Chapter 1

Civilian life again, or maybe pseudo civilian life would be more accurate since the major source of my annual income came from some agencies that rather not be named.

Getting back to the USA was like a chance to start over for me. I chose a clean, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, ground floor apartment in Santa Barbara. It was near the 225, the patio was right next to the pool area and the place close to Oxnard College. The airport was on the other side of the city but so what.

I worked nights for some of the same team I spent the last two years with so we had some history working there. Like I said, the majority of my earnings came from Freelance work, mostly overseas. You burn out after a while and need to re-charge the old body parts, all of them. This way I had a 6 digit income, free travel and only had 3 or 4 excursions a year, except, no ... the risks were higher now, we only got the things sane troops would not do. The difference, we got paid more; a Hell of a lot more. Life in the field can take a lot out of you. R & R was what I now wanted, no needed and needed badly.

The place was nice, the weather great and best of all was the view of the pool. It was a bachelor’s dream come true. That is maybe I needed to rethink that. Less than 48 hours in my castle, ‘they’ came to swim. It was a Thursday, 13 June at 11:25 am, I remember it well. All three looked no more than 14 or 15 and 70 or 80 pounds. The blond seemed the oldest but, man o’ man what a disappointment from what I thought it would be like.

The next day I had class in the morning, Summer Session had started now M-W-F 8:15-9:45 am time slots were taken for 10 weeks. They, all three, were out at the pool when I got back. Hell, but they were female, wore great, small two-piece swimsuits and made for better viewing than the boob tube, and they would have bigger boobs eventually I was certain.

I changed, set a cooler on my patio and called out. “Hey, ‘Rugrats’ food and drink, come welcome the ‘old man’ to his new digs.” I held up my Pepsi can and took a sip then sat down in one of the chairs.

“We can grill dogs and burgers if you want or inside is some salad I already made. I only brought fresh fruit out with me. I’m Jake or better yet JJ, it’s what my team called me.”

The three grabbed a towel and swooshed over leaving a trail of water.

“Sandy here, reporting for duty, Sir.” then she gave a British hand salute.

“Sam, short for Samantha”, willing, able and ready, Sir.”

“Kiki, but not D. Sir, yes Sir.”

“Very good troops! Guess it is the haircut, Ehh?”

They all nodded.

“Hey, it’s not the Officers Mess but help yourself. Sort of new here so I am at your mercy as far a beaches and places to go or see.”

“Duh! Like we go anywhere either!”

“Yeah, I expected a little bit more to do around here but the prices down in LA or up in San Francisco were 2 to 3 times higher and for smaller places. I took the 3 bedroom here for the same cost as the efficiency in LA would have been unless I wanted to live in a war zone, had enough of that.”

“Where was that?” from Sandy, the red head.

“Anywhere now, but mostly in Central and South America last year, the Middle East before that. Always different yet always the same. Eat cold food and sleep in the mud or sand, ‘it’s a wonderful life’ or something like that best describes how it was.”

From Sam: “Just like here then, no wait, you said we could grill hot dogs, not have to eat cold food; MMMM.”

“Smart-ass!”

As they went back to swim more, the blond’s hair(Sam) was more white looking and the light brown one(Kiki) now looked blondish. They were growing on me. I shook my head, when jail-bait starts catching your eye you know you’ve been in the field too long.

Sam went in for some of the salad and brought out four bowls and forks with it while Sandy had three dressings and a roll of paper towels. Kiki was pushing the starter on the grill. ($10 on a CVS closeout sale) It looked like hot dogs and burgers were on the menu today. Somebody had trained these girls well. I just leaned back and watched them do all the work.

By 5, we were all sitting down and having conversations I never thought I would be a part of things like that anymore. It was fun, light heart and fun. Not some life and death, wrack your brain and hear about someone getting killed kind of talk.

“Girls there are times when I will be away, maybe days, weeks or months even, I don’t know when or for how long. If I pay you as say my caretakers will you watch over things, pay the bills and such?”

“Good one! Like you would just give us keys and money. What, you think we just fell off the Avocado truck or something?”

“Yep!” as I tossed Sandy a set of keys to both the apartment and my nice new car. “Not about the truck but like, who else would do it? I’ll pay you each $500 a month, leave you cash, a bank account and a credit card for you to pay yourselves, the bills that are not on auto pay and you just handle things for me here. OH! I’ll pay for all the food and ... Ta Da, the drink for you all too. Deal?”

They looked at each other and all nodded yes. I think that started a new phase in my life that looked like things were picking up. The next day, Saturday, the sisters, single Moms and what must have been a bevy of FAs (Flight Attendants) came out to sun and swim. I heard them first, then saw them while watching and planned to have brunch outside on the patio. My choice to move here was finally vindicated.

The ‘Three Musketeers’ however strolled over, pulled chairs in-line to form a barricade and left one guard on-duty at all times while the others swam or talked with me. None of those older females crossed into what might be considered ‘enemy territory’.

Don’t get me wrong, Sandy, Sam and Kiki were not chopped liver, no sir, but as I said, they looked young. When I asked about one of them driving me to the airport then using my car, they all said they could and would. In Calf that meant they were all at least 16. I would send a copy of their licenses to my agent so they would be covered and I would be sure of their age.

We made a trip to the bank, a Wells Fargo branch here to open a joint account they could draw on, use a debit card and a $3,000 line of credit. I deposited $5,000 into the account. That seemed to blow them away. I think if school was in session for them every classmate and passerby would get the details.

Several things happened after that. The Moms came over to meet the girl’s new BOSS and I guess I passed review. On our test-drive and trip to go food shopping I had a difficult time closing three mouths when they saw the new BMW Convertible. That somehow, someway, one bedroom of mine became ‘their bedroom’ to store clothes and things, was unplanned, by me at least. That room later became more, much more.

That Summer saw them starting to reciprocate things; they were now teaching me to roller-blade. Imagine three bikini clad cuties pushing and pulling the ‘old guy’ (Me) around the pool. Of course there was usually one of them nearby to grab hold of, not really fondle, but not saying exactly where I ‘had’ to grab on, or what came off while I attempted this dangerous feat.

I in turn began to train them to ‘run a combat shooting course’ a paintball one of course. From about as bad as possible all three became good by the time a game started up.

In early July, I had to go on a mission. We had our drill, set up a routine, they drove me to the hanger early and I went off to Brasil/Brazil and never looked back. Kidnapping was as common there as in Italy/Sicily but not as organized. Diplomat’s kids (not animals) warranted a certain response to temper future attempts by the locals for extra cash, we did not just pay a ransom. Standard rates as a ‘civ’ applied and no direct government could be blamed for what happened to the perps.

I had gotten the girls cell phones, I called, they answered and picked me up at a hanger. In late July we did it again this time I had some extra bags along so we drove to the plane. Their eyes popped out at sight of the black G650ER. Poor girls, they must have led a sheltered life. I have to admit the first time I saw it; at $80 Mil, I sort of knew it was not some MAC flight.