Chapter 274

Partial Character List:

Jeff – The Prime.

Diana – The Clan Queen and Jeff's first wife.

Arlene – Jeff and Diana's daughter and Jeff's young wife who is also a Queen.

Susan – Wife and Diana's mother, who is also a Queen.

Jennie – Young wife.

Melissa – Young wife.

Laura – Wife and computer guru.

Ann – Laura's daughter and Jeff's young wife, also a computer guru.

Helen – Genius wife and teacher.

Nat, Nicki, and Whitney – Young wives who were rescued by Jeff and his team.

Joyce – Wife and deputy.

Caitlin – Wife and nurse.

Kayla – Wife who first worked for the FBI, but then went to work for the General, and now she is Jeff's last line of defense.

Selina – Six-year-old genius who lives with the Matthews family.

Billy Bad Ass – Billy the kitten. Belongs to Selina.

Spike – Male Chihuahua. Belongs to Arlene.

Sugar – Female Chihuahua. Belongs to Hope.

Eric – Pharmacist and father of Alice and Terri.

Angela – Eric's sister.

Alice – Twelve-year-old who was kidnapped.

Terri – Fourteen-year-old who was kidnapped.

Art – Young FBI agent who was in a shootout in Atlanta.

Bobby – Nurse from Atlanta who is Art's wife and Sandra's sister.

Sandra – Nurse from Atlanta who is Art's wife and Bobby's sister.

Hope – Art's young wife, who was abused by her father and other men.

Matt – Alpha – new FBI SAC who has recently reported to the Denver office.

Courtney – Matt's wife who believes that Jeff and his family might be aliens.

Bridget – Soon to be new wife for Matt.

Dave – Alpha – Contractor and Project Manager for Jeff.

Evie – Dave's first wife and assistant Project Manager.

Kim – Dave's wife.

Linda – Dave's wife and Bill's daughter.

Fred – Alpha and Jeff's friend from Georgia.

Brenda – Fred's first wife who came back in the body of the woman who was killed in the wreck in Georgia.

Carla – Fred's wife and farm owner.

Jessica – Fred's young wife and Carla's daughter.

Audrey – Campground manager from Georgia and one of Fred's wives.

Angel – Fred and Brenda's daughter and now Fred's new wife.

Lieutenant Mayfield – Lieutenant in charge of Security.

The Retreat

On the second couch in Selina's suite, Billy woke from a nap, his nose twitching at the pungent smell of Hoppes no. 9 bore cleaning solution. His mistress was seated on the other couch in front of the plastic-shrouded coffee table as she cleaned her weapons. The kitten stretched, sniffed disdainfully at the odor and teleported out of the suite. Selina finished with the bore brush and ran a pad down the barrel to remove the solvent. Holding the barrel up toward the light, she inspected her work.

Satisfied, she put a drop of oil on a patch and ran it down the barrel. After putting a drop on the outside of the barrel, she spread it evenly with her fingers, then wiped the excess off with a rag. Satisfied with the barrel, she put it aside and began cleaning and lightly oiling the other metal parts of the Glock. Soon, the weapon would pass even Diana's stringent inspection.

Billy knew that he wasn't allowed in the kitchen, but that only applied if he got caught. That had happened one time too many, when Diana had begun to enforce the rule with a rolled-up newspaper and a raised voice. Her weapon would never do damage to Billy, but it made noise when she swatted at him with it, and that was certainly enough to make him extra careful when he sneaked in.

His little cat mind, enhanced by Little One, had figured out that he made a noise just as his mistress did when she teleported, but the noise was made where he had teleported from, not where he had just teleported to. With that in mind, he teleported to the back side of the kitchen near the walk-in freezer.

Hearing giggling and conversation, he crept down the room, keeping his body close to the center island. Rounding the front corner, he peeked toward the other end of the kitchen to see Nat, Nicki and Whitney as they finished preparing a serving cart. After glancing his way, although Billy didn't notice it, one of the girls said something and the three huddled for a minute to the accompaniment of more giggles. Billy watched for a moment, then ducked back to wait. After a while, there were more noises and a beep from the microwave, then more giggling before the girls left with their serving cart.

Billy, being extra careful, peeked around the corner again. The girls were gone, but they had "forgotten" something. A small bowl of milk sat near one of the refrigerators. As he lapped the warm milk, he prided himself on another successful mission.

A few minutes later, milk finished, he let out a kitten burp and teleported into the hallway. Normally, after eating, he would find a place for a nap, but he wasn't sleepy just now. Time to start some mischief with the puppies. Of course, he didn't think of it as mischief, rather retaliation for their being dogs.

It didn't take him long to find the puppies. Both were asleep on a couch in the living room, their mistresses in the basement training. He teleported to land on top of Spike, then jumped onto Sugar and off the couch. The puppies, coming from a deep sleep, scrambled to their feet and immediately ran into each other, but that didn't delay them long. In seconds, they had jumped off the couch and dashed after Billy, who immediately teleported into the hall just outside the living room doorway.

By now, the puppies were in full pursuit and barking wildly. Billy detested the noise, and laid his ears flat against his head, both because of the barking and because he was intent on teasing the dogs. He stopped to stare back at the approaching puppies, and just before they got to him, teleported down the hall twenty feet or so to stop again and tease.

After he repeated this several times, with the puppies chasing him, Billy reversed his direction and teleported back up the hallway toward the living room. It took the puppies a second to realize that he was behind them, but they quickly spun in pursuit. Each time Billy teleported, he would wait until the puppies were almost upon him before teleporting at the last second. This quickly stroked the puppies' tempers, particularly Spike's. The puppy changed his tactics and added a lunge as he neared Billy, but still the little dog landed on empty carpet where the kitten had been a half second before.

The chase went on past the living room and on up the hallway, then turned toward the inside garage entrance. Still, Billy waited until the puppies were inches from him before he teleported a short distance away. Each time it happened, both puppies' tempers notched up a little more, especially Spike's.

Spike and Sugar were tiring, both running with their tongues hanging out, but they had not slackened their pace. Finally, Spike's temper reached a critical point. His puppy thoughts saying, I will get him. I will get him.

Billy teleported with a "whap" of displaced air, and there was a second almost identical sound just before Spike ran over Billy, both tumbling on the carpet as Sugar ran up.

"What did you do? What did you do?" Sugar sent to Spike as she ran over a preoccupied Billy, the kitten tumbling before he regained his feet and teleported back the way they had come – but so did Spike. As soon as Billy materialized, Spike was a half-second away still running full out.

Crash! Spike ran into Billy, causing both to go rolling on the carpet, Billy hissing out his anger and indignation, "Ppfffsssttt. Ppfffsssttt."

In amazement, Billy came to his feet and hesitated. Crash! Sugar finally caught up, taking both Billy and Spike out. That set off a round of hissing again.

"Tell me. Tell me!" Sugar yelled mentally at Spike.

"Whap," Billy teleported a long way down the hall.

"Like this," Spike sent to his buddy just before he teleported in pursuit of Billy.

"Oh, I don't think..." and then there were two puppies after Billy, now on their terms.

It took only a couple of teleports with the puppies a second behind him before Billy decided he needed to end the game for now and regroup. "Whap," he left the hallway and appeared on the couch across from his mistress who was in the process of cleaning up her mess in the suite's sitting room.

Selina looked at the kitten, his sides heaving. "What have you been up to?" she questioned. "You have a guilty appearance."

"Mmeeeoooww," he tried to innocently say.

"Whatever it was, it has obviously caused an inordinate amount of exertion. You had better not have gotten into trouble."

"Mmeeeoooww," he returned, blinking his eyes innocently.

Selina stared at her kitten for another moment, then gave up. She knew she would hear about it if he had been into something he shouldn't.

Spike and Sugar had tired of playing in the hallway. Seeing Kim, one of Dave's wives, open the basement door and go down the stairs, the puppies looked at each other. Their mistresses had taken them to the basement on several occasions and they had even been in Jeff's office and lab, although they hadn't been allowed to run free in either place. Since they hadn't been allowed, it was immediately at the top of their list of things to do if ever they got the chance. They had the chance now.

A short puppy communication and they agreed. "Whap. Whap," and they teleported from the hallway to appear at the bottom of the stairs. Carefully, they peeked around the door to one of the exercise rooms to see several of the women and girls working out at various machines or running on the treadmills.

Quietly, they crept away, not wanting to be discovered just yet. There were other rooms that they had never been inside, but the doors were closed, although the puppies' sensitive noses picked up several of the women inside those rooms. The little canines came to the doors leading to Jeff's lab and office. His office had an outer door as well as another that led directly to the lab, and the lab also had a second door that opened into the basement.

They both sniffed at Jeff's office door and realized that Jeff was inside. They looked at each other. "Whap. Whap."

Jeff knew that strong force fields were possible. The Ship used them all the time. She had begun to teach him some of the basics of her technology, but he knew he had years to go before he could discuss her tech in detail with her. Dammit, he groused to himself, surely I can strengthen my forcefield beyond keeping butterflies contained. He glared at the white board bearing his scribbled equations. As the force of the produced field increases the power required to increase it quickly goes to infinity. Shit! Something isn't right. I'm leaving out something.

His desk was covered with open textbooks and white papers on various subjects, plus numerous calculations scribbled on anything from a notepad and loose sheets of paper to scraps that he happened to pick up when a thought struck him. His computer was on, both monitors active with articles about various subjects that he hoped would help with his research.

"Woof," from a small voice on the other side of his desk.

"Shit," he mumbled, slamming to his feet in order to look over his desk at the puppies staring up at him. "Where did you two come from?" I know I closed my door. I'm positive of it.

The thought crossed his mind that one of his wives had cracked his door and let the puppies in to tease, but he erased the thought as soon as it was born, knowing that with his hearing, he would have noticed the difference in the acoustics of the room as soon as the door was opened the slightest bit. That left one possibility.

"Did Billy teach you?" he asked the two innocent appearing canines.

"Woof," Sugar answered with an accompanying whine.

Walking around the desk, he stopped to stare at the puppies. "Show me."

The puppies stared back at him.

"Don't play innocent with me. You two understand far more than your mistresses think you do. Little One has seen to that with her enhancement." He pointed to the door, "Now, show me."

The puppies looked at each other and he knew they were communicating somehow.

"Whap, whap," and they were both gone. A couple of seconds later, they reappeared in front of him.

"Oh, shit," he said as he sat on the couch, and slapped his hands against his thighs in invitation to the puppies.

"Whap, whap," and there were two happy puppies frantically wagging their tails and climbing up his chest to lick him in the face.

"What am I going to do with you?" he asked as he roughly petted them, causing them to become even more excited. "You're going to get in trouble..." and his thoughts turned down that path.

"Oh, yeah. You will certainly get into trouble if we don't put a damper onto things until you two are old enough to understand how dangerous it would be for you to teleport outside the Retreat. We have an appointment with the Ship. But first I need to have a talk with your mistresses."

Sitting behind his desk and still holding the puppies, he grabbed up the phone and paged Arlene and Hope.

Shortly, there was a knock on his door before it opened and the two girls walked in.

Arlene smiled at her father, but noticed the full coffee carafe. "Fresh?"

"Yeah, just made it," the Prime responded.

Although Hope hadn't been much of a coffee drinker before she came to live with the Matthews, Arlene fixed Hope a cup without first asking.

The two girls sat on the couch, each taking a tentative sip of the hot brew.

"So, we've corrupted you too," he kidded.

"She wasn't hard to corrupt," Arlene responded before a giggling Hope punched her lightly with an elbow.

"I have always drunk a cup for breakfast, but I've never mainlined it like some people I know," she finished with a sexy little grin as the Prime grinned back at her.

"So, what's up, Dad?" Arlene asked, ignoring Hope's dig.