Chapter 7: Outside Intruders

Dave heard the alarm going off. He woke instantly, had his shoes and shorts on and raced down the stairs of his home and out into the core. The alarm came from Owen’s home. Several other lights came on and heads popped out of nearby houses. Dave ran to Owen’s home, quickly punching in the five-digit code for access into the home.

Owen was on the phone and moving around in the living room waving off the security company from calling the police. After he ended the security call, he said, “Hey. Someone was here. Not one of us. They were outside trying windows and doors. I’m going to check the security camera as soon as I can get the alarm turned off. Sorry to awaken everybody.”

“You alone?”

“No, Julie and Joan are upstairs. I told them to stay there.”

“You armed?” He was almost yelling over the din of the alarm klaxon.

“No, but I can be in three seconds. There are weapons stored around the house. Dev and Deke set me up when they put in the system. You know I hate these things.”

Dave chuckled, “Do people think you keep a billion or two lying around in loose cash?”

Owen sounded more serious, “Maybe.” He was fiddling with the keypad and finally the alarm silenced. Owen went to his back door and waved to the others on the patio. “Sorry for awakening all of you. I think someone was around the house. I’ll tell you more in the morning after I look at the security video.”

Joan and Julie appeared on the stairs. They were both beautifully naked and looking worried through tousled hair. Dave went and kissed each of them. “I’m going to watch the security video with Owen. You guys can go back to bed.” Holding hands, they silently turned and went back upstairs.

Owen unlocked the door to his small and windowless security closet. Inside was just enough room for a chair, small table, and a high-tech computer. Owen did something on the keyboard and with the mouse and then the display started to show the views of six outside cameras about fifteen minutes earlier by that time.

After a minute of nothing happening Owen sped up the video to twice real time. Suddenly, a dark figure dressed in black appeared in the frame coming to the front door. He slowed down the speed of the video. The figure obviously went to the front door and tried the door. He then tried an adjacent window, producing a screwdriver to try to jimmy up the sash. The alarm triggered and the mysterious man took off at a run towards the main gate.

Dave exclaimed, “Wow! A real intruder. What now?”

Owen picked up his phone and called 9-1-1. He explained about the attempted break-in, viewing the security video, the possibility that the individual was leaving the scene possibly along Christian Grey Drive, and then waited. About seven minutes later, a police car pulled up in front of Owen’s house. Dave and Owen went out to greet them, both men holding up their empty hands. Owen hung up on 9-1-1 at that point.

Owen explained the situation to the two men in the squad car. A second car arrived. Several theories regarding the individual were posited, but there was no evidence to support any of them. Owen explained that all of his neighbors had the access code to his house, which happened to be a date many of them shared – the date the Circle had officially started. The theory that it had been an errant neighbor was set aside, particularly after viewing the way the man ran towards the main gate.

Both police cars roamed the area and used their lights to shine between houses. One man searched the entire core area on foot. The core buildings were never locked so Dave and Owen helped go from room to room, closet to closet. Another squad car showed up and prowled along Perimeter Road, and then back along Christian Grey Drive all the way out to the main highway. Nobody was seen.

Three of the police watched the security video. They stated that detectives would be visiting first thing in the morning, and would want a copy of the video. Owen had already sent several frames of the video to the printer, but the individual’s face was never clearly visible because of a scarf of some kind over the lower part of his face. The intruder had definitely been a man or a muscular and hefty woman.

Dave wondered if anybody got a good night’s sleep. The next morning there was a record turnout for breakfast. The morning chef, used to a modest turnout was inundated. Bobbie showed up to help and some of the other kitchen volunteers that worked in the evenings joined in. The result was a large and well-attended breakfast for everyone.

The talk of the breakfast tables concerned the intruder at Owen’s house. Two detectives showed up about eight-thirty to interview Owen and get a copy of the video. Like everyone else they were concerned about motive and intent. The town worried about the billionaire’s open living style, but did watch out for him.

Dale and Dev stayed at Owen’s side while the police were there. After they left Dale recommended that Owen have a twenty-four-hour bodyguard assigned and a permanent guard on the house during the nighttime hours. Reluctantly, Owen accepted the recommendation.

Owen later met Krenan Vaughn, who went by the knick name Kray for some unknown reason. Kray was the size of Hummer, had the strength of Atlas, and a truly inscrutable look. Nothing seemed to phase him. He was about six-six, armed to the teeth and wearing body armor, had a black belt in several different martial arts, and could run a hundred yards in about twelve seconds. He’d also done several marathons so he had some long-distance endurance as well. Despite the eighty-degree day in Florida, Kray wore a man’s jacket in order to hide his shoulder holsters – yes, more than one.

Dale introduced Kray and Owen, explained about the sought-after privacy and innocuous security coverage. The two men gave Kray a tour of the Circle core and Owen’s home, and then drove him around in a golf cart so he could see the overall layout. He was given a copy of Cricket’s book to explain the workings of the Circle. Several hand signals were arranged between Owen and Kray so that the latter would know if he were meeting someone new for the first time. After that hour Kray blended into the background of the patio and seemed to disappear in the shadows.

Owen and Julie went into work late accompanied by Kray. This time Kray drove explaining that he wanted to be sure his passengers could get down on the car floor should he need take evasive action, which he was trained to do in a vehicle.

About nine p.m. after dinner Kray introduced another man named Wen Sing – another large man, armed, skilled in self-defense, and ready to take the night shift. Wen was a mix of oriental, Indian, and Tibetan cultures he explained. He would cover the house outside. Kray would sleep inside on the sofa. Kray said he was a light sleeper.

Kray gave Wen a quick tour of the Circle and then the two men took up the security stations. Owen had Alice and Rachel as his bedmates. Neither of the security men seemed to care one way or the other about Owen’s personal arrangements.

Ten days went by without incident.

Over the weekend Dave, Alice, and Cricket flew the Citation up to Macon to visit Bret and Jean, and to meet their friends. Bret explained to Dave that ‘An Intimate Barbecue’ had been planned. They laughed at his categorization of the weekend, but the three Circle members had new paper that they scanned and sent to Bret – just in case.

The one-hour flight up was a breeze and the small airport was nicely appointed to handle the small jet for an overnight. They arrived about noon, and Bret met them at the FBO with his car and drove them to his home. The home was a nice ranch on about five acres of treed land, so there was considerable privacy.

Another couple, Cory and Lean, joined them for lunch on Bret and Jean’s patio, and then as the afternoon wore on more and more people started to arrive for the dinner cookout. The three were pleased to see that monokinis had been adopted as the standard dress code for the warm day beside the pool. Cricket was instantaneously almost naked as soon as Jean explained about what they’d newly adopted.

Cricket asked, “With no children around, why don’t you all just go naked?”

The response was blank stares. There was no reason other than the residual mores of society that people had to wear some clothes. Cricket and Alice promptly tossed aside their bathing suits and did little happy dances.

Instead of trying to over analyze the situation the Atlanta Group was facing, the Circle members just tried to be good friends, learn people’s names and something about them, and then see where the day and evening took them. The group was nice enough to write their names on their left shoulders to facilitate the remembrance of their names, although many of the Circle members had done that for Bret and Jean when they visited the Circle a few weeks earlier.

Alcohol loosens tongues. Everybody in the group except Dave and Alice were drinking alcohol. They had to keep their piloting skills especially keen to fly the jet home the next day, plus Dave didn’t want any physical impairment if he was to romance anybody that evening. They had brought recent test results with them.

Thus, with second or third drinks in hand a nice couple approached Dave and Jean. “Hi, we’re Ian and Renata as you can see. We were curious about ... well, the prevalence of making love in your Circle. Bret implied a week or so ago that it goes on all the time. I hope we’re not being too nosey.”

“Oh, no. That’s why we’re here – to answer questions exactly like this one. We do have sex a lot. There are several reasons. For one, we love our wives and friends, and making love seems to complete the picture with that person, making the relationship especially important and warm for each of us. Also, many of us know or believe that we are hypersexual. That’s a medical term often used instead of nymphomania. Thus, we think about and desire sex frequently. It’s important to our physical make up.”

Renata spoke, “And Bret said there are over a hundred of you around all the time at your cohousing project?” Another younger woman with Riley written on her shoulder came and stood listening to the conversation.

“That’s true. If you couple that with the sex as you were implying, we each have many options in terms of who and how we couple on any particular evening – and most nights we are involved in making love with our friends. The phenomenon is not only a weekend event.”

Ian spoke, “And no one gets jealous?”

Dave smiled, “No. We have learned about ‘compersion’ – and that’s the emotion we substitute for jealousy. Recognize that jealousy can take several forms – ‘you have something I want’ and ‘I’m going to lose what I have to you’ are the two most prevalent forms.

“In our Circle we all know that the first kind – you have something I want – will be remedied by waiting a few moments until the person you want is available. We do make ourselves universally available to everyone in the Circle.

“As for the second kind of jealousy – the feeling of loss – we have eliminated the prospect that someone you love will go off with someone else. No one will abandon their primary loved one. We know that we can love multiple people so there’s no need to specialize on only one person, especially in terms of sex. If I love multiple people, I don’t need to abandon one person I love in order to love another. I love both of them.”

Ian nodded slowly having taken all that in.

Renata asked, “How do you learn to love multiple people?”

Dave laughed, “How do you not? Look around you, particularly at your regular group of friends. You have already chosen them as esteemed friends, especially since you are at this gathering this afternoon. You only need to look at each of them and make a choice. Love is really a choice. I choose to love this person. Make that statement about each of them one at a time.”

Dave looked at Renata and said, “Renata, I love you.” He gathered her in his arms and hugged her close, feeling not only her body but the resonance he felt with her. He turned and did the same thing with Riley, and then turned and repeated the act with Ian who stiffened so much during the hug they both had to laugh.

Dave laughed, “Don’t worry Ian, I’m a zero on the Kinsey Scale. I don’t ‘do’ guys, but I do love those in my Circle. They’re my best friends and people I know I can confide in and share my most intimate secrets. They do the same with me. We will not abuse the privilege. We also rarely use what we know to create a humorous situation or humiliate someone; only if we’re sure the person will appreciate our attempt at humor.”

Ian laughed and they did a fist bump.

Dave turned back to the women. “You chose at one point to love Ian and then you chose to have him as your husband. He made similar choices with you. Let’s say he now ALSO choses Riley. He decides he ALSO loves her and perhaps ALSO wants her as a wife. We’ll ignore the state laws on the subject of marriage and think of it more as a loving commitment between people.”