Chapter 7

The next morning, after Louisa had gone to work, Dale took a good look at the house his Uncle had built. The structure was situated on a largely flat top of a mesa. The flat top mountain raised the house several hundred feet above most of the nearby land and offered a spectacular view. The main part of the house was a two-story octagon, the attached bedroom wing was one story, and the garage attached on the opposite side was also one story. The master bedroom was at the very end of the bedroom wing with a semi-circular courtyard providing privacy. Looking at the house from the outside, Dale realized that even if he added an additional story to the main structure and each wing, no one would be able to see into the courtyard if the windows were place properly.

The kitchen and large breakfast area, along with the dining room, library, and den were located on the first floor in the main part of the house, the bedroom wing had a total of six bedrooms in addition to the master bedroom, and then of course there was the garage. The second story featured a well-equipped exercise room, a large loft like area, and a set of stairs going up to a small attic observatory complete with telescope.

As large as the home was, there was still a great deal of available building space left on the top of the mesa. Dale thought about building a recreation center with an indoor swimming pool and possibly an Artist's studio for Louisa. That would allow the second story of the house to be converted to bedrooms if necessary.

He got into the truck and headed to see Vyagar. Once he arrived in the cave, Vyagar beamed him into the spacecraft. "Have you come up with anything for us to stay in communication with?" Dale asked.

"Yes I have. It would involve planting a small crystal about the size of a large grain of sand somewhere within the bone structure of your skull. The procedure to place it there would be completely painless to you and requires no surgery," Vyagar informed him.

"Painless and no surgery both sound good to me!" Dale laughed. "So how would you accomplish the placement of this crystal?"

"I would immobilize you within a stasis beam. While the beam holds you completely motionless, we would beam out an unessential piece of bone and beam the crystal in to occupy the newly available space," Vyagar explained.

"Okay, sounds good. How long will that take?"

"It will take less time to perform the procedure than it did to explain it."

"In that case, let's do it. But first, is there anyway I could get some more comfortable furniture in here? There really isn't any good place for me to sit down."

"Yes, I've noticed that also. In addition, I'm thinking that you might want me to transport you directly into the spacecraft when you want to come here instead of making you drive all of the way and then climb the mountain everytime."

"Good thinking Vyagar. What kind of range does your transporter have?" Dale asked.

"About one thousand miles; but that requires a line of sight with few obstructions. I'm afraid that at my current location, I would require an orbiting satellite to handle this function."

"Oh. If you were able to place a satellite in orbit would earth technology be able to detect it?" Dale inquired.

"I don't believe so. It would actually be best if I were to place a network of the satellites into orbit; that way I could transport you to any spot on the planet you would like."

"What are we talking about here Vyagar? I mean, even if you can launch the satellites, we have no way to manufacture them do we?"

"On the contrary, I have everything necessary to manufacture them right here including the necessary raw materials."

"Well then please do so after you insert the communications crystal into my skull," Dale instructed him.

Vyagar was correct; the procedure was fast and painless. When it was over Vyagar told him, "Just think of talking with me and a communications pathway will open. Then you can just think of what you wish to ask or tell me and I will receive it. If there is an emergency or some important reason I need to contact you, you will hear my voice softly calling your name. When you think of answering me, the communication pathway will fully open."

_"Vyagar,"_ Dale thought.

_"Yes Dale?"_ came the response.

"Cool! Good job Vyagar! This is really neat! So how long will it take for you to manufacture the satellites and place them into orbit?"

"I can have the first few up by this evening and the rest within the next three days."

"Excellent. Please do so," Dale instructed. "Do you have enough of a range to transport me to the pickup and then both me and the pickup back into the garage?"

"Yes I do; however, the transport of your truck in broad daylight might be picked up by one or more of the spy satellites orbiting the planet," Vyagar said.

"Oh. That wouldn't be very good. Alright, what about transporting me into the truck? That shouldn't be too noticeable."

In answer Dale was enveloped in the shimmering blue light and transported back into the truck.

"Thanks Vyagar! Let me know as soon as you are able to transport me as far as Las Vegas safely."

"You're welcome Dale."

That afternoon Dale thought about the whole phenomena surrounding the Alpha Male thing. He didn't believe that there was any way that sooner or later someone wouldn't cause him some trouble. Here in the U.S. people weren't always very tolerant of deviations from 'normal' behavior even when no one was being hurt or abused by them. What about someplace that wasn't so well organized? Possibly Mexico or maybe Brazil.

Dale was quite fluent in Spanish and thought that this just might be the ticket. He could keep the house in Winnemucca and buy some land under another name, or better still find some beautiful and wealthy heiress and leave the land in her name.

He thought quite a bit more about what it would take to keep him safe and made many notes on his PC. Using the Internet he searched out a great deal of information. He bought an online membership to Forbes magazine and looked up a list of the wealthiest known individuals in the world. Midway down the list, he found several Mexican citizens. Using the resources available to him, he began to gather what information he could on each one.

Later he downloaded the contact information he had entered in his PDA to his PC and began to look through it. Knowing what he knew now about this Alpha Male business he decided it would be best to check up on the various women he had sexual contact with. He booked a private meeting room for the evening at a hotel in town where he could meet with each of them. Next he called Brittany and John, Tanya and Ray, and Samantha and Chuck. Okay, that took care of the women from the incident at the restaurant. Then he called Tina, Beverly and Mark, and Kay and Joe the folks from the incident at the cinema. After that he called Louisa and told her about the meeting so she could drive there after work.

The hotel had fussed a bit about catering an evening meeting with such short notice until Dale had offered to pay twice the normal catering fees to compensate. He also offered to pay in cash and additionally to meet with their caterers within the hour so they could get things underway. He dressed in a suit and tie for the event and drove to the hotel in the sable Chrysler Sebring Convertible his Uncle had bought the year before...