Chapter 52: Moral Dilemmas

Late-August-Early Sept., 1986

Charlie POV:

Shortly after Dad left, Bob and I decided to see if we couldn’t help out some. I noticed TJ over by the main entrance talking to Jim Gregory. I was just heading over there when TJ flashed, “Charlie, you and Bob might want to make yourselves scarce for a little bit. Jim was just asking about you guys, wondering if you guys had anything to do with this. I told him I hadn’t seen you and weren’t sure where you were.”

“Why would you do that, TJ? I’ve worked with Jim Gregory a few times before and he’s actually a good friend.”

“I know that Charlie, but are you aware he doesn’t have telepathy anymore? That means he’s not bound by confidentiality. I tried communicating with him, telepathically, and he’s deaf as a post. With everything going on, I didn’t really want to get into all that right now. I hope you understand. Maybe when this is over we could all get together and you can decide whether you want to give him telepathy or not?”

That really made me ponder. I can’t believe how much time has gone by and I never got around to giving Jim or his son Tom their communication ability back.

“I’m not upset, TJ, well, at least not with you. I just never realized how much time has gone by since I’ve actually had a chance to talk to him or his son, Tom. You are right that there’s too much going on right now. I’ll get with Bob and make sure we stay out of sight.”

It wasn’t so much that I couldn’t trust Jim to keep Bob and me a secret, it’s just that I hate pushing a TS or temporary spell on someone just to be able to talk to them. I could tell that Jim was working the case and it wouldn’t be good if he suddenly forgot a whole bunch of stuff.

I flashed Mary, who was working closely with Judy Logan, Emmy, Jamie and Maggie. I told her my current dilemma and she agreed that it might be best if Bob and I went somewhere. Like maybe get some coffee or something to eat.

I was surprised that I still had a lot of energy.

Bob said he could use some coffee, so we went into the alcove, went invisible and popped just outside the Manor. We dropped our invisibility, headed inside and were seated near our usual area.

Since it was so late on Friday night or should I say Saturday morning, it felt strange not recognizing any of the waitress. It was probably all for the best what with the news of our house blowing up, we might have had to answer some very unanswerable questions. I was glad that Bob was in my head as his thoughts were much the same as mine.

“Geez Charlie, I know it’s only been a few weeks but it seems like an eternity since we’ve been in here. This place used to feel like home but somehow, it doesn’t anymore.”

I sighed, “I know what you mean, in some ways it’s a relief that none of the waitresses recognize us. What do you think we should do about our house?”

Bob was taking deep breaths and slowly shaking his head, “I don’t know. Even though we’re not in danger anymore, or at least I don’t feel like we are, I wonder if it might be time for us to get the heck out of ‘Dodge’ and start over again somewhere else?”

“Actually, we should probably get the heck out of here and go somewhere where nobody could possibly know us. I just remembered that everyone around here thinks we’re dead!”

Bob didn’t even have to answer as we both slowly got up, left a five-dollar tip, and eased out the door. I suggested maybe just going to Ibera’s but then I remembered that if we were there, Mary and the rest of the girls wouldn’t be able to get a hold of us. Dammit! I hadn’t even told Bob yet about my place in the 13^th dimension! I know I was getting tired because I forgot that Bob was in my head.

“What place in the 13^th dimension, Charlie?”

I chuckled whilst shaking my head slowly, disgusted with myself, “When you guys were on Greg’s planet a few things happened here and I went to visit Zeus. I wanted to talk to him privately and, to make a long story short, he helped me create a place of my very own, just like Ibera’s.”

Bob grinned, “Does it work just like Ibera’s?”

“Almost exactly except, I don’t have any portals to space travel through. Here, take my hand, I’ll let Mary know that’s where we’re going in case something comes up.”

Bob was laughing when he took my hand and was absolutely incredulous when we ended up in what he thought was our old, now nonexistent, living room.

“Holy SHIT, Charlie, this is amazing. It’s too bad we don’t have anything to drink?”

I grinned, “All you gotta do is ask and anything your heart desires will magically appear in your hand! Just like at Ibera’s.”

While he was sipping his top shelf bourbon, I was licking my lips after taking a swig of my perfectly mixed Bloody Mary. We were both looking around when Bob said, “You know Charlie, we could all just move in here? I bet it wouldn’t take you long to mentally engineer a couple more bedrooms.”

“No, it would only take a few seconds it’s just that ... I kinda promised Mary I’d keep this our little secret.”

I heard Mary in my head, “That’s okay Charlie, you can let Bob in on our little secret.”

“Thanks sweetheart, tonight, I just couldn’t think of any place else to go so Bob and I could talk.”

Bob looked at me funny, “Who were you talking to, Charlie?”

That’s when it dawned on me ... there’s no way Mary should’ve been able to hear me thinking! It was obvious that Bob didn’t hear even though we weren’t in ‘private’ mode. Just for grins, I decided to flash Linda and she also heard me loud and clear.

Okay, this is weird. I told Bob to try and communicate with Linda. After a few seconds he looked at me cross eyed and said, “You know our communication doesn’t work between different dimensions, Charlie!”

I grinned at him, “And yet, I was able to hear both Mary and Linda plain as day.”

Bob looked puzzled, “Well, what the crap?”

I tried communicating with Sarah and got nothing. That’s when it dawned on me that this might be one of those ‘consequences’ that Glenda had mentioned. After further attempts with everyone else, the only ones I could communicate with were Mary, Linda, Jessica, Jamie and Emmy. With Bob in my head, he could hear my side of the conversation but not the others.

That made sense, since we were both in the same dimension. I tried to explain that to Bob but he still didn’t understand until I explained everything that happened to the six of us.

He thought about everything for a minute then asked, “I wonder if you would be able to communicate with, say Linda, if you were here and she was on Greg’s island?”

I shrugged my shoulders, “Who knows? Next time you go we’ll have to try it. Speaking of that, how soon before you’re going to want to go back?”

Again, Bob shrugged his shoulders, “I hadn’t really thought about it. I feel like we would be letting Greg down if we just never went back. Not to mention, Linda and I have kind of grown fond of our little friends. I know Ed definitely wants to go back and bring Gracie and Crystal with him.”

I had to admit I really did want to go there myself and bring Mary and our kids with us. I told Bob about how much Rex and big Willie also wanted to go. We both laughed when Bob mentioned that he had really wished Willie had been with them the first time, too!

We decided as soon as we figured out how we were going to put our lives back together we would have to take at least another three and half days and go.

God only knows how long that was going to take.

It wasn’t long before Mary flashed, “Hey Charlie, things here have really settled down and we’re all getting pretty tired. Why don’t you and Bob pop back to our parent’s place and meet us there?”

I almost suggested having them come here but I was also missing our kids. I told Bob what Mary said then we both popped back to Dad’s place.

Jeremy Cosgrove POV:

Monte and I had just teleported into the proximity of George Sachs after turning invisible.

The scene we encountered was definitely NOT what either of us anticipated!

Monte’s mentally begging me to pinch him should give you some idea.

We found Sachs bound in leather cuffs to the four corners of a king-size poster bed. He was being sexually ‘humiliated and tortured’ by four giggling, leather-clad dominatrices. His torso showed where he’d been struck with floggers. Not brutally, but more than playfully. He was sporting a steel cockring attached to a curved steel hook-looking thing with the other end stuffed up his ass! One of his tormentors was riding his face with her pussy, yelling, “Eat my nasty pussy you BAAAD little boy!”

Yeah ... both Monte and I just had to stand there watching this for a while.

“Jesus H Christ!” Monte flashed, “That almost looks like fun!”

“Well, I’ve never been into BDSM, b u t, he sure doesn’t seem to be struggling very hard to get away! And if I watch this much longer we may have to call OUR girls to take care of this bulge in my pants!”

I should have known when Sheila started giggling in my head, “Are THESE those four evil bitches he referred to back in the bar that kidnapped more kids?”

“I don’t know, we’ve been ... ummm, too preoccupied to find out yet? I don’t sense there being any kids around here, but, we’ll find out soon enough. I suppose Maggie is giving Monte an equally hard time?”

She giggled and I heard Monte quietly groan, answering THAT question, “You two might as well join us, just, use an alternate identity when we decide to appear. Monte and I are still invisible, but, with groans like that, they’re going to hear us soon enough!”

I flashed Monte, suggesting we appear using our alternate identities.

After the ration of shit that Charlie gave me when I used ‘Peewee Herman’, I decided that for tonight I’d try Spiderman. I wasn’t terribly surprised when Monte chose ‘The Thing’, a rocklike hulking creature. He flashed, “Hey, this is the best I could come up with on short notice. I know that Rex already claimed ‘The Hulk’.”

Things got a bit crazy before Sachs and his sexy dominatrices even noticed we were there. When Sheila appeared as The ‘Black Widow’ and Maggie appeared as ‘a female’ Captain Marvel, well, that did manage to get their attention!

One of Sachs’ girls let out a shriek, “Uhh, George baby, were you expecting a Halloween party tonight?”

I have to admit with the exception of Monte, we didn’t exactly look fearsome. Monte changed all that, however, when he let out a bellow that shook half the pictures on the wall! I decided to use my PK to pick up two of the girls off the bed and stand them up in a corner. Maggie and Sheila did the same, each taking one of the other two.

That caught Sachs’ attention, “Oh shit. Um, are you guys any relation to that Jonah guy?”

Monte roared, “Yes! He is our friend and you and your cronies tried to kill him tonight! For that you’re all going to pay!” He said in a gravelly voice that didn’t give credence to his having just come up with this disguise.

I don’t know if it was the cock ring that he was still sporting or what, but Sachs shot off a line of piss that hit the ceiling!

One of Sachs’s girls got pissed, “George! How could you? Jonah’s a good guy and he helps people!”

Suddenly Georgie boy’s butt plug shot out forcibly and he filled the bed with shit. His expression became even more incredulous when Pops showed up as the Terminator, and Rex showed up as the Incredible Hulk.

The gang was all here, or at least I thought so, until Iron Man showed up! I flashed, “Hmm, I wonder who this could be?”

That’s when TJ flashed, “If you thought I was going to miss this party, you’re crazy! This guy is the final piece to our criminal ‘pervert – puzzle’ and besides, Jim Gregory has everything under control back in Chicago.”

Suddenly our faces all soured and we were holding our noses before Iron Man chuckled, “Why don’t you girls fetch Mister Sachs some wet towels to clean up? It smells like a cesspool in here!”

Just as two of them went running for the door Maggie warned, “Don’t get lost you two, now that I know what you look like you can’t run or hide!”

One of them groused, “We won’t, I promise. We’ll be right back!”

After they got Sachs cleaned up we left the room and made sure to close the door.

We were seated around his opulent living room with Sachs and his girls sitting on the floor in the center. Sachs put his head in his hands then sputtered, “I fucking TOLD Fox and Whistler that we should’ve just left you alone, Mister Jonah, honest.” He was looking up at Pops, desperately hoping ‘Jonah’ would believe him.

I had a feeling it was going to get crowded in Sachs’s head.

My suspicion was confirmed when Pops flashed, “He’s telling the truth. He was adamantly against Hunt and Normistronzo trying to eliminate Jonah.”

Our boy just earned himself one small brownie point.

Pops decided to cut to the chase, “Why don’t you start out by telling us where all the young kids are being held, that you’re using as sex slaves?”

He looked alarmed, “I don’t have any sex slaves! I also don’t have anyone, male or female, working for me or any of my clubs, that isn’t free to leave any time they want.”

I knew Lenny had already touched Sachs, as I did, and we also knew he was telling the truth, again. While I was certain both of us knew the whole story, we decided to keep questioning him so that the girls, Monte, Rex and TJ could hear it for themselves.

Maggie, who had also been in his head, snarked, “Then what about that comment you made to Hunt that you were upset because Normistronzo had been hogging all the kids you needed to use for sex slaves?”

“Oh shit ... you heard that?”

Maggie snapped, “YES ... we all did!”

“Aaargh, I just said that to keep up appearances. You have to understand, Hunt and Humbacker talk to E Norm all the time. If E Norm ever found out what I was really doing with all those kids he’d probably have taken a contract out on my ass! If you want to arrest somebody who is really abusing those kids, you need to go after E Norm’s cunt sister, Lola! That bitch and her two sadistic daughters need to be shot for what they do to those kids!”

Maggie nodded, “We’ve already been there and done that! Well, we didn’t exactly shoot them, but rest assured, we made them suffer before we took them to where the rest of the Mob and Co-op are going to spend the rest of their miserable lives! We rescued nearly 100 children tonight, some of whom were very near death.”

Sachs shook his head and said, quietly, “By my estimate, there should have been nearly three or four hundred of them!”

A quiet pall fell over the room, all of us just thinking about what he just said.

Maggie took a less aggressive tone, “So, you’re telling us you don’t have any underage girls ‘working’ for you? And why did you feel it necessary to keep up appearances?”

He shook his head, “I’m not going to lie, I do have many underage girls working in my hundred or so clubs all up and down the East Coast. I swear to you though, I have never and would never abuse a single child.”

Sheila was shaking her head, “And you’re going to tell us that forcing those kids to have sex with sleazy pedophiles isn’t abuse?”

“You really don’t understand, do you?” Sachs said resignedly.

Now all of us were shaking our heads so Pops convinced him to tell us the whole story. We promised not to interrupt unless we discovered he was lying about something. He told Sachs the consequences for that would be quite severe and that he felt leaving anything out would be the same as lying.

Sachs’ story: I grew up in Queens, NY and after school worked for a very powerful ‘Don’ whose territory was Brooklyn, NY. He liked me for some reason and took me under his wing. He kept me out of gangs, saying that would only end with jail or me being killed. He taught me the value of hard work and never ‘biting the hand that feeds’.

He also made it clear that you needed to treat people fairly, because if you didn’t you’d never be able to truly trust them. He also taught me that those who tried to stab you in the back, needed to be stabbed first! He taught me how to recognize when to trust someone and when not to.

Above all, he firmly believed in never harming a woman, let alone a child.

As I grew, he gave me more and more ‘jobs’ that I know now were running numbers and sports betting. As I ‘proved’ myself as being trustworthy, I found myself handling thousands of dollars in cash. Soon I was ‘couriering’ even larger amounts of cash, using a paperboy’s bag to keep from drawing attention to myself. I even had a few papers incase somebody just happened to want to buy one.

On my 18^th birthday he took me to one of his brothels as my reward for all my hard work. He came with me, saying he missed his favorite girl. He also gave me a lesson that to this day I have never forgotten. He said, “George, some people call these ladies you’re about to meet, whores, prostitutes, sluts and other vile names. None of my girls deserve to be treated any less kindly than you’d treat your very best girlfriend. Just because they have sex with many different men doesn’t make them second-class citizens. Most of these girls really enjoy their jobs and enjoy the fact that they make quite a bit of money, doing the very thing they love doing. Men aren’t the only ones who get horny you know?”

The Don laughed, “I want you to notice that because I treat them with respect they are always happy to see me. They’ll be even happier that I brought a young stud like yourself along with me today!”

Anyway, I learned that compassion and kindness made working girls very faithful to me. When the different families started fighting amongst themselves in the late 50s early 60s, Don Marcos moved his operation out of New York City and I became ensconced in monitoring the numerous strip clubs, men’s clubs and brothels he ran. Don Marcos had two sons who felt the drug business would be more profitable and both of them ended up getting themselves killed as a result. That was in 1968 and by 1972 I found myself in charge of running nearly 40 of his establishments. By moving out of the city and going out of his way to stay out of the limelight, Don Marcos had quietly developed the highest rated, not to mention the busiest clubs around.

Don Marcos was anything but a Boy Scout and wouldn’t hesitate to use the muscle that he had to keep everything on an even keel. Every one of his establishments had at least two guys built like linebackers or defense lineman. That’s when he became friends with Mister Humbacker and Mister Hunt. They had the political clout to keep law enforcement at bay and some very high-powered attorneys when that failed. They set up a financial agreement that we still use more or less in its original form today.

Now about the younger girls. I met young Naomi, this pretty little blonde, when she was only 12 years old. That was more than 10 years ago. I found her battered, bruised and crying, sitting on a park bench. It took me a little while to make her understand that I only wanted to help her. I finally convinced her to let me buy her something to eat. When she told me what had happened I was furious, not to mention heartbroken. Her mother was a heroin addict and her stepfather began raping her nearly every night once her mother passed out from the drugs. Her stepfather continually threatened her to not say anything to anyone, especially her mother. He said if she told anyone he would kill both her, her younger sister and her mother! This continued for two months or more before her mother caught the two of them in the act. Her mother was so whacked-out, she began beating Naomi for trying to steal her husband away from her!

That’s when she ran away from home, vowing to never go back. That’s also when I found her. You might say I took advantage of her situation, but you might want to ask her and get her opinion. I took her to one of the brothels I was in charge of and introduced her to Madame Fiona. Fiona and her girls made sure young Naomi was taken care of. In time Naomi began doing chores, like laundry, doing the dishes and even helping out with cooking. I checked up on her nearly every day and in time, began taking her different places with me. One day when we were out she asked if we could stop by her old house because she was worried about her sister. Since it was just before school would let out, we slowly drove toward the school she attended, so that hopefully her stepdad wouldn’t see her. When she saw her sister she broke into tears and bolted after her. Her sister was only 11 years old and it appeared that her stepfather had taken up with her right where he left off with Naomi. I questioned why the school wouldn’t have done or said something when Ruthie, Naomi sister, told us that she had never gone to school and simply hid out all day so she wouldn’t have to answer any questions.

Naomi begged me to bring Ruthie back with us.

There was no way I could say no so we all jumped in the car and headed back to Madame Fiona’s. I was shocked when after a couple of months there wasn’t one news report or article about either one of them being missing. This was toward the end of school year so nothing was done or said about sending either of the girls to school. By the end of the summer however both of the girls really wanted to go back to school.

The problem was I couldn’t very well take them back to their old school. That’s where Mister Hunt’s high-powered attorneys used some highly questionable methods to get the girls both fake identities, complete with birth certificates and transcripts from a school across the country. Since they were both still in grade school, I was assured most schools around here wouldn’t do more than a cursory check if that. Since I’d just opened a new place not far from Atlantic City, New Jersey I moved the girls there and put them in the charge of Madame Bethany. It worked out well for me as I was spending much more time in that area.

Time marched on. Even though I often traveled hundreds of miles a week I made it a point to stop in and see both of the girls every time I was anywhere near the area.

Just when I thought everything was going great, Madame Bethany unloaded a bombshell on me. A couple of bombshells actually.