Chapter 244

Thursday Afternoon

Matt and Courtney had gone home, as had Fred and his wives. Art, Bobby, Sandra and Hope had disappeared yet again.

After a busy day, Jeff, Diana, Kayla and Arlene were in the living room. Diana was sitting in her husband's lap as they all chatted. Her smile got bigger. "There were some sore pussies this morning when we had our little get-together on the Jacuzzi deck."

Jeff's demeanor became a bit more serious. "You told them I would send Little One, didn't you?"

Diana grinned at him. "Remember when you walked into the kitchen with your dick in a sling and surprised both you and Helen, since you hadn't realized she was in the kitchen?"

"Shit, you know I do. That still bugs me, even though she's my wife now. Of all the times I've been embarrassed in my life, that rates right up there with the best of them, or the worst, I guess you could say," he finished with a smirk.

"Well, asking for Little One to cure their sore pussies is embarrassing to them, too."

"So the pussy cream?"

"Yep, I passed out tubes to each of the newlyweds. Sandra and Bobby bragged on it and told Hope they had their own." With a mischievous look, Diana continued, "We should probably buy stock in the company. I order the cream by the case." After a moment, she grinned and continued, "I sometimes wonder what the people who fill my orders think."

"That some lucky bastard is getting a lot of pussy," Jeff said with a chuckle, "... and he is."

Diana turned serious for a moment. "Selina wasn't pleased that you made her wait so long before she could join us on the deck."

"Yeah, I know, but I assumed there would be some raunchy talk about wedding nights that six-year-old ears didn't need to hear. If not, then the newlyweds would have to curb their fun because of Selina's presence."

"I thought that might be the reason you made her wait. Selina is a child, and she looks like a child until she opens her mouth, or you realize what she's studying in school."

"Speaking of Selina opening her mouth," Jeff said, "she's like talking to a dictionary. We've discussed this before, but I'm still a bit worried. When she first came here, she sounded a lot more like a six-year-old, especially in front of her parents ... I guess we know why, but..."

"Yeah," his Queen said. "She knew her parents couldn't handle a true genius child, so she tried to keep her intelligence from showing any more than she could help."

"So she doesn't have to worry about that now..."

" ... and is probably overcompensating," Diana finished for him. "She's around adults who aren't intimidated by her."

"We aren't?" Jeff asked with a grin.

Diana giggled. "Well ... now that you mention it..."

"She has memorized a dictionary, and it's obvious that it's fully functional in that brain of hers."

Diana leaned back a little so she could stare her husband in the face. "Jeff, what was our phone number at Mom's when we first got married?"

When he rattled it off, "Just because you haven't memorized a dictionary doesn't mean that your memory is any less efficient than hers, so you might as well stop blowing smoke."

"So, should we ask her to tone it down a little?"

"Not on your life," the Queen responded. "Let her have her fun, even if I sometimes wonder if I'm going to need to bring a dictionary with me when we talk."

They sat for a time, just cuddling and being with each other, then Diana stirred. "What about her training on the Ship? I haven't heard Selina say anything about the simulators."

"Ship has been instructing her the usual way, and has been assigning her study material to work through. She says that Selina is absorbing everything at a phenomenal rate. Next will come the simulations, but Ship wants me to be in the simulation with Selina."

"She doesn't need to be scared out of her mind the way the simulation did to Arlene and Kayla."

"And me?"

Diana smiled at him. "I can't seem to picture you being scared of anything."

"Well, that may or may not be so, but I will say that while you're in one of those simulations, it's your world. Everything there is as real as us sitting here talking. You have no inkling that what's happening isn't real. I was just as shocked as Arlene and Kayla when I suddenly found myself sitting on that command couch and I realized that the things I had been doing weren't real."

The phone rang in the living room and Diana reached over to answer it. "Diana."

"Hi," the General said. "Is your husband there?"

"Yep, I'm sitting in his lap."

"Tell him I need to see him in my office ASAP."

Jeff, with his enhancement, had no trouble hearing what the General said. When Diana put the phone back in its charging cradle, Jeff set her on her feet. "He never says ASAP unless he darn sure means it. Something's up," and he hurried out of the living room.

A moment later, he rapped once on the General's door and entered. "In here, Colonel," Whitworth said from what used to be a bedroom, but was now outfitted as an office for the General.

"Coffee's there on the table," Whitworth said, motioning. "Might as well get yourself a cup. We have some planning to do." Jeff poured a cup and refreshed the General's. When Jeff had seated himself, the General turned away from his computer screen. "Our people have just intercepted a phone call that the diplomat's flunkey received."

"Another kidnapping, I assume, since we're going to be planning."

"Yeah, we knew from the other phone call that it was going down, but we didn't know where. They're using a crude code. Someone is delivering two 'chairs' to the diplomat, but ... we don't know where. We have off-world trackers on his vehicles, so following him won't be a problem. The son-of-a-bitch is rich, though, and rents or owns several houses or cabins, and ... I doubt that we know all of them. Apparently his flunky has given the kidnapper directions at a prior time, since no one mentioned it during the conversations we heard. But the diplomat apparently has something else he has to do tonight. The kidnappers are to stay with the girls at the unknown location until late tomorrow when the diplomat can get there."

"Obviously, we didn't get a location from the call?"

"No. He hit two cell towers with his phone, and it was done in fairly rapid succession, so we think he's on the Interstate, and we know the city, of course, for what little good that does us. All we basically know is that he's possibly heading north. It was a cheap phone without a GPS function, probably a burner phone that he bought at Wal-Mart or some other large store. There's a possibility that the kidnapper is in a white van. No tag number or make of van, and it may or may not be involved in this particular kidnapping, but I suspect we're on the right track."

The General went on to give Jeff the city that two sisters had been kidnapped from, but there were several children, ages ten to sixteen that had gone missing throughout the northeast during the last twenty-four hours. Statistically, most of them would be runaways, or gone from home for various reasons, but the one with the two sisters seemed like a real kidnapping from the report that the police took when they interviewed the father."

The General continued, "So, not knowing the location of the house that the diplomat is going to use, we're going to play hell trying to intercept a white van before it gets to wherever it's going. In other words, there's a white van out there somewhere going someplace, and it may have two kidnapped girls in it."

"I assume you have people..."

"There will, shortly, be people watching every house the asshole has ever used or rented, but I doubt the prick will use the same place twice. He could have had some of his people rent a house weeks or months ago just for this. And ... we thought he would lie quiet for a while, but it seems that he thinks the FBI has given up trying to locate child traffickers. We know this son-of-a-bitch was involved with killing at least one girl, but we could never prove it in a court of law, because of the way we obtained the information. And even if we could, he would just get sent back to his own country. I want this bastard dead. And speaking of that, how do you plan for him to accidentally die?"

Jeff took a sip of coffee, crossed his legs and sat back in his chair. "Hard to plan for something like this when we don't even know where he's going to be." As the General started to say something, Jeff went quickly on. "Oh, I have something in mind if the area where we intercept him isn't too populated – if we manage to intercept him before he gets together with the girls. If all goes wrong, he'll just have to disappear. I'm sure Ship can find a place for him in a dimension that won't be at all hospitable to him. Say for instance, one with a sun starting to go nova, or one of the energy-only dimensions."

"So you plan to use the Ship?"

"If I can. She can have us where we need to go in a blink. With her invisible, and assuming that there is an area big enough for her to hover and let us out. We need to make damn sure we don't lose the diplomat when he leaves his office."

"I don't think that will be a problem, unless he switches to another vehicle en route. And even if he does, I'll have enough operatives on him to continue the surveillance anyway."

"What about whoever he's kidnapped. He was looking for young girls, right?"

"Correct. The caller mentioned chairs, as in plural, so we have assumed that someone has kidnapped two girls. And before you ask, my people are checking police reports, but dammit, many kids go missing every day, especially teenagers. Most eventually show up without having been involved in any crime, but these two missing girls and the white van seem like our best bet at this stage. The cop who wrote the report told his supervisor that he thought it was a true kidnapping, and according to the father and the aunt who watches them until the father gets home, the kids are very responsible. Also, the call to the diplomat came from the same city as the missing girls."

"We still don't have any idea where the kidnapper is headed, though. I have personnel going to each of the locations where the diplomat has rented or owns a house. They'll watch, but this bastard may very well have a place somewhere that we don't know about, or more probably, he may have rented a new place just for this."

The men sat thinking for a time before the General turned to Jeff, "Colonel, you might want to put your team on standby so they aren't off somewhere training."

Jeff grinned at his boss. "Did that in the hallway. When we're done here, I'll go advise the Ship."

"I..." the General started, but thought better of it. He had learned to give Colonel Matthews free rein when he (the General) gave Jeff an assignment. He wasn't sure how Matthews planned to use the Ship on this assignment, but he wasn't going to say anything against it.

"And Colonel, like I said before, make it look like an accident. We've tried him in absentia. This bastard isn't going to be sent home when his crimes are found out this time, understand?"

The conference continued for more than an hour.

Jeff returned to the living room after his meeting with the General to find Diana, Arlene and Kayla waiting. Smiling at them, he picked up the phone and called Art's suite. There was a delay before a groggy-sounding male voice answered. Jeff chuckled softly, realizing he had probably awakened Art from a recovery nap after making love to his wives. "Art, I need to talk to you. It should only take a few minutes, but I need to bring you up to speed on the latest info about the diplomat."

"I'll meet you in five..." the young agent started.

"No, not that much of a hurry. Make it fifteen in your sitting room, instead. Just drag on a pair of jeans. I hate to bother you on your honeymoon, but you were vehement about wanting to go with us when we take the diplomat down."

Art, fully awake now, said with a clear voice. "Absolutely, Jeff. And make it five minutes. I'm putting my jeans on now. I'll be waiting."

After returning the phone to its charging cradle, the Prime turned to Kayla to ask her if she really wanted to go on this mission, but the look on her face stopped him flat. "Instead of telling this twice, I'll brief you, Arlene and Art at the same time, okay?" As Diana stood with the others, "Di, it isn't necessary for you..."