Chapter 2

Jenkins looked at Toby, puzzled. “Son, you don’t have any trouble telling the difference between your sister and your mother?”

He looked confused. “No. Why should I? I think Mom’s done a little something with her hair. It looks good, but she’s still Mom.” He walked over to her. “Am I in trouble for something? Is that why you didn’t come home last night, after SJ picked me up from playing with Bea and Patty?”

Jennifer smiled through her tears. “No, Toby, you’re not in trouble. I was sick. You know how smart Cal is. He ... he had to do something to fix me, to make me well.”

“Oh, you mean those dark spots that had been in your chest? They’re gone now. I didn’t know they were bad. I’m glad Cal fixed them.”

I looked at Eve, then at Jennifer, who was still holding onto Toby. “Jennifer, is there anything really personal in your classroom that, say, Mister Jenkins or one of these women couldn’t just pick up for you, and then drop off at your house, or at Elroy’s?” She shook her head.

“Folks, we’ve ... had a very emotional couple of days, due to treating Jennifer. Would you mind terribly if we just ... left? I presume you can put in with those personal items anything as far as Toby’s records and such, so we can home school him?”

“Yes, certainly. I ... I agree, Cal. Darlene, get those things, bring them to my office by the end of the day. I’ll make arrangements to get them to you, Cal.”

With Toby, we were a little crowded in the cab of my truck, but he sat on Jennifer’s lap, with the seatbelt around both of them. “Toby, I know you’ve been in the pool. But other than helping put boxes up, have you ever really been in our house?”

“No, Cal, I haven’t. Is it neat in there?”

I sighed. “I think so. You really can tell the difference between Eve and your Mom easily, even though they now look exactly the same?”

“Well, I...” he stopped talking, like he was listening to something. “Yeah, it’s not hard for me.”

“Toby, who were you just listening to?”

He laughed. “What do you mean, Cal? I wasn’t listening to anyone. I just had to think for a second, is all.”

I pulled over alongside the road. “Toby, you know I’m the smartest person in the world, right? You know I can tell when you’re hiding something.”

He looked a little upset. “I’m not hiding anything.”

“You’re not? Does this look familiar?” I pulled the necklace out from where I’d been wearing it, letting it swing in front of him. “I can see it in your eyes, Toby.”

“I’m not in trouble, am I?”

Jennifer leaned over and gave him a kiss on the back of his head. “No, sweetheart, you’re not in any trouble. Can you answer Cal’s questions?”

“Sometimes ... not all the time, but sometimes ... I think Grandpa talks to me. He’s told me I was named for him. That’s why when I saw you in the room, I knew it was you and not Eve; Grandpa said he’d recognize his own daughter, anywhere.”

“Has your Grandpa said anything about me, Toby?” I quietly asked.

“He thought you were ... maybe bad, when you first met Eve. Then ... he showed me a picture of a big wall, in the ground, and said you were a good man, even a great man.”

Eve shook her head. “I can see Mike is going to have fun with measuring Toby, and with Sophia coming, too...?”

“You’re not upset with me, that Grandpa sometimes talks to me? I know it’s not what they talked about in church and stuff, but he’s been with me for a long time now. I felt sad when he and grandma died. That’s when he started talking to me.”

Eve nodded. “Just like at the wall, except that he’s in someone, like you said could happen.”

“Yeah.” I got back on the road and drove the rest of the way home. “Come on in, Toby. Have you already had lunch?” He shook his head.

Eve said, “I’ll get you something, tiger. Have a seat over there at the table. Milk, a PBJ sandwich and chips good for now, or would you like something more?”

While she was taking care of her little brother, I went into the other room with Jennifer. “Did you know about Toby and him being ... I don’t want to say infected, but I’m not sure what word to use. Maybe inhabited,” she said.

“No, I didn’t. Not until he recognized you, then when he clicked on seeing the pendant your mother gave your father. You’ve seen the stuff from the Wall; I know it’s possible for someone to end up inside someone else. Margie, Marcia, and I suspect that may have been what happened to the three of us; maybe not even someone that’s human, or has been dead for so long that it doesn’t matter. The three of us mesh, almost like finely machined gears. Hell, Beth effectively reads my mind and knows what needs to be done anyway. You saw her, when she brought the pictures and my uniform out, the other night. She knew that’s what I needed to do, before I did.”

“So, what do we do about it?”

“Mike, please make sure the only speaker activated is the one in this room. I need you to measure Toby Patrick, without him knowing it. I suspect – correction, I know – he has a secondary intelligence inside him. I have to make a phone call. Let me know what the results are when I’m done with the call.”

“Of course, Cal.”

“Hey, beautiful. Has SJ contacted you yet about finding a jet?”

“Wait, I thought we read your mind, not the other way around. Yeah, he’s going to be stopping by here shortly, to discuss how we’re paying for things. We’ve had a bit of serendipity. The Boeing plant in Seattle just finished doing a refurbishment on a five year old 737-200; new engines, upgrades to electronics, and get this. It had been redone as a private aircraft, with luxury seating for thirty, a private office, complete with a bed and personal bathroom and small shower, and two other bathrooms for everyone else.”

“Just curious, how much is that going to cost?”

“Here’s the beautiful thing. It was done for President Al-Assad of Syria, as his personal plane. He paid for it himself, out of monies he’d stolen or whatever. Since he’s not alive any longer, the new government in Syria doesn’t want it; they’d just like to have a little bit of money back. They know they’re not going to get the whole amount back. He spent ten million on the thing. We can get it for two million. Oh, and the best part? He had the eight hundred gallon auxiliary fuel tanks installed, so with the lighter payload, it has a thirty-eight hundred mile range, instead of the normal twenty-four hundred miles. It can easily cross the Atlantic, and two-hop the Pacific from California to Australia.”

“I’m definitely going to have to get more safety gear worked out for our planes. We’ll need the capacity of that jet. Have him fly out there, and if it looks good to him ... even if the trim inside is ugly, and we have to redo some things, have him buy it. But that’s not why I called. When he gets to your office, I need to talk to him. Toby ... recognized his mother, when we picked him up today.”

I could hear the change in tone in her voice. “How is that possible? I mean, she’s a dead ringer for Eve right now, so he should have had some confusion unless ... didn’t you say at one time or another, that when people died, they could be in someone else, which is why you think you, Marcia, and I are so comfortable together?”

“I did. Tobias Kennedy is advising young Toby.”

“We’re going to have to pull the stuff out of the fourth bedroom; maybe store the food in the garage. I’ll tell SJ about it when he gets here.”

“Thanks, Love.”

Once I hung the phone up, I quickly explained to Jennifer at what happened when people die. Then I asked, “Mike, what are you reading for Toby?”

“I do not have standard baselines for children. However, comparing him to a normal adult may be advisable in any event. He shows at zero point nine in three lobes, but at two point two in the fourth lobe already.”

I frowned. “That would mean if he were an adult, he’d be mentally a little slower than Harry, but considerably more advanced in the fourth lobe; the one that we figure causes our linkages, and such?”

“That is correct. Based upon his school records, he is improving from how he was performing originally. Jennifer, did Toby exhibit some signs of mental retardation when he was very young?”

“That’s a hell of a question. But the answer is, yes. I spent a lot of time working with him over the years. So did my other kids. You know, it almost makes sense if Dad did end up inhabiting him. He and Mom used to watch Toby while I was at school, and it almost destroyed him when Dad died. Then, about two weeks after the funeral, he - I don’t want to say got over it – but seemed to accept it.”

“Okay. We’ll make it work. He’s family, just like you are. I’ll tell the girls to be a little more circumspect in how they act and dress outside of the bedroom. Now, how do you feel, about things?”

She sat down on the bed. “I ... I’m not sure.” She looked up at me, the confusion in her eyes obvious. “I love you, I know that. It’s been something I’ve been trying to fight, trying to deny, since the night we met. I’m ... not just old enough to be your mother, I am the mother of one of your girlfriends. What’d she call me earlier? Mother-sister? I always thought – presumed, anyway – that I was totally heterosexual. The idea of another woman with her face – down there, or of me, kissing another woman, other than just kisses for cousins and such – never had any appeal to me whatsoever.

“Then ... when Beth was ... eating my pussy ... Marcia and Margie were sucking on my breasts ... when I was riding on your ... your cock, kissing my own daughter, making love to both of you at the same time ... I can’t imagine life without it, without them. I’m ... I’m really pregnant, with your child, our child ... and even though I’m forty, I really feel like I’m Eve’s age, too. The breast cancer I had is gone. It’s just ... all so much. And I don’t ... I can’t imagine trading it for anything in the world. The happiness I feel inside, thinking about our life, our lives, together. It’s almost overwhelming.”

The phone rang. “Keep that thought. Hello, this is Cal.”

“Cal, this is SJ. I’m here at Margie’s office. What did you need?”

“Unless you object, we’re going to move Toby’s bed over here. We pulled him out of school this morning. Jennifer’s going to home-school him, from now on.”

“If Mom thinks that’s best, then I have no argument with it. But ... how’d the runt react, when he saw Mom? I presume, he’s actually SEEN Mom, right?”

“No issues. He recognized her. Now, before you get excited, we also found out there’s a reason why that happened. It’s really not that important now. It’ll wait until you get back from buying us that airplane. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t get concerned, if you came back from Seattle in the middle of the night and went into your house, and Toby wasn’t in his bed. Or that his bed wasn’t even there.”

He was silent for a couple of seconds, then said, “You know, I appreciate that. In light of all the shit that went down with Dad, if I’d come home and the squirt was gone, the first thing I’d have thought was some of that stuff coming back. Thanks. I take it you don’t have a problem with the airplane, then?”

“Nope. We’ll figure out a paint job, and I’ll want to make sure it has our anti-ice put on it, same as on all of them. Winter’s coming, after all.”

“Thanks, that reminds me. I made an arrangement with the airport. A gallon of that will cover four hundred square feet, right?”

“About, just like regular room paint. Why?”

“I need eighteen hundred gallons of it, then. We’ll put it down on the main runway, before winter really hits. Then, see how it does. We don’t get that much snow, around a foot total every winter, but we do get ice. Since it’s supposed to last five years, that’ll let us see how it does in real world situations, with both jets and propeller planes landing, and how wear affects it,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s possible, for this winter. Harry’s working his butt off over in the garage now, making a hundred gallons for Leon Hess, to use on his oil rigs. That’ll take all the raw materials we have. I guess that we might have some of the actual production line up and going in a few months, though. We can let them have a smaller amount, but I don’t think we can make that much, without setting up some kind of temporary facility on one of the job sites, so we can literally have tankers full of raw chemicals.”

“I’ll see what we need when I get back. This would allow us to prove the concept, in a big way. For that matter, I’m taking ten gallons of it with me. I guess word leaked out. Boeing wants to do a wind tunnel test, while we’re out there.”

I shook my head. “Sounds like things are snowballing again. Don’t forget you have lunch with Elroy today, before you head across country.”

“That’s not quite right. I was having lunch with Elroy. Now, I’m having lunch, supper, breakfast tomorrow, and then lunch again, with Elroy. He’s flying out there with me; said this’ll give him a chance to learn more about his newest grandson.”

“Um ... if he asks you to play cards with him on the flight, be very, very careful. He’s a damn good card player. Other than that, have fun.” He told me goodbye, and I hung up. I shook my head a little. “Well, that’s different.” I walked back into the dining room, where Eve was talking to Toby while he finished his lunch.

“Apparently, Elroy is going with SJ to Seattle, to pick up our new jet. And Boeing wants to do a test on the anti-ice chemicals. I need to go talk to Harry for just a minute, then I’ll be back. We need to talk to Mike Douglas.”

Jennifer sat down with Eve, while I went to the garage. Harry was busy watching the process. There were pipes running from the barrels, going to the mixing pot, then more pipes coming from that to the reactant and heating pot. The vapor coming from that went through the condenser.

“How’s it going, as far as volume is concerned?”

“I’m keeping it slow, but I’m getting three gallons an hour from this set-up. Since some of these are potentially dangerous, I don’t want to take too big of a chance. I’ll have the hundred gallons that Leon wants by the weekend, though.”

“Good, good. We need another eighteen hundred gallons. While you’re watching this, figure up the deliveries of, literally, tanker trucks full of the chemicals. I’m going to make some calls, and see how long it’ll take to get an actual industrial sized facility up and running.”

“Eighteen hundred gallons? Good grief, what are we putting that much on?”

“The main runway at the airport. This’ll let us prove the concept in a major, real-world application. Combine that with what you’ll get from Hess, and we won’t be able to make enough of it to keep up with the demand.”

“Damn, Cal, that’s about right. I’ll get on those figures now.”

I went back into the house, and called the main guard post. They’d expanded it a bit, putting an office there, so that someone could monitor the cameras all the time. Mike was in there, and he said he’d be over in just a minute. Two minutes later, there was a knock at the door.

“Good afternoon, Mike. Thanks for coming over. I noticed you’d done the window and armor work while we were gone, I haven’t had time to thank you for that.”

“Don’t worry about that, Mister Lewis. You paid for it.” At my look, he said, “Okay. Cal. Sorry, I’m not used to being this close to my principal. Or having half of my staff tell me that if they don’t get to continue protecting you and your family while you’re out west, that they’ll walk. I heard a little bit about what happened. You really had a SWAT team ready to attack the house?”

“There was only a quarter ton of Semtex in the basement, so it’s not like it’s any big deal.” His eyes widened. “Marcia’s dad did electrical and explosives work in the movies. She has both an FFL and an FEL.”

“Wait? The girl that couldn’t hit the broadside of the barn, the first time she fired a pistol? And I mean that literally, because she was using your shooting range, and missed not only the container, but the whole barn, has both a Federal Firearms AND Explosive License?”

“Yeah, tell me about it. She said that it’s because all the people out there were using fake guns, and no one ever taught her to fire a real one. She did offer to blow something up, to make the SWAT guys feel better, though.” He was laughing and shaking his head.

“But, that’s not why I called you. Um, we’re having a bit of a rearrangement in who is living where. At least until we move to California, Toby Patrick will now be living here as well.” While I was talking to him, I walked into the kitchen. Toby, Jennifer, and Eve were sitting at the table, with some schoolwork out, and were helping him with it. Mike looked up, saw Toby, nodded, then stopped.

“Um ... Cal ... it’s not nice to pull pranks on your security director. You’ve been very good to all of us so far.”

“No prank, Mike. You know I’m smart, and my mother was a great biologist. Jennifer had breast cancer. I, uh, came up with a treatment that’s not medically approved, but it worked. It cured her breast cancer. There was one major side effect. Jennifer will also be living here, as well, so I can continue to monitor her, to make sure that there’s no recurrence.”

Jennifer and Eve looked up at Mike, flashing him the same smile. “Okay, I can’t tell them apart. Not even at this distance. Holy crap, Cal. Is this something marketable? If so, I need to get even more security.”

“Right now, no, it’s not. It was a purely experimental thing; basically, a one-shot attempt to stop something before it got out of hand. But you might tell everyone that there’s not two Eve’s living here now, it’s just that Eve looks exactly like Jennifer did when she was Eve’s age. We saw that in her old high school yearbook.”

“I was shocked when I saw my old pictures, Mister Douglas. I had no idea. Obviously, I could tell the resemblance, but for us to almost be identical?”

Mike frowned. “It’s rather obvious that, with your change, there’s no way you could continue your job as a teacher. You’d be seen as a freak of nature, and would end up being bothered by everyone. Nor can you live in your old house, either. That means you’re moving in here, too.” He nodded. “I’ll make sure we update things here, and I’m in close touch with the company branch in California. We’ll handle it.”

“Is it going to cause an issue with your employer if I insist that you go to California with us? It’s pretty obvious that we get along well with Chuck, Jenny, and Angela, and the rest of the teams have been excellent to work with, as well.”

“That’s actually something that’s come up in discussions. With the additional security you’ll need for all the facilities here, there’s going to be another hundred local jobs just from us. You’ll primarily need gate and perimeter security for all of the plants, figure a dozen and a half or so each for the three sites, and then another thirty for Microsoft, due to what they’re doing. Walt and I talked; they have over sixty just in their facilities now. We’re running more than two dozen people, just for your home here, sixteen for site security on four shifts, three of us as managers, and then half a dozen for personal guards.”

“You’re not burning yourselves out or anything, are you?”

He snorted. “Sorry, that’s just funny. A client being concerned about us isn’t something we normally run into, Cal. I appreciate that. No, it’s just that CEDEM has gone from being a small section of what we do, to one of our more important accounts, really quickly. While you’re in California, we’ll still maintain a full site crew here, because you’ll be coming home at times. We’re anticipating two dozen full time for there, in addition to personal guards and managers. You’ll all have drivers and hardened cars. The word’s starting to leak, a little, that your company is going to be THE force to be reckoned with from a financial perspective.”

I sighed. “I can’t see it getting any better in the next two years, either.”

“Are you kidding? Chuck and the girls had to report to me about what happened out there. You took, and passed, two tests that should take a day and a half, in two hours? Then met with the guys from Intel? The whole early pregnancy test that you did on Sandy Lerner blew the girls away, too. Think about what that’s going to do to the market.” At the look on my face, he smiled. “They reported to me. I haven’t passed things up the ladder. Elroy had all of us that are assigned to you sign one of your NDAs. None of us have any desire to end up in jail for violating that.”

I was a little confused. “I thought things like that would be something you’d have to tell your bosses at Wackenhut.”

He chuckled again. “Yeah, well, uh ... we had a bit of a discussion about that, while you were all gone. We’ll let them bill you, which gives us access to all their toys, like the federal carry permits. That means our paychecks come from them. But we work for you, and your ladies. You’re our boss. Our loyalty is to you.”

I sat down on one of the bar stools. “Do I even want to know what brought this on?”

He smiled. “Industrial secrets aside, do you have any idea how damn much fun this is for us? You’re changing the world. One of our guys is going to California with SJ and Judge Bannister, to show how airplanes are going to be safer because of you. One of our guys is with Marcia, learning how you’re changing the energy supplies for the world. Two of our people are with Beth and Dora, watching how you’re providing thousands of good, high paying jobs for people in the state. And you’re also making sure that those new workers will have houses. Margie’s making sure the people in town will have money for their future. You treat everyone as your family; that’s a welcome break for us. By necessity, when you’re executive protection like we are with all of you, we have to know what’s going on.”

“Speaking of knowing what’s going on, I think I need to call Charlie Koch. Thanks for letting me know about that, Mike.” He nodded, leaving us. I called Margie again.

“Twice in one day, Love? You must miss me terribly.”

“Of course I do. But I need two phone numbers that I don’t have. Charlie Koch, and Leon Hess.”

“Oh, sure. Just a second.” I could hear her pulling out a book. It didn’t take her long to find and give me their numbers.

I spent the next hour in conversation; first with Charlie, then with Leon, and finally back with Charlie again. While Leon didn’t have the equipment I needed, he put me in touch with the owners of a refinery that had shut down. With Charlie’s help, I made arrangements to buy and then ship the equipment from southern Illinois to Hutchinson. We’d have it within three weeks. It was mostly a matter of arranging the trucking. He told me his crews would have it up and ready for my distillation and mixing process by the end of December.

When I went back into the garage, to let Harry know what was going on as far as the large plant was concerned, he was playing with a new toy. I hadn’t heard the delivery. He had a small forklift that could lift and turn fifty-five gallon drums, to load onto his racks.

“That looks fun.”

“Well, it makes things a lot easier for me, anyway. I’ve figured out how to do this on a small level, anyway. What’d you come up with over at the plant site?”

“I haven’t gone over there yet. I just got off the phone with Leon and Charlie. There’s a small oil refinery in Illinois that shut down last year. They’ve been disassembling the towers, getting them ready to sell and move to whoever bought them. They’ve been sitting now for three months. I bought them, Charlie will get them out here and put them together for us in a way that works, and we’ll be able to start full scale production in January, hopefully.”

“Good. That gives me time to make sure the rail siding is done. From what I saw, we’re going to be producing about five thousand gallons per day. We’ll go through a rail tank car of each of the chemicals every week.”

“Sounds good. Stay on it. It’s your company.”

“Hang on, what?”

“Yeah, I feel bad because our plans didn’t work out, with you getting rich off of being the devious person. So, while I still own the patent and I’m putting the money into getting the chemical plant up and running, you’re in charge of everything else. We’ll make sure you have money for advertising. If I’m still thinking right, you’ll have twenty bucks worth of chemicals in each gallon, then about the same amount in refining costs, so if you can sell each gallon for a couple of hundred, you’ll make a nice profit. That should help you and Emily and your baby.”

“You’re just giving it to me? To us?”

“It’s like I told Sandy and Len. I have no desire to run a chemical plant. We’ll be out of here in December. You’ll need something to do. Running a multi-billion dollar company ought to keep you out of trouble.”

Eve and I left Jennifer working with Toby while we drove over to their house and got his bed, dresser, and clothes. Loading everything up was a lot quicker and easier than unloading. Some of Roberto’s crew were starting to do work on tearing down old outbuildings. They were getting things ready for some of the building additions. That meant I couldn’t just pick his dresser up and move it, like I’d done before. We still got done relatively quickly.

Everyone else that was out came home within a minute of each other. The girls all greeted Toby like he was their own little brother. Marcia, Dora, and Beth went to take showers, as they’d been out in dust all day. Margie and Eve fixed dinner, while Jennifer and I arranged Toby’s room for him. At dinner that night, the girls gave me updates on how things were going. Margie also told me that she’d had a television on in her office today, watching the news about what was going on around the world. It seemed that India was being a little bothersome of Pakistan and China over the Kashmir region.

“I see. Let’s see ... seven thirty at night here is six o’clock in the morning there. I’ll leave at nine thirty, and take my time. That’ll put me there at nine in the morning.”

“Sounds reasonable. Toby’s bedtime is eight thirty. Don’t forget that tomorrow is Halloween, so we’ll need to do some trick or treating,” Jennifer said.

“I’ve read about it, of course, but never done it. You know what I’m half-tempted to wear as my costume?”

Beth shook her head. “Nope. You’ll be showing off your magnificent chest dressed like Khan Noonien Singh. Toby will be dressed like Captain Kirk. Dora and I will be wearing outfits that Khan’s women wore. The rest of them will all be in makeup from some of the other aliens in the show, but we’ll all be in Star Trek costumes. Oh, and if Chuck, Angela, and Jenny are along, they get red shirts.”

I asked, “Okay, but where did those come from?”

Marcia laughed. “You never did go upstairs in either house, did you? I’m a hardcore Trekkie. When we realized that Halloween was coming, and they saw that I had the outfit that Ricardo Montalbán wore, it was obvious that you would wear that. That’s what was in the extra two suitcases that I brought back. I have make-up and prosthetics so I can put Vulcan ears or other simple things on everyone.”

“Based upon my conversation with Mike today, we’ll be having those three, and the other three on our personal detail, with us for a long time. Half or more of our team here are going to follow us to California. Apparently, they like working for us. Seems they think we’re fun to work for, and we’re going to change the world.”

“I think they’re right. I’ve been on the sidelines, watching what the four, then five, then six of you were doing. Now, I’m trying to figure out how and where I’m going to fit in with you, since I’m so much older,” Jennifer said.

I said, “Toby, if you’re done, and you want to play on your computer a little before bedtime, it’s set up in your bedroom. What time is your bedtime, young man?”

“It’s still a school night, even if Mom’s teaching me from home, so that means eight thirty. I know that the garage is off limits unless an adult is with me; same with the pool. I’ll ask for supervision before using your computers out in the big room, or for watching TV out here in the living room. I also know to knock before going into the bathrooms, and especially before coming into your bedroom.”

He paused, then said, “I also know not to talk about anything I see here. You told me you weren’t upset when Grandpa talks to me. He told me it’s a ... sec ... secu ... security, that’s the word, thing. Am I going to California with you when you all go?”

“Your grandpa is right about the security thing, Toby. You know how some kids have imaginary friends? I know your grandpa isn’t imaginary. When you get older, more grown up, I’ll explain to you how I know that. But we have a friend here in the trailer that’s almost like an imaginary friend. He can hear you, and talk to you. He’s really smart, and he’ll be able to help you as well. But you can’t tell anyone else about him. And yes, you’ll be going to California with us. Your mother is now like Eve. She lives with us. And until you get old enough, that means you’ll live with us, too. Is that okay with you?”