Chapter 24

"The Doc has been in charge of recruitment. Apart from his disgusting habit of cutting off heads, removing the skull and then filling the skin with hot sand, he is pretty nice. He is not your regular head-shrinker."

I had to pause for a minute as Lasha stared at the Doc. All the adults were quiet while they listened to my monologue. It was only when Lasha smiled that I knew that he now knew his leg was pulled.

I began again, "Mom over there supplies moral support. She makes Pop toe the line or else. I have heard him scream in agony some nights. He drives us around when we need." Pop looked embarrassed and Mom looked smug and this too Lasha took in.

"Mom II runs the house. She is like the drill sergeant. You do your share of the work and you get to eat. She teaches you to cook.

"June has not joined officially but we are working on her. She is not suited for frontline combat but is good at logistics.

"Wendy and Chuck work as a team. Wendy is quick with her feet and hands. She puts people in the hospital when they attack our unit.

"Ashleigh and Jerry make another team. They are into procurement and construction at the moment but will be mainly combat later on.

"Elaine and Shirley have decided that it takes two of them to get Sam to do what's right.

"The famous munchkins, Patricia, Liza and Erin have taken it upon themselves to civilise Mad Paul the Barbarian. He'll eat a horse with its shoes then spit out nails.

"The newest recruit is Greg. He was hurt in battle recently but he's recovering nicely."

"Are you the leader?"

"I'm the Captain, and the highest ranking officer. As I said, our objective is to learn to be good soldiers, arm the system then we will fly to Alpha Ursae Majoris. The planet Cralto is where the Tomma live."

Lasha said, "What are the Tomma like?"

"The males are big, smart and telepathic. The women are telepathic, smaller, more numerous, much more warlike and tend the children. Don't cross them either, especially the females. They're mean and violent. They make good combat troops though. We have clandestine photos of them if you want to see?"

"Ya!"

My drawing of the two genders was shown with somebody that was near the size of Lasha beside them.

Lasha said, "They both have..."

"Not really. The appendage is larger than on the average human female. It stimulates the Tomma women enormously. I can tell you confidential information about them later if you join the unit."

"Ah... I don't live around here." Lasha looked sad now and started to revert to the way he was before.

"Hold on soldier. If our recruiter brought you here then he must have a plan in mind. He acts stupid and dresses funny on occasion but he is playing a game to infiltrate. He is a lot smarter than he looks."

I looked up and said, "Well Doc, you found a new recruit. He's acceptable. Have you found him a billet?"

Suffolk looked at Gail and said, "Do you have room for one more? He's shy now but he will make a good officer some day. All he needs is training."

Gail looked at me and I nodded. She said, "I get all the strenuous work. Young men come to me and I have to work hard to get them into shape. The last few almost killed me. This one does look to have some potential."

Lasha smiled at this. Doc saw the reaction and said, "Well we can billet him at Mrs Watson's." He turned to Lasha and said, "Do you want to give Mrs Watson a try. She's new at this and has two already."

"I'd like to try."

The Doc said, "Then I'll sign the papers. You will be going to school with these guys too and really start to learn now. They are taking Star Ship Navigation and ship handling. You guys can't leave for Cralto without informing me first. I might want to come along."

I said, "We need a shrink onboard like Counsellor Diana Troy. Are you telepathic?"

"Sometimes I think I am."

"We will have to put you through boot camp and train you. Did you know that up to 21% of the human population has a latent telepathic ability?"

"I didn't think it was that high."

With the computer, I called Mad Paul the Barbarian to talk to our newest member. I could see that Lasha was relieved to see that the Barbarian was smaller than he was and quite polite. The two went off to meet the others again.

Lasha saluted before he left but I said, "Wait soldier." I got up and hugged the guy tightly to me and whispered, "Welcome soldier. This is the way we salute in the academy."

Lasha had a tear in his eye then hugged me back hard. "Like this?"

"Yes, like that soldier."

The guy grinned at me then and hurried after Mad Paul.

The Doc said to me, "You did that very well. Perhaps I will have to double your salary."

"I am a pauper and have to sponge off the grownups. You owe me big time."

"What do I owe you?"

"This weekend you bring your boss over for a visit. You go into the garage with Pop to guzzle his beer and make a barbecue. We will be even up until that point."

"Does he have enough beer?"

"Perhaps you two should check. I don't see why I have to do everything."

Leslie said, "Did I hear right? That young boy is going to be living with Gail?"

I pointed to Gail and she said, "I think so. I was hired to help and I have to earn my keep. He's a nice one though. Maybe he can salute me that way too."

Pop said, "You have the ability to wrap them around your fingers. I don't know how you do it but you're good. Even with your math ability and art, you should go in for head shrinking. You would help more people."

"Thanks Pop but there are a lot of other careers to think about."

We had some snacks and the Doc checked the beer supply with Pop. We waited for Greg to come here. He had been introduced over the computer and now he wanted to see Lasha in the flesh. The two just stared at each other for at least a minute. We could all see the interaction and remained quiet.

Betts interrupted the tableau, "Can Lasha sleep over here tonight?"

The Doc said, "If he wants. Perhaps you have some extra clothes for him? He has to go to school with you guys tomorrow."

Greg quickly said, "I have some extra clothes that he'd look hot in."

Betts hurriedly replied before Greg thought on what he said, "Great. Lasha do you want to stay?"

"If I can."

Gail said, "I think you may but we have to salute over here when you change billets."

Lasha didn't understand so I went and whispered, "Mrs Watson is like all good mothers. She gave you something and you have to give her a hug. I still do it and so do the rest."

Lasha grinned and ran to Gail. She bent down and the two hugged tightly. She got in a kiss on his cheek and the boy smiled. Greg was no fool and he hugged Gail just as tight and said, "Thanks."

Pop said to Mom, "See the academy does have some good ideas. You don't mind those salutes."

"I guess not."

That night the two boys didn't do anything but cuddle. It was as if each of them had found a life preserver. Betts and Erica saw the love before going to bed. We made our own supply to last us for a while.

Lasha and Greg were separated by class. I was the one that instigated this. The two would be staring at each other all the time. The class was fairly tolerant but the kids could still be cruel. Betts would be the mother hen to make sure her new chick was taken care of.

Lasha and Greg fit well together. Greg filled in the boy on what Betts and I were capable of, and had done. Lasha did whatever Betts wanted. He had bright eyes when he came near so it was not fear. Greg was jealous until he learned that it was hero worship that Lasha was suffering from.

The two boys could be together if they worked hard while apart. Lasha got his own computer and began tinkering with the 'game'. He had more talent in art and fine motor control. He did well in karate and in fitting the pieces of sheet metal to the frame. Nobody bothered him at school because he was constantly in a group that protected him. Greg worked a lot harder in karate now. We figured it was not just to learn to protect himself now.

The two received voice tutoring from other personalities at the academy. Not long after that they found the 'weird' effect we called the shield. Slowly they learned enough about the academy to know that they had a very exclusive position. They did not know about the other military actions we took.

On the other front, Caputo had nobody to focus on now. The police and the courts didn't count because he was going to leave. Nadac with the king's urging used the computers at Foster to hit the Columbian owners with a whopping 19.3 billion dollar manoeuvre that came from a total of 112 separate transactions. Each one was an exploit in itself.

We left no traces leading to us. We purposely left some clues but they were not to Cosner. We happened to be down for a major overhaul and only internal communications were used. Every person able to type on a keyboard was going to be watched. Caputo made lots of his own money this way. His former affiliation with Cosner gave him the knowledge of how to do this. He was visited by some extremely angry people and some very worried lawyers.

There was nothing in the news except a lot more bodies cropping up. They had been former hackers that were questioned very strenuously. We looked into government computers. They knew the cartels took a major hit but not how much.

Nadac started to sell his expertise to those looking for more security. He charged exorbitantly and got it after the software and new hardware was tested. I had to laugh because he was making an honest income now. Foster paid over twenty million to get a foolproof system. Nadac would have to find other ways of getting the money because he could still get in.

Our guys were making shields on their own while I worked on Hal. Nadac used some of his academy personalities to suggest different ideas to the boys. The girls were encouraged to help and some of this was done in Gail's basement.

March was a magic month. We now owned a small but substantial segment of the shipping industry. We actually paid with real money. Cosner was contacted by the new partial owner of the shipping segment. Cosner immediately started monitoring the shipping companies with another program that Nadac came up with.

The courts were still after prosecutions and fines for the past wrongs that had been done. We fought the courts even though we were the ones to bring this to their notice. We would still have to pay but we hoped it would not be as much as before. The managers that were responsible and inept were let go. The ones that showed promise, though they were tarnished, we kept on.

Hal came alive and grew quickly. The tinkering I did hid most of his intelligence the same way Nadac did with two personalities. This did not count my own newly developed personality hiding in the background and still sleeping.

Nadac did his tests and then more. He wanted to let the king know that there was nothing special. He was supposedly just checking a major work of his student. The more testing the king witnessed the less he would have to do himself.

I got my wish in one respect. I got to openly build a 72. I had done so well the king wanted to see if I could jump all the way to my main goal. This meant my head in a larger box and a chance to really make something like 52 to a 55 depending on how well I could pull this off. This time I had the minimum number of crystals to start. They were the ones that had their mass dispersed into the other dimensions. They looked similar to the proper crystals to go into a 72. Hal was kept close so that we had another layer of interference.

The usual safety protocols were followed when I built Matt and Hal. I had bypassed a lot of restrictions with Hal but had them appear to work. The 72 was no different but I was not the one being sneaky. The design given me appeared to be an effort to make it look like there was no possibility of the computer given free will and this was called improvements over older models. A tech may not have caught this but my memories as a Cyberneticist did find this out. There was a good chance that Nadac would know as well. This could mean that either the computer was going to be replaced the one Fonduush or all new computers of any power would have Rontem's personality in them.

I now had the task of disguising the imperfect devices so they actually worked. To further complicate matters, I wanted to put my own personality in the way Hal was done. This personality would be free to bypass the devices that would hold Rontem.

The routines in the computer would be slowly fed in as the system grew. The owner of the device would be the one the artificial or natural entity in the computer would pay homage to. A second layer of code protected all Aristis from wholesale slaughter. If this was commanded by the owner of a warship computer or by his representative, the act was acceptable. This was just to keep the computer running amok.

On the last Wednesday in March, I went to school fairly happy. We had the basic infrastructure to order earth made equipment for defence and for the fleet of ships we would have to have to put the system in place. One of the last assets purchased from Caputo was the porn stage and the distribution warehouse nearby. The idea was that we could have those that were forced to perform in the kiddy porn could see how their lives had improved.

When the bell rang we went inside and sat down. Miss Lime was not present but she wasn't always here at the start of the class. The guys in the class were noisy as expected and the teacher next door came over to investigate. He got us to be quiet and called the office on the class phone.

It took ten minutes until another teacher came in and started the class. I was worried about Miss Lime. She had to be sick or something. Greg had seen that some of his friends were not friends at all because they never even phoned him at the hospital. I would at least try to act like a friend.

I put my hand up and the teacher said, "Yes?"

"What happened to Miss Lime today?"

He paused as if considering a lie and said, "We don't know. She just didn't come in today. We figure she's sick."

She could also be so sick that she could not make it to the phone. I sat back and said, "Thanks. I was just worried about her." There was some snickering but I ignored it.

I used Matt to interface with Nadac's store of knowledge to find Miss Lime's address. Before I got far they started a roll call and I found that Steph were absent too. It immediately popped into my mind that she may be hiding someplace kissing Jeff if he was not at school too. I had to smile at this. They had progressed quite a bit since Christmas. This was also unusual. The parents were sure to be called and the two liked karate and never missed it or a chance to be with each other.

The other grade eight class was nearby and I got excused to use the washroom. Instead I walked down the hall and peered through the walls and saw that Jeff was not here either.

Not one but three drones left my house. The travel time was not long for the two kids but Miss Lime's home was much further off.

We dropped off Jeff and Steph after karate so I knew where they lived. I searched each room of both homes but didn't find either of them. A phone rang in Jeff's home. I placed the drone on the glass to hear better and heard a woman's voice say, "He left for school as usual this morning. It's not like him to skip school, especially recently." There was a pause then the woman said, "I'll phone the hospitals. I'm hesitant to call the police but I'm going to do so." Another pause and she said, "Yes, I'll do that."

Steph's home was vacant but I started to worry more. The drones left the homes while I monitored the way they would probably walk to school. I found nothing by the time they came to the school. The other drone made it to Miss Lime's apartment. This was more difficult to search but the woman was not there.

The condo was clean and tidy except for a bed with the mattress shifted to one side and clothes scattered on the floor. A purse was to one side and the contents dumped on the carpet. I checked the door to the apartment but saw nothing wrong but my visibility was poor. One more piece of information from Matt had me searching the parking lots under the building and to one side of it. Miss Lime's car was in a public parking area.

"Matt, Hal. Two children, that are friends of mine, do not show up for school. They usually do not miss time. Their absence would cause the school to phone home. The mother of one says she does not know where her son is. Neither are at home. If the two wanted to be alone, they could do this at Steph's home which is now vacant. Our teacher does not call in to work to say she is not coming in. She too is not home. Her bedroom is a mess. A woman usually keeps her purse near her but that is still in her apartment. Her car is still parked nearby. What are your assessments?"

Hal had more visible power. He said, "The woman may have been out last night and not returned home. She would have taken a smaller purse and been driven by a cab or a male friend. She may have been drinking or taken other intoxicating substances and not been in a condition to come in today or even make the phone call. She may have been in an automobile accident or fight and then taken to a hospital. She may be dead in either of these cases. An abduction is also possible. The children could well be in a place engaging in sex. Their minds are poorly developed to think clearly. The events taken separately indicate common problems but all three make abduction much more likely."

Abductions of these people could involve me. I launched all the other drones around my house and monitored those already over the homes of my other friends. "Matt, monitor the drones. Look for threats."

I could use weapons now but I had little at my disposal. Many kinds of drones were armed but I had none of this kind.

It suddenly occurred to me that if Caputo were behind this then Nadac would have not only known about it but probably know where Miss Lime and the kids were.

"Nadac, do you know where Miss Lime, Jeff and Steph currently are?"

"Yes."

"Were they abducted?"

"They were in preparation for luring you to meet Carmen Caputo."

"You were going to tell me these developments?"

"I have been given orders not to. Our king wishes you to confront your enemy when he escapes."

"Show me their condition."

Instead of images so I could make my own diagnosis I was given graphical representations of each of the three. There was a little bruising in the children. They had small puncture marks were they were drugged. At the moment all three were in forced sleep. Miss Lime had been raped and beaten a lot more. They had not used condoms and I was not as worried about disease as their indifference to the DNA they left behind. She was slated to die and her body hidden.

"Show me the images of them."

I was given the image from three drones. They were inside the rooms and I had no way of knowing where the rooms were. The house looked old but fairly well kept up. The two children were together and wrapped in a comforter but underneath they were naked. Their clothing thrown carelessly into a corner. I saw no sign of trauma that was not listed previously. They had not been raped, at least not yet.

Miss Lime was on a bed sprawled indecently. Her legs were spread and sperm stained the sheet under her butt. Her clothes were in a corner too but I saw no bra or panties. They must have picked the lock to her room to get in. It stood to reason that she was drugged and then dressed so they could take her out. Some drugs even allowed her enough mental capacity to walk with assistance.

I used the drones to look at the men in the house. I stayed away from the windows because I knew all access to the drones would then stop. Nadac would not allow this and it was best to just keeping him from reacting. There were only two men and no women. The decor and other facts told me that this house recently was used by a European family and probably Italian. The trouble was that this type of house was very common in Toronto.

The two men were young. One looked Italian and the other was of African heritage. They had pistols and even a rifle nearby. The house looked to be recently lived in. It still contained the furniture and other belongings of a family.

Nadac allowed me to view all of the house from top to bottom. This seemed to be the home of two adults, an older son and two daughters. From the look of the posters, books and other articles they would be about 10 to 14.

I had listened to some of Caputo's talks but this was usually to his lawyers. I could not recall any information that would lead me to this particular home.

"Where are the previous tenants?"

"They don't matter."

I was instantly angry at Nadac. He not only was a computer but an Aristis. His arrogance shone through in all of our talks. My resentment broke out now. "Computer, answer the question you were asked."

There was a pause before Nadac said, "The son is away at university. The two other children are safe seven kilometres away from the house you are viewing."

When nothing more came I said, "The parents?" I also knew that the children should be in school not a house.

"The mother and her current friend are in the casino in Niagra Falls. The father of the children had died three years ago."

"Why aren't the kids in school?"

"They were taken there so they would not go back to their home until all the evidence has been removed."

"Miss Lime, I believe will be killed and there is a good possibility of the two children too. With this much killing the two others and their parents are in danger as well."

"I concur with your assessment."

"Do you have the other two monitored?"

"No."

"Send a pair of drones to monitor them."

"They are beyond your objective."

"Send a drone to each child, Computer. Do not question my judgement. Respond!"

"Two units will be sent."

"Turn their control over to Matt when they arrive."

This had to be Rontem's doing. I could see the reasoning vaguely. I had to prove myself but this was going to kill me and others too. Getting help was going to be impossible. "What is our king's plan for me?"

"You will confront your enemy and kill him."

"Confront? How?"

"He will be told that you have taken the life of his son soon after he escapes. Hints have already been passed to him. That is the reasons for the abductions. The location of his son's body will be given at a time so that it will be confirmed an hour after his escape."

"He is going to come here too. My family will be killed."

"Then go to him first and rescue those you care about."

Bloody Aristis thinking. They want me to help make crystals but then try to kill me instead. I tried to think of what a young Aristis male might do. He too would confront an enemy. He would do it in a place of his own choosing and with primitive edged weapons. I had the feeling that Rontem wanted me to take the man with my hands. He had been leading me to this point with my training instead of using edged weapons. If this were so, then Rontem was even more unstable.

"An Aristis male of my age would get his choice of weapons. Are you going to throw my life away? I have had very little training. Surprise has been my chief advantage. If you rate me against Aristis youth, you will see that I am only the equivalent of a nine year-old in karate while they are superior to me in all other combat skills."

I stopped and concentrated on my Ultrawave receiver. There were no nearby transmissions. Nadac said, "You are permitted two knives, and a breast plate."

"That sounds poor even for an experienced youth. A youth would also have time to segregate his target so the contest is one to one. Caputo will have guards all the time now. I want an energy weapon to remove them and the standard combat suit of an Aristis commando. The standard shield of the suit is what I demand not something put together by children."

"That is unacceptable. You may have the combat suit and earth manufactured kinetic weapons and shield."

"Your offer is unacceptable. I demand the shielded suit. You know the calibre of the men Caputo has at his disposal. I intend to take all the drones I can manage too. A youth would still have far more. I was trying to gain the status of a soldier and an aristocrat, not a god."

"You have abilities that a youth does not. Few can part the dimensions enough to see beyond barriers."

"I have a weak knee that would have been replaced long ago. I would have been trained in weapons but I have not."

"You have the ability to foretell the future and perform kinetic control over objects."

"The abilities are weak or dormant. The first is beyond my control. The PK only came when I was under stress."

"You will have the opportunity to learn more of this ability."

"Give me the shield. If I face less than five adversaries then I will not activate it. Any more and I will."

"That is unacceptable."

I had one more card to play that could well backfire. "My King, what weapons did you have when you fought at my age? Am I to be superior to you by going almost defenceless?"

A deeper voice came to me for the first time. "You may have your suit under your conditions. The shield will be de-energised when only five opponents remain."

"Thank you my king. I wish to take my dart gun to immobilise those that are innocent or nearly so."

"That is permitted, but you must seek your own weapons from among the enemy."

"I will do as you wish. Allow me to view the area so that I may make my plans."

"This too I will grant you."

Something sounded odd here and I said, "Does Caputo seek to lure me someplace else instead?"

"You are quite perceptive. There are many places that are better suited to capturing you. I believe that none of them will be where the hostages are."

So Caputo wanted me alive. That would limit him to what tactics he could employ. Caputo or one of his men would have to lure me away or simply tell me his demands. Somewhere along the line, he would want me to get into a vehicle with his men to bring me to where he is.

"I will confront Caputo and his men as you ask. I would like assistance in taking the captives to safety after I leave. I am concerned that Caputo and his people will then know that I am the one that caused them so many reverses. My family will be in danger and then persecuted by the authorities."

"We will monitor those that find out the truth and then lead you to them. They should be killed but you may remove their short term memories."

"Thank you my king. My last worry is about transportation. Ground transport is suitable but requires assistance from an adult. Would I be permitted to use the small ship? It has much in the way of how the Aristis perform such a raid."

There was another pause. To a computer entity, this was like thinking on a topic for hours. "You may have this too."

"Thank you my king. May I prepare my staff for what they have to do?"

"They may not help you to defeat your enemy."

"Thank you my king. I will do my best to make you proud of me."

When I looked around I saw that the male teacher was in front of me. He had some sheets of paper in his hand. "So you are back with us Mr Kiefer."

"Yes sir. Sometimes I have to focus to the exclusion of all else to find an answer."

"That's good. Do this sheet and hand it back to me as soon as you are done."

"Yes sir." It was only math and I went down the first sheet and put in the answers. There were only three sheets so by the time the man came back from passing out the papers I handed him the completed forms back.

"Do you wish help Mr Kiefer?"

"No sir. You asked to have them returned as soon as I was done."

"You have checked the answers?"

"Twice."

He took the sheets and sat at his desk. It was a half hour until recess and I spent my time looking through Nadac's drones to get the layout of the area. If Rontem was right then I had to be at two places at once. It also stood to reason that I could perform a rescue during or slightly after Caputo's escape. He may not know of this and still try to attract me to him. I would be obliged to go regardless.

The gang will have to do the clean up and this means that Gail will have to provide transportation. They would be monitoring me and the various areas. My travel time will amaze them as well as my invisibility. A standard combat suit provided this effect as well as the ability to stop shrapnel. Nobody used small kinetic weapons in the Aristis empire. The integral shield provided much more protection but it was chiefly designed to deflect or absorb energy weapons' discharges in three, four or five dimensions. The small ship, being invisible had this same ability.