Chapter 27: Secrets Revealed

Late-June, 1986

We’d conferred, mentally, and chose to enter right at the entrance to the 5^th Dimension.

It’s where all of the portals were. This was where we landed the first time we ‘Spirit Walked’. We felt this would make our friends aware that we weren’t in Kansas anymore!

It had the desired effect. Our friends were awestruck.

Gracie was the first to ask, “Where are we? What’s with all of these TV’s?”

Ed was like a kid in the big city for the first time, he was wide-eyed and looking all around.

I said, “We are now in the 5^th dimension. Those aren’t TV’s, they’re portals to every World, Universe and Reality in existence! They can ‘act’ like TV’s, in that you can look through them at whatever you want to see. To show you better, let’s look at what just happened to you...”

I said psychically and out loud, “Planet Earth, Milky Way Galaxy, our Reality, one hour in the past.”

Suddenly we were all in the middle of the huge area and the portal in front of us illuminated green. I further defined, “Charlie Swenson’s house.”

There were gasps as they saw themselves coming over to the house, just like it had happened.

Emmy was amazed, “Al and Betty Gorand’s house, present time, please?”

I smiled, because this was her parent’s place in Glencoe, IL.

I told her to also ‘think’ it. When she did, she gasped, “Wow! That’s it!” “How do we zoom in, so we can see inside?” She asked.

I told her that everything here responded to psychic commands, so all she had to do was ‘think’ of what she wanted to see.

We saw her parents doting over her little Jennifer. Her two brothers and their wives were over and the conversation was interesting. Drew, Emmy’s older brother asked, “Ma, don’t you think Sis was a little, I don’t know ... overly desperate, having a baby with a married guy?”

Mrs Gorand sighed, “Well, it’s all your fault! If you and Jay hadn’t terrorized every boy in school, she just might have fallen in love and found a nice boy to marry.”

Jay shook his head, “I don’t know. Those guys at school just wanted to get laid. They would have broken Sis’s heart. Bill at least really loves her. I kinda like the guy. Sis sure seems happy with everything. She says her neighbors are really cool too! One of them has two wives and there’s seven of them all living together ... do you think they’re all like in one of those weird polyamorous relationships Em always talks about?”

Jays wife, Rene, poked him in the ribs, “If you had a hair on your ass, you’d just ask her. You know damn good and well, if we could find the right people, we’d at least check something like that out!”

Emmy squealed, “Oh my God! I’d have never guessed! This is so cool, in a pervy, peeping-tom sort of way. They can’t hear us, right?”

“No, they have no idea we’re listening in.” I explained.

Bill chuckled, “This is a nice trick, guys, but, how does this fit in with what’s been going on with CJ?”

Bob clopped his shoulder, “We need you to believe what you’re about to see. As you just saw, this isn’t some cute parlor trick. You DO believe what you just saw, don’t you?”

Bill thought for a second. “Just the fact that one second we were in your backyard, then the next we’re here, I’d be a fool to doubt you. Emmy seems convinced, that’s for sure.”

Sally smirked, “My hubby is the original ‘Doubting Thomas’! When are we going to meet Bob’s lady friend?”

Bob grinned, “Take the hand of the one who brought you here ... you DON’T want to get left behind!”

Sheila and Rex chuckled, “NO ... you don’t. You’ll understand in just a bit.”

Bob had already alerted Ibera of our impending visit and she was thrilled to meet some more new friends. Ed was chuckling when Ibera welcomed Bob in her usual, sexy way.

Our friends were now even more curious as to where we were. The portals were no longer visible and we were in Ibera’s ‘personal area’ that resembled the inside of a house. Bill was counting the seats around the table and was amazed there were exactly enough for all of us.

Greg laid out the pizzas and we sat down to have dinner. Ibera was enchanted to taste yet another new ‘delicacy’ as she called our pizzas. Bob asked if she could show our friends the vision that Zeus showed us that explained everything that Bob had done.

She nodded, “Sure, if you really want to see it again ... I know how much you all suffered. I hate to see my Bobby crying...”

Bill was wide-eyed, “What happened that caused Bob to cry?”

Ibera sighed, sadly, “He watched helplessly as Charlie and Greg were both shot to death! He spent close to 6 of your months here, desperately trying to undo what had been done.”

Our 5 friends were speechless. Sally asked, “But ... Charlie and Greg are here now? Maybe you should show us. Did Bob like, go back in Time? How is that possible!?”

Ibera now understood Bob’s request and the ‘show’ started. Bob guided the sequence of events and had it start with Viktor’s appearance in Bills office, impersonating the bank robber. Bill was now fully captivated, as he’d never said anything to either Sally or Emmy. Bob paused it whenever anyone had a question.

He had to pause it a lot.

After nearly 4 hours, we were almost up to our ‘reunification’ of Bob-1 and Bob-2. The ‘split-screen’ showing both realities simultaneously was very effective in getting them to understand about the two ‘Realities’ that were in play. We hadn’t gone into any of the most current details of our case with the Co-op, Rafael or the crooked Federal Agents yet. Our friends were now totally up to speed about the three evil Catalysts and how they all met their demise!

We wanted to give our friends a chance to let everything they’d just seen sink in.

Now, they also had a basic understanding about how Time and Dimension Travel worked. They at least partly understood what we meant by ‘so much had happened that they didn’t know about’.

They also had a healthy respect and admiration for how Ibera had been Bob’s helper and confidant during his time of direst need.

Jamie and Sheila had taken Emmy under their wing and were explaining to her some of the things that were possible with their future business they planned on starting together.

Ed’s mind had been completely blown and he was taking deep breaths to try and lower his heartrate. Mary was seated next to him, trying to answer the myriad of questions he had.

Jeremy and I were doing the same with Bill, Sally and Gracie.

Bill was no longer skeptical. There had been several news reports that they’d all seen that now fit much better into what they’d just guessed about, previously. They realized that, previously, they hadn’t had a clue!

Bill asked, “So, what’s the deal with that Rafael douche bag? Now that his boss, Viktor, is history, are you guys still planning on doing anything to him?”

I nodded slowly, “We’ve decided that we have to. There’s still more going on that you haven’t seen yet. Do you guys really want to see it all? It’s going to take at least as long to show you everything as what you’ve seen so far. We’re kind of getting sidetracked from what we were planning on doing tonight ... I know we were all hoping to have some ‘fun’ together.”

Ed was grinning and shaking his head. “This has been the most exciting and enlightening night of my life! At the risk of Gracie wondering if I’m losing my ‘horn dog’ status, I’d like to see anything you feel safe showing us. I’m not ready to crawl out of this ‘Rabbit Hole’ just yet.”

Sally hugged me, “Charlie, as much as I missed having you making love to me, let’s face it ... we can do THAT anytime. This is like the opportunity of a lifetime. Unless you could bring us here again?”

“Yes, we can bring you all back here, anytime. Now that you’ve all been here and understand, it won’t be as strange the next time.”

Emmy tittered, “It IS probably getting late, back at home. Maybe we should get back before we all get too tired.”

Sheila giggled, “Actually, Em, when we get back to Charlie’s patio, you’ll find we’ve only been gone a few seconds! If you’re getting tired, we should take a nap while we’re still here. It’s a double edged sword, though. If we sleep too long, when we get back, you won’t be tired enough to sleep tonight!”

Again, the open mouths showed that they were all just beginning to understand what was happening.

Ed said, “That’s called time dilation, isn’t it? Wow. I’ve often wondered about things like this, but, to be actually living it is unreal! Since we can come back, anytime, I think we should go back to Charlie’s place and have some fun in the pool. Maybe we could like come back here every Saturday just like we did tonight. Would that be okay?”

Greg smiled at him, “I like the way you think, my friend! Maybe next week we can go visit the ‘Island’ that Bob found for me. You’d get a chance to visit another planet in a totally different galaxy!”

The five of them all looked at each other incredulously. Bill chuckled, “I think my little buddy, Ed, isn’t going to get much sleep between now and then. Ed is so much into Science Fiction that I just know he’s gonna to be going crazy until then! And to think ... it won’t be fiction!”

I saw Gracie looking at her watch. I asked, “What time do you have, Grace?”

“Well, according to my watch, it’s 9:35pm. We’ve been here for almost 6 hours. I think it was like 3:45pm when we left.”

I felt this would be an interesting experiment. Both for me and our friends.

Bob was grinning, “Be prepared to be shocked, Gracie. You’re going to find that somehow or another, your watch will reset itself to the correct time when we get home. Don’t ask me how, just, keep looking at it.”

We all made sure we had our friends, then popped back home.

We found ourselves on the patio, in roughly the same places we were in when we left. Gracie’s mouth fell open, “Wow! It says it’s 3:46pm! Holy moly ... we’ve still got the whole night ahead of us!”

Ed was looking all around, “Yeah, I mean, it’s still light out! This is wild...”

Ed was deep in thought, when a melancholy look came over his face.

I hugged my friend. “What’s up, Buddy?”

“Oh, nothing really ... I guess now I’m really jealous of you guys. I was given a glimpse of something that I’ll never really be able to pursue. Bill was right. The Sci-Fi part of my brain is going crazy right now. I wish there was some way I could do some of this on my own. There’s so many new possibilities ... I just know when I go with Greg, I’m going to be holding him back. I mean, when we go to this island, I think we’re going to need to fly to really check out our surroundings. It’s not like anyone has cut any paths or roads or anything. We’ll definitely have to take some machetes with us.”

Bill chuckled, “I KNEW this was going to happen! I TOO see many possibilities of how it would help if I had powers like you guys do. I also recognize how you felt that if I HAD powers like you have, it would be very tempting to take unfair advantage of them. It would be easy to become... ‘less than honest’ about things, shall I say?”

I felt the time had come for me to make a decision.

Giving Ed powers had always been one of my plans. He’d had powers before and was always ready and willing to help us if we called on him. For him to dimension travel on his own, however, would require me to give him a large package. That would also be easy to include everything he would need to be Greg’s ‘right hand man’. One thing Zeus had told me in private, was that I could separate ‘Time Travel’ and ‘Dimension Travel’. For Ed, I would not need to give him Time Travel. That would prevent him from screwing up and accidentally sending himself into an alternate reality. Gracie would never forgive me if he did that. With Dimension Travel, he could still ‘see’ the past and future, he just couldn’t DO anything about it.

I mentally asked Jeremy to do his ‘good aura/bad aura’ thing on all of our friends. I felt him snickering, then I used his eyes, just like that night we ‘saw’ Viktor and Akbar.

I wasn’t too surprised with the results.

Emmy and Sally were almost blindingly white. Ed was next. Surprisingly, Bill was only slightly less brilliant than Ed. Gracie was more yellow, but, Jeremy said, that was still brighter than Sheila was. Sheila IS a pistol!

Mary had been in my head and flashed, “I know you have 4 packages left, Charlie. Why don’t you give a big one to Ed, a small one to Bill and I’ll give the ladies a couple powers myself. Like you, I can give individual powers out. Unlike you, one of them can be Dimension Travel. We can make it so nobody gets accidentally left behind when we go see Ibera.”

I was confused, “But, I only have two packages left!?”

She giggled, “When Ibera made Bob her Catalyst, you got Bob’s gift back. When Hera made me HER Catalyst, you got mine back, too! So, now you have 4. I know you want to give one to Jessica and Mike, so, you’ll still be able to! Personally, I’d give it to Mike, then give Jessica a bunch of individual abilities. I’m going to give some to Melody, too.”

I decided to keep quiet for right now. I wanted to have time to talk to each recipient individually to explain what they were getting. Especially since their abilities would all be somewhat different.

Ed was still reticent until I smiled at him. “Ed ... I’m going to give both you and Bill a special ‘gift’. I want to wait until I can be alone with each of you. It’s a little personal and I want to be able to work with each of you afterwards. Will you guys be okay with that?”

Ed was nearly jumping for joy, but Bill seemed pensive. I decided to address Ed first.

“Ed, I’m going to give you yours just before we go to visit Greg’s Island for the first time. Bob needs to take us there, first, and I want to go the first time so when my friend starts telling me about it, I’ll have a frame of reference. Bill, I sense that you’re concerned about something. Let me assure you. We’ll do this together so we can ‘tailor’ your abilities so as not to lead you into temptation. One thing you both need to be aware of ... well, there’s actually two things. First, with my new powers, I’ll get twigged every time you use your powers. In time, I’ll be able to dial it back, but, it’s mainly so I can help you if you run into problems. Second, IF I feel you’re abusing your powers, I can and will take them back. This was also a new thing for me. Before, if I gave somebody an ability, they would ALWAYS have it. That scared me into being very, very cautious. Now, at most you’ll only get one major screw-up. Then, I can take your powers away from you. Just know that if it comes to that, I’ll NEVER be able to give them back. This is a ‘one-time good deal’, so to speak.”

Ed was nodding excitedly and Bill nodded, then winked at me, knowingly.

Mary kissed Emmy, then Sally and Gracie. “And I’m going to give each of you some gifts, too. We’ll get together later this week and figure out which gifts would be best. It didn’t come out yet, but I’m a Catalyst now, too! Hera made me hers, just like Ibera made Bob hers. You must remember that everything we’ve talked about and everything you’ve seen tonight falls under your Confidentiality agreement you received when we gave you your enhanced telepathy. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why all of this needs to remain ‘Top Secret’!”

Gracie sighed, “No, Mary, we fully understand. Tonight has been one of the most amazing and enlightening experiences of my entire life. It’s like the secrets of the Universe were explained to us. Everything you’ve entrusted us with is ... unbelievable. It certainly explains why you’ve all been so quiet lately. If it wasn’t for everything that happened tonight, we’d all STILL be in the dark.”

Sally kissed me, then asked, “I get the distinct feeling you’ve still got some secrets. I won’t press you for more info, just, that ... PLEASE be careful? I have a feeling that what we don’t know yet, could get you hurt?”

Rex looked at me, then Bob.

I nodded, then he continued, “There is. It has to do with Viktor’s head honcho, Rafael. He has a compound down on a big island, just north of Haiti. He has over 900 mercenaries stationed there and we’re planning on putting an end to his empire. If things go as planned, it shouldn’t be too dangerous. It’s a complicated plan and Sheila and Linda are going with us to help release the Island’s Governor from Viktor’s evil brain washing. We NEED to do this, or Rafael will just keep plundering unsuspecting boaters, selling drugs and taking young girls hostage. He then sells them to human traffickers.”

Sheila added, “I’m still trying to get the guys to go to Rafael’s other compound in Nicaragua to free the nearly 100 girls he has stashed there. We just don’t know what to do with them, afterwards. We can’t just leave them, or they’ll be turned into sex slaves by the Nicaraguan street gangs.”

Emmy gasped, “Oh no! Oh GOD, you’ve GOT to do something to save them! Couldn’t you like, steal one of their boats and take them to Stan’s island?”

Rex huffed, “Well, I’m not sure what you mean about Stan’s Island. Is that near the island where he takes his clients who go on those cruises?”

I cut in, “Yes. Last summer, when we saved our parents from El Muerte and his pirates, we discovered 8 young, some very young, girls that he’d captured. Stan has a second, smaller island right next door to his ‘cruise’ island. He has a small compound where he often takes in orphan girls and boys. I thought of that, but, I don’t think he would have the facilities to take care of 100 girls! It looked to me like maybe 30 to 40 would be his total capacity. That’s why I didn’t bring that up as a possible solution. Not to mention, his island is over 1200 miles away from Rafael’s Nicaraguan Island fortress. Even with an experienced crew and a very fast boat, you’re talking about three full days or more to get there.”

Mary, who apparently hadn’t been aware of Sheila’s previous ‘discovery’ was also now incensed that we weren’t planning on doing anything about those girls.

She gasped, “Dammit Charlie! Call Stan and ask him. If there’s anything we can do, we HAVE to do it! Why don’t we just try teleporting the girls two at a time? There’s 11 of us now who can teleport, that’s 22 every trip! We could do it in like 20 minutes!”

Ed put his hand up, “I’d be willing to help, if teleporting was one of my gifts.” Bill, Sally, Emmy and Gracie all insisted they would be more than willing to help, too.

Rex and I needed to slow their roll. They didn’t have any idea just how dangerous this could get.

Jeremy was getting the ‘mother look’ from Sheila and said, “Okay! But, we have to think this through a little. Let’s go back to Ibera’s to stop the clock. We’ll ‘Spirit Walk’ from there and put together a plan ... if we can. Charlie, you need to contact Stan and see what he can do. Worst case scenario, we teleport them to Ibera’s until we can put together a better plan?”

Our 5 neighbors were all holding out their hands, waiting to go. I just shook my head, “So ... I take it we’re doing this?”

Bob rapped me on the back, “Bro, I have a feeling we’re going, ready or not! I’ll get Ibera up to speed. I’m sure she’ll be more than willing to help. I’ll see the rest of you there shortly?”

Sheila said, “I’ll go with Bob, that way I can get started on finding that island again. You’ve got enough hands to bring our new volunteers?”

“Yeah, we’ve got that covered.” I told her, when I suddenly thought of Dad. He answered immediately, “What’s up, Son?”

I chuckled, “Wellll ... how would you feel about helping us on a major rescue mission?”

“You mean, like right now?”

“Yeah, I wondered if you could spare a few minutes away from the kids?”

He chuckled, “Oh, I think so. You know, I’ve never actually seen you guys in operation before. This could be enlightening! Where do you want me to go?”

“Teleport to Ibera’s and we’ll meet you there. We’ve got to put together a plan and by doing it there we won’t waste any time.”

“Good thinking, Son. No problem, I’ll see you there.”

My next call was causing me some major consternations.

I was about to really put Stan on the spot. The worst thing was, I had a feeling he just wasn’t going to have the room for the number of girls we might be bringing. I took a deep breath, then dialed his number. The phone made several clicking sounds before a weird ring tone started. Stan answered, “Stan here, with whom am I speaking and how can I help you?”

“Hey Stan, it’s Charlie. Are you at home?”

He laughed, “No, I’m on my big island. You caught me on my SAT phone. What’s up? Are you guys planning on coming out to see us?”

I sighed, “Stan, I don’t know how to ask this ... but, I need your help...” I was hating having to ask for something like this.

“Charlie, just tell me what you need. I owe you so much, please, just tell me.”

“Ahhh well, okay. My friends and I need to find a place to take approximately 100 girls who’re being held captive. The same scumbag that tried to hijack your yacht a couple months ago is planning on selling them to the highest bidder. I know you probably don’t have the room, but, I don’t have any other options...”