Chapter 16

And she was ... pretty.

Oh ... not the beauty of the Damsels or even the Caretakers ... on Earth she was a babe ... the ideal that Earth women strive to reach and fail ... here, she measured up. On Cassandra she was an orphan ... given up as a failure ... passable ... but not. Here, her little imperfections made her exotic.

Yup ... Cassie wasn’t going anywhere. Already courted by Naval Officers and lusted after by Sheiks and Princes ... on Earth, Cassie Flintkote knew her worth. A million bucks already bid. Pretty good for 16.

There was a little disturbance at the mirror. A shimmering and then a dark hall appeared. The dark hall was not the white hall of the boat portal, nor the bank vault portal from Chaos to Crossroads.

The Powers came marching separately through the Portal. Mary was first, the others followed.

Mary said, “Mom, you HAVE to fix your portals. The Flintkotes have three and maybe four ... you won’t believe where we’ve been.”

“Daddy!” exclaimed Tyche. And sure enough, JW and Billy came marching right behind One.

“Well ... that was an adventure,” said JW.

Billy added, “And not one I want to repeat.”

“TSK!” exclaimed JW when he saw her.”

“TSK?” Tyche queried.

“Tyche Selene flintKote. TSK.” JW explained. “Billy thought it suited you.” He grinned at his daughter, “I thought it fit.”

“Like ‘Tisk Tisk’” Billy said, with a admonishing finger wave. He dropped this pack and fished around in it, “I promised them a present.” He pulled a ring pin and tossed an olive green can back through the portal.

“You had that all this time?” JW asked.

“Not on Chaos,” Billy said. “I bribed one of the guards.”

There was a muffled POP.

From deep in the dark hole of a hallway behind the portal came a shout, “HEY!” and a series of coughs ... some treble snd some bass.

“I promised you a present,” shouted Billy.

“Thanks a lot!”

“Teargas?” asked JW.

“Skunk oil.”

Tyke slammed the head door. She snatched a piece of paper from her mom and Sharpie from Eva. She wrote ... quite nicely... OUT OF ODOR She hung it on the door.

“ORDER” said Zoe. “It’s spelled ORDER.”

“Not this time.”

Zo suggested they visit the Port Authority.

“Why?” asked Cynthiamae.

“Time to go. Do you really want your baby to have Russian citizenship?”

“Oh ... time to go,” she said.

“Bye the way, JW. The portal wouldn’t let me through,” Zoe grinned. “Daddy.”