Chapter 4

The next day I placed a call to Control, and they said they would have somebody come see me the next day to discuss arrangements. But they told me I already had a file opened, and it had been given a provisional green light, depending on cost and complications.

Wow, Di must be higher in the organization than she claimed! About 2 years before I had gotten my phone destroyed in a fight, and it had taken almost 2 weeks to get it replaced.

The next day I was startled to see a couple walk into the store minutes before I went up to lock the door for the night. One was a handsome looking guy in a 3 piece suit, the woman was Chinese in a conservative but stylish business outfit, a dark gray with a black pencil skirt resting just above her knees. She also had a guide dog.

“Diana?” I asked. Not sure of what I was seeing, and if it was real. She smiled, and had Fang bring her over to me where she gave me a big hug. “Hiya, Chris. This is my husband, Doug.” I shook hands with Doug, and said I was glad to have them over. “I think we have a solution, if you have time to hear us out.”

I told them I had all the time in the world, and locked the door and led them up to my apartment. After pouring them both some coffee we sat in the living room. Dianne and Fang changed to Dire Wolf and Fang after going into my bathroom, and she had on a pair of shorts and large t-shirt when she emerged.

“There, I thought this might be more comfortable for all of us. Doug here is one of the supervisors for Paladin Relations, and I got him involved in this case.”

“Actually it was rather easy, to be honest,” Doug explained. “In over four years, you have never requested anything from us other than a single replacement phone. I already got a preliminary approval for $120,000, possibly more depending on needs.”

Thankfully, I had already been thinking this over. “Well, I had already considered part of this to tell you the truth. There’s a closed place several blocks away I had already considered buying, and turning over to Bo for use as a safehouse. It was once a garage, so the bottom floor is perfect for this use. The top floor was an office, and I was considering doing like this, and making it an apartment for my alter-ego, since he is not a secret. The only problem I had is that getting from there to here is a lot more open than my usual way.” I looked at both of them, and continued.

“As Bohica, I generally use the rooftops to get around, and I can mostly move from 3 to 5 blocks in any direction unobserved that way. But this place is almost half a mile, and no easy way to get from there to here without dropping to the street. If I did that, it would only be a matter of time before somebody realized Bo was moving from a single direction every time. That direction being from my place here. That is why for the moment I am parking my car behind the lot where I bought it.”

“OK, so that simplifies things a lot. Give me the address of this safehouse you were looking at.”

I told him the address, and he pulled out what looked like one of those new tablet computers and typed on it for a few minutes. He spent about 5 minutes, bringing up various files and images, then showed one to Di. She nodded, and he then turned to me and smiled.

“OK, I think this can work. There’s an old sewage main that covers most of the distance from here to there, an old main that has been rerouted and replaced about 30 years ago. Next week, we will have a crew start laying in a connection from that place to the main. Then redo the main, and give it a flat floor. Once that is completed, we will then do the same to here. The work here will be at night, but it should be completed before the end of next month.” He smiled at that point.

“OK, here are our standard conditions now. First, you must set up both properties in a trust. If you ever, ahhh, die or decide to stop working as Bohica the title of the properties revert to us. You can still live here, but we are concerned with somebody discovering our secrets. Trust me, this is not to get your property.” He looked sincere, and Di nodded.

“Second, if you ever decide to sell, we agree in advance to pay the going market rate for the properties, as agreed upon by three independent estimators. We choose one, you choose one, the third will be picked by the PMC (Paladin Members Co-Op, essentially our “unofficial” union). It has only happened once so far, but in that event, they paid the average of the two highest estimates. If you do retire, you can pick one of them as your permanent home, and live there as long as you want. We will pay you the market rate for both properties, and you pay us back at an arranged rental fee. If for some reason the rent equals the amount of what we paid you, you only have to pay the real estate tax and insurance. Essentially a reverse mortgage. And if you die, the same thing happens and we pay the compromise between the highest two to your estate. Once again, we are not trying to take money from you. We simply need to safeguard our interests and try to not lose money.” Wow, I had no idea!

“Rest assured, if we were to ever take possession the property, the intent is to put it on hold for several years, then turn it over to a future Paladins. We are as of yet unsure if this gift is genetic, and we do not know if it will ever occur again.”

“Wait, genetic? You mean there may be future generations like us?” I felt a bolt of panic rise in me, remembering my mom.

Di reached out and placed her hand on the back of mine. “Honestly, we just do not know. As I said, I am involved in statistics involving Mutants. We have never found a mutant younger than puberty that ever had the power, but we do have 35 cases where individuals who were pre-pubescent at the time of the Night of Madness later developed powers. It is going to be at least another 10 years or so until we know at the soonest if this is actually genetic, and if it can be passed along to children, Chris.”

Great, another thing for me to consider before I let myself get knocked up.

“But as Doug said, Control is thinking long-term on this. If you buy the other building, this will probably be a slam-dunk. The cost will still go over the budget. But with us ultimately having 2 safehouses, it should be no problem in getting it approved. Baby, tell her about her car!”

“Oh, that is easy. I know I can get approval for that, it is a separate funding pool. It will take about 2 weeks. But we can return it with Kevlar panels in the body, a turbocharged engine, bulletproof glass, suspension upgrade, voice activated computer with full features, and active matrix on the body.”

“Oh Chris, you will love it!” Di squealed. “That’s even better than what I have in many ways. The computer even includes an auto-control, so you could have the car come to you if you are on foot somewhere by giving it a voice command on your phone. I could not go full active matrix, the van is simply too big. But with it the car will be almost invisible so long as it is parked or in an open area and you are driving slowly. And you can give it voice commands, even telling it to say ‘Call Control and have a pick-up for three perps at this location’, and it will make the call for you and tell them where you are. Within minutes of making the request, the cops will be there.”

“Why can’t our phones already do that?” I asked.

“Processor power,” Doug replied. “Phones are pretty smart now, but they still lack the complexity of a full voice controlled AI that can interact with other AIs at that level of sophistication. The computer that goes in the car is still classified, but let’s just say it makes a 16 core Terahertz CPU look like a computer from the 1970’s. And just so you know, part of the protocol includes the ability for Control to wipe the system and fry the thing remotely, to keep it out of the hands of others.”

“What, I would be driving around in a moving bomb?” I asked, horrified.

“Oh, not at all Honey!” Di explained. “It only fries the computer into melted plastic bits. The car would still work, you just loose the other functions. Same with the other features. The active matrix coating would melt down, which looks like an ugly splotched black. This happened to me about a year and a half ago, when some punks stole my van, thinking the boxes in the back were worth something. It was only camouflage, they were empty. When we recovered it, they fixed it back up again at no cost.”

“OK, I’m sold. So what’s next?”

“Get the other building, and bring your car and the paperwork to Control Headquarters. The PMC will see to all legal requirements. It will be in a trust, so that will be largely anonymous. About 4 days later or so you will need to come down to sign the transfers and titles, and that will be it. Oh, the same will go for your car. If you ever need to sell it, we will buy it. At full retail price, even if it is totaled. We are more concerned with the upgrades falling into the wrong hands than we are about money.”

“Honey, you are stepping up into an entire new level now,” Di told me. “Doug, Clint and I have actually been wondering why you did not come to us before with this. But I did some digging since we talked and now that makes sense. Your net worth is over $2 million dollars. So while not independently wealthy, you have obviously not really needed our help before. Most Paladins come to us long before this asking for help, but you always did things on your own. But expect your life to also get a lot more complicated. More than once, I have called Control and said ‘Get me Bohica’. Only to be reminded that you are not mobile, and tended to stay within a 5 mile radius of Darktown. With this, now I can make that request and know that you would likely be there within 20 minutes if you can.”

“Di, if you ever need me I will be there for you, I promise. You know why that was a problem before. But it looks like it will not be a problem ever again.”

Doug stood and reached out his hand, I stood and ignored his hand and gave him a big hug. “Thank you Doug, this is more than I ever dreamed a few months ago.”

He hugged me back and Di came over and hugged me as well. “I only have one request first,” he then said, smiling as he did so. Di laughed as he said this.

“What is that?”

“Well, on my wall I have a signed picture of every Paladin I have helped. If not for Di, we would have had you come to Control to handle this. But it’s more than vanity. A Paladin or Mutant seeing the photos on the wall knows I have their best interests at heart, and will do all I can for them. If you can give me one, it would help a lot. You may not know it, but to many you are one of the most elusive Paladins in the country. We have had little contact with you, and most were not sure if it was because you are afraid of us, or had resources we were not aware of. We already knew your official net worth, but none of us until after you met Di understood that you were simply not aware of all we could do for you. If you had still been working at Super Duper Mart, you likely would have been aware within a month of what we could do, because you would have needed us more. And I admit, I’m impressed with how much you had done on your own for so long. Now, do I have your permission for a photo?”

I laughed, and led them through the secret door to Bohica’s Bunker. I pulled out a photo that I already has taken of me (made at the suggestion of the Control PR Department). “You’ll have to excuse me a moment, I will need to go upstairs and change. I cannot sign as Bo does.” They both laughed, and I returned shortly as Bo, in a pair of sweats.

Doug took a double take, and shook his head. I took the photo from my desk, and signed “To my friend Doug, you really made my dreams come true”, then signed my name. Di smiled when she read the autograph, and Doug did as well, saying “This will be the best one yet. Thank you Bohica, this means a lot to me.”

“Any time,” I replied, smiling and reaching out to shake his hand. “But please, Bo. Now let’s go on upstairs, I have a bottle of wine that this is well suited for!”

Back as Chris I poured the wine, and we chatted like old friends for the next 2 hours. I even took out the steak I had planned for dinner tonight and gave it to Fang, earning a wet lick across the entire side of my face as a reward. I watched it disappear, and once again marveled at the incredible animal.

“Di, have you ever had the intelligence of Fang tested?” I asked.

“Actually, we have. His intelligence is much higher than any other dog, roughly that of a chimp. It is really hard to tell, and we’re not sure how much is his connection to me and psychically getting from me, and how much is his own intelligence. But even when I am not around, he remains much smarter than any other dog ever tested.”

“I believe it. Something about his eyes, when he looks at me, it’s like he knows who I am.”

“Fang, go to Chris,” Di said softly. Fang stood up and walked right in front of me. “Fang, walk to Doug.” He then did just that. “Fang, walk to Bohica.” Fang turned and he gave Di a look, then walked in front of me. We all laughed at that.

“Baby, if that is not a ‘Make up your mind silly human’ look, I will eat my hat!” Doug exclaimed. I gave Fang a big hug around his neck, and said softly into his ear “Buddy, you and I will be seeing a lot more of each other from now on.”

I swear to this day he grinned as he looked me in the eye. Then he did not blink, he winked.

The last of the wine finished, we said our goodbyes and Fang and Dire Wolf changed back into Fang and Di. And with hugs exchanged among all of us I led them back downstairs where they got into their car and headed home.

It was almost 11, so I made a TV dinner and made plans for the next day. I hung a sign in the window saying I was going to be closed the next day. I then changed to Bohica and after getting my car went to a real estate broker and said I was interested in the property. She made a few calls, and soon I was walking inside the garage for the first time. I only had an idea, having seen it from the outside. But inside, it was perfect.

The four doors were automatic, two in the front and two in the back. The ground floor was of double height, and there was already a grease pit and lift inside. Upstairs was divided into three offices, a break room, a bathroom, and a storage room. An easy conversion into a bedroom, kitchen, and living room in addition to the bathroom. The latter only needed the shower replaced with a tub and shower.

And I also found out it included the building next door. They were attached and shared a common wall, but this was common in buildings in this area of town of this age. I was not aware that they were both being sold together.

We tended an offer before noon for $375,000, and it was accepted an hour later. It seems that the owner was wanting to sell. And since it was Bohica that was interested, he knew that there would be no problems in financing. A call to Control, and $100,000 was withdrawn from my account and the remainder guaranteed by a loan from the PMCCU (Paladin Members Co-Op Credit Union) sealed the deal. This was something Doug had told me to do. I could afford to pay it in cash, but he said a loan would be a benefit for tax purposes and other reasons.

I called Di at 4, and told her it was done. Twenty minutes later Doug called me and said construction would start on Monday. “Just write out on a piece of paper your rough ideas, and we will do the rest,” he told me. I spent about two hours doing that, even throwing in a few “pie in the sky” ideas, like linking the network here with the one in my home, and including a secret vault for my new “Bohica Bunker”.

The next day after work I changed, then walked over to get my car. I excused myself in Bob’s bathroom, and emerged 15 minutes later in my suit. “Dang brother, you going on a date or something?”

“Yep,” I said, and threw the bag with Bo’s usual clothes into the trunk and climbed into Blue Beauty. Yea, so I already named my car, so sue me. The Green Hornet had “Black Beauty”, the Brown Hornet had “White Beauty”. Bohica, he would have “Blue Beauty”.

Shortly afterwards, I was standing nervously in front of Gloria’s house and rang the doorbell. As many dates as I had been on as Chris, this is the first time I had actually gone to pick up my own date and not the other way around.

A rather distinguished looking lady answered the door, and looked shocked when she saw me there. “Oh, it’s true,” she softly said, then gave me a smile and said Gloria would be down in a minute. As she was saying this, Gloria came down the stairs.

I admit I had done the same thing in the past as Chris, but the effect still floored me. Her dress was midnight blue, and fit her like a second skin. It reached almost to her knees, and I suspected that she was wearing stockings under it, and not hose. She gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, and told her mother we would be back later that night.

To say I was stunned was an understatement. Her hair was perfect, falling to her shoulders in soft waves. The cut of the top revealed the tops of her breasts, in a very enticing way. Taking her hand in the crook of my arm I led her to Blue Beauty, and realized her dress was a perfect match for my car.

This was obviously the Chris part of me. Bo was mostly thinking of the glimpse of her thighs he saw as she slipped into the car before he closed the door. We chatted about our week on the drive to Smokey’s, and she marveled at my “new” car. “This fits everything about you Bo,” she said. “You don’t seem like a sports car guy, or an SUV guy. Definitely not a mini-van guy. A classic muscle car just screams you, sweetie.” But why was I questioning her calling the car “classic”?

When we got to Smokey’s, I held the door for her and the sound of sweet saxophone jazz greeted us. We walked to the podium where a young woman asked us if we had reservations. I said we didn’t, I had not realized they were needed. The only time I had been here in the past was once with my dad. And suddenly, I realized I felt foolish.

“Honey, they are always needed on the weekends. Let me have your name and I will let you know as soon as a table is open, probably in about 45 minutes I think.”

I had just told her that we needed a table for two for Bo when a portly man came up and whispered to the girl. “Please Mr. Bohica, we can seat you right now if you will follow me. I apologize for the confusion,” he said, giving the girl a dirty look which she seemed to cringe from.