Chapter 21

Saturday - September 17th, 2005

I was once again unable to sleep for more than a few hours before feeling totally energized and recharged. I hadn't worked out for a few days and a run and maybe some time in the dojo would be good. I slipped on a pair of shorts and some running shoes along with my little fanny pack and made my way out of the house. I asked two of the warriors who had been guarding the villa to remain while the third accompanied me on my morning run.

Hónsu was already wearing a polo shirt and a pair of shorts as well as running shoes. Once we found our way down to the beach we started out at a pretty good clip and talked a bit as our breathing would allow it. I learned that Hónsu and many of the other warriors were taking to their new life like a duck to water. They really enjoyed the underground palace with its pools, running tracks, and weight rooms. Hónsu said that though everything was a bit different than at home it was all familiar enough to make him and the others feel like they belonged. I assured him that they did belong and that I appreciated their devotion and service.

We ran for about an hour along the white sands of the beach staying just out of reach of the waves as they ran up onto the shore. The moonlight seemed incredibly bright to me, but from Hónsu's comments I learned that it was just enough for him to be certain he wasn't going to trip on a log or step on a large rock and twist his ankle.

I looked down at my watch, another special gift from Genie, and realized that we still had at least an hour and a half before sunrise. We turned back and kept up our pace until we were about four miles or so from the hotel. Now it was time to gradually slow our pace and by the last mile we were just proceeding at a brisk walk.

We were just about back to the Villa when our two male "friends", the two that had been hit with sleeping darts the night before, decided to jump us. Immediately both Hónsu and I were each wearing a Gi. I had my Bo wrapped around my waist and Hónsu had an assortment of weaponry appropriate to a Ninja on steroids.

Upon seeing us suddenly battle ready one of the men turned to run away while the other continued to gesture at us with the gun in his hand.

"Quick time Genie," I instructed as I moved my fastest to get behind the two. I swept the runner's legs out from under him and grabbed the gun waving asshole by the wrist.

"Please pause things Genie," I asked. Once again all sounds come to an abrupt halt.

I snagged my programming device from the air and held it to the man's ear as it started to play a very special program I had recorded for just such occasions. I played this special program for both men. Next I removed all of the bullets from the man's gun along with the three knives he had in his possession, and also took the two extra magazines. The other fellow also had a gun tucked into his belt at the hollow of his back and two spare clips in his pocket; I took everything from him.

The special program I had recorded basically left the listener believing that I was a god and they were less than an ant to be crushed beneath my heel at the slightest provocation. It turned up their fear level and forced them into complete honesty and obedience.

I put the now empty weapon back into the gun waving asshole's hand, grabbed his wrist once more, and had Genie start things back up again.

"Why are you bothering me maggot?" I asked with real heat in my voice.

"You're in the way Senor. You're at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"What am I in the way of?"

"Our pickup. We were supposed to pick up the three whores you hooked up with last night and deliver them."

"Deliver them to who?"

It took quite a few questions, but I soon learned that these two men were goons working for a rather large criminal organization. Apparently Martita and her daughters had been targeted to become victims of the sex slave industry.

Martita, Lupie, and Sofia had arrived on Tuesday and been photographed around the pool that afternoon. Their pictures had been sent on to some higher up within the organization along with pictures of women currently at each of the area resorts. About two dozen women had been selected for 'acquisition'. I really wanted to learn more about how this group operated and I also wanted to do what I could to protect Martita, Lupie, and Sofia.

All through our conversation the two thugs were growing increasingly agitated, I assume the fear of the unexplainable along with their sudden inability to lie was a bit much for their minds to handle.

"Hónsu, remember the prison cells at the Weapons Store?" I asked my warrior in a mental conversation.

"Yes Golden One, I remember."

"Call other of your fellow warriors and take these two and place them in the cells. Answer none of their questions and accept absolutely no resistance from them. I don't want them to be killed yet, I need more information from them first and I don't have time for them now. Just lock them up and then leave them for now," I concluded mentally.

Aloud I said "Oh and Hónsu, assume they are armed. Have them stripped and searched before they are left alone. If they show you any disrespect use a whip on them; genitals seem to be a good target for that kind of thing."

The two cringed with fear at my words and passed out when five more warriors just appeared out of thin air to assist Hónsu.

I ran the rest of the way to the villa to check on everything there. I found everything pretty much the way it should be. When I went inside Kokí, Násfu and Tírí were showered, dressed, and waiting for me.

"Is everything alright Golden One?" they asked of me mentally.

"Yes my Warriors, everything is alright," I replied in the same fashion.

Genie was more powerful than any intelligence agency computer system and was able to quickly uncover the identity of my two assailants and their criminal records. The two had records in more than a dozen countries around the globe. They had been involved in many petty thefts and one kidnapping before falling off of the radar screen completely about five years earlier.

I needed to get Martita and her girls away from this area for the time being until I could find out who the slavers were and deal with them. Genie helped by providing the appropriate paperwork to allow Martita, Lupie, and Sofia to visit the U.S. I decided that I needed to do a little programming on Lupie and Sofia so I could better protect them while still guarding my own secrets so I had Genie pause things and I played the same "Harem Girl" program I'd used with their mother.

Yes, to some extent I was making them slaves just as the two villains and their crime ring had been planning; on the other hand I didn't think of them as just three whores to be sold into lives of drugs and prostitution until they were worn out our dead. I would be able to re-program them in the future and would certainly see that their lives were anything but miserable, plus the three had already shown an interest in me before programming.

I had breakfast delivered to our villa. I'd ordered a huge buffet spread to be setup out on the back veranda. When Martita and her daughters had finished getting ready they joined us on the veranda and we ate our breakfast together. I mentioned nothing about the two thugs who had been out to kidnap them and instructed my warriors to keep silent on the topic.

"So, would you three lovely ladies care to accompany me this morning? The realtor called and there are several properties he wishes to show me."

"Yes Juan I'd love to go with you," Martita said with a smile.

"Me to!" the two girls both chimed in.

I had Genie pause things and transport me to each of the locations on the list the realtor had compiled. There had been seven properties on the list, but I was able to narrow it down to three pretty quickly. Genie agreed with my selection and began to give me additional data about the ground structure, water situation, and subterranean issues for each property. After digesting his information, it pretty much narrowed things down to two properties.

Genie transported me back to the Villa and I resumed my seat at the breakfast table on the veranda before he started things up again.

"Let me just call my realtor and we'll get things going. I've already arranged for a limo to pick us up. We'll be leaving in about ten minutes."

When I had spoken with the realtor the day before, I had clued him in on the fact that I wanted to make an early start of things in the morning. I now called him on his cell phone and let him know that we were heading to the second property on his list and asked him to meet us there.

The 'Limo' turned out to be a rather nicely appointed van - but that was fine by me. I hadn't really given the concierge much notice and we did have what appeared to be reliable transportation. I gave the driver the address and we were off.

Carlos Hanor, the realtor, pulled up just behind us when we arrived at the property.

"Senor Ferrer, it's a pleasure to meet you in person," Carlos said extending his hand towards me.

We shook hands and I replied "The feeling is mutual Carlos."

"You asked to see homes that had plenty of room for entertaining and would comfortably support as many as twenty overnight guests. That really narrowed things down a bit, but I was able to find a few. This particular property is rather new. It was designed to be a resort style getaway for the executives of a company in the states that has since gone out of business. The house sits on about thirty acres of land along with several outbuildings."

"On the phone you mentioned a stable for horses right?"

"Yes Senor Ferrer. There are accommodations for up to thirty horses."

"What about beach access?"

"Well, I really couldn't find anything like you described directly on beachfront property. On the other hand, the nearest beach is less than ten minutes by car and is open to the public."

"What about a pool?"

"Well that can be best answered by giving you a quick tour," Carlos said as he unlocked the front doors.

This building really was gorgeous both inside and out. Positioned high on the side of a hill, the 'front' windows overlooked the ocean and beach some four or five miles away. The 'back' had a huge pool. The bulk of the acreage forming the property extended south and west of the 'Manor House' in a large oval. The house was actually at the highest end of the thirty acre oval with the rest of the property spread out below it.

"What do you think ladies?" I asked including my bodyguards in the question as well.

Lupie and Sofia were wide-eyed trying to take it all in and couldn't seem to answer my question.

Martita seemed nearly as overwhelmed but managed to stammer "it's quite lovely!"

Kokí, Násfu and Tírí had seen my 'palace' and were therefore a bit less overwhelmed, but they to seemed to like the place.

We spent another fifteen minutes in the van to get to the next place. It was nice, but not as well suited to what I had in mind. If I ever bought horses it would be to enjoy riding them. This place wasn't like that so much. It was really a working ranch setup for raising beef cattle as well as some land devoted to orchards. Everything was laid out well and kept in immaculate condition. Not a bad setup at all, just not what I was really looking for at the moment I decided.

I thanked Carlos for his time and told him I needed a day or two to think things over. Instead I had our driver take me into the nearby city of Liberia.

When we reached the city I had Genie pause things.

"Well my friend, any idea of how to go about funding the bank accounts of Juan Rafael Ferrer?" I asked. "I'd pretty much like to keep each identity with its own pool of wealth."

"Well Karl, I pretty much decided that would be a necessity. I could easily work out a way to electronically move money between your various identities without any real chance of tracing it, but this time I have a better idea."

"Well I'm definitely curious Genie. Care to let me in your idea?"

"Sure. There are about eleven top cabinet members in the Cuban government who, along with Castro himself, have squirreled away funds in numbered Swiss bank accounts. The same is true for many corrupt officials in governments around the globe. My idea is to remove these funds and any audit trails showing that they ever existed. The funds would now appear in the accounts of your various personas along with audit history explaining how it got there over time."

"Aren't those banking records supposed to be private anyway?" I inquired.

"Well yes, but there are always exceptions it seems so having an audit trail that is very believable would probably be the best way to go."

"Okay, let's do it then. Also I assume you can locate an attorney specializing in real estate law, a tax specialist, and an accountant. It would help me out if you could. I'll just 'program' them into being loyal and honest with me and then have them take care of this real estate purchase."

In answer I suddenly had the names, addresses, and contact information in my mind for the attorney, tax specialist, and accountant. I waited in subjective time while Genie handled the electronic hacking he was so good at. It didn't take very long.

"Karl, look in your fanny pack."

"I did and found that in addition to my other papers I now had several credit cards issued in the name Juan Rafael Ferrer.

"Cool! Thanks very much Genie!"

"Happy to be of assistance."

I had our driver pull into the building where two of my newly found contacts had their offices. I was able to find and 'program' the attorney and tax specialist in one stop. I caught the accountant with the next stop and took him with us into the Banco Central De Costa Rica where I added him as a signer on my accounts.

I now needed to have a rather boring business meeting with the three men together and decided to spare the ladies. I gave Kokí and Tírí a healthy pile of Colones and instructed them to treat Martita, Lupie, and Sofia to a nice shopping trip while we were here in the larger city. Násfu was to stay with me.