Chapter 78

Owing to my arduous duties helping Holly and Jenny I was late for lunch. There was still plenty of Bar-B-Q on the serving table out by the pool, but Tolishanea and Kamakeata were in the kitchen and spotted me checking out potential food supplies.

"Look girl, here comes Massa and he be lookin' fo food. Quick, les cook 'im somethin' fo he goes to the back," Tolishanea said, and Kamakeata joined in with some teasing of her own.

It didn't bother me in the least, especially after I saw them making a couple of big hamburger patties and pulling cheese slices, lettuce, and tomatoes out of the fridge. I sat down and watched them work. Mom came out of the office with Dad about the time my best cooks put two big burgers in front of me.

"Did you miss lunch Jimmy?" Mom asked, as the two of them headed toward me.

"Yes, I was helping Holly and Jenny try out the new teaching system.

"How did it do?" Dad asked.

"It seemed great to me. I had a history lesson and I actually liked it. I've always hated history before, but I liked it just fine the new way."

"Did it seem faster?" Mom asked.

"They said I covered about a weeks worth of normal subject matter and it only took forty-five minutes, but even better it tested me too and I had a perfect score," I said.

"Good, I worried a little when they told me about it, but if it's so good I'm going to quit," Mom said.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned it beats hell out of regular school."

"What have you got lined up for the rest of the day," Dad asked.

"Nothing really, do you need me to do something?"

"Not really. I was just curious about everything going on. I'm so glad to be away from those bastards I can hardly believe it. That trick they pull on people is odd though. The whole time they were bossing me around I considered everything they did the exact best thing we could do."

"Speak," Mom said, out of nowhere and directly to dad.

"Wolf wolf," Dad said, making a sound like a dog barking and then getting a little red in the face from a big blush.

I wondered what the hell was going on and then I saw Mom grinning.

"It's just a little something I added to Jack's programming so I could remind him of the time his runaway dick nearly got us all killed," Mom said, and then giggled.

I understood what she was talking about and at first I thought it was a mean trick, but Dammit, she was right in a way and I remembered I hadn't liked it one bit when I was wondering if I was going to have to kill my own father.

"Well, I guess it's easier on him than a spanking would have been, but don't get carried away with it. We all have to learn by doing sometimes," I said, acting like I was teasing, but I'm sure Mom got the message.

"Does it mean you think you're doing the right thing now, after we've released you?" I asked, making sure to give Dad a little reminder of my own.

"Of course it does. You have done a wonderful job with all this and your Mother has done even better. Malto is very high in their command structure and she gave him one specific instruction which will really help us out."

"Well don't keep me guessing," I said.

"We're going to get a little more work done here, but it won't hold up the air strip. It'll be a sort of underground barracks," Mom said.

"I thought we were getting one of those already."

"We were, but this one is something none of the other places have. It will be completely underground and will hold two hundred troops. They'll rotate in and out every thirty days with a hundred on duty at all times, but there will be room for two hundred and fifty in the barracks. We'll get all two hundred as soon as the barracks is ready to be used though, for a sort or orientation. After two weeks half of them will take time off and they'll come back when it's time for them to switch over."

"Great, I guess, but why do we need so many?"

"That's something we don't know, yet, but it was suggested by Malto while he was under his deepest control. I didn't want to have him try getting any more details because I don't want his change of attitude discovered by whoever is the head man," Mom said.

"We don't even know yet?"

"No. Malto himself was as deep as we could get." Mom said.

"I hope he isn't second from the top and about to be discovered because he'll point things right at us won't he?"

"It's why we didn't try to find out anything deeper. Sherilyn thinks she has him safe enough so he won't raise any questions. He could tell us how many times he'd been under direct control of his immediate superior, and it's been over a year since it came up last."

"I hope it was the last time then, although if they do find out they'll have hell keeping a lid on things if they try to regain control here, especially if we're going to have a couple of hundred troops close by," I said.

"Exactly. The underhanded control is fine if you maintain it, but when you loose it like they have it will take troops on the ground to recover it, and it's something they won't be able to pull off and keep quiet here just outside Atlanta," Dad said.

"I don't think we should let our guard down or anything, but it does sound like we're in good shape," Mom said.

"I hope so, but there's nothing we can do about it now. I think I'll see if Bill won't give me a driving lesson this afternoon to let a little of the nervous energy off," I said, and they took off for their bedroom.

I was a little curious about whether Mom had given Dad any private instructions while she'd been arranging his programming to suit herself and then I decided I didn't really want to know.

Like the bad penny he surely was Bill stopped by just as I was finishing up the last of my lunch. When Kamakeata asked if he needed a little pick me up he tried to decline, but he did let the two of them talk him into a hamburger.