Chapter 6

Jeff was the recipient of one of the great advantages of time travel: his wait for Seven only ran about 13 seconds before she returned with Jase and the rest of the team in tow. Seven said, "We need to expand our team to cover more time and space, so I wondered how you felt about inviting Jack Waterson to join your group for training? I have run a background check, and he would be acceptable to the GPD."

There was some discussion of the possibility, but no dissension, so it was decided to invite Jack to join them after he recovered from his current wound. Hardly had this agreement been reached when Seven disappeared for a moment and returned with Jack. They all immediately noted that Jack was nude, so they knew that he had already been through the first steps necessary to becoming a full fledged member of the group.

Jack was introduced to the rest of the team and they jumped back to the house on Earth. Jack said, "Jase, I understand that you are the leader of the team, so don't worry about me trying to preempt you. I have had all of the preliminary training, so all I really need is some practice using what I have learned. Seven has explained to me that you can use my specialized knowledge of police methods and procedures and my contacts within the local PD, so I am available to help as I can."

Jase answered, "I'm glad to hear that, since it will make things run smoother. Welcome to the team."

Judy asked, "Jack, we never did hear. Do you have a family?"

"No, I've been a bachelor for all my 38 years. I never wanted to cause my wife and family a lot of problems if I was killed in the line of duty. I'd seen too much of that on the force, as it was."

"OK, then, you are welcome to move in with us. In fact, things will go a lot easier if you do. You won't need to eat or sleep unless you want to, but this is a good place to hang out between jobs. We have a swimming pool which is open at all hours and we have coffee klatches at the drop of a teaspoon. Of course, we also enjoy a lot of sex, and none of it is exclusive, so you are welcome to join in on that, too."

"Hell, with an offer like that, there's no way I could refuse! I would be delighted to join you lovely ladies, and Jeff and Jase, too," Jack said with a grin.

Jase said, "OK, that sounds like an invitation to the pool. Come on, Seven, we'll get wet while you lecture us on our next assignment."

As usual, Seven avoided entering the pool, but she did sit on a lounger at the pool's edge while the team showed Jack the fine points of playing grab-ass. He did make the usual beginner's mistake of trying to escape when he was attacked and groped by 4 beautiful women. However, Jack did quickly learn that the best defense was to grope back!

Seven said, "I don't have a specific assignment in mind at the moment; therefore, I would like to suggest that you eliminate that white slavery ring that Jack was working on when he was shot. The gang thinks that Jack is dead from the way they saw the blood fly. They didn't wait around after the shooting, so they didn't see him disappear. I think that it would be amusing for him to appear as a ghost at one of their meetings. That should scare them into next week!"

Ann said, "That's a great idea, and it would give Jack some experience manipulating his hologram and flying techniques. The more I think of it, the funnier it sounds."

Jase said, "Jack, I know how confusing time travel can get, but we are now at a time only minutes from when you were shot. The subjective weeks you spent at GPD headquarters just don't exist for the here and now; that's the hardest thing to get used to, at least it was for me."

Jack said, "I had forgotten about that. There is a big meeting scheduled for tonight to lay out the schedule of jobs for next week. How about I show up tonight? The whole organization will be there, at least the important parts. If we cancel that bunch, the rest of the organization will just fall apart."

This sounded like fun, so the team spent the next few hours planning their assault on the unsuspecting gang of criminals. Some work was necessary on getting Jack to look and act like they thought a ghost should, so they weren't bored while they waited for the meeting to start. At first, they wanted Jack to appear in a ghostly shroud, standing on a cloud and holding a flaming torch over his head. Jack vetoed that idea, since he felt that the subtleties of the outfit would be lost on most of the crooks. Instead, Jack wanted to appear in a white business suit, complete with vest and Panama hat. He would flick his invisibility on and off at a rapid rate so that he would appear translucent. He wouldn't stand on a cloud, but he would be suspended about 2 feet off the floor. Mary agreed with Jack, but added the touch of him smoking a cigar and holding a shot of whiskey in his left hand. This combination met with universal approval, so that was the costume Jack practiced in.

Jack already had an impressively deep baritone voice, so he didn't need to do anything to enhance that. However, he did practice projecting his voice while he was speaking so that everyone in the room would be able to hear him.

Jack would hold a lightning gun in his right hand, and he would use it to eliminate the slavers one at a time. Of course, they could just kill immediately everybody in the room, but where was the fun in that?

Time for the meeting finally came, so everybody donned their armor and adjourned to the large meeting room. They arrived a few minutes before the regular attendees, just in case there were some minor changes they wanted to make in their plans. No, there was nothing that needed changing, so the team settled back, invisible, to wait for their victims to arrive.

Everybody was there in the meeting room by 9:06 PM, so the meeting was called to order. They took care of some routine old business, and the leader started to lay out the jobs for the next week. He had spoken only a few words when Jack suddenly appeared to stage-left of the podium. His sudden appearance startled every gang member in the room. Most people recognized Jack and all of them knew of his murder. It was debatable as to which was more surprising, his translucent appearance or the fact that he was there at all.

The speaker shouted, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? WHY AREN'T YOU DEAD?"

Jack answered, "Oh, I'm dead, alright. And I'm here for revenge, both for myself and for all your other victims, particularly the teen aged girls. You, Scarface, are the first one on my list."

There was a dramatic pause while the invisible Shirley snatched the speaker's notes from the podium for future study and reference. Jack could see Shirley's location in his HUD, so he waited until she was clear of the line of fire before he raised the lightning gun and pressed the trigger. An arc of electricity jumped toward the speaker and fried him on the spot. The crooks were all momentarily blinded by the flash of light from the arc, but, when their vision returned, all they saw was a small pall of smoke where the speaker and the podium had been.

Actually, the heat of the arc had caused the destruction of the speaker and the podium so quickly and at such a high temperature that there was nothing left to look like smoke. Shirley had jumped into the place vacated by the speaker and the podium and used her hologram generator to simulate the smoke. The effect was very effective. The entire audience jumped to its feet and tried to make for the exits.

There were fights on the floor as the men struggled to break through the mass of people jamming the doorways. Some knives flashed and a few gunshots were fired before the panic dissipated. It would have done no good to get to the doors, since they were blocked by team members who had no intention of letting any of the criminals escape.

Jack announced, "You can't escape! You are all dead men and the carnage starts now!" Jack pointed the lightning gun at the crowd and pulled the trigger. The arc jumped to the nearest man and he was vaporized on the spot. A brave soul charged at Jack, but he was the next victim of the lightning arc. There were 27 members of the gang in the room at the start of the meeting, including the speaker, but it took only a little more than 10 minutes to clear the scum from the room.