Chapter 8

I was exhausted and had collapsed on some grass. It could have been someone’s yard or a park, I wasn’t sure and I didn’t care. The most important thing to me was that there was no one around. No reminder that I had tortured someone I loved, no screams to torment me, no crowds to surround me and yell at me, no humans, and more importantly no aliens, though they had blessedly been leaving me and my dreams alone recently.

I lay on the grass, sweaty, clammy, and cold, staring up at the sky, wondering what I was going to do next.

I knew if I lay here long enough, I would eventually be discovered.

So, in reality, all I had to do was just lay here and enjoy the clear and unobstructed view of the sky.

But I also knew that once I was discovered, a crowd would form and the madhouse that was my life would quickly ensue.

So I did what any well-respecting adult would do in my circumstance, I mentally called for help.

And then I laid back and savored the feel of the grass, the dirt beneath me, the cool air, and the warm sunshine above me.

Before I was ready, Sergeant FitzHume was standing over me, doing a threat analysis and scanning the surroundings. I quickly reached up and grabbed her, pulling her down and silencing her protests with a kiss.

While I knew that I had a certain effect on women, and on people in general, I wasn’t expecting the enthusiastic response I received to the kiss. What started as a friendly kiss, like you might get in Europe, quickly turned into a public spectacle. The good Sergeant started humping my thigh and trying to suck my tongue out of my mouth.

It was only when I noticed the perimeter her colleagues had created around us that I broke the kiss and came up for air. When she opened her eyes to look at me, she also saw the wall of her coworkers and she blushed the brightest shade of red I have ever seen. Her skin nearly matched the red of her hair. At least her co-workers had the temerity to stand with their backs to us and face outward to ensure our safety.

She immediately tried to get up, struggling to escape my grasp, but I simply held her even tighter. When she realized that she couldn’t escape without hurting me, she relaxed and lay limply on top of me.

“My career is ruined!” She moaned into my ear as we lay there.

“Is it,” I asked. “I’m currently interviewing for the head of my security. Might you be interested in the job?”

“Do you sleep with all your employees?” She asked saucily.

“No, only those I really like,” I responded, with enough sarcasm to let her know that I was happy to discuss her concern.

I’m sure that it did look suspicious to folks that Alex and Jennifere were sleeping with me. If I added in the attraction between myself and Dr. Greywell, then the appearance would seriously appear to be that I slept with all my employees.

That sobered me up a bit and I allowed the Sergeant a moment to collect herself and then move off me where she squatted beside me.

“What happened that made you run off?” she asked quietly as I gathered myself.

“I tortured Jennifere while testing my abilities. I didn’t mean to hurt her, but she kept asking me to try my abilities.”

“Just, so you know, she is the one who called us in a panic to come look for you. She and Alex are worried sick about you. Before they become even more worried and send out the armed services, do you think we can get in the vehicle and head back?” she asked.

I stood, slowly and with some help, and we moved toward the convoy of vehicles that had arrived on the scene. I got into one of the black Chevy Tahoe’s and the Sergeant got in with me. Seconds later we were underway, leaving the few folks from the neighborhood standing there guessing about what exactly had happened.

Phone calls were made to let everyone know I was on my way, and when that was done I settled back in my seat.

My little interlude had made me realize that if I could cause pain and suffering in Jennifere, then I probably could on some folks who deserved it. I decided to concentrate on the North Korean leader. If I could affect him, there was no better candidate, given his history of human rights abuses. Focusing on his name and the images I had seen, I thought about all the suffering that the people in his country must be suffering because of his arrogance and decided that he should feel all the pain that he had caused in the people he was supposed to be protecting.

And then I thought of all the leaders of the terrorist groups around the world and wondered if I could turn them into pacifists. Could I make them surrender to the authorities, confessing their crimes? The challenge was that I didn’t know enough about them to direct my efforts. While, like most Americans, I knew the names of the groups that claimed credit for their so-called acts of terrorism, I had never paid much attention to the names associated with their leaders.

I turned in my seat to ask Sergeant FitzHume if she could pull some info on the leaders of several of the world’s terrorist organizations for me when I realized that I had just made out with her and didn’t know her first name.

“So can I ask your first name?” I said quietly. “I mean after we made out on some stranger’s front lawn, I think it’s a reasonable request.”

She turned and laughed. “I figured that with your powers, you already knew everything you wanted to know about me. But if that isn’t the case, my name is Aine.”

“It’s wonderful to meet you Aine,” I chuckled and then pulled her to me and kissed her again. And while she resisted at first, her struggles were mostly with herself, and in a second or two she was returning my kiss with enthusiasm.

When we surfaced for a breath, I had almost forgotten what I was going to ask her. But after a moment to collect myself, I asked her if she could pull together a dossier on the leaders of the major terrorist organizations.

She looked at me a little wide-eyed, but she nodded, grabbed her phone, and started making a phone call.

By then, we had arrived at the hotel and I was quickly escorted back up to my suite and associated rooms on the top floor. This time Aine came into the room with me and settled in a chair by the door, ensuring that her sidearm was in easy reach. She was still on the phone when Alex and Jennifere appeared.

“Is there a fax number or secure email address that you have?” she asked Alex.

Alex nodded and quickly scribbled an email address on a piece of paper and handed it to Aine. Meanwhile, Jennifere had grabbed me into a hug that threatened to break my ribs and she showed no signs of letting go.

Alex quietly stepped up behind me and slipped her arms around us both.

“Please don’t ever run out on me again,” Jennifere whispered softly.

And just as we were holding each other, Aine cried out from her corner.

“Are you sure?” she exclaimed loudly into her phone.

After a moment’s pause, she turned to us with an astonished look on her face.

“Did you do something to the North Korean leader?” she asked very cautiously.

I started to answer, but Jennifere stepped in front of me and shook her head, giving me that look that said to let her handle this.

“Why do you ask?” Jennifere responded, “We haven’t been anywhere near North Korea, and to the best of my knowledge, Kim Jung Un is persona non grata in Canada.”

Aine nodded, took off her badge and earpiece, and laid them on the table. She then looked me dead in the eye.

“Was that job offer real, or were you just trying to get in my pants?” she asked.

“It was entirely real. No strings or conditions attached.” I replied earnestly.

“Then I accept. I’ll give notice immediately, and I suspect the government will waive any notice period so long as I continue to liaise with them.”

Jennifere nodded and Alex, who had been scribbling away in the corner, handed a couple of pieces of paper to her.

“If you would just sign this non-disclosure agreement, and a simple ‘intent to work’ document, then I think we will be all covered.”

Aine didn’t even look at the documents. She just looked at me and when I nodded, she signed.

“Now, ask your question again,” said Jennifere.

“I just got a report on the radio that Kim Jung Un collapsed on television in the middle of a speech that was being broadcast live in his country. He just started screaming in pain and they couldn’t get him to stop. They eventually carried him away to a hospital. The country is in a bit of turmoil currently.”

I nodded, light-headed and dizzy with emotion that another human being was being tormented by a mere thought.

“It wasn’t a mere thought,” Alex whispered in my ear from where she had stepped up behind me and wrapped me in her arms. “You had to concentrate on it and he certainly deserves a bit of punishment for what he has done over the years.”

I supposed she was correct but it didn’t make me feel any better.

“And I have that list of top terrorists you wanted, but could I make a small suggestion?”

When I nodded, she continued. “Why not just make them suffer until they quit what they are doing and fully atone, to your satisfaction, for their former actions? You could even make them publicly post their transgressions online.”

I thought there were some flaws in that plan if I were trying to apply this model to a law and order situation, but the guys we were talking about, folks like the leaders of ISIS and Al Qaeda, were awful enough that I wasn’t too worried about them losing a few rights.

And so, the rest of the afternoon we spent thinking through exactly how I should address my thoughts as I focused on each person, and then I focused on each person in Aine’s list.

By late afternoon, I was exhausted and needed a break.

We retired to the parlor, or at least the room where the bar was set up, and soon I was kicked back on the couch with a drink in hand, the television on, and a beautiful woman in my arms, in this case, Alex. Jennifere settled onto the floor in front of us and Aine chose a chair where she could see the door but still be close to us.

We were nice and cozy and had decided on a simple dinner in the suite when the television beeped an alert. I flipped over to it, and it was a news segment about the collapse of Kim Jung Un.

I was just ready to click back to the comedy we were watching when they continued the story, saying that three of the top leaders of ISIS had walked out of the desert in Syria and turned themselves into the UN officials there, apparently confessing to a long list of crimes.

By the late news, the broadcast was dominated by news of leaders of every terrorist organization turning themselves into the nearest UN facility, asking to be taken to The Hague to be tried for their war crimes.

The sudden vacuum in leadership of the many interconnected organizations caused chaos to erupt in the ranks, leading to infighting and more killing of their fighters than any threat that they could create externally.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government was asking for as many names of terrorists or suspected terrorists as they could, providing that list to Aine as quickly as their allies would share. And within three days, we had decimated the ranks of all the major organizations around the world, all without firing a shot.

Aine and I worked out a deal where she remained a reservist in the Canadian Protective Services but she worked full-time for me and served as my military and security liaison. As a result of all the arrests, she became quite notorious within the service and even around the world. With her future secured, she was truly focused on my security, as they were now intertwined.

Meanwhile, my work with curing children hadn’t stopped. Every day, Alex had arranged for four or five children from the local children’s hospital to be brought to our suite where I would touch them and concentrate on healing them.

The donations to my charity continued to roll in and the crowds in front of the hotel grew daily. Despite my offers to help offset the cost, the government refused to let me pay for the officers who volunteered to stand guard and do crowd control outside. Even the hotel refused to let me pay for the use of the entire floor I was occupying, saying that the publicity and the room occupancy my stay generated more than offset the cost of my stay.