Chapter 18

Jeff picked the healer up from the table near the bed, and quietly made his way out of the room. In the sitting room, the light turned down low, he relaxed on the couch. Again, sleep or the trance-like state she helped him enter, engulfed him.

{{{??}}}

Little One, I need you to help two more of my friends. Like Helen, they're a little older, and I would like that to be corrected, if you would, and also for you to make them as healthy as you can. He tried to send the concepts over and over, feeling that she eventually understood him.

{{{ Amusement. }}}

Yeah, I know. But will you do it please?

Jeff felt the sense of amusement again, but also knew that the healer was willing to do as he asked. Rousing himself, he and the healer headed for Frank and Margaret's suite.

A few minutes later, he quietly opened the sitting room door, walked on through, then after listening at the bedroom door, he cautiously turned its knob. Waiting after he opened the door, he listened. Hearing deep breathing from two people, he slowly pushed the door wider, and stealthily made his way to the bed.

Gently setting the healer on Wainwright's chest, Jeff waited for a moment as the breathing of both grew deeper still; he felt confident that the healer was now in control. He started to sit on one of the seats, then changed his mind, and instead, sat on the floor with his back against the wall, somewhat out of sight should either of the sleepers awaken. Leaning back into the corner, he relaxed and closed his eyes, waiting for the healer to call him. Time seemed to drift as he catnapped (combat slept) for a little more than three hours.

{{{?? }}}

Quietly coming to his feet, he retrieved the healer and left the suite.

{{{ Amusement. A sense of a joke played on someone. }}}

Tired, Jeff crawled back into bed and snuggled Diana to his right shoulder. Arlene awakened enough to worm her way under his left arm, pressed her breasts to his side, threw an arm and leg over him, and instantly slept.

He didn't get up until five. Putting on his gear, he went for a short run. When he got back, figuring that someone had already made coffee, he stopped in for a shower and a clothing change before he went to the kitchen, arriving at six on the dot.

Wainwright was leaning against the counter, coffee cup in hand, gesturing animatedly as he talked with Dave and Evie. Margaret was scrambling eggs, while Evie put potatoes on a large platter. "We woke up this morning, feeling great. I said something about a weird dream, then Margaret said she had one, too. We compared notes," he said, taking time out for a sip of coffee, then continued as the rest of the women filed in, "and, although the dreams themselves were basically different, we both dreamed that a blue light was doing things to us. Isn't that weird, it almost..."

Boswell chuckled — a knowing chuckle.

Diana smiled as she walked past. "I thought you were sleeping in a little later than usual," she commented as she came up to Jeff, put a hand behind his neck, and kissed him hard. Pulling away, she continued, "It surely seemed like you were fully recovered last night, so I thought you would get up at four for your morning run." Starting to help with breakfast preparations, she said over her shoulder, "Guess you were up late last night, and had to get an extra hour of sleep before your run," she finished the smile, now a full-fledged grin.

"Did your dream happen to involve something sitting on your chest?" Dave asked, as he and Evie smiled at each other.

Margaret and Frank glanced at each other, then turned toward Jeff. "Jeff, you didn't..."

Jeff just smiled and accepted a cup of coffee from Jennie. Sitting down at the head of the table, he said, "On the initial scan, she uses that blue beam, then will emit it from time to time, like she did while she was sitting on my injury. Most of the time, there isn't any visible light," he said.

Frank and Margaret made eye contact again, but as Frank opened his mouth to speak, Jeff said, "So, do you think you'll be able to get in touch with the person you were talking about who could direct us to a good mining engineer?"

Frank closed his mouth and looked at Jeff, who just grinned at him.

As the women finished with cleanup after breakfast, Diana called Evie aside. "Did I step across the line when I sat in your husband's lap?"

Evie looked shocked. "No. Of course not." After a pause, Evie continued, "Look, Diana, I'm not jealous of my husband and he isn't of me. We love each other and trust each other. He's had many opportunities to stray, and he hasn't. I supposed I have had opportunities as well, but it just doesn't cross my mind.

"I thought it was hilarious when you did that. Obviously, he was worried that Jeff would take it the wrong way, and probably worried about me as well. We all kid around here, and you got his attention about overworking, in a kidding way. Also, I was laughing because I'll just about bet that he was worried that he would get an erection with you sitting on his lap. I'll bet he figured he would really be in trouble then."

"Okay," Diana chuckled, "But I got to thinking, and I just wanted to tell you I was teasing, but he has been working too much, and I wanted to really let him know that we knew, and that we wanted him to stop. Also, I just sat on his legs; I didn't set on his groin. But I didn't know whether you knew that or not.

"And... , I was dead serious about the family thing. If we thought of your two as employees, you wouldn't be living here. We've liked you two from the start. Jeff never makes a mistake about what type of person someone is, and I certainly agree with him about you two. But I wanted to make sure that I hadn't overstepped, and hurt your feelings, or made you mad at me."

"Don't ever change, Diana. We love to kid, just like you do." Evie looked at Diana for a moment, "I would like to talk to you about something, sometime when we have the opportunity to sit down together for a while. I'd like your opinion."

"You're sounding serious now."

"Well, I guess I am serious, or it's a serious subject, but nothing is wrong. I just want to talk over something that I think you would have some good input on the subject."

"You're sure nothing is wrong, and you're not mad at me for my little escapade?"

"Absolutely," Evie said, hugging her. "Don't ever stop being you. We both enjoy living here. I swear I've laughed more in the last week — well except when Jeff was hurt — than I have for a long time. Now, I've got to run, but when we get the chance, I'd like for us to have that talk."

"Okay, girl," Diana said, heading toward their suite to get her equipment.

Frank and Jeff stopped by the garage for ammunition and targets. As they loaded a four-wheeler, the construction crews began to arrive. Evie and Dave came out and were soon involved with the crew bosses.

"You never did show me the classrooms," Wainwright said, handing Jeff a case of 9 mm rounds.

"We won't need a whole case this morning, but it doesn't look like rain, so we can carry some extra and just leave it for this afternoon's practice," Jeff said, sitting the ammo on the back of the four-wheeler, then taking a box of targets from Frank and strapping them down with a bungee cord. "We'll take a look at the construction when we break, but according to Evie, it's mostly chaos up there right now."

"Yeah, I'll bet it is," Wainwright answered, then interrupted himself, motioning for Jeff to look toward the house.

The range construction crew boss was hollering at his men for standing around gawking as the women filed out past them. "Okay," he yelled, "If we get to it, we can finish the range by noon. Then we get to start working on the indoor range with a nice even seventy-two degrees, if you can manage to quit staring at the ladies and start working."

The crew headed for the range, but occasionally someone looked back over his shoulder as the women cranked up four-wheelers and headed toward the temporary range. Jeff and Wainwright, their four-wheeler confiscated by Jennie and Ann, grinned and buzzed along behind in the golf cart.

Diana volunteered to spend most of her time near Wainwright and Margaret to help with their nervousness at being interjected into the group of women that were ahead of them in the training. "Do you think they can catch up?" Diana quietly asked her husband as everyone serviced (loaded) their magazines with five rounds, ball and dummy.

"Not really," Jeff answered, his eyes never leaving the line. "The girls are smart, and full of enthusiasm. They'll be hard to beat in a few days. But just keep encouraging Frank and Margaret. They'll still have fun, and who knows, they might surprise us. But I'll just about guarantee that Arlene and Ann are going to be very hard to beat in a week or two. Their groups are tighter now than a lot of experienced officers I've known. They've got either a natural talent, or those brains of theirs are making the difference. At least they're smart enough to not brag on themselves to the other girls. Competition can be fine to a point, but it can produce some hard feelings, too."

Diana glanced at her daughter and Ann, who had finished servicing their three magazines and had come to parade rest, waiting on the others to finish. "I'm going to help Margaret and Frank. Looks like Margaret is getting frustrated. I saw her glance at Arlene."

"Tell her to take her time," Jeff said. "If she pushes trying to speed up, she'll be too uptight to concentrate on the basics. Then the others will really be ahead of her. I'll have a word with the rest of them to hold back a little until your two have practiced a little more."

Three hours later, they were all in the living room with soft drinks, laughing and cutting up about their latest training, when the phone rang. "Matthews residence. Yes sir, he is. Hold on a moment," Melissa said, handing the phone to Wainwright.

A couple of minutes later Frank returned the phone to its charger. The crew is just leaving Denver. They're going to stop for lunch, and should be here a little after one.

"How many are there?" Diana asked.

"Six," Wainwright responded, "But I've already reserved nice rooms for them in Winter Park. So don't let that worry you. And, yes, there certainly are plenty of rooms here, but this is your home now, and they know that."

"Well, we can provide lunch for them at least for the remaining time their here," Diana said, "And it should be us paying..."

"Hush, Diana," Margaret said, grinning. "Let the man have some fun. Besides, the company will wind up paying for this, and justifiably so, since a lot of it will be a first time install. They'll use this as a test, won't they Frank?"

"Absolutely," Frank said, warming to the subject. "Between the cliff, the boulders and the distance, this will be an excellent test of the equipment. If it works here, it should work most anywhere. They're going to try to circumvent the setup when they've completed the installation. If they can't defeat their own equipment, then we'll know that we have a damn good system. So far, it has worked superbly against all the jamming we've thrown at it, but there's nothing like a real world test."

"But I just ordered cameras and motion sensors for the base of the drive."

Frank sipped tentatively at the fresh, very hot cup of coffee that Jennie had just poured for him, then leaned against a table near the glass wall. Grinning at Jeff who had raised the recliner back up to take a sip of his own coffee, Wainwright continued, "Now don't get pissed at me Jeff," he admonished, "but I told the team to bring some more things with them. When we're through, it's going to be very, very hard for anyone to get within a half mile of the retreat without our knowing it, uh, excuse me," he laughed, "not the retreat, your house," he finished, chuckling. "And like I said, it's a good real-world test of some new equipment. We'll get to chase the bugs out of the system, and you will wind up with something a little ahead of 'state of the art.'"

Jeff started to object to Frank spending money on a security system for him, but thought better of it when Margaret caught his eye. Instead of objecting, he simply said, "Thanks Frank. Anything that you do to help protect my family is very much appreciated by all of us."

A look passed among the women and before he knew what was happening, Wainwright was being hugged by the girls, then the women. They weren't cutting him any slack either, he got a good frontal (titty) hug that had him blushing, and desperately trying to keep a lump from forming in his pants.

As they continued their firearms training on the range, just before two o'clock, one of the workers yelled for Jeff. When he turned around, he saw two SUV's and a somewhat larger closed van pull into the parking area.

Frank, having noticed the vehicles, cleared his weapon, holstered it and stepped back to parade rest, but remained as if frozen, just looking over his shoulder. Grinning a little, Jeff told Diana to take over, then motioned for Frank to come with him.

"That's my crew," Frank said as he reached Jeff. "I've sketched out some plans, but we need to sit down together. They're also bringing some satellite photos and topographical maps that should help us with our decisions."

Jeff and Frank waved to Wainwright's crew, mounted their trusty buzz box and turned around. When they reached the parking area, six people — three men and three women — were waiting for them.

After introductions, Jeff said, "Let's go inside and sit down where we can discuss this in comfort. My wife fixed homemade doughnuts during our lunch break. Let's see if they are up to specs," he finished grinning, walking toward the door.

Jeff stopped and turned around when he realized that only the installation crew chief was following. Realizing what was going on, he turned to the group and said, "Let's get something straight, to use one of my many southernisms, while you're here, this house is to be treated as your home, all of you. As far as I'm concerned," he continued, "you're doing this as a favor to me. So let's all go find the doughnuts, and brew up a fresh pot of coffee or three. We'll talk details while we eat some of the best doughnuts on earth."

An hour later, they were buzzing back to the range. Wainwright grinned at Jeff. "I thought you might want to watch the crew get started."

Jeff chuckled, "Oh, I wanted to watch. But I don't like people looking over my shoulder when I'm working for someone. I figured they might feel the same way. What about you?"

"Oh, the temptation is there," Frank said, looking over at the range as they passed the crew putting on the finishing touches. "But I almost pushed myself into a heart attack a few years back, according to the doctors. One day I suddenly felt odd, got weak, then woke up in the hospital. I micromanaged until the stress almost killed me. I took that little trip to the hospital as a 'wake-up call, ' to use an overused expression. But it did wake me up, and I started delegating things — a lot of things. Even so, running the company is not nearly as much fun as it once was. We've grown to be too big for one man to manage everything, but I'm not complaining about that; the expansions have made a lot of money for me."

As Jeff pulled to a stop about twenty yards behind the firing line, Wainwright stepped off the golf card, then turned back to Jeff. "But you can bet your ass, we'll check up on the crew, later. I'm anxious to learn if my new equipment works as well here as it did in the tests. Now let's get back on that range. I've got a little catching up to do."

Jeff frowned, unsure how to word his response. "Frank, Diana and a couple of the girls..."

"... will always be able to shoot circles around me," Frank finished for him. As Jeff started to protest, Frank held his hand up a little to forestall him. "Arlene and Ann obviously have a gift. I haven't seen Diana shoot, but I doubt if she would be coaching us if she weren't damn good. But, Margaret and I are having more fun — even with the fucking pushups — than we have had in a long time. And we're not just going to roll over and admit defeat. We're both competitors, and whether we're having fun or not, we'll always do our absolute best."

Jeff, stepped out of the cart, laughed and slapped Wainwright on the back. In a few minutes, Frank was back on the line, but he earned ten pushups for talking on the firing line when he asked Margaret what had been happening while he was gone. Frustrated, but grinning, he dropped down nose to nose with Jeff as they did the pushups in unison.

"Alright," Jeff said to the group, when he and Frank were through, "charge three magazines with five rounds each. We're going to work on hot reloads. Instead of firing your weapon until its empty, you'll change magazines while there is still a live round in the chamber. In a gunfight, if the opportunity arises, you might want to put a full magazine in the weapon while you're safely behind cover, thus the hot reload. Pushups, if you don't keep accurate count of rounds fired. Learn to keep track no matter what else is happening.

"Later, when we work through the obstacle course, you'll have the opportunity to practice. The course will be set up so that you'll run low on ammo. If you don't change magazines at the appropriate time, your score will suffer. You might be surprised how much stress it will cause you when your buddy does it correctly and trounces you. Not to mention what you'll feel like when a target pops around, and your weapon is empty. Now's the time to learn."

Jeff stepped off twenty-five yards, then laid off a rough firing line and called them to him. When everyone had gathered around, he said, "Evie tells me we will be able to use the range tomorrow, so we'll learn to shoot from barricades at the twenty-five then. For now, Evie was nice enough to cut up several pieces of leftover carpet that we found in the basement. We'll use them," he said, demonstrating, "to lie on as we shoot prone. I might shoot from either of the two basic positions taught by the military and most police departments. The second position usually works better for women with larger breasts."

Jeff demonstrated the positions, "Ears on! The line is hot!" He fired five rounds from each position, changing magazines with the hot reload method, firing so fast it almost seemed like one continuous sound.

As Jeff holstered and cleared the line, Frank exclaimed, "Shit!"

Margaret had a small pair of binoculars she was passing around to the women. Although the .45 caliber holes were visible to the naked eye, the binoculars, of course, gave a much better view.

Diana didn't bother to look through the binoculars. She just stood there with an "I told you so," grin on her face.

Frank seemed unable to take his eyes off the three targets Jeff had shot. "Shit, Jeff, nobody can..."

Jeff stared hard at Wainwright. "Frank, you have a talent that makes you tons of money. You run a very large organization as if there's nothing to it. I would make a fool of myself in the first five minutes trying to do what you do with ease. My talent would, at best, make me what you would refer to as chump change. Although, it may have saved my life a time or two," he said, almost as an afterthought. "Most of us, if we look hard enough, will find something that we do really well. My talent just happens to be firing a handgun," he finished, dismissing as nothing that the "X" was completely gone on all three B-27 targets.

"Okay, everybody get a mat — weapons still secured in your holsters, and try out both the prone positions I just showed you. Diana and I will be around helping you. We're going to determine the correct position for each of you, then you'll practice going from a standing position to prone until you feel comfortable doing so. Then, you will practice drawing the weapon safely as you change positions. When Diana and I are certain you're able to change from standing to prone quickly and safely, we'll do some dry firing, then ball and dummy, and end the day with a little live firing from the prone position."

Shortly before eight everyone dragged into the house, mentally and physically whipped. The women hung their gunbelts in the bedroom closet, washed up and went to the kitchen to prepare supper. As Jennie pushed the door open, she stopped, then walked on in, a smile starting on her face, soon to be copied by the rest of the women as they joined her.

Evie was in the process of setting a large platter of hamburger patties on the table as Dave set out plates, glasses and silverware. "We waited until we saw you guys start this way on the monitor," Evie said. "My fries probably aren't as good as you're accustomed to..."

Arlene hugged her. "Evie, you are so modest," she laughed, then went to the refrigerator for the tea.

Diana sat down at the table and picked up a french fry. Taking a bite, she teased, "I think they're actually better than mine." Then added, "I know darn well they are. I didn't have to cook them," she laughed.

After a short prayer of thanks, everyone ate, hungrily. They teased each other about flyers, broken nails, tired arms and the like, and Margaret and Frank joined in, giving as good as they got, while everyone built their hamburgers.

Note: A flyer is a round that strays outside the main group, caused by misalignment of sights, trigger jerk, flinch, etc.

Jeff sat back sipping his coffee, listening to his family expand unmercifully on their exploits and their "cruel" taskmaster.

"... and Frank almost caused me to have to do another set of pushups by blatantly asking me what had been happening while he was gone. I almost answered him on the firing line with Jeff looking straight at us. If I had answered you, Frank, you would be sleeping on the couch tonight," Margaret laughed, punching Wainwright lightly in the ribs.

"Well," Wainwright answered, "I'm used to being the boss. I can run my mouth any time I want. But I'll remember how it feels being on the other end, after this," he laughed. Sobering, he continued, "I might be a little more considerate in the labs when someone is trying to explain something to me. But I guess they'll never let me give them pushups the way Jeff does," he mused aloud.

"I can just see it now," Margaret said. "Frank standing at the head of the conference room table, 'All right, '" lowering the timbre of her voice to mock imitate Wainwright. "'project updates are due at eight A.M. sharp, Thursday. Anyone that turns in a late update will do twenty pushups in the main lobby at high noon with all the staff watching, '" she finished, sniggering.

Melissa refilled Jeff's cup as he discretely slipped a hand between her legs from behind to briefly caress her pussy while the bantering continued. She bit her lip and stifling a giggle, smiled at him, then went to put the pot back on the warmer as he watched the inviting sway of her pert little ass.

The women had gone to the bedroom, while Jeff, Dave and Frank sat in the living room sipping beer and relaxing. Jeff took a sip, got an odd look on his face, and left for a few minutes. He came back with a glass of iced tea, and resumed his seat.

At Wainwright's quizzical expression, Jeff said, "I know Frank. I've always liked an occasional beer, although it has never been very high on my priority list, but I started to drink one a couple days ago, and about two sips into it, it suddenly tasted terrible. The same thing happened just then." After a moment, he added, "I'm beginning to think that the healer has something to do with it." Shrugging, he took a swallow of tea, half-expecting it to taste bad as well, but it didn't. "Oh, well, if she has an aversion to my drinking beer, I guess I can put up with it, after all, I wouldn't be here without her, or her momma," he finished, his expression darkening.