Chapter 23

That evening, we took over one of the resort’s banquet rooms. They weren’t going to let us have it because we’d already made other arrangements, but having Larry Mehau call them caused a quick and complete change of attitude towards the haoles.

Chuck simply smiled at me and said, “Just like in Alaska, Cal. It’ll be secure,” when I expressed my concern about prying eyes.

The first thing on the agenda was calming down Jennifer. She’d caught feedback from the girls, and even with her trying to shut them out, the news coming from the Arizona and the Punchbowl had made its way onto the golf course. The distraction was enough to put her off her game, a lot, so she barely finished five under. That left her tied with Mark O’Meara at eighteen under par.

Once I’d accomplished that – which, honestly, wasn’t that difficult, it just involved kissing – I had a bit more of a difficult explanation to make. I admit that I had been hoping to not actually ever tell anyone else about myself, if I could keep from it. That pretty much wasn’t going to be possible any longer. What made things more complicated from my perspective was that Ramona and Mary had been at lunch.

The hotel kitchen provided us with the meal inside instead of the luau that Mary had planned for tonight. Everyone got their food and went back to their seats. Before I could go up front, Dave stood up. He looked at me.

“Just so you know, I was going to do this tonight at the luau. It would have been a bit more romantic on the beach with a fire and everything.” Then he walked over to where Mary was sitting, pulled a box out of his pocket, and knelt down.

After the assorted squeals and congratulations were done, I gave Dave a last handshake, saying, “You didn’t have to do that so quickly, just to make sure she’s family in my mind.”

“I didn’t. I’ve been waiting for the right moment, and it was going to be tonight.”

“Well, congratulations again.” I walked up to the front of the room.

“It’d be nice if that was the only surprise this evening. I got a couple of them today myself, and I don’t really like them. There are four people here in this group tonight that were not already aware of what everyone saw this afternoon at lunch. Allen, Marianne, Ramona, and Mary, I’m guessing you’d probably like to know a little more.”

Allen held up his hand to stop me. “Cal, um ... let’s not. You have these devices that are from the time of Shiva, somehow or other, you’re able to use them, right?”

“Um, yes.”

“Does it affect how you feel about our daughter and grandchild, or even worse, my idiot brother-in-law?”

I frowned. “No, of course not.”

“Okay, then it doesn’t matter. I don’t see any pointed ears, and I haven’t seen you raise antennae up out of your head like Ray Walston. You don’t have a moving light and say, ‘By Your Command’, although you did make a good Khan. Just leave it alone.”

I blinked. “Really?”

Marianne said, “It’s not like we’re not curious, don’t get us wrong. But from what we saw this afternoon, I can understand why you didn’t say anything. Plus, with what we heard, about the other groups? Cal, we know the world’s not a safe place. I’ve lived through World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam. I’ve seen terrorists kill people on TV, and I survived a plane crash. I know my brother has done a lot of good for Hutchinson and Reno County over the years. I also know that there’s a lot of bad things going on in the world. You’re doing a lot of good.”

Ramona nodded. “I can’t admit I’m not curious. But I know you, and more importantly, I know my Stephen. We’ve talked about what happened to him in Beirut. He trusts you, not just with Jennifer and Eve, but with Toby. You’d die before you’d let something bad happen to anyone in the family. Not if it was at all in your power...” she chuckled then “ ... and you’ve got some weird powers, but you’d still prevent it.”

I looked at Mary, who was leaning over with her head on Dave’s shoulder. All was right in their world.

“All right, then. Margie, have you had a chance to talk to your folks?”

“A little. After we’re done, in their room.”

Margie, Beth, Carrie, and Emily went with me to visit Marianne and Allen after dinner.

“So, my brother said you can use those devices for medical reasons? I guess that’s how Jennifer became younger, then?”

“Um, not exactly, Marianne. That was a treatment for her breast cancer that actually didn’t go like it should. I’ve discussed with my professors at Stanford a little about what I intended to do. The genetic reversion was a side effect that could have just as easily gone the other way.”

Emily gave me a look that her parents didn’t see, somewhere between a smirk and a scowl. But she didn’t say anything else.

“Good. I don’t think I’d care to explain why I’ve lost forty-five years in appearance,” Marianne said. “So, what exactly are you going to do to us?”

Margie said, “To use an analogy, a slight tune-up. Cal being able to do some of these things is why we know Emily is carrying a daughter, even when the doctor thought it was a boy, and we know that I’m carrying a boy. You’ll sleep through it.”

Allen frowned. “Right, but what exactly are you doing?”

“Since neither of you have indicated that you want to have any more children, I’m not going to turn that part of your plumbing back on. Other than that, it’s just helping to take away some of the morning aches and pains, clear up your emphysema, and undo some of the damage that’s been done to your bodies over the years.”

“Okay, I guess that’s okay. Um, not to sound rude, but why is Carrie here?”

“Mister Miller, I’m a Guardian and can use the devices as well. I wear one all the time. By watching and learning from Cal, I’ll know more about how to use them in the future.”

“Oh, okay. So, what do you want us to do?”

“Just lean back and close your eyes.” They did, and I used the devices to put them to sleep.

I pulled the devices out that I had, handing half of them to Carrie. “Beth, are you good with sending power to Carrie?”

“Of course. Are you good with using that new shivalingam?”

“I’m good. The main reason that volcano has been erupting is it was trying to get rid of this one, and couldn’t. Sort of like when Spanky got a hairball and couldn’t get rid of it. He just kept hacking and choking until I finally helped him. The volcano was doing the same thing. I think it’ll settle down, although it may take it a few decades.”

“That doesn’t explain how it got there in the first place, though,” Beth said.

“That’s because I put it there. Or, rather, Madalain did. She hoped the heat of the volcano would be enough to erode or destroy it. There weren’t any active volcanoes on Star Home, and without measuring instruments, she didn’t know that a volcano would max out under three thousand degrees Fahrenheit.”

“Which is a lot lower than what these things can withstand,” I said. “One thing she did do before tossing it in there was to deactivate it. That meant when we retrieved it from the lava bomb the souls sent it up in, it was like a fresh unit, so I could turn on whatever features I wanted.”

Emily asked, “Is that why Larry Mehau was giving you weird looks when you came back from the big island?”

“I think the minor detail that he saw a lava bomb come flying up, out of the crater, when it doesn’t do that unless there’s a major eruption, watched it hit right at my feet, then crack open perfectly like you’d open an orange, with the shivalingam sitting in the middle like it’d been mounted there was a bit much for him. That, and Owana acting like the Goddess Pele was talking to her.”

“Was she?”

“Was she what, Emily?”

“Acting!”

“Oh, no. Helen and I could both hear it. It wasn’t really Pele, it was the souls that live in the volcanoes on the big island. They were making sure that Owana was going to pay attention to what I’d said about working with the Governor. They also talked to Larry Mehau, too, so I’m not sure if he’s just scared, or honored, especially when I told him that this wasn’t the first time I’d spoken to souls. And that should take care of this. How are you doing?”

“I’m almost done. Marianne had a bad knee that’s taken me a little bit longer to fix. I’m glad that she didn’t have any signs of cancer, and I cleaned up her lungs from when she had smoked when younger. Other than that, it was simple.”

“Hang on. You’re not still waiting to start, you’re already almost done?”

“Yeah. Your parents were remarkably healthy, considering their age. Probably not the number of bad habits that Earl and Elroy had over the years. Your Dad shouldn’t have any issues with that left shoulder anymore. That muscle tear was decades ago, but never healed properly.”

I left Allen and Marianne to wake normally, with Emily and Carrie watching over them. Beth and Margie went with me back to our suite. I felt like I was in trouble, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d done wrong this time.

The rest of my wives were seated in the living area when we came in.

Beth said, “Allen and Marianne are doing fine, and should wake up rather rejuvenated. Carrie didn’t actually need much power from me at all. I think if she was hooked in with Helen and the Souls, she could darned near do a mass healing of half a continent. Not that I recommend it, or anything like that. Otherwise, are we ready?”

Jennifer nodded. “I’ll go ahead and start off, because I can tell that Cal is about ready to pee himself, thinking he’s done something wrong. The good news is, you didn’t. You’re completely forgiven for the emotional outburst on the plane about ‘women’s names too close to mine’ because we are your women, your wives. The bad news is ... well, we don’t know what the hell is going on.”

Marcia said, “We agree, there’s something else happening. While you were retrieving the shivalingam from Kīlauea, Jeremy, Mike, and Elroy were closeted with Admiral Foley, to get all of the information they could from him, and must still be there, since all of them missed dinner. This almost sounds like a bad thriller, with two competing secret organizations working to take over the world.”

“Three,” Hannah pointed out. “You forgot about us. Although we’re not really secret, just what our capabilities are is secret. Hopefully, the cooperation of governments will help keep it that way, too.”

“Does it count that I’m so confused about things right now that it’s not funny?” I asked.

“Normally, I’d say that’s about right, which is why we got mad at your micromanaging of things. But at this point, we’re as much in the dark as you are,” Margie said.

There was a knock on the door, then Sayel opened it. “Judge Bannister, Marshal Gage, and Mister Douglas are here, and request to speak with all of you, if you’re not engaged in assorted matters of fornication at the moment.”

Mike said, “No, Sayel, what Elroy said was...”

“I know. It simply sounds better than saying, if my Master is done fucking around, Elroy needs to talk to everyone.”

That got us laughing, before then inviting everyone into the suite.

“Uncle Elroy, you look positively exhausted. Considering you were rejuvenated on the plane trip here, that doesn’t seem like a good thing,” Beth said.

“Thank you, Elizabeth. I appreciate your concern. Physically, I’m fine. I might even be able to beat someone in arm wrestling. Mentally, I’m more exhausted than I was after the Battle of the Bulge.”

Jennifer nodded to Jasveer. Three of the Indian girls took positions behind where the men had sat down and started rubbing their shoulder muscles, while glasses with a couple of inches of Scotch were poured and served to them.

“Thank you,” Mike said. “What a convoluted mess. On the one hand, destroying the CIA was a good thing. On the other hand, even after they got emasculated, the NSA still had a lot of duplicates of their files that no one knew about. On the gripping hand ... shit, I don’t know. I’ll give you credit. The song Cornwallis played at Yorktown fits. The world is turned upside down. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone play so loose and fast with the truth, and weave an intricate series of lies quite like Elroy did today.”

“They’re only lies if you don’t believe them to be true, Michael. The minor detail that I held onto their secrets for so long, even when I knew the truth, is why they trust me now to not be simply making things up out of thin air. That, and because somehow or other, my grandson created a story out of thin air that happens to be real,” Elroy said.

Jeremy chuckled. “It didn’t hurt that the other groups are out there, with somewhat similar background stories that border on the fantastic. Where do we even start?”

“How about with what happened to you when you disappeared with the Admiral, while Cal was going to the big island?”

“Quite reasonable, Marcia. You’ve been around tall tales for a while. This ought to prove somewhat interesting to you.”

“Considering I just said this whole thing sounds like a bad spy movie, yeah.”

“Don’t worry, it gets worse,” Elroy answered. “First, a bit of background. Everyone knows that the CIA is done. Finished. Kaput. The problem is that they aren’t the only intelligence service the United States has. The National Security Agency has been gutted like a fish for their participation in the JFK assassination, but that doesn’t mean they destroyed the files they had. The oldest is the Office of Naval Intelligence. Then there’s the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Sixteenth Air Force, the Military Intelligence Corps for the Army, the National Reconnaissance Office in charge of all the spy planes and spy satellites, and the Department of Energy even has their own Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. That’s all international stuff, not even getting into the FBI and all of the other police agencies like the Marshal Service. What that means is that when ... the Messenger ... destroyed the CIA, he didn’t really cripple the ability of the other groups to gather intelligence, he simply made them decide to work closer with each other, in case one of them got taken out.”

Jeremy said, “That’s the polite way of saying they started sharing information that they knew they had, but they didn’t know everyone else had. Intelligence operatives are a funny breed. They want to know everything, but they think they’re the only ones who need to know everything, so they don’t like sharing. I imagine their kindergarten teachers all said they didn’t play well with others when they were little. All of sudden they figured out they needed to do just that. And courtesy of what else the Messenger has done, the KGB – which IS still around, just under new management – is doing something totally unprecedented, and that’s cooperating fully with us, China, and every other nation.”

Mike shook his head. “Cal, just because I have to ask, is there any possible way you could have been created in a CIA lab in Bumfuck, North Dakota, and you were only programmed to think you’re from, you know, somewhere else?”

“No, Mike. It’s funny, but you know I’m working closely with Doctor Fallow. He said that we might be able to clone a mammal now, but not sixteen plus years ago, and that not even Hitler’s scientists were that good, because he ‘didn’t’ work with some of them at some point in time. No, I’m genuinely from somewhere else.”

“Well, then that means that the Nazis in South America have some of those things, too. There was a lab, the CIA was trying to come up with someone to use them, and it really did get blown all to hell by Bauman’s people,” Mike said.

Dora shook her head. “Something doesn’t make sense to me. Mi Madre had one on her ring, because she’d been given it by mi Abuela to help here in the States. Then we found three more that Marcia’s parents had found. Once those four were together, then we got one from the British Museum, and another from a cousin in Brazil. Then Tobias told him that he’d need seven others. We thought there were maybe twenty total. We have three from India, the one that Aramco found, two that Baron Rothschild had, and now one from the volcano here. That’s the thirteen we needed. Now, you’re saying there are more?”

“Yeah, there are,” Mike said. “You went down to the Valley. What’d you find in that temple?”

Dora shrugged. “Just ruins and destruction.”

I said, “We also found a destroyed shivalingam that, in one piece, would have been fifty times the size of any individual one we now have. It was obviously a part of the defenses for that spot, and it’s only because it was directly hit by a kinetic energy strike that it was destroyed. I suspect that’s why Shiva used those against Australia and other parts of the world, to take out their protective devices.”

“He wasn’t the only one,” Helen said. “I’ve done more talking with me sister and Carrie. Madalain and Lara, before they were killed, were using them to try to take out some of Shiva’s followers and his own power supplies. Keep in mind, when someone with full powers like you and the girls have, throws a crowbar at full strength, we’re talking it has the potential energy from acceleration to a significant fraction of light speed, all concentrated in one little spot. This isn’t just dropping rocks from the moon, this is enough power that a direct hit can and will kill any of the four of you. As for the locals, most everyone but us had forgotten their heritage, so it tickled his ego to have Clarke’s Law apply to him, with them thinking he was a god. No, he didn’t call it Clarke’s law, but you know what I’m referencing.”

“Exactly,” Mike said. “Just for your general information, that’s how the US Army’s newest ammunition for the Abrams main battle tank works. They call it the ‘silver bullet’, because it doesn’t have any explosive in it, it just pokes holes through enemy tanks, defeating their armor and melting it. That causes them to tend to blow up. Now, back to the main topic, we get to information that no one realized we had, because it sounds like something that Erich von Däniken wrote. Actually, he did write it, and it got filed away as being too ridiculous by western intelligence. The KGB, on the other hand, already knew the truth, and simply used it. Technically, Tobias was correct. There were thirteen shivalingam that Shiva had and used when he showed up here. We don’t know how many more total he had, but every single time that Halley’s Comet has been close to Earth, it’s dropped off another one. Thirteen is the magic number for someone to actually be ready to receive the information from the Comet.”

“Hang on! You mean there are eighty of these damned things?”

Elroy nodded. “Somewhere in that vicinity, yes. With not all of them accounted for, either, just to make things more fun. Now, before we get more interruptions, let us go through this. In case anyone asks, we did not meet with Admiral Foley, General Bazley, the Director of Naval Intelligence, the Deputy Secretary of State, the deputy director of the NSA, the deputy directors of both MI-5 and MI-6, the deputy director of the Mossad, or the deputy director of the KGB. There was no meeting. The three of us simply took a long and extended tour of Pearl Harbor Naval and Air Operations that took longer than planned. Is everyone clear on that?”

We nodded, so he continued.

“Okay. Helen, you’re aware of what the world used to be, before Shiva showed up, ten thousand years ago. Holly and Carrie know about the fighting that took place when they went to overthrow Shiva, around four to six thousand years ago. First, there is a lot of speculation in some of this, especially considering we’re talking about things that happened up to four thousand years ago. Things that happened in the last couple of hundred years, not so much. The Romany fled India before or during the war against Shiva with half a dozen of the shivalingam. We think the Mediterranean region of Greece and Rome, Persia, and China each ended up with some of them. Someone with a couple of them, using them to enhance their physical strength, would explain some of the legends, like Hercules and Achilles. There may have been others in different parts of the world as well, like Africa, but no one on our side has evidence one way or the other.

“Everyone ... and by that, I mean all of the intelligence services ... thinks the Catholic Church has more than a couple. Without officially admitting it, MI-5 basically said that the British Monarchy does have some, that are actually part of the Crown Jewels. The Knights Templar may have had several, which is really what the Crusades were all about. One theory is that the Ark of the Covenant doesn’t hold the Ten Commandments, it holds nearly a dozen shivalingam. MI-6 has copies of records from Baron Rothschild that date back more than five hundred years that not only substantiate his claim regarding Israel, but also how his family were the ones that told the British Crown about Shiva in the first place. The rings that you took from the safe had told their wearers about him.”

Hannah shook her head. “Good Lord, this goes back so far, and is so convoluted, how the bloody hell did anyone keep track of anything?”

“Poorly,” Mike said. “Keep in mind that most of this was before written history, or has been lost through time. We think that many of the shivalingam remained in India, and explained at least some of the rest of their gods. Thing is, up until a couple of hundred years ago, it really didn’t matter who had what, because our technology base simply didn’t allow for the travel and accumulation of the shivalingam like it does now. When you know about them, a lot of history makes a different kind of sense.”

Elroy shook his head. “You know the stories of how difficult it was for Rasputin to be killed? The KGB said he had three of the shivalingam. Marcia, the reason Hitler killed Jews wasn’t because they were his scapegoats. The Jews and Gypsies he started putting to death were closely related from a genetic standpoint to, well, Cal. They kept things going because Mengele was trying to create a crossbreed between them and a pure Aryan, to be ready for next year, and he knew it’d take a while to do it. Bauman isn’t a clone, but he was created in a lab by Mengele twenty-five years ago. Of all people, the Mossad are the ones with that proof. I tell you what, Son. If you’d ended up finding anyone but me, and given them that story about your parents and the lab, you would’ve been in a CIA lab! Or worse. As it was, our fine tales regarding long-lost cousins and payments to keep you quiet pretty much seemed to do the trick so far as keeping you free.” He paused. “Let me rephrase that. Keeping you free, and on this side of the law. Once you came out of that salt mine, I don’t think anyone could keep you chained up.”

“I’ve got sixteen reasons to disagree with you, soon to be twenty-one. But these aren’t chains, even if they are the bonds of love.”

Elroy laughed. “Damn! I don’t know if I can hold my breath long enough for it all to drain out, that’s really deep!”

“You can just shut your mouth, Uncle Elroy. That’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard in my life!”

“Margaret, you know how I am. I certainly wasn’t criticizing the lad. He’s getting the suave and polished debonair man gig down quite well.”

“It’s comments like that, that make me glad I don’t actually need to breathe, if you’re going to talk about it getting deep, Elroy.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Son. Marshal Gage, you had the summary.”

“Like I’m supposed to follow that? Okay, seriously ... when we get back to California, we’re basically going to go with nothing that happened this weekend was because of us. It’s made national news that the Souls here are active like they are at the Wall. We’ve spread the story that it appears the Messenger from Above must’ve visited here at some point. The apology by Prince Akihito was the triggering event. We can’t say that Cal wasn’t here; he got caught on film. But he was present simply because he was meeting with another nation’s leader, is all. Hopefully, that’ll take care of it so far as the general public is concerned. The governments that are supporting you will know the truth, and the governments that are against you will suspect it. Nothing we can do about that.”

Beth said, “Then let’s not worry about it. Look, I’m not patting myself on the back here, just stating something obvious. Courtesy of what’s happened to me, I’m probably the second smartest human on the planet behind Cal. Eve and Dora are right behind me. I specify human, because of Mycroft. Having said that, I don’t see any reason to change what we’re doing. Cal is probably stressing out right now, because he thinks he has to do something, now. He doesn’t, and we don’t. No matter what the governments of other countries do, or may want us to do, we’re still teenagers. Incredibly powerful, incredibly intelligent, and incredibly hormonal, teenagers. We’re simply not mature enough. We know that. We have the responsibility, we have the obligation. I’m not arguing that, not in the least. But Cal has a tendency to want to micromanage, and he just simply doesn’t need to know any of this now.”

I looked at her, saying, “I don’t?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

“Okay. Gentlemen, and Elroy, thank you. We’ll talk about this at some point in the future, I’m quite sure. Right now, my ... wives and I need some sleep, because we’re going to be busy cheering for Jennifer while she wins another golf tournament. I was planning on saying rooting for Jennifer, but courtesy of Australian slang, that’s subject to interpretation.”

Jennifer started laughing. “At least not during the golf tournament, anyway!”

Elroy laughed as well. “I think on that note we all should call it an evening. Good night, kids.”

We left, splitting up to return to our rooms. There was some squealing from the Indian girls when they were told by my ladies that when I mentioned ‘wives’ earlier, I was including them in that description, even if due to their culture they would still be servants, no matter how much time passed.

That ended up with us in a rather tangled pile before long. It’s good to be the King.

Sunday didn’t bring any surprises.

Allen and Marianne felt a bit off at breakfast, because they didn’t have any of the general aches and pains they’d grown used to over the years. I figured the big surprise for him would be when they went walking or did something that would otherwise cause him to feel short of breath or otherwise have chest pain. I’d dissolved all of the plaque and other issues within his arteries, and rebuilt his heart so it was just like when he was twenty. Of course, we did the same thing to her.

SJ and Ramona were the only family members that stayed with my crew to go watch Jennifer. She ended up with seven under, simply because Mark O’Meara couldn’t hit putts today, and she didn’t want to make him feel too bad. Craig Stadler tried, with an eight under, but he still finished third, six strokes behind her. At least when she birdied out on eighteen, he had the decency to apologize for his previous behavior.

We went back to the resort, where we had the celebratory luau, with traditional dishes. We had six special guests, too. The Imperial party from Japan showed up, as did Larry Mehau, Governor Ariyoshi, and Princess Owana. Discussions during dinner resulted in us leaving three people, plus some security, when our leased 747 took off later. Elroy, Earl, and Gloria would return to Kansas later. We did the slight tweaks needed to ‘tune-up’ Harry and Emily on the way home.

Holly found out the advantage of returning to Kansas in Salthawk One, because she was able to take the bicycle we’d bought with her. Other than that, time zones worked against us this time, because it was already Monday by the time we landed at Moffett. We gave everyone hugs and kisses, and then went home once they were safely in the air. As soon as we got into the house, Dora and Eve changed into their uniforms. Eve was going to shadow their plane, to make sure it made it home safely, while Dora flew to Europe to more or less just be seen.

The rest of the girls and I went to sleep. I’d barely gone to sleep when I realized that this time I was seeing what Dora could see. She had made it to Spain, and was simply flying along at ten miles up, while scanning with her vision through the clouds below. The weather was rather rainy, and I thought it was neat that she could see through the clouds like I did. This was really the first confirmation I’d had, where I’d been able to watch through their eyes while they were on patrol. I think it was due to the weirdness of our sleep schedules, before.

A bright flash caught her eye and time seemed to stand still as she went into super speed. She’d zoomed in as soon as she saw the flash. It was a jet airliner, very similar to ours, hitting a television tower that was on top of a mountain. The plane had been too low, and sheared the left wing completely off. The forward speed of the jet meant it had two thousand feet to fall before it hit the ground, while Dora had to go twenty-seven miles to catch it. She made it with two hundred feet to spare, and showed that she was just like me, in being able to hold odd loads without actually damaging them. The multiple sonic booms that she generated while going that fast did flatten a few trees in the forest when they hit, but didn’t do as much damage as the plane would have caused.