Chapter 17

Arrangements for the shoot went surprisingly quick. We were done even before Jennifer made it to the 10^th tee. I noticed that the photographer was puzzled with a few of the telephoto shots she was taking of Jennifer.

“What’s wrong, Miss?”

“Oh, hi. Sorry, I’m Allison Candella. Double ell, otherwise it’d be too amusing that I’m a photographer.”

“Well, one candela isn’t a lot of light, so you must be really bright,” I said, grinning.

She grinned back. “Thanks. Lot of people don’t get the joke. No, there’s ... look, I take a lot of swimsuit model pictures. Jennifer is gorgeous, just like Eve. But there’s something about her tummy that doesn’t look right, considering how great of shape she’s in otherwise.”

“No, everything’s perfectly fine with her. On Tuesday, she’ll start her second trimester, is all.”

“She’s pregnant?”

That was said loud enough it caught Jule’s attention. She’d been talking to Margie, who was rather obviously pregnant, about whether or not she’d be willing to pose. Jule hurried over.

“Hush. This is a golf tournament, not a ladies sewing circle. I know Margie’s pregnant. That’s why we’re discussing what she’ll wear for the photo shoot.”

“No, Jule. Jennifer’s pregnant, too,” Allison said. “Her clothes conceal it pretty well right now, but when she swings and things get tight, it’s fairly obvious.”

Jule blinked, then she turned to me. “It’s against the law to be married to more than one woman in this country.”

I smiled back. “Good thing I’m not legally married to anyone, then. Of course, that doesn’t mean that someone can’t legally change their last name, does it?”

She blinked at that. “I suppose not. And you’re from Kansas, which is like most states, where the age of consent is sixteen. But I thought that was how old you could be, not how many women you’d have.”

“How are you getting up to Stanford tomorrow?”

“Um, we were going to rent a car and drive.”

I turned to Chuck. “Make sure we don’t overload the golf airplane. Jule and Allison will be riding in Salthawk One.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Eve slipped up to me, while Jule and Allison were talking.

“Okay, you’re being devious now. What’s going on?”

I smiled. “History of the World Part One. We don’t hide anything, because ‘it’s good to be the King’, or the Prince, or a member of the Saudi Royal Family.”

She hurried over to where Jeremy was talking with Angela. Jeremy came rushing back. “Eve said I needed to either talk some sense into you, or prepare for Armageddon. What’s going on?”

“You might want to run, not walk, to the clubhouse, and get on a phone. Call the Bobsey Twins and tell them they need to be at Stanford tomorrow afternoon. I’ve made a devious decision, and they’re going to want to be in front of things.”

“What’s that?”

“One of our biggest concerns has been how difficult it would be dealing with the political fallout that could happen with five women having my children this summer, especially if the California government got involved. Well, you heard Jule talking about the swimsuit edition, right? I’m a citizen of the United States, but I’m also a foreign head of state. My women and I are going to be models in the next Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. Publicly, my women. All of them.”

He raised a finger, and opened his mouth, then just froze. It took him a solid fifteen seconds to unfreeze. “That’s either the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard, or the most brilliant. I’ll be back.” He stopped to tell Chuck and Dave that he’d be running, but to not be concerned, then took off.

Needless to say, they both came over to me, wondering what was going on. I quickly explained the plan to them.

Chuck said, “Jeremy’s right. It’s either stupid, or it’s brilliant. Considering you’re you, I’m going with stupidly brilliant right now. This way, it’s all out in the open, right from the start, so there simply can’t be a scandal later on for the press to manufacture.”

“Hiding in plain sight, Chuck. They’ll be so focused on that, especially with some hints regarding what I’m doing that’ll come out in Sports Illustrated, of all places, that people with issues will blindly shit.”

Dave shook his head. “The expression is, they won’t know whether to shit or go blind. But either way, it’s entirely appropriate.” He snorted. “Beautiful. With a full and in-depth interview, too.”

Jule came walking back up. “An interview, too?”

I smiled. “Jule, I think you’re going to like my idea. We’ll talk about it more on the plane ride. For some reason, I think Sports Illustrated is going to get a news story that a lot of the major newspapers and magazines would just about kill to have. Not just sports, but hard news. And you’re getting the exclusive. Complete with photographs.”

She looked at me, then looked at Chuck and Dave. “Okay, why do I suddenly have a very bad feeling about this?”

Chuck laughed. “Probably because you’ve known Cal for an hour. If you decide you want to have his baby, the record is still two hours for someone of the opposite sex. One and a half for the Chinese physicist that Cal gave a nuclear reactor design to, but he was male, so nothing could happen that way.”

Other than Jeremy coming back and saying that Cain and Abel would be at the house at Stanford by noon tomorrow, no one said anything else to Jule or Allison about that for the rest of the tournament. The family was already cheering on seventeen. Her partner, Doug Tewell, was gracious with Jennifer, because he knew he was beaten, and badly. He’d come into the round in second at thirteen under, but had trouble just getting par today. Calvin Peete had already finished the day at three under, so he was now in second, at fourteen under. Jennifer just swung her clubs and putted like it was no big deal. When she finally putted out on eighteen, she’d finished the round today at three under, for a tournament total of twenty-three under par.

They presented her with the trophy and the check for eighty-one thousand dollars. She immediately presented the Phoenix Food Bank with a check for two hundred forty-three thousand dollars from CEDEM. NBC had been broadcasting the final round again, with Lee Trevino doing the interviews once more.

“Jennifer, that was another magnificent tournament. Last week, your group gave away three times your winnings to the USO, this time you gave away three times your winnings to the local food bank. Why is that?”

“I’ve been very blessed lately in my life, Lee.” She pointed to her cap. “CEDEM Financial believes in giving back. I believe in giving back. This is my childhood dream, to be able to stand here, and show the world that, at least for the moment, I’m truly a professional golfer. CEDEM gave me that chance, so I’m happy to help.”

“Thank you, Jennifer Lewis. For NBC Sports, I’m Lee Trevino.” The camera lights went dark. “Okay, what was that about?”

I’d walked up. “That’s okay, Lee. You’ll find out, soon enough. Congratulations, my Love, on another victory. Are you ready to go home?”

“If you don’t think I stink so badly that I need to take a shower first, then, yes.”

“Jasveer, if you’d get the clubs ... we came down in Salthawk One.” I had a gleam in my eye.

We found out that there really wasn’t enough room for three of us in the shower at the same time, but because I have a few abilities befitting either a really smart alien or the living avatar of a Hindu god, not only could we all fit into the shower, I could fit into both women that were in the shower with me. Jennifer was the only recipient of my fluids this time, which didn’t matter to Jasveer in the least. We dried off and put clean clothes on, then joined everyone in the cabin.

Margie glanced at her watch. “You getting old, dear? We’ve still got half an hour until we land.”

Jennifer grinned back. “Not hardly. This was just the appetizer. I can’t wait until we get home and I get the main course.”

“Jule, Allison, you look like both of you are bursting to ask questions, but are almost afraid. Don’t be. I don’t bite ... too much,” I said.

Marcia said, “Oh, you’re just a vicious brute when we want you to be. But you’re learning. We’ve almost got you housebroken.”

All my girls, including the Indian girls, laughed at that.

Jule took a deep breath, then said, “Okay, I will. First off, this jet.”

“Salthawk One. She’s a Boeing 737-200 that was modified for the leader of a country. He became unable to take delivery due to a sudden case of death, so we picked her up fairly cheaply. A couple of modifications, and she’s been the primary family jet for the last few months. She’ll stay that way through summer, and then we’ll get our upgraded family jets, but we’ll keep her.”

“Right, but how wealthy are you, to afford a jet? Even to rent one?”

“Ah, another good question. This is all going to be a part of your interview, the spread you’re adding for Sports Illustrated. Let me give you some background, because I think your editor is going to like this one.”

We talked until we landed at Moffett Field. That included a quick trip for me to the cockpit, to talk to our pilots. They argued a little, but in the end, agreed. Our buses had a bit of difficulty getting back to our house, due to the Super Bowl, but we made it in an hour. After making sure Allison and Jule were set up with rooms in the guest quarters and they knew to come over for breakfast in the morning, we went to our house.

After tucking Toby and Carrie into bed, I spent a bit more time explaining to the adults what my plan was regarding Sports Illustrated. I was pleasantly surprised when all five expectant mothers eagerly agreed. They figured out the shopping plans for tomorrow, because there was going to be a massive swimsuit search and purchase mission. Certain tasks were delegated to different people.

Then Jennifer got to have her main course. The dessert afterwards meant that I got to carry her into the shower and clean her off, so there’d be no glue effect in the morning. Beth had to carry Hannah in and do the same thing, while Eve and Dora took care of Jasveer and Mina.

Breakfast the next morning was fun. Everyone was home, and no one was rushed. Jule and Allison walked in, escorted by Chuck, Dave, and Mike. Mike started things out this morning.

“Okay, Cal. Dave and Sayel are with you this week. Apparently Miss Campbell and Miss Candella are going to be with you today, taking pictures and documenting your day. When you come home for lunch, Miss Candella will be going with some of the ladies for pictures, while Miss Campbell returns so that she can see your lab. I am making arrangements with Half Moon Bay airport for us to send a couple of vehicles up there tomorrow morning for ground transportation from the airport to the beach. When you are done with your second class, instead of coming home for lunch, you will return here for transport to Moffett Field, where you will be taken to Half Moon Bay airport via helicopter for your photo shoot. That is primarily where Miss Candella will be tomorrow. Photography will take place so long as there is light. There will be cabanas set up for changing clothes in private. There are Stanford t-shirts being purchased in appropriate sizes for everyone, and non-branded props are also on the shopping list. Any questions?”

“Do I have access to a darkroom so I can develop the pictures I take today?”

Mike nodded. “I’ll make a note of that. We’ll get you access to one for tonight and tomorrow as well. That way, you can run basic prints here, so that when you’re flying back to New York on Wednesday morning, you’ll already be working on the layout.”

Jule asked, “Wednesday morning? I didn’t think we’d get a chance to fly out until late in the afternoon.”

“I won’t need a jet again until the Hawaiian Open, in February,” Jennifer said. “I’ll take a helicopter down to LA.”

“That’ll help. We’re on an incredibly tight deadline,” Jule said.

“Would it help if most of the copy for the actual story was written before you even took off?” I asked.

“Of course it would.”

“Good. While Allison is developing pictures tonight, the girls and I will help you. We have plenty of computers and printers here to get things written and prepared.”

She laughed. “I sincerely apologize for that, but I’m just thinking about how New York is going to have a fit. What we all talked about on the plane? This will blow their minds.”

I smiled. The ones who knew me the best knew that it wasn’t my nice smile. “Good. That’s the plan, after all.”

I got to class a little early and warned both professors that, because of my future on the football team, Sports Illustrated was doing an article on me and would be taking pictures and notes today. I think because of that, our assignment from Constitutional Law was a ten page paper that we had until Thursday to complete. Criminal Law, we only needed a three page paper tomorrow. Cindy was curious about the woman taking notes, while another woman was taking pictures of me. I told her that it was due to football, and I’d see her in class tomorrow morning.

When we got home for lunch, the State Department had arrived.

I smiled and shook their hands. “How have things been going for you two?”

“We have to be careful. We’re used to flying either commercial or whatever government jet we can get on. Having one of your personally owned jets fly us around isn’t quite on the bad side of ethics, but it’s close,” Cain said.

“You’re making arrangements with a foreign government on behalf of the United States. No conflict of interest for transportation, since I’m not bribing either of you in any way.”

Abel sighed. “I agree with the no conflict of interest, but I’ve been expecting the whole foreign government thing. I have a folder with some contingencies already prepared. Is this now your embassy here?”

“No, no, not at all. Not unless it has to be. Sit down, it’s lunch. If you feel the need to pay something for it, to avoid conflict, we can work something out. I think you’ve had a chance to meet nearly everyone in the family already. This is Jule Campbell and Allison Candella. Jule is the editor in charge of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, Allison is her photographer. Ladies, this is Brent Cain and James Abel, of the US State Department. Please don’t take their pictures, but feel free to tease them regarding their last names.”

Brent shook his head. “Don’t, please. We’re stuck with each other for however long we both work for the State Department, and we’ve heard all of the jokes.”

James took a bite of his lunch. “This is good, thank you. Jeremy didn’t get too much into things with us on the phone about what was going on, just that we needed to be here, so we could get ahead of whatever it is.”

I spent the next hour explaining to them what my plans were. The girls from Sports Illustrated didn’t care about the plans, because they were both thinking about how this exclusive would advance their careers.

“You’re not going to make this easy on us, are you? Australian law allows dual citizenship, so does American law. Pakistani law does so as well, but Indian law only allows for Overseas Citizenship of India. Except you’re already accepted by the government of India as the Prince of the Punjab. And, of course, while our government can’t grant titles, there are no laws preventing citizens from accepting foreign titles. It’s not really come up under native affairs whether they can grant a title within their own group. However, they’re considered sovereign peoples living within the US, and we pushed through and cut almost ten years of red tape in getting the Aleuts recognized as a sovereign nation. Don’t ask, and we won’t tell,” Cain said.

“Well, we plan on working with Jule this evening on writing the gist of the article. She and Allison are going to be here tomorrow all day as well, taking pictures, then they’ll fly out to New York on Wednesday. We have lots of phones, and lots of phone numbers. Direct lines to the Indian Prime Minister, direct lines that they don’t know we have to the Australian Prime Minister’s office. A direct line to Hannah’s grandfather, who is now assisting us and has told Missus Thatcher to help us. I don’t have a line to Pakistan, but I’m sure we can find one. Miss Bhutto and Missus Gandhi are supposed to be talking about helping to form my new nation, after all. This would be seen as a sign of national and international cooperation, wouldn’t you think?”

“You’re making my head hurt,” Abel said. “Please do us both a favor, and don’t run for political office in this country. You’d destroy anything vaguely resembling the status quo.”

I laughed. “Someone else is already doing that, anyway. I’m just going to take advantage of it with my plan for global domination.”

Everyone laughed, because by now, they all were in on the joke.

Jule went with me to the lab. I had to give Dave a bit of a tour of things. Doctor Blau was present today, to discuss Pharmacology with me, and to let me know that three additional tests of the new medication had been given over the weekend, with full success. I apologized to her about not being able to be present tomorrow, and was rather surprised when she just shrugged.

“Mister Lewis, I’m supposed to give you an introduction to medications and their effect upon the human body, as well as on how to compound those medications. I don’t think I’m going to be able to teach you much, to be blunt. One of the biggest things that I think I can do is make arrangements for you, or the people that do these things for you, to meet with representatives from Pfizer, Lily, Merck and the other large pharmaceutical companies. I know your requirements, so it shouldn’t be difficult for me to assist.”

Jule looked puzzled at her comment.

“I’m sorry, this is Jule Campbell. She’s with Sports Illustrated, and they’re doing an article both on one of my girlfriends, Jennifer, and also featuring, well, me and the rest of my family in an upcoming issue. She’s here to get some background information. Jule, this is Doctor Helen Blau, head of Pharmacology Sciences here at Stanford. That’s Doctor Jim Spudich, one of the Biochemistry professors, and Doctor John Ross, one of the Chemistry professors. Over there are Cody, Sam, Jonathan, and Molly, their graduate assistants that are also helping me.”

Cody said, “I’m not surprised that SI is doing an article on you. Even with the Super Bowl here yesterday, the actual big news on campus is how the new quarterback of the football team motivated everyone at the simple meet and greet of the new team members.”

Jonathan nodded. “That, and the pass you threw. A couple of guys in physics are trying to calculate how you did it.”

I snorted. “It’s not that tough. It was barely ten yards more than the one I threw in the state championship.”

“Yeah, but there’s not many people with the arm to toss a football from deep in their own end zone to deep in the other end zone.”

Jule looked at me differently then. “Okay, I don’t think things had totally connected for me until just now, because I primarily don’t deal with men’s athletics. You’re the one who set the new ‘in the air’ passing record, aren’t you?”

“Guilty as charged, madam. But, feel free to ask questions if you want, I need to get these folks working on something. As you all heard me tell Doctor Blau, I can’t be here tomorrow. What I’ll do today is get things organized for you, so that you can start the process today for the first item, and then you can work on it tomorrow. We’ll finish it on Wednesday, when I have the full afternoon. Is that okay with everyone?”

John said, “Cal, this is your lab, so we’ll do what you say.”

“Excellent! Let’s begin with the lists of goodies you were supposed to get.”

Jule sat back quietly, for the most part, and watched as I went to a white board and began sketching out the chemical process we were going to do. She spoke with Dave a bit, while they sat on one end of the lab, while we got things going.

We were about an hour into things when John said, “Cal, this is sneaky of you. I just figured out what we’re doing. That’s a great idea, having us recreate in our lab something that you know already works in the real world, as a way of cementing in our minds that you really are the smartest person on campus.”

“If I was so darned smart, you wouldn’t have figured it out already, John.”

“No, that’s fine. We’ve all heard of the miraculous Ice-X, but none of us have had a chance to play with it yet,” he said.

“Well, you should have close to five gallons of it made and ready by the end of tomorrow’s lab time. For God’s sake, don’t do what a Boeing engineer did to check it out,” I warned. “Coating his hand and arm in it, then sticking it in liquid nitrogen for twenty minutes, was just stupid.”

“Agreed. But now that I know what we’re doing, I’ll make arrangements for us to have the assorted thermometers, liquid nitrogen, and liquid oxygen for Wednesday’s testing.”

“Works for me. And it does work in the real world. My crew put it on our jet, and we landed at an airport where it was freezing rain. Nothing stuck to it, or formed on it. Yes, Jule?”

“I’ve seen something about Ice-X in an article in the Wall Street Journal. You’re creating some here, then?”

“Yeah. The chemical plant where we make it is running full capacity right now. I’m building one twice that size near Manhattan, Kansas, because we’re already so far behind on orders for it. With the market in the rest of the world, I’ll probably build another plant in the Punjab region, too.”

Things clicked for her then. “Those companies that sponsor Jennifer. You’re involved in all of them.”

I nodded. “I don’t think this is any big secret here on campus. I’m part owner of Cisco computer networking, Microsoft, Siemens AG, and all of Ice-X. The CEDEM Financial that Jennifer mentioned was me, Eve, Dora, Beth, and Margie. Marcia, Hannah, Helen, and Jennifer are part of it now, too.”

Jim said something that I almost wish he hadn’t. “Miss Campbell? There’s a reason why Cal has two full professors and four graduates that are acting as his lab assistants. Stanford isn’t just a teaching college, we’re also a research university. Cal has already invented, while he was here, a pill that ... crap, NDA. Sorry. Just ... the easy way for us to think about him is to imagine that we’ve had Leonardo DaVinci dropped off at our campus, and he wants to study with us. Any one of us will help him, because of what we’re going to learn while he’s here.”

“That’s okay, Jim. I’ll cover the research aspects of what we’re working on with Jule later. For your article, Jule, NDA means non-disclosure agreement. You’re not going to have to sign one, because you’re not getting any of the really classified information. Nothing personal, but considering Ice-X is already a multi-billion dollar business, well, you understand.”

Sayel was actually in position, so he caught her when she slipped forward, falling out of her chair. She jumped, because she’d forgotten he was even in the room. John and Jim both laughed a little.

“Sorry, we’ve already heard of people having that reaction to Cal,” John said. “If you need to go, we’ve got this.”

“Thanks. We’ll start discussing the ... next project ... on Thursday.”

Jule was somewhere between amused and shocked on the ride back to the house. Which was rather quiet, other than Toby and Carrie, who were sitting at the study tables doing their homework, and Marie getting things ready in the kitchen. There was a note that everyone would be back when it got too dark for pictures.

“Well, come on, Jule. As you saw from class today, I have two papers to write, and I may as well get those knocked out. We can talk about the article while I’m typing.”

She followed me deeper into our home, to the adult study area. “Good grief, how many computers do you have?”

“Enough. We’re hooked into the campus network, so we have access to it. Go ahead and ask your questions, this won’t take me that long.”

She did so, amazed that I could type and still talk to her. It took me about fifteen minutes to type the Criminal Law paper, and the rest of an hour to do the longer one. I printed both papers out, put them into their folders, and then turned to her.

“Ready to go with the article itself?” Her eyes were big as she nodded.

I know she was expecting me to do something other than turn back around and begin typing, because I could smell her arousal. The problem was, it simply wasn’t reciprocated. I really didn’t feel anything towards her, either good or bad, and since it wasn’t like I was trying to put notches on a bedpost, it didn’t matter to me.

She went back into professional mode after a couple of minutes, and we spent the next hour working on the article. We weren’t done with it when things got lively, with seventeen women coming into the house at the same time, followed by two rather disgruntled State Department men and Jeremy Gage.

Allison was incredibly excited. “Jule, this is going to be the issue that everyone remembers forever! If we didn’t already have Paulina Porizkova for the cover, we’d have a new cover! I need to get to a lab.”

“Hold on, get something to eat first. What do you mean, a new cover?”

“You’ll see, when I get these developed. I can’t wait for tomorrow!” She grabbed a sandwich that Marie had quickly put together and ran back outside.

“Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Allison that excited about pictures before, and we’ve done spreads of some of the biggest supermodels in the world.”

Margie laughed. “That’s because none of us are supermodels. What little makeup that any of us wore, we all put on ourselves. That ‘girl next door’ look really comes through when you can tell that it’s real.”

Marcia jumped in. “Just so I don’t forget, I got in touch with Uncle Leonard. He called Mel, and we’re allowed to use the line, so long as it’s credited to him.”

“Good, I was hoping for that. What do our wonderful State Department representatives have for us?” I asked.

Abel looked at Cain. “You tell him. I still don’t believe this afternoon. Shit just doesn’t happen this way.”

“That’s being polite. I don’t fucking believe it, either. Sorry for the language, but this was ridiculous. When we met you on your airplane when you got to Hutchinson, we were aware that you were pulling a Teddy, but you’re well beyond that.”

“A Teddy?”

“Sorry, internal humor. Teddy Roosevelt. Speak softly, and carry a big stick. You know we put into our report what we saw at the airport. We simply had to. Especially with all of the stuff from the Messenger. He and the Angels from Above just completely changed the political climate in Panama in an afternoon, without actually wiping out the legitimate government. So your comments about everything he’s said being true, plus what you showed us?” He shook his head in disbelief.

“We put in a call for higher authority this afternoon, to discuss things. We talked for a few minutes about your plans with our supervisor, who actually is an Undersecretary. He put us on hold for about five minutes. Next thing I know, we’re on a phone call with Secretary Schultz and President Reagan! Unrelated to anything, did you know that you are the first US citizen to have an unlimited invitation to visit the People’s Republic of China, anytime? We didn’t know that then. We do now. Next thing we know, we’re on a conference call with President Reagan, Prime Minister Gorbachev, Prime Minister Thatcher, Prince Faisal, Prime Minister Gandhi, Prime Minister Bhutto, and Prime Minister Hawke.”

“What’s that jackass doing?” Helen asked. She looked around and explained, “Sorry, he’s Australia’s Prime Minister. If you think I don’t have a good opinion of him, you may be right.”

“You’ll probably change your opinion after this,” Cain said. “He agreed, albeit a little bit unwillingly, but eventually. Just because our CIA doesn’t exist any longer, the Soviet KGB does, and they’re helping the intelligence services of every nation around the world.” He was shaking his head. “I don’t know what kind of world we’re making, where we can actually trust what someone says. Sorry. Anyway, they ... the KGB ... saw our report on your stones. That went to everyone, including India and Saudi Arabia. Both of them already knew about some ... what’d she call them ... shivalingam, that’s it ... that you have. They had been sharing through the KGB that information with China, Russia, and our government. Anyway...” He just stopped, shaking his head.

Abel picked things up. “Anyway, Pakistan is moving their capital. The goal is that by January first of next year, the Punjab region of both countries will be reunited as a new nation. It may not happen that fast, just due to how quickly some things can be negotiated between India, Pakistan, and ... you. You’ll be the first ruler of the nation that will probably be called Punjabi. So, your title right now as Prince of the Punjab is confirmed. You do not, however, get Pakistani citizenship, but Pakistan fully recognizes your US citizenship and your royal title. You do get Overseas Citizenship of India, which is not dual citizenship with the United States. You can’t vote or be elected to political office in India, but that doesn’t affect your royal status. either. You may not realize it, but the three of you already have citizenship as members of the Saudi Royal Family for Saudi Arabia, but they also don’t recognize dual citizenship. But again, you’re still a part of their royal family, so it doesn’t matter what you do.