Chapter 05

Monday Morning Games

After breakfast Fiona, Sophie, and I go for our ten kilometre morning run with a mid-run drink break at the McDonald’s. I know Joan and Terri will open up and look after the pool. While today isn’t as hot as yesterday it’s still a hot summer day so we expect most of the kids to turn up for a swim and to cool off. Some of them will have other activities they want to do. Erica and the Nats know to feed the slaves for me.

When we return I find a police officer at the pool gate arguing with Joan. I let him in then I get his partner at the front door. They’re asking questions about the Franks family, it seems Mrs and Miss Franks went for a jog recently and they can’t be found. Also, Mr Franks isn’t where he said he’d be. Their enquiries have led them to me as someone said I had something against Ruthie and had been asking about them around town. Laughing, I admit to asking about them because I’d reason to believe Ruthie knew something about the attack on the girls at the school but I haven’t been able to find any evidence of that. Then I say, “Actually, I kidnapped them Friday night and have them tied up in my dungeon. I’ve a couple of local lads having fun raping them on a regular basis.”

The police are not amused by my joke so they warn me about lying to police during an enquiry.

I tell them when I last spoke to Mr Franks he said something about going for a short holiday to settle his mind and do some assertiveness training. If that’s what he wanted he’d have not left the address with anyone. I ask, “Do you think he’s done something to them?”

They reply, “No, he was in Sydney when the ladies went missing.”

“Look, I don’t want to seem to be telling you how to do your job, but I used to do work tracking people down. Have you checked their mobile phone records as they all have them. See where their calls over the last few days were made from and to. That may help.”

“We have someone getting a court order to get them.” They thank me for my time and leave. About half an hour later I notice a car with two people in it sitting down the block watching the house. I go to my computer to make some signs saying, ’No entry to police without a search warrant or the permission of the owner - phone xxxxxxxxxx for permission.’ I place them on the front door and all of the gates. I also tell everyone not to let in any police or strangers unless I say they can let them in.

We spend the afternoon swimming and playing games in the pool. Late afternoon I get in my car and drive out to the street. Checking the road is clear I pull out and rapidly accelerate away. The car watching the house follows me. Although I accelerate fast at every opportunity I obey every road rule. They’re hard pressed to keep up, if I had decided to speed I would have left them for dead.

My car looks like a normal four cylinder sedan of its model, but it’s heavily modified. The 2.4 litre motor has been replaced with a light weight specially designed 3.6 litre four cylinder with plenty of power. The body panels have all been replaced with much lighter Kevlar panels. The glass is heavier bullet resistant glass. Overall, the vehicle is ten percent lighter and double the engine power.

I drive to the local police station and enter. Inside I ask to speak to the District Officer (DO). Each station has a station officer (an inspector) and a watch commander (a sergeant). The DO is in charge of a district with several stations and is a superintendent, they’re much higher and have more clout. I’m told he isn’t available at the moment. I give them my address, the registration number of the car watching me, and I say I’ll be home in about half an hour. I ask them to tell the DO to call on me later to confirm I’m being watched by his people and to explain why. I also tell them to have him run a full inter-agency check on me through their computer before then as he’ll get information they won’t. I explain if the watchers aren’t bona fide police I’ll be dealing with them and they can send the Coroner’s Wagon around later. They’re not happy about that.

From there I go to Pizza Hut to order and pay for twenty-five mixed pizzas and drinks for delivery. Once back home I park in the garage. The pizzas turn up forty-five minutes later and I’ve them deliver one with a bottle of lemon squash to the two cops in the car. They’re quite a bit embarrassed, but they’re very hungry by then. We’re in the middle of eating pizzas around the pool when the doorbell rings.

Police Games

I let the DO in and lead him through to the pool. I invite him to have pizza while I have mine and we talk. He accepts the invitation, I also bet he’s aware of the pizza for the watchers so I ask him, “Are those your people out front?” He nods yes, “Why?”

He says, “They said to say thanks for dinner. They’re there because the officers investigating the disappearance of the Franks females think you’re involved in kidnapping them.” We’re talking at the pool in front of everyone and they’re all keeping real quiet to listen in better.

I laugh, “Did you run an inter-agency check under your log in ID?” He nods yes, “Then you know if I was involved in kidnapping someone you’ll never find a shred of evidence. I’ve done that sort of job too often for ASIO and MI5 to leave you any clues.” Our listeners are stunned. He nods again, “If your people think I’ll be slack and let them see what I’m doing if I’m involved in anything they need their heads read. I’m a professional, retired now, but a professional. Anything I do won’t give them any idea of what’s up or any clues or any evidence. Also, I can still call on a lot of external resources you know nothing about.” A few shocked expressions around the pool while they wonder what I did for a living. “I can make one phone call and your two people outside will vanish while we sit here talking. And there will be no evidence of what happened to them. I’m not saying I am involved in anything, I’m not saying I’m not, I still do some contract work for the government and certain individuals. I’m saying whatever I do your people won’t stand a chance of stopping it or finding out anything about it. If I’m doing something and they get too close to me they’ll get hurt or vanish. Make no mistake, I don’t like being watched, I won’t tolerate interference in my work, and I’m deadly. I suggest you talk to the contact the computer gave you to seek some advice on me.”

He gulps, “I’ve already spoken to The Major and I know just how deadly you are. But I can’t interfere with another officer’s ongoing investigation without more reason to do so.”

After sighing I pick up the phone by my lounge chair. I dial a number while I say, “I don’t know if you have a tap, but this is a cut out number that’s rerouted through a number of systems. Totally untraceable.” He nods his understanding. The phone is answered, “Hi, Grey, Timber here. How’s Franks doing.” One of the mothers, Linda, gasps at this. I look at her and she blushes.

Grey gives me a run down of Franks’ training status, finishing with a comment he’ll be as finished as he can make him in two days. He’ll send him home Wednesday. I ask him to put Franks on, when he does I tell Franks what’s happening then I hand the phone to the DO. They speak for a few minutes. The DO nods a lot then he hangs up.

He turns to me, “I’m convinced that was Franks, he’s happy to be where he is, and he believes his family to be safe while doing some training. I’ll pull my people off, but if I don’t see the Franks family about town safe and sound by Friday I’m coming back with a tonne of bricks.”

I nod, “That shouldn’t be a problem. With him back on Wednesday I figure they should be shopping by Friday. I’ll ask them to call at the station by Friday night.” Grimacing, he stands, and I escort him out.

Back at the pool I look at Linda. While blushing she says, “When I was a nurse in the army I served in Vietnam near the end of our involvement there. One day a young soldier in jungle make-up walks in carrying a wounded Vietnamese youth seeking treatment. Our new head nurse starts to tell him to take the youth to the civilian hospital when one of the doctors tells her to be quiet. He quickly treats the youth then gives the soldier some antibiotics for the youth to take later. I asked what that was about because the policy was we treat combatants only. He said, ’That was Timber Wolf, I know it’s not his real name but that’s what he’s called. He operates out there with a group of the local hill people. That’s probably one of his team or a family member of one of his team. Quicker, easier, and safer to treat his people than argue with him. My predecessor left here with a bullet wound in his leg. Timber Wolf shot him when he refused to treat one of his scouts. I took note of the fact he’s here and not in a stockade while the doctor is in another post in a very remote and uncomfortable place. The powers above are happy with him so we keep him happy. Just treat anyone he brings in.’ After that we did just as we were told by treating his patients. I never saw Timber Wolf without the jungle make up on, but I often saw him around the camp. His visits were always short and he always left loaded with supplies.” Everyone is looking at her, then they turn to look at me.

I blush, “Guilty as charged, Ma’am. My people get hurt helping me I get them the best care possible. Anyone gets in the way they get hurt. Because I looked after my people they were always ready to go the extra mile for me when it counted. We respected and trusted each other, and we looked after each other. That’s what you need when you’re out there surrounded by the enemy in much larger numbers than you are.”

Sophie chimes in with, “Ain’t that the truth, Captain. All in, all out. Knowing your buddies aren’t leaving without you, dead or alive, makes it a lot easier to go in. Especially on the tough ones.” They turn to look at her, “When I was in the SAS I had the privilege of being on a couple of special operations loaned to an ex-SAS specialist. And he’s good, very good. What he doesn’t know about staying alive in a hostile jungle or forest isn’t worth knowing.” Again I blush. I signal everyone to get back to eating because we don’t want the pizzas to get cold.

A little later Nataly says, “So that’s why you were able to take out those gang members. You had them out numbered and out gunned.” I laugh hard while I nod yes.

I plan to do some testing of our slaves tomorrow so I tell everyone to get a good night’s sleep. I keep only the training team in the house as well as Charlotte who’s moved her gear over to one of the bedrooms I have set up for staff to live in. I end up with Erica in my bed. Being tired we just cuddle up and sleep.

Tuesday

I’m up at my usual time the next day to go for my jog with Sophie and Fiona. At the McDonald’s I wave at two policemen having their breakfast. Arriving back at the house we have breakfast with the sleepy heads. We all go for a few laps of the pool after breakfast.

About 8:30 a.m. I unlock the pool entrance just as the first devotees are walking up the path. I place Fiona in charge of the house and pool so I can concentrate on the other matters. After sending the boys down to feed the slaves I sit and think about yesterday’s talk with my psychologist friend and her evaluation of the slaves’ mental condition.

About half an hour later I go downstairs to find the slaves obediently sitting in their chairs without any restraints or anyone else in the room while they carry out the suggestions being made on the fake website by the boys. I watch them have fun for a little while then I ask them, “Nate, Nathan, what do you think of the idea of having Ruthie as your slave on a permanent basis?”

They both stare at me for a moment, look at each other, then Nathan says, “Leave us to discuss it for a bit. I like the idea, but after the last few days I don’t think it would be fair for just one to have her. So we have to talk about how we’d go about sharing if we do take her.” I smile at his reply as it shows he’s thinking ahead. After agreeing with his assessment I leave them to have a long talk while I go back upstairs to do my daily lap work in the pool. I’ll also get Erica’s feelings on the issue too.

It’s almost 10:00 a.m. when Nate sits down on the lounge beside me at the pool. He checks no one is close by and says, “We talked it over and we decided we’d like to have her as a shared slave. We also think she’ll need to live with us so we’ll need to get agreement from mum and the girls. We suspect we’ll have to loan her to the girls at times as well.”

I laugh and say, “You just want to look at your sister while she’s nude and being eaten by your slave.” He just grins while he nods agreement. “You can also have your slave help out around the house with chores to make life a little easier for everyone. However, you shouldn’t have her doing all of the chores or working too hard. Understand?” Again he nods to show he agrees before he goes back down stairs to talk to his brother. I already spoke with his mother to get her agreement so I’ll let the boys do their own deal with their sisters.

When I check on the boys I find out they don’t know their ring sizes so I send Natasha and Nataly down to keep the slaves busy while I take the boys to the jeweller who made the rings for Mike and I so he can get the boys’ ring measurements and to make them a ring each. I also give him the final instructions on what to engrave into the two collars he has for me. One will read ’Mike’s slave’ over the name ’Ruthann’ in larger letters while the other will read ’Nat’s slave’ over the name ’Ruthie’ in larger letters such that both lines of text are the same length. I don’t mind the expense of the extra rings because the jeweller already has the charge card numbers and an authority from Mike Franks to bill it for anything I have him make for me relating to this project. I simply have to sign the finished bill when we have everything made. The collars and rings will be ready later today so we’ll come back for them.

On returning to the house I let the boys go downstairs to continue their games with the girls via the fake website while I spend time talking to everyone enjoying the pool.

During the day the boys make sure the slaves are well hydrated by giving them plenty of the adulterated milk to drink and when lunchtime comes around the boys feed them. I’m very happy the boys are happy to look after the slaves now that their main programming has been done. It means I don’t have to be so personally involved with them.

Having delegated the slave training to the Nats I spend time sitting by the pool while working on my laptop to do some writing and deal with some emails. I also confirm where I should be meeting Mike tomorrow afternoon so I can get him home.

At 4:15 p.m. I gather Nate and Nathan to go and collect the jewellery. Their rings fit them perfectly and the two collars are finished. While the jeweller shows me how to close the join when they’re put on he says, “Make sure you put them on the right people because when you close these catches you can’t undo them. You’ll find you need a lot of pressure to close them, but once closed they’re permanently shut. Only cutting the chain will remove them.” I smile while he demonstrates what goes where without actually making the final connections.