Chapter 6

That night we made plans on entering on the twenty-seventh. That Good Friday began their Easter break from school. No one was allowed to enter the other Portals until April first when the Presidential Executive Order became active, anyway.

On the first, they would take off from school and we would all head to the SS to get our licenses. Our dungeoneering schedule was planned for the next two weeks or so. Subdued, the three kept the conversation on business and Portal hunting. The Terrible Trio left for home the next day after a late lunch of steak and salad, and hopefully to do homework, but I wasn’t that hopeful from their conversation.

I did receive three individual texts scattered throughout the evening with very similar messages of, ‘sorry I didn’t trust you.’ Or something damned close. I didn’t believe for a second that they didn’t collaborate on those.

While eating dinner, I sent in a request to enter the Portal in Katie’s old apartment for the four of us to the Chicago police department, who was overseeing that location, since the military backed off and consolidated to guard their most promising locations.

Surprisingly, we received approval the next morning. I had thought that they would be swamped with requests. Maybe, since it was an Indigo instead of a Violet Portal, there were less requests for them. Later on, I learned that few actual teams were formed and when the Weapons, which was what we were still being called, tried to reserve a spot with incomplete information, they outright rejected it. The solos and two person teams failed to get approval. Requests with team names only and no member names and or classes listed, were also rejected straight away.

That I listed our classes along with our names and IDs was probably the reason we shot to the head of the list. I replied to the acceptance email with a request to permanently reserve that Portal for the group of four of us.

Permanent they would not do, a thirty-day reservation was currently the maximum time that we could hold a portal in our names.

That morning when I received approval, I sent in a Proposal to automate the Portal request site.

It should have been active once the license numbers were assigned, yet wasn’t. A simple program of inputting the location along with the individual team ID numbers should have been all that was required by the Chicago PD. Since they had to have a coordinate system already mapped out, matching the lists with the names should have been a piece of cake.

They didn’t have anything active or in place, which gave me hope for some easy money and a definite advantage of knowing the Portal locations in the Chicago area. My 25K price tag and 10-day delivery had them jumping, at least based on the almost instant reply that was sent to me. I didn’t have to even worry about security since it would be behind their servers and firewalls.

A few phone calls and two hours later; I had an appointment the following morning at Cook County Courthouse to make my proposal.

My meeting with the Illinois State Police internet security head and a few others went well. After that first night, the state police had taken over the Portal exploration requests from the cities. The states, not just Illinois, would oversee the Portal admission.

They were even willing to give me the map and coordinates of all the Illinois’s Portals, in file form, making the program even easier, since I now had a source list to work with. Their Information Service Department, was very professional, just overworked and understaffed, according to the Engineer at the meeting.

I was in and out in just over four hours with all their requirements in hand. None onerous. I was even given the master list up front. Surprisingly, there were even three blue portals and a green one, not mine, on the list. The blues and green were all commandeered by the armed forces. Those were to be labeled in gray, with no coordinates provided on the website. The Indigo and Violet Portals that the military and police claimed were to be listed, just unavailable for entry or reservation. The Chicago area had a lot more Portals than anyone acknowledged or knew of, outside of the halls of authority.

That was the main reason I bid so low, I now had access to all the Portal colors and locations statewide.

I called the Terrible Trio and let them know I would be putting in late hours for the next week. I had a rush job to work on, they could visit, just don’t expect me to be able to spend a ton of time with them.

I shot an email to Paula letting her know of my new Project. I suggested that she try and get her dad to sell it to the Florida State police. Any other ones too.

By Friday, nine other states accepted our bid. They all used the same system as specified by the FBI and the National Police Association that Illinois did. Any Department could take our program and insert their list of Portal locations and they would mesh. The license of 25k per year was cheap in their eyes. I grinned at Paula’s complaint of undercharging.

“I forgot,” she typed, “you were limping that day. You have a Weapon too, don’t you?”

I returned an evil smiley face on the Instant Messenger.

“Now it makes sense. Do you have a good team?”

“They seem nice. They are high schoolers, but one is a Healer. That makes up for the rest, and bringing a Healer in with me is a huge safety net.”

“Just be safe.”

“I will and thanks.”

Georgia Bell, my counterpart at the Illinois PD, was a gossiper. She would chat about everything and anything, I had added her to my IM and she would complain about the world if I let her. Thankfully she was as busy most of the time during the day and we didn’t chat much outside of breaks and lunches.

The day before I was going to submit my Project, I was still in the testing phase. Georgia Instant Messaged me, crying. The state police’s ‘A team’, hadn’t returned. It had been fifteen days and no response. They entered an Indigo and were on the fourth floor for the first time.

No one knew what they found. Just that the fourth floor in the Indigo Portal killed all six of the best police officers in the state of Illinois.

No one knew what happened or what they faced. The previous floors took a day with their team of six. I asked if they had a Healer and she said they didn’t. There were only a couple in all of the state that they knew of. Since Healers didn’t have an attack, none of them wanted to enter the Portals. Only the military was reported to have a more than the rumored half dozen found in each state, and even then, they were scarce.

She abruptly ended the session, reminding me not to tell anyone!

I, of course, agreed to keep mum when she brought it up later.

Neither Paula nor I could find any bugs in my hastily assembled Program. All good. I submitted the program to my customers and her father to Paula’s customers. I took one seventy-five of the two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars; the rest went to Paula and her father. I was more than happy, Paula wasn’t and protested at length.

No, she didn’t do any of the programming, but it was her end, that sold it beyond my home state. I only cared about Illinois, but her father pushed out to the rest of the Midwest, Georgia and both Carolinas making all of us a good deal of easy money. Hell, with her father’s connections, Paula could have built the same program and sold it to all of those states herself and kept all the money between the two of them.

Ten, fourteen-hour days was well worth the return. I had stolen most of the Project from other programs from earlier projects anyway. I just needed to blend all the stolen parts together. Since they were all written by me, I didn’t have any problems doing that.

Hell, most of it came from a college assignment.

The best part was the interface, it was easy to use on both ends. My contact had given me the go-ahead, as soon as she saw it.

The Terrible Trio were patient with me during my work blitz.

...

Of course, when dealing with State or city bursars, payment was 90 days...

I was playing Call of Duty Tuesday morning when a soft knock landed on my door. Jude was standing on the steps with her head down. A Sox hat was pulled low, and large sunglasses covered what her disheveled hair didn’t. The skittish girl asked if she could come in without looking up. With a bad feeling, I opened the storm door and let her in.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“The guest room has clean sheets. Why don’t you take a nap?”

“thanks,” Jude uttered. Without an additional word, she slowly eased down the hall. Her posture wasn’t the best as she walked by me. She had to have been beaten up pretty badly.

A little bit of Vodka, a lot of orange juice and four extra-strength aspirins gathered, I headed down the hall to see a wounded little girl.

*Knock, Knock, “can I come in? I have aspirin.”

“Sure,” she sounded muffled and sad.

Curled up away from me, Jude didn’t react, her hair conveniently lay across the side of her face obscuring as much as possible.

“I brought aspirin and a vodka lite with orange juice. It should help with the pain and make napping easier.”

“thanks.”

“Do you need me to take pictures?”

“No, I’ll be free in May when I graduate.”

“What about Katie?”

“She has a test in sixth hour. I’ll text her after school.”

“I have shampoo, conditioner and bodywash along with a loofah in the guest bathroom. Feel free to raid my closet for something to wear.”

“Thanks.”

“I don’t have any work today. You don’t have anything to worry about and I had no plans on going anywhere. Just rest.”

“Thanks.”

I removed the TV remote from the dresser and placed it beside the bed. If she wanted to stay in her room all day and watch TV, that was fine by me.

The shiner on her left eye was new and stark when Jude came out of my spare room after I announced lunch was ready. I heard the TV on low, so I figured that the poor battered girl was awake before calling her. Accepting my offer of a team up Call of Duty, we spent the afternoon killing the on-screen bad guys until Katie arrived after school.

Withdrawing her Staff, our team Healer, Healed her friend. I suspected that there were more wounds than she let me know since everything was handled in the bedroom, away from my curious eyes.

Fully dressed, both girls exited my spare bedroom. “Can you drive me to my job? I have to babysit today,” Jude asked emotionless.

“Sure.”

As an explanation after we returned to my home, Katie just shrugged and said, “It’s her choice.”

“Any word on your Stepfather?”

“He said he would try and make graduation. He won’t though. I think he hopes I’ll move out before he comes back.”

“I have a spare bedroom, if any of you need.”

“Thanks. I’m safe. Nat is good with her apartment. Jude can’t leave until she turns eighteen on April twelfth.”

“Was she planning on moving to Nat’s then?”

“Yeah. Nat’s place is trash but she can sleep on the couch without getting hit.”

“Can I ask what happened to her father?”

“New family. Doesn’t want her. Besides, Jude isn’t even his.”

“Oh.” Lovely.

“Her mom slept around. Nurses are all messed up. Jude’s dad is black. Mom’s white. Does Jude look like she has a black dad?”

“Why does her mom hit her?”

“Does she need a reason?” Kate bit back, somewhat hostilely.

I didn’t bite on her anger. “Yes. There is never a good enough reason to hit a child that way. That’s not punishment. That’s abuse.”

“Her mom always has hit her,” Kate shrugged, as if she had no control over Jude’s actions. “Nothing we could do, unless she wanted to go to the orphanage or let the state place her somewhere even worse.” Kate didn’t stay at my house long. The more time I spent with these three, the more mature and unfortunate they seemed.

When I drove her home after dropping Jude off, I said, “good night Kate,” she hesitated and then offered me a partial smile before heading inside.

As fucked up as my parents were, I’m glad that they never resorted to violence. Just needing to pay them back for everything was bad enough.

...

“Mom thinks I am sleeping around.” Passing over her phone to her friend, she made Kate say hi into it. Her serious friend obliged. The conversation was short on Kate’s end.

More like a check in, than a conversation. When the three came over Thursday night, before our next portal run, I made sure that they all stuffed themselves. We gorged on burgers, salad, and ice cream that night, while discussing preparations.

The trio had mechanical watches and a few card games to bring with them for the long rest periods. Nothing electronic or gunpowder powered worked inside of the Portals. The self-winding kid’s watches that I gifted each of them caused them to laugh. Those were the only ones I could find for girls without spending a fortune. I never realized the issue until they brought it up, since my normal watch was self-winding. I found a decent one in my price range and wore it for the last couple years. It was a movement-winding Chronograph that I discovered online one afternoon while waiting for a compilation to run.

Our team’s second run in my Green Portal was in some ways both easier and harder. Easier communication and execution wise, harder in that every hut had a married pair of Orcs and half the huts included three occupants.

They also seemed to be more on guard.

No magic items or specials were found in our second team run. The Terrible Trio was thrilled at the 380 exp (experience) from all the kills, the Boss fell a lot faster with our improved coordination. As a team we were progressing quite well.

They were sitting at 890 exp and were chomping at the bit for another run. None of them were dumb enough or over eager on suggesting to enter the second floor on my Green Portal.

“How many points do we need for Second Level?” Nat asked while we looked over the unchanging Store.

“2500.”

“Ew./ Damn./ That many?”

“That’s what I said,” I felt it was high.

“How many experience points do you need for Level 3?” Kate asked, fearing the answer.

“Seven hundred and thirty.”

“What the hell?” Jude jumped in.

“My solo runs here gave me almost 900 experience.”

“Wow. So much?”

“We each received 380 this time. That’s 1520 if one of us were to solo, instead of teaming up.”

“That’s huge!” Nat interjected.

“Jase, you aren’t going without us, are you?” Nat was suspicious of my higher experience.

“How could I? Ten days between openings, remember? Besides, it’s more fun as a team.” And safer. “And I have been swamped at work lately, remember?”

“Dummy,” Jude lightly kicked her bombastic friend.

“Jase wouldn’t do that,” Kate declared with certainty. Surprisingly, Jude nodded in agreement.

“Let’s go, I need a shower.”

“Dibs./ Dibs.”

Jude and I were left out of the initial entry this time around.

Nat wasn’t much of a pizza person, since she ate it free every day she worked. Thus, we had burgers and salad for dinner.

“Mom called yesterday. She is going to freak. I didn’t call her back right away and she will go ballistic when I get home.”

“She called me too,” Kate volunteered.

“Great. I have to go.”

“Shower first, I can drive you home.”

“Take us to Katie’s. We will call from there; I’ll just say my battery died.” On her phone.

All three left together, after scarfing burgers and taking a quick shower. For me, their graduation was more important than April first. The licenses could wait, but their safety was an issue. I seriously disliked their living arrangements, not that I could do much about it.

Almost exactly an hour later, I fielded a call from Katie. Jude was kicked out of her house, and she asked me to help her move into Nat’s place. Kate gave me directions and an address. I hopped in the car with a few garbage bags and a few other necessities. On the way out, I snatched my voice recorder that I used for notes.

Exiting the car, I turned the recorder on and stated my name date and time. Kate rushed to meet me, giving me a hug as soon as I closed the car door.

“They are fighting inside. I came out to watch for you.”

There were piles of clothes on the small brick front porch. Kate walked right in, I followed, only to be deafened by an older woman, screeching at her daughter, using language that would get her thrown off any sports field in the world. Cigarette smoke filled the short foyer, along with a certain overbleached odor. Taking me by the hand, Kate led me to Jude’s bedroom. The shockingly faded pink room was torn apart, with clothes and knickknacks, forming a small pile on the bed.

Jude had a scratch over her eye, along with a bruise forming around it. She was trying to defend her small, childhood jewelry box from her mother’s clutches.

“Who the fuck are you?” Mrs. Smith was dressed in green medical scrubs and physically intimidating her daughter, in thought word and deed.

Maybe she won’t actually hit Jude while I am present. I can always hope.

“Jason, I’m a friend of Kate’s. I’m here to help Kate’s friend move.” I replied to the strung-out overbearing woman, glaring between Kate and I.

“Jude, I brought some black garbage bags. Do you need help?”

“Get the fuck out of my house!” the too on-edge woman screamed at me.

Tossing the bags on the bed beside the mound of clothes, I thought that getting out of here fast was better than bagging Jude’s clothes. “Let me take an armload of those,” I gestured at too-small pile on the bed. “Can you come with me and help me sort the other piles on the porch? Bring what’s in your hands too.”

Arms full, I stepped between the mother daughter pair, blocking off Jude’s mother and giving Jude a clean avenue of egress. She quickly snuck through the opening I made.

With elbows out, I slowly followed my friend, keeping the screaming and verbally threatening woman behind me.

Stopping in the hall, I stated, “Ma’am, if you hit me one more time, I will hit you so hard that you won’t wake up for years,” I threatened clearly. She had hit me, ineffectively, six times. I had counted each after the fact.

“Jude, get in the car,” I commanded, once outside the bleach, smoke and alcohol-infested house. Jude’s mother came to the porch, screaming obscenities at the three of us. I ignored the scene and had a worried Kate help me put Jude’s clothes in the two contractor garbage bags I had left with her. The knickknacks, bundled along with her clothes I carried, took even less room in those overlarge black bags than I expected.

The police arrived before Kate and I closed the trunk of clothes. I already had a headache from that woman’s shrill, top-of-her-lung, curses.

A male and female CPD partner-pair parked behind me, making sure I didn’t drive off before they were finished speaking with us. I instructed Jude to stay in the car, and waited.

“What’s going on here?” the female police officer asked with exaggerated calmness.

“The mother threw out her soon-to-be eighteen-year-old daughter. I’m a friend of her friend and was asked to help the daughter relocate. The mother has been belligerent and abusive since I arrived five minutes ago.”

“Where’s the kid?”

“She’s in the car. She was crying earlier.”

“Jude will be eighteen in a couple weeks. Her mom hits her, but she doesn’t want to press charges. Can you let her go?” Kate pleaded.

“Lies! That slut is out all night...” and off she went, forgetting that Jude was in my back seat bruised and bleeding.

I pulled out my wallet and handed over my driver’s license to the cop, “I have a spare bedroom. She can stay with me. That’s my address, you are free to come and check on her at any time,” I offered.

The male cop flashed a light inside and looked at the hunched over girl. Giving both Kate and I a look over, the pair asked us to wait and went to attempt to calm the mother down.

Which didn’t happen.

Domestic abuse stops for the police were always the worst, according to what I had heard.

They ran my license on the in-car computer and after a few questions and answers by Jude who remained huddled in the backseat of my car, albeit with the window rolled down, I was allowed to take her to my house.

Once inside, I received a quiet, ‘thank you,’ from Jude.

Jude moved into my guest room that night. Whether or not I wanted a houseguest, I now had one. Since it was Easter vacation for the high schools, they didn’t have classes the rest of the week, giving her time to settle in.

Child Protection Services (CPS) stopped by the next afternoon. Kate was still here and had been instructed not to heal her friend. My house was visually scanned by the overworked woman, who exhibited no signs of humanity.

I believed that the only reason that she didn’t haul Jude off was that it would create more paperwork for the woman than simply leaving her here. That, and Jude only had a couple of weeks until her eighteenth birthday, rendering any of her so-called help moot.

The questions asked of me were perfunctory and brief. The woman didn’t even care what I answered, her mind was made up. (She was positive that I would be turning the girl out for tricks, or just plain out raping her.) The supposed two-hour-long visit lasted twenty-five minutes, the minimum possible, I guessed. Unless something explosive happened, I knew we would not be seeing that woman again. She didn’t even leave a card for either of us, just some paperwork.

Such a great system to protect our lost and abused children the country instituted.

“Quit mothering me! I’m fine,” was heard from Jude’s bedroom while I was in the living room. Kate struck again. She had basically invited herself to move in, supposedly to watch over Jude (and me).

I loaded up a racing game on the Xbox and tuned out the girls.

Both tiptoed around the house (and me) for the next couple of days. Regardless of what I said or did, both acted like scared mice. I didn’t understand the change in their attitude nor behavior.

“Listen. I’m not going to bite, nor will I kick you out if you make noise or break something. My office is off limits. That is where I make a living and have proprietary information stored. There’s exercise equipment downstairs. Feel free to use it while you’re here.”

Silence...

“I’m going grocery shopping in an hour, and you’re both coming.” I didn’t know why Kate had not left Jude’s side these last couple days and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. But since she was here, she could help with the mundane.

“Jude, Kate; since you are staying here, I’ll pay for food and your necessities, like makeup and girl stuff. But I expect you to help keep the house clean and make lunch and dinner. Consider it your rent.”

I wasn’t sure, but I felt a slight thawing of their shields.

Groceries, snacks, shampoo, makeup, women’s health products and whatnot. I ordered both to get what they wanted from the grocery store, followed by a drug store a stop later.

I was saddened that they still didn’t trust me. Possibly it was just Jude who didn’t trust. I wasn’t sure, but I wouldn’t have bet the farm on it.

“Would you be happier with me living in a hotel for the three weeks until you can move out?” I asked Jude, while making hamburger patties with the three pounds of meat, most to be frozen until later.

“It’s your house.”

“But you are clearly not comfortable living here with me in it,” I tried to be reasonable and failed. She refused to leave her room less than fully clothed, extra layers too. Even Kate would sneak to the kitchen or bathroom in one of my old shirts. Their quick trip to Kate’s apartment yielded two gym bags of necessities and clothes for her weeklong stay at my place while Jude acclimated.

“Sorry.”

“Jude, do you trust me with your life in the Portals?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you honestly believe that I will rape you?”

The word RAPE floated in the air, seemingly echoing in the kitchen.

“Not really.”

“I’m not going to hit you. You don’t think I will rape you. Then what are you afraid of?”

“Nothing, I guess.”

Softening my tone, “it’s not nothing, if you are that scared.”

“Home has never been safe.”

Ah.

“I’m not your mother. I hope not, at least.” My half jest didn’t do any good.

Silence...

“I’m glad that you can think of my house as your home,” I caught that implication, and wondered if she did, “but please, for both of our sakes, try and relax. Katie has been hovering over you, terrified that you will break down or do something stupid.” Pointing to the hall where Kate stood half hiding, “look at her. She does do a mother hen pretty well, doesn’t she?”

A ghost of a smile flashed across Jude’s face.

“That’s a start. Why don’t you two play with my Xbox for a while. I need to do some work and will be in my office until dinner.” I finished up the patties and left them to the run of the house.

Woosh...

The TV was loud, but I didn’t mind. I didn’t have any work to do. I just guessed that giving them space, while I locked myself in my office, would help her in letting go of that repressed state. Hopefully, Kate could help with that as well.

Later, I heard the front door open while eating a quiet meal of burgers and fruit salad. Slamming it behind her, Nat called out, “fucking Yonnie didn’t pay the gas bill. No ovens to cook pizzas, so no work for me.” Stopping, she looked around the kitchen with a frown sensing the tension, “what did you do?”

Blame it on me...

“I think Jude is having issues settling in. I’ll be working in my office.” Taking my plate and Coke, I exited my small dining room, leaving those three alone to talk.

As a halfhearted attempt at reconciliation, Jude offered, “You don’t have to go, it’s okay.”

I left anyway. The noticeable lack of trust, after everything I had done for them, was grating my patience.

“What’s up with him?” I heard from the kitchen as I closed the door to my office.

I kicked back and played ‘Gremlins.Inc’, while reading up on the latest on computer hardware. I sometimes played this online board game, while waiting for a program to compile; it was an enjoyable, non-attention-demanding distraction.

Even before I finished my dinner, a soft knock tapped on my door.

“Enter.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You had an emotional week. I’d just prefer that you didn’t take it out on me.”

“I can’t help it.”

“Talk to your friends. That is what they are there for.”

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No. But treating me as if I am about to attack you, isn’t right either.”

“Sorry.”

“Go talk to them. Honesty can’t hurt you.”

A little openness too. But that might be too much to ask for.

“Okay,” Jude gently closed the door behind her.

I was still irritated. I could have been more tolerant, so that was on me, but, they all were pissing me off.

An hour and half later, a solid knock on my door startled me.

“Come in.”

“Come with me,” Natalie ordered.

“Where are we going?”

“Your bedroom.” That was a surprise, “Jason, please come.”

Fine.

“What are you up to?” I did follow the mischievous girl to my room.

She shut the door behind me, “take off your shirt.”

“Why?”

“Just do it. It’s for Jude. She’s hurting.”

I did.

“Oh my. That is delicious.”

I smacked the stupid girl upside the head, “Jude, remember?”

“Sorry, I got distracted. Are you wearing boxers?”

“Yes,” I wasn’t sure I liked the way this was going.

“Pants off. Where are your ties?”

“Why do you want my ties?” I hadn’t moved.

“To tie you up of course.”

“Explain.”

“Jude-girl has a problem; her home life has always been unsafe.”

“And?”

“At home, she is afraid of everything.”

“And?”

“If we tie you up, you can’t hurt her.”

“Go on.” What went on that girl’s head?

“She gives you a massage while you can’t move. You can’t attack her. If she does that for a few weeks, she will get used to you and no longer be afraid.”

“Uh-huh. And what about the times I am not tied up?”

“That’s the tricky part. After a few days, we untie a leg, then another, then an arm, then the other. You get massages and she learns that you aren’t bad.”

I guess she didn’t understand what I meant.

“Have you brought this idea up to her?”

“Yup. She agreed to try it.”

“And Katie?”

Nat shrugged, “she agreed to try.” I felt the reluctance in Kate’s agreement second hand.

“Please just give it a try, Jason. Jude has to stay with you until she is eighteen. If the team gets messed up, all of us are screwed.”

And thus, the real reason.