Chapter 3: Making Arrangements

Late-October, 1986

I was startled with JB’s excited knocking on the front door. He must have slept great, dreaming of Ibera no doubt.

I felt like crap, still obsessed about my dream. I remembered to run to the clinic just before JB and I teleported to ‘work’.

When we got to Ibera’s we all got coffee and made small talk, mostly teasing JB about Ibera. Totally oblivious that she was on my mind, JB asked, “Hey Brad, where’s Sarah this morning?”

“Ahhh yes, she contacted me this morning and said she had a few things she needed to get done first thing this morning. She’s hoping to be here sometime before we leave, so I guess we’ll have to make do today without her.”

Not that I was suspicious, but Sarah knew darn good and well that you can be up here for hours and only miss a couple minutes at home. Was she playing some kind of game with me? I tried to mentally contact her, but then remembered we couldn’t communicate between dimensions. The dimensions we could communicate between were the different ones up here at Ibera’s. Like where the prisoners are and where we were currently sitting.

This dimension thing is confusing. I was never so glad we had Ibera around, just to explain things to us.

Like this ‘time distortion’ that made it so if we spent an entire work day up here (8 hours), only 30 minutes or less would have passed at home! She told us we could spend an entire week here and less than one day would pass at home.

It makes things a little weird going back and forth. You forget what time it is whenever you teleport in either direction.

Brad told us that today he was going to announce that the prisoners would have 24 hours before they were being taken to their final destination.

He wanted both JB and I to man cameras but instead of following him into the cell area, he wanted us to ‘Spirit Walk’ from a portal where we were sitting. He wanted to get candid, ‘up close and personal’ video of everything that was about to take place.

When I said that we only had one camera, Ibera was giggling, “Have you forgotten already? All you have to do is request however many cameras you’d like.”

“Okay, so I’m not thinking all that clearly this morning guys, I’m sorry.” I apologized, then took one of the cameras that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, checked that everything was ready, then told Brad we were good to go.

I requested the portal to the prisoner’s area and it appeared just like I asked. We watched Brad and Brenda walk in and immediately heard grumbling and mocking, asking where Jonah was hiding.

Figuring that this was going to get interesting, Jim Bob and I ‘Spirit Walked’ into the portal and found ourselves hovering right in the middle of the cell that had the majority of people in it.

It was the one with the Normistronzo’s and their band of thugs and ignorant family.

I was glad that they couldn’t see us, or more specifically, wouldn’t be able to touch or hurt us. Some of these fuckers, like Elmer’s goons, were downright scary. Lola and her daughters seemed so toxic, I was afraid it might somehow rub off on us!

Brad announced, “If I could have your attention please. I’ve got good news. Today is the last day you’re all going to be cooped up here. Tomorrow you’re being moved to the island, permanently.”

Before he could say another word many people began shouting and screaming, generally about who died and left Brad the boss. They wanted to know why Jonah wasn’t the one making that announcement.

Brad must’ve taken whistling lessons from somebody! He let out a shrill whistle that would’ve put even Lenny’s to shame.

In a sarcastic yet humorous, booming voice Brad announced, “Jonah, ‘The Sheriff’ has left the building, so you’re all going to have to deal with me from here on out. This is MY circus now and I need to get you clowns ready to go on stage!”

If they only knew how accurate that was!

I was glad nobody could hear JB and me laughing our asses off.

I decided to move in closer to E Norm, since he seemed to be the one speaking for a large number of the prisoners.

JB decided to try and get other people’s reactions to the different things that might be said.

Brad wasted no time in continuing, “First thing, you all need to decide who’s going to be in each group that will be put ashore together. This is all up to you to decide. The thing to remember is, the community toolkits you’ll be given will be based on the size of the group that will be using them. The toolkits will be delivered to the exact place you’ll be dropped off at. It may take several hours for them to appear, so you will have to check the area to make sure you get them before they get washed out to sea.

“Second thing, and this only applies to everyone who has been nice to Ibera and is currently eating something besides gruel...”

There was quite a bit of mumbling, moaning and groaning coming from those assholes still eating that white slop.

Brad continued, “You will each be given two military style duffel bags and an infantry style backpack that all of your personal, luxury items must fit on or into. You will not be given weapons of any kind. Not even a Whammo slingshot. Do not try getting cute by trying to sucker Ibera by even requesting one. If you do, you will be given no luxury items whatsoever and it will be the next person’s turn. I will be personally supervising the entire operation”

As I looked around I saw some grimacing and knowing looks going between different people. I just knew that one of our bets was going to be how many idiots would still try.

Brad then asked, “Does anyone have any questions?”

Several hands went up.

E Norm went first, “I say we all stay as one big group.”

Based on the mumblings I was hearing, most of the ‘non-Normistronzo’s’ didn’t like that idea. I flashed (our term for telepathic communications) that to Brad and it was seconded by JB, from what he was hearing.

Brad smirked, “Let me see a show of hands, how many of you want to stay in one big group like E Norm here has suggested?”

Most of the Normistronzo’s immediately put their hands up along with a few of the others. As E Norm leered at those with their hands down, a few more kowtowed and reluctantly raised their hands.

Brad said, “To facilitate better communication, I’m going to put everyone into one large cell so you can discuss what you want to do. I will leave you alone for one hour, at which time you will be divided up into the groups you choose to be with.”

With that, all the different cells the prisoners had been divided into, suddenly merged into one great big one. Brad flashed, telling us to keep filming because he and Brenda were also going to grab cameras and join us.

He wanted to get a wider variety of the different discussions that were about to happen.

I decided to stay with E Norm, while JB went over to keep an eye on George Sachs and his four girls.

Ibera was also going to be standing by in case anyone got overly physical and tried to force someone to join someone else. Even though no one had any weapons, several of E Norm’s thugs were very big guys and many of the assassins weren’t the kind of people that might take no for an answer, easily.

The very first thing E Norm told his three bodyguards was to go around and lean on all of the noncompliant prisoners, threatening to make their lives miserable if they didn’t cooperate and join the big group.

He mentioned George and his girls, specifically.

Luckily for George, E Norm wasn’t the only one interested in them. Before E Norm’s thugs could get there, George had nearly a dozen others talking about either joining up with George’s group or having George’s group join theirs. The first group included AL Hunt, Howard Humbacker, Jasmine Tran and Sam Sparks.

JB was filming this group and it was apparent that George didn’t want anything to do with joining anybody else’s group. The way he kept looking at Jasmine Tran, it was also obvious he didn’t trust her at all. Likewise, when the ex-CIA guys came a calling, they got the same answer.

The next group, all three of whom were among some of Guido’s paid assassins, were also turned down. However, unlike the others, they didn’t try to intimidate George or threaten him in any way. Before they started walking off, the leader, I think his name is Blaine, simply asked him to consider the benefits of having three more guys who all knew how to survive in the wilderness.

E Norm’s thugs, having made the rounds and were mostly unsuccessful in gaining more ‘recruits’, came by and made things downright interesting.

They started by demanding that George and the girls come with them to talk to their boss. When George told them he wasn’t interested in talking to E Norm, two of the thugs each grabbed one of George’s girls. I knew Ibera was getting ready to jump into action. Then, suddenly, Blaine and two of his buddies ran over and used some kind of karate move that forced them to let go of the girls.

I was impressed, it seemed like they just had a hold of the goon’s thumbs. However, whatever they were doing, they had the goons on their knees with tears in their eyes, begging them not to break their wrists! Blaine told them to tell E Norm that if he threatened George or his girls again, they’d never survive to see the island. Then, just before letting them up, he and his buddy bitch slapped both of them while the third goon just stood there with his thumb up his ass.

In all fairness, E Norm’s third goon was being given the evil eye by another one of the assassins. The guy was just grinning at the goon while waving his finger back and forth.

Shortly after the three goons sloughed back toward E Norm, George thanked Blaine, then motioned for him and his buddies to have another talk.

I refocused my attention on E Norm who was being frantically besieged by both of his sisters, Marcella and Lola.

While it didn’t seem like anyone in the world could intimidate E Norm, his two sisters had him shaking in his boots, or Gucci loafers.

As I listened closer, I about lost it.

I discovered what it was these two broads were badgering him about.

I’d tell you, but I just KNOW you’d call me a liar.

Okay, I’ll tell you, just don’t say you weren’t warned!

DRESSES.

Yeah, you heard me, freaking dresses! They were literally screaming at E Norm that there was no way they could go to any island, for any length of time, without at least 20 dresses each! And that included Lola’s two daughters, Precious and Cecelia.

Somehow, E Norm had to come up with a way to get them a total of 80 dresses along with different pairs of shoes for each dress to go along with that. And we’re not talking simple sundresses either. OH NO, we’re talking ball gowns, evening dresses, cocktail dresses, formal dresses and the litany went on and on.

One of E Norm’s nephews, I think his name was Mario, asked what the heck they needed all the dresses for.

E Norm slapped him silly. “You do not question my sisters, you impetuous baboon! Now, you and your brothers and sister get with Fredo, Lugo and Hugo and convince all the others they need to join us so my sisters can have all the dresses they need. Those duffel bags will only hold two or three dresses, if that, and Marcella and Lola insist they cannot be wrinkled. Now, get a move on!”

We watched as the seven of them ran around frantically explaining to everyone why it was necessary for them to join E Norm’s group.

When the different ones heard the reasoning, they all broke into either unbridled laughter or raucous scoffing about ignorance and arrogance.

Something told me, no one had even one ounce of sympathy for E Norm or any of those stupid bitches.

I was figuring that we’d have to come up with a pool like they do for the Super Bowl with numbers from 1 to 80 so we could bet on exactly how many dresses they ended up with. I would be trying for the lowest numbers possible. Especially because, currently, all four of those dumb broads were still eating that nasty gruel!

This had gone on long enough and we didn’t want any more violence, so Brad popped back to get ready.

Time was almost up for E Norm.

When he saw Brad reappear, he immediately shouted, “We all going as one group and I say what personal items everyone gets!”

Brad scoffed, “Pipe down, Elmer FUDD, that’s NOT how this works!”

Everyone froze for a second, looked at each other, then back at ‘Elmer’ before many of them began rolling on the floor, laughing.

Elmer was furious and was stomping his feet, staring daggers at Brad.

“As I was saying, no one can request items for anyone else! Things like clothes will be automatically sized for the one requesting it. You will only get ten minutes to get everything packed. Anything left will simply disappear.”

Brad took a deep breath, “Now, since Elmer seems to be the head of his group, everyone who wants to be in his group, raise your hand.”

Now, the only ones raising their hands were the Normistronzo’s and some of them had to be stared at to capitulate. Elmer was shouting and glaring when suddenly he and his ‘volunteers’ disappeared.

They were put in their own isolated area where they would stay until time to receive their comfort items. There were now only 17 of them.

It was amazing how quickly everyone else calmed down and started asking, politely, to be given a little more time. They were granted another hour, but warned they were being watched and at the first sign of violence, the offenders would be immediately banished to a different island with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

An image resembling Antarctica was shown on a large portal. There were some major gasps as the consequences became clear to them.

(I was going to have to ask Brad if he’d been serious?)

The four of us, JB, Brad, Brenda and I, were now all filming the different groups as they were still making up their minds about who wanted to be with whom. Several people didn’t really want to be with anybody, but were still scrambling, trying to get in with George Sachs and his now group of eight.

For a while it looked like Guido’s former contract assassins: Lucinda McEvil, Lonnie Corrigan, Sly Willum, Tony ‘Tiny’ Molina and Josh Baldwin were all going to go their own separate ways.

At first, only Lucinda and Lonnie Corrigan were going to pair up. Then, after some wheeling and dealing, making sure that Lucinda would be willing to ‘take care of’ the other three guys, Sly, Tony and Josh, the five of them decided they would all indeed stick together. It was obvious they all knew each other and were hoping to sweet talk Ibera to give them some special tools that weren’t originally part of the standard toolkit.

From the beginning, most of them had copied Blaine and had been fairly nice to Ibera.

The five of them were already conspiring to find George, his girls and the other three assassins and either join them or kill the guys off and force the girls to be their sex slaves.

Meanwhile, that only left the three ex-CIA members, Franklin, Marek and Peters, Fred Callas, (the turncoat FBI agent), two other Co-Op members, AL Hunt and Howard Humbacker along with little Annie Hunt, the assassins – Jasmine Tran and Maxwell Lester, along with the somewhat ‘putzified’ Sam Sparks.

The 10 of these fools kept going round and round about whether to stick together or go their separate ways. It was obvious that Marek and Peters were on the outs with Franklin, and Fred Callas seemed like he didn’t have a friend amongst all of them.

Fred was one of those guys who had originally planned on going with E Norm, then bailed out at the last minute. According to the dossier on Callas, he was only known to most of these 10 as ‘Ears’, since he was the one leaking classified information about Jonah and the FBI investigations to select Normistronzo and Co-Op members.

Marek and Peters had discovered that their boss, Franklin, had hired Jasmine Tran, Sam Sparks and Annie Hunt to kill them after their last mission. Therefore, they didn’t want anything to do with Franklin or the rest of the gang either. After a while, Fred Callas, who had nothing to do with Franklin’s plan, hooked up with Marek and Peters just to have someone to talk to.

These guys were almost as dysfunctional as the big Normistronzo group.

The clock was ticking and I was curious to see what these 10 idiots would end up doing.

When I popped back to our meeting room, Sarah was there.

She smiled and I felt the most wonderful feeling wash over me. I was just getting ready to kiss her when Ibera, JB, Brenda and Brad joined us.

I sighed and winked at Sarah when I noticed she was also bummed that we’d been interrupted.

Brad chuckled, “We’ll give them another half hour before we separate them and spring the next surprise on them.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I’m going to show them the ‘standard contents’ of their toolkits and show them the boats they’re going to get transported in!”

I was shocked, “You’re going to give these idiots boats? I don’t think that’s a very good idea. Especially those five assassins. I’ve already heard them talking about trying to find George and his girls so that they can kill all the guys then kidnap the girls.”

Brad grinned, “Ahhh, but here’s the rub. The boats they’re going in are large, very heavy and unwieldy. They’re also not going to have any paddles or oars, since they’re going to be placed right on the beach. After talking to Ibera, that’s about the only way we’ll be able to get them all through the portal in the short time window we’ll have. The boats are similar to old ‘Titanic-style’ lifeboats. They’re big enough to hold them and all of their personal items. I’m also planning on putting those five assassins on the opposite quadrant from George and his group. That way, they will have to pass everyone else’s camps before they even figure out where George is.

“I also plan on warning George’s group and their boats are going to be much smaller and they will have both oars and paddles.”