Chapter 74

Ken wondered what it was with teen girls and malls. This was the fifth outfit Tina had tried on and she seemed dissatisfied with all of them. Tina had always seemed indifferent to what she wore -- to a certain point. She dressed nicely and to show off her body a bit, but she didn't go overboard with keeping up with the latest style. Today, however, she seemed to be looking for something special, and every outfit had come up short. Ken had asked once if he could help, but his Priestess just glared at him, so he left the store and sat down on a bench. He was uneasy, but couldn't pinpoint why, although he was sure that it had nothing to do with Tina's current mood. Just then she emerged from the store.

"Can we go now?" she asked.

"You didn't find what you were looking for?" asked Ken.

"No."

"Is there another store you want to go to?"

"No."

"Okay," he said with a shrug.

They walked out into the parking garage and Ken's uneasiness increased. Just as they reached his car, the door to the van parked next to it opened, and two men stepped out. A quick glance confirmed two more coming up from behind him. They were all Tankers, no doubt thinking they could take him down and grab Tina.

Ken looked around and saw the area was mostly empty of people. No doubt they'd planned on quickly putting him down and grabbing Tina. If they'd been going after a normal girl, they probably would have gotten away with it easily. But Tina wasn't normal, and she wasn't alone, so it wasn't going to go the way they thought.

"Don't give us shit or we'll cut you and really fuck her up," said one of the men. He was tall, greasy looking and held a very large knife like he knew how to use it. "And if she screams and I'll gut you like a pig."

Ken glanced at Tina. She was pale and trembling, which wasn't too much of a surprise. He sighed, looking over his shoulder. The other two men were armed as well.

"This is a bad idea," said Ken.

He wanted to move before the other two were in range, but didn't feel right about attacking first. The man who hadn't spoken snickered and reached for Tina, who spun and started to run away.

The man with the knife never even saw Ken move. In fact, the only thing he did see was his friend dropping to the ground, screaming in pain. Then the hand holding his knife went numb and everything went black.

Ken spun around after dropping the two men. A swift kick to the knee ensured the first he'd gone after wouldn't be chasing Tina while he was occupied. He'd broken the wrist of the idiot who'd been holding the knife, then used a swift chop behind the ear to drop him to the ground. By that time though, the two men had grabbed Tina.

She was initially still as a rabbit, her face pale and shocked. Ken reached out to her, seeing in her mind that there was some weird memory making her freeze with terror. Not knowing how, he blanketed it.

This turned out to be not so good for her captors. The bad news was that Ken was between the men and their van. The worse news was that Tina was no longer frozen with fear.

She slumped, turning her body into dead weight, which surprised the man who had to bend forward a bit because she was heavier than she looked. Unfortunately, when he did that his head went forward and Tina snapped hers back, shattering his nose. He dropped her.

"Fuck!" he yelled.

His partner, startled, tried to grab Tina, but she stepped forward out of reach with her left foot, then mule kicked the first man with her right. She caught him right in the gut and he went down. Ken winced knowing that she'd probably done some serious damage. Oh well. With a quick glance to make sure she wasn't being followed, Tina ran towards Ken, who was standing there with his arms folded.

"There's still one more," he said.

Tina looked at him in shock.

"What?"

"There's still one more left," he said. "You need to deal with him."

She turned around looking at the man who was trying to help his friend, then looked back at Ken, her eyes wide.

"Can't we just go?"

"Okay," he said with a shrug. "Get in the car."

Ken walked over to the man helping his friend, who looked up and saw him coming. He paled and pulled out a short stick. With a flick of his wrist, it telescoped out, the end capped with a steel ball. Ken continued to walk towards him and he backed away, raising the baton.

"Put that away before you get hurt," said Ken.

"Fuck you, man."

Ken stopped and crossed his arms.

"You people need to stop this shit," said Ken. "This is your last warning. You don't back off, and I'm coming after you."

Ken walked back to his car, dragged the men away from it, and left.

"Feeling better now?" he asked Tina.

She nodded.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" she replied. "They must be Tankers and they tried to grab us."

"I'm not talking about that," he said. "Why did you run?"

"Oh that," she said. "I'm not really sure. I mean, I was scared, but there was just this weird feeling that I'd done this before and really hurt someone. It freaked me out."

"Have you been in any fights?"

"No," she said. "That's why I said it was weird. Now that I think about it, I've been feeling like this for months. Like I'm afraid I'm going to hurt someone, or have hurt someone."

"But you're not anymore?"

"Nope," she said. "I mean, I'm not looking for a fight, but whatever I was afraid of, this cured it."

Ken reached out to her mind to remove the block, only to discover it was gone. And so was the memory it had been protecting.

It was the second week in April and the plans for Ellen and Kim's wedding were in full swing. They were currently at work, but that didn't stop Sally, Jane, Joan and Genie from plotting, especially since they'd taken over the wedding planning. While Kim was all excited, Ellen was somewhat less enthusiastic. Jane noted that Ellen was acting more like a groom than a bride, which, from a certain point of view was accurate.

Ken was hiding in the study when the gate bell went off. Surprised, he clicked on an icon on his computer activating the video feed, and saw a man and a woman sitting in a car. Since the Tanker threat, a lot of the mansion security had been upgraded. Some by the company that ran the basics, but a surprising amount by Eric and Genie. And Bill, of course, who had a hand in anything involving the computers.

There was now a computer terminal in every room of the house. With the click of a mouse, any room could be contacted using the computers as intercoms. With the right over-ride code, one could also activate the microphones, webcams and other cameras as well. All of those computers were networked, but there was only one machine in the house that connected to the internet directly and Bill had put as much security into it as he could. Even the encryption scheme was custom, something he and Genie had come up with. They'd spoken to Ken, using words like rotating ciphers, ice and firewalls until he'd held up his hand to stop them. Cindy, however, had been interested, and began wondering if there was a way to integrate quantum entanglement into the mix. Ken had given up and left the room.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Mr. Whitestone?" said the man, holding up a badge. "My name is Detective Riser from the Van Nuys police department. My partner and I would like to come up and have a word with you."

Ken sat back for a moment, wondering what the hell this was about. He couldn't think of a reason why they'd come to see him, unless ... oh yeah. The fight in the mall parking garage. Or maybe the one when they'd gotten back Roger. Hmm, this might be a problem.

"Sure, I'll open the gate," he said.

Ken closed that link, then activated another one that would connect him to the other rooms.

"We have guests arriving momentarily," he said. "Please dress accordingly."

Jane came on the intercom as Ken stood to go to the front door.

"What kind of guests?"

"The unwelcome kind," Ken replied.

Ken was waiting outside the front door as the two detectives drove up. He examined them as they got out of the car and walked over to him.

The male, Detective Riser, was about Ken's height, and reasonably fit, with short cropped, dark hair. His partner, clearly of Mexican descent, was much shorter and extremely attractive. She had long dark hair, big, expressive eyes and full lips, but her beauty was currently marred by her expression, which showed that she was anything but happy.

"How can I help you?" asked Ken.

"Hi, I'm Detective Riser and this is Detective Cordoba," said Riser showing his badge again. Cordoba quickly flashed hers, then put it away and stood there with her arms folded. "May we come inside?"

Ken thought for just long enough to watch the expression on Cordoba's face become tight-lipped with anger, then he shrugged and turned towards the front door. They walked inside where he led them to the formal living room. It wasn't really all that formal, but it was the place where the Circle was least likely to hang out.

"Please sit down," said Ken waving them towards the couch. He pulled up a chair on the other side of the coffee table, sat down and crossed his legs, waiting for one of them to speak.

"We're looking into the disappearance of four men," said Riser.

Ken still said nothing.

"They were last seen at the edge of your property," continued Riser when it became clear that Ken wasn't going to speak.

"Well, to my knowledge, there hasn't been anyone on my property that shouldn't be here."

"To your knowledge?" snapped Cordoba. "How about the other people who live here?"

"No one's said anything to me," said Ken.

"Well we'd like to determine that for ourselves," she replied.

"You said that they were at the edge of my property," said Ken. "What would make you think that?"

"Because we followed the tracks of their vehicles to your wall," said Cordoba.

"I see."

Again, more silence.

"Mr. Whitestone, this would be a lot easier if you'd help us out," said Riser.

Ken leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers.

"Detective," said Ken, "I'm not sure what you want me to do. If the people you're looking for came over the wall, that would be trespassing and I'd know about it."

Riser placed a folder on the coffee table and opened it, spreading out four photos. Ken immediately recognized them as the four men who'd invaded his property to rape and murder people in his home.

"Do you recognize any of these men?" asked Riser.

Well aware that Cordoba was watching him closely, Ken leaned forward and looked at the pictures, schooling his face into neutrality. Once he got a look at each, he sat back again.

"I'm afraid not," he lied.

"They're with a biker gang called the Tankers," prompted Riser. "I understand you had dealings with them."

"Define 'dealings'," replied Ken.

"You were arrested while you were brawling with them," said Cordoba.

"A brawl that they started," said Ken. "A brawl during which my wife was nearly killed by an officer of the law."

"You listen to me Whitestone..." said Cordoba, starting to stand up. Riser put a restraining arm on her. Ken didn't move at all -- Cordoba wasn't a threat to him.

"Yes, we were briefed about that," said Riser. "It was unprofessional in the extreme, and I apologize."

Ken shrugged.

"I know it wasn't you, personally," said Ken. "However, I'm afraid that our dealings with your department have been less than pleasant -- or professional."

Cordoba looked like she wanted to argue about it, but a look from Riser told her to keep her mouth shut. Ken watched the interaction between the two of them carefully. Something was ringing false.

"Is there any chance we could take a look out by the back wall?" asked Riser.

Ken didn't really want them wandering around the property. For one thing, the two mountain lions might take exception to it, and he really didn't need cops getting mauled while they were here. Cordoba took his hesitation for dissent.

"Listen Whitestone, we don't need your permission," she snapped. "We can get a warrant and have a hundred cops crawling all over this place in an hour."

"Detective Cordoba," said Ken, his eyes narrowing. "I suspect that if you could have gotten a warrant that easily, you'd already have one. Now I'm not sure what your problem is, but I'd appreciate it if you'd tone it down. No one here has any dealings with anyone from the Tankers."

"Oh really?" she sneered. "I understand that there's a Gary and Annette Sorrel living here. And we know they ride with the Hawkes. The Hawkes and the Tankers are currently at war with each other. That right there is enough to make you a suspect."

"I," said Ken with a smile, "however, am not a member of the Hawkes. So I believe we're finished here. You have a very nice day."

He stood up. Riser and Cordoba did as well.

"Really Mr. Whitestone, if you'd just allow us the chance to take a quick look around your side of the wall, we could avoid any unpleasantness," said Riser. "We don't have a warrant, but we really can get one."

Ken looked at Cordoba, then shrugged.

"It's a bit of a walk."

The three of them headed towards the back edge of the property. As he'd warned them, it was a bit of a walk. Parts of the back wall were obscured by trees and bushes, since not all of the grounds were manicured. He just aimed for the part of the wall that was directly behind the mansion, rather than aiming for the part that he knew they wanted to see. Ken was more than a little annoyed by what was going on, but he wasn't about to tip his hand.

He was also hoping that the cats would be asleep or something and ignore the intruding humans. They usually did, but they were cats -- one never knew what they'd do. Most of the people in the house never saw them, but they had their favorites. Jane, of course, because she liked to wrestle with them -- as the occasional scratches she bore proved. Cindy was another. They were always very gentle with Cindy, preferring to let her pet them while they occasionally licked her in return. They still made her a little nervous, but she was getting used to them.