understand the nuances of our answers? We should be together so that we can extend our legal experience to each other's benefit."

"Judge, that's the nature of an informal inquiry," Hector replied. "Police don't conduct interrogations in a group format. You know that. They question suspects individually, but not under oath. The only way to conduct an investigation where the two of you are together would be to make the inquiry more formal."

"How would that work?" Prosecutor Lee asked.

"You and Judge Lewis would give testimony under oath. Your case would be combined together with his. This would allow you to hear his responses and he to hear yours. If the two cases were combined, that would allow Judge Lewis to represent you as your attorney, and you to represent him. If you stay with the individual interrogations, Ontario law does not allow a person to represent himself, even though both of you are highly qualified lawyers. Lucas would have to be your military advisor."

"And the findings in a formal inquiry?" Judge Lewis asked General MacLatchie.

"By combining your cases into one case as joint defendants, any findings of the military court would apply to both of you. If the findings were negative, they would apply to both; if the findings were positive, they would apply to both."

"That's consistent with Ontario law," Hector confirmed.

"Joint proceedings?" Judge Lewis turned to Prosecutor Lee.

"Definitely joint," Prosecutor Lee replied.

The brigadier-general took over. "Now that these formalities are out of the way, why don't we start? Lucas, you may sit in the courtroom as an interested party. Winnie, would you provide some refreshments?" (Hank had asked Winnie to be the court secretary so that she could give them a truth/lie ruling if such were necessary.)

"I have coffee and hot chocolate," Winnie replied. "The coffee is very weak, I'm afraid. I'd recommend the hot chocolate, but the taste might be unusual."

"Pass," Judge Lewis said.

"Pass," Prosecutor Lee said.

_So far, so good,_ Stu thought. He had noticed that the judge and the prosecutor had not reacted in the slightest when they saw Lucas. These guys were good! But Lucas' presence had pushed them into accepting a joint, fully formal hearing. If he could prove one of them guilty of one charge, both would suffer the consequences.

"We have other interested parties who have requested that they be present in this room while you are being questioned," General MacLatchie announced. "I advise both of you that any or all of these interested parties may be called as witnesses. We believe they may have information about your activities that would be useful to this tribunal. Bailiff, please bring the other interested parties into the courtroom."

### # # # # # # # #

_Mom, they want the interested parties now._

_I'll be right down, Reese._

Yolanda had been waiting at the entrance to the courthouse for Mrs. Lee to show up. She must have changed her mind about coming to the trial. Yolanda hustled down to the courtroom and sat next to Eldreadth. Marie was on her other side as was Lucas. Yolanda noticed that Eldreadth was wearing a light green cotton dress with yellow daffodils scattered front and back. She was wearing a green bonnet with a yellow daffodil pushed through the top. This daffodil was real. Her hair was hanging in some disarray to her shoulders. She was wearing round glasses in a black tortoise shell frame. These were sitting slightly askew because the bridge of the glass frame had been broken at some point and she had mended it with a Band-Aid. Yolanda noticed that Eldreadth was wearing no belt. The dress would hang off her shoulders like a sack. All of this gave her, shall we say, an unconventional appearance. Yolanda turned slightly towards Eldreadth and offered her hand. "My name is Yolanda. I'm here because Judge Lewis tried to kill my son. He's the teenager sitting beside Marie. I like daffodils too."

Stu began the proceedings by asking each defendant a few questions about murders and poisonings. Both Judge Lewis and Prosecutor Lee responded _No_ to each of them under oath. They also added a lot of incredulous denials, but I won't bother repeating those.

"These questions are ridiculous," Judge Lewis protested. "I demand the right to face the person who has made such scandalous allegations. I am a respected sitting judge. If these accusations came from my sister, I must reveal that she has been in and out of mental institutions and has always expressed a desire to take more of my money. I support her fully out of the goodness of my heart, but that's never been enough for her. Perhaps she sees the opportunity to snatch all of my wealth now that my other sisters are dead."

Marie took Eldreadth's hand and squeezed it.

"What makes you believe that the charges stem from your sister?" General MacLatchie asked.

Neither accused had anything to say to that.

"Bailiff, bring in the box," Stu instructed.

### # # # # # # # #

Reese came into the courtroom with a common cardboard box that at one point may have held a dozen cans of vegetables. Clearly, it didn't hold cans now because Reese was holding the box high over the Judge Lewis and Prosecutor Lee's heads with one hand.

Stu explained. "The cardboard box that the bailiff is holding over your head contains a number of bots that Eldreadth Lewis made available to us. One of you may put your hand in the box and pick one bot at random. We will review the contents of the bot together. The justices have not seen the contents of the bots."

"Objection!" Judge Lewis sprang to his feet, nearly upsetting the box of bots. "Before the contents of these bots are admitted into evidence, I must determine the means by which they were obtained. I should be allowed to ask questions on where they were found, who obtained them, and much more."

"Very well," the general said. "Ask your questions."

"The defense calls Eldreadth Lewis to the witness box."

"Objection," Stu rose. "The prosecution is presenting its case. The defense will have to wait its turn."

"I'll be happy to wait my turn if the defense proceeds with its case without reference to these bots. If not, I must insist that the legality of their presence here is determined first. I must ask my sister some questions since apparently, she was the one who gave them to you."

The justices conferred. Two heads were showing signs of reluctance to allow the questions; one head was adamant. Hank convinced the other two and ruled on behalf of the tribunal. "The defense has the right to establish that this evidence was obtained legally. He has the right to call Ms. Lewis to the stand because this court itself indicated that her presence here might extend to being a witness. Judge Lewis may ask her questions under oath. Bailiff, we need a chair for the witness." Hank was a big believer in justice for all.

"But I don't want to testify," a rattled Eldreadth squeaked. "That's not why I came here."

"Mr. Prosecutor. You may have a ten minute recess."

### # # # # # # # #

During the recess, Judge Lewis and Dennis Lee met in Mavis' closet. The three justices and Hector retreated to the anteroom. Stu was on his own with the three interested parties. He started to explain why the bots were so important. With six minutes to go and Eldreadth tuning out, Marie took over the conversation.

"Stu, you say that these bots can prove Foster Lee guilty. How will they do that?"

"Marie, each bot has a visual record of a trial where both Lewis and Lee conspired to kill innocent people. In these bots, the judge explains to his victim exactly how he will kill them and why. Dennis Lee is shown as an accomplice."

"If Eldreadth doesn't agree to being a witness?"

"The two of them may walk out of here free. If Eldreadth does sit in that witness chair, we will still have a hope."

"But Foster always gets me so confused. I can't fight against him with his fancy words."

"Eldreadth, let's take a little walk," Marie said. "You can do this and I'm going to tell you how."

"I'll come too," Yolanda said. There's a women's washroom down the hall. We'll have some privacy."

As Marie led Eldreadth out, Yolanda looked at Stu's waist and then at Lucas'. "Stu, I need your belt. Quick, quick."

"My pants may fall down."

"Believe me, nobody wants that to happen. Be sure not to stand up."

...

With Reese knocking on the washroom door and calling "Mom," Yolanda put Eldreadth in front of the mirror. The hat was gone. Stu's belt gathered the green dress at Eldreadth's waist but Yolanda had fixed it so that the belt itself could not be seen. Yolanda had braided Eldreadth's long grey hair and was tucking the ends of those braids into a chignon at the back of her head. "Eldreadth, you look very nice," Yolanda praised as she finished.

Eldreadth looked in the mirror and lifted a hand to pat her hair. "I've never had my hair done before."

"You're a different person now" Marie said. "The other Eldreadth who let her brother boss her around is gone." Marie had been working on Eldreadth's confidence while Yolanda was removing the batty charwoman look.

Yolanda made a final adjustment by removing the eyeglasses.

"I can't see without those."

"Marie will help you walk to the witness chair."

"You don't need to see Foster," Marie said. "You only need to hear him. Picture him in your mind as the bratty little boy he used to be. Just answer his questions truthfully. You have nothing to be frightened about."

### # # # # # # # #

Judge Lewis jumped right into the examination of his witness.

"Eldreadth, who owns the house that you're living in?"

"You do."

"Did I ever tell you that you could let strangers search through MY house?"

"No."

"Did the person or persons who came to MY house while I was away show you a search warrant or any other kind of document that gave them the permission to search MY house."

"No."

"Your honours. These bots were obtained illegally. First, they had no search warrant, which automatically makes their search of my house illegal. Also, since my sister had not been given the authority to give anybody access to my house, she couldn't act on my behalf and allow them in. Anything that the prosecutor found because of that search must be ruled inadmissible. I'm done with this witness."

"Mr. Prosecutor, you may cross-examine the witness."

...

Stu's voice was gentler; almost conversational in tone. "Eldreadth, do you have any guests that come to visit you regularly?"

"Yes. Doctor Sandman."

"Do you have to ask your brother for permission to have Doctor Sandman visit you?"

"No."

"If I wanted to visit you, would you need to ask for your brother's permission?"

"No."

"Has he ever given you any instructions on who could visit you and who could not?"

"No."

"These bots that some of your visitors found. Where were they?"

"In the basement."

"What else is in that basement?"

"My paintings."

"How many do you have?"

"I don't know. Hundreds, I guess."

"So the basement would be part of the house that is yours. Like your bedroom. Would that be correct?"

"I guess."

"Do you need permission from your brother for you to go to your bedroom every night?"

"No. That would be silly."

"If you had guests and you wanted to show them other parts of the house that held your possessions, would you have to get your brother's permission first?"

"No."

"That's all for now, Eldreadth. You can go back to your chair."

...

"Your honours," Stu started his summary. "Nobody is disputing that the house belongs to Foster Lewis. But it serves as a joint house that Foster owns but which his sister uses. He never told her not to let guests into the house. She has every right to take a guest down to the basement to look at the artwork. If that visit meant that some bots were discovered with those paintings, nothing illegal had been done. They were invited in as guests. Eldreadth has the right to invite guests into the house that she shares with Judge Lewis."

"Rebuttal."

_And here comes the subway train down the tunnel and through the huge hole in my argument..._

"Your honours," Judge Lewis started. "The people who were in that house were not innocent guests. They were investigators looking for information on my activities so that they could bring me to trial. The law is very clear on how such investigators must operate. A search warrant must be obtained first. Posing as a guest violates the law."

...

General MacLatchie pulled his head away from the other two heads. "The bots may **not** be entered as evidence," he ruled.

"Your honours," Judge Lewis reacted. "I submit that those bots should be returned to me forthwith. They were taken from my house illegally."

Again, heads conferred. Four this time instead of three.

"Thirty minute recess," General MacLatchie ordered.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 43

Stu began the next phase of the court case. "Your honours, I would like to finish my cross examination of the defense's witness, Eldreadth Lewis."

"Objection," the judge stood and reacted immediately. "The prosecutor finished with that witness."

"No, I didn't." Judge Lewis had stood up to make his objection but Stu stayed exactly where he was on his chair to reply. He was wearing his lucky shorts. The ones with the red valentine hearts. Yolanda had seen them drying on the line yesterday.

"Court Secretary, what does the record say?"

"The prosecutor said, _That's all for now, Eldreadth. You can go back to your chair."_

"The witness is recalled to the witness chair," General MacLatchie ruled. "I remind the witness that she is still under oath."

...

"Eldreadth, I'll be asking you some questions about your childhood with your brother..."

"OBJECTION! Such questions go beyond the topic on which she testified before."

"Your honours. Once Judge Lewis put his witness on the stand, I may ask her any questions I wish so long as they are related to the charges before the court."

"Objection is overruled. You may ask your question." Jock was quick to respond on that question. Everybody associated with trials knew that putting a witness on the stand would open the door to a broad range of questions.

"OBJECTION! The witness is not qualified to answer."

"Objection is overruled. The witness is your sister. She is qualified to answer questions about her childhood with you, Judge Lewis."

"OBJECTION! The witness is incompetent."

"Bailiff. Escort all of the interested parties to the anteroom. Return and stand outside the courtroom door and don't let anybody in. Court Secretary, put us into recess mode and wait outside." The general waited for the courtroom to be cleared before looking at the judge and saying, "Explain yourself."

(I'll skip this part. The reader knows what the judge is going to say about Eldreadth's past. Her stays in the rest home, her depression, and her suicidal tendencies. He finally stopped painting a picture of his sister as a deranged idiot and Jock asked Stu to respond.)

"I'm surprised that Judge Lewis is so unsparing in his description of his sister as incompetent to give testimony. He was perfectly willing to have her testify an hour ago. Would the judge like to describe what happened in the last hour that made his witness suddenly incompetent?"

"Judge Lewis?" General MacLatchie waited for an answer.

Judge Lewis couldn't provide the necessary description. He turned to look at Dennis Lee who shrugged.

"What's it going to be, Judge?" Stu started to twist the legal dagger that he had just inserted into the judge's objection. "Either your witness is competent enough to answer questions about her childhood with you, or you knowingly brought a witness into court that you knew was too incompetent to answer questions. If so, her testimony earlier about the bots must be stricken from the record. Without that testimony, the ruling on the admissibility of those bots into the prosecution's case will likely be different. I suspect also that you will be facing charges for a lapse of professional ethics in bringing a witness into this tribunal who you knew was incompetent to answer questions. That sounds to me like Contempt of Court. There are some cells in the basement where you could mull over your decision to object to your sister taking the stand and finishing her testimony."

The judge sat. Dennis Lee immediately stood.

"Your honours, I wish to fire my lawyer and take on my own defense. I apply for an immediate dissolution of the linkage of my case to his."

"Denied. BAILLIF!"

Reese opened the door and peeked in.

"Court is back in session. Bring in the interested parties. Escort Ms. Lewis to the witness chair."

### # # # # # # # #

At about that time Wednesday morning, far away from the military tribunal, Maddy saw a small opening in the side of a hill. She was too tired to walk any further, but she knew that sleeping inside a cave would be warmer than sleeping in the open. She trudged up the side of the hill and peered inside. She was small enough to crawl on hands and knees into the interior. Maddy took the knife out of her backpack to protect herself and slumped to the ground. The pack made a good pillow. She fell asleep almost immediately.

Maddy is slated to die in that animal den. She might waken once or twice in the next couple of days, but it will be raining and she'll choose to stay dry. At some point, hypothermia, starvation, and fatigue will keep her asleep until her body succumbs. Perhaps many years later, some traveller might look in that animal den and see a small skeleton lying on a backpack. The traveller might read the handwritten story of a lonely little girl who was looking for her mommy and daddy but got lost. The traveller would look at her picture and wonder why she had to die.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 44

Eldreadth Lewis walked sedately to the witness chair, sat down, crossed her legs, and took off her glasses. She placed the glasses on the table where the justices were sitting and closed her eyes – exactly as Marie had told her to. That way, she wouldn't have to even look at her brother. Instead, she'd put a picture of the worst thing Foster had ever done to her in her mind. If she ever got scared or confused in her testimony, she would focus on that image.

Marie thought that Eldreadth would consider the sexual incest as the worst thing Foster had ever done to her; Yolanda thought it would be the death of her daughter. Neither was right. As she waited for Stu to start asking her questions, Eldreadth was visualizing Foster walking away from her home, arm-in-arm with fourteen year old Helen. He had told Eldreadth that he would find her a job somewhere. Helen was laughing and giggling. Eldreadth watched as Helen gave her uncle a kiss on the cheek. Foster gave her a kiss back. It wasn't on the cheek. Eldreadth knew what would happen that afternoon, but she was powerless to stop it.

"Are you ready to begin, Eldreadth?" Stu's voice interrupted her memory vision.

"I'm ready." For a woman who had come to the tribunal intent on not saying anything at all to Foster, or to anybody else, Eldreadth was remarkably calm. That was because Marie had reassured her about what Stu was planning to do. Stu had mind-messaged this to Marie; she had re-worded it slightly. Stu had figured it out. Eldreadth didn't trust anything that a man other than Dr. Sandman said. She did believe what a woman said.

_Stu will ask you questions about what Foster did to you and to your daughter. If you tell Stu the full story, Foster will be punished for what he did. What you say in this room will never be repeated to anybody else. Your secrets will remain secret. But you have to tell the full truth to have Foster convicted. While you're talking, Foster will not be able to argue with you. He may try and interrupt but Stu will stop him. Foster will be looking at you, but you'll have your eyes closed. After this trial, Foster will never bother you again. You'll be able to live in his house, but it will be yours now. You'll be able to invite your grandson to live with you. To start a new life with your grandson, you'll need to answer Stu's questions for about half an hour. If you don't give Stu the full story, Foster will win the court case and you can be sure that he'll kick you out of his house._

Eldreadth's testimony lasted forty minutes. Foster tried to interrupt with numerous objections but he was overruled each time. He tried interrupting Eldreadth's testimony with shouts; he tried calling her names; he tried telling the tribunal that she was too dumb to be able to give testimony. Eventually, after the court's "final" warning had been ignored, General MacLatchie ordered Reese to tie Judge Lewis to his chair and gag him. Dennis Lee was reminded that he was the judge's defense attorney, but he did nothing to stop Stu from drawing out Eldreadth's full story.

### # # # # # # # #

Stu had reached the end of his examination. "Your honours, I believe you have heard enough. I ask that this military tribunal switch from examining Judge Lewis to charging Judge Lewis."

Heads conferred.

General Cameron began. "Judge Lewis, you are charged with sexually assaulting your sister Eldreadth Lewis when you were old enough to know better. How do you plead? I remind you that you have an attorney present if you wish to consult with him."

"Mmmmphhhh."

"Prosecutor Lee. How does your client plead?"

"My client pleads guilty."

General MacLatchie took his turn. "Judge Lewis, you are charged with having sex with Helen Masters who was under seventeen at the time. How do you plead? I remind you that you have an attorney present if you wish to consult with him."

"Mmmmphhhh."

"Prosecutor Lee. How does your client plead?"

"My client pleads guilty."

Hank took his turn next. "Judge Lewis, you are charged with having incestuous sex with members of your family. This incest occurred with your sister Eldreadth and your own daughter Helen. How do you plead? I remind you that you have an attorney present if you wish to consult with him."

"Mmmmphhhh."

"Prosecutor Lee. How does your client plead?"

"My client pleads guilty. Your honours, I knew nothing about this. The judge is a sick, sick person. Once again, I ask that my case be separated from the judge's case. He is not competent to defend me properly."

"You'll have your turn, Mr. Lee. This tribunal will now rule on the charges that have been laid against the defendant."

Heads conferred and immediately de-conferred.

Brigadier-General MacLatchie spoke. "It is the unanimous verdict of this tribunal that you, Judge Foster Lewis, are guilty of all three charges. We will determine an appropriate sentence soon."

"May I say something?" Everybody looked up at that. Hector, Chief Justice of the Ontario Supreme Court, was standing with a page of text in his hand.

"Proceed, Chief Justice."

"The three members of the tribunal asked me to research Ontario law to determine if there were a legal precedent they could refer to in the question of whether or not the carton of bots that were discussed earlier in the tribunal should be returned to Judge Lewis. I have found a precedent. Ontario law says the bots should be returned **to their rightful owner**. That rightful owner is Eldreadth Lewis who painted the picture that contained the bots. Judge Lewis inserted those bots within her property. As such, the bots became her property. Judge Lewis, if you wish to examine the precedent, I advise you to examine your own memory. You set the precedent."

"So ordered. Bailiff, give Ms. Lewis the carton of bots."

### # # # # # # # #

The court was in a short recess. By order of the court, Reese had removed Judge Lewis' gag, but not the restraints. Prosecutor Lee was angrily denouncing his former partner as a sick animal. Eldreadth was at the back of the courtroom looking at the carton of bots in her arms, a look of bewilderment on her face. "What am I supposed to do with these, Stu?"

"Well, you aren't a witness any longer. You could go home and look at them."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"I don't know. To see if Foster told the truth about all the people that he and Prosecutor Lee killed? It's a shame that you'd have to carry it all the way home to see those bots. The carton could get heavy and you might spill some. Or, a squirrel might fall out of a tree into the carton and make off with one. Who knows what could happen to those bots on your way home."

"You weren't able to accuse Foster of murdering those people were you?"

"No. Our proof is in those bots. Your brother has been found guilty of the incest charges, but we couldn't bring him to justice for the murders that he committed. Dennis Lee will probably be released. I believe he and your brother killed thirty-seven people over the course of many years."

"I'm curious how they managed to murder those people. Do you think I could use that large screen over by the side of the courtroom to look at a bot or two?"

"Well, we're in recess right now. I don't see why not. They're your bots."

### # # # # # # # #

This time the gag was in the other mouth. A fuming Prosecutor Lee was attached to his chair and trying to spit out the gag.

General MacLatchie listed the charge. "Prosecutor Lee, you are charged with being an accessory to murder. You helped to lure citizens into this room where they were drugged so that they could not move or speak. Those citizens were subsequently taken to a cell in the basement of this building where they died of starvation, thirst, and sleep deprivation. How do you plead? I remind you that you have an attorney present if you wish to consult with him."

"Mmmmphhhh."

"Judge Lewis. How does your client plead?"

"My client pleads guilty. He also had sex with my daughter and he knew that she was underage."

"We'll add that to the charges. Prosecutor Lee, you are charged with having sex with a minor. How do you plead? I remind you that you have an attorney present if you wish to consult with him."

"Mmmmphhhh."

"Judge Lewis. How does your client plead?"

"My client pleads guilty."

_Stu, did you want to charge the judge for the thirty-seven murders?_

_We have more than enough for Bob and the Gardeners to take care of them, Hank. Let's just get them out of here._

Well, getting the two men out of the courtroom proved more difficult than expected. Lucas unlocked the judge from his chair and secured his hands behind his back. He repeated the process with the chief prosecutor. Lucas was steering both men towards the exit when they turned and charged at each other. A man can't do much damage to another man when both have their hands tied behind their backs. They tried chest bumping and head butting – all the time accusing the other of various nefarious deeds. Lucas looked on in some bemusement. In the midst of all the scuffling, Dennis Lee connected with a well-placed knee that put the judge onto the ground, howling. To make sure that he had connected properly, Dennis Lee leaped into the air and then dropped on top of the judge's body. The former head prosecutor's pointy, bony, hard knees connected with the judge's body and exactly in the location where he had aimed them. This was a spot on the judge's body that was already very tender. Foster Lewis' howls rose an octave.

All the men watching cringed. _That had to smart._

Marie and Eldreadth had a different reaction. "I told you my curses always came true," Marie stated with all due modesty. Eldreadth just smiled. All the way to what would soon become her own home.

### # # # # # # # #

Since the two prisoners had proven to be violent, an armed guard of four soldiers used the elevator to take them to ground level. The other people in the courtroom saga would make their way up to the main entrance through the corridors and stairs.

This is why the four guards, Judge Lewis, and Prosecutor Lee were the first to arrive at ground level. They were making their way through a small crowd at the building's front entrance when a young girl called out "Daddy!" and ran to Prosecutor Lee. She gripped him around his waist and hugged and hugged. "Are you and mom getting back together? You are, aren't you? Tell me you are. You were planning to have another baby. I've been wishing and wishing for a brother. I've even named him. Do you like the name Theo?"

Annika had heard her mother telling her friend Millie that she was planning to go to the courthouse that morning to see Dennis. Annika snuck out of the house and came down on the Metro. She had been waiting in the courthouse foyer all morning. Madhuri didn't make it to the trial on time because she and Millie had been searching for Annika.

Prosecutor Lee couldn't hug his daughter back with his hands cuffed behind his back. His daughter realized at that point why he wasn't hugging her.

"I've been framed, Kinkin," he told her. "A gang of criminals that I've put in jail have bribed some court people and now they're accusing me of terrible things. I'm innocent. They're putting me in prison because I convicted them!"

At that point, the stair and corridor travellers entered the scene. "Those are the criminals, Annikinkin," the prosecutor said and pointed with his chin. "Remember them. They're liars. Those two little brats were in on it too."

"Reese?" Annika said.

Reese heard his name and looked up. Annika! A big smile lit up his face. Annika charged at him and knocked him on his butt with a two handed shove. "I hate you. I hate you. I never want to see you again."

By this time, Madhuri was wheeling from the street into the foyer and saw her daughter with Reese at her feet. "Annika?"

"I hate you too. Why did you have to put my dad in prison so that you could get a divorce?" Annika tried to run out of the building and into the street but Millie saw her and kept her inside. Annika latched onto her dad's cuffed hands to prevent the soldiers from taking him out of the building. At that point, the foyer got a little noisy.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 45

"Why'd Annika do that?" Winnie asked Reese after she had hustled him out of the courthouse with all of its screaming.

"I don't know. She said she hates me and I don't know why. She's never going to see me again."

"You don't know that."

"She had a new colour. It's small but very bright. I don't know what it means."

"Is the prosecutor really her dad?"

"I guess so. Her last name is Lee. I saw her hugging him. That was her mom in the wheelchair."

"Let's do some TiTr'ng. I want to finish up an assignment the general gave me. You can help."

### # # # # # # #

Winnie thought that she could distract Reese from the loss of his girlfriend by showing him somebody who had bigger problems than he had. So she TiTr'd with him to the island just off the old Watertown airport. They saw Brute setting Maddy down inside a circle of poisonous snakes that Marie had said weren't really poisonous at all. They watched Pissy beating her. Winnie TiTr'd once again into the future, fully expecting to see Brute or Pissy beating her to death, but they saw Maddy slamming her bedroom door shut on her pretend parents instead.

"That was cool," Reese said. "That'll teach them. Who is this girl again?"

While they skip TiTr'd through Maddy's attempts to escape off the island, Winnie told her brother about all the things Maddy had endured. They cheered her on as the Weight Watcher guides took her west. Then they heard the lady in Dickinson tell the lady in the overalls that she was trying to contact Safe Haven so that Maddy could be returned to her parents. They both watched as the lady in overalls read the bot about Maddy. They read it too. "The first Weight Watcher got it wrong," Winnie said.

"They're taking her back to the slave owners, not to her parents," Reese agreed. "The copter would have picked her up last Saturday. We're way too late."

"Maybe not."

Skip TiTr'ng to Friday April 26, Reese and Winnie followed Maddy and the lady in overalls to the work camp at Fort Peck. They watched Maddy babysitting the little kiddies while the overalls lady spent her entire time in the trailer cooking or snacking. They watched Maddy putting the kiddies to bed while the cook lounged in her tiny living room sucking on bottles of beer. When Saturday morning passed and the cook did not put up a flag to bring the Safe Haven copter into camp, the conclusion was obvious. Overalls Lady had brought Maddy to the camp to babysit. They had time to rescue her.

That optimism dimmed slightly Saturday afternoon when they watched Overalls Lady yelling at Maddy and slapping her by the slide. It dimmed further during the bare bottom beating. Reese and Winnie were behind her when Maddy read the note on the calendar and filled the backpack with clothes, food and water. Their optimism light was nearly out that Monday morning when Maddy left the camp walking south. They were four days behind her.

They immediately skip TiTr'd after Maddy to present time – 1 p.m. on Wednesday. She was sleeping in the animal den, her right hand clasping the knife. Reese and Winnie retreated down the hill. There was a small flat space near the lake. Small tufts of grass of some kind grew in the sandy soil, but nothing else.

Winnie was looking around at the lake and the distance to the animal den when Reese asked, "We can't just pull her out, can we?"

"We'd scare her. She'd start slashing at us with that knife and perhaps hurt herself. We'd just be another bunch of horrible people chasing her."

"Could we put some food in the den that she'd find when she woke up?"

"I don't think she'd eat it. She wouldn't know how it got there. Food appearing like magic could frighten her even more."

"You saw her when she was climbing the hill. She's really weak. Could we tempt her to come out of the den with some food?"

"We're adults to her, Reese. At least you are. I could dress up as a little kid, I suppose."

"Is that worth a try? You could sling home and be back quickly. If you slung home in TiTr time and returned in TiTr time, you'd be back almost immediately."

...

"I have a better idea. It's 1:10 real time. I need to use real time to do this. I'll be back here in two hours. While I'm away, you should go back to the dam. Find out what's happening back there in present time. They're bound to be searching. Make sure that no search team can get here before I return."

"OK."

"Reese, you have to do that in real time. You can't go back in time and change the future. Don't let them find her. They'll stop her from escaping again and then deliver her to the slave ranch."

### # # # # # # #

Reese returned to the dam to find a dozen men sitting or standing in the picnic area. He counted ten horses wandering around the camp looking for something to eat. Two transport copters were sitting on the helipad. One copter was the one that Birdie had used to bring Maddy into camp. The man who brought the five tracking dogs probably owned the other copter. The dogs were sitting on their haunches watching the men in the picnic area. The man who owned them was probably the man holding a pair of small boots and a pair of jeans in his hands.

Maddy would be easy to track. Running dogs and galloping horses would cover a lot of ground quickly. What Reese really needed to scare those horses away was Bob the invisible dragon. What he had instead was a faint memory of reading a bot on horses from his school library. He also had an invisible TiTr'ng sling.

Two minutes of real time later and about six thousand miles of TiTr'ng later, Reese was back holding several water snakes by their tails. Horses are deathly afraid of snakes, especially when they're hanging upside down in the air immediately in front of their heads. Nobody would be riding those horses in the next two hours. When the men started talking about setting the dogs on Maddy's tracks and trailing them by copter, some raw meat in Birdie's fridge disappeared and so did the dogs.

### # # # # # # #

In the 1500s, Sir Walter Scott wrote, "It's an ill wind blaws naebody gude." The meaning? _Even something terribly bad can be good for somebody else._

In this case, when Annika dumped Reese on his butt and broke up with him, that was a bad thing for Reese. But because of that, Winnie tried to distract her brother by resuming a search that she had no intentions of resuming. Without Annika's actions, Maddy would have died in that animal den. But because of Annika's action, Winnie continued her search.

Here's another example of ill winds blowing good. While the Raging Gardeners were conducting a burial ceremony in a clearing in Ontario's woods, Lucas, Doc, and Doctor Sandman were meeting with Basher who was all by himself without any food in his apartment. (The judge's three henchpersons had been rounded up as part of the military pursuit of terrorists and were now out of circulation. They'd eventually end up in a B.C. prison.) Basher had no money of his own and didn't know how to care for himself. He didn't realize the future that was waiting for him. But right now, Basher was listening to an appealing offer. Would he like to stay with a grandmother that he didn't realize he had? The grandmother was willing to care for him; was he willing to care for her? While Judge Lewis and Prosecutor Lee were beginning to share a long deserved chilly stay in the ground, Basher and Eldreadth were sharing something chilly as well. A mutual love of ice cream. Yes, this good news of Eldreadth being united with her grandson is small in comparison to the terrible harm that the two men had inflicted on others around them, but _It's an ill wind that blaws naebody gude._

### # # # # # # #

_I'm one minute out. Are you sure Maddy's in the den?_

_Yes, I peeked in. She's still sleeping._

_Good. I'm bringing some noise that should wake her up. We'll worry about the knife later._

A minute later, a solar copter put down on the hard dirt that bordered the lake. Five children exited in a way that only five children between the ages of two and five years old can exit. Winnie and the oldest child brought out supplies. Reese entered the copter invisibly and emerged visibly carrying a big picnic hamper. The other four children ran around yelling excitedly, "We're having a picnic, we're having a picnic." Two of the youngest were twins, but you'd never know it because one had white skin and the other had black.

While Reese, Winnie, and Liset spread the picnic blanket on the ground and started uncovering a large assortment of food, the others played an exciting and nosy game of kick ball. As you would expect, that ball and the noise ended up going all over the place, including up a hillside.

_I can see her eyes peeking out,_ Winnie sent to Reese and Liset.

_We should all play tag_ , Liset sent back.

So they did. And then the little family sat down on the picnic blanket and Winnie and Reese filled some plates and handed those out. They all ate what was on the plates and they all drank something in glasses.

_I can see her face now. It's very dirty_ , Liset sent.

_She has to be starving. Why isn't she coming down?_ This from Reese.

_Time for Plan B,_ sent Winnie.

Winnie pulled Will and Izzy close to her and whispered a question. How would they like to play a game where the two of them would see who could cry the hardest? Both of them nodded _Yes_ , but Will wanted to be white now, and Izzy said she'd be brown, so they both changed their skin colours and began to wail. Fortunately, that change was instantaneous, and since they were dressed the same, Maddy never noticed a thing.

Will and Izzy put on their performance. Both Winnie and Reese tried to comfort them, but couldn't.

_Now_ , Liset sent.

Winnie turned around. "Oh, look. A little girl. We've almost finished our picnic but we have lots left. Would you like to have some food and something to drink?"

The little girl stood there, watching Will and Izzy who were continuing to wail as Winnie messaged them, _We're not sure who's the best. Keep crying. We'll give the winner a bigger piece of cake._

The wailing increased.

"I don't know what to do. They won't stop crying. Could you help me?"

Maddy walked over to the twins and held her arms open. Winnie didn't have to message anything; the twins just naturally went to get their hugs.

Some time afterwards, after Maddy was starting to eat more slowly, Winnie explained. "The twins were crying because I told them that we brought a cake, one with little pieces of chocolate in it. Chocolate is a delicious candy, but I forgot to bring a knife to cut the cake. You wouldn't happen to have a knife that I could use, do you? You can share our cake."

Maddy nodded.

"Where is it?"

Maddy pointed to the den on the hillside.

"Would you let Reese go and get it? I'll bring the cake out of the copter and you can show me what piece you'd like."

Maddy nodded, went to the copter and looked inside while Winnie uncovered the surprise that even the youngsters knew nothing about. So everyone became all excited again, and Reese returned from the hillside with a big knife and a black backpack, and Winnie cut the pieces that everybody asked for. Naturally, they all asked for pieces that were too big for them to finish. Then the wind started to blow and it looked like rain. They cleaned up the picnic site and left.

Winnie knew that it was OK to change the future; it wasn't OK to change the past. Maddy wouldn't die in that den after all.

Back to the Table of Contents

# Chapter 46

By Wednesday night, most of the people in our story were ready for a well-deserved sleep. Judge Lewis and Prosecutor Lee, for example, had been tried, found guilty, and planted. Their long sleep was certainly deserved. Yolanda performed the honours on behalf of the Raging Gardeners.

Madhuri Lee was sharing a bed with her friend Millie because Annika had barricaded herself into the second bedroom. Madhuri confessed to Millie that she was broke and the idea now of finishing a book where she explained how to read the body language of criminals was laughable. Millie offered to share her home for as long as they wanted. She'd also help her search for a new job. Perhaps something in the publishing house – Madhuri was a good writer. Or, both had friends from their university days who were working at the U of T. Perhaps something there. Annika had already broken it off with Reese so Madhuri had no real reason to return to Penticton.

"How far had their friendship gone," Millie asked.

"He was stranded partway to first base," Madhuri replied. "Still up to bat, though."

"No troubles then."

### # # # # # # #

Lucas had returned the lieutenant's uniform to Jock and thanked him for his help in learning what it would be like to have a military career.

"It would be possible to combine military training with university, you know," the general enticed. "Most armed forces would want their officers to have a university degree. You'd still be able to pursue your basketball interests."

"I'd be an officer?"

"Sure."

"I'll have to think about it," Lucas demurred.

"Are you worried that you won't be smart enough to go to university?"

"It's not that. Mom would have a fit."

"Some battles can be won with diplomacy."

Later, the general would take the lieutenant's uniform back to Saskatchewan and store it away in his closet. Jock had tried it on before giving it to Lucas. He been surprised that he could still fit into it after all these years.

Speaking of Lucas' basketball interests, Lucas was currently floating over the University of Toronto and was watching Lylah. He was just making sure that she reached home safely. He was confident that she wasn't Azure. Their voices were similar but not dead on. If he didn't have to solve the challenge of a marriage between two different species (human & angel), the challenges facing him were not so daunting. Dreamer had told Lucas that Lylah wasn't interested, but Dreamer hadn't given a reason. Finding out the reason would be something that an army officer would do, wouldn't he? Operation Lylah had begun.

### # # # # # # #

By bedtime, Yolanda had calmed down and was now speaking with Hank without her saliva speckling his cheeks. You might be wondering what Hank could have done that would have aroused such non-Yolandian behaviour.

Hank had wrapped Yolanda in one of her aprons, tied up the apron strings, and then had tied himself to her apron strings. He began following her all over the galley while saying in a whiney, teenager voice: "But Mom, I don't want to peel the potatoes; But Mom, I don't want to dust the furniture; Mom, do I have to bake cookies with you?" It's possible that he had taken the act a little too far. As Yolanda had pointed out when she was trying to cram a colander over Hank's head, cookies are what Granny does. She was more than a bit irritated about the apron strings thing, even though as Hank pointed out, he was dead right about what would happen if she kept Lucas so attached.

"I didn't have any trouble letting Wolf go," Yolanda said calmly although also defensively.

"Wolf was easy to let go. He always was mature; the least likely to get into trouble."

"I let Yollie go and I haven't interfered."

"You let Yollie go because she got married; you haven't interfered because she lives on the other side of the globe."

"I do have to bite my tongue sometimes when she lets Yo-Yo boss her cousins around."

"Yeah. I'm not so comfortable with how much she lets Liset sneak around and listen in on meetings, either. But back to Lucas. You have to let him go. You have to do that soon."

"Or?"

"He'll do what you don't want him to do anyway, but he'll always believe that you doubted his ability. It'll be the worst of both worlds. He'll be on his own and he won't talk to you."

"Jock says that he's just impetuous; that military training will give him the skills to think things through. Do you agree?"

"Yah. Lucas is very much like I was when I was his age. I resorted to violence too quickly; he resorts to charging into situations too quickly. You can't stop him from doing what he's good at just because he's not perfect at it yet. He's already living mostly on his own; let him go some more."

"Being an army officer is dangerous."

"So is following a woman around when she's threatening incarceration inside a colander. I managed to survive. So will he. Being in the army will be like living in a second family that can protect him."

"Operation Colander has not ended yet, Mister whiney-mouth. Your survival is still very much in doubt. Remember. I know where you sleep. The colander may make a midnight attack."

### # # # # # # #

On the other side of the globe, Wolf and Mac were sleeping the sleep of the blessed, tiny Emily nestled between them. In a flying submarine well above their own bedroom, William and Melissa were enjoying a well-deserved holiday from the rigours of commanding a battle. Melissa didn't know it at the time, but she wouldn't have to stress out any longer about not being able to get pregnant.

Back to the ship. Doc and Granny were staying in a cabin next door to Wolf, Mac and Emily. Jock was in the cabin on the other side of theirs. All three had wanted to check up on Mac and see the new baby. Doc and Granny were talking about Marie and how she had convinced Eldreadth to talk to them. Doc had been greatly impressed.

"She and Winnie are getting close," Granny said.

"They have a similar sense of humour," Doc observed.

"This closeness will not be a good thing for Winnie when Marie burns herself up."

"Are the Raging Gardeners set to go after Safe Haven Ranch #2 now?"

"No reason not to."

"Will you say something to Yolanda about Winnie and Marie's closeness?"

"Nope. She'll have enough to cope with when Lucas tells her he wants to join the army."

### # # # # # # #

Back in the Wilizy/Europe, Wizard and Dreamer were sitting together on one of the sofas in the command center. Monty the Python had joined them. They had run out of things to say about the battles, but neither wanted to leave the privacy of the hold. As they both drifted off to sleep, it was natural for them to turn sideways on the sofa and slump down on the length of the sofa in a gentle horizontal embrace. In the middle of the night, as men's hands are prone to do, Wizard's left hand developed a mind of its own and went roaming. Dreamer felt it find its mark. She left Wiz's hand there for a bit and then gently put it back where it belonged.

In another Wilizy ship, two other teenagers had started out on a sofa. Theo and Nary had also run out of things to say, and Nary was being particularly affectionate. She had pushed herself up against Theo and was nuzzling the soft flesh under his chin. Theo took the opportunity to lightly touch his lips to Nary's cheek.

The next thing Theo knew, Nary was kissing him deeply while at the same time undoing the buttons on his shirt. Theo didn't want to think about what Marie would do if she found out. Marie was currently sleeping in the mud of Lake Ontario, so discovery might be a little ways off. Nevertheless, he pushed Nary's hands away and tried to extricate himself from her grasp. What had been a soft purring sound coming from Nary's throat became something more vigorous. Theo saw the red eyes and leapt aloft.

"Contrary, no! Away you go. Bad panther. Bad panther."

Nary's eyes turned black and she looked at Theo, puzzled. "Why are you standing? I was expecting you to kiss me. Didn't you want to be on first base?"

A word of warning, gentlemen. If you're planning to give a gentle kiss to a woman who has a panther living inside of her, don't do that when the panther is in heat.

### # # # # # # #

Back at the home compound, TG was trying to explain to Yollie why he had spent so much time on Mavis' stenographer machine – the one that taped everything that the judge had said in Lucas' trial.

"I took it apart. That was easy enough – these recorders are standard devices. The pause button had been bypassed, as I had thought. Pressing the pause button would still give a clicking noise, so Mavis believed that it had stopped recording. "

"But it hadn't stopped recording."

"That's right, it hadn't."

"So what's the problem? A wire must have come off somewhere."

"No. That didn't happen. Instead, two wires had been soldered together so that the pause circuit wouldn't work. It wasn't an accident. Somebody deliberately fixed that machine so Mavis couldn't pause it."

"That leaves the question – who did that?"

"Exactly. And when was it done? All of those bots we found had no pauses during the time the judge wanted to be in recess. They recorded everything in those trials and those trials went back years."

"So why do you care? We caught the judge. End of story."

"It's the solder the person used, Yollie."

"What so special about solder?"

"Usually nothing. But this solder was a substance that I've never seen before. Neither has William. Between the two of us, we would know every type of metal alloy that could be used as a solder. We're stumped. William is planning to take the machine to Stanford."

"Either he or you will figure what it's made of."

"But we'll still have to figure out who is smarter than both of us."

### # # # # # # #

Earlier that evening, Winnie had given Maddy a tour of the home compound and showed her where the kiddies would be sleeping. Maddy helped put them to bed and Winnie took Maddy into her own bedroom. "You'll sleep with me tonight so that you won't get frightened of being in a new place if you wake up early." Winnie didn't say that she was sleeping with Maddy to see if she could do something about her voice disappearing.

Winnie woke in the middle of the night hearing somebody prowling around the hall. _Reese, is that you?_

_Yah._

_Can't sleep?_

_Nah._

_Want to talk about it?_

_Nah._

_It may not be as bad as you think._

_Sure._

At eleven years of age, Reese had learned how to grunt with the best of them.

_Will you do me a favour?_

_OK._

_You can come in my bedroom._

_OK._

_Patella and Scapula are in heat and want to go north to make some babies. I need to go with them to make sure that they choose the right mates. Can you take care of Maddy while I'm gone? Mom and Dad should be home today._

_What will I have to do?_

_Make sure she gets breakfast; play with her._

_OK._

_She might be scared if she wakes up all alone. You should sleep next to her on top of the covers. She'll recognize you. She won't know who Yollie is, so stay near her until she's used to Yollie._

_OK._

### # # # # # # #

Reese awoke to the feeling that somebody was staring at him. Somebody was. Maddy was sitting cross-legged on the bed, still dressed in Winnie's sleeping shorts and top. She was the starer. Reese was the staree.

"You're awake," Reese said.

Maddy nodded.

"Do you remember me?"

Maddy nodded.

"Are you hungry?"

Maddy nodded.

"I'll take you to the kitchen and give you something to eat."

"Where'd Mommy go?" a little voice said.

"Mommy?"

"The one who gave me these clothes and slept with me."

"Ah, she went to help her...pets...get some exercise." Reese was so concerned about not spilling the beans about the wolves making baby wolves that he didn't react to the _Mommy_ part. Or to the fact that Maddy was talking.

"Is she coming back?"

"Sure. I'll take care of you until she does."

"OK, Daddy."

From Maddy's perspective, her first mommy and daddy, the real ones, had occasionally taken her into their bed and let her sleep with them. None of the pretend parents had done that; none of the guides had done that. But these two people who had invited her to a picnic, and were the mommy and daddy to a whole bunch of other children... they had invited her into their bed to sleep with them. Therefore...

Reese didn't know what to do about the Daddy part. Nor did he know what to do when Maddy slipped her hand into his and walked down the hallway with him to the kitchen. He reacted like a normal male would react. He pretended it never happened and it would go away on its own if he kept on ignoring it.

"Do you know how to read," Maddy asked on the way.

"Yup."

"I can read too."

"That's good."

"Would you read to me and explain the words that I don't know yet?"

"Sure."

"Are you going to beat me?"

"Nobody will beat you ever again, Maddy." _[Way to go, Reese!]_

"Do you know the longer word for Maddy. I used to know but I've forgotten it."

"Possibly Madeline. Perhaps Madison."

"Madison is my real name."

"Madison?"

"Ahuh. You should call me _Madison_."

"What's wrong with Maddy?"

Madison looked up at her new daddy and fixed him with her big blue eyes. "Maddy's a baddy," she confided.

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# Chapter 47 Epilog

The date: a year in the first decade of 2100. The place: a comfortable home somewhere on Earth. A mother was giving her daughter THE LOOK. And much more.

"I swear, I leave you alone for one day, and what do I find?"

"Mom, I can explain."

"Claw marks on my daughter's arm are what I find."

"Mom, they're not as bad as they look. Honestly. They hardly hurt at all."

"And what did I find on the travel register on your sling? The register that you didn't know about? What did I find?"

"Just a little time-travel."

"A little time-travel that would have required you to override the parental controls. How could you have done that, I ask myself."

"It's not my fault if you think about the control codes when I'm around."

"It **is** your fault when you've been told to not snoop in my mind, young lady."

"You could always wear tinfoil, Mom. I can't see through tinfoil. You know that."

"I refuse to wear a tinfoil bandana around my head for the rest of my life. You have to stop snooping in my mind!"

"But it was important!"

"You've been told. Listen to me. **Time-travel is risky**."

"Mom, I had to."

### # # # # # # #

"OK. I admit I went back to 2085 and 2086. Dad has told the story lots of times. How a guardian angel named Azure saved his life. First, she stopped him from being blown up; then she stopped a single sniper from killing him; then she stopped three killers; then she pulled him out of a wheelchair to give him a concussion. It's not like this is a secret, Mom."

"Of course not. That guardian angel is where your middle name came from. I chose your first name, he chose the second."

"I just wanted to see what she looked like. Dad said he never actually saw her. He only heard her. I thought with the new technology we have, I might actually see her."

"You'd be able to see a blonde, blue-eyed angel?"

"Exactly."

"Did you see her?"

"No. There was no angel."

"Are you saying that your dad tells lies? You know he doesn't."

"No. I'm saying that he was two minutes away from being blown up and no angel was there to warn him not to go into the chocolate shop. I waited until I couldn't wait any longer and then I stopped him from going into the shop. I had to, Mom. He was going to die."

"And you told him that your name was Azure?"

"Because that's what had happened."

"And you said you were blue eyed and blonde?"

"I could hardly say that I'm aboriginal with his brown hair, his brown eyes, and his jaw line, could I? He believes he was saved by a guardian angel. If I told him the truth, I'd change the future. The battle group that he commands is called _The Guardian Angels_ , remember? All that they've accomplished would disappear."

"And you saved his life again, and again, and again?"

"There was no angel to do that, Mom. I was the angel. I had to. He'd be dead. You wouldn't be married to him. I'd be nothing."

"The claw marks?"

"I was captured by a panther."

"Nary?"

"Do we have more than one panther in the family?"

"Watch the smart mouth."

"I tried to escape. I really did. But she caught me."

"Did you talk to her?"

"Contrary was planning to eat me. She was starving. I had to."

"That was all? You got Nary to release you and she believes you're a blonde, blue-eyed angel."

"Pretty much. That was back when she had just come off the prison island and she was confused. I don't think she remembers it at all."

"She hasn't said anything to me."

"See. Nothing was changed. Dad's alive. You're married to him. You have a little angel for a daughter."

"But you're too modest to brag about it."

"Sarcasm is not an attractive quality, Mother. Are you gonna tell Dad?"

"I'm not finished with you yet. You went back earlier than 2085."

"I did, Mom. I had to so that the judge who had tried to kill Dad would be caught. Otherwise the future would have been changed."

"What did you do?"

"I fixed the machine that was recording the trial so that it couldn't be paused."

"How'd you do that?"

"With the special solder that William invented."

"But back then, he hadn't invented it yet."

"But he would invent it. After the trial. At Stanford."

"So because of you, he studied the solder that he had already invented, so that he could learn how to invent it, and then he invented it. Everything was done in the wrong order!"

"Technically that's true. But Mom, we know he would be inventing it. I just made sure that it would happen. I'm sort of like an angel guarding the future from being changed."

"You're no angel. Lohla Azure Wilizy, you're a little devil sometimes."

"Yeah, but I'm too modest to brag about it."

Back to the Table of Contents

# Books in the Wilizy series

As of November, 2019, there were twenty free novels in the Wilizy series. Check below to see if you've missed any.

**Book #1: I Got'cha**

If you think being a teenager in today's world is tough, try being one in 2081. In Alberta's It's Only Fair society, your brain-band will zap you just for chewing with your mouth open. One boy pried his brain-band off to see what living with emotions would be like. Being chased by the entire Alberta army was bad enough. It became worse when another 15 year old kid offered to help him escape.

**Book #2: The Get-Even Bird**

Will and Izzy are forced to flee from Zzyk's army. After months away from Alberta, they fly their sailing ship into B.C. thinking that they would be safe there. Bad mistake! Izzy is captured. All Will has to do to save her life is turn himself in for a free brain-band fitting appointment. That's what happens when you wear a Zorro costume to a dance.

**Book #3: Assassination Day**

A DPS technician offers to defect if the Wilizy will rescue his daughter from _The Citadel_ – some super smart military people who are friends with Zzyk. Izzy thinks that their new recruit is an assassin, but Yollie insists that he's a decent man. Can assassins be decent men? It will take a hair-raising experience to find out.

**Book #4: Hoist the Jolly Lucas**

It's bad enough that Zzyk pins the blame for two assassinations on Izzy and launches a full out assault on their home compound. But then, another enemy takes advantage of a security lapse to get revenge for a war that happened 20 years ago. The Wilizy are left reeling with two key members kidnapped and stashed where they can't be found, let alone rescued. For the family to survive, everybody must enter the battle. The story is as much about the past as it is about the present.

**Book #5: Teenage Mutant Ninja Torpedoes** (Yes, this is a Wilizy book.)

Mac disappears and doesn't want to be found. Will and Wolf use time-travel to search for her and discover secrets she wouldn't want them to know. The Alaskans attack when Will is finding out what happens to a submarine's air when it is lying helpless on the ocean floor. Between the Alaskans' impenetrable fortress and their bubblegum weapons, life is going to get a little sticky for the Wilizy.

**Book #6: Bob, the Invisible Dragon**

Raging hormones as well as Raging Gardeners play key roles when young Wilizy warriors are attacked and the Wilizy's scientific marvels offer no protection. The youngsters' future will rely on a different kind of warrior protecting them. Warning: events at the end of the story will move quickly. They certainly won't _drag on_.

**Book #7: Nary, Nary, Quite Contrary**

Theo and Lucas move to Toronto to live on their own. Both meet girls but neither is brave enough to introduce his new friend to the family. They wouldn't have the time anyway, what with villains trying to assassinate them and Voodoo royalty greeting them as though they were Voodoo gods. At the end of the story, Lucas receives a surprise Boxing Day gift that leaves him speechless.

**Book #8: Maddy's a Baddy**

Maddy had escaped from Big Momma only to find herself all alone in the cold and begging for food in Eastern Canada. While she's trying to return to her home in Seattle, the Wilizy have their own problems. Everybody in the family is intent on bringing the judge to justice for what he did to Lucas. It would have been so easy for them to rescue Maddy, but they didn't know anything about her.

**Book #9: Bite Me!**

Spurred on by Marie's desire to eat a meal with her former slave masters, the Wilizy plan to put Safe Haven ranches out of business. In the process, they encounter two foreign assassins intent on abducting Maddy. Theo and Nary become closer but a red-eyed chaperone does not approve. The Wilizy's war with Safe Haven starts with a bang but ends with a whimper.

**Book #10: Wheelchair Moccasins!**

A 13 year old girl pretends to turn to prostitution to gain her freedom from her crime boss father. In Wilizy family news, Winnie agrees not to meddle in Mathias' love life. No, the world isn't ending, so long as you don't have a green vegetable for your name. Best advice ever? If somebody wearing moccasins and sitting in a wheelchair offers to sing you to sleep... run!

**Book #11: Trial by Nick**

After the Scandinavians attack their home base, Winnie develops an idea for defeating Crown Prince Wilhelm that is a dramatic departure from their normal military battles. In their personal lives, the Toronto teenagers have to become schnobs to keep their basketball futures alive, Lucas and Lylah begin dating, and two of EmmaGee's personalities leave her body.

**Book #12. Tickled Pink**

A man uses his unlimited wealth and power to assault women without fear of legal consequences. If they object, he'll humiliate them publicly and ruin their lives. If they don't stand up to him, their lives as they knew them will be over. But how do you fight a man who is above the law? Here's how. The Raging Gardeners help the women while Winnie attacks him where he isn't looking.

**Book #13: Second Base**

Granny and Doc enjoy a spirited life in their new Australian house while Bean has to adjust to her mother joining her in the Wilizy cadet camp. She meets a charming man with country pumpkin witticisms whose entire life is dedicated to becoming a cold blooded killer. Meanwhile, Safe Haven's impenetrable offices aren't as safe as they thought they were.

**Book #14: Old Stone Face**

Bean moves to Toronto with her sheriff who takes a job as a private detective. Before long, he's trying to bring a mad scientist to justice - the same man that Winnie is after. With both the Wilizy and a countrified sheriff after the same man, you'd think he'd be easy to catch. Too bad there are no laws about a mad scientist killing twenty-one babies.

**Book #15: Remember the Halocracy**

Reese finds Annika - his first, and only, girl friend. For reasons that nobody fully understands, he sort of kidnaps her but she willingly accompanies him to the far side of globe. Reese figures out later that she could be trying to seduce him when in fact, she's actually going to try to kill him.

**Book #16: Coffee Can Kill Ya!**

Convincing Paula's brother to give her a proper share of her parents' estate had seemed so easy. Turned out that it wasn't so easy after all. In the Wilizy's defense, murdering extra-terrestrials that tried to kidnap a corpse created unique challenges. To their credit, the Wilizy dealt with those. But, how do you deal with something that you can't see and don't even know exists?

**Book #17: Nice Birthday Party, Governor.**

Plot twists abound as the Wilizy take on the Colorado government and the NORAD military simultaneously. Maddy quits the cadet corp to run a secret operation that ends in a one-on-one battle. Melissa breaks Reese out of jail and Cowboy shows his dramatic talents, which do not include stripping. Winnie directs two dramatic productions but only one of these involves wearing respectable clothes.

**Book #18: The Tale of the Scorpion's Tail**

The Wilizy have to neutralize NORAD's nuclear missiles while defeating their air force without causing any casualties. A special weapon (guided bird poop) will be needed. Meanwhile, Heaven's guardian angels are under attack from within. The key to success? Rescuing a gerbil imprisoned in an escape-proof cage. "Molly Moonblossom" and "Nympho Maniac" play key roles. One of these actors is Winnie.

**Book #19: Brunhilda, the Steamroller.**

Billy Bump resurfaces and plans Maddy's death. Winnie accepts a secret mission but runs afoul of Yolanda, who is sure that she has a boyfriend. Yolanda's vision that Winnie will be attacked comes true. Demonic infiltrators into Heaven escape detection when the steamroller named Brunhilda prosecutes Arthur and finds him guilty. This time, he won't be going back to guardian angel school.

**Book #20: Lock Up Your Corn Starch!**

While Paula, Winnie and Arthur are on a perilous mission for Heaven, the Wilizy family is trying to rescue Charlie and Sheila from prison. Wilizy forces battle demented escaped convicts intent on slaughtering innocent victims to help a brown supremacist politician win an election. If you're intent on going to Hell when you die, be sure to read this book for a preview of what's waiting for you.

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# About the Author

David J. Wighton is a retired educator who enjoys writing youth novels when he's not on a basketball court coaching middle-school girls. The books in his Wilizy series peek at how people lived after the word's governments collapsed in the chaos that followed the catastrophic rise in ocean levels and the disappearance of the world's last deposits of oil.

Wighton's novels have strong teenage characters driving the plot and facing challenges that, in many respects, are no different from what teenagers face today. His novels are intended to entertain and readers will find adventure, romance, suspense, humour, a strong focus on family, plus a touch of whimsy. Wighton also writes to provoke a little thought about life in today's societies and what the future might bring. Teachers may find the series useful in the classroom and the novels are priced with that intent in mind.

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