Chapter 15

Waking up was as good as going to sleep. Surrounded by little tiny girls using me for a pillow, I nearly called it a day. The girls began to stir and wiggled in closer. I had to be strong; the time would slip away if we didn’t take care. The clock claimed it was 6:45 AM. Connected to the Naval Observatory, it hardly ever lied.

“Little pets, I hate to say it, but the day calls. You do whatever girls do in the bathroom, rustle up some eats, and I’ll be down by 7:30.”

They disappeared for about twenty minutes, and then gave me sweet naked hugs before heading down. I took a turn in the bathroom. Depilatory, the call of nature routine, a quick pass under the water and I was human again.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs with ham. Bagels, fresh cream cheese, Nova salmon and hot black coffee completed the set. “You are spoiling me. This hits the spot.”

“That’s our job.” Suki smiled, “We hope to excel.”

I nodded. It’s not polite to talk with your mouth full.

“After breakfast, you can go upstairs and play dress-up. But it is important we be presentable as a school group by 8:45. I guess Karen and Irina will have to cover the names on theirs. Bright Star might have packed extras.”

“We’ll make it right.” Yumi said. “We’re really going to that house?”

“Afraid so. I feel a need to see what secrets and ghosts of the past are hiding on Staten Island. There is no way the puzzle is complete. Does the visit or the reason for the visit make you uncomfortable?”

The sisters did that teenaged girl/twin/sister silent communication thing. Mika spoke, “No and no. The house is nice, but without much of a family, no visitors, it was just a place to be. If there are ghosts, there are ghosts. Even if we find out we are not who we thought, the past ended when we got here. That chapter is closed. We’re good.”

“If anything, I want to know why is was so easy for Sumi to give you away. I checked after the street fight. There is no record of Seiko or Sumi boarding a plane at JFK, certainly no arrival in Tokyo. Where are they? Who are they?”

“We wonder about things, too, Master.” Suki said, “Much was unsaid. What is behind the locked door? What is in the office?”

“I suppose we won’t know until we get there. When everyone gets up, pass the word to Amy to pack up the leftovers from last night. We’ll work on the salads for lunch and reheat the rest for dinner.”

“Should we do it for you ourselves?” Suki asked.

“No. You work for me, not the house. Amy is head housekeeper and my office assistant. I might tell her to make coffee. I don’t tell her how to do it. If she asks you to help, do. Otherwise, stay out of her way. She does a good job and I don’t want to infringe on her territory. She makes me happy the way she does things. I let her do it her way.” I amended. “You can always volunteer to help anyone, anytime. That’s just being a friend.”

“So if you change things, she thinks you don’t like the job she is doing and will question herself?” Yumi posed. “If she displeased you, would you say something?”

“Of course, but she doesn’t very often, and then it is from improper directions or inexperience.” I smirked this time, “My happiness is important to her, too. Any issues are resolved to the satisfaction of all.”

We munched and mused until just after 8:00. “Time to move, my lades. I’ll be downstairs in the office if anyone needs me. If Mr. Gonzales and I wind up early, we leave early assuming the ride is here.”

The rest of the morning went smoothly. The meeting with Albert concluded in record time. Sumi had dotted all the eyes and crossed all the tees, no hitches, and no glitches. Another reason to suspect the Tanakas didn’t throw this together at the last minute. We agreed to keep the documents relating to the restaurant in my safe. Allyn Holdings did not need the heat.

Amy not only packed lunch and dinner, she asked my pets how their kitchen was stocked. All we needed was coffee for breakfast. She wanted to stop along the way for OJ and milk. The house had tons of snacks and sodas. We were good to go.

Laura had the bus ready to load at 9:00. I liked it. About the size of the archetypal ‘short bus’ of public school fame, it was lower and more streamlined. Kevlar insulation, bulletproof tires and windows, turbocharged Diesel engine and seating for twenty-eight, with decent storage space in the rear, behind the last row of seats. The very coolest feature: I could operate it from my smart phone like a drone. I copied the app from her tablet computer.

She passed out earwigs to all the girls. “These link you all together. Click the button on the base to switch to the team channel, otherwise it’s private. The carry case is a field effect charger, 110v/12v adaptable. Plug it in to keep it charged. Store the earwigs there when not in use.”

“We’re going to be a ways away. What’s the range?”

“Our new science guy, Nell Nye, installed a repeater in the bus and several more around the city. The new range is clear comms within fifty miles of Battery Park. You haven’t met Nell. She stepped in for Miller who took a consultant post at Boeing. She was doing the installs while in the wings.”

“I crave the bus. Is it for sale?”

“It was. We bought it. Freddie uparmored it. Secure transportation is a good thing in the bodyguard business. Nothing but the best for Ten Penny!” She smirked. “Amy mentioned, when I called your office with our ETA, she needed to stop on the way. We picked up four gallons each before getting here. Coolers in the rear.”

“Thanks for that and for buying the bus. Now I don’t have to sweat parking. My girls want to use the lot behind Chandler’s Row for practice space.”

“The team likes the name. Lends itself to code. You get a note saying, ‘Clapboard, bad underlayment, replace sillcock, closet bolts loose, fascias looked fine. Remodel.’ What do you read?”

“Old carpenter talk. If I didn’t know better, it would like a preliminary inspector’s report. Clapboard siding is pronounced ‘clabbered’, like sour milk. A sillcock is an outdoor faucet. So I think the situation went bad, in the toilet based on incorrect intelligence, look for spies leaking info but it looked good on the surface. Bail and try later.”

“Curses, foiled again.” She grinned, “Back to encryption.”

“Encrypt the carpenter code. If someone decodes clapboard, who knows how to pronounce it? A sillcock just sounds dirty. A closet bolt holds a toilet down. There’s plenty of obscure stuff to work with.”

The girls began to stream out and load up. “It will settle out later. Keys are in the ignition. You folks get on the road. Call when you get home.” Laura got in the SUV with Blender. “We’ll follow as far as the ferry slip.”

Each girl had a backpack, overnight bag or both. Airwear for twenty girls didn’t take up that much space. Amy had two coolers and a carton of spare generic clothing. I packed for me while the teens, etc., were getting settled.

The house alarmed and locked, we were rolling before 9:00.

There is a reason mass transit works in New York. Because surface traffic sucks toads. Rush hour on Saturday in Manhattan is not fun. Add a bus, deluxe that it was, I had never driven, twenty curious girls, suicidal pedestrians and homicidal drivers, you get the picture. I wouldn’t buy the wallet sizes.

The chitchat of the girls topped the radio for entertainment.

At least the trip down the west side was not too bad. Midtown was an eternal nightmare. This was a mere scary dream, but no one died and the sheet metal survived. I’ll bet Laura and Belinda were laughing their asses off. I got in line at the ferry and waved them off.

Out bound traffic was light, so we drove on, paid the fare and hit the harbor. I don’t recall how long it took; too busy gawking like a tourist. The scenery was pretty cool. The Statue of Liberty wasn’t bad either. I missed the Twin Towers. The downtown skyline looked wrong.

We debarked at the slip and drove to the security patrol building. Yumi knew the way. I had the girls stay in the bus while I registered as the new owner, paid the fees in advance and asked questions. The office staff was cool and professional, friendly and business-like.

Everything was OK until I inquired about the cost for extra drive bys. “We don’t give special treatment to anyone. In this neighborhood, the residents are the quietly very well off types. Earned wealth, no flashy stars or spoiled rich kids, real people. They pay well and expect the best. Everyone gets special treatment.” Pia Sunstrom, the manager said, a little hot. “That is the only kind we offer.”

“That makes me very happy, ma’am. It means aid is always close if needed. I am responsible for the safety of those students and I take that responsibility seriously. I also take their privacy seriously. I bought the walled estate with that in mind. Your reputation was a selling point.” I attempted to mollify them. “I meant no offence, but I had to know if real protection costs extra. Good service is always promised. Damn good service, as a normal way to do business, is rare. I am in the cyber security field and always look twice. I’m sure you understand why I had to ask.”

“If you know security, then you know why we’re asking the next questions. Can you predict your schedule, will there be a caretaker, and can we expect drop-ins?” She grinned.

“Knowing what traffic to expect makes changes and anomalies stand out. Servers and roads, traffic is traffic.” I answered. “I plan to have caretakers, but none have passed the interviews. Drop-ins are out. If I don’t call you beforehand, visitors are unwelcome. We may be out here once or twice a month to get away from school, varying groups of kids. Is that out of the norm?”

“Pretty good answers to start. The previous owners had no visitors of which we are aware, but we have been on this job for just five years. Before that, we have no record. They have three kids, but we saw them only in the car going back and forth. Beyond that, we saw the mother when she paid the bill, and barely then. Big hats, heavy make-up, and over-sized sunglasses, like she was a movie star in hiding.” She paused. “We do a normal background check on our clients in order to anticipate threats. It’s in the service contract. We also tell new residents who may suffer carryover issues because of the location. Revenge seekers who missed the change-of-address notice could turn up at a bad time.”

“I assume they passed or you would be saying more.”

“Not necessarily. People are entitled to privacy and these people valued theirs. We simply alert new owners to a potential threat, nothing else. I will say the Tanakas’ history is clean, a little vague in places, but nothing criminal popped up. If law enforcement is cool, we’re cool. We don’t judge.”

“Check me out. I did read the contract. The first week or so, while we’re settling in, you may see a dark government-looking SUV or two. I do some contract work for nervous alphabet agencies and they are interested in my internal security.” I filled in some blanks. “Don’t be surprised. There may be a truck or three at the beginning as we turn the building into a living/study space for as many as two dozen students.”

“In that vein, we are not in the general aviation flight paths, and we forbid drones. In fact we have two marine radar setups to track and trace violators. They cover the Island well. Snoopers are discouraged. Patrols are trained and carry firearms but have never had to draw a weapon. Surveillance cameras on all roads and one near each driveway.”

“What use is an unarmed guard? How secure are your feeds?” I probed. “Would you know if you were hacked or cloned?”

“Insider questions. Are you a Fed?” She looked at my name on her form a little harder than before and started laughing. “As secure as you could make them, Mr. Allyn of Zephyr Security Systems. Our parent company employs yours. You know the system but need to know the operators. This kind of makes your background check a waste of time.”

“You passed my first look yourselves. I should have checked you out deeper. Who is the parent company?”

“Safe Havens Patrol out of Bridgeport.”

“They bought new user licenses and discs about two years ago. This must be the new branch. I only monitor for problems in the background, so this operation is clean. No red flags. Congrats!” I laughed. “We are Zephyr Consulting, Security, Computers, Systems or whatever else people want to call us, it’s all Zephyr. Really Zephyr Computer Systems is the actual name, but an alias never hurts.”

“Not new, upgraded about twenty months ago and running smooth as silk. Before then, we delivered first class service, but it was a lot more difficult. Your work is almost as good as ours.”

“I remember what you have here. I shipped the system to Bob Everheart. Marine radar, cameras, two servers, central control set, motion detection-switching views, random patrol schedules, instant comms, top notch crew and oversight from HQ.” I laughed this time. “I want the best for the school classes. Certain people dislike my company. Ill will is contagious. I would rather they not know how to find us. Make it difficult.”

“Trouble stops at the border. Your low-key neighbors are like you. Some have pushy competitors. We ended a kidnap attempt and several home invasions when the homeowners were away. Low budget crooks avoid us. We are their bad neighborhood.”

We parted on good terms. Colleagues on the same team.

Back in the bus, the girls were hooting. “He likes us, he likes us!” Patty shouted.

“Master has been protecting us for the last two years by proxy. Even when Seiko and Sumi were away for days.” Suki laughed, then sobered. “Sorry, but it is kinda funny.”

“Tell it to the choir, sister.” Diane wasn’t laughing. “I lived in an empty nest, too, but I could come and go. That’s more than you girls had.”

“It’s not all bad, Diane. We didn’t miss what we never had.” Yumi’s face held a small smile. “We wondered what it was like to be the people on TV, but decided they spent too much time getting out of trouble any person with half a brain could have avoided.”

Mika laughed openly. “Whatever this ‘freedom’ was that Americans talked about must be complicated because lots of them couldn’t handle it. Were we the only Americans who were free to not be dumb? We freely chose to turn the TV off and go swimming.”

“Even if you girls think it’s odd for us to be Master’s property, we have more freedom now than you can imagine and great friends to play with.”

Jenny perked up. “Leah and I were on the verge of the same fate as Diane and you. Our folks were covertly seeking a way to get us out of their lives. The invitation to have a sleepover at Zephyr house was the tipping point and they gave us to Mark as completely as Sumi did you.”

“So Jenny and I are nearly the same as you three and Caralyn, with a different name.”

“It is kinda funny, after all, that Master was watching out for you.” Caralyn agreed. “He rescues girls he doesn’t know about yet.”

That was enough. “How ‘bout getting us to the Hill House?”

“Straight ahead. Second left. Seventh gate.” Suki said.

Staten Island is not small. It was a long way but we got there and drove in after entering the gate code on the keypad. At the end of a curved, wooded driveway, the house was centered against a hill about 120’ wide and 40’ tall. The driveway extended past the entry, rounded the hill and continued up the shallow rise to the top. I assumed there was a turnaround up there, maybe a parking space or two.

In a way Frank Lloyd Wright would have appreciated, it looked half organic and half man-made. Stair steps climbing the hill, third level even with the flattened hilltop, the pool pavilion capping it off. I’m glad it was given to me. It would cost millions on the open market. Property taxes were going to be huge.

“Girls, where do we start, top or bottom?”

“It’s better to enter here.” Yumi answered. “We can work our way to the top and play in the pool. You’ll be the first ones to see where we lived.”

“There are three bedrooms on the third floor, three never-used guest rooms and the master bedroom on the second and common areas on the first. Put your stuff wherever, we’ll figure sleeping later.” Suki elected herself tour guide.

Amy plugged the charger into an open outlet in the living room. “Pull ‘em out and put ‘em in, girls. We don’t need them here and fully charged is good.” She must read my mind.

We toured the entire abode in about ten minutes. I waited until the girls put their stuff in every room except the master bedroom, so I chose that, for the ultra plush bed and the access to the hidden room. Yumi told me how to open the door, but I left exploration for after checking out the offices.

“I saw two bathrooms connected to the big bedroom. Who used which?” Once I knew, I collected the hairbrushes, toothbrushes and underwear from the hampers. I had my DNA exemplars. With sterile (unopened box) Q-tips® from the medicine chest, I got multiple cheek swabs from all the sisters. Everything went into freezer bags, stored in my briefcase.

Explaining, I told them of my doubts and why. “The birth records were my first clue. Legal, registered at the same time, but a year after you twins were born and two months after Mika. Why no medical histories? Are the names filled in correctly?”

“It would be good to know the answers, but except for future tissue matches, it doesn’t matter much.” Yumi said. “And if what I suspect is true, we won’t be getting organ donations from the remains of the people formerly known as our parents if they were related at all.”