Chapter 9

Loading the RSAF C-130 didn’t take long once we arrived at RAF Mildenhall, and we were airborne for Gander by ten that night, and then after refueling, on to Hutchinson for our second leg. The Saudi plane had to four hop it, first to Keflavík Airport on Iceland as the easy hop, then the long leg to Gander, where they could always divert to Greenland in the event of an emergency. From Gander, they’d stop for fuel again in Dayton, Ohio, and then continue on to Hutchinson. We figured that with refueling stops, it’d take them a full twenty-four hours to get to Hutchinson, while it’d only take us ten, and we’d land about two in the morning.

We spent the last legs of the flight on more movies and discussion. Margie was being pampered by a rotating shift of the Indian girls. So were Helen and Hannah. When I asked Margie about it, she had a simple explanation.

“These girls are smart, but they’re not school educated. We’re going to have to have special tutors come in for them, so they can learn the basics to begin with, like math beyond simple addition and subtraction. None of them can deal with anything larger than five hundred, but it simply wasn’t expected for them to do so. Then we’ll take it from there. At the same time, all eight of them have to remain your slaves. We can get away with calling them servants, but for all of them, they’re going to be a part of your life, our lives, until they die.”

I frowned. “Just for clarification, I sort of thought that would have been the case only if they’d remained in India.”

She shook her head. “You’re the Prince of the Punjabi region. I don’t know how serious you were with claiming that title, but it’s yours. You’re not going to have to live there full time, but that entire region is going to be looking to whatever government you set up to run things. Because their families are all from there, if for any reason they left your service ... and again, under their culture, you can’t simply free them ... their families will hunt them down and kill them. The eight of them, they really are your concubines. In every sense of the word.”

I leaned back in my chair, to think. It wasn’t made any easier by Niranjana walking behind me, where she then started rubbing my shoulders while humming a simple tune.

Margie laughed at the expression on my face. “I wish I had a camera right now. Your face is such a contradiction in emotions right now it’s not even funny.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“Hey, it’s not like it’s all bad, or anything like that. The other eight of us have done some talking, too. Helen’s only a month along, and Hannah almost doesn’t even count as being knocked up yet. What, December 29^th, and it’ll be January 10^th when we land? That’s nothing. I already look like I’ve swallowed a cantaloupe, I’m getting swelling in my ankles, and my bladder is now the size of a thimble. Marcia and Jennifer are a full month behind me, and they’re both becoming poster children for pads to help with leaks. By the end of September, we’re going to have five babies in the house. Figure that each of us is going to take it easy for a month after delivery, we’re still going to all be taking classes for advanced education.”

She motioned with her hand. “We now have eight live-in babysitters and nannies. Unlike the usual jokes about a couple, or the dad, seducing the babysitter and causing all sorts of grief ... it’s no issue. We know you’re going to have sex with them. It’s really not an issue with any of us, and your first three are so excited it’s not funny. You having eight women was a sign of how important you are. Now, you have sixteen.” She looked at where Carrie was sleeping. “We won’t keep her from becoming number seventeen, but only if that’s where it really needs to go. And not for a while.”

“Um, not to bring up the obvious, but...”

“Oh, we’re not going to have kids every single year. Well, once we’re done with Shiva, Dora wants to. I don’t think any of the rest of us want more than two. Just try not to get more than four of them pregnant at any one time, and wait until August or later before you get any of them that way. One of the things we’re going to do when we get home is get all eight of them in with a women’s clinic, so they can get on the pill. Until then, no!” She stuck her tongue out at me. “The rest of us? Oh, yes. You have no idea how much your super slut misses just waking up next to her man after a good night of loving between her and her sister-wives.”

Hannah said from her chair, where she’d been sitting with her eyes closed, “I’ve only had it for a few weeks, and I miss it. Grandfather surprised me, because I honestly thought there was going to be gunfire.”

Helen chuckled. “That would have been interesting. I’m glad there wasn’t; much less to try to explain.”

I snorted. “I didn’t even think to look up. How many of them were waiting?”

“All three of them, about five hundred feet up. Where they could easily hear and see things, but far enough up that, due to the low clouds, no one noticed them. It wasn’t like it would have been that much out of character; they’ve been doing patrols in different parts of the world every day.”

“Wait, patrols?”

“Sometimes one is sighted, sometimes two of them are sighted together. Beth had a talk this past weekend with President Reagan and Vice-President Select Kirkpatrick. Dora has been busy ... and careful ... in Columbia, dealing with the drug dealers. Sometimes either Eve or Beth will put on your uniform and simply fly over a city, low enough to be seen due to the colors, but far enough up that no one can tell it’s not you. I think it’s hilarious that they’ve gotten hold of a couple of dildos that they stuff down their pants, just in case someone has a telephoto lens on a camera.”

“This is going to sound incredibly dense of me, but why?”

Hannah said, “Plausible deniability. Beth and I worked it out. Cal Lewis is in a meeting with Indira Gandhi, specifically and officially talking to her, and at the exact same time, the Messenger from Above happens to be spotted and photographed rescuing a sinking fishing trawler off the coast of Maine. You’re the one that’s the King of the First Peoples of the World. Everyone now knows at least a little bit about them, courtesy of the stone that Helen passed on to the Pope. So, preemptive strike. The mysterious billionaire, Cal Lewis, is on a public around the world jet trip, specifically meeting with Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Arabian, German, and now English businessmen and government officials. At the exact same time as each one of those meetings, there’s a confirmed sighting of the Messenger. Maybe only for a few seconds, like picking that trawler up and carrying it the ten miles to shore, maybe for a couple of minutes doing the backstroke in the middle of an Air Force jet formation flying at five hundred miles an hour and thirty-four thousand feet over operations in southern Mexico.”

“I thought they were all busy moving out to California and taking their tests, to find out what they were going to test out of, though.”

Margie laughed. “And how long did it take you, mister super-genius, to take the tests for high school and HCC, considering you hadn’t read the textbooks?”

“Um ... about four hours.”

“They HAVE read the textbooks, even if it IS for college. Remember, it was your idea that Marcia bring them to Hutchinson. They’re going to have different winter and spring quarter schedules, but summer should see each of the girls awarded three or four bachelor’s degrees.” The pride in her voice was evident. “They’ve got to get those, so they can get their master’s and above, after that.”

“What about the rest of you?”

“That’s why we’re happy to have nannies, you nitwit! We’re ALL going to be taking classes. It’s just that the five of us already have higher degrees, and we have obvious excuses for not pushing ourselves like the other three,” Margie explained.

“Master, just sit back and relax. Don’t trouble yourself. I can feel your shoulders are tensing back up. Let me take care of that for you,” Niranjana said. I surrendered, because it was rather obvious that things were well in hand. Once I closed my eyes, it actually only took me a couple of minutes to fall asleep, which surprised me.

There were headwinds, so it was closer to three before we were on our final approach, and Cassandra made us get ready for landing. I wasn’t sure what kind of reception would be waiting in the middle of the cold night. And it was cold, barely a couple of degrees above zero.

Salthawk One touched down without any issues, and taxied towards her hanger. The crew shut the engines down, I could feel the thud when a tug took hold, and then started pulling us into the hanger. We rolled inside, then things got dark for just a second as the doors shut. The overhead lights in the hanger quickly took care of that. I could see there were half a dozen of the small buses parked inside. A ground crew pushed stairs up to the plane as Greg opened the door.

Before any of us could leave, both Cain and Abel quickly climbed the stairs and entered the cabin.

“Good morning, everyone! We’re your friendly customs and immigration inspectors. As you’re well aware ... or you should be, anyway ... when you leave the United States and travel off to far and exotic lands, meet new and exciting strangers, and kill a few of them, one of the things that you need to do when you return to the land of the big PX is fill out some customs and immigration paperwork, before you can be allowed into the country.”

“Brent, do you really want me to tell you where to shove your paperwork?”

“Now, now, Marshal Gage! Is that any way for one government employee to talk to another government employee? Wait, don’t answer that!” Cain’s tone changed, then. “In all seriousness, and I wish I was kidding, the USDA will throw a huge shit fit if you’ve brought back any fresh fruits or vegetables with you from outside the country.”

“We’ve got cooking spices from Japan, China, India, and Saudi Arabia, along with dried peppers from India and dried figs and apricots from Saudi Arabia. That’s it,” Hannah said.

Abel had a clipboard, and made some marks on it. “Those are all fine, because while I’m sure you have pounds of them, they’re all for personal consumption and not import for resale. Do you have more than ten thousand dollars in cash on board the aircraft?”

“Of course we do,” I said. “But it’s what’s left of what we took with us, because I only gave the Aleuts twenty million in cash, and not only do we still have the other twenty million in boxes that I didn’t hand out, I forgot about the twelve million in cash and diamonds that are in my golf bag.”

Abel looked at his clipboard. “Okay, we’ll mark that as a no, because for you it’s simply excess spending money you took with you. Let’s see ... we already know you have weapons, firearms, ammunition, and high explosives, so we’ll mark that box. Do you have more than you started with?”

“Not on this plane, other than Hannah’s personal family sword. Everything else of that nature is coming in on the RSAF C-130 that’s about fourteen hours behind us.”

Cain said, “That’s a military transport, under diplomatic cover, so that’s all good. Did you end up buying any animals overseas that need to be quarantined?”

I pointed with my thumb at Sayel and the eight girls. “Do they count? Oh, and I also forgot however many weapons that Sayel happens to have hidden on his body. I’m not looking, personally, but if you want to piss him off, that’s up to you.”

Cain looked at Abel. Abel sighed, then pulled another sheet of paper from his clipboard. “Passports, please, if you have them.” From his tone, he wasn’t expecting any.

Sayel’s hand vanished within his clothing, then suddenly flourished his passport. Abel took it. “Thank you, Mister Pashtar. Purpose of visit to the United States?”

“Personal bodyguard to my Master.”

Abel blinked at his British accent. “Okay, that’s business, then. Length of stay?”

“However long my Master will have me.”

“Gotcha. We’ll get you an extended work visa, then. What’s your usual profession?”

“Assassin.”

Without missing a beat, Abel said, “Thank you. Address in home country?”

“Sati Mati Juni, Budhanpur, Punjab, India.”

“Very good, thank you.” He pulled out a stamp and stamped the passport. “Next?”

Saryu walked up with her passport open. Her English wasn’t perfect, but like all of them, she did speak it.

“Here is my passport, Sahib.”

“Thank you, Miss ... I’m sorry, you don’t have a last name on here.”

“No, Sahib. When I was taken, I lost my tribe’s name, and cannot use it. I am Saryu.”

He checked that. “I suppose with the same length of stay, then?”

“No, Sahib. If my Master ever turns me out, then I will die, as my family will kill me.”

“Gotcha. Permanent alien resident, then. Usual profession?”

“Personal body slave.”

“Brent?”

“Yes, James?”

“Do you have any ideas on this one?”

“Of course. Some of them are even almost legal. Maids, nannies, royal servants, that sort of category.”

“Ah, thank you, Brent. I’m afraid I’ve hit overload.”

“Look at the bright side, James. There’s seven more.”

I said, “You could almost consider them as fleeing religious persecution, because if any of them ever left my service, their families really would kill them. So long as they are my concubines, they actually have high status for slave women, and any children they may have will be considered part of their families.”

Abel said, “We’ll figure something out. Sorry, we’re both just a little tired, or at least I am, because we’ve finally managed to get all of the paperwork done on the people you brought up from Mexico, even if we don’t have all of them out of New Mexico yet. That’s been fourteen hours a day, every day. I sometimes hate being one of the troubleshooters.”

“That’s okay, Brent. We’re done with that, so other than a trip to Alaska next week, we don’t have anything else going on.” Cain stopped, then pointed at Carrie. “Hang on, where is this young lady from?”

Carrie said, “My mother and father, originally.” She had a big smile on her face. “I’m American.”

Cain held out his hand, which Carrie shook. “Welcome to the lower forty-eight. Your people are the reason we’re going to the Aleutian Islands next week. We get to have fun, negotiating a treaty and land rights usage with Brenda Lestenkoff. Seems your tribe managed to get split up between two different nations, and we’re supposed to figure out whether or not they’ll become Americans, become Russians, or you’ll all just stay as you are, with free passage between nations guaranteed.”

“So, why are you talking to Aunt Brenda? She’s just the representative of the King. You ought to ask His Majesty directly.”

Cain shook his head. “I wish I could. But the reports we’ve gotten from the BIA agent up there are we’re supposed to deal with ... your Aunt Brenda, you say? Your King is some kind of mystery, according to him, and said everyone is supposed to deal with her.”

“We did not say that. We said, and I quote, ‘we have chosen Brenda Lestenkoff to be our representative and voice here, and to your brothers and sisters in the other communities’, and we also said, ‘As our representative, Brenda will speak with our voice regarding distribution and use of what is in the boxes, and she will determine the best use of our gift to you.’ At no time did we grant Brenda Lestenkoff negotiating powers regarding our peoples,” I said.

Abel flipped his clipboard over onto a seat, then flopped down on a different one in disgust. “I told you that Jeremy was giving us the straight skinny about Cal, and it was the BIA man that needed to be taken for a long walk off a short pier.”

“I know you did, James, and I apologize. That puts you two up on me.” He turned to me. “I heard you don’t care for being formal unless you have to do so. Can we work this out without being too formal?”

I shrugged. “Works for me. Stay as they are, free passage guaranteed and even assisted if they want, and get rid of the BIA man up there. My people don’t need someone like that, anyway. We can take care of ourselves without him, especially with Brenda helping run things locally.”

He shook his head. “First People’s, huh?” He looked up at Helen, who was sitting back, her white smile gleaming in contrast to her skin.

“On two continents, Mister Cain,” she said. “Plus legitimate ruler of a new nation being formed upon a third.”

“So we’ve heard from Prime Ministers Gandhi and Bhutto. While it’s not that big of a deal if an Ambassador gets pinged, it is a big deal when the White House gets a direct call from King Fahd, thanking someone that’s a private citizen of the United States for his personal service to the Crown. I don’t suppose you could possibly share any information with us that we could maybe pass up the chain of command, so we have some idea of what the hell is going on, can you?”

She held up her right hand, so the ring she’d gotten in England was visible. The contrast between the gold band and blue stone and her black skin was even starker than her teeth. Especially when the stone began to glow from within.

“The stories that the Messenger from Above has passed on about Shiva are true, Mister Cain. The people we rescued from Mexico are the descendants of people who were the slaves of Shiva. Some few of us are descendants of the First People, the people who were here before Shiva, who fought against him, whose ancestors died fighting against his tyranny and evil. We paid a terrible price for that fight, but one we gladly paid to end his reign of terror.”

Carrie held up her hand, showing her ring was glowing as well. “Shiva is coming back, just like he has every three-quarters of a century, to try to influence our world, so that someone here can inherit his powers and rule as he did. We are not from some alien world like the Messenger from Above, we are from here on Earth. And we are the Guardians of this Planet!”

As the devices masquerading as stones on their rings glowed even brighter, now strong enough to illuminate the cabin of the airplane, Helen said, “The Guardians of the Sacred Souls, the Guardians against the evil. It’s been a hundred centuries since he first came here, fifty since his defeat. We have never forgotten.”

The light from their rings flared, then went out, their rings now just rings.

More than one voice, including those of our flight crew, effectively said exactly the same thing.

“Holy Shit!”

After several seconds, Cain looked back at me. “And you’re their King.”

“Wasn’t exactly like I went looking for the titles. Any of them. King, Prince, Protector. But I can’t turn them down; and depending upon your perspective, it’s fortunately or unfortunately one that I’m singularly suited to fill.” I snorted, then chuckled. “Hannah, I think that perhaps it is a good thing that Tess and Serena were never able to finish the search of the CIA records they had initiated, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, Cal. Mister Cain, Mister Abel, I think you’ve seen ... well, perhaps more than you should have, but enough that you can tell your superiors that whatever it is that Cal is doing, including his Royal titles, it’s a good thing. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Abel said, “Visiting, yet resident, Royalty. Full diplomatic immunity for His Majesty, of course, and official recognition that his places of residence in this country have the status of an embassy. Even if you don’t technically have a different home country that’s not the United States, since you’re still American, by this time next year you will have a country. At least based upon the rumors we’re hearing regarding Punjab.”

Cain nodded. “That’s going to be our recommendation, I agree. I think we’ve held these people up long enough. Probably too long, but ... damn, that was something to see, ladies! Thank you.”

With that we got unloaded. Our luggage had already been taken out of the cargo compartment by the ground crew. We only had a few personal things in the cabin that we carried, plus, of course, the security teams rolling luggage.

“About time those two let you off your plane. You too busy taking pictures up there, or what?”

“Just a little demonstration from Helen and Carrie. Carrie, this is Mike Douglas. He’s the erstwhile head of all my security forces, and someone who is fully briefed in on everything, which Cain and Abel are not! Mike, this is Carrie Holsinger. She and Holly have a lot in common. Including someone else upstairs.” I looked around. “I admit, I’m a little surprised at the lack of brass bands, adoring crowds, and flying confetti, welcoming us home.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Holsinger. You’re almost three days later than we originally planned. I knew you were being overly optimistic about ... your ... Cal? I can count to three really good. Why am I now counting to eleven?”

“I would have thought Chuck passed that on to you.”

Mike shook his head. “We’ve been so damned busy here with the move, plus all of the government stuff, that I told Chuck when I talked to him while you were in Japan that unless it was a matter of life or death, to just handle it.” He blanched. “Is that...”

I turned my head, then waved Sayel over. “Sayel, this is Mike Douglas. He’s the head of my security. So, while he’s not technically going to be your boss, because of your job, I’d appreciate it if you’d work with him. He’s been pretty good at what he does. Mike, this is Sayel Pashtar, former student of the Thug, a pretty good assassin in his own right, and now my personal bodyguard. And yes, he’s well aware, now, that I don’t need a bodyguard, but by having him around, some things can remain ... secret.”

“Ah, Mister Douglas, it is my pleasure to finally meet you. My former Master spoke highly of your skills in the field of security and covert operations behind enemy lines, while at the same time not particularly caring for your ethics. But his were considerably more flexible than most. I have enjoyed working with Mister Allen’s team, and I look forward to continuing our business relationship in the future with them and the others that will be assigned to protect my Master’s family.”

“Sayel was helping to train the next generation of Thuggee assassins. I may have beaten all of them ... combined. Then we found out that, due to the culture difference, I had the choice of simply releasing all of the Thug’s concubines from my service, in which case they would then be killed by their families, or ... not.”

“That’s not even a choice,” Mike said grimly. “Well, we’ve got your things loaded up, so if you’ll hop in one of the buses, we’ll run you over to your house so you can get showers and sleep until whenever. Once we knew you were going to be back tonight, we put some food in the refrigerator; milk, eggs, bacon. There’s also a couple of new boxes of cereal on the counter. One of the incoming shifts will bring you a couple dozen Sonic breakfast sandwiches once they open in the morning, and donuts.”

I got onto the bus and sat down, Sayel behind me. Mike sat down across from me. “Last time I checked, we had a chest freezer full of food, and plenty of food in the cabinets.”

He laughed. “Cal, you’ve been gone for more than a week. The chest freezer is still full of food. It’s just that it’s not here; it’s in California. It was in the garage, so it was easy for Holly to pick it up ... yes, still full of food ... and put it onto a skid, so it could get loaded up onto a truck. Dump some dry ice in on top of the food, lock the door. Truck drives to the airport, where the freezer is already scheduled to be the last thing loaded onto a waiting KC-130. Three and a half hours later, it’s first thing unloaded at San Jose International, stuck on the back of a truck, and driven to your house there. Let it sit for four hours, so the refrigerant settles fine, then plug it in. As for the cabinets, you hadn’t even been here the week before, because we were in Florida. The house here has some furniture, and basic bath things, and that’s it.”

“Oh,” was about all I could say.

“The only reason it still has those is because once you’re finally out of here, Marianne and Allen are going to move in permanently, instead of temporarily. She wants to be close to Emily, and the house is already designed so that he can entertain if need be.”

We pulled into the driveway. The lights were on in our house, but next door looked dark. I looked at Mike. “Everything okay over there?”

“Oh, Harry and Emily are fine. Cal, it’s four in the morning. Everyone’s asleep. Even Jethro is curled up on a blanket inside the security office, because it’s so damned cold out now. Go get some rest.”

I shrugged, and got off the bus. The drivers helped us with our luggage, then left.

Helen and Hannah each took four of the girls from India for quick tours of the house layout. The furniture itself was still in the house, so Margie showed Carrie the house and where she could sleep for the night. Sayel put his bags down in the living room, making plans to sleep on the couch.

“Sorry this isn’t quite the size of some of the places we’ve been, nor as luxurious. This was originally intended just for four of us. I’m sure that everyone wants to get some of the grime off, since we haven’t had much time since Munich. Girls, we have multiple hot water heaters here, but even they won’t last too long. Quick showers, and then into the bedroom. I’ve already turned the thermostat up, so hopefully it won’t be too cold for anyone in here. Conversely, Carrie, if you get too hot, there’s a ceiling fan in that bedroom and you can always close the floor vent. Sayel, we have blankets and such to help make you relatively comfortable out here. Oh, and Sayel, if someone just walks in the front door in the morning, don’t automatically kill them. It’ll probably be family.”

“Doesn’t that normally mean they are someone that needs killed, then?”

He chuckled at my raised eyebrow. “Not to worry, Master.”

The bed really wasn’t big enough for eight of us. It definitely wasn’t big enough for twelve. There was some simple touching and kissing that night and that was it. We were all tired, and we knew that a few hours of sleep wouldn’t erase the deficit we’d built up over the last few days due to all of the air travel.

A hand gently running through my chest hair woke me up. Without opening my eyes, I said, “Is it a bad thing that I just want to lay here and just rest for a while?”

“No,” Margie said. “Unfortunately, you get no rest. Saryu, Jasveer, are the two of you awake?”

Slightly sleepy voices said at the same time, “Yes, Mistress.”

“The rest of us will follow you by this weekend. You have half an hour to get ready. I’m picking the two of you because of your adaptability so far, as well as your relative fluency with English. While you may not understand the context of what is said, the two of you are the best of the eight of you right now in understanding the words that are spoken. We’re making arrangements for tutors for the eight of you, in both written and spoken English, but those won’t be ready until Monday. The weather won’t cause issues, the temperatures are what they were in India, so your clothing for there will be fine. You have your individual make-up kits that match your skin tones; take those. Other than that, have a good time and the rest of us will see you soon.”

While she’d been talking, the two had been listening carefully. Saryu nodded when she was done. “Yes, Mistress. We will get up and be ready to travel in less time than that. Thank you for letting us know.” The two light brown skinned beauties hopped out of bed and hurried to the master bathroom.

“As much as I enjoyed looking at their bare bottoms, which you can tell since your hand has moved on me a little, what’s going on that I have to leave in half an hour?”

“We already missed the opening day. The international date line messed up our plans, because we forgot about it. We were supposed to be back early yesterday morning. That, and things did get a little bit more complicated than anticipated. You’ll be going to the airport with Saryu and Jasveer, loading up on one of the smaller jets, and flying to Palm Springs. They’re two hours behind us, and it’s a two hour flight, so you’ll get there in time.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. “No wonder no one is here. Elroy, Earl, and Jennifer are all playing in the ... what is it, the Bob Hope Classic, this weekend. It completely slipped my mind!”

“And that’s why you now have twenty-four minutes to get ready. Don’t forget to take your clubs and Sayel with you.”

I threw a pair of shorts on, then walked into the living room. There was a bundle of clothing laying on the couch. “Sayel, I know you can’t be that comfortable, under the cushions of the other piece of the sectional. Get up, we have twenty minutes.”

The cushions were quickly thrown aside. “Of course, Master. Old habits, of course, that tend to keep you alive. Where are we going, so I know how to dress?”