Chapter 12: Preparing for Battle

Late April-May, 1986

Charlie POV:

Having just renewed our bond with our neighbors, I had to figure a way to send them away without making it seem rude. There simply wasn’t time for a long drawn out explanation. The situation was very complex and even OUR girls and Bob were mostly in the dark about most of it.

I flashed Mary my concerns and assurances of ‘full disclosure’, but that time was of the essence and our neighbors at this point didn’t have ‘a need to know’.

Our neighbors had already figured out something serious was going on.

I flashed TJ to check on his status. “We just pulled up to the Flight Ops Center. I see our NSA counterparts. What’s your status?” TJ asked.

“Still trying to get freed up. Things are very complicated here and Mary is STILL NOT happy with me right now! I fear her little chat with Janet has only made her angrier! She feels like I was trying to hide this from her! Any word from Brock on the stakeout?”

I felt him take a deep breath, “So far, all is quiet. I DON’T want to go back to the office ... would it be okay to come to your place? It’s closer to our current case. The thing is, we won’t get there until around 10:30. The only problem will be finding someplace to spend the night.”

“Well, we could put the four of you up on the hide-a-bed and some air mattresses and sleeping bags. It’ll be a bit cozy or there’s a motel up Randall Rd at Rt 38, right by K-Mart. For now, go ahead and just come here.”

“Thanks buddy! Oh, and I hope you don’t mind, but I invited your dad to join us too ... he’s on his way over. “

I chuckled, “He probably just wants to see the babies again! See you in about 45 minutes.”

Looking at our friends, I felt the best approach would be the direct approach. Mary was nodding her head, then motioned for me to continue.

“Look guys, there’s a major case going down that we’re right in the middle of. TJ, Janet, Dad and two NSA Agents are on their way over here right now as we speak.” As I was telling them I noticed Bill was looking at me nervously. “Please don’t worry, we’ll make sure you guys are safe. It’s just that we don’t have time right now to give you all of the details.”

Bill nodded, “I wasn’t worried about that. I was just hoping I could talk to you about a couple of clients I have that I’m sure are involved in something crooked. I know in the past you worried I’d misuse my abilities and my relationship with you. I REALLY need to talk to you, so you know I’m sincere.”

I knew he was serious and wished we had more time so I could talk to him. I was just about to ask them to go when Bill flashed, “Please Charlie! This really CAN’T WAIT. After tomorrow, it might be too late...”

The rest of the neighbors had been getting ready to leave. Sally was waking little Kelly, who’d fallen asleep on the couch with CJ. They were all headed for the door, where Greg was shaking Ed’s hand and giving Gracie a kiss, promising we’d fill them in as soon as we had the chance. Greg shook Bill’s hand, then suddenly flashed, “Whoa, buddy, get over here and give Bill a second to show you his problem!”

I went over and Bill pulled me into a ‘bro-hug’ and he ‘unloaded’ his whole story to me, complete with very clear mental pictures of everything and everyone involved. What stunned me was who his ‘clients’ were! He’d set up investment accounts for none other than Kurt and Ben, our bank robbers! Bill discovered that they’d just recently been investing huge sums of cash in what he found out were essentially ‘shell corporations’ that Bill had helped them set up investments with. They’d just come in a few days ago, inquiring about the feasibility of transferring the entire amount from these to a numbered account in the Cayman Islands. They were planning on adding another ‘substantial’ deposit on Friday, tomorrow, then transferring the entire balance! They’d given Bill the secret account number and now I knew what it was, along with the names and numbers of the shell corporations!

I had a feeling now, based on my ‘conversation’ with Kurt and Karen, that they were planning on stiffing Viktor, then hiding in the Cayman’s! No wonder they were so nervous to think Viktor was checking up on them.

“Bill”, I flashed to only him, “I’m sorry I EVER doubted you! Those two guys have been robbing banks for the last several months. NOW I know where all or most of that money is! This is HUGE my friend. Those bank robbers are WHY TJ is coming here! Listen to me. You CAN NOT go into work in the morning. I don’t want you getting involved in what’s about to go down. Trust me when I tell you, there’s far more to this than you know. If they think for a second you ratted them out, they MAY try to kill you!”

By now Bill’s eyes were popping out of his head. And I could feel his heart rate spike. He couldn’t hide his fear and I hugged him again. “We’ll protect you! I promised you that. Just be ready to follow whatever instructions I might give you in the morning. Okay?”

“Charlie, when this is over, I want you to look into some other shady investments that I’m aware of. I think it may involve the MOB!”

I couldn’t help but start laughing. My ‘well endowed’ friend had truly ‘endowed me well’ with information that might just solve the FBI’s two biggest cases!

Now I couldn’t wait to tell TJ.

I no sooner closed the door behind our neighbors when Mary and Jamie were giving me and Greg the old ‘stink-eye’.

Greg smirked, but said slowly, “WOULD YOU LADIES BELIEVE ... that my soul brother, bosom buddy and fellow dimwit, Charlie and I, were mind-numbingly overcome by innumerable events that completely overwhelmed our little pea-brains?”

The girls tried to stay mad, but after 2 breathless seconds began giggling. Mary and Jamie were giving Greg and me the ‘come hither’ motion with their forefingers, trying to resume their ‘mad’ look. Greg and I combatted that with our best, sorrowful ‘poop-lip’ which earned us each a gentle ‘slap’ (love tap?) on our cheeks then a hot, toe-curling kiss!

Mary then asked, firmly, “Okay, you’re forgiven. NOW, who the hell is this Viktor douche bag? And WHAT has that got to do with that thing Bill is so freaked out about? You know I was in your head, and heard you thinking about somebody named Kurt and Ben ... ARE THOSE GUYS THE BANK ROBBERS?”

“Yes, dear. It really did start innocently enough. Greg and I were just minding our own business. We were talking about the babies when this lady sitting at our usual table overheard Greg ask me if I thought CJ was going to be a genius. We found it interesting, when we sensed her 3 friends got mad at her for eavesdropping and then talking to us. Then, when we shook hands, we knew the guys had all given us false names! It was shortly after that, we discovered they might be TJ’s serial bank robbing gang. Brittany had told us they’d been there, always in the same booth, every day since last Friday morning. They were casing the First National Bank!”

I then explained everything about how they thought I was this ‘Viktor’ since, when I popped next to Kurt and even though I was invisible, he’d smelled my deodorant. Then how I ‘played’ like I was Viktor, to see what I could find out.

The girls and Bob gasped, “So this Viktor can turn invisible AND FLY?” Jamie asked, highly concerned.

I sighed, “AND ‘teleport’ from what TJ said happened down in Cuba.”

Bob was shaking his head, “This guy HAS to be one of those three evil catalyst fuckers that Zeus told us about! I wonder why Zeus hasn’t tried to let us know? Like he did with Sherman?”

“Ohhhh nooo!“ Mary gasped, “My medallion has been warm all afternoon! I’m sooo sorry I didn’t think to tell you.”

I gave HER a ‘stink-eye’ just as there was a knock on the door. I knew we were going to be making a trip to see Zeus very soon, but I needed to get the door first.

I let in TJ, Janet and two guys I didn’t know. Well, I instantly recognized Jeremy, my fellow ‘good’ catalyst, whom Zeus had previously given me a mental glimpse of. As TJ made the introductions, I sent Jeremy a warm, mental ‘Hello’!

I thought the guy’s eyes were going to pop out of their sockets!

Jeromy POV:

We didn’t ask where we were going, but TJ said it was going to take at least 45 minutes to get there. Rex and I used the time to tell TJ and Janet all about what happened down at Gitmo. (The Military Base/Prison/Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)

I was explaining all about how this ‘spirit/evil ghost’ had somehow managed to kill over 100 inmates. The thing that made that even more incredible was that they had multiple angles of video surveillance that clearly showed that NO ONE could have done it! 75 of them had been shot once in the center of the forehead by what appeared to be a silenced 22 caliber bullet. The rest had their necks snapped like they were made out of balsa wood! The Base Commandant had run GSR (Gunshot Residue) tests on all the guards on duty to see if any of them had fired a gun.

They all came up clean!

Then I explained about my encounter with this ‘Viktor’ character/ demon/ ASSHOLE. TJ knew I had telepathic abilities from our previous encounter on the tanker the night that Rafael’s pirates had tried to hijack two fuel tankers and a private yacht. TJ had been on the yacht and had summoned his ‘buddy’ Jonah. Up until that time all the stories I’d heard about Jonah I felt were too fantastic to be true. Having a very sane Coast Guard LT basically testify that he’d not only witnessed one of Jonah’s rescues, but had also spoken to him, THAT made me a believer. Upon further investigation, only someone like Jonah could have done something like this.

Hence my trepidation of actually meeting him.

We arrived at a nice, very large, upscale suburban split-level ranch house in a quiet cul-de-sac. I don’t know what I was expecting as we went up to the door, but it wasn’t what I saw! TJ gave this gorgeous brunette a VERY hot kiss while Janet did the same to a guy she called Charlie. I saw Rex ogling four very attractive women, three of whom were holding babies. Two were VERY pregnant, so either there were twins or there had to be another mother somewhere.

TJ blushed, then made the introductions.

“Jeremy and Rex, I want you to meet my close friends. This pretty lady is Mary, the cute blonde (strawberry blonde) is Linda, the taller pregnant redhead is Jamie and the pregnant redheaded pixie is Sarah. This is Charlie, Bob and Greg. Bob is Charlie’s little brother.”

That made Bob flash a goofy grin just before slugging TJ on his shoulder.

As he introduced Rex and me ... OH. MY. LORD! I felt a warm, reassuring presence! Charlie was smiling at me and mentally welcoming me to his home! Several hours ago I was certain I was in the presence of Satan himself, now, it’s like I’m being welcomed by the Almighty One! All of the fear and trepidation I felt, worrying about how to deal with the evil one named Viktor, was quickly vanishing.

I mentally asked Charlie, “Are YOU Jonah?”

He gave me the warmest smile, then a quick chuckle, “Yes, my new friend. Well, at least ‘some’ of Jonah!”

That’s when I looked around the room. The other two guys, Bob, Charlie’s brother and Greg, Charlie’s best friend, were also smiling at me and sending warm welcomes as well!

I’ve also always been able to see both the good and evil in people. Evil shows up as dark gray to black ‘clouds’ surrounding people. Good shows up as a yellow to white glow. Bob, Greg and Charlie were blindingly white! So were the four women we were introduced to as well as their 3 babies! Only Bob was a slightly paler white than the rest.

That’s when I had an epiphany.

The FBI had ‘Jonah-like’ stories involving a group code named ‘The Three Amigos’. I was almost certain I was looking at them! It also explained Charlie’s cryptic reply of ‘some of Jonah’. The three of them must ALL have some or all of the powers necessary to do what ‘Jonah’ had been credited with doing.

I could only hope that these guys could maybe teach me how to be like them.

Charlie must have still been in my head. He said, “Jeremy, are you aware that YOU are a catalyst like me?”

I think I fainted.

The next thing I knew Janet and Mary, the beautiful brunette, were holding my head off the floor and giving me some water.

Rex was concerned, “Are you okay buddy? You turned white as a ghost and passed out cold!”

I would have answered, but I was mesmerized by Mary’s warm, sexy smile and sparkling blue eyes. Then SHE blew me away. “Jeremy, welcome to our little club! I hope you’re feeling better. Charlie didn’t mean to scare you. What all can YOU do?”

It’s like I heard her clear as day, yet her lips never moved. I thought back to her, “Um, besides this? Um, well, I can kinda tell what people are thinking and I can sometimes get people to do what I want them to do. Other than that, though, nothing.”

That’s when I realized my face was flush up against her bodacious breasts and she was cradling me like a baby. She must not have been wearing a bra as I could feel her warm breast against my cheek. I immediately started getting a boner! I knew I had to get up or risk pissing off which ever one of these guys was her husband. I hurriedly scrambled to get up, but both Mary and Janet giggled and told me to relax.

At least none of the guys had fire coming out of their eyes! In fact, they were all grinning at us. Greg said, “Don’t worry Jeremy, Charlie’s not the jealous type. The only one who might take offense would be little CJ, and then only if you tried to mooch some of his lunch!”

I gasped, “Oh, I’m sorry. I think I can get up now, really. Can ALL of you communicate like that?”

Charlie smiled, “I need to do something first, then I’ll answer that...”

I felt a weird tingling, like a very weak shock, then Charlie said, “Okay, I’m sorry but I had to bind you to secrecy. I just pushed a ‘Confidentiality Spell’ on both you and Rex. It’s harmless, but if you ever try and tell anybody about us, you’ll forget everything that has or will be said tonight. It’s one of the things our benefactor has forced us to do to protect our identities. I’ve never tried to put one on another catalyst before, however!”

Rex was looking at me, then Charlie, “Did you do it already? I didn’t feel anything!”

Charlie said, “Yes, and you won’t. With everything we’re going to be talking about, while this isn’t the optimum thing, it’ll work for now. Just don’t try to tell anyone not in this room right now anything about me or anyone else that IS in the room right now. Everyone else already has my ‘Gift of Confidant’, so you CAN discuss it with them.”

Both Rex and I just stared at Charlie, “HUH???”

Bob, Charlies brother, was laughing, “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got a hilarious story I’ll tell you later about what Charlie just did. I’ve had to do it before too!”

This was like some kind of dream right out of the ‘Twilight Zone’! I suddenly felt that Rex was feeling lost and overwhelmed. He really had NO IDEA what was going down. I’d always doubted that I had any ‘special’ or supernatural abilities. BOTH of us had discussed telepathy and psychokinesis and were DOUBTERS, not believing it was possible.

Now, MY doubts had all but disappeared, but I felt his still remained.

I had a gazillion questions, but TJ brought us back to reality, asking, “Charlie, just before we got here, you flashed me something about your buddy, Bill, telling you something about KNOWING our suspects?”

Rex couldn’t believe what he was hearing and shaking his head rapidly said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! I’m sorry for interrupting, but, ... TJ, are you telling me that you and Charlie can actually communicate telepathically? REALLY?”

He was staring at me with a look of total disbelief, trying to ascertain if I believed it. I made eye contact and slowly nodded. I felt like I was betraying him.

Suddenly, Charlie was in my head,” You’ve never mentally connected with your buddy?”

“No, truthfully, until a few minutes ago NEITHER of us believed something like this was possible!” I replied, not realizing I’d said it out loud. I also saw Rex looking at me and I could tell he was now VERY confused.

Charlie made a face, keeping his mouth tightly closed, “Try it again without moving your lips or tongue! You can do it, now, how long have you two been friends?”

I consciously tried just ‘thinking’ my response. “Since 9^th grade? He saved my life when these 5 Neanderthal football goons tried to kill me. We’ve been best friends ever since.”

“Haven’t you ever, you know, felt like you knew what he was thinking?” Charlie asked incredulously.

I shrugged then admitted, “Yes, but, I liked the guy so much and I felt like I was invading his privacy. After that, I’ve avoided it at all costs.”

Charlie chuckled, shaking his head, “Well, I guess that explains it. Jeremy old boy, YOU AND I need to have a looong talk. There’s a way we can do it, but, you’re going to have to trust me. Have you ever been down the ‘Rabbit Hole’?”

Now I chuckled, “You mean MORE than what we’re doing NOW?”

The next thing I knew, Charlie is telling everyone, “Look guys, I know we’ve got things to plan for and discuss, but Jeremy and I NEED to have a chat and I think I can kill 4 birds with one rock!”

TJ looked concerned, “We REALLY don’t have time for this.”

Charlie frowned, but told him, “Trust me, we won’t be gone long.”

I noticed his buddy Greg, and Bob were grinning. Something told me they knew what was about to happen. His buddy said, “TJ, while they’re gone, we’ll fix us something to drink. Jeremy, what do you drink? I’m fixing Charlie a Bloody Mary.”

“Well, bourbon on the rocks would be great. Something tells me I’m gonna need one!”

Greg came over and shook my hand while clopping me on my shoulder, “Great choice! I’m glad to know another bourbon drinker. Is Makers Mark okay?”

“Hell yes! That’s the good stuff!” I told him. Then I felt him say, “We’ll take care of Rex while you’re gone. He’ll be fine, I promise.”

I was in awe of the obvious love all these guys and ladies had for each other. They seemed to be perfectly in sync with each other. I was reveling in that when Charlie put his arm around my shoulder and ... WOW ... I knew my life would never be the same again!

The next thing I knew, Charlie and I were in an ancient dwelling of some kind! It was dimly lit, with only an open doorway and a small squarish hole for a window. We sat down on an earthen bench carved into the wall and Charlie looked at me. “Let’s share our stories. Look into my eyes and let’s bond our souls, okay?”

I was wide-eyed, “sure, I’d like that...”

I don’t have any idea how long it lasted, but it’s like a movie was fast-forwarding into my consciousness. I saw a young boy rescuing his younger brother who was lost in the woods. I saw him and Greg obviously in college and sharing an intimate moment of discovery and bonding. It reminded me of Rex and myself. I felt him meeting Mary for the first time and how THEY bonded and fell in love. Then he and Greg and Mary’s redheaded friend, Jamie all bonding and engaging in an open relationship together.

That’s when I gasped and Charlie disengaged.

“You don’t agree with our open relationship?” He asked with a little dismay.

“No! Oh God no! I agree completely! Rex, his girlfriend, Joni, me and my girl, Sheila are in the EXACT SAME KIND OF RELATIONSHIP! We’ve been told it’s immoral and wrong. That y’all are in the same kind of relationship is awesome! It’s like we’re soul-brothers or something! Are ALL of you like that?”

Charlie grinned, “Yes, we consider ourselves a Family. We have 9 others who are like ‘Kissin’ 1^st cousins and ALL of our parents have formed their own Family! It’s wonderful that we don’t have to hide our relationship from our parents. Let’s resume our stories, okay? OH, and you can start showing me yours, too. It may be difficult for you at first, but, treat this like an exercise for what we’re going to do next!”

I was almost giddy, “Ahh, yes sensei!” I felt Charlie laughing as I was thinking about all of us getting together and how much I’d enjoy getting to know his wife, Mary, better. It explained why he didn’t mind me getting ‘excited’ before.