Chapter 10

The area around Guangzhou was clear. It was an industrial and commercial centre for southern China. Presently it had a population of over four million people and at one time it had the name Canton.

I told the girls that we would try here first. We rushed to the planet and then just flew around the city. The girls talked to each other and to me about what they thought was interesting.

China had four main languages and more minor ones. The written languages were the same. After getting the girls to lay down, I worked on one then the other imparting what I know of the language. I did it in small steps and gave them time to digest what they had learned before the next lesson began.

In a half hour they could converse but didn't know the customs or some of the more unusual words. It was if they had taken a course in school for three years which was not enough to really get by. I could add to their knowledge when I met the locals. The med unit was summoned and I helped them with their headaches.

They started talking now verbally but in Chinese. I had to smile because it sounded like the voices on the radio I was currently picking up. When they paused for a minute I piped the radio to the cabin and the girls were very pleased that they understood all the speech but found some of the ideas discussed needed more background data.

Before we went down I put two shields on them. We practised for a while shutting it off and just shutting part of it off. As a race, the Seffra had learned the hard way how and why to do certain things. An enemy may not have our tools but could kill us if they knew that our defences were down. Simply eating some food could be an invitation to having a spear shoved into our backs.

We landed in an alley and quickly left for the street. We turned left and headed toward the market. The city had some foreigners but not that many compared to the population. For the most part they stayed in the better sections of the city. Here we were definitely an oddity. The girls were beautiful by western standards. Some residents even stopped to gawk at us. Not all westerners could understand their language but we could do that and also understand what they thought.

The girls had to learn to deal with this at school after their minds were opened. Here there were more people and we were making an even bigger splash. The Chinese people are the greatest capitalists around. If they were given free reign they would set up businesses where others would worry that the margin was not wide enough. The present Communist government was just a way of keeping the population under control and to ration scarce resources. They would never have agreed to having only one child per family otherwise.

I had been scanning shops and passersby trying to locate some special people. "Girls, I want to go into the next shop. Keep walking a few more shops and look around. I want to get some local currency. Violent crime is rare here in China but it still happens. Don't wander too far."

I changed course and walked into the establishment. This business sold local farm implements. Most looked crude but would still do the job. I bypassed a woman and walked to the counter in the back. A man was sitting in a chair. A cigarette was in his lips and a newspaper in his hands.

"I need to buy some Chinese money. Will you exchange for American money?"

"How much do you have to exchange?"

I showed him the thousand dollar bill and said aloud, "Only five dollars." It was against the law to exchange money at any place other than a state bank. The Chinese government worked hard to keep a fixed rate but the citizens always wanted more dollars. To meet the demand the exchange rate sometimes went up to ten times what the banks offered. The reason for saying five dollars was to let anybody in the store know that this was just a small crime and thus able to be ignored.

The man came very close and looked at the note. He had seen one before but it was not his. He was afraid of it being counterfeit and worried even more how he was going to cover this much money. He said in a whisper, "If this is not fake, what percentage do you want?"

I read his mind and knew the current rate and what the black market was willing to pay. Currently they were paying six point three times the official rate. A week ago the rate was similar and he got a hundred dollars exchanged at four times.

"The rate is six point three over the official rate. Give me five and a half."

"I cannot do that. The rate you mentioned is old. All I can give you is four percent."

I knew the name of his nearest competitor and said that I would go there then. He replied, "He will rob you. I will give you four and a half and my children will go hungry."

"Your competitor has fatter children and can afford to give more."

We argued quietly for ten minutes before I got five point one. I could have looked around more and got the full amount but I didn't need all the money and I didn't want to be swindled. Diamonds were business but this bargaining was fun. I kept the girls appraised of what I was doing and went into the back. The bill was checked under ultraviolet light and then with a jeweller's loop before he was satisfied.

He called two large boys into the shop and gave them orders to bring people and some cash too. When the boys ran out the man started thinking of ways to cheat me. He didn't get too far when I asked, "May I play with this bar while we wait?"

He wanted me to stay so he said, "Go ahead."

The bar was two and a half metres long. It was one of hundreds used for reinforcing concrete. The bar was a centimetre and a half thick. I sketched the bar behind my shoulders and held it in two outstretched arms. I used all of my muscles and all of my PK. I grunted in exertion and the man watched incredulously that the bar bent in a 'U'.

The man had his mouth open and I said, "You should see what I can do when I throw one of these like a spear or use it like a Bo. I probably don't need to show you more do I?"

"No," he managed to say and he knew that I figured that he was thinking of cheating me.

The girls were getting restless and I told them to stay together and they could move further away. They would have some cash soon so they could buy things. This mollified them a bit and they continued to window shop. Many of the merchants came out to explain how they were giving them the deal of a lifetime if they would only buy his products.

In ten minutes the boys came back with some bags of cash. This was not the entire amount. I asked the owner, "I have two western ladies on the street. I want somebody to bring them some money so they can shop. I want four older children to carry what they purchase. The children will bring the items back here for safe keeping. You will watch them for us. I will pay the four children and you a fair amount, depending on how much honesty and diligence they show."

The man smiled now. "I can find just the children."

"They need to be old enough to understand the responsibilities and strong enough to carry parcels."

The man smiled again and called his wife. He directed her to get a niece, two cousins and his daughter quickly and have them come here.

Megan and Sandra knew what I was doing and came by to pick up money themselves. They got a cloth sack and they took some money and left happy as clams. I pitied the poor Chinese merchants that would try to bamboozle them.

Three men came next carrying large sacks of cash. Apparently larger denominations were hard to find. I presented the bill to the man and now he was very happy.

The girls and I took what two hundred dollars would buy and I asked, "I will give you one percent of what we have here if you can get some larger bills. I want the money to be in a sack this large." I held my hands out showing a volume of about eight litres.

"Two."

"One and a half."

"Done."

Two children came in and then another, the daughter came a moment later. Instead of letting the man speak, I told them the conditions and said the money they made would be theirs to keep. They were sent off where I said the women should be.

"Let the children keep the money. They learn to value it if they have some to cherish. Being poor is hard even though your family is generous with your child."

The man didn't know how I knew this but assumed that it was just a good guess. "I will see that they keep the money. I may have to hold it for them so it does not get taken though."

"You are a fair man. Now tell me where the best restaurant is. I am taking the four children there to eat to. I enjoy family."

He was going to suggest his own house but decided that a real restaurant would be best. He even picked a good restaurant over one that he owed favours to. I got the information and what they cooked best. They cooked a duck that was supposed to be very good but took a long time to prepare. His wife would run there and get the meal started.

I bowed to the man and he bowed to me even deeper. I had no worries that the money would disappear. The girls were easy to find. They were the ones in the middle of a giant moving crowd.

One or more of the children ran from the crowd to take a purchase back for safe keeping. After a few more minutes the children were dressed much nicer and I saw that the girls like dressing the children. The children liked the attention. The daughter of shop owner was named Li Mei She worked with a proprietorial air getting the correct child to do the tasks assigned to the group.

The girls knew of the restaurant from the time I was told. They had not worked up an appetite yet at shopping. I stood beside them as they worked the merchants One would offer a product at an inflated price and the girls picked up some of the merchants' own tricks and harangued his quality and basically insulted his store. When the merchant claimed that they could go no lower the girls would mention other merchants by name and say that they would go much lower.

They picked up some nice rugs they claimed would be for our new home. I had to give them my money so they could keep the momentum up. Some very nice furniture was purchased. They had a theme in mind so the pieces would hopefully match. All too soon I had to go back to get more money. The man deducted this from the total and I went back and fed the spending machines of mine.

Their friends at school were thought of and gifts bought. Some things I thought of as junk but the girls thought were pretty. They went behind some curtains in a store and put on some very fancy dresses. These were much more colourful than what the people in the street wore.

Soon the children were carrying the girls' old clothes back to the store and the girls proceeded in a fancy form of local garb. Bowls, dishes, cups and other table paraphernalia was purchased as if we were now setting up a Chinese house and not a Chinese area of a home.

Linen they found was very reasonably priced so they bought lots of this. They now needed trunks. They were hand crafted out of teak to put the linen into I drew the line when they started to buy clothes for their children. They wouldn't be pregnant for years yet.

The girls were starting to run down. They thought the meal would get them back into fighting form. The last of the purchases were sent back and the girls escorted their temporary family to the restaurant.

The establishment was not very clean. There were some large tables and we sat at one in a corner. The owner himself came out to say the duck would soon be ready. I pleaded with him to keep the salt down. He also thought that since he was the cook he knew best.

Hot tea came served in clear glass drinking glasses with no handles. You learned to sip quickly and put it down. Only our lips were in danger though because of the shield each of us wore. The children ran wild ordering bubble tea and other drinks that westerners were not familiar with.

The meal came out and the girls served the children. Li Mei was old enough to do this herself. The girls were used to Chinese food or more exactly Chinese food served in North America. The food was quite a bit different here. There was much more plain rice. Dog, rat and civet cat were sold too but I kept the information to myself. Extra vegetables cost more and the duck was an extravagance. The taste too was said to be different. I happened to like it because it was more bland. The remainder of the meal was sent home with Li Ming and the girls were able to gain their second wind.

Megan said that I needed some local clothing so I was dressed as if I were a child with little to say in the matter. They knew what was right and that was that.

In ten minutes I looked like a little emperor in my brocade jacket. The pants had been changed to go along with the shoes. A colourful silk shirt completed the costume.

The girls now bought three sets of bedding and went back to another shop and got more teak chests. Men had to be hired now to carry the full chests back to our depot. Li Mei handled this chore for the girls.

The noise around our group was even louder than the normal fare found in markets here. The shop owners found the occasion to be a bit distracting but a lot of money was still being spent. Children clustered around the girls for they soon found that things would be given to them. The more destitute they looked the more they got. Shops selling food seemed to do particularly well. We got to the edge of the sprawling commercial district and saw a great deal of tall drab concrete apartment buildings.

The girls continued in their straight line when they saw another business selling jewellery. They went inside while the owners assistants kept the majority of the crowd at bay.

They purchased some additional jade to go into their collection and a few more pieces for their friends. I had to unload more cash and would soon have to return for more. Li Mei seemed to get quite a few gifts. The girls seemed to like her. I did too for her mind was very sharp and she had a sense of fairness when dealing with others.

When we came out, instead of going back into battle, the girls walked further away into a park to rest. They ended up leaning against trees. There was cigarette butts all over the ground. The Chinese spit all the time and took no notice of others. Infants didn't have expensive diapers. A seam in the pants of the child opened when the child squatted. Faecal matter and urine were all over. The stoop and scoop law was not in effect here yet.

Megan said in Chinese, "This is tiring and the place is just so dirty. I'm surprised the people here are as healthy as they are."

I replied, "An unclean environment in a baby's life either mean that the child dies or he gets a good chance to build up a natural immunity. My family did the same thing but it was done more scientifically. When a child grows up those immunities are then very useful."

Megan responded, "But look at the ground. They don't even clean the place. I think it only happens when the rain comes and washes it into the ocean."

I was looking at Megan. In the background was another drab apartment building. A young child over half way up was looking out the open window at our colourful group before him. My attention was elsewhere and this information seemed to have been retained. The child moved to a better position to see us when he began to fall. He frantically grabbed for some hold. With a cry he started to plummet to the ground seven stories below.

I knew that there was concrete and not grass at the bottom and the child would not survive. There was a great need to be there and to catch the child. I shifted to one side to get around the people and obstacles. My shoes slipped as if I was walking in no gravity. My PK drove into the ground and this pushed me forward. I did this again and again to get where I absolutely had to be. I was not going to be in time, the distance was just too great.

My mind did an odd thing then. It was as if I pushed through a crystal barrier. The calculations for when the child would strike the ground altered. I still had to push very hard with my PK but soon I found that I had to push the other way to slow my progress. I was in the air and had to slow down enough to not go past my objective. I wanted to reach up with this ability to push the child and thus slow him but I needed all my efforts to get myself under him instead.

When I got close to the building I saw some people sitting on concrete benches playing a tile game. The child would fall on one of the tables. I could not simply get beneath the child. I shifted my trajectory slightly and stopped three metres to one side. Immediately my PK went upward and pushed very hard at the distance. The child slowed and the task became more complicated because I should not push with this amount of force. The child would be hurt by this. The child too had to be pulled so that he fell towards me instead of where gravity would bring him. I had to pull to one side then push to lose speed. To further complicate the problem the child was now spinning. Even if the child came to me he could die with just a bad fall.

At four metres the child came more to me and I tried frantically to adjust his spin. Variations of this had been done in space many times and this helped now. At two metres his back was to the ground and he was stable. At one metre I braced myself and formed my arms to cushion the fall the best I could. The body came into my arms and I shifted to one side and caught him and rolled. This was like what Humans did when landing when parachuting.

We rolled over and I pushed my arms out so that my weight didn't compress the child. We came to a stop under a concrete table where two old men were playing a game. My mind snapped back to where it usually was. I tried to check the child for damage but my head pounded with a pain I had never felt before. My skull felt crushed from the inside. I started my body to begin repair but I blanked out not knowing if I had succeeded.

I was being prodded and picked up but I didn't want to awaken. The pain was still there and it was just too difficult to bear. I awoke again and knew that I was being carried. I felt through the pain a familiar presence then another.

I felt pain again. I directed my body to repair and to lessen the effect of my receptors. I could make out that the cloud was thinning. More effort was used to deaden the pain. This required a considerable effort before I was able to even check my environment. Sandra was in front of me. I felt love there but it was not getting through to me because of the effort I was making to repair myself. Megan was beside her sister. I risked more pain and opened my eyes. I could see the girls smile now.

Sandra said, "How are you feeling Leif? We were so worried when you disappeared."

I looked behind the girls and saw Li Mei. She too was very worried. The background looked to be her father's business.

Megan said, "People are coming to find out about the accident?"

I managed to send, "They can't find us. Hide!"

Sandra talked to someone and I closed my eyes. I tried to assess the damage to my body. I couldn't seem to get information from the probes that should be around us. The crushing pain was the worse but my body felt bruised all over as if I had been the one to fall.

My fears grew. My eyes flashed open. "How is the boy?"

Megan spoke. "He's just fine. He cried a lot but it was in fright. There was a lot of talk about the rescue. The locals said that you magically appeared to save the child. The boy even flew sideways into your arms. Everybody wants to talk about it and find out what happened. We can talk later when you feel better."

"We have to leave. The boat. Hide."

"We are working on that now. We are going to move you upstairs now and tell everybody else that you walked away with us."

All I said was, "Good," and went to sleep.

I woke up later and it was dark. I was also moving over an uneven terrain. The pain had decreased somewhat and from the minds around me I knew we were travelling in a large wooden cart pulled by a thin horse.

Another cart was close and the girls were in it but hidden.

"Where are we going?"

I felt relief and Megan said, "To a barn. We have all our stuff with us. Sandy and I figured we could hide there and it would be a good place to leave from. We didn't want to leave the things we brought because there would be more questions about why we did this."

It was an hour until we got to the barn. From the inside I was carried out and placed on some clean straw. The rest of the girls' property was stacked in a clean area. The girls gave their thanks and the men left. Li Mei was the last one to leave and was very concerned about me and the girls. Megan and Sandy kissed her like they did their brother and sent her off.

I had to fight the pain but I called the boat to us then deadened the reception again. I said through closed eyes, "The boat is coming. Ask for the med unit and Borin will turn it on. She will control it. Load the boat if you want the things you bought. I will try to get into the boat as soon as I can. We are in danger here."

I heard two voices saying, "Ok."

A med unit was soon around me. I could tell because the pain was getting easier to take. I opened my eyes to see the visible boat being loaded by the girls. They now had to carry everything themselves.

When the pain was more manageable I asked Borin, "What happened?"

"Captain, You finally overcame your shifting problem. You appear to have done everything right. You did expend too much effort working your muscles. That is why they are sore. A portion of your brain is now more active. This is the area that you could not utilise fully before. There has been some damage and your body is working on the repair along with the med unit. It should be completely repaired in nineteen hours. You will be functional in one and a half."

That made me feel good. For years I had been depressed that I had not overcome this continuing obstacle. Now that it was passed it felt as if a great weight had been removed from me. I could now advance and my people would look at me as more of an adult. Perhaps the mastering of this task was not mentioned that clearly because it would give this much pain. Everybody else that had passed this barrier claimed a bit of discomfort but not as much as I experienced. Possibly it was because they were close to medical facilities when it happened. Even a simple med unit, available at the time would have helped me much more.

I felt somebody approaching our position. It was a police officer riding a bicycle.

"Hurry, we have company."

The girls started loading the rest of the small articles very quickly. Megan went into the boat and moved the articles out of the way. I read the approaching mind. He was not looking for us exactly but had heard the reports. He was simply doing his rounds. Nobody had told him of our whereabouts but he was just checking for thieves. In the back of his mind he was hoping to find us and then try to find out why we needed to hide in the first place.

The man opened the door and entered the dark building. His long flashlight came out and pierced the darkness. It went to the boat and luckily it was now invisible. The light stopped a second on a pair of new shoes in a bright red colour. He looked in the stalls and even kicked the piles of straw. He saw nothing else on the floor and climbed the ladder and searched the loft at one end.

When nothing was discovered he went down to search the other side. His flashlight went across the floor where the shoes were and he found them missing. Now the search got more intensive. He probably would have heard someone climbing the ladder so he searched the floor again.

A long bamboo pole was used to spear the straw but he found nobody The search continued until the light he carried got dim. He left with a very perplexed feeling. He was sure that there were some fancy shoes on the floor when he came in.

The girls were in the boat and high in the barn. I was invisible and clinging to a horizontal beam under the first deck the policeman searched. I let my feet go and after my swinging stopped I released my hands. The jar shook my head and caused me pain but it was manageable after a few seconds.

When the policeman a kilometre away I said, "Is there anything we forgot?"

"We got it all, Leif."

"I will open the barn and you can go out."

"Ok."

The ship moved by me because I could sense the girls in it. Once it passed I closed and secured the door. When I entered the boat I sat in the chair and rested before going anywhere. I found from the girls that Li Mei had helped them a great deal even if she had received a great many gifts.

It was after midnight local time but I still had a debt to discharge. We went back to the district of Guangzhou we had been in and to the back alley behind the home of the person that ran the farm implement store. I got out with a few things and knocked at the door. Nobody heard and I didn't want to make more of a scene for the neighbours to report

"Li Mei, please wake up and tell your father I am at your back door. I have a debt to honour."

I had to repeat myself four times before she awoke. When she did is said, "Please tell your father to go to the door."

She understood but didn't understand this method of communication. Three minutes later a light went on over the door and a small window was looked through. The door opened quickly and the man urged me in.

We greeted each other very properly because he had heard even more talk of what I had done.

He apologised for not being able to protect me more.

I said, "Thank you for what you and your daughter have done. I have come to pay the debts that I owe to the children and to you."

"That's fine. You do not have to pay anything. I will take care of the children. I heard that you have saved a boy by using magic. It must be good magic because it was used for good."

I smiled and said, "It is not really magic but I will thank you for your way of rewarding me. I do insist on paying what is due."

The man handed me a sack with the remainder of the money. "Here is what belongs to you," he said.

"Thank you. Now for the payment. Take this money and pay the men that helped twice what would be their usual pay. Take the remainder of the money and split it three ways for all the children except Li Mei." There was three hundred dollars worth of Chinese money. The man was considerably confused. The money I gave was a very great sum to give to children.

I took out two, one thousand dollar bills again and gave these to the man. He was very excited now. "This money is for Li Mei's education. I am placing this money in your care and trust that you will use it for only your daughter. She is your only child and is very intelligent, compassionate and organized She will be a government leader or run a large factory some day. Encourage her to do so. Her people need her."

The man could not talk, he was so confused by what I had done. I spoke again, "Is the debt now considered paid?"

"It has been more than paid."

"Then I must leave." I bowed then left the building. In a second I was invisible and then brought into the boat. The man stuck his head out the door and saw no trace of me though the alley was long.

Sandra was very sleepy and said, "That was nice of you Leif. Maybe we should thank you too but I am tired. I don't even know why."

"Eight time zones ahead of your home Sweetie."

We went into orbit and I got into bed between the two girls. We were all asleep in less than a minute.

When I woke up the next morning I found the girls clutched to me. It felt good to be wanted. Before I got up though Borin said, "Captain, two of your offers on property you wanted to purchase have arrived. One accepts and the other contained a counter offer."

"Is there a good chance that the latter offer will be accepted if we refuse to pay more."

"A very good chance. The property has had three offers but none in the last eleven Earth months."

"Write the offer back at the old price and offer to close immediately."

"Yes sir. We have found more wreckage. There seems to be no pattern yet. It may be debris that the planet's gravitation field captured. I have sent probes to the other planets to continue the search."

"Good idea Borin. Did I get any other email?"

"The two gentlemen have not sent any information yet."

"Thanks Borin."

The girls needed more sleep. Their minds had not fully adjusted yet to the new reality and some of the effects would take a long time before they would be fully utilised. Just like me. I had only done this last stage almost thirteen years after I was born. The girls had been raised differently and may never reach the things our children could possibly do.

Borin told which of the properties would now be ours. The other one that we wrote back the offer on was only twenty kilometres away from the first. We travelled over the Rockies for the inspection. The area we were now purchasing was searched. We found only a fishing camp nearby that had four men in it eating their noon meal. The building was not on what would soon be our property and they were a good distance away. There was a three kilometre frontage on the lake and this represented fifty eight percent of the total boundary. The rest was bordered on two properties.