Part 5

The weeks following the conclusion of the sale were hectic. The government came back with a contract for us to build the product, but there were some things we had to do first. Bob and I talked it over and invested $500 Million each in the company, converting it from a partnership to a corporation. We issued ourselves 45% of the pool of stock and reserved 10% for other purposes.

The FBI did background checks on all of our existing employees, including Bob and I, and weeded out a few who didn't pass muster. Mei, Wei, Sun and Jun then did their own background checks, weeding out a couple more.

Speaking of the girls: I was able to talk the INS and the State Department into issuing them H1 visas, allowing them to stay in this country as my employees. They too had to undergo the FBI's background checks, but there wasn't much they could add to what the girls told them freely, and since they had proven their loyalty to me, it was hard to argue about letting them work for me.

At my insistence they even formed their own little consulting firm, and took on the company's security set up as their first gig. The first thing we did upon forming their company was to set up a retirement plan for them. As long as I lived, they wouldn't have anything to worry about. If something did happen to me, however, I wanted to make sure they were taken care of, without having to wait for my will to go through probate.

Until we got the plans for the product back and went into production, I was in no more danger than anyone else, since there was no one from whom to collect a ransom if I got kidnapped, and nothing to gain by killing me. This left the girls with time to work on the company's security, though they never let up on my training.

With four of them working me over, I was starting to look more like an Olympic athlete than a corporate executive, but I loved the ease of movement and the assurance with which I could take on almost any physical task. In addition, Sun and Jun proved to be just as inventive as Mei and Wei at providing 'incentives' for me to do my best during our workouts, and most days' workouts ended in sweaty fuck-fests.

It's truly amazing the sexual combinations that can be achieved with fourteen holes and five poles!

The girls were amazing in their thoroughness and insight when it came to setting up the company's security policies, procedures, and installations. They went over the architect's plans for our new building with a fine-toothed comb and insisted on a number of changes. By the time they were finished, we could have held off an army of Ninjas without breaking a sweat. Tanks would have been only a little more trouble.

People being who they are, they don't like change. When the girls tightened up security, the employees, especially those who had been with us for a while, grumbled and complained, even going so far as to stop me in the hallway to let me know what a pain it was. I listened, and made reassuring noises, but always left them with the understanding that when it came to security, they'd better do what the young ladies said.

When I wasn't in need of their immediate presence, one or the other pair of twins roamed the building, letting people see them checking anything and everything. Privacy? Not in THIS workplace buster!

The government sent in their own security people, and while I was happy to use the free manpower, they could find no way to improve on what my ladies had put in place. In fact, they wanted to license some of it to be used in other facilities.

All this, of course, was preliminary to the main event - our actually starting to manufacture our own product.

We remained closely held. Though we allowed our Board of directors to dole out small blocks of stock, Bob and I remained the majority stock holders. The thing about Bob and I was that we agreed on only one thing; That as long as we could talk to each other we could work everything else out. On virtually everything else, we started out at opposite ends of the spectrum. We would begin what everyone else thought was an intense, subdued argument, and by keeping our egos out of it, through our magical process, we would work out a compromise that was usually better than either of our original ideas.

It took others a while to recognize the value in this, but soon, we noticed the same process occuring throughout the company. Meetings, at times, looked like war zones, but the rule was that nobody left until a consensus had been reached. This sort of confrontational creativity even became formalized in our hiring policy: If a candidate was too much in agreement with the hiring manager's ideas, he brought nothing but a pair of hands to the department. What we needed were minds that were capable of thinking for themselves!

A few months after we moved into our new facility, we began work in earnest on developing our product to the government's bureaucratically exact specifications. About the same time, Mei, Wei, Sun, Jun and I moved into a very large mansion in the middle of a little over a hundred acres of land. We had located and purchased the place several months earlier, but the girls wouldn't allow me to move out of my Palo Alto place until they had secured the new 'palace' to their satisfaction. By the time we moved in, there were five escape tunnels, each excavated by a different contractor hired from far away. The security system could have eaten the threats we faced in Palo Alto for breakfast, and even the landscaping had been modified to suit the girl's needs.

There were only two ways to get near the house without crossing at least two hundred yards of close-cropped lawn that sloped gently away from the house. Beyond that perimeter were woods, grasslands, dense scrub, you name it, except that there was nothing within ten miles that overlooked the house. There were two dense hedgerows that came right up to the walls of the house on either side and the girls tended the hedges with loving care.

The secret of these hedgerows was that because they were set at right angles to the house walls and were so impenetrably dense that they would provide no cover for a stealthy approach to the house, since there were windows and cameras overlooking both sides of them. The other secret was that they were actually a double row of bushes with a low, foliage lined tunnel between the rows. These tunnels ended at what looked like a pair of 'doggie doors'. The girls had built these themselves. They were little more than sturdy hatches that allowed a small person to slip, undetected, from the house and down the hedge tunnel to get behind most potential enemy positions. I took to calling them the girls' 'sally ports' after the small doors once built into castle walls for a similar purpose.

About the time we moved into the 'Castle', the nature of my workouts began to change. We had, of course, worked at a number of kidnap scenarios, but now, we seemed to be practicing protecting someone else.

'Okay, ' I thought, 'I suppose it's possible someone could try to kidnap me and demand ransom from the company. So why are we training as if someone else would be the target?'

Increasingly, I was becoming part of the defense team for another person, but who? As I've said before, I don't think I'm very stupid, and eventually the little light went on in my brain.

"Okay," I said, as the five of us filed into my brand new gym one day, "Which one of you is pregnant?"

Mei and Wei did their look-and-smile routine, and Sun and Jun gave each other a little secret fingertip-touch, that I had come to realize was their equivalent of Mei/Wei's smiling at themself.

Wei took a step forward and said, "We weren't sure how you would react, Steve. We weren't even supposed to be capable of getting pregnant, but it seems there is yet more for science to learn about the human body. I am pregnant."

She stood with head bowed as if awaiting punishment. "This will cause problems for your security. If you so order, I will have the fetus aborted."

I pulled her face up to mine with a finger crooked under her chin, "You will do no such thing! Do we know yet who the father is?"

Mei answered for her sister, "Science is not all that far off the mark. There has been no paternity test, but it is highly unlikely that any of us could have fathered a child with anyone, for a number of different reasons. If you prefer, however, we can have the test performed to remove any doubt."

I studied their faces for a moment, then bent and kissed Wei gently on the lips.

"That won't be necessary."

I had decided that it would be my child no matter who the biological father might be.

My workout that day had a distinctly different flavor to it. For some reason, the girls seemed to want to touch me a lot. It wasn't so much sexual this time, more like they just wanted to be close.

Wei's pregnancy was relatively uneventful. She fretted some over the necessary restrictions to her activities, and poor Mei had to share her discomfort, but Sun and Jun stepped forward and took up the slack, while still finding time to be solicitous of the mother to be and her longsuffering sister. I, too, was fretful. This was a very busy time at work and threatened to keep me away from my 'wife' at an important time in our life.

I finally pulled rank and set up an office in our home. The girls assisted in creating a secure connection to our network. The venue for all meetings of which I was to be a part was changed to one of the dining rooms in our home. I was still busy, but this way, at least, I could take little breaks to check in with Wei. This was of little material value, but all the girls seemed to appreciate the fact that I went to the trouble to try.

Truth to tell, it eased my mind to know I was but an intercom call away, in case labor started early, or problems arose with Wei's pregnancy.

I had been thinking about the situation for some time, and one day at dinner I addressed the girls.

"There is something I've wanted to discuss with you since I learned that Wei was pregnant." I began. As CEO of a burgeoning company, I'm accustomed to public speaking, but this speech had me more on edge than any I had ever delivered. "If the laws of this country would allow it, I would propose marriage to all four of you. Since I cannot legally do so, would you - Mei, Sun and Jun - have any objection to my marrying the mother of our child?"

Sun and Jun's arms moved, and I guessed their fingers were touching under the table. They replied in unison: "None at all, Steve!"

Mei looked at her sister, then replied, "I think that would be wonderful, Steve, but I think my sister has a different point of view."

I raised an eyebrow in Wei's direction.

Wei's head was lowered when she spoke, saying "I am honored beyond expression, Steve, but I cannot marry you."

My heart was about to burst, but I tried to keep myself in control. "Will you tell me your reasons?"

"Of course." she answered, finally looking at me "I am a bodyguard, Steve, YOUR bodyguard. That is what I was created for and what I live for. I will try my best, with the help of the others, to be a good mother to our child, but I cannot further separate myself from the others. We can only be effective as a team if we are all the same: Same status, same rank, same duties, and a team like ours must be close-knit. I can share the role of mother with the others, making it less of a divisive factor. I cannot share the title of 'wife', and at some point, even if I share the role, that title will cause problems within our team. I hope you understand, and can forgive me!"

I gazed at her stricken face for a long moment before swallowing my emotions and replying, "There is nothing to forgive, Wei. I have no desire to separate you in any way from your sister and Sun and Jun. It is only that I am so honored by your bearing my child, I hoped to find an equal honor to bestow on you."

She reached across the table and squeezed my hand, saying, "You have done so, just by asking. Our employment with you has been the best time of our lives, and I think Sun and Jun would agree. To know that you are willing to marry one of us gives us, who have difficulty finding acceptance, comfort beyond measure. You, however, must find and marry someone else."

Stephanie (the girls decided on the name), was born a tiny, perfect girl with a shock of fine black hair, wide, almond eyes, and a seemingly perpetual smile. When I first saw her after they had cleaned all the residue of birth from her scrawny little body, I thought she must have been made of baling wire and old leather.

She instantly became the center of our world. Wei, with the amazing healing power designed into her genes, was back in fighting form in no time at all, but because of the extra hormones in her body, we worried that Stephanie would suffer ill effects from her milk, and didn't know whether it was safe for her to breast feed.

We discussed it with the Doctor, and after much debate and analysis, he recommended that since the baby had thrived within and been born healthy from Wei's hormone laden body, it would probably be okay for Stephanie to feed from her mother.

Steph proved to be a prodigy in a number of ways. She was quick and agile physically with exceptional strength for one her age, and her mind kept pace with her body. By six months she was walking and getting into everything imaginable. By one year, she was running, climbing, and speaking in sentences.