Chapter 31: Making a New Plan

July, 1986

Charlie POV:

Confused Confucius say,” Never underestimate the power of a beautiful, loving, TRUE soulmate to chase the demons away.”

And don’t forget to love and thank her every minute of every day when she, or THEY do, either.

My wives were still nestled around me, each with a leg and arm draped over me. I kissed both of them tenderly. Soon I had four loving eyes gazing into mine. The bliss I felt all night returned in an instant and I flashed that I loved them both for saving me last night.

Sarah whispered, “Oh Charlie, it was wonderful being able to save you, for a change. Being in your head all night just felt so right. Mary told me she needed my help fighting off some of your demons. I’ve never felt so powerful helping her beat the crap out of them! I got a glimpse of how you must feel when you save people.”

Ughh, if she only knew...

Mary kissed me, then whispered, “Now, don’t you be letting those bastards back in ... we know what they were, you know.”

It wasn’t like Mary to cuss like that. I sighed, “I think some of my bad language is wearing off on you two. You almost never talk like that.”

Mary giggled, “Not around our Son, no. He HAS called me on a few ‘Bobo no-no’s’ before, you know?”

I chuckled, “It’s embarrassing as well and cute, isn’t it?”

Sarah added, “Your mom told me last night that Abby is starting to talk too. AND she pulled herself up in the playpen and took about 4 steps!” Sarah giggled, “And when Iris said ‘Holy shit’, Abby said, ‘Bobo no-no Gwamma Iwis’.”

The way Sarah imitated a tiny high pitched voice made me laugh so hard I had tears in my eyes. I could just hear my daughter saying that. “And I’ll give you three guesses who taught her THAT.”

Mary sighed, “Charlie ... I miss our kids. I know you guys have a lot to do, but, would you mind if Sarah and I pop back and get them? We’ll bring their playpen back with us. I know you told Dad they could have them a couple more days, but...”

“I know. You should try and pick up a potty seat or kiddy potty, too. I meant to get one before everything got crazy.”

Mary giggled, “Our parents already picked up several of them. CJ isn’t the only one wanting to use a ‘potty’.”

“Wow. Do you think CJ is really teaching them all this?”

Mary nodded, “Mostly, yes. Dad said Lenny has been working with CJ and he thinks CJ might be using his PK (Psychokinesis) to help his siblings learn how to walk. They seem to be learning ‘suspiciously’ fast.”

“Oh God! We’ve got to do something. CJ’s learning this stuff way too fast. I’m almost afraid if we bring him on the boat he might accidentally ‘walk’ one of them overboard.”

Mary’s eyes went wide and Sarah gasped, “Oh God ... I never thought about that!”

Mary added, “And if CJ did that, I just know he’d try to fly and save them. After all, he IS Charlie’s son. Maybe we better leave them with our parents ... at least till we think this through some more.”

I chuckled, “Welcome to my world. As much as I’d love to spend the rest of my day in bed with my two favorite ladies, I feel I need to talk to the guys and let them know what I was feeling yesterday. Thank you both for last night. I might not have everything figured out, but, what you did for me was amazing. I have a much better perspective on everything now.”

We exchanged kisses then I washed up and went up to see if I could rustle up some coffee.

When I entered the salon there were anxious looks coming my way.

Greg stood up, “Hey Bud, grab a cup from the bar, we’ve got a carafe of the good stuff over here.”

I did and sat down between Bob and Greg. I took a deep breath, “I’m sorry for freaking out on you guys last night. I need to explain why...”

Bob put his hand on my shoulder, “Oh, we know. Please don’t feel like you need to apologize. It’s not necessary. Linda told us all about Governor fuck wad. It made me glad we had a chance to play with those grenade launchers. I also know we need to talk about what we’ve done and where we’re going from here. Personally, I think we need to take a break. Rex and Jeremy are back home, and plan on going into work today. Our neighbors went home too. They said they’d come back if we wanted, especially Ed and Gracie. They just want to bring little Crystal back with them.”

Matt said, “Your dad and Ralph will be down in a minute. Annette is piloting the boat right now. I know you wanted to talk about what’s going to happen. Your dad is interested in learning how to sail. He’s been up on the bridge with Ralph and me for the last couple hours.”

“Did you read that letter that Dave left in the safe yet?”

Matt sighed, “Yes. It was his will ... and a special message. We need to somehow take his death certificate to his lawyer and we’ll inherit his half of his Grandfather’s estate. How are we going to get a death certificate without his body?”

That was a good question. I figured that the Coast Guard could help, but they’d want to interview the family to make sure they got the truth. THAT would be a problem with the secrecy spell they were all under. I was going to need to find out.

I flashed Rex with my questions. He said he’d find out, but was sure we’d need to contact the Coast Guard at some point before we arrived back at Corpus Christi, Texas.

He said the shit had already hit the fan as far as Rafael’s compound was concerned. The CIA had already notified the NSA that ‘something major’ had happened on the island North of Haiti. A different division from Chen’s command had been using satellite surveillance and reported seeing ‘major explosions’ late last night. He and Jeremy, due to their previous dealings with Rafael were being summoned to D.C. to take part in a briefing and further investigation. He suggested that Dad get ready to assume Chen’s place as there was no doubt they’d be trying to get ahold of him.

Dad agreed and he popped to Chen’s office since Rex and Jeremy had previously taken him there and given him Chen’s phones. They had only been there a short time, but now Dad knew where it was and how to get there. Dad had already nearly filled a spiral notebook with all the information he’d gleaned from Chen.

Matt was just shaking his head and grinning as Dad disappeared.

I told Matt, “I’ve got some friends checking out what we need to do about getting Dave’s death certificate.” I hesitated, then asked, “Have you seen the big package on the aft deck?”

He blushed, making me think he’d taken a peek, “Um, yes. I’m sorry, I know it’s none of my business, but, I was curious. What are you going to do with all that money?”

I chuckled, “Hey, it’s your boat! I can’t blame you for looking. I’m curious. How much would it take to pay off the note on your yacht?”

He sighed, “About $1.2 Million dollars. We put $350K down and financed the rest on a 20-year note. Thanks to Dave’s money, we should be okay.”

I grinned, “Well, I know it won’t make up for Dave’s death, but we swiped that pallet of cash from those pirates that killed him. Half of that is yours!”

His eyes popped open, “Seriously? There has to be close to a billion dollars on that pallet! I saw a picture of what a billion dollars in hundreds looked like and ... it looks JUST like that pallet.”

I told him we’d have to count it. I also told him we should probably stick it in an off-shore account somewhere until we figured out exactly what we wanted to do with it. He said we weren’t very far from Grand Cayman Island and he wanted to stop there anyway to see about getting better radar installed like I’d previously suggested. That would be perfect. We could access it easy enough and make bank transfers as needed. We’d have to pay taxes on it, but if we bought things out of the country, we wouldn’t. I still had two years left on my tax immunity, but, putting it in the Cayman’s would mean not having to carry it around with us.

I told Matt, “Now we just have to figure out how to get all of this off the boat and into a bank. We don’t really want to carry it in pillow cases. Maybe when we get docked, we could find a place to get some big suitcases?”

Marion, who had just joined us, giggled, “Matt, show Charlie how many suitcases we have in the storage area. Charlie, we have 15 kids who just HAD to have all of their precious belongings along with them on this trip. Right now they’re all empty. Why don’t you guys just use those?”

Matt thumped his forehead with the heal of his hand, “Oh yeah! We’ve got more than enough, I think. If not, we could always make a second trip.”

We had the girls keep track of the amounts as we quickly began transferring all the money into the suitcases. Luckily they were rather large and squarish, though made out of nylon. I just hoped they’d be strong enough to not tear open at an inopportune time.

About half of the suitcases were navy blue or black while the other half were red, green or tan. I took the colored ones and Matt used the dark ones. By the time we filled the last suitcase, we still had about four suitcases worth of money left. Ralph produced several large boxes that we were able to put the rest of the money into. The girls finished adding up their numbers and I was stunned.

“That pallet had 875 Million dollars on it,” Cheryl said, “And nearly all of it was in hundreds. We counted several of the bundles to see if they had the correct amounts, according to the label bands, and they were all good.”

I wondered, “Did you check to see if the serial numbers were consecutive or random? I was just thinking that these might be counterfeit ... I hope not, but, we should make sure before we try taking them to the bank.”

Mary moaned, “Aaargh! Okay, but, maybe we can just test a few from each suitcase. I’m betting they wouldn’t have mixed them. Hopefully we can tell by the string inside each bill and the serial numbers. Random numbers would be good, right?”

I nodded, “Random would be the best. That means they’ve all been in circulation and would greatly lessen the chance of being counterfeit. Or marked. We should check that too, just in case the money was stolen.”

It took nearly 4 hours to finally be sure that all of the cash was legit. There were some bundles with consecutive numbers, but the bills all looked new, so I wasn’t too concerned.

We lowered the sails and motored into the docks on the northwest side of Grand Cayman just before sunset. Everything was closed for the night with the exception of the bars, a few restaurants and the hotels. We stored the suitcases in a locked storage area on the lowest level of the yacht, close to the rear launch area for the dinghy. The kids all wanted to get off the boat and the ladies suggested they find a hotel for the night.

Matt was leery of leaving the boat unattended, but, since we were in an exclusive yacht club harbor, Ralph felt the boat would be safe. We were told that the yacht club’s restaurant served late dinner and we strolled over to get something to eat.

We looked like a gang as there was 31 of us, counting the kids.

During dinner, I asked the waitress if she knew of someplace we could rent a car. She turned us on to a place that was right next door to a nice hotel, not far from the Yacht Club. Matt, Bob, Ralph and I needed something to get us around to find a bank and deliver our deposits.

After our late dinner, we found a taxi driver who summoned one of his company’s small busses. That was the only way to get all of us to the resort hotel. Luckily they had rooms available for the whole group of us. While we were being checked in, I noticed the car rental place was still open, so I walked over and secured a car for tomorrow.

We had six connecting rooms. The kids were in the three end rooms and the adults were in the other three.

The ladies could sense that Matt and I weren’t all that comfortable leaving the boat without at least one of us onboard.

Mary smirked at Marion, “I’ll bet our boys would feel better if we spent some quiet time on the boat?”

Marion giggled, “Our bed is big enough for eight, you know?”

Sheila grinned, “Our boys should be back any minute. Joni and I would love to join you guys ... if you wouldn’t mind?”

I smiled, “We could kill two birds with one stone! I really need to talk to them.”

Joni had her hands on her hips, in a put-on pout, “Really!? I could find something way more fun to do with my mouth than talk!”

The girls all broke down giggling. I added, “We can too. Did I ever tell you about the three fruits of eating pussy?”

I got 4 amused stares. Marion asked, “Say what?”

I grinned, “Yes, (I blew lightly.) peaches ... to part the hairs. Prunes, to spread the lips (I exaggerated my lips saying the word.) ... then, olive, olive, olive, olive...”

Everyone was rolling, as Sheila shrieked, “Now THAT’S what I’m talk-in’ about!”

Mary smacked me on the back, “Naughty boy! NOW you’re going to have to show us!”

We were still chuckling as the 6 of us headed for the boat to wait for Rex and Jeremy.

Rex POV:

Jeremy and I no sooner got into the office this morning and the secretary got up and met us at the door. She handed me a folded note, “You gotta call this number, ASAP. Use your office phone and activate the secure line.”

Jeremy eyed me knowingly, but didn’t say a word.

As soon as I shut the door, he flashed, “THAT didn’t take long ... I’ll give you three guesses what this is about!”

I shook my head, “And the first two don’t count?”

I activated the secure line and dialed. The guy answering began a tirade, “GRISSOM ... is that you?”

“Yes sir.”

“What do you know about ... SHIT ... like a nuclear bomb or something going off on Raphael’s compounds last night!?”

“Um, nothing, what are you talking about, with whom am I speaking?” I tried to act dumb, as I didn’t recognize the voice.

He calmed slightly, “This is NSA Director Arthur Sloan, last night, our satellite showed a series of major explosions on Raphael’s Haitian compound at approximately 4:30am our time. Then, what appeared to be missiles or something blowing up every last boat and airplane he had. Because it was dark, infrared showed what looked like 5 or 6 separate launch sites, firing rockets, or whatever it was. Because of the bright flashes, the infrared couldn’t lock on very well. We then checked the satellite we had on his Nicaraguan island compound, only to find it was also completely destroyed! That must have happened earlier in the day or the day before. Unfortunately, the satellite wasn’t focused on the island at the time of the incident, so we may never know. You guys know there were close to 100 girls on that island ... I hope they weren’t all massacred by who or whatever did that.”