Chapter 17

Thanks to markf52 and sorvinofan for their editing help.

Today, everyone was in a mad rush it seemed, and the Maidens were getting things ready for those who would be leaving. I pulled Makenzie, Makayla, Layla, and Maggie aside, and took them down to the sub-pen, enjoying each other’s company for a while. I didn’t want to send them away, but I knew I had too and so did they. I made sure to tell them, “I wish I didn’t have to send you out like this, as long as there is even just one of Erik’s clones out in the world, we can’t rest.”

When we got back to the house, I gave each of them a kiss and a hug. The four of them spent time telling the others, “See you later,” there would be no “Goodbyes,” today. We were going to see them again, I wasn’t going to lose any of them, not if I had anything to do with it, and I do, so there won’t be any of that shit. The nanites have taken over a bunch of older satellites and repurposed them for our use.

Little do the governments of the world know that the satellites they think are junk are now the most powerful things in space, thanks to our nanites. The nanites turned their junk into our gold mine of information gathering. There wasn’t a place on earth that we could look at, or listen to, unless they were ‘sandboxed’. Makayla would have up to the second intel, while she was on her mission, as would the others.

We were able to snag a building on N. Bedford Street in Virginia, almost dead center between the Pentagon and DARPA. The nanites had already made their way to the building and had made it safe for Makayla to be there. This was perhaps going to be the most difficult clone to have to deal with. His name was Gustav Himler and was just as evil as Erik. Makayla was going to have to get into the Pentagon and DARPA, to make sure any of the projects Gustav was working on, failed, and failed miserably, so no one would want to resurrect them, ever!

I was brought back to earth by my six beautiful, and rambunctious, daughters. They wanted to go swimming, but not in the backyard pool, they wanted to go swimming in the pool on the roof. I told them they could, and they were out of the room before the sound of my voice hit the wall across from me. It wasn’t long after Amee and Melissa found me sitting at the kitchen table. “Where are the hellions at?” Melissa asked me.

“They went to swim in the pool on the roof.” I told her. She and Amee looked at each other and took off for the roof. I had no clue what that was about, but I was sure I would hear about it very soon. I heard a ruckus coming from upstairs and went to go see what it was about. When I got upstairs the girls were being scolded by Melissa and Amee. Apparently, they wanted to “swim”, up there, on the off chance I would forget they were up in the pool, and they would get to see some “action”, between me and one of my ladies.

I sat on the bed and listened to the girls try and talk their way out of what they were doing. Jerilynn turned and said, “Daddy, that’s not what we were doing, we want to go up there and be away from everything going on today.” I looked over to where Amee and Melissa were sitting and knew I wasn’t to get involved in this, by the looks on their faces. I might be brave and tough, but I’m not stupid. I got up and walked into the sitting area and found Joni, Martha, Margeret, Cece, Deborah, Liv, and Sandi, sitting there listening to what was going on in the other room. I gave a wave to the group and asked, “Mind if I join you in here?”

“No, it’s probably better you did, the girls would have had you in trouble with Amee and Melissa before you even realized it,” Martha said to me, causing the group to chuckle.

We sat and talked for a little while, until I was ready to brave the other room where the negotiations were still on going. When I walked through the room, I had eight sets of eyes burning holes in my head, and for what reason, I had no clue. I made a hasty exit and went to find someone who could explain why I was in trouble. I walked up to Cally, who was sitting on the front stoop, I sat beside her and put my arm around her.

“Made a hasty retreat I see,” Cally jokingly said to me.

“Yeah, but I don’t know why I’m the one in trouble though,” I told her.

“Really, you don’t know?” she asked, rolling her eyes at me.

“No, why, am I supposed to?”

“You’re the only male here and it’s always going to be “your” fault, no matter what you do.” At that time Chastity walked up and sat on the other side of me, “Why the sullen face, Babe?” she asked me.

“Let me fill ya in, Tink,” Cally said to her. They were both laughing so hard that I thought they were going to pass out by the time she had finished. I still didn’t understand why I was in trouble, but it seemed to be hilarious to Cally and Tink. After they had calmed down a fair bit, they leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine,” Tink said, trying not to laugh.

I got up and went to the front door, opened it, and peeked inside, to make sure it was safe for me to enter the house. It seemed like it was, so I went to the kitchen, got something to snack on, and something to drink. The hairs on my neck stood on end and I could feel the eyes on me, I just didn’t know from where they were looking at me. “I thought you guys would warn me when I was in danger?” I said to the nanites that were in me.

“What makes you think we’re guys, in the first place? And what makes you think you’re in any type of danger, James?” the nanites said in a calm, cool voice, that scared the shit out of me. I turned around and went right back outside to find Tink and Cally laughing their asses off. “Gpop, a little help here, please?” I asked him.

“Not a chance in hell, am I getting in the middle of whatever the hell, “this” is!” he said to me, I walked down to the docks and hoped that Midnight Illusion wasn’t mad at me too. When I got to Midnight Illusion’s slip she said, “Aww, poor baby, are all of the mean, ole’ women not treating you right? Cum on into momma and let her take care of you.” The sexual innuendo was not missed by me.

I went straight to the port side engine room and laid face down on one of the turbines. I began to rub both hands up and down the turbine, “God you really know how to treat a lady,” she said to me. I continued to run the turbine a while longer before I switched to the other one. I made sure to spend equal time on each turbine. When I got to the fly deck, I think “all” of the Maidens were out on the dock waiting for me to show my face.

“What’s going on?” I asked the group. Of all the women out on the dock it was Braylynn who asked, “Daddy, why won’t you let anyone on board?” I didn’t have an answer, but I had a notion. “Illi, did you keep them from getting onboard?” I asked the Midnight Illusion.

“Yes,” Illi said back to me.

“Why?”

“I told you I would,” she said to me.

“Yes, yes you did say that.” I chuckled.

“Illi thought you were being mean and kept you away from me,” I told the group.

“We weren’t being mean!” Amee said to me.

“All of you were giving me the cold shoulder for some reason and made me feel like I was the one that did something wrong, so I came down here until it was safe for me to be around all of you,” I said to the group again. Melissa went to say something, but I put up my hand to stop her and said, “If you don’t want, or need me, let me know now, because if all of you do feel that way, I will unburden you and leave so all of you can be happy. I’ll give y’all some time to think it over,” I said, then got off Illi and walked to the house. Not one of them said anything to me, so when I got to the house, I put on my leathers, got on my bike, and hit the road to clear my head, and figure out what the hell was going on.

“AIMS?” I called with no answer. “AIMS?” I called again with no answer. “Gpop?” I called this time.

“Yes?” he answered.

“Why isn’t AIMS answering me?” I asked him.

“They all seem to be mad at you, including her,” he informed me.

“Amee, Melissa, Liv, can I speak to any of you, please? I don’t know what I did wrong, but if you didn’t want me around, why rescue me at all?” I said with hurt in my voice and no answer from any of them. “I love you,” I said hoping to get an, “I love you” back, but didn’t. “Okay, I’ll give it two weeks for this to blow over and for you to contact me, if you don’t, I guess you don’t want me to come home, and I’ll stay away like I said I would,” I informed them and then disconnected from them.

“From this point on, I’ll keep communications open in case anyone wants to get in touch with me,” I said to Gpop.

“Where will you go?” he asked.

“I’ll be where I’m at,” I told him and disconnected, making sure all ways to communicate with me were open.

I made a few new bank accounts and moved what money I thought I would need, hiding the accounts so they couldn’t be found. My nanites seemed to be glitching a little, so I had them isolate themselves and run a diagnostic. Nothing was found to be wrong with them, but I had them stay isolated from the nanite group anyway. I pointed my headlight east and drove. I wouldn’t make it to Virginia before Makayla, but I would get there.

The house I managed to rent was directly behind the one we got for Makayla, except my driveway was off Washington Blvd. I had the nanites change my appearance. I was now six-one, two-hundred-pounds, muscular, with black hair, green eyes, and short, neatly kept, facial hair and beard. I just hoped Makayla’s nanites didn’t recognize me and give me away. I don’t know why, but I did beat Makayla to Virginia after all. They had three days left before time was up, when she arrived. It sure looked like to me, the Maidens were done with me though.

Makayla showed up with Amee and Melissa in tow, and that caught me by surprise. I didn’t know why they would be with her, and I was shaking with emotion from seeing them again. I made up my mind to get close to them and made it look like I was a jogger and I was out for a run. I offered my help moving some of their boxes as I went by. I would have to make it look like I was having some difficulty, because I’m sure the boxes were heavy.

They made it look easy though, so I walked over and picked up a box, “Jesus, what’s in here, gold bricks?” I asked, making it seem like it was heavy for me.

“Well, we didn’t ask for your help to begin with,” Makayla said frankly.

“Sorry,” I said, putting the box down and continuing on my faux run. I ran down the road and engaged my adaptive camouflage and went back to get close enough to hear what they were saying.

“Good riddance,” Makayla said.

“What was wrong with him helping us?” Melissa asked Makayla.

“There’s only one man I want around me, and that wasn’t him,” Makayla said emphatically. That made me happy to hear her say that.

“He was cute and we didn’t even ask him his name,” Amee said to the other two. That didn’t make me happy, though.

“Have you two forgotten James, already?” Makayla asked.

They were standing out by the Jörs, having completed unloading the boxes from it, as they continued their conversation. I could see tears in Makayla’s eyes when she asked the last question, as she spun the ring, I gave her around, and around, on her finger. I too was ready to cry, because the two women, who should love me the most, were acting like they didn’t care anymore. I stood there long enough to watch them walk to the front of the house, and I was about to leave, when they started to talk again.

Melissa talked first, “He left us, remember?” bemoaning.

“He didn’t leave us, YOU! pushed him away!” Makayla’s voice got louder as she spoke. “You, all of you! You were supposed to be his closest companions, his Maidens! Especially you, Melissa! You were his first everything! You just let him go without even trying to stop him, why?”

“He’s the one that wanted to leave, who am I to believe he would have stayed if I had asked him too?” Melissa replied, that hurt like a stake to my heart.

“He asked you, Amee, and Liv to talk to him, all of you ignored him, and let him go. Melissa, you died for him for Christ’s shakes, do you not love him anymore?” Makayla asked point blank. “I know I don’t have the right to ask that, but I beg an answer from you,” she finished.

I got a little closer and tried to let the love in my heart go to them. I hoped they could feel my love, but I was very unsure that they could feel any of my love for them, the way my heart was hurting. I was afraid the hurt was all they could feel from me. I had eased up within thirty feet of them when they turned and went inside. I hoped they would try to get in touch with me within the next two and a half days, otherwise, I would cut all ties and go my own way, if that’s what would make them happy.

I tried to get in contact with Gpop, with no success. To see if I could, I went to my sandbox through a backdoor I had made, I was not going to be trapped anywhere, ever again. I wanted to see if I could get any type of information. And I found Gpop’s program/essence there, in my sandbox, where he wasn’t supposed to be. “What the hell are you doing in here?” I asked him.

“We need to get out of here, I’m bait to get you here,” he said in a rushed tone. I immediately led him out of the sandbox and back to the servers I had at the residence in Virginia. His program/essence was badly corrupted, and he needed time to repair it. I had my nanites make a couple of more servers for Gpop, and to let him repair himself. I tried to contact Midnight Illusion, and got her, she was very happy to hear from me. I had her leave the dock, head offshore from Ocean City, Maryland, and contact me when she got there.

Not feeling hungry at all, I got ready for bed. I took a long, hot shower trying to wash the sorrow away, but all I managed to do was run out of hot water. I awoke to Illi calling my name. “Is everything okay Illi?” I asked her with a lot of concern in my voice.

“Everything is fine, I just wanted you to know that I have rounded Cape Horn and should be there within twelve hours, is all,” she said to me.