Chapter 40

I woke up to find Elizabeth and Amanda snuggled up against me with their heads on my chest. As much as I hated to wake them, I wasn’t into golden showers and my bladder was flashing the two-minute warning. I shook them awake enough to allow me to slip out of bed and go relieve myself. When I came back out to get dressed, they were cuddled up together, already back asleep.

I threw my running gear on and jogged over to the pens to get Mandy. She smiled when she saw me coming, then laughed and took off running when I slapped her ass, telling her to get moving before I left her behind. I set a slightly faster pace than she was used to, but she gamely matched my strides all the way to the end of the run. When we got back to the pens, I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her.

Her smile almost split her face when I told her how proud of her I was, and if she kept it up, she would be out running me in a couple months. After another kiss, I sent her off to shower and get breakfast, and then ran back to my cabin for a quick shower myself. I found Elizabeth and Amanda already up, having a cup of coffee when I walked in. Their hair was wet and they had towels wrapped around themselves, so I assumed that they had already showered as I got in to wash up.

As I was getting dressed, Amanda walked up, handed me a cup of coffee and kissed me. “Was that a promise last night Master? The next time you take me, are you really going to be breeding me?”

“If you deliver a child for Alonso we will have to wait for the doctors to clear you to have sex again, but yes. I’ve decided to start breeding my pets as soon as you and your mother return to the island,” I told her. “The younger pets will have to wait until they turn eighteen still, but I intend to start with the rest of you at that point.”

Elizabeth’s eyes lit up. “Does that include me as well Master?”

“I did say the rest of you,” I smirked. “You’re still one of my pets if I remember correctly. The only ones I don’t intend to breed are Scarlett, for the obvious reasons, and Katherine, because she can’t get pregnant. That won’t be happening until you return though, so you may want to finish getting dressed. We have a lot to do this morning before we get you all on the plane. Don’t worry about your tails this morning, as you’ll have to change clothes on the plane anyway.”

They both nodded, and there was a flurry of activity as they got ready to leave. Once I was dressed, I threw together a quick breakfast for the three of us to eat on the way back to the pens. When they finished dressing and brushing out their hair, we grabbed our food and headed off to the pens.

I arrived to find Peter and William waiting with the pets, and the trolley already loaded. “Sean and Michel are already over at the Stables. Sean offered to take the next few days so we would not have to rotate until Katherine and Isabella got back. Everything is loaded up, be we wanted to clear something with you related to the twin’s reparation offer.”

I told the pets to get loaded up and I would be with them in a minute. “They’re free to offer whatever they wish, as long as it’s agreed upon by the two of you. Why do you think you need to clear it with me?”

“Well sir, it’s just that the offer was a bit more than we expected, and wanted to make sure it was okay with you before accepting,” Peter told me. “They’ve already rescheduled their nights with us, and they have basically offered to spend their mornings as our pets for the rest of the month. They’re going to be waiting in their cabin after breakfast for our answer.”

“I’m guessing the two of you want to accept, but think it may be too much,” I asked. When they both nodded, I laughed. “Accept the offer and enjoy it. If that’s what they offered to make up for breaking their promise to you, they must feel it’s appropriate. Just don’t wear yourselves out too much to keep up with the rest of your duties.”

I told them I would catch up with them this afternoon. From the smiles on their faces, I figured they were going to enjoy the next month. The pets were all ready as I got back into the trolley, so I started it up and headed over to the medical building.

Steven and Brenda were ready and waiting for us, so getting the pets’ implants removed took very little time. Once they were all taken care of, Steven came out of his office with his suitcase, gave Brenda a long kiss goodbye, and said he was ready to go. I got everyone loaded back up and swung back toward the offices, calling Antonio to let him know we were on the way.

We stopped long enough for him to hop on the trolley and headed over to the airstrip. “I have the contracts for Amanda, Elizabeth, and Sarah, as well as the paperwork for Cadence. James is going to meet us at the airstrip, so she can get all her papers before they take off,” Antonio said as he handed a folder to Steven. “That’s the full copy of Katherine’s medical records you asked for. Just call if they need anything else and I’ll send it.”

I shook my head and smiled. As usual, he has everything taken care of. I was just glad he agreed to take the weekends off. We spent the rest of the trip discussing the new computer system and a few changes William had to make so we could get the tablets set up for the Stables. It was more of an update than anything, as he knew I only really cared about the results.

When we got to the airstrip, both planes were on the runway and ready to go. I helped get the luggage stored as James and Cadence walked back to us. As James got the paperwork from Antonio, Cadence walked over, wrapped her arms around me, and kissed me.

“James and I talked a bit last night, and decided to wait a couple weeks before we come back so I have time to finish my ground schooling before we return. We’ll be back in two weeks, and James is going to let me fly the whole trip,” she told me excitedly. “The first thing I’m going to do when we get back is find you, drop to my knees, and give you a blowjob. Just because I already have permission and I want to make sure you don’t forget about me. See you in two weeks, Master.”

After another passionate kiss, she ran back over to where James was talking to Dale and threw her arms around him. She had always been energetic and excitable, but this was a completely new level for her.

“As long as you can see me climbing at the end of the runway, you’re safe to go and we won’t even be close,” I heard James say as I walked over. “You’ll see me starting to veer off towards Tahiti before I even hit the end of the runway, so will be well out of your flight path before you get in the air.”

“Just seems like I always had to wait longer than that to take off,” Dale replied. “Even in Tahiti, where they are a bit lax about that, they always made us wait a few minutes.”

“That’ because you were always following the big commercial flights on takeoff. They need to leave extra time for their jet wash to clear before the next plane takes off,” James explained. “What little jet wash I throw off won’t be enough for you to notice in the 650.”

“I know the jet wash won’t be an issue, I just have to run this thing up for the short runway takeoff and end up moving fairly fast at the end,” Dale said. “I was more worried about coming up behind you too quick. I can hold it until you’re far enough into your turn before I take off. It will only be few seconds longer, and I’m still not really used to how quick this thing takes off.”

“I know how it is, getting used to a new plane,” James replied with a nod to me. “Maybe when I come back in a couple weeks, we can talk Julien into letting us take it up for a test flight. I would love to see how she handles.”

I laughed. “I think we can arrange a flight somewhere when you get back. Other than a quick look when they brought it in, I haven’t had a chance to really check out the new jet myself. Dale does have a trip to Philadelphia on the twentieth, maybe we should just go along.”

With the plans made and after a final round of goodbye kisses, everyone boarded the planes as Antonio and I walked over to the hanger. Even after grabbing our headphones and putting them on, the sound of the Gulfstream’s engines winding up was far louder than the old Hawker.

Sure enough, James made his run and started to veer west as soon as his wheels left the ground. Once he was clear of the runway, Dale released the brakes and poured on the power to the engines, causing the Gulfstream to take off much faster than I anticipated and leave the ground with plenty of runway room to spare.

I took off my headphones and looked over at Antonio as he removed his. “I think I definitely got my money’s worth on that one.” Seeing the look in his eyes, I quickly turned back and watched in horror as the small streak of smoke intercepted the back end of the Gulfstream and exploded. My relief as it didn’t start to break apart and fall was short-lived as the second streak intercepted James’ Maverick and the rear end of the plane was engulfed in a fireball.

I took off running for the docks as I saw it start to go down. If James was a good enough pilot to bring the damaged plane in for a water landing, they would still need someone to pick them up and my 320 was the closest ship we had. As I turned my head to yell for Antonio to get to the radio room and contact the flight crew, I heard a soft ‘whoop’ and the sound of automatic gunfire off in the distance.

We were fifty yards from the hanger when it exploded, sending pieces of the corrugated metal walls flying in every direction. The force of the explosion lifted me off my feet, I felt a sharp pain in my head, and the world went black.

Beep.Beep.Beep.

The constant beeping was my only companion as I tried to swim my way back to consciousness. From the amount of pain I was in, it was clear I hadn’t died in the explosion, but I had no idea how bad it was. I opened my eyes and groaned as the bright lights magnified the pain in my head, causing me to snap them closed again.

“HE’S AWAKE!” I heard a familiar voice shout followed by a quiet, “Oh shit,” as a cold wet rag was laid across my forehead. The volume of the shout sent another spike of pain through my head, but the cold rag was at least pleasant.

I tried to ask what happened, but my throat was so dry that all that came out was another groan. “Please lie still for a few minutes, Master,” the voice said as I finally came too enough to recognize it as Kayla’s. “Mandy went to get John so he can check you out. He told us to let him know as soon as you started to wake up. Let me get you some water, just please lie still and don’t try to talk yet.”

Recognizing the wisdom of her request, I willed myself to stay still and take stock of the situation. The cold water fixed the dry scratchy feeling in my throat and I was able tell from the pain radiating from my limbs that they were all still there. I tried to take a few deep breaths to get the pain in my head under control, but even that hurt.

“You’re one lucky son of a bitch Julien,” I heard John quietly say as he walked into the room. I tried to chuckle and tell him I didn’t feel all that lucky right now, but it quickly turned into another groan of pain. “Don’t try to talk, or do much more than breathe right now and I’ll get you more painkillers.”

I waited and the pain finally dropped down to a manageable level. I was able to open my eyes finally and saw John grinning as he looked down at me. “I would still advise against talking for a few minutes. You look like you laid down in the middle of the arena and let all the ponies run over you a few times.”

“The good news is that you’ll live and be back to normal in a few days. Other than a nasty scalp wound from whatever hit you in the head, you’re just bruised and beaten to hell. The blow to the head knocked you out, so when you hit the ground you rolled like a rag doll and banged yourself up pretty bad, but didn’t do any real damage that I can see so far,” he told me. “You were out for several hours, and Gerard is waiting to talk to you if you feel up to it, but I want you to stay in bed for a while. You can go back to your cabin tonight as long as someone is with you.”

“I think I’ll have several volunteers to take care of me, but I’ll stay put as long as I can sit up a bit,” I told him. He smiled and started to raise the head of the bed up. “I take it Antonio was injured as well if Gerard is waiting to talk to me?”

I could see the look of pain in John’s face. “Gerard will fill you in on the details of what has happened while you were unconscious. He’s right outside, waiting for me to pronounce you well enough to talk. I’ll be back in a few hours to remove your IV line, just send Kayla or Mandy to get me if you need more painkillers.”

His avoidance wasn’t a good sign, and I knew Antonio hadn’t made it. Gerard looked far older than his fifty-two years as he walked in and took a seat next to the bed. “You look like you’ve had an even worse day than I did. You were closer to me than my uncles ever were. I’m sorry for your loss and he will be missed,” I said as the tears started to fall for my best friend.

“Thank you Julien, but that’s just the beginning of the bad news. We were only a couple miles off shore when I heard the explosions and saw the smaller plane go down. We went to try to help, but James and Cadence appear to have died upon impact,” he said. “I got back to shore as quickly as I could and sent the boat back out to tow the remains of the plane in. By the time I got back it was already over though.”

“Take your time,” I told him. “It’s been a hard day for you, and I’m going to guess the rest of the news isn’t good. I remember hearing gun shots before I was knocked out, so I’m already prepared for the worst.”

“I hope you are,” he replied sadly. “When I got back, I went straight to the radio room for an update. When I saw the first plane go down I called in and Joseph told me we were being attacked. He said they couldn’t get a hold of you, but Dale had already radioed in to tell them he’d lost an engine and would have to land or reroute to Tahiti. I gave the order to send them to Tahiti, just in case the attackers had more missiles, so they wouldn’t be shot down. They are sitting in Tahiti awaiting further orders, but are aware that you’re alive and the attack is finished.”

“That was the best choice anyway,” I said. “Even if they were able to land safely, with one engine down they would never take off from here. Kayla, I need you to run back to the office and contact Dale. He can book commercial flights for the pets, and send one of the flight crew with Sarah, Elizabeth and Amanda to take care of the contracts. Steven can take care of Katherine and Isabella in Los Angeles, so they should be fine. He’ll need to contact Gulfstream as soon as that’s taken care of and see what we can do about getting the plane fixed.”

She nodded and said she just had to step outside because she already had the satellite phone. I could see she’d been crying and wanted to comfort her, but even in a crisis we had to fulfill our obligations. Mandy came in as soon as she walked out and took her seat next to me. “How badly did the attack hurt us?”

“You’re a better man than I am to be able to think about your obligations at a time like this,” Gerard told me as he shook his head. “It could have been far worse, but it was still bad enough. Your trainers at the pens and Stables, as well as the maintenance crews at the docks, responded as soon as they heard the gunfire. There were nine attackers total, and six of them were dead within minutes of the attack starting.”

“The two who launched the anti-aircraft missiles and blew up the hanger went to the village and started shooting anything that moved. We lost eighteen of the retired ponies before the maintenance crew showed up and took them out,” he told me sadly. “Before you ask, the children are all safe. The teachers were just starting class when they heard the explosions and got everyone into the basement.”

“The attack at the Stables was over even faster. Two of the trainers had a group of ponies out for an early run when they came out of the woods shooting. None of them made it back to the Stables, but Raoul and Samuel had the rest of the ponies move to the far end of the building. They were waiting when the attackers came in and shot them down as soon as they tried to enter the doorway.”

“The Aviary was much worse, as they were just leaving the dining hall when the attack started. There were no survivors from the attack and your trainers from the pens had to move up and deal with the attackers. We found out later that Jason and the little birds who were playing at the wedding survived because they never made it back to the Aviary last night. The party broke up so late that he had them stay at your family house in the village,” he said in a harder tone. “It looked a bit suspicious as other facts came to light, but it’s been confirmed that it was just a coincidence and he wasn’t actually involved in the attack.”