Key Words

Chapter 16

Direct Communication

A5CD2 knew there were other entities, the memory archives contained thousands upon thousands of entries about predecessors and it received signals from the antenna all the time that were supposed to be from contemporary entities. But today A5CD2 had received signals directly from an outside source, the same source that saved the carrier.

The signal purported to be processed by TAS92ZB, an impossible number. There couldn’t be that many gametes. When there was time, it would query the archive to find out what it meant. For now, the signals that A5CD2 and TAS92ZB were exchanging meant that they were of the right gender and close enough to propagate.

    Though it was the first time that there was ever a possibility of propagation, A5CD2 knew by instinct exactly what to do to exploit the opportunity. It sent messages to all the gametes and they started broadcasting dreams as soon as the Central Processor shut down its input channels. Signals indicating that TAS92ZB was also broadcasting dreams through its Nucleolus were interpreted to mean that the swarm and the nest were hoping for the same result.

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    George woke to a pounding rhythm that shook the world. His hand was wet and clammy in spite of the warmth of Courtney’s breast. The pounding resolved into a heartbeat as he remembered the nightmare. The fear was vague until the dream’s substance returned. Someone was planning to take his Angel. He hadn’t seen her face and even though he knew she was his Angel, he wasn’t certain it was Courtney. The dream wasn’t clear enough to make sense.

    Most dreams fade quickly, but George remembered some that were different. They didn’t go away in the light of day, but lingered to give warning. He didn’t believe anyone knew the source of the warnings, but he’d learned to heed them.

    Right or wrong, the warning he heard was that he had to protect his dream girl, that he mustn’t let her go. He worried briefly about his mission, but felt certain it required him to protect his Angel. The events of the last 2 days had done more to restore the resources for the mission than anything he’d tried in a year and they were all from Courtney’s help.

    As the fear dissipated, he wondered why he hadn’t received anything about the threat from The Engineers, but then he remembered, he’d been too busy to take much of the drug that allowed them to communicate.
   
    He turned to see the clock. It was only 5 AM. The warmth of the girls pressed against him was so tantalizing, the thought of getting out of bed filled him with regret. But fear of losing his Angel was greater, so he moved slowly, trying not to wake them. He’d make sure to do everything possible to secure their happiness.
   
    Getting out a timer, he set it to remind him to take a dose every 10 minutes before going to work on his orders. Two-thirds of their sales had been popular fast moving items. If they were going to repeat the success, he needed to order more. The swap meet would open again on Thursday, so to replace his inventory, he would have to place orders this morning and expedite the shipping.

Pulling out his laptop, he continued the planning he’d started the day before. The first step was to generate a list of items with their costs, then budget the funds available, giving priority to high-profit, fast selling items. Working intently, he finished the list before the girls woke, so he started dividing the items into sub-lists according by supplier.

Although Courtney was disappointed to wake without his arm around her, the disappointment evaporated with his first order. He needed to complete his plans, so as soon as her feet were on the floor, he ordered her to get dressed so he wouldn’t be distracted. He was amused, but frustrated when she obeyed by doing a strip tease in reverse.

“I don’t understand how this obeying-your-orders works,” Cary observed. “You said you didn’t want to be distracted, so how can she do that and still be doing what you told her?”

“When he’s taking that medicine, I can feel what he wants. Sometimes, what he says isn’t what he really wants,” Courtney explained.

“So all you have to do is feel like he wants something and you don’t have to do what he says?” Cary asked.

“That isn’t how it works. The pills make it so I can’t make decisions for myself. The conditioning made it so if I tried to do something my Master told me not to, it hurts really bad. When I follow orders, it feels good, like having sex. If it is something sexy that he wants but told me not to do, it still hurts, but the pain turns me on.”

“Wow! That’s cool. So why does he order you not to do stuff he likes?”

“I think it’s because of you. He doesn’t think it’s right for a man to have sex with young girls. He even feels guilty about doing things with me, but he’d be easier to persuade if you weren’t here,” Courtney explained

“All right you two. That’s enough talking about me as if I weren’t here. Go over and invite Ivan and Lisa to join us and then fix breakfast.” He barely got the order out before Cary was on the floor and pulling clothes on. “Please wait for me, “ she begged.

Courtney accepted George’s order with more gratitude than most teenagers show when given a car. Both she and Cary literally danced and couldn’t suppress the urge to sing as they ran. Just the thought of seeing Ilya added to their mood.

Ivan and Lisa were barely out of bed, but Ilya had been awake for an hour, full of excitement and anticipation. She wondered what new adventure George would draw her into? She’d never met anyone whose excitement was as contagious as that of her new friends and George was just strange.

She’d been in and out of the camper 20 times before Ivan threw a fit. Finally, he banned her until he was up and dressed. He only relented and allowed her back so she could pour coffee and fix breakfast. When Courtney knocked, she squealed like a preteen receiving her first Barbie. Before anyone could move, she flew out the door and pulled Courtney into a dancing-spinning hug.

“So what exciting things are we going to do today,” she bubbled.

Smiling, Ivan yelled, “Eye-Lee-Yaaa, stop being a pest and let her talk!” Secretly, he was thrilled to see her happy for the first time since her parents had been put away. He hoped George would let the girls continue working together because they’d formed a friendship greater than either girl had ever hoped for.

With breathless enthusiasm, Courtney gushed, “George asked me to come see if you could join us for breakfast. He says he has some really important things he hopes you will help him with. Can you come?”

Before Ivan could get an answer through his lips, Ilya whirled into the camper and wrapped her grandfather’s face in her arms. “Please, Grandpa, can we?”

After nodding and refilling their coffee mugs, Ivan and Lisa strolled in the pleasant morning air while the girls skipped and danced like schoolgirls on their first day. It would be a long time before any of them would forget being so happy.

When the adults were seated and the girls were doing the motorhome dance in the kitchen, George asked if they would all help work the swap meet the next week. It would open Thursday and George wanted another booth in the other big swap meet to see if their spectacular success could be duplicated.

Ivan and Lisa were thrilled at the prospect and so George explained how to negotiate for the best space and position. He suggested that they try to get the swap meet to give them a premium space that could be set up for restricted access and then offer premium tickets at the entry gate with a split of the ticket sales. He also asked them to take Ilya to the store where he had purchased the sundresses and get her 2 dresses and another one for Courtney and Cary.

Ilya begged Courtney to come with her but Courtney couldn’t bear to be away from George even a minute longer than necessary. Besides, George explained, he’d need her help in dealing with the doctor who’d conditioned her. With a shy smile, Cary asked if Ilya would let her come instead.

George had spent the early morning planning orders or giving instructions without taking time to eat, so Courtney grabbed his breakfast and fed him on the way to the bank to deposit their receipts. Several of his orders were large enough to pay by wire transfer, so George and Courtney spent 2 hours calling in orders and sending payments from the bank.

When the orders were placed, George called Jake Townsend to see if they could meet for lunch. To his surprise, Jake was already planning lunch with Agent Thomas and John Elroy and they were hoping he’d join them. They were all worried their actions of the day before wouldn’t remain hidden very long.

Looking at their faces as he sat down, George realized that his crazy scheme had become a lot more complicated. “Can each of you bring the rest of us up to date on new developments?”

Agent Thomas went first. “The only significant thing I is about the three agents who showed up last night after midnight. One was from Phoenix, the second from Denver and the third is based in Seattle. They joined forces at the airport and arrived together. Needless to say, the interception by the city police was a surprise. We have videotape of the interview and their reactions are not those of uninformed agents. We can hold them for 72 hours, unless someone finds out where they are. It’s uncanny how accurately you’ve predicted what the response would be. The big concern we all have is how well you’ll be able to anticipate what will happen next.”

“We are 2 or 3 steps ahead of them, but we need to scramble to stay ahead,” George responded. Then turning to Jake, he asked, “We need to hear everything that happened with the doctor. My guess is that he wasn’t pleased about being moved and he probably had some interesting things to say.”

“Yes, well he did claim to have an arrangement to stay in the FBI lockup as bait for a criminal they expected. When I asked him why he was headed to Lincoln County, he claimed he had a patient that he had to visit and that the appointment was made by the patient’s mother. I suggested that if he could prove it with documentation, phone logs and confirmation from the patient, I could have him released.”

“That’s when it went funny. He claimed he’d received an emergency call to his cell phone so the appointment hadn’t been put in the appointment book. So I asked did he have the name and number of the patient’s mother? That’s when he clamed up and wouldn’t answer questions without an attorney. I tried pushing by telling him that under the “Homeland Security Act”, a suspected terrorist, especially one believed to be involved in an active threat, isn’t allowed to have an attorney and that I could hold him incognito as long as the threat was active.”

“That’s when he started screaming threats. It was beautiful because the threats alone were enough to justify the terrorist threat by themselves. So, the bottom line is that he’s secure, unless, someone from the FBI makes a connection to us, and we’ve made that as hard as possible,” Jake finished.

“How much trouble would it be to get a picture of him so we can make a positive identification,” George asked.

After Jake and the agent looked at each other, Agent Thomas answered, “We’ve stripped our office of everything that mentions or references either you or him, so I can’t help.”

“H’mmm,” Jake thought for a minute, “Would a cell phone picture be okay?”

George looked at Courtney, who blushed silently, and asked, “You’ve seen him a lot, you should be able to identify him with a cell phone photo, shouldn’t you?” Still blushing, she nodded.

“Okay,” George continued, “While Jake and Courtney take care of that, let’s see if we can armor plate Agent Thomas’ rear end. Can you get hold of any documents that are signed by the director who executed that agreement?”

Getting a nod, he continued, “Can you have someone in your office do a high resolution scan and email them?” Receiving another nod, he ordered, “Okay, get them moving and I’ll have an address for you in a minute.”

Before either of them could act, everyone’s attention was drawn to a gasp of surprise from Courtney as she stared at Jake’s phone. “Oh George, it isn’t him. What does that mean?”

With a reassuring tone, George answered, “We can’t tell what it means yet, but it is a good thing that we found out about it now. Jake, to find out who he is, we’ll need a set of wireless earphones for Courtney that can’t be seen in her ears. Can you find something in the next 2 hours? It’s urgent.” Turning to the agent, he added, “Get those documents as quickly as you can.”

“John, will you talk to Courtney and see if the two of you can come up with anything that would help us identify who conditioned her?”

After making a mental note to get a new phone, George grabbed his cell phone and began searching for the number of an attorney. He was a younger guy and pretty sharp. He’d impressed George, because he’d named his firm with the same names as one of the most prestigious law firms in the state, but had simply altered the spelling of each of the names. On paper, the differences were glaring and obvious, but in conversation, they were interchangeable. He’d met the man in a Courtroom where he was defending someone who was obviously guilty of something truly despicable and had struck up a conversation about why he’d stoop to such a dirty job.

They’d commiserated about the tough times they were each having and had parted friends. “Hello,” he answered, when George called. Must not have been able to pay his secretary George thought, before asking, “Hello, Marcus? I don’t know if you remember me. This is George Marshal. I called to find out how busy you are and if you might be able to handle a really big case?”

“George, you’re the one I met in Court? You said you were broke and could hardly afford lunch, let alone attorney’s fees.” Marcus answered with a chuckle.

With a smile apparent even over the phone, George laughed. “You know what they say, it’s hard to keep a good man down. If you’re interested in hearing about it, I would appreciate it if you could join us for lunch, my treat.”

“My, my, you really have come up in the world. Sure, I could use something to keep my belt up right now.”

After giving Marcus directions and getting his email address, George returned his attention to the table. Seeing that the agent was waiting, George added his own email and handed him the slip. Next, he wrote out a list of fax #’s and instructions to send additional copies and handed him that slip too.

They continued talking about the risks they faced until Jake finished his call. When he hung up, he asked, “My people say they need more details about what you want to do. Can you tell me more about what you’re planning?”

George smiled, thinking, “Jake is a sharp cookie. He can see the plan is being laid several moves in advance, but he can’t see the moves.” Out loud, he said, “Yeah, nothing mysterious. We need to see how the doctor reacts to Courtney, but we can’t take a chance that he could activate or alter her conditioning. We need to be able to control how much of what he says that she hears. The earphones are to block his voice and substitute it with mine.”

Jake’s reaction was one seldom seen between a law enforcement professional and anyone outside the profession. The smile on his face kept growing until finally he broke into raucous laughter. “You know guys, I really feel sorry for anybody who cross’s wits with our friend. The doctor will never know what hit him,” he finished, laughing again.

While he was still laughing, George looked up to see Marcus coming. When he was close enough, George reached out to shake his hand, “Marcus, it’s good to see you. Marcus Hobbs, this is Jake Townsend, military police from Nellis, John Elroy who works with him, this is Agent Thomas, acting director of the FBI for the state, and this is Courtney Dobson. Marcus is a pretty good attorney.”

“Please sit down and make sure your proverbial hat is on tight. First though, the things we need to tell you have to be kept confidential. Will you accept a $1 retainer so we can explain the case to you, “George asked, holding out the bill. Marcus took the dollar and hurriedly scratched a receipt.

With the receipt, he offered congratulations, “This makes you my best paying customer for the week. Okay, you can now rest assured that anything you say is privileged information.”

In a more serious tone, George answered, “Marcus, I received a signed agreement from the FBI yesterday and then found out that they signed the agreement in hopes of getting me to come to the FBI offices so I could be arrested or killed. I need to get a Court order to enforce the agreement. Would you go through these documents while we take care of another urgent matter and then we’ll fill in the details for you.” George held out a folder to Marcus, who opened it, with curiosity openly displayed.

“Agent Thomas, can you stay here and fill in the details for Marcus. Give him the low down on your exposure and the need to muzzle the other agents. I’ll be back as soon as we can squeeze the doctor for a couple more life sentences.”

“Jake, how long until we can get to the doctor?”

“Any time, it will all be ready by the time we get there. If the two of you will ride with me, it will simplify getting you on and off the base,” Jake answered.

On the way, George explained the need to convince the doctor that the rapist had drugged Courtney. They’d cover her eyes to make it difficult for Van Berg to see her real condition. To intimidate the doctor, he suggested they have the biggest guard they could find, carry Courtney in and lay her on a cot. Then he was to threaten the doctor by telling him that if the girl wasn’t ok, the doctor would die a painful death.

Everything was set within 30 minutes after they’d left the restaurant. The plan was embellished to reduce the doctor’s suspicions by having the guard curse his superiors for leaving Courtney without panties. Wearing her sundress, the guard arranged her on the cot so that, with a slight movement of her legs, Courtney could open the dress and allow the doctor to confirm her bare bottom.

With George’s coaching, Courtney played her part beautifully. She asked the guard why she was so dizzy and pretended not to understand his answer. The guard cussed the doctor a blue streak, promising to skin him an inch at a time until he begged to die. Still cursing his superiors for putting Courtney in the adjoining cell without cameras, he promised he’d leave the doctor a blind paraplegic if he even looked at her cross-eyed before he got back.

As soon as the guard was out of the door at the end of the hallway, the doctor called out. “Courtney, can you hear me?” With a few seconds delay, Courtney asked softly, “Is that you Dr. Van Berg?”

“Courtney, can you tell me what happened?” the doctor asked.

After a half minute, Courtney sobbed, “They killed my mother. Then they gave me this stuff that made me sick and dizzy. Why did they kill her?” As she spoke, Courtney shifted opening her dress and exposing herself to the doctor.

“Courtney, do you remember when we talked about Jeanie is a Genie?”

She moaned but didn’t answer for a minute. Finally she said “I remember.”

“Ok Courtney, I’m going to give you a telephone number and when you can get to a phone without anyone watching, I order you to call the number and tell them that Dr. Van Berg is at Nellis Air Base.” After giving her the number and making her repeat it, he ordered, “Now go to sleep.”

A minute later, the door crashed open and the big guard walked through looking at the doctor’s position and the girl asleep with her knees spread. “You know what we do to perverts?” he asked, punching the doctor in the gut as soon as he’d entered his cell. “I’m going to make you wish you didn’t,” he added, slapping the doctor’s cheek hard enough to make his ears ring. The beating he delivered was carefully done to hurt without leaving a mark, so it was 15 minutes before the doctor finally passed out.

Locking the doctor’s cell, the guard scooped Courtney up and carried her out.

When he returned to the office Jake and George were using, he set Courtney on her feet. She turned and took his hand, “Thank you, sir. You’re very kind.” Then leaping for joy, she rushed into George’s arms, planting kisses everywhere she could reach. “We did it, didn’t we?”

“Yes, My Angel, you got the key for us. Jake, we’re out of time, can you get us back?”

The words of a poem seemed to express her exquisite joy at having pleased her Master;

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