Chapter 20

Jethro simply looked up when the truck pulled in, then went back to sleep.

Margie went on into the house while I got our bags. When I walked in, Beth was just walking out of the bedroom, her eyes still a bit sleepy. “That’s neat, you flying the truck home, but come on, sis, you’ve got to control yourself. You woke me up with almost a gusher myself, and I’m still on my period.”

Margie stopped what she was doing, which was trying to get undressed. “You were asleep, so you saw Cal pick the truck up and flying us home. But what’s that about me?”

Beth gave off a small snort. “You were jilling off so hard and intensely, my clit felt like someone had set off a firecracker on it when you started cumming. I couldn’t see anything with your eyes, I don’t know if they were shut, or what, but I could feel how much you loved Cal, and were thinking how good his cock felt inside you last night, that you were darned near flooding the truck cab. I had to get up, put a new tampon in and a new pad on.”

“I’m sorry, hon. I didn’t know that you’d pick up things from me as well.”

“It’s only when we’re asleep, I think. I bet Dora and Eve both wake up in the morning with some wet dreams from tonight, they were both moaning a little in their sleep. Now, if you guys are done, get undressed and come to bed. I’m still tired.”

The next morning, Margie caught the others up on what we had accomplished, while I was fixing breakfast for everyone. I had the TV on, so I could get caught up on world events from the last two days. I also was reading all of the newspapers that had been delivered while we were gone. There was speculation that the Messenger from Above was going to do something this weekend. Apparently the United Nations had sent a strongly worded message to both Iran and Iraq, and there was some kind of temporary cease fire going on.

The phone rang. It was Emily, wanting to know if they could come over. When she was told yes, she said they’d be right over. I got out more plates for them. The door opened a couple of minutes later.

“Good, I was hoping we’d catch you before school this morning. You’re not too tired or anything, are you?”

“Nope. I really don’t think I need to sleep, and Margie did fine. What’s up?”

“Mom and Dad are planning on coming over after he gets off work on Friday. They want to watch your game, and have some kind of a talk with, Dad’s words, all of us kids. So, if you could keep Saturday afternoon free, that’d be great.” She stopped, taking a bite of her eggs. “Where’d you get this recipe for scrambled eggs? They don’t taste like anything I’ve ever had.”

“We had a few minutes in an airport, so I read a dozen recipe books. Unrelated, Harry, you have a new mission and new job. Albeit, something I don’t think any of us took into consideration before going out on this investment run.”

“What’s up, Cal?”

“We’re too rich.”

Emily snorted a little. “Is that such a thing?”

“Out here? No. As far as the rest of the world is concerned ... yeah, I think it’s a big thing. I don’t know if Elroy had that in mind in dumping all this on me or not. I truly doubt it, because he’s had the power here for so long, he’s just accepted. No one in this area, hell, the whole state, is going to screw with Judge Elroy T. Bannister. Problem is, no one not in Kansas is going to know that.”

The girls all came out from the bedroom area to get their breakfast. Margie gave her sister a hug and kiss on the cheek, before getting her food. Emily nodded at her, a frown on her face. “Cal, are you thinking you made a mistake, then?”

“No. I seriously doubt anyone will come here and try to kidnap anyone for at least six months or more. That’s why Harry has a new job, making this place secure in the next three months, if not sooner.”

“Wait, are you serious?”, Harry asked. “What kind of security are you talking about?”

“I don’t know. What do you think, Margie?”

“I’d think eight-foot-tall chain link, around the entire property. Gates that are opened only by special codes. If that gets done before winter hits, when Paul comes out to do a site survey, we’ll be good until spring. He’ll probably suggest a full time security staff.”

Emily shook her head. “Wait, wait. An eight foot fence? Full time security staff? What kind of anthill did you two kick over?”

Margie put our badges on the table. “It means our perspective was, simply, of growing our investment portfolio. Putting our money into businesses that we thought could give us a great return on our investment. Cal just put Microsoft into a position that they’re now at least two, maybe three, years ahead of ALL of their competition. Not just financially, we only spent twenty-five million with them.” She paused, looking at me.

“Does it bother you in the least that I just casually blurted out, we spent twenty-five million, and it feels to me like we spent more than that, on furnishing this house? Weird, how your mind wraps around things.” She shook her head. “Anyway, the issue is that he gave them not only a program that’s going to be worth a whole fuckton in sales over the next few years, he’s now going to become nationally known as THE computer genius in the world. The man that Bill Gates goes to for computer advice. We didn’t specifically ask them to keep it quiet, and with the money we’re talking about, they couldn’t do that, anyway.”

Beth laughed. “Margie, could you define what a fuckton is?”

“What happens when your company has a product that can retail for one fifty, your actual production cost is maybe thirty bucks, and in the next year, you can sell fifty million of those, every year, probably for the next 10 to 20 years?”

Beth dropped her fork. “That’s a SIX BILLION profit. In one year.”

“That pretty much covers my definition of a fuckton. Side note. CEDEM, meaning the five of us, but basically Cal, owns 20% of that company. That’s just from one product. We’ve all seen, hell, we’re using, the spreadsheet that Cal created. Turns out it’s more sophisticated and capable than anything on the market right now, which doesn’t surprise me. Did you get that from Mike?”

“Um, actually, no. I just wrote it on my own. Same with the word processor I gave him. As I said, I read all the programming books. It felt like I’d be cheating if Mike did it, plus he doesn’t have the creativity to do it.”

Harry shook his head. “Well, I think I just got a job. I’ll call Jim after breakfast, see who he recommends, and that can get the job done by the end of the month.”

“Sorry, Harry. Emily, you might make sure Elroy comes out on Saturday, too.” She nodded. “Girls, invite your families out as well. We may as well make a housewarming party out of it. On that note, we’ve got to finish getting ready for school. You old folks that work regular jobs, have fun today.”

Margie laughed. “That was amusing. Bill Gates is only four years older than I am.”

Thursday at school went by, easily. Coach went over things with us in practice, doing some discussion about tomorrow night, but other than making sure we were mentally and physically ready, didn’t do much else. We’d started the Thursday practices when we started winning games, and it didn’t seem like a bad idea to keep them up. When I got home that evening, there were a whole series of stakes around the property. Four flatbed semi-trailers loaded with fencing wire were parked off one of the driveways.

Harry was still talking to someone, pointing out things on a clipboard with him, when I pulled in. “That was ... quick.”

“Jim had already done up some estimates for installation of decorative fencing. When I told him that we needed security fencing, instead, and I wanted it immediately, he called the company in Wichita. They had the fencing in their warehouse in Kansas City, and shipped it. They’re going for the quick and dirty method, to get things in the ground. Skid steer with an auger will drill a hole. Crew will come in behind them, stand a twelve foot pole in the hole. Cement goes in, they make sure it’s completely vertical with prop boards, then move to the next hole. Posts will be twelve feet apart. They’ll be here at sun-up, and since the crew is from out of town, they’ll bring in a light truck, and work until they’re done. They should have all the holes drilled, poles in, and cement in by tomorrow. That’ll give the cement the weekend to cure.”

“Monday, they’ll be back to start hanging the fence. That’ll probably take them until Wednesday or Thursday, depending upon the weather. Then they’ll put the caps and barbed wire on the top.”

I blinked. “Barbed wire?”

The other man said, “Yes. Three rows of double strand, with sensor wire in it, so if someone actually touches it, it’ll sound an alarm. I’m Mike Douglas, and yes, I’ve heard all the jokes about my name. I got a call from Walt Ferguson first thing this morning, which meant he was up early. We handle industrial security in the Midwest, our regional office is in Omaha, I’m out of KC. He told me to treat this from a security perspective like we were one step down from guarding nukes. Seems some young man gave his company an idea that’s worth way too many millions of dollars to count, and that he and his family might need some protection, since they live in the middle of nowhere and don’t know any better.”

He looked around. “This qualifies. For what it’s worth, he got his boss to agree that the press release won’t go out until next Friday, so we’ve got until then to get personnel out here and assigned, as well as get the physical security aspects in place.”

“Do I even want to know?”

“Three men per shift. Two on perimeter, one in a central station we’ll put between the driveways. Shifts rotate every eight hours, so we’ll use fifteen men, total, to have some days off for them. Light weapons on hand at all times, heavier backup in the central station. Direct line to the police station, sheriff’s department, and state police. We really don’t think there’ll be much chance of trouble out here for ... months. At the same time ... as you’re our client, you need to know that we are competent. We’ve stopped two incidents in Omaha in the last three months, for ... someone that shall remain nameless at this time.”

“Mike, sounds like you just got invited to a family gathering on Saturday, so you can find out who the family is, for everyone.”

He nodded. “I’ve heard things are a little ... unconventional here. I’m just glad that your football season will be over before things get too out of control. Probably after the new year, we’ll also have a secondary team available at your schools.”

I looked at Harry, disbelief on my face. “It’s a damned computer program. It only took me a couple of hours to figure it out in my head, less time to write it.”

Mike smiled. “Mister Lewis, to give you an idea, we’re authorized to bill Microsoft, no questions asked, up to three million, just until the end of the year, for our services. After that, our long term contract is valued at close to twenty million per year. Mister Ferguson told me, and I quote, ‘This sixteen-year-old kid just gave Bill Gates an idea that will make us more than a billion with a B next year. You keep him and his family safe or there won’t be any place in the world you can hide.’ I’m not pissing off someone that used to guard the President of the United States.”

“Elroy and I are going to have a serious talking, Harry. Mike, you may as well know, in case you don’t. I already control more than a billion dollars in assets.”

He sighed. “Somehow, I’m not surprised. At times, I wish my own kids were that smart, and then I see what my clients go through, and I’m just as happy they’re not. Welcome to the perks of wealth. You know what the one saving grace for you is?” I shook my head. “No one will believe that someone your age has done this. So, I really suspect you’ll stay under the radar for a few more years.”

“Great! Well, while I’m not going to invite you to spend the night with us, it looks like Margie and Emily are home. Would you like to eat dinner with us?”

He laughed. “Walt actually told me that, given who you were, and where we are, that I could expect that. If it’s not a problem, I accept.”

“Cal, Emily and I will call if we’re coming over. I’ve got something in the oven now for us. She’s still figuring out how we’re going to remodel our place.”

“Take care, Harry. Well, Mike, come along.” Margie was waiting by the door for me. She opened the door and yelled something inside when she saw me walking to the door with Mike alongside me.

“Margie, this is Mike Douglas, and he says he’s heard all of the jokes about his name. Mike, this is Margaret Miller, and as you’ll figure out in about five seconds or less, one of my girlfriends.”

“The pleasure is mine, Miss Miller. I was telling Mister Lewis that I received a phone call from Walt Ferguson first thing this morning, our time, about security here.”

“Come on in, Mike. Girls, this is Mike Douglas, our new security director. Mike, this is Elizabeth Watson, Dora Menendez, and Eve Patrick. They’re the other three of Cal’s girlfriends. Welcome to our humble abode. Beth, did you cook? It smells like you did, which is good, I’m hungry.”

“No, Margie, Eve did, but she followed my recipe. How was practice, Cal?”

“Usual for a Thursday. Did you get your families invited out for Saturday?”

“Si, mi amor. Joaquin has a date, but everyone else will be available.”

“Yes, Cal. SJ is looking forward to talking with you about how you found out all that classified information on how he was injured.”

“He can talk all he wants. Unfortunately, my background is secret and literally has to stay that way for reasons you all know that I can’t get into with anyone else.”

Eve laughed. “I know. But he’s my brother, and so he still considers me to be his kid sister.” She moved some things from the stove to the counter. “Serve yourself, tonight.”

There was a large pot of spaghetti, a large pot of meat sauce that smelled wonderful, and several loaves of garlic bread. I got my plate from the end, filled it, then went to the table. Dora had put an extra place setting out, with a glass of water, for Mike.

“This is ... much nicer inside than I was expecting,” he said.

“We don’t have it fully decorated yet, but it works for us. When we were planning it out, we didn’t think it would be ... outgrown ... so quickly. I’d planned on us living here for several years, anyway,” I said.

Margie had filled her plate and put it at her spot. She waited for me to get her chair for her, as did the other girls. But they all waited for me to sit down again before reaching for their food. I saw Mike notice that. He’d gotten his food and sat down. He looked a little uncomfortable when he saw what I’d done.

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it, Mike. It’s just our own little tradition, for the five of us. When the whole crew is here, like you’ll see on Saturday, we don’t implement it. Elroy would be pissed, if we did.”

“I run the KC office, so I’m presuming you’re talking about Judge Bannister.”

Margie smiled. “Uncle Elroy, that’s him. Bless his devious little heart. Yes, he’s really my uncle. He considers Cal to be his grandson, which makes our relationship a bit of a pain for my mother. I know you saw Emily come home. She’s my sister, and Harry is her husband. Uncle Elroy and Harry’s Dad served in the war together. And just to put another twist on things, Harry and Cal’s Dad were like third cousins. For the final twist, Beth is Harry’s daughter.”

“Can’t tell the players without a scorecard, right?” We politely laughed at Mike’s joke. “In all seriousness, thank you for that. You’d be amazed at how sometimes our clients tend to keep things from us, things we need to know to protect them.” He finally took a bite of his spaghetti with sauce, and a surprised look crossed his face. When his mouth was empty again, he said, “I’ve had meat sauce at some of Chicago’s best Italian places, and it doesn’t taste this good.”

Eve smiled. “Thank you. I just followed Liz’s recipe. I think what helps is the freshness of the meat, and the lack of freezing. Two weeks ago, that hamburger was in a field just down the road. They killed him, field dressed him, then took him to Jackson’s. They hung it to age for 10 days. With the two of you gone, but seeing how much we were eating, I bought bulk. So, we’ve got 250 pounds of steaks, 150 pounds of hamburger, 200 pounds of roasts for the slow cooker, and they’d also just done a pig, so we’ve got sausage, ham steaks, pork shoulder, and pork roasts, all out in the freezer. Mister Palatki told them to give me what they give him for Skaets, as far as cuts are concerned.”

“This is basically farm fresh beef, then? If you’re talking about a good steak from it, I’d guess that would cost at least four dollars or more per pound,” Mike said.

“I got the whole cow, 600 pounds, for six hundred, and three hundred for 300 pounds of pork. Add four hundred dollars for processing everything.”

Mike frowned. “That seems awfully cheap, for that much meat.”

“Welcome to rural Kansas. The transport cost was, load the freshly killed and dressed beef onto the truck at the farm, bring it into town, hang it up. That’s it. Total drive was about 10 miles. I’m starting to study economics, since we have that as one of the classes we’ll test out of for next year. Transportation costs can double the price of choice meats. Calf was born there, from their own herd, so no extra costs. Grass fed during summer and fall, then hay and grain during the winter, grass fed again in spring. Their total cost in the animal is no more than four hundred dollars. They also keep the hide, and sell that to a leather works, and the offal goes to feed their pigs.”

“I guess I didn’t think of it that way. I’ve been in cities, mostly.”

Eve laughed. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I got a discount, because of Cal. Or Elroy, your choice. But either way, we saved a bit of money.”

Margie said, “That’s good. I don’t think however many billions we end up with, we’ll be too overboard with our own expenses. At least they let Marcia report to work at a normal hour. I got my first phone call from her at 11:45, last one at 4:30. With three faxes in between. She’ll be flying out tomorrow morning, then rent a car and drive out here. I’m guessing she’ll be here about an hour before your game. She’ll have temporary badges for the three of you, and will get pictures of you, so that Adrienne and Walt can make permanent badges for you. We didn’t think about that when we were there.”

“Why do we need badges” Dora asked.

“You’re the other parts of CEDEM, so you get the same Microsoft badge and access levels that I have. I told her to have badges for Harry, Emily, and Uncle Elroy, too, but they’ll be more restricted than ours.”

Mike looked slightly distracted about then. “Hang on. Are you telling me that the five of you, with you being the oldest at 25, and the rest of you at 16, are the billion dollar CEDEM Financial Group that I’m protecting? And that I’m casually eating supper with you?” He slapped his head. “Cal, Elizabeth, Dora, Eve, Margaret. I’m such a dunce.” He started to get up.

“What’s wrong, Mike? I thought you liked my cooking?”

“Forgive me, Miss Patrick. I...”

“Sit down, Mike,” I said. “When we were in California, we ran into Hoyt Axton, and he said to us about San Francisco, you’re not in Kansas anymore. Well, guess what? Right now, we ARE in Kansas. That you work for us doesn’t mean squat. We’ve got food, plenty of it, and we invited you into our home to share it with us. I don’t think that we’re going to have someone try to break in tonight. Or possibly ever, since we ARE in Kansas. Where strangers stick out like a sore thumb. And everyone except us has a gun or three in his house.”

“No, we do, too. Dad went out and got us four shotguns and two pistols on Tuesday, while you were gone. I already know how to use them, and he spent an hour after school making sure these two know how to use them, too. We’re going to have regular classes with him, to make sure we know what we’re doing. Once nice thing about the shipping container being empty now, he turned that into a target trap pretty easily. He figured, without you here, there was no way the three of us would be defenseless like the Clutters.”

Mike frowned. “The Capote novel, ‘In Cold Blood’?”

“Dad grew up in Holcomb. He knew the family. So, yeah, them.”

“Pardon me for asking, but what difference does it make if Mister Lewis is here or not?”

Dora stated, “Because if anyone threatened to hurt us and Cal was here, he’d kill them. Would you like more bread, Mike?”

“Uh, pardon me if this sounds pompous, but I have quite a bit of martial arts training that goes back to longer than you’ve been alive.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Dora said. “Cal could take you, armed or unarmed.”

I pushed the chair back. “I saw they got some sod put in out front. Come on, Mike, let me go show you what they mean, and then we can get back to dinner.”

“I normally don’t fight my principal protectee, Mister Lewis.”

“I understand. I promise not to hurt you, or to let you hurt yourself,” I said. The girls all put their silverware down, heading outside.

Margie smiled. “Dora wasn’t kidding. Go ahead. I’ll get the first aid kit, in case Cal does accidentally hurt you.”

That was pretty much all the goading he needed. “Okay. I’ll take it easy on you.”

“Please, don’t.” I walked outside. They’d put in a couple of yard lights as well, so they had come on, illuminating the driveway and the front of the house. I walked ahead of him, my back turned. He decided that a simple takedown from the rear would show me that he knew what he was doing. As his left hand was about to touch me, I spun left, caught his wrist, then twisted it and his arm behind his back. I didn’t apply any pressure, but he still paused.

“Okay, maybe you’re a little faster than I expected.” I let him go, he immediately turned and backed up a couple of steps, to give us separation. He shook out a bit, then started throwing simple kicks and punches my way. I simply dodged all of them. After about 30 seconds of that, he nodded, then moved in. I let him grab my right arm, but instead of him throwing me, I moved my foot around behind his, kicked his leg and used his grasp on me to push him down, then brought my left palm forward rapidly, stopping just as it touched his nose.

He slapped the ground with his free hand. I let him up. He nodded, once he was up. “Yeah, I’m not going to bother with anything else that way. I do not like using real weapons for firearms training.” He reached behind his back and pulled out a pistol. “I’m dropping the magazine, and racking the slide, so you all can see that I do NOT have a live round in this.”

Once he did that, he showed us that it was empty. “I know, you always consider guns to be loaded and live, that’s why I don’t like this. But, I’d like to see what you’d do in this situation.” He took half a dozen steps back, then brought the pistol up. “All right, all of you, give me your money, now!”

Dora gave off a scream, then fell to the ground. Mikes’ eyes were diverted to her, which was all that Beth and Eve needed. Before he could respond, they had two pistols drawn and pointed at him, with Beth saying, “Bang, bang, you’re dead.”

Mike frowned. “You forgot to charge them.” Both girls turned, aimed at the barn, and pulled the trigger. The crack of two bullets firing was followed by the sound of rounds hitting the wood. From the ground, there was another pistol shot a half second later, as Dora fired hers as well.

Margie stuck her head out of the house. “Did I miss anything, or do I need to call the coroner again?”

“No, we’re good.” I waved at Harry, to go back into his house. He’d come out with his rifle in hand. “Training!” He waved back, then went back in.

“I thought you said your Dad got you two pistols,” Mike said, visibly shaken.

“He got one for Eve and Dora. I already had one. And we didn’t have to do anything other than use our thumbs to flick the safety off. If you’re going to carry, there’s no use in carrying something you have to mess with too much to use.”

I turned to Beth. “Just curious. If you already had one, why didn’t you pull it out when Baker was trying to shoot us?”

“Just like everyone else leaves their rifles in their pickup racks when they’re at school, we don’t carry inside there.”

“Okay. Just wondering.”

Mike was looking a little shaken. “Someone tried to shoot you, before?”

Beth nodded. “Mister Baker, our former guidance counselor. You’ve noted how smart that Cal is. Baker took offense to it, was sent home by the principal, and lost it. He came up to us with a gun, tried to shoot us. Cal crushed his windpipe.”

“Yeah, I could see that. You’re right, we are in Kansas. Just keep in mind that what’s good here, isn’t always good in other places.” He sighed. “On that note, um, thank you for supper. I’ve got a hotel room here in town, I’ll be going there and taking a long and soothing shower. It’s not happened that I’ve gotten taken out multiple times by a group of teenagers.” He was grinning, so we knew he was teasing.

Margie had cleaned up inside while we were outside. “Kids, if you’re done playing this evening, you now have some other cleaning to do, on those firearms.”

“Si, but it was worth it, to watch his expression.”

They spent half an hour cleaning their pistols, while I did a quick check on homework, then went in and did some more computer programming. The phone rang at 8:30, with Margie answering it.

“Hello? Oh, hi, Sandy. No, it’s not too late here, you’re only 2 hours behind us. I’m not surprised, that was who we saw the day after you. No, we just bought in, like we did with you. Really? That’s good news, then. That’s quicker than we expected. Ah, well, that makes sense, Bill does have a lot of contacts. You know he’s the same age as you. No, it’s fine. Okay, take care.”

She hung up. “Sandy was geeking out because Bill Gates called her today, wanting to set up coordination between Cisco and Microsoft, so their hardware would work with his software flawlessly, regardless of platforms. He’s made a couple of calls, so they’ve got a line on buildings and chip manufacturing already. They should have hardware out and available for retail and corporate sale about 4 months from now.”

I sighed. “You probably ought to call Apple tomorrow, see if we can talk to them in the next week or so. I’m not thrilled with their computers, but eventually, we’re going to get into portable devices. I’ve no clue who’s going to be making those.”

“I have an idea. We’ve had a couple of busy days. How about we just go to bed early, and maybe spend some time cuddling,” Margie said.

“I could do with that,” Beth agreed. “After that cum I had last night while you were flying home, I’m not too much into anything else.”

“Hang on. You mean that, when I was seeing Cal flying, carrying something over his head, and then I felt like I was having a great orgasm, it wasn’t just part of the usual kind of dreams we have?”

“Uh, no, Eve. I was masturbating in the cab of the pickup, while Cal was carrying it home. It was a lot quicker than driving. I was so hot from what and how he’d acted, I was ready to pop. I know it doesn’t fit my public demeanor as the mild investor, but the three of you KNOW how much of a stud he is.”

“Well, then, the two of you can snuggle, while Eve and I fill our pussies with his cock.”

Beth laughed. “I have no objection to that.” She leaned over to Margie, kissing her and then cupping Margie’ breasts.

We made sure the doors were locked, then went into the master bedroom. Dora and Eve stripped quickly. I was always amazed at the contrast in their skin tones, and how erotic they looked, on the bed, with their arms and legs intertwined, waiting for me.

Beth and Margie went to the other end of the bed, starting to pleasure each other, while keeping in mind that Beth was still on her period, so they’d be careful where their fingers and tongues roamed.

I stripped and got into bed on my back. Once I’d done so, Dora started working on my cock, licking and sucking on it, to try to get all of it inside her mouth. Eve kissed me, then moved up so that her knees were on either side of my head. I reached behind her, taking her firm, pale ass cheeks in my hands, spreading them and pulling her down. I was licking her pussy, thrusting my jaw forward so it was opening her lips and rubbing on her clit. She started flooding onto my face almost immediately. Dora had me fully hard, so after giving me one last wet slurp, she straddled me, letting my cock slide inside her tunnel. She started rocking back and forth, rather than raising up and down, so that her clit was rubbing on my pubic hair and then on the top of my cock.

I moistened a finger with her juices, then slid it into Eve’s waiting rosebud. She gushed more juices out, reaching forward and grabbing her black haired sister, pulling Dora forward so they could kiss, and she could scream her orgasm into Dora’s mouth.

That got to Dora, and I felt her muscles clench tightly on my hard cock as she started having her first orgasm of the night.